To Avert a War

by Malozi

Chapter One

Fluttershy had no idea what the thing was that had fallen out of that tree, but she couldn't just leave it to die. The events that had been occurring within the past day had been hectic. First Twilight's crown is stolen and she has to go to an alternate world and her friends couldn't even come to help her. And now a new species of animal that wears armor and weapons like the royal guard shows up? Fluttershy just didn't know if she had made the right choice.

The rest of the girls had been waiting at the mirror for Twilight to come back but Rainbow Dash still had a job in Ponyville to tend to the weather, though some other pegasi had offered to fill in for her while she was gone. And Fluttershy still needed to make sure her animal friends were okay, especially Angel. Both Rainbow Dash and Fluttershy had promised to be back soon but with this new problem Fluttershy wasn't entirely sure what to do.

Maybe I should tell Rainbow Dash? That may or may not have been not have been a bad idea but Fluttershy was immediately distracted from making a decision when the creature groaned and muttered something unintelligible. Fluttershy made a little squeal of fear and ran out of the room and slowly looked back inside to make sure that everything was okay. It turns out the creature was just groaning, possibly while in a dream.

Fluttershy and her animal friends had brought the creature into her home about a few hours ago and had laid it onto her bed. She wasn't sure if it was male or female but she was sure that it must be female because it was so light, even Angel was able to pick up its foreleg without much trouble. At least, it looked like a leg, it had these... things on the end that certainly weren't hooves. Unfortunately, the creature was too big to fit in her bed but she had no where else that was comfortable to put it. So it just laid there on her bed with two of its legs just hanging off the edge of the bed.

Fluttershy went back to her previous problem. Should she tell Rainbow Dash and the others or not? Yet again, she did not have time to decide as the creature on her bed stirred once more. However, she seemed to be waking up. Fluttershy decided she would give her a name soon, she couldn't keep calling it 'creature' and 'thing.'

The creature moved slowly, putting one of its forelegs to its head and using the things on the end to rub her head and eyes. Fluttershy decided to approach her carefully so as not to startle the new animal.

"Um, excuse me." Fluttershy said. The creature suddenly stopped rubbing her eyes and looked at Fluttershy in shock and fear. "No, no. It's okay. I'm not going to hurt you." The creature looked at her surroundings and started touching things with the little digits on the end of its legs. It was obviously curious in its new environment.

"That's a blanket." Fluttershy said, trying to satisfy the creature's curiosity. The creature looked at the blanket it was holding and let go of it and then turned its attention towards the window. "That's a window." The creature looked back at Fluttershy and stood up... on two legs. She doesn't use those other legs to walk? How strange. Fluttershy thought. The armor the creature was wearing didn't seem entirely comfortable and looked heavy, Fluttershy wasn't entirely sure how she was able to move her even with that heavy armor on, but maybe she wasn't wearing it by choice? Maybe somepony had decided to play a mean trick on her and dressed up this poor creature in this armor and the weapons. (Fluttershy did discover that the weapons were too heavy for her to lift all at once and taken them off of her new animal friend and brought them inside separately.)

Suddenly and without warning, the creature bolted for the window with a surprising speed that belied its size. Fluttershy gasped in horror as she hoped it wasn't about to do what she thought it was going to do. "No wait! Don't jump out the window! You'll hurt yourself!" But Fluttershy was too late and the creature jumped. Fluttershy gasped in horror again and hurriedly flew to the window to make sure that her new animal was alright. As soon as Fluttershy reached the window the creature was just safely landing on the ground on both legs.

The animal looked back up and looked at Fluttershy and it still must've been scared as it started running towards the bridge. Fluttershy flew out the window to pursue her. The creature looked up at her pursuer and doubled her efforts, unfortunately it didn't take her eye off Fluttershy. Fluttershy, not wanting to have this new animal hurt herself, saw that she was about to trip on a rock. "Look out for that rock!" She called out, but her voice was entirely too soft to be heard and the creature didn't stop. Without the warning, the creature tripped on the rock and hit her head on another, larger rock. And she stopped moving.

Fluttershy nearly burst into tears as she flew to check on the animal to make sure it wasn't dead. "Oh please, please, please be okay." Fluttershy said to herself. Thankfully, her new charge was still breathing but it was unconscious again. Fluttershy picked up the creature again and carried her to her cottage once more.

Another few hours had passed again until the creature had begun to stir once again. This time, Fluttershy would make sure that the window would be locked and try not to scare the animal again so much. The creature opened her eyes and looked at the ceiling, and then around. It did the same movements as before until Fluttershy approached her again. "Hey there..." Fluttershy said, keeping her voice even more calm than it usually was. The creature stumbled out of the bed and backed away from her in fear. "Don't worry, I won't hurt you." This did little to assuage her fears, however. Fluttershy took out the bag that she had been hiding behind her back, opened it and took out one of the things that looked like food, though completely unlike any food that she had ever seen. "Here, I didn't know what to feed you but I found this and maybe it's food? You must be starving." Fluttershy held it out for the animal. The animal gingerly took it from Fluttershy's hoof. "Good girl." Fluttershy smiled.

"Meseas iges asisk? Tris asis E althora?" The creature said.

Fluttershy gasped. "You can talk?!" The creature looked at her and tilted her head in confusion. "Oh, you can't even understand me, can you?" And I can't understand her. The creature's words sounded very, very strange.

The creature looked at her with the same expression. If this creature could talk, Fluttershy could teach it some words and even get it to say her name... and maybe with enough practice get it to say its new name! (Once Fluttershy thought of one.)

Fluttershy pointed to herself. "My name is Fluttershy. Name. Fluttershy." The creature seemed to understand her to some extent because it looked slightly less confused and returned her head to its normal position.

"Flutter...shy? Flutter...shy...Fluttershy?" She struggled to say.

Fluttershy nodded her head, hoping that it was the universal sign for 'yes,' thankfully, it was. Fluttershy pointed at her new friend. "Name?" She said.

The creature looked down at the floor, not seeming to understand. Fluttershy thought for a moment and pointed to herself again. "Name?"

The creature looked up again and saw that Fluttershy was pointing at herself. "Fluttershy." It responded, seeming to know what Fluttershy wanted. Well, it seems to understand some things rather easily. Could it be possible that she doesn't even know her own name? Did she lose her memory after hitting her head so many times? Fluttershy looked at her new friend, pointed and said. "No name?" The creature shook her head. Apparently 'no' was in her language.

"I'll have to give you a name then." Fluttershy pondered for a minute. "Oh, maybe Angelica?" Her friend wrinkled, what looked like a nose, in disgust. "Okay... maybe... Virtue?" Her friend seemed to like that name and Fluttershy smiled, time to test out the new name. Fluttershy pointed at Virtue once again and said, "Name?"

"Virtue." Came the reply.

"I have a feeling we'll get along just fine." Virtue smiled, sensing Fluttershy's happiness.

The moment was interrupted by a knock on the front door. "Fluttershy! You in there? We need to get back to the Crystal Empire!" Came the familiar voice of Rainbow Dash.

Fluttershy almost forgot about Twilight and the mirror. She started walking towards to the door when she noticed that Virtue was following her. "No," She said and Virtue stopped, looking confused. "Stay." Fluttershy began walking again but Virtue followed her again. This was bad. Virtue couldn't be found out by Rainbow Dash and cause even more problems. "No, Virtue, stay here." Fluttershy said. Virtue stopped, and seemed to finally understand that she needed to remain hidden and nodded her consent and went back into Fluttershy's bedroom. Another knock on the door got Fluttershy to hurry to the door.

Rainbow Dash had been impatient, as was obvious on her expression as Fluttershy opened the door. "There you are," She said impatiently. "Come on, we need to go, Twilight could be back and we wouldn't even know it!"

"Um, okay Rainbow Dash. I just need to take care of Angel for a little bit and I'll be out in a minute, okay?"

"Fine, hurry up."

Fluttershy closed the door and hurried up to her bedroom where Virtue was waiting. "I have to go now for a while. Please stay here, okay? Nopony can see you outside so please try to stay hidden." Virtue nodded. Fluttershy gave a quick, nervous smile and ran towards the door. Fluttershy had a quick conversation with Rainbow Dash and they both took off and headed towards the Crystal Empire.

Once the man heard the door close he made sure to keep quiet and watch from the window of his new, temporary home. After a few minutes had passed and he was absolutely sure that Fluttershy and this new pony were gone he finally stood up and decided to explore the house. He had no idea how many times he had hit his head in the past day but it must've been a lot because he could barely remember anything apart from Arldon and parts of his instinctive training. He knew he now had a new name, Virtue. It may not be his real name, better than Angelica because it sounded feminine, but it was better than having no name, for the most part.

Virtue didn't trust the new pony that had appeared out of nowhere, it was someone he didn't know, or as Fluttershy had said, 'somepony' (by whatever deity or deities he may or may not have worshiped he hated not being able to understand Fluttershy) so he automatically didn't trust him or her. He also could barely understand Fluttershy, only understanding what seemed to be her name, the word 'no' and getting the gist of some other words. If it weren't for the, uh... hoof gestures and kind act of offering him food he might've attacked her in fear... and he was definitely scared right now.

Virtue looked at his situation. He was trapped in a strange world, without any way to communicate with the locals, he was living in a talking pony's house, (or was it a pegasus?) He had no idea what kind of foods he would be able to eat safely and he had no idea how long the rations in that bag would last. He had lost the vast majority of his memory and was now at the mercy of a stranger... but he was glad it was a kind stranger. So I guess that about sums it up? A voice inside his head said. Which was strange because it wasn't the voice of Arldon. Listen, I'm a new personality who just formed. I'm not entirely sure what my name is but I like the name Virtue so once we figure out your real name I want to be called Virtue. Got it? Oh and please don't ask what my purpose is because I'm not entirely sure what it is either. Virtue decided not to argue. His head hurt enough as it was. Right now it was time to explore.

Virtue went down into the living room where on the couch were his weapons. Virtue then went to the door, which was almost too small for him, and opened it. He was definitely living in a cottage and he had no idea how long he had been gone from his world. An idea came into his head. He decided to repay his rescuer. The cottage didn't look like it could stand an assault, and he remembered the moving tree and it seemed like he was close to that same forest. Virtue went back into the house to grabbed his ax and as he was walking out he spotted a bunny. The bunny gave him a strange look, he just hoped this animal wouldn't talk as well. Thankfully it didn't but the look seemed to be one that contained a hint of distrust. It probably only tolerated his presence because Fluttershy had brought him in. This bunny was probably an intelligent pet so he decided not to kill it as it continued its stare. Now that he thought about it, he was also pretty sure that Fluttershy thought he was a female... fantastic.

Virtue hefted the ax on his shoulder and went outside and closed the door. He scanned the area and decided how many trees he would need. Once he was satisfied with his calculations he decided to go deep into the forest to chop down some trees. Deep into the forest so that no one would see him, and he was pretty sure that the word 'stay' Fluttershy had used meant for him to not follow her and remain hidden. He hoped no one would notice his work around the cottage and come and try to discover who was behind it. He decided that his training must've included building fortifications. Alright, time to fortify this cottage and make it safe. Fluttershy will be so happy.