Friends and Fairy Tales

by CrackedInkWell

(Fluttershy and the Pool of Tears)

Author's Note:

A bit of heads up, I've decided that in the upcoming chapters after introducing Mr. Wonka that chapters after that will need to be deleted in order for it to go into a new direction with several things. But for now, enjoy the new chapter.

“I shouldn’t have done that!” The yellow pegasus exclaimed. Once she ate a tiny cake that said: “Eat Me,” Fluttershy found herself growing taller by the moment. She looked down at the light blue dress with the white apron she was wearing, “How is it that this thing isn’t tearing? Is the dress, like everything in here is enchanted too? Oh what am I saying? This is a dream after all, weird things always happen in dreams… right?”

Just then, she bumped her head against the ceiling, and thankful that she didn’t grew any larger than nine feet high. Craning her neck down to the three-legged glass table, where on it was a golden key and the empty bottle that had the tag, “Drink Me,” laying on its side.

“Oh I wish that I hadn’t gulped down all of it,” Fluttershy said to herself. “Now what do I do?” With an increasing feeling of hopelessness, her ears drooped back as she sat on her hunches. “Why does this happen to me?” She could feel tears swelling up from her eyes. “No, don’t get sad. Stop it right now!” But despite scolding herself, the tears did fell. Shedding gallons upon gallons of tears until they formed a rather large pool around her about four inches deep and reaching about half the hall.

After a while of feeling sorry for herself, she heard the pitter-patter of paws down the hallway. Fluttershy, as quickly as she could, dried her eyes to see who it was. Although she knew that the white rabbit that was in a hurry, carrying a pair of white kid-gloves in one paw and a large fan in the other wasn’t Angle. After all, this one looked a little too round and the Angle she knew never wore a waistcoat with a pocket watch in its pockets. The furry creature trotted in a great hurry, Fluttershy could hear him muttering to himself, “Oh! The Duchess, the Duchess! Oh! Won’t she be savage if I’ve kept her waiting!”

At this point, Angel or not, the yellow mare was desperate to ask anyone for help. So, when the Rabbit came near to her, she said in a low, meek voice, “If you please-” However, this was as far as she got before this well dressed rabbit was startled. So much so, that he dropped both the gloves and the fan before scurried away into the darkness as fast as its legs would let it.

Since the hall was very hot, Fluttershy carefully lifted the fan and the gloves with one hoof and went on trying to cool herself. “What a really weird night this is. One moment, I was coming home feeding Angle Bunny, getting myself into bed for my nightly readings, the next I’m chasing another rabbit in clothes, falling down in a unusually deep rabbit hole, now I’m in a hallway that has a tiny door with a lovely garden behind it. Plus there’s a drink that make you shrink, a cake that makes you grow, a dress that is never too loose or too tight, and there’s a glass table that appeared out of nowhere. And to top it off, I’m recalling memories that aren’t my own! I don’t even know who or what Alice is, but somehow it’s like I’ve known her all my life!

“Still, I still remember being Fluttershy last night. I couldn’t have just changed into somepony else… Could I? But, if that’s true, am I still Fluttershy or am I Alice?” Then a thought came to her that terrified the mare, “And if I’m neither, then who in the world am I?”

She then tried to recall everypony she knew, to see if she could have changed into any of them. “I know I’m not Tree Hugger, that’s for sure.” She sniffed her free foreleg, “I don’t smell like smoked Poison-Joke. And I’m sure I’m not Mable, for I know all sort of things, and she, oh, she knows very little!” Fluttershy blinked, “How do I even know that? Come on Flutters, stop talking nonsense. Just… recall the things that I know. Let’s see: four times five is twelve, and four times six is thirteen, and four times seven is– oh dear! I won’t get to twenty at this rate!”

The pegasus shook her head, “Math doesn’t count for anything. Let’s try some geography. Canterlot is the capital of Ponyville, Ponyville is the capital of Trottingham, and Trotting ham is the capital of Prance, and Prance is– no! That’s completely wrong! I just know it! Maybe I really did turn into Mable. No, no, don’t panic Flutters, how about do a very simple rhyme, like reciting ‘Twinkle-Twinkle.’”

Here, she folded both of her forelegs like how a little filly would do in a strict school to recite a poem. However, her voice sounded hoarse and strange, and the words did not come the same way they used to do:

“Twinkle, twinkle, little bat!

“How I wonder what you’re at!

“Up above the world you fly,

“Like a tea-tray in the sky…”

She shook her head, and tears once more formed, “I’m sure those are not the right words!” Fluttershy sobbed, “I must be Mable after all, and now I’ll have to live in that little poky house with no toys to play with, and so many lessons to learn! No, I won’t! I’ve changed my mind! If I really am Mable, then I’ll stay down here! That way, if somepony stuck their heads down to call for me to come back up again, I’ll just look up and say, ‘Who am I then? Tell me that first, and then, if I like being that pony, I’ll come up: if not, then I’ll stay down here until I’m someone else’ – but, oh dear!” a river ran down Fluttershy’s cheeks. “I wish they would put their heads down! I’m so tired of being alone down here!”

As she said this, the mare started to wipe the tears away with the gloves, in which she noticed were bigger than she last saw them, ‘What?’ she thought, looking at her surroundings, ‘Am I getting smaller again?’ Indeed, she found that she was shrinking rapidly. So much so, that she was forced to drop the fan from one of her hooves in which it made a splash into the pool of tears.

Fluttershy went up to the glass table, but she found that she was too small, she spread her wings and flew up to the table where the golden key was. The mare tried to lift the key with her, however she found that it was not only too big, but she also lost her balance and fell of the table, key and all into the pool below. As soon as she landed with a splash, she instantly thought from all the salt water that she fell right into the sea.

“I wish I hadn’t cried so much,” she commented to herself as she swam about. “I can’t even reach the bottom. Where did that fan go? I really don’t want to drown in my own tears. That would be a weird way to go I’m sure of it.”

The wet pegasus then heard the sounds of splashing not too far off. At first, she wasn’t quite sure what it was that was swimming around in a sea of her own tears. But as she got closer, she found that it was a mouse that she reasoned had slipped in like herself.

“Excuse me, O mouse,” she called out, “do you happen to know which way to get out of this pool? I’m getting very tired of swimming around. O mouse?” The creature looked at her with curiosity, and seemed to wink with one of its little dark eyes, but said nothing.

‘Maybe it doesn’t speak Equestrian,' she thought. ‘Maybe it’s a… a French mouse, that came over with William the Conqueror.’ But for a moment she paused, ‘What’s French and who’s William the Conqueror?’ Fluttershy shook her head with these thoughts, dismissing this questioning since she’s already in a very strange situation. “Let’s see…” she thought for a moment of whatever language that came to mind and blurted out the first sentence from one of the few Prench language books she’s ever read, “Ou est… ma… chatte?”

But as soon as those words left her mouth, the mouse gave a sudden leap out of the water, and quiver in fright. Fluttershy quickly realized her mistake, “Oh! I’m very terribly sorry,” she quickly apologized, “I didn’t realize what I was saying! Of course you would be naturally not like the mentioning of cats.”

“Not like cats!” cried the Mouse, in a shrilling, passionate voice, “Would you like cats if you were me?”

“Of course not,” Fluttershy said in the most comforting voice she could muster. “Please forgive me, I’m rather lost myself and you’re the first that I’ve gotten the chance to talk to. For a moment I thought you spoke Prench, which I’m not that good in speaking. So if you want, we won’t talk about cats.”

“We indeed!” cried the Mouse, who was trembling down at the end of his tail, “As if I would talk on such a subject! Our family always hated cats: nasty, low, vulgar things! Don’t let me hear the name again!”

“Alright, I promise,” Fluttershy said. “So, are you… are you at least fond of other creatures like… like dogs?” The Mouse didn’t answer her, so the mare went on: “There are several that come to mind, even from a girl name Alice, there’s a cute little terrier with red eyes and long curly brown coat! Although a puppy, the little thing would gladly fetch things for you, and would happily catch rats and… Oh dear! I’m so sorry!” when Fluttershy realized what she was about to say, she noticed that the Mouse she was talking to started to swim away as hard as it could. “Wait! Please I’m sorry! I honestly didn’t mean to offend you!” It paused for a moment, “I understand perfectly why you wouldn’t like cats, but I don’t understand what you have against dogs.”

When the Mouse heard this, it slowly turned around and swam back to her. The yellow pegasus noticed that it was quite pale, and spoke to her in a trembling voice: “Let us go to shore, and then I’ll tell you my history, and then you’ll understand why it is that I hate cats and dogs.”

Fluttershy thanked him, and it was about time to go because the pool was beginning to fill up with other birds and animals that seemed to have fallen into the pool. There was a duck, a dodo, a Lory, an Eaglet, along with several other curious creatures. The damp pegasus lead the way, and the whole party swam with her to the shore.

Comments

[Skye Mist]

Oh I remember this scene. Great memories.