Chapter Twenty-Three: Eversoft
The End of Ponies
by shortskirtsandexplosions
Chapter Twenty-Three – Eversoft
Special thanks to Vimbert for Editing
Extra Special Thanks to Valhalla-Studios for Cover Art
“Well, why don't you just train her not to throw stuff at guests?” young Scootaloo mumbled while plucking a few pillow feathers from her violet mane.
“Oh, I try and I try and I try.” Fluttershy paused in filling a trough full of food. She trotted over and plucked the last traces of Angel's wrath out of the disheveled eight-year-old's hair. In the center of the hay-strewn manger, the two pegasi stood, surrounded by a halo of various tiny livestock. The thick afternoon rain pelted the wooden rooftop and cascaded in droves off several rusted gutters flanking the open enclosure. “Angel came from a neglectful home, you see. His previous owners were known to shout at their animals and utterly forget feeding time.”
“Sounds like you're just making excuses for the world's next treacherous dictator.” Scootaloo stuck a tongue out. “I think you need to tan her hide some, Fluttershy.”
“Tan her hide?!” Fluttershy blanched as if a plague had just filled the air.
“Yeah! Y'know; roll up an issue of Equestria Daily and give Angel's fanny a taste of the Nightly Roundup, if y'know what I mean.” She gave a proud and mischievous chuckle.
“Scootaloo, if that's how your parents deliver punishment, then I am not one to judge you.” Fluttershy tossed her pink mane and stepped back towards the trough, grabbing a bag and refilling it as a half-dozen pigs hoofed up to mince through the sudden bounty. “But I prefer to use positive reinforcement when fostering such animals as Angel. When he does something I approve of, I give him a carrot. When he does something inappropriate, I take him aside and explain heart-to-heart what he must do to improve himself.”
“Are we talking about a bunny rabbit or a mayoral candidate?” Scootaloo frowned. “Fluttershy, he's a walking disaster area! I know you're good with animals, but there are some things in this world that are smart enough to... to take advantage of somepony who's as nice and kind as you.” She bit her lip and shuffled a bit where she was leaning against a wooden crossbeam of the manger. “I hate to think of anything treating you wrong, Fluttershy.”
“Awwwww...” The yellow pegasus grinned softly while pouring a jar of milk into a saucer. Several domestic cats scampered in from the far corners of the rain-pelted manger and lapped at the fresh bounty, purring mutually. “I'm glad that you care about me so, Scootaloo. But you need not worry. I rightfully know that Angel is a hoof-ful. You see, I've dealt with far moodier creatures before. Take Rarity's... erm... remarkable specimen, Opalescence, for example. The first day I houseat the pet, she nearly tore my mane to shreds. But with enough patience and gentle persuasion, I was able to temper her mood into something much more agreeable.”
“And if all else failed, you gave her the stare, right?” Scootaloo grinned a crescent moon while widening her left eye with emphasis.
“Oh! No!” Fluttershy nearly tripped over the head of lettuce she was nudging towards a stable of bleating goats. “I would never use that on Opalescence! Or Angel for that matter!”
“But it's sooooo awesommme!” Scootaloo grinned, her voice chirping above the distant rumbles of thunder that shook the wet edges of the Everfree Forest. “Why don't you use it more often? It gets the job done, right?”
“I... I'm not very proud of the stare.” Fluttershy hid deflatedly behind a pink lock as she shuffled towards the far edge of the manger. “In all honesty, I wish I had never discovered it.”
“You use it on the chickens all the time.”
“Yes, but chickens are incredibly difficult to corral.”
“Tell me about it.” Scootaloo leaned up against a wooden pillar and gazed at the sheets of rain billowing down across the bent grass and glistening bushes of the landscape surrounding the quaint cottage. The world danced and shook through a refracted haze of moisture, baptising the scene with a cool mist that forced gasping breaths from the ponies' lungs. The orange foal ran a foreleg through her wet hair, then paused to blink at her hoof, remembering the mud that had briefly stained the offensive limb several minutes ago. A brief surge of guilt wafted through her, and her violet eyes flickered from a cottage atrium to a field of white stones to an abandoned barn under starlight. “Fluttershy?” the foal whimpered.
“Mmm? Yes, Scootaloo?”
“When you found your cutie mark...” Scootaloo swallowed hard. “Were you alone?”
“Alone?” Fluttershy glanced up from where she was pouring a bag of feed before a wide array of sheltered birdhouses. “Well, no, not quite. I was surrounded by all sorts of adorable animals. If it weren't for them, I would never have discovered my talent for speaking with them.”
“You can talk to all animals?”
Fluttershy chuckled breathily. “Most of them,” she said. “In reality, all animals are capable of understanding Celestial Tongue. I think it's on account of Gultophine's breath providing animation to all living things, regardless of species. If you just stop, stay calm, and reach out to any animal, even the most remarkable of connections can be made. You could talk to birds, to butterflies, to owls—You could even talk to manticores and Ursa Majors—”
“You could talk to an Ursa Major?!” Scootaloo balked.
“Hmmm...” Fluttershy blushed, biting her lip. “I wouldn't suggest trying it. That takes an advanced degree of zoological connection.”
“Like what you've got, right?” Scootaloo winked.
“I wouldn't go that far.”
“Still, your talent is so awesome, Fluttershy.” Scootaloo smiled. But slowly, the smile faded. “You should be proud. Really, you should.”
Fluttershy raised an eyebrow at that. She smiled and put down the last bag of seed before slowly trotting over and standing before the foal. “I'm sure you too will be proud to find your talent when your cutie mark comes to you.”
“I don't know.” Scootaloo shifted her lower hooves into the dirt and straw of the manger. “Can cutie marks come to you when you're alone?”
“Why do you think you'll be alone, Scootaloo?”
“Isn't everypony alone, when you really think about it?”
Fluttershy giggled curiously. “What gives you that idea? I told you that I discovered my talent when I was surrounded by such adorable animals, yes? I hardly call that lonely, Scootaloo.”
“But... But...” Scootaloo sighed, her eyes falling shut. A pause, and she gazed up sadly at the adult filly. “When was the last time you invited a pony over to visit you, Fluttershy?”
“Well, just yesterday, I finished conducting business with—”
“I mean a pony you know. One of your friends.”
The mare blinked at that. “Uhm... I... I suppose sometime two weeks ago I had Twilight Sparkle over for tea...”
“Two weeks?!” Scootaloo made a face. “Fluttershy, you hardly see anypony ever!”
“I... I see my friends...” Fluttershy stirred nervously all of the sudden, avoiding Scootaloo's solid gaze. “When I can, I meet up with them... from time to time...”
“Fluttershy, am I the only pony who notices this?” the foal murmured, swallowing a lump down her throat. “You're a very, very talented pony. Sure, Applejack is good at farming apples n'stuff, but that's something that runs in her family. Rarity is always makin' dresses and other frilly things, but she and Sweetie Belle live in a fancy boutique that has all that they need. Twilight Sparkle is really good at magic, but she's also seeing the Princess an awful lot—”
“Where are you... uhm... Where are you going with this, Scootaloo?”
“You are talented just because, Fluttershy. But... you're so alone.” Scootaloo chewed briefly on the corner of her lips. “Every time I see you, you're by yourself. And it makes me wonder... will I have to be alone in order to be really talented at what I get a cutie mark for?”
“Oh Scootaloo.” Fluttershy gave a painted smile and swiftly bent down to nuzzle her. “You worry too much—”
“I mean it, Fluttershy!” Scootaloo jerked away from her with a frown. She hated doing it: like ripping her flesh from a sheet of silk. “It's really bugging me lately! I... I...” She took a deep breath and shuddered against the echo of the surrounding rain. “I am beginning to think that I don't want to get a cutie mark. Ever.”
Fluttershy's blue eyes twitched at that. “You don't?” Another blink. “You don't?”
“I know, I know,” Scootaloo grumbled, frowning her foalish face towards the far reaches of the manger as she folded her upper hooves. “I, Scootaloo, Cutie Mark Crusader and lead singer at the Ponyville School Talent Show, don't know if I want one anymore.”
“That... That's certainly interesting.” Fluttershy squinted her eyes. She cleared her throat and murmured: “Have you... erm... have you shared this with the rest of your... with the rest of your—”
“Crusaders?” Scootaloo grunted. “No... No, Fluttershy. But... well...” She bit her lip, shuffled up, and paced across the straw of the manger. “I haven't... actually seen them all that much lately. And it's more than the fact that Apple Bloom's sick or at school, or that Sweetie Belle is always doing lessons with Rarity. The Crusaders just... just aren't what they used to be. Nopony but us three would be the wiser, and even then I don't think Apple Bloom and Sweetie Belle see it as I do. We hardly ever hang out at the Sweet Apple Acres clubhouse anymore.”
“Well, I suppose some of that can be understandable—” Fluttershy started.
Scootaloo spun, suddenly exclaiming, “And it's not like we've given up hope on finding ourselves n'stuff! We still have fun when we get together! We still meet up at Sugarcube Corner and whatnot! But... But...”
“But what, Scootaloo?”
The foal sighed and slumped down on folded hooves once more. She dug her muzzle towards the earth, murmuring, “I don't think Apple Bloom and Sweetie Belle realize this, but we're not going to find our cutie marks. Not together.”
“And what makes you say that?”
“Because...” Scootaloo shuddered. “A cutie mark is something special between a pony and her talent. That's just not something you can share. I think a pony has to—I dunno—be quiet and look at herself against the rest of the world and figure it all out from there. You can't do any of that in a group. The only time a pony realizes who she is—is when she's alone.”
“If that's true, Scootaloo, then why did you join the Cutie Mark Crusaders in the first place?”
“I...” The foal lingered. She gazed weakly out into the rain, wishing it could drench her, camouflage her for what was coming next. A stifled whimper broke through. “I-I don't like being alone, Fluttershy.” She wrenched her face away from the heavens—away from Fluttershy, as the gray world beyond the rain refracted twice over, encompassing her moist vision. “I really don't.” A dry gulp. “But... But now I'm realizing that... that I have to be alone, if I wanna find myself. I really do.” It took every ounce of blood ever pumped through her young system not to allow a sniffle to alight the drowning air of the manger.
There was a soft padding of hooves. A silken warmth huddled down besides the tiny foal as a voice of haunting, melodic tonality settled down onto her twitching ears. “Scootaloo, you are a very... very mature filly.”
The foal gasped. She braved a twinkling look up at the mare, her face caught between being hurt and proud at the same time. “I am?”
“Mmmmhmmm.” Fluttershy gently nodded. Her face was like a platinum halo in the wet center of Scootaloo's vision. She smiled. “I've always thought so. I've seen it every time I've witnessed the three of you together, under Rarity's care or my own.”
“But...” Scootaloo bit her lip, her mind reflecting a shattered blue table and a muddied floor. “I'm always doing practical jokes and breaking stuff. Oh Fluttershy, please don't just say things to make me feel better—”
“I only ever say that which I believe.” Fluttershy flung a pink strand of hair aside so she could look at the little foal more clearly. “The silly things you do—you do them to make the other Crusaders happy. Why is that, Scootaloo? I know why. It's because you're the ringleader of the group.”
The foal blinked. “I am?” she repeated in a cute chirp.
“Heeheehee...” Fluttershy shut her eyes briefly in a giggle. “Mmm... Yes. Don't look so surprised. Apple Bloom and Sweetie Belle may not admit it, but ever since the three of you met at Diamond Tiara's party at Sugarcube Corner, it's you who have been leading the pack. Everypony sees you with the wagon, carrying your two friends all across Ponyville and the Acres beyond. I'm quite convinced that there would be no Crusaders if there was no Scootaloo to give it energy and joy.”
“But... But the Crusaders' name was Apple Bloom's idea!”
“A name is a name, but substance is something else entirely.” Fluttershy gently laid a hoof over Scootaloo's front forelegs. “The other girls see the Crusaders as a means to an end. But I think you've always seen it as something else, something that it truly is. And that's another outlet for their needs, Scootaloo. Apple Bloom has always depended on Applejack and Sweetie Belle has always depended on Rarity. With the Crusaders, they've found somepony else that they can depend on, and have fun with at the same time. It's a delightful niche you've filled, if I may say so.”
“Fluttershy...” Scootaloo gulped anxiously. “Who do I depend on?”
“Isn't it obvious?”
Scootaloo wasn't ready for that response. She wilted slightly, as if expecting a great spotlight to burn her soul out from under her skin. To her relief, Fluttershy's smile was just as soft and innocent as ever. She sighed and slipped out from under the drenched weight of the moment while murmuring towards the corners of the manger, “I don't look forward to the day when Apple Bloom and Sweetie Belle realize that the Crusaders will find what they've always wanted... by no longer being crusaders.”
“I agree that everypony must be alone with her talent to properly understand it,” Fluttershy said. “But that doesn't mean everypony must be alone completely.” She tilted her head softly aside and narrowed her blue eyes. “Talent is not all there is to being a pony, Scootaloo. There is joy, friendship, and magic too. But most of all”—she smiled angelically—“there is kindness, or at least that is what I'm convinced of. And you have a lot more of that than I bet you're willing to give credit to. Apple Bloom and Sweetie Belle are blessed to have you in their lives, and they will continue to be blessed, even if you must stop being crusaders.”
“When you found your cutie mark, you stopped being a Cloudsdalian citizen, right, Fluttershy?”
“Mmmm... In a manner of speaking, yes.”
Scootaloo's eyes curved. “Do you feel, blessed?”
Fluttershy lingered. She looked into Scootaloo's face, saw past it, and ultimately resorted to saying, “I'm not nearly as alone as you think I am, Scootaloo.”
“But Fluttershy, it looks like you always are!”
“I know what things look like,” the yellow pegasus murmured. She gazed aside into the shadows. “And I also know what it feels like.” A gentle smile slowly, slowly blossomed. “But... I would never change my life for an instant.” Her voice was like a melodic brook, rippling around the lengths of Scootaloo's ears. “I am so... so very happy. I truly am. That's the thing about ponies: every one of us is different, and we each use our talents to honor the ones we care about in our own ways. It's just like how you use your talents to honor the Crusaders; I use mine to honor all of my animal friends.”
Scootaloo squinted. “But earlier today at the pond, I thought you said that you believed honoring our talents was all about what it means to our families.”
Fluttershy opened her mouth to retort—but stopped short with a blinking expression. “Mmmm. Oh... I guess I did imply that, didn't I?” She gazed in a dizzy haze towards the manger floor. “Oh dear...”
The two pegasi sat in folded silence, surrounded by rain, lost to their suddenly mutual shadows. It was Scootaloo who broke the silence, shuffling over to nuzzle Fluttershy in such a warm way that it startled the adult mare.
“I'll visit you, Fluttershy,” Scootaloo murmured into her silken coat. “I'll make sure you're not so alone, even if you think you're not.” She gazed up with glistening, violet eyes. “That is... if you'll let me?”
A warmth lit Fluttershy's face that hadn't been there for days. She couldn't even begin to hide it. Instead, she smiled, and in a vulnerably quiet voice she nuzzled the foal back and whispered, “I would love that, Scootaloo. Truly, I would.”
“Hmmm...” Scootaloo basked in the golden warmth dripping from Fluttershy's vocal cords. And then she said, “Until this friggin' rain stops trying to flush us out, anyway.”
“Heeheehee... Indeed.”
Scootaloo smiled happily. There was a sound at the back of the manger. She turned around...
...and squinted quizzically at the little gray unicorn. “What the heck are you yapping on about this time, kid?” Harmony raised a curious eyebrow above her amber eyes.
“Ivory Nematoads,” Dinky chirped. She sat on a wooden beam flanking the manger, her lower legs dangling while Fluttershy and Harmony were busily pouring bags of feed into nearby troughs. “They're very sensitive to bright lights, which is why they always stay underground in moist piles of dirt. A lot of ponies think that quicksand happens incidentally throughout the lengths of the Everfree Forest, when, as a matter of fact, the loose earth is a result of gigantic amphibian creatures burrowing through so much groundsoil.”
“She is mostly accurate.” Fluttershy smiled gently while tossing seed towards a clucking cluster of chickens. “Albeit, some nematoads aren't so much sensitive to light as they are outright vulnerable to epidermal burns on account of their pale pigmentation.”
“As much as I love getting this biology lesson in stereo...” Harmony tossed her amber-streaked mane and shook more feed into a trough before nearly tripping over a stampede of swine. “Nnngh... Ahem... I came here to learn more about your job, Miss Fluttershy. I'm sure the live almanac dictation can wait for a spell.”
“But there have been eleven recorded run-ins with giant Ivory Nematoads in the past decade alone!” Dinky leaned her blonde-and-horned head to the side, kicking her lower legs as she educatedly murmured: “And two of those instances resulted in severe skin poisoning from direct contact with the creature's mucous glands—”
“Kid—Has anypony ever told you that ponydom invented books in order to keep long and boring factoids on paper?”
“On the contrary, Miss Harmony, I invite you to encourage young Miss Dinky. She's something of a prodigy in Ponyville.”
“Jee, I had no idea.”
“No doubt she would outscore every other foal in Ms. Cheerilee's class if she was enrolled there.”
Harmony squinted at Fluttershy's statement, then gazed over at the tiny unicorn, studying her at an angle. “You mean to say she's not at school?”
“I am homeschooled.” Dinky suddenly frowned, her petite horn waving like a distant dagger above furrowed eyebrows. “And Mother says it's not nice to talk about others in the third-pony. There are more living things in this world who can't see well than those who can't hear well.”
“Yeesh. No offense intended!” Harmony rolled her amber eyes before helping Fluttershy fill another trough above a cacophony of clucks and squeals. “I just meant to say that you seem old enough, not to mention smart enough to be attending classrooms already.”
“I'm tutored by lesson plans,” the blonde child matter-of-factly explained in a droning voice. “When I'm not being babysat by Fluttershy or studying at home, Mother takes me to the library. The Ponyville Education System has a literature program for young learning foals. I'm about two volumes ahead.”
“Your mom isn't working you too hard, is she?”
“No'm. I was just bored, so I read my way to the higher levels.” Dinky blinked then smiled. “Did you know that the distant town of Dredgemane has the highest known count of petrified elemental stones found in Equestria? For every hundred kilograms of rock excavated from Dredgemane quarries, there are approximately ten to fifteen separate nodes enchanted with magical essence. The only other known place to contain so much elemental concentration is the moon.”
“Heh...” Harmony smirked helplessly. “If this is what homeschool does to young fillies these days, no wonder Sweetie Belle is such a friggin' dictionary.”
Fluttershy glanced over. “Oh? You're familiar with Rarity's family?”
Harmony blinked. A red hue blistered beneath her copper cheeks as she expected the green world of the past to shatter right then and there. “I... erm... I suppose you could say that I've delivered a shipment or two to the Carousel Boutique, yes.”
“How recently?” Fluttershy stood up and stared Harmony in the face with sudden earnesty. “Do you know if Rarity is doing well?”
Harmony's eyes twitched. “I... uhhh... I haven't been issued a delivery order from Canterlot in a while. I can't say that I've seen them recently.” She cleared her throat and reflected amber sincerity back at the yellow pegasus. “Why? Is there something wrong with Ponyville's famed seamstress?”
“I... I wouldn't know.” Fluttershy deflated with a dull sigh and returned to feeding a pair of bleating goats. “I have not heard from her in a while. The last I was told, she was riding around Equestria in a chariot pulled by some quietly-spoken servant named 'Anastasia.' It's strange not to see Rarity on a weekly basis. For an entire year, we did absolutely everything together. She is... my very best friend.” A rosy blush formed, carried aloft by a happy thought, and then the caretaker's yellow coat paled once again. “But it is almost as if she suddenly does not exist.”
“You mean she's missing every time you venture into Ponyville?”
“Erm, not quite.” Fluttershy smiled sheepishly. “In actuality, it has always been Rarity who initiated our visitations. She just... uhm... she hasn't invited me to do anything in a long while...”
“Then why don't you go and visit her for a change, Miss Fluttershy?” The time traveler helplessly smiled. “I'm sure she'd be positively ecstatic to have her best friend pay her a visit.”
“Oh, no. I couldn't do that.”
“Pfft! Why not?”
“It would seem awfully intrusive.”
“Not when you're friends! Isn't that the whole point of being companions, Miss Fluttershy?”
“In a recent survey at the end of the Third Age,” Dinky stated, “It was calculated that the average Equestrian pony has approximately four separate and unrelated acquaintances, with the lower percentile falling into the affluent ranks of the upper Canterlotlian Elite.”
Harmony rolled her eyes, ignored the child, and further murmured towards Fluttershy, “Everypony lives a busy life. But it's not so bad to have a soul from outside drop in from time to time, even if it is intrusive. Without unexpectedly nice things like that, what would be the point in living to begin with?”
“Even if I wanted to,” Fluttershy spoke under a wilted breath, “I am far too exceedingly busy with the task Captain Redgale has laid before me, much less the regular tasks of the day.” She paused to steal a glance towards the tiny unicorn in the back of the manger. She smiled sweetly and looked at the copper pegasus. “Besides, some delightful things are worth being busy for.”
“I'll take your word for it,” Harmony muttered, pacing past the animal tamer's flank. “You gotta realize that I'm making this observation for a report to Princess Celestia. If there's anypony in Equestria who neverceasingly argues for friendship, Her Majesty's the one.”
“Have you met Princess Celestia, Miss Harmony?”
“I... erm...” Harmony blinked. Her gray mind flickered with the golden threads of thousands upon thousands of words, pages upon pages of gorgeous royal calligraphy under flickering lanternlight, and yet she never actually knew the divine voice with which to read all of them in.
“I must say that I have.” Fluttershy finished for her. “Yes, she is always a firm believer in friendship, but the day that she insists that labor be put aside for other necessities is the day I lock my doors, because it will mean that Nightmare Moon or something else horrible has returned to put a spell on our faithful ruler.”
“I think you've been barked at by this Captain Redgale a little too much.” Harmony looked at her with an amused smirk. “To your discredit, Miss Fluttershy, you sound horribly adorable when you try to be morose.”
“Oh dear, I truly do not know how to respond to that.” Fluttershy pensively shuffled away and reached for a glass jar of milk. She struggled with weak limbs to twist the cap loose. “Nnnngh... Hnnnghh... Ohhh—This bothersome jar!”
“Here, let me,” Harmony said. Her Entropan projection lurched over, took the jar from Fluttershy, and effortlessly opened it. The very moment the cap came off, she heard meowing noises, and she froze. Her heart was beat-beat-beating hard.
“Do you know what to do with that, Miss Harmony?”
“Yes.” The visitor's eyes blinked and a black mane hung in an amber-streaked slump. “I believe I do.” In a zombified lurch, Harmony walked across the manger and poured the white liquid into a tiny saucer. A haunting array of twitching tails announced a cluster of domestic cats that had formed a furry ring around the plate, mewling and lapping greedily. A ring of purs; and Harmony felt her chest about to burst. In a blink of green flame, she saw a misty haze crossing over the world. There was distant thunder, like a steady downpour of afternoon rain drenching the landscape in a refracted gloom that echoed the voice of a little orange foal, unsure of herself, until a silken warmth suddenly nuzzled her—
Harmony snapped out of it, eyes twitching wide.
Fluttershy bounced back, startled. Nevertheless, she gulped and murmured, “Miss Harmony, are you okay? It looked like you were blacking out again, just like you did in the kitchen earlier.”
“I... I...” Harmony took a shuddering breath. She tried smiling, but only grimaced. She glanced at the half-empty milk bottle, at her trembling hooves, then at Fluttershy.
Fluttershy gently nodded.
A cough, a nod, and Harmony took a swig of the milk. Gulping, she exhaled hard, and calmed her rattling knees to a molasses slouch. “Whew... Does a pony good, y'know?”
“Are you sure you're fit to be of assistance to me, Miss Harmony? I doubt Princess Celestia would be too harsh on you if you took some rest before accomplishing your mission. I know Captain Redgale only wants me at the best of my abilities.”
“Oh, Miss Fluttershy...” Harmony chuckled helplessly, planted the milk jar on a nearby wooden beam, and stood with a confident swagger. “I was born ready to be your faithful observer this week! And if I'm lying, may Princess Nebula strike me from the heavens!”
“D-D-D-D-Dinky, I'm here!” A voice stuttered from beyond the nether.
Harmony blinked skyward. “H-Huh—?” Her voice left her like a four-course meal hovering above a tablecloth that had been viciously yanked out from underneath. In a catastrophic blink, a gray winged body slammed into her, plowed her through two bails of hay, and sent her sprawling into several bags of spilled oats piled under a settling sneeze of manger dust. Harmony winced and struggled to get up, only there was an offensively heavy weight—a living weight—seated on top of her. Painfully, she craned her black mane to see who it was, but all she saw were bubbles, gray coat, and more bubbles.
“Huhhh...” A low, feminine voice rang across the wooden rafters of the place. “The manger feels a lot squishier than I remember!”
“Hello, Mother!” The upside-down image of Dinky beamed and squatted on the edge of her wooden beam. “We were just talking about Pale Nematoads and Friendship!”
“Oh really? Funny, those are t-t-t-t-two things that I know nothing about! C'mere, Muffin!”
“Heeee!” Dinky happily flew, and suddenly the weight atop Harmony doubled. The copper pegasus wheezed, her amber eyes bulging. “Did you have a good workday, mother?”
“I delivered enough letters to give Equestria a paper bath! At least I hope so; my bag is empty!”
“Snkkkt—Hello, anypony?” Harmony hissed and squirmed. “I seem to have been squashed by a skipping record made of lead. Care to lend a hoof?”
“Whoah! Muffin, listen! T-t-t-t-talking oats!”
“Uhm...” The upside down, silken face of Fluttershy entered into view. “Miss Hooves? If you don't mind, you're sitting on my guest. She's from the Royal Court of Canterlot, and she's not a chair.”
“Oh!” The body gasped and shifted atop Harmony. The bubbles disappeared and the time traveler could suddenly breathe again. “My bad! Sorry, Mister Squirrel!”
“'Squirrel?'” the time traveler flicked her black tail and sat up, frowning. Then a firmer frown. “'Mister?'”
“Mother, the Latter Third Age Zoological Report states that Tropical Island Capybaras are the largest known form of rodentia, and we're too far away from the sentient populace of St. Petersbrittle.”
“Hah! St. Petersbrittle! I have a sister there!”
“No, Mother. Aunt Ditzblinka lives in Marescow.”
“Oh right! Heheh... So she does.” A gray hoof rubbed the unicorn's blonde mane. “Have I mentioned that I love that horned br-br-br-br-brain of yours?”
“All the time, Mother. Heeheehee!” Dinky turned rosy in sudden, toasty jubilation.
Fluttershy shuffled over and helped a dizzy Harmony to her feet. “Miss Harmony, I believe you have just met a good friend of mine: Miss Hooves.”
“Yeah, uh, did she get that name from her first foalday or a puppy trampling competition?” Harmony shook her snout, tossed the invisible cobwebs out her ringing ears, and exhaled painfully. In a forced breath of politeness, she smiled calmly the stranger's way. “Whatever. It's a pleasure meeting a fellow friend of Fluttershyyyyyyy-Yaaak!” Harmony recoiled, hissing through her teeth.
Cradling Dinky and seated awkwardly on her haunches was a gray pegasus with a cockeyed grin. She wasn't looking at Harmony, but rather she was looking towards the roof of the manger... or she was looking at the floor of the manger... or she was looking at the sky and looking at the ground... or... or...
Harmony blinked wide. She tilted her head up and tried centering her reflection in the mare's eyes, only to experience her body suddenly swimming figure eights until she too fell back dizzily on her rump. “Uhmmm...”
“Don't worry, they won't g-g-g-g-go off.” The wall-eyed pegasus' smile was an ambient thing, swimming around the room in a wide beam to rise the hairs on the back of Harmony's Entropan neck. “Though they sometimes point me in the wrong flight pattern. I apologize again, Mister Squirrel.” She stuck her hoof out half a meter to Harmony's left.
Harmony squinted, bit her lip, and slowly, awkwardly stretched to the side to shake the misguided limb. “Well, nopony's hurt. Maybe next time you could give a proper warning before—”
“Oh! I just remembered, Dinky!” Miss Hooves suddenly gasped, yanking her hoof away so hard that Harmony pratfalled once more to the manger floor. The jubilant gray pegasus held Dinky out in front of her and chirped, “Miss Sparkle gave me another book that you will just love!”
“Did she?!”
“Mmmmhmm! Feast your horn!” The pegasus planted Dinky onto a bale of hay and rummaged through a leather mailbag hanging from her gray flank. She produced a thick leather-bound book and hung the thing upside-down. “Ta-daaaaa! My dear-dear Muffin, it's full of stars!”
“Oh Mother.” Dinky rolled her eyes with a smile. With blonde hair flailing, she spun until she was lying upside down with her head hanging off the bail of hay. From there, she effortlessly read the title with joyous little foal eyes. “Oooooh! 'A Young Unicorn's Guide for Astronomy!'”
“M-M-M-M-Miss Sparkle says that it's not a a children's book! She says it's made for older, smarter fillies! She says it's for the interm-m-m... for the interm-m-m-m-m... for the intermmmmmm—”
“'Intermediary Classes,' Mother.” Dinky smiled. “And it's just perfect! I've been wanting to know more about the heavenly bodies.”
“You're my little heavenly body, Muffin!” Derpy shut her wayward eyes and hid an ecstatic smile behind the upside-down book. “Hehehehe—Your Mommy made a funny!”
“You sure did! Heeheehee!” Dinky smiled, reverse-somersaulted off the bale of hay, and nuzzled her mother's thighs. “Thank you very much, Mother. I'll read it as soon as I can.”
Harmony once more stood up with the gently guiding hoof of Fluttershy. “For the love of Celestia, did I just wake up to the Concussion Convention?”
“Mmmm...” Fluttershy murmured, smiling softly at the two gray ponies, young and old. “You may call it what you wish. But I think it is precious.”
“You think a lot of things are precious, Miss Fluttershy,” Harmony grumbled as she stood evenly on four hooves once again. “Does half of them have to hurt my head so much?”
“Angel is the product of my own strengths and weaknesses,” Fluttershy spoke aside, then motioned towards the two ponies. “But, like you, I am only an observer to this.”
“Wait...” Harmony blinked. With amber eyes, she squinted at Dinky's horn, then at Miss Hooves' wings, then at Miss Hooves' solid forehead, then at Dinky's horn again. “Did Dinky just call her 'Mother'—like—a billion times just now?”
“Mmmmhmmm... Yes. Yes she did.”
Harmony's eyes went briefly in the direction opposite of the mailpony's. “I think something in my brain just broke.”
“Oh really? Do you need to see Nurse Red Heart?”
“Jokes, Miss Fluttershy. They exist, remember?”
“I want to thank you again for t-t-t-t-taking care of Dinky, Fluttershy.” The mailmare trotted over. The tiny foal was sitting on her back, already hoofing through the pages of the astronomy book and gazing with wide yellow eyes at the bounty of contents flowing into her bobbing cranium. “I wouldn't be able to make my routes if I always had to worry about her wher... her wh-wh-wh-wherea...”
“'Whereabouts,' Mother.”
“Yes. Those. Heeheehee...I wish all ponies were as kind as you.”
Fluttershy smiled. She stood placidly in the warm immediacy between the mare's wandering eyes. “Kindness goes around in a circle, Derpy. Your daughter is a joy to be around. I couldn't be happier taking care of anypony else.”
“Wait.” Harmony pointed with a shuddering hoof. “You mean this is Derpy?! This is Ponyville's mailpony?!”
“You've heard of me?” The mare smiled towards the floor and ceiling around Harmony.
The time traveler sweated. “I... uhm... I've heard of the several holes you made in Ms. Cheerilee's schoolhouse.”
“Oh... Uhm... Eheheh.” Derpy bowed her blonde head and dug a hoof shyly in the straw-laden floor of the manger. “Yes. I sure do feel awfully bad about that. If it pleases the Royal Court of Canterlot, I've done a g-g-g-good share of community service over the years to make up for it.”
Harmony chuckled dryly and was about to say something—when Fluttershy was suddenly standing in the obstructed path of the time traveler's scoffing voice. “And we're sure that Princess Celestia is most pleased with your efforts, Derpy.” The yellow pegasus cast a glance over her pink mane and emphatically caught Harmony's gaze as she continued, “Especially since you improved on the schoolbuilding's architecture in the long run.”
Harmony raised an eyebrow. She gazed past Fluttershy and stared once more at Derpy and Dinky, studying their identically gray coats and yellow pupils, colors that fused the young and old pony impossibly together while they were still so vastly different, like a certain mailpony's eyes, drawing an imperceivable wedge between the young horn and aged wings.
“All we can ever hope to do is learn and get smarter, isn't that right, Muffin?”
“According to this, Mother,” Dinky was already quoting from an article in the center of the book, “Ponymonium was the reason for the dark shadow that formed the Mare-in-the-Moon, on account of the corruptible art of runescaping that was used to forge the lunar fortress several hundred years ago!”
“Heeheehee...” Derpy's gray cheeks turned rozy as she looked at, past, and around Fluttershy. “She will be up all night if I let her.”
“We've talked about this, Miss Hooves.” Fluttershy smiled. “'Early to bed, early to rise--'”
“'—makes a mare healthy, wealthy, and wise'!” Derpy beamed. “How I d-d-d-do love me some Ben Flankless!”
“Flanklin, Mother.”
“Hehehe—There she goes again! Same time tomorrow, Fluttershy?”
“Absolutely, Miss Hooves.”
“You sure it's not a bother? You look like you have company...”
“It's something we'll be working on overnight.” Fluttershy smiled. “I'm never too busy to look after your darling daughter.”
Harmony blinked. With a stifled grunt, she made to protest—but Fluttershy's pink tail was in her way.
“Super!” Derpy turned and winked diagonally towards the foal. “Okay, muffin! We gotta g-g-g-g-go home. Say bye to Miss Fluttershy!”
“So long, Miss Fluttershy! Thanks for taking care of me today!”
“So long, Dinky.” Fluttershy trotted over and nuzzled the horned foal. “Be kind to the world and the world will be kind to you.”
“I promise!”
“Hop into the happy seat, Muffin!”
Instinctually, the foal leaped, slid into the leftmost pocket of Miss Hooves' mailbag, and produced a petite helmet from the other pouch. Fastening the headpiece to her skull, her tiny horn sticking out of an upper cleft, she zipped the lip of the bag tight around herself and tapped her mother's flank with a tiny hoof. “Ready for takeoff!”
“P-p-p-pilot to navigator!”
“Contact!”
“Up up and away—Whoah! Hello, there ceiling, ahem—There we go! Wooo!” Derpy soared away from the manger as the helmeted foal waved from behind.
“Heeheehee! So long!”
“So long, Miss Hooves!”
“Have a good evening Miss Fluttershy, Mister Squirrel!”
In the echoing ring of their absence, a thoroughly headachy Harmony stumbled up to the edge of the manger and gazed skyward. Her eyes narrowed on the distant gray shadow of the conjoined ponies soaring eastward... and towards the multicolored haze of Ponyville beyond.
“You think they'll make it home safely without crashing into other squirrels?”
“She's careful to avoid rodents when Dinky's riding with her.”
Harmony bit her lip. “Why does that not make me any less freaked out?”
“Our concerns aren't at the center of the issue.” Fluttershy shrugged and went about straightening the spilled bags of oats from the gray pegasus' entrance. “A mother's love is the best gauge for any pilot, I think.”
“Heh, if you say so.” The last pony smirked as the lonely dashboard of the Harmony briefly flickered before her. She turned around and motioned with her shoulder towards the horizon. “How old was Dinky when she was adopted?”
“Oh, she's not adopted.”
Harmony's eyes were concrete stones. Her eyelids slid pathetically over them once, twice. “She's not?”
“Mmm-mmm.” Fluttershy shook her head. “They're of flesh and blood.”
“But..” Harmony squinted once more eastward. “I thought it was impossible for a pegasus to... to foal a unicorn.”
“Improbable, perhaps.” Fluttershy stacked a last sack of oats, forming a neat tower in the corner of the repaired manger. “Life knows no impossibilities, especially when it means making such precious things as Dinky possible.”
“Oh, I see.” Harmony nonchalantly nodded. “So she's a half-wing.”
The Cataclysm happened all over again, or so the last pony thought. The world was exploding—in violent heat—until she realized that she was twitching down the frowning, burning, and decidedly sneering face of an angry Fluttershy. “How dare you?! Dinky Hooves is most certifiably more than the sum of such paltry, heartless words! You should be ashamed of yourself, a clerk of the Royal Court who resorts to incorrigible stigmas!”
Harmony felt the ghost leave her Entropan body. She could have pathetically crumbled in green flames at any second. The mare stumbled as she found her throbbing soul quivering under the stare of Fluttershy's righteous wrath. Every breathy hiss that fell upon her was a shower of hot coals, every glint of silken gold replaced with divinely searing brimstone.
“I-I-I'm sorry, Fl-Fluttershy!” The copper pegasus paled, foalishly stammering. She backed into a wooden beam and gulped before barely managing, “I-I didn't mean anything bad by it! Where I was raised, ” she briefly paused in the gray sludge of her own words but guiltily limped onward, “That's what we called foals who were born from—”
“That's what you insulted ponies with! And it does not excuse you if others around you say it too! It's still wrong! It's anything but kind!” Fluttershy fumed, her breath calming steadily but icily as she leaned back from Harmony, her pink mane settling in heated curls about her bristled muzzle. “Cruelty is a cancer that has infected ponydom for far too long, and the fact that it's reached the servants of Celestia's Royal Court depresses me to no end.” She fought sudden tears as she shook her soft head towards the manger's floor, murmuring: “Dinky is a treasure, a genius little foal filled from mane to hooves with joy and respect for all things living. Her mother is an angelic being who spreads happiness wherever she goes, and she loves her child with every breath that she has to give.” She looked at Harmony, this time with a sad grimace as opposed to a harsh frown. “Does the substance of the blood that went into that relationship mean more than the endearment that fills it?”
“I never meant to say that they weren't special, Fluttershy! I just meant...I-I just...” Scootaloo sighed from within the numb frame of Harmony. She hung her head in a sudden cloud, slumping her body against the wooden beam of the manger. “I meant nothing. And if they were both still around to hear what I said, it would hurt them... it would hurt them for no reason.” Her amber eyes briefly reopened. Beyond the straw and sawdust the last pony saw wasteland after wasteland of bodies—salvageable horns and lootable corpses, and none of them had the decency to hear the numb anger and sorrow of a despicable survivor. The future was full of ashes, but only one set of ears. They drooped then and there, in the warm past, before Fluttershy's blue-eyed gaze. “I wasn't thinking, I wasn't considerate. Please... Please forgive me.”
Fluttershy took a long, deep breath. She wandered over and nudged Harmony with sudden strength, urging the blinking pegasus back up to her feet. In a gentle voice that was slowly resembling the silken melody of the last pony's memories, the pegasus said, “The term 'half-wing' is a word used by the ignorant. But, evidently, that does not describe you, Miss Harmony. Your apology is accepted. I trust that you know why what you said was wrong.”
“I... I...” Harmony bit her lip, suddenly imprisoned in a foalish shadow before the looming figure of the caretaker before her. She hated—absolutely loathed being the target of Fluttershy's ire, which startlingly only included this one naked moment in her whole bleeding life. She was so desperate to make amends, that the lesson was suddenly lost to her, until an adrenalized pulse of the brain dredged it up from beneath the surface of her self-doubt. “I know that stigmas only alienate ponies, when instead they could be living natural lives, lives of loving and caring for one another.” A brief, knifing thought coarsed through her soul-self, of a lone survivor killing things, eating things, and robbing things that would forever blemish her with a heresy that dwarfed that conversation's topic. She selflessly ignored the guilt and instead said, “One shouldn't be letting superstition get in the way of accepting other ponies for who they are.”
“There's a reason why Dinky is homeschooled,” Fluttershy said, her body jolting with each word confessed aloud in her melancholy voice. “It's not that Ms. Cheerilee doesn't want her in the classroom. That teacher has fought for it endlessly, but everypony knows that the poor little foal would never hear the end of ridicule—be it from peers or parents or random passer-bys. She's far too young to make a brave crusade out of such a potential situation, so Derpy decided to put her through a tutoring program. Ms. Cheerilee, Twilight Sparkle, and various other members of the Ponyville Education Board have volunteered lesson plans—”
“And you've volunteered your time in babysitting the kid.” Harmony nodded. “I guess it makes sense. If there're so many other ponies giving the cold flank, leave it to the kindest caretaker in Equestria to have pity.”
“It's not pity.” Fluttershy shot another rebuking glare, then softened. “It's love. That's something that can't be tempered by sympathy, but only by commitment. It's sad: so many ponies in our day and age are too blinded by taboos to adore something precious that's right in front of them.”
“I guess so...” Harmony murmured. She felt slightly nauseous; the future suddenly seemed a little less gray. She chased that thought away with a wayward inquiry. “Does anypony... Does anypony know what happened to Dinky's father?”
Fluttershy was silent as a grave.
Harmony gulped her way past that. She tried another question: “What does Princess Celestia have to say about all this?”
“You are most welcome to write her, Miss Harmony. But do not hope for much.”
“No... ?”
“Her Majesty is a divine Goddess,” Fluttershy remarked with briefly sparkling eyes. “She can raise the Sun with power that rivals the long lost glory of the First Age. But it takes far more than a single Goddess to raise the clouds of ignorance from our world. That takes everypony—including you and me—everyday, thinking with our hearts and not with our fears.” She produced a somber breath, then shuffled past Harmony. “That needs a great deal more time than a morning sunrise to accomplish. Come, Miss Harmony. If we're to find the Capricorn, we cannot wait here making discussions that we already know the ends of.”
The last pony blinked after her, battling a lump in her throat. Her heart was beating hard, but no longer with guilt. After twenty-five inside-out years, Fluttershy's melodic voice still surprised her. The exploding end of the world felt like a whimper against the lulling tone of her truth. She couldn't have a steadier anchor than in those weak and dainty yellow wings fluttering before her, away from her, and towards the forest.
Like a good disciple, the last pony turned away from the frazzled mistakes of the past, and followed her.
The body of the Everfree Forest stretched before the two pegasi like a tattered courtyard of overgrown, calamitous life. Here, things grew in chaotic circles, and yet they formed a beautiful mosaic of green leaves, brown hues, copper vines, and red sand. The place rusted, not with decay, but with a regal age that scared the artistic marvels of Canterlot and Cloudsdale into shameful hiding.
“I forgot how wonderful it all smelled,” Harmony murmured, smiling softly as the grand emerald canopy formed a gentle shade over the broken path weeding its courageous way into the bosom of the earthen labyrinth. Squinting towards the towering branches on either side of them, the last pony half expected to see a glowing looking glass orbited by manatorches and an elder purple dragon standing tall and proud while he watered bush after bush of priceless flowers. There wasn't a single bramble or thorned vine to be seen in the forested mesh looming just a canter's distance away. “If I find Pitt's grandmother in all of this crud, I'm eating a horeshoe the soonest I get back.”
Harmony's mind flickered back to reality, a reality laced with a black abyss, a shattered pair of goggles, dozens of squirming shadows, and a very ticked-off Ursa Major. She gulped, fought the shivers of the situation away, and focused on the very warm moment throbbing about her.
“Okaaa-aaay.” She slapped her front hooves together and rubbed them. “First order of business, I prescribe, is that we thread our way into the heart of the forest, then travel in clockwise patterns, all the while heading northeast towards the last reported location of the Capricorn. And then, if we have as little luck as you've had lately, we'll take advantage of our double numbers and have one pony take to the air while the other one stays on the ground. By communicating with each other at different altitudes, we could get three times as much acreage visually scanned than we could otherwise. We'll find that star-creature in no time! What do you think of that plan, Miss Fluttershy?”
Dead silence. Utterly dead silence.
Harmony's heart skipped a beat. She suddenly imagined the warm world disappearing in a green plume of flame, followed by cosmic bear's devouring jaws. “M-Miss Fluttershy?!” She breathlessly panted, glancing all around. She froze suddenly, her gaze stuck on the sight of a pink tail sticking out from behind a heavy boulder. Raising an eyebrow, she shuffled over and knelt her muzzle towards the far side of the stony obstruction. “Uhm... Hello?”
“Eeep!” The squatting pegasus jolted, nearly banging her head on a low lying branch. “Oh... H-hello, Miss Harmony.”
“Hi. How are you doing? Uhm—You do remember our scheduled search for the Capricorn, right?”
“Mmm... yes...” she shivered.
“Aaaaaaaand you do know that the thing was sighted in the Everfree Forest, correct?”
“Mmmhmmm...”
“And you know that the Everfree Forest is—like—right over there, don't you?”
Fluttershy trembled all over, covering her face with quivering hooves. “Don't remind me!”
“Nnnngh,” Harmony facehoofed as a suddenly pathetic fact of yesteryear flew upwards from her foalish memories. “You've gotta be friggin' kidding me.” Her voice had the ironically raspy twinge of rainbow hues to it.
“I beg your pardon?”
“You're kidding me, Miss Fluttershy! You practically live on the welcome mat of the Everfree Forest for Celestia's sake! And yet you can't bring yourself to go in there?”
“Oh... I have gone in there... several times.” The caretaker smiled nervously, then shivered even harder, struggling to avert her blue eyes from the forested wall. “But on many of those occasions, I had my friends with me...”
“Wait just a second, though!” Harmony leaned down and squinted directly into the animal caretaker's face. “Didn't you tell that female dog you call a Captain that you physically searched the forest just recently like she asked you to?”
“And I did!” Fluttershy said. It was her turn to look guilty that day as she gulped and cast a trembling glance aside. “Mostly.”
“How do you mean, 'mostly?'”
“Well, I... Mrmmmm... I walked around the sides of the forest, and... I stuck my head in a few places. And... And I practiced my Capricorn call a few times, and I figured it was loud enough for the creature to hear it. Capricorns have good hearing, you know—”
“Nnnnngh... Fluttershy, Fluttershy, Fluttershy.” Harmony all but pratfalled, groaning. “Tell me, how far does a dog run into a forest?”
“Uhhhh—”
“It's a trick question! A dog only runs halfway 'into' a forest! Miss Fluttershy, correct me if I'm wrong, but your friggin' job is on the line! Captain Redgale is chomping at the bit to have your head on a silver platter over this stupid Capricorn crud, and you're telling me you haven't properly explored Everfree for the elusive target?”
“I've explored! In my own way...”
“Fluttershy, your 'own way' is fantastic when it comes to feeding animals. Your 'own way' is great for babysitting a friend's kid. Your 'own way' is marvelous for showing me when I've been an ignorant moron, but you gotta go the distance if you want to keep your cottage, and keep being able to do all of the good stuff you do... in your 'own way!' How am I going to get the information I need for Princess Celestia when Ponyville's lead animal caretaker no longer has a daily itinerary to observe?”
“I...” Fluttershy shivered and sadly squeaked, curled up in a yellow ball behind the rock. “I've never been a good pegasus when it comes to going the distance. I'm not as courageous as you, Miss Harmony. I don't even have to know you to say that. That's just me.”
“So you think you don't have courage?” Harmony knelt beside her on folded hooves and spoke softly, endearingly. “I read an extensive report before coming here, Miss Fluttershy. You've tamed a raging Manticore, talked down a fire-breathing dragon, outrun a menacing hydra...” With a deep breath, and a proud filly smiled through Entropan lips. “...you even out-stared a good-for-nothing Cockatrice, single-hoofedly saving several blank-flanked foals.”
Fluttershy's lips parted in shock. She gazed up with twitching blue eyes. “How did you know about that? I never told anypony, except for maybe Twilight Sparkle.” She gulped. “The royal palace's thin walls... ?”
“Let's just say that when a pony does brave things, word travels fast.” Harmony smiled. “Haven't any of your friends ever encouraged you in this manner?”
“Mmmm... My friend Pinkie Pie helped me with my fear of heights.”
The copper pegasus blinked at that, her eyes floundering over the filly's folded wings. “Your fear of what-now?”
“She taught me that, with a hop, a skip, and a jump—I can overcome anything.”
“Like this silly forest here?” Harmony pointed.
Fluttershy followed the direction of the copper hoof and wilted further behind the rock, squeaking and... squeaking.
Harmony took a deep breath. Still, she smiled. “Miss Fluttershy, you are a living element of kindness. Don't pretend that I'm wrong when I say that. And, y'know, kindness is a courage all on its own, especially when...” she paused, shuddered, and finished. “When we live in a world that's so easily blinded by fear and half-truths. It takes courage to be kind in the midst of so much darkness, and to take care of ponies that other equines are too ignorant to respect. You should be proud of that quality you have, because it makes you do even more things to be proud of, like saving a Capricorn from falling into extinction.”
“I... I just can't...” Fluttershy stammered, fighting to hide her gaze from the forest. “I just know that Captain Redgale will have my neck. But I cannot help it. I'm so helpless when I'm alone...”
Harmony's eyes rounded upon hearing that. She felt a rush of blood to the head, like an afternoon downpour soaking her mane, and the last pony reached over and nuzzled the pegasus' velvety coat. “I tell you what. You bring the kindness, and I'll bring the courage. And maybe, just maybe, Miss Fluttershy, we'll learn from each other along the way. I know for a fact that I will learn something. At least I'm willing to. Can you say the same?”
Fluttershy gazed up at her. She gulped, and her petite wings flexed with sudden hope as she murmured, “Yes. I do suppose.”
“So then...” Harmony grasped Fluttershy's shoulders and stood up, yanking the twitching pegasus to her hooves. “It's just a hop, a skip, and a jump. And maybe add a 'wink' to that.” She finished with a smile.
“Okay... Okay... Okay... We can do this...” Fluttershy stammered and trotted ahead of the time traveler. “For the Capricorn.”
“And while we're at it, we can talk about stuff! Like the sky! The animals! Ahem—Anystrangechangesinthelocalfloraorfaunathatyoumayhavenoticedlately—Aaaaand maybe we can even gossip about—Oh, I dunno—Hot stallions! For instance, there's this total hunk at Sweet Apple Acres with the disposition of an angel but the well-toned body of a crimson thoroughbred—”
“Eeeeeek! A demon! I see a demon!”
“Miss Fluttershy? Uh... That's just a tumbleweed.”
“Oh... Oh. Erm... Very well then. Uhm... What were you saying about a crimson thoroughbred?”
“Nnnngh... On second thought, let's just talk about oats instead.”
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oh my god I am loving all of these subtle references
at the very end:
I don't care if you deny it, you sir had WAAAAAAYYYY too much fun writing this chapter... I approve
"I built the rainbow signal in the Wasteland because of hope. And it was hope that led me to spread the light throughout the darkness. Hope is what I wanted to give all ponies, even if I knew in my heart that I was the last one. It's because hope is the basic blueprint of a pony's soul—beneath magic and beneath friendship and beneath joy. Hope is what keeps our heart beating in spite of all the darkness, in spite of you.
I was wrong to think that the Dredgemaners were without hope. It was inside them, shimmering, barely alive but flickering. It only needed to be kindled, and then ever so gloriously harvested.
The light was and is a royally grand thing. The Bivs and I were about to remind Dredgemaners of what had been robbed from the essence of them. We were about to give them back the light."
Was this part supposed to be bold and part of Scoot's journal?
539258 eeyup.
Somehow in my mind when Vimbert talks, it's in the voice of the Heavy from TF2.
this story is way too freaking good.... seriously. it is.
A couple more errors:
I think you mean iniquities?
Sladeburn lethargically looked over, you mean?
Where are these ponies getting all the human parts?
And then 539258
Best part of the chapter? "short screams and explosions" dl.dropbox.com/u/31471793/FiMFiction/Scootaloo_lolface.png
I love all the references! "narf"!
As always, excellent. However, your writing suffers a little from the dreaded 'purple prose'.
2547565
what the heck is that? '-'
2580655 Check TVTropes.org for it.
Yes, yes it is. :D
I like one shots and all but just love these bigger story's the really good ones paint a picture that makes you forget that your reading words an not seeing a film only problem is I cant put this one down and pic up a different story chapter that has just gotten posted(curse my one track mind or some kin of ocd that makes it impossible to not finish a story un les its not done)
“Well, why don't you just train her not to throw stuff at guests?” young Scootaloo mumbled while plucking a few pillow feathers from her violet mane.
“Oh, I try and I try and I try.” Fluttershy paused in filling a trough full of food. She trotted over and plucked the last traces of Angel's wrath out of the disheveled eight-year-old's hair. In the center of the hay-strewn manger, the two pegasi stood, surrounded by a halo of various tiny livestock. The thick afternoon rain pelted the wooden rooftop and cascaded in droves off several rusted gutters flanking the open enclosure. “Angel came from a neglectful home, you see. His previous owners were known to shout at their animals and utterly forget feeding time.”
K, one problem.
Fluttershy clearly calls him a him here. And Scootaloo KEEPS CALLING IT A HER.
I resemble that remark as an un-socialized homeschooler.
Chapter 23 in audiobook form
I'm calling it now. Dinky caused the apocalypse. Somehow.
Pathetic why the heck would you apologize to the person that is responsible for needlessly dragging you around hitting you and complaining over nothing?!