Ghost of the Everfree

by David Silver

7 - Mistakes Were Made

He stood before the door that seemed so much larger than it had the last time he stood before it. His arm shook of its own volition, trembling as he lifted it. His hoof barely brushed against it, failing to knock.

He had to be brave! Brave was not a word he applied to himself terribly often. Still... He owed Fluttershy... He kept trying to knock, but the trembles were ruining it. He brought the hoof back and slammed the door, overcompensating wildly. His face went red. "Sorry!" he yelped at the door as if he had hurt it, though he had done no such thing.

"Coming," came a muffled gentle voice from inside.

She was approaching. She would know soon the true measure of his sins. She would judge him, harshly. Then he would have his job taken away. She would order him away, never to return. The one pony that understood him would forever be gone, and who's fault would it be? His own. He did it. He messed it all up!

Fluttershy opened the door. "Yes?" But there was no reply. There was just a little colt, curled on himself, shivering and sniffling. Their sobs weren't even coming out properly, little hiccups of noises. "Oh my! What happened?" She looked the colt over for injuries, but nothing was obvious aside from some burs stuck in his fur. She got to plucking those out, biting into each and tossing them away. "It's alright," she gently assured.

"It's not alright!" he suddenly wailed, sitting up to lift her camera into view. "I destroyed it! I ruined it! I am so sorry. I... I understand." He held it out, barely holding it up with hooves that were not as sticky as Equestrian ones, the whole thing, and him, trembling.

Fluttershy inclined her head. The camera looked just fine from her angle. "Did you take any pictures?" she asked instead, deflecting the conversation away from what he was upset about. Her wings curled in, gently lifting the camera free of his hooves, working the strap off his head.

"Y-yes..." He swallowed heavily. "Do you want those?"

"I do." She strapped the camera to her own head for safe keeping. "Why don't you fetch them and meet me inside?"

That was a very confusing request, on first glance. He was being invited in, not being sent away? "You still want to talk to me?" He ran a fetlock over his running eyes, snorting with the copious snot that had built up within him. He was a mess.

"If you'd like." She went inside, but came back out shortly with a kerchief that she ran over his face, helping to clear away all the gunk from his falling apart. "Poor thing. Go on, fetch those photos. I bet you took some nice ones."

He did not understand what was going on. But... Fluttershy wasn't angry at him, despite having a perfectly good reason to be so. Perhaps... He should not question his blessings there. "Alright..." He trotted off back to his bush, but didn't hop inside. He could see the stack of photos inside and just leaned in to snap them up in his mouth in a big uneven pile.

Did the photos themselves have some kind of magic power? Was that why she wanted them? Maybe they could even fix the device that made them! Wouldn't that just be great... He began to smile, mind full of wishful thinking. The door was open, so he trotted inside, peeking left and right, though the photos blocked much of his vision.

"Over here," called Fluttershy, and soon she had the photos, spreading them out on a table in her living room. "Now, before we look at these..." She reached out a wing behind her, snatching the camera and bringing it over. "I want you to know, you didn't break this."

"But it stopped working." He inclined his head with confusion. "I didn't?" That was good! "What happened?"

Fluttershy somehow broke it open with a click. "It ran out of paper." She turned a wing at the photos on the table. "You filled them up with lovely pictures. I just have to put in more paper." She folded the camera closed with a fresh click and set it on the shelf it had come from. "It's not broken, just hungry. I'll feed it later."

Hungry! This Dry understood, bobbing his head. The poor magic box was hungry, not dead. "May I help feed it? It did so much work for me. I owe it."

"That's very kind of you." She gently mussed the top of his head, turning it back to his photos. "But first, let's see what you did." Fluttershy set a hoof on a portrait. "Aw, what a happy couple." It was the birds in their bed. "Finches. They eat nuts."

Dry nodded in amazement. "Oh..." They had just been birds in his eyes... "What is this?" He sniffled, still working out the last of his episode. "This." He tapped at the photo that held the strange creature in the ground.

"A mole," provided Fluttershy. "Very shy. They burrow in the ground." She leaned in over the picture. "You got lucky, getting such a nice picture of one."

"Ah..." The pictures were... Magic, in their own way.

"Bon Bon looks really upset." Fluttershy had tilted her head at the picture of the angry Bon Bon. "I hope that worked out..."

"She ran away." Dry shook his head slowly. "She didn't spot me, thankfully."

"Probably for the best," agreed Fluttershy, who was the one sane one, who understood there were reasons to be scared.

"She mentioned Lyra." Dry pointed out a window. "I met her before. Is she going to hurt Lyra?"

"Oh..." Fluttershy, instead of looking horrified, smiled, to Dry's confusion. "They are very good friends. Lyra did something that bothered her, but I'm sure they'll work it out. I can't imagine them actually hurting one another." She nudged the picture aside to look at another. "Oh, hello Winona."

She was looking at the dog, tail caught mid-wag, a bit blurry, but the rest of it was nice and sharp.

"That is a Winona?" What a curious word for a creature, but not entirely impossible. "They can hear and smell really well."

"They can," gushed Fluttershy in agreement. "That is a dog," she corrected. "But that specific one is named Winona. She is Applejack's pet, and is a very good dog."

"They seemed nice..." And terrifying! "They found me so easily. I still have so much to learn about hiding." It clicked. "Applejack... Apple Bloom's sister, I think?"

"Mmhmm."

Dry applied a hoof to his face. "No wonder she could smell me."

"Hm?"

"I was at Apple Bloom's." He pointed in a fresh direction. "In her tree house. Winona must have smelled me. She has a very good nose."

Fluttershy began to smile anew at that. "And when she smelled somepony familiar, she came to say hello. How nice." Then she noticed another picture. "I hope?" She nudged the photo away from the others, the one of the extreme closeup of Winona, tongue hogging up most of the frame. "Did something happen?"

"She jumped at me." Dry giggled childishly. "I was so scared! But she was not attacking me. She licked me and she ran away." Dry considered a moment.

"That makes sense." Fluttershy nodded slowly. "Dogs can be very excitable, but most don't want to hurt a pony. I'm glad you were just startled and nothing more than that." She sat up. "Mmmhmm. How did you feel, about taking these?" She waved a hoof over the collection.

"I..." What did he feel? "I... felt... like I was..." He worried his hooves together, struggling with that elusive word. "I was in control, and safe, but involved. I could see." He brought down a hoof on a shot of Scootaloo caught in the middle of her jump. "I would not want to be with her. But I was with her, right there. I was excited for her. I was scared for her. I was with her."

Fluttershy was quiet a moment. Had he said something wrong? Was his explanation that bad?! "I never looked at it that way." She nodded at the portrait. "Scootaloo is a very brave filly."

"Too brave." Dry smiled without certainty. "I am amazed, and terrified."

"So I see." She traced a line of one Scootaloo picture to the next. "You really captured it, what she did, from the start to the end." She tapped at the final picture, Scootaloo back on the ground, firing a triumphant grin at nopony in particular. "You know..." She drew her hoof back, the photo coming along as if it were sticky. "Maybe I was wrong."

"Wrong?" He struggled to even imagine that. Fluttershy had seemed a wise source in a world of madness. "You seem right so far..." He pointed at the camera. "That is a wondrous magical device. Thank you for lending it to me."

"It's not magic," she giggled out. "But you are quite welcome. Still... Did you have more fun with this." She turned her hoof to display the picture of Scootaloo mid-flight. "Or this." She set her other hoof down on the mole picture and lifted it into view.

Dry looked between the two pictures quickly. "Hm. Hum... Hm... That one made me excited." He pointed at Scootaloo. "That one made me curious." He pointed at the mole. "But now I know what it is, so I would not be as amazed if I saw it again."

"Would you be excited if you saw Scootaloo trying another crazy stunt?"

"Yes!" he blurted without even a scrap of delay. "I do not understand how ponies risk themselves like that... But to watch it does not hurt me, and I feel like I am... involved." He reached for the photo stuck to Fluttershy's hoof.

She released it for him. But his hoof was not selectively sticky like an Equestrian pony, and it fell to the table between them. "Oops." He grabbed the white edge of the photo. "I want to show this to her. Do you think she would like to see herself? She looks so happy in this."

"She does, doesn't she..." Fluttershy nodded, her gentle smile growing. "Go on. Show it to her. I bet she'll really like it."

"Thank you!" He curled, tucking the photo away. "Can you feed these--" He waved at all the other photos. "--to the mirror image taker?"

Fluttershy was still a moment, blinking owlishly. Oh. "No no. The paper can only be used once. I will put in new paper, I promise, so you can take more photos later."

Dry slapped a hoof to a cheek. "I can use it again?!"

"Of course." Fluttershy touched her nose to Dry's forehead. "You had so much fun, and took lovely pictures. Why, I couldn't imagine not letting you use it again."

Dry captured her leg, hugging it in a fond embrace. "Thank you! You are a great person and I owe you so much. Tell me what I can do to balance the scales."

Fluttershy looked ready to wave the whole thing off, but thought better of it. "Well... Keep bringing me pictures that happen to have adorable animals in them, and I will consider us even." She had never gotten around to doing that herself. It was what she got the thing for to begin with, only to end up leaving it on a shelf, forgotten. Having the colt eagerly taking pictures with it seemed like a fine use of it.

She'd have to get more paper for it, but that was well worth the price. "Now go along. Scootaloo doesn't know you're coming, but I bet she's excited without even knowing why."

Did Scootaloo have that kind of extra sense? Somehow that did not seem surprising to Dry. "I won't keep her waiting. I hope she likes it." He waved eagerly at Fluttershy, then hurried to the door. He closed it gently behind himself, a habit most foals did not have, and Fluttershy could hear him trotting away.

"That was a nice visit." Sure, there was that brief bit of crying, but she was hardly the pony that would chastise a pony for doing that.

Author's Note:

Dry is a perfect little pony. Surely nothing bad will happen to or around him. What author would ever do such a thing? Stop getting ideas!

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Comments

[badninja]

Why would anyone not think that this story will not be a lighthearted adventure. I hope Dry has plenty of fun with Scootaloo.

[Auram Potentia]

do i see a ship?

[ABitterPill]

"What I want you to do is fine a good hiding spot, I know you can do that, and get some pictures of what goes past. For this time, It doesn't matter what it is. If it looks interesting to you, go ahead and take a picture of it."

Find.

I'm glad Dry is enjoying photography. I can only imagine what he would think of RD's stunts.

[David Silver]

11469619
I can't find that in this chapter.