Yonder Wandered Fluttershy

by Darkonshadows

98

“When you said demons were running around…” Fluttershy started only to receive a paw on her muzzle from Sasha.

“Come over to the bar so we can chat.” Sasha sashayed her way behind the bar. “So need anything? Aside from that what side are you on, Demon or Angel? I ask because the little one looks demonic and you look like an angel. Don’t know what the humanoid chicken is all about, but I’m sure I’m about to learn.”

“Madam we’re neutral parties, I am Virgil the last of my kind from the fall of Atlantis and have been alive for ten thousand years. She is a magical alien and her daughter was recently born of magic. I must ask, when did you exactly learn to speak as a human does Ms. Sasha?” Virgil was quite curious about this mysterious dog; one would think the dogs in San Francisco would be panicking. They arrived by unusual means and all they got was a bunch of angry growls.

“Oh we dogs have always been capable, but I can tell you it started to become more common when humans started becoming industrialized. Since you asked, let me tell you my story. It starts more than sixty years in the past; it was a time when a human named Anne Marie was given the power to talk with animals and my boyfriend Charlie was causing headaches back then as he does even now. The guys not perfect, but hey he’s close enough to heaven for it to count. That was back when I used to be a Collie named Flo; I did a lot of good work in my previous life before my reincarnation. I was even a member of the Pound Puppies, an organization that was devoted to helping give dog’s good homes and I was a go to for lost or abandoned puppy care. It’s something I’m still helping out with from time to time on the side.” Shaking her head the pretty doggy that was Sasha tickled Soft Echo’s chin causing her to coo out in an adorable manner. “Anyway, I wasn’t supposed to remember my past life, but then I had to run into my soul mate Charlie again. Only this time he was working as an angel dog at the time and on a mission to prevent the gates of the underworld from becoming wide open and allowing demons to run rampant on Earth, which was on top of a demons plan to capture all the active regional angel dogs in the offshore prison of Alcatraz. It all centered on this horn that can open and close anything, long story short, Charlie managed to seal the demon responsible back into the underworld using the power of the horn to open and close the pathway on the demon that was causing trouble at the time. During that stretch of time Charlie kissed me to give me the ability to talk to the human I was watching out for at the time. Being the idiot that he was, Charlie did more than remind me I could talk to humans by using something termed as ‘a miracle’ on me. My memories didn’t come back immediately, but when they did… oh boy let me tell you that was weird. Things haven’t been normal for me ever since then; you're the first alien I’ve ever met. I expected someone more tall and grey.”

“I’ve seen an alien like that; she was rather nice even if she seemed cold and aloof.” Well at least Fluttershy was intrigued by where all this was going; it wasn’t as weird as Bonnie’s family in Hawaii. Well at least it wasn’t that weird yet, she was going to give it some time to get weird or bad.

“I would like the strongest drink you can provide since you’re offering. Also I want to know more about these demons running around, maybe a bit more clarification on your history. I might be able to give you some knowledge and help with my expertise in matters mystical, spiritual and the like. Just be warned that I’m the last survivor of Atlantis for a reason.” Virgil would never let himself forget any of the tragedies he led to, but he would try to move on again. Sasha immediately got to work on said drink and gave the bird man a pitying look as she got some of the top shelf strongest alcoholic stuff together. “It sounds like you have ties to the spirit realm; I’ve seen the spirit realm quite a few times myself. It is stuck directly between the mundane and the magical sides of Earth. The spirit realm isn’t easy to travel to and it’s as its name suggests, it is for the spirits of the dead. The Mighty… someone I personally knew has been there several times, it is hard to get in or out of there alive. My friend managed to do so by being the bearer of a powerful object. He went there one last time to hopefully become something greater than he was before. As for angels and demons, they are always at odds with one another but neither side is truly good or evil. They are just sides of opposing philosophy in the spiritual realm.”

“What do you mean by that? All demons seem pretty evil to me. There’s even this one demon that’s quite literally a…” Sasha stopped as she pawed Virgil his drink, she saw the dog she was about to mention walk into her place of business which should have been impossible. “Well speak of the devil and she will appear. If it isn’t the boogey dog and it’s approaching twelve o’ clock, seems like a time she’d be skulking about with all the other little demons running around here lately.”

The three sitting at the counter looked back to see who Sasha was talking about, the purple furred whippet just made her way to the counter grumbling under her breath about something. She took a seat to Fluttershy’s left and looked to Sasha for a second with a blank face before turning it to the counter. She was wearing a black vest and nothing else.

Between Fluttershy and Virgil sitting on the stool patiently waiting while the grownups talked was Soft Echo, she looked at the doggy with something akin to wonderment. Something about this dog was making Soft Echo feel really weird and happy, the doggie was purple and pretty. Soft Echo was getting images of a pony with stars on her flank in her head, but that wasn’t the reason why her eyes were attracted to this doggie.

“Give me the strongest thing you’ve got, I’m actually here as a paying customer this time.” The dog didn’t say much else and sat there staring at the counter.

“Belladonna, I’d ask you what you were up to, but it should be impossible for you to be up to anything. There’s a barrier in place preventing demons with ill intent in any given manner from coming into my bar.” Since she already had the alcoholic fixings down, Sasha started making a drink for the demon dog that just walked in. She was eyeing Belladonna warily even as she made the drink in question.

“I’m just here for a drink… nothing else.” The dog now named Belladonna even got the right amount of money to pay Sasha with, which was a bit of a surprise for the proprietor since she expected to be cheated out of receiving recompense for it. Sasha passed her a drink with something akin to great curiosity.

“A demon just walked into my bar with only the intention of imbibing? You have to admit with all the other things you’ve pulled, I have my reasons for being suspicious.” This was one of the most dangerous beings Sasha had ever met and here she was sipping at the alcohol with what appears to be an incredibly somber mood.

“Hmmm… this stuff is actually pretty decent.” The melancholic looking Belladonna let out a belch and blue ball of flame lit up the air slightly. While she didn’t apologize for belching, she did let it out away from everyone in a safely contained manner which was quite unlike her. It also caused Soft Echo to clap cheerily at the performance mildly earning Belladonna’s attention. “Huh, strange, they are not demonic or angelic. You’re entertaining some really weird guests here Flo, then again both sides of the divide have been acting up lately.”

“Are you going to tell me why you look like something ran you over… multiple times in fact?” This was a side to the demon dog that Sasha had never seen; usually she was flamboyant, cunning and downright malicious almost all the time. She wasn’t going to bother asking why Belladonna called her Flo or how she even knew that name, the dog had obviously been around for a while.

“Oh how you would love for someone to do that to me. Pour me a free drink and I’ll tell you why you’re boy toy will no longer have to deal with little old me.” Proceeding to drain the entire glass of its fluids, Belladonna looked to Sasha expectantly.

Sasha looked to Virgil who was still sipping his drink and he raised a brow at her, this could be seen as an example of a demon that wasn’t doing anything evil. Fluttershy for her part didn’t see anything out of place with Belladonna; then again she didn’t know her that well yet.

“If you plan on being here a while, you need to show your true nature.” With a continuing sense of wariness Sasha placed down another drink for Belladonna without asking for any pay.

“Fine, it’s your bar and your rules.” Holding up her right paw and snapping the nubs, this caused two large draconic wings to appear nestled against Belladonna’s back. She eyed the drink as if she were taking something into consideration, with a sigh she picked it up and took a sip. Her ears in the form of a bound ponytail flicked back and forth a bit. “Okay, what you think you know about me isn’t entirely the truth. I know I’m a complete and utter bitch, but I’m not evil. Take a look at what’s not around my neck at the moment, that’s your answer.”

“Answer to what? Oh… um excuse me for asking out of turn, but can you please hoof me my daughter back… she seems to like you.” Receiving and odd look from the demon dog, Fluttershy pointed to her back where she saw Soft Echo cuddling into the spot between her wings.

“Your kid is not very bright is she?” Belladonna carefully managed to get a paw around to her back where she picked up Soft by the scruff of her neck and gave her back to Fluttershy without any ill intent. “Any other demon would have likely torn her itty bitty soul to shreds for invading their personal space, as for me I’m not feeling up to it.”

“What does not having a collar have to do with the way you’re acting?” Not in a million years did Sasha think that Belladonna would be gentle, she was a demon for crying out loud. She had a clear opportunity to hurt the child and was within her rights to do so. Her personal space was just violated and she didn’t react to it at all.

“It has a lot to do with everything really. Annabelle I know you’re here… come on out and explain it to her while I pay for the bottles to make more rounds for myself.” After that statement Belladonna slowly sipped her drink and continued to belch a small blue flame every now and then.

Out of a nearby mirror stepped a pink whippet with white feathered wings and a similar ponytail style compared to Belladonna’s only the ponytail went in a different direction. She took one look at the drinking demon and then smiled brightly.

“You’re always welcome to a job in heaven you know.” After that statement from Annabelle the angelic dog who has spent way too much time with her head in the clouds to remember what being a real dog is like, Sasha immediately poured herself a drink and took a quick swig of it.

Sasha realized what that kind of offer meant. Belladonna no longer had a job and that everything she did before was actually a part of said job. That was scary thought, given how far Belladonna could or was willing to go.

“Blow it out you’re prissy little backside Annie, I’m choosing to not work for either side at the moment and my future prospects are going to be my decision and mine alone. There’s not much going on there that would hold my interest anyway.” Belladonna went to take a drink and Annabelle smiled slightly.

“So you don’t want to be closer to me so we can have more sex? I would like it if you were to shack with me as they say; at least you will have a place you can be and you really like that thing I can do with my wings after all.” Annabelle smiled deviously while spreading her wings as a spray of dark flames left the demons mouth and she started coughing and sputtering. It was the second thing Annabelle said that Belladonna reacted to and most surprising was that she said it in front of Sasha no less. Belladonna’s wings spread out and became horrendously stiff, plus she was clearly blushing.

“Whoa, whoa, hold on a minute. Annabelle you and her, but… Belladonna can I impinge on you again, the all too seemingly pure angel just dropped a huge bombshell on my world view.” The demon nodded her assent; Sasha poured more alcohol for herself and drank another large swig.

“Are you serious Annie? I know you like to play the holier than thou card all the time, so why are you dropping the act now?” Belladonna didn’t look happy with the angel dog.

“Sasha I know this might be a bit surprise for you, please don’t tell Charlie that I’m bisexual or that me and Belladonna have a continuing… ‘History’, if you will. You can tell him that I have been keeping things from him though. I like to tell people we’re cousins, but we’re not related by blood by at least four hundred and thirty nine generations. The family resemblance is always strong though.” Annabelle felt a bit sorry for Sasha La Fleur who was also known as Flo in a past life, nobody was perfect and she herself in particular was secretly a deviant. Charlie had never bothered to ask if she was sexually active and that put him among the rather nice one percent who didn’t constantly think about sex the minute they got into the more angelic side of the spirit realm. The only difference between her and Belladonna was the likeliest direction their moral compasses would swing in certain situations. “As for you Belladonna, both heaven and the underworld have been in an uproar since last week as something completely chaotic has broken the scales. Not tipped mind you, but completely broken. You’re the likeliest to know what’s going on, Charles and Itchy are being run ragged by running interference and they are currently stopping the worst of the spirits that got out. Can you at least tell me that much?”

“Yeah, I can tell you something. Someone really screwed the pooch and I mean it quite literally. You’d think I’d have job security for ferreting out so many who are completely wicked; personally punishing them is really just a side benefit really and helping you train angels isn’t that bad a gig. Your karma Houdini level angel is still fucking hilarious to the guys in accounting downstairs though, as no matter what I do I can’t nail his ass to the wall and he gets away with so much crap that I think Chuck is the soul of Coyote having his jollies with me.” Oh Belladonna wouldn’t be surprised if Charlie B. Barkin was Coyote in disguise and had altered his personality to play the fool. “Someone caused a universally large paradox and it involves foreign magic that didn’t come from the magical side of Earth. Puck's hands are bound up in New York by some rich guy so it’s definitely not him. Investigations are being done by the dragons, but they are coming up with nothing as to what is causing it. A history changing paradox is going to happen in a few hours from now and when it does… well the term ‘all hell breaks loose’ comes to mind. So far, what you’re seeing are the early escapees from the underworld who are actively trying to prevent anyone from solving the paradox even if they don’t know the cause of it personally. Word of warning, fix it fast. I’m ready to skip town to the magical side if this isn’t fixed in time. Oh and Red has escaped, he really wants it to happen too. Good luck with putting that complete bastard back where he belongs.”

“Punishing the wicked?” Fluttershy queried slightly upset. She believed in the Elysium of Equestria as being a place where the souls of mostly good ponies go when they die, Tartarus was physically existing underworld so Elysium had to exist. Twilight made mention of the place where she became an alicorn and it had to be closely related to Elysium in some way. If both places like that were to intermingle then that would cause untold destruction. Things were beginning to sound a lot worse than Katrina implied they were. She pulled out the two memory stones and sent her a short message. “Katrina, I’m in San Francisco. Please hurry, I’ve just heard that there are a lot of demons around and that they are going to try and stop Felicia from fixing this mess.”

“It is the job of demons to make sure those who are cruel and twisted are punished for the truly horrible actions they do in life. Not all demons do their jobs correctly for the spiritual realm, sometimes angels are too lazy to pick up their slack and neither side is perfectly correct in their philosophy.” It was a good idea to Virgil that you place your trust after you get to know someone intrinsically. “There is a lot of grey area and personal vendettas are usually involved. Even angels can be cruel if they try. Why I personally know that an angel was actually the reason why a demon named Talon exists.”

“The skull guy, yeah I know of him. He’s still on the loose eating souls in purgatory between heaven and the underworld in the spirit realm.” Slamming back her drink Belladonna started to wobble in her seat slightly, Annabelle took a seat next to her and got Sasha to give her a glass as well. Sasha notably became completely frazzled that Annabelle poured herself a drink. “I’m surprised that nobody has bothered to deal with him yet.”

Feeling something on her back again, Belladonna glared at Soft Echo and she just smiled up at the miffed demon dog. Soft Echo squeaked happily at her and nuzzled against her face, Belladonna grunted and planted the little pony firmly on Annabelle’s back.

Within seconds of exploring Annabelle’s back, Soft Echo squeaked then fluttered her way awkwardly back onto Belladonna’s back where she began cuddling the dog again. At that time it was almost exactly midnight in San Francisco and there was barely more than five hours left before the world fell into chaos. Even with that terrible thought on her mind, Annabelle thought it was rather cute that Belladonna had made a little friend.

-

“Felicia, are you ready for this?” Katrina had received Fluttershy’s message and Righteous Indignation had arrived in a timely manner. Captain Bucky might not know what was so urgent, but he was definitely informed that Willy’s planet was in danger and in the same dimension that they were in.

“Well I guess I have to be right?” Felicia had been a part of putting a giant demon that was carelessly woken up back to sleep and she had channeled a massive amount of magic through her body. She wanted to help Fluttershy as she felt sorry for what happened to her when they were forced to send her away. It was a little surprising to hear that the pony was doing okay, even if she still hadn’t found her home yet. “I’m sure I can handle it.”

“Demons are prowling about there, be prepared to defend yourself at all times no matter who can see you using your powers out in the open. The situation is dire enough that secrecy is not warranted or safe.” Katrina could see that Felicia was taking this situation seriously and then the cat took a step towards a wooden doorway in an orange spaceship that led all the way to Earth. She just stepped straight into a young teenager’s bedroom no less, Katrina was smiling humorously at the thought.

-

“Hmmm… I can’t see who is causing the problem, but I can see who will fix it. She is quite the delicious looking kitten.” A large red demonic looking humanoid cat cackled as he looked into his crystal ball, he would take his revenge on Charlie and he had to ensure this problem couldn’t be fixed. The Crystal Ball showed a humanoid cat with long blue hair and grey fur wearing a brown cloak. “To me my imps, I have a task for you!”

A bunch of tiny red creatures known as imps appeared with equally tiny pitchforks and were waiting for their orders. They would swarm the target continually to wear her down and when she was weak, Red would take her for his own amusement.

-

In the present, Bonnie was preparing for the fight of her life. She was wearing the Rhizome suit and the armoring was a tad thick on her since it covered a smaller surface area. She didn’t know if the slightly thicker armor would do any good from the history on Samus that she got from the computer of Head Hunter. Samus was a living nightmare to watch in action in those recordings, they showed just what she was capable of.

The mutated Terran in Chozo armor has survived the complete and utter destruction of several planets, space stations and large ships. Even if the crystal gems helped, Bonnie didn’t think anyone would survive the encounter. Then there were the space raiders, the Hench Company guys and that Motor Ed guy with the Sumo Ninjas to think of, they were likely still looking for Head Hunter. There was a possibility of them being attracted and drawn into what was looking to be an oncoming rather one-sided if highly protracted fight.

Author's Note:

The only time Annabelle ever personally acts against Belladonna is when she gets completely out of line, otherwise Belladonna was just doing her job. She eventually had to have gotten a hold of both Carface and Killer's souls as Red had Carface as an end result of the second movie.

Killer appears out of nowhere in 'All Dogs Christmas Carol', so Belladonna must have gotten a hold of his soul sometime between the second movie and that one. No normal mortal dog normally exists for sixty years, which is kind of the same thing that happens with Itchy in the second movie because Charlie spent a long time waiting for him to get into heaven.

Belladonna's entire routine is based in 'tests of character'. Which she always seems to be doing to anyone and if you look at it the right way, she actually forced Charlie and his friends to redeem Carface during Christmas. Carface was the guy who originally killed Charlie in the first movie of the 'All Dogs' series.

It is not a stretch that Charlie's love interest Sasha in the second movie turning out to be the reincarnation of Flo from the first movie.

The red imps appear in both the first and third movie, the second movie had a more spiritual version of the imps that dragged Carface down.

The continuity of 'All Dogs' is messed up, but I think this works. Also things are worse than Fluttershy imagined they would.

To explain it, if the paradox happens it would be as if the past version of Fluttershy had never gotten the memory stones at all. All the talks she had with Katrina would disappear from history and she be less connected with her friends and would be less mentally stable as a result.

Comments

[Acacia Sgt]

Oh, I had no idea ADgtH had a Christmas special. And interesting the changes.

So that was the impending problem. Butterfly Effect is certanly living up to the name. And looking at Bonnie's situation only enforces it. But yikes, that other consequence is certainly dire. So wait, the effect going that far back is a consequence of the paradox erasing it from both sides of the timestream, or that the second memory stone comes from that far back? Gotta say I'm now lost there. Would probably need to reread the past chapters again. Although, looking back again, less mentally stable would not be my first guess. Considering the role the Stone had in the Technodrome, my guess would be she'd have died there unless she got lucky and found the Head Hunter without Discord guiding her. Maybe thanks to Roller or those spirit turtles. But well, not like we're actually going to get a glimpse of this hypothetical new time line either way... that I know of, anyway. When dealing with time, anything's possible.

But well, for now, looking forward to how they're gonna stop Red from stopping them from putting a stop to the Paradox from happening and causing a stop to the narrative. Okay, stopping now.

[nightmaster0]

I loved all dogs go heaven as a kid. I'm eager to see how Fluttershy and her friends will deal with this latest problem.

I just can't help but think Soft Echo's fondness for Belladona is so cute.

Also excellent twist with Belladona and Annabelle having that kind of history.