Ark: Friendship is Survival

by Pomp-Neigh

Chapter 85 - A helping Hoof

“So…got it all memorized, Beast Queen?” Harthrax mockingly asked.

Fluttershy lowers her eyes to the metal spikes below them, “If I say no, will you please drop me?”

Harthrax chuckled, catching onto her intentions and fully aware of what they were floating over. “Hmm. Funny. Oh, and if you think that Lord Threx doesn’t have ways to deal with fighters like you - you know, the ‘respawn’ types, you’ve got another thing comin’.”

“Can we just get this over with?” Fluttershy looked up at the large flyer with a deadpan expression. “I’ve already heard enough of that exact same Luna damned phrase from Craglorn as is…”

“...Not sure what a Luna is, but fair enough.” The argentavis flaps his wings and thrusts himself forward into a glide - Fluttershy’s mane and tail whipping in the wind.

Harthrax tilts to the left and flies over a closed gateway, giving Fluttershy a clear view of herbivorous, carnivorous, and omnivorous individuals of many forms of life within a walled-off area beyond the gate.

“Here we are, equus,” Harthrax chirped while gliding overhead slowly. “The training grounds. Ain’t it beautiful?”

Fluttershy could see what was undoubtedly other fighters like her striking thatch-made dummies of various shapes and sizes in practice, all while armed and armored enforcers looked down upon them from towers positioned at all four corners of the training grounds.

She saw a carnotaurus take a few steps back before charging at a dummy shaped like a small sauropod, although it slightly dwarfed the predator’s size. Nearby, there was a stegosaurus, which wound up its tail before swinging it and impaling a dummy shaped like the apes of the island.

A therizinosaurus and direbear were sparring against one another in an arena. A parasaurolophus wrestled against an iguanodon as they tackled and rolled over one another in the dirt. There were even several gigantopithecus striking dummies and boxing each other, cloth wrapped around their fists like make-shift gloves.

Several other sparring sessions play out all around her, some involving creatures she hadn’t seen before. But her sightseeing venture comes to an abrupt stop as…

“Why not get a closer look, eh?” Harthrax loosened his grasp and carelessly dropped the equine, albeit at a height that wouldn’t kill her, “See ya later!”

Fluttershy gasped as she fell while frantically waving her forelimbs. She could hear Harthrax’s laughter distancing itself as he flew away. Still, the argentavis was subtly selective on where he dropped her as the pegasus plunged into a feeding trough, splashing and overflowing its contents as she disappeared beneath the slop.

Fluttershy emerges seconds after, grabbing onto the edge of the trough to keep herself from submerging. She was a complete mess, but as she wiped the slop off her face and opened her eyes, the equine’s ears instantly folded against her head as her sudden appearance caused a deathly pause on the training grounds.

All eyes were on her, and she stared back with a widened, nervous gaze, even tempted to drown herself in the trough’s contents. Suddenly, something grabs onto her back and lifts her out of the slop, turning her in the air as she’s held up face to face with an ape of a very different type.

The ape’s fur is pure white as a large black-skinned hand forced Fluttershy to stare into fearsome orange eyes resting over a vicious growl. But above all, this ape was easily the largest she had ever seen, and scars were present all over its battle-hardened body.

If she didn’t know any better…it almost reminded her of the storm beasts, or yetis, back on Equus. The shock that overwhelmed her caused her to forget about her identification feature, which confirms her comparison.

Wild Male Yeti - Lvl 150

Regardless, Fluttershy was speechless, not daring to speak as she might invoke the giant’s wrath. But the yeti then roars in her face, giving her a fine view of his flesh-tearing teeth and the back of his throat.

The yeti snorts and growls before turning in place and tossing the equine aside. As Fluttershy rolls in the dirt and comes to a stop, she can hear the yeti feasting behind her, causing her to look back at him over her shoulder.

His back is turned to her, focused on the feeding trough yet giving the yellow mare a clear view of something she wouldn’t wish on any living thing—numerous scars made by whippings. Now that she turned her head to observe her surroundings, she could see those same marks present on everyone else, and they, in turn, continued to send glares her way.

Intense silence practically chokes the area, Fluttershy trying her best to avert her gaze from her onlookers, finally setting her sights down on the ground. She remained there, silent and sitting down like a dog.

Fluttershy’s ears perked up as every guard looking down from their overwatch laughed at her mockingly. But for the pegasus, even though those enforcers consisted of males and females, all she could hear was Craglorn’s, which caused her eyes to shoot wide open.

That managed to snap Fluttershy out of it.

“No,” she scorned in a hushed tone. Growling in defiance, she then lifts herself up, looks around for an unused dummy, spots one, noticeably shaped like a gigantopithecus, and walks over to it. This certainly earned nods of approval from the enforcers up above, although they snickered amongst themselves.

The glaring curiosity of Fluttershy’s onlookers seems to pass as combative grunts and clashing of dummies sound off once more. But unbeknownst to the equine, she was still being watched by one of the fighters as she finally stood before the dummy, with two tables positioned nearby with a series of wooden weaponry resting on them.

Fluttershy stares at the dummy, eyes narrowed, and her body shakes with pent-up aggression. But instead of grabbing onto one of the wooden weapons sitting on the tables, the equine rears up, roars out, lunges forward, and punches the ‘giganto-dummy’ in its stomach region with her right forehoof.

She breathed heavily, not due to exhaustion, but frustration and anger as she lets it out with that attack. Teeth bared, she followed up with another strike using her left forelimb, another with her right, and started forming a pattern as she unleashed a flurry of punches.

As the pegasus bombards the object, innumerable thoughts flow through her mind. They were mainly about Craglorn, Threx, Bob, and this whole place, all of which could go straight to Tartarus for all she cared. But something else began to creep into her mind, and, shockingly, it involved her fellow pastel-colored equines, Spike, and HLN-A.

Twilight was removed from the tribe for reasons she didn’t know, but where were the others? What were they all doing? Did none of them even think to come looking for her? For Celestia's sake, she’s been gone for just shy of a whole week! What, are their hooves up their flanks or something?!

Damn them all!

However, those thoughts caused the pegasus to stop with a gasp, a forelimb pressed against the dummy as her eyes widened. Regret scolded her for even thinking such a thing, yet darker thoughts tried to convince her she was right.

Fluttershy fell onto her haunches, ears folding against her head as she raised her forelimbs and looked down at them as if they weren’t hers. This…this wasn’t her. And yet, deep down, she knew that this was always a part of her, a horrid revelation she had always tried to bury ever since she participated in Iron Will’s seminar.

That assertiveness program left its marks on her in more ways than one.

Fluttershy’s senses abruptly began to flare, ears reaching for the sky as she could hear someone approaching from her rear. A shadow slowly loomed over her, causing her to close her eyes and sigh.

“So, you gonna beat me up or something?” She asked expectantly, followed by a dark chuckle. “Honestly, why don’t you just-”

“If I wanted to hurt you,” a male’s voice interjects, treading the line between deep and high-pitched, “I’d have done so already.”

Fluttershy immediately turns around, only to be greeted by a massive equus stallion whose size almost rivaled that of Spirit’s, causing her to look up at him. He was lean and well-built with dark-blue fur stretching all across his body as green eyes looked down at her.

“U-uhm…” She said.

The stallion’s black mane and tail danced as he gave them a quick shake and whip. “Your form is terrible,” he said.

“W-what…?”

“Your form. It’s shit. That said, your anatomy, although similar to my own, is also unique. I could never rear up and keep such a stance for as long as you have without falling over, yet you seem to have developed a fighting style with it, sloppy as it is. Still, I commend you.”

Fluttershy keeps her stunned silence, her muzzle gaped and eyes wide open.

“Wh-what…?” She managed. This situation completely threw her off.

The stallion lets out an amused chuckle. “Allow me to introduce myself. My name is Ocean Current.”

Ocean remained silent. “O-oh,” Fluttershy responds in realization. Proper greetings…right. Such a thing seemed so foreign in this place, except when Threx was involved, even though that was more forced than anything else. Even so, suspicion of the larger equine still lurked in the back of her mind.

“I’m F-Fluttershy…”

Ocean tilts his head, ears flickering, “Is that your alias for the arena?”

She shook her head, “No. That’s Beast Queen, but my real name is Fluttershy.”

He nodded and hummed, “I respect that. Never allow them to take it away from you, Fluttershy. We’re equus. Horses. And our names represent the freedom we embody.”

The duo stared at each other in silence, which was then broken as Fluttershy sighed deeply.

“Why are you even helping me?” She asked.

“Because I want to,” Ocean responds. “But if you don’t want my help, I’ll leave you to it.”

Silence takes hold once more as Fluttershy thinks deeply about his offer. After a passing moment, she closed her eyes and turned her head to the side with a sad expression. Ocean perceives this as a form of rejection, nodding in understanding.

“Very well, then.” The equus turns and starts to walk away, noticeably toward the direction of the yeti.

“W-wait!” Fluttershy desperately calls out, extending a forelimb. This gains Ocean’s attention as he looks back over his shoulder.

“P-please…” Her eyes fell to the ground, “H-help me…”

Ocean stayed planted in place for a time before finally closing his eyes. He opens them, snorts, and turns around, his muscles chugging him across the terrain as he then passes by the yellow mare, stands beside the dummy, and turns around.

A gust of wind flutters both equines' tails and manes, but Fluttershy, in particular, was astounded by the stallion as, thanks to his relocation, the sun's light became eclipsed by his presence. For her, it was - he was…beautiful, even with the scars she had only just now noticed.

“You wish to learn?” Ocean asked, pulling the mare out of her stupor.

“Y-yes.” Fluttershy brushed away streams of her mane that covered her left eye, “I-if that’s ok with you.”

The edges of Ocean’s muzzle curl upward. “As you wish, Fluttershy, the Beast Queen.”

As they conversed and prepared for Ocean’s coming instructions, Fluttershy rearing up and listening intently, the yeti who had plucked the mare from the feeding trough’s slop watched them from afar, sat down and arms crossed as he took shelter in the shadows forged by the walls of the training grounds.

He closed his eyes and exhaled. He could admit that he was pretty rough with the brightly-colored mare. But that’s exactly why he sent Ocean there to give her a much-needed helping…hoof.

Comments

[Theone23]

…my shipping senses are tingling.

[Charlie_K]

I smell a prison break in the works.

[Eventide100]

11607570
Yes! That dickhead must DIE!!!
Nobody treats Fluttershy like that!

[Legioner8]

11607398
derpicdn.net/img/view/2014/5/20/631719.png

[Pomp-Neigh]

11610900
Hah! More or less.

[Zubric]

I’m sure we’ll find out, but unless you can force someone into a bed and that somehow makes their respond point reset I am not sure how you would handle it.
Also I remember when Fluttershy gave harry the bear that quite violent looking massage