Mother of Evil

by God of Demons

Chapter 5

Mornings in Ponyville always begin with positive and calming notes, sounds of nature and tranquility. Perhaps no one will argue with this fact - neither local residents, nor even tourists. Because the arguments always catch the eye of everyone: the gentle and warm rays of the cosmic star Celestia envelop with their embrace the entire space of a small town, which itself is replete with orange and yellow lights, marking the beginning of a new day; during the bright appearance of the sun, the life of nature flares up, which patiently preserved and accumulated the strength of its creatures to advance the next day, the animals begin their “game” of survival and competition in all the benefits that exist in the surrounding nature of the town, the plants are illuminated under the warming rays of the luminary, becoming more alive and fulfilling its own purpose for all living organisms. But all the beauty of the morning would not be so obvious and beautiful if there were no sounds in it. Those very sounds that are not present at any other time intervals of the day. When a Ponyville pony opens his eyes and gets out of bed, the first thing he or she hears is the rapid and intense chirping of birds. The little ones have just gotten up and are ready for their own work. Their noise of flapping wings mixed with the incessant energetic bird “conversation”, which will have time to fly around the entire Ponyville and be heard by everyone, is perceived by everyone as something that should be, which decorates the morning with its presence and allows other ponies to understand that the beginning of the day should always be serene and relaxed . The singing of birds will be complemented by the sounds of land animals, especially domestic ones. Their barking, meowing, howling and owl-like singing like Twilight's pet only makes the situation better. Almost every owner will be pleased if his pet bursts into the room with blind, naive and all-trusting joy and begins to stomp on the body or intensively lick the face, in the hope of waking him up as quickly as possible. This is all great. And with the area around the Everfree Forest, all this happens much more and more “magically”.

Fluttershy knew this better than anyone, not to mention Zecora.

Only now all the charm and miracle of the morning has no effect on her or her friends. The main meeting room of the Castle of Friendship was isolated from the pristine serenity of Ponyville's nature. Here the air was harsh from the various negative feelings accumulated in it. The Elements of Harmony and Spike sat on their thrones, their heads slightly bowed and a small shadow covering their eyes. All of them were tensely silent due to the fact that their pegasus friend was now telling the situation with Fang and his appearance in Manehattan. Only Discord tried to be more relaxed. During Fluttershy's serious story, he sometimes smoothly glided through the air; far from everyone, he danced in funk style, leaning forward forty-five degrees without lifting his heels from the floor and sliding backwards with a moonwalk. The Deity did many childish things, and Applejack paid attention to some of them. The earth pony looked at the draconicus with such a creepy look that Fluttershy, when she noticed this, stammered in the story and imagined that her farm friend also had a magical look. Discord was not a fool and saw everything... but was not going to do anything about it.

“...then the idea came to me to tell you about this, because I hoped that with your support and with Twilight’s knowledge, I would fully understand what I would have to work with,” Fluttershy finished speaking, taking a quiet breath and looking at the alicorn with patience. To attract more attention, Pegasus stood up a little from her seat, resting her front hooves on the table. She shuddered a little when, in order to explain the situation, she had to find not very pleasant memories, such as a night meeting with Trenderhoof. It was Fluttershy who tactfully kept silent in the story. She wants with all her might to forget how the stallion approached her with extremely terrible news and... his mysterious injuries and her unconsciousness at that moment. Even now, remembering this, Fluttershy begins to feel... strange... as if she should have understood all this, as if it concerned her... but...

“Well...”, the voice of the lavender princess returned the pegasus to the real world and she sharply raised her head towards her friend, “I can’t stop praising you, Fluttershy, for deciding to tell us. You made a very wise decision, I repeat. After all, such issues have always been a priority topic for us as guardians of Equestria. If something is always at the level of security and order in the country, we are always ready to contribute to it"

Twilight said this with a noticeable clearing of her throat. Her regal posture and formal tone were clear evidence of the seriousness of her words, while delivering them she looked back at her other friends receiving nods of approval. But this does not negate the fact that the tension in their communication has not disappeared during this time. The Element of Magic's voice was strained, slightly nervous but maintaining a grim calm. Her eyes exuded a little pain and skepticism as she glanced for a moment at the shadow creature, who lay down on the table next to Fluttershy and looked at the alicorn with deathly calm, almost never blinking. Small shadows continued to squirm from his body, covering his black fur. The eyes no longer emitted an ominous violet flame. Which, judging by Twilight’s observations, meant that the monster was not showing aggression and that he was not going to use... these powers.

The princess frowned and raised an eyebrow, looking at the beast again. Trying to understand the motives of his behavior and the meaning of being here. But she is not entirely sure that the false cat has enough intelligence to construct even primitive tactics. She didn't know anything.

“But it doesn’t make the situation any better.”, the alicorn princess added gloomily, looking a little sternly at her friend, “I hope you understand the consequences that can happen to this... this creature?”

Fluttershy opened her mouth to speak, but the words died in her mouth. She lowered her head a little and looked nervously at Fang. Twilight always used logic and the laws of cause-effect relationships when solving any serious problems. There were even cases when she simulated a pressing problem and conducted her own experiments to find the optimal solution. Documents with statistics, information data of national importance, calculations of event probabilities. Twilight has been doing her job with extraordinary seriousness lately. But no matter how erudite the princess is, Fluttershy is not a stupid pony either. She was aware of the responsibility, because every pet owner must undergo tests in the form of bureaucratic documentation to prove the pet’s safety in relation to other ponies. And the complexity of this process directly depends on the type of animal. Pegasus looked at the table, searching her head for the right words, then she looked at Rarity, who was sitting upright and already sipping some new orange drink with creamy foam. The unicorn took a sip from the straw and looked sadly and confidently at the veterinarian, as if she wanted to say that she needed to continue to act.

Fluttershy nodded slightly to her friend and straightened her back, looking at Twilight, the anxiety remained a little in her heart because now a lot could depend on their dialogue: “Yes, Twilight, I understand...”, the pegasus said in a quiet but calm voice, wanting to go a little softer in the topic of conversation, “Don’t misunderstand me, please. But for many years, I have occupied a central role in helping and exploiting all the animals that inhabit our town and its surroundings. I have directly communicated with their different species. And therefore I know their habits and preferences, know how to respond to their needs and desires. It is my duty as Ponyville's veterinarian to know all the fauna of our home... And I considered this case the same as the others. I was asked to organize a favorable stay for Fang in my animal sanctuary and for this reason I ...I...well..."

“You agreed, didn’t you?”, the sharp and loud question attracted the attention of all the ponies who looked at Rainbow. She flew up again and hovered above the throne - a clear sign of her irritation. Fluttershy got a little scared and fluttered her wings. She nodded carefully and slowly to the blue pegasus's question, looking anywhere but at her, “Wonderful... just amazing! What else are you going to tell us, Fluttershy?! I haven’t felt so exhausted since I with Daring Do they tried to get the Somnambula’s artifact from this slimy and nasty goo...ugh...Why do you think that you can make such decisions without us? Of course, I understand everything. Kindness and fair treatment of everyone and everything and something like that and blah, blah, blah, blah. But are you serious now?! Teaching him to be friendly in Ponyville. I've never heard anything dumber in my life... Did you see what he did to me?"

The pegasus's self-control suddenly began to quickly crack at the seams. Her body trembled and she looked at the other pegasus in amazement and shock. Rainbow looked sternly and expectantly at the yellow pony, her crimson eyes radiated anger, impatience, irritability and... anxiety. Yes, exactly anxiety. Fluttershy knew her flying friend well and she understood perfectly well that all the words spoken by Rainbow were not intended to offend Fluttershy. With this rainbow-maned pony she wanted to convey that she worries about all of us, about our lives. But Wonderbolt also mentioned the unpleasant incident with her and Fang. Fluttershy bit her lip, trying to suppress another wave of panic. They all witnessed when their bravest friend trembled and froze in place like a frightened baby pony who saw a monster from under the bed. Fang used magic on her... forbidden and evil magic. This power exuded only harshness and a mania for destruction, which her rainbow-maned friend felt. Unfortunately, this confirmed the danger of the cat for the surrounding ponies and this did not go in Fluttershy’s favor. She sighed, gaining new spiritual strength for further debate. Pegasus had to make sure that she was listened to and heard. She made a promise...

Fluttershy looked a little confidently, first at Twilight, then at Rainbow, and was about to start...

“Do you mind if I interfere?” Rarity asked rather rhetorically, putting down her half-finished cocktail and looking with restrained irritation at the alicorn, the farmer and the pegasus hovering above everyone, her voice unsuccessfully hiding her dissatisfaction, “It seems to me that on your part it's very unfair to talk about safety. Remind me who was the first to attack him? Hm? I'm certainly not an expert on animals, but even I can say that not only an animal, BUT EVEN a reasonable pony will act desperately if three ponies attack him with aggressive intentions."

Applejack huffed irritably and darkly. And Rainbow looked at Rarity indignantly and wanted to answer her, but the fashionista raised her hoof, which somehow affected the pegasus and she fell silent.

“Therefore, it would be extremely wrong to blame Fluttershy for negligence. Before this event, everything was fine. The beast... I mean... Fang lived in her cottage for three days and did nothing illegal. But I want to focus on Fluttershy’s decision to about sending the animal to our home. This is not a wrong idea at all, Rainbow. You think very categorically and in one direction. Do you really think that Fluttershy's refusal to transport the cat would be a good idea? Now tell me Twilight and Rainbow. what happened if Fang stayed in the city, out of our reach? Could we control him? I answer - No, we couldn't. That's why Fluttershy did us a big favor by bringing the beast here. Here he can be under our care."

Fluttershy now feels as if she is in the Garden of Eden, where joy and love flourish everywhere. She was immensely happy and pleasantly shocked. Her pair of astonished and widened eyes gazed intently at the unicorn, which without hesitation said what the pegasus so desperately wanted to hear. Few could have expected this. Rarity defends Fang's right to stay here. Initially, Fluttershy thought that the fashionista would be the hardest to convince given her initial reaction to the cat. But now she felt endless joy for Rarity. Fluttershy even stood up a little from her throne to fly up to the unicorn and hug her. But she stopped herself in time. Now is not the time for this.

“Um...” Pinkie began awkwardly when Fang approached her and began to rub against her left hoof, which was on the table. The pink pony carefully and tremblingly touched her other hoof to the shadow cat's head and began to gently stroke it. The animal closed its eyes in pleasure and sat on its hind legs, wagging its tail a little, dispersing the smoky shadows from itself. Twilight and Applejack became wary and their faces were distorted in a grimace of anxiety and fear, the Alicorn again lit the horn with battle magic, and the earth pony did not forget to straighten lasso. They all expected the worst, which did not come. To protect them from unnecessary actions, Fluttershy extended her hoof along the horizon, stopping them. She herself looked at Pinkie in pleasant hope. They need to see it for themselves. Fang continued to enjoy the caresses from the pink pony, he lay down on his back and began to playfully lightly hit his paws on the hooves of the pastry chef, who was trying to tickle his belly, which was very difficult to see because of the large clot of shadows. Pinkie managed to put a faint smile on her face and spoke to the others again, "Maybe...maybe the idea of leaving him behind isn't such a bad idea? I...I mean, maybe he can give us problems, but at least At least we will know about it. Moreover, now I see an ordinary cat...probably."

Rainbow raised one eyebrow and tensed her facial muscles as much as possible in a “Are you serious?” or “Are we just going to forget everything?” Twilight looked in amazement at the interaction between her pink friend and this monster and still had little faith in all of this. Then she turned her gaze towards Fluttershy, who was also looking at her in surprise. Pegasus somehow knew in advance what her alicorn friend was thinking and made her face like something between softness and wisdom. Fluttershy's eyes narrowed slightly and her cheeks lifted slightly from a large smile that was surprisingly very relaxed. The pegasus's shoulders tensed slightly and his wings flapped a little on his back. Twilight understood what Fluttershy meant. The pony silently tells the princess that they shouldn’t worry and that what they are seeing now is just the beginning.

The lavender alicorn sighed tiredly and leaned on the back of her throne, bending her back a little and spreading her wings down. Her regal pose disappeared: "I don't know, Fluttershy. Such developments will not be good for the daily lives of ordinary ponies," the alicorn placed her front hooves on the arms of the throne, her face drawn into a form of stern and cold wisdom, which is how Celestia usually behaved when she was involved in emergency situations; an attentive gaze was directed at the pegasus, Twilight carefully looked at her friend’s facial expressions, posture, and the frequency of twitching of the wings and ears, as if she was trying to find in this some important answer for herself; then she sighed and continued speaking, sadly lowering her gaze, “We all deeply respect you for your endless desire to help everyone you consider unfortunate. Your eyes never see monsters. You notice in creatures what they themselves have long lost in their souls. But do you really think that the current adventure is worth it? I...I'm not even sure that he has a soul. Don't think anything bad, Fluttershy. We all believe in your power to heal the villain with kindness. But what consequences will follow from this? What can Fang do before you teach him good manners? This... is an unusual creature, and I am still choosing my words politely towards him. I have never seen an animal that can use dark magic, and this unknown terrifies me."

Fluttershy lowered her head and began to think hard. Her friend's words could not be refuted. The Princess of Friendship loaded the pegasus' head with hard facts that pointed out the obvious flaws in her plan. The rehabilitation process never goes according to plan, at least not that pegasus could remember from her experience. But this does not speak about her competence as a veterinarian. Every pony and non-pony has such a problem when the pet is uncomfortable when changing the location of residence. New acquaintances, new surroundings, new neighboring pets - all these are obstacles and challenges that are natural. Fluttershy can remember every predatory animal that is under her care and that previously could not get along in the outer territories of Ponyville. At that time, her main task was to suppress the hunting instincts of large and medium-sized individuals. It was extremely difficult. Each of her animal friends, who has fangs and claws, used to show noticeable aggression towards the pony and often tried to get into the center of the town at night. At that time, Princess Luna was not there yet, so there was no point in counting on the help of the bat ponies. Therefore, Fluttershy herself took full responsibility for the behavior of these animals. She had to search out these sources of public danger for many nights and re-teach them to suppress their bloodlust. Scientific observations of everyone's metabolism, then social experiments with pony volunteers, then the right choice of a balanced diet to reduce the need for horse meat, and then the organization of walks in almost public places (under the supervision of pegasus). Naturally, Fluttershy could not do everything correctly in a short time, there were failures, because not all animals were compliant towards her. She tried again and again, the cycle repeated and repeated. With small steps, but success has been achieved: now wild animals do not perceive ponies as prey, they are used to the existence of Ponyville and its inhabitants and perceive them as part of the ecosystem, which makes no sense to disturb.

And now, Pegasus can't let doubts lead her friends down the wrong path. She took a deep breath, lowered her ears a little and silently stood up from her throne. Twilight and the others arched their eyebrows in incomprehension and looked confused as Fluttershy slowly approached Pinkie. Only the Element of Joy did not pay attention to this and continued to play with the sinister creature. Pegasus left soft clicking sounds on the crystal and smooth floor, her frighteningly calm gaze fixed sternly on Fang, but her eyebrows and eyes still gave her the look of that warming tenderness and care, which testified to the complete absence of evil intentions. And the lack of uncertainty. The latter was noticed by Twilight and Rarity when their friend came close to the cat. Rainbow, as usual, was not happy that everyone was trying to stall for time and communicate with actions rather than words. She made a slight grimace of displeasure and crossed her front hooves and snorted irritably, but the fastest pegasus did not want to distract Fluttershy and just waited, soaring over the card table again...although she really wanted to hear the right decisions and quickly. At the same time, Applejack watched as Fluttershy slowly and gently lifted her left hoof and joined the game between the pink earth pony and the shadow cat. She pushed her hat away from her eyes a little and tried to process in her head what she sees and what has happened recently. It was difficult to understand what was in her head: a chaotic stream of contradictory thoughts colliding with each other, one at the same time worse and better than the other; at the moment she was trying to find a way to cope with those feelings that distort her ideas about the right way in this problem, but it is not so easy and with each attempt it turns out It's getting worse.

"Um...Fluttershy," the Princess of Friendship said carefully and attracted the attention of everyone except the yellow pegasus, alicorn tilted her head forward a little and looked at Fluttershy with a little concern, wanting to end the awkward and long silence, "What else can you add in defense of Fang?"

Now Pinkie was distracted from the cat and looked at the pink-maned pony along with the rest of the Elements, Even Discord and Spike looked at her after finishing their conversation. Only Spike began to look nervously at Twilight, he did not want it to come to a vote.

Fluttershy tickled Fang's soft belly a little more and watched with a warm smile as this mewing clot of shadows neatly "fights" with the hoof of pegasus as with a plush toy. But still, she raised her head and looked at everypony who was present here and everyone's gaze expressed different emotions...not what Fluttershy wanted. Only Discord polished his claws with mystical calmness. Everyone expected an answer from her and she knew it:

"I know what I want to say," Fluttershy said softly in her thin voice, first looking at her hooves and then at the Princess of Friendship, considering all her chances and all that she had managed to go through lately, "This is our duty"

Well...it became even more unclear, all the ponies except Fluttershy looked at each other in embarrassment, trying to understand the meaning of these words. Twilight was the first to look at Fluttershy again and ask:

"Fluttershy...please explain yourself more specifically, I... we probably misunderstood you...", alicorn hesitantly fell silent trying to plunge deeper into the words spoken by Fluttershy, for some reason subconsciously she knew what pegasus meant. Then they heard the faint sound of knocking on the crystal floor, which in the normal routine of Princess Twilight would have been ignored. But not this time. No one dared to say or do anything superfluous: Rainbow Dash surprisingly stood next to Rarity's throne, Pinkie stopped squeezing Fang, Rarity took a cocktail again during the conversation but did not drink it, Applejack, as usual, just sat and waited, but she looked at the cat. Even Discord was distracted from his "extremely necessary" polishing of claws at the moment, Spike crossed his paws on his chest and also looked at the main defender of the monster. Twilight patiently watched as pegasus approached her. She never got up from her throne. No one should step back from their position now. It's too late. Even if the Princess of Friendship has taken up neutrality so far, this does not make her job easier. It's hard for her to see how her friends have different points of view on this issue, which causes unnecessary arguments and quarrels. And it will be even harder when she is forced to take sides in an argument. She always has the final word.

Fluttershy stood three steps away from Twilight. Her delicate and sky-turquoise eyes stared into the mystical purple eyes of the disciple of the Sun and gave no hint of uncertainty or inner struggle. Pegasus slowly lifted the corners of her lips and carefully looked at the rest of her friends before saying: "My dear friends, you can only imagine how much I love you all," the veteran began and misled the others even more, but it was very pleasant and embarrassing for them to hear this, "Our adventures are a testament This is the formation of those strong bonds that led us to a better life. We proved to the others that nothing is impossible if not only you, but also your friends stand in front of an obstacle. Friends who are ready to follow you with blind loyalty. Friends who will do their best to get you out of a desperate situation, but if they fail, they will stay with you and will not allow your soul to suffer alone. Friends always consider your opinion important. Friends never put their problems ahead of yours. And even if they know that you are wrong, they do not go against you - they will try to help you and stay on your side," Fluttershy had to make her beautiful voice a little louder to make sure that every word was heard, in parallel with this she approached everyone and looked with the same tenderness and trust Into everyone's eyes, then she looked back at Twilight, standing next to Rarity's throne, "We embodied all this in the best possible way. It made us Elements of Harmony. Since then, it has become our duty to bring the same friendship to others, to show how to look at those who are dear to you. Every pony in Equestria is grateful to us for not leaving them in dangerous situations and allowing them to defeat evil together with us as equal partners...as friends," such noble speeches were new to Fluttershy, she had a slight tremor of her lips and wings, "Now it's the same case," Fluttershy turned her eyes for a moment towards Fang, lying on his paws and looking at Spike, then looked back at the Princess, "He is not a threat at the moment for all ponies, he is a lonely creature who needs the right changes and reliable ones who will give him the family he needs so much. He needs to be given a chance to feel the brightest parts of his heart. After all, this is what the Elements of Harmony do...right?"

Fluttershy exhaled deeply and stopped staring at Alicorn. It was hard and scary for her. To raise the topic of the purpose of the Elements, to select the right words so that everyone could feel the whole intention of pegasus and had to say so much. Fluttershy couldn't remember the last time she was the central figure in an important argument. Literally everything depends on your every word. It was too much for the shy pegasus. Fluttershy looked at Fang even more intently, she was already afraid to look at her friends. She couldn't imagine that they were now considering who was supporting her and who wasn't. She begins to feel that she has done something wrong and directed the others into the wrong way of thinking. Fluttershy begins to come up with new arguments for every possible bad outcome, as much as her imagination allows.

Her friends themselves were like a kaleidoscope of different facial expressions. The words spoken by Fluttershy and the topic she mentioned were absolutely clear to them. No one will be able to explain to them what useful work they do in relation to all living ponies, their positive impact on social stability in Equestria is visible to everyone and to them most of all. But for some reason, it is from the words of their pegasus friend that this seems to be something new. It's hard to explain, there's no way to describe it. Now the rest of the keepers of the Elements are trying to go over the definitions of friendship and the laws of Harmony, on which their School is built and the meaning of existence in the face of the entire community.

Finally, Twilight attracted everyone's attention with a small knock on the table. As expected, all the Elements and others looked at the youngest monarch. Fluttershy looked at her purple friend with great nervousness, hoping in her mind for a good outcome. Pegasus's eyes widened slightly, her wings spread a little, and she bent her whole body slightly towards the Throne of Magic. Twilight saw it all perfectly, but her face turned regally cold, as if they were in a State Court and she was in the role of Princess Celestia. The pony closest to the Harmony Tree carefully examined the faces of all those present. She looked at Pinkie, Rarity and Rainbow, her eyes narrowed slightly and became less formal, the same thing happened with Spike and Discord...But because of the second one, it turned out to be an annoying situation. Discord noticed the gaze on himself and gave the Princess a seductive macho look and winked.

With great difficulty, she suppressed the desire to send this frivolous creature to Tartarus. Now her gaze met Applejack's. Only now Twilight stayed a little longer. When she looked at her farmer friend, she had an unpleasant tingling sensation on her back for a second. She took a deep breath and closed her eyes, "Fluttershy. In the name of the Princess of Friendship, the Fourth Equestrian Tiara," Twilight said as if she had read the official charter of the Royal Guard, she looked at pegasus and spread her wings; Fluttershy herself felt a monstrous pressure and bent down a little in a half-bow and not breathing, "I give you official permission to raise this beast near the town of Ponyville with its subsequent adaptation to the present..."

The princess could not finish her speech as she immediately abruptly rested against the back of the throne. Her breathing became a little harder and her hooves were immobilized in a tight grip. Fluttershy had already imperceptibly found herself in the arms of the alicorn. Her head was not visible, it was hidden by the Princess's right shoulder. Fluttershy pressed her face there and hid behind the bright purple fur. She was crying quietly. But this crying was full of joy.

Author's Note:

Sorry for being missing. I'm back now.