Yonder Wandered Fluttershy

by Darkonshadows

103

It was still early morning Wednesday, Fluttershy and Soft Echo was sitting with many a strange being for a funeral. Soft Echo’s ears wouldn’t raise and she wasn’t very happy about what they were doing, her wing had been healed by Annabelle so she was completely fine.

“She broke my calculations you know… never have I ever been more terrified of such a being as her.” Virgil stated over the grave site as he lowered his beak to look at the purple furred corpse lying in the grave. Alongside the corpse was the torn off wing and leg, he closed his eyes and sent her a prayer that her next life would be a good one. He took off his spectacles and gave them a rub with his feathered fingers. “A demon that bled the blood of mortals, something you don’t see very often. That it came from someone like her is simply amazing.”

“Yeah, there’s something I’d like to know, what exactly does that mean Annabelle?” Charlie along with his platonic partner Itchy had never seen the harder side of their jobs, having been shown the truth they were a little put off. That didn’t mean they’d give it up though, if he quit how would he visit Sasha?

“Well it all has to do with how everything is part of the circle of life and death. Every time a being dies they have multiple options, reincarnation being the main one for most beings. Whatever Belladonna was, will no longer be if she reincarnates. The other things that occur are either becoming part of heaven, the underworld or to the rare unlucky few who get stuck in purgatory because of an accident.” As she said this Annabelle gnawed the cork off a bottle of wine and started to pour it over Belladonna’s body. She even dropped the bottle into the grave after she was finished and turned around to start kicking dirt into the grave with her hind legs. “As a rule, the first death of any freshly reincarnated or new dog is that they automatically end up in heaven with no exceptions. It’s a bit of a bother when some dogs really belong relegated to punishment in the underworld, Belladonna was the only dog to ever actually choose to go down there and apply for a job. That she started bleeding mortal blood instead of a demons blood means something important or special was happening to her as she was dying. Aside from Anubis and Cerberus who do their jobs in reigning over dead souls or making sure the more foul ones never escape, there aren’t any other dogs who actually work downstairs. Those two were never a normal dog like Belladonna once was though. To think Belladonna did her job so exceptionally well that she only had to be softly reprimanded a few times.”

“Wait isn’t Anubis Egyptian god of death and Cerberus a Greek myth?” Itchy earned the attention of everyone; he blushed and started to scratch himself a bit. “Hey, I read! Unlike Charlie I don’t like being ignorant. No offense buddy.”

“Yes, well… I would like to start out by telling you all religion is an entirely manmade concept, but all myths have some level of truth to them. In fact I find human religions to be quite horrid; mind you I have good reasons for saying that.” When an angel says something was horrid, you just had to listen to what she had to say about it. Seeing the expectant faces, Annabelle decided to give her reasoning. “Anyone who looks at religion enough will notice they all have similarities and it is the good ideals each religion tries to teach to its followers that is sometimes the problem. Charlie, if you know your history well enough, can you tell me exactly what happened when the prohibition laws on alcohol was passed?”

“Of course, I do. I know a lot about Alcohol, especially since it was how I died and ended up meeting you in the first place Annabelle. If I remember right, humans started drinking even more alcohol once it became illegal.” At least Charlie knew that much, he wasn’t a complete idiot. He did manage to get a jackhammer smuggled into a dog pound; while he wasn’t knowledgeable he was always quite clever.

“Now apply that to how every religion that ever was far into past were used as the laws of the land, how often were those laws broken? All the time! Some humans really can’t follow what they preach and that’s because if they are told not to do something, they will inevitably end up doing it. The more taboo a person knows it to be; the more likely it is to occur to someone to eventually break that rule. I know how things work upstairs, being a multiple counts rapist and then trying to pray away your sins after each rape to completely absolve yourself of your sins is not how it works. Let me tell you, more people end up in the Underworld because they don’t want to take responsibility for their own actions after they commit so many atrocities. It’s easy to ask for forgiveness, but forgiveness is seldom given if you’re never truly repentant for your actions and continue to do them after praying to be absolved of them the first time. You usually only get absolved of a particular sin once if you truly meant it, possibly twice.” Sighing out loud from hearing her own tirade, Annabelle just couldn’t help but be frustrated with what people thought they could pray away. Truthful prayer was a rare thing nowadays and usually done by abused children. “That said things like same sex relationships or consensual sexual love are not sins. I seriously don’t understand why so many humans are against same sex marriage. The one thing humans are getting right, at the very least, is that there are higher powers and I’m not making a mistake that there are multiple beings of godly power out there and Gabriel’s Horn of Opening is living proof of that.”

“Well that makes sense; I guess. Though I have to ask, why do dogs on this world always automatically get into heaven?” At least Fluttershy was grasping the subject somewhat, but she wanted to know more about why dogs ended up in heaven despite whatever they did in life. “Oh and I know two god like beings who control the sun and moon of my home planet and they have been alive for thousands of years.”

“I also want to know why you your views are so strong when it comes to same sex relationships Annabelle.” Itchy noticed the subject of consenting same sexual relationships was kind of a strong thing for Annabelle.

“To answer Itchiford’s question first. I’ve actually slept with Belladonna, multiple times in fact. We were basically almost lovers; more towards the realm of strong friends with benefits. Plus as I’ve stated before we’re distant cousins, the fact that I’m still an angel says a lot about how well our relationship was taken upstairs and downstairs at the same time.” Annabelle looked at the grave and put a paw to her chin, she smacked her left paw with her right and then with a snap of her nubs she summoned a gravestone honoring Belladonna. “As to why dogs always get into heaven? Not sure and just because dogs always get into heaven doesn’t automatically make them holy beings or perfect. In fact Virgil is quite right when he says the underworld and heaven are two sides of the same coin, with the edge of the coin encompassing the Earth, its magical side and purgatory. It’s all really quite a grey area; all dogs are so loyal to something and that’s why I ‘think’ we get a free pass to heaven. I may not be right or believe my own idea all too much, but the free pass seems to be intrinsic to how our world works. I’m quite interested to hear what the outsiders have to say about it, since their worlds obviously have different workings when it comes to the cycles of life and death. Basically our world has new souls always being formed, old souls can be reconstituted into new souls and some souls that have been reincarnated one too many times go on to new realms beyond our imagining or the next great adventure if you will. It will take some time before I can tell whether or not Belladonna went on to her next great adventure, I would have been immediately notified if she somehow ended up in heaven as she died within my jurisdiction. There is one rare thing that almost never happens, the one often rare soul that reincarnates as themselves with their memories completely intact. Only Charlie or possibly Itchy would be an example of that as they were given a second life while keeping their jobs as angels. Job carrying Demons and Angels are meant to keep the balance of things, other than that I would rather not bore you with the extensive convoluted laws behind which both sides of the spirit realm are governed. One last thing, you can only end up in purgatory as the end result of an accident or because you went there on purpose.”

“Well at least I know my parents are right about free love now.” Willy was the son of two parents who truly loved each other and they were former hippies who likely knew what he was doing every single time he disappeared for hours or days on end. He looked at the mound of dirt and the headstone with cute little devil horns poking out of it. “Sometimes, some things are so important that they’re worth doing no matter what the cost.”

So far Willy hasn’t lost anyone close or important to him, the crew of the Righteous Indignation had been pretty lucky to have him as an engineer. Being stuck in the middle of a war wasn’t doing him any favors on his sanity, now he knew Earth had magic and aliens visitors. He was intelligent enough to know not to speak out loud about this to anyone. Even if he needed to talk to someone about Jenny and Felicia almost dying this morning, he decided it was best to sit with the one who needed some affection right now. He started petting Annabelle who looked like she needed a soft touch at the moment.

Fluttershy just held a saddened Soft Echo in one hoof and thought about what she needed to do next, she didn’t particularly feel like traveling back to Gem Temple on the east coast at the moment. Virgil came up to her to give a single gentle squeeze to the shoulder with his left wing hand before leaving them to stand off to the side while he looked over his magic scroll.

Equus had its own Cerberus and Orthros as naturally occurring species, but it didn’t have an Anubis even if jackals existed. All this was interesting to everyone present to hear about it. She also talked about the Elysium or the Elysian Fields. Annabelle got into the discussion of afterlife ideals with Fluttershy and the Aldebarans, each world was truly unique in the respects of ideas as to what happens to the dead. Soon after Jenny and Felicia were leaving and preparing to head back for the Righteous Indignation along with Willy who gave Annabelle a pat on the head before they set off.

The three heaven dogs and Fluttershy’s group stayed for a while before they too left Belladonna’s gravesite.

-

Soft Echo would spend the rest of Wednesday in a slump and Fluttershy was sharing in the same slump alongside her, they were currently in Itchy and Charlie’s apartment for the day where they would set off tomorrow to head back to the gem temple.

Fluttershy could only hope that Bonnie was doing better than she was at the moment, she was finally getting some rest after a hardy meal of fruit and vegetables for dinner. Though she had to wonder how Charlie and Itchy paid for this food or even came to acquire it.

-

Bonnie figuratively had her back to the wall and the Rhizome suit had taken quite a bit of damage, it was getting pretty close to becoming incapable of fixing itself. She had moved outside of Beach City with the Chozo beacon to avoid civilians getting caught in the line of fire, but she was pretty beaten at this point.

Samus was something far beyond what Bonnie was capable of dodging for more than a few minutes at a time, it was like she was a machine and the fight had been a running one. Despite the fact that she had the ability of flight with Fluttershy’s suit, Bonnie wasn’t doing any better than her opponent and that was when the Valkyrians and Hench Company people started a small war. It was quite a mess.

“I can at least hope that wherever Fluttershy is, she’s at least having a better luck than we are.” A revving noise sounded off in agreement causing Bonnie to flinch. It was just Roller and he had taken quite a bit of carapace damage from protecting her from Samus. The Crystal Gems, Garnet and Amethyst, were helping her out for whatever reason and it was a good thing Steven and Connie didn’t know this was all going on. Speaking of which, Foxglove was hopefully keeping them entertained.

So far Bonnie had relied on her talent to steal and evade to the best of her abilities, it didn’t take her long to figure out Samus was not something that she could handle. The Hench Company thugs and the Valkyrians were much easier to deal with; she had stolen several weapons from them and used them to barely hold off Samus. She had been especially inventive in throwing the Hench Company and Valkyrians into each other’s and ultimately Samus’s path. She was barely keeping herself ahead of the bounty hunter who was tracking her down; her ability of evasion was being put to the ultimate test.

A hole was blown into the object Bonnie was behind and she immediately threw a pod grenade over her shoulder and got on Roller for a quick getaway, that measly little grenade wouldn’t stop the hunter for long. Wednesday was turning out to be a pretty horrible day all around; at least Samus couldn’t find Head Hunter where Bonnie had hidden it.

Now that she thought of it, Bonnie should probably ditch the Chozo distress beacon while she was at it. Except the beacon could still be useful… okay, Bonnie could finally admit to herself that she had a problem.

-

A whimpering sad Soft Echo was having nightmares of the big scary cat demon hurting Belladonna until Luna came along and made the bad dreams go away. She squeaked and snuggled against her auntie and cried.

“What is wrong with her?” No matter what Luna did, Soft Echo just wouldn’t cheer up.

“It’s a long story, but it starts with me falling into a portal and time traveling backwards quite a bit.” Fluttershy held the sad filly who was still trying to cope with the loss.

-

Sasha was closing up her bar, yesterdays news of Belladonna’s death was a bit hard for her to take in. Heck, she was still trying to come to terms that Belladonna was actually a good dog or that she had saved two lives and helped the world early yesterday morning before perishing as the sun rose upon San Francisco.

She had recently finished cleaning up the mess from a good round of business; she had some rather unusual visitors. These were some dogs from an organization that never really bothered her too often for anything. Once a Pound Puppy always a Pound Puppy took on a new meaning to her ever since she remembered her past work, being approached by several dogs obviously from one of the many shelters where the organization operates was interesting.

“Hello there, I was just getting closed up after a long night, what do you gents and ladies need?” Sasha didn’t know which shelter these operatives were from, but she knew they were here on business of some kind. One of the dogs walked up who was obviously the head of his personal shelter.

“Hey there, you’re Sasha La Fleur correct?” Receiving a nod the dog continued on. “By any chance are you related to Canina La Fur?”

“Well yes I’m a cousin of hers, but what does that have to do with Pound Puppy business?” Leaning on the counter Sasha waited for them to get on with it, she really needed to get some sleep after a long night of bar tending.

“Oh I’ve just been a fan of hers for years and years since I was a little pup… it’s a bit surprising that she’s still alive and spry for an old gal. Anyway the names Lucky Smarts of the Pound Puppies and we’re from shelter seventeen. The reason we’re coming to you is because we’re having problems finding the home of a pup’s perfect person.” Lucky here seemed to begin to wilt a bit; he was an average looking mutt and one that looked to be as cunning as Charlie is. “Anyway these are Cookie, Niblet, Strudel and Squirt. We really need to find this person fast, because this pup is driving us nuts! It’s almost like she’s a spawn of hell or something! I’ve seen many weird pups, but the one we’re looking out for is taking the cake on driving us insane! There is just something not natural about her.”

Sasha looked intrigued, she knew the reputation of shelter seventeen, they were good dogs and they hardly ever failed a mission. Sometimes they succeeded by failing, which meant that they were quite an honorable group of dogs who went above and beyond.

“Do you have the name of who is supposed to be the pup’s owner; I know a lot of names in San Francisco and I might be able to help you.” It was a little strange that they’d come to her for help, but Sasha wasn’t going to turn them away.

“Yeah, that’s the strange thing about all this. We only have a clue that led us here; I’m still wondering who would name their kid something along the lines of ‘Fluffy Vibrations’. The database hasn’t failed us yet and it only gave us an idea of where we’re supposed to find this perfect person, we don’t have much to go on but we’re working on it even if the crazy pup has been havoc since she was brought to our pound by Olaf yesterday.” Squirt the yellow little Chihuahua was particularly irritable. “We still don’t even know the puppies name and she’s the worst case we’ve ever had to deal with and we’ve only been stuck with her since yesterday.”

“Where is that puppy now?” There was a sinking feeling in Sasha’s gut ever since she heard the words ‘Fluffy Vibrations’ and that the puppy was found yesterday.

“Well she’s right… oh no, where did she get off to now?” The tough looking female Boxer named Cookie with a cute bow on her head was suddenly panicked. She had only looked away for a second and was now wondering where that puppy could have gone to. “Strudel did you see where she went?”

“I believe I see her, but I don’t believe I understand how she managed to get up there. It boggles the mind how she keeps doing this to us.” Strudel the German Dachshund was looking up at the roof tops.

Looking up at where Strudels vision was currently pointed, Sasha saw something that made her go pale and thankfully the puppy was eventually rescued without harm coming to her. The one who eventually rescued the puppy was a very familiar pink whippet.

“I believe I know where that pup’s perfect person is… but we better hurry or you’ll miss your chance to be rid of her for a long time. Trust me; you don’t want to be saddled with ‘HER’ of all dogs longer than you have to be.” Sasha wouldn’t wish such a puppy on anyone from the Pound Puppies organization for more than a minute. She was getting a few stares. “Don’t ask how I know who that puppy is. Just don’t, it’s really complicated.”

-

Soft Echo was still down in the dumps and they were down at the docks waiting while Virgil was getting a boat ready. The next portal was in a very interesting place this time; it was apparently under the middle of the Golden Gate Bridge twenty feet down into the water. It was one of those portals that ran on interesting physics when it opened, the Cosmic Crown Virgil gave back to Soft after Red had knocked it off her head would be causing a small whirlpool soon.

“Wait, Fluttershy!” Sasha yelling had attracted Fluttershy’s attention before she got into the boat, several dogs came running up to them. “I’m so glad we caught up to you before you left. Now where is she?”

“Whoa whoa, hold up a minute, what in the world is that thing! Heh, it smells like chicken.” Niblet the sheep dog of mild intelligence was the first one to voice his mind on seeing three completely strange beings.

Soft Echo’s ears flicked upwards and started twitching, her eyes sharpened and she looked around as she felt something nearby. Looking behind all the dogs she could see one trying to slink away from everyone, charging forwards and leaping into the air to fly straight for the little puppy with her hooves stretched out. She came down on the puppy with a squeaking yell to bring her into a straddling hug.

“Ah damn it; now I’m stuck with you.” The puppy sized Belladonna with the unbound fluffy ears said in a high pitched whiny voice while she was being snuggled by an overly happy and affectionate Soft Echo. “You stupid tick, stop snuggling me so hard I’m just a puppy for crying out loud! Do you want me to die? Seriously, someone help me out here, she’s slowly killing me with love!”

“Is that…” Fluttershy started before Sasha cut her off.

“Not exactly, but she’s close enough. She’s a bit different now; like all the humans and most of those demons yesterday, the old Belladonna is definitely quite dead.” That was quite a loaded statement; Sasha didn’t know whether the reincarnated boogey dog was better or worse now. Sasha was even one of the few that could actually see the purple feathered wings the puppy was sporting.

Author's Note:

Note: This chapter has controversial subject matters. As far as things go, humans do things that are considerably counterproductive all the time.

Tell someone not to to touch a recently painted fence because the paint is wet, they will touch it just to make sure.

I believe there is at least one or more higher powers, just not in the way some people would want me to believe them. I believe that 'belief' is a personal thing to the person and is nobody's business but that person in question, unless they wish to share their beliefs with someone.

For those who guessed perfectly reincarnated Belladonna, your only half right. There is a bit of irony I'm going to spoil here.

Angel is Fluttershy's familiar, Belladonna is...

Comments

[Fictional Fanatic]

Oh, seems I was first to read this chapter. Love this story BTW.

[Acacia Sgt]

Ah, reincarnation. She ain't gonna avoid Soft Echo that easily. And that's one more member to the already unusual group.

Poor Bonnie, but now soon she'll be hopefully getting a respite.

Not sure what exactly is "familiar" being used for in this case, but I guess if it comes up later, I'll find out then.

[nightmaster0]

Great chapter.

So the newly reborn Belladona is going to be Soft Echo's familiar. Look's like Fluttershy has a new travel companion.