Restart: After it all.

by Netap

Chapter 10

It was in the middle of the night when the Yellow Pegasus opened her eyes and quietly left her bed, trying her hardest not to wake her best friend up.

Fluttershy couldn't sleep, It wasn't rare for the timid mare to spend sleepless nights shivering under her blankets, Even after years of living right beside the Everfree Forest she couldn't help but find the tapping of the branches swaying in the wind frightening on dark and stormy nights.

But the night wasn't stormy, nor was it dark.

Quietly making her way down the small hallway of the apartment, Fluttershy's eyes widened at the glass door to the balcony in the living room, the view of Manehatten outside seemed almost Alien to the Element of Kindness.

Fluttershy looked to the couch, Seeing Pinkie Pie covered in a Blanket as she quietly snored away, fast asleep.

Slowly making her way to the balcony, Fluttershy opened the door and took a few steps outside, the sudden gust of wind whipping her mane into her face before she moved it out of the way.
The site that greeted her was beautiful.

Like ten-thousand fireflies, the city below her lit up with magic, street lamps illuminating the road for carriages, 24/7 stores with their lights on swinging their doors open as mares and stallions of all walks of life went about.

"It really is a city that never sleeps," She whispered to herself as she took her first real look at the Concrete Jungle.

But even the lights and glamour of the city couldn't calm her, as her mind kept returning to the reason she came to the city in the first place.

"Heya Fluttershy!"

At the sudden voice coming from behind her, Fluttershy eeped loudly as she jumped in fright, doing a 180 turn in midair and tripping over the metal table set outside, eyes widening as she tumbled onto the balcony floor.

"Oops, Sorry Fluttershy, Didn't mean ta spook ya," The mare who snuck up on her apologized sheepishly, not bothering to lower her volume as she grabbed hold of her friend and pulled her back onto her hooves.

"Pinkie Pie," Fluttershy whispered as she nodded in thanks to the Mare for helping her up, "I didn't wake you up did I? Ooh I'm so-" Fluttershy was ready to start apologizing before the Pink Earth Pony cut her off.

"Nah, I always wake up in the middle of the night for a drink," Pinkie explained before she held up a glass of water, "What about you?" Her voice lowered to a slower and gentler tone, "Are you okay?"

Fluttershy blinked as those words met her ears, sniffling lightly as the events of the past 24 hours finally caught up to her in full.

"No..." Fluttershy whispered as she turned away from her friend and rested her head on the Balcony railing, watching the ponies below her walk about like ants, "I don't think I am..." Her breath hitched as her mind once again wondered what could have happened to her brother.

Pinkie Pie's always-present smile flattened itself by a few degrees as the Pink mare placed her cup of water on the table, picking up the chair that Fluttershy tripped over before silently heading back into Maud's apartment, soon returning with a mug of hot cocoa.

"Here," Pinkie said gently as she placed the Mug on the table before sitting down on it, taking a sip of her water as she watched her Fellow Pink-Maned pony sit down in front of her, resting the side of her head on the cool metal table.

"Fluttershy..." Pinkie Pie sighed as she reached over the table and rubbed her friend's shoulder.
"Your brother... Do you want to talk about him?"

It was with that question, that innocent, simple question, that the floodgates opened.

"Zephyr Breeze is my brother-" Fluttershy whispered coarsely as tears rolled down her face, "He's the best little brother any sister could ever ask for, He-" Fluttershy's voice hitched for a moment as she hiccuped, "His favorite color is Yellow and his favorite food is Mom's Cloudsdale Pie, He's only a Year Younger than me, But he's almost twice as tall!" Fluttershy's voice cracked as she imagined the tall turquoise Pegasus that was her brother, who loved to annoy her by putting the snacks on the highest cupboard.

"Sounds like you-" Pinkie Pie wanted to say something but she was cut off as Fluttershy continued speaking.

"He's not the fastest flyer, but he can control his flight as expertly as a swallow! He- He Knows how to play the acoustic guitar, and he makes the best-roasted marshmallows this side of Equestria! His special talent is to never be stressed, That's why his mane is as healthy as it is! He always helps me when we go shopping for Mom, He manages to get the other ponies to help him all the time! He always writes letters to home about how he's doing and what's going on with him- and- and he never misses a letter!" Fluttershy cried into the steel table of the balcony, her tears dripping through the table and onto the balcony floor.

"BUT!" Fluttershy hiccuped as she wiped some tears from her eyes, "But he hasn't sent a letter in weeks, and I don't know what I'll do if something happens to him! The- There are rumors of the Guards cracking down on crime in the city... What if he got caught up in something horrible!? He could be hurt! HE COULD BE DE-WAAAAGHHH!!!!" Fluttershy cried loudly, causing Pinkie Pie to stand up and walk around the table to hug her.

Pinkie Pie wanted to do more, but sometimes all she could give was a hug.

"Don't worry Fluttershy," A third voice joined the group on the balcony as Rainbow Dash joined the hug, "We'll find Zephyr, You know that," The Rainbow Maned Pegasus said as she rubbed her best friend's back.

"But- But what if-" Fluttershy tearfully whispered, only for Pinkie Pie to interrupt her this time.

"No Butts Fluttershy! We don't have time for your jokes!" She said loudly as she pulled at Fluttershy's cheeks, turning her head to look at her, "We need to find your brother, you two can talk about Butts later!" Pinkie giggled before she rejoined the group hug, making sure to be fuzzier than ever before.

"Pinkie..." Fluttershy whispered as her Pink friend rubbed herself against her, her warm fur soaking up her tears like a fluffy pink sponge.

"Pinkie Pie's right Fluttershy," Rainbow Dash added as she put herself cheek to cheek with her Best Friend, turning her to once again look off the balcony at the midnight lights of Manehatten, "Zephyr Breeze is somewhere out there, and he stopped writing letters, tomorrow we're going to find him and ask him why, and only then are we allowed to talk about Pinkie Pie's butt!"

"Yeah!" Pinkie cheered as she joined the two Pegasus by placing her cheek on the other side of Fluttershy's face as all three ponies stared off into the midnight city. Sandwiching the Element of Kindness between a pair of cheeks.

Fluttershy sniffed as Pinkie Pie quickly raised her leg to wipe her tears and snot for her, "Thanks you girls," Fluttershy hiccuped as Rainbow Dash grabbed the Mug of Cocoa Pinkie left on the table and passed it over to Fluttershy to take a sip.

It was cold...

Fluttershy smiled as she took another sip of the cold Cocoa.

She didn't care about the drink, She had her two best friends with her, Keeping her warm and fuzzy, and they'd find her brother, she knew it.

Zephyr Breeze was going to be Okay.
Fluttershy was going to make sure of it.
It was her duty as Big Sister after all.

"Now that we talked about Fluttershy's Brother, Do you want to hear about my Twin sister?" Pinkie Pie asked the moment Fluttershy stopped sipping from the mug, not allowing even a second of silence to pass between the three friends.

"YOU HAVE A TWIN?!"

---

Bolting upright in the middle of the Night, Zephyr Breeze quickly rolled out of bed, his wings tucking themselves in so as to not hit his bedside table on the way down.

Landing on all fours, his body close to the floor as he held his breath, Zephyr counted to twenty, feeling his heart rate slowly but surely calm down.

"Oh? Is someone having a Nightmare?" Zephyr grimaced as the voice that never left him returned, knowing full well that it was just a figment of his imagination.

Zephyr didn't bother answering the voice as he stood up and entered his kitchen, opening a cupboard and pulling out a jar of herbs he made sure to buy.

"You know, If that remedy actually worked, You wouldn't be hearing me right now, would you?" Zephyr Ignored the voice as he silently moved through the dark kitchen, grabbing a small mortar and pestle before throwing a clump of herbs into it.

"Really, Are you just going to ignore me? After all we've been through? Come on, Don't be like that, We're like best friends by now, aren't we?" Zephyr mashed the herbs in the mortar calmly, not rising to his own mind's attempt at breaking him, waiting for the herbs to become a strong-smelling grey paste.

"Wasn't it fun? Didn't you enjoy it?" Zephyr shook his head to clear his thoughts as he moved away from the mortar and grabbed a pot of water, turning on the stove to start boiling as he grabbed some spices from his cupboards.

"You try and kill me, I laugh in your face, You fail once again, I turn your veins into gummy worms, You die, I snap my fingers, and we do it all from the beginning, Wasn't that fun?"

Once the water was boiling, Zephyr added the spices he picked up into the pot before pouring in the Paste he made.

"..." The voice didn't say anything, but it was there, breathing quietly in the background, waiting for a chance to pounce at the Pegasus's poor psyche.

Zephyr mixed the pot of boiling water in the darkness of the night, not bothering to turn on the lights and attract suspicion from any neighbor who might be awake.

"You know..." The voice added quietly, barely more than a whisper as Zephyr grabbed a ladle and poured the water in the pot into a smaller pot, now a green herbal remedy with a strong smell of spices and herbs, before putting it in his fridge for later.

"You can always retry again," It whispered in his ears as Zephyr Froze, his body shivering in disgust at his mind's sick attempt to even bring the idea up.
"You know the rules, All you have to do is-" The voice cut off as Zephyr took a sip from the soup ladle, the spicy green potion burning his throat on the way down.

Zephyr let out a breath he didn't even know he was holding as he felt his body relax as his mind cleared itself. Almost as if his mind was a rusty cast iron, and the potion he drank was hot and soapy vinegar that cleared away the specks of rust, leaving behind the metal underneath.

Silently dropping the ladle and the now empty pot into his sink, Zephyr lay down on the cold wooden floor of his house, the old and dusty cabin on top of a hill at the edge of a small town in the middle of nowhere.

Thinking for a moment at the words the voice wanted to say, Zephyr let out a silent chuckle at what his broken brain tried to tell him.

Zephyr Breeze was Pathetic. He was a waste of Space whose Special Talent was Giving Up.

But even he found the idea hilarious.

"Nice Try Discord," The turquoise Pegasus chuckled to himself on the floor of the kitchen as he closed his eyes, "But I Win..." He let out a breath as he tiredly opened his eyes and stood up, his legs shaking in exhaustion as he made a note of all the new herbs and spices he needed to acquire.

Zephyr Breeze was Pathetic, but even he wasn't Pathetic Enough to commit su-

Zephyr Shook his head, clearing the thought from his mind. It wasn't even worth thinking about, just like that Demon, not worthy of a second of thought.

Zephyr Breeze Won.

So why did he still feel like a loser?

Author's Note:

Don't worry guys, Zeph isn't going to go place a bed in the Nether, this was just his mind playing tricks on him.

Fluttershy and the Girls are supporting each other as Fluttershy finally lets her emotions out after that stressful day.

"Please be quieter, I am trying to sleep" Maud Pie must be furious at all the noise that's going on in her living room Balcony!

Also, I know it hasn't been four months yet, So this chapter is coming out a week early!

YAY!!!

See you all again in 4 months :)

Comments

[Warum]

Nice as always! Thank you!

[Netap]

11809801
Thanks :)

[duckmagee]

loved the fluttershy part of the chapter, too often fanfic writer put there own dislike of zephyr in their story and have fluttershy and everyone else treating him terribly, having fluttershy openly care for her brother is a nice change of pace

[Netap]

11809884
I never got the feeling that Zephyr was hated by anyone in the show.
Was he annoying? Yeah, sure. Was he obnoxious? Probably.
But was he Hated? No, not really.

Fluttershy tried supporting him in his episode, trying to help him get a job, and even Rainbow Dash helped out.
A lot of authors paint Zephyr as this pervert asshole who's too lazy to do anything when he's really just kind of a loudmouth who gives up at the first sign of struggle.

He's still Fluttershy's little Brother, I'm guessing he's also a Childhood Friend of Rainbow Dash seeing as they all grew up together in Cloudsdale.
And even when he fails to attract RD's attention, he never crosses the line into something malicious, I wouldn't even say he's bad at flirting, his target is just Not Interested.

Zephyr is different from the other Sibling Characters in the show because he barely appears.

Limestone and Marble have also barely appeared, but they fix that by giving Maud several episodes of her own.
Shining Armor also appears a lot, the same with Big Macintosh and the CMC.

Zephyr has arguably the least screen time out of any sibling character in the show, He only really appears twice in the entire series, his first appearance and mention was in season 6 for crying out loud, even Marble and Limestone appeared in Pinkie's Flashback in S1.

Yeah, Zephyr is Fluttershy's obnoxious and tall little brother, but he's her brother nonetheless. Of course Fluttershy is going to worry and care for him, She's his sister, the Element of Kindness.
Rainbow Dash also is going to care for him in her own way, For how obnoxious and annoying she finds him, I never got the idea that she outright hated him, she even helped Fluttershy in Flutter Brutter.

Pinkie is just helping because she's Pinkie Pie, and because I needed an excuse to get all the Pie Sisters into the story.

[duckmagee]

11810173
he wasn't hated in the show but the fandom, he became mlp jar jar binks, i seen hundreds of story that use him as a punching bag, or portray him worse then he was, and honestly when i first watched mlp i disliked him too, wasn't till i read the comics that changed my opinion of him, personally i think people dont like him because truthfully he the closest pony in mlp to represent the fandom