I was just lonely ...

by Rune Caster the First

Flutterpony Fable

In the Castle of Friendship’s library, Twilight was busy reading through a massive book on magical creatures, and taking notes every two minutes. She was almost surrounded by stacks and stacks of books about changelings. Starlight, meanwhile, was perched on a library stool, sipping a chocolate milkshake.

Earlier, the pink unicorn had found a book at the back of one of the bookshelves. The book was about an ancient pony race called ‘flutterponies’. It was very interesting. Starlight sniffed, and then closed the book.

“Twilight, I’m just going to see how Applejack’s doing with that vegetable gruel”, she said to the purple alicorn.

“Okay”, her mentor said without looking up. Levitating the book along with her, Starlight walked out of the library and went to the kitchen. Applejack was bent over the big, steaming hot bowl of vegetable gruel, stirring it steadily, and sniffing it every now and then. Pinkie Pie was holding the two bowls of herbal ingredients. Both of them were wearing cooking hats.

‘Sniff’ “Mmmmm … okay, put them in now, Pinkie!” Pinkie tipped the bowls of bogwurt roots and poison joke petals into the gruel. Applejack stirred them into the mixture, while the pink pony sniffed the concoction herself.

‘Sniff’ “Yum, this smells yummy.” Pinkie looked up. “Oh hello, Starlight”, she said. Applejack then turned her head.

“Hey Starlight. How’s the research going?” the orange mare said.

“It’s going well”, the pink unicorn said, “I just thought I’d take a quick break and see how the gruel was cooking.”

“The gruel’s fine. How’s Twilight?”

“She’s still working.” Applejack chuckled.

“That figures”, she said. Starlight sniffed at the gruel.

“Pinkie’s right, this vegetable gruel smells absolutely delicious”, she exclaimed. “Is it a family recipe?”

“Eeyup”, the orange earth pony said, an expression of pride on her face. “It’s one of the Apple Family recipes; this one is especially good for sick ponies. Granny Smith has given it to me before when ah got sick. It cured me. Maybe it’ll cure her.” Applejack’s face scrunched up a little at the last sentence. The pink unicorn then remembered Twilight telling her about how Chrysalis-as-Cadence had thrown away Applejack’s baked goodies. AJ’s probably not forgiven her yet.

“Perhaps I could take the gruel to Chrysalis for you?” Starlight suggested. The apple mare’s face relaxed.

“Thank ya kindly, Starlight”, she said. Applejack dipped the spoon into the bowl, and tasted it. “There it’s done.” She deftly poured some of the gruel into a smaller bowl, with a smaller spoon in it. Starlight took it and carried it, the book too, to Chrysalis’s room.

Fluttershy was standing next to Chrysalis’s bed, giving her a few pieces of willow bark from a little bag that she carried. The changeling’s head was propped up with an extra pillow. Chrysalis’s expression was that of disgust and revulsion: probably because of the bark’s bitter taste. The pink unicorn opened the door and walked in. Chrysalis looked even more disgusted, and sneered at her before turning away. Starlight sighed.

“You know that you should be a little bit more grateful, after all you’re not in a dungeon or Tartarus right now”, she said, feeling exasperated. Chrysalis just scoffed at her.

“In case you haven’t noticed, my life at present is Tartarus. I can be grumpy if I want to be.” The changeling stuck her muzzle up in the air. Starlight and Fluttershy shared a look. The yellow pegasus looked into her little bag, frowned and then walked towards the door.
“I need to get some more willow bark. Can you watch her, Starlight, until I come back?” she asked.

“Sure”, replied the pink unicorn. The door closed. There was an awkward silence. Starlight decided to break it.

“Here’s some nice vegetable gruel, Chrysalis”, she said, levitating the bowl and spoon over to the changeling. Chrysalis screwed up her face again.

“No!” the changeling snapped. The pink unicorn felt irritated again.

“Do you want to stay in that bed forever?” Chrysalis opened her mouth to reply, and then closed again. Did she want to stay in this bed forever? She had to admit that this was softer than sleeping on rock or hard soil: nice, warm, comfy … wait a moment! The changeling quickly threw the fuzzy thoughts out of her mind. Keep it together! She shook her head.

Starlight then started to feed Chrysalis the gruel, spoonful by spoonful. The pink unicorn heard Chrysalis muttering something.

“What was that?” Starlight said.

“I’m not a foal”, the changeling muttered louder, in a petulant voice. Starlight sighed, and tried not to smile. When Chrysalis was petulant, she did sound rather like a foal.

“Come on, this will help to make you better.” The changeling soon finished the gruel and settled back in the bed, closing her eyes. Starlight sat down on a chair next to the bed, and levitated the Flutterpony book in front of her. She opened the book and resumed reading.

The sound of ruffling pages caused Chrysalis’s eyes to open. She looked across at Starlight and saw that she was reading a book. The changeling felt suddenly curious.

“What are you reading?” she asked. Starlight put down the book for a moment, and then floated it across to Chrysalis. The book landed directly in front of her so that she could see the title.

‘The Tale of the Flutterponies’

“It’s a book that tells you about a magical paradise called ‘Flutter Valley, and its wondrous inhabitants: the Flutterponies. They looked just like pegasi in Equestria, except their wings were more like those of butterflies, almost invisible, and literally sparkle with magic. Flutter Valley is supposed to be the most beautiful place in all of Equis. The Flutterpony Queen is called Rosedust, with a light-yellow coat, and locks of pink-violet mane. Her cutie mark was three little pink roses. She also has pink eyes, in two different shades.”

The pink unicorn sighed.

“It must be a great place”, she murmured. Chrysalis had been listening for quite some time, a strange expression on her face.

“It was … it was.” The whisper made Starlight turn around and look at the changeling. Chrysalis’s eyes were closed, her breathing slow and steady. The door opened, and Fluttershy tiptoed in.

‘Shhh’ Starlight held a hoof to her mouth. “I think that she’s asleep.” The yellow pegasus nodded. She motioned to herself and Starlight and then to the door. The pink unicorn nodded back. “Yes, let’s go.” Starlight got up and start to walk towards the door, with Fluttershy in tow. The two ponies left the room as quietly as they could.

Even though Starlight Glimmer was an incredibly talented mage, she could be a bit forgetful sometimes. Like now, for instance. She had forgotten the ‘Flutterpony’ book.

After a minute, the changeling’s eyes opened a little bit. Their gaze went down to the book that lay to the right side of her chest. Chrysalis stretched her hoof forward to the book to try to nudge it closer to her.

Author's Note:

Now it's getting really interesting!

Is anybody getting the feeling that Chrysalis knows something about Flutter Valley?

Comments

[AlphaRidley]

Nice nice I like how you're handling the flutterpony thing so far, you didn't have Chrysalis just dump everything she knows about it the moment she was told what Starlight was reading about (not that she got the chance to but still). There's a bit of mystery involved and I enjoy that.

It's been so long since I last read the story that I can't remember if the pairings was a thing in the summery the last time I did, but now that I know it's there I am ecstatic.

Hope to see more from this story in the future.

[Wilddog88]

You think changelings are the Flutterponies under a curse?

[Razzy]

And Chryssie is really the prettiest butterfly pony in the land~ Though one that'll eat your face first.

Jeez, Starlight, one could think you feel in love with Rosedust with how much you spend on describing her.

'and literally sparkle with magic' - sparkled