Lunaverse: Galaxy Rangers - A Flutter of the Heart.

by Rixizu

Chapter 7

A Flutter of the Heart
Chapter 7
by Rixizu

Fluttershy nodded as Ms. Mouse told her the situation inside what appeared to be an abandoned building. Trixie was in there trapped in a green tube apparently being used to do evil science on her. At least Ms. Mouse confirmed that the Red Ranger wasn’t in any pain. Guards were everywhere inside, with two in front to watch for any trouble. Puissance was a paranoid old loon and went nowhere without a contingency of guards. It was a scary thought that they were about go in there and fight them, but they needed to do this. Trixie needed rescuing. She thanked one of her crocodile friends as he gave her war paint which she applied to her face drawing lines from the top of her face to the bottom.

Okay Fluttershy, you can do this. She pumped herself up just like how Iron Will’s book told her to. It was a strange application of his teachings on love, but they worked well. Despite her fear of the incoming fight, she was on fire and ready to do this. The image of Trixie as a helpless, pretty princess in a tower flew through her mind and embolden her resolve.

She looked at her animal friends all lined up in front of her. There must have been hundreds of them with almost every sort of animal a pony might imagine. Some of them, like the lions, had broken out of the zoo to help her. Each had war paint of their own. It touched her they would risk themselves to save her friend/possible love interest.

“Okay everyanimal, begin the operation.”

---

Moondancer yawned as she leaned against the wall. She put herself in the perfect position to watch Trixie. The mare still hadn't given up and swam around the tube looking for any weak spots in the glass. Nopony else seemed worried about Trixie escaping, but Moondancer refused to give her even the smallest opportunity of escape. It was insanity that Trixie thought she could escape with not only the tempered glass surrounding her, but all the guards on duty too. Not that this stopped or even gave pause to the so-called Great and Powerful Trixie. Somehow, the mare thrived on being in a corner and Moondancer won't underestimate her again.

In the background, Puissance talked with some scientists with a rare excitement in her voice. The science types huddled around Trixie’s morpher gesturing emphatically to it. Had they made a big discovery of some sort? Not that she cared. All that concerned her was getting paid, and she supposed making Trixie pay for all the suffered she went through in the mare’s service. Moondancer’s eye twitched just thinking about it.

The slamming of a door knocked Moondancer out her contemplation. The mob boss Puissance employed walked in with a nervous expression on his face his goons followed behind him. This put her on instant alert.

Ponyfeathers! What now?!

“What is it?” asked Puissance,clearly not pleased by this interruption.

The Boss wrung his hooves, terrified of the glare his boss gave him. "Well, you see, um, Fluttershy may have escaped." He screamed in pain as Puissance decked in him the face and he fell to the floor.

“Idiot!” Puissance said, seething. “I gave you one simple job. Oh, I will make sure you pay dearly for this.”

“It’s fine.” The Boss made a placating gesture. “She’s just one mare and won’t be able to find us.”

“It doesn’t matter.” Puissance turned to her hired goons. “Pack up everything. I want it all out of here in a half an hour. We’re moving it to my private estate in Califurlong. Secure the prisoner. What a pain.” She barked out more orders and everypony obeyed her without question or comment.

“Out of my sight!” Puissance moved past the cowering Boss and his thugs.

Moondancer scowled. Could nothing on this job go right? Trixie was a curse to everypony around her. Said mare watched the commotion with a smug expression on her face.

“Don’t try anything.” Moondancer transformed herself back to her original Discordian form. “You’re not escaping.”

A sudden scream startled everypony in the room. Moondancer gapped as the two guards from the front entrance ran in screaming. They were covered from head to hoof with squirrels and mice. The ponies rolled around on the ground in the vain hope of getting them off, but to little effect. In fact, it only made them angrier.

“What the hay?” Moondancer said, not sure her eyes weren’t playing tricks on her.

Ponies screamed in terror as a herd of animals exploded out the front door. The sheer variety of animals left her dumbstruck. Dogs, cats, rabbits, reptiles, birds, bears, wolves, big cats, and even insects glared at them and they looked ready for battle. Even the crocodiles from the Boss’s trap from the warehouse were there. At the sight of this, the scientists ran back and forth in panic. The guards looked fearfully from the animals to Puissance hoping, no pleading for direction. Puissance seemed more annoyed than scared and scowled at the intruders. Moondancer let out of a curse when a yellow Pegasus in war paint entered the room and stood behind her army.

Fluttershy. How many times must this stupid mare ruin their plans? How was she even able to do this? What sort of freak was she? Still, Moondancer had to admit that the timid little mare was more than a little terrifying at the moment.

Fluttershy gave the room at large a cool look and brightened when she spotted Trixie who grinned back at her. “This is your only warning. Give Trixie back to us, and we will leave peaceably. If not, we won’t hesitate to take her back by force.”

"You again," Puissance growled, "if you think I would ever negotiate with the likes of you, then you are sadly mistaken. Destroy this riff-raff."

Puissance’s ponies and the Boss stared at her with fear and horror on their faces. They were in no hurry to fight this battle. Even Moondancer had to admit she didn’t like their odds one bit. Puissance glared at them unmoved at their distress and pointed at the animals with a “get on with it” gesture.

Fluttershy let out a sigh, but a moment later strengthened her resolve. “You leave me no choice, charge!”

Pure insanity broke loose as the two forces fought or at least Puissance’s ponies tried to fight. One poor stallion punched a tiger to no effect, and it slapped him aside with little difficulty. A mare screamed as a swarm of insects charged her. She broke out into tears and ran around the room before dropping to the floor in a fetal position and sucking at her hoof like a foal. Birds pecked at goons’ faces as they tried and failed to fight them off. Ponies ran as several big cats chased them. Scientist ponies hide under a table and one of them cried for his mommy. There were just too many of the damn animals and fighting them all off proved impossible. Fluttershy stood in the background ordering the animals and helping them restrain any thugs they captured holding them still while spiders used their silk to tie them up.

Moondancer watched unsure what she should do or if she could even do anything. This was far beyond her paygrade. In a flash, she had an idea. With everypony distracted, she would get Trixie to safety. That would ruin Fluttershy’s plan quite nicely. Moondancer froze wide-eyed when she saw who was standing on top of the tank.

No, it can’t be.

Trixie looked down at her with a satisfied grin on her face. The lid of the tank was hanging open next to her. She leapt down and landed with a wet plop on the pavement bellow. She stretched her neck and her front legs.

“Ready for round two Moondancer?”

Moondancer stared at her mouth agape for a long moment. How did she? No, it didn’t matter. She should’ve seen this coming. It didn’t matter either way. She would enjoy beating Trixie’s face in.

“You plan to fight me without your magic?” Moondancer said. “That’s stupidity that even I never thought you capable of.”

Trixie let out a laugh. “I don’t need it for the likes of you.” She made a come at me gesture.

Moondancer wasted no time and struck out at Trixie with her paw. Trixie ran forward and slipped past it and hit Moondancer in the face only to bounce back when her face turned to rubber and had trouble getting back her hoofing. This gave Moondancer the perfect opportunity to punch Trixie right into the face and she crashed into some scientific equipment and landed on the ground groaning and cursing.

Moondancer whipped her scaley tail on the ground. “I don’t see why you are even bothering. You can’t win.”

Trixie got back on her hooves and rubbed at her jaw. “We’ll see about that. I just have to figure out how to get past your weird powers.”

She still isn’t giving up. Moondancer’s face twisted in agitation. Stupid. Fine, whatever. I’ll just have to hit her harder.

Moondancer stalked around her prey bending down on all fours. Trixie watched her closely ready and waiting for the next attack. She didn’t have to wait long and Moondancer feinted with a punch to her gut, but her real goal was to sweep Trixie’s hooves out from under her with her tail. Trixie didn’t fall for either attack and avoided both, grabbing Moondancer’s tail as it came at her. Moondancer tried to free herself, but Trixie’s grip stayed firm. A slight grin appeared on Trixie’s face as she swung her opponent’s entire body into what looked like a computer console. Only to be disappointed when Moondancer’s body phased through it and landed on the other side.

Trixie’s eyebrows furrowed confusion and she sighed and shrugged. Moondancer was unprepared when Trixie kicked the machine with her back hooves and the thing almost toppled right on top of her she almost didn’t avoid it in time.

“Interesting.” Trixie stroked her chin.

“Hey, that’s an expensive piece of equipment!” A scientist ponies cried out and shook a hoof at Trixie from his hiding place. Trixie ignored him and gave Moondancer a curious look and in a single leap jumped over the wrecked apparatus to Moondancer’s side. With some effort, Moondancer scrambled back to her hooves.

“Hey, don’t ignore me!” The scientist said, but Trixie ignored him only focused only on defeating Moondancer. This more than a little unsettled the Discordian who got herself back in a battle pose. Why couldn’t this mare learn to give up?

Trixie unleashed a barrage of punches and Moondancer tried to block them all, but a few broke past her defenses and Moondancer reeled from a hit to her shoulder. Trixie had hit her so fast that her transformations didn’t have the time to stop them all and the Red Ranger ignored any pain from the blocked hits even when her hoof hit concrete. She pushed faster and harder and Moondancer felt overwhelmed by its ferocity. When did Trixie get to be so skilled a fighter? Moondancer cursed her sloppiness and laziness. She shouldn’t have let herself slip this much.

No, she refused to give up and focused her chaos magic to protect her and smirked when Trixie yowled in pain when her hoof hit scolding iron. Moondancer changed tactics and focused on tiring out her opponent. Trixie would wear herself out, soon or a later.

Moondancer’s eyes widened when she heard a cracking sound. To block a blow to her ribs, her chaos magic had turned her torso to glass and Trixie had just broken through it snapping her in half. Moondancer screamed as her body fell into two pieces. In a desperate panic, she pulled her body together and sighed in relief when her body merged back together with no issue.

“Just as I thought.” Trixie beamed. "You can't control your powers at all. It’s all random. That’s why you didn’t turn your body to steel or something from start and kept it that way.”

"So, you figured it out," Moondancer growled, "it doesn't matter. You still can't win." And she refused to let Trixie use that against her. Time to turn this fight up a notch. No more games.

The air shimmered as Moondancer turned her chaos magic on full. The air around her swirled and twisted into countless shapes and patterns and the temperature in the room fluctuated so rapidly icicles formed and melted in Trixie’s mane faster than a pony could blink. Objects around her changed into random things and Trixie yelped as a pebble grew legs and walked away. A small smile formed on Moondancer’s face. This felt good, really good. She’d never let go of her powers like this before and always kept her chaotic power in check out of fear of being called a freak or monster. She enjoyed the confusion, fear, and panic on Trixie’s face. This hadn’t been what the Red Ranger had expected at all and she should be afraid. Moondancer was a child of chaos, a primal force all things feared.

“YoU’Re LucKY," Moondancer said, "I'vE never shOwn ThiS sidE OF mYselF bEfoRe. I hOpe you Enjoy It.”

Without warning, she struck. She extended her paw, and it grew and extended turning into a chain which wrapped around Trixie's neck. Trixie screamed and panicked as the chain grew red hot and tried and failed to pull it off her. Gritting her teeth, Trixie grabbed the chain, burning her hooves in the process, and pulled Moondancer towards her before headbutting her. Moondancer’s head shifted into thick oak, but it didn’t matter to Trixie who hit so hard the wood cracked in two.

The chains released Trixie as Moondancer reeled from the pain. It gave her a minor headache at worse, but it still hurt. Much to Moondancer’s satisfaction, Trixie wobbled on her hooves from the blow to her head and had burn marks on her fur from where the chain had touched her. Moondancer moved on the offensive and kicked Trixie in the ribs her leg turned into a jackhammer. Trixie tried to dodge, but she slipped on pudding that had randomly formed under her hooves and slipped onto her back. Moondancer kicked Trixie only for her leg to turn into water and it splashed around her opponent only getting her wet in the process.

“Random, remember?” Trixie wobbled back onto her hooves.

“LucKY.” Moondancer punched at Trixie and her legs turned into a pickaxe and a spear. Awkward to be sure, but dangerous enough and Trixie kept her distance staying away from the sharp blades.

Moondancer overextended and Trixie took advantage of it to punch her in the throat only to yelp in pain when it turned into a fanged mouth which drew blood as it bit her. Still, Trixie proved agile enough to dodge Moondancers next attack. The Discordian didn’t stop however and pushed Trixie towards a corner. Trixie tried to retaliate, but Moondancer blocked every hit. Moondancer enjoyed the desperate look on Trixie’s face when she saw she was cornered. It got even better when a spark appeared next to Trixie’s hair and started it on fire and she had to stop, drop, and roll to put it out.

There was something comical about Trixie’s appearance with half of her mane burned away and Moondancer didn’t hold back her laugh when Trixie glared at her. The Red Ranger pawed at the ground in irritation. She gave her mane a disparaging look before redying herself for battle again.

Moondancer had expected Trixie’s attacks to become sloppy out of anger, but they became even more determined and precise. It was all Moondancer could do to keep up. To her horror, Moondancer realized that she was the one getting exhausted with her movements getting slower with every exchange. She hadn’t been in a fight this intense in years and Trixie showed no sign she would let up for even a moment. How much energy did this mare have? Would she keep on fighting to the point of exhaustion or even beyond that? For the fire in Trixie's eyes, she knew the answer. This mare was insane and would not give up.

Moondancer grunted in pain as one of Trixie’s punches hit her before she could guard against it. She hissed and transformed her hair into vipers and they snapped at Trixie’s hooves who pulled away in time. Then Trixie did something crazy and punched Moondancer in the head through the tangle of snakes. They struck at her as she did so, but Moondancer reeled and saw stars. She almost lost her hoofing from the impact. She backed away from Trixie and put a hoof a wall to steady herself.

Crazy, this mare is crazy. What lengths will she go through to win? She eyed the bite marks on Trixie’s right leg with fear and bafflement.

Trixie shrugged seeming to read her thoughts. “If you aren’t willing to go all the way, you don’t deserve to win.” Her body was in a sorry state, but it didn’t seem to bother her at all.

If that was the case, then Moondancer would just have to end this. She was a child of chaos. She couldn’t lose especially not to somepony like Trixie. Her body flickered as she dashed forward and she phased through Trixie who tried to counterattack and solidified behind her. Trixie crashed into a nearby piece of machinery when Moondancer elbowed her in the head.

Perfect. Moondancer used her magic to lift the machinery high in the air and dropped it back down on top of Trixie as she tried to recover. It took more out of Moondancer than she expected to lift the stupid thing. Still, if it took Trixie out of the fight then it was worth it. She smirked when she saw that while Trixie had rolled away to safety she was unable to get her back-left hoof away in time. Trixie used her body to lift the machine off her leg but she was left walking with a limp, her leg either broken or at least sprained still she came towards Moondancer still determined to fight.

Moondancer obliged her and aimed her first attack at Trixie’s injured leg. If Trixie refused to stop fighting, then Moondancer would make her black out from the pain. Trixie saw this coming and pushed her body away from the attack and returned with a punch of her own which only stuck to Moondancer’s mane when it turned into glue. A small smile creased Moondancer’s lips. This was over and she had Trixie exactly where she wanted her. Then she gave a gasp of surprise as her body left the ground. Trixie planted her hooves under her and pull with everything she was worth using the stickiness of the glue to throw Moondancer off her hooves.

Moondancer landed on the ground on her back with a painful thud. She opened her eyes only to see Trixie’s hoof coming down right at her face. She tried to use her chaos magic to block it, but it came in too fast and the hoof impacted with to much force. Everything went black, and it took a moment before Moondancer got her senses back only to see another hoof directed at he. To her horror, she had trouble gathering her chaos magic, the pain made too difficult for her to focus. Trixie gave her no time to react as she punched her opponent once, twice, and a third time.

Moondancer had one thought as she lost consciousness. Puissance better pay extra for this.

---

Fluttershy surveyed the battlefield. So far it had been going well. The guards tried to fight back but the animals overwhelmed them. One tried to attack her with pipe iron, but she got lucky and a crow friend of hers came to the rescue, pecking the stallion in the face before he got a swing at her. Still, it was a scary moment, and she had no clue how Trixie did this for a living. She planned to never do this battle thing again for the rest of her life and decided it would be for the best if she kept her head down until the fighting was done. She used a sloth of bears as cover until then. The thugs thought better than to attack her when they saw the furious beasts. It took longer than expected to contain all the bad guys and tie them up with spider web. Fluttershy stuck her head out of the protective barrier and gasped as Trixie limped towards her.

“Nice going Flutters, I didn’t know you had it in you.” Trixie grinned.

“Trixie!” Fluttershy gasped in shock as she got a good look at the mare. “How did you escape? What happened to you?”

Trixie shrugged like the fact that she had just been beaten up didn’t bother her. “Just some unfinished business with Moondancer.” She pointed at the Discordian and Fluttershy ordered her spider friends to restrain her right away.

“You should have waited for me to rescue you," Fluttershy said chastising her. If Trixie had waited, then she wouldn't be in such bad shape right now. That and it ruined Fluttershy’s daydream of rescuing Trixie like she was a fairytale princess.

"I don't do the being rescued thing," Trixie replied, "besides, I owed Moondancer a punch to the face for getting me into this mess."

Fluttershy puffed-out her cheeks. Why did Trixie have to be this way? Why couldn't she let herself be rescued like a normal pony? Well, whatever. She was saved now and that all that matter. That and Trixie looked super-hot right now despite the bruises and missing half of her mane. Or maybe because of that? Fluttershy resisted the urge to kiss her again.

Trixie looked around and at the captured goons. “Where is Puissance?”

Fluttershy gasped and saw that somehow the old bat had slipped away. She folded her ears back and looked down. “Sorry, she got away.”

"Figures and I bet she has an alibi placing her on the other side of the world or something.” Trixie sighed. “No doubt she has some convoluted way to prove that she was never involved in this and she’ll use her money and lawyers to get out it even if we do. I hate rich people.”

“Nevermind.” Trixie plucked her morpher from some strange piece of machinery. “I’ll get her soon or later. She can’t run from me forever.”

"I hope so," Fluttershy said. She hated how this turned out. When she charged the place, she had expected to take down Puissance and stop the vile mare once and for all. Oh well, at least Trixie was rescued and everything was back to normal.

“Where the hay is it?” Trixie muttered to herself.

“What?” Fluttershy asked tilting her head.

Trixie gave off a long string of curses and Fluttershy turned red at the language she was using. A lady shouldn’t say those things out loud especially in front of so many animals. Some of them weren’t even full adults yet!

Trixie gave out a deep sigh of resignation. “Figures. Oh well, I’ll deal with it when the time comes.”

Fluttershy gave her a nervous look even the animals looked worried. “Tell me, what is it?”

"Puissance has a copy of my morpher," Trixie replied.

“That’s not good” A chill went down Fluttershy’s spine. Who knew what that old hag was capable of? Still, the mare was like a thousand years old. She couldn’t be that much a threat right?

“Fluttershy, why are there lions here?” Trixie kept her distance from the giant cats as they got closer. “And tigers, and snakes, and are those the crocodiles from earlier?” She stepped away from the replies trying to keep her distance. Fear struck her face at the sight of all the spiders. The poor things were so misunderstood by ponies. Why couldn’t they see how cute they were?

Fluttershy flushed. She might have overdid it a bit, but how was she to know Trixie could free herself? “I’ll, make sure they get back home.”

“You do that.” Trixie yelped when a tiger licked her in the face.

Fluttershy let out an eep as her animal friends pushed her towards Trixie and blushed when she noticed how close they were. The animal encouraged her on and Fluttershy was lost for words at the moment. She stared into Trixie’s eyes. Dear Luna was Trixie smoking hot at this moment. Again, Fluttershy wanted to kiss her. Kiss her really badly.

Trixie tilted her head. “What is it?” She yelped as some snakes gave her some friendly hugs. Everyanimal watched her in eager anticipation and fought over each other to get a better view.

Fluttershy blushed. What the hay was she supposed to do in this situation? Trixie was so close now and Fluttershy wanted to act on her feelings so bad. She wanted to take Trixie where she stood and do dirty dirty things to her. These thoughts make her blush even harder if that was somehow possible. If Trixie could read her thoughts, she didn’t show it.

“Is there something on my face?” Trixie asked when she noticed Fluttershy was staring at her.

They were almost mouth to mouth now. All it would take was a small push forward and they would be in a passionate embrace. Time seemed to freeze as Fluttershy prayed to any greater being out there Trixie would lean in for a kiss. But, that moment never came.

“Stupid animals.” Trixie turned away and glared at the animals around them. “They keep pushing me forward. Are they expecting us to kiss or something?”

Fluttershy’s heart fell. As usual, romance was the furthest thing from Trixie’s mind. A wave of bitterness flowed through her heart.

I guess I’m not worth it. Why would anypony love somepony like her? Trixie deserved somepony better. Why should it surprise her Trixie didn’t want to return her feelings? She was such a pathetic worthless mare.

“Are you okay?” Trixie asked voice full of concern.

“I…” Tears gathered around Fluttershy’s eyes. She couldn’t control the wave of emotions she was going through. Part of her wanted to lie down and die. The other part wanted to embrace Trixie in a hug and cry on her shoulder. When she looked into Trixie’s eyes, all she saw was a genuine concern and not any judgment at all. Trixie put a comforting hoof on her.

"If you want to talk, I'm here," Trixie said. Her face brightened in sudden realization. "Are you hurt because I didn't kiss you?"

Fluttershy said nothing and only nodded.

“Oh.” Trixie looked down at her hooves. “I guess ponies can’t get over love that quickly. I was so dumb to think otherwise.”

Trixie remained silent for a long moment unsure what to say or do and they just looked at each other.

“I’m sorry Fluttershy, but I can’t think of you that way," Trixie said, "it's nothing on you. You're a wonderful mare and you deserve to happy. Darn it, I have no clue what to tell you.”

“I know," Fluttershy replied in almost a whisper, "it's just hard."

“If you never want to see me again, that would be fine," Trixie said, "maybe it would be better that way. Less painful.” She turned to go.

“No!” Fluttershy grabbed her by the hoof. She didn’t want this. The last thing she wanted was to never see Trixie again. She meant too much to her for that.

“Trixie, despite everything I still want to be your friend.” Fluttershy won’t budge on this. “I know you will never return how I feel, but that’s okay.”

“It is?”

Fluttershy nodded. “Yeah, I like being around you. Losing your friendship would be ten times worse than never returning my feelings.”

“Are you sure you’re okay with this?” Trixie asked.

Fluttershy nodded with determination. It would be hard getting over Trixie, but this pinning was killing her from the inside. If she didn’t let go, she would hang around Trixie for the rest of her life. She didn’t want that. She would be strong like Trixie. She could do this! She would find somepony else that would return her love. It was stupid pinning over somepony that would never return her feelings. Besides, Fluttershy was sure that Trixie didn't swing that way, anyway.

“Are you okay?” Trixie asked.

"Yes, I think I'm all right," Fluttershy replied, "I can push past this."

“Great!” Trixie beamed. “You are awesome Flutters!”

Every animal gave her encouragements, and they piled on her and Trixie in a big hug. Fluttershy fought back a laugh at Trixie’s expression. The Red Ranger didn’t like having bugs crawling over her despite how friendly their intentions were. That and she hated having sharp fangs so near her face.

These last few days were painful, and it still hurt that Trixie would never love her back. But she felt like a stronger pony because of it. Didn’t somepony say that pain was a teacher? She snuggled against her new friend Trixie. This time out of a love for a friend. Everything would be fine.