Out of her Element

by Sintakhra

Between Darkness and Light

Fluttershy opened her eyes and was greeted with darkness. Darkness so thick it was palpable, as though someone had covered her in a thick duvet and spun her around. All of her bearings were lost and she only had a vague idea of what was up or down.

Every inch of her body was numb as she lay, or sat, where she was. With each limb of her body asleep she couldn’t even tell how she was sprawled on the floor. Only now were the beginnings of touch beginning to ebb their ways along her nerves – only to be met with a wince as the blood began to flow once more, signalled by the pinpricks of pain she was familiar with.

She lifted a hoof up in front of her eyes, or so she thought. She couldn't see anything there – the darkness being so thick. Were her eyes still closed? She remembered opening them.

Once the pins and needles had faded in her front limbs – and not a moment too soon, she thought to herself – she began to take stock of where she was through touch. Her hooves reached out along the impression where she lay – slightly lower than the rest of the surface around her.

"How did I get here?" she whispered quietly to herself. Her words - although unspoken - rang out in her head like the Ponyville town bell, an obnoxiously loud sound which made her wince. "Owie... Okay. less thinking" she scrunched up her nose and cast any questions out of her mind aside from what her condition is. The faint tingling of life came from her extremities and let her know her legs were fine - one less thing to worry about.

As she lay in the dirt, her eyes began adjust to the penetrating darkness which surrounded her like a shroud of pure oppression. The faintest inkling of colour seeped into her retina from the sides, slowly turning the inky shroud into a collage of barely discernible colours - but colours nonetheless. Unable to raise her head, she just allowed the feeling of cold air rushing into her lungs overtake all other emotional and physical burdens.

One problem at a time, Fluttershy

With both land-bound limbs accounted for, she moved to ruffle her wings tentatively. She felt a sharp pang as her left wing brushed against her body and instantly froze it in place - the right wing responding more kindly to her commands. Chin still slumped on the ground, she gently agitated her left appendage once more and the pain hit her again; although the pain wasn't from her wing but from her body.

Okay Fluttershy, stay calm. You've just gone and grazed your side. You silly thing.

She continued her steady breathing before deciding to wake up the rest of her body. Closing her eyes once more - at least she thought she closed her eyes; it was still dark enough not to tell the distance - she began rolling her shoulders and squeezing the muscles in her body. Every part of her creaked like she was an elderly mare, but it fulfilled every desire she coaxed out of it. Folding her hind legs closer to her body rather in their before outstretched manner, she began to push her form upright so she was sat back on her haunches. Her neck cricked, causing the timid yellow pegasus to groan.

She didn't know how long it had taken her to get upright: it may have taken a few minutes or an hour but once she did it, her mind cleared of the fog which had been stupefying it and allowed her to think more clearly without the migraines. Shaking her head, she turned her gaze to her side and tried to peer at her injured side - but the darkness was still too much.

"Okay Fluttershy" she spoke aloud quietly; trying to gather up the courage. Hearing her own voice in the silence did wonders for her confidence. " The F-first thing we need to do is find some light. T-then we can find out where you and Rainbow...."

All colour drained from her darkness-concealed features.

Rainbow!

The cream pegasus surged forwards and instantly met the ground once more. She spat the dust which entered her mouth and retched as the offending taste vacated her, still leaving her throat dry and her body heaving.

Come on Fluttershy. This is no time to by lying down. Get UP! Eyes squinted shut, her body shook as it brought itself upright once more. She blew a few strands of hair which had gotten tangled with her muzzle away before moving forwards, one slow step at a time. She planted each hoof purposefully and without attention to the own wincing her side was causing her to make to the void. The darkness-clad pegasus limped forwards, inch upon inch, metre after metre. With her eyes unseeing in the gloom and sealed tight against the growing pain, she relied on her hooves to be her eyes.

You can do this! It'll be just like when you showed Mister Badger how to move around when he looked too long at the sun, the silly thing. I wonder how he- No! No distractions. She shook her head side to side, clearing away anything attempting to capture her attention.

From what she could gather as she slowly continued to feel around where she was; she was in a small circular area surrounded by thick trees and very unfriendly thorn-ridden bushes between them as her hoof was wanton to claim. The ground was hard to the touch yet yielding beneath her hooffalls as she put more weight on them. Maybe that's how she had gotten here without much of an injury. Her side flared up to remind her, almost scornfully.

She continued walking around the area she had landed. Each metre travelled was a drop in the weak pony's constitution. Question flooded into her overly imaginative mind such as "What if Dash fell somewhere else?" "What if something else is here?" "What if" "What if". All of these things made her body slump lower and lower to the ground in fear which made movement all the more painful

The silence in the glade was terrifying the yellow pony in itself. Every footfall felt like it was as loud as her hammering heart. There was not even a breeze to create a comforting natural rustle in the trees and made her all too aware of how loud she was in the silence, an addled blind injured pony stumbling in the darkness looking for her friend.

On and on she walked until her hooves met something distinctly unnatural. She ran a hoof delicately over the disturbed dirt which felt like it had been pushed up to either side of a small groove. Frowning, she turned her body to follow the groove.

The path she followed was several metres long, growing wider until after a few minutes of delicate limping, something finally broke the silence he had begun detesting ever since wakening. she heard soft breathing.

She wasn't scared though. This wasn't the deliberately soft breathing she knew predators made. This was subconsciously soft breathing. Something was sleeping up ahead. Now if only I could-.

The words weaving through the ether of her mind were lost on her as her hoof ran up against something soft. She recoiled instantly before leaning forwards and nuzzling it with her muzzle. pressing her nose into the fur of whatever it is that lay still before her. She heard breathing from its mouth before moving down. Sitting beside the creature, she hesitantly extended her hooves to feel it' midsection - stumbling across a pair of lithe feathery wings.

Wings! Rainbow Dash! The wings confirmed what she had been hoping for - she had found her best friend. The lingering scent of the pampas grass from the meadow filling her nostrils; this was her Rainbow!

Her hooves moved to body beneath the wings and ran up and down her lithe form, checking blindly for anything resembling injury or damage but it was no use. Without any form of light, she was not going to be any use to her friend. She bit her lip and looked around, trying to pierce the veil but with no luck. Sighing, Fluttershy relented to the weariness building up in her muscles and the pain in her side.

"A little sleep and maybe it'll be brighter" She mumbled as she walked around her friend and settled down beside her friend with her right side to Rainbow's left; shielding Fluttershy's cut. Draping her ruffled right wing over her friend's back, she laid her head on the ground and closed her eyes, drifting off into slumber.

---

The winds slashed through their bodies like knives, making both mares wince as they tumbled. The winds buffeted against their airborne bodies as Fluttershy clung to the cerulean pegasus who kept her and herself aloft. The world was a canvas of grey and black clouds to Fluttershy's eyes as she stared skywards. Any hint of the celestial light-giving orb in the sky had been snuffed out like a candle in the wind.

Fluttershy didn't notice how much pain her friend was in until she heard her let out a defeated cry;

"Fluttershy" the panic-stricken mare looked up to her friend, both locked eyes with each other. Turquoise and Magenta lost in each other. "I can’t get us over the storm." Her wings continued to flap despite her announcement, clearly unwilling to believe it herself.

Each beat of her wings made the pony-laden-pegasus flinch in pain, her eyes tearing away so she could stare skywards. Her feathers were skew and hindering their ascent, and every ensuing battery of the blizzard blowing them further off-course.

"Please Fluttershy!" Rainbow's course voice, once strong and powerful was reduced to a worried whine, a sound Fluttershy had barely heard emitted from her confident companion’s lips.

This was all too much, it was horrible! This shouldn't be happening, this couldn't be happening. She did the only thing she could, the thing which came to her the most natural. She cried out for her friend as though it was a nightmare.

Rainbow.

They were falling, falling faster and faster. She felt Rainbow spread her already dishevelled wings to provide drag for the plummet downwards. They were veering south, falling closer and closer to the ominous behemoth of the forest. Down and down, A gust of wind ruined Rainbow's shaky glide and they began to roll in the air.

They hit the canopy with a loud crash, shattering twigs and branches as they smashed through them through pure force of momentum, Both mares had their eyes sealed shut, clinging to each other. Waiting for the inevitable-

---

Fluttershy's eyes slowly opened to be met with colour. She had to blink and give her head a shake to make sure what she was seeing wasn't just a cruel dream being inflicted on her by her over-imaginative mind, but sure as Big Mac was Red; there was colour.

There wasn't much to go on, merely an array of murky greens and browns littering the floor in the form of the sinister brushes she had encountered that night. Gazing up, she spotted the sickly grey canopy letting a few solitary shafts of light into the glade where she lay.

Turning her head to the side, she confirmed what she already knew, the creature she had cuddled up with in her dream was Rainbow Dash.

With that heavy weight off her mind, she retracted her aching extended wing and sat upright once more. The brief bout of exercise after their crash had done her a bit of good, allowing her muscles to relax a bit. She looked down at her right side and winced at what she saw.

Her right side had several shallow cuts riddled in it, decorating her dusty and muddy cream coat with red which had dried before she had first woken up. The rest of her body was a bit better for wear and tear - albeit absolutely filthy and tousled. Her wings could do with a long preening and goodness knows what Rarity would say if she saw Fluttershy's literal birds nest of a mane and tail. She picked a few loose twigs and leaves out it which she could see. She would need to wrap her wound up in something after giving it a clean - not to mention clean the rest of herself.

Once her self-study was complete, she turned her attention to the unconscious pegasus next to her. Rainbow had sustained a lot more injury than her, more so than Fluttershy wanted to even think. Fluttershy didn't know how she had gotten off so unscathed in comparison.

Rainbow's hair was a mess of muted colour. She shared a similar manner of cuts over her frame to Fluttershy, the guilty culprit being small twigs lying on the Her ear had a visible cut in it but which had appeared to have clotted nicely - Not that it will stop me tending to it later she told herself. Being in this position reminded her of how she kept patching Rainbow up after all her scuffles with the fillies and colts at Flight Camp. The calmer memories washed through Fluttershy like a warm trickle of water, soothing her shaky nerves and lighting a small fire of hope deep in her belly. If we could get through that, we can get through this- off...

Her thoughts were distracted by Rainbow's wing, and she openly flinched at it. Her left wing was obviously dislocated. It was no wonder Rainbow was still unconscious - a dislocated wing creates enough pain to render any pegasus like so

"The poor dear" Fluttershy whispered as she looked over the wing. Fluttershy moved over to Rainbow's other side and tucked her other beat up wing into its resting position at the rainbow pegasus' side. Leaning over, she gently began to nibble and squeeze Rainbow's wing muscles between her lips. Massaging them like a nurse would. she felt the wing visibly slacken in front of her as she continued to nibble and relax Rainbow Dash's dislocated wing. She knew the best way forwards was to relax the over-tense muscles before she do anything else.

She moves around to her other side again and extended Rainbow's wing into its full flight position as it would've been before she crashed with Fluttershy. It's a good thing we stuck to one another, or we'd have been so much further apart that I couldn't help. She couldn't ignore the sinister little voice in the back of her head reminding her that she was the reason for the crash in the first place; but this voice was snuffed into silence by focusing on her fallen friend. Once her friends wings were splayed out in front of her, she returned to the other side and pushed one of her arms beneath Rainbow's belly and the other around her other side so she was effectively hugging the wounded pony.

"Please forgive me for this, Rainbow" Fluttershy squeaked as she hugged Rainbow. Locking her hooves around the base of her wing, she gave it a bit squeeze with all of her might until he was gratified with a satisfying pop as she felt the wing give. The pony did not even offer up a grumble or grunt of pain, although he did notice her eyes scrunch up a bit before relaxing.

Fluttershy returned Rainbow Dash's left wing to its resting position and let out a sigh. Most of Dash's injuries were mostly superficial it seemed but they still needed tending. For now though, Fluttershy was content with her being safe.

That is, as safe as they could be inside an alien forest without any idea of which direction to go. She didn't know how far the storm had blown them southward and the canopy was too thick to see where the mountains and ocean or, indeed, the sun was. not to mention Fluttershy's muscles still ached enough to deny her to take wing - not that she would even think for a minute of leaving Rainbow Dash out of sight.

She turned back to their unfortunate crash landing site. As her turquoise eyes probed the scenery, she gathered a few new titbits of information about their surroundings.

The trees of the forest they were in were truly massive, extending many pony-lengths high, at least thirty or forty metres up into the yonder. The yellow pony almost fell on her rump as she craned her head up at the sky. Yes... flying is out of the question she sighed. Aside from the very light moisture in the ground they trod, there was almost no evidence of any kind of storm having touched them. The clouds visible through the thick canopy were moving slowly, so the wind had definitely died down.

She wandered into the middle of the glade and sat down, looking at her fallen friend. With Rainbow injured and unconscious she was being strong. She had to be strong. She needed to be strong. For her.

And with that, Fluttershy curled up and begin to sob.

She sniffled and she cried, her squeaks of sorrow echoed from the trees back at her, reminding her of the weaknesses she had. Rainbow needed her, but she needed Rainbow. Fluttershy needed Rainbow around to be strong for her, because together they were a perfect team; almost.

Almost

Tears crested as she reminded herself that this was all her fault, all her doing. Everything. Rainbow wouldn't be here if she didn't drag her along. If she wasn't unable to fly. Look at yourself! Rainbow is lying there, cold and shivering whilst useless Fluttershy sat here crying.

"Wait. Shivering?" Fluttershy looked up and realised that something was missing from both pegasi, something she hadn't noticed. Their saddlebags and cloaks. She turned her head this way and that looking for the hardly inconspicuous bags with their supplies in. a small burst of unnatural colour caught her eye within a bunch of thorns at the glade's border and she limped her way over to it after brushing the moisture from her eyes. She could do this!

The saddlebags were both fairly damaged but the contents inside were for the most part spared their containers gruesome fate. Placing both on her back, she moved to another part of the glade where she found the remains of Rainbow's cloak which had been torn off her neck during the fall. Fluttershy cringed as she saw the reminder of the injuries they had both sustained - small red flecks which had managed to tarnish the royal blue before it had been rudely stolen. Her own cloak was found not far from where she woke up, a bit worse for the wear but otherwise intact.

She returned to her friend side and draped Rainbow's cloak over her body, remaining beside her whilst she waited for the shivering to stop. When it finally did, Fluttershy let a wry smile creep onto her otherwise downcast features.

"For you, I'll be strong Rainbow. The warmth you have and your wing are my first victories." the grime covered injured mare said aloud, her own form of confidence seeping into her voice as she spoke to herself. Lifting her muzzle up, she stared into the sky before continuing. "I'll get us home."

Author's Note:

Sorry for the long wait, procrastination got the better of me for two and a half months! *winces*

Comments

[Skeeter The Lurker]

Hmmm... Time for Fluttershy to shine!

~Skeeter The Lurker

[Rainbow87dash]

You'd better update quicker next time or flutters will get ye'

[Sintakhra]

3067414 Will try my best! Sorry :)

[Rainbow87dash]

3067562. Good now have this

[youtube=Cu54lWDw-wY]

[Doubt]

Reading your work is always enjoyable. I just love the way you go about describing things and giving information. You are a truly talented author.

[Sintakhra]

3070148 Thank you very much! One of the things I find difficult with reading stories is that people tend to tell but don't show, so i make a big deal out of putting an amount of description in that I would be happy with :)

[Rainbooms]

3067608
I don't know why, but it fits perfectly with the story.

[Rainbow87dash]

3070275 is it the song?

[Rainbooms]

3071427
Possibly. But it's perfect.

[Inferno demon Dash]

You can do this Shy, for once you're not acting like a scared filly about to wet herself, you're acting like an adult. Very, very well created, explicitly well detailed and I noticed you made Twilight an Alicorn and the Goddess of Magic and Harmony in this story, not bad, not bad at all, can't wait to see the romance blossom between the two, I'm real excited now.

[Rainbow87dash]

So.....update?

[Sintakhra]

3473664 I'm trying to jog drawing and finding a job in my free time. Got a few things written for the story, will see what I can do :)

[Rainbow87dash]

3473725 jog drawing?

[Sintakhra]

3473924 Meant Juggle

[Rainbow87dash]

3473938 that made me giggle

[Doubt]

I'm sure Sintakhra will update soon... Yes, just a little longer, then we'll know what happens next.

[classifidpotat]

i really like this story! i know it's been 7 years, but i'm still hoping it can continue...

[Sintakhra]

10333700
You and me both :) I’d really like to come back because I still have one of the planned scenes stuck in my head haunting me! It’s just finding time to sit down and write