Ch. 6 - A Mother's Love
Child of Nightmares and Everfree
A Mother’s Love
~^^~
Moonrise brought Sunshine Symphony up from slumber and away from the most delightful dream, filled with warm feminine scents and the taste of sweet nectar on his lips.
It turned out to be less of a dream than he thought.
Fluttershy had the most astonishingly large teal eyes when surprised, and when he woke up with their lips gently pressed together, she was not the only surprised pony in the embrace. Moving slow enough to probably seem sluggish even to the tree sloth outside, Sunshine gently removed his legs (and lips) from the Element of Kindness while she did the same, then carefully scooted a little ways away on the cushioned floor of the strange tree-house.
“Pheromones,” said Fluttershy abruptly as she folded her wings across her back with the greatest of care.
“What?” said Sunshine as the thunderstorm in his brain began to fizzle out.
“The house.” Fluttershy glanced away several times, looking at one aspect or another of the fairly featureless room before her eyes would flicker back to the naked Night Guard. Sunshine remained right where he was, belly down on the cushioned floor and looked longingly at his armor just out of reach. “Pheromones. If the tree wants to attract inhabitants, what better way to make them stay than to…” She trailed off, swallowing and turning to look away from him. “You should get dressed,” she added.
“I really don’t want to stand up now,” he admitted. Actually, he did want to stand up, as well as do several other things, one of whom was in the room, but…
“Oh?” said Fluttershy. “Oh. Oh!” She scurried around the outside of the room with her rump up against the wall until she reached the door, then vanished almost as if she had teleported. Even then, it took a few minutes for Sunshine to stand up and get dressed in his armor, as the distracting scent of mare and the theoretical pheromones kept shifting his line of thought. He was just buckling the last strap when the door creaked open and several black squirrels came into the room with both the ugliest and the smelliest orange fruit he had ever seen or smelled on their backs.
“It’s breakfast,” said Fluttershy from the other room, or possibly outside with as quiet as her voice was. “My friends say it’s good to eat, and it should take care of any lingering pheromones smells.”
That part at least was verifiably true. After one whiff, Sunshine had no desire to do anything other than get the horrible scent out of his nostrils. With full knowledge of what Princess Luna would do to him if he laid an unwelcome hoof or lips on any of the Elements, Sunshine lowered his face right into the horrendous fruit and took a bite.
It was the weirdest thing that had ever happened to him, and that was considering how he woke up this morning. With every motion of his jaws while chewing, more taste buds fired off in chains of delight and joy even while his nostrils were fighting frantically to stay closed and sending signals to his belly that whatever the treasonous mouth was eating should at all costs be kept out of the body, or preferably purged.
After a few bites, he found there was a trick to eating it. He had to turn his head, take several deep breaths, and hold the last one. Then dive into it teeth-first and chew, bite, and swallow as fast as possible before coming up for air away from it.
Once the sizable fruit was taken care of, Sunshine guzzled down half his canteen and stepped out of the tree-bedroom. “Thank you, Miss Fluttershy,” he managed to gasp, although there was no immediate answer.
He followed the black squirrels, who had quickly scooped up all of the fragments of the stinky fruit he had dropped, and soon found himself in a small glade with a thin stream of water cascading out of a rocky outcropping and forming a clear pool. There were a few little bits of rind at the edge of the moonlit pool, showing the beautiful pegasus had already finished her breakfast, and he quickly turned his back when he saw she was in the middle of a moonlit shower.
“Sorry, Ma’am.”
There was an almost silent “Eek!” from the pool and a somewhat suspicious snickering from the group of black squirrels who had led him here. Sunshine kept his face pointed away from the pool, and turned slowly around as he heard Fluttershy finish shaking herself dry and begin to walk over to him. As long as he kept his tail pointed to her, his far-too-perceptive eyes would not feed distracting images to his dirty mind. Or to any other parts of his body.
“Ah, you’re done,” said Sunshine, crabbing sideways toward the small waterfall and keeping his face turned to the risen moon. “I’ll just… be in the shower here ifyouneedme.”
“I’m sorry.” If it had not been for his exceptionally keen hearing, Sunshine would have missed it during his rapid travel toward the pool of cold water. He stopped and looked back over his shoulder to find Fluttershy in much the same pose, only facing directly away from him.
It really did not help his state of mind.
“Beg pardon?” he said, splitting the difference by turning part-way away from her and keeping his eyes fixed on a very interesting pebble on the ground in front of him.
“I’m sorry for kissing you this morning,” whispered Fluttershy. “I mean this evening. You were so warm and strong and looked so much like Angel Bunny does when he thinks about his family, but…” She rubbed her lips with the back of her fetlock as Sunshine found he had turned to look at her despite his best efforts.
“Pheromones,” he managed to say. “Obviously the pheromones.”
“Yes,” said Fluttershy. “My lips are still tingling.”
So were Sunshine’s, but he did not want to admit it. He had never actually read anything about habilis ficus putting off any chemicals except a pleasant smell much like pine, but there certainly was the possibility he had skipped over that particular section during his research.
“I… better go wash off those pheromones,” said Sunshine, edging toward the pool and the welcome stream of cold water dribbling out from the bare rock outcropping. He took a deep breath before submerging himself, armor and all, and scrubbed until he thought he was going to go bald.
~^^~
It felt good to get above the moonlit forest canopy and glide along ever so slowly with the twigs and branches just barely tickling at his hooves. The sloth’s news had brought a chill to Sunshine’s heart, and with every stop to talk to another animal, the cold grew. They did know about a dark pony with dragon-wings, but each animal insisted she was flying with an enormous bat, well over the size of a pony and most certainly not Spark Gap. Even if his wife had somehow managed a transformation spell, Spark Gap hated heights. She would not even climb a step-stool to change a bulb, but this other creature the animals swore was constantly with his daughter swooped and darted around in the sky just like Emerald.
His gloomy mood seemed to affect Fluttershy just enough to take the edge off her happiness. There was a little hesitation in her wingbeats as she happily flew along, making new friends with every tree they stopped at, but always with a cautious glance back at him. It seemed as if their trip had turned from flying down a straight path to wandering around a neighborhood full of vicious muggers and chatty grandmothers, sometimes in the same furry bodies. He did not want to bring up their early-evening… physical contact, but as they took a break in a moonlit grove, drinking sweet nectar out of glowing flowers the size of his head, he had to say something.
“You kissed me because I looked like your bunny?”
Fluttershy snorted nectar out of her nose and giggled once she had managed to get control of herself. There was a mischievous sparkle to her teal eyes as she smiled up at him. “You were all fuzzy and warm, and had this pensive little pout when you snuggled up.”
“A bunny.” Sunshine frowned and looked down into his glowing flower full of nectar. “Just… whenever we get back to town, don’t mention it to anypony, particularly any guards.”
“Bunnies are strong. They’re very loving and family is important to them.”
“And boy do they have family,” muttered Sunshine.
~^^~
A bellyfull of sweet nectar and a brief break later, they continued their search. It was a little frustrating at times, as many of the creatures Fluttershy tried to talk to were terrified of being eaten, while a few were obviously restraining their own appetites. Still, they made progress, although with more and more frequent mentions of the huge Everfree bat which the forest creatures said was with Emerald all of the time.
The night dragged on.
It was a long, slow search, but interspaced with moments of breathtaking beauty, such as when they were gliding over a field of trees seemingly made out of crystalline threads in glowing shades of violet and blue. In the breeze, clouds of purest viridian floated past, made of tiny moths the size of flecks of paint. Although they were too small for Fluttershy to talk with, they tasted almost like sugar when accidentally inhaled. The two of them had just glided out of the cloud and were heading for the next inviting animal gathering place when instinct caused Sunshine to grab Fluttershy around the hips and drag her under the cover of a thick tree.
They had barely come to a stop when a huge shadow passed overhead, making all of the creatures in the forest abruptly stop their constant chatter. Side by side, they remained almost perfectly still as the shadow passed by again, the silence broken by the choked-off cry of some unfortunate animal before the empty silence resumed.
“Owl,” whispered Fluttershy nearly into his ear and just barely loud enough for him to hear. “How did you know?”
Sunshine recovered his breathing and whispered back, “Little things. Shadows not quite right, just like the end of a shift in a quiet night when there are no disturbances. Everything’s going just right and you know something’s about to go wrong. We get a little paranoid at those times. Do you think there are any more owls?”
“No,” whispered Fluttershy, still huddled against his side. “They normally hunt alone.”
Sunshine swallowed and looked around their dark shadow in the treetop. It was not a very large a space, and Fluttershy was extremely close. “Do you think we should keep going?”
“In a few minutes,” whispered Fluttershy. “I need to calm down. My heart is pounding so hard I can hear it.”
He could feel it too, as Fluttershy’s warm body was pressed up against Sunshine’s side with a hammering little flicker of fire across his coat which showed no indication of slowing down. After taking a few breaths to get up his courage, Sunshine said in as calm a voice as he could, “Maybe if you could back up a little.”
“Oh! Sorry.” Fluttershy shifted away from him on the branch, although he could still tell just exactly where she was by the sound of her slowing heartbeat and the soft, sweaty aroma of her coat. “Maybe we should find someplace to rest for the the day,” she said. “It’s almost dawn and we’re both tired.”
“Yeah, we both really need to go to bed,” said Sunshine, peering up out of a crack in the branch overhead, looking out into the moonlit night with a slow sinking sensation of having just unwittingly propositioned one of the Elements of Harmony, and his mind considered the very cold arctic posting Luna would arrange for him if even the slightest rumor got back to her very sharp ears.
He held his position. It was quiet. Not too quiet, because he could hear a quiet squeaking, and with a peek over his shoulder, he could see Fluttershy talking to a very small grey bat who was sharing their hiding place. There was an intensity he had not seen before in the way she squeaked and wriggled her nose, making her voice rise up the scale to the point where Sunshine could just barely hear. He could feel his heart beat faster, and not just because of the heartbreaking cuteness of the moment, or the way Fluttershy bounced up and down when excited, or even the joy in her eyes when she turned to look at him.
“This is great news! Eats Fruit says she knows where your daughter lives. Come on!”
~^^~
Following a fruit bat across the Everfree Forest was a lot like… nothing Sunshine had ever done before during his time serving in the Royal Guard. The scatterbrained little bat had no sense of direction or purpose, and constantly had to be reminded just where they were traveling. It seemed impossible for the little ball of fluff to know anything, let alone where Emerald Dreams and the strange huge bat she was with lived. Still, they followed until the faint pinkish tint of pre-dawn was lighting up the sky, and the little bat flew down to a lightning-struck tree. With a flick of one wing, the little bat vanished inside the tree trunk, and Fluttershy and Sunshine stopped on a nearby dry branch.
“She says they’re here,” said Fluttershy, following along with the little bat’s squeaks as it popped its tiny head back out of the hole in the hollow tree and looked at them, squeaking intently.
Sunshine looked at the opening into the hollow tree’s interior where an erratic stream of little bat bodies had begun to pour in as the dawn grew nearer. The hole was scarcely large enough for the little bat. Emerald would never have fit, even as a foal.
“Um… Not there.” Sunshine followed Fluttershy’s pointing hoof up… and up.
The Giant Sequoia can grow to a height of one hundred meters. In the grove Sunshine was looking at, that would barely be considered a seedling. Among the towering trees, some were flush and brownish-green with the growth of late fall in an attempt to gather every flash of available light before winter inevitably swept across their majestic expanse, while a few true monsters of the forest stood bare of leaf or branch.
They most certainly were not empty, though.
The brightening sky was filled with the sight of bats, wheeling and diving in clouds as they swooped into various openings in the huge hollow trees. From this distance, they could be easily mistaken for much smaller bats if one were able to ignore the gigantic trees they were entering much the same as the little hoof-sized bats were crawling into the hollow tree Sunshine was standing on. For one brief heart-stopping moment, he could almost see a young batpony in the giant cloud of giant bats, but Fluttershy’s delicate hoof across his chest restrained his instinctive dash in her direction.
“They’ll be tired and cranky after a night of flying,” she whispered. “I’m not even sure I can talk to them, since they’re so different from other animals. We’ll do better by having Eats Fruit show us which tree your daughter lives in and approaching them in the morning. I mean the evening, after a good day’s sleep.”
Every instinct in his body quivered with the urge to fly into the giant hollow trees in search of his daughter, but Sunshine held himself back as Fluttershy had requested. “I hope they’re more approachable before their first cup of coffee than Princess Luna.”
The both of them looked around the tree-strewn area, but none of them seemed to have the doors or windows of a house-tree to provide shelter for the day. Fewer and fewer bats filled the sky until the first eye-burning glare of morning burst across the area, and the night reluctantly gave way to the day.
“The forest is beautiful,” said Fluttershy from beside him. “All the animals and the trees.”
“Fighting tooth and claw to kill and eat each other,” added Sunshine. “What?” he added as Fluttershy gave him a cross look. “It’s true.”
Stepping off of the branch they were standing on and gliding to the base of the small hollow tree, Fluttershy pushed a prickly bush to one side and looked back up at where Sunshine was standing.
“Mister Symphony.”
She did not say anything else, but the sad look in her eyes spoke volumes. He heaved a sigh and followed her down to the ground, with the cool soil beneath his hooves feeling alien compared to the normal sensation of cool marble he had grown accustomed to over the last decade of service to the Crown. There was no doubt right now that he was in service to Princess Luna just as much as himself, and he had something that really needed to be said.
“I’m sorry I’ve treated you so poorly, Miss Fluttershy. You’ve done so much for me and risked your life, and all I’ve done in return is to disparage your special relationship with the creatures.”
“Don’t be sorry,” said Fluttershy. She held the side of the bush back and waited until Sunshine nestled down into the revealed space. She curled up next to him and let the bush sweep back across their hiding spot, providing a cool place to spend the day and sleep. “Sleep, and tomorrow night we’ll meet your daughter.”
“Thank you.” Sunshine settled down and reluctantly allowed himself to be wrapped up in her embrace as a substitute rabbit, with armor this time. “Do you think Emerald Dreams will know where my wife is?”
“I hope so,” whispered Fluttershy, although she put her head down and turned her face away from him afterwards until sleep claimed them both.
~^^~
The screeches and squeeks of The Folk echoed constantly around Home as all of the inhabitants settled down for the day’s rest, including Mama and her odd little batling. As the sounds of activity died down, Mama concealed her unease. Eventually, Dee’s breathing became regular and she began to snore, which freed Mama for her task.
There had been a few of The Folk this evening talking about the strange pair of monsters roaming through the forest, coming closer and closer to Home, and Mama had to act. Thankfully, they had been speaking in normal pitches, far higher than Dee could hear, so Mama still had time. Once Dee had been positioned where she would not fall in her sleep, Mama glided through the clusters of her kind, exchanging a word here and a few quick questions there with sleepy Folk until she flittered to the doorway out of Home and paused before entering the brilliant Burning.
It was more than a little frightening to feel the fire of the distant ball of light as it reflected in through the twisted passage in the giant tree and warmed the dark hair on her chest. Every instinct called for her to return to Dee and sleep, but if the chatter of the rest of The Folk was right, the monsters were nearby.
She had to see them. She had to know.
Taking a deep breath, Mama spread her wings and plunged out into the Burning. It was less painful than she had expected, except for her eyes which she had to close into narrow slits. Nearly blind, she swooped through the bright sky in the direction the other Folk had chattered about. The hollow tree where the Little Folk had made their home was easy to locate from their shrill squeaking and rustling, and Mama silently touched down on the top dry branches of their dead tree in the unaccustomed light.
Below, tucked in tight against the tree trunk and mostly concealed by a bush, were two monsters. They smelled of familiar sweat, just like Dee after a long night’s flight, and Mama could hear their calm breathing as they huddled together with their limbs intertwined, much like Dee tried to do with her awkward body. They even muttered quietly while sleeping, in the low, grumbling tones that her daughter liked to do in her Mama’s neck. Still, she could not see them, even while she hung silently above them on the dry branch sticking out of the Little Folk’s tree.
It took considerable effort to force her eyes open just a little to see what the monsters looked like, and Mama felt her stomach fall into her throat at what she saw through watery eyes. They looked so much like Dee, particularly the male monster with the hard shell wrapped around his body. Her heart knew this was Dee’s father, here to fight for his daughter.
A fire lit up in her chest at the thought, even more powerful than the Burning. When the monsters met Dee, Mama would be unable to hold her back. Once her daughter was aware of the monsters, she would leave for her own kind, and that was something Mama had no intention of permitting.
Mama drifted away from the dead tree on silent wings and began to work.
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The forest can be so dangerous to sleeping ponies...
...particularly when encouraged.
Credit to for Initiation, in which the Durian is properly described and from which I got the inspiration to add one here (although slightly changed to take away the porcupine outside shell from which it gets its name, because it would have interrupted the story flow).
Oh god the awkwardness.
7651516 Hey, what can I say? Batponies are comfortable.
7650095
I didn't have to answer your question as I knew YOU would answer it for us (as this chapter clearly shows).
Hmmmm, so they only got a few hours of sleep at most and there is a tree that wants to have a family in it.
Or the word morning is being normalized when it is really past evening.
Fluttershy is a weird one...
They are also great at multiplication.
I don't think the "she slipped and he fell" excuse would save him.
The Everfree is quite diverse. Wonder if these redwoods kill other trees too by poisoning the ground.
Hmmmm, Mama wants to keep Dee. Symphony wants to get Dee. And Fluttershy wants to make Dee's siblings.
Things are heating up.
I support this ship.
This could be very bad... but Fluttershy's been making friends all along the way here. Mama may not realize what she's getting into.
As for the searchers, I didn't want to say anything last chapter, but it seems that the forest itself ships these two. It will be very interesting to see what happens next.
Yeah. Pheromones. Sure.
Ship has officially sailed.
7652025 And then it strikes an iceberg and sinks.
Leonardo De Caprio dies again.
7651501 Yes, dern "treehouses"... Flutters and Sunshine are gonna stick with that story.
Also, was the nasty smelling fruit they were eating a durian?
7652381
I thought the same thing when I came to that part, but it would have to be a quite large Everfree strain of the King of Fruits since it had orange flesh instead of creamy white.
"cushioned floor and looked "
"floor, and"?
Ah, good; a least there won't be any sort of "Oh no, a giant bat's sneaking up on my daughter; kill it!" misunderstanding.
"very loving and family is"
"loving, and"?
"not a very large a space"
"large space"?
"for the the day"
"for the day"?
"almost dawn and we’re both"
"dawn, and"?
Uh-oh. What is Mama up too...
Well if the welcoming tree really does produce pheromone's to make it's inhabitants want to, um, settle down, it raised a few questions about Twilights current abode, I suppose it might explain her obsession with books although I wouldn't want to think to much about the papercuts.
Even more interesting might be Zecora.
'When the tree's a rockin', don't come a knockin'?'
Better hope Cadance doesn't find a way to propagate these trees. Just imagine her cackling as she flings hundreds of seeds from the sky onto the unsuspecting settlements below.
I was under the mistaken impression that Mama was accepting of Dee going back to the ponies... I guess not.
This was an interesting chapter, but, to be honest, the romantic elements feel a bit out of place. Not that I don't enjoy shipping, but it just feels unnecessary to the main narrative. I dunno, maybe it's just the abruptness of that element.
Still, your writing is as clear and enjoyable to read as always. Looks like I'm behind a few chapters, though, so I'll need to play catch-up!
Flutershy and Sunshine being shipped by a tree. That is also a crypt. Bizzareness, thy name is Everfree.
7854764
No easier method of finding lodgers.
It's a very large cup, for small values of tankard.
Yeah, that's a big worry.