The Sorrowlings

There's lots of things that could've made Fluttershy cry that night. It could've been the current situation with her brother, or the piling needs of the animals that were sick, but regardless, Fluttershy returned to her cottage late one evening with tears cascading down her face. She just couldn't, and wouldn't stop crying even as Angel Bunny tried to calm her down. "I just... can not believe... the kind of day that I've had! I've never..." She sniffled, and said, "I've never felt like this before! I feel like I've been bossed around, and pushed, and what's worse is I feel like nopony even cares about any of my own problems that I've been having lately! Nopony's offered to help me out at all! They're all just... just..."

She took another step, and then inhaled some air, and then exhaled.

"Just... what was I so... upset about just then?" She blinked at the dishes that still needed to be done, and she then looked down at Angel bizarrely. "I... guess you... uhh, need your food, don't you?"

She snatched the bowl, and then sensed another residual tear leaving her eye. She ignored it, though, and finished making Angel Bunny's meal. Fluttershy then motioned towards her refrigerator. There was a mirror magnetized to its door, and as she looked at herself, Fluttershy noticed that her face remained quite moist from her sobs. "That's... odd," she said starkly towards herself. "It was as if... I just stopped being worried, and mad about everything all of the sudden... Weird."

The whole house was completely silent for a long time save for Fluttershy moving about while she was doing a few of her chores. She even began to smile every so often, and especially in the middle of making her own home cooked meal. Everything was hastily, but also soothingly prepared, and as she settled her plate down on the table along with a drink of water, she turned around to fluff up her pillows the same way she always did. This time, however, her left hind hoof gave out, and this caused the right one to release plenty of unneeded force upon the very same table that had her meal sitting on it.

Everything went scattering, and her food plopped messily against the carpet. It took the clumsy pegasus a moment to turn around, but once she did, Fluttershy thought that she'd lose it. Her anger rose along with her voice. "I... just made that..."

Again, another tear slid out. Before Fluttershy could scream, however, her negative emotions again went away as quickly as they had arrived. She was standing there with nothing to eat, and her tummy was growling profusely, but Fluttershy just didn't have it in herself to throw a tantrum anymore. "Oh... kay," she said with a furrowed eyebrow. "Now, I just feel downright suspicious... I... usually don't have such terrible mood swings, so just... Just wh-what's going on?"

She came nervously trotting up the stairs, and voiced bleakly, "Angel Bunny? I don't s-suppose that you know what's happening?"

The bunny shook his little head, and shrugged his tiny shoulders.

"Of course not..."

She just kept going until she had reach the top, and then, after rounding a corner, Fluttershy had only two options left. Her room, or the attic. Naturally, she was just about to head for her quaint and inviting room when a thud was heard coming from the opposite direction. "Not that... Anything but that... Why did that noise have to come from the attic?" She creeped up to the entryway, and huffed her frustrations away while also closing her eyes. "You can do this..." She opened them again, and then asked, "Why do I feel so brave all of the sudden?"

Fluttershy's attic was filled with cobwebs and dust. It was perfectly scary, and yet, she didn't feel frightened at all. If anything, she still continued to feel happy. Her carpet was frustratingly ruined, and she was going without dinner that night, but for some obscured reason that escaped Fluttershy, she wasn't at all mad about any of that. A smile still showed itself upon her face, and while she passed by box after box, she hummed a melodic tune.

At any other moment in time, the atmosphere would've been enough to make her faint from sheer fear. Although, that wasn't happening in the slightest. Fluttershy was completely calm, and just kept walking steadily until she reached the end.

She looked left, and huffed. There was nothing there, but then, she looked slowly to her right, and gasped while also bounding back. Her tail brushed up against some cardboard, and she asked hesitantly, "Who? Hello?" She gulped, and blinked a few times. "Who's there?"

Before Fluttershy was a pale white being the likes of which she had never seen before. It was equine in body, but it was also somewhat transparent. The being blinked in Fluttershy's general direction, and said, "Nothing here... Please, I haven't broken or moved anything." By its voice, Fluttershy could tell that it was a boy. "I won't be of any trouble, I promise." Fluttershy approached with wide and curious eyes. "I eat very little, I swear!"

She leaned down, and a strand of her pink hair loftily dangled between herself and the odd creature before her. "Eat?" She put two and two together. "Uhm... Do you mean to say... did you eat... m-my depression back there?"

He nodded, but didn't appear to dare make direct eye contact. "Well... there was just... so much of it! I couldn't just allow you to keep on being that way, so I..." He hiccuped, "I'm a Sorrowling. It's just what we do."

She timidly brought her hoof close to its face, and felt his chin. It was cold and solid just as she had expected. "There's more of you?"

He nodded, but then, explained, "I'm the only one, though, that's this far out and away from the forests. My colony's far away, and I don't... really think that I necessarily know the way back."

Fluttershy asked, "What're you doing way out here?"

The sorrowling just stayed where it was, but he at last looked at Fluttershy to say, "I was trying to find us new sources of food... and I guess that... in a way... I found it."

Fluttershy blinked hazily at the facts presented to her, and she inquired further, "We have things in these lands... and they're called changelings. They feed off of love... Could the two of you be related?"

The sorrowling nodded cautiously, and admitted, "I guess that it's possible."

She finally helped him up and off of the dingy floor. "Well, since I don't see how you could possibly be a threat the way the changelings once were... I suppose there's no other choice." She smiled, and while extending her hoof for him to shake, she said, "I'll just have to introduce you to Princess Twilight. She'll know what to do, and it's really lovely to meet you."

The Sorrowling just stared at Fluttershy with a confused expression, and he then asked her, "What? Are you pointing at me or something?"

Fluttershy's friendship with this new creature would eventually flourish, and perhaps the sorrowling would one day return to his rightful home, too, but that's perhaps another story for another time.

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