The Land of Song and Dance

by Aestroch

Chapter 3: Clean Slate

Darkness.

That was all that I could see. Well, ‘see’ is a very subjective term. I was aware of the darkness, and how I seemed to be floating in it. Was this death? I would have thought that there would at least have been some form of discomfort or pain, maybe the memories of past disappointments re-playing forever.

What I was not expecting was the feel of being immersed in smooth cotton while I floated endlessly in a plane of darkness. But really, was it a plane of darkness? It might have been a dimension of darkness. Maybe even a world of darkness. Who was to know?

Definitely not what I was expecting out of my afterlife.

Oh. No. Wait.

There’s the pain.

“Uuuuuugh…”

Much better. Now I could get on with my afterlife of eternal torment.

Wait a minute, did I just groan out loud? I guess it made sense that I would have the same physical features that I had in life.

There was a soft rustling that emanated from everywhere and nowhere at the same time.

No. Wait.

It came from my left.

Oh good, at least I have company for the rest of eternity.

I became aware of my wrists and ankles, the only anomalies in the omnipresent feeling of cloth. It almost felt like they were bound.

Then a bird started chirping.

ΨΨΨ

I was jolted from death by the sound of a bird tweeting merrily outside.

Literally right outside a window.

When did I get inside? For that matter, where am I?

I tried moving my head, but that caused a sharp pain to crawl lazily from my shoulders to my ears. Oh well, not being able to use sight was nothing new. I inspected various bits of my body by concentrating on the feelings that they were sending back to me.

Well, I was right about being tied down. Spread eagle, how pleasant. And if I’m not mistaken, I’m naked. What did I do last night?

Aside from various bruises and a crick in my neck, I was otherwise alright, aside from the tied down and naked thing. I tugged on the rope holding my wrists to the bedposts, but whoever had tied me there had some very high quality rope, and knew more than a thing or two about knots.

I suddenly became very nervous about what I’d done last night.

I squeezed my eyes shut, put on an enviously manly scowl, and snapped my head to the right. There was a rather loud, worryingly thick popping noise and a flood of pain. Noises from my left made me whip my head in that direction as well, reproducing the noise and its consequences quite unintentionally.

Through my squint I could see Fluttershy’s head coming down after, presumably, bolting upright. I opened my eyes fully, and was able to recognize the look of surprise, shock and panic in her eyes. She took a few deep breaths and yawned. Ah, I’d woken her up with my cracking neck.

Fluttershy smacked her lips a few times and stretched, her eyes half lidded. I glanced down and noted that she’d been sleeping next to me, on the edge of the bed. Over the covers, thankfully. I was almost worried about having done something I’d severely regret last night, but I doubted that Fluttershy was capable of things like tying me up and-

I’m going to abandon that train of thought.

Fluttershy finished her stretch and noticed that I was awake. She made a small squeak and hopped off the bed. I smirked at her.

“Good morning Fluttershy.” Ugh. My voice is all scratchy. I need some water. I thought for a moment about commenting on our situation, but I felt I may have been in bad taste.

“Oh. Um. Good morning.” She cuffed her hoof against the ground a few times and refused to look me in the eye. Oh gods, she tested my resolve, but I would not let the naughty jokes slip through my composure. I kept an almost completely straight face.

“So I can’t help but notice that I’m in neither my armour nor padding.” That bit of face that wasn’t completely straight? Pain. I may have been a little bit blunt, but I wanted to get clothed quickly.

Fluttershy perked up a little bit. “Oh, um, yes, I had to get you out of your armour so that I could check on your injuries. I, um, hope you don’t mind.” She lowered her body so that only her eyes peered at me worriedly over the bed’s edge.

“I… guess not. I’m guessing you had to perform surgery, judging by the restraints I’ve been put in.”

Fluttershy ducked completely below my line of sight at this and almost whispered her answer. “Um, well, no, it was, um, just a few bruises. But, um, Applejack thought that you’d be dangerous so she, um, tied you to the bed. I’m sorry!”

If my hand was free, I’d have stroked my chin. “Applejack… Who’s that?”

“Um, you, uh, rammed her yesterday.” Fluttershy peeked up at me again.

“Ah, the orange one. I’m impressed. How’d she tie those knots without hands?” I understood this ‘Applejack’s’ sentiment, her view tainted as it must have been by the blue Pegasus Pony.

“Um, with her hooves?”

I stared at her. She was completely serious. I’d have to ask the druid about that.

I had a feeling that I was going to sorely overstay my welcome once the druid came back. Speaking of decency and etiquette, I should probably at least get my padding back on. Armour, too, if I needed to leave in a hurry.

“So you took off my armour when you went to inspect me, right?”

“Um, well, yes.”

“Where did you put it?”

“Oh, well, I put it next to the bed last night, but Twilight said that she wanted to inspect it today. She must have taken it outside while we were asleep. Sorry.”

I felt an irrational but completely justified urge begin to build in my chest. “Okay… Not your fault. Now, when you say ‘inspect,’ what are we talking about here?”

Fluttershy must have noticed the restrained protective urge in my eyes and gulped. “Um, she said she needed to read up on some deconstruction spells and she mumbled something about, um, metallurgy on her way out.”

I shut my eyes and took a deep breath. “Fluttershy?”

“Um, yes?”

“I’m about to do something very stupid. Vouch for me at the trial, okay?”

“What are you-?”

I flexed my hands and activated the Choraturgic staffes that had been tattooed on my arms and legs. The Pony in front of me must have been shocked to see black musical bars suddenly glow golden and rise from my skin just above my wrists and ankles and below my elbows and knees. The three lines that began circling my head must not have helped.

I muttered a short string of music, lines of a little ditty I’d heard one of the Caretakers using to cut vines out of the way when we tried leading out herd through a jungle. The nottes collected in the staffes and I flexed my fingers again to release the combination of intent and energy.

The ropes holding my limbs in place split in various places and pretty much just fell apart. They were supposed to just slice in one neat line, but I was never the best at focusing the intent of Choraturgy.

I sat up and looked around at the room I was in. It was definitely the druid’s house, all earthy colours and animal shelters. There were two doors, and I was assuming that one of them led to a closet. I thought for a second about asking Fluttershy about clothes, but I figured that the druid, if he or she was indeed a Halfling as I suspected, would have nothing that I would fit into. I decided to just wrap the sheet on the bed around my body. As I began doing so, I asked Fluttershy if she was okay with it, and if the druid wouldn’t mind.

I turned to where she had been, but she had disappeared. One of the doors swung open a small amount, so I assumed that’s where she had gone. My little burst of magic must have scared the skittish thing off.

I finished wrapping myself and went through the door Fluttershy had bolted through. Sure enough, a few stairs later and I was back in the living room. I still couldn’t see any yellow fur or pink hair, so I assumed that she was hiding. I opened the door to the outside of the druid’s cottage and caught sight of my armour in a pile with a stack of books and a purple horse-thing sitting next to it.

Either the purple thing was this ‘Twilight’ that Fluttershy had spoken of, or it was under Twilight’s care. Either way, I was getting my armour back. It must have heard the door opening because it started speaking without looking away from the armour in front of it.

“Ah, Fluttershy, you’re awake. I was about to start testing on this shell stuff for its chemical composition. How is the creature doing?” This must be Twilight, then, if she was going to do the tests herself.

“He’s doing fine, thanks, and he would like you to leave his armour alone.”

Twilight whirled around with a gasp. I saw a horn on her head that was glowing with a soft purple glow, which was matched by an aura around a book on the ground.

So Twilight was probably the one who was blasting me with magic, then? Good to know.

I walked forward briskly, and she began panicking. Judging by the brightening of her horn and the light chiming noise coming from her, I could infer that she was about to cast some sort of spell.

“None of that please.” I darted forward and wrapped my hand around Twilight’s muzzle. Even if she didn’t use vocal triggers for her magic, having someone grab your mouth is distracting enough to cause most Choraturgists to falter and lose their magic.

Twilight’s eyes, just as large as Fluttershy’s and just as expressive, shrunk with fear and the glow around her horn vanished. I patted her on the head, just behind her horn, with my free hand and smiled at her.

“Thank you. Now, if you excuse me, I have armour to put on.”

I released her snout and took the last few steps to my pile of antler plates. They would be extremely uncomfortable without my leather under-armour, but I hadn’t noticed that anywhere nearby. I started sorting through the pile to find my leg plates and greaves, and managed to find my leather padding crushed beneath the rest of the armour.

I slipped the bed sheet off of me and draped it over the stack of books and began strapping the rich brown suit onto my limbs. I had my pants on and was halfway through my shirt when Twilight began jabbering about intelligence and clothing. I ignored her and sniffed underneath my arm.

Not bad. I wasn’t knocked out, so I don’t really need to wash it yet.

I picked up my shin-guard and was about to strap it on when Twilight decided to ignore my plea for peace by gripping my armour in her magic. She tugged it from my grasp and started yelling and shouting something about science and due process. I pinched the bridge of my nose.

“Twilight? Please don’t make me hurt you.”

That shocked the thing out of her ranting. “What? Why would you-?”

“Because you shot me, and now you are keeping me from putting on my armour.”

“But I NEED to study it! I’ve never seen anything like it!”

“And you probably never will again. Now give it back.”

“You- I- You can’t make me!”

I cocked an eyebrow at Twilight. She sounded like a petulant child clinging to a toy. “And what makes you think that?”

“Uh, you… are… uh… not under the jurisdiction of Princess Celestia’s rule!” Twilight sounded awfully pleased to have thought of such a reason under pressure. “You have no legal methods of making me give it back!” She smirked widely at me.

In response, I picked up my right shield and stalked towards Twilight, slipping my arm through the straps and tightening them. “Well, if that’s true, then I also have nothing saying that I can’t force you to.”

I loomed over Twilight, shading her with my bulky shield. She began backing up, but she hit a thick tree before she could go too far. I leaned down over her head. “What’s to stop me from simply taking it back?”

“You- you wouldn’t- you couldn’t-!”

I reared back and pierced the tip of my shield a few hands deep into the tree above Twilight’s head. It was all I could do to not strike her.

“Try me.”

Twilight was shaking and looked about ready to cry. When she didn’t respond, I simply reached out with my free hand and yanked my greave from the air. When she didn’t respond and continued looking at my face with watery eyes, I freed my shield from the tree and turned back to the pile of my armour.

I heard Twilight sit on her haunches hard and start sniffling. I ignored her and resumed strapping on my armour, piece by piece. Once I had secured and tested each clasp and plate, I used my hand to brush my hair behind my ears and slipped the helmet on my head.

I felt complete. Putting on my armour was better than a mug of coffee to raise morale.

I turned back to the druid’s cottage, and caught sight of Twilight, still sitting and crying under that tree. That disturbed me on a primal level. I’d spent my entire adult life protecting my herd of deer from loss and sorrow and pain. These new creatures were similar enough in shape to at least merit instinctual mercy. More than that, they could talk and think, even feel. To think that I had threatened to hurt, even kill such a creature, and that I was fully prepared to follow through made me sick.

I approached Twilight slowly. She cringed and curled up into a small ball as I got closer. I stopped a few strides away and slowly sat down. We both stayed silent for a few minutes.

“I’m sorry.” I sighed. Twilight peered at me through her tears and from behind her fetlocks. “I got… Well, I frightened you. I’m sorry.”

“You… you… you were going to k-kill me.”

“No, I- Well… Maybe. I wasn’t in the right frame of mind.”

“You w-were going to k-kill me!?”

“Only if you didn’t give me back my shin-guard. Which you did. So I didn’t.”

“You were going to kill me! Over a piece of armour!”

“Yes, well, it is my armour, and you were being childish about taking it.”

“You completely overreacted!”

“No. No I did not.”

Twilight stopped her retort as it left her mouth. Instead, she let puzzlement leak through her anger and fear. “How can you possibly think that threatening to kill someone isn’t an overreaction?”

“Because this armour is all that I have. It is mine and has been mine for a long time.”

“But… couldn’t you just make some more? If it were lost or broken, I mean.”

“No. This armour is special for reasons you can’t understand.”

“But… You were going to kill me for it! I have the right to know why!”

I pinched the bridge of my nose again. At least she wasn’t cowering anymore. “It has a… a legacy, you could call it. Memories of friends and family lost.”

“Oh.” Twilight deflated in front of me. “I… I didn’t know.”

“You… didn’t?”

“Well, no. How was I supposed to? I didn’t even know you could talk before this morning!”

“It’s common knowledge that Raasinav Exile armour is stained red with the blood of his fallen herd. How could you not know that?”

“That’s stained with blood?! How can you stand to wear it?”

“Because it is the blood of my family! My family and I failed them, let them all die! I can’t ever go back to that place, and no herd will allow me to guard them. If I lose this armour, then I will have nothing, and they will be nothing!”

The vehemence in my outburst shocked Twilight. I took a deep breath and shook my head. As I did, a thought came loose.

“Wait… you didn’t know I could talk? What about your Caretaker, or any of the other people in town?”

“I don’t have a caretaker; I’m old enough to live on my own. So is almost everypony else in town.”

“You don’t have people here?”

“What’s that supposed to mean? Ponies are people, too! So are Griffons and Minotaur and Dragons and all of the other civilizations on Hasbria!”

“There’s that name again, Hasbria. What is Hasbria? How have the Corukh not heard of you yet?”

Twilight’s demeanor changed instantly, and she sat up straight. “Well, Hasbria is the world that we live on, where Princess Celestia raises-“

Oh gods she sounded like a teacher. Not a good teacher, either, the kind that just goes on and on about their topic and every sub-topic related to it. They really aren’t good at getting their students information because they just kind of tone the teacher out after a little while. Because, really, who cares about the border disputes from the Minotaur tribes?

I got the gist of what she was saying in a very roundabout manner. This land, Hasbronia or whatever, was a land that I had never even heard of before. I’d come out of the Everfree Forest into the outskirts of Ponyville, a town in the country of Equestria.

In other words, I’d gone from the Raal Forest, which I knew very well, into the Everfree Forest, which I knew nothing about. From there, I kept walking and found Ponyville.

I have walked until I could no longer find my way. And then I walked farther.

My oath to Raasinav had been fulfilled. I would no longer find the Corukh, the Steelbone deer, the Leaping wolves, the endless poachers. There was no druid living in that house, it was Fluttershy’s cottage.

I knew nothing of this place.

Something Twilight was trying and failing to remedy.

Still, there was no one there that would know of me, my people, or my order. No one that would shun me, no one that would treat me like dirt.

No one that would sympathize with those that I had failed. No one that would know that I had failed them in the first place.

No one that would object to me gathering and protecting a herd.

Wait, maybe starting or finding a herd is a bad idea. I’m just one Warden; I can’t protect an entire herd of anything. Besides, I’d have to find the god they belong to, first, and plead for recognition as a force of goodwill and protection. Maybe I could build a herd. Start with a doe and a buck, and raise generations. That could work. But what would I raise? I haven’t seen any deer around here, especially not Steelbone Deer, but I’m not going anywhere near those if I can help it. Maybe a look around the forest could turn up some potential matriarchs and alphas…

Oh, hey, Twilight had stopped talking. In fact, she was waving a hoof in front of my face.

“Hello? Equestria to creature?”

“Hmm? Huh?” I must have slipped into a lecture coma. Props to Twilight, that takes skill and effort.

“I was in the middle of explaining the Minotaur’s social ranks when you kind of zoned out.”

I think I ‘zoned out’ quite a bit before that. “Sorry, I was just thinking.”

“About?”

“Starting a herd.”

Twilight started spluttering and stammering. “E-excuse- what? S-start a herd? How would y-you even-?”

“I don’t know. I was thinking of going into that forest there to look for a matriarch and alpha to start with, I suppose.”

“What- how would that- You can’t start a herd! Aside from the social implications, there’s only one of you! Not the only male, but the only one of your kind ever!”

I cocked an eyebrow at Twilight. “…And?”

“Well, to start with, you’re probably biologically incompatible with everything on Hasbria. Plus, herds are an archaic, dead practice, abolished many years ago when…”

Gah, she’s lecturing again. I wondered what Twilight was trying to prove by reciting history at me. Also, that comment about being biologically incompatible… Wait, did she really think that I was-

I held up a hand. Twilight stopped talking and I pinched the bridge of my nose. “I think we may have a bit of a communication error here.”

“What’s there to confuse? You want to start a herd, and it’s impossible!”

“I want to start a herd, yes, but not to be in the herd.”

“I- uh, what?”

“I protect groups of animals. It’s what I do. It’s what my family and my people did. I- maybe I should make this a bit clearer.” I leaned down into Twilight’s face and increased my volume slightly. “I want. To oversee. The start of. A herd. And then. Protect it. As it. Grows. Does that make more sense?”

Twilight scowled at me. “Yes, yes, I got it. No need to do the foreign language shout, jeeze.”

“Good. Now, you seem rather knowledgeable. Do you know where I might find some things to start a herd with?”

“How about the birds? You have a head so big you could use it as a blimp.”

“Har har. No, I can’t keep a close eye on birds, and they move too much. I was thinking something four legged, probably has some sort of cranial protrusion.”

Twilight started sputtering again. “I- WHAT? I will definitely not start a herd with you, you… violent… thing! And no self-respecting Unicorn would either!”

“What are you talking-?” I drew my eyes to the horn on her forehead. “Oh. Is that what your kind is called, the Unicorn? What god do you belong to?”

“I don’t… Celestia, I suppose, but that’s not the point!”

“I know, I know, so wait, hold on. You’re a Celestia Unicorn, then? Alright, mystery solved. Moving on, that’s not what I was talking about anyway.”

“Celestia Uni- No! I’m just a Unicorn Pony! What were you talking about, then?”

“Unicorn Pony? That’s lazy; did all of your gods collaborate around here and name everything the Pony? I guess that’d be why you’d refer to your god as the descriptor, then. I was referring to deer and moose, by the way.”

“Wh- I don’t- No! We have Pegasus Ponies with wings, Unicorn Ponies with horns, and Earth Ponies with larger sizes. We are Ponies as a species, and our various races determine our physical and magical traits. And besides, the Moose have their own civilization, and the deer… well, they’re shy.”

“Yes, I got that you’re all variations on the Pony sub-species, but you were all created by different gods from the same template. The god Pegasus created the winged ones, Unicorn created the horned ones, and Earth, very uncreative name for a god, by the way, created the big ones. Besides, I know how to deal with deer. I’ve lived with them for the past couple decades.”

“That’s not how it worked at all! We’re all descended from the race of Pegacorn Ponies that were broken by the god of chaos, Discord. The closest ones we have that are even close to being Pegacorns are the Alicorn Ponies, who have been gifted with the traits of all three races, as opposed to simply being born with them. Well, if you can even find a deer, then I’ll be impressed, especially in the Everfree Forest. That place is too dangerous for deer to live in.”

“Oh, I see. Pegacorn created the Pony template with all three features, but the god was split by Discord into Unicorn, Pegasus, and Earth. To keep with tradition and universal law, they then split the Pegacorn into the three Pony races. When they didn’t work so well, Alicorn gifted a precious few with the powers of Pegacorn Ponies so that they could do the job you were supposed to have Wardens and Caretakers for. And deer are fairly capable, actually. Just you wait, I’ll find myself a doe and a buck inside of that forest and grow myself the most spectacular herd you’ve ever seen!”

“You are simply infuriating! How can you know so little about how everything came to be? I’d like to see you try finding even one herbivore in that forest!”

“You just don’t like acknowledging the fact that there are more gods that hold much more sway than your pretty little- well, little is a relative term- princess. Well, there is an overabundance of ground vegetation, I noticed. Maybe herbivorous creatures are rare in there.”

“Princess Celestia is not a goddess- so she says. And… Well, there is Zecora. She’s a Zebra that lives in the forest.”

“And Alicorn is another uncreative name. Really, named after the substance it finds in others, ridiculous. This Zecora has a name. I’m guessing she’s intelligent?”

“Yes, yes, alicorn is the substance that makes up a Unicorn’s horn, we know. The Alicorn ponies are named that because their entire skeletal structure is made up of alicorn, rather than just their horn. Yes she is. I guess you could say that Zebras are a close relative to the Ponies.”

“And also the god that gifted them this skeletal structure was named after the substance it created, obviously. And this ‘Zecora’ doesn’t count, if she’s just the product of this god, Zebra, copying the Pony template.”

“Um, you both could be right? I mean, if that’s okay with you?”

Twilight and I turned to look at Fluttershy. She seemed to have just appeared from nowhere, but it was more reasonable to believe that she had come out sometime while we were arguing. Twilight emerged from her surprise faster than I did.

“Erm… Could you repeat that, Fluttershy?”

“Um, well, you could both be right.”

I shook my head and rubbed my face with my hand. “And how would that be?”

“Well, history is written by the victors, right Twilight?”

“Well, I suppose it could be viewed that way…”

“And Discord was the victor over the Pegacorns, right?”

“Well, yes…”

“So what if he wanted to erase the mention of any god besides him?”

“That… Actually, that’s something he wouldn’t normally do, Fluttershy. He likes to gloat over his victories.”

I cut in for a moment. “Wait, this Discord, he’s the god of chaos, right?”

“Um, well, yes. In a sense.”

“Then wouldn’t it make sense if he did something nobody expected? He likes to gloat, but his victory was over a race of mortals, not a god. Who would gloat about an easy fight like that?”

“Wait, by your logic, since it made sense for him to cover up a god, wouldn’t he have kept it in history?”

That one stumped me for a moment, but luckily Fluttershy jumped in.

“Well, um, only because you’re looking at it that way. At the time he was, um, deviating from his nature. Or following it, depending on, um, on your viewpoint. Um, you can decide.”

“She has a point… I think.”

“And, if you don’t mind, Twilight, I know where the deer in the Everfree bed down. I can show… um, oh. I um, didn’t get your name. I’m sorry! I just, um, there was a lot going on. Sorry.”

Fluttershy was shying away from my gaze again. It almost looked like a turtle trying to retreat inside its shell. I sighed.

“Right, I suppose that was my fault.” I extended my open hand toward Fluttershy. “My name is Alan Dehis. Pleased to meet you, Fluttershy.”

The two ponies looked at my hand for a moment. Twilight broke the short silence.

“That’s a really odd way to hoofbump.”

“Hoofbump?”

“Well, yeah. It’s where two ponies… well, bump their hoofs together. It’s a greeting thing.”

“Well, that explains what that hallucination in the river was trying to do…”

“And, um, what is it your kind does?”

“Ah, well it’s called a hand shake. You take your hand and grasp the other person’s wrist and vigorously shake the arm up and down.”

“Ah, that sounds a bit like the Apple family’s hoofshake.”

“Okay then… So now what?”

“Well, generally pawed and clawed animals just make a fist to hoofbump.”

I curled my fingers into a fist and bumped hooves with both of the Ponies.

“Right, um, I’m Fluttershy, but you, um, already knew that.”

“I’m Twilight Sparkle, personal protégé of Princess Celestia, Element of Magic, and the Curator for the Ponyville Library.”

“Long list of titles you’ve got there. Right, Fluttershy, if you wouldn’t mind, could you… Actually, hold that thought.”

I inspected Fluttershy a little bit harder than I had when she first spoke up, but I could see that her hair and fur were no longer mussed from being carried. Rather, they held the shape of where she had slept on it. I ran a finger over my armour and a glob of viscous goo collected on my finger.

“Fluttershy, we’re a mess. Where’s the nearest river? I need to wash my armour, and you need to wash your fur.”

“Why, what’s in my fur?”

“Sap blood stuff, I would assume.”

Fluttershy’s face coloured a pale shade of green. How did she do that she had fur on her face? She swallowed a few times, and put on a timid smile.

“R-right, the… The Timberwolf sap. We should- oh Celestia it’s on my sheets.”

Fluttershy fainted.

Again.

I looked to Twilight, who looked at me.

“Timberwolf sap?”

“Yeah, got into a little scuffle with a pack of them, apparently. Ate them, too. So where’s that river so that I can wash us off?”

Twilight was looking green around the gills as well, which was an achievement because she neither had gills nor visible skin. “Uh, just down that way,” She pointed in the direction of the Everfree closer to the town. “I’ll, uh, take care of the sheets, I guess.”

“You do that. I’ll be back in a bit.” I gathered Fluttershy into my arms like I’d carry a fawn and trudged off in the direction of the river.

ΨΨΨ

Fluttershy woke up when I took some water in my hand and started splashing it on her fur. She looked around groggily for a moment until I splashed her again and started rubbing it into her fur to wash the sticky sap out of it.

Fluttershy relaxed at first, but stiffened and started struggling when I reached her wing. For whatever reason, she started flailing and I had to carefully set her down on the shore. Her wings were slightly extended and she was breathing heavily. Probably some flight or fight response to being touched on a delicate area.

I washed my armour and myself simultaneously in the middle of the stream while Fluttershy cleaned her fur nearer to the shore. Afterward, we sat on the grassy knoll, me in my leather padding with my armour nearby, drying separately, and Fluttershy with her mane in my lap as I used my fingers to pry apart knots in her mane. When that was done, I started on her tail, but she pulled away quickly, wings shuddering at her sides. Another instance of flight or fight, I supposed.

At least she was resisting the urge, rather than just bolting.

For the next few minutes, Fluttershy looked like she wanted to say something. She opened her mouth to start several times but didn’t ever utter a word. Eventually we just started cloud watching.

After a short amount of time, I stood and buckled my armour back on while Fluttershy gave me directions to a glade that deer were known to frequent, and then I started out towards the Everfree Forest. I had to cross the river we had just bathed in to reach it, and when I got to the other side, I heard a cry behind me, barely above speaking volume.

“Wait!”

I think that was the loudest I’d ever heard Fluttershy yell. I turned around and watched as she ponderously flew over the river to me. She was an oddly slow flier for such a flighty creature. She landed in front of me and planted herself squarely between me and the Everfree. It would have had a grander effect if she was bigger and actually intimidating.

“I don’t… I don’t want you to go!” She wailed softly.

“Excuse me?”

“I don’t care what my friends think! You’re a good person; you were just trying to keep me safe from them. You’re not a monster!”

I chuckled a little. “At the time, I was more trying to protect you from myself. Angel’d already set me straight about your friends. I tried apologizing, but that blue one with the rainbow mane and tail just outright charged at me.”

Fluttershy gasped. “Angel told you? You can talk to him?”

I rubbed the back of my neck. “Kind of. In a one-way, yes or no questions kind of deal.”

Fluttershy stared up into my eyes. For once. I couldn’t read her expression.

Fluttershy took a deep breath and muttered something.

“I’m sorry?”

She mumbled again, a bit louder this time.

“I can’t hear y-“

“Will you start a herd with me?”

Author's Note:

In case anyone was wondering, the little ditty that Alan used to cut the ropes?

Do doo do doo do
Mana-manam
Do doodo doot
Mana-manam
Do doo do doodo do doodo do doodo do doodo
I'm-a breaking outta these restraints.

Comments

[Fugly Duckling]

Do doo do doo do
Mana-manam
Do doodo doot
Mana-manam
Do doo do doodo do doodo do doodo do doodo
I'm-a breaking outta these restraints.

i'm going to change that for my own amusement...

[Aestroch]

2736330

Heh, bursting out into a song like that would definitely get Fluttershy to bolt out the door. It would probably get the rope-cutting job done, too.