//------------------------------// // LP32: Ponies Talk [General] // Story: Half Hour Horses: Legacy Prompts // by HoofAndQuill //------------------------------// The prompt: Ponies talk. Special rule: You cannot use quotation marks “ ”. I say this every week I think, but I feel like I'm off my game. Boo! Still posting this anyway though. Fluttershy hummed along with the birds as she lead them across the peaceful meadows on the outskirts of Ponyville. She liked birds. Birds were pretty, they sang beautifully, and they were very rarely judgmental of anypony. Unlike other ponies. Ponies sang as well, and they were often quite pretty. But ponies talked. Fluttershy had found out very early in life just how much ponies liked to talk. In school, in Cloudsdale, she had always been a bit of a weak flier. When she was a foal, she would ride on her mother's back from place to place, when the other fillies her age were all bumbling around in the air, figuring out their wings. In school, the other ponies had always said such nasty things about her. Every adult pony told her to just ignore them, and that it would go away in time. It hadn't. But despite how horrible it had been, having ponies always taunting and gossiping about her, it had lead to her meeting one of her best friends, Rainbow Dash. Rainbow had seen other ponies picking on her, and had thought that defending her would be awesome, like one of the heroes in old stories. In a very real way, Rainbow Dash was every bit the hero she had pictured herself being. Fluttershy had still been teased after Rainbow started defending her, of course, but just knowing that somepony was there for her made it much, much easier. Then, Fluttershy had fallen off of a cloud, and she was only saved at the last moment, by an unlikely cloud of butterflies. At first, the ground seemed to be a kind of heaven. The animals she found herself surrounded by didn't judge her, they didn't laugh at her or tease her. Even when Rainbow Dash had flown down from Cloudsdale in a panic, half-expecting to find Fluttershy dead, Fluttershy had managed to stand up for herself and insist that she was staying on the ground, and not going back to Cloudsdale. Rainbow visited from time to time after, but she had her own schooling up in Cloudsdale still, and soon she was off to weather college and disappeared for a while. But, Fluttershy soon discovered, ponies on the ground liked to talk as well. She couldn't build a house on her own, and animals, for all their virtues, couldn't build a house suitable for a pony either. Fluttershy had some difficulty getting any ponies to help build her a cottage so close to the forest. But that was the best place, if she wanted her animals to be able to visit their friends that lived in the Everfree, even if it was a bit scary to live there. Fluttershy quickly found that being the weird, shy pegasus that lived at the edge of the widely feared Everfree Forest alone with a bunch of animals, made her a topic for gossip and rumor again. Whenever she was in town for food or other supplies, she always heard the other ponies chattering behind their hooves: snatches of conversation about her being a witch, or a spy, or any number of other crazy things. But at least here on the ground, there were other things to talk about. Like the sudden appearance of a bright pink earth pony filly, only a year younger than Fluttershy, who had arrived and moved into the local bakery. Fluttershy managed to avoid this pony for a few weeks thanks to her remote home. But eventually, the pink pony showed up in her cottage, all pep and smiles and laughter. After only an hour or two, Fluttershy realized that trying to avoid Pinkie was only making things worse. All ponies liked to talk, but talking and laughing and playing seemed to be all that Pinkie Pie did. Even if it was a little embarrassing how loud she was, Pinkie wasn't really mean, and she never seemed to gossip or make up lies about anypony. Fluttershy still kept to herself, though now she found herself being dragged to occasional parties in town, no matter how often she told Pinkie that she didn't want to party. Pinkie's parties were fun, in a sort of way. They were always kept festive and light, and Fluttershy did enjoy seeing all the other ponies happily dancing and laughing, even if she didn't do so herself. Fluttershy even began having smaller, quieter parties herself, with her animal friends. They didn't talk, but it was still fun, in a quiet, subdued manner. It was while she was at one of Pinkie's loud parties, with Fluttershy carefully standing behind a counter in such a way that it was difficult for any other pony to see her, that she met another future friend. This future friend at first, however, seemed to be a hysterical white unicorn that quite literally pulled Fluttershy away from the party to fit increasingly glittery dresses onto her so-called simply divine body, and to perform ever more excessive treatments on her absolutely perfect mane. Rarity, as Fluttershy later found this unicorn was named, brushed off all of Fluttershy's quiet, polite objections with praise and adulation. Rarity was the first pony that Fluttershy ever used The Stare on. Once she had calmed down a bit, Rarity turned out to be a wonderful friend. She did like to talk, rather a lot, and always about herself. But that was okay, because Fluttershy found that all she needed to do was interject quietly now and again, with prompts to continue, and Rarity was happy with her. The apology for her initial excitement had been a paid visit to the spa, and that quickly became a routine for the two. Rainbow Dash had even moved to Ponyville a few months ago, though she was terribly busy with the weather patrol now, and had her own friends among the pegasus ponies in town. Despite hearing all about high society from Rarity, and despite being dragged to parties now and again, Fluttershy still felt... lonely. All the other ponies seemed to talk too much, they were too loud and they all acted like they had all known how to talk to other ponies their entire lives. Her animal friends seemed to be the only ones who understood how hard it could be for her to talk to other ponies, and how hard it could be to make friends with them. But tonight, she was going to be going to a big party, with the entire town. It wasn't even Pinkie's idea. Fluttershy was going on her own. She was even going to be part of the festivities. Fluttershy knew that eventually she would meet somepony who would understand what it was like to grow up without any real friends of her own. Somepony who could help her figure out how to get past some of her insecurities, and build a real group of friends. Friends she could really be herself around. Fluttershy carefully and softly chided the bluejay who was off-key. Tonight was the Summer Sun Celebration, after all, and everything had to be perfect. She was so wrapped up in her training of her animal friends, she didn't even hear the awkward, nearly friendless purple unicorn that came trotting up behind her. But then that pony talked, and Fluttershy's life was changed forever.