Three hundred years hadn’t given Ponyville much room to expand outward. The Everfree Forest on one side and Whitetail Wood on the other left them in some trouble when the population grew too large to hold. Their solution was to build upwards. The rooftops became almost common property, with easy access from most buildings and many bridges between them. The upper layer practically became a second Ponyville, and there were some, mostly Pegasi, who refused to come to the lower without a good reason.
For those ponies with pets, one of the good reasons was the kindly veterinarian who lived on the outskirts of town. It wasn’t quite ‘outskirts’ anymore, but it was closer to the Everfree than anypony else was willing to build, besides the local Apple family for the yearly Zap Apple harvest. Then again, it wasn’t a pony living there.
A lot of ponies thought that Fluttershy was crazy, and the fact that she was a human didn’t help raise her public opinion. Still, she didn’t go into town often enough to know or care about her reputation, and those who had sought her services found her as reliable and as knowledgeable about their animals as any pony could be. It was as though she could understand them on some level above equine possibility, though whether it was a human thing was uncertain to the residents, as they only knew the one.
In addition to the pets of other ponies that she cared for, several animals seemed to live there, most of them birds or small critters. Upon them she lavished the same attention that a mother would a child, down to remembering their individual names. In particular, a black rabbit named Demon was her near-constant companion, a name given by its original owner who’d left it in her care and never returned to Ponyville.
The name seemed appropriate to most; the only one he let touch him was Fluttershy, but he didn’t always seem happy with her as well. He thought that her shrinking-violet tendencies were more annoying than anything, and that he didn’t have to keep protecting her whenever she went outside. This was something of a mystery to her, though, since she had more trouble understanding Demon than any of the other animals under her care, permanently or temporarily.
On most clear nights, though, she understood his signal of waving two sticks around. She didn’t like to do it, or even to think about it, but Demon would insist to the point of even biting her until she spent an hour or so outside, practicing with the strange weapon she’d woken up with.
Under the moon, she could see it clearly: the two lacquered wooden rods, each about a foot in length, held together by a metal chain. One was larger and heavier than the other, carrying an enamel sigil on the end that matched the Cutie Mark on her left thigh, slightly hidden by the canary-yellow dress she wore. A choker with the same mark was the only thing holding it in place, but it never seemed to stir, no matter how she moved with her weapon under the moonlight.
“Okay,” she said, more to herself than to anything that could have been listening. A few of the animals had taken to watching her dance, and even they gave her some stage fright, but the weapon scared her more than anything. She’d have to conquer that fear eventually, though, since no matter how she’d tried, she couldn’t seem to get rid of it. No matter where she lost it or who she tried to gift it to, it always found its way back to her. All she could do was dance with it, in a way that wouldn’t hurt anyone.
Slowly, as the ghost of a song from a faded memory began to play in her mind, she moved both rods into her right hand, and took a deep breath to ground herself. With a step forward, she swung the larger rod outward, using the chain to pull it back and catching it by pulling her left hand across her body. She snapped the chain out to its full length as she pulled her left hand back, swinging it above her as she released her right hand.
The smaller rod flew over her head and she caught it behind her on instinct, turning it away as she let go of the left to spin it around her body and bring the chain back in front. A high kick—a dancing step for certain, though its use in combat was clear as well—into a pirouette as she landed, letting the larger rod spin out at the chain’s full length in a full circle. As she caught it again, she released a hidden catch under the butterfly.
All at once, a metal blade flew out, the edge on the inside. Her movements became faster, moving the rods from hand to hand, around her body in every direction, the slashing audible though it didn’t cut through anything. It could have cut her hand, and it had a few times at first, but it seemed as though it was empathic in some way, as it moved without skipping a beat from hand to hand. She knew from experience the blade was at least sharp enough to cut through tree branches, but in her moonlit dances, not even the trees were hurt.
Another leaping kick, thrusting outward with the blunt ends of the rods together, then pulling back and letting the scythe spin around once more before she caught it on the back of the metal blade, snapping it shut. The song ended, and she bowed. Some of her animal friends made appreciative noises, and she said her platitudes in her usual, barely audible voice.
A sudden loud noise of glass breaking caught her attention, along with a shout that might have been “stop, thief”. All the animals quickly scattered, and Fluttershy turned to her cottage again. There were definitely two ponies inside; a slate-grey Unicorn with a blue and white mane, and a navy blue Earth Pony with a large knife. As Fluttershy opened the back door, the Earth Pony turned around and charged her, knocking her down before she could react.
He lifted her up to her knees and held the knife to her throat, snarling at the Unicorn, who stopped for a moment. She tried to grab the knife with her magic, but his grip was strong enough to draw blood from Fluttershy’s neck. “Ain’t gonna work, sister,” he said slowly. “Try anything, and the animals are gonna go hungry.”
The Unicorn stepped back slightly, eyes slanted down angrily. “You aren’t going to get away with this, you know,” she said sternly. “The Watch is smarter than you think, and we’re everywhere. You won’t make it as far as Trottingham before you’re arrested.”
“Izzat so?” the Earth Pony asked, laughing slightly. “Well, what if the news never gets away from here? ‘Cause you ain’t!” He charged, dropping Fluttershy roughly and slashing at the Unicorn’s horn. She had to shy away, and that gave him an opportunity to slash downward across her chest. Before he could reach her, though, Fluttershy had pulled herself up and pointed a finger, and all of a sudden a dozen creatures were tackling him. “Hey, get off, ya mongrels!” he shouted, but Demon took the opportunity of his open mouth to bite his tongue before he could get any more insults out. In response, he bit down on Demon’s tail, his head whipping around quickly and shaking the bunny.
As he thrashed around, Fluttershy threw out her scythe, but didn’t cut him; rather, she used it to pull the knife out of his grip. Thusly unarmed, the Unicorn was able to cast a few spells to subdue him, and the encounter was over. “Are you okay?” Fluttershy asked Demon, rubbing his tail. “That pony wasn’t very nice at all... Thanks for helping me get away from him.”
“I’m sorry to have disturbed you, miss,” the Unicorn said. “But I’m afraid I’m going to have to ask you to come to the Watch station as well. I’m somewhat concerned about that weapon of yours.” Fluttershy just nodded and tucked it into the bow tied around her back, helping to pick up the knocked-out Earth Pony. “We might also need you to identify this one. Nothing difficult, just say that he accosted you. That’s true enough, isn’t it?” Another nod, and they left. Demon insisted on coming along too, and the Unicorn wasn’t willing to protest.
They spent about an hour checking in the robber, with Fluttershy acting as a witness. They accepted her testimony, the cut on her neck being proof with a forensic spell, and then Fluttershy was placed under the spotlight herself. They didn’t ask her very many questions, but they did confiscate her weapon, and she was glad to see it gone for the moment. What she didn’t tell them was that she knew it’d find its way back to her somehow. It’d just make them more worried about her.
She spent much of the rest of the early morning, to everyone’s surprise, with the criminal in his holding cell. At one point, when he was getting angry, she stopped one of the Watch officers from going in and beating him. “It’d only make him angrier, and where would that get anyone?” she’d said. The Watch officer had calmed down a lot by then, and so had the prisoner, so he left off.
“Why did you do that?” the Unicorn asked, as she passed through the holding cells. “It wasn’t your business to interfere. And you saw what he did to you. He doesn’t deserve any better.”
“Everyone deserves better,” Fluttershy said, almost staring off into space. “Even if he did bad things, it won’t help to keep doing bad things to him. And maybe, if he remembers what it’s like to have someone willing to be kind to you, then he might remember how to be kind in return.”
“You’re pretty optimistic. What makes you feel that way?”
“...I don’t know. I just feel like there’s good in nearly everyone, no matter how bad they seem.”
“‘Nearly’ everyone? So who’s not in there?”
Fluttershy couldn’t answer immediately. It was as though she’d entirely blanked out, and the Unicorn, whose name she’d learned was Aster, decided not to press the issue. “Well, you should be free to go by now. We’ll keep you posted if the guy goes up for rehabilitation. Maybe you could do it. You seem like the type.” They both nodded slowly, and then Demon kicked Fluttershy in the side, pointing at a watch he’d pulled from nowhere.
“Oh, my, I need to feed my animals! I’m sorry, but I’ve really got to go!” She ran out of the station with Demon tucked under one arm. Flying through Upper Ponyville to all the various stores she needed to stop at to get her materials, she nearly tripped over a few ponies, quickly apologising in each case before moving on. Sometimes she was stared at, but she didn’t look back so she didn’t have to know whether or not that was the case. In each store, she didn’t stay longer than a few seconds to pick up what she needed, drop some bits on the counter and go again.
Just as she was returning to the cottage, she suddenly fell over, and all her supplies fell out of her arms, scattering over the ground. Demon was concerned, and jumped up to Fluttershy’s side, trying to lift her as best a rabbit could. He was suddenly thrown back by a wave of purple magic that blew all the scattered supplies around as well.
As the other animals ran out to see what had happened, they all ignored the food in favour of the human, who was just pulling herself up. “I... I’m sorry, but I won’t be around to look after you. I have to go to... I have to go away. And I don’t know how long I’ll be...” A sudden thought overcame her that the animals wouldn’t be able to handle themselves without her, and for a moment it overrode Twilight’s call. As she said it out loud, though, she heard a reassuring roar.
Michael the bear, supposedly a direct descendant of Harry the Great, put one massive paw around her shoulder, brought the other across all the assembled animals, and roared again. She knew what it meant almost immediately. We can take care of ourselves for a while. Go do what you have to. The others all chattered and cheered in agreement, and Fluttershy nodded. She went inside to collect some supplies as the animals breakfasted, and quickly returned. “Be good now!” she called behind her as she walked away, to another chorus of approximate cheers.
She spent ten minutes trying to communicate with the ticket booth. She was wondering what the city on the mountain was called, and the stallion couldn’t hear her half the time; then again, he was quite old, so she couldn’t blame him. Her bags were checked and she boarded the train just as the whistle blew and it pulled out of the station. All of a sudden, she became aware of an additional weight in the bag.
Discreetly pulling it open, she nearly fell out of her seat when Demon popped up. Behind him, she could see her weapon lying closed in the bag. “Did you steal that back from the Watch?” she asked, and he nodded proudly. “It’s not right to steal from others, Demon. I don’t know what you were thinking, but you need to stop it.” He hung his head slowly, but was smiling underneath it. Fluttershy noticed and pulled his head up, making eye contact. Her eyes narrowed, and their usual warmth almost entirely disappeared. Demon immediately stopped smiling, and then began shivering.
“Cute bunny rabbit there,” a stallion said as he placed his hoof on her thigh. Immediately, she turned away from Demon and to him, without toning down the stare she’d been giving the rabbit. It had a similar effect on the stallion, whose malicious thoughts jellified and slid out his ears, replaced only with raw terror.
Fluttershy caught herself and blinked twice, allowing her eyes to return to normal. “Oh, yes, he is,” she said. “But he’s a bit protective, so please don’t touch me there.” He nodded quickly and practically ran back to his own seat. Demon gave her a questioning look: What was that all about, Flutters? “I don’t know... I didn’t know I could do that to someone.”
You might want to remember it, though, he said with a few taps to his head. Could be useful if you don’t want to hurt someone, but you want them to leave you alone. The gestures he used for the second sentiment were far more complex, and Fluttershy missed them entirely, lost in her own thoughts. For a moment, she thought she’d seen all the way into his mind, and that was when she’d broken eye contact. “Why do I have this power... or these?” Her eyes drifted back to the rods in her bag, and she sighed deeply, trying to clear her mind.
A grey Pegasus mare watched the exchange and shook her head slowly.