//------------------------------// // 1. Adrift in time // Story: Wings of Tomorrow ~ Lament of the World // by Keeper of Jericho //------------------------------// Wings of Tomorrow Lament of the World 1. Adrift in time “Now, now, Angel. Be a good bunny and brush your teeth. You don’t want to get cavities, do you?” Fluttershy chided gently, as she nudged the white rabbit towards the water-filled bowl and toothbrush, again. Night had fallen over Equestria, and the inhabitants of Fluttershy’s cottage were preparing for bed. The birds, squirrels, and mouse family had already been tended to, leaving only Angel. The rabbit was being stubborn, however, standing with his back turned towards Fluttershy with his little paws crossed over his chest. The mare let out a soft sigh. It was important for a bunny to take good care of his or her teeth; both she and Angel knew that. And usually he did as requested without incident. Tonight, however, was not one of those usual cases. She had asked him three times already to start brushing, but Angel still flat-out refused. and Fluttershy knew why. “I know this isn’t the toothpaste I usually buy for you,” Fluttershy admitted, as she gestured at the red tube that laid next to the toothbrush. “But the shop was all out of carrot-flavoured toothpaste, and I couldn’t come back with empty hooves. Dental care is too important to skip; I had to bring a different kind with me.” When she got no reaction from her little friend, Fluttershy tried to gently push him towards the toothbrush again. “Please? It’s just for tonight. Tomorrow I’ll go back and buy the right toothpaste. So please, Angel Bunny?” Despite the so kindly asked plea, Angel still refused to give in. He stubbornly shook his head, paws still crossed defiantly over his chest. Fluttershy’s face fell, her kind expression being replaced by a scowl. She had asked nicely and gotten nowhere with it; it was clear what she had to do next, even if she never really liked doing it. He had forced her hoof with his stubborn refusal. Fluttershy reached out with a hoof and forcefully turned the rabbit around so he was facing her. When Angel looked up in surprise, he found himself staring right into the stern gaze of his pony friend. Fluttershy leaned in closer to his face, the intensity of her stare only increasing as she did so. “Now, mister!” she commanded, curt- and quietly, one eyebrow raised expectantly. Gulping, the defeated bunny hurriedly snatched the toothbrush up in one paw and the toothpaste in the other. Before too long he was earnestly brushing away, and he dared not quit, for he felt the unrelenting stare of the pegasus burn in his back. Only when he was done did Fluttershy cease her staring, and her kind expression and smile returned. “There’s a good bunny,” she praised, as she gave him an affectionate nuzzle. “Now off to bed you go. It’s already way past bedtime for young bunnies like you.” Fluttershy gave her friend a light nudge in the back with her hoof to urge him forward, but she might as well have spared herself the trouble. The rabbit was in no hurry to receive a second reprimanding stare. Without any further trouble, he hopped into his basket and nestled himself comfortably on the pillow that laid in it. Fluttershy went over to Angel and placed a light blanket over him, pulling it up to his little neck. With a kind smile, she leaned in and gave him a soft peck on the top his head. “Goodnight, Angel Bunny,” she whispered, not wanting to risk waking any of her animal friends that were already asleep. With the last of the small critters attended to, she finally headed to bed herself. Fluttershy yawned loudly as she trudged up the stairs towards her bedroom. She performed her usual evening rites of brushing her teeth and combing her mane, then tiredly slipped into her waiting bed. With a sigh of delight, she laid down on her back on the soft mattress and pulled the blankets up to her chin. Then she turned her head to the nightstand next to the bed and blew out the candle there. The flame flickered at her breath, then faded to leave the room to the embrace of the darkness. Tucked safely away in her bed, Fluttershy yawned again. She had done a lot of work today and could use a good night’s sleep. She turned on her side and closed her eyes, her head sinking into her fluffy pillow; her last thought before sleep claimed her was that tomorrow she would have to find carrot-flavoured toothpaste somewhere. --- The night was quiet. Luna's Moon had made half its nightly way across the star-filled sky. while Fluttershy slept peacefully. Warm, comfortable sheets, a fluffy pillow, and the quiet rustle of little critters as they stirred in their sleep carried her safely to the realm of dreams, giving her her well-deserved rest. Fluttershy sighed and smiled in her sleep. So deep in her dreams she was, that she did not realize the world around her had begun to change. At first, the change subtle, as if a fog had begun to form on the edges of horizon. The fog began to spread, flowing in a perfect circle around Fluttershy’s cottage, covering everything in sight. Where the fog went, the fields, the streets, the houses and ponies and critters within disappeared, replaced by emptiness filled with stars. The fog slowly closed in on Fluttershy's cottage. Soon it seeped through the doors, through the windows, through the cracks in the walls, and before long the entire house disappeared; the only thing left untouched was Fluttershy's bed, which now floated in the emptiness filled with nothing but stars. Yet this did not bother the sleeping mare. No, she continued her peaceful journey in dreamland. Just then, something in the eternity stirred. A shadow began to take form. A long, scaled body of enormous size, donning mighty wings, coiled itself around Fluttershy's bed. The being's eyes looked at the mare with wonder. “Yes…” A whisper came. “Your unbreakable will, but above all your kind heart, are what I find myself in dire need for…” Carefully, it touched the bed with the tip of its tail and gave a push. The bed suddenly plummeted down into the abyss with incredible speed, breaking apart and dissolving into particles. However, Fluttershy remained afloat covered by her blanket. Soon, even that suffered the same fate. The entity gave the pegasus one last glance and spread its wings. “The laws of existence dictate that what was made by mortal hands can only be unmade by mortal hands,” the entity proclaimed as the star-filled eternity beneath the sleeping mare began to part into fog. The mist formed a perfect ring to reveal a patch of stone-paved street within it. “Likewise, all the wrongs wrought by those whose lives are finite can only be righted by them, and no one else. ” The great entity looked down upon Fluttershy, the expression in its ancient eyes unreadable. “Upon you shall I wager my fortunes, ” it said quietly. Then a ghost of a smile formed upon its visage. “Sleep now, little mortal, and may your dreams be pleasant. Be ignorant for a little while longer, until the waking world calls and your task begins. ” Gently, the entity lowered the still-sleeping mare into the opening, watching carefully until she touched the ground. Then, the being vanished, dissolving back into shadow. The ring of fog began to rapidly increase in size to reveal houses, streets and fields, ponies and critters, forests and mountains, all to and beyond the horizon. Things were not the same as before, though. --- The noises of a bustling city entered her ears and slowly filtered through to her brain, causing Fluttershy to slowly rouse from her slumber. She groaned and took in a deep breath, willing her eyes to open and failed because her eyelids felt so heavy. Yawning loudly, Fluttershy idly thought how nice it would be to simply roll over and sleep a little longer. The hard cobbled stones of the street were so uncomfortable and cold, after all; and the cool morning air proved to be a truly poor blanket. It really would be nice to be lazy a little while longer, out in the open on the cold street, yes. Fluttershy’s eyes shot open as she realised what she had thought just now. In an instant she was wide awake and fully alert. Her blue eyes told her that she was, indeed, lying on the ground in a small, shadowy alleyway and not at home in her nice and cosy bed. She did the only sensible thing that came to mind: she panicked. Where was she? How did she get here? She couldn’t remember ever having sleepwalked before, and couldn’t image herself having started doing so last night either. Surely one of her animal friends would have noticed if such had been the case. Angel at the very least would have. The lost pegasus took a few deep breaths to calm herself. She told herself that she had to remain composed and that panicking would not help. She had to approach the situation with a calm and open mind, like Twilight always did. After a few deep breaths, Fluttershy felt enough at ease to take a good look around. The first thing she had to do was figure out where she was. She was in a small, narrow alleyway between two houses, a short dead-end street. The surrounding walls were made out of bricks of a dirty sand colour that wasn’t very pleasant to the eye. Glancing up, she could just make out the dark red tiles that covered the building’s roofs. Her eyes widened a bit when, just as she looked up at the sky, something large moved through the air overhead. Her mouth involuntarily dropped; even though whatever it was had to be quite high up, she could clearly see that it wasn’t a bird nor any kind flying animal. It was hard to tell what exactly it was, but from what she could make out, the underside of it looked like the underside of a ship. But why would there be a ship in the sky? Fluttershy quickly looked back at the ground again, feeling that that would be the safest for now. Worrying about flying ships could come later. She glanced at the end of the alleyway, where it met a bigger street, and saw a lot of ponies walking by. None of them seemed to notice her, but then again, it was rather shadowy and dark between the houses. Slowly Fluttershy moved forward a bit and tried to take in more of her surroundings. Her ears picked up a lot of noise, mostly just the chatter of ponies as they went on their daily business. It reminded her of the crowded streets of Canterlot. Wherever she was, there had to be a lot of ponies that lived here. There were other sounds too, ones she couldn’t identify or recognise. What worried her even more was that, so far, she hadn’t picked up the sounds of any animals. Normally there would be at least a few birds, even in such a crowded place, and her hearing was trained to pick their songs up even in a ruckus like this one. But here, she couldn’t hear a single bird singing or a small critter squeaking. Only the sound of ponies going about their daily things. Her nose was also assaulted by a myriad of scents, some new, some recognisable. It didn’t escape her how the scent of stone and metal was very prominent, while she could hardly pick up any traces of trees or flowers. The timid mare began to get the feeling that something was terribly wrong, besides the obvious. Hesitatingly, she leaned against one of the houses and poked her head out of the alleyway and took a quick glance outside the shadowy alleyway. She could see a broad street paved with smooth stones, surrounded on both sides by a row of houses. Fluttershy had never seen architecture quite like it before and found herself quite baffled. Every house looked the same; like a small, compact stone cube with a sloped roof dropped on top of it. That in itself wasn’t so odd, but the fact that they were all squeezed together was. Most of them were touching wall-to-wall, others had only a small alleyway in between like the one she stood in now. What puzzled her the most though, was how they all looked the same. All were built with the same dirty, sand-coloured bricks, their roofs either dark red or blue. There was no individuality, no personal touch or decorations to make the buildings reflect the ponies who lived in them. It seemed so odd and foreign to her. Even in Canterlot, where almost everything was white, every building managed to be unique somehow. Here, this was clearly not the case. Not a single house was decorated or painted. There weren’t even any flowers on the windowsills to provide some colour. Fluttershy shook her head as she tried to her clear her thoughts. She was getting distracted and she knew it. It didn’t really matter how ponies decided to build here, and pondering about their curious architecture wouldn’t tell her where she was, either. What she had to was ask somepony for directions towards Ponyville so she could go home. Fluttershy looked around, trying to determine who she would dare to disturb. Most, if not all, of the ponies ignored her. But given that she was still mostly hidden by the shadows of the alleyway, that didn’t surprise her much. Though she noticed all of them wore clothes of a fashion she did not recognise. Though she wasn’t Rarity, Fluttershy did know a thing or two about fashion. That she didn’t recognise what these ponies were wearing was another oddity that fuelled the feeling of worry that nagged the back of her mind that she tried to suppress. She had to remain calm and focussed; she had to be brave in order to get home. Taking a deep breath and gathering all her courage, she stepped out of the alleyway and into the light. “Excuse me?” she said quietly, trying to catch the attention of a nicely dressed stallion as he walked by. Her plea went unheard as he simply moved on. Fluttershy rubbed her hooves together nervously. She never did like addressing total strangers. She saw another pony, a mare this time, approaching, and decided to try again. “Um… Excuse me? I… I’d like to ask something, if that’s okay with you…” To her great relief, the mare actually stopped to listen to her. She turned to her, a smile half-formed on her lips. “Yes, dear, what can I…” Her voice died away when she took a good look at Fluttershy. The mare’s eyes widened and she let out a scream, while backing away from the pegasus as if Fluttershy carried some deadly disease. The unexpected reaction she received startled Fluttershy dearly, and the shy pony found herself backing away as well, more out of instinct than out of conscious decision. She yelped and cringed, her head held low as she stared fearfully at the other pony. Fluttershy didn’t understand what she had done to make the mare react in such a way. Worse, she noticed how the scream of the mare had drawn the attention of the other ponies on the street. They stopped to see what the commotion was all about, and once they saw Fluttershy, had formed a circle around the frightened pegasus at a respectful distance. Fluttershy could feel them staring at her, even though they tried to be subtle about it. She could see how they looked at her with a mixture of shock and undisguised disapproval and disdain. Her ears picked up some of their hushed words and whispers. They were saying things like ‘indecent’ and ‘unheard of’ or even ‘the nerve!’ and ‘call the guards!’. Fluttershy tried to back away, but her body refused to cooperate. She was frozen by fear, her ears laid flat on her skull. What was going on? What had she done wrong? She didn’t understand anything at all. “What is causing all this commotion!?” a stern-sounding voice demanded as the whisperings of the crowd fell silent. The ponies moved out of the way of the newcomer to let him pass through, and Fluttershy witnessed the arrival of a guard. At least she suspected he was a guard. He didn’t wear the traditional golden armour of the royal guards, but he did wear armour and some sort of uniform. And as far as Fluttershy was aware, only guards wore armour, so in her mind, this new pony had to be one. She guessed right on the mark even if she didn’t know it yet. The guard, Grey Helm, looked around the crowd and then at Fluttershy. When he saw her, Fluttershy noticed how his eyes widened somewhat. She was sure he was blushing, too, though it was hard to tell because his helm obscured some of his face. Quietly, she observed how the mare she had attempted to talk to was now speaking to the guard, every now and then gesturing in Fluttershy’s direction with her hoof. Grey Helm nodded a couple of times throughout the mare’s explanation, and once she was done, he turned to Fluttershy. Fluttershy let out a soft, barely audible squeak and cringed once more as she tried to make herself as tiny as possible. The guard took a couple of moments to regain his composure while looking at her. Fluttershy had realised by now that something about her appearance had made everypony uncomfortable, but she couldn’t put a hoof on what. When the armoured pony before her cleared his throat, indicating he was about to speak, she shyly peaked at him from behind her mane. “Pardon me, ma’am, but it is my duty to inform you that your behaviour is unacceptable in this community,” Grey Helm said. He spoke calmly, not accusingly or angrily, unlike some of the ponies in the crowd surrounding Fluttershy. It was the typical way of a guard pony: stating facts only, with no room for personal opinion to cloud their judgement or influence their way of speech. Fluttershy was somewhat familiar with that, and that managed to calm her a bit. Though she was still as puzzled as ever about what exactly she had done wrong. “As dictated by ‘The Laws of Republican Society, article twelve’, public nudity is strictly forbidden in any settlement of our fair Republic,” the guard continued. “I request that you state your name and accompany me quietly to the guard station.” Fluttershy looked at him as if he had been speaking a different language. She finally knew what she had done wrong to make everypony so upset, but that didn’t do much to help her. She was clearly still in trouble. She had no idea what a ‘republic’ was, or a republican society. If she hadn’t known she was doing something wrong, was it still a crime then? Fluttershy had no idea. She stared fearfully at the guard, unsure of how to respond. When she took too long to answer, the guard raised one of his eyebrows a teensy bit, showing his agitation. “Your name, civilian,” he demanded for the second time, only now more forceful and less forgiving. Fluttershy let out a soft squeak of fright and did a step back. This only prompted the guard to take one step forward. Fluttershy realised that she had best do as she was told. Otherwise, the guard might inform the princess that she had broken the law and committed a crime. Then what would the princess think of her? Or worse, maybe even do to her? Fluttershy didn’t want to think about it. She swallowed hard and managed to force out her name. Only it came out as a barely audible squeak, and judging from how Grey Helm was frowning, he hadn’t understood her. The guard sighed. “Ma’am, you are making this needlessly complicated,” he told her. “Public nudity is not the gravest of offences. Furthermore, your face appears new to me. Since I never forget a criminal’s face, I feel it’s safe to say you have no crime record yet. If you cooperate now, chances are extremely high that you will be released with a mere reprehension and a small fee. Then you will be allowed to go home.” He paused briefly to let his words sink in. “So I will ask one final time. Please state your name and accompany me quietly to the guard station. Otherwise, I will be forced to take you into custody.” Go home. That sounded very appealing to Fluttershy at the moment. The guard was trying to be as kind and helpful as his duty allowed him to be, she realised. She really longed to go back home and leave this place where everypony was staring at her angrily. So, after taking a deep breath and gathering all her courage, she finally managed to bring out a few words on an audible level. “My name is Fluttershy…” Grey Helm nodded curtly, inwardly relieved that they were finally getting somewhere. He took of his coat and handed it to her. “Here, miss, put this on. I cannot escort you through the village if you’re naked.” Then he turned to address the assembled crowd around him and Fluttershy. “The rest of you civilians, there is nothing to be seen here. Move along, or be arrested for blocking free passage through the streets!” In no time, the crowd dispersed. None of the onlookers felt like getting into trouble with the law because of a mare who was in trouble with the law. Nevertheless, a few couldn’t resist casting a last, quick glance over their shoulder at the guard and his new charge. When Grey Helm noticed this, he shot them a heated glare, and they quickly scampered off. Fluttershy let out an inaudible sigh of relief, glad that the crowd was gone. It was one source of discomfort less that she had to worry about. She tried to put on the guard’s coat and struggled with it. She wasn’t used to wearing clothes that had sleeves for the front legs, for starters, and secondly Grey Helm was decidedly a bigger pony than her. The coat was several sizes too large and her small form seemed to almost drown in it. She had to roll up the sleeves, lest she’d trip over them once she started walking. Once she was finally done with putting the uncooperative coat on, Fluttershy dared to look up again. Since she had learned just what exactly it was that had gotten her into trouble, she had felt oddly self-conscious about her nude form. Strange, considering that until today, she had never worn clothes aside from some dresses for formal occasions. She suspected it was because with the coat on, she’d draw less attention. She didn’t fool herself into thinking nopony would stare at her any more, though. A mare in an oversized coat was bound to get some odd looks and raised eyebrows, and Fluttershy knew it. --- “Another day, another bundle of paperwork done.” The mare smiled to herself, walking out of the building and taking a breath of fresh air. Well, relatively fresh air, in fact, for it was not that fresh at all. Still, compared to the stale air in the Town Hall offices, this was a welcome change. Humming to herself, the mare thought about what she should do with the rest of her day. She didn't need any groceries, so going to the marketplace wouldn't be necessary. The weather was good, though, so maybe she should venture out of town and visit Sweet Apple Acres for some apples. Then again, she still had to do her laundry, because she was almost out of clean shirts, and... “Ugh, this will never do,” the mare grumbled to herself. “I need to organize my thoughts.” Before she could do so, however, a conversation between two ponies caught her ear as they walked past. “Can you believe it? Outrageous! Simply outrageous!” a finely dressed unicorn mare exclaimed, clearly very agitated by whatever the subject of the talk was. “Darling, you shouldn’t be so cross,” a gentlepony-looking earth pony stallion by her side said calmly. “Perhaps the unfortunate mare was mugged, or even... violated.” The stallion shivered uncomfortably at the possibility. “After all, I refuse to believe such a delicate mare as her would venture into the streets unclothed willingly.” The unicorn stopped in her tracks. “Delicate...?” the mare hissed, narrowing her eyes at the stallion. The earth pony blinked, not comprehending what he said wrong, but then realization dawned, and he gasped loudly. “No! No! No-no-no, that’s not what I meant at all, darling! You’re still the gemstone of my heart and the most beautiful mare in my life. Don’t be angry, please!” “Hmph. We’ll see about that.” The unicorn raised her nose into the air and began to trot away, the still-apologizing stallion following closely. The silent witness of their conversation blinked. “Huh. Well that’s something that you don't see every day,” she muttered to herself, trotting in the opposite direction. Apparently, a mare had been caught walking around in the nude. Well, she’d be lying if she said that an unclothed pony was a shocking idea. But it was surprising that it had happened here, in this age. She pondered about what could possess a mare to do something like that, but nothing really came to mind. Maybe the poor mare was indeed mugged and or violated. She quickly shook that thought off. She would not think about it. This didn’t concern her at all, and she would keep in mind to avoid the street where... She was snapped out of her thoughts when she bumped into somepony. The said pony quickly apologized and scurried away, and the mare looked around. It seemed that her hooves had brought her close to the guard station. Which wasn’t surprising, given the direction her thoughts were going in. “Better not hang around here. The guards don’t like ponies lingering in front of the station if they’ve got no business there,” she said to herself. Her decision made, the mare turned around and prepared to trot of in another direction. Before she could even move one hoof, however, her eyes caught the sight of a town guard approaching, with next to him a young mare dressed in a coat that was obviously too large for her. The mare felt her eyes widen and her jaw drop as she looked at the pony that the guard was escorting. It wasn’t the fact that said pony was so oddly dressed that startled the mare. No, it was the fact that she knew that pony. “Fluttershy?!” --- When she heard her name being called, Fluttershy couldn’t help but look up and try to locate the speaker. It almost went by instinct. Aside from Grey Helm, nopony here knew her name. Hearing it spoken made her heart soar with hope for a familiar face. Somepony to help her with her problems and get her back home. She would give everything she had – which, at this moment, actually wasn’t much – for that. Both Fluttershy and Grey Helm noticed the unicorn as she approached from the direction of the guard station. Her fur was lavender, her hair deep purple with a pink streak in it. She was wearing a simple white blouse with long sleeves, fashioned to be a bit puffy at the chest. Over it, the pony wore a dark-brown corset, though this mare didn’t squeeze her waist to impossibly small sizes, instead having the corset comfortably compliment her body. Unlike most other lady ponies on the streets of Ponyville, she wore not a skirt, but rather neat white leggings with a brown-framed triangular cut that showed her cutie mark. Fluttershy gasped as her eyes focussed on the mark on the unicorn’s flank. If it hadn’t been for that, she would have said the unicorn before her was a total stranger. Even if the colour of her fur and mane were familiar, the clothing she wore made her appear totally alien to Fluttershy. But the mare’s cutie mark, a six-pointed star with five smaller stars around it, left no doubt as to her identity. She could hardly believe it, and though the cutie mark should have been more than enough proof, Fluttershy still felt doubt seep in her heart. Her mind rapidly came up with a long list of reasons as to why the pony before her could not really be standing there. But there was no doubt about it. The mare who stood there, who had called her name, was real. And so Fluttershy heard herself saying, her voice trembling with uncertainty: “Twilight?” End of chapter 1.