Yonder Wandered Fluttershy

by Darkonshadows

44

It had been six long and glorious days for Fluttershy, she was still having some problems with nightmares and having either Roller or Mira sleep next to her helped her out a lot. Her nightmares weren’t just of become a metal monstrosity, there was also the nightmare of being the cause of a planet exploding and learning to enjoy bloodshed while becoming utterly cruel. At least she had plenty of support for her mental scars.

Thinking back on it, Fluttershy had done a lot of good in the universe despite being consistently mauled and she still believed in helping others… at least within reason. It was time about she reflected on things in the positive light, instead of all the painful scaring negatives getting her down.

She had seen many a wondrous things and technologies, like the Star Fox fighter ships that were a lot like watching the Wonder Bolts fly even if she didn’t particularly like all the violence that came with their amazing ability to keep up with how fast things were moving around them.

Thinking of wondrous technology, everything on planet Rhizome revolved around plant life. Food, transportation, tools, clothing, spaceships and more was all made from local vegetation which was incredible. The unfortunate downside of said technology was that it could catch on fire, was incredibly susceptible to pollution or certain chemicals, plants weren’t good for heavy armor and the last thing was negativity. Being negative in personality or being constantly angry can actually kill some Rhizomian plants, which would naturally make any bad situation worse if you couldn’t keep a positive outlook despite things not going your way. If Fluttershy hadn’t heard it from the source herself, she would have never believed that such a thing as being killed by negative thoughts. It luckily only happens to plants that you have to absolutely be touching or working with to have that effect. It was still a rather inconvenient little problem, which is why the technology hadn’t caught on with the rest of the Galactic Alliance.

Aside from all the wonders of the biggest plants she has ever seen in her life, it still embarrassed Fluttershy greatly that the toilets on Rhizome were directly connected to Janet. How was a pony supposed to get any privacy when the entire planet knew where you were at all times as long as you were on her?

She had helped save all those enslaved people in the Aniverse systems; even if she couldn’t stop the war she still at least aided people in need and may have made friends on both sides. She wished them all well, hoping that most of them lived to lead fulfilling lives.

She even saved the real owner of the Head Hunter who became violently ill and wrecked a fighter ship while almost getting crushed by an asteroid in the process. It might have been a bit fun if she hadn’t had that large panic attack; it helped somewhat with learning how to fly the ship made in part by the mysterious mystical Chozo at least.

She made friends with some wondrous animals like the Dachoras, Etecoons and the Popstar natives. One of those animals was still at her side even now and now that she thought of it, she even saved his life. It was an errant thought on how Wheelie adaptation worked; Roller would have died had he not been patched up. His herd or pack would have left him behind to fend for himself in a seemingly cruel manner, but at least Fluttershy understood why they would have left him behind. It was simply survival of the fittest while still protecting the young viciously, Roller would have likely been eaten by a larger predator since he was incapable of rolling. The lucky Wheelies to survive an apex predator successfully adapted to become big and tough with that thick spiked black armor, it explained why there were so few of those big scary Wheelies.

Most of all she had survived many a circumstance beyond her or anyone’s control. In all things could be worse, much worse. Her friends could fall into a depressive state that spiraled out of control; instead they were cheering her on while being horribly worried for her safety as she would do for them if they were constantly in danger. Angel was okay and he was watching all the animals back home; he was such a good little bunny. Luna checks up on her frequently, Discord literally has an eye on her at all times now and could even call her at a personal cost. It was touching that Discord and Luna thought she was worth all the effort to contact.

“I didn’t hurt you, did I?” Her name was Pwerta; she was quite a beautiful Rhizomian who had skills relative to that of Aloe and Lotus back on Equus and she was a master at massage treatments.

“No, I’m fine Pwerta. Just do that again only a little further back.” Fluttershy was still wary about the using the stare like this, she received a simple smile from the Rhizomian.

All Rhizomian kind were in general, tall, had three thick fingers on each hand, their heads had large fan shaped ears reminiscent of a bats ears, beak styled mouths with their nostrils protruding and hair at least hanging to the middle of their backs. They wore tunics of varying colors and make; given the warm climate throughout most of the planet they had no concept of winter or warm clothing. Females tended to have bigger ears, while the males tended to be stockier.

Pwerta was the best masseuse of the spa; she had long red hair, wore a white tunic and had a light grey toned skin. When she finally did what Fluttershy asked of her the pony yelped in ecstasy then melted into the massage table where other Rhizomian females were giving her a pedicure for her hooves. They were exceedingly good at their jobs because Fluttershy was blushing like mad by the time they started combing and brushing out what remained of her mane and then moved to working on her still rather luxuriant tail. The last six days of constant Rhizomian spa treatment and pampering like this would put any pony back on their hooves.

The overly friendly Pwerta was rather affectionate with Fluttershy in such a way that she constantly tried to get her new friend to squeak or squirm because it was cute. The native found the pony rather adorable in her shyness and when she started purring at her ministrations. In fact, Pwerta couldn’t be happier to help out someone who needed this much stress relief and her gentle teasing was certainly aiding in the healing process.

“Yeah, this is the stuff. Don’t know how I ended up on Rhizome, but the hospitality is always worth sticking around for. At least until I can get some assistance from Star Command.” Mira had the head of the spa as her masseuse and the hospitality here was great, except for the lack of meat anywhere on the planet. At least there were plants that tasted like meat with Rhizomes vast assortment of more than fifty thousand types of edible plants that were useful in cooking, there was about a hundred thousand more that didn’t need any cooking at all. If you were a vegetarian it would be impossible to starve here and Mira did like her salads. “So how have things been here on Rhizome Tubunch?”

“We’ve been doing fairly well, Professor Triffid is still running the non lethal weapons program and our city defenses are much better than they were last time. Things will be more interesting for us now; especially with our great mother Janet returned to strength from what was nearly her eternal slumber. We will be well defended for however long she is awake for now.” The male Rhizomian with the grey hair and the pale white skin sighed. “Even then I know that our planet and our very way of living can still be destroyed, everything isn’t meant to last forever no matter how much we wish it were so. As long as we are still at peace then we will flourish, we still try to spread what gifts we can to all we meet. The only ones we will likely never please is a carnivore and we hold no hatred for their very natures, as they are naturally a part of our vast universe too.”

“It’s a good thing you’re multilingual or else I wouldn’t understand a word you were saying.” At least Mira was glad that someone here spoke Tangean, it was getting annoying needing an entire planet to translate everything you say. Just about every being in the Galactic Alliance wore some form of translator or spoke a common language, but the translators could only be made to work with languages that were known. In essence it would take months for a person to learn Fluttershy’s language then add that language to a translator to alter her speech into something understandable which at most would take a year. This was if Fluttershy didn’t do the eye contact thing which allowed her to talk directly to anything biological.

What Mira couldn’t have known was that Slip Toad the frog of Star Fox made something that did it in a few days and that Fluttershy still had the busted remains of one of the greatest breakthroughs in translator technology.

Shaking her head Mira probably should have asked Professor Triffid for a Rhizome suit since they had built in plants that could work as translators and communications, same problem that it only works with Galactic Alliance languages. Triffid was currently busy with a custom order for Fluttershy who has never worn a spacesuit before and asked her not to tell Fluttershy about it. Apparently the large Rhizomian vegetation engineer who was once her leader on a mission against a mechanical energy vampire was going to give one to Fluttershy and it was a newly upgraded version with some help from Janet. They were hoping to literally weed out the negativity problem inherent in some Rhizomian technology, within reason since it made a decent failsafe in the case that it fell into the wrong hands.

Fluttershy was enjoying everything, the sights and sounds made her wish her friends were here to witness it all. She thought about Professor Triffid, he was a good being and leader. He was friendly and quite stout despite his diet being entirely vegetarian like the rest of his species. He had white hair pulled back into a ponytail, a short white beard sticking from his chin. His ears were quite small even for a Rhizomian male, his skin was two different shade s of brown and he held quite a calm demeanor at all times. He wore a small pair of glasses and green and yellow suit, all of which were made from plants found on Rhizome. While he was technically a pacifist like every other Rhizomian on the planet, he knew there was a time when fighting back is the only option. Triffid did make weapons though she hadn’t seen them yet; he was called a vegetable geneticist and was the top professor in his field of chosen work.

Looking about the multicolored vibrant plant covered landscape, the pony saw that Roller was sitting off to the side taking a nap under a tree. The Wheelie was getting a lot of exercise in and he had recently discovered a new unique property of his recent adaptation, he can stick to and roll along any surface at full speed. It was something of interest other than his tire growing tougher, aside from that discovery there was nothing new about the friendly wheel creature except that he liked it here. He really liked all the oilier foods he consumed that came personally from the Rhizome cookbook, said oil was coming from the massive variety of natives nuts.

After a short warm mud bad and a quick rinse under a sprinkler plant later, Fluttershy was wondering what she should do next. She had explored the city and seen many odds and ends of this world, things that Discord was likely shared with her friends back home. The planet while it was relaxing and incredibly therapeutic, it wasn’t going to make her forget her mission of finding Equus. She would wait for Mira to finish with Mr. Tubunch before she asked what they would be doing next.

The food was probably the best part of being on this planet, it came in so many flavors Fluttershy almost wanted to be like Pinkie Pie and try it all. This was referred to as the fruits and salad planet by the Galactic Alliance and they were as big as Jo-ad the farm planet was when it came to food production, one of Mira’s best friends and comrade was a Jo-adian. While she has yet to meet a Jo-adian she heard that they were big and generally friendly beings, they were also far tougher than most beings in the Galactic Alliance just from their size alone.

Of one of the downsides that Fluttershy had learned about Rhizome was that the people here had a little trouble with long range communications technology, it was hard to get plants to connect to something that was mechanical. Still though, aside from her message for Katt the Rhizomians had managed to get a message out to Star Command three days ago that Mira Nova needed backup and it was taking them a while to respond.

Being a properly paranoid pony that she was, Fluttershy knew something bad was going to happen on Rhizome soon and hopefully Janet would be able to stop it. She didn’t know whether that bad thing would be about her, Mira or just a random assault on Rhizome itself, but things certainly seemed peaceful enough to warrant the worry.

Fluttershy jumped in shock when she was lightly shook out of her thoughts by a blue skinned hand and she looked up at Mira sheepishly. It was time for them to go, Mira was escorting her around because she was now the ambassador of the pony race and was under the protection of Star Command. Well at least she was being protected by Mira Nova, the tomboy princess of Tangea.

Finding out that Mira was a princess, but didn’t necessarily want to take the job as leader of her people, was kind of odd for Fluttershy. As a Space Ranger she’d protect more than just her own people, she protected anyone who needed it and was a pretty heroic person from the stories she could tell where odd and magical things happened in her line of work. A princess was something to look up to for ponies, but it definitely had an entirely different connotation for Mira who despised the idea of being one. It didn’t mean that Mira was a bad person, she was just different and that was okay.

Twilight Sparkle was a little put off when she heard from Fluttershy that Ranger Mira Nova was in fact a princess of her people that didn’t want to be one and that she was instead chose to be a protector of a wider range of people of the united factions of the Galactic Alliance. The things she and Fluttershy had discussed last night left a lot of food for thought on Twilight’s plate, she wished Fluttershy safety in her travels and that she’d always be one of Twilight’s best friends even if she never made it back. She promised that they’ll talk again in another dream.

Fluttershy was led to a wide building with a dome made of plants that looked to be several floors tall and eventually she was brought to a room where she saw Professor Triffid discussing something with Janet and they both turned to Fluttershy with a smile. Fluttershy was used to being smiled at by Janet’s avatar now; Triffid on the other hoof was looking a little haggard as if he had been through one of Twilight’s overeager studying periods.

“Fluttershy have we got a present for you! It’s a little souvenir from me and my children and something to remember us by when you finally go looking for your home. Go to sleep Professor you really need your rest, I can handle the explanation of our gift.” Janet said in a perky tone as her plant sunk into the ground to show several tables with modified plants on them that were behind her. They were at Professor Triffid’s Floral Foundations lab, where floriculture, horticulture and agriculture came together in an amazing way that only Rhizomian’s could have accomplished with their vegetable technology.

“I’ll do that Janet, this project has been simply quite amazing with your input… great mother Rhizome.” Triffid wasn’t surprised to find out that their goddess was the planet itself that fed them and led them through their infancy as a people into what they were now; he was surprised that their moon was alive too and that he was in constant contact with the great mother. He just shook his head as he exited the room, he needed a good nap. While his work was quite thrilling, it was also highly tiring.

“Oh how my children embarrass me by calling me great mother, what’s a planet to do?” The flower popped up next to two green objects on the table and then coughed into one of her leaves. “Anyway, the reason you’re here is that we’ve been doing a bit of pruning and advancing some other things here at the Floral Foundations Lab. Mira I hope you know what this is?”

Mira looked excited as she took one of the green backpacks from Janet as she sprouted a vine holding it. After a moment Mira had her arms through the loops and her body was soon swamped with green and red colored vines for a moment. The end result was an ensemble consisted of red boots, green pants leading up to the red chest plate with puffy rose colored shoulders and with more red leading to rose colored gauntlets. The helmet was nearly a complete bubble coming from the suit leading to a red portion sticking out the top of the bubble with three white thorns, at the side of the bubble where two strange looking corns sitting near where Mira’s ears were.

“It’s been a while since I’ve worn this thing.” Mira pulled out and twirled what looked like pistol, brown on top, light green around the tip of the barrel where as the rest of it was dark green with a light green swirl running through it. She aimed at the wall and squeezed the handle causing the thing to launch something the size of a soft ball at the wall where it made a dent with its impact. “Yep the old pea shooter is still responsive as ever. If another Nos-4-A-2 happens, I know what I’m wearing to that fight.”

“It has a few upgrades, faster flight speed and now completely space capable since it originally couldn’t keep up with ranger made suits before outside of atmospheric conditions. The pod grenades regenerate faster now. The suit might need a bit more sunlight, water and love afterwards, which shouldn’t be too hard to come by as negativity has less of a disastrous effect on these suits now. Our weapons have better more damaging firing modes now that makes the gun shoot thorns, both metal eating acid for robots and a non lethal paralytic poison for taking down biological targets without harming them and it also has a lot more punch to it. Wait a moment and you can take it out for a test flight.” Janet turned to Fluttershy and held the next one out for her, she looked at it and then at Janet. “Go on, take it. It’s a gift and it’s not going to hurt you, though it may take a moment for it to adjust to your physiology. Professor Triffid worked really hard on getting this to work just for you. Take your saddlebags off before putting it on though.”

After taking off her saddlebags as ordered, Fluttershy tentatively reached out and took the backpack from the vine with a hoof. She put it on and wondered how she was supposed to activate it. With but a thought she felt all kind of vines erupt around her body from the pack temporarily blinding her and after everything around her calmed down, she realized she was now wearing her own specially made Rhizomian Spacesuit. It was chafing a… no wait, the chafing had stopped immediately. The suit had just readjusted itself to make her feel more comfortable, which was nice of it even as it made Fluttershy feel rather self conscious.

“Oh that is so adorable; each suit is different because the wearer affects how it looks. Hold on I’ll get you a reflective surface here in a minute.” Even the mirrors on Rhizome were made with plants or made out of them, either way Janet was now showing Fluttershy her reflection. “There you go, one Rhizome Vega-suit made to order. Even with your wings the way they are, this spacesuit will let you fly.”

Fluttershy stared at her suit; it was a bit odd and vastly different from Mira’s. Aside from the green highlights it came in the two colors of pink and yellow, matching her body’s natural colors. It was green around her neck, at the joints, the tips of her hooves, the large pouches that would replace her saddlebags and the leaves wrappings around her tail. The chest, body, wing and legs were all a soft yellow, including the petals acting as a skirt around her waist and rear. Her head was in a half bubble and at the back of her head were two large pink petals stick straight up and a wreath of smaller pink petals wrapping softly around her head, there was one long pink petal leading down the back of her neck connecting to the rest of the suit.

“Oh I see you’ve activated the exhaust plant, it’s a new feature. Without that plant, those suits wouldn’t be nearly as maneuverable in space. This new line of Rhizome made spacesuit prides itself entirely on the utility functions, combat is secondary to comfort and safety.” Janet couldn’t help but look at the pony’s look of awe as she flexed and moved these wings as if they were a part of her own body when it was just the suit reacting to her thoughts.

This was the first time Fluttershy wore a spacesuit.

Author's Note:

Vega-suits are shown to be worn by Buzz, Mira, Booster and Triffid. Along with the weapons that Rhizome people would use. Specifically its from the episode of Buzz Lightyear of Star Command 'Dirty Work'. Professor Triffid even had a solar powered spaceship called a Rhizomian Solar Clipper.

For all intents and purposes, Fluttershy is now wearing a tree, a highly technologically advanced one at that.

Comments

[Acacia Sgt]

Heh, I'd guess that would be as close to being a tree she'll get. Or who knows. For all I know, she could eventually end up somewhere where it could actually happen. Weirder stuff has happened anyway.

[Silent_Knight]

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