//------------------------------// // 37 // Story: Yonder Wandered Fluttershy // by Darkonshadows //------------------------------// It was an unfortunate circumstance for Fluttershy that she didn’t immediately black out from suddenly being impaled. It was also unfortunate that the shock alone didn’t kill her and thus she was still alive to continue feeling pain in its ‘so many wonders’. She was a tough little pony and currently there were no words to describe how much pain she was actually in at the moment. Her hind right leg creaked a bit when she tried to move it, it hurt no less or more then it previously had which was a good thing as it was still pushing against a thick layer of cloud as she tried to move it. At least the cloud Fluttershy had created slowed her down enough to survive the fall, but she was still going fast enough to get impaled on something. She should probably feel more panicked then she already did about the blood loss and possible internal bleeding, as her world was a colorful cornucopia of pain and suffering at the moment. Fluttershy opened her eyes in the dim lighting and saw that she was surrounded by a cloud that had become slightly red in color. She idly made a mental note that she could possibly create clouds out of her own blood if there was no water around to use, though it was a horrific thought that she’d even need to do something like that at all. Slowly Fluttershy put her hooves to the metallic flooring beneath the cloud and pushed her body up, quickly prying her body off the jutting sharp metallic thing that had most likely just grievously injured her. She was being surprisingly tough about it, because she didn’t scream at all as the blade of metal slid out of her flesh with a sickening sound. The cloud that had slowed her fall lifted upwards slightly and she managed to lift the front half of her body enough to look down at her chest with a dull and dazed frown on her face. It was a rather large wound, somewhat deep and to say that it hurt would be understating how Fluttershy truly felt at the moment. After said moment, the pony decided to get her bearings as she moved herself out of the way of the circle of pointy metal spikes she was hovering above by kicking her left rear hoof out. Hitting the back wall of the elevator her cloud floated towards the open doorway, turning her head to look behind her she could see what she had been impaled on. It was the missing platform, there was a large hole in it and said hole looked to have been ripped open from below. This would explain why it didn’t show up and the spiky bits of metal pointing upwards were likely caused by the metal maws, she stared forlornly at the metal spike halfway drenched in her blood. Fluttershy pulled out a few tea leaves and put them over her wound then wrapped her injured somewhat feathered wing over it to hold them in place. Sure it may not help a lot, but it was better than nothing. She pressed her right wing tightly over her chest to staunch the bleeding and would continue to hold it there despite the extra pain it caused her to move it. Taking a quick look into her inventory, the injured equine still had everything in good order. Her glass knife was still undamaged; the energy rifle was still strapped to her and looked to be okay. She was highly thankful for that after all the trouble she went to get the rifle in the first place. The rifle looked to be pretty durable, except it was not likely to survive an explosion because all the others sure hadn’t when their usual wielders blew up. Her water container on the other hoof barely had even an ounce of water left in it considering she just had expended a lot of that in the fall; she would need to squeeze the cloud out before she moved onwards. Speaking of water container she saw the lid lying on the floor nearby and would pick it up once she was ready to leave. “How bad…” Her voice being a pained rasp to it, Fluttershy gagged slightly and started coughing into her left hoof. “You’re a lucky one; in a way that is, it didn’t completely perforate your left lung. It was however scratched and well… you can clearly see for yourself right now.” Discord winced at the sight of Fluttershy coughing up blood into her hoof; all of their other friends were still slightly catatonic from watching Fluttershy get violently impaled on the ripped up platform at the bottom of the shaft. At the moment he was the only one with any cognitive thoughts at what used to be a tea party. “My dear I wouldn’t stick around there too long or make too much noise if I were you, those lower portions are positively crawling with those nasty mouthy customers. They really deserve a snooty waiter to spoil their appetite; in fact, deny them service on the principle that they’d eat you. Do try to be careful Fluttershy, you’ve come this far.” The corridor Fluttershy was in only had the one dim light and the rest of it was dark, but the echo sight she was seeing showed her a lot more damage than what she had seen previously and she could even hear the slight groaning sound of stressed metal. There were exposed wires and sharp bits of metal everywhere and the walls looked to have been chewed on, exploded, attacked and just in general wrecked. She could even see the holes in them, holes about the size of those nasty little mechanical monsters and she recalled Discord saying that they had run of the lower portions of this vessel. Clutching protectively at the rifle with her left hoof while Fluttershy spat up some more blood, then stepped off the cloud to the floor where she gathered what little water she could from it. What was left was a ball of cloud made out of her blood; she lazily tossed it away towards the broken platform where it splattered on the floor. She picked up and put the cap back on her water container before stowing it away in her right side saddlebag, she was ready to go. It took a moment for Fluttershy to respond to Discord. She did so with a weak giggle before coughing up a bit more blood onto the floor, she whimpered for a bit after that. At least she was standing despite the metal to the face, nearly broken fractured hind right leg, shot right wing, scratched lung, internal bleeding, chest wound covered with said shot wing and some leaves being the only thing on hoof that could really cover it. On top of all still being a twisted magically mutated and mental wreck that was slightly addicted to the taste of apples, at least she lost the uncontrolled cravings thanks to the first taste of a magical tomato. It was getting to the point that Fluttershy wondered where she was getting her strength to remain standing from. She smiled slightly, when pushed into a corner a mouse would find the strength to beat up a cat or die trying. If there was one thing Fluttershy knew, it was that she was definitely mousy and even she could put up something resembling a proportional struggle to that kind of situation. Her will to live was probably the one thing keeping her together at the moment, she tried to psyche herself up that she still had good fortune going for her. She still had three fully functional uninjured legs, she had long range weapon to avoid getting caught up in any more explosions, her glass knife was proving to still be incredibly useful thanks to the rare unknown material it was made of and she was still breathing and moving despite how much it hurt to do so. “It’ll be okay Discord; please… give me… a direction… to move in.” Fluttershy whispered slightly while trying to get a good lung full of air, the air down here was stale. This was not a good thing for her damaged lung and it made it hard for her to breathe for a moment. There was nothing left to it, Fluttershy was scared for her life and she was now paling from all the blood loss. “To your left is a nearby vast room with a bunch of strange objects, other than that both directions lead to the same things. There are several elevators, a few empty rooms along with some odds and ends some of which are more chewed up than others, plus inclines in either direction that spiral their way all the way up to the top of the vessel connecting to all the corridors. The entrance to the power source is up two floors, but in your condition it’s going to be quite the walk to even reach an elevator.” It made Discord a bit angry that his powers couldn’t just pluck Fluttershy out there to bring her all the way back to Equus so he could hug her and restore her to normal with the flick of his chaotic powers. Discord felt truly powerless when it comes to helping someone who has wedged herself so thoroughly into his life, one that was near deaths doorstep. Why if she started hyperventilating, she could make that scratch to her lung grow into a real big problem. There’s also a chance of an infection that could be quite lethal to her given her weakening constitution, the many chaotic possibilities of her suddenly dropping dead ran through his mind. His ears wilted and Discord actually started crying. For once thoughts of chaos didn’t fill him with playful glee or joy; in fact even he was hoping that things didn’t get worse for Fluttershy. “I’m sure she’ll make it back to the Head Hunter Discord, she still has a few of those magical tomatoes right? Fluttershy is quite the outdoors pony and she’s been snuggled by timber wolves, cuddled by massive star bears and a lot of other things that would scare any normal pony, she can even speak several dialects of chipmunk!” It seemed Rarity was the first to recover while Pinkie and Rainbow were still staring at the screen Discord was projecting in horror. “If I must say so she’s much tougher then we all think she is, we really should be giving her much more credit than this. Why, you’re all positively treating her like she’s already dead, well I say neigh to that! Get that gorgeous little butt of yours in gear darling!” Fluttershy smiled at that statement as she limped her way towards the large room Discord mentioned, maybe she could find something useful in there. She was using the energy shooting metallic gray rifle as a crutch; everything was so dark and quiet down here. Fluttershy needed the sound of her hoof steps and the clack of the rifle hitting the floor to see things with her echolocation sight. There were no sounds or movements aside from her and the muttering of her friends that came from the saddlebag the memory stone was in. Stopping for a moment to catch her breath, the pony started tapping her right hoof to the floor to create some noise and her ears twitched as she looked around with her echolocation sight. Nearby there was something that looked like the remnants of a heavy doorway, the same kind that was upstairs that lead into the hangar full of what she thought might have been fighter or transport ships. There was very little left of the door that was once there, in the next room there were several notable rectangular shapes in it and several piles of scrap metal and other various odd things that she silently puzzled over as to what they once were. Fluttershy exhaled softly and slowly trudged her way into the room while staying completely alert, she was more frightened by the fact that she hadn’t run into anything yet. Where were all the sentry things, where was the cable whipping robots and more importantly what were all the tall masked figures currently up to after she fell down here? “Discord… look into the tall ones for me please, I want to know what they are doing.” Fluttershy coughed a bit and a globule was seen in her echolocation sight as it splattered against the floor, she sighed as she was becoming a bit lightheaded from the blood loss. “I’m not hearing anything so I should be safe for the moment.” Tapping her right hoof against the floor again, Fluttershy was actively looking around at all the things in the pitch black room this time. It was a wide open, somewhat empty except for all the foreign objects in the room outlined in her sight and there was no movement or noise whatsoever. Her echolocation sight was quite a useful ability; she wished she didn’t have to be magically mutated to use it. Moving over to a nearby large rectangular object in a hobbled manner, the only noise around Fluttershy was the clack of her hooves and the butt of her rifle impacting the floor. Now was a bad time to remember that she was afraid of the dark, in this case it was a good thing that the monstrous machines in this place always had some sort of visible lighting on all of them. Not seeing any light at all was actually a good thing to Fluttershy at the moment even if her mind was in a slight state of terror from how quiet it was. At least her fear was keeping her mind off her current poor state of health as thoughts of being eaten by a grue entered her head. Just because she couldn’t hear or see any monsters in her echo sight, didn’t mean they weren’t there. So Fluttershy was a little paranoid and she had right to be, letting her guard down now would be tantamount to suicide and Fluttershy was not an idiot. Well she might have been one for not packing more than a dream land giant apple chunk to snack on, a small chunk of tomato wouldn’t have been too hard to carry and at this point it would have been nice to have on hoof. Provided she survived this, then Fluttershy knew she would not be making this mistake again and will always try to have some medical supplies on hoof at all times. With that thought in mind she carefully crawled into one of the large rectangular things. She tapped the floor of this thing and closed her eyes; she got a full layout of it easily enough. It was definitely a vehicle of some kind, considering the control panel at the front of it. It was well armored at the front and bottom with slightly less armoring at the sides and almost no armor in the back. It was a ground vehicle and it had what Fluttershy could assume were multiple forms of odd forward pointing weapons sticking out of it. It kind of reminded her of the party tank Cheese Sandwich had or the Land Master that Fox and his friends used. Fluttershy reasoned that the thing was not a tank for a few reasons, the largest one being control panel and a large portion of this thing left anyone driving it exposed to being attacked from above or behind. It was more like a transport vehicle; a rather heavily armed one that she surmised could carry multiple humanoid machines that could use their rifles in conjunction with the driver who controlled all the weapons as they drove this thing. She did not want to meet whoever was involved in designing this thing; because whoever they were they obviously weren’t big on tactical retreats. The other reason is that there were actual tanks sitting about this room, ones that might have rusted hatches and were too heavily dilapidated to consider exploring as an option. Compared to the other transportation devices in this room, this particular one wasn’t nearly as damaged as the others were and Fluttershy wondered if it was still operational. If it was operational then she’d be able to get around faster without putting any more undue stress on herself. She moved all about in the vehicle and looked up over the edges from the inside, after inspecting it she moved towards the control panel to see if she could get it to move at all. If it wasn’t operational then she would try some of the others, if none of them worked she would just try to get some rest and recuperate from her injuries as best she could before moving on. Before Fluttershy could make it to the control panel, she came to a sudden stop and her ears started twitching wildly at a slowly growing sound coming from within this large room. Something large had just moved and it was coming from the behind the vehicle, she froze and stared at something slowly standing up in her echo sight. It looked like one of the metal mouths, only this was at least five times bigger than the size of the ones Fluttershy had previously seen before. Once it reached full standing height two red orbs flared into life blinding the poor mare slightly causing her to stumble back backwards into the control panel hitting several things on it randomly while raising her hooves to cover her eyes, after her eyes adjusted to the sudden light she noted it seemed to slowly focus its head downwards and at her for a moment. This filled her with a sense of dread; she could already guess where this was going. Fluttershy could vaguely hear her friends yelling at her to move, to run, to escape and to try and get out of there. At the moment Fluttershy was too scared out of her mind to hear them or listen at the moment, not that she could really run in the state she was in anyway. The large machine slowly opened its mouth to release a loud groaning noise that hurt her ears; this is where her hooves went to next hitting something else on the control panel as she clutched at her head in a vain attempt to keep the sound out. The control panel on the vehicle Fluttershy was in lit up and slowly a hum could be heard coming from it, only the currently incapacitated pony was too busy with her throbbing head to notice. The giant metal maw opened its large mouth full of sharp pony ripping teeth, reared back on its two legs and launched its head forward in an attempt to end Fluttershy’s suffering once and for all. Fluttershy slid down and cowered on the floor of the vehicle with her eyes shut, prepared for the great beyond. After a second or so of not dying and hearing a deafening clang noise, she innocently opened one adorable eye and then wished she hadn’t. That giant toothy maw of immediate death had missed the vehicle because it had started rolling forward; Fluttershy tried to shake her head clear of a sudden wave of dizziness passing over her and failed as she had really bad headache. She looked at the control panel and realized that she didn’t know how to drive this thing or even how to stop it. Heck Fluttershy didn’t even get the chance to learn before things got out of hoof, the front of the vehicle had two bright beams of light cutting through the darkness lighting up everything in front of it. After a moment Fluttershy had realized an entirely different problem aside from not knowing how to drive this thing was cropping up on her. The vehicle was slowly rising into the air and it was the sudden realization that this thing could fly that things went from slightly okay to pretty darn bad, as it was slowly getting faster. As if things weren’t bad enough for the disoriented equine, the vehicle flew towards the open hole that Fluttershy had entered this large expansive room from. The large maw jumped forward biting at the vehicle again, only missing the back end just by the tip of its huge teeth. The front right end of the vehicle hit the side of the doorway, spun wildly out of control in the air and came to a sudden complete stop in the middle of the corridor floating a few hooves off the ground. Fluttershy was wishing she could scream at this point, she instead chose to sob slightly and cough up another small amount of blood inside the vehicle as her injuries had been exacerbated. Why had it just stopped like that, why did this giant machine with tyrannosaurus sized mouth actually have eyes unlike the other ones like it? What was she going to do now? The giant maw gave pursuit out of the room and was about to get a mouthful of the vehicles side when it shot down the corridor in a sudden uncontrolled burst of speed, causing Fluttershy to yelp in pain as she fell over onto her injured leg after having just stood up. On the bright side of all this, at least Fluttershy wouldn’t have to walk anywhere. Well, that was provided that she could get the vehicle in question under control and escape that the giant encroaching mouth full of deadly teeth all the while hoping it didn’t get a solid hold on this mode of transportation. The vehicle had seemingly topped out at a maximum speed within seconds, which wasn’t nearly as fast as Fluttershy had thought it would be. It certainly would have helped if it was fast enough to stop the thing Fluttershy mentally labeled, ‘The Mouth’, from catching up in the slightest. As it was, the vehicle was uncontrollably bouncing off the walls which may have been a factor in it slowing down enough to be caught up to by the mother of all maws on two large metal legs giving chase. While The Mouth was keeping up, it was having all kinds of problems wrapping its jaws around the agile vehicle that was moving up, down and side to side. It was at this time that Fluttershy was actually really beginning to dislike something. Technology and Fluttershy might never be good friends unless it was something that came with a soul and the ability to feel anything.