//------------------------------// // 29 // Story: Yonder Wandered Fluttershy // by Darkonshadows //------------------------------// Fluttershy sat there on a cloud with Pinkie and ChuChu, going over her options of how to deal with the wheels that the cute little octopus called Wheelies. They were a rather nomadic high speed species of naturally occurring Dream Land creatures that while they didn’t look quite biological, they were capable enough to reproduce in such a manner. Dream Land has plenty of mechanical, biological or just plain magical looking creatures and the Waddle Dee would be a big example. How do those cute little waddling creature survive without mouths? Didn’t they need to eat? If they did eat, then how did that work? ChuChu was also an oddity given her face was on the top of her body and only an octopus on this world could look like that. “So is that your ship down there?” Frowning at the loud squeak and nearly spooking her friend right off the cloud, Pinkie just sat there quietly and watched as ChuChu pulled her back up. “Sorry Fluttershy.” “Oh it’s okay, I actually needed that.” Well she wasn’t about to attack the Wheelies. Not with a glass knife anyway, she wasn’t a violent pony and would prefer a more peaceful solution. Fluttershy was quite curious about what they ate and how they ate it. Some of the creatures in Dream Land only made half as much sense as they normally would. These wheels for instance seemed to like wide open long spaces to roll around freely on. “Well I don’t want to attack them, ChuChu thinks they’ll attack anyone that bothers them and I really don’t want anybody to get hurt. After my incident with Mr. Woods and all the things I’ve seen before, I’ve just about had it with how violent things always keep getting around me.” “Who’s Mr. Woods?” Tilting her head questioningly, the floating Pinkie hadn’t heard about the tree that attacked and injured Fluttershy. The tree actually had a good reason for it. “Oh it’s nothing to worry about… Pinkie can you do me a favor?” Fluttershy hadn’t taken her eyes off of the wheels rolling around at high speeds. She finally turned and smiled at the pink floating specter. “Like what?” If there was a pony that aimed to please and it was within Pinkie’s many great talents to achieve it, she would do so for her friends if they asked it of her. Usually what was asked of her was throwing a party and nothing she could complicate needlessly. “Do you think you could you distract all of the Wheelies for me please?” It seemed like the easiest solution to the puzzle to have Pinkie distract the Wheelies. They couldn’t do a thing to hurt Pinkie and she wasn’t physically here, so Fluttershy didn’t have to worry about her safety. ChuChu and herself on the other hoof… well she wasn’t a fighter and she had no clue as to what ChuChu was fully capable of, aside from deflecting bouncing projectiles with her stretchy pink legs. “Is that all? Well of course I can, just you leave it to your old aunt Pinkie Pie as I’ve got this covered Fluttershy!” Pinkie flew off before Fluttershy could point out the fact that she was still a year older than her. Sighing Fluttershy started to quickly aim the cloud so it hung close to the grounded Head Hunter. At this point Fluttershy was pretty sure she was good at not attracting attention and being stealthy, she doubted she’d ever really like a job as an assassin or a ninja though. ChuChu was staying quiet and sitting on her back looking more like a wad of bubblegum then an octopus, she knew it was serious time and she looked ready to defend Fluttershy if need be. Fluttershy waited to see how Pinkie would go about distracting them; it didn’t take long as Pinkie did several different things that were likely impossible for astral projections. The things Pinkie did included having astral musical instruments, a giant astral sound system and astral cupcakes. Even Applejack didn’t come with her hat when she came here. Even then, Fluttershy wasn’t about to question Pinkie about this, it was likely to attract the attention of the wheelies. Pinkie sent a wink in Fluttershy’s direction before she played a single note on the astral instrument causing an uproariously loud noise. It had definitely garnered just about every wheelie’s attention, causing them all to turn and move towards Pinkie. Fluttershy lowered the cloud and poked her head out of it and looked around, all the while Pinkie was busy playing a solo rock concert. She had always thought Pinkie was always extremely talented, even when it came to playing ten instruments at once. She crawled out of the cloud with ChuChu watching her backside while she watched out for whatever was in front of them. Slowly she made her way up to the Head Hunter despite being impossible to hear with all the noise that Pinkie was dishing out as a cover, not to mention it was really giving her a headache having to hear all of it. Just when Fluttershy got to the top hatch of the ship she heard something other than Pinkie’s noisy music, she swiftly pried ChuChu off her back and placed her on the top entrance to the Head Hunter. Down the octopus went into the space vessel with a surprised look while Fluttershy turned around to investigate the noise of what sounded like an injured animal. If there was a need for kindness, then Fluttershy would heed the call to help the sick and the injured in any way she could. Her bat ears flicked in the direction she heard what sounded like a cry for help. Over on one side of the hill she parked on, Fluttershy saw a red armored wheelie lying on its side causing a soft squealing sound that sounded just awful. Fluttershy wondered why any of the other wheelies hadn’t helped it before Pinkie started her distraction. It was blowing air from its round flattened rotating part. It had a hole in its tire, not that Fluttershy knew that that was what it was called. Its one visible closed eye opened when it felt her shadow cast over it, it began to panic by revving out loudly. “It’s okay; I’m not trying to hurt you. Calm down and I’ll help find a way to patch you up.” Fluttershy softly told the strange creature, it slowly calmed down at her gentle tone. Trying to lift the thing she noted it was really quite heavy, she slowly trudged back up the hill while shouldering the injured wheel. It revved softly in pain at having a flat tire and from hearing that noisy music, it was just too weak to fight Fluttershy just spiriting it away. “Don’t worry, you’ll be okay. You’re in good hooves.” Fluttershy would always stop for an injured animal and she was strong enough to flip an entire bear. While it was hard to carry something as heavy as this wheelie was, it was nothing Fluttershy couldn’t handle. Even if her back and spine was going to protest it every step of the way until she was inside the Head Hunter. She carefully laid the Wheelie out on the floor and patted it softly in a caring manner. ChuChu looked ready for a fight at seeing Fluttershy bring a Wheelie inside with her; it was only seconds later that she noticed it was injured with a flat tire. Wheelies hardly looked out for their own if they were old enough to take care of themselves; their young however were more carefully considered. It was also an oddity to the octopus that this creature was just injured. Usually native Dream Land creatures exploded into stardust, that’s what happens when Kirby gets involved with them at least. “I’m going to fly us to Kirby’s house now, please watch over… um is it female or male?” Fluttershy figured that ChuChu would know, looking into the eye the octopus told her what gender it was. “So he’s male? Don’t worry Mr. Wheel you’ll be rolling around in no time!” Fluttershy sat down in the seat and her hooves hovered over the controls and started to manipulate them gently. The ship lifted up into air swiftly and she spun it around to see Pinkie waving goodbye to all the hopping happy Wheelies as she floated into the Head Hunter. “Thanks for waiting for me Fluttershy, whoa… so this is a spaceship? How do you ship space anyway? I know you can put a space between letters or as Rarity says between my ears, don’t honestly know why she thinks I have space between my ears when Rainbow is always being called an airhead. Airheads are really yummy and chewy fruity candy, so Rainbow Dash must taste like getting caught in the rain. Almost as good as the mystery flavor of cupcakes I made for Applejack the other day. Wouldn’t you know it? She figured out they didn’t taste like cinnamon at all!” Pinkie was just a solid stream of random consciousness at this point. “You know this thing kind of reminds me of Time Turners, only with less time travel and more space travel! Hey what’s wrong with that guy?” “Oh Mr. Wheel is hurt and I just couldn’t leave him by himself.” Fluttershy was steering the ship lazily over the forest and was looking for Kirby’s rather cute if humble home. “I don’t see what you’re worrying about so much Fluttershy; you’re still you and you love caring for others! You’re never going to be a bad pony in my book, even if this ship isn’t exactly yours.” No matter the distance Pinkie never gave up on a good friend being true to who they were. Fluttershy didn’t say anything, Pinkie was right that she was still herself. She was reminded of the time she stole a bite of an admittedly yummy cake, but she had apologized for that and Pinkie forgave her for it in seconds. The capacity to steal was still within her. She remembered getting away with munching on Applejack’s orchard by eating a ton of her apples without paying for them. Even if she had mutated fully into a scary bat pony at the time, that was no excuse to get away with it. Fluttershy stealing a spaceship made her feel like she was getting progressively worse with all of her criminal acts, which included the time she became nastily assertive and that little joyride with the destroyed stiletto fighter didn’t help any. At least she could say she helped saved a life, well… the life of a being that was paid a lot to end the lives of other beings. Shaking her head from the morbid thoughts, Fluttershy finally spotted the humble little house and steered the ship towards it for a landing. She could already see the interested astral form of Rainbow Dash staring in awe of the flying machine among several others as it came to the rest on the ground. The landing went much more smoothly then the first one had, given she was getting much better at controlling the ship with time. Fluttershy got up from her seat and moved to the back of the ship to see ChuChu gently rubbing the Wheelie’s red armor in a friendly manner. It was nice to see that Mr. Wheel wasn’t fighting them about this and she hoped that he’d be perfectly fine in a while. “Come on let’s get you outside and I’ll see to your injury. ChuChu you wouldn’t happen to know anything about medical practices?” Releasing a sigh at seeing the octopus just tilt her head in confusion, Fluttershy had her work cut out for her and she’d have to dip into the medical kit that was onboard to see if she could figure out a way to patch up Mr. Wheel. She really didn’t want to bother ChuChu’s friends with finding another Maximum Tomato. Speaking of Mr. Wheel, Fluttershy hefted the mechanical looking being up in one hoof and got him onto the platform, afterwards she had ChuChu carry a slightly heavy white box with a red cross on it. Once they were all aboard the platform, it easily lifted them to the top of the Head Hunter. Fluttershy had wondered where Pinkie went as soon as they arrived and hadn’t noticed her leaving through the metallic walls of the ship. “I still can’t believe you have those instruments, we’re astral projections and it’s not possible for inanimate objects to have astral projections!” Poor astral Twilight Sparkle was already getting into Pinkie about the instruments she was still wielding. “No its not, if it weren’t possible then why do I have them?” With Pinkie’s logic Twilight was immediately quiet and her hair looked a bit frazzled at trying to make a comeback. All things considered, Twilight was still having problems from the last time Pinkie broke the laws of magic, physics or whatever it was Pinkie did that didn’t make a lick of sense. “Hey Fluttershy, welcome to the party. Whoa, what in the world is that thing? Also nice spaceship, would you let me take it for a spin when you get home? I wish I was there with you having these awesome adventures, is it anything like what you thought it would be Fluttershy?” Rainbow Dash was immediately at Fluttershy’s side talking up a storm as the bashful pony carefully placed the Wheelie on the ground. “Oh it hasn’t all been fun Rainbow; it’s been quite horrible and painful. ChuChu do you think you can get this box open? I haven’t been able to because I can’t manipulate the latches on it.” Having hooves was a disadvantage at times, but Fluttershy had always made do with what she had to work with. The medical kit was one of the things she easily recognized for what it was; she just couldn’t get it open because of how it was designed. Fluttershy paused to think while she watched ChuChu work through the puzzled of how to open the box. The creatures of Dream Land while not entirely dumb, they weren’t exactly that bright either. It made her wonder why there weren’t any real signs of civilization here; it was like this world didn’t care much for progress and was generally okay with the few buildings it did have. There had to be some form of manufacturing capability somewhere on this planet if the cute little red bow ChuChu was wearing was to be believed, there were very few signs of higher intelligence like Kirby’s house on this planet. “Fluttershy, I hate to take your attention away from your friends…. um, what is that thing?” Celestia had lost her train of thought and was more interested in the Wheelie that Fluttershy was shouldering at the moment. ChuChu continued to fiddle with the latches on the human style medical kit. “Oh he’s a Wheelie, I found him injured around the others like him. It didn’t seem like any of his family or friends cared that he was hurt and injured. I’m hoping ChuChu can figure out how to open the medical box so I can use what’s inside to help him.” While Fluttershy waited for that to happen, she tried to make sure the Wheelie was comfortable. The Wheelie was in too much pain to be aggressive at the moment and he felt safe being held by Fluttershy. He didn’t have the wherewithal to gather speed and ram anything that might threaten him at the moment. Everything around him was really confusing and he felt a gentle if glowing spirit coming off of the one that held him. A Wheelie that couldn’t gather any speed wasn’t worthy of note to the other Wheelies. The only reason why it was this way was because the Wheelies tended to have no inclination towards finding medical aid, especially on a planet that in general didn’t have any to begin with. The exceptions were for the lucky ones that did become injured only to eventually stumble upon some grease, a power battery or a maximum tomato to absorb while still being functionally mobile or aware enough to take in stuff to repair itself. An injured Wheelie either got better naturally or they ceased moving entirely. Not being able to move at all while still being alive was one of the worst injustices that life could deal to a Wheelie. “What an interesting creature, this world is not too far removed from Equestria in appearance and yet it’s so vastly different.” Even as the astral form of Celestia said this, the astral form of Applejack popped into view while Luna’s horn was glowing. “Ah, so we will return to our bodies upon awakening, at least that’s one problem we have little to worry about.” Luna was not about to tell Fluttershy she was worried about them being stuck in the sleeping realm disconnected from their bodies. Well that would have been the problem for the other ponies and Katrina; her and her sister would have eventually found a way back to their bodies given their immortality. “I’m glad to know that I’m getting a full nights rest at least, I wouldn’t have wanted to miss my granddaughter annoying the palace guard robots again in the morning.” Having made contact with another magical race had made Katrina open up to them quite a bit; they had talked about various subjects some of which involved this world that Fluttershy now found herself on. One important topic of discussion was the idea that making advancements too fast or just being handed space travel without learning to build it personally. That kind of thing tended to have a large negative impact on the development of any race. “I reckon I can handle a few more hours of shuteye.” It wasn’t even Three AM yet back in Equestria and Applejack needed those three extra hours of rest for a long day of hard work. “CHU!” Triumphantly holding the medical box in the air above her with an open lid, ChuChu smiled cheerfully as Fluttershy took it from her tentacles. “Thank you very much ChuChu, now let’s get you looked over Mr. Wheel. You’ll be feeling better in no time.” Injured animal treatment mode was activated and Fluttershy drowned out all the background noise of the multiple astral projected friends and gently prodded the Wheelie until the hole in his tread was visible. He whirred slightly in pain, but aside from that he was being a good patient and most Wheelies definitely weren’t known for their patience. They all stayed relatively silent watching Fluttershy consider how to treat the wheels damaged tread as she pulled out all the strange things in from the medical box. Everyone was silent until the sun seemed to drop out of the sky in the distance; it immediately took on an orange spherical floating form with hands and a face. It stretched out and yawned, not noticing a silent audience watching it do so. It slowly shook a sleeping yellow crescent shaped creature awake, it had legs and arms. It blinked lazily, before looking at what woke it up for a moment. The crescent shaped being leapt straight into the sky and suddenly it was nighttime, the moon appeared exactly where the sun was moments ago. The sun shaped creature closed its eyes after grabbing a chunk of wood to sleep on; it looked just like an average campfire after a moment. “Whoa… the sun and moon here are actually alive? Now there’s something you don’t see every day.” Despite being the only one to put it in words at the moment, Rainbow noticed that Fluttershy hadn’t look away from the Wheelie to see said amazing sight. ChuChu was even assisting her in applying the patch to the hole in its tread; she had seen Mr. Shine and Mr. Bright trade places many times before and also ignored it as if it were an everyday thing. “So this world has physical embodiments of the sun and moon too, how quaint.” Tittered Celestia as she thought about how fast they had swapped positions, Dream Land had so many surprising magical things about it. Now if she could keep Fluttershy’s attention long enough to tell her that she couldn’t stay on this world for any longer than two weeks. There were definitely consequences of this world being connected to two different civilizations and they could eventually become dire. “Yes, I too see it in humor as well sister. There is much to this world that mirrors our own; though it definitely has its own unique spin on things.” Luna joined her sister in watching as the moon shined across the world. “There you go Mr. Wheel, now don’t be too rough with your patch. You wouldn’t want it to fall off and you still need to give your injury some time to heal. So don’t go too fast okay?” Standing up the wheel after having laid it down to put a patch over the hole, Fluttershy smiled as the Wheelie took off and sped around Kirby’s house a few times in a relatively slow manner. When he was done, the Wheelie came rolling back up to Fluttershy. While his hole still hurt, he felt much better than he had previously. He rubbed up against Fluttershy gently in a friendly manner while purring like a well kept engine. “You can go now Mr. Wheel, I’m sure your friends and family miss you.” Unfortunately for Fluttershy the Wheelie didn’t look like he wanted to leave. In fact he revved slightly in a negative sounding tone, before taking up his position next to Fluttershy with smiling eyes. His patch was made of gauze and bandaging that was now being proudly displayed on what was once a really painful flat for him. Once the patch was in place, he inflated his tread all by himself and was raring to follow this pony to the ends of the universe. Fluttershy didn’t know it quite yet, but she wasn’t about to get rid of Mr. Wheel anytime soon or if at all if he had any say in the matter.