//------------------------------// // 42 // Story: Yonder Wandered Fluttershy // by Darkonshadows //------------------------------// Janet might not have been a magical planet and Fluttershy definitely didn’t feel any magic here, like she could on Aldebaran or Popstar. Still Janet was quite knowledgeable about what was happening on her body and it was like she could see everywhere at once within the range of how far her moon was and that was a lot of space. Fluttershy had found the body Janet told her of with its head still barely above the water just floating down the river. It was humanoid and though she might not have had the best of times with most humanoid beings or things like them, Fluttershy was still going to fish this female out of the river. She was doing this because Janet asked her nicely and this was someone having a bad day like she’s been having for the past few months. This person, whoever she was, was owed some form of debt by Janet enough for her to ask another who she was already indebted to for help. After sadly making Janet owe her more, something she would try to deny vehemently, Fluttershy kicked her hind hooves and with a little help from Roller she managed to drag the suited being onto the shore of the riverside campsite. This person’s mostly white with green highlights suit had two portions, upper torso and lower torso connected by a rubbery substance. Said substance almost had the same consistency and tensile strength matching the rest of the armor. The white and green portions were definitely armor and quite solid if heavily damaged that there was barely anything left protecting the wearer from being hurt. The upper torso armor looking to have been blasted open by some amount of force exposing a large amount of what lay underneath and some parts of the armor around arms was heavily damaged; most of which was focused around the wrists. The lower torso armor was mostly damaged at the thighs and cracked around the legs. It looked to be damaged by the same kind of blast that took out the armoring around the chest. At least now Fluttershy understood what it was like for someone to see her in a condition like this, except for the fact that she has never worn a spacesuit before, much less one that was armored like this. Around the neck of this being there were several little inflated puffs like what one would expect from a flotation device partially coming up from the damaged suits collar, a safety feature perhaps? A bunch of vines sprouted up from the ground and lifted the unmoving body to begin slowly shucking her out of the mostly destroyed armored suit carefully; Janet didn’t want to unnecessarily hurt an old friend of her children. Underneath the armored suit of the biped that Fluttershy just dragged out of the river was a full bodied green and purple suit that looked to be slightly ripped up from whatever happened to her armor, there were a few burnt holes in the clothing exposing some nasty looking burns. “Janet let me check her, what exactly do you know about her anyway?” The body on a couch made of vines was lowered to the pony and Fluttershy inspected the humanoid being personally with her hooves. This being had blue skin, pointy ears and a long straight orange mane with highlights that was slightly waterlogged; Janet was already taking care of the water in her hair with another vine squeezing it out. Her forearms were burned as badly as the central spot on her chest, she looked to have taken shockwave damage through her armor even if she wasn’t struck by the shrapnel of her armor being ripped apart and her body was bruised if the red discoloration of the skin on her head was anything to go by. What else could those swelling lumps be? She appeared to have at least one broken rib, though Fluttershy wasn’t entirely sure if her anatomy knowledge on primates worked with aliens. “She’s a Tangean from the planet Tangea. I didn’t even think one could get this badly injured. She likely didn’t have the time to phase out of the way of the danger or she must have taken quite a blow for someone.” Janet, seeing the questioning look on Fluttershy’s face, decided to flesh out what a Tangean can do. “To explain it, most native creatures of Tangea have special abilities. The blue skinned Tangean humanoids in general have the most notable ability to generate a small distortion fields around themselves that allows them to move through solid objects. They can even use this ability with others while physically touching them. Word of warning though, the one thing you should never let a Tangean do is phase through a source of raw energy. It usually ends poorly for them if it doesn’t outright kill them. Other than that they do have a few other cool powers, but I don’t know much about them.” “Why does it end poorly for the Tangean and what happens when they phase through raw energy?” In all the years she has been alive, Fluttershy was not going to be skeptical about a race that has the ability to go through solid matter. She remembered Pinkie’s story about what the Cake twins had accomplished while she was babysitting them for the first time. “The ability to do this requires quite a bit of focus on the part of the user from what I hear and their powers can be cancelled out by beings with psychic abilities like me or another kind of Tangean from their planet. While going through solid matter or letting directed energy quickly pass through them is mostly fine, touching a raw source of energy makes their powers go out of control and it becomes highly addictive to them since they absorb some of that power into their bodies. If they don’t stop going through raw energy sources they either die from the buildup itself or they eventually explode in a very unpleasant iffy manner I would rather not describe.” The flower grew to a slightly bigger size and started to run her leaves across the unconscious body. “As to whom she is personally? Her name is Mira Nova and she’s a Space Ranger of the Galactic Alliance. The fact that she just appeared on me out of nowhere is sending up all kinds of little red flags in my head. I can only hope it’s not because of that same maniac that endangered my babies the last time something exciting happened on my body; at least they are better defended than ever even if I had never gotten that maximum tomato. They’ve been working on learning how to defend themselves recently because of the last few incursions with some help from the rangers, they would have been in good hands regardless had my consciousness faded entirely or not.” “Um… can you start making some of those healing tomatoes you talked about right now? We could use them to help her get better.” A straight vine popped up next to the couch of vine and started growing little red tomatoes right in front of Fluttershy, but it didn’t look like they’d be fully grown within seconds like the apples would be. “Um, aside from that, what’s the Galactic Alliance? Is it anything like a Galactic Federation with their large bulky block shaped ships flying everywhere?” “No problem Fluttershy, though the tomatoes will take a while to fully grow into something usable. I don’t think that Galactic Federation and my Galactic Alliance is the same thing or is even in the same general region of the universe, the ships around here are a bit odder then what you described seeing. In any case you can be sure that the rangers would have put a stop to aliens being mutilated by those shadowy organization guys you’ve only heard about.” Janet was certainly not going to tell any Space Ranger the ship her pony friend had was stolen or that it might have looked like a rather necessary theft at the time. She was going to plead to be Fluttershy’s lawyer if something like that happened and having an entire planet vouch for how nice you are is a good thing. Especially when that planet would make you regret hounding such a poor little pony so far from her home. “Besides you haven’t done any crimes in Galactic Alliance space, so you should be fine even if the ship you have is stolen. They don’t exactly have jurisdiction to go find the owners or even report your crime as it happened out of their borders, plus there’s first contact diplomatic immunity laws.” “First contact diplomatic immunity laws?” Tilting her head curiously Fluttershy looked at the flower that could change size and shape on Janet’s whim and even vocalize through it, it shrunk down to her level. “Yeah, the Space Rangers are big on their laws; mention that clause and you’ll have a patrol of them following you around in Galactic Alliance space protecting you with their very beings. The guys are really big on diplomacy where they can get it.” After a chuckle, Janet brought a leaf up to her bulbs chin. “First of your kind in their spot of the galaxy and you can be assured you will be treated like a diplomat of a high esteem if you prove to be sentient and not hostile, by the way Luna says hello. You were too busy enjoying me babying you in your dreams to notice your princess popped on in to me stamping out that nightmare, kind of surprises me that you still have a link like that back to your home world.” “Oh… well yes, I do still have the ability to talk to my friends. The memory stone happens to have magical properties that can connect me back to home and to Aldebaran… I really need to talk to Katrina since I haven’t said anything to her in a while. Apparently I can also connect to any unicorn back on Equus; I mostly keep getting Luna since she can tether herself to me in my dream state no matter the distance between us. Only recently have I connected to my friend Rarity’s horn by accident and my friend Discord was there.” Fluttershy sighed, it sounded like Discord was really watching out for all of their friends. “I’m still watching you even now Fluttershy and I don’t truly think that was an accident.” The shy pony jerked and lifted the flap on the left saddlebag to pull out the memory stone that Discord was talking through. The pony had left it on the dash of the Head Hunter and now it was just there all of the sudden. “I figured out how to form my own connection after seeing the one from Rarity’s horn; I’ve never stopped watching you after you appeared here on Equus for a few seconds. I have one eye on you at all time my dear, interesting planet you’re talking to there I must say. I can see you are spreading the message of friendship and magic throughout the universe, along with a bit of chaos here and there to stir the pot a bit. I give that injured blue girl with the strange chaos field around her a few days before she’s up and moving again… a few hours if you’re friend finishes cooking up one of those delightful looking tomatoes, not exactly the same strength as one of those maximums but it’ll do its job. These long distance calls are giving me quite the headache and use up quite a lot of my energy. Wish you still had turtle power for that, but oh well. Life is chaotic enough as it is and it is fun to watch. Twilight and the others are doing just fine, but they still worry about you.” “Discord I take it? Nice to hear from a friend of Fluttershy, hope the planet your on eventually learns to make their own form of space travel. It’s a rite of passage for all intelligent races in the universe to reach for the stars in their own way. My babies have done it in the most unique way that makes me so proud of them.” Yep Janet was back to gushing about her children and Fluttershy still didn’t know whether or not to ask about them. “My name is Janet, the planet that Fluttershy is on.” “I’m looking at the ships right now, have you told Fluttershy about them yet? Oh I’m seeing a lot of interesting things here; get her one of those suits if you can. If not, then keep it a surprise for her, she’ll enjoy seeing it all for herself. The ponies of Equus would also find the idea unique and interesting and they are more than certainly capable of reproducing it, but as you say they really need to form their own way into space aside from magic bubbles. As Fluttershy found out a long time ago, it’s not exactly the most pleasant or safe way to travel. Have some tea on me when you can find some hot water Fluttershy.” Discord chuckled merrily as he saw Fluttershy looking healthy and making friends with an entire planet and its moon that had a huge mustache on it. “I’d tip my hat to you, I’d do just that, but I haven’t got a hat. You’re an interesting one Mrs. Janet and your babies are unique in their technological advancements, please make sure Fluttershy stays on you long enough for a trip to that spa. She needs it, like my friend Rarity needs to stop being so uptight and let her mane down a bit.” “Oh don’t worry; Fluttershy isn’t leaving my body until she’s well cared for and after enjoying a nice full relaxing day there I’ll let her go. Don’t worry; I’ll keep it a secret just so she can see everything for herself and I’ll make sure she gets one of those suits. How she got this far without one, I’ll never know. I’m not going to tell her about these things when I can just show her, I want to see that awed look on her face when she witnesses just what my babies came up with.” Even if Janet didn’t get a response she smiled at Fluttershy who was smiling at her. “Your friends are still watching out for you even now, you must talk to them a lot with how lonely it is out there in space. I would know, I was once the loneliest number that anyone could ever know and then I met my moon Maurice.” Roller had gotten bored and was rolling around at incredible speeds in the background. He hadn’t lost his speed at all and was blazing around the campsite cornering at a high velocity while keeping Fluttershy well within his sight. There was not much danger here to fight, but there was a lot of open space here so he wasn’t bored and could roll around to his heart’s content while Fluttershy looked over the blue skinned thing that had its outer shell peeled off. The world Mr. Wheel saw was very different then what everyone else could see, then again his eyes were on the sides of his body leaving him with an almost perfectly three hundred sixty degree’s of visual range. A few hours later… Fluttershy was enjoying her time by the river. She frolicked through all the alien flowers while tasting a few, they weren’t bad tasting either. She went rolling around in the soft plush grass; she could almost forget all her problems and her recently shortened mane. When it came to lunch, Fluttershy started draining a few apples through her fangs before eating what was left of them afterwards. She had plenty to eat thanks to Janet’s ability to grow plants of all kinds from her body; she wasn’t going to be hungry or wanting for food. It took a while, but her second fang eventually disappeared and her right wing reverted back to feathers. After lunch was around the time that Mira Nova was starting to wake up and Janet called Fluttershy over to the bench the space ranger had been laid up on. Her eyelids were twitching and her left foot wiggled slightly. “She’s waking up Fluttershy, what should I do? I’m not exactly the first thing anyone wants to see when they wake up.” Janet’s red flower avatar was a tad intimidating when it grew to a large size and according to Janet she could make it much bigger, colossal even. The pony idly wondered how one was not supposed to be intimidated by a talking planet, then again if it was friendly and fed you apples it wouldn’t be nearly as scary. So the pony might have been a bit biased towards apples because of her condition of being a fruit vampire. “First make sure to put some shade over her eyes until she can handle the light, don’t let her sit up too fast or else it might upset her identified broken rib and most of all make sure she doesn’t panic too much as she could hurt herself.” Being the deferred to by an entire planet made Fluttershy feel awkward, she guessed Janet has never had to give medical aid to anyone. She shuddered at the thought of Janet becoming a doctor and Fluttershy was the closest thing the planet had to an expert on the subject at hoof within a hundred miles at least. Why did she tell Janet that she took care of animals both big and small again? Janet listening to Fluttershy’s instructions decided to put a little cover overhead increasing the size of a leaf from the nearby apple tree to shade Mira’s head. She also tied some looses vines around the injured patient that allowed her to move, but wouldn’t allow her to get up from the couch. After a few more minutes of randomly shifting about, Mira finally opened her eyes blinking them dazedly while trying to sit up. “Where am I, ugh it feels like I took a rocket to the chest.” Grunted the out of sorts Mira, she currently couldn’t focus well enough to know why she couldn’t move. “Why does my body feel so heavy?” Having gotten used to talking without problems, Fluttershy had forgotten something important and that was that she didn’t understand Mira when she started speaking. Thankfully Janet relayed the information too her as to what Mira was saying. “What? What was that?” The poor humanoid slowly tried to come to a much more lucid state having heard strange oddly cute noises. Her head stirred and she looked around, more carefully at her surroundings inhaling a breath of air when she realized she was being held by vines she grunted in pain as she felt something was wrong with her chest. The vines didn’t tightly grip her until she tried to sit up and then she heard what she assumed was a voice speaking an oddly soothing dialect. “There there, it’ll be okay.” That soothing dialect was none other than Fluttershy who was softly petting Mira with a hoof making sure to try and calm her down. This suddenly got the attention of Mira Nova the spitfire princess of the Space Rangers organization, she stared at the odd four legged creature as it gently caressed her not understanding the gentle words it was saying. She was still getting the overall gist of Fluttershy’s tone as she was pushed back down gently. “Now you just lay back and rest, you’ll be better in no time.” “Despite not speaking the same language she does, you’re doing pretty well with making her stay calm.” Now Janet on the other hoof was a voice Mira understood. Janet spoke in a language that Mira could understand even if she was having problems understanding the four legged adorable creature. “Who are you? What’s going on? Why does everything hurt?” Tilting her head Mira saw that she was lying on a couch made of vines that were pinning her down. Behind the yellow furred creature with the pink hair that was calmly putting her hoof into Mira’s hand so she could hold onto something, behind the feminine creature was a large flower with what looked like a smiling bulb and a wheel with red armor and a slightly grayish tire that had eyes. “Don’t know how you got here Ms. Nova, but you’re really quite banged up. You’ve got one or more broken ribs from what Ms. Shy here tells me, aside from that you have burn wounds to your arms, chest and thighs. Also your armor is totaled, you’ll definitely need a new one and until then you’ll be spending some time with my friend Ms. Shy here. You look like you could use a good spa treatment too.” After that the pretty talking flower then moved a vine that had a single fully grown tomato on it closer along with a pitcher shaped plant. “You much be hungry and thirsty. Here is a pitcher plant of water freshly squeezed by Ms. Shy here, so it’s guaranteed fresh. Also the tomato is to help speed up your recovery.” Looking around dazedly with her blue eyes, Mira felt the upper half of her body being pushed into a sitting position and her arms were given some freedom to move. She slowly brought the pitcher plant to her lips and drank lightly from it before taking the offered tomato off the vine. She was still a bit confused as to where she was, but she must have still been in Galactic Alliance space if they knew she was a Space Ranger and helping her out like this. Taking in her general surroundings, this planet did indeed look familiar to Mira. “Rhizome, I’m on… I’m on Rhizome? How did I get to… why am I here? I can’t remember.” She reached for her head and grimaced at the thought of how she ended up on Rhizome when… what had happened exactly? She really couldn’t remember. “Well you do have a head injury, but don’t worry, that will clear up in no time. Just eat and rest a little.” It was now that Janet turned to Fluttershy having finally remembered the name her children had given her. “Oh right, that’s my other name! Sorry for not telling you sooner Fluttershy, it kind of skipped my mind that my children all call me Rhizome. I guess my full name would be Janet Rhizome then, home of my little Rhizomians!” Something distinctly tickled at the back of Fluttershy’s brain, she’s heard of Rhizome before and she could almost remember where from. It had something to do with space traveling hippies? Fluttershy gained a wide eyed look.