//------------------------------// // Torment // Story: Enlightening Circumstances // by ExoskeletalEccentric //------------------------------// Chapter 5: Torment Pain. That was the first thing I noticed. Not quite the burning, stabbing pain I had felt earlier, it had since quietened down to a duller, throbbing pain. Earlier. The fight with the dragon! That gem had saved my life! I moved my hand to where I kept it. And that's when I noticed the second thing. The gem, along with my top, had gone. I was a bit miffed at this; that top wasn't the greatest thing in the world, but it had done a sterling job protecting my modesty these past few days. Although in its place were some bandages, so there was no problem on that front. I attempted to stumble to my feet, which soon proved an impossible task, as it sent sharper waves of pain running through my left leg, and I only didn't collapse again because I caught myself with my thankfully undamaged wings. To be fair to my leg, it was doing a better job of not being twisted in the wrong direction than I remembered. I must have been treated while I was out. Wincing, I examined my surroundings through the bars. Wait. Bars? I was in a cage! I must have been sleepier than I thought for that not to be the first thing that I noticed. I was probably in that town I saw earlier, but they obviously weren't that peaceful. I could have been taken captive by slavers! Who knew how people did things out there? Or maybe I had been smuggled into a lab by scientists for...tests. Which, as everyone who has watched any alien movie ever, inevitably means dissection! I was starting to hyperventilate, so I forced myself to calm down and think rationally. The area outside the cage didn't look like anything a slaver or scientist would live in. It was quite pretty, actually, in a rustic sort of way. And the cage itself was fairly spacious. There was some furniture about the place and as I now saw, plenty of animals. There was, I decided, something suspiciously familiar about it. A sound rang through the building. The front door was opening. I ducked away from it and readied my lightning. I didn't need my left leg to deliver a high voltage bolt of lightning to the face. I liked doing that. I hadn't been able to do it for long, but it was decidedly fun. The door opened, I readied myself to push, and in stepped... A pony. A yellow pony. A winged yellow pony. With a pink mane and a picture of some butterflies on its flank. The sparks in my hand sputtered out as my mind reeled with this new information, finding it impossible to compute. This can't be real. I thought in disbelief. She doesn't exist, she's just a character in a cartoon, I must be hallucinating from pain. Yeah, that must be it. The pony set down the flowers that it had been holding in its mouth, turned to me, and said something that I couldn't understand. That did it. I had a broken leg, with possibly broken ribs, in a cage in a fictional cottage, and a yellow pony with wings just spoke to me in another language. As the Pegasus carried on talking, I did the only thing sensible in that situation. I passed out again. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ Earlier... Fluttershy had once again been attempting to get Angel to complete an entire meal. "Come on, Angel." She coaxed. "If you don't eat all your food, you won't grow up big and strong!" Angel just rolled his eyes and pouted, in a way eerily similar to the small children of Earth. "Oh, Angel. What am I to do with you?" The gentle Pegasus kept continuing this way, as she did always. It would seem to be a futile exercise, but Fluttershy was sure that with enough kindness and encouragement, the errant bunny would see the error of his non-entire-carrot-eating ways. Fluttershy's ear twitched as she heard a familiar voice in the distance, and she ceased her persuading to go and see what Spike was shouting about. "Fluttershy! Fluttershy!" Spike ran up the path of the cottage belonging to the Pegasus in question, urgency in his voice. "Sp..Spike? What's wrong?" Fluttershy was always happy to see her favourite baby dragon, but he was looking very worried. He explained the situation to her in between gulps of air. "Twilight (gulp) sent me. She found (gasp) an injured (wheeze) animal. She told me to get you." Fluttershy gasped in horror. "Oh, no! What kind of animal?" she asked with sudden curiosity. "Well, it was sort of this big." He stretched out his arms as far as they would go to show how big "This" was. "It had really weird hooves and it..uh...I can't explain it! But it looked really bad, Fluttershy! In a lot of pain! A poor little creature, in pain? Her eyes narrowed with resolve. She would do everything in her power to help it. "Where are they?" she asked with a hint of the Fluttershy version of determination in her voice. "She found it down this way, at the entrance to the Everfree Forest. She'll be closer now though, hurry!" Fluttershy didn't need to be told twice, and she dashed after the purple dragon at speed. Angel started to sigh with relief, but was stopped when Fluttershy whizzed back for a moment for just long enough to Glare at the white rabbit. "And don't think this is over, mister! When I get back, you will have eaten that carrot! ...Please." She dashed off after Spike, and together they moved for 10 minutes before coming across Twilight and the creature. Fluttershy's eyes widened; Spike was right, this did look bad. She flew over to Twilight. "What happened?" Asked Fluttershy, distraught to see that anything could be in such a state. Twilight shook her head quickly. "I don't know, I'm afraid. I was walking to the forest for some research I was doing, and I found it like this." "Her." Said Fluttershy firmly. The yellow Pegasus may not have seen anything like this creature before, but her special talent was with animals after all. "Her, then. Can you help, Fluttershy? I knew that you were the best person for this job, you know just about any animal!" "Well... I don't know.. I've never seen an animal like this before... but I have never turned my back on a creature in need, and I won't do it now. I'll do all I can for her. Twilight, carry her to my cottage, please! Uh, that is. If you don't mind...." Twilight nods and continues towards the out of the way building as fast as she dared, with Spike and Fluttershy following behind. They soon reached Fluttershy's house. Fluttershy draped a blanket over a nearby table. "Umm..put her here, please. Gently though! We don't want to hurt the poor thing..." "What next?" Asked Twilight, always eager to help. "Oh, well...if you want to help...could you use your magic to get her clothing off? I need to get to the wounds, and I don’t want to hurt her." While Twilight complied with the polite order, Fluttershy floated over to the cupboard where she kept the medical supplies she sometimes needed for injured animals. She took out a bag with a cross on it (some things are universal) and flew back to the impromptu operating table. Fluttershy pulled out a purple veined leaf from the bag and gently placed it in the creature’s mouth, which swallowed in reflex. Its rapid breathing became slower, as it fell into a deeper sleep. "From Zecora." Explained Fluttershy to Twilights quizzical expression. "Now first things first, I had better do something about this hind leg. It looks...painful." The timid Pegasus looked to Twilight and Spike with an odd expression. "You, um. You may want to look away." The pair looked at each other, and then away from the twisted form on the table as a sickening crack sounded from that direction. "You can look now." The leg was, to be fair, looking better. It was the right way on at least. From what could be told. "Ooh. That might need a cast, but I don't think there are any with that..unusual leg structure. I'll just bandage it up; it should be okay if she stays off of it for a bit." The temporary vet reached again into the white cross adorned bag, pulling out a roll of white linen bandages, and proceeded to bandage the affected limb with a surprising amount of dexterity. "Umm, Fluttershy? What would bandaging it do? It's not bleeding." "Well, it's more for the look of it. I find that the injured animal is more likely to not use an injured leg if it looks like it's injured." She gave a small smile. "They can be ever so reckless sometimes." "I think her ribs are broken, too." Piped up Spike. Fluttershy shook her head apologetically. "Only slightly, I think. I'll just bandage them, too." She looked at the dragon and unicorn with a concerned expression. "I'm not really qualified for this, you know. I know a bit, but I can only do so much." "That's okay Fluttershy." Reassured Twilight. "Just do what you can." With a nod, Fluttershy bandaged the creature’s midsection. Once she had finished, Twilight spoke. "Thank you. Now, do you think you could look after it here?" Fluttershy eagerly indicated to the positive. "Oh, yes. I'm used to taking care of all sorts of sick animals. I'll take good care of her." Twilight smiled. "I know you will, Fluttershy. But, do you have a cage, or something?" The Pegasus blinked in surprise. "Whatever for?" Twilight looked slightly apologetic. "Well, for the creature, actually." She held up a hand to quiet the protests from the caring yellow pony. "I'm sorry, Fluttershy, I know that you have a connection with animals, but this thing did come from the Everfree Forest, so we can't take any chances. And you can't control your "Stare" whatever it is, so you can't rely on that to protect you if the creature turns violent." "B..but it seems so wrong to imprison the poor thing after it's recovering from injuries! How do you know it's dangerous! It doesn't look dangerous." "I know, or, I think that I know, because of this." She held up the now grey gem with magic and presented it to Fluttershy, who examined it with a confused expression. "I don't understand...." Twilight pointed to the green decorations on the sides of the gem. "Look at these, Fluttershy. Do you know what they are?" "Um...scales?" Twilight nodded. "Cockatrice scales. This...creature, whatever it is, managed to kill a cockatrice, faster than it was turned to stone." Fluttershy gasped, remembering her run-in with the half snake creature, and how she had come across Twilight frozen in stone in the Everfree Forest. She sighed. Twilight was, she had to reluctantly admit, correct. Anything that could take on a cockatrice was probably not something to be messed with. "Okay, but...I don't have a cage big enough. I mean, I have a few small ones I use as timeouts and to stop the bigger birds bullying the little ones, but she'll never fit in one of them!" "Oh, won't she?" Princess Celestia's most faithful student replied with an air of smugness. "Where are these, Fluttershy?" The timid pegasus procured one such cage from in her cupboard, and squeaked as it was encased in a purple glow and levitated out of her grasp and over to Twilight. "I've been practicing size changing magic." The unicorn explained. "All I have to do is this." She lowered her horn at the cage, which began to flex and bulge as it increased in size, until it was sufficient to hold the winged creature. "Wow, you have been practicing Twilight!" Cheered Spike enthusiastically. "Oh yes, your magic is as amazing as always." Fluttershy agreed. Twilight tried to be modest, but couldn't help a pleased grin from appearing on her face. She levitated the creature into the cage through the door, locking it behind it. She turned back to Fluttershy. "I'm going to go to the library to see if I can find any books mentioning this creature. Can you come and get me if it wakes up?" Fluttershy nodded, and Twilight turned to leave, but stopped and turned back. "Actually, to be sure, I should magically reinforce the cage. A simple spell of strengthening should do..." Her horn lit up once more, and the cage gleamed once, and then grew still. "Goodbye Fluttershy. Take care of the creature!" The purple pony walked through the door, deep in thought. Spike followed suit. "Yeah, nice to see you, Fluttershy. Take care of yourself as well!" Fluttershy waved goodbye to them both. She then sighed, and turned towards her newest visitor. "What should I do about you, then...?" She mused. Her face brightened as she thought of something. "Oh, I should pick you some flowers! Everypony loves flowers when they're feeling ill." The soft-hearted Pegasus trotted outside to pick the flowers. She pondered briefly over what flowers the creature would like, eventually deciding on blue sunflowers. They seemed to suit the creature, somehow. After retrieving the plants, she pushed through the front door, flowers in her mouth. As she turned to the cage, she saw that the creature was awake, and staring at her. She almost jumped, but didn't want to scare the little thing, so she calmly set down the flowers, and said to her: "Oh, you're awake! She nudged the flowers towards the cage. These are for you." The creature’s eyes widened as she said this, and only seemed more scared than before. Assuming that this was from its current abode, Fluttershy attempted to reassure it. "I'm so sorry about the cage, by the way, but Twilight insisted. But she's really a very nice pony! I'm sure you'd get along." There was an awkward pause. Fluttershy took a chance and moved closer. "Um... I'm Flutter-" The creature collapsed. "...oh, dear." ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ Authors Note: So sorry about the appalling delay for this chapter, I have only recently discovered how to use the Italics on Fimfiction, and am attempting to edit earlier chapters. Plus, this chapter is harder to write; it's much easier to develop a character that you have made yourself than to develop an existing one, as you are confined mostly to their existing characterisation. I hope I stayed true to the characters. Of course, this chapter was mostly dealing with how they meet and tieing up a few things, and setting the events in motion for the proper big meeting of the two species. Stay tuned! Please like and favourite, if you liked it and it was one of your favourites, and please comment! Even if you don't like it. After all, I can't change anything if you don't tell me what it is! Predator20 out.