//------------------------------// // 18 // Story: Yonder Wandered Fluttershy // by Darkonshadows //------------------------------// Fluttershy gasped awake and her suddenly motion and intake of air spooked the four other passengers on the odd white ship. Taking deep breathes she looked around and wondered what was going on. The large green bird leapt backwards squawking in shock while tripping and falling on her butt. The blue alien monkeys all latched onto the nearby walls and just stared at the large green bird curiously; they dropped to the floor once their shock wore off. They came up to the pony to see Fluttershy slowly taking in her surroundings. After a moment a cracking noise pierced the air and the large green bird was with Fluttershy in a second getting its beak under her. She lifted Fluttershy into a sitting position where she wrapped her neck around to the left side of Fluttershy’s face and rubbed her beak up against pony’s cheek with a soft trill as she curled around the pony. Fluttershy inhaled softly, her head wasn’t as fuzzy as it used to be. Her shoulder and torso still didn’t feel all too great and the egg pressed against her belly was shaking. That took her immediate interest; it looked like it was hatching and there were cracks on one centralized small part of the egg. Fluttershy watched in awe as the life inside the egg valiantly poked its tiny beak through the top of the egg which caused the broken bits of egg to collapse inward on it. The bird was really tiny and chirping up at Fluttershy from its position at the bottom of the egg it hadn’t even opened its eyes yet, the big green bird cooed at the little thing softly. Fluttershy’s eyes were filled with love and joy at this moment, it wasn’t hard to tell her heart was melting at seeing such a tiny life being born now of all times. The little creature hearing the cooing nose opened its eyes and flinched at the light entering the egg from above. After a moment the tiny bird became used to the light and saw its mother and Fluttershy looking down at it, it chirped anxiously at the two figures. Fluttershy wondered how one could take care of little alien birds, obviously it would need to be taken out of the egg first and… where was the mother going? She watched the big green bird pull away from her and quickly thundered off; she then turned back to the little nearly featherless bird that just lay at the bottom of the egg which was chirping up a storm now. It was really adorable looking alien bird that was so tiny and defenseless; it made Fluttershy wonder why the mother left it alone with her like this? Well at least she was able to stay in an upright position without the mother holding her in place. Looking at the alien chick it was hard to tell what gender it was; she really did not understand the greater biology of the alien bird quite yet, just that it had really strong legs and could rip an alien crab monster, literally armed with lasers, completely in half. After a moment the mother came back and poked her beak gently into the hole in the egg, she followed this up with a familiar retching sound that was heard when it came to feeding Fluttershy. She unleashed a small dribble into the egg. The tiny bird started happily ingesting the fluid and bathed in the love of its mother. Said mother turned to Fluttershy and nuzzled her before pecking at one of her fluffy bat ears in a completely jovial manner. It looked like Fluttershy was now officially the godmother and babysitter of a little alien bird, said bird was happily fed and chirping for a bit then it slowly drifted off and curled up at the bottom of the egg, getting exceptionally cozy as it was tired from finally breaking its shell. “Um… shouldn’t we take…I’m sorry to ask this, but do you know your babies gender? Anyway, shouldn’t we take it out of the egg?” Fluttershy was staring into the friendly eyes of the mother bird that tilted her head curiously to the side at the first question. It didn’t seem the large bird understood what she was asking about at all, Fluttershy wasn’t willing to ask an intelligent creature about its genitalia or the operations of said alien anatomy as that seemed like too much personal prying. Seeing as the green avian shook its head no at the second question, Fluttershy knew the bird had clearly understood that question well enough. “Why not, can you tell me why it has to stay in the egg?” The bird nodded, she bent her head around and tapped both her legs and made a hopping motion by looking like it was preparing to jump, then pointed at the egg with one of her toes. After that she went back to normal and cooed at the sleeping little bird at the bottom of the egg. “It has to jump out of the egg?” There was an incredulous look on Fluttershy’s face. If what she was hearing from the mother was right, it needed to be able to be strong enough to jump out of the egg on its own. It may sound ridiculous at first glance, but this mother would know better how to raise her own alien baby bird then Fluttershy would. The mother bird nodded sagely then went back to cooing softly over her sleeping chick. The three short tailed alien monkeys finally came over and peered into the egg and chattered excitedly about the baby, they were clearly happy to see Fluttershy awake and feeling much better. One of the small monkeys even jumped on Fluttershy’s back to look over her shoulder, but it was knocked off by the cooing mother, who suddenly clucked in an angry tone while motioning to Fluttershy with her beak. The monkey chattered something as in an apologetic to the bird and gave Fluttershy a hug before quickly backing off. The other two joined it and they all scampered off out through a doorway that closed up behind them, most likely they were going for the front of the ship. Fluttershy giggled lightly as she looked around idly cradling the egg in her left hoof. What kind of alien ship was this? It was strangely built; it seemed to be made for taller creatures like the green bird than it did the little alien monkeys that could stick to the walls. The fact that none of them had a viable language other than using their bodies in accompany to sound said that they clearly hadn’t built this ship, but they knew what it was and how to vaguely pilot it. Fluttershy had been so out of it when the acid had been pouring into the room back on the planet when it was… she let tears brim in her eyes until a bundle of feathers wiped them away. Trying to get her thoughts back on track from the new mother tickling her out of her depressing thoughts, Fluttershy hadn’t really seen much of the interior of the ship when she was dragged aboard. It was simple in design, nothing extravagant or overly elaborate but definitely a pearly white color with a slight tint to it. She was quite certain the ship was large enough to have two floors to it and from what she saw on the Croaker transport, there was usually a living area, food storage and at least a bridge for piloting controls. Fluttershy was currently in small room and was sitting in a recreated much greener looking nest; it looked to be a living area of sorts. Whoever the previous owners were didn’t leave much behind. She decided it was time to try standing up; putting weight on her right shoulder was met immediately agony and the hole in her patched up torso wasn’t feeling much better. The mother bird seeing Fluttershy in pain quickly pushed the pony back into sitting down and curled up around her and the egg protectively while getting settled. Sighing Fluttershy leaned back against the feathers. She wasn’t very sleepy, but the mother’s feathers were really comfortable and she rested thinking about the dream she had. Were Luna, Discord and Rarity really there? Had they found some way to connect to her or was that just her being completely mental because of her twisted cutie mark and body? Discord had said they would be waiting for her to return home, Rarity wanted to be here with her and Luna wanted her to get better. It was nice to know that even if they weren’t real they were worried about her in her imagination. If they were real Fluttershy probably really worried them by shutting down like she had and would apologize later when she could. Her head was still a bit fuzzy and she still felt the pain of her injuries, the destruction of an entire planet full of life was still eating away at her heart and all the things that were happening in the universe were pretty bad. Despite all that Fluttershy smiled at seeing this little baby sleeping so peacefully and that a new life was given birth in the middle of nowhere in space. Sure Fluttershy knew the road ahead might be bad or that it could get much worse, like for instance the question of where they were currently going came to mind or even what the ship they were on would run into on the way there or if they were truly going anywhere at all. There was also the thought of a limited food supply and there was now another mouth to feed that couldn’t very well handle solid foods. She’d deal with all the stress of worrying about everything later when it really became a huge problem, for now Fluttershy would just sing a quiet song to herself. In the midst of her song, a small chattering noise was heard and Fluttershy stopped. She saw that an alien monkey, probably the same one that jumped on her from earlier, was holding the purple gourd filled with water. She carefully lifted her left hoof off of the egg and took the offered gourd and drank freely of it. After she finished she hoofed it back into the hands of the small alien monkey who smiled and sat down staring at her. “Do you want me to continue singing?” It didn’t take long for her to receive an answer as it obviously wanted Fluttershy to continue. It even took up a position cuddling into the feathers of the large green bird and drinking the water from a different side of the large pimply hollowed out gourd, it cuddled into Fluttershy’s side and made sure not to disturb the egg. Clearing her throat Fluttershy continued to sing until the little critter yawned and nodded off snuggling against her. Fluttershy was not the happiest pony around even if she was the only pony on this ship, but she was going to continue living since these critters had went to great length to save her life. Maybe she could even discover more about this ship and learn a little more about culture of the beings that made it. Sitting still and being the one cared for was not something Fluttershy was good at. She didn’t mind that she was being cared for; it was just that she was the one that usually did the caring for others that were sick or needy of her attention. At least her talent with animals counted no matter where she went and these animals were being exceedingly kind to her, she wondered how many animals they left behind on that planet to die. She even wondered what became of that really tall creature that shot a hole into the hidden room with that powerful rainbow colored beam, the one that let her friends in before running off. It might have been a few hours, but since Fluttershy wasn’t allowed to move and since she was so comfy she started nodding off deciding to get some more rest. At least her sickness was clearing up, she somewhat wished she knew the name of these creatures. Maybe she would find out when she was well enough to start exploring the ship. As she closed her eyes, she wondered what the alien monkeys or the large green bird could have done with her saddlebags, her slightly busted universal translator and the ever important galactic map that she would have to update everywhere she went. She knew they had to be somewhere else on the ship or else she would have felt the bags on her when she woke up. -- Fluttershy sat in a meadow under a weeping willow with all her friends just taking in the day and relaxing, only within minutes did Luna appear and approached Fluttershy. “I am most sorry to interrupt your dream Fluttershy, but I need to speak with you.” Luna said in a rather serious tone. “What about and can my new friends come to Equus for a visit?” Fluttershy said in a lackadaisical manner, she was currently in her happy place and she wasn’t really all there at the moment. “Give me but a moment.” Luna lit her horn and with a pop two figures appeared in Fluttershy’s dream world; both the green bird and the blue monkey took one look at Luna and immediately bowed to her politely. “Strange, they are intelligent enough to know what I am. They are smarter then they appear but not fully above an animal’s intelligence. They are much like your pet rabbit Angel.” “Angel, Oh dear, is my little angel bunny alright? Oh never mind, there he is right now!” A dream version of Angel hopped up to Fluttershy, all the while Luna and the other two creatures stood off to the side watching her play with the rabbit. This time in her dream world she was perfectly fine and looked like her old self. “Is she fully mentally sound at the moment?” Luna received a shrug from both of the aliens and then another being appeared in the dream. A tiny little visitor that snuggled up against Luna’s back causing her to spread her wings in shock. Looking back at the little bird creature rubbing up against her fur and chirping merrily made her give a little sigh at how adorable it was. She knew Celestia would have loved to see it, but she was already stretching herself thin by bringing two creatures into the dream realm from an inexorably vast distance away that were most definitely not ponies. “This is your child I take? It is certainly a precious little thing and from what I have gathered of Fluttershy she adores babies, Discord said as much and that it brought the life back into her eyes. She’d defend and raise it as her own if you weren’t well enough to take care of it yourself. Is Fluttershy getting better or healthier? I must know for the sake of my own mind.” The big green bird gave a caw and the little baby jumped right onto her back, not being feeble or small as it was in the real world it nestled into its mother’s feathers chirping a little song. The monkey answered the other question by motioning that, Fluttershy was indeed getting better in the head but pointed out the shoulder and body were still recovering from bad wounds. “That is about as much as I expected to learn, thank you very much for watching out for one of my subjects. If we are to physically meet one day, I will prostrate myself before you in the waking world.” Luna walked over to Fluttershy frolicking with all her dream friends; she looked a lot livelier and less dreary. “Fluttershy, please you must listen to me!” Luna finally got Fluttershy to notice her as she motioned with a hoof to come over. “You are dreaming and I can connect to you while you sleep, I wish to know that the things I saw… did they truly happen to you?” “Yes, I’m a terrible po…” Before she could finish uttering her sentence a little chirping sound found itself in one of her ears and she looked up at the top of her head to see the baby bird playing in her mane. Her looks reverted to how she really looked at the moment; even then the bird cuddled into one of her ears and looked like it wanted to live there. It didn’t like that strange bad feeling around her and wanted to cheer her up in its own infantile manner. “The young one see’s you as important to it. It knows only of the love you gave it from the moment it saw you looking down upon it. You are no monster Fluttershy, there was not much you could do in the situation those aliens creatures with the laser weaponry had put you in. I saw how they fired upon you the moment they were close enough to see what you were and one even laughed at your pain and suffering. They would be dead anyway, either from the planet exploding, by this brave mother that came to your rescue or maybe even that mysterious glowing tall armored orange creature who helped your friends get into the room to save you and the egg. I see it has hatched by the way.” Luna paused and remembered something about the really tall creature; it had fired a beam of rainbow colors that blasted a hole into the room Fluttershy was lying incapacitated in. “Speaking of the tall creature, I see the elements of harmony are not just a thing of our world. That tall creature you saw seems to have embodied the spirit of harmony itself or something like it. Even when the planet was exploding, that being stopped and helped your friends escape their imminent demise instead of selfishly worrying about its own life. I pray that that creature made it out alive.” The large green bird suddenly made a loud trilling noise in a specific tune, an S shaped bolt of lightning appeared in a circle above her. A vision of what looked like a large and wise bipedal griffon was shown watching a little being so unlike itself running around chasing what looked like another small green bird with a smile on its face. The griffon looking creature was looking towards the ones watching this scene with more than a hint of curiosity; it was as if it could truly see all of them. The vision had ended as soon as it came and the large green bird imparted that the being was a friend without words and that the friend was most certainly alive in her heart if not in the flesh. “How mysterious… that being that looks like a griffon looked vaguely familiar. Fluttershy, I want you to know that all your pony friends and I will try to stay in touch through your dreams. We have not lost hope on you getting home; however we don’t know how you are to find your way back to us or how long it will take.” Luna frowned a little before she walked up to Fluttershy and wrapped her hooves around the sad little pony. ”Know this Fluttershy; your friends will always care about you no matter whether they are old ones or all the new ones you seem to be making. No matter your actions we will always believe the best of you and that whatever comes that you will try to be true to whom you are. Also know that your friend Rainbow is quite proud of you and wished that you could learn of this fact as soon as possible.” “She… she is? I’m not exactly proud of what happened to those three alien crabs.” Fluttershy wondered what she could have possibly done or what Luna could of told Rainbow Dash that would have made her proud. Being the cause of the three crab beings deaths no matter how cruel they were was nothing to be proud of. “We all are proud of you Fluttershy for that very reason, that you can be as strong as to care so deeply where others would call you weak. Rainbow has just been the most vocal about it by telling every single pony in Ponyville that you are out there fighting and befriending aliens everywhere. I believe she said that you’ll kick flank and take names where she wishes she could be doing the same right alongside you.” A smile of amusement came to Luna’s face as one also appeared on Fluttershy’s countenance. They sat in the grass with the three alien animals underneath the tree and they had a discussion about who Fluttershy would see in her dreams next, possibly Twilight who was distraught to find out that she was the cause of all this.