• Published 8th Aug 2014
  • 2,789 Views, 271 Comments

Yonder Wandered Fluttershy - Darkonshadows



Fluttershy is a long way from home; will she survive the harsh and crazy universe while exploring its many wonders? She loves everything after all, now she has to prove that she does and it may just keep her alive.

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45

“Ouch, that really hurts.” Fluttershy whimpered slightly as she slammed bodily into another building, it wasn’t nearly enough to damage one of the regenerating buildings that made up the whole city. She had just got finished dropping off her saddlebags with the Head Hunter and made sure Mr. Wheel got some rest as she was going flying. It took a lot of talking with the wheel to get him to let her do this with Mira; he was okay with it as long as Mira was around to look out for her. The last time she was out of his sight she got seriously injured and it was understandable that Roller was a little upset at not being near enough to protect her.

Fluttershy heard Mira asking her what sounded like a question; she looked at Mira in the eyes and responded.

“Yes, I’m okay if that was what you were asking about. This thing takes a little getting used to.” That was an understatement about the suit; Fluttershy could now fly up into the upper atmosphere without getting cold or freezing before she reached space where there was no oxygen. The lack of oxygen wasn’t something to worry about anymore either. Janet said the suits were built for utility first and combat second, Fluttershy knew what she meant after it was explained. “You seem to be doing okay.”

“Yeah well, I’m used to jets and not these ‘exhaust plant’ things. It’s similar enough that I quickly got used to it, just goes to show how right Buzz was when he said this technology should have interested the LGMs more.” Noticing Fluttershy tilting her head Mira slapped her face, when her helmet was down the large portion that sat on top of the bubble folded down onto her back. “There is this race called Little Green Men which is why we abbreviate it into LGM, I’ll introduce you to them if we stop by Star Command or their planet. They help with all the technological advancements at Star Command and can build just about anything you need or fix whatever might need fixing; they especially make armor and spaceships.”

“Well, they sound nice.” Fluttershy pushed off the building and went into a hover next to Mira; she looked at her back and kept the fake wings spread out. She watched as the exhaust plant that popped up from the suit went to work with keeping her in the air, to think there was a plant that can spew so many harmless spores so fast that it can lift anything weighing underneath three hundred pounds up into space. She turned back to look at Mira.

“Oh they are, trust me. There are just as many friendly races out there as there are races bent on conquering, killing and or enslaving everything to their wills. It’s a bit annoying that one of those races put me in a cage and used me as a zoo animal. They treated me no better than a wild animal too, in fact they were really quite condescending about it until we broke out.” Mira now had a slightly sadistic smirk on her face; it had been a long time since that happened. Looking back on it now, it was actually kind of funny to her. “At least Ozma wouldn’t have been that bad if she had us in cages.”

Fluttershy didn’t bother asking who that was; it was probably another one of Mira’s long stories that usually had a lot of violence involved. It wouldn’t surprise her if Mira didn’t know the meaning of Post Traumatic Stress Disorder, something Fluttershy hoped she didn’t have right now or in the near future. She just flew on trying to get used to the speed at which she was flying with this suit, it could easily move at mach speeds which was disorienting. Her suit was more civilian than Mira’s, Mira’s actually came with weapons and she has definitely worn one of these suits before. A cold shiver ran down all the way to the tip of her tale at the thought of there being so many violent and dangerous beings in the universe.

The civilian suit was geared entirely towards comfort and utility more than it was for battle. It could produce oxygen to a nearly limitless capacity, the suit was made of plants so that one was a given. It had a power plant that would keep the suit powered if it was hit with enough sunlight and required very little watering to remain operational, Fluttershy being a pegasus would have no problems drawing water out of most forms of liquids provided she ended up on a planet with a breathable atmosphere. The wings on the suit didn’t need to flap, but in an emergency they could while in atmospheric conditions to provide flight. Then there was the recent modification to all Rhizome suits which involved something called an exhaust plant.

On Rhizome the exhaust plant is a peculiar piece of vegetation, it was a plant that has its seeds at the base protected by its leaves until it was ready to fire them like artillery shells when it was ready to propagate. While it is waiting for the seeds to mature so that it could spread them, exhaust plants had the unique defense mechanism of making sure that nothing could touch its seeds to eat them. Janet, not having entirely been in control of her whole body for quite a while until recently, did not have control over the defense mechanism of this particular plant and as such it wasn’t until now that such advancement in Rhizome based technology could be made.

The exhaust plant defense ability was to spew millions of tiny relatively harmless exploding spores, what was not so harmless was with which the strength that these quickly evaporating spores were sprayed from the exhaust plant. It could send a Rhizomian of average weight flying up to over five hundred feet away with one blast. Another reason for its name, other than the spore firing feature, was that it only had a limited amount of blasts and spores it could create. It could only hold so much energy all of which went into seed and spore blowing production. Professor Triffid had wanted a better look at one of these plants for years, but the danger involved had made it a highly unfeasible prospect.

The exhaust plant was tweaked to remove its seed reproducing ability in exchange for ramping up its spore blowing capability to be more of a constant stream; this led to the Rhizomian jetpack upgrade in all Rhizome Vega-suits. Even then the exhaust plant alone wouldn’t last more than a few minutes of flight before needing a recharge, which is why the power plant was added to power the exhaust plant and aid in the other functions of the suit.

Power plants weren’t previously added to the Rhizome suit, when Mira and her team wore these suits previously. They were what amounted to old astronaut suits with no self propulsion ability installed outside atmospheric conditions since the suits had wings before the exhaust plants became available. That was one of the reasons why they were overlooked entirely by Star Command since they weren’t highly capable in space and simply having a negative attitude almost killed Buzz Lightyear of all people.

The combat model version of a Rhizome spacesuit had slightly better armoring. It came with a rifle or a pistol that fire large spheres of vegetation at targets, recent upgrades saw fit to make it fire two kinds of thorns too. Aside from ranged offensive ability it also came with a thorn sword, which was available in the previous model that could double as a crowbar to pry things open with. The thorn sword featured the two new upgrades that the ballistic weaponry did when it came to dealing with both biological and mechanical forms of trouble.

The shared feature between both types of suits was the base features of a highly modified entangling vine plant in the suits. The entangling vines wrapped around the being to produce the suit to fit the wearer’s needs. Said modified entangling vine plant was further mutated to create the pod grenade plant. The maximum number of pod grenades each suit could carry was one to civilian models, three to four on combat models, the grenades tended to take a minute or more to regenerate given various environmental circumstances. The pod grenade had two functions, it sprouted vines to immobilize targets within a short range and if said target happened to be mechanical it would either sap or overload that targets power source rendering it inoperable.

Fluttershy felt a lot safer wearing her suit, even if it had a lot of downsides it would still protect her from harmful radiation, asphyxiation and was partly resilient to certain types of energy weapons and all kinds of ballistic weapons. The positives outweighed the negatives, with the exception to possibly being set on fire while wearing it. She zipped around some buildings and over the streets watching as the people of Rhizome went about their daily lives; it had been a while since she could fly without having to ingest an apple. Even if it was a little bit too fast for her taste, she tried to pretend that she was Rainbow Dash and would just enjoy the thrill of flying.

“I wonder what my friends are doing. I feel like a beautiful tree or a pretty flower in this thing.” Wearing a suit made out of plants would make Fluttershy feel like this. She in fact liked the idea of standing still in the grass next to some tree’s in the sun while wearing this suit.

-

“So Fluttershy is being pampered and has somehow become an ambassador of our planet with this Galactic Alliance? At least she is safe for now, though I do worry about that law that requires protection at all times. They wouldn’t have a law like that unless first contact ambassadors were frequently attacked.” Celestia was visiting the hill and sitting with Discord who was eating from a pile of porcelain chips, she was actually beginning to understand him and it started to worry her that they had become friends. The princess of the sun had become friends with one of the most chaotic unpredictable creature in all of Equestria, it was a little boggling that he had taken the time to distract everyone that would take up her busy schedule so they could just talk and have a little fun.

-

Sitting at a table for lunch, Fluttershy couldn’t help but notice that Mira had a concerned look on her face as her helmet was down and she was picking at her fruits and salad special. You could eat a meal on this planet for twenty years straight and never have the same meal twice, her salads were rather divine and she was always getting something different. She picked up a fruit and bit into it, it taste faintly reminiscent of a cross between a vegetable she had on Aldebaran and a peach back home.

“Ahem, Mira… are you okay?” Addressing the elf with the blue skin and reddish orange hair got her attention and they stared at each other for a bit, Fluttershy wanted to broach a subject about what was bugging Mira.

“Not really, we haven’t heard back from Star Command in days. It really doesn’t take that much to get a ship out this way and I’m wondering what’s taking them so long.” Mira took a bit of food into her mouth and chewed it thoroughly before swallowing. “The message got through perfectly fine, they just haven’t showed up yet which means someone is stopping them from coming. Buzz was properly paranoid about things like this and while I can’t match his instinct I’m definitely picking up some bad vibes here.”

“Yes, I too confer that something is amiss here, but Maurice tells me there are no Star Command cruisers coming from what he can see. We’re only getting the usual visitors or tourists here.” Janet didn’t need to eat, but she did need a metric ton of energy to recover after sparking the birth of Rhizome’s race, a single maximum tomato did that with spades. If it can fill a void like Kirby the Star Warrior with energy, then a planet isn’t that much of a stretch. Janet didn’t need to sleep forever and she was now sustained by the various plants on her surface where before it wouldn’t have been enough for her to do much aside from lend minimal assistance without much intelligence behind it. She did after all destroy a hyper death ray the last time there was trouble on her body and she was hardly aware that she did it. “I can understand why that might be upsetting for you, since you don’t know what has happened to the rest of your team. Until we get someone from Star Command to come in person we’re not going to know. The visual message we sent out gave them confirmation that you were here at the very least, so they know you’re safe and mostly sound.”

“Hey, what do you mean by mostly?” Mira said as she crossed her arms, she was a bit irritable of being reminded that she was still cut off from her friends and Star Command. She was also upset that she couldn’t leave Fluttershy’s side for nothing; she had to protect the ambassador at all costs and she usually disliked politicians.

“Calm down Ms. Nova, you are getting a bit twitchy and I can tell you’re ready to get back into action of saving the Galactic Alliance and protecting the peace. Just think of this as a small relaxing vacation with pay!” Janet just shook her bulb sadly at the indignant look she received, Mira was reacting as if it was the worst thing in the world to relax and enjoy things once in a while. Space Rangers, some just never wanted to relax and take free time off from protecting the people of the Galactic Alliance.

“I know, but I can’t help but worry about my friends.” Mira understood that some rangers needed time off from work or else they’ll get as grumpy as Buzz Lightyear was. She found the other side of it as understandable that Buzz would be grumpy if he were ever told to relax, she could now see things the way he did at this moment.

“Huh, what’s she talking about Janet?” Its times like these that Fluttershy wished she could speak Mira’s language. She knew she was being rather quiet and tried to get back into the conversation, but she was completely ignored making her feel a bit down. At least Mira’s voice was pleasant to listen to.

“I mean planet Venus the home of the LGMs is in sector one, then there’s planet Morph which is Buzz’s home planet in Sector 4 and we’re currently in sector 6… why hasn’t Star Command come to my aid yet? In fact what’s stopping them from getting anyone to me? There has been at least enough time for one ship to get here. On top of that I’m likely stuck with ambassador duty as long as Fluttershy is in the Galactic Alliance boundaries!” Mira had a sudden thought while thinking back to what sector of the Galactic Alliance she was in, she even grumbled that last part even though she didn’t mean to be so angry about it. Fluttershy was a really nice and fuzzy being to cuddle, but darn it all she was angry! “Ugh I can’t believe I’m going to be possibly stuck with a tourist gig, especially when I could be busting drug runners or stopping galactic scale crimes!”

“I honestly don’t know what to tell you Mira, but Maurice is on the lookout for anything dangerous that might be on approach, he tends to be rather protective of me and he’d notice if something was coming.” Janet turned back to Fluttershy who had finished her salad by this point and her ears wilted, she sat there quietly not adding anything to the conversation. “Hey Fluttershy, can you tell me about flamingoes now?”

“She’s upset with me isn’t she?” Fluttershy didn’t like that Mira seemed really angry; she could feel some of it was directed at her. She didn’t even know why Mira was grumpy and really she didn’t like the tone voice.

“No, of course not Fluttershy, she just wants to be with her friends again and get back to her job. It means a lot to her and now even if she does get back to her job she will have to protect you personally, even if it means someone else is in mortal peril you’re a lot higher priority to her and she doesn’t like the idea that you could put lives in danger. I’m guessing she’s had problems with ambassadors and delegates before ever meeting you, she doesn’t hate you since you’ve both been having a good time at the spa and spending a lot of time with each other.” Janet hoped that it eased her worries and was trying to placate the docile and easily frightened friendly little pony.

It didn’t ease Fluttershy’s worries one bit, but even she could see that Mira’s job was really important to her.

-

Around a day and a few hours later it was evening, the sun was going down on the horizon and the streets of Rhizome were lighting up with candy cane shaped lamp plants. The moon with a mustache floated a vast distance away staring at the planet. The stars were shining forth, one of them possibly belonging to Fluttershy’s home and happened to be the star controlled by Celestia.

Fluttershy, Mira and Roller were sitting on top of a tall sky scraping plant that was a nice apartment complex when Janet showed up. Watching the faint light of the sun on the horizon none of them noticed when the moon suddenly spun around way too fast to be normal; the moon glowed brighter for a few seconds.

“Guys we have a contact and it doesn’t look friendly.” Janet turned her flower to the sky. “Five ships, purple, red and grey, big zeta symbols on the side. Relatively large and from what Maurice tells me, they are communicating on a long distance array. He’s picking up some of their transmissions… he’s telling me they’re carriers?”

“Oh great, Zurg sent five carriers likely fully loaded with hornets after me, how nice of him.” Stated a sarcastic Mira who was starting to remember what had happened to her as soon as she identified who was encroaching upon Janet Rhizome, she rubbed at her head for a moment. It involved a wormhole and being violently electrocuted by the unstable space inside while she tried hard not to phase with all that energy around her. She hadn’t ghosted once since she’s been on Rhizome, not once would she mention the mental block that she was trying to get rid of. It was the reason she survived the wormhole, had she performed any ghosting in there she would have died from all the energy overloading her. “I remember how I ended up here now, it was an unstable wormhole! This kind of thing happens to me and the team at least once or twice every three months. I took a missile to my arms and then my chest, the second blast knocked me. My helmet and life support systems barely held together long enough for it to spit me out a mile or two above one of your rivers, it shattered on impact with the water and that’s when the emergency flotation devices in my suit activated. I hit the water face first too and that’s probably why there was that large bump on my forehead, it was likely from where a piece of my shattered helmet struck me.”

“What is it Janet?” Fluttershy didn’t hear what Mira said, but it sounded rather bad given the lilt of sarcasm to it, then she started talking a bit excitedly and the tone took a downturn.

“Mira remembered what happened to her and a madman we both know who likely knows Mira is here is sending a huge force of killer robots to kill her, from what I’m getting there are thousands of them. Uh, exactly how many hornets are we looking at here Mira?” While she was conversing with the two, Janet was silently arming every defense her body had to offer. Evil Emperor Zurg was about to learn third time’s the charm was in her court, he was not landing a full invasion force on her again and not after last time. She noticed Fluttershy was whimpering and curling up into a ball with her hooves above her uncovered head at the mention of the killer robots.

“At a guess? Around fifty thousand of them, Zurg usually never throws this many at one location though. He must really want me put out of his misery if he’s throwing this many in my direction.” There was a hint of excitement and slight boredom in Mira’s voice. She was excited for action, bored because the action was going to involve hundreds of highly expendable grunts gunning for her and it was just like another Galactic Alliance version of Tuesday. Looking to a cowering Fluttershy on the roof she frowned. Mira really wanted to get into the action, but Fluttershy most likely wouldn’t like it and she’s been through a recent horrible experience with robots. It was time for her to make a decision. “Janet where’s the safest place we can put Fluttershy?”

Fluttershy didn’t mean to be such a coward, but she wasn’t exactly brave and feeling like having a round two with any killer robots. Sure it might have been a little more than a week and in this situation she could run from the robots even though she would feel really bad about leaving the Rhizomians to be attacked by them after they were all so nice to her. She felt something nudge against her and hummed loudly, Roller was obviously worried about her and likely had no clue what was going on. It was hard for Fluttershy to remember that he was a wild animal sometimes with how smart he could be, he could read her emotional state and wanted her to be okay.

“I… I want to help the people of Rhizome.” Fluttershy really didn’t want to take part in whatever fighting would happen directly, but there had to be something she could do to aid them. Hundreds of innocent people were about to come under assault by cold heartless machines.

She was just one pony who wondered just what exactly could she possibly accomplish against an army. After giving it some thought, Fluttershy knew she could truly do quite a lot if she were willing and able.

Author's Note:

Mira wants to protect Fluttershy instead of asking her to join in the fight.

Fluttershy wants to help the people of Rhizome.

Not necessarily a conflict of interest here and Janet is cooking up something in the defenses.

Plus plenty of back story about the design of the Rhizome spacesuit also known as a Vega-suit, more action in the next chapter.

Buzz's team are 'old hat' at destroying hornets by this point, they are mostly expendable cheaply built robots you can imagine of a higher or similar grade to that of technodrome robots. They come with built in triple barreled blasters in each arm, these three barrels can transform into the fingers of the robots so they can manipulate and grab things. They have jet thrusters in their backs and possibly their feet as well for redundancy if they survive either being destroyed, they are tall spindly humanoid machines that are mostly yellow with black highlight here and there. The most noted feature is that they always come in large numbers, even if they were easily disposed of they will always just keep coming like an endless tide.

Team Lightyear would go through hundreds of them in their normal Space Ranger issued armor alone, but thousands of them with the only ranger nearby being Mira? Buzz's team has surrendered once or twice to the numbers these robots brought to the table alone.

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