• Published 31st Mar 2018
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Airship Mauled - Darkonshadows



We crash landed on a goddess. Welcome to Airship Mauled, where everything could possibly be worse.

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Chapter thirty three, Unfamiliar Faces: Meeting Fauna.

-The future that refused to change, Fluttershy-

Twilight trying to steal the transformation pearl from the sea ponies was a very wrong and bad thing to do!

I know Twilight did it out of desperation and felt a strong need to help Cadence, Celestia and Luna, but she had been really quite rude to Queen Nova with what she did.

Twilight had only temporarily lost sight of who she was as the princess of friendship and a regular pony, she’d come to her senses and think of a better way. Twilight was a good mare and was just trying to do her best.

That didn’t mean that Twilight was immediately sorry about what she did, given we left her alone to think about things. She was captured as soon as she was away from us.

We were now currently on our way to save her from Fizzle. Someone who I could remember in fond light, something really bad must have happened for her to be like she is.

Fizzle also seemed kind of sad… only it’s hidden under that stoic demeanor of hers. I think she could use a friend right about now, some kindness to help her with whatever was wrong with her.

We could have befriended and would have eventually talked all the sea ponies into helping us.

Well, provided that they didn’t keep on insisting we stay where it’s safe and never leave safety, thus leaving the world to its inevitable doom.

Twilight forcing their hooves almost felt like the right action in that respect, as turtling up in their home really wasn’t helping anyone.

I kind of felt like a hypocrite about feeling that what Twilight did was somehow close to necessary, considering I was an accomplice to the golden ship theft that Jade pulled off several years before I started to live in Ponyville.

The only difference between the two thefts is that Jade did it for a very justified reason, I knew for certain that Jade hadn’t done it out of malice.

Twilight tried to steal the pearl because it might have the ability to help us fight the Storm King, I didn’t think violence was the real answer to all this. I wasn’t a fighter, I was a lover and I was quite proud of being kind through it all.

I loved all my little animals, I loved my friends and yes I was still attracted to Gilda who herself was still very much attracted to a rather dense Rainbow Dash.

Rainbow and Gilda even made up as friends during a trip to Griffonstone, with a little help from Pinkie. I heard things were even going much better over there now, they were likely next on the Storm King’s to do list if we didn’t stop him.

It was frustrating, but I was quite a patient mare and already had too much in life to really pursue a relationship like Rarity keeps bugging me about.

Not that I wouldn’t dreaming about cuddling up to griffons in my sleep, maybe a nice parrot like Captain Celaeno?

I think I might actually have a thing for beaks and it was so embarrassing to think about.

The dates I went on with Pinkie were nice, but I didn’t feel a strong spark even though I did like her. I’m not even sure Rarity knows that I’m a bit attracted to her, but the time we spend together on spa dates was always memorable.

I guess I had a lot to think about.

I think Pinkie was still in denial about Fizzle, saying that Tempest Shadow was a completely different pony from the one I remember. She was kind of right.

I tried to remember when I started to forget about Airship Mauled, something bad happened and now an old friend was coming back as one of our worst enemies.

Kind of like what Twilight told us about Moon Dancer, only in this case I didn’t ignore the pony who so badly wanted my attention.

This situation with the Storm King all felt so very wrong, I also didn’t like our visit to Klugetown very much. It was as bad as Jade and Kuril had said it was.

Where did I start forgetting? I certainly remember the wonderful taste of Kuril's food.

“Stop fretting so much Fluttershy. We’ll save Twilight from that mean old Storm King and then everything will be all sunshine and Rainbow Dash, you’ll see!” Pinkie was still very much affectionate with me, I leaned into her hug. Sometimes she was a little too much to deal with, she was at least apologetic about that when she went too far and was told she did so. “We’ve definitely got this.”

Thinking on it, maybe it was the first day I moved into Ponyville. Right when I was starting my new life on the ground.

I met the wonderful Cure-all Fauna that day, she was quite the veteran veterinarian and we quickly became friends. It’s also the day I met Rupert the gentle snake and Mr. Hummingway who was really good at singing tunes.

-Fluttershy, Ponyville, present time-

“Oh Angel, isn’t it so wonderful!” My home was in a slightly precarious position being near the Ever Free, but it was a cozy little place and I was going to be quite happy with living here. I was assured that it wasn’t overly dangerous.

All I needed to do was plant a flower garden, build some homes for my animal friends, maybe get a hen house and meet all the animals around here. If I didn’t know their language, then I would just have to learn it!

Angel didn’t look impressed and crossed his paws, but he still huffed out a sigh and rubbed up against me affectionately while nodding. I couldn’t wait to move into my new home… there was just the problem of getting my dream job.

I already applied for animal control and caretaker. I was also going to work towards my dream of running an animal sanctuary.

The money I made to buy this place had taken a bit of time to make, but at least my parents were proud of me being so self-sufficient and brave enough to move out. I didn’t feel brave, I always had a problem with talking to new ponies and there were the constant nightmares of bullying.

I never told them where half of the money I used to buy this place came from. It was from my share of the gold ship heist, Sekhet and Celestia insisted I take some and deserved it for helping put a very bad pony behind bars. I would like to think I was putting it all to a good cause.

After checking out my home with Angel, who stayed inside and decided to be lazy. I exited my new home and looked towards Ponyville.

I wanted to make some new friends.

I at least knew Pinkie would be welcoming and that was one pony I couldn’t be too shy around, I at least wouldn’t be here by myself without knowing any pony.

I started to nervously make my way towards Ponyville and on my way I heard a loud chirping noise of fear. It sounded like a bird, judging by the tone and call, it was a hummingbird.

I moved off the path leading into Ponyville towards the poor bird that was being frightened by something. Arriving on the scene I noticed quite a few things.

A hummingbird with a broken wing, it was chirping frantically and trying to pull away from a snake. The snake, to me, didn’t seem very aggressive or like it was even going to eat the bird at all. I wanted to interfere, but I watched as the snake helped the bird on its back and then started to look around.

The bird for the most part was horribly confused, as was I when I watched the snake look around for something. Eventually he spotted me and I blinked as he started to slither up to me, he started to hiss something out and pointed to the hummingbird with his tail.

“I’m still not entirely good at speaking snake, but…” I hissed several things out and he smiled. “Did I say that right? I don't exactly get the inflection right in snake sometimes.”

He nodded and introduced himself, his name and everything about wanting to help the hummingbird. The little hummingbird was kind of surprised by this and he chirped out questioningly.

I whistled a short burst of bird like notes, he started trying to relax a bit.

“I’ll help you, don’t worry. Also Mr. Snake your name is really hard to pronounce, so I’ll just call you Rupert. That’s close enough right?” The snake was okay with this and I started making my way into town with them following me. “I’m sorry about not having any supplies in my home to care for you at the moment… I’m going to call you Hummingway. Please don’t try to move your wing too much and we’ll get you fixed up as soon as we can.”

The hummingbird chirped several positive notes that made me smiled at him, he was quite the little vocalist.

As we approached Ponyville, I got a little nervous.

I looked around for some pony to talk to about getting some help and tried to speak up, but my voice kept getting caught in my throat. I really didn’t know how Pinkie could do it so easily.

“Seriously Bon-Bon, you’ve been acting weird for the last three months are you going to tell me what’s wrong?” A mint colored unicorn and an earth pony with a blue and pink mane were walking along and would go on right by me any second now. “You’re acting really paranoid about something.”

“Look Lyra, it’s nothing important. It’s just… something happened to… family… that bothers me greatly.” The mare that was named Bon-Bon seemed to be looking around in a really paranoid fashion as if she was expecting a Roc to drop out of the sky and eat her.

It’s happened before, but I heard the tale of a brave cow that shoved herself down the Roc’s throat to get the poor filly out of its stomach. The cow even did it without hurting the Roc too much, but what was her name again?

I’m sure I’d remember eventually and you were as likely to be eaten by a hydra around here.

“Um… excuse me.” The unicorn practically leapt out of her fur and the earth pony leapt in front of her protectively while looking at Rupert. He just gave her a curious glance.

“Don’t sneak up on ponies like that!” Shying away from this Lyra, I cowered a bit at the volume of her voice.

“I’m sorry, I didn’t mean to…” It’s not like I had snuck up on them on purpose, they just didn’t notice me. My shyness did not override my need to help Mr. Hummingway. “I was just looking for someone to help out Mr. Hummingway, he needs his wing fixed and I’m technically new in town. I’ve been here a few times before, but I’ve never been anywhere else except maybe Sugar Cube Corner or the Hayburger. If you could just point me in the right direction of someone who could help…”

My voice was doing that thing where I got really squeaky and hard to understand.

“Wow, you are really quiet. I’ll lead you there and give you the old Lyra five bit tour… for free!” These two would become well known to me as the most interesting couple in town, mostly because Lyra was a really strange unicorn and Bon-Bon was kind of ridiculously protective of Lyra.

“That’s Pinkie’s job Lyra and it sounds like she already knows her, if she's visited Sugar Cube Corner often enough. Hard to miss the queen of all sugar highs.” Bon-Bon muttered that last bit out as they led me to a place. “This is the place, the ponies name is Doctor Cure-all Fauna. Maybe we’ll see you around town.”

I was left alone with Rupert and Hummingway and went to knock on the door gently, the pony's name sounded kind of like Kuril the Abyssinian witch.

Eventually it opened and that was when I saw a slightly older mare with blue hair pulled back into a ponytail and yellow fur.

“Yes, can I… oh my goodness what happened to that poor hummingbird’s wing? Quick, bring the patient inside so I can get an assessment!” We came inside to Doctor Fauna’s office, she seemed like a friendly mare and was already carefully picking Hummingway up off of Rupert’s back. “What did he do to his wing, did he fly into a beehive wrong? No… if that had happened the queen bee would have probably forced him to work for her, but I would be seeing a lot of bees in here again if that were the case.”

“Um… what?” That’s when Doctor Fauna remember that I was present, it was kind of awkward.

“Sorry, I’m Doctor Fauna, pleased to make your acquaintance miss.” She carefully pulled at Hummingway’s wing trying not to hurt the poor dear. Hummingway started to make a fuss and she carefully calmed him down. “There, there, don’t make a fuss, show me that wing and I’ll promise you’ll be better in no time.”

Fauna was so nice with Mr. Hummingway and so very gentle… I think I just met someone who would become a lifelong role model to me.

“I’m Fluttershy, I’m hoping to be an animal caretaker and maybe run an animal shelter.” The mare hummed slightly, then she turned to me. “I haven’t exactly settled in yet and I didn’t have anything to help Mr. Hummingway with.”

“Then it sounds like you came to the right place Fluttershy, we’ll get Mr. Hummingway flying in no time.” Doctor Fauna sounded like a very kind mare and I’d think we’d be good friends in the foreseeable future. “I’ll even give the snake a check-up while I’m at it to make sure nothing is wrong with him. You wouldn’t happen to need a mentor would you?”

“I would like that, thank you. I would also really like to know where I can get some supplies right now.” I poked my hooves together shyly. “My stuff is kind of still in Cloudsdale.”

“I’ll let my supplier know to give you a mail order list. Unfortunately they won’t be able to supply medication to you until you are qualified to hoof it out to animals, otherwise animal first aid kits are okay to purchase and practice with.” Here Doctor Fauna started to carefully work on Hummingway’s wing. She placed two sticks against it while it was folded correctly and then started to wrap it. “Things are bit more lenient in animal care than with pony medical aid, I recommend you learn how to use a pony first aid kit even if you aren’t going into pony medical practices and will be sticking primarily with animals. As for this little guy, we’ll keep his wing splint and wait on it a few days, then you can bring him back to me and we’ll see if it needs to be worked on further.”

-The future that refused to change, Fluttershy-

No that wasn’t it, I had thought of Kuril so I hadn’t forgotten Airship Mauled at that point.

I tried to think of who else I met in Ponyville and at what point I exactly began forgetting my other friends.

Author's Note:

Fluttershy is going to walk down memory lane.

Is it filler or is there something to it?

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