//------------------------------// // 17 // Story: Yonder Wandered Fluttershy // by Darkonshadows //------------------------------// Fluttershy was laying there on her right side in a black void with a blank, almost completely dead look on her. Her face was unmoving and just staring off into space as she lay there on nothingness. Anyone who could see her here would have known that she had mentally shut down, seeing an entire planet full of life and promise explode in the monitor sent her over the edge. It might not have been Aldebaran, but it was still a whole planet with tons of life on it. It was as if her illness, injuries, excruciating magical mutations and previous heartbreak weren’t enough already to get her to this state, this was the straw that finally broke the winged pony utterly. The sound of hooves could be heard moving towards her and they stopped behind the unmoving form of the pony casting a shadow onto her that had a horn. “Fluttershy… darling… are you okay? She’s rather, what’s the word for it? Oh the poor dear looks positively dreadful and her dream seem to be lacking, well anything really.” The first shadow said as a second shadow joined the first, this one had wings and a horn. “Never have I seen a ponies mind so… lost… what has she seen that would have led to her being like this?” The second shadow said and then a third very misshapen one popped in. “Sorry to jump on the dream bandwagon you two and I do mean that sincerely, but I believe I have an answer to that. First off take a closer look at the kind of state she’s in, our poor dear Fluttershy isn’t exactly herself at the moment. Another thing, this is the kind of reaction you’d expect of someone who’s seen too much, like say… a whole planet full of life and little critters going up in one huge explosion.” The thirds misshapen shadow paused and held a claw up to his chin; it was also casting the shape of a banana for some reason. “While I do like that it was positively chaotic to watch, I’m glad she got out of that situation in one piece. I must say that her new look is rather fetching; I would like it more if it weren’t currently causing her so much pain and misery. Hey don’t glare at me like that; I’m just being honest as a banana about her looks being a peeling. I really should have taken up universe watching years ago, I had no idea there was so much chaos out there to peruse.” The first shadow turned back to Fluttershy shaking her head at the third shadows intrusion into Fluttershy’s busted mind and making jokes at a time like this. The shadow rolled Fluttershy onto her back and gasped backing away slightly; Fluttershy blankly stared off into space and ignored the fact that Rarity had just entered her vision or was looking over her mutated form. “My word, her hair, her wing, her ears, her eye and is that a fang in her mouth? I knew Twilight and Applejack still haven’t entirely forgiven themselves for the thing with the vampire fruit bats. Why, if they hear of this... they’d simply be devastated.” Rarity wrapped her hooves around Fluttershy and brought her into a hug. “I just wish that even one of us could physically be out there with you right now to comfort you in your time of need. Why even your tail looks positively messed up given a bit of it is missing and those injuries are certainly marring that natural beauty you have. Now that I look at it her cutie mark it is horribly warped as well, I’ve never ever heard of a pony’s cutie mark becoming so twisted like this.” “Well I’d like to see how your tail looks after getting covered in acid and you were shot up by vicious alien crabs. Given our fandom, they would love to see you in this situation Rarity and I don’t recommend letting those crabs go anywhere private if I were you. That planet was quite the deathtrap if I must say so.” Discord popped into view with a smile that quickly turned south and he sighed. He looked at the catatonic pony being held by what he considered to be the biggest posh upper crust twit of the year. Why did that pony want to sully herself with ignoble idiots like the so called nobles anyway? Discord was in the middle of juggling crabs playing little violins in a sad manner at the moment. “If I were you I’d be giving her my all to try and pull her back out of the state she’s in, but no do go on about how utterly hideous you think she is. Some friend you are Rarity.” “Discord you will be quiet or I will force you to leave! Dreams are my realm and while they are most certainly chaotic, I hold more power here then you do. I will admit though that you are in fact correct, she is in need of more attention than any of us at this moment and here you are trying to get us to start bickering with you.” Luna trotted forward stepping up next to Discord and she put a hoof on his shoulder. “I know that you are greatly saddened, but that is no reason to lash out. The only reason we are capable of making such a connection is because the dreams of ponies have no measure of distance as to be beyond my reach. Do you wish to be a problem or are you actually going to help us get yonder Fluttershy out of this state?” “Love forty to Luna. Match point, very well played. At least you understand and know I have feelings too. Now move over Rarity I want to hug her.” Discord was popping a Rainbow Dash shaped tennis ball up and down on a racket made from his tail for a few seconds before reforming and getting in on the Fluttershy cuddling action. “I miss our wonderful tea parties together; that grumpy March Hare hasn’t been the same at all without you being our Alice. That rabbit has become so downright serious about carrying on your work Fluttershy and I personally miss my job of being your ever charming Mad Hatter.” “I would like to personally see what has caused her such mental breakage first hoof, but it may take inducing a nightmare and I’m not willing to do so without the consent of her friends.” Luna was ignoring Discord and his shenanigans as he put on a green top hat with a picture of marbles on it. She was looking towards Rarity for approval to do this; she wanted to assist the return of the soft spoken Fluttershy to happy dreams. “Doesn’t stop you from interfering in dreams anyway, you never asked Scootaloo or Sweetie Bell for consent and I don’t want to even get into what happened with Apple Bloom.” After a moment of silence Discord zipped his lips once he realized he was being glared at by Luna. After another moment the princess of the night chuckled dryly. “I would welcome your input into this situation as well, once the nightmares start they won’t stop and we will experience a lot of what she has been through.” If there was one thing for certain, it was that Luna didn’t like her nightmare powers and she didn’t like using them on those who couldn’t make that decision for themselves. Fluttershy was a special case as she was neither dreaming nor having a nightmare, she needed something to restart her mind. It was a sad thing to say that pain was a good way of doing that, but pain truly lets you know that you’re alive and Luna knew Fluttershy was alive but she wasn’t trying to feel anything anymore. “I say go for it, I can handle trauma quite well or I wouldn’t look like I currently do. Or was it that I look like I do because of the trauma? I can’t remember so well, happened so long ago I’m sure it has nothing to do with being turned to stone while being completely aware of my surroundings either.” Discord flicked at his goofy large saber tooth style fang causing it to wiggle back and forth a bit as if it was made of rubber, he pulled out a photo of himself without a mouth and looking uglier then he currently did as his charming wonderful self. “No mouth, but I must scream? Eh, whatever. I am certain I would like to take this course of action, we currently can’t make Fluttershy feel any worse when she can’t currently feel at all.” Rarity opened her mouth to deny that course of action on the principle of who Discord was, but then she closed it and gave it some thought. Discord was truly worried about Fluttershy and she has noticed him appearing more and more haggard as the days go by. He was just as upset as all of the animals and friends Fluttershy had waiting on her to return home from being so vastly far away. The posh mare couldn’t even begin to fathom the distance between Fluttershy and the planet that she had once been a part of. Even if Rarity had all the fancy string and cloth on Equus tied together end to end, it wouldn’t be able to span the distance between to Fluttershy who was hurting and scared. Whether or not it was a good thing, Fluttershy was never alone out there as long as she kept her friends in her heart. Rarity let this thought sink in and looked to Discord; she smiled a bit as he has recently become friendlier with them. Sure Discord was a nuisance, but then when weren’t the Cutie Mark Crusaders or the many other ponies at times? In fact, Rarity was willing to call Discord a true friend already. Discord made about as much sense as Rainbow Dash or Pinkie do. So Rarity could truly get used to the idea of helping Discord cope better given she generally liked disorganized chaos around her workspace, she should probably invite him over to tea after this and it might make Fluttershy happy to know he’s been getting along with the rest of them the next time they decide to connect to the shy pony’s dreams. She even had the idea that she could make a completely ghastly dress she wouldn’t wear otherwise while she was at it to make Discord feel more welcome when it came to having a tea party. “I agree with Discord. Let us as he says, go for it.” If only Rarity had a camera here she could have caught the look of surprise on both of their faces in pure unadulterated shock. Luna opened her mouth to say something only for Rarity to cut her off, making Discord look even more dumbfounded then he already was. Was Mr. Chaos himself getting confused? Well it was bound to happen eventually. “Yes, I’m quite sure this is the right course of action. As Discord says she’s not in a state to actually feel anything one way or the other, if making her relive her memories will help her recover then I say we should do it.” “Then it is decided; now please be quiet and try not to interfere in her memories. By which I mean don’t you dare do anything disruptive Discord or would you want to harm Fluttershy any further?” After a moment of staring at the chaos bringer who held up his talon and claw in a defensive gesture, Luna’s horn lit up and suddenly a nightmare born of memories started up. The bubble that started it all that must have come from Twilight Sparkle, ending up on the ocean planet while a few days or so into starvation causing her to fight for survival. The pollution and poor creatures that exploded because of her just trying to survive was pretty bad. To hear that there were wars that spanned beyond multiple worlds, evil mind controlling machines, enslaved people beaten and battered and a friend who couldn’t stay and broke Fluttershy’s heart that needed some form of stability. Fluttershy has been through quite a ride thus far, she was put into so much danger that being shy was quickly becoming something she couldn’t afford to do. After all that, things became a tad darker. Fluttershy fully turned into Flutter Bat because of a thing called a Quark Demon and was unleashed upon a peaceful world, the magic that caused Flutter Bat started to twist the pegasus into her current form. The Aldebarans sent her away using their magic as they couldn’t physically harm or pacify her, not that they wanted to harm her at all. She ended up buried alive near in the ceiling of a room of flesh eating creatures in the dark, on a world with bipedal crabs creatures with what looked like weapons grafted into their arms. It was all very chaotic and quite nightmarish experience; Rarity wished she could throw up after watching poor injured Fluttershy pin them with a stare and was witness to them all dying. To top off all the nightmares, the big finisher was the world shaking with an earthquake. There were red lights flaring everywhere and a horrible shrieking alarm, a sickly acid was spewing out of the very floor everywhere while Fluttershy clutched protectively to an egg too sick to run or do much of anything else to defend herself. The last bit was from the ship she was dragged onto by the same creature that had killed those crabs, she stared at the monitors from her position on the floor and it showed the planet she was just on and how it collapsed slightly into itself before exploding violently. “That… was quite a lot to take in. Even if all that wasn’t me I’d be much in the same state Fluttershy is if I went through all that personally, technically I’d be in a worse condition as I’m not exactly great at camping or even survival like Fluttershy is.” After a moment Rarity considered what she said and underlined it as a huge understatement. She knew Fluttershy was good at communing with nature and she was able to adapt to any situation as long as there were animals to be had in said environment. Looking to Discord he seemed oddly quiet and was staring down at the still form of the catatonic pony he held, his best friend. “Yes, but did you not see the good in the middle of all the bad? It seems Fluttershy has made a great number of friends, one of which isn’t even technically alive and looked like an ancient golem only made of metal instead of stone.” Luna looked at the distorted cutie mark and actually paid more attention to it now, it now looked like a distorted Yin Yang symbol. The center of the now circular cutie mark distortion was half bat and butterfly stretched into a curved line through the center, the ends of the bat and butterfly wings created a circle around a clear bat symbol and a clear butterfly symbol. It was like the cutie mark stopped in the middle of becoming a different cutie mark. “Her mutations might stabilize. Unless she comes back to us she will be stuck like that for quite a time, possibly the rest of her life if she never reaches us and maybe even if she does reach us.” “Luna, why didn’t Twilight’s magic fully cure Fluttershy of her bat problem?” It was a good question Rarity had to bring up; she ran a hoof over Fluttershy’s forehead as she was held by Discord. The shy pony laid there blankly staring off into space in the void they were in, the only time Fluttershy had reacted at all during the nightmares was when she took the shots through her shoulder and torso. “If I must guess, Twilight only reversed the effects of the magic on Fluttershy. She didn’t remove the magic that caused those effects in the first place; the transformation would be benign if the magic didn’t overlap her mind with that of a vampire fruit bats mind.” In fact Luna couldn’t help but wince at seeing Fluttershy like she is now and not think of her night guards who had no such problems with being bat ponies. “I hear tell that Twilight used other forms of transformation magic upon all of you and your friends Rarity. I worry that Twilight might have left similar marks on all of you that may have unforeseen consequences such as this. If you don’t mind, I will visit you in the morning when we are done here.” “I would be delighted to host you Luna; I don’t want to turn into a breezy all of the sudden if I can help it.” Rarity turned back to Fluttershy who was still being cradled by Discord, the guy was actually a big softy after all if you could overlook his horrid manners. “Discord, would you like to come over for some tea as well?” “Ellipses” It was Discords rather strained answer as he was trying to make a joke of his own silence in all this. After a moment he looked up at Rarity after realizing what she had said. “I’d like that a lot Rarity.” “She is still unresponsive? This is quite troubling, there must be something…” Suddenly a cracking noise was heard and Luna shifted uncomfortably. Then she said something that no one wanted to hear a master of dreams say. “What was that?” “It sounded like something breaking, sounds awfully loud like it’s really close to her ears for us to hear it even while she’s asleep.” As Rarity said this some life came back into Fluttershy’s eyes and they stopped being so dull. A bright shaft of light shined down on Fluttershy from an angle as she squirmed in Discord arms. Her eyes started to fill with life once more and she struggled out of Discords grip falling into a cloud that appeared out of nowhere in the black void. “I think she may be waking up. Fluttershy, please be a dear and always remember that we’re waiting for you to return home no matter what happens.” The pegasus looked at Discord like she was a bit drunk; in his excitement he created a river and dove into to do a backstroke. The crabs were back, only they were now playing fiddles in a jaunty tune while dancing on his body. “Oh and do try to cheer up and get better soon! We’ll try to contact you again the next time you go to sleep so we can clear up this bit of confusion. To think the most chaotic thing in the universe is what brought you back from your mental vacation, no wonder we get along so swimmingly together. As they say, life is but to dream.” “Discord… Rarity… Luna, what? Where am…” Fluttershy suddenly said finally noticing those who were with her; it filled her with happiness to see familiar faces. The world around them all started to shift into the form of a meadow and a weeping willow. The cracking sound was heard again and Fluttershy eyes widened in realization, she knew what that sound was and would recognize it from anywhere. Feeling her heart thudding in her chest, Fluttershy was swiftly ejected from her cloud. She flew through the void into the light with a confused look on her face; this caused Rarity, Luna and Discord to disappear back to their respective minds.