//------------------------------// // Chapter 4-Introductions // Story: Baldy, Girly and Yachiru in Equestria // by Skiddlez //------------------------------// The thing about having four legs meant that you didn’t have to be as good as balancing, you only had to work out which legs went in sequence. This comes naturally when you’re, you know, born with four legs. This was an important fact, which Ikkaku, in the heat of the moment, had forgotten. Starting forwards, his back legs had a hard time deciding who would go first. As a result, Ikkaku executed a stunningly elegant fall face first into the ground. Yumichika, watching this epic pratfall, made several mental adjustments to his running technique. One leg in front of the other, don’t go out of sequence. Ikkaku, I won’t make the same mistake you did. Running isn’t an option. I’ll have to catch her with Kido. Yumichika, unlike the majority of men in Squad Eleven, had a natural talent for Kido. He was at an ordinary lieutenants level of skill, but Kenpachi frowned upon such cowardly tactics. I’ll only need a simple one. Standing on three legs and extending his left hoof out, he yelled out the simplest long range Bakudo he knew. “Bakudo number four, Hainawa!” He was expecting the Kido to come out of his hoof. What surprised him, however, was the fact that the Kido came from the horn on his head, arced towards the Pegasus, and tied her legs together, sending her to the ground with a crash. Blink. “WHAT THE HELL?” Fluttershy was terrified out of her mind. She had been caught by some kind of magical rope. It wasn’t any spell she had seen Twilight preform, and the Unicorn had called out something. Her internal musings were interrupted when the earth pony went over and started talking to her. “Hello! I am Ikkaku Madarame, the luckiest bastard in the Soul Society. That one over there is Yumichika Ayasegawa, my best friend for life, and the young girl over there is Yachiru Kusajashi, the second strongest person from where we come from. What’s your name?” He was invading her personal space bubble. Even after Iron Will’s training course, she was still same old Fluttershy in her personal space. She squeaked and hid her face in her mane. “Honestly, Ikkaku, the poor girl’s terrified out of her mind. Let me do the talking. As the most beautiful, I am a natural diplomat.” He approached slowly and stood at a distance. “Could you please tell us your name?” “Um…. My name’s... Flutte...hy” She said in an indescribable mumble. “I’m sorry? I didn’t quite catch that.” “My name’s Fluttershy.’ She turned her head away as she said that. “Hmmmmm… she was fluttering away from us, and she’s shy… AHA! Her name must be Shyflutter!” ‘I think it’s the other way around, Ikkaku.” “NO WAY! It’s obviously Shyflutter!” ‘It is actually Fluttershy.” After listening to their exchange, she had decided that they were harmless, if a little scary. “Fluttershy is too long to remember. I know! I’ll call you Scaredy!” She couldn’t help but smile at this tiny filly, so happy, so carefree, so covered in blood- wait… “Oh no! Are you hurt?” Yachiru looked confused, and then came to a conclusion. “Oh, it’s not mine, it’s from Kitty over there.” She pointed a hoof into the trees behind her. Fluttershy looked over there, and nearly had a panic attack. That’s a manticore! It looked like it was put through a meat grinder. Everything was cut up. It obviously didn’t have long to live- the injuries were too severe for her to cure alone, and help wouldn’t arrive in time. Ikkaku and Yumichika were looking at it with a judging air. Finally, Yumichika turned to Yachiru. “You did a sloppy job of it, Yachiru.” Fluttershy couldn’t take it any more. A manticore had been killed by a filly- a Pegasus at that. Even one of the princesses would have been at least slightly injured taking on a manticore. ‘Hey look! Scaredy’s going green!” Fluttershy wasn’t the element of kindness for nothing. She had even resisted Discord’s attempts to turn her against her friends. However, even the nicest ponies have limits. “If we encounter another, um, ‘Kitty’, could you try not to kill it?” ‘Awww, okay.” By the time they had come out of the Everfree forest, Fluttershy was feeling a little woozy. No more animals had been killed, which was a bonus. However, manticores had been attacking like nopony’s business. Yachiru had responded by grabbing their tails with her teeth, spinning around and throwing them deep into the Everfree forest. As for the other two, they had mastered walking, galloping and bucking. Ikkaku had used his bucking to kick Diamond Dog in the chest and broke several dozen ribs, which Fluttershy had bandaged up. After that, Ikkaku became bored with bucking and started engaging in increasingly ridiculous feats of strength, like flexing his muscles to pop his shoulder back in. Even Yumichika was insane, although he at least tried to be sane. He often talked Ikkaku out of stunts like head-butting a tree, only to use a spell to do the same thing. The one conclusion that came to Fluttershy was that they were some sort of mutant ponies, granted incredible abilities at the cost of sanity. Ikkaku and Yumichika were happy when they left the forest- every animal in there, except for that cockatrice, had been a weakling. At a town, they could now find the strongest ponies and duel them. Yumichika was just about to celebrate leaving the forest when a rainbow coloured streak landed next to Fluttershy. “HAH! There you are, Fluttershy!” Rainbow Dash, the self-proclaimed fastest flyer in Equestria, was surprised to see Fluttershy grab onto her and hug her tight while crying her eyes out. “I AM SO GLAD TO SEE YOU! THEY’RE MADPONIES! YOU HAVE NO IDEA WHAT I’VE HAD TO GO THROUGH!” she said in-between sobs. Rainbow Dash looked at the new ponies inquisitively. The unicorn seemed to be giggling. “Hey! What’s so funny, egghead?” Yumichika couldn’t help himself. Gathering his thoughts together, he spoke as calmly as he could. “Rainbow Pride, much?” That said, he just collapsed, chuckling about somepony named ‘Charlotte Cuulhorne’. Ikkaku just face hoofed. ‘I’m Ikkaku Madarame, and he’s Yumichika Ayasegawa. The kid’s called Yachiru.” “I’m Rainbow Dash, and I’m going to be in the Wonderbolts.” “Who are they?” Rainbow Dash’s jaw nearly hit the ground. “Did you just ask who the WONDERBOLTS are? They’re only the best fliers in Equestria!” Yachiru was bouncing around, singing a song about Ken-Chan, suddenly stopped. ‘OH! Gotcha, Dashy!” Rainbow Dash looked inquisitively at Ikkaku, who just gave her a look which said, ‘Don’t ask.’ “Right… hey, you wanna go to Ponyville?” Ikkaku face hoofed again at the name. Yumichika immediately snapped out of his laughter. That is the most UNIMAGINATIVE name for a town, EVER! Thanks for reading! Please leave a comment as to what you think, criticism helps!