A Mighty Roar

by eemoo1o

1/2: A Mighty Roar

A good friend made promises. Many promises. Many, many promises. So many promises, in fact, that they would have to sometimes cancel arrangements with other friends to fulfill those many promises.

Sometimes, those friends grew annoyed.

Fluttershy was today’s example; with the morning bright and sunny, the birds roosting in and around the doe-eyed pegasus’s cottage granted the air with the wish of a birdsong. The sound was to Discord - the residential Draconequus of Chaos - like what a badly-played yovidaphone was to most ponies, with the exception being Pinkie Pie, Ponyville’s own Super Duper Party Pony.

Though, seeing as Discord was already annoyed with the day’s arrangements, the orchestra of twitters only amplified his mood into something twice as fierce.

Fluttershy - the much more appealing to the eye out of the two - was keeping a cool head the best she could, despite Discord’s devoted persistence. The teal-eyed pony was ready to leave with her saddlebags strapped in tow.

Behind her stood the grumpy Draconequus on his hind legs, like he usually did when he wasn’t midair. His serpent-like tail flicked from side to side like an angry cat, while his arms crossed over his chest so taught that Fluttershy wondered if they would snap off at the shoulders.

However, she knew that if she was to mention it, Discord would dramatise the scene and make it so with his magic. That would then prolong the time before her departure to her first friendly deed of the day.

“But, Fluttershy,” Discord started to exclaim through gritted teeth, “you’re helping all of those other ponies when you should be here to have our tea party this afternoon! This is, what, the ninth time you’ve cancelled on me? What about me? Me, Discord!”

By the time he said “What about me?”, his entire lower-half had lifted off of the floor to get his face as close to Fluttershy’s turned head as possible without it being too inappropriate. Both hands excluded one finger when they balled into fists, to direct attention to his wide, desperate smile, which highlighted his pointy snaggletoothed canine.

“Discord, don’t be ridiculous.” responded Fluttershy, turning her entire body around to make the Lord of Chaos take a foot or two back. “This is only the second time I’ve cancelled one of our tea parties! And you and I both know that the first time was when you were asked by Princess Celestia to hunt down Lord Tirek.” While she said this, she had lifted a foreleg’s ankle to her chest, her hoof bent forward, and her head tilted to the side and back a smidge.

Discord grimaced at that memory; he wasn’t sure if he had deserved that jab, especially since his heartfelt apology and speech after Sombra had “taken him down”. Even then, the group of friends were adamant that they needed him. They had practically begged him to use his magic against the corrupted king. Now that was enough to peel away his guilt as if it was an old layer of paint.

Nevertheless, Discord continued the argument: “But why can’t they all deal with their own problems? Don’t they know that I’m the one who needs you here, now?”

The certain words emphasised were specially chosen to bombard Fluttershy’s heart with a nest of vexed wasps, each of them taking their turns to sting specific arteries until she gave in.

In short, Discord was like a spoilt, albeit intelligent and sometimes manipulative, child.

The hoof that had been raised for quite some time now found its place back on the floor with a loud clop!. “No, Discord!” Fluttershy had - quite literally - put her hoof down.

Discord was taken aback. The last time he had seen her like this was when he had turned Sweet Apple Acres into an ice rink, and she had thrown away the two pairs of ice skates that he had kindly offered her - tailored to her hoof size too, might he add - to leave him with a decision to make: her friendship, or Chaos.

The Draconequus was ready to bite back, something he had never dared to do so as straightforwardly as what Fluttershy usually would. He would usually do so indirectly, to the point of causing a ruckus -- the image that came to mind was of the time he brought the Smooze to the Grand Galloping Gala and endangering a multitude of aristocrats, Princess Celestia herself, and even Fluttershy and her friends.

Discord knew he had a monstrous appearance, and perhaps if he was to bite back so ferociously, he would terrify Fluttershy so much so, that the twisted, and usually deemed unlikely friendship they had somehow maintained for so long would diminish before his very eyes, and he would be a hated outcast yet again.

He just simply could not bite back towards Fluttershy. Twilight, Luna, Rarity, and Rainbow Dash indefinitely, but never Fluttershy.

“No?” Discord’s mouth adapted briefly to a slithering snake tongue slapping between his fangs, distributing a venomous hiss to his tone. Anger was thickening his blood and it showed in every way possible through his facial features. He refrained when he saw Fluttershy squirm and reel back with her eyes closed in preparation for the blow. “By all means, tell me why ‘no’ is your final answer?”

It wasn’t until Discord placed his hoof and reptilian foot back on the floor, crossed his arms yet again, and closed his eyes and turned his head away from her in defiance, that Fluttershy answered his question: “Because they’re all animal problems, Discord!”

Discord looked back at her and raised a brow, “Which are?”

The winged pony smiled pleasantly at this; “Twilight has asked me to clear the nesting spiders out of the top floor of her castle so she has more room for storage. And that’s where I’m headed now!” She added the last part in an effort to reassure the Draconequus of her honesty. His expression barely shifted, however, apart from the blinking required for any creature.

A white rabbit, Angel, hopped over with a blue bowl being pushed in front of him by his head and paws. He stopped right next to Fluttershy and tugged on her mane gently with a cute little grin, one of his paws gesturing to the empty bowl that he had just moved.

“Oh, one moment, Angel. I’m in the middle of talking to Discord.” The yellow pegasus dismissed the white buck and returned her gaze to the Draconequus.

Angel frowned, clearly annoyed, when she did, crossing his front legs and thumping his foot on the wooden floor to indicate his annoyance.

Ignoring his response, she resumed telling Discord of the day’s errands: “Then, I have to go to the Wonderbolts’ Training Academy to ask a flock of crows to nest someplace where they aren’t distracting any pony with their cawing! Then Rarity’s, to give her a family of Star Spiders so she can make her next fashion line with their silk. Sweet Apple Acres also has a beaver problem again, and Pinkie Pie has asked me to help her with Gummy’s teething; and Cheerilee wants me to teach her whole class all about taking care of animals! And Trixie-”

Discord turned his head back to Fluttershy yet again with wide eyes at her sudden, sharp intake of breath. Her eyes were wide, too, and staring at the clock ticking on the wall behind him.

“Oh, my goodness!” The pegasus was panicstricken. “I’m ten minutes late! I’d better be-”

Fluttershy paused her mid-flight rush when a grinning Discord snapped his fingers on one hand, the other remaining placed across his torso. “There, all your problems are solved. Now you get to stay!”

The last notion was much less casual and much more optimistic than his first, and had somehow deserved a jazz hands-like gesture on each side of his head, his fingers fanned out like a pegasus’s wings ready to take flight. Fluttershy seemed appalled, causing Discord to stand straight again and place his hoof and foot back on the ground, drawing back with a brief frown.

The Lord of Chaos tried again, this time with a little more desperation, while a furious Angel Bunny scowled and pushed an ottoman close to the cottage door; because of his size, he took his time to get up on top of it.

“Here!” was Discord’s sad attempt, with an equally poignant smile. “With me!”

“Discord...” with one eyebrow quirked, Fluttershy flapped her wings to meet the gangly Draconequus at eye level, and suspicion was dripping from her tone, elongating the vowels, emphasising and chopping up both syllables, “what did you do..?”

“I told you!” said Discord, quirking one of his own eyebrows in turn, hands turned to that their backs rested on his sides. “Now that all of your problems are solved-”

“I was afraid you’d say that.” mumbled a much more miserable Fluttershy than what Discord was expecting. The beats of her wings slowly ceased so that all four hooves rested back on the floors.

“But, why? I-”

“Part of a friendship, Discord, is putting in the effort to do things for your friends!” Her voice was raised, and Discord now knew that he was in boiling water. He had to put his hands in front of him in defence when she shot back up into the air with her wings flapping as frequent as her heartbeat was out of acrimony. One of her front hooves poked at his chest, while the other rested folded at both joints in front of her. “And if your magic has stopped you from seeing that, then maybe you should stop using your magic for a little while!”

“Okay, okay, I get it.” Discord motioned his hands outwards a couple of times to get her to land once more. “I’ll change it back.” That he did with a bored groan and a roll of his eyes, snapping his fingers with ease. He made wielding such magic look so easy.

“I appreciate your efforts, but I-” it was as if by a flick of a switch that Fluttershy remembered the time, and flew out of the door and passed a desperately squeaking and jumping Angel atop an ottoman. Fluttershy was gone.

Discord let out an exasperated sigh, his shoulders slouching and head dropping. “Bye, then, Fluttershy.” He snapped his fingers to disappear with his signature white flash.

When he reappeared in a small clearing in the Everfree, he scoffed. “Not use my magic?” He said this as if it was ludicrous. “Who does she think I am? A boring old earth pony?”

With a snap of his fingers, shades appeared over his eyes and a sheet made up of different squares of patterned fabric sewn together tied itself to two trunks of two very large trees to form a hammock.

“That mare doesn’t even know what she’s talking about!” the Draconequus claimed, floating to the hammock to lay and rock gently in it. Another snap of his fingers occurred, and in his hands he now held a rectangular plate of solar panels, which he directed at his face as if it was a tanning mirror. “Let alone who she’s talking to!”

Yet Discord digressed. He was still relatively new to the concept of friendship, despite his vast age, so he could only wonder if he should have accepted this idea of putting more effort into helping others.

But surely that was what his powers were to be used for? That, and answering his own every whim, that was.

“Fluttershy had never seemed to mind when it came to me snapping up some tea bags to our tea parties!” proclaimed Discord, doing just that to prove such a point. However, the tea bags soon went as quickly as they had arrived. “Isn’t that simply the same thing?”

Discord was a confusing character, that was for sure, yet now he had never felt more confused himself in his entire existence.

He groaned and lolled back in his hammock in defeat. What was a Draconequus to do?

---

Angel’s stomach rumbled. His ears flattened in defeat. Had Fluttershy truly forgotten him? Just like that? He hopped down from the ottoman in a similar fashion to how he got up, by using most of his upper body strength to hang from the edge.

The young rabbit dangled off of the side of the ottoman for a second or two, before he mustered the courage to drop that final centimetre to land back onto the floor.

His stomach rumbled again, and his nose twitched. One of his ears flicked towards the door. Sure enough, there was a cloaked Zecora following a path into the Everfree Forest after her usual Ponyville visit for supervisions.

Perhaps she would feed him. Perhaps she would care for him the same way that Fluttershy used to. He would run away with the zebra, never to see that neglectful yellow pegasus mare ever again! That seemed right. He would live happily with Zecora in her own home, as opposed to the picturesque little cottage just outside of the Everfree.

It was a good thing that rabbits had evolved over the years into such quick creatures, otherwise Angel would have had no hope in catching up with Zecora going at the pace she was. In an effort to gain her attention, he squeaked loudly and frantically, and pulled on the edge of her cloak.

With her right forehoof, the zebra lowered her brown hood and smiled. “Ah! My young furry friend, how is it today you come to greet me? Fine white rabbit, why is it from Fluttershy’s cottage you flee?” With a small frown, Zecora lowered her head to Angel’s frantic squeaks. “Calm down, young one. What is it that has you frenzied? I see you are concerned. Is it that young Fluttershy is so busied?”

When Angel’s jumping stopped, and he nodded glumly, Zecora lifted her head back up and smiled yet again. “Oh, young Angel, there is no need to fret. Fluttershy will return, watch while I bet.”

The rabbit’s bottom lip quivered as his stomach rumbled yet again, and he gave Zecora a poor expression consisting of large, watery eyes and sniffling from his little pink nose.

Zecora was taken aback by the noise. “Oh my, oh my! What, pray say, happened to our dear Fluttershy? Did she forget to feed, or are you picky? Or, perhaps, young Angel, you are taking the mickey?”

Angel put on a face of pure shock, reeling back and shaking his hands in front of his chest, as if it was preposterous of Zecora to even suggest such a thing. His stomach rumbled again, this time much more louder and longer.

“Hm,” thought the striped equine for a moment or so; on if she should take him; until she barely answered ‘no’, “very well, dearest bunny. Inside the hood of my cloak, unless to you it’s all funny. Everfree creatures are no joke.”

With that warning, Zecora lifted Angel behind her head for him to hop into her hood. From her body heat, it was pretty cozy there. He could have easily fallen asleep then and there, if it wasn’t for the gleaming golden eyes watching them from the shadows.

Halfway through the journey, Zecora, misreading Angel’s fear of the creatures lurking in the shadows for panic over Fluttershy, she smiled and kindly said: “Worry less, worry not, no need to get your stomach in a knot! Now, is there a need for your panicked mood, when I’m as sure as day we can find you some food!”

When her words barely seemed to soothe the fluffy bunny, Zecora tried again a little more playfully. “I say, little one, you sure are frayed. Perhaps advice more blunt will have you swayed?” Angel glanced at the grinning zebra. “Calm now, little buck, I am extremely certain Fluttershy gives a-”

Her friendly expression shifted to one of horror when a shriek shrouded the two in surprise and fear. The zebra’s relaxed canter turned into a nervous jog. Usually, she would be much more calmer, but she feared for the prey animal she carried on her clothed back.

“Oh, hurry!” She said, “Hurry now as the timberwolves are awakening! Oh, tiny Angel, how your bones must be shaking!”

---

It wasn’t until sundown that Fluttershy finally arrived home with an exhausted expression worn. She barely managed to open the door before collapsing face-first onto her wooden floor.

The saddlebags that were buckled to her midsection had slowly loosened during the day until it sat unevenly on her back. Her mane and tail were messy, both littered with small twigs and leaves.

Towards the end of her tail was a patch pungent spittle from Gummy, where he had gnawed for ten minutes or so, staring forward blankly like he normally did.

With her shaky forelegs, Fluttershy pushed herself up to her hooves. All she wanted was to go to bed, but first, she needed to distribute most of the weight off of her back. With her mouth, the young, pink maned pegasus unbuckled her saddlebags and tossed them aside.

She frowned. It wasn’t until then that her sleepy, strained eyes watered when they looked around. The cottage was empty.

Sickness rooted itself at the pit of Fluttershy’s stomach. She wasn’t too worried about Discord - despite their argument that morning - as she was extremely certain he could quite easily take care of himself. She was concerned about where Angel might have gotten.

With shock etched on her face, the tiresome mare turned her head to the cottage’s pathway. There, in the dirt leading to the Everfree Forest, were rabbit tracks.

“Oh, no,” Fluttershy took off without noticing the bunny-prints turning into hoofprints. She had to rescue Angel Bunny, didn’t she? If not her, who else? “Why would he go to such a dangerous place all alone?” the pony asked herself timidly, gulping at several pairs of flaxen eyes peering at her from within the shadows.

They were definitely redoubtable. Fluttershy could only wonder how such a small, frail animal like Angel must have been quivering; he must have been cold, and his fear must have been gradually getting worse the higher the moon got. What if a timberwolf attacked him? How would he defend himself?

Frightened Fluttershy could barely think of a way on how she would defend herself, if she was to save Angel Bunny, or to run into a timberwolf or two.

Fluttershy started to pace herself. There was a chill in the air, and she had wandered away from the path when she lost sight of any bunny footprints. She remembered the injured manticore from the night she and her friends adventured through the Everfree Forest to retrieve the Elements of Harmony.

Perhaps that same manticore, or even Steven Magnet, the melodramatic violet sea serpent with thick, swept-back ginger hair and a moustache on his snout to match, could be kind enough to help her find the small Angel Bunny? The yellow pegasus could only wonder.

The only thing that had kept Fluttershy and the rest of the Mane Six sane was their blossoming friendship. No one was alone; Fluttershy remained kind, Applejack kept her honesty, Rainbow Dash was loyal, Rarity’s generosity soothed Steven Magnet’s tantrum, and Pinkie Pie had laughed in the face of fear itself.

Now, however, Fluttershy wasn’t the type of pony to do such a thing. Unlike Pinkie, she was terrified of everything. Although, ever since making friends, especially with Discord, she had gotten braver.

Even so, that did not mean that her bones weren’t rattling the deeper into the Everfree she cantered. She lowered her head to seem more unnoticeable to any creature who might spot her. This instinct could have easily made her seem much more like an effortless kill.

Who would save her? Fluttershy was left to inquire. It wasn’t as if Rainbow lived in an Everfree cloud, or Twilight in the Tree of Harmony. Steven Magnet was surely sleeping underwater, and the manticore in a cave somewhere. The Young Six were all asleep at the School of Friendship, and the pink and yellow pegasus was a long way from Zecora’s tree home by now to even consider asking her for help.

Even if she was close by, Fluttershy could have then easily scouted her way home, as that route back to her cottage was engraved in Fluttershy’s mind by now.

If the winged pony was to return home, she would leave Angel just as alone and as cold and as scared as what she herself felt then and there. In an effort to keep warm, her wings naturally tucked themselves tighter to her sides.

Fluttershy, though the violent pounding in her chest, had an inkling in the back of her terror-drenched mind that she was watched. “Um,” she started, glancing behind herself hurriedly, “hello?” A bulky silhouette was seen sprinting passed from the tree-made shadows. “Angel?” Fluttershy managed to stammer after a sharp gasp.

Despite this, the worried mare knew that the quick shadow was much larger than any rabbit she knew, and was almost comparable to Applejack’s farm dog Winona. There was no way by both Celestia and Luna’s respective names that the figure was little Angel Bunny.

Yet, Fluttershy prayed that it was out of pure fear. She didn’t want to embrace the fact that someone, or something, was stalking her.

She continued forward warily, her blinking becoming more prolonged until her eyes remained firmly shut. “Angel?” She called his name again. She hoped for Angel to cooperate and try to find her, like she was him. She opened her eyes with great caution, looking around again.

What if Fluttershy never found Angel? What if Angel never found her? What if she found his body? What if he found her body? Who would help Fluttershy out of danger, when no one was around to hear her pleas?

Who woulds and What ifs continuously raced through her mind, each question much more horrifying and gruesome than the ones before it. Alongside several came bloody images that made her lip quiver and eyes sting, rattling her to the core.

“A-Angel?” Fluttershy’s voice started to waver at last, and her legs started to shake and her teeth started to chatter. She was petrified. “P-Playtime’s over, now.”

Playtime. Fluttershy could have scoffed, or screamed. If this was Angel’s idea of playtime then he would have several other things coming. Timeout, the cold shoulder and the Stare, were just naming a few.

“Angel?” Again, she tried. Slowly, smoky black clouds covered the moon, veiling the forest in a much darker light than before. Fluttershy gulped. Her fear only grew. It was as if the Everfree Forest’s weather based itself accordingly to the amount of fear it sensed.

Now, it seemed as though the young mare was producing enough fright for at least twelve ponies, if not more. She shook so vigorously that you could have sworn that she was headed across the arctic underdressed. Extremely underdressed, almost as if she was doing so dressed for the summer.

A foul smell slithered up Fluttershy’s nostrils. The scent was comparable to soured milk, or rotten flesh. Her snout scrunched in disgust.

“Urgh.” She couldn’t help but sounder grimace, before the sudden recognition washed over her, making her eyes bulge out of their sockets, her tongue spring back into her mouth and her jaw drop open like a door on loose hinges.

That revolting pungence was a scent that Fluttershy knew all too well. She instantly realised what had been spying on her from the darkness. Now, only one question remained: Was there only one?

The timberwolf slithered out of the shadows like a sheepdog herding sheep. Its glowing eyes bore into Fluttershy’s very soul, freezing her to the spot. The wooden animal looked as though it would pounce at any moment.

After it howled into the chilly night air, pounce was what it did. Fluttershy couldn’t pry her wings away from her sides. Surely, this would have been the first instinct for a pegasus, especially one of her age.

Surely, she would have been less terrified if she had simply flew over the treetops to search for young Angel Bunny. She would have found him, and they would have had their supper after a quick, empty scolding from her behalf, and they would have gone to bed, all toasty under their respective covers.

But, instead, the yellow winged pony had chosen to walk through the Everfree Forest, and get herself lost and in the wake of a timberwolf, one of the most ruthless and uncommunicative creatures in all of Equestria.

That was what one should learn to expect from such a useless mare. What good was a grounded pegasus? Fluttershy shouldn’t have been grounded, she wasn’t a little filly anymore.

It wasn’t as if Fluttershy couldn’t fly. She had learnt, and meanwhile she had made peace with never being the strongest flier known to all equine kind. She simply chose not to fly.

When thought about, it was a burden. It felt as though she was being sentenced, and her punishment was a grounding. She felt like she was a young, cheeky foal in trouble in their headmare’s office.

And in trouble Fluttershy was. If she didn’t get her wings working in an instant, then she would have been nothing more than dog food.

The pegasus dove to the side and crashed into the dirt. She just managed to dodge the wicked, splinter-riddled fangs of the timberwolf, landing face first on the ground in the process.

“Oh, my goodness!” exclaimed Fluttershy, scrambling to her hooves as the enchanted predator eyed her up once again. To it, she was a stack of juicy steaks - a butcher’s confectionery of rumps and sirloins ready to be ripped apart by oak incisors, canines, and molars.

As the timberwolf stepped forward, Fluttershy instinctively stepped back. It was like a crooked exchange. A step for a step, if one would.

“Um, please...” her voice came out as a squeak; she was too diffident to even attempt an impersonation of Rainbow Dash, or Applejack, by kicking the wolf to the curb and making a run of it. Even Pinkie Pie couldn’t laugh in this beastly-beast’s face - and that was putting it simply, in Rarity’s words.

It was as if she and Rarity constantly asked to get themselves in danger. Though, Rarity was the one to usually get herself captured. She was a stereotypical danger-prone damsel in distress.

That meant that she got rescued, too. From the Diamond Dogs; the roc that was after Spike’s molt; even by Spike himself when he let greed overrun his sweet mind, transforming him into a selfish ‘beastly-beast’.

How did she do it? How did Rarity manage to get herself rescued? Rarity was a confident mare, unlike Fluttershy, but surely that wasn’t why she got rescued? Fluttershy mattered just like Rarity did... didn’t she?

The timberwolf lunged again, and with a squeal, Fluttershy ran. She ran as fast as her sweat-slicked hooves could take her. Unfortunately, she had shut her eyes out of her own thick, impenetrable perturbation.

Multiple howls split the air with a strident crescendo. Fluttershy but her bottom lip to stifle a sob. Her left ear flicked to the menacing, pounding, snapping noises made by the paws of the timberwolf chasing her.

Fluttershy was beginning to sweat more and more. Striking shivers dominated most of her body, shooting up and down her back and back and forth in her knees. It was an effort not to collapse to the ground and cry. Bawling her eyes out didn’t seem like such a bad idea, if it wasn’t for the consequence of being eaten by her pursuer.

She tripped; banged her head on the tree whose roots she fumbled on; landed on her back with an ardent oof!, and opened her eyes at last. Fluttershy’s vision was spinning.

The pegasus held her throbbing head. A bump started to swell on her maneline, she felt with her hoof. If burnt and stung with the slightest touch. Her whole body felt ignited with giddiness, as if someone had leaked helium into her insides so she would float into the air breast-first.

Fluttershy picked herself up with great difficulty. She was wary to move. Where was she? The Everfree Forest - yes, that was right. She had gotten lost when returning- no, searching for Zecora’s hut. No- no, that was wrong. Incorrect. It didn’t recollect with her. She was...

Fluttershy was... looking for Angel Bunny! He had ran into the Everfree, and she needed to search for him before it was too late.

What was ‘too late’? Now she remembered, it was before the sun went down. Before the sky grew so dark she could barely see. Albeit, she could barely see now. The sky, ground, and everything else was spinning quickly like Pinkie Pie after too much sugar.

Had Fluttershy eaten too much sugar? Or hadn’t she eaten enough? She barely remembered everything she had done that day.

The memory hit her in the head like that tree had: she was searching for Angel because he had run away, and she had to find him before someone else did. But who? Who wanted Angel for their own?

Zecora? No. Twilight? No. Princess Luna? Not a chance. Discord? What would he want with someone he had never liked to begin with? The timberwolves? If they wanted her, why would they want Angel, too?

Fluttershy was more confused than scared. Had Angel ran away from the law? Had he been framed? Who framed Angel Bunny? Angel was only a rabbit, and who would frame a rabbit? Fluttershy could only wonder.

Stranger things had happened, so why not? Why wouldn’t someone frame a sweet, little rabbit? From stealing cutie marks; to committing a fool’s felony of eating cake, eclairs, mousse, and donuts; to even seeing a pony-like being made entirely of shadow corrupt a young unicorn, framing a young bunny would have been nothing to call risible.

Fluttershy staggered back. She felt sick. She was going to throw up, she was sure of it. There was another, long howl echoing through the woods, followed by the snapping of twigs. Six - no, seven... eight, no, nine. Nine timberwolves had banded together, making up a choir of growling and snapping.

It hurt Fluttershy’s ears, and squeezed at her skull with such force that it felt as though it would crack and penetrate her brain.

All of this information, from the sounds to the sights to the dangers, was overloading her mind as if it was a dishwasher. Certain parts of detailing wasn’t reaching where it should have, and most of it passed through Fluttershy’s mind like running water.

Only one instinct took over Fluttershy in that moment: run. She could just about gather enough evidence out of the scene to conclude to the idea of escaping. Even if that running motion was uncoordinated.

The pony ran, swaying every other step like she had just exited a tree-sized bourbon bottle after emptying it all on her own.

A branch hit Fluttershy in the face. The slapping noise made her ears ring like a bell tower at midday. She tried to shake away her daze as if it was a wet mane, but it seemed only half successful.

As she started forward again, pain seeped through her side. A warm liquid trickled down her coat. When she mustered the courage to look, she was gobsmacked to find deep scratch marks in the form of three long lines, from a little behind her shoulder to her flank. A timberwolf had finally managed to deliver an injury.

Tears pricked Fluttershy’s vacant eyes. The corners of her lips ached as she struggled to prevent them from bending downwards. A byproduct of this strain was a wobbling half-frown.

The pegasus gave a wet, piteous sniff. Her eyes, cheek and nose were all wet, yet her throat seemed so dry. So, so dry. Sore, even. Aggravatingly so. Two timberwolves were in front of her, one stalking her left, three on her right, and four for her to fall back on, each ready to rip her into a million pieces.

Fluttershy attempted flight. It was her only hope, and in her incoherent state-of-mind, her fear was dampened, censored, blurred. It was there, wracking her mind with horrible thoughts, but they barely struck a nerve with her through the thick lens of a forming headache.

The second Fluttershy breached a foot and a half in the air - almost a foot over the timberwolves’ heads if rounded up - was the second she looked like Rainbow Dash after being exposed to Poison Joke. Like a badly-crafted paper aeroplane, or even a piece of paper dropped from a certain height.

The yellow feathered wings were flimsy rubber bands; her shoulders rolled erratically, switching between clockwise and anticlockwise as if listening to a gym teacher’s warm up tactics; and her entire form rocked back and forth like a swing set on a playground, like she had been when attempting a run.

In short, Fluttershy was a mess, and that mess caused a clipped wing on a branch she barely dodged and a crash. She landed forehooves-first into another tree. Luckily, despite herself, she managed to block another blow to her head by thrusting her hooves into the problem.

She slid down the ash coloured, mossy trunk with a groan. The fronts of her forecalves and her chin were scraped raw. The pegasus finally landed in a position that forced her back legs apart painfully and arched her back until it hurt.

Fluttershy knew she had to try again and again, until she and Angel Bunny were safe at last. She also knew that if she continued to hurt herself in the ways that she was, she could potentially knock herself out.

But she mentally digressed. She giddily stood and attempted a jog. Hopefully, that would progress into a sprint, and she could escape the timberwolves and find Angel and go home.

Home. Fluttershy so badly wished to go home. Back to her cottage, where she would be warm and safe, wrapped up in blankets and sipping tea, and conversing with Discord. All she needed to do was phone him up, or even just utter his name three times, and he would arrive at her hooves like a faithful hound.

How foolish she had been to come to the Everfree Forest alone. She could have at least gone to Zecora’s and asked her to help. Now she was alone, injured, in danger, and lost.

She was cold, too. Violent chills of fear and chilliness overthrew most of her nerves like a bucket of water. Cold water.

Fluttershy continued to canter away. She attempted to speed up into a gallop to the best of her ability. She wanted to cry. Cry because of her predicament, because of her own stupidity, for her friends, for anyone to come help her out of this unfortunate turn of events.

She wanted to cry for Discord. But, would he even help her after their argument this morning? No. He would be in one of those childish “I told you so” moods that he often had after any argument, with anypony - anyone for that matter.

Fluttershy gambled for flight again, this time only grasping straws for a few inches, only to drop back onto her hooves and back into an unintelligible gallop. It was a miserable attempt of speeding herself up.

It was tiring her. Her wing hurt, her side hurt, her forelegs hurt, her head hurt, her face hurt, and her hooves hurt. Everything else simply ached. Her fatigue was growing, and it made her yearning to collapse into a mound of dirt all the more deafening.

That was, until a question repeated itself in Fluttershy’s mind: How did Rarity manage to get herself rescued?

Fluttershy genuinely thought that she had the upper hoof in the chase scene for a fleeting moment or two. That was, until the edge of a cliff came into view.

Fluttershy halted, almost slipping up yet again, but this time on thin air. The pack of timberwolves took this as an opportunity to prowl low to the ground yet again. Eighteen luminescent eyes stared at her hungrily, in a similar fashion to Pinkie Pie when she stared at a glistening stack of pancakes for too long, or even Cheese Sandwich’s-

Fluttershy’s mind finally concocted the correct answer to the question that had been the itch on her back for some time, now. How Rarity managed to get herself rescued. It seemed so simple, now.

She screamed.

There was one problem with that, however. The previous bang to her head had caused a drought in her throat. Her tongue alone felt like sandpaper. She had to try - her life rested in the balance.

Someone had to help. But what if they didn’t? What if Fluttershy died because no one bothered to follow her terrified screams?

---

Zecora was walking Angel Bunny home after a hearty meal of lettuce, carrots, grass, and a small dessert of one half of an oat cookie. She had the other half after a bowl of soup.

“Well, well, Angel, I hope your hunger is fulfilled. But, next time, I will not be so easily willed.” She said with a small smile. It was then that the two passed by a sunbathing Discord.

The Draconequus rested in a hammock as if he was a part of a summertime scene. He wore a button-up floral shirt and Kurt-sunglasses. In his paw and claw he held an upside down tanning mirror.

“Discord?” called Zecora, she and Angel frowning at him. “What is the meaning of your sunbathing purport?”

With the first finger of his yellow paw, Discord flicked up his red sunglasses by the edge of one of the arms. “Zecora.” He addressed her coldly, narrowing his eyes at the disruptive zebra; his lion paw was holding up his glasses, as opposed to before.

A scream split the air. A high-pitched, blood-curdling scream.

As Zecora drew in a sharp breath of shock, Discord twisted his head around with a petite frown on his lips. His eyes returned back to their normal size and presented a soft confusion.

That was, until realisation struck his very core like a steely blade. He gasped much louder than Zecora did, and barely exclaimed “Fluttershy!” before rushing into the Everfree Forest as fast as his panic could take him.

“My, oh my, that transparent Draconequus!” said Zecora with a shake of her head. “He truly seems to believe his love for that mare is not seen by the rest of us!”

---

Fluttershy was prepared to call this the end. Her scream was pointless. This whole journey was pointless. Her ears rang, her head stung, and her body felt so brittle and weak that it may as well have snapped into several pieces then and there.

It was time, Fluttershy knew it was. It was time to cry. A small sob was the first to exit the young mare’s mouth.

Brown rain fell from the dark clouds from up above. It was sticky and warm, just Fluttershy’s luck. As it touched the ground, making it, too, adherent, it went up with a sizzle.

That was odd, Fluttershy thought, as it wasn’t remotely at a scalding heat when it touched her skin. She could only put it down to Everfree weather, as it controlled itself as opposed to regular, Equestrian weather that was the responsibility of talented pegasi to control and plan.

Just as the cyan-eyed pony prepared to drop to her knees in anguish, a mighty roar ripped through the air like a knife, silencing the timberwolves’ snarls and spits.

A large, serpent-like beast came over the trees so boisterously, that Fluttershy’s head might have exploded from the pain. The beast was no bigger than a fully grown dragon who had earnt his size from his extensive greed.

Though, it was much longer than any dragon that Fluttershy had ever seen. Making the size more visually cumbersome, a pair of mismatched wings - which could only be compared to socks because of their immense oddness - sat one on each side at the center of his body length. One was a cerulean colour and feathered, the other was a dark purple batwing with a small tusk at the joint.

Its limbs were equally as dissimilar, with its left arm being an eagle claw, and the other a lion’s paw, and its hindlegs being a goat’s hoof and a lizard’s foot. The same went for its horns: one was a pale blue goat’s horn and the other was a white deer antler.

The only theme that recurred were sharp edges, with both horns equally as pointy, and three-of-four appendages equipped with razor-like talons whetted enough to slice through steel bars with little to no force whatsoever.

The beast’s eyes - despite being a little alike in size - rivalled a timberwolf’s with their flaxen yellow glow, accompanied by ruby irises that smouldered just as brightly. Both eyes were framed by dark circles, giving off an almost completely mad kind of look.

The face of the scary creature had a long, grey maw for a face, with a fluffy white goatee attached to its chin to match the tuft on the end of its barbed, dark amaranth tail, and thick eyebrows.

As the dragon-like beast flew, its colossal wings only half-balding passing trees, its body twisted and spiralled like that of a flying snake.

Its long, almighty roar was loud and fear striking, sounding like no animal ever heard before. It seemed halfway between a lion and a dragon, perhaps with some snake threaded through to seam it all together.

It landed behind the timberwolves, and most of them whined in fright the second it did. The ground shook when all four limbs had been set on the muddy cliff. It glowered down at them, its upper lip rippling with a mighty snarl.

A set of fangs had been revealed. Fluttershy started quivering, her breath hitching until her chest and throat burnt and went tighter and tighter, until she could barely breathe at all.

Each tooth of the beast was as sharp as its talons, with the canines being the longest. They were all a little yellowed, and the top left canine tooth was a third bigger than the other three.

There was a clap of thunder and a flash of lightning, highlighting the monster’s fangs with a malicious glimmer. It shrieked again and, with the back of its bear paw, sent a timberwolf hurtling through the air into a tree, where it broke into a hundred, spillikin-riddled pieces.

Something about the horse-faced creature seemed so... familiar to Fluttershy. What, she didn’t know. But she wasn’t scared, and she wondered whether she should have been.

A bolt of moderate-gold lightning struck another timberwolf, turning it into a mound of ash. Two timberwolves ran back into the Everfree at this.

For his third act of offence, the growling creature snapped the fingers of its claw, and in a quick flash of white, a timberwolf was turned into a bunch of falling papers. And with that, the herd of timberwolves had vanished back into the forest out of pure fear, with their wooden tails tucked between their legs.

As if by magic, the monumental beast’s expression softened like butter in an oven when his eyes met Fluttershy’s shaky, pale form and round eyes.

Slowly, Discord started to shrink down the second he smoothed the thumb of his paw over Fluttershy’s ashen cheek. The stormy weather stopped and some of the clouds started to disappear.

The pegasus flinched and dropped to the ground out of shock. After a series of sharp gasps, each failing to cling onto air to bring to her lungs, she coughed, and coughed as if she was in a house of fire and had inhaled a ghastly amount of smoke.

Discord watched with great concern at his Fluttershy struggling to breathe and, as punctuation to her coughing fit, throw up before passing out.

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