An Improvised Rescue
It was another beautiful day in the forest, just outside of Canterlot City. The sun was shining and there were very few clouds in the sky. In addition to a cooling breeze, there was also the peaceful chirping noise of birds in the trees.
For Fluttershy, it was a perfect day for her to enjoy a nice peaceful stroll through such a calm wilderness. As she listened to the surrounding birdsongs, she would occasionally hum a little melody along with them. To a girl like her who appreciated all things in nature, there were very few places that could be better than this.
Fluttershy briefly took out her phone to check the time. “Oh! I’d better get going,” she quietly said to herself with slight urgency. “I need to feed all of the animals in my pet shop soon.” She put away her phone and picked up her pace along the trail.
It wasn’t long until she arrived at a small vehicle that was parked on a wider trail. It was a golf cart that she had repurposed for off-road use, allowing her to travel between the city and the nearby wilderness in less time than by simply walking.
As Fluttershy climbed into her golf cart and began driving it down the trail, she was reminded of why this was her preferred mode of transportation. Unlike traditional all-terrain vehicles — which to her were always too loud and way too fast — this modified golf cart had an electric motor that was so quiet that it was almost silent. This also meant that the cart had a relatively low top speed, which suited her just fine. She preferred to take her time enjoying the scenery, rather than face the terrifying rush of zooming around on uneven ground.
As she continued to make her way out of the forest, Fluttershy found herself driving along a large creek. The soothing noise of rushing water only added to the peaceful surroundings. It made her feel like nothing could possibly go wrong.
Suddenly, an unusual noise interrupted Fluttershy’s state of relaxation. It sounded like the yipping noise of a small dog in distress. With eyes widened in shock, she quickly began looking around for the source of that noise. Once she saw what it was, she felt her heart skip a beat at the terrible sight.
Not far upstream, a poor puppy had fallen into the creek, and was now being swept away by the current. The unfortunate puppy was just too weak to paddle against the rushing water, and could only continue yelping in distress.
Fluttershy immediately gasped in shock and shouted, “Don’t worry! I’ll save you!” She quickly turned her attention back to the path ahead as she continued to drive her cart along the creek. She knew that puppy would continue to be swept further down the creek with each passing second, so the very least she could do right now was to keep moving ahead while she thought of a plan.
Fluttershy quickly glanced over at the creek beside her to see just how fast the current was compared to her own speed. Just as she had feared, her cart could barely keep up with the rushing creek. This meant that if she stopped or even slowed down, it would only be a matter of seconds before that unfortunate puppy would rush by and she would have no way to catch up again. She literally would have only one chance.
It wasn’t long until Fluttershy looked up ahead and saw a small pile of Lego pieces beside the creek. She had no idea how they got there, but in this emergency moment, it was exactly what she wanted. “Maybe I could build something to fish him out,” she said to herself, growing confident that such a plan just might actually work. All she had to do was work as quickly as possible.
As soon as she brought the cart to a stop, Fluttershy knew there was no going back. She was now committed to somehow using these abandoned pieces to save that poor puppy from the rushing creek. As soon as she started quickly looking over the small pile, her hopeful expression fell as she realized just what little she actually had to work with. “Oh… I don’t think I have enough pieces,” she muttered worriedly.
Fluttershy’s attention was quickly drawn back to puppy in danger, which she saw was now coming closer and closer as he continued calling desperately for help. She had to think of something fast! With a short glance to the side, her eyes fell on the cart she had been driving. Like all other vehicles in this world, it was made of Lego pieces, and it was just the thing to give her the inspiration she needed. “Or maybe I do,” she said as a smile quickly formed on her face.
With no time to lose, Fluttershy immediately dove for the repurposed golf cart and quickly took it completely apart, adding all of the pieces to the small pile she had found. As she then began to quickly assemble all of those pieces, her body changed to include pony-like ears, longer hair, and feathered wings on her back. She didn’t bother to notice these sudden magical additions, as she was too focused on building her rescue rig before it was too late.
In only a matter of seconds, Fluttershy had finished building her rescue rig. It consisted of a bucket on the end of an arm that swung vertically from the end of a larger arm that could be spun around on a small turret. There was no time to admire this creation, as the yelping puppy in the creek reminded her of the urgency of this particular build.
Fluttershy immediately hopped into the seat in the turret. She had built the rig with the big arm already hanging out over the creek, so there was no need for her to spin it around. However, she did need to quickly turn a hand-crank to extend the length of that arm so that the bucket was at just the right distance across the creek to retrieve that puppy. Once she was sure the setting was just right, she then grabbed the lever that controlled the small swinging arm. She pulled the lever from the locked position and watched carefully for just the right moment. As that puppy was carried by the rushing creek towards the rig, it was literally now or never.
Finally, with very precise timing, Fluttershy flipped the lever around, which swung the smaller arm down and made the bucket scoop the puppy right out of the water. She then quickly pushed that lever back into the locked position, ensuring that the puppy would not fall back into the creek. Next, she flipped a switch that made the motorized turret slowly spin around until the bucket was over dry land. Finally, she stopped the turret, unlocked the lever, and slowly lowered the bucket until the puppy fell out onto the soft grass nearby.
Fluttershy jumped out of the seat and rushed over to the now rescued puppy. “Oh thank goodness!” she exclaimed in relief as she carefully picked up the puppy. “Are you okay, little pup?”
The little brown Lego puppy yelped happily in response and began rubbing his face against hers affectionately.
Fluttershy giggled and said, “I’ll take that as a yes.”
Once the puppy pulled away to get another look at his savior, he cocked his head sideways in confusion.
Bewildered by the sudden change in expression, Fluttershy asked, “What’s wrong?”
The puppy responded with an excited yip as he wagged his tiny tail.
Fluttershy was able to figure out that the puppy was trying to tell her something about herself. She looked around at her body and quickly realized that she now had those pony-like additions that she had previously had only once before. “Oh my!” she remarked in surprise. “How did that happen?”
As soon as Fluttershy had asked that question, her body shifted back to a regular minifig. Confused, she began to look around for any clues to explain how that happened. What ultimately caught her attention was the rescue rig she had built, and it was only now that she finally had the time to really look at her recent creation. “Wow… Did I really just build that?” she quietly asked herself. It really was quite remarkable to think that she could quickly build something like that in an emergency situation.
Fluttershy’s thoughts were interrupted by a very faint buzzing noise. She quickly realized that it was coming from her phone, so she pulled it out to see what kind of notice she was being reminded of. She gasped when she saw the time and remembered just how late it was starting to get. “Oh my goodness!” she exclaimed as she quickly put her phone away. “I’d better get going! Angel always tends to get upset whenever I’m late for dinner.”
With no idea where the puppy came from, Fluttershy decided to bring him home with her and wait until after dinner to figure out what to do with him. She picked up the puppy and began looking around to find where she had parked her cart. It took her a few seconds to remember that she had actually taken apart that cart and incorporated the pieces into that rescue rig.
Fluttershy turned back to her rescue rig and, with her face blushed in mild embarrassment, quietly muttered, “Um… I guess I’ll need to take that thing apart and… rebuild my cart.”