Chapter 2
Despite all the fears that entered Fluttershy’s head as they traveled, the next few days were relatively quiet. Which really shouldn’t have been too much of a surprise, considering a good deal of it was still in pony territory. The most dangerous thing that happened was a few ponies giving Smolder dirty looks, though none of them dared confront her.
They had entered a routine. Up at dawn, breakfast, walk until noon, lunch, walk until dusk, make camp or check into an inn, whichever was available, dinner, and then bed.
At the current point, it was nearing the making camp portion of the schedule, and the pony lands were starting to give way to the dragon territories. They had left the last pony village that morning and passed the military outpost situated near the border. The guards had given Smolder dirty looks, and Smolder had responded with a gesture that would have resulted in detention back at the school. Still, the guards knew of the regime change and Celestia’s new instructions regarding dragons, so it didn’t go any further.
Smolder walked along, occasionally using her wings to give her legs a rest. Fluttershy largely followed the trend, with less time being spent in the air. They mostly traveled in silence, there not being a lot of common topics a student and a teacher could share.
At this point, as usual, Smolder was ahead, keeping an eye out for any danger. She occasionally looked back to make sure Fluttershy was still following. Finally, after concluding the sun was in about the right position to stop for the day. She turned back.
“Professor? I think it’s time we stopped for...”
Smolder trailed off as she noted Fluttershy’s behavior. She seemed tense, and was walking like there was something unpleasant that was about to happen. She was wound up, and something was about to explode out of her. That made the conclusion obvious.
“Professor, if you have to go to the bathroom, there are plenty of rocks to go behind.”
Fluttershy’s face turned a bit red. They had both been doing their business outside a few times over the last few days, but this had been the first time it had actually been spoken of.
“No, it’s... nothing like that, Smolder,” Fluttershy said.
Smolder tilted her head. “Then what’s wrong?”
Fluttershy stopped, wondering what to say at this point. If this was one of her friends, she would be telling them already, but this was a student, somepony that she was expected to be an authority figure to. Twilight had lectured them all about the importance of this, and told them to watch their behavior. She had seen this anger brought full force when Twilight had furiously lectured Rainbow Dash and Applejack after their stunts on the field trip a few weeks ago.
“Wait... you’re not scared, are you?”
Fluttershy froze and looked at the dragon. She hadn’t realized how long it had been taking her to answer, and the look in the young dragon’s face made it clear that she couldn’t deny it anymore.
“Well, um... maybe a little.”
“Of what? There’s nothing in these lands you haven’t faced before. At least, not if the stories I’ve heard are true.”
“Well... full grown dragons... kind of frighten me.”
Smolder looked at her professor in disbelief. “But... I heard you stared down a dragon without breaking a sweat!”
“Well, I didn’t want my friends to get hurt,” Fluttershy said. “I got really mad and stared it down...”
“But... you’re not afraid of me or Spike!”
“That’s because you’re both small and cute, not big and scary.”
“Oh, there’s nothing... wait, what do you mean, ‘small and cute’? Oh, never mind, look, what’s the worst that could happen?”
Fluttershy thought for a moment.
“How could you let this happen!” Dragon Lord Ember demanded. “You understand this means war!”
“Go ahead!” Princess Twilight said. “I was a fool to think this was possible! Even the Power of Friendship couldn’t repair this travesty. Right Spike? Spike?”
Princess Twilight turned to see her young dragon charge dressed up in armor, looking quite angry.
“Sorry, Twilight, but I can’t allow this insult to my kind to go unpunished. I was a fool to think I ever belonged among the ponies. I’ll slaughter you all for this insult!”
Twilight’s eyes welled with tears. “But... Spike, you’re my son!”
“No, my real family is the dragons!”
Twilight narrowed her eyes. “Fine! I can’t believe I ever thought of you as family!”
Fluttershy looked at this whole scene in horror. How could this have happened.
“What up, Flutters?” Zephyr Breeze said as he suddenly appeared at her side. “The salon fired me, so I’m going to have to move back in with you.”
“NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!”
Fluttershy blinked as she exited her daydream. “I can.... I can think of a few things.”
“Nothing bad’s going to happen. I’ve heard stories about you, that’s why I picked you. You handled that manticore in class like it was nothing. We shouldn’t have any problem.”
“I suppose you’re right...” Fluttershy said. Then she remembered that she was supposed to be the adult, and the authority figure, so she tried putting more confidence in her voice. “I am totally confident that we can do this!”
If Smolder heard the quaver in her voice, she didn’t mention it. Instead she took off her backpack and began to unfold her sleeping bag.
Fluttershy looked up at the sky. She knew she was out of pony territory, which meant that the weather took care of itself, a concept that still disturbed her. Discord had explained once that pony territory used to be the same way before his games had broken things so badly ponies had to do it themselves, but it seemed an alien concept to her.
She saw no clouds and concluded it wouldn’t rain tonight, if natural weather worked the same as pony weather. So she left the tent in her bag and simply pulled out her sleeping bad.
Setting up the camp was done in silence as usual. By the time darkness overtook them the fire was going and Fluttershy had her dinner, a series of carrots, roasted over it. Smolder was sticking to gems, a necessary diet since Fluttershy would faint at the sight of burning meat.
Smolder had initially thought Professor Fluttershy’s love of animals was stupid. After all, why get cuddly with perfectly good livestock? However, since coming to Equestria she understood the value in animals. They could be... entertaining.
She watched Fluttershy carefully place her carrot in a bug and wrap it. She had tried carrots once and spat it out almost immediately, but the Pegasus seemed to like it. She returned to her dinner, munching on her gems.
“Smolder?”
Smolder swallowed her gem and looked Fluttershy. “Yeah?”
“Well, we’re passing through the dragon lands. I was just wondering, are we going to stop and see your family while we’re here?”
At that, Smolder tensed up. She fiddled with the half-eaten gem in her hand before answering. “I don’t really want to.”
Fluttershy tilted her her head in interest. “Do you have family issues?”
Smolder blinked, a little taken aback by just how blunt a question that was. She would expect that from a fellow dragon or a griffon, but not a pony. “Well... yes. How’d you guess?”
“I... I can relate,” Fluttershy said, with a weariness that was unusual for her.
Now Smolder was interested, but she decided to answer her Professor’s question first. “I don’t... really get along with my parents. They... they prefer my big sister. She’s one of the best fighters in our area. We were all sure she’d end up being Dragon Lord, but Ember isn’t a bad choice...”
“So... she overshadows you?”
“Yeah... do you know what that’s like?”
Fluttershy actually shivered. “I wish,” she said under her breath. “Never mind about me, Smolder, keep going. How does your family make you feel?”
Smolder was stunned by Fluttershy’s bitterness, so much she didn’t even try to sugarcoat her answer. “Well... my parents are always comparing me to her. They’re a bit disappointed that I...” she hesitated. “Do you promise not to tell anyone what I’m about to tell you?”
Fluttershy nodded. “Absolutely, Smolder.”
Smolder shifted. “They don’t like that I... like cute things. They think I’m too delicate.”
“Too... delicate?” Fluttershy said.
She nodded. “Whenever I get in a scrape, I barely give my opponent more than four bruises. They think I’m not living up to my potential. I’m willing to bet they let Dragon Lord Ember pick me for this school just so they don’t have to look at me.”
Fluttershy opened her mouth to say that she was sure that wasn’t the case, then stopped. After a bit of musing on what to say next, she opened her mouth again. “Haven’t your parents praised anything about you?”
“Well, they keep saying I have the potential, but I’m not making the most of it. But they never tell me anything else other than ‘I need to try harder.’”
“Well... isn’t there anyone in your family you want to see?”
Smolder didn’t answer right away. She took a stick of the ground and stuck it in the dirt, pushing it around and making random patterns with it. Finally, she looked up and answered. “My sister.”
The answer was so unexpected that for the first few moments Fluttershy couldn’t form a response to it. “Your sister? The one we were just talking about?”
“I know. It’s weird, isn’t it? I’d probably be better off without her, but I still want to see her.”
“Smolder, that’s horrible to say! You should always treasure having a sibling.”
Smolder looked at her teacher with an arched eyebrow. “I heard you and Professor Rainbow Dash talking about your brother.”
Fluttershy turned pink. She thought she had been so careful not to talk about things like that where students could hear. It had been one of Twilight’s rules, and she thought that she had followed it. In fact, she was certain she had...
“Wait... Smolder, have you been sneaking out of bounds?”
Now Smolder looked nervous. “Uh, no. I heard you talking about it when I went into town. Now, how about your brother? Are you honestly telling me that you’re better off with him?”
Bringing that up had effectively ended Fluttershy’s questioning, as her brother had been a touchy subject. “Zephyr Breeze... had a hard time finding his way in adulthood. It caused a lot of problems. But even though Rainbow Dash has a hard time remembering it, we had some happy memories. Once, just after Zephyr learned to fly, the Wonderbolts held a performance in Cloudsdale, and Rainbow Dash heard about this scavenger hunt that was offering box seat tickets as the grand prize. So Rainbow Dash asked me to come with her, and we ended up taking Zephyr because my parents asked me to watch him. We spent the entire day traveling around Cloudsdale following clues and trying to get the prize. We lost, and Rainbow Dash pitched a fit. But if you ask her about it now, she always remembers all the fun we had trying. He even talks about Zephyr like he’s always been close.”
“I think I understand,” Smolder said. “Even with how much my parents compare me to her, whenever I think about my sister, I think about our wrestling matches in the canyons, or how she taught me to fly, or when she taught me how to beat up these three dragons that were making fun of me.”
Fluttershy smiled, even if she was put off by the violent nature of her memories. “Sounds like she’s good to you.”
“She’s the only one that I still write to,” she said. “The only one who ever writes me.”
Fluttershy was quiet for a moment. She wondered what to say. She wished Starlight was here, she was always so good at talking to the students.
“Well, there’s one thing you’ll always have. I’m sure that things with your parents will work out...”
“Professor Fluttershy, I’m feeling kind of tired. You mind if we call it a night?”
The request was sudden, but Fluttershy agreed. She could tell that it had been a hard conversation for her to have.
The pair doused the fire without any further comment. Within a few minutes they were both in their sleeping bags. It took Fluttershy half an hour to fall asleep, but in that time she noticed, even in the dark, that Smolder was smiling happily. Whatever visions her dreams were bringing her, they were clearly happy ones.
***
Smolder had awoken from dreams of her sister to her professor’s careful shaking. While annoyed, she said nothing as they ate breakfast, broke camp, and began that day’s hike. The walking and flying was once again done in silence, although there now seemed to be a new tension between them after last night’s conversations.
It was at noon that they stopped for their next meal. The both agreed to preserve their rations and forage for their lunch. Vegetation grew even this far out, so Fluttershy nibbled a bit at their plants, while Smolder went to a nearby river and caught a few fish, being careful to eat away from Fluttershy.
They started again, and after another half hour they entered a large canyon. It looked similar to Ghastly Gorge back home, at least to Fluttershy, and that reminded her of the Quarry Eels that inhabited it.
When she told Smolder of the similarity, the young dragon scoffed. “I wouldn’t worry about that. We never had anything like that around here.
Fluttershy breathed a sigh of relief.
“No, this canyon used to be the home of Earth Snakes.”
And at that Fluttershy tensed up again. “E-earth Snakes?”
“Oh yeah. I hear they were giant beasts that could devour dragons whole... well, the smaller ones, at least. The bigger ones they’d just wrap themselves around and squeeze to death.”
Fluttershy tensed. “Oh my.”
“Yeah, but don’t worry. They all went extinct centuries ago. No dragon has seen one for a long time. We’ll be perfectly...”
As Smolder spoke, she kicked a pebble, allowing it to bounce off a nearby rock formation. That rock formation responded by opening its eye. Its large eye. Its as big as Fluttershy eye.
Then it lifted itself off the ground and rose higher. Its long, tube-like body stretched to the heavens. It was bigger than the hydra Fluttershy had faced so long ago. And it was looking down at the two travelers, a tongue flickering out of its rocky lips.
“Of course, I could be wrong,” Smolder said in a small voice.
With surprising speed for a creature so big, the rock snake lunged toward them. Fluttershy and Smolder flew off in different directions, letting the large creature hit the ground. Both pony and dragon kept their course, hoping to get up high enough to become unreachable to the hungry predator.
The creature turned and after a split second of contemplating, decided that Smolder would make for a tastier meal. It lunged upward, its mouth opening in preparation to snatch her.
Seeing this, an instinct that Fluttershy never called upon knowingly took over, and she changed course and dived straight for her student. With speed that would make any Wonderbolt jealous, she tackled Smolder out of the way just in time.
The snake stumbled a bit, and Fluttershy yelled. “Fly! Split up! Maybe we can confuse him long enough!”
They went different ways again, but it didn’t have the same effect Fluttershy had been hoping for. The Earth Snake simply changed targets, darting at Fluttershy now. Scared, she dived down to avoid the next lunge. Seeing the snake was faster than expected, Fluttershy changed tactics, diving down. Thankfully, she saw a small hole that she could dive into.
It took only five seconds, but she made it, diving inside and just missing the large snake head crashing into it, shaking the canyon walls.
Fluttershy, frightened but unharmed, took a few deep breaths as she collected herself. The snake couldn’t wait long for such a small meal, hopefully. Smolder was probably safe if she kept flying, and they had agreed to wait for each other further up the path if they got separated.
She took a deep breath, wondering what to do next. The cavern was dark, so she felt around in her saddlebags until she found the magic lantern that Twilight had given her. She lit it up.
She seemed to be in a small tunnel. With nothing better to do, she trotted forward in search of something.
She didn’t have to travel long before she came to an open cavern. It was large, big enough that there couldn’t be much rock in between the ceiling and the top of the cavern. It would be the perfect home for a giant. Or...
She made the realization just as she heard the creature slithering in the darkness. It knew she was here, and she was on its territory now.
The snake lunged at her. Fluttershy flew up, just missing it. She had survived, but she realized that it had a secondary goal with that strike, and that had been to put itself between Fluttershy and the exit she had used.
It lunged again. Fluttershy flew down, looking for the way out, but between the darkness and her immense fear, she couldn’t see anything.
The snake lunged again, and this time it might have succeeded if it hadn’t been for an orange blur flying into its face and blowing fire in its eye.
The snake howled in pain, jerking itself back and slamming into the cavern wall. A loud crunching sound was heard, and the sound of crashing followed.
“Cave in!” Fluttershy yelled. Smolder was suddenly next to her, grabbing onto her and pulling her down. They found a large rock up against the wall and huddled in to avoid any of the falling rocks. In the midst of it all, the Earth Snake let out a roar of pain that nearly got drowned out in all the noise.
Then it stopped. Both Smolder and Fluttershy listened. They heard a sound. It sounded almost like... a whimper.
It was Smolder, ever one to throw caution to the wind, who looked first. And she laughed at what he dragon eyes, made for piercing through darkness, saw.
Fluttershy peered out, point the lantern, which was thankfully unbroken, toward what Smolder was pointing at.
The snake was pinned underneath several rocks. It’s hisses were coming out slow, and it looked like it wanted to cry. She put a hoof to her mouth with worry as all instincts of fear soon faded away and were replaced with concern. She looked into the snake’s teary eyes and soon found her heart melting. That was before Smolder took her hoof with a smirk.
“Come on, let’s go. We’ll leave snaky here to rot while we get away.” However, she only made a few steps before she found herself dragged back. “Hey, what’s the big deal?”
Fluttershy didn’t answer. She just rushed over to the big towering snake who stared at her with narrow eyes. However, Fluttershy gave it a small smile before slowly flying towards the big rock on top of it and started pushing with all her might.
“Professor! What are you doing?!” Smolder asked, in disbelief.
“I’m... trying... to help him...” Fluttershy grunted while trying to push the rock off. “He... doesn’t...deserve this.”
“Uh, yeah it does! It tried to eat us right now! I’d say we get out of here and let the thing-”
“It’s still a living creature!” Fluttershy shouted, panting before turning around and facing Smolder. “I can’t let it suffer like this when I can free it. It won’t hurt us if we show a little kindness to it.”
“How can you risk that! It could eat you after you help it!” Smolder shouted.
“It’s a risk I’m willing to take. I can’t stand to see the poor thing in such pain,” Fluttershy whispered, while cooing the whimpering snake. “Please, Smolder. Help me?”
Smolder bit her lip and stared at the snake who was looking at her with its big pain filled eyes. She then saw the exit tunnel needed to escape before staring at Professor Fluttershy’s big pleading eyes. Sighing, Smolder flew towards Fluttershy and put her claws on the rock. “For the record, if we die doing this, I’m kicking your butt in the afterlife.”
Fluttershy only gave a smile before the two of them started to push as hard as they could. Grunting, sweat began to form under their brows before the rock began to move a bit. After a bit more pushing it finally fell to the side, allowing the snake to hiss in reply before shaking off the rest of the rocks. It rose its head and began towering over the two nervous creatures that stood before it. Lowering its head, it narrowing its slit pupils and what was once prey. Smolder gulped and shivered while Fluttershy just stood there with a calm expression.
The snake let loose its tongue before giving Fluttershy a big lick on her face which caused her to giggle despite the large saliva on her fur. Smolder just stared in disbelief at what she had just seen before getting a lick of her own. “Ugh! Ew! This isn’t poisonous is it?”
The earth snake didn’t answer, it just turned around and retreated back the way it came. Leaving the two of them alone in the tunnel. Still in disbelief that they were still alive, Smolder turned to Fluttershy and asked, “How did you know it wouldn’t eat us?”
“I didn’t,” Fluttershy answered with a smile as she turned around and started walking in the opposite direction. “I just trusted that he would repay kindness with kindness.”
“You mean... that was just a lucky gamble?”
“I think it was more of a leap of faith,” Fluttershy answered with a smile before continuing on.
Smolder just stared at the pegasus who had tamed one of the most deadly predators on the planet with nothing but a simple act. Following the yellow pegasus, all Smolder could do was wonder what else was in store for them on their adventure.
Stats
Page generated in 0.032 seconds
Total duration
735 users online
749,739 hits today, 2,054,621 yesterday
FIMFiction
My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic Fanfiction
Designed and coded by knighty & Xaquseg - © 2011-2024
Follow & Support Us
Support us
SubStar
Chat!
Discord
Follow us
Twitter
MLP: Friendship is Magic® - © 2024 Hasbro Inc.®
Fimfiction is in no way affiliated with or endorsed by Hasbro Inc.®
While that approach doesn't always work on Earth, even the wild creatures without language in Equestria have been shown to have limited sapience/sentience. So an act of kindness from 'former prey' can be translated in mind in one of two directions.
1. Good creature, don't eat.
2. Creature does not fear being eaten; eating would hurt me, don't eat.
So either way, any creature they come across would have enough awareness to reach one of those conclusions. In Equestria, there's no such thing as a 'mindless' beast.
Still fun to watch it happen, though.
This is one of the greatest "worst-case scenarios" I have ever seen. Bravo.
Poor Fluttershy.
On a somewhat-related note, I am absolutely loving Fluttershy and Smolder's interactions so far. Can't wait to see what other fiendish foes and terrifying terrain they come across...
How was this Inspired by Rated Ponystar?
I liked Fluttershy’s “worst that could happen” scenario, that was hilarious. That moment with the earth snake was sweet too. Maybe Smolder will learn a few more important lessons before the end of this.
I thought the bit of Smolder talking about her sister was interesting, especially since she only mentioned having a brother in the show. Maybe we will see her sister at some point?
As others have said, Fluttershy's "worst case scenario" was fricking hilarious.
And I really liked the handling of the stuff with the snake. Perfectly true to Fluttershy's character in the best way.
She instead of He?
Her instead of He?
Interesting family dynamics these two have.
Ah, even in a strange land, Fluttershy remains Fluttershy.
Daring Do peers into the canyon, "Snakes... why'd it have to be snakes?"
No...not Zephyr moving back! No! NO! NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!
You should never say that because that's tempting fate
“I know. It’s weird, isn’t it? I’d probably be better off without her, but I still want to see her.”
“Smolder, that’s horrible to say! You should always treasure having a sibling.”
Boy that kind of sounds like Helga and Olga's relationship :(
Well then looks like they are on the way to the destination and you know I kind of wish to see the main 6 and young six interaction with each other but anyway smolder and Fluttershy made the way there had to stop and take a break and even having some conversation with each other even though it can be very awkward and apparently smolder had parents issues which that is kind of sad and Fluttershy kind of felt bad for her but then a giant snake attack them when they got to the area when they're getting close to the dragonlands but they stopped it but the snake was trap and it was in pain smolder was about to leave but Fluttershy stayed and helped the creature out and despite smolder don't want to let the snake go but she wants to help her professor and surprisingly the snake was pretty grateful to Fluttershy and just a little way and yeah that was pretty risky for Fluttershy to take but her kindness is so Prue