It had been a long while since Roller Wheel the Wheelie had heard from Fluttershy and he was getting testy just rolling around in small aimless circles exploring this little fast moving place. It had moved faster than anything he had ever seen, even a wheelie’s magic exhaust jets couldn’t get them out of the atmosphere as fast or as far as this thing had. Now he had seen just about everything there was to see aboard this place and wanted to go after the one that patched his tire, if only he could figure out how to get out of the Head Hunter first. Sure he figured out a way to be on-board the ship before it left the planet, but he wasn’t exactly the smartest being in the universe and hadn’t figured out how to do it the other way around.
Being a Wheelie, getting trapped in an enclosed small space would upset it if it was there too long without something to distract it. So it was a little understandable that Mr. Wheel was a little claustrophobic considering his race had a penchant for loving wide open spaces. So he started trying to figure out a way off the Head Hunter. It would be a few hours and some minutes later that he would eventually manage to do so with some help.
Fluttershy was once again quite traumatized; she was physically hurting badly and was as emotionally distraught in the same way. She was actually starting to get used to pain and suffering, the very thought of actually liking it kind of scared her. She had woken up in an enclosed cold metal room that reminded her of a jail cell; she was lying down and was trying hard not to move too much.
The pony was missing a lot of feathers from her right wing; at least the damage wasn’t as bad as it had been when it was a bat wing. Her bleeding face had scabbed over at least, she need to wash her mane again though as it had bits of dried blood staining it. Her right back leg was not only scorched as if it had been struck by lightning, it also felt broken or at the very least sprained horribly meaning she wasn’t going to be standing on it soon. She had a headache forcing her to repeatedly acknowledge the fact that her body was heavily bruised once more.
In any case Fluttershy was thankful that at least she wasn’t dead, but this place was definitely making a good effort on her life. She had to wonder why none of the two legged metal mouths ripped her to bloody chunks yet, much less why she still had her saddlebags strapped to her or why the machines didn’t bother to remove them. In fact, checking her saddlebags Fluttershy noted she still had her glass knife, her water and… why was the Aldebaran memory stone in her saddlebags? She didn’t pack it when she left the Head Hunter; then again it was a magic stone that was said to be impossible to lose which was a useful feature in this moment and time.
In her mental state Fluttershy could really use someone to talk to, sliding the glass knife across her throat to end her suffering was becoming slightly tempting. It was a bit curious that the machines would overlook her glass knife. The knife was a lot sturdier then normal glass; it could feasibly cut through metal and was quite a useful tool. How was she supposed to get back to the Head Hunter when she couldn’t run anymore, much less get the Head Hunter out of this place? She definitely had a lot of problems, closing her eyes she sighed before opening them and looking beyond the bars.
Beyond the bars of the cell the pony was in there were several black and purple figures guarding her. They were all humanoid machines and looked almost identical to each other, all armed with energy weapons. They had a symbol similar to the big headed version of them, except the bent ovals were all red with five dots instead of yellow above them and that was a common symbol the trapped equine had seen a lot of throughout this wrecked and lifeless place. Even if the pony were to somehow miraculously escape the cell, she’d likely be immediately shot. To further compound the trouble, she had no clue where on the vessel she was in relation to her mode of transportation. Even if she miraculously got by these slightly more intelligent looking machines, she’d still have the defenses to deal with.
“I hope Mr. Wheel is okay. Poor Roller he must be so scared, confused and is all alone right now being so far from home… I know the feeling.” Fluttershy shifted her mane so that it stopped covering the left side of her face and cringed as her hair lightly brushed across her most recent physical scar. The physical injuries would heal with time and a little patience, well… as long as she stayed in one piece that is.
The mental scars from everything Fluttershy has seen or will likely see in the future on her journey would never leave her. She still had a lot to live for and so much more to see, she concentrated on wanting someone to talk to and focused her thoughts towards the stone, mental magic shouldn’t be too hard to work right? She was still a magical being after all and the stone was also magic, she had gotten Katrina once and getting anybody at this juncture would brighten up her miserable position at the moment. While she was concentrating she got out her water container and took a nice long drink of the lukewarm water. She wasn’t about to complain about how the water tasted, she was happy to still have even that much and the stone was starting to glow. She wanted a pony to talk to as a preference and tried to focus on that.
“Huh… well that’s odd. Is this your fault Discord?” A familiar feminine voice was heard asking.
“Rarity…” Fluttershy quietly muttered was just happy to even hear her voice, she was equally happy to hear that Discord was there.
“Oh no it’s not me, well at least this time it isn’t. Considering what I just heard I need to look into something out there.” Discord was clearly amused by whatever it was he was seeing. “Fluttershy is in a bit of pickle it would seem. I can only imagine the intergalactic phone bill for this collect call to get you on your horn. Hello Fluttershy, can you hear me now?”
“Um… yes, I can hear you. If it’s not too much for me to ask, what is exactly happening with Rarity?” Fluttershy had a small smile on her face it sounded like Discord and Rarity were doing something together.
“Well we were having a smashing tea party, quite literally since you know I like the taste of freshly broken porcelain chips and I must say Rarity does have a good taste in tea sets. Hey don’t frown like that Fluttershy my dear, I always reimburse her for it in the very least. Though I probably should reimburse her for the toilet I ate as well, sorry to say that certainly caused a bit of trouble.” Discord smiled as he held Rarity’s glowing horn in his claws up to his ear and was talking into it like a phone while he held his other paw over his eyes and stared out at the sunny sky. He was keeping the slightly peeved Rarity away with one of his feet and she grew angrier at the fact that toilet thing was his fault; she had thought the Cutie Mark Crusaders caused that one and Discord was only correcting her just now. “Yes things were going just splendid until you got her all horny. Hold on, I’ll put the horn back on her.”
“You can see me?” Fluttershy asked, a little surprised and she looked around.
“Well I can’t darling, but Discord can. The poor dear has been quite worried and he checks on you regularly to see if you’re feeling okay. He’s already explained to us why leading you back home by sight isn’t exactly a great idea, something about the curvature of space and time getting all twisted so he’s not exactly looking directly at you. I wouldn’t even begin to understand what he’s talking about, but I assure you it’s every bit as complicated as his chaos theory explanation was. Half of which ruined my diet because he kept going on about doughnuts the entire time and why we just can’t talk you all the way back home through him.” Rarity glared faintly at Discord who gave her a goofy grin, she sighed and bit into a chocolate cream filled doughnut. With so many friends who loved sugary treats like this, watching her weight was quite difficult. “How are you feeling darling?”
“Why ask her my favorite marshmallow? I can show you how she’s doing, I’ve done it once before remember. Just a word of warning though, you’re not going to like what you will see. Oh and Fluttershy you might want to splint or bind that leg, it looks to be heavily fractured and I wouldn’t want my favorite butterfly flapping her wings around upsetting a broken leg. At least it’s not broken completely, but it’s very well close to doing it should you too much pressure on it.” No longer was Discord amused as his tone dropped, he wasn’t happy that Fluttershy was injured and it was obvious. “Do be a dear and tell me if you need anything, like an idea of how to get back to your little friend and the ship he’s still on. I can guide you only so far though, once you’re in space again all bets are off. Speaking of which, Rarity about that bet we had on Rainbow Dash, would you mind if I take a rain check on it?”
“I won that fair and square Discord and you know it, so stop holding a check that’s raining above my head! Also can you please fix my mane while you’re at it?” Rarity didn’t seem so angry if her tone was anything to go by, she was almost as amused that Discord could be so playful and friendly. It was nice for Fluttershy to hear her friends were getting along so well. With a snap Rarity was no longer wet and back to normal. “Thank you.”
“I’d rather you tell me what the vessel I’m on looks like and can you look for a way to make the vessel go away or tell me what’s going on around me?” Fluttershy definitely needed to bind or splint her hind leg until she could get back to the maximum tomato chunks back aboard the Head Hunter, but she was worried that she might be followed by one of those metal mouths on legs and if the ship was damage then she’d lose all hope of getting around on her own.
“Hold on dear, Discord is showing me now… my word, that looks so bizarre and the decor is simply horrid. It looks like something I’d expect Discord would create, if I didn’t know that he had very little power beyond our world and that he tends to not break his toys as badly as the vessel you are on looks to be.” What Rarity followed with was the description of a large horribly ripped up large spherical vessel. It had two large mangled tank treads, a giant flattened eyeball at the top and several shredded extensions poking out and about in places. The odd thing about it was that it was floating through space while glowing slightly.
“Hmm… what have we here… now there’s something incredibly chaotic and inviting. Apparently there’s a chaotic field of energy on the vessel that is entangling it somehow, you’ll have to find some way to knock that out ‘safely’ while you’re on-board your ship. I’d imagine it’d be bad if you weren’t and got exposed to the great vacuum cleaner.” Discord hummed to himself slightly and his eyes roamed all over the vessel. “It seems to be the only thing holding that giant sphere together aside from that would be the energy source linked to the warped field. Some infighting seems to be going on around you, apparently there’s a giant monstrous two legged thing taking up the lower portions of the ship and it’s recycling smaller versions of itself by eating its dead and my what sharp teeth those metal crunchers have. The upper portions of the ship are being guarded by more of those gangly looking fellows; they all look exactly like the ones that are guarding your cell. Apparently they are at war with the toothy little biters. At least that’s what I’m able to infer by the head honcho I’m seeing, his head is way too fat for his mask. Sorry for mentioning the F word around you my marshmallow, I know how touchy you are about your chocolate doughnut lust and you could use some graham crackers, but I will talk of it no smore. Aside from that everything else looks like it’s a neutral party.”
“You mean the same neutral party when it comes to assaulting me that is… those metal maw things were trying to kill me. I have no idea why these tall two legged machine have captured me, I’m really too scared to think about what they’ll do to me at the moment and it can only be a bad thing. They are the reason why my wing is so damaged.” Fluttershy sighed and took on a determined look; she pulled out her glass knife from her saddlebags. She wasn’t going to sit around waiting to be rescued; she gathered all of her mane into one hoof, while holding her knife in her other. “Can you see my ship, how’s Mr. Wheel doing Discord?”
“Darling what are you doing with that knife, why are you holding it to your mane like that? Oh please don’t tell me. Oh no, not your beautiful mane dear. Please, anything but that kind of travesty!” Rarity cried out as Fluttershy ripped the knife in a sweeping arc cleanly through her mane leaving it a lot shorter than it had been when she had previously lopped of a small chunk to wrap her knifes handle.
Fluttershy immediately got to work with binding her leg with her chopped off hair, which she started wrapping around her right hind leg in several separate tightly wound bands. If Rarity could weave a basket with her bare hooves then Fluttershy could bind her leg with her hair. She had to shift into a sitting position which hurt quite a bit, but she worked through the pain and tightly wrapped her leg. She used some of the excess hair and wrapped it around her right wing, it might not actually have helped any but it still felt nice.
“Sorry Rarity, I really am, but I can’t afford to look pretty at the moment and I really need my ability to walk.” Her mane now barely hung below her cheeks and she was crying, even if her voice was wavering she still spoke solidly. At least she didn’t need to wash out as much blood now. “I might end up having to do this to my tail later, I-I hope you can understand that there are things I may need to do to survive. Just please don’t stop being my friend Rarity.”
“You’re little round friend is okay for most part, he looks to be having cabin fever though, I should probably get my talking frog puppet out but I doubt that would help right now. The next time you find a planet you might want to let him out for a bit Fluttershy.” There was a pained look in Discords eyes, but he didn’t say anything about the sudden haircut his friend just gave herself. It would be bad form for him to crack a joke about the haircut still being two bits without needing to shave. His dear friend Fluttershy just did something he figured was very much traumatic to her and she did it like the little trooper she was. It was amazing how strong Fluttershy was being at the moment. She was always such a levelheaded little sweetheart and it was breaking his chaotic little heart to see her like this and what she had to do. “You’re one floor 'shy' of the top and your ship is five floors down. If you can get out of the cell, exit the cell block and go through the fourth door on the left, I think you’ll find something to your liking.”
“Why would I ever stop being your friend Fluttershy, you wound me with such an accusation that I could do such a thing. Do what you must darling, just please come back to us in one piece okay? It’s just hair after all, even if it was your crowning glory and so beautiful… it’ll grow back.” Rarity tilted her head at the images she was receiving from Discords sight. “It doesn’t look that bad from Discords view, just… just don’t ever get used to having short hair dear. I don’t think it suits you too much, even if you did need a good trimming.”
“Thank you Rarity… I can only hope to be back before it grows out again, then maybe you can help me with keeping it clean and nice as it grows back.” Fluttershy tucked the Memory stone into the crook of her bat wing and struggled to stand; she slumped to the floor. Gritting her teeth, she stood up fully and forced her damaged hind leg to take the weight and limped her way up the bars. Running was no longer an option; she could take the pain as she has been in this state several times before and she wasn’t about to give up now. Coming close to starving to death felt worse than this. Discord said something about the fourth room on the left once she got out of the cell block. “Tell me one thing Discord; can these machines feel any pain at all?”
“No, I doubt they’d feel much of anything really. They don’t have souls and are just hard lifeless things; they’re just no fun at all if you ask me, life is truly chaotic. If they did feel pain then they would have had souls in them by this point… huh, how did I not notice that before?” Whispering that last part out Discord was intrigued about a strange phenomenon taking place around Fluttershy. He was seeing the spirits of hundreds of dead turtles, from babies to the few adults there were all gathering around Fluttershy flowing throughout her body and the stone she held in her left wing. Their spirits seemed to have been trapped in that place for quite some time.
“Even now, your way with animals never ceases to amaze Fluttershy…” This was something that only Rarity would hear Discord mumble as she too was witness to the little turtle spirits. They watched as the little spirits were collectively pushing Fluttershy forward.
Rarity was quite speechless at the sight of all the little adorable ghosts infusing Fluttershy with what little strength they could give her and they all looked to be dying. Or were they just finally passing on after having been trapped for so long in a hellish looking place full of deadly machines? Rarity would like to think it was the second option and not the first, because the universe would be a sad place to live if these spirits weren’t ever truly given their final proper rest.
Fluttershy slowly but surely made it to the bars in a stumbling limp, once she was close enough she hit the bars with the glass knife to see if she could even use it to damage them. She was a little more than surprised to see the bars spark wildly with energy and melted slightly at the point of impact. None of the purple and black clad machines guarding her seemed to be paying attention to her at all. She lashed out with the knife again only a little higher, it went completely through several metal bars that after sparking for a bit before stopping completely. It befuddled the pony as to how she did that. A few small dead baby turtle spirits faded completely from existence coming from what were once the electrified bars to her cell. With another swing the bars fell outwards with a loud series of clangs, immediately Fluttershy was being fired upon and she clenched her eyes shut.
After a moment of hearing energy burn through the air, Fluttershy opened one eye and looked at all the lasers flying by her. She cautiously walked forward and every single laser aimed in her general direction was missing, either the black and purple figures didn’t have very good aim at all or something really weird was going on here. She slowly limped by all six of the bipedal humanoid machines. They all ended up shooting each other and exploded violently, Fluttershy was starting to believe everything here did that. Not one bit of shrapnel struck Fluttershy leaving her even more confused, if she could see what Rarity and Discord were seeing she would be more awed and reverent of what was going on around her.
The numbers of the protective spirit turtles flowing around her were diminishing rapidly, the miracles that they could perform for the one who cried were becoming weaker as she went along and soon wouldn’t be able to protect her at all as she exited the cell block no worse than when she entered. They weren’t the ones to protect Fluttershy from the lasers; the tall gangly humanoid machines were just that bad at aiming their energy weapons that even a slow moving target would outmaneuver them if they weren’t being directly controlled by a higher intelligence.
Elsewhere on the vessel, Roller Wheel was getting a little stir crazy from being trapped aboard the Head Hunter until he had heard a weird noise. Revving excitedly he looked around hopeful that it was a certain pony coming back, only it wasn’t a pony. He saw a little green thing with four flippers slowly floating a lazy circle in the air as if it were swimming, he growled at this figure and jumped at it a few times and after a few seconds of not scaring it away he was curious. Only when he calmed down did it fade from existence.
Suddenly Mr. Wheel found himself moving up to the top of the ship and he looked around warily, he saw a different green thing floating a lazy circle at the door way and gave chase as it flew away from him.