The legend of how the rare Sleigh Beggy became the wife of the mage that is neither fae nor human
Would you believe me if I recall the legend of the rare Sleigh Beggy and how she became the wife of the mage that can only be described as neither fae nor human?
Based on the manga & anime "The Ancient Magus Bride".
"Beneath the heavy veil... beyond the dull wall of cement... deep, deep within the ancient misty forest... there lies another world... that world is far closer than you might imagine.” Kore Yamazaki , Volume 1 of The Ancient Magus Bride
Prologue
“Mommy? Where does magic come from?”
A pair of eyes shifted their gaze away from the window and looked down at her daughter sitting in her lap. They were huddled by her bedroom window sill, sitting on the long, softly colored floral ottoman, and taking in the silent but calm star filled night that filled her view and her entire bedroom. Her arms wrapped around her daughter tightly but lovingly, resting her hands on top of her daughter’s small hands. She wanted to squeeze them, but she always worried that she could break them, even though it never happened.
The mother was a traditional, but sweet looking woman. Her round face was framed by her large, but short red curls and her boxy turquoise glasses. Her long, sunflower patterned nightgown complimented her tall yet petite body and her buttercream skin. Her rose colored eyes shined as they focused on the beautiful little girl in her lap.
The mother’s head was resting on top of her daughter’s head. Her daughter had such long, thick, but soft, light, cherry blossom pink hair. It always surprised her how soft, but more importantly, how thick her daughter’s hair was in comparison to most six year olds her age.
“She must have gotten that from her-”
She tried to shake that thought from her mind, and focused instead on finding Fluttershy’s teal eyes and her cherub like face. She was barely able to peek past her daughter’s hair, and see how the glow of the night beautifully lit the soft edges of her round, light buttercream face and glimmering eyes. She smiled softly and chuckled a little in her throat at her daughter’s curious yet innocent expression.
“That’s a good question sweetie. A question that has brought on many stories. Some say that magic comes the glimmering surface of the water. Others have said that magic comes from the night sky, leaking from the stars above. Some have even said that magic was dug up long ago, by the roots of a very old but very big tree. I however, personally prefer the story that your Grandmother Shy once told me.”
“Is she Papa’s momma?”
The mother, feeling a bit taken back her daughter’s question at first, but regardless answered softly, “Y-Yes, yes she was, sweetie. Why do you ask?”
“I wanna imagine what she looked like. Did she look Grandma, momma?”
She chuckled while hugging her daughter closer to her chest, “Oh, no, no sweetie, your Grandmother Shy did not look like Grandma. Your Grandmother Shy and Grandma are two very different looking people. They even acted differently too.”
“Really? How?”
“Well for starters, unlike Grandma, Grandmother Shy could see the fae. Just like you and me.”
“And like Papa and Zephyr too.”
In a subdued and almost sorrowful tone, the mother added, “Y-yes, that’s right sweetie. Just like...Papa and Zephyr.”
She quickly changed the topic and added in a more cheerful, if slightly forced, tone, “Your Grandmother Shy was so adventurous. A true heroic figure...straight out of an adventure novel. Fearless, bold, but very kind and very sweet. She wanted to know everything there was to know about the fae.”
Then, she turned her attention back to the window sills and the night sky that shone through. With all the stars in her view, She recited gently, “According to your Grandmother Shy, a long time ago, long before you were born, there was a mirror. At first glance, it seemed like just an ordinary mirror. It was covered with rust, small cracks and no one paid it any mind. No one knew where it came from. All that anyone knew was that one day, someone accidentally dropped the mirror and it created a huge crack in the middle of it, that inexplicably started to leak out magic. You see Fluttershy, the fae of this world once lived on the other side of that mirror. This meant they would see our world the way a mirror does. Everything looks the same, except for the fact that everything was a bit opposite. Everything was on the wrong side. And this confused the fae once they started coming out into our world.”
“Why did they start coming out the mirror, momma?”
“Fae are very curious creatures my dear, far more curious than you and me.”
As she began to lightly braid Fluttershy’s hair, the young girl started looking out the window. A gentle, sad look slowly appeared upon Fluttershy’s face as a thought dawned upon her. This new thought urged her to ask aloud, “Momma?”
“Yes, sweetie?”
“Why do the fairies want to hurt us?”
She immediately stopped braiding her daughter's hair. She took a moment to recollect her thoughts and her breath, before undoing the braid. “Sweetie, the fae don’t mean to hurt us. I know that you’re worried about them, but it’s going to be okay. We already saw tons of them earlier today, just playing around in the park. After a whole day of playing, the fae must be tired and they’ll need to get a good night’s sleep. And we’ll sleep too, you’ll see. It’ll be nothing but sweet dreams tonight, I promise.”
But this explanation didn’t help ease young Fluttershy’s concern on the subject. She pulled her head away from her mom, brought her knees to her chest, and placed her head on top of her knees. Her daughter’s eyes were still on the view of the night sky to their left.
The mother sighed softly at the sight of this, and pulled her daughter slowly into a hug. “I know it’s been hard getting some sleep lately.”
“Papa usually scares away the fairies.”
With some emotion building in her throat, almost clogging up her voice, she continued strongly, “I know sweetie, I-I know.”
Then, she pulled Fluttershy away from her chest and causing the sweet little girl to look up at her with wide, confused, sad, yet tired looking eyes. Despite this heartbreaking sight, she was able to muster up a smile and proclaim, “But until Papa and Zephyr come back, we have to be brave. And I know that you can be brave. After all,... ”
Then, she took her front left hand and let the tips of her fingers gently cupped underneath Fluttershy’s chin. “You’re Papa’s brave little girl, as well as, Zeppie’s big brave older sister.”
Fluttershy smiled briefly at her mother. However, it wasn’t too long before her solemn expression returned. Her heart sank at seeing such expression on her daughter’s face. Nothing about this situation was right in her eyes. Her daughter was too young to experience such a fear, to be without a father or experience such worry over her own little brother. The mother could see how much this burdened Fluttershy. So much so, in fact, that it made Fluttershy crouch over and lump her shoulders forward. Always positioning herself in a state where she had to protect her own body constantly. All of it threatened to bring her to tears if she dwelled on it for much longer.
Mercifully, she was drawn back to her reality when her daughter asked once more, but with more urgency in her voice, “Momma, why do the fairies always want to hurt us? Why do they want to scare us so much? What did we do momma? What did we do?”
With her little girl on the verge of tears, she soothed her by cupping both of her cheeks and cooed emphatically, “Nothing sweetie, nothing. We did absolutely nothing wrong to the fae. Please Fluttershy, you must understand. The fae only do this because we can see them. And because we can see them, it has made them curious of us. And when the fae are curious, they seek to understand. Humans run away from what they don’t understand, but the fae… they sometimes... make mistakes when they are curious. So, that is why I said that they don’t mean to hurt us. When they get carried away by their curiosity, bad things happen. Do you understand Fluttershy?”
The young girl opened her eyes and looked back up to her mother. Fluttershy truly took notice how her mother looked that night. The night glow coming through the bed window softened the edges and curves of her face, which was similarly round, much like her own face. She noticed how her mother’s hair beautifully framed her face and how the light of the stars brought out the lovely dark shade of her maroon hair. Despite how blocky and large her glasses were, her mother’s eyes were truly compelling in the darkness of the room, bright and glistening with the fresh start of her tears.
“Promise me,” she continued, “That... that no matter what happens, you will not hate the fae.”
Fluttershy remained silent and still, keeping her wide eyes on her emotional mother. Her mother could tell that her daughter was truly trying to comprehend everything she was telling her, but didn’t know how. Which made explaining things to her very complicated to say the least. However, she didn’t want to stop trying. “Fluttershy, the fae are neither good nor bad, they are simply... they are simply… ”
But the right word never came.
She sighed to herself and took her hands away from Fluttershy’s face. A distinct cold rushed to Fluttershy’s cheek and she continued to stare at her mother curiously, waiting for some form of guidance during this troubling time at night. Sadly, while her mother wanted to say that they were mysterious, or unique, or different, she knew none of those words would help Fluttershy understand.
Despite this, she decided to take a different approach, “Sweetie, our ability to see the fae is a blessing, not a curse. It is our special talent. We’re different in the most wonderful way possible. I know it doesn’t feel like it now, but someday... it will be. And when that day comes my dear child, you’re going to be so glad that you didn’t give up on the fae. Okay?”
Fluttershy hesitated at first to nod her head, but she did so in order to make her momma happy, even if for just a moment. In truth, Fluttershy didn’t fully understood what she was promising, she just knew that she had to promise something. Even so, she got the feeling that maybe, just maybe, the fae were not as bad as they seemed. If her mom was willing to be nice to them, then so can she.
“Fluttershy, do you know where our special talent come from?”
Fluttershy shook her head, and let out a small sound to go with the gesture.
“Your Grandmother Shy says that our special talent came from the same mirror that unleashed the magic and fae into our world. You see, the people who held the mirror wanted to stop all the magic and fae from coming in. They thought that they could stop the power of the mirror if they destroyed it. And so, when the glass was shattered, all of its pieces flew into the sky, transforming into beams of light, before dropping into the eyes of some young children. Among those children were some of the first people of our family. The magical mirror granted the children the power to see the fae when no one else could. This became a very handy gift because people needed help dealing with the fae, especially since they couldn’t leave our world. Also, because the mirror was gone, the fae from the other world couldn’t come into our world either. From that day forward, those gifted children and their families became known as the Bright Eyed Children of Fae. Though that was the most common name used, as some referred to as us The Children of Glass, while others called us Slay Vega or Sleigh Beggies.”
“Baggies?” Fluttershy questioned, tilting her head to the side with confusion.
She let out a soft but bell-like giggle at her daughter’s remark. She grinned, began to pet the top of Fluttershy’s head, and she brought her gaze down to her child’s eye level, “No sweetie, beggies. Not baggies. Though, I do like the sound of Sleigh Baggies.” Then, she finished her statement with another little giggle, and this caused Fluttershy to smile. For just a moment.
Her eyes and smile began to soften as a distant but potent memory came to mind. Fluttershy took notice of this and watched her mother intently. Especially when she told her that, “That’s why...that’s why your Papa always said that...that you and Zeppie have such pretty eyes. Your eyes and your brother’s eyes are like pieces of sea glass. Pieces of frosted treasure that just washed up on the shore of a beach.”
With a reassuring smile, Fluttershy brought her small hands to her mom’s face and comforted her with, “You have pretty eyes too, momma.”
Tears began to form in the corners of the mother’s eyes as she gently embraced her daughter’s touch, “Ohhh, thank you sweetie. You’re so kind to your momma, did you know that?”
“Yes!” Fluttershy proclaimed confidently with a bright grin on her face. Her mother couldn’t help but laugh at her smart but confident proclamation, it comforted her to know that her daughter still had spirit. A spirit that reminder her so much of her late husband's mother.
She then teased sweetly, “Oh, do you now?”
“Yes!” Fluttershy proclaimed again, with the same energy as before.
“Oh, do you?” Her mother teased again, now beginning to tickle Fluttershy.
“Yes!” the sweet young girl giggled.
“Do you?!” She exclaimed as tickled Fluttershy more aggressively.
“Yes!” Fluttershy giggled, this time louder and having a hard time even responding to her mother in the midst of her laughter.
“Do you?!”
“Yes!”
“Do you?!”
“Yes!”
She laughed with her little girl, holding her up high in the air, swinging and dancing with her as they giggled together. She brought them away from the window sill and towards the floral patterned queen size bed in the middle of the room. Their dance and constant spins around the room ended when them both landing and flopping onto the bed. They bounced back a little at the impact, which made them laugh and giggle even louder than before.
The mother and daughter continued to chuckle until they really couldn’t breathe anymore. They gradually and slowly eased their laughter in order to catch their breath. Their backs relaxed into the plush surface of the bed as they calmed themselves into the quiet night. The bedroom was filled with the sound of their steadying breath and the subtle pounding of their heartbeats.
Her bright grin eased into a gentle smile, and she let out a cleansing puff of relief. A breath that she had been holding in for the longest time now it seems. She turned to face Fluttershy, who was already looking more like a carefree and happy five year old than the scared little mouse that she had been protecting for weeks now. She crawled up to Fluttershy, and cradled her into her arms. The little girl immediately embraced her mother’s touch and nuzzled into her chest. She closed her eyes, let out a quiet sigh, and let a gentle smile escape from her lips.
“Alright sweetie,” the mother whispered happily, “That’s enough fun for one night. It’s time for this bright eyed child to get some sleep.”
Fluttershy nodded weakly and yawned.
She chuckled in her throat before moving to the head of the bed with her daughter in her arms. Quietly, she removed her glasses and placed them on her white birch night stand. As she did so, Fluttershy yawned again and her grip on her silk pajama top began to loosen. She could tell that her little girl was already asleep in her embrace.
She pulled on the covers of the bed with her free hand, while securing Fluttershy with the other, and tucked the pair in. Snuggling herself closer to Fluttershy, she silently rested her chin on top of her little girl’s head.
Before she closed her eyes, she muttered softly, “Good night Fluttershy.”
“Goodnight mommy,” Fluttershy barely mumbled in her sleep.
“MOMMYYY!”
Sunflower awoke suddenly to the sounds of Fluttershy screaming for her life, furniture and other objects being tossed and thrown in the bedroom, as the piercing echoes of horses neighing and monsters howling tore through the room.
Everything was all a blur. Everything was going too fast. She didn’t know where Fluttershy was. She didn’t know where the fae that was attacking them was. Without her glasses, Sunflower was all but completely blind.
The bedroom was still dark, so it was either still in the middle of night or the hours before sunrise. To her, this meant that she was dealing with fae that thrived on darkness, but ran away from sunlight.
Before she could process her situation, grab her glasses, and come up with a plan to save her and Fluttershy, she could feel the fae struggling to pull Fluttershy out of her arms. They grabbed and pulled on Fluttershy from wherever they could, making the frightened child cry and scream even louder, calling out for her mother. She reacted rapidly and pulled her daughter back to her chest. It was a tug of war between her and these mysterious fae that dare invade her home.
The intruders soon resorted to pulling on her forearms, shoulders, legs, and her hair. She attempted to kick these creatures off her, but her feet couldn’t find their bodies for some reason. She felt like she was kicking the air helplessly. Meanwhile, all she could see was the blurred vision of her daughter’s tear stained face. She could see a shadow created by the fae looming over head. When she took a closer look at the being attacking her, she could make out the fuzzy edges of their grotesque, ghostly, equine looking faces and glowing white eyes.
When her forearm was bare and in front of Fluttershy’s chest, holding the little girl close to her own body, the fae took the opportunity to bite down on it hard. She sobbed aloud in immense agony, immediately feeling the blood trickling from her forearm and the unforgiving pressure of their bite. And this pain, this brief but merciless pain, made the mother momentarily release some of her grip on her daughter.
But instead of pulling on Fluttershy, the ominous monsters decide to drag her off the bed. They dragged her by her forearms, using their powerful but flat toothed jaws to do so. Sunflower cried even more, feeling more blood spill from the wounds on her forearms. She struggled to punch the fae, but when she did, she felt her fist come into contact with nothing. Absolutely nothing. She could feel something light and airy brush against her fingernails, something like smoke or mist brushing against her skin. But, it was as if the fae weren’t really there.
She had never met fae such as this.
“MOMMA!” Fluttershy screamed out, pulling on her mother’s legs in order to get her back on the bed.
Despite how small and fragile she seemed to be, she was able to match this tug a war with the fae in the room.
The fae growled and neighed in response to Fluttershy’s resistance. Their eyes were the only source of light for Fluttershy to focus in this almost pitch black bedroom.
“MOMMA!” Fluttershy cried out once more, putting more of her strength into her pull on her mother’s legs.
With one mighty tug, the group of fae together were able to pull her mom away from Fluttershy’s small grip. They dragged her off the bed.
“MOMMYYYY!”
Singing.
The little six year old Fluttershy took her stare away from the grave standing in front of her. She turned her gaze to the hill towards the back of the cemetery. Her eyes widened in awe when she saw a woman. A blue, transparent woman floating, just floating along, dressed in a cloak that reminded Fluttershy of fog. A thick morning grey fog. The woman had no feet, but instead, the tail of a ghost of some kind. The woman’s eyes were closed, and tears streamed down her ghostly face as she sang her song. To some people, the song would just sound like wailing or howling. But to Fluttershy, she was singing.
True, her song was mournful, sorrowful, and sad. But, she was singing nevertheless.
Fluttershy remembered this woman’s singing voice whenever she, her mother, her father, and her baby brother would walk through town. Whenever they were a few blocks away from the cemetery, she would hear this woman’s tragic song. And that is why, Fluttershy wasn’t afraid of this female fae. She was familiar to her in a way, even though they had never met before.
The chilly afternoon air blew lightly through Fluttershy’s long black dress that went to her ankles. From the top of her white collar to the bottom of her dress, there was a long vertical row of white silk buttons. Her luscious pink hair was restricted into a restraining bun, held by a fake black rose.
Fluttershy looked behind her to the crowd near the front of the cemetery, hoping to see if they could see and hear the ghostly woman in the cemetery. Instead of their eyes and ears on the woman off in the distance, their attention was focused unfortunately on Fluttershy.
This made the young six year feel uncomfortable, and she quickly spun her head back to the grave in front of her. On the grave, it read:
Here Lies Sunflower Cinch May 5th, 1970-June 11th, 2006 Mother, Wife, Daughter, Sister, and Our Brightest Flower
Meanwhile, in the crowd near the front of the cemetery, two older women were paying careful and close attention to her. Their eyes were stern and cold with harsh judgement than those in the massive throng.
One of the women was in a wheelchair, and she bore wrinkles that could outnumber the number of rings inside of a tree. Yet, despite these many lines of age, her eyes still had some form of spark and fire to them. Indicting that this woman looked far older than she actually was. But, due to her declining health, her youth was stolen away from her. To add to her aged appearance, she almost didn’t bother to put on any make up. Herpale, buttercream complexion and greyish indigo hair, almost looked white in the light of the sun. Upon her face, was a pair of chunky, dark red, thick rimmed glasses on the top of her very small nose, all but covering her magenta eyes. Finally, she wore a very elegant, expensively designed, black dress with a string of grey pearls on her neck and matching pearl earrings. This woman went by many names over her lifetime, but one name that always seemed to stick was Mrs. Cinch.
The other women with her was fairly tall for someone of her age. She was close to being forty soon, and started developing crow’s feet at the corners of her narrow, light pink eyes. Despite age trying to crawl in, she still had beautiful, light blue skin, and youthful color in her dark purple, lavender, and fuchsia hair. She too tied her hair in a bun, but it had more style and a clean finish in comparison to her companion’s hair. She wore thin rimmed, bright red glasses on her small nose, along with light purple eyeshadow and red lipstick. She also had a distinct a beauty mark near the right corner of her stylized lips. Just like her friend, she wore a long, designer black dress with a string of white pearls on her neck. She even had matching white pearl earrings. However, her pearls were not as grand or expensive as her companion’s, suggesting a difference in class.
“Just look at her Abacus,” remarked Mrs. Cinch, her tone shaky but still snobbish, matched with a thick British accent, “She has the same vacant, frightful stare as her mother.”
“And look where it got her,” Abacus replied, bearing a strong yet equally arrogant accent, “Tearing herself apart by her own insanity. In front of her own daughter no less.”
“Something must be done,” The old woman proclaimed solemnly.
“I agree mother,” Abacus responded in a nonchalant tone, “I propose that we send her to the mental facility up state. They should be able to take care of her little-”
“No Abacus,” Mrs. Cinch interrupted sternly, “That is no longer an option. Your father and I did that with your sister, and look where it got her. Marrying a man who was just as insane as she was. A man below her status no less. Having that same man leave her in the middle of the night and taking their son with him. It’s already shameful enough.”
“Oh, then what are you suggesting, mother?” Abacus scolded, “Taking on the child yourself? You’re in no condition to take care of her.”
In response, her mother gave her a critical state one would see in a disappointed parent, causing Abacus let out a groanful sigh before she opted for a compromise, “Look, if it’ll ease you, then let us send her to Winter Chill’s Boarding School For Proper Girls. The same school that I went to when I was her age. You can still be her legal guardian, and a well trained staff can be in charge of her education and mental health.”
“No,” Mrs. Cinch protested, “She’ll just get worse if we send her there. Those twits won’t know what to do with her, and you know it.”
She lifted her cold, wrinkled eyes to her daughter and explained, “She’s still young Abacus. Perhaps it isn’t too late to make her into a proper Cinch and regain our rightful place in this society. I want you to be her legal guardian.”
“What?!”
“I want you to take her under your wing, teach her everything that you know and follow her in every step of the way. With your guidance, we just might have a chance.”
“Mother, I’m a principal at a private educational institution! Not a nurse to a delusional-!”
“Keep your voice down child, do not embarrass me.” Mrs. Cinch growled underneath her breath, “My word is final, Abacus. Think of this as your punishment for not marrying into the Orange family like you should have done years ago and...you having, that commoner child out of wedlock.”
In a huff, the old Mrs. Cinch pushed her wheelchair away from Abacus, and joined some of the more sophisticated aristocrats that were guests at the funeral. Meanwhile, Abacus turned to look behind her and observed Fluttershy, still standing in front of her mother’s grave. Using her index finger and her thumb, she pinched and massaged the bridge on her nose and groaned to herself. Straightening out her dress, she made her way towards Fluttershy, making sure to look high and regal with each step she took.
Fluttershy meanwhile, didn’t notice Abacus coming from behind until she saw a shadow looming over her. “Huh?”
She turned around and saw the foreboding woman standing over her with a daunting gaze. Fluttershy’s body immediately cowered in her presence and she stuttered when she asked, “H-Hi?”
“Hello Fluttershy,” Abacus replied in an unsympathetic tone, “I am Abacus Roman Cinch. I’m your late mother’s sister.”
She stiffly offered her hand to Fluttershy and continued with, “How do you do?”
Fluttershy hesitated at first, but slowly took Abacus’s hand and shook it softly. “You’re my auntie?”
“Yes, I am. However, from now on, you will call me Ms. Cinch.”
Once the two stopped shaking hands, Abacus clenched her hands together behind her back and commanded, “I will be the one taking care of you from now on.”
She turned away from Fluttershy and started to walk away from the grave, “Come my dear, the guests shall be leaving soon. It is our duty to see them off.”
“But… ”
Abacus stopped and coldly replied, “ No ‘buts’ my dear.” Then, after her command, she continued to walk forward.
Meanwhile, Fluttershy took one last sad look at her mother’s grave before slowly joining her aunt at the front of the cemetery.
Fluttershy continued to hear the sound of the female fae’s song as she socialized with all who attended her mother’s funeral.
May Chaotic Showers Bring About Beautiful Butterflies Part 1
“Great heroes need great sorrows and burdens, or half their greatness goes unnoticed. It is all part of the fairy tale.” Peter S. Beagle, The Last Unicorn
May Chaotic Showers Bring About Beautiful Butterflies Part 1
Twelve years later …
“Good morning Ms. Shy.”
Fluttershy squinted her eyes at the morning light peeking through her bedroom window. Despite being so sleepy, she was able to glimpse at her favorite maid opening the curtains and greeting her with a soft smile. The maid in question was a full figured woman, dressed in a traditional, black and white maid outfit, with light blue skin, and pink and white swirled hair, tied in a functional and modest bun. On top of her head was a white ruffled maid’s bonnet.
Fluttershy chuckled in her throat a little at the maid’s cheerful morning attitude. She began to rub her eyes and replied in a quiet, groggy voice, “Good morning to you to Mrs. Cake.”
“How did ya sleep, dearie?” She asked, walking over to Fluttershy’s closet and pulled out her freshly ironed Crystal Prep uniform.
The sleepy high schooler yawned and stretched out her arms wide and into the sky. She answered in mid-yawn, “Oh good, thank you. How did you and Mr. Cake sleep? Did the twins give you two any trouble last night?”
As Mrs. Cake laid out the uniform at the end of the king sized canopy bed, she remarked with a giggle, “Oh, only a little bit of fussing dear, but nothing to sprout grey hairs about! Ha ha!”
“I don’t know how you and Mr. Cake do it. Both of you have to wake up so early for your jobs. I can’t imagine balancing that with raising twins.”
“You get used to it once you become a parent. You adapt even faster if you have twins running around, or crawling around actually. I swear, those two little rascals have more energy than a Sugar Bunny on espresso! Of course, Mr. Cake and I have always been morning people, but thanks to our little angels and the wonders of caffeine, we’ve even more energetic than morning news anchors on TV,” Mrs. Cake playfully chuckled at the end.
As Fluttershy sat up in her bed, letting a giggle escape through her lips. She tried to hide her small smile from Mrs. Cake, though the maid was able to catch it easily and smirked playfully at her. Then, Fluttershy shifted her gaze to her bedroom window and was able to take in the beautiful, faint details of the morning. The glistening morning dew covered all the plants, trees, and grass in the quaint, private neighborhood.
As the morning mist cleared, the streets and roads were fresh from the rain that poured last night. Fluttershy could even see some butterflies fluttering about; taking in some of the morning nectar before all the other bugs could.
Further in the distance, just in the back part of the neighborhood, was a little forest area that separated the citizens from the city and other communities in the town, protecting the inhabitants from the rampant and belligerent sounds that constantly echoed within the city limits. But the best part about the view for Fluttershy was that, as far as she could tell so far, there were no fae around. Not in the neighborhood or the forest behind it. None anywhere. Just the peaceful sight of morning.
She sighed softly in contentment, “What a beautiful morning.”
“The day must be shining just for you, sweetie.” Mrs. Cake remarked genuinely, with a sincere grin on her face.
Fluttershy blushed a little and averted her eyes away from Mrs. Cake, “Oh, I don’t know about that. But, thank you Mrs. Cake. You’re too sweet.”
Before Mrs. Cake headed out the door, she asked Fluttershy, “Would you like me to help you get dressed before I prepare breakfast?”
“Oh no no. You go on ahead, I’ll be down shortly. Thank you though.”
Then in an excited but determined tone, Mrs. Cake proposed Fluttershy, “Very well then! In that case, what would you like for breakfast? I can make it special for you. Let’s kick off this Monday right, as I always say!”
Fluttershy giggled as she pulled the covers away from her, “What did you have in mind?”
“Glad you asked! I was thinking my special sunnyside pancakes. You put sunnyside eggs on top of a stack of pancakes, and then, drizzle it in maple syrup.”
“That sounds wonderful Mrs. Cake. I’ll have the special sunnyside pancakes please.”
“Coming right up!”
Once Mrs. Cake left the room, Fluttershy carefully peeked over the side of the bed. Once she felt that everything was safe, she slowly brought her head towards the ground and looked under the bed before letting out a quiet sigh of relief. The coast was clear. There were no fae under her bed.
Her worries eased but not settled, Fluttershy let her eyes quickly but efficiently scanned the room. She specifically directed her gaze to the dark corners of her ceiling, her carpeted floor, and any other shadowy area in her room. This proved more challenging as her bedroom was completely covered hues of royal blue, dark purple, and fuchsia, all dark colors and only served to conceal more in the darkness. In fact, every overly detailed piece of furniture, all the complicated patterns of her bedroom walls, every painting hung on those walls, every single measure of her bedroom was covered in these hues. Because of this, it was clear to all who entered her room that the bedroom reflect more of her aunt’s taste rather than Fluttershy’s. The only thing that even screamed of the shy girl’s own personal touch was the white and pink orchid placed on the bedroom window sill.
When Fluttershy finally felt that the room was safe from the fae, she crawled off her bed. Stretching out her arms and back once more, she headed towards her orchid.
“Good morning little orchid. How are you today?” She whispered happily to the flower.
While no response came, she still lightly petted the soft petals of the orchid with the tip of her pointer finger, treating the plant as though it were akin to a dog or a cat.
“Would you like some water?”
Fluttershy strolled over to her work desk and picked up a baby pink spray bottle. Walking back to her plant, she proceeded to misting the dirt and roots.
Once her orchid was thoroughly cared for, she walked over to her closet, pausing for a moment to take a breath. With a quick yank, she opened the closet and was relieved to find no fae in sight, just an orderly line of clothes that only her aunt could approve of. Still on alert, Fluttershy went over her vanity and opened each of its drawers. No fae in each of them. She did the same for the cabinet closet. No fae in there either.
Once she felt like the room was safe from fae, Fluttershy took the uniform off the end of her bed. The attire consisted of a maroon purple plaid skirt, a matching maroon purple jacket, a light blue collar with accompanying navy blue bow tie, navy blue knee high socks, and black clogs. Fluttershy stared down at the uniform in her arms with a sheepish frown. She let out a disappointed sigh before changing out of her light green, long sleeved nightgown.
Fluttershy quickly moseyed down the stairs in her uniform, quickly adding the finishing touches to her bun as she reached the last step. Said bun, was just as conservative, and well kept as her aunt’s everyday bun, though with the added flare of a butterfly clip. The butterfly on the clip had light pink wings, along with a small light blue body and matching antenna.
When she reached the bottom of the stairs, and went down the hallway to her left, she was led to a rather unnecessarily large dining room. Her aunt was already sitting at the head of the large, mahogany dining table, eating half a grapefruit for breakfast and occupying her time with a leatherbound book in her hands.
Fluttershy tried tip toeing into the room and quickly take her seat, but this was all done in vain.
“You’re late,” Ms. Cinch uttered in a cold tone, still not taking her attention away from her book.
“Oh, um, good morning Ms. Cinch,” Fluttershy responded properly, curtising before her superior. “My apologies for keeping you waiting. Do forgive me.”
“Despite your tardiness, you are fortunately forgiven.” She answered, closing her book promptly and proceeded to drinking tea from her fine china cup. “However, I cannot say if other people will excuse such inconsiderate behavior from you in the future. And please don’t tell me that you were looking for any hallucinations in your room again.”
“Oh no Ms. Cinch, I wasn’t looking for any…”
However, as Fluttershy took her seat at the end of the long dining table, her eyes widened in terror at what she saw appearing on her aunt’s shoulders. It was a fairly large cat with a long tail and equally long, almost shaggy navy bluefur with light blue stripes.
To Fluttershy, this cat would look like a Norwegian Forest Cat, were it not for the size of his head and facial features, which were...eye catching, to say the least. At first glance the cat seemed normal, with a small black nose and a set of bent whiskers, but those were the only normal parts of its body. His head and ears were twice the size of any cat she has ever known, while the shape of his head was almost a perfect oval. He also had piercing green eyes that looked more reptilian than feline. But to Fluttershy, the most unsettling and unnatural feature about this cat-like fae was his grin. It was as wide as his face, maybe even wider than his entire head. His menacingly joyful leer showed off all his wonderfully sharp fangs, far sharper than any knife or spear. The creature licked his lips, revealing a long and sickly black tongue, only adding further glisten to his fangs. Most unsettling however, his smile never broke once as he licked of his lips.
Fluttershy gulped quietly to herself as the fae stared at her intently, her aunt completely oblivious to all that was going on. In her mind, this creature reminded Fluttershy of a twisted version of the Cheshire Cat from Alice In Wonderland. That was the one book that Fluttershy couldn’t really finish even to this day. It reminded her too much of her own reality with the fae.
“Any what exactly?” Ms. Cinch asked skeptically, arching one of her eyebrows high at Fluttershy.
“O-Oh,” Fluttershy slightly stuttered, bringing her attention back to reality.
She recollected her thoughts as fast as she could and cleared her throat, “I was just saying that I wasn’t looking for any childish delusions in my room. Or anything of that sort! I was just... looking... for my... clip! Yes, my hair clip!”
“Oh really? Is that so?” She asked skeptically once more, placing her tea cup onto the fine, patterned, china plate. “Because it looked like you saw something towards my direction. Or perhaps, something on me?”
“Oh that,” Fluttershy struggled in her continued lie, “I was looking towards your direction so intently was because I was admiring how your brochet from Grandmother Cinch looked in the light. It really is quite stunning.”
“Hmm,” Cinch uttered, sounding unconvinced by her niece’s lie, “Well, thank you for the compliment, Fluttershy. Despite the fact that I wear this particular brochet everyday, you’re still too... kind.” She spoke the last word with a subtle but still noticeable bit of disdain, though her niece seemed to completely miss it.
Sighing in relief, Fluttershy subtly, but quickly grabbed her tea cup, and began gulping down the warm liquid inside. She distracted herself with the view shining from the large horizontal dining room window on her left. Not only did her aunt catch her looking at the fae, but now, the fae knew that she can see it... the fae knew that she’s a sleigh beggy. Even as she tried not to think about it, Fluttershy could feel the creature’s gaze, peering down even more than before.
Luckily, salvation came when Mrs. Cake cheerfully strolled out of the kitchen door behind Ms. Cinch. The delicious and aromatic of the sunnyside pancake special followed with each step she took. Fluttershy took her her gaze away from the window and happily smiled at Mrs. Cake.
“Here you go dearie,” said the sweet maid, placing the food in front of Fluttershy.
“Mrs. Cake, care to tell me what you just placed in front of Ms. Shy?”
Mrs. Cake immediately turned her attention to the lady of the house. Her posture immediately fixed to be extremely formaal and straight for Ms. Cinch. She honestly didn’t know how to answer her question, but despite this, she had to answer it, “Oh, um, it’s her breakfast. Ms. Cinch.”
“And did Ms. Shy request this specific meal from you this morning?”
“Well uh, I,” Mrs. Cake answered in a guilty tone, “No. She didn’t. I made the offer this morning and I thought it could make her Monday special. You know, start her day with a little treat.”
Ms. Cinch rolled her eyes in response. Then, she remarked in an un-amused, yet sarcastic tone, “Oh yes, fried meat on top of some fattening, fried, cakes drizzled in sugar. What a treat.”
“Oh come now Ms. Cinch,” Mrs. Cake tried to convince the stern woman in a positive tone, “There’s nothing wrong with having a treat every now and then.”
“Really?”
Then, Ms. Cinch paused in order to slowly scan and scrutinize Mrs. Cake’s entire body with her eyes. She started from her feet and slowly went all the way back to the maid’s eyes. Mrs. Cake’s eyes expressed her sense of confusion, guilt, and embarrassment of this entire situation, keenly aware of Cinch’s intentions...
“Is that so?” Ms. Cinch continued, “Hmph. That’s hard to believe, Mrs. Cake. Based on what I... see right now.”
In that moment, Fluttershy wanted to scream. She wanted to scream at her aunt for being so insensitive and rude to a woman as lovely and endearing as Mrs. Cake. She wanted her voice to be so loud that all of the neighborhood, no, the whole world could hear it. However, once again, fear had made her silent and hesitant. Not only was she still intimidated by her aunt, but she was also terrified of the fae hanging off her aunt’s shoulder. Fluttershy had quickly learned during her life with the fae is to never make sudden movements or sounds in their presence. She had to keep pretending that she couldn’t see this bizarre looking fae, as difficult as that has continually proven to be.
“With that said,” Ms. Cinch proceeded in a scolding tone, “Could you please remove that horrible display from Ms. Shy’s sight and bring her out some grapefruit.”
“Y-Yes Ms. Cinch.”
Ms. Cake gave a sad, solemn nod to Ms. Cinch before removing Fluttershy’s plate. As she did so, Fluttershy’s gaze was entranced in terror by the sight of the fae jumping off her aunt’s shoulder. The creature prowled on the table towards her, like the menacing domestic cat it resembles. The fae’s stare became more intense, and more fixated on Fluttershy’s every breath and move.
Fluttershy had to think of a plan and quick.
She stood up from her chair carefully but sufficiently. Then, she promptly but politely stated, “Actually Ms. Cinch, I’m not very hungry. I think tea shall suffice for now, thank you. I really should be going.”
“Very well then, I shall call for Mr. Doodle to bring the Bentley around. He should be able to take you to Crystal Prep in about five minutes or so.”
However, before Ms. Cinch could pull out her cellphone, Fluttershy politely interrupted her with, “Oh, there’s no need. I don’t want to trouble Mr. Doodle with such a short trip. The school isn’t too far from here, so I’ll walk. Besides, I need to keep my figure in check after all.”
With an arched eyebrow, Ms. Cinch asked in a suspicious tone, “Are you gaining weight again?”
“Gotta go!” Fluttershy quickly dismissed.
She hastily walked out of the dining room, with her book bag and lunch in hand, and a fake smile plastered on her face. Focusing her eyes on the front door around the corner instead of the judging stare of her aunt and the threatening lear of the fae.
The lady of the house let out a disappointed sigh to herself and massaged her left temple with the tips of her fingers before returning to her English tea.
The last thing that Fluttershy could see when she left the house was the brief but horrifying view of the creature’s twisted smile and his wide eyes following her movements from the dining room window.
Speaking of the mysterious feline-like fae on the dining room table, its giant ears perked when it heard a violent ripping sound coming from behind. When it turned its head around like an owl, its big eyes widened at a glowing, blue, open portal magically forming in the air. A fine, white gloved, human looking hand tore through the portal quickly. With a single swipe, the hand grabbed the fae by its hunches, and pulled it into the portal. The fae protested and hissed profusely before disappearing with the portal, leaving not a trace of its presence behind.
The glowing portal reopened, and the feline-like fae fell out instantly, landing with a thud on a hard yet smooth surface. The portal closed as soon as it came, and the fae put its paw on its now throbbing forehead.
As the fae slowly lifted its head away, the creature noticed that it landed on a wooden cottage window sill. It gazed upon the new surroundings and found itself in a living room that defied the laws of logic. Quite literally.
Furniture was floating around, defying gravity. Even the fire that was supposed to be in the hearth was floating around without a care in the world. Books, household plants, a record player, and even giant pieces of bunny shaped dust were floating all around, surprisingly without bumping into the walls. If this room had walls that is. It was hard to tell what exactly inhabited the room on account on how dark it was. The fae could only see things illuminated by the light of the window shining from behind, and by the piece of fire that was randomly floating around.
The fae’s sensitive nose picked up how old the room smelt, almost as if it were centuries upon centuries old, without the forgiving scent of mothballs to calm it down. The room was filled with the scent of dust, old books, and another mysterious yet familiar odor that could not be described. The strange scent reminded the fae of old candy mixed in an old witch’s brew. The fae’s eyes widened when it realized why the aroma was so familiar. It looked to one of the dark corners of the living room and saw a pair of white gloves floating, holding a polished looking cane in its clutch.
It was him. The one that all fae despised. The one that all humans would fear if they could see him. Ignis Spiritus Chao. Prognatus Morte. The Chaotic Mage.
“Ugh, you know,” The fae groaned, its voice sounding surprisingly smooth, masculine, and with a bit of southern drawl to it, “You could have just, I don’t know, poofed me back here with your magic. That would have made things a bit easier than literally grabbing me out of thin air.”
In his bona fide, yet naturally mischievous sounding voice, the mage chuckled at the fae’s remark, “Ha ha, and where’s the fun in that?”
“Besides,” Then, the mage began to mock the fae in a belittling tone, “This is what the naughty kitty deserves for not delivering on his end of the bargain.”
“That wasn’t my fault!” The fae protested, now standing on his two hind legs and placing his paws on his hips in an all too human manner. “That was all on you, my friend.”
“Did you honestly think that this,” The fae then used his paws to gesture and point out the size of his head and face to the mage, “Could lure a sweet girl out of her fancy smancy mansion?”
“What are you talking about?” The mage remarked in a genuinely confused tone, “I made you into an adorable little kitten. She loves boring, sweet looking animals like yourself. How could you not resist you? You just didn’t play your part right.”
“Uhhh, how long has it been since you’ve see an adorable little kitten? Last time I checked, they don’t have huge, creepy smiles plastered on their faces. Especially, smiles that can never move. Ever. Trust me, I would have been a lot better off approaching her in my real form.”
“She’s afraid of creatures like you and I. Your true self would have only scared her off.”
“Man, a Sleigh Beggy scared of magical creatures. Now, I’ve seen everything.”
“And you, a creature of magic, not even remotely interested in your beloved Child of Glass no less. This world of ours is just full of wonderfully puzzling riddles.”
“I’m not all magical you know. Besides, it’s going to take a lot more than a ‘precious queen bee’ to make me go buzzing around like a desperate little drone”
As a tea cup filled with brew floated magically towards the mage hidden in the shadows, the mysterious gentleman commented with, “Yes well, regardless, thanks to your incompetence, we have no choice but lure her out later this evening.”
With his eyebrow arched in suspicion, but his wide smile and eyes never changing, the feline fae asked, “I still don’t get why you can’t just chase after her yourself.”
“Again, magical monster here, genius. An impressively scary looking one, I might add. She’ll scream the moment she sees me before running in the opposite direction.”
“Fine, then what’s the big deal of bringing her now versus later? What’s up with the evenings with you, huh?”
The fae was suddenly taken aback by the sight of the mage’s beady yet bright red, glowing eyes. The kind of eyes that could, not only pierce through the dark living room, but also right through the fae’s spirit. With a forebodding chuckle and in an almost sinister tone, the mage questioned, “Do you really want to see my face in the pitch darkness of night?”
“N-No… ” The fae answered breathlessly.
“I thought so,” The mage darkly laughed in his throat, his chuckle echoing throughout the room.
“Now, be gone with you. Wait for her back at that pathetic wooden establishment that she calls a home.”
“And once I retrieve her for you, you will…”
“Yes, yes. I will return you back to your normal, boring self. Blah blah!” The mage dismissed in annoyance, “Honestly, does this look like the face of a liar to you?”
“Yes,” The fae answered bluntly.
“Ha ha! Good answer! Ha ha!” The mage laughed joyously, complete unaffected by the blatant jab at his character.
“Welllll, aren’t you going to open up the portal again?”
“Again, where’s the fun in that, kitty?” The mage emphasized at the end with a slight purr in his voice.
The feline fae growled under his breath, and proceeded to open the cottage window, “The name’s Capper, you good for nothing, crazy ole… ”
But, before he took off back to the Cinch household, he turned to the mage and asked honestly, “Seriously though, why do you need the girl anyway? Last time I checked, you weren’t the type of creature to go gaga over a Slay Vega either.”
“Hmm, good question my curious feline.” The trickster mage remarked devilishly, “Hmm, my answer. My answer. My reason. Well, that’s just for me to know and for the rest of the neighborhood to find out later. Trust me, it will become plainly obvious in due time.”
Once Fluttershy was a couple of houses away from her home, she smiled and took a moment to enjoy the crisp, but sunny morning walk to school. The mist had just cleared up, and everything was still fresh and shining with glistening dew. All the gardens in the neighborhood were in bloom, and their light, flowery scents filled the air so nicely. To Fluttershy, it seemed like the trees were growing a bit taller this year. The sky was light blue and decorated with some white, stream-like clouds. Fluttershy closed her eyes and took a deep breath in, allowing herself to actually feel calm in this brief stroll before facing the stress and the despair that came with going to school.
All those eyes on her all the time. All these students judging her no matter what she did. All those teachers that kept a close watch on her on behalf of Ms. Cinch’s orders. All those subtle but still clear whispers behind her back. The day to day verbal bullying by the popular girls. Just... everything about that place... the whole experience made Fluttershy feel like she was suffocating alone in a cage. As if her own home wasn’t restraining enough. The only sense of freedom she had in this world was her occasional chance to walk to school, and of course her bunny friend Angel.
Speaking of Angel, Fluttershy began to look for her little companion near the white wooden fence of Ms. Faun’s front yard. Because she wasn’t allowed to have any pets of her own, Fluttershy had to keep her secret pet bunny outside of the house. Since Ms. Faun was a veterinarian, Fluttershy confided this secret to her and begged her to let Angel bunny live in the bushes of her front yard. Luckily, Ms. Faun was a kind woman and accepted the task without question.
Fluttershy checked to make sure that the neighbors weren’t out yet before crouching down near the bushes on Ms. Faun’s front yard. She then whispered sweetly, “Angel, are you there? It’s me, mommy.”
And right on cue, a cute and fluffy white bunny jumped out of the bushes. With his poofy little tail wagging in all. He jumped into his owner’s arms, which made her giggle in delight.
“Daww, I missed you too sweetie.”
Fluttershy pulled away slightly from their hug and asked, “Did you sleep well? Were you freezing last night? I heard it got a little cold last night, and I was so worried about you not being warm enough.”
With a smile, Angel shook his head side to side. He patted his owner’s shoulders with his tiny paw casually. He let out a couple of squeaks to indicate that he was fine and well. It never ceased to amaze Fluttershy just how smart the little guy was, if nothing else it eased her concerns of leaving him alone.
“Still, just in case, if tonight gets any colder than last night,” Then, Fluttershy pulled out a bunny sized quilted blanket she had made from her book bag, “I made this for you.”
The stitch work was not the finest, the patches of color certainly lacked in taste, and it was clear to Angel that this blanket was made in a rush. However, once she put the blanket on his shoulders, he found it to be quite warm and comforting. And for that, he was thankful. He gave his owner another big hug, which caused her to smile warmly and take in the kindness of his touch.
After their hug, Fluttershy folded up the blanket, hid it in the bushes before allowing Angel to hop into her book bag.
Fluttershy stood in front of the spiked, black iron gates of Crystal Prep solemnly. To those who didn’t live within the town, they would be more than likely to assume that the massive, Notre-Dame like building was a house of worship as opposed to a school. Ironically, they wouldn’t be too far off, as Ms. Cinch, along with the other higher ups in the town had made the school a Catholic school. Though, it wasn’t for religious reasons, as none in attendance practiced any sort of scriptures or the like. No, it was to allow the enforcement of many strict regulations and standards, allowing those in charge the ability to better control the students. The ultimate result was a school that came with a highly oppressive atmosphere, more akin to a prison than a school. A very well paid for prison filled with very pampered inmates and guards.
It was a sight Fluttershy had seen many times and yet even now, she still couldn’t truly breathe as she took in the sight of the buildings and it’s intimidating gates. Instead, she merely clenched tightly to her book bag strap in a vain attempt to calm her nerves.
Angel peeked out of the book bag and tugged on the bottom of her coat firmly yet gently, finally bringing the girl out of her daze. She looked down at her rabbit, who was giving her a thumbs up.
With a determined smile, Fluttershy uttered aloud, “You’re right, Angel. I can do this. This morning didn’t started out on the right foot, but that doesn’t mean the rest of my day will. Not as long as I keep my chin up.”
With newfound determination, Fluttershy walked proudly towards the school. As she journeyed towards the school’s entrance, Angel silently applauded his friend. As Fluttershy entered, she was quickly met with the crowds of teenagers, standing and socializing out in the front area of the school, many of them already gathered in their respective cliques. The popular social elites, the athletes of the well known and popular sports, the athletes of sports that nobody at the school cared about, the egotistical intellects, the shy awkward gaming nerds, class clowns, artsy kids too artsy for their own good, etc.
As a breeze softly blew through the area, some of the strands from Fluttershy’s bun began to stand out and blow into her eyes. As she pushed away some of these strands, and tried to smooth them back in, Fluttershy noticed a tree off to the side of her pebble stone pathway. Her eyes became big at what she saw lingering on the top branches of the tree. It was a giant hare. A giant, man sized hare. It’s fur color was split in half, right down the middle. The left side of the fae was bright white, while the other side was pitch black. The fae had long, shiny, silky looking fur, tall yet pointed ears and glowing, yellow, pupiless eyes. It was like there was no soul, no mind to this creature behind those eyes.
Fluttershy was so terrified and distracted by the fae jumping out of the tree that she had forgotten where she was going and accidentally bumped into someone. When the hare like fae landed on the ground, it didn’t notice Fluttershy. Instead, the fae decided to turn itself into a stout looking horse with sturdy legs and with a long, flowing mane. Just like it’s hare form, it was still white and black with glowing yellow eyes.
Meanwhile, Fluttershy immediately and quickly apologized to the student that she bumped into, over and over again. Not really realizing exactly who she bumped into.
It was Sunny Flare, one of the most fashionable and popular girls in school. She also happened to be her cousin. And when Fluttershy bumped into her, it accidentally made the stylish student drop her phone and make its screen crack on impact.
“My phone!” She cried out, quickly grabbing her precious device back from the ground.
“Oh no,” Fluttershy muttered to herself as she rapidly tried to re-gather herself. She immediately recognized that voice.
When Fluttershy turned to face Sunny Flare, silently gulping when she saw that a group of other girls were with her.
“Ugh, of course it had to be you, Crazy Shy,” Sunny Flare groaned with a disapproving stare, holding onto her precious broken phone, “Let me guess: It wasn’t your fault. It was your imaginary friend who magically and ‘accidentally’ knocked it out of my hands because they just didn’t know any better, right?”
“Oh no, this was all my fault. I’m so sorry Cousin Sunny.” Fluttershy apologized sincerely to the best of her ability, trying to hide the fear in her voice.
“I told you,” Sunny hissed quickly under her breath, “Don’t ever call me that outside the house. Got it?”
“Yes well, sorry isn’t going to buy me a new phone, is it?” She then remarked loudly with great disdain in her tone.
“Well, um, no.” Fluttershy replied in a quiet yet guilty tone, “I...I suppose not.”
“Don’t worry, Sunny,” a girl with a pink and green striped, ponytail, named Sour Sweet chimed in sweetly.
Then, her tone changed into something more hostile and grumpy, “I’m sure that good ole Crazy Shy won’t mind throwing some dollars your way in order to make up for her own clumsiness.”
“She’s right, I can pay your back. But, I just need time to…”
“You don’t have a job,” an indigo skinned girl with light pigtails named Sugar Coat commented, bluntly and emotionless, “How are you supposed to pay her back?”
“I-I’ll get a job!” Fluttershy squeaked.
“Geez, crazy, clumsy and dumb. Pfft! How pathetic can you get?” Muttered a sporty looking girl with orange goggles, and with short, dark blue and light blue, striped hair. This student’s name was Indigo Zap.
“Dude! You gotta hear this new rock, techno remix by Vinyl Scratch!” exclaimed a bright pink skinned, neon green haired girl wearing headphones on her head. Her name was Lemon Zest and she removed her headphones in order to put them on Indigo’s ears. “It’s A-mazing!”
The volume of the song was cranked to full volume, and the song almost shattered Indigo’s ear drums. Indigo practically ripped the headphones off and shoved them back to Lemon Zest, “Ah! Not now Lemon!”
“I’m..I’m sorry for being so clumsy. I...I didn’t mean to.” Fluttershy apologized again to the group, looking down at her feet as she did so.
Just then, the school bell rang and the all of the students started to head back then. Each of the girls in the group purposely bumped into Fluttershy as they left her side. That is except for Lemon Zest. She was too caught up in her music to see where she was going. Fluttershy took all their hits without protest. But, with each bump, more and more of her initial determination began to fade out of her. She soon remembered the kind of girl she was at this school. Crazy Shy, the weird rich girl who still believes in imaginary friends.
Angel Bunny peeked out sadly out of Fluttershy's bookbag, watching his dear friend walk slowly to the school. He even witnessed the condemning glare her aunt, the school principal, gave Fluttershy as she was “greeting” each student at the front door of the academy.
The fae that Fluttershy saw earlier, meanwhile, witnessed the Sleigh Baggy’s solemn stroll into the institution. The fae was now a black and white cat instead of a horse. It’s eyes remained glowing, bright yellow, and didn’t hold any judgement or emotion. One of it’s ears perked when it heard something coming from behind. The sound came from Capper, panting heavily as he walked along the top of the gate to Crystal Prep.
“Almost... there… ” Capper heaved out, “Only... oh geez... a couple of blocks... to go! Ugh! That... stupid... mage! Poofing… me... all the way... back... to his house... on the... other side... of... town.”
The mysterious fae’s soulless eyes followed Capper’s movement with great intent as it saw the strange looking cat running back towards Fluttershy’s house.
Intrigued, the fae decided to transform into a black and white, long haired, Irish Wolfhound and chase after Capper. When the fae began to bark at Capper, who turned his head around like an owl and saw the magical canine trying to chase after the tip of his tail, “You’ve got to be kidding me!”
Capper pumped as hard as he could to push his already tired furry legs and sprinted towards Fluttershy’s neighborhood. This encouraged the dog shaped fae to run after Capper even more and sprint rapidly.
“Stupid mage!” Capper yelled out with great gusto and anger.
The rest of Fluttershy’s day from the morning on was not treating her especially well. In fact, everything just went down hill from the moment she arrived at school.
During her ACT Calculus class, she received a group text from Sour Sweet. On the group text, she saw a picture of her face plastered upon the body of someone in a white straight jacket. In the lap of the body that her face was attached to was a small image of Sunny Flare’s broken phone. Fluttershy quickly put her phone away and continued to ignore the taunting glares of her snickering classmates, who all received that same group text. Listening more closely, Fluttershy heard very distinctly the mocking giggles of the girls she bumped into this morning.
Once the students had stopped laughing at her expense, Fluttershy looked up to the lesson on the board. But, instead of focusing on the lesson, she immediately saw a fae sitting on the shoulders of her teacher. She has seen this creature before. It had the head of a chicken but the green, scaly body of a small dragon. Her feet began to turn quickly into stone when she stared into its glowing but tiny red eyes. She knew that if she didn’t get out of the room quick, she, or worse Angel, would turn into solid stone statues. Its target was her, and not the rest of the students or teacher in the classroom.
Without raising her hand, Fluttershy jolted out of her seat, grabbed her book bag, and quickly excused herself out the room. As she did so, the stone that were forming on her feet broke off and she was able to steadily speed walk out of the room. She ignored the protests from the teacher, along with the sound of her fellow classmates whispering about her behind her back.
While Fluttershy was leaving the room, she could hear the chicken-like fae squawk loudly and follow aggressively behind her. Fluttershy kept her head down, her hands close to her chest, and her body aimed for the door, trying best not to encourage the fae as she made it out the door. The only thing that could save her in that moment was slamming the door on the creature, and sure enough, the fae immediately crashed into the window part of the door before painfully sliding down back to the floor. Once the fae could see that it could no longer obtain his target, he limped away from the door and weakly flew out of the slightly opened classroom window.
Meanwhile, the whole classroom just burst into laughter and horribly chuckled about just how crazy and delusional their classmate was. The teacher settled the loud laughter that engulfed the room and prepared a note that would send Fluttershy immediately to Principal Cinch’s office... again, for the third time this month.
As for Sunny, she looked back at the door with sinister content.
“Ha,” She chuckled in her mind, “That’s what you get for breaking my phone cuz.”
As for Fluttershy, she arrived safely at the girl’s restroom just down the hallway. She slammed the door behind her, then rapidly locked herself into one of the stalls. Closing the lid on the toilet, Fluttershy took a seat on top of it and placed her book bag on her lap and opened it. The sweet girl let out a relieved sigh when she saw the cute bunny stick his head out of the bag. He had a soft, yet concerned look on his face. Then, he placed his paw on her lap, and let out a sad squeak.
“Phew!” Then, she gave him a big hug and squeezed him as tight but gently as she could, “That was a close one.”
“Well Fluttershy, care to explain what happened this time?”
Principal Cinch uttered in a discontented, slightly frustrated, and yet still snobbish tone; sitting in her tall, rotating, yet cushioned office chair.
The back of her chair was facing Fluttershy, leaving the teen feeling almost isolated and alone in the dimly lit office. And rightfully so. The room had no windows, with the only source of light being a fairly medium sized, Swarovski chandelier and two small desk lamps.
The left and right walls of the room were covered with long and wide book shelves filled to the brim with antique, leather bound books. The same kind of books that Fluttershy has seen in her aunt’s personal library back home. Beside all these things, her aunt didn’t have much to fill her almost excessively large office, which honestly felt more like an empty, pitch black cave and that only made her feel worse.
One of Fluttershy’s greatest fears, besides the fae, was being alone and lost in a dark place, like caves. Just being alone at night sent shivers down her spine.
Fluttershy looked down at her hands as her aunt questioned her, staying quiet as she nervously played with her fingers. Meanwhile Angel, still in Fluttershy’s book bag, was glaring daggers at the principal. From the time the woman opened her mouth, he’d been waiting for his chance to jump out of the bag and pounce at her. It is fair to say that, well, Angel hated this woman with a passion. From the moment he met her when he was a baby bunny, refusing Fluttershy’s request of having a pet, he knew the one person who would be at the top of his blacklist. And he had a very, very long blacklist.
“And please,” Ms. Cinch remarked in the midst of the tension, “Do come up with a better excuse this time. I’ve heard enough stories of a ‘supposed’ upset stomach, a dry bloody nose, a broken heel, a ripped skirt, a missing button from a shirt, and a ‘sudden’ menstrual cycle visit.”
Unhurriedly, the stern woman turned her chair around and faced her niece with a stare more menacing than her usual gaze. Her hands were on her lap. Her back laid straight and proper against of her chair. Maintaining a position and disposition higher than the young girl’s defeated and demeur state.
“So please, enlighten me. I’m dying to know what it could possibly be this time besides your own hallucinations.”
Fluttershy clenched her hands together and closed her eyes quickly. Despite being very scared of her aunt in this moment, she was able to muster up a lie and stutter weakly, “M-My pen accidentally fell into my lap and smeared at the bottom of my shirt. If I didn’t leave for the bathroom right away, I would have never gotten the stain out.”
“And you didn’t simply explain this to your teacher because…?” Ms. Cinch questioned dubiously.
“I didn’t want to burden my teacher and my fellow classmates even more with my silly little explanations. However, I can see now how I didn’t leave the room with the grace that was required of me. And for that I apologize, Ms. Cinch.”
“My dear, I’m getting rather sick of your little apologies as of late. It’s bad enough that you have these little episodes in the comfort of my own home. But here, at Crystal Prep... it’s completely unacceptable.”
“I know, Ms. Cinch.”
“That’s the thing, I don’t think you do.”
Ms. Cinch rose from her chair and making her way towards Fluttershy; each slow click of her heels echoing throughout the spacious and ominous room. When she stopped she was standing just a foot away from her niece.
Then, she scolded her with, “You may think this sad, little, submissive routine should excuse you of any of your misdemeanors, but the truth is... it only worsens your condition. Your own mother displayed the same kind of behavior and look where she ended up! Do you want to end up like your own mother?”
For so many times in Fluttershy’s life, everytime that her aunt brought up her mother, she wanted to tell her how much she wanted to be like her mother. She wanted to be a warm, kind, gentle person, just like her. She wanted to be a good wife and mother to her own future family someday. She didn’t believe the rumors and she never believed any of the things that Ms. Cinch told her about her mother. Her mother didn’t take her own life, it was the fae.
She was killed by the fae, and no one could tell her anything different. That is why she will always be afraid of the fae for the rest of her life, even if her fear caused others to think less of her.
However, despite this, in order to not upset her aunt any further, Fluttershy lied and stated softly, “No... I don’t... ”
“Then,” Principal Cinch hissed through slightly gritted teeth, “I suggest you lift your head up high and actually start taking responsibility for your actions.”
As the posh woman started walking away from the student, she began to instruct, “I’m doing this for your own good, Fluttershy. It isn’t just our own reputations that are on the line, but the reputation of our family name and the reputation of this school. Which is why you will be coming with me the Crystal Prep fundraiser dinner tonight. Mr. Rich will be there and he is trying to decide which high school to send his daughter to next year. It’s between us and that wretched Canterlot High.”
She stopped her tracks and turned her head back slightly to Fluttershy, “We cannot let Canterlot High win in this regard. With Mr. Rich’s wealth, Crystal Prep will finally have the chance to expand and open up a middle school branch. Can I trust you to be on your best behavior for this event?”
“Yes Ms. Cinch.” Fluttershy tried to mutter in her most confident tone. Despite all her instincts to tell her to just huddle up into a ball in the corner of the room, she knew she needed to at least appear in control.
“Very good. That’s what I want to hear. Now, after this event is over, you will be grounded for two weeks. No television, no phone, no reading, no strolls through the garden, no lolely strolls to the academy in the morning. Do I make myself clear?”
“Also, if I hear of anymore of these ‘incidents’, you shall be wearing a tight corset until your graduation day. Understood?”
“Understood.”
Just then, the door to the office opened. Bringing in a beam of welcoming light into the shadowy, depressing room. Standing in the doorway was a fairly tall, light pink skinned woman. She had light purple eyes with long, striped hair consisting of the colors of pink, purple, and light yellow. Like Principal Cinch, she was wearing a prim and proper blue matching jacket and shirt outfit. However, her outfit displayed a warmer, more soothing hue of blue with some bright gold accents.
Fluttershy’s eyes widened when she saw the woman in the doorway. It was Dean Cadence. She would sometimes see this kind woman in the halls and she'd always give her a comforting smile whenever they would pass each other. Fluttershy smiled weakly at her, hoping to not draw her aunt’s attention while doing so.
“Ms. Cinch,” Dean Cadence interrupted politely, trying to keep an air of emotionless sternness, “Mr. Neighsay from the EEA just sent an email confirming that he will be attending the event tonight.”
“Thank you Mrs. Cadenza, make sure to thank him cordially on our behalf.”
Then, Principal Cinch turned her head slightly towards Fluttershy and gave her a cold, almost unforgiving smile. The kind of smile that sent shivers up the young girl’s spine. “That will be all for today, Ms. Shy.”
Fluttershy, like a loyal and militant soldier, immediately stood up from her seat and exited out of the office. As she passed Dean Cadence, the good natured Dean briefly broke her emotionless facade in order to give Fluttershy a smile. Just one smile to brighten her day. However, Fluttershy didn’t see this kind gesture. She was too busy trying to get out of that office as soon as possible and head out for lunch.
Dean Cadence immediately felt defeated by this and turned her gaze to the stern principal exiting her office. “Principal Cinch,” She remarked quickly but politely, “If I may have just a moment of your time.”
Ms. Cinch stopped in the doorway in order to converse with the fairly young dean, “You may, though I’m afraid you’ll have to make it quick. We have much to do before the fundraiser tonight.”
“Thank you, I will try.” Dean Cadence cleared her throat before her continuing, though feeling a bit unsure on how she wanted address her main area of concern, “Ms. Cinch, I couldn’t help but notice that Fluttershy is having a bit of trouble at school as of late.”
“And this is of your concern because…?”
Cadence pressed on with, “It’s my concern because I am the Dean of Crystal Prep, the welfare of the students is a part of my position.”
“And as Founder and Principal of this fine institution, rest assured that the students here are all doing perfectly fine.” Ms. Cinch replied sharply, straightening out her jacket in a frustrated huff. She was already picking up on the subtle distrust in her colleague’s tone.
Cadence took a silent breath in before calmly explaining to her, “It’s just, Ms. Cinch, I couldn’t help but notice that your niece seems visit your office more than any other student. And these visits have only increased year after year.”
“She is my niece. Despite what it may appear, I’m not a completely heartless woman. I am allowed to have my own niece visit me every now and then. Even my daughter has the same privilege.”
“Yes well, that may be so, but these visits often come because of complaints from her teachers. And I’ve read over their complaints: concerning dazed looks in her eyes, hallucinations, panic attacks, anxiety, isolation from other students, not to mention isolating herself from her teachers. Ms. Cinch, these are the signs of a student that needs help, not punishment.”
“And what kind of help are you implying. Mrs. Cadenza?” Ms. Cinch asked with subtle bubbling anger in her tone, which took Cadence by surprised, though she still pressed on.
“Ms. Cinch, is your niece receiving any professional help for her... for her mental health?”
Ms. Cinch paused for a moment, reflecting on the right tone and words to properly explain her situation swiftly. Cadence waited for her answer patiently, making sure to note the changes in her superior’s demeanor as she finally chose to spoke, her composure regained.
“She is receiving all the help that she could ever need at home.”
“So,” Cadence replied in confused tone, “She has a private therapist at home then, I’m assuming?”
“Is this all that you wanted to discuss with me today, Ms. Cadenza?” Ms. Cinch quickly snapped at her, changing the subject all together, her hidden anger once again glimmering out.
“Y-Yes,” Cadence replied hesitantly, “That was...all I needed to know.”
“Good.” Ms. Cinch rapidly snapped again. “In that case, you are dismissed.”
Before she could hurry out of the doorway, Cadence quickly grabbed Ms. Cinch’s arm. Ms. Cinch was immediately taken back by the Dean’s harsh yet rash action. She had never seen her take such an action with her before. But regardless, with a soft, worried look on her face, she gently let go of her arm. Then, she handed Ms. Cinch a card. A business card of some sort.
Despite her better judgement, she took the card from Cadence and read it. Her eyes widened when she saw that it was for a mental facility upstate. But, she had never heard of this facility before, and it had such a strange name too: The College. Why on earth would anyone would name a mental facility, The College?
“If your niece,” Dean Cadence remarked compassionately, “Does need anymore help than she is already receiving, then just give them a call. They’ll know what to do.”
When she didn’t receive a response from Ms. Cinch, she noted how the stern woman continued to stare back and forth between her and the card in her hands. Thus, Cadence opted to explain, “Ms. Cinch, times have changed since your time. People who struggle with maintaining their mental health no longer have to hide in the dark anymore. They are no longer shamed members of our society. There is hope for them. There’s hope for your niece. She can have a future. The kind of future that you’ve always longed for her. Just... just give her a chance. Give The College a chance, for her sake.”
Ms. Cinch formed a fist with her hand, crumbling the business card into her palm, “Thank you, Mrs. Cadenza… ”
Cadence flinched when she saw the Principal just violently throw the crumpled business card to the floor and then harshly stepped on it. Cadence mentally prepared herself for the older stern woman to yell at her when her gaze met with the fiery stare of her superior. However, the fire in her eyes quickly and quietly settled down. Principal Cinch properly straighten her jacket and her posture.
She uttered casually to Cadence, as if nothing happened, “That’ll be all.”
And with that, Ms. Cinch left the office and went off to prepare the school for the fundraising dinner later that night.
As for Cadence, she slowly returned back to her desk with an unusually dark, yet frustrated look on her face, unable to look away from the door that Ms. Cinch walked out of. She landed with a hard thud into her chair, and turned to face away from the closed window behind her. She propped her elbows on her desk and rested her chin on top of her hands.
“Cadence?” A muffled sounding female voice asked from behind; almost sounding like it was coming from an old radio.
The Dean turned around and saw a bird standing on the now opened window sill. The bird was truly not native to the area. Unlike the other small springtime birds of the area, this bird was bright red, orange, and yellow. No hint of black or brown or white or even grey to its feathers in order to indicate some natural earthy color to it. However, despite all this, the Dean was unfazed by the sight of this bird.
When the bird opened its beak, the muffled female voice returned and said to Cadence, “Is it time yet? Can the girl at last join us?”
“I’m afraid not.” The young woman sighed, “Principal Cinch has a stronger hold on the girl than anticipated.”
“What is the next step then?”
“My plan is to confront both Principal Cinch and the girl at the school fundraiser dinner tonight. If that fails, then I will resort to taking the girl away from her residence in the middle of the night and bringing her back to The College.”
“Very well, good luck Cadence.”
“What a day,” Fluttershy breathed out as she lazily walked back to her home and put her phone back into her coat pocket.
She had just witnessed another school group text, courtesy of Sour Sweet, with her as the main tag line again. Specifically, a picture of Ms. Cinch sitting in a chair like a James Bond villain and Fluttershy’s face plastered on a white cat’s body sitting on her aunt’s lap.
The girl was hunched over, despite the fact the weight of her fairly light book bag filled with a couple of books and of course her precious Angel Bunny. Fluttershy slightly dragged her clogs with each step she took. Normally, she wouldn’t be dragging her shoes around in such manner, lest she face the wrath of her aunt. But Fluttershy, figured that she would be able to have enough time to beat her aunt home, get dressed for the fundraiser dinner, and use the extra time to shine her clogs. It was a good thing that her aunt wanted to double check everything before heading back to the house. Fluttershy had to run right after school in order to avoid her aunt’s gaze. There was no way she could face her again. Not after her trip to her office today.
Thankfully, Fluttershy won’t have any trouble seeing her tonight since Ms. Cinch tended to be much nicer around upper class society. Especially upper class society that would be willing to donate to her cause and her cause alone. Even though Fluttershy would still have to deal with Sunny tonight, however Sunny has a tendency to ignore her completely when her friends aren’t around. So, the worse that she would have to put up with is a cold shoulder treatment from her.
Angel poked his head out of his owner’s book bag. He gave Fluttershy an empathic look before nuzzling her neck affectionately.
She giggled sweetly at his gesture and remarked, “Daww, thank you Angel. But it’s okay, really. All of this won’t last too much longer, right? After all, I’ll be graduating in May soon. I’ll be moving out. Then I’ll be off to college!”
“That is… ” Fluttershy’s optimism began to drop as her mind became filled with some unsettling thoughts and questions about her future, “If I can find the right college that is. I may be going to a new place, but... my problems aren’t just going to vanish on their own. The fae will still be around me wherever I go.. Who knows what kind of fae are out there, outside of this town? I mean, it’s not like there’s a college out there for... for people like me. It’s... not like there’s any place somewhere for someone like me.”
Angel let out a soft squeak in her ear, letting her know of his support and love for her.
Fluttershy smiled and gave a little nuzzle into Angel’s cheek, “Still, at least I have you. Good thing you can see the fae like I do. Actually, it seems that all the animals can now that I think about.”
Before she knew it, Fluttershy arrived at back at the house. With a heavy sigh, she brought herself to her front door and opened it.
When she was inside, she took off her clogs and carried them with her as she went upstairs.
“I’m home!” she announced to all the possible servants or maids in the house at the time, secretly hoping that Ms. Cinch was not home yet.
However, before Fluttershy could climb the staircase, a smooth male voice with a bit of southern drawl to it called out to her from the dining room, “Well there you are, Slay Vega! What took ya so long, girl?”
Fluttershy became like a frozen statue at the mere sound of this mysterious voice. She told herself to not look into the dinning room, just go upstairs and pretend that nothing happened. How badly she just wanted to pretend that she was lying to herself and that she was being delusional again. However, despite all this, Fluttershy couldn’t move. She couldn’t speak or think, she couldn’t do anything. She was just stopped in mid motion and drawing a blank on what to do next.
Before she could regain her composure and move on, she could hear Angel growl and jump out of her backpack.
“Angel!” Fluttershy exclaimed, chasing after the recklessly bold bunny that was about to confront a dangerous fae in the dining room.
When Angel Bunny entered the lavish room and saw the giant magical cat on the table, he snarled his buck teeth at him and jumped towards him.
“You’ve got to be kidding me?!” Capper shouted, “Not again!”
Without hesitating, Capper ran away from the terrifying the bunny just as Fluttershy followed after her pet.
“Angel! Wait!” Fluttershy called out once more, hoping that her voice would bring her rabbit back to his senses.
She began to regret every complaint about the fae she had ever told Angel in that moment. Her eyes widened when she saw the disaster taking place. There was Angel, her darling doll, chasing around a creature three times his size. Just completely wrecking the dining room in the process.
“Oh, Angel.”
Then, she proceeded to follow the chaotic duo into the empty kitchen, which naturally, didn’t stand a chance against their wrath. While dodging the flying pots and pans that came her way in result to their chase, Fluttershy was able to make it to the back door connected to the back of the kitchen.
Soon, without any shoes on her feet, she was following them into the garden. After that, into the back of the neighborhood. And without even thinking, she followed them into the one place she never dared to go during the day and during the night: the forest. But they were going fast, all the surroundings became a blur to her. Her focus was just on Angel’s white, poofy tail and the danger that lay before him.
In the process of running after the two creatures and desperately calling out Angel’s name, Fluttershy had unintentionally attracted the attention of a pack of glowing, bright green eyes and the echoing sounds of growls and howls. Without hesitation, this pack of mysterious fae chased after Fluttershy.
As Fluttershy was sprinting into the dark wood, dodging every tree to the best of her ability, her bun had completely fallen. Her long hair was free to blow behind her in the night breeze and her butterfly hair clip had dropped to the ground. But, this did not go unnoticed.
A giant, ebony eagle claw, looming from the depths of the forest, grabbed the butterfly hair clip. With the clip in its clutch, the claw dragged itself back into the shadows of the trees.
Meanwhile, Capper was running out of steam. With the psychotic bunny literally close at his heels, he had to end this craziness soon.
“Ah, that mage won’t let me live this down. But!”
Just like the Cheshire Cat, Capper disappeared without a trance, leaving Angel stunned and confused.
While Angel was sniffing around and looking for the feline fae, Fluttershy was able to catch up with him and panted out, “Angel!”
She ran up to him and dropped to the ground. Then, she immediately brought him tight into her embrace, “Oh thank goodness you’re alright. Don’t you ever scare me like that again, young man! You know better than this! That fae could have killed you! Do you hear me?!”
Angel squealed loudly into her ear, indicating to her that was something horrifying behind her. And when Fluttershy turned to see what it was, her heart just about collapsed and her troubles were not over yet. Far from it.
Towering over her were a pack of huge wolf-like fae that were made of, from what Fluttershy could see, were twigs and branches. They breathed out the smell of death and blood itself. All their eyes glowed brightly and hungerly for her body and her magic. And Angel was just there to be their extra snack.
The pack slowly prowled towards her as Fluttershy crawled carefully towards the trees behind her. She couldn’t believe what was happening to her now. Was this real? Was the past just repeating itself? Will she and Angel truly end up in the fate as her mother’s? Was this truly the end?
She couldn’t scream. She couldn’t shout for help. Her throat became dry and closed. Her mind became consumed by fear, and she could hear every beat of her pounding heart.
Before Fluttershy could close her eyes and pray for mercy from some kind of God somewhere, a larger, monstrous fae began to attack the pack.
The monstrous being was also twice the size of the wooden, wolf-like fae. Fluttershy couldn’t really get a good glimpse of the creature, the darkness truly hid its form from her. In a way, Fluttershy was thankful that she couldn’t see it because... this thing was literally tearing these poor canines apart. As much as she was terrified of the pack, this being took her fear to a new level.
The amount of green blood that the fae spilled from the pack was a large, unsettling amount. The fae made growls and howls far louder and deeper than the pack did. It used its sharp rows of canines to tear the wooden skin of the pack into splinters, and took great pleasure in the the tearing of their flesh. It used its long, serpentine body to coil and break apart the pack in the most brutal way possible. Its glowing red eyes shined brighter than all of the packs’ glowing green eyes collectively. These wolf-like fae didn’t stand a chance against this one monster.
As much as she wanted to run away from this beast, she couldn’t help but be grateful to it. For in this moment, before this thing kills her next, the beast is saving her life and Angel’s life.
Suddenly, something hard and rapid hit her in the back of her head. Instantly, her world turned black.
The dark, serpent like monster’s attention was captured away from his wooden prey when he heard Fluttershy’s unconscious body collapse to the ground. When he turned around, he saw a couple of darkly cloaked yet stout figures, one of whom, swung Fluttershy’s body over their shoulders. He even witnessed one of them locking up a knocked out Angel in a cage.
His burning eyes narrowed. He knew who they were and who they worked for. Yet, these thoughts on caused the monstrosity to chuckle in his mind as he reflected on how powerless they would be against his animalistic might. Against his chaotic power. Oh, he could already taste their pathetic yet irresistible blood and flesh on his tongue.
As the kidnappers magically opened a bright, shining portal in the air; the vicious black horror let out a roar as he charged towards them. Green blood was dripping from his canines, his hot breath coming out as a fog amidst the cold night air. The kidnappers immediately scurried in a hurry into the portal, with Fluttershy and Angel secured in their grip.
But, there was one in the group that was slower than the others and the furious terror of a fae was approaching from behind. There was nothing that this little kidnapper could do. Death was close at hand. It could feel the monster’s breath on its neck, even smell it’s horrid breath on the air.
Just as the beast was about to bite off the head of this helpless cloaked individual, some invisible yet strong force grabbed him by his withers and stopped him.
“Hold it, you fool!” boomed the mysterious voice, ringing in the monster’s ears.
Great anger began to boil in his throat, a deep and threatening growl rumbled from him. He recognized this voice. He knew it all too well.
With wide red eyes and snarling teeth, the beast watched his prey escape into the portal, which shut mere moments after.
Before the monstrous fae could protest or ask what was going on, the invisible force lifted him into the air. High enough where his clawed feet couldn’t reach the ground. The serpent like abomination then struggled like a flustered yet wild cat trying to escape the grip of a human captor.
“What do you think you’re doing?” asked the mysterious voice in a disappointed tone.
“What does it, grrrRawr, look like I’m, grrrRawr, doing?!” barked the frightening fae, “I’m going after the girl!”
The mysterious voice sighed before answering as patiently as it could, “And that’s the problem, my dear little snake puppy.”
“I told you don’t… call… me… snake puppy.” The fae hissed.
“Daww, don’t be like that. We’ve known each other for what, a thousand years and yet you still won’t let me give you an endearing nickname. Tsk, tsk.”
“More like demeaning.”
“If you want, you can call me-”
“Get to your point!”
“Sheesh, so angry. And so serious. I’ve forgotten how grumpy you get in this form.”
The invisible force released it’s hold on the monster’s withers and let him drop back to the ground.
As the creature rubbed his sore withers with one of his claws, the mysterious voice explained, “It’s plain and simple, my boy. If you want the girl to come with you willingly, chasing her around in this form won’t help.”
“I had no choice. It was all the stupid cat’s fault. He was supposed to bring her to me before nightfall.”
“Be it as it may, that still doesn’t excuse you from acting just as idoitic as that dumb cat.”
“Then what do you suggest, oh wise one?” The fae barked, rolling his eyes in frustration.
“I suggest something a bit more clever. Something a bit more like our style. And trust me, it’ll be a whole lot more fun.”
The mysterious voice then ends his statement with an unsettling dark chuckle.
May Chaotic Showers Bring About Beautiful Butterflies Part 2
“We are not always what we seem, and hardly ever what we dream.” Peter S. Beagle, The Last Unicorn
May Chaotic Showers Bring About Beautiful Butterflies Part 2
Fluttershy slowly opened her eyes, waking up from her dreamless sleep, only to immediately be met with a pounding headache.
Practically slamming her head back down, she tried her best to ponder what could have possibly caused this. Was she catching a cold? Or the flu? Fluttershy had never been a heavy sleeper, always on the alert for any fae that could come for her in the night.
Curiosity too much to resist, Fluttershy slowly rose up, and, working to ignore some of the pain, she started to understand where her headache might be coming from. Suddenly, the memories began to rush in, almost too fast for her to process.
It was all just a series of flashing images, the Cheshire grin of the feline fae she encountered in her dining room, Angel running away from her, the pitch black forest, multiple glowing green eyes stalking towards her, and a mysterious, but powerful beast with beaming red eyes.
CLANK!
Fluttershy looked down and was bewildered by the sight of a heavy, iron collar around her neck, connected to some equally heavy looking iron chains. Looking down further, she saw that the chains were connected to a pair of locked, iron restraints on her wrists. Her horror continued when she found that she didn’t have her clogs on. Or even socks on her feet.
Her face flushed with shock, and her heart raced as she discovered that she was no longer in her school uniform; but rather, a white, collared shirt-like dress.
“Who?” Fluttershy panicked in her mind, “Why am I in these clothes? ….Did…. did someone undress me while I was unconscious?!”
Fluttershy began to hyperventilate, and in the midst of doing so, the poor girl almost fell off the lavinish, red and gold, lounging couch she’d found herself on. As she caught herself by one of the plush edges, Fluttershy noticed the kind of room she had been occupying in.
It was an office, an extravagant one at that. Far lovelier than her own aunt’s back at Crystal Prep anyday. It was a large, wide open room, with tall and expanding windows that let a fair amount of sunlight inside, practically removing the need for any kind of artificial lighting. The walls and floors were made of the purest white marble, with priceless and beautiful paintings hanging across almost every square inch, red velvet curtains accompanied the sides of the window, and all the furniture in the room looked to be made of gold and silver.
Fluttershy began to suddenly cough, as she accidentally took in the intoxicating air that filled the room. For whatever reason, the air contained a heavy odor of smoke; like a type of hard tobacco. Fluttershy remembered that her great uncle on her mother’s side used to smoke cigars on a daily basis, even on his deathbed. She distinctly recalled that even back then, she still couldn’t breathe in the midst of it.
“Oh good, you’re finally awake.”
A conniving, nasally male voice resonated in her ears, coming from a golden desk just straight ahead of where she was sitting. Seated at the table was a stout, giant half man, half naked mole rat if she had to guess based on his appearance. He wore a very clean, dashing black suit with a matching bow tie that contrasted heavily with his rather unappealing face. Adding to his attire was a black top hat, along with some golden goggles, which oddly enough, had rather cloudy looking lenses. The fae had sharp, pointed, yellow buck teeth and chiseled but dirty looking claws.
“I was worried for a moment we’d have to sell a passed out Sleigh Beggy.” The naked mole rat man replied with a relieved yet smirk on his face that only served to further unnerve her.
Ignoring her for the moment, he put his claw into his jacket pocket and pulled out a portable, silver, carved box and a small silver lighter. He opened the box, revealing it was filled with Cuban cigars. The fae smugly placed one of the cigars into his mouth and lit it. Letting out a very contented sigh, he breathed in and out the expensive aroma of the cigar, before exhaling a thin stream of potent smoke from his mouth.
Meanwhile, Fluttershy’s mind was in a whirl. She...she was being sold? As a slave? To another fae? Or something else far worse than a fae? How could this be? She thought her darkest nightmares would involve being eaten by a fae just like her mother. But this...this was far more dire.
“S-Sell?! Oh no, no, please! Y-You can’t do that!” Fluttershy desperately and loudly pleaded, “I’ll do what you want, whatever you please! Just please don’t sell me.” When he didn’t respond, she swallowed her fear as she tried a different tactic.
“I’ll…”
Though she had another potential solution to her situation, she felt disgusted with herself at even considering it as this new plan ran through her mind. Never in her worst dreams had she even joked about such an idea. To submit to this idea would be to submit to her own horrible imaginings. However,...Fluttershy never considered she would be in a situation where she would be sold as a slave in an underground magical black market. So, desperate times...called for truly desperate measures.
“I’ll stay here, with you. I’ll be your precious Sleigh Beggy.”
“Just please…” Fluttershy began to choke up, fighting back the tears she wanted to release at being forced to make such an offer. “Please don’t sell me. Don’t make me a slave, I beg you.”
“I’m not just a Sleigh Beggy… ,” She thought to herself, “I’m a person too. Please, why can’t anyone see that?”
Even though she didn’t want to be a slave to this creature either, she could at least find out where exactly she was, and how they kidnapped her. But more importantly, how to escape. It wasn’t ideal, but she felt safer trying her luck with this fae, as opposed to whatever unknown creature so fit to buy her.
“Hmm, that’s a very tempting offer my little Bright Eyed Child.”
With wide eyes, Fluttershy observed the creature walk away from his desk and stroll towards the couch in a calculated and dominating manner. With each step he took, his smirk only grew, his eyes roaming across every inch of her. He clenched hard on his cigar with his buck teeth, smoke still leaking through.
When he stopped just a few inches away from the trembling girl, he grabbed her chin and blew fresh, hot smoke into her face. Fluttershy, by instant reaction, struggled in his grip, tears from the smoke and her own terror leaking as she tried to breathe. She tried to wipe away his dirty looking claws from her face, but it was no use.
“Sadly I’m afraid, it’s not quite tempting enough.” The rodent-like fae remarked sinsterly. “You’re a real commodity, my child. Not selling you to the highest bidder would be wasting such a promising opportunity for me. And I can’t have that now can I?”
As if he was throwing trash upon the floor, he shoved Fluttershy back onto the couch. The second the fae turned away, Fluttershy began to cry soft tears into the frilly pillows and completely crumble into the cushions.
In an unsympathetic, tone reminiscent of a con man, the fae tried to comfort her with. “Now now, there, there my little Sleigh Beggy. Don’t cry. You’re rare. And rare things only go to the most prestigious of buyers. You’ll be well taken care of, I do assure you.”
As she cried, more images from last night flashed in random sequence in her mind. Images of first seeing Angel the previous morning, him giving her a thumbs up from her book bag, and her holding her dear bunny in her arms as a pack of fae came crawling towards them.
Fluttershy quickly sat up and realized aloud, “Wait, where’s Angel?!”
The front door to the office opened and two grey, four foot, humanoid mole fae walked in. Just like their leader, they were dressed eloquently, in black suits with wearing foggy lensed, golden goggles. The only notable distinction was the lack of similar top hats.
“Off we go boys! May sweet fortune smile on us today!” The naked mole rat fae joyously proclaimed, completely ignoring Fluttershy’s question. He walked towards the opened door and lead the way.
“Wait, where’s Angel?! Please!” Fluttershy called out again, loudly yet hopelessly. Her eyes never leaving the leader of these rodent men.
Suddenly, her chains were yanked hard. She was pulled off the couch and she fell upon the long clawed feet of the minions.
“Don’t rough her up too much gentlemen,” The fae with the top hat remarked while still moving forward. “We still need her in mint condition if she’s going to be useful to anyone out there.”
One of the minions nodded, pulling her back up by her chain while the other pulled her up by the back of her collar. While one pushed her along slightly with their claw from the behind, the other tugged her slightly forward. With each step Fluttershy kept protesting, raising her wrists high and pulling on the chains. She tried as hard as she could to keep her feet planted on the floor, loudly screaming with each step.
“Please! Just tell me where my bunny is!” Fluttershy cried out.
But, all the fae ignored her pleas. The minions kept forcibly urging her forward and their leader kept strolling by with a satisfied smile on his face.
Despite the fact that they didn’t pay any mind to her demands or cries, despite the fact that they would never answer her question, Fluttershy knew she had to keep trying. She had to keep fighting. She may be fated into this life with the fae, but Angel wasn’t. He was a victim to it because he was her friend. She dragged him into this, and so, she would drag him out of it. She may not be strong and agile in comparison to the fae, but she had the foolish hope that her bunny was alive. That’s all that mattered to her right now.
“Please, tell me that he’s alright! Angel!”
With each step she took, she struggled to weigh her feet down as heavy as they could be, yet was still dragged by.
“Angel!”
With every tug of her chain, she would tug back.
“Angel, can you hear me?! Angel!”
Despite their insisted shushing and annoyance in their tone, she would not be silenced.
“Mommy’s coming, just hang on! Angel!”
When they finally reached the end of the luxurious marble hallway, they opened another grand set of doors, revealing a dark, spiraling, wooden stairway. However, despite her fear of the ominous darkness, Fluttershy still struggled in her chains, calling out to her bunny, hoping that she could hear him and that they could find their way towards each other again. Her voice, the sound of the chains clanking about, the creaking of their steps, everything boomed and echoed within the spiraling stairwell.
They eventually reached the end of the stairs and opened a narrow looking, wooden door. As they entered through, it revealed an alleyway, congested with various blunky items that were still hard to see in the darkness. The only source of light came from the bottom of the left wall. And… was the left wall looked like it was moving lightly?
Fluttershy could hear distinct murmuring of a crowd. Before she could question this, she realized that the leader of the two minions was no longer in front of them. He had completely disappeared.
As her eyes frantically scanned for him, the two moles pushed Fluttershy to the center point of the alleyway. Once there, she found herself harshly positioned, facing the left wall. Fluttershy squinted in the dark in order to see just exactly what these two were doing to her, yet the only thing she could process was that the chain was somehow extending and connecting to something else. If Fluttershy had to guess, they were likely chaining her to the floor or to some kind of heavy weight, ensuring she couldn’t run away.
Once the chain was connected, the two minions quickly left her. Now alone, Fluttershy yanked on her chain to see if one of her theories were true. The floor creaked and squeaked when she pulled on the chain, confirming she was firmly bound to the ground.
Before Fluttershy could come up with a plan for escape, bright stage lights shined through, blinding her. Her ears could softly pick up the sound of curtains being opened. When she slowly opened her eyes, she was greeted by the ominous sight of a crowded theatre, with her on the center stage.
What Fluttershy couldn’t see was the kind of audience that was facing her in that moment. Each potential buyer wore a distinguished, long robe made of the finest fabric, colored in various darkest hues. They also wore full face masks, coming in many different shapes, sizes, colors and designs. However, there was one thing that the masks had in common: the masks hide the eyes of those who wore them. It had the effect of making each individual look like an eery, masked ghost.
Fluttershy couldn’t tell if the strangers before her were fae, human, or something else entirely, though that hardly mattered now. She had a bad feeling that whoever or whatever bought her... they would give her a future far from bright. Worse still, she would most likely never see her Angel again.
“No, I can’t think like that”, Fluttershy mentally chasing away her doubts. “Even if I’m bought, I’ll find a way to escape and find Angel. I’ve always find a way to escape the fae before, and I’ll do it again now.”
However, her thoughts and attention were quickly diverted by the sound of someone tapping on a microphone. She turned her head to the left and saw the cigar smoking fae she met earlier standing behind a wooden podium, a black microphone in his claws.
“Ladies and gents!” He announced to all those in the audience, “For the item you’ve all been waiting for! They say that it couldn’t be done! They say that you couldn’t even if you tried! But here! Standing before you! With your very own eyes, I present to you... a Beloved Child of Glass!”
Fluttershy jumped a little at the sound of excited and shocked sounding murmurs coming from the crowd. She pulled her conjoined wrists close to her chest, turning her body slightly from the audience in order to try to hide away from their gaze.
“Pretty isn’t she?” The fae emphasized, “Not only is she just as beautiful as legend foretold, but she is also just as powerful. Deep within her delicate body lies years upon years of untapped magical potential. With that kind of magic, any one of you could perform any spell of any sort. Even spells of the dark arts.”
“Shall we open the bidding at, oh I don’t know,” The mole rat fae auctioneer paused with a greedy yet giddy expression on his face. “Let’s go with... five hundred thousand pounds?”
“One million!” A male voice quickly shouted from the audience.
Then, Fluttershy quickly heard the fae at the podium announce, “I have one million pounds, thank you sir! Do I hear one million and two hundred?”
“One point eight!” A female voice quickly blurted out from the audience.
“This can’t be happening!” Fluttershy exclaimed in her mind, and focused on pulling herself free from her chains, the bids being the final nail to dissolve any delusions she had this was some kind of twisted dream.
Sadly, despite how much she clearly struggled and grunted, everyone in the room ignored her and the auction continued forth.
“I have one million and eight hundred pounds, do I hear two million pounds?”
“Two million!”
“Two point five!”
“Two million and five hundred pounds! Do I hear two million and six hundred, ladies and gents?” The auctioneer asked eagerly, hoping for the price to reach at least five million within the next two minutes.
Fluttershy’s yanking and pulling on her chain began to slow in it’s momentum. Sweat dripping down her forehead, her heart pounding in her chest, hands burnt with the imprint of the chains, and her arms and legs growing weaker with each minute. Her heart may be telling to not give up, but her body had other plans.
She wanted to cry. She wanted to cry so bad. Fluttershy could already feel some of her tears fighting to leak through.
“No?” The naked mole rat fae questioned with a mischievous smirk. Feeling like he could still squeeze out more money he pushed just a bit more. “Alright then, going once? Going twice?”
“Oh my my, what do we have here?” echoed a male, very eloquent, yet trollish sounding voice. This voice vibrated throughout all the walls of the grand, theatrical auction house.
The fae auctioneer paused instantly; his gavel hovering just inches above the surface of his podium. His eyes searched in panic for the source; without moving a muscle. He wasn’t alone in this. Fluttershy and the rest of the attendants scanned the high rafters and every corner of the room in order to find where the mysterious voice was coming from. But, no matter how hard they looked, they couldn’t find the new mysterious guest.
Excluding Fluttershy, every person in that building recognized the voice. They knew who he was. But it couldn’t be… it shouldn’t be… how was it even possible? Why was he here?
The fae in charge of the auction, and the rest of the buyers, wished that this was nothing more than a bad dream. But, the voice of this nightmare was far too convincing to just be make-believe. It truly was him.
“Why, it’s a Sleigh Beggy!” The mysterious voice continued, despite the deafening silence in the room, “No wonder there were so many hushed whispers and forced silence about in the community lately. You wanted this fragile little piece of glass all to yourselves. Tsk, tsk, shame on all of you. You know how much I hate being left out.”
Fluttershy was shocked to find how quiet the auditorium got. This voice had a presence. It had a power. Even over her captors. Even over her potential buyers. These fae… these terrible fae… they were afraid. Was this mysterious voice fae or something else? Either way, Fluttershy found something new to be scared of.
When the mysterious voice’s remarks were met with nothing but silence, it was urged to speak again. “Hmm? What’s this I hear?” The mysterious voice then recalled in a slightly higher pitch, “It says ‘If I don’t buy her now, it would ruin the entire story.’ Oh, very well. As much as I hate conforming to stereotypical story beats, as well as taking orders, I have some rather important things to attend to and this little lady is the guest of honor. Soooo, I’m taking her now! Bye bye my lovely little cretians!”
POOF!
Before any one of the fae could act, speak, or perform a spell, their rare auction item had vanished. And in its place was a sack filled to the brim with gold coins.
The audience remained silent, caught between a mixture of shock at the stranger appearance and surprise that the girl vanished. None however, were more stunned than the auctioneer, whose eyes never left the massive sack of gold in the place of what had been his most valuable item. Yet he made no sound, content to slowly lift his gavel and delicately tap it against the table.
“S...Sold.”
“You can open your eyes now my dear, we’re here.”
Fluttershy opened one eye at a time. It took her a moment to adjust to the sunlight, but once she did, she was met with the most beautiful sight they had ever seen.
She was standing out in a vast, wondrous green field. From where they stood, they were able to look out and see a long but low stone wall following along a dirt country road, leading to a tan cottage.
The cottage’s roof was completed covered by plentiful moss, grass, bushes, branches, and all kinds of foliage. In truth, the abode looked more like a magical tree home than a traditional cottage. It was seemingly protected by a border of a white picket fence, and a quaint but naturally beautiful garden surrounding it from all sides. The garden was filled with roses, peonies, daisies, pansies, and so many more types of flora. There was even a part of the garden that was solely dedicated to growing vegetables and it was just as plentifully diverse.
It was like this house, the garden, the entire place had a life of its own. This space seemed so far from the touch of man, and so far from the touch of fae. To Fluttershy, this place was dream.
“I’ve heard of the fae being clingy towards their precious Sleigh Beggies,” Her mysterious savior chuckled, “but I’ve never heard of it working the other way around before.”
“Huh?”
Fluttershy looked down and saw her fist completely white as her hands gripped tightly to the tail of a jacket.
“Oh, um, sorry about…”
The words on her lips began to die off as she was finally able to get a proper glimpse on her savior’s appearance. And this new revelation made her, not only quickly release her grip on her savior, but also take several steps back. Thus, creating a safe distance between her and this ominous being.
It was a man, at least the body of a man, with a skull for a head. And this was no mask mind you, no, his head was quite literally a skull completely devoid of flesh. Worse still, this skull was not that of a human, oh no, but of an animal that Fluttershy has never seen before.
He had a long muzzle, reminding Fluttershy of a horse, donkey or any equine creature for that matter. However, he had high cheekbones and a large set of jaws, shown at the tip of his muzzle. Peculiarly had one fang on the left side of his mouth that looked longer than the others. Atop his head were two antlers, one remincient of a stag’s and the other resembling an antelope’s, though it was oddly enough blue. On each side of his head, taking place of ears were two hollows holes, also mismatched with one being noticeably larger than the other.
However, the most noticeable feature about his face to Fluttershy were his eyes, if one could even describe them as eyes. They were two individual specs of bright, eerie, glowing red light inside the man’s empty eye sockets. Curiously, the red spec of light that resided inside his left eye socket was slightly larger and brighter in comparison to the other, further adding to his peculiar, ill-matched appearance.
“Those eyes”, Fluttershy reminisced in her mind as she looked over him further.
Strangely, despite his, for lack of a better term, odd, head, his clothing was that of a gentlemen.
He wore a pinstripe black riding jacket, with a fairly long tail in the back. Underneath the jacket, was a bright orange sweater vest and prim white collared skirt. Tied at the collar of his skirt, he wore a bolo tie, jeweled with a round, red gem. He also fashioned a pair of bright purple riding pants with black shining riding boots. To finish the outfit, he showed off a shiny golden cane. On top of the cane was a carved handle in the shape of a unicorn head. The unicorn head had a long mane with bangs, and a peculiarly happy but derpy expression on its face. At the bottom of the cane was a red ruby.
Despite all the details and colors she had to look at on this fae, she would always return to his eyes. And it made her wonder aloud, without even thinking, “I’m… I’m sorry, but do I …?”
Before she could finish her question, she heard a familiar yet loud squeak from behind.
She quickly spun around and exclaimed out into the field, “Angel?!”
As she kept calling his name over and over again, Fluttershy rummaged in hurry through various spots of tall and thick grass near her. It wasn’t until she saw her dear white puff of a rabbit jumping as high as he could over the grass that she was able to take a breath. His ears and his waving paws were the only things that could be seen over the grass.
“Angel!” Fluttershy blurted out with joy, with tears in her eyes. He was okay! Her sweet bunny was okay!
Despite the tall grass, despite the distance between them, Fluttershy and Angel happily ran to each other. Even Angel started to choke up a bit seeing his cherished girl again, as tears began to form in the corners of his eyes. But, once he was in her arms, he swiftly wiped away his tears and let the sense of relief and happiness take over his thoughts.
Fluttershy happily sobbed into her bunny’s soft fur, “Oh Angel! I thought… I thought that I was never going to see you again. Oh Angel! My sweet Angel! I’m… I’m sorry. I’m so sorry! This was all my… this was all my…”
Angel quietly offered a comforting paw, gently wiping away her tears and stroking her cheek. Angel smiled softly, letting his eyes tell her that everything was going to be okay. They were together now and that was all that mattered.
“My my, what a fuss we’re all making here,” The unusual gentleman interrupted, approaching Fluttershy and Angel from behind. His shadow easily looming over them. “And over such an ordinary creature. How curious.”
Then, he leaned forward and started to mockingly scratch Angel underneath his chin. This caused the bunny to growl and attempt to bite the strange man's finger off. But, the tall magical being was too quick as he pulled back his finger away. He brought his hand close to his chest. Then, he blew a quick raspberry at the bunny and Angel, without hesitation, returned the favor.
The obscure gent shrugged this off smoothly and cleared his throat in a subdued tone. He reached into his jacket pocket and said to Fluttershy, “Anywho, I believe that this also belongs to you.”
When Fluttershy turned around to face him, her eyes dilated and her mouth opened slightly at what he held out in the palm of his gloved hands. It was her butterfly hair clip.
Her memories came back to her vividly. Her mind was no longer in a foggy blur, struggling to make sense of everything. Every detail from last night became clear to her. She had her normal day at school, walked home, but then encountered the spooky feline fae in her dining room. Her Angel foolishly chased the fae out of the house and into the forest near her neighborhood. In that instance, she allowed her fear for her bunny’s safety rule over the one thing she always told herself to never do: enter the forest after dark. Her hair clip must have fallen out when she was running after Angel.
Fluttershy also remembered how her fear blocked her ears from the sound of the pack of wooden, wolf like fae that was clearly chasing after her. She didn’t remember how the feline fae disappeared, just that she was able to finally find Angel in the middle of the dark forest. More importantly however, she remembered meeting the pack for the first time; witnessing the hungry looks in their eyes and the terrifying glow that came from their gaze. Her mind recalled the fear she felt when she realized she had nowhere to go, and the dread, thinking this was truly the end for her and Angel.
But, the most vivid memory that came to her in that moment was… the monstrous beast who dispelled the pack with bone chilling ease.
It was inexplicable that, for as intimidating as he looked now, the form that he took last night was truly nightmarish. It was hard to believe that they were one in the same. The only thing that these two creatures had in common were their eyes. Their glowing, mismatched, red eyes.
This contrast of clashing appearances urged Fluttershy to ask, just to be sure that what she remembered was true, “It… it was you, wasn’t it? Y-You were there… last night… i-in the forest… with those fae… “
All of the sudden, Fluttershy’s heart jumped out of her chest when the sound of loud party poppers popped in her ears and confetti exploded in her face. Balloons magically appeared behind her and float away as quickly as it came; appearing in the shape of stars and letters that spelt out “Congrats!”
While Fluttershy panicked in the middle of this harmless surprise, he flared his hands out and confetti flew out of his palms. The sound of party poppers followed the magical confetti, and he congratulated Fluttershy happily with, “Ding ding, we have a winner folks! Congratulations lucky contestant! And since you figured out it so quickly, you just won yourself the grand prize!”
“The grand prize?” asked Fluttershy, as she wiped away the confetti from her eyes and tried to pick out some of it’s scraps from her hair.
“My name.”
Fluttershy was soon taken off guard by his sudden gentlemen like bow. “I have been called by many names, but for you, my dear, you may call this Chaotic Mage… Discord.”
May Chaotic Showers Bring About Beautiful Butterflies Part 3
“Everything in life is unusual until you get accustomed to it.” L. Frank Baum, The Marvelous Land of Oz
May Chaotic Showers Bring About Beautiful Butterflies Part 3
Before Fluttershy could tell Discord her name or even properly process that the monster from last night was standing before her, Discord offered his gloved hand to her and recited, “How do you do?”
“Oh, um, h-how do you do,” She politely but hesitantly responded, lightly taking his hand into her locked grip.
Discord then surprised her by jerking her chained hands towards him, which earned a deep hiss and snarl from Angel. But, Discord ignored this and placed the tip of his bone muzzle on top of Fluttershy’s left hand.
She immediately blushed at this gesture because it made her think, “Is this... is this his way of kissing my hand?”
The cold touch sent shivers up Fluttershy’s spine, which contrasted greatly with the heat that was forming in her cheeks.
Meanwhile, Discord opened one of his eyes and spied upon Fluttershy’s current state. He couldn’t help but chuckle at such a blush.
Before Fluttershy knew it, Discord lifted his muzzle away from the top of her hand, but all the while he still held onto her. This still did not ease down Fluttershy’s embarrassing blush. No man, or fae for that matter, had ever held her hand for this long.
Not only did she have to process this, but she also had to deal with the fact that the person performing this gentlemanly gesture was the monster from the previous night. The merciless beast who didn’t hesitate to tear the other fae apart before her very own eyes. And yet, here he was, standing before her in a suit and giving her greeting one would expect from well-groomed noble, not a creature from her nightmares.
Is he truly not as bad as he seems to be? Did she judge him too quickly? Was he trying to save her last night or was she his next prey?
Fluttershy didn’t know what to think at this point.
“Come along my dear,” He announced, “We mustn’t stay long! I can’t have the whole neighborhood thinking that I, the Great Chaotic Mage, can stay in one place for more than a day! Can’t be chaotic if you’re predictable after all now can you?”
But, before Discord could lead her to who knows where, Fluttershy stopped him with a quick question, “W-Wait! Where we are going exactly?”
“Why, to my humble abode, of course.” Then, Discord pointed to the idyllic cottage that captured Fluttershy’s attention moments earlier.
“That’s your home?” She asked in an astonished tone.
“I know! Completely and utterly dull, isn’t it? As much as I wanted to decorate this shabby shack my way, let’s just say for good reasons, I have to keep a low profile around here. You see, I have a business of sorts that I am required to run and well… to put it lightly, the humans around here wouldn’t exactly appreciate a castle that can float twenty feet off the ground. Pfft! Those plebeians.”
“Actually, I wasn’t going to say that at all. I was going to say how… lovely it is.”
“Wait until you see what’s on the inside,” said Discord, with an added playful wink at the end of his remark.
“Um, t-thank you for inviting us to your home, but… “
“But what? Aren’t you two hungry? It’s already past noon and I have a feeling that naked mole-rat wasn’t too keen on giving you breakfast.”
“Oh no, it’s alright. We’re not-”
Just as Fluttershy was about to deflect Discord’s offer, her stomach rumbled loudly. This sudden sound, not only made Discord snicker but also caused Angel’s tiny tummy to grumble too. Both the bunny and the Sleigh Beggy covered their stomach’s away from Discord’s gaze and flushed with embarrassment, though Angel’s was more of an angry humiliation.
Through a snicker, Discord remarked, “I do say! I believe your stomach just caught you in a lie, my dear! Haha!”
Fighting through her mortification, Fluttershy had to point out, “L-Look, Mr. Discord-”
“Just Discord, if you don’t mind. ‘Mr. Discord’ makes me sound so ancient and crippled, I’m so far from those particular adjectives.”
“Okay then, Discord. Angel and I deeply appreciate you welcoming us into your home but… before we go anywhere with you… where are we?”
“My home obviously, I thought we covered that. But, if you wish to be more precise, my home in Trottingham,” Discord replied in a happy but matter of fact tone.
“T-T-Trottingham?!”
“Congrats Dorothy, you’re no longer in Vanhoover anymore!” Discord teased her again with glee. It was just too easy to make her freak out. Like a flip of a dime.
“But, h-how did we end up all the way in Trottingham of all places?!” Fluttershy continued to panic, beginning to pace back and forth in the fresh, tall grass. Meanwhile, Angel hopped alongside Fluttershy, trying his best to calm her down.
“Well, magic obviously. Leapdon has one of the biggest black magic market hot spots in the world you know. So, it’s no surprise that a creature like Verko would set up shop there.”
“Verko? Is that the name of the fae who… kidnapped… me? That, um, naked mole-rat man?”
“Now, you’re catching on.”
Fluttershy paused, taking the time to formulate all the questions she wanted to ask. But, she wanted to make sure that these questions came out as clearly as they could despite her panicking mind and her racing heart.
However, despite this, they still came out in a flurry, “But,howdidyouknowthatwewerewithVerko? HowdidyouknowthatVerkowastakingustoTrottingham? Whydidyousaveus-?”
Discord was able to stop the flurry of questions in an instant when he placed his pointer finger on her lips.
“My my my! Aren’t you just a curious little thing? And much more chatty than I initially took you for. Well, if you want answers, my dear Fluttershy,” He leaned his head forward as he paused.
Out of fear, she stood completely still. As much as she wanted to scurry away from his gaze and touch, her body was too afraid to move. She didn’t know what he would do if she did. Fluttershy was forced to stare deep into his red, glowing eyes. These eyes reminded her more of a horror-filled fae than an unusual gentleman that saved her from a lifetime of slavery.
“Then come join me at my cottage for some lunch.”
Like a chilly breeze, Discord smoothly left Fluttershy’s side and strolled towards his cottage, leaving Fluttershy in a state of perplexed puzzlement.
With Discord gone, the poor girl was able to remember to breathe again and finally relaxed her previously terror-stricken body. Her hands immediately went to her chest, placing her palms over her rapidly beating heart.
“How… how did he know my name?”
As she brought her palms close to her chest, her ribcage was met with something hard. She pulled her hands away and saw her hair clip in her grasp.
Looking down at the hair clip reminded Fluttershy of her home. Vanhoover, her aunt, her cousin, and how truly far away she was from what was familiar to her.
However, any concern over simply being in a strange place was replaced by a sinking feeling that her aunt would be gravely furious with her. She could swear that she could hear the disappointed voice of her aunt, scolding her for allowing herself to be kidnapped, and how Fluttershy should feel lucky that something far worse didn’t occur.
She’d then immediately bring up her madness, and perhaps decide to put her where she can truly never escape her judging gaze. Her right to go to college will probably be taken away and in its place, private home tutoring. Or worse, remove her independence altogether and place her in the care of multiple mental health professionals, possibly even resorting to being placed in a full psychiatric hospital.
As for her cousin, Fluttershy could easily imagine Sunny Daze happily leaving her behind; giving her a cold shoulder before she leaves for college and likely never see her again.
Despite all this, Fluttershy felt like she had to go back home. She couldn’t just leave everything behind. She couldn’t let Mrs. Cake worry about her or forget the only home she'd ever known. Most of all, however, she couldn’t just forget her family.
Or rather, her mother’s family.
Regardless of all the negatives in her life, she couldn’t erase the memory of her aunt taking her in after her mother passed. She knew that the only responsible and reasonable action to take would be to run as far from here as possible and hopefully find a phone.
Her mind told her to follow her instinct and run away from this fae as she had always done in the past. After all, what’s so different about this Chaotic Mage anyway?
“He saved me,” Fluttershy answered herself in her mind, “that’s what’s so different about him.”
Fluttershy’s gut, her stupid gut, told her to give Discord a chance. As crazy as it sounded in her head, Fluttershy couldn’t help but give this strange fae-like man a chance. True, he may have saved for likely some kind of selfish and ominous purpose, but he still saved her life regardless. No fae had ever attempted to protect her before; they were simply content with attacking and terrorizing her. She at least owed him the benefit of the doubt in return.
“Besides,” Fluttershy trying hard to find some justification for her decision, “I should, at least, stay long enough for lunch. It would be rude to refuse his offer… and I don’t think I’d get very far on an empty stomach.”
Deep down, there was another reason as to why Fluttershy truly wanted to stay. She had to know why he saved her. What did he gain from rescuing her from the wolf-like fae from before and why did he save her from the life of servitude?
“Come along, my dear,” Discord called out to her from the opened entrance of his cottage, ”I know you’re enjoying the fields, but don’t dawdle!”
Seeing that his message was received he closed the door enough to where she couldn’t see inside, but there was still a visible enough opening, almost begging her to enter.
With the wind blowing gracefully through her hair, Fluttershy let her gaze linger on the cottage door, her mind weighing and re-weighing her options again and again, before finally reaching a decision.
She took a quiet, deep breath as she took another moment to indulge in the lovely, natural scents of the field. While doing so, she closed her eyes and let her ears focus on the sounds of birds tweeting all around her. Fluttershy simply let the peace of this moment wash over her, like a soft sprinkle of rain.
When Fluttershy opened her eyes, they held great determination inside. She loosely pinned up her hair with her butterfly hair clip and boldly stomped towards the cottage. But, she was soon stopped by Angel. He immediately blocked her path and gave her a defiant look.
“I know what you’re going to say, Angel,” She tried to explain to him, “but we can’t leave. At least, not yet. He saved us. Twice. The least we can do is join him for the afternoon and thank him. Besides, we need to find out why he did it.”
Angel responded in a huff and crossed his little arms over his chest. He looked away from Fluttershy and kicked some of the small pebbles with his big feet.
“Look on the bright side Angel.” Fluttershy tried to comfort him with a gentle smile, “At least he’s giving us some lunch. It would be rude of us to refuse such a friendly offer.”
Angel blew air through his lips, finding her reasoning flimsy at best, but still before followed after his owner, heading towards Discord’s cottage.
When they reached the door, Fluttershy noticed that it had a knocker on it. Specifically, it was a golden door knocker crafted in the likeliness of Discord’s skull, holding a golden ring in his jaws. While the door itself was still open, perhaps it was because she’d undergone strict etiquette lessons with her aunt for so many years that Fluttershy felt the need to clasp upon the knocker with her still bound hands and knock on the door.
Like magic, the front door slowly but quietly opened on its own. A little unnerved by the display, she quickly steeled herself, ready to face what was inside. Or at least, she thought she was.
Deep inside the home was, what Fluttershy could only describe being a twisted version of a dark labyrinth, and even that could only barely describe what she was looking at inside was a mix of swirled, melted, moving colors with harsh and precise lines, along with surreal yet abstract shapes.
What was up was down and what was down was up. Wooden doors floated around aimlessly in this space, opening, and closing on their own without care, revealing the different rooms that this supposed cottage had. Stairs were leading everywhere yet nowhere. Holes were leading to multiple locations and scenes. The inside matter of this place was the pure embodiment of a Salvador Dali and JT Thompson painting combined.
Colors, doors, and stairs were not the only things that floated aimlessly in this non-gravity space. Fluttershy also saw all kinds of small fae floating inside Discord’s cottage. There were a few that she had seen before, but most of them were entirely new to her, and that unnerved her somewhat. In the girl’s eyes, they were all bizarre and unsettling bear witness to. She felt herself take a step back towards the door, eyes remaining trained on these new fae.
“Oh my goodness, oh my goodness,” She quickly whispered under her breath.
There was, however, one fae that didn’t look terrifying or bizarre; but, actually cute. Laying in the middle of the room was a tiny, dusty red gecko looking fae with orange stripes on its back and tail. This little guy seemed to simply be chilling on the ground, uninterested in the world around it.
However, when its beady black eyes caught a glimpse of Fluttershy, the fae chirped out in glee and tried with all his might to air paddle towards her. Fluttershy turned her gaze towards this creature when she heard it’s happy chirp. The once ever-present fear in her eyes was replaced with curiosity as she looked at the fae. She had never seen a fae she’d considered even approachable, never mind cute and it wasn’t something she thought was possible. Still, not only was it cute, but it also seemed rather friendly looking.
Sadly, despite the strange reptilian fae’s best efforts, his legs couldn’t air paddle fast enough to beat the speed of the gravity-free air, carrying him further away from Fluttershy.
In an instant, the magic inside the house made him disappear into a hole that suddenly opened on one of the walls, leaving the girl confused but also a little saddened that the strange creature’s efforts were all for nothing. Thankfully, her host was quick to remedy her concerns.
“Ah, there you are Fluttershy!” said Discord in trollish delight, his head suddenly sticking out of another hole on the ceiling, “What took you so long? We were just about to start lunch without you.”
“Um, we?”
Right on cue, on the right wall closest to the front door, another hole magically opened. It was slightly bigger than the previous holes, yet despite this, something very small ran through it.
From what Fluttershy could quickly see, it looked like a grey mouse...with nine heads. Adding further to its odd appearance, it was adorned with a royal cape and tiny golden crowns for each of its nine heads. In its mouths, the mouse was carrying a light pink silk belt twice the length of his entire body, yet it did little to hinder its surprising speed.
When the mouse ran past Fluttershy and Angel, they then heard an echoing, mighty and demonic voice bellowed from the same hole he’d fled from.
“ARGH! GET BACK HERE, YOU LITTLE THIEF!”
Fluttershy shrieked and rapidly grabbed Angel into her embrace as she saw the angry figure stomp out of the void. The tiny rabbit immediately put his paws in a flimsy boxing stance, which was more adorable than intimidating.
The figure, not struggling at all to exit the small portal, was an ember charred, semi human-looking woman. She had a mane of made of white, blue, and red fire that almost completely covered her neck and head. There was a huge irregularly curved, two-pronged, unicorn horn in the middle of her forehead and a black and white-tipped body. Her eyes glowed bright white, and she wore a light pink Xiǎo mǎ-sian kimono robe.
The robe, shined brightly in the light of her terrifying flames, decorated with a pattern of flowers and male peacocks.
She stood on furry, cloven hoof hind legs, and swinging behind her was a lion’s tail, tipped with a small ball of blue fire. To top it all off, she had large, pointed, pony ears.
“WHEN I GET MY HANDS ON YOU, I’M GONNA-!”
The woman halted in her tracks when she saw Fluttershy blocking her path; the poor girl cowering behind her bunny’s head. Her eyes closed yet approaching the point of tears.
“Ooooooh gosh, I am so sorry!” The woman apologized sincerely, in spite of her hellish appearance, attempted to offer the girl a hug were it not for her being on the cusp of having a panic attack… and the woman being on fire, of course.
“Don’t be scared. I’m not usually this, well, temperamental. But, hehe, you know how those neighbors from the Mouse Kingdom are? Especially that Mouse King. Am I right?”
“Autumn dear,” Discord reminded her, now crawling out of his magical hole in the ceiling with the body of a huge, black spider; yet, still keeping his usual skull head, “you’re still on fire. Literally.”
“Oh shoot! Right! Excuse me for one sec. I’ll be right with ya.”
Fluttershy, after hearing a slight hissing sound, reminiscent of a soda can being opened, cautiously peeked over Angel’s head and her jaw dropped when she saw that the woman she saw before had changed.
She no longer had ember charred skin, but instead soft, olivish white skin. Instead of bright, glowing, white eyes, were instead glimmering golden eyes. Her horn was no longer black and white, but instead, dark red with small light red stripes on it. Trailing from the top of her forehead to the top of her nose was a strip of green scales. Instead of a mane consisting of fire, she had a soft, amber mane.
“Ah, there! Look, see?” The woman nervously chuckled, “Hehe, no more scary, rampaging, flame-throwing kirin running around. Or is it qilin? I guess it depends on if you’re in Xiǎo mǎ or Ponī.”
“I’m… I’m sorry, but you’re a what?” Fluttershy dared to asked, despite her still present fear in this strange yet progressively fascinating individual.
“A kirin! Or a qilin!” The woman clarified happily, “Whatever suits you. Personally, I’m not too picky. Hey, you know what? How about you call me by my name instead? I think that’ll make things much easier for both of us.”
Autumn, having managed to break the ice so to speak, moved to offer Fluttershy a friendly handshake only to notice that both of her hands were still on fire, the sight of which earned another shout from the Sleigh Beggy.
Autumn casually yet quickly shook the fire off her hands and offered a quick sorry before taking Fluttershy’s chained palms with a smile.
“The name’s Autumn! Autumn Blaze! At your service m’lady!” Autumn took great pleasure in emphasizing the word “m’ lady” at the end of her introduction, loving the way the word rolled off her tongue.
“A pleasure, m-my name is F-Fluttershy.”
Autumn gasped loudly before exclaiming, “You’re Fluttershy?!”
Fluttershy let out a sigh of relief when Autumn rapidly released her grip on her. But this feeling of relief did not last, “You… you know who I am?”
“Well, of course, I do!” Autumn confirmed happily, “Discord told me ALL about you.”
“He did?! I-In what way?”
“Oh just that, you know, you’re a Sleigh Beggy and that you’re going to be staying with us from now on.“
Before Fluttershy could respond, expressing her shock on the fact that Discord just assumed that she would stay with him before they have even discussed the matter, Autumn quickly interrupted with, “I know, I’m just as excited as you are!”
“It’s not every day that you get the chance to welcome someone new, especially a Sleigh Beggy no less, into your home,” said Autumn, brimming with elation as she spoke, “Oh, don’t you just love how deep your voice gets when you say home? Oh, or when you make the ‘mhmm’ sound into the ending syllable of it? It makes it sound like you’re meditating don’t you think?”
Then, she repeated the word again, but this time making her voice deeper and making the word lasting longer than it should, “Hoommmmmmmme.”
“N-N-No! You don’t seem to understand,” Fluttershy stuttered in a fear-stricken tone, “You see, I can’t-”
“Huh? What’s this?” Autumn questioned as she took Fluttershy’s chained hands into her own, looking down at them with concern, only growing at the sight of her equally chained legs.
“Just a lovely souvenir from that charming Verko fellow.” Discord added, arriving alongside Autumn in his humanoid form, thankfully having decided to change from the spider from earlier. “Not to worry, I have something far more appropriate in mind.”
With a quick flick, Discord’s index finger went towards the center of Fluttershy’s iron collar. As soon as he touched the metal, the collar magically burst into beautiful specks of purple light.
Fluttershy’s and Angel’s eyes widened in awe of the beauty of this light as it brightened the darkness of the cottage. In mere moments, they witnessed the specks swirling and dancing around Fluttershy’s neck; slowly transforming the collar into a new form. This magical matter grew like ivy and vines around Fluttershy’s neck. When the new transformed object had found mass, it was a jade butterfly necklace, hanging on by simple but sweet ribbon.
“Oh my,” said Fluttershy, softly taking the jaded jewel in the palm of her left hand. As she stared down at the lovely stone, Angel sniffed it, clearly suspicious of the rather generous gift, especially since it came from Discord.
“Oh nice, jade! Good choice Discord,” Autumn complimented the mage, poking her elbow into his side harmlessly, “You’re in luck, Fluttershy. Literally! Jade is supposed to give you tons and tons of good luck. Especially jade conjured and blessed by a powerful mage. Boy, aren’t you glad that you came into our neck of the woods?”
“Heh heh,” Fluttershy nervously chuckled, trying to muster the best smile that she could as she let go of the necklace, “Oh y-yes, I’m so glad that I’m, umm…”
Immediately, she quickly changed the subject, “Thank you for the necklace. It’s lovely.”
“Well then, come in, come in.” Autumn insisted, dragging Fluttershy into the cottage at last and making Angel squeak in protest, “Don’t be a stranger!”
When Fluttershy stepped inside, she let out a surprised squeal when she could no longer feel the floor underneath her feet. However, she, unfortunately, decided to look down and saw that there was nothing but a pitch-black abyss below her.
“A-Aha!” Fluttershy shouted in shock, jumping high before curling her legs and feet up to her chest. She clung onto to Angel for dear life. She could have sworn that was a floor just a second ago. I mean, she had just seen Discord and Autumn walking around here as if there was some kind of flooring to this mad place and even now they were still standing perfectly in place like nothing had changed.
“Oh oops,” Autumn apologized, scratching the back of her neck nervously, “Sorry about that. I forgot about the whole zero gravity thing. My bad. But trust me when I say you’ll get used to it real quick, believe me. Heck, pretty soon you’ll probably think it’s one of the coolest things in the world.”
“But until then,” Autumn offered her hand to Fluttershy, “Here, let me help you out.”
Fluttershy looked into Autumn’s warm golden eyes and soft smile before hesitantly looking down at her hand. More than anything, her body told her to try to run away from this place and this strange woman altogether, along with the mage as well. Yet, despite her frightening behavior, Autumn had been nothing but kind to her. And for whatever reason, Fluttershy felt she could trust her.
Thus, even though she was a creature of fae, Fluttershy placed her shaking and sweat-soaked hand into Autumn’s soft-grip, who gently pulled her down closer to eye level before moving forward.
With each step, they floated gracefully and slowly down into the depths of this insane homestead. Discord all the while was simply floating along as if riding a calm summer breeze.
“Oh, by the way, you’ve gotta tell me what it’s like being a Sleigh Beggy,” Autumn remarked with eager curiosity to Fluttershy, “I mean, sure we could just walk in silence but that’s just sooo boring and there’s so much I wanna talk with you about. I want all the details, tangents, and all the charming anecdotes that come with it.”
The poor girl found herself unprepared for the massive flood of words and questions spilling out of Autumn’s mouth. It was only after a strange ticking sound was heard that the gleeful interrogation ceased.
The group came upon an antique, chocolate brown, grandfather clock floating into their path. Fluttershy could hear the old clock’s ticking and swinging pendulum echo within the vast and limitless space they were in. The door to the grandfather clock opened; leading to a void just as dark and empty as the inside of the cottage itself.
Angel growled in Fluttershy’s arms, while the teenage girl herself pulled away slightly in Autumn’s grip.
“Hey now, there’s no need for that. Sure it’s dark, creepy, and so oppressively quiet you want to run in any other direction, but… huh. Where was I even going with that? Anyway… let’s hop on in!”
Autumn gave the duo a shove towards the grandfather clock. Fluttershy shut her eyes as they entered into the darkness, wondering to herself just how many scary portals she had to go through blindly in one day today.
When she opened her eyes, Fluttershy found herself in the most unique yet splendid looking tea parlor she’d ever seen. Far more beautiful than her aunt’s tea parlor or any she’d visited thanks to her aunt’s social inner circle.
The room was rounded but spacious, made up entirely of moss, vines, ivy, plants, and all kinds of shrubbery. It was like being in a bright, secret garden cove. There were windows all around, leaving no corner in the room without sunlight. Everything was warm, green, and inviting. It felt like being in a mystical greenhouse, but without the humidity. And, as if to further add to its beauty, Fluttershy could see through the windows, allowing the lovely countryside to be visible to all within the room.
Strangely enough, none of the furniture was floating like in the main lobby. In fact, neither Fluttershy, Angel, Autumn, nor Discord weren’t even defying gravity in this space either. Of course, Fluttershy was more than happy with this change, almost immediately relaxing and letting out a calming breath for the first time since she arrived.
The lamps in the room were softly glowing by several giant mushrooms. There were at least five tea tables that decorated the room, and each table was made of colorful pansies. Curiously, the chairs at each table didn’t look like chairs. It’d be more accurate to say they were huge mounds of soft moss one could practically sink into.
In the center of the room, there was a slightly larger tea table with a soft, moss mound chair and a chaotically patterned couch placed nearby. As she’d quickly come to expect, even the shape of the couch was like physical anarchy, reminding Fluttershy of the floating blobs one would find in a lava lamp.
Oddly enough, despite all the strange decor, the only thing that bothered her about the room was the new fae currently flying around. These fae appeared to be bug-like in nature, but it was hard to believe that they were because they were certainly larger than any bug. They were about the size of a puppy, and luckily, they had two pairs of wings to hold them up. Their green, circular eyes almost took up half of their round bodies. If she were being honest, she's dare to even say they looked cute, but how could this be? These fae came in a ray of pastel colors, making the green and serene room all the more colorful.
Fluttershy still couldn’t find herself able to let down her guard around them… even if they were quite possibly some of the most adorable things she’d laid her eyes on.
“Oh, don’t mind them,” Autumn remarked, “Those are just the Parasprites. Or, as I like to affectionately call them, my little gremlins.”
When one of the Parapsrites floated above Autumn’s head, she whistled and cooed out to it, “Come here, my little Grem-grem! Come on!”
With a big smile on its face and a happy little “brree!”, the Parasprite fluttered towards Autumn. The little fae set its sights on Autumn’s mane and snuggled into it with a purr. Autumn smiled warmly down at the Parasprite and pet the top of its round head lightly with the tip of her finger.
“These guys are nothing but sweethearts.”
Then, her tone took on a whole new and serious tone. Her eyes grew wide and directed straight to Fluttershy, her cheerful smile was no more, and her voice went deep, “But! Do not feed them! I repeat: Do. Not. Feed. Them. Ever. Got it?”
Fluttershy gulped before answering in a quiet squeak, “Got it.”
Soon enough, Autumn’s usual, upbeat smile returned and her friendly tone followed after, “Well, I’ll leave you two be for now. Don’t have too much fun without me, you two rascals!”
“W-Wait?! You’re leaving? I thought you were having lunch with us.”
“Wish I could, but can’t. A maid’s work is never done when it comes to this cottage. There’s soooo much to do! I have to chase the dust bunnies back to their hidey holes underneath the furniture, dirty the dishes, place maple syrup on the ceiling. You know how that goes.”
“Uh…?”
“Oh, by the way, Fluttershy, could you do me a big favor and let me know how the tea cakes taste. I made them all myself.”
“You did? Oh, that’s awfully considerate of you to do that.”
“Are you kidding? How could I not?!” Autumn exclaimed with a spring in her step, “Do you know how often we get guests?”
“How m?-”
“Never, zero, zip! Absolutely nobody. Well, okay, I guess I shouldn't say nobody. Father Sunburst comes by of course!”
“More like a forced yet required nuisance than an actual guest,” Discord grumbled under his breath as he hovered quietly over the two.
“Oh, I can’t wait until after lunch,” Autumn continued without missing a beat, “The anticipation of each tea cake’s distinct and intrinsic flavor descriptions is almost too good to wait for! Don’t be afraid to embody the role of a storyteller when illustrating-”
“Thank you, Autumn,” Discord stopped the chatty kirin before she could babble on and on into the afternoon, “Fluttershy will make sure to give you all the dirty little details on desert later, alright?”
“Perfect cause I’ll hold you to it!” Autumn pointed at Fluttershy and winked before leaving the two alone in the parlor, causing Discord to let out a sigh of relief.
When she turned her gaze away from the grandfather clock, Fluttershy then noticed Discord pulling out a soft moss mound chair from the main table at the center of the room. He turned his skull head towards her and captured her attention.
“Is he… is he pulling out a chair for me?” She pondered.
When she began slowly crossing over to Discord, her feet were rewarded by the soft sensation of fresh clover patches between her toes. Fluttershy immediately stopped, smiling gently to herself and took a moment to enjoy the clover patch’s texture. However, this smile was brief when she opened her eyes and remembered who she had to share this space with: Discord and the floating Parasprites.
Fluttershy kept her arms close to her chest and made herself look small as she carefully walked towards the main tea table in the center of the room while Angel cautiously circled her like a protective sheepdog.
With each step, she took Fluttershy purposely dodged the Parasprites. Thankfully, most of them paid no mind to Fluttershy and Angel. However, there were one or two from the flock that did see Fluttershy and rather harmlessly floated towards her, seeking some form of love and attention. Sadly all they received was a startled shout as Fluttershy waved her arms around and wiggled about to get the Parasprites off her, who moaned sadly at her act of rejection.
Meanwhile, Discord was still surprisingly patient with Fluttershy and waited by the chair he pulled out from her, his glowing red gaze still focused keenly on the Sleigh Beggy.
Fluttershy looked up into Discord’s stare, trying to read the emotion behind his eyes since they were the only indicator of what truly went on inside the skull head of his. Yet, no matter how deeply she peered she couldn’t find anything, be it some form of emotion or anything that would make this mage untrustworthy or suspicious. He was just, well, odd and unreadable.
Feeling a slight sense of ease, Fluttershy took the offered chair and sank into its mushy fabric, actually sinking to where she needed Angel’s help to make sure she didn’t completely sink in.
When Discord finally sat down on the couch, he lifted his left hand up high and snapped his fingers. This caused the table itself to react to the sound by suddenly sprouting out unusually large daffodils on its surface.
When the large flowers opened and bloomed, they revealed buttercups shaped like teacups, already filled with a brown liquid inside them. More impressively, the cups even came with their own organic tea plates; serving as another petal to the flower.
Hesitantly, Fluttershy followed her host’s lead as he casually plucked the teacup from its stem. When she wrapped her fingers around the handle, she was taken aback by the warmth emitted from the cup.
“There’s really tea inside these flowers,” She thought, completely awestruck.
As she carefully lifting the cup to her lips, she was surprised to find how delicious the tea was. It tasted just like a flower, with just a hint of honey to it. However, despite its simple flavor, it was fresh, clean, and wonderful.
As Discord threw the entire teacup into his mouth, the light yet large yellow roses on the table opened and bloomed, revealing a large tea cake platter in the center. The tea cakes in question came in a variety of shapes and sizes, each decorated differently, creating a rather colorful and appetizing display.
Picking one up, Fluttershy could tell that Autumn either dedicated a lot of time and care into each of tea cakes or knew an especially effective baking spell. Regardless it was an impressive display.
However, amongst the spread of delightful pastries, there was one tea cake that for some reason, caught her eye. It was a round cake, decorated to look like the cute face of a panda, that Fluttershy couldn’t help by smile at. She reached for it and placed it on her flowery plate, along with a variety of other pastries.
Discord meanwhile, left his plate empty, waiting for one large flower to bloom, revealing a big, bright blue, Bachelor Button. In the center of the wildflower was a wide platter filled with tea sandwich crusts. All perfectly square-shaped and freshly cut. Discord grabbed a handful of these crusts, placed them on his flowery plate, and began to happily snack away.
“Are those...sandwich crusts?” Fluttershy pondered to herself, cocking her head to the side as she observed the tall gentleman gleefully devouring the plain bready remains.
Before Fluttershy could wonder more about Discord’s unusual taste in snacks, another large bachelor button bloomed on the table, revealing a platter of cucumber sandwiches that were cut into a variety of different shapes, all without crusts. Fluttershy quickly grabbed one butterfly-shaped sandwich, along with a star-shaped one.
They continued to fill their plates with food as more flowers bloomed all across the table, offering platters of all types of food, so much so that Fluttershy could hardly believe it.
There were scones, tarts, cakes, biscuits, pies, custards, and all sorts of pastries native to Trottingham. Fluttershy tried to offer some of these treats to Angel, but the stubborn bunny refused. He continued to lay close to Fluttershy’s mossy chair, and nibble on the clover patches that covered the floor. However, even as he munched away, his eyes continued to pay a suspicious glance towards Discord.
Everything on her plate looked so appetizing that she almost couldn’t decide what to eat first. Well, almost. Fluttershy picked up the panda tea cake and bit into it. She didn’t expect the little dessert to have a cherry filling to it, along with the light accompanying taste of flora. To Fluttershy, if a cherry blossom had a taste to go with its scent, then this would be it. The taste was so wondrous that she unconsciously let out a quiet yet satisfied moan as she chewed.
Then, she moved onto the cucumber sandwiches. When she took her first bite, she couldn’t believe how fresh, flavorful, and simple homemade it tasted. Fluttershy didn’t think she could find something that could top the unexpected yet sweet flavor of these adorable pastries.
As Fluttershy continued to indulge herself in the many delightful foods before her, she failed to notice Discord eyeing her carefully after every bite. His gaze widened with interest when he saw the smile appear immediately after swallowing the first bite of her sandwich.
After Fluttershy finished one of the sandwiches on her plate, her eyes wandered back to the table filled to the brim with more food and drink than one can ever imagine. Yet, once again seeing the bounty of this meal left her curious about something.
“He’s going through a lot of trouble just to welcome me into his home. But… why?”
“A crust for your thoughts?” said Discord, abruptly interrupting Fluttershy's train of thought. She shifted her gaze to Discord and saw him leaning forward towards her; offering her a sandwich crust.
“Uh,” Fluttershy uttered aloud without really thinking, feeling a little confused by Discord’s offer, “don’t you mean ‘a penny for your thoughts’?”
“I would if I had a penny on me. But, who carries cash on them nowadays?”
Discord retracted the crust away from Fluttershy and popped it into his mouth. However, between its flight to Discord’s mouth, the crust transformed into a shiny penny. Without a second thought, Discord joyously opened his massive maw wide and swallowed the coin in one gulp, leaving Angel stunned and Fluttershy mildly confused, as well as frightened at being reminded of the mage’s rather large assortment of pointed teeth.
Forgoing her moment of fear, and now reasonably fed, Fluttershy quietly cleaned her mouth of crumbs before preparing to speak. “W-Well, since you asked… I was wondering if you… if you could that is… I uh… ”
“Ah yes, those pesky questions of yours from earlier! I remember! How could I forget? Ha ha!”
Discord reached over and picked another full, floral tea cup. However, unlike before, he began sipping out of it like a true gentlemen, taking short sips to fully appreciate the rich flavor of the tea with nary a sound. His gaze quickly turned its attention to Fluttershy, still shocked at the almost instantaneous change of character.
“Before we begin, I believe I should put something that’s clearly been on your mind to rest. You see, unlike most fae you may know, I am in no need of a ‘tasty’ Sleigh Beggy to eat.”
Fluttershy reached for her mouth nervously to prevent a scream before gulping it down at Discord’s mere mention of possibly devouring her.
Hearing her obvious distress, Discord couldn’t help himself and added a quick joke and a quick wink. “I’m strictly vegetarian now. Although, on my cheat days, I often go for some a bit more gamey just to give myself some variety.”
Fluttershy responded to Discord’s joke with nervous silence. She instantly clenched on the hem of her dress, as a nervous sweat began to form across her brow. The poor girl looked about ready to cry a literal river.
“But, more importantly,” Discord changed the subject, “I am in no need of a fragile gem to polish and praise over for the rest of my days. No no, I have a better, well let’s call it, business proposition in mind. Of course, you and I will both be receiving benefits from this arrangement, not just me.”
The mage placed his tea cup on his petal plate and directed his sights fully on Fluttershy. He positioned his fingers to create a square with his hands, and he set this square on Fluttershy. In a car salesman like voice, Discord pitched his plan.
“Picture it Fluttershy: You as my apprentice.”
Angel immediately stopped gazing on the clover patched floor and popped his head up in order gawk at Discord. Fluttershy’s eyes immediately widened, in a state where she was so shocked that she didn’t think she actually heard about the crazy mage said.
“ P-Pardon?”
“As a mage of my age, it’s high time that I acquire an apprentice of my own.” He expanded upon casually, clasping his hands together on his lap, “A student if you will. Someone that I can pass down all my glorious, chaotic wisdom to. Someone I can teach all the magic know-how that I happen to know.”
“But why me? I’m not a mage. Certainly not a mage like you.”
“Yet, my dear, emphasis on the yet. Trust me, once our training is through, you’ll be as great of a mage as I am... well, almost. Let’s face it, who in this world can match my kind of talent?” Discord said, puffing out his chest with pride as he ended his statement with a wink.
But, this wink and statement didn’t ease any of Fluttershy’s worries or concerns. “I… I still don’t understand. I mean, I’ve never even performed a spell before.”
“Ah, but that’s where you’re wrong. Believe it or not, you are actually using magic now without even realizing it.”
“I am?”
“My dear Fluttershy, the mere act of seeing the fae requires a great deal of magic. The fact you can do it so effortlessly is impressive enough. However, for a Child of Glass-like yourself, the use of such magic is like a lake spilling a drop of water.”
With a snap of his fingers and no warning, Discord suddenly sent a watery tsunami to flood the room. Luckily, he, Fluttershy and Angel avoided the flood as all the furniture in the room floated above the water. Meanwhile, the Parasprites chirped and panicked as they fluttered towards the closed windows. Fluttershy clung for life to her chair while Angel jumped quickly into her lap, watching on as all the food and tea fell into the water. Meanwhile, Discord simply sat on the couch as if there was nothing wrong.
“Added to the fact that you have never performed any other proper spell in your lifetime,” He continued to explain with ease, “or even used the assistance of the fae to transmit the simplest of tricks, your magical potential is almost completely untapped. Absolutely filled to the brim with potential. And with that potential is the ability to become a truly powerful mage. Much better than most modern, upcoming mages, I assure you.”
Discord pulled down on his blue antler as if he was pulling down on a lever. The seemingly pointless gesture caused the room to quickly drain out the water, returning all the furniture and individuals back to the floor.
Naturally, everything was completely drenched, with Fluttershy and Angel still clinging to the chair and each other in fear of another possible flood barreling in the room. The Parasprites were still trying to open the windows by banging themselves against the glass, while soggy pastries decorated the once clean grassy ground.
Fluttershy looked back at Discord in disbelief. There he was, sitting on the couch sipping tea as if the magical indoor tsunami was just a natural occurrence.
Fluttershy could tell that Discord was politely waiting for her reply, which she had quickly formed in her head. “But I don’t… I don’t want to be a powerful mage. All I ever wanted to be was a normal girl. I just… I just wanted to be like everyone else.”
Despite how earnestly she spoke, Discord didn’t seem the least bit convinced. “Wooow. That had to be the most depressing, mundane thing I have ever heard. My dear, you really need to learn to perk up.”
“But, what’s wrong for wanting to be-?”
Fluttershy and Angel flinched when Discord snapped his fingers again. However, instead of unexpected, horrifying chaos, Discord simply made the windows open on their own. Thus, releasing the Parasprites, allowing them to fly out.
Discord scratched his boney chin and tried clarifying aloud, “Hmmm. Let’s try to think of this apprenticeship in another way: The more you know about your enemy, the better you can combat it. Consider this, if you truly want to live this ugh, ‘normal’ life of yours, you’ll need to figure out a way to handle the fae that are naturally attracted to you. For better or worse, they stick like glue onto you. There’s no avoiding it. In my opinion, the only way to combat this issue is to defend yourself with magic, your own magic and learn as much about the world of fae as possible. Right now, you have neither of these things. Lucky for you though, I do.”
“Oh my,” Fluttershy suddenly realized the validity of what he was saying. “I didn’t think about that. Once I get back home, the same troubles I had before will be there waiting for me. And… things will only get worse once I leave college and start living on my own. That is if Aunt Cinch even thinks that I can be out in the world on my own. But still, he is right. What happened with the pack and Verko will only happen again. But… how in the world am I going to explain this to Aunt Cinch, or Cousin Sunny, or even Mrs. Cake?”
“I see that you’ll need some time to think over my proposal,” Discord lifted himself off the couch and walked towards Fluttershy, which earned an automatic hiss from Angel. “In that case, why don’t you stay here for the night and sleep on the matter?”
As Discord pulled out Fluttershy’s moss chair out, allowing her and Angel to properly leave the table, Fluttershy commented with concern, “Oh no, Angel and I wouldn’t want to impose.”
“Oh please! You two would barely take up any space in a house like this, believe me.”
Discord quickly called out before Fluttershy had a chance, “Autumn?”
“Yeah, Discord?”
Fluttershy jumped when she suddenly heard Autumn right behind her. Turning rapidly, she was shocked to see the kirin standing behind her with a big grin on her face and her tail was wagging like a happy and loyal labrador retriever.
“Could you kindly show Ms. Fluttershy and Ole Hissyface here to their room?”
“Sure thing big guy,” Autumn accepted with a friendly salute and a wink in her eye.
Then, she offered her hand to Fluttershy, “Interested in taking part in Autumn’s all exclusive house tour?”
“Oh umm…” Fluttershy looked down at Autumn’s hand for a moment before hesitantly accepting it with a wry smile, “Sure.”
“Great!” Autumn responded, giving Fluttershy’s hand a good, strong grip and pull, almost carrying the girl with her as they moved to exit the room.
While dragging Fluttershy eagerly to the grandfather clock they’d previously traveled through, Autumn excitedly brought up, “Soooo, how did the tea cakes go? You promised me details.”
While Autumn continued on without giving Fluttershy time to answer, Fluttershy let her eyes wander back to the mage behind her. This automatically got Discord’s attention and his gaze was solely on her. As she approached the clock, Discord watched her closely. He watched Autumn’s movements closely too; but mostly, his focus was squarely on Fluttershy.
The trollish glint in his eyes before was long gone and now spoke of a very observant but still cocky man. Or rather, fae. Or perhaps, even both. Either way, Fluttershy didn’t know what to make of such an expression.
However, several questions still lingered in her mind, “How did he know that I was in danger? How did he know my name? Why didn’t he just take me away before Verko and his men could?”
She hugged Angel tightly in response to her new found unease with Discord. Yet, for the moment all she could do was force herself to pull her attention away from him and walked through the clock with Autumn, leaving the mage alone.
“Alrighty! Here we are! Your new room. So whadda think?” announced Autumn as she opened the door and revealed the bedroom to the new cottage guests.
Fluttershy was amazed to find that her room was completely and utterly... well, normal looking. It was bare bones yes, but still, an otherwise normal looking cottage bedroom.
Due to the lack of decorations and color in the room, the bedroom looked more spacious than it actually was. The only pieces of furniture that occupied the space were some wooden drawers, a wardrobe, desk, bed, nightstand, and a tall standing mirror. The wooden walls of the bedroom were bare with equally barren floors underneath their feet with no rugs on it.
Overall the room had a prominent earth tone to it, with plaid curtains that hung by the windows. The only splash of color that stood out in the room were the pure white sheets and pillows on her bed, along with the small but cushioned, pink and green pet bed for Angel at the foot of her bed.
In truth, the only thing that made this room stand out slightly from most cottage bedrooms was the fact it had wide and tall windows, which served to bring in all the countryside sunlight in. The view from one of the windows overlooked both the flower garden and the accompanying vegetable garden, while the second window revealed the view of the front yard and the gravel road.
Fluttershy released her grip on Angel, so that they could both explore and examine the room in their own way. She cocked her head to the side when she noticed ten clay, empty garden pots on her desk. But, there was one pot that wasn’t empty, but in fact contained her pink orchid from her room back home.
“My... my orchid.” Fluttershy uttered in disbelief as she went up towards the potted plant. Picking it up, she brought it close to her face it in order to truly see if it was her orchid from back home.
Sure enough, it was. Same black, shiny but small garden pot and everything.
“Oh, I was wondering where Discord found this orchid from.” Autumn mused, as she strolled towards Fluttershy in order to get a better look at the orchid.
“Wait, Discord brought here? But, how did he… ?” Fluttershy asked aloud. She wasn’t really asking Autumn, but rather herself as more and more mysteries about the Chaotic Mage twisted and turned inside her head.
“He must have brought it from home for ya. You know, in order to make you feel comfortable here.”
“I... I suppose so.” Fluttershy answered, almost in a defeated tone as she placed the orchid back on the desk.
“What kind of orchid is it anyway? I’ve never seen anything like it.”
“Really? It’s just your standard Cymbidium Orchid. Or at least, that’s what the, um, kind old woman who gave it to me said.”
“Sounds like she didn’t know what she had cause I've never seen a Cymbidium Orchid like this. Or any orchid that compares to this one for that matter. Believe me, us Kirin know our orchids. They grow out naturally all the time where we live. What kind of shop sells you this kind of beauty at standard, commercial rate?”
“It wasn’t a shop, just a greenhouse owned by a kind elderly woman.”
Autumn found herself perplexed as she took another glance at the orchid while Fluttershy walked away from the desk. “Well, while I look into the mysteries surrounding your orchid, I’ll make sure to mention again to Discord that we should have put more decorations in your new room. Let’s face it, you need more than just an orchid to brighten up this place.”
This instantly made Fluttershy very curious, “Again?”
“I tried asking him the first time why he made this room so plain, but he kept saying that this room was plain for reason.” Autumn immediately paused for a moment before she was seemingly hit with a realization. “Oh wait, I know why! You must be an excellent little decorator! I knew it! I knew that there was another creative soul in our midst.”
“W-Well, I,” Fluttershy nervously stuttered, proceeding to look down at her fingers and hesitantly played with her fingers, “I’m... I’m not so sure about that to be honest. You see, I’ve never actually decorated a room before.”
“Oh, that’s okay,” Autumn encouraged yet comforted her, “That just means that this your chance to find out for sure! I still believe that you’re a fellow creative soul.”
“Thank you Autumn, that was very kind of you to say. But, I don’t know about that.”
Then, Fluttershy began to nervously play with her fingers again and blush as a new thought blossomed in her mind, “Um, Autumn? Do you, any chance, know where the bathroom might be? I didn’t see one in the, um, ‘hall’.”
“Oh, sure thing, let me show you!”
Autumn walked over to the wooden wardrobe and opened the left door. When she opened it, Fluttershy was startled to find that there was an entire bathroom laying just beyond the modest looking closet. But not just an ordinary looking bathroom, but one that would be found in the top level suite room of a fancy hotel.
The room itself was entirely made of grey and white marble, with black and gold accents everywhere. A sleek, rounded tub made for one, one sink accompanied by a wide, horizontal mirror, fresh fluffy towels, and it even came with an all glass shower.
“But, wait,” Autumn commented in an eager tone, “there’s more. Look.”
When Autumn opened the right door, there revealed something that should belong in a cabinet: a row of new clothes hanging amongst a row of hangers.
“Ta-Da!” Autumn proclaimed with cheer, “It’s a walk-in bathroom and a closet! What do you think? Pretty neat, huh?”
“I... I’ve never seen anything like it,” Fluttershy stated in awe, slowly moving closer to lightly hold the frames of the tall wardrobe. Angel, on the other hand, slowly hopped towards the room and sniffed the air surrounding it.
“Is there anything else that you need help with?”
“To be honest, I’m a little nervous about when it comes to leaving this room. I’m not sure that I’ll be able to navigate this house in the way that you and Discord do.”
Autumn playfully bonked her own head at a moment of realization. “I knew I was forgetting something! Hang on a sec.”
Autumn closed her eyes, and using her magic, she made the stripes on her horn glow light blue. Fluttershy gasped as she saw her jade pendant float away from her body slightly and glow in the same light blue hue. After hovering for a second or so, the glow disappeared from the jade and float back to Fluttershy’s chest. Limp and lifeless once more.
“There, that should do the trick,” Autumn remarked, opening her bright, golden eyes, “just tell the pendant where you want to go in the house and it should light the path for you. It won’t help you with the gravity thing unfortunately, but should help you not get lost in this place.”
“That’s okay Autumn, this will still help out a lot. Thank you.”
“No, thank you!”
Fluttershy turned to the Kirin with a look of befuddlement. “For... for what?”
“For coming of course! It’s so great to have a new member to our rough and tumble family.”
Fluttershy’s eyes widened and she sputtered, “F-Family?”
“Anywho, just holler if you need anything, okay? I’ll be listening for ya. Or even if you just need to talk and gossip, I’ll be listening for ya too. I’m all ears with it comes to that. But seriously, don’t hesitate to call. Okay? ” And with that last remark, Autumn left Fluttershy and Angel with a gentle grin.
Once Autumn was no longer in the room, Fluttershy let out an exhausted sigh and let her hands lazily grasp on the frame of the cabinet.
She lifted her head sluggishly and stared deep into the depths of the modern yet exquisite bathroom. The clean, glistening marble that sparkled within it made her realize how long it must have been since she had last bathed. Suddenly, her skin felt sticky and covered with old sweat. She caught a whiff of oily hair as strands of it slowly slid down her face, only to scrunch her nose as the scent crept into her nose.
“Goodness, I need a bath,” She uttered aloud in a tired tone.
Fluttershy let a relaxed sigh escape through her lips as she stepped out of the bathroom side of the magical cabinet and back into her room. With her hair flowing behind her freely, she softly muttered aloud, “Ah, much better. I really needed that.”
The teenage girl couldn’t have asked for a more accommodating restroom. A large spacious bathtub that had jets to massage her back, scented candles lit and spread out in every corner of the room, soft fragrant soaps and shampoos, all with a slightly warmer than room temperature atmosphere. Fluttershy felt utterly spoiled by the whole experience and almost forgotten where she was.
She was able to properly scrub clean and dry her hair, her butterfly hair clip secured in her left hand. She was about to put her hair clip in when she saw Angel patiently waiting for her with a smile.
“Oh, I’m sorry,” Fluttershy apologized to Angel, lowering herself slightly towards his eye level, “did I keep you waiting?”
Before Angel could shake his head to respond, his eyes suddenly widened and he immediately let out a series of squeaks to explain the new surprise that had just developed.
“Huh? New clothes? What do you mean An-?” Fluttershy answered, before she caught a glimpse of herself in the tall standing mirror placed beside the cabinet. She stopped herself and took in the reflection of her, now dressed in her new clothes.
Instead of the white, collared shirt dress that she thought she put on after her bath, she wore a multi-piece ensemble. A white collared shirt with a light pink cashmere sweater vest over it; a brown skirt that went to her knees; a long, hunter green heavy wool jacket with a hood; tall, brown, hunter boots that went to her knees; and of course, the new jade butterfly necklace that Discord gave her.
“But, I thought I put back on-”, Fluttershy brought her eyes back to the cabinet. She sighed and cupped her forehead with her right hand. Kicking off her new boots, she dragged her tired feet towards her new bed, “Discord was right Angel, I really need to sleep on this.”
“This is... this is all too much.” Fluttershy reflected to herself in her mind, as her body soon collapsed upon the bed.
Angel followed after, and let out a cute yawn as he curled himself inside his new bed.
Fluttershy’s body was soon relaxed into the comfy cushions of her bed, she released her grip on her hair clip. Her hair clip rolled slightly away from Fluttershy and disappeared into the covers of the bed. Despite it just being the afternoon, to Fluttershy and Angel, it almost felt like nighttime, making it easy for the two to silently drift to sleep.
Meanwhile, unbeknownst to those in the chaotic cottage, pairs upon pairs of glowing eyes watched the cottage from the nearby forest.
Warning: Reader Discretion is advised. The following chapter will be discussing sensitive subject matter. This chapter will be discussing the mental and emotional state of a character who’s a survivor of an emotionally and mentally abusive household. If you or someone you know has been affected by the real world theme portrayed in this story, please follow the link & phone number provided in the description at end/bottom of this chapter for the organization that can provide practical help and advice.
“There is nothing like looking, if you want to find something. You certainly usually find something, if you look, but it is not always quite the something you were after.”
J.R.R. Tolkien, The Hobbit
ʇɥƃıs uıɐld uı uǝppıɥ
Fluttershy warily stirred in bed, trying to block the peaking but still piercing sunlight. However, Fluttershy’s face slowly nudged towards the direction of the door, where the soft, intoxicating smell of breakfast was coming from. Her right arm reluctantly pulled out from the warm covers in order to reach for the nightstand, trying to find her cellphone with no success.
When Fluttershy finally lifted her head away from the pillow, she saw that her phone was nowhere to be found. It took her still hazy mind a moment to finally recall the events of the past few days.
When Verko and his fae men kidnapped her, it’s likely they either destroyed her phone, or sold it to the highest bidder on the black market, or just threw it away. But more importantly, Fluttershy was reminded that she wasn’t home.
She sighed and rubbed her face, almost lazily trying to rub out her guilt and her homesickness.
Fluttershy stretched her arms out wide and wiggled her toes slightly under the covers before moving to exit the sheets. Her action was met by the sudden bumping of the edge of Angel’s bed with her side of her foot, causing the bunny’s ears to perk up. His head lazily followed after.
“Oh, oops. Sorry Angel. I didn’t mean to wake you, sweetie.”
Angel responded with a yawn, and soon after, proceeded to prepare himself to jump out of his little bed.
“Oh, no no, you don’t have to wake up,” Fluttershy tried to argue in her soft yet groggy morning voice. “Go back to sleep, okay?”
Angel let out a quiet, tired, squeaky protest. His tone indicated to Fluttershy that he was up anyway, so he might as well start his day and get going. And to emphasize his point, he quickly stretched out his entire body like a little kitten before hopping off.
As Fluttershy followed in Angel’s lead, she glanced down at what she wore to bed and realized something rather important.
“Oh dear, I wore my new clothes to bed. How long have I been sleeping for? Angel, do you know what time it is?”
Angel hopped over to the top of the desk and looked out the window. He pointed to the fresh morning light, the bright blue skies, and the flock of birds flying over the garden, squeaking to properly get her attention.
“It’s the next day already?” She remarked in groggy awe, her eyes squinting into the window.
Angel nodded.
“I can only imagine what Discord and Autumn must think of us. They must think we’re such lazy and unappreciative house guests.”
Angel growled under his breath at the mention of Discord’s name, still less than happy about the situation that the manic and masked mage was putting them through.
Fluttershy picked up the white bunny and headed towards her new boots left beside her bed.
“Now Angel, I know you still don’t trust Discord. But, at least he’s giving me a choice in all this. After all, I could say no to his offer and go home. However, there’s a lot to consider. There’s still a lot of dangers out there all because I’m a Sleigh Beggy. If I’m not prepared, who knows what could happen next?”
Despite her points, Angel let out a series of squeaks, hisses, and growls; all in a questioning and suspicious tone. He even waved his paws around dramatically to accompany each of these squeaks, hisses, and growls.
Yet despite the seemingly incoherent ramblings from the pintsized forest creature, Fluttershy was able to follow every sound with ease.
“That’s a good question Angel,” Fluttershy responded reflectively, placing Angel on the bed while strapping her brown boots back on. “How do I know if he’ll even be a good teacher or not? Hmm, actually… more than just a good question.”
She took a moment to think about it, pondering on how to test this mysterious mage. Fluttershy instantly realized that her solution lied in that very word: test. “Oh I know! What if we gave him a test?”
Angel cocked his head to the side and let out a confused squeak.
“A teacher test. A test to specifically see if he can be a good one or not. If he can teach me at least one good lesson on how to defend myself from the fae, then we’ll stay. If not, we’ll leave right away.”
When Fluttershy reached out for the bedroom door’s handle, she also contemplated aloud, “I should ask Discord if he has a phone I can use somewhere. No matter what decision I make today, I still need to call Aunt Cinch and let her know what's been going on. Although …”
Then, she pondered aloud in a shy and unsure tone, “To be honest, I’m not sure how to explain this to her. I have a feeling that she won't… you know and... reasonably so.”
Her moment of silent debate was interrupted when she quickly realized something was missing.
“Oh, I almost forgot,” She pulled out her jade butterfly necklace, and placed the pendant into her palm.
Feeling unsure on how to activate the pendant, regretting not asking Autumn for the full instructions. Then again, since it was magical jewelry, she figured that she could at least try asking it first because… why not ask an enchanted pendant that can take you to any spot inside a crazy yet magical cottage?
“Um, hello little pendant. If it’s not too much trouble for you, could you please show us the way to… wherever Discord and Autumn are in the house?”
The pendant immediately started to glow, the same light blue glow of Autumn’s magic.
The carved piece of jade floated a few inches above Fluttershy’s palm and, pretty soon, the handle shared the same shine as the jade. With a slick turn and a click, the door opened.
A spiraling vortex was then revealed inside the doorway. Before Fluttershy could walk towards it, gravity released its grip on her feet and she was floating above ground just like she did yesterday.
Now startled and unsure, she clumsily strode over to the portal like a newbie astronaut learning how to walk on the moon. She closed her eyes and let the magic transport them to who knows where in the house.
Thus, leaving behind her butterfly hair clip that was still stuck in the soft folds of her bed.
When Fluttershy opened her eyes, she found herself floating in a rather traditional medieval kitchen. Well, it would be… if it weren’t for perpetuating swirling, bright, black and white striped patterns that covered the walls and floors. Along with the gravity defying furniture.
The kitchen floor appeared to be made out of cobblestones. Smooth, light arched ceilings and walls decorated the room, harsh iron and flame-less chandeliers, and a giant fireplace that served as the stove and oven area.
Good thing this kitchen had the giant fireplace and bright, monochrome spirals because this room would have been completely consumed by pitch darkness otherwise.
Amidst the bricks and spirals was Autumn, humming and cooking away by the giant fireplace; stirring the huge boiling cauldron inside the flames.
The savory yet pleasantly aroma filled the kitchen air and this attracted an excited crowd of buzzing Parasprites hovering from nearby. Some even cuddled close into Autumn’s mane just to get closer to the lovely brew cooking in the pot.
The home cooked meal seemed to consume the atmosphere around Fluttershy; almost distracting her away from the small, curled up, lizard-like fae that was nesting under Autumn’s cauldron.
The young animal enthusiast squinted her eyes to get a closer look and discovered it was the same little red gecko fae that she saw yesterday.
At first, Fluttershy was bewildered by the sight of this fae just seemingly burning in the fireplace. But, once she realized that the fae was, well, a mythical creature with the power to enjoy himself in the warm embers without being cooked alive… she mentally slapped herself.
Discord, on the other hand, was currently hanging on the ceiling...along with the dinning table.
In spite of his unusual sitting location, the mad magician didn’t seem the least bit bothered, casually reading a newspaper and drinking his tea. Or rather, he was drinking the color and substance of the tea cup itself, leaving the hot tea to remain in the shape of the disappearing tea cup.
To accompany Discord’s strange drinking behavior, the table was decorated with all kinds of traditionally Asian breakfast dishes. However, a quick glance showed there was a vegetarian flavor to them, focusing more on ingredients like eggs, noodles, rice, and vegetables.
“Does Discord know that I’m vegetarian or is this all just a large coincidence?” Fluttershy pondered.
Just like Autumn, he and the dinning table were surrounded by a herd of happily humming Parasprites. Though, whenverone of the Parasprites tried to get close to the food, Discord would magically summon a flyswatter and harmlessly swat them away.
At the center of the dining area was a long, curled up, green, serpent-like, dragon shaped teapot with matching dragon head shaped tea cups surrounding it, while hot steam was leaking through their nostrils.
“Morning sleepy head!” Autumn called out to Fluttershy, waving joyously at her with one hand and stirring the cauldron with the other, “You’re just in time for breakfast.”
Discord glanced up... or rather down from his newspaper and added in with a gentlemanly tone, “Good morning Fluttershy.”
The gecko-like fae curled up under Autumn’s cauldron opened his eyes and perked up his head happily at the mention of Fluttershy’s name. He turned towards the direction of Discord’s voice, and soon found the sweet Sleigh Beggy just a few feet away. He beamed at the sight of her and quickly waddled towards her.
Meanwhile, Fluttershy took notice of Discord’s new, and very magical looking attire. In this outfit, it truly made Discord look like a wizard from a fairy tale.
He had a grand, long, black robe with white and black detailed accents at the end of his big sleeves. Strings of gold hanging in ringlets from his antlers; framing his tall, ebony neck and his red gem bolo tie nicely. Tied on the back of his antlers was a piece of a purple and lavender checked cloth. Underneath his robe was a collared white shirt with a black, buttoned vest, black tux pants, and polished onyx shoes. The only thing that was missing was his signature golden cane, and Fluttershy wondered where that could be.
Discord then started to slowly scan her up and down. Fluttershy’s arms instinctively wrapped around her chest and turned her back slightly towards him. Meanwhile, Angel Bunny jumped in front of his beloved owner and readied himself in an attacking pouncing position. All set to defend her from the untrustworthy spellcaster.
Before she could ask why he was looking her up and down, Discord chuckled, “Well now! What do we have here? I see that you liked your new clothes so much that you slept in them.”
Fluttershy, in a quick but stiff self search, saw that her new outfit was covered with nothing but wrinkles. Her face immediately flushed with embarrassment. “It was an accident. I usually don’t sleep in my clothes, but I-”
Rather than offer some snarky retort, Discord, with a snap of his fingers, magically took out all of the creases and wrinkles in Fluttershy’s new outfit. Making it look brand new again, reminding Fluttershy of the rather unique situation she now found herself in.
The sentiment wasn’t shared by Angel, who merely stuck his tongue out in disgust at this whole conversation taking place.
When Fluttershy looked back up to him, Discord had returned to reading his paper. His muzzle completely covered by tall columns and head lines.
“Miso’s ready!” Autumn joyously announced, using her magic to lift the cauldron out of the fireplace.
While the kirin chef, the Parasprites, and the cauldron floated towards the dining table, the miso soup magically streamed from the cauldron into three fine china bowls.
“C’mon Flutters!” Autumn encouraged eagerly. “Get it while it’s hot! Oh, you don’t mind miso, do you?”
“Oh no, not at all.” Fluttershy assured the maid. “I like miso. Thank you for making it. And breakfast too.”
“Anything for our new and favorite household member!”
As Fluttershy processed Autumn’s constant remarks about her being part of their “family”, she floated over and took a seat on the other end of the dining table.
When she took her seat, Angel immediately took his rightful place on her lap before the red, reptile fae could. This in turn left the poor fae to whine in defeat and slowly float back to the fireplace, while the still angry Angel growled at the attempted intrusion.
As Fluttershy and Angel adjusted to the sensation of blood rushing to their heads, the dragon head teapot opened its maw and let the tea drool into the tiny mouths of each tea cup, as if it was feeding its babies.
The tea cups, now filled with tea, scurried hastily to Discord’s, Autumn’s, and Fluttershy’s spots at the table.
The aforementioned energetic maid was about to take her seat, but when she scanned the table, her eyes stopped towards Discord’s end. “Wait a minute! Hold the phone! Where are the wasabi pancakes?!”
“Hmm,” Discord pondered aloud, stroking his boney chin in thought. “That’s a good question. Let’s see: there's dumplings, buns, rice, tofu,.... oh darn. It looks like the Mouse Kingdom is at it again. You know how much they love pancakes.”
“THOSE FREAKIN MICE!” Autumn growled, her fiery form emerging immediately.
She rapidly flew out of her seat and left the kitchen exclaiming, “THIS WILL BE THE LAST TIME! YOU HEAR ME! THE LAST TIME!”
As Autumn’s fiery form fled to inflict ferocious vengeance, one of the Parasprites followed after her with a distressed look on their face, while Discord didn’t even bother to look in her direction.
“Take your time Autumn,” Discord called out to her. “We won’t eat the eggs without you. We promise.”
“YOU BETTER NOT!” shouted Autumn. Her call echoed in the hallway just next to the kitchen.
And just like that, Discord and Fluttershy were all alone in the kitchen... well mostly alone. Hidden underneath the table, Angel was glaring angrily at the mage’s polished shoes, barely restraining himself from taking a large bite out of them.
Still, in spite of the rather lively start, things had quieted down with only the sound of hungry Parasprites chirping for food and their wings resounding alongside the sound of crackling fire being heard. Though, even that somewhat minor level of noise was utterly deafening to Fluttershy, now completely alone with her host.
Despite only knowing him for a short while Fluttershy was fairly confident that Discord wanted Autumn to leave and made those pancakes disappear on purpose.
“So, have you made your decision, my dear?” Discord asked pompously as he laid out his napkin on his lap with overly exaggerated flare.
“I have.”
“In that case” He eagerly encouraged, seating practically at the edge of his seat. “Don’t be shy. I’ll always be all ears.”
POOF!
Filling in the ear holes on the side of his skull head, Discord was fashioning a giant pair of grey elephant ears that seemed to wiggle with pride for some reason.
“Though, you don’t really need to tell me,” Discord chuckled in his mind, “I already know what it’s going to be.”
“I’ve decided to accept your proposal and become your apprentice.”
“Excellent! You see Fluttershy, this is why I like you. You’ve got this wonderful thing called intelligence. I dare say that you even have a good head on your shoulders.”
POOF!
Fluttershy’s eyes widened in terror and she instantly screamed at the sight of a human skull on her left shoulder. Naturally, this alone would scare most people, but the fact the skull ominously had a long, pink wig on top of it didn’t help steady the poor girl’s nerves.
Before the skull could hit the kitchen floor, Discord poofed it out of existence... with an evil little snicker under his breath. Then, with a theatrical wave of his hand, Discord made fine glasses appear in both his hand and in Fluttershy’s hand.
“Let’s celebrate! And I cannot think of a better way than with some mimosas! My treat!”
Fluttershy, after taking a moment to get over her brief shock, examined the sparkling drink in confusion and uttered, “Um, I’m eighteen.”
“Doesn’t matter!” Discord dismissed in a jolly tone, wavering his drink around without a care in the world and his elephant ears still flapping about. “It’s still close enough. The drinking age in Vanhoover is nineteen, right? Besides, you’re in Europe now! Children here learn to drink at a far younger age.”
Fluttershy sat her drink down on the table before stating hesitantly yet sincerely, “Discord,... I… I don’t mean to be rude, but… I’m only agreeing to your proposal under one condition.”
“A condition?” He replied, cocking his skull head to the side in confusion and taking the tip of his muzzle away from his mimosa.
“If you can prove to me that you're a good magic teacher, then I’ll stay as your apprentice. And once I complete my studies with you, you'll allow me to go back home. But,... if you can’t prove to me in one lesson that you can’t be a good magic teacher… then… well...”
“I’ll finish that statement for you,” With another wave of his hand, but this time less theatrical than before, the mimosas and his elephant ears disappeared. “You won’t ‘let’ me teach you, right?”
“You may be a powerful mage…”
“Correction, the most powerful mage.”
“Regardless of being ‘the most powerful mage,” Fluttershy emphasized despite her better judgement to do so. “To me, this doesn’t really tell me whether you’ll be a good magic teacher or not.”
“How could it not?” answered Discord in an almost insulted tone, placing his gloved hand on his chest. “Only powerful mages, such as I, can understand the true depths and complexities of your power and how to properly control it.”
“That may be true, but… how are you going to do it? How are you going to teach me?”
“I’ll teach you, that’s how.”
“But, how?” Fluttershy re-emphasized, feeling more genuinely confused and curious rather than hesitant, which finally seemed to get the message across to the mage.
“Well, I’ll,” he stammered slightly, struggling to find the right answer to this stubborn girl’s question. He thought he had the teaching plan all figured out, but his mind was drawing a blank for some reason. Was he too focused on coming up with a scheme to lure her into his world that he completely forgot the teacher part of his master plan? He mentally snapped himself at his own incompetence.
However, he gracefully recovered from his stammer and gave her the most typical but safe answer he could think of, “I’ll just do what any good teacher would do. Magic or not. Simple as that.”
“Which is?”
“This stubborn little Sleigh Beggy,” Discord mentally growled.
“I’ll give you homework,” he continued with ease and casualty, poofing in homework papers and chalkboards and other school items into the air above them. “I’ll be the most cliche teacher of your dreams. I’ll write on the chalkboard and make you spell out all your magical ABC’s.”
“That still doesn’t tell me what kind of teacher you’re going to be,” Fluttershy explained to him further; her frustration slowly building below the surface. “Let alone whether you’ll be a good one.”
There was only so much that Fluttershy could take. She had been in his presence for just about twenty four hours, and the more she questioned this mage about anything, the more questions he seemed to produce. Why did he need an apprentice? Why did he need one now after not having one for so long? Why did he need her specifically as his apprentice? How did he know about her in the first place? How did he find her?
At this rate, Fluttershy felt like she’ll never get her answers, only jokes, riddles, games, and chaos. She needed at least one thing, just one thing, that seemed to be solid and true.
“I’m sorry, but if you don’t want to teach me how to defend myself from the fae properly, then… “
Feeling like she had no other option she could go to, in order to get her point across, she had to take the risk. Fluttershy hated taking risks more than anything. But despite this, she threatened him, politely of course, with, “I guess that I’ll just have to find another teacher.”
“Ha! You?” Discord emphasized in his chuckle, and instantly making all the school items poof out of their sight. “Another teacher? How? You can’t even get within twenty feet of another fae without running away in fear! So, what makes you think that you have enough guts to approach another mage?”
His mocking chuckle broke Fluttershy’s patience. Without even thinking, she let her frustration speak for her. “Hmph! Fine then, I guess I’ll have to go back to Verko and ask him on how to find a real magic teacher.”
“You wouldn’t,” Discord hissed, his prior humor extinguished.
“Really? Verko did mention that Sleigh Beggies were rare things,” Fluttershy continued to vent out. “And rare things only go to the most prestigious buyers. I’m sure that he’ll be able to find a mage, just as powerful as you are to teach me!”
Fluttershy’s gusto suddenly left her when her ears picked up on the devouring silence in the room. Discord was quiet. Too quiet. He didn’t respond right away.
What made this worse was that there seemed to be no emotion that lingered in his glowing eyes. His eyes were the only gateway to his true emotions from what Fluttershy could see. Without his expressive eyes, Fluttershy felt lost and the weight of what was happening started to hit her.
She quickly remembered the kind of person she was. The kind of girl that she’ll always be. Just a shy, pathetic coward, doomed forever to the constant threat of the fae. Completely powerless when it came to defending herself. What was she thinking? Trying to defy fate? Trying to assert her own rights and thoughts into a situation like this?
Fluttershy began to regret this stupid test plan. She wished she could leave this kitchen, go back home, curl up into a ball in her room, and forget how foolish she feels right now. Discord was right. Without him, how in the world was she supposed to venture out into the world on her own?
Angel meanwhile, sensing the stress that his adopted mother was going through, jumped onto the table. He stood in front of her; standing as the only wall against the tyranny that is Discord, paws across his chest and giving him a leer far too brave for a prey animal of his size.
Sadly for Angel, his little act of defensive defiance was ignored as Discord’s skull head was buzzing with all sorts of puzzling quandaries rather than plans to hurt anyone.
“This girl! This difficult, annoying girl. No worse, this clever, difficult, annoying piece of Sleigh Beggy existence. I wonder if that rabbit of hers is responsible for this. Hmm, did she cast a spell to allow herself to talk to animals? Pfft! What a useless spell! She shouldn’t be wasting her magic on something like that. When I’m her teacher, that will be the first thing to go.”
Discord went through every dirty trick he could think of. Every trollish spell in his memory that could have the slightest possibility of helping him in this situation. But, in the end, all possible answers led him to ultimately controlling Fluttershy’s will with his magic. And if he ended up doing that… it would ruin all his plans. He can’t do that. As tempted as he was to give his own version of a counter proposal to her counter proposal, he knew that if he attempted this, his ultimate goal cannot be achieved.
Discord could already hear the mocking laughter of…
Before he could accept or deny Fluttershy’s proposal, Autumn returned, back to her cheerful, non-fiery self. Alongside her was a smiling Parasprite, popping out of her mane to greet them.
She came back into the room with a plate stacked with a huge pile of green pancakes. “Found them! You wouldn’t believe where I found the pancakes. Turns out that-”
Fluttershy jumped a little in her seat when Discord arose straight up. Without any attention given to Fluttershy or Autumn, he began his descent back to the floor. “The Mice Kingdom didn’t kidnap our wasabi pancakes.”
“That’s right! Wait, how did you know?”
“Oh you know,” Discord dismissed in his usual trollish tone, hiding flawlessly his inner exasperation. “Looked into the future and all that fun jazz. Honestly, how would I not know?”
Then, he reached into his empty ear socket and pulled out his signature golden cane. As the item came into existence, he twirled it around in his grip with swift grace. Then, Discord used it to summon a portal.
Before Fluttershy could ask where the mage was going, her gravity defying chair was taking her down. Angel quickly jumped into Fluttershy’s lap before his owner could leave him behind.
“W-Wait!” Autumn called out to the pair, reaching out to them to almost stop them from leaving. With her ears slightly pinned back, she asked in a whimper, “Are you guys... leaving?”
“Afraid so, my dear kirin,” said Discord, taking no notice of Autumn’s saddened state. “It’s the first day of magic lessons and our impatient little student here just cannot wait for another moment. As a wise candy man once said, `So much time and so little do. Wait a minute. Strike that. Reverse it. Thank you.’”
“But,” Autumn protested. “You guys just can’t leave. Not without breakfast. Not without… our first breakfast together.”
Autumn fought through the emotion building in her throat and tried to cheerfully recommend, “I mean, a student can't learn on an empty stomach, right? And I certainly don’t think a teacher can teach on an empty stomach either.”
“She’s right, Discord,” Fluttershy added as she lifted herself from her chair. “Besides, Autumn went through so much trouble just to make us breakfast.”
“Oh, it wasn’t too much trouble at all Flutters,” Autumn reassured her, a bit of mirth returning to her voice. “I’m happy to do it anytime, anywhere, and any day of the week.”
“Oh good,” Discord chimed. “In that case, you wouldn’t mind it if we packed it for to-go.”
With a snap of his fingers, all the food on the table was gone. Soon after, bento box lunches appeared in Discord’s hands and Fluttershy’s hands.
Befitting his strange nature, Discord’s box was in the shape of his own head, while Fluttershy had a cute little box in the shape of a butterfly. This sudden shift left the Parasprites humming sadly at the disappearance of the breakfast that they were about to devour while the powerful mage wasn’t looking.
Just as Autumn was about to utter another objection, Discord threw his entire bento box into his mouth and swallowed it all in one gulp.
Autumn’s eyes became like saucers as she witnessed Discord licking his massive jaws with his long, serpent-like tongue. All her disagreements died off as she softly picked up on Discord’s satisfied moan.
“Delicious Autumn, as always! I don’t know how you do it.”
In order to lead Fluttershy into the luminescent portal, Discord hooked his long arm around her by the waist and swooped her close to his side. He then surprised the young Sleigh Beggy by poofing her very own book bag on her shoulder.
As he magically commanded her bento box and Angel into her book bag, Discord proclaimed, “Come along my dear, the great world of learning awaits!”
As for Fluttershy, she turned around to tell Autumn goodbye. However, her farewell faded on her tongue when she briefly gazed upon her unusually downtrodden state.
The poor kirin was staring down miserably at her cloven feet, and her large ears were hanging lifelessly on each side of her head. All the Parasprites hovered around Autumn; some of them even nuzzled against her cheeks in a vain attempt to cheer her up.
But, when Autumn sensed someone’s gaze towards her way, she quickly lifted her head. She gave Fluttershy a forced smile. Then, she waved in a too excitable fashion as Fluttershy disappeared into the portal.
“You two have a great time!”
When Fluttershy opened her eyes, she found herself standing in the middle of a slightly narrow, cracked, city sidewalk.
Old brick buildings towered each side of the sidewalk, each holding secret little alleyways. There weren’t too many people walking about and the few that were present were mostly visiting the stores and cafes inside the brick buildings.
The people that mainly made up the area were either sweet elderly couples, chic yet hipster millennials, the insect like fae that would repair the shops’ flowers, the gremlin like fae that lived in the trash cans, and the small but very much alive gargoyles perching on top of the old brick buildings.
Small, European cars were driving on the road that separated the parallel, cracked sidewalks. The pavement smelled of fresh rain, and the sun shared the sky with some light grey clouds. Straight ahead, she could see the path eventually leading her to modern streets of Leapdon.
As Fluttershy was about to follow behind the silent but off putting mage and ask him where they were heading off to, but she was stopped by her bunny’s high pitched shriek.
“What is it Angel?! What’s wrong?!” exclaimed Fluttershy.
When she looked down at her feet, she could see that her legs were replaced with the hind legs of a cat.
Fluttershy instinctively brought her hands to her face and discovered that her face was now covered in fur. Despite her fright, her hands hesitantly explored her new face.
Her fingertips were able to trace out her new, more protruding nose. Even her mouth was sticking out, formed completely into the shape of a cat’s snout.
Fluttershy quickly pulled her hands away from her face. She was shocked by the new revelation that her hands were no longer hands, but rather paws.
Her eyes immediately searched as fast as she could for the nearest mirror. Luckily yet unfortunately, she did find a nearby store window. She didn’t think it was true, but it was. She had been turned into a cat. A humanoid cat.
Her cat form was colored with the same color as her skin. Except, with light pink highlights on top of her head and her ears. There was a pink highlight at the tip of her tail, and pink decorating her paws and hindlegs. Her teal eyes were still there, except brighter and sharper in shape and color. Definitely more feline in nature. To go with the eyes and fur, she also had a round, soft, fluffy face and tail to match. She even had light pink fur spots patterned upon her face, almost like freckles. But there was one spot that didn’t look like a soft, little freckle. This rather unusual looking pink spot was on her upper lip.
“Is that a… moustache?” She wondered as she lightly traced her upper lip.
Luckily, unlike an actual cat, she wasn’t naked. She still had all her clothes on. Although, there was a new addition to her wardrobe.
On her neck was a blunky, knitted, light grey infinity scarf. But, there was something particularly funky about the scarf’s scent. You can only imagine how potent the scarf’s scent was to Fluttershy’s new cat snout. It not only smelt like a household of cats, but also smelt like old cat nip, a litter box, dead rats, and decaying spiders. In fact, thanks to her new cat ears and eyes, the light of day seemed brighter and every sound was louder than before.
“D-Discord?!” Fluttershy shouted, “Something went wrong inside the portal! I’m… I’m… ”
Discord, suddenly appearing out of nowhere, shushed her by lightly placing the unicorn head of his cane on her lips.
Coming from behind, and with a delighted chuckle, Discord defied high above Fluttershy’s new furry head. He stared into the same shop window with Fluttershy, taking a good and full glare into her newly transformed state. She had a feeling that, if Discord’s face had the ability to do so, he would be smirking right about now.
Angel hopped up and down furiously, trying to reach the mage’s feet or at least ankles. He wanted to ferociously bite off the toes of this no good bone head.
“Relax my little soon-to-be apprentice, the portal that I had summoned just had a hint of transformative glamor to it. That’s all. Happens all the time really. Although, I really should be calling you my little familiar if we truly want to be convincing with your new look and all.”
When Discord pulled his cane away from the Slay Vega’s lips, Fluttershy remarked in a soft yet unsure tone, “Fa-Familiar?”
As Discord floated back to the sidewalk, he brought the head of his cane close to one of the ear holes on the side of his skull and called out, “What’s that I hear? Is that the soft whispers of a little so & so in need of a wise but very handsome individual to teach her?”
With a twirl of his cane and a cocky stride in his step, he added, “If so, that little whisper better follow this noble yet merciful teacher if she is ever to get the answers to her questions.”
As the mage left Fluttershy’s side merrily, Angel charged at his feet like a wild bull. But right when he was about a few feet away from Discord’s ankles, the bunny was met with an invisible wall. The impact made him bounce back towards Fluttershy and land straight onto his belly, leaving the slightly battered bunny to rub his now swelling forehead.
Fluttershy meanwhile was left unsure if Discord would truly answer her questions if she followed him. After all, he has been nothing but a riddle master since they met. Not to mention, he still hadn’t given her his answer to her little proposal. Is she going to be his apprentice by force or by her choice? However, he did give her some time to think about his own proposal yesterday. So, maybe he’ll accept hers today, or at least, think about it.
As frustrating and unsettling as it would be to have this fae as her teacher, he was the only available and willing option she had for learning about the magical world. Without this knowledge, Fluttershy would have no means to defend herself. So, she really had no choice but to rely on Discord.
In the end, she would need his help in order to turn back to her normal self. Even though this new look of hers was all his fault. Plus, she's a vulnerable, fresh out of high school girl, transported to a foreign country. With the added factor of being a magical target to all fae everywhere. She’ll need his guidance for today whether she liked it or not. Hopefully, she can find a place with a phone and call her family.
As she was about to follow Discord to their next destination, a hipster couple were quickly approaching her from behind. Sadly Fluttershy didn’t notice them, until they started to walk through her.
Angel and Fluttershy both shrieked as the couple continued on their way, completely ignoring the sounds.
Fluttershy, with wide eyes glued to the pair ahead, realized aloud, “I’m… I’m one of them. I’m one of the fae. Discord, he… he transformed me into… a fae.”
It was bad enough to face the nightmares of being sold to the dirty underground of the black market as a magical slave, but now, she had to face the hell of being a fae as well. To become the monster of her worst fears, the thing she most despised. Fluttershy couldn’t feel any oxygen entering in or out of her body. She began to feel light headed. She couldn’t think.
As she started to back away, and head towards a dark alleyway behind her, Angel quickly placed himself behind her. Ready to catch Fluttershy in case she faints. However, before she could do so, her cat ears perked up on the sound of two large dogs barking happily behind her.
When she turned towards the barking, she found that it wasn’t two separate dogs running past her. Instead, a brown and white two headed dog ran right past her. But luckily, this time, the creature didn’t run through her like she was a ghost. Instead, the magical canine pushed her aside.
As Fluttershy grabbed hold of the brick wall behind her, she had to be sure that the two headed dog couldn’t hear her just like that couple. She had to know whether she was just a regular fae or a ghost. Though, in Fluttershy’s mind, she couldn’t tell which scenario was worse.
Fluttershy cupped her hands around her mouth and called out, “Hello?”
The dog-like fae stopped. His floppy ears perked up and he sniffed the surrounding air until he was facing Fluttershy's direction. All of his ears perked, and Fluttershy’s new cat ears mimicked this action as well.
The two shared a silent moment together, holding each other’s gaze. But, this was soon broken when one of the heads on the two headed dog sneezed. The other head barked at Fluttershy and ran off.
“Well, at least the fae can see and hear me,” said Fluttershy, her gaze not leaving the alleyway that the two headed dog disappeared into.
Angel scratched the top of his head with a puzzled look on his face.
“And you can still see me too? And hear me?”
With a smile, Angel nodded his head. Then, he leapt into his cat mom’s paws and gave her a sweet hug.
“Thank goodness,” She whispered happily into his hutches, taking extra care to make sure her claws didn’t scratch him while hugging him.
As Fluttershy slowly removed her face from her bunny’s fur, her sharp cat eyes focused on Discord reaching almost to the end of the street.
“But, why didn’t that two headed dog attack me?” She asked Angel. “Why didn’t he, at least, try to approach me or give me attention like the fae did back in Discord’s cottage? Why wasn’t he curious about me just like Autumn was?”
As her questions went unanswered, Discord was about to enter the next block. Not caring whether she was following him or not.
Fluttershy then sighed, “He isn’t going to wait for me, is he?”
Angel shook his head. Then, he proceeded to climb over Fluttershy’s shoulder and pointed to the direction behind them.
“I’m sorry Angel,” said Fluttershy as she pushed herself towards Discord. “Running away isn’t going to solve our problems. Facing this on our own won’t help either. We need help. I need help. And right now,... he’s the only form of help we have.”
Angel slumped back into the cat girl’s embrace and pouted. These two days have been nothing but a string of bad ideas leading them to somewhere yet nowhere at the same time. The bunny began to wonder if this endless quest was ever going to end.
Unbeknownst to our trio, two pairs of eyes were observing them from a hidden alleyway. One of the pairs was small, beady, and glowing bright brown. While the other pair were a shade of bright purple, hidden underneath a dark plum hood. A strand of pink, purple, and light yellow striped hair peaked out of the darkness of the hood as well.
“What do you see Cadence?” said a muffled sounding female voice, echoing softly in the dark alleyway.
“I see the Chaotic Mage,” answered Cadence, narrowing her glowing eyes on Discord. “He has succeeded in obtaining the girl. And it looks like he has cast some form of transformative glamor spell on her. The fae in the area have seen her, but recognized her as an Abyssinian. The mage must have also cast some form of a receptor spell to disguise her scent.”
“Do you know where they are heading?”
“It’s hard to say. They’re turning at the next block and… a-ah!”
A sharp ping of pain attacked the veins in her eyes. The pain came in rapid like a bullet, and it stung like the slow pull of multiple pins in her skin, making it difficult to keep her eyes open as they began to bleed. But despite the tears of blood, the pain, and the bodily weariness, she still kept her gaze on Discord, Fluttershy, and Angel.
This however, proved to be worthless. As she focused on the trio, she could see the figures her field of vision slowly disappear into the wind and transform into pieces of magical dust.
“Cadence, you’re not well,” remarked the muffled sounding female voice.
Cadence’s bright eyes looked down at her companion. In the light of her eyes revealed a possum with beady yet glowing brown eyes.
When the possum opened its mouth robotically, the muffled voice returned with, “You need more fairy ointment.”
“No, I can do this,” Cadence protested again, fighting against the urge to let her eyelids fall and just sleep in the alleyway. “The ointment… There is still some time left… if I just… “
“Do not worry Cadence, they won’t stray far. We’ll send the girls right away to take your place while you rest.”
“N-No! You can’t. The girls… they’re not… they’re not ready. They’re not ready to face The Chaotic Mage.”
“Worry not, they will only keep vigilant watch over him and nothing more. We know what is at stake if he finds them. Now come, you need rest.”
“But,” Cadence protested again, only significantly weaker than before. “The fae… they’ll… they’ll… “
“Cadence, the girls’ training and studying has prepared them to face the fae. They’re ready for this world. All they need now… is to meet Fluttershy.”
With a swipe of the possum’s claw, a portal was opened. The possum offered its tiny yet open paw to Cadence, but she gently pushed it away and staggered into the portal on her own. Once Cadence disappeared into the portal, the possum followed soon after.
“It’s about time, my dear,” Discord stated in a satisfied yet cocky tone; the dainty sound of Fluttershy’s feline hind claws scratching against the cracked pavement ringing softly inside the ear holes of his skull.
He slowed down his pace in order for Fluttershy to catch up with him; all the while, taking in the pleasure in the fact that he was proven right. Whether she likes it or not, she needs him. He knows it and she knows it.
“Maybe she’ll forget her ridiculous little deal,” Discord wondered as he watched the girl finally get close.
When Fluttershy was finally able to walk alongside Discord, he commented, “I was beginning to worry about you. I sincerely thought that all notions of curiosity had left you. If that were the case, I would never take you on as my apprentice now. Not even if you begged me. In my opinion, if you want to be a good student, you have to be perplexed by this world.”
“Speaking of my apprenticeship, have you… thought over my proposal? From this morning?”
“Curse this strangely bullheaded, shy girl!” Discord cursed in his mind. “Why couldn’t I get a Sleigh Beggy with the memory span of a guppy?”
“Well, what happened to your question from just a few moments ago?” He teased, “You seemed quite anxious to get that answered first.”
“That question can wait, but for now, I would like this one answered first. If you don’t mind that is.”
Discord let out an exhausted sigh before giving his final answer, “Yes, I’ve considered your proposal.”
“And?”
“And, I’ve decided that… “
“Here it comes,” Fluttershy reflected. “This is where he’s going to say no. Well, at least I tried to fight-”
“While your proposal is a complete waste of our time and accomplishes nothing in the end, if such a proposal gives you ease, then… I’ll accept it.”
“Huh?”
Fluttershy was drawn away from her thoughts and looked up in shock. She searched for his eyes, trying to find any indication of a lie or a joke in those glowing red beams. Sadly, despite her best efforts she couldn't see much. Discord was so tall that she would often lose his gaze. But from what she could see, his eyes were serious. No hint of trollish glee or malicious intent.
“You… you will?”
“That’s why I brought you here. I’ve often heard that only good teachers offer their students nothing but the very best. And that often starts with materials at their disposal. What better way to show you how much I value you as a student than with the best supplies that money could buy?”
Fluttershy couldn’t believe it. He was actually going along with her idea. Despite how much he hated it, he still wanted to be her teacher. And spend money on her no less. She never had a teacher so eager to teach her before. All her life, any educator she had either ignored her entirely, demeaned her, or just tolerated her at best just because of her aunt’s influence. Did she truly have such a power that makes her worthy of his time?
Then again, he still wanted to gain her trust. He still wanted her to have faith in him. Even though he devalued her idea and he still had his own possible selfish motives behind teaching her, he still went along with her proposal. No one had ever considered her ideas before.
She didn’t know how to respond or how to feel in this situation other than simple gratitude. “Oh, well um, thank you Discord. That’s very kind of you, but there’s no need to go through such an expense just for me. Here, let me at least help with-”
To her surprise, when Fluttershy reached into her coat pocket, she couldn’t feel her wallet. No matter how deep she reached, she couldn’t find it. She tried the other pocket, but no luck. She tried her book bag, but the wallet was nowhere to be seen.
“Let me guess, Verko or one of his cronies stole your wallet.”
“Oh d-dear,” Fluttershy stuttered in a similar fashion to what a peculiar Piglet would do in Winnie the Pooh. “How am I going to explain this to my aunt?”
“Look on the bright side, my dear. Just imagine what those idiots are doing to do with your money. That’ll cheer you up. Let’s see, if I know those moles, I’ll bet you that they’re going to eat it before Verko could probably transform the bills into pounds.”
In response to Discord’s jab, Fluttershy let out a defeated sigh.
“Ah, there we are and about time I say. I do so hate walking. It’s so unnecessarily inconvenient.”
Fluttershy followed Discord around the corner, leading the pair into a tight, shadowy alleyway.
She stopped immediately and stared wide eyed at the unsettling darkness. A darkness that didn’t have a tiny light at the end of it.
Discord lifted his left hand into the air and snapped. The snap echoed ominously in the alleyway, stunning Fluttershy with it’s sheer volume. This alleyway was far deeper than it seemed.
When the echoing finally stopped, a new sound emerged. It seemed to remind her of rushing wind and the piercing sound of something wooden screeching along the brick walls.
Fearing for her life, Fluttershy hid behind Discord. As for Angel, while in Fluttershy’s arms, pushed Discord away as much as he could from him.
When the screeching sound and the wind ceased, a large, purple, wooden wagon was now revealed. It had golden and blue accents, and little blue and purple stars finishings. Fluttershy stepped away from Discord’s shadow in order to marvel at the wagon and how it magically appeared to them. She looked up at the sign on top of the wagon and it read, “The Great And Powerful Shop: The Only Shop In Town That Will Make You Almost as Great and Powerful as The Great and Powerful Trixie Herself”
Using the side of his foot, Discord kicked the side of the wagon. This kick prompted a mini set of wooden stairs to pop out, leading to the small door in the front. Discord walked up and used the unicorn head part of his cane to knock on the door.
Various chaotic noises consisting of clashing pans, falling books, explosions, angry animalistic squeals, and heavy clomping of hooves answered. The sound of the clomping hooves was especially prominent in the midst of all these sounds. Steadily became louder and louder, until…
BAM!
The door swung open and standing in the doorway was a very frustrated and messy looking fae. Her white and light blue hair almost consumed her entire face in its poofy fizz. So much so, in fact, that it almost covered her blue unicorn horn. Much like Autumn, this woman stood on two, furry, equine hind legs. Unlike Autumn however, instead of a lion’s tail, she had the tail of a horse and its hair matched the one on top of her head, topped with blue, pointed, equine ears.
Her dark navy corset dress; contrasting nicely with her blue skin tone. While her dress was astonishingly clean, her purple cape on the other hand, was not so. It was covered with an array of colorful stains, many so prominent that it took attention away from the starry design on her cape.
Finally moving her hair away from her face, the mysterious fae was able to focus her dark purple eyes directly into Discord’s.
“Chaotic Mage,” She snarled. “Trixie should have known that only a nuisance like you would cause such a disturbance to her pleasant day.”
Discord lowered himself towards Trixie’s eye level and baby-talked, “Oh, but this is what wittle Trixie gets for not letting her favorite nuisance have those pig pegasus wings for a reduced price when he asked.”
“Boop!” He remarked at the end, while booping her nose with the tip of his gloved finger.
“Grrraaaahhh! It was that one time! One time! When will you ever let that go?! Also, do not boop the nose of the Great and Powerful Trixie!” shouted Trixie, as she swatted Discord’s hand away and furiously flapped her arms about, which only served to make her look like a child throwing a temper tantrum.
While Discord responded with some hearty laughter, Fluttershy and Angel were gazing at the situation with awkward confusion. They both wondered if these two odd individuals were more like hateful neighbors than colleagues.
“Do you know how much Trixie lost just now because of you?!” Trixie exclaimed. “Do you understand how long it took to get this week’s shipments?!”
“Oh c’mon Trixie, there’s being you and then there’s being melodramatic. How bad could it be?”
“Oh really? Trixie’s just being ‘melodramatic’?”
Trixie stepped to the side, letting Angel and Fluttershy witness the aftermath of Discord’s actions inside her wagon. Fluttershy couldn’t believe how big it looked on the inside.
There was a giant spiral staircase in the middle of the room, leading to one more or even a couple more floors to this magical wagon. Though from what could be seen, it looked as though a hurricane had just blown through.
On each of the floors was filled with collapsed retail shelves, tables, and chairs all over the place. Broken glass all over the floor, along with various types of liquids and their contrasting aromas. At least a hundred books have fallen to the floor, along with all kinds of sticky and dirty unknown substances.
Saying that this place was a disaster would be an understatement.
“If this isn’t something to be ‘melodramatic’ about, then Trixie’s dying to what is from your perspective.”
“Well Trixie, I must say,” Discord commented with a cheeky remark. “Your shop looks ten times better than it did before. Everything is so much easier to find now.”
Discord brought his fingers to the tip of his muzzle, and then let displayed a joyous chef’s kiss. While he did so, he temporarily fashioned a head chef’s uniform with the tall white hat to match. He even magically summoned a black, curly, thin moustache to be placed on the tip of his boney muzzle, “Just muah! Bravissima!”
“If you weren’t my best selling customer and The Chaotic Mage, I swear to The Almighty Mirror, I’m gonna-!”
Trixie’s threat stopped immediately when she finally got a good look at Fluttershy.
This unusual and sudden draw of attention made Fluttershy immediately look away from Trixie’s vigorous stare. She took a step away; ears pinned back and tail tucked between her legs. Holding Angel close to her chest, which activated the bunny’s desire to give the fae woman a dirty look.
Just like the two headed dog from earlier, Trixie and Fluttershy locked each other’s gazes in silence, with Trixie being especially captivated.
However, the shopkeeper returned to her senses and shook her head. Then, she let out the loudest yet haughtiest laugh that Fluttershy had ever heard.
“Oohohoho!”
The shop keeper’s haughty laughter made Fluttershy jump.
“What do we have here? Could it be? Does The Chaotic Mage, THE Chaotic Mage, at last have a familiar of his own? And an Abyssinian no less? Well well, didn’t know that you needed the help soooo badly.”
“Tis not I that is in need of some assistance, but rather the other way around.”
“Oh really? An Abyssinian, needs your help? Since when did The Great Chaotic Mage become so ‘generous’ towards his fellow fae?”
“I wouldn’t be as my title implies, if I didn’t mix it up every now and then. Always chaotic but never boring, my dear shopkeep.”
Discord then properly introduced, “But enough of the why, let me introduce you to the now. Trixie, may I introduce you to my familiar: Grizabella. Grizabella, this is Trixie Lulamoon. My own personal supplier.”
“Grizabella?” Fluttershy pondered. “Why would he call me… wait… do all the fae know my name?”
While struggling to push through this horrifying thought, she then quietly voiced to Trixie, “Um how do you d-”
“The Great and Powerful Trixie does not work for you!” interrupted Trixie, correcting Discord in a demanding tone. “She is the boss of her own shop! She’s a strong and independent female entrepreneur! These expensive and glorious supplies are for everyone. Not. Just. You.”
Before Fluttershy could hide away from Trixie again, the fae shop keeper rapidly brought her face uncomfortably close to Fluttershy’s. She scanned and sniffed the Sleigh Beggy’s face skeptically; ignoring the uneased expression and the growling bunny in the Abyssinian’s arms.
Trixie finally brought her face away from Fluttershy’s and crossed her arms across her chest, “Did you make her, Chaotic Mage? She looks artificial.”
“As fun as that would be, I assure you, she is the genuine article. I wouldn’t have made her my familiar if she wasn’t.”
“Oh please!”
Trixie harshly pointed towards the pink mustache looking spot on Fluttershy’s upper lip. “This is totally your signature and you know it!”
Then, she lowered her finger and narrowed her gaze into Fluttershy’s feline teal eyes. “Not to mention those eyes. Abyssinians may be known for their eyes, but hers...no Abyssinian can compete with hers.”
“Tsk tsk, I’m surprised. I thought your experience in the Black market has made you familiar with the eyes and fur markings of this particular clan.”
“Huh? What are you-? Wait, don’t tell me that she… “
“This, my dear shopkeeper, is a descendant of the allusive Birman clan.”
“H-How in the world did you get your hands on one of those?!”
Discord lowered his head once more and reminded her, “Do you really need to ask when it comes to moi?”
“Good point,” Trixie mentally groaned.
But, she couldn’t admit this aloud. Not to him. So, instead, she blew air through her lips in slight frustration. Through this, she was able to blow away some of the messy hair strands from her face.
Soon, Trixie took notice of what Fluttershy was holding and observed. “Why is your familiar holding a rabbit? Is it her snack or yours?”
Fluttershy gasped at such a notion, and held Angel tighter as a result. “Angel is not my snack! And he’s certainly not Discord’s either! He’s my bunny! I would never eat Angel! I would never let anyone eat him!”
Fluttershy didn’t realize how loud her tone was until she saw the shocked expression on Trixie’s face and how wide Discord’s eyes were.
Trixie was in a complete stupor of just how fervent this familiar was acting in front of her master. Especially a master as powerful and as merciless as the Chaotic Mage. Trixie was expecting… no, waiting… for the mage to yell at her and punish her for this display of trivial emotion. But no such punishment came; only silence. And to add to this confusion further, this familiar had mentioned a name that she had never heard before. Discord? Who is this Discord?
Discord, on the other hand, was reflecting on how this was the second time that she had raised her tone today. The first time was to stand up for her silly little teacher test proposal. This time, it was to stand up for her pathetic little bunny. Such a quiet Sleigh Beggy… with unusual timing when it comes to using her voice. Discord didn’t know whether to condemn her chaotic outbursts or praise her for them. One thing’s for sure, at least it left such a wonderfully confused expression on Trixie’s face.
“I…” Fluttershy quietly scrambled to say, trying to find some way to recover from this awkward tension, “I-I’m sorry. I didn’t mean to… it’s just that… Angel is very dear to me and-”
“Well done Grizabella!” Discord congratulated. “Well done! My chaos, you’re such a good girl! Here’s your treat.”
SNAP!
With a snap of his fingers, he instantly made something appear within her clenched fist, which looked ready to spill out if she didn’t act quickly.
Fluttershy shifted Angel in the hold of her left arm in order to look at what Discord had just magically given her. It was a pile of biscuits. Biscuits that took the cartoonish shapes of fish, chicken, and cat faces.
Fluttershy couldn’t help but ponder, “Cat treats?”
“Wasn’t that precious?” Discord bragged to Trixie, “No lie, I’ve taught her to do this trick myself. And it only took her one day to master it. Isn’t she just the most clever little minx you’ve ever seen?”
“Why in the world would you teach your Abyssinian to embarrass you in public in such a manner? It’s such a useless and ridiculous command.” replied Trixie in a confused yet irritated tone.
“I wouldn’t say it’s entirely useless. After all, without that darling party trick, I wouldn’t have gotten to see that dumbfounded look on your face. Simply priiiiicelesssss.”
Discord gestured his large head towards the front door, “Now, are we going to continue to carry business outside or actually see the full inventory inside? I don’t know about you, wittle miss Great and Powerful, but I’d much rather see the inventory then exchange unnecessary pleasantries out there with you.”
In a sarcastic tone, she answered, “Well, since you asked soooo nicely.”
Fluttershy swiftly stuffed the cat treats into the pockets of her long skirt, and softly placed the all too willful Angel into the safe confines of her bag before scurrying after the two bantering fae.
She would have entered, if it weren’t for her new cat muzzle. The overwhelming aroma of all the spilled materials on the shop’s floors was too much for her to take. Even Angel buried himself into the shoulder in order to hide from this over consuming odor.
As Discord smoothly avoided every mess inside the larger than life wagon, he took notice of the lack of claw steps sounds from his new “familiar”. He turned around and saw Fluttershy covering her nose with her paw and clinging to the doorway for support. He especially noticed how physically weak and sick she looked in the face of the strong fragrances.
It reminded him of whenever he was in his… other form… that even the smallest of areas can be compacted with the potent array of odors. And it would drive him nuts. Sometimes, it would get so bad that he would have to restrain himself physically in order to stop his body from following every single scent he could find.
With a slight wave of his cane, he summoned a white mouth and nose mask to appear on her face. He even gave that rabbit a mouth and nose mask as well despite every thought to do the opposite.
“Why don’t you go upstairs and relax?” Discord suggested, directing her to the spiral staircase, “This shouldn’t take too long.”
Once Discord left and joined Trixie in some backroom far from sight, Fluttershy gulped at the height and presence of the staircase. But once her stomach began to growl, she realized that she hasn’t had anything to eat since yesterday afternoon. With this little break, she should have enough time to eat Autumn’s packed breakfast.
With careful consideration of all the fallen items scattered everywhere, Fluttershy slowly made her way towards the staircase.
When Fluttershy reached the top of the staircase, she was greeted by, from what Fluttershy could only assume to be, an office of some sort. Except, it had a humble Bohemian flare to it. Well, it would be fully Bohemian and humble if it weren’t for the posters and pictures of Trixie that covered all the walls.
There were slanted walls and shelves filled with old paper scrolls instead of books. And these scrolls were organized in utter disarray, with some having fallen to the floor. There was a light blue couch to sit on along the wall; with multiple heavily patterned pillows on top of it. Due to Discord’s magic moving the wagon by force, the legs of the conch left scars on the floors from where it slid. The couch wasn’t the only thing to sit on. There were tons of bean bags and lounge pillows to sit on if you wished to sit on the floor. Veils and draperies framed the room, almost leading Fluttershy towards the desk and chair. A long, wooden desk covered with stars and moons carvings had fallen to the floor, along with the twig structured office chair. Papers, pens, and candles covered the floor. Almost covering the starry, woven rug that took up the center of the room. There were some doors on the walls and ceiling, presumably leading to some other rooms in the wagon.
But, what really captured Fluttershy’s gaze was the light lavender trimline, corded phone in the midst of all the papers, pens, candles, and mess on the rug.
“Angel, look,” Fluttershy called out with joy; which prompted the bunny to pop his head out of her bag. He let out a happy squeak when he beheld the sight of the phone.
Fluttershy’s ears perked up, her fluffy tail wagged with glee. As she kneeled towards the floor and picked up the phone, “We can finally call home! We’ll just let them know that we’re okay, and tell Aunt Cinch that I’m… “
She paused before she could dial, “That I’m… “
Then, she lowered the phone slightly, “Oh dear… “
Fluttershy remembered who she would be conversing with and all the possible consequences that would occur if she told her the truth.
Angel lowered his ears in defeat and gave his owner a sad but empathetic look. He wished that he could communicate in the same language as her. That way, he can give her the right words to say to her aunt.
But then, it dawned on her. “Wait, Mrs. Cake always answered calls for the home phone. If I call the house, then I can talk to her first. I can tell her that I’m studying abroad thanks to Harmony University’s pre-college program, and then she can talk to Aunt Cinch for me.”
Angel applauded, and hopped in anticipation as she confidently dialed. With a sure yet sweet smile, Fluttershy waited and listened to the ring.
Fluttershy naturally expected a pause from international phone lines, in order to ask if she wanted to connect to Canada or not and where specifically in Canada she wanted to connect to.
But instead, someone at the house answered right away. Fluttershy’s heart dropped when she heard the all too familiar stern tone, “Abacus Cinch speaking.”
Angel was soon filled with dread when he witnessed the sudden drop of Fluttershy’s hopeful smile and when her feline ears slowly flopped down.
Angel knew that Fluttershy couldn’t stay silent forever when it came to Ms. Cinch. So, he tried to regain her attention by waving his arms about and hopping up to her eye level.
But, Fluttershy couldn’t see Angel. She couldn’t hear him. Her eyes,... her ears,... her body... was consumed by the heavy yet tingling sensation of fear. She could feel her heavy heart beating quickly against her chest. Her body temperature is rising; her tongue is completely dry inside her mouth.
It had been so long since she had heard her aunt. Her voice was ringing… vibrating inside her… like it was grabbing the collar of her shirt and clutching it tight.
Has Fluttershy been gone for weeks? Months? Either way, even over the phone, her aunt still had her all looming presence. Even over the phone, her aunt still had…only this time,... it was far worse.
Fluttershy couldn’t help but feel so small. Like she was literally shrinking with each passing minute. Her chest felt so bindly tight, like it was shrinking with her. Will her heart shrink with her? Will her mind shrink with her? Will everything just shrink with her or just her body?
For as long as she could remember, she’d often felt small when interacting with her aunt, but… not like this. This was different and yet somehow felt familiar, something she hadn’t felt in a long time. Not since she first arrived at the Cinch household after her mother’s funeral.
Everything was so scary and strange without her mother back then. Her aunt’s house was so big, empty, and cold. And… it still is…
It held so many dark, shadowy places for the fae to hide in. The house… that haunting house… and all the people who lived within it. It didn’t have her mother’s comforting words,... or her lullabies,... or her loving hugs,.... or her gentle smile. It wasn’t her house. Times might have been scary because of the occasional fae and without Papa or Zephie around, but at least she had her mom by her side.
Was it days? Was it weeks? Was it months? Did it take a year? Everything seemed to blur all together after the funeral, yet the house… strangely became routine for her. Routine was the only word to describe it. Avoiding all its dark corners became routine for her. Her cousin’s cold shoulder became routine. Her aunt’s stare… her aunt’s voice… her aunt’s tone… her aunt’s words…. her aunt’s judgement… her aunt’s shadow… everything that her aunt was… was routine for Fluttershy. But above all,... feeling small became routine. Feeling small began to feel… normal.
If it weren’t for Mrs. Cake coming in and breaking up this routine, Fluttershy would have completely forgotten her the immense warmth of her mother’s love. She would have forgotten the small specks of affection left behind by her father and her little brother. However, even in the midst of Mrs. Cake’s presence, the normalcy of feeling small never left her. The feeling that she could shrink away… that never left her.
There was a part of her that didn’t just want to shrink away. Fluttershy wanted to exist. She wanted to just remain in this existence. But… there was a part of her that kinda wanted to…
But right now, Fluttershy couldn’t help but start to miss…the certainty of it all… the routine of it all…
Especially now,... with The Chaotic Mage...
“Hello?”
The sound of aunt’s voice somehow was able to snap Fluttershy out of it. But, this still didn’t help the girl with finding her voice again. But, lucky for her, she finally noticed the frantic behavior of her bunny. He was giving her the signal to basically cut it before it was too late.
Without a second thought, Fluttershy hung up.
Angel’s ears softly dropped and nuzzled his head against her knee. When Fluttershy instinctively responded with soft scratches on top of his head, she could at last feel like she could breathe again. At last, she could actually feel present within her own body. Her body, no longer belonging to fear. At last, she was dragged out of those memories.
But,... the feeling of being small… that lingered heavily ...
“I’m,” Fluttershy finally spoke, still trying to get over her current dazed state. “I’m sorry. I… I don’t know what came over me.”
Angel lifted his head away from her fingers, and pulled the mask away from his face. With the mask gone, he looked up to her with a smile on his face. Even though she still couldn’t stop contemplating about her aunt, if there was one thing that she had to learn during this life with the fae… when peace or love is offered… she would take it full heartedly. Especially when in the form of Angel’s beautiful grin.
Grrrawlll...
The tension in the room was soon broken when Angel’s stomach began to growl.
“Oh dear! You still haven't had breakfast, have you?” Fluttershy realized.
When she reached to pet and comfort her starving rabbit, Angel shooed those fingers away with his paw and gave her a tough pouting look.
“Come to think of it,” She continued. “You haven’t had anything since yesterday afternoon. Oh, you poor thing. Mommy hasn’t been taking care of you, has she?”
Fluttershy turned her eyes towards the couch, pulled out the bento box, and suggested, “Come on, let’s finally have some lunch.”
“Ahem?” Trixie coughed purposefully, “Aren’t you forgetting something, oh Great and Powerful Half Baked Mage?”
With an opened magical portal behind them, revealing the gravel country road leading to Discord’s cottage, The Chaotic Mage turned to face the shopkeeper. But, his “Abyssinian familiar” did not. She instead, kept her eyes towards the lovely scenery in the portal and protected Angel gently in her grasp. Angel looked up at the cat girl with melancholy worry.
He thought for sure that having lunch together would cheer her up. But clearly, that was far from the case.
Trixie, with two box crates full of supplies behind her, walked up to Discord and handed out her empty palm to him. “It’s this magical thing called payment, and it requires hardly any magic at all to transfer it. Ring any bells? Hmm?”
“Oh Trixie!” Discord dramatically proclaimed, placing his gloved hand swiftly yet delicately upon his puffed out chest, “You wound me with such contempt! Did you honestly think that I, your most loyal customer, would forget to pay you?”
“Yes, yes you would,” She dryly pointed out. “because that’s what you did last time with the pig pegasus wings.”
“Pig wings, figs, thinamings. My my wittle Trixie,” Discord mockingly laughed, “your humor never ceases to amuse me.”
“Just pay up.”
With a smooth snap of his fingers, he made some small, cheap off brand peanut butter crackers appear in her hands. As soon as Trixie gazed upon the cheap snack, her eyes lit up and grew big. Her smile immediately beamed from ear to ear.
Trixie let out a happy squeal as she hastily ripped off the plastic packaging. “Yes!” she whispered joyously.
As Trixie fed upon the peanut butter crackers like an excitable puppy, Discord waved his cane above the crates. The crates glowed with his magic, and instantly transformed two, small, four winged, opal eyed, rainbow swirled, ravens.
Fluttershy waited until the ravens and Discord traveled through the portal before entering it in herself. As she slowly walked through this gateway, she had hardly noticed that she had transformed back to normal.
As the ravens flew towards the cottage, Discord closed the portal. “And that my dear, is how you haggle with a shopkeeper. I hope that you were paying attention closely because the key to handling those dim wits is showing them who the superior mage is in the relationship. And-huh?”
Discord was then shocked to find, not only that the young Sleigh Beggy was not freaking out or reacting to the fact that she regained her humanity, but also to the fact that she was walking away from him. While he was talking no less!
“How dare that little-!” Discord mentally maddened. “No human or fae on this earth has ever walked away from me! Especially when I’m rightfully bragging about myself! After agreeing to her deal, after dealing with Trixie, this is the thanks that I get?!”
Before he could properly give the mopey girl a piece of his mind, a voice called his name from a distance.
“Oh chaos,” He mumbled, slapping his palm against his forehead in frustrated annoyance. “Don’t tell me…”
Discord didn’t want to turn around, but he had to… he knew who the voice belonged to.
Reluctantly, he saw a young man, not much older than Fluttershy, running up the path from behind with a big yet nervous smile on his face and waving at Discord. The young man was dressed in all black, except for the white collar poking out from the collar of his black sweater. The young man’s skin was all light orange except for his white hands, and the white stripe that traveled from the top of his forehead to the bottom of his nose. He had a floppy, messy looking, almost mohawk looking, reddish orange hair and a matching frizzy goatee. Excitement illuminated his wide blue eyes, and sunlight reflected off his huge, light blue, circular glasses.
“H-Hey Chaotic Mage!” said the young man. “Over here!”
“What comes to my mind are mountains of savage beauty, ancient castles, werewolves, and witches - a land of magical obscurity. How, in short, am I to believe I will still be in Europe, on entering such a realm? I shall let you know if it's Europe or fairyland, when I get there.”
Elizabeth Kostova, The Historian
The Highest Leaves Of The Barest Fruit Trees
“Are you sure that I can’t get you anything else, Father Sunburst?” Said a very eager to serve Autumn as she floated right by the Father’s side, her whole body and her horn illuminating in a beautiful shade of blue.
Laying before Sunburst’s side of the dining table was truly a meal made for kings. To be honest, it looked more like a grand dinner than a humble afternoon lunch. But for Sunburst, he was used to this kind of generosity from Autumn. Even if it meant he can never finish his lunch and he ends up walking home with a belly as heavy as a bowling ball.
This servant of God couldn’t help but compare and contrast the generosity displayed by this fae maid… to the “hospitality” displayed by her master. Especially with his “welcoming presence” looming over his shoulder. In fact, all of his “generosity ” took over the entire atmosphere of the room.
Thanks to Discord’s magic, the room had transformed into a foggy, moonlit graveyard filled to the brim with headstones. There were even signs of the dirt being dug into and filled in front of these headstones. Said stones were covered in moss and the trees in this graveyard were bared and black. And he, Sunburst, at his end of the twisted, spiraling, magical dining table, was on top of one of these tall, bare, black trees. While his “gracious” host and the Sleigh Beggy were safe on the ground at their end of the table.
Looming over his shoulders, perched on each side of him, were two giant four winged, red eyed, rainbow swirled ravens.
The two new creatures’ eyes glared at the mage that created them. What made it worse was the fact that these hugmunous birds never blinked and that-
“I feel like this isn’t enough food, you know. I’m always happy to make you more,” Autumn insisted once again, clasping her hands together gleefully and with a bright expression on her face. A face bright enough to light up this gloomy room.
“This may not be enough for a Ursa Major,” Father Sunburst nervously chuckled, trying to be as polite as possible. “But for a man like me, it’s more than enough. Thank you Ms. Blaze.”
“Pfft! Please Father! I told you to call me Autumn! ‘Ms’ is for little old ladies! I mean sure, I may be a century or two older than you, but c’mon! Really?” She teased, playfully jabbing him lightly in the shoulder. “Are you really going to do me dirty like that?”
“Ahem, my apologies. Thank you Autumn,” said Discord, his muffled voice coming from the opened beak of the giant raven on Sunburst’s left. “That will be all.”
“You guys have a fun lunch!”
As Autumn happily started to float out of the room she leaned over to Sunburst and whispered in his ear, “But still, just in case you’re a little peckish.”
With a sharp and quick use of her magic, making sure that Discord couldn’t see her doing it, Autumn summoned another plate for Sunburst to eat. Sadly, it seems like Autumn had forgotten about another possible problem.
Where there was supposed to be a delectable dessert on the plate, was instead a pile of very satisfied looking Parasprites. The ravenous insects and now bloated insects all looked quite proud of themselves, letting off the occasional burp, which in turn led to a few more of them being created.
But, the Parasprites’ victory did not last long once they felt the harsh laser-like sensation that was their adopted mother’s gaze. They slowly turned their innocent faces towards her, knowing exactly what was going to happen next.
“GRRR! GRRREMLINS!” Autumn shouted, her voice booming in the eerie room and her fiery form glowing bright in the darkness.
Before she could scold them some more, the Parasprites fluttered away as quick as they ate their adopted mommy’s dish. And Autumn buzzed after them like an angry wasp.
“GET BACK HERE! MOMMY IS VERY UPSET WITH ALL OF YOU! AND I DO MEAN ALL OF YOU! YOU’RE ALLGUILTY BY ASSOCIATION!”
“That’s it Autumn dear! You go get those rascals! Show them what for!” Discord’s muffled voice shouted through the raven as Autumn left the room, leaving Father Sunburst feeling a bit stupefied. But, still nervous above all else. Without Autumn acting as a buffer, he would have to face The Chaotic Mage on his own. Which was never the favorite part of his visits.
But perhaps, maybe there was a glimmer of hope. After all, that Sleigh Beggy is sitting right next to The Chaotic Mage. So,... maybe she’ll be the new buffer?
“So,” remarked Discord, interrupting Sunburst’s internal struggle. “What brings the Church into my humble abode? Don’t tell me that I’ve missed Sunday Mass again. I’ve been meaning to tell you, but didn’t know how to say it. Sadly, the horrible truth is… I’m not a Christain. There! I said it! Phew! Glad that I got that off my chest. Who knew this whole confessional thing could be so beneficial?”
Sunburst cautiously yet insincerely snickered, “Oh he he, thank you for… confessing that to me. As always, I appreciate your honesty.”
“And I would appreciate it if you get to the point.”
“Right, right, of course. I have the Church’s concerns right here.”
Sunburst reached into one of the front pockets of his pants and pulled out a folded piece of paper, holding it in the air for Discord to see.
“As always, the Church is deeply appreciative for all that you-”
“Stuff it into the bird,” Discord instructed, his trollish tone clearly wearing thin.
“Oh, um, r-riiigght. I’ll just… “
Sunburst let his own rambling die off his tongue. If he put too much thought into how the note was supposed to get to Discord by letting a giant raven basically eat it, well, Sunburst feared that his own mind would burst.
As the priest reached over to the towering avians opened beak, he accidentally knocked over the hot tea pot.
“Ah! Oh no! I’m so sorry! Here, let me clean up - huh?”
Instead of hot tea spilling all over the table, a furry, dark blue and light blue liquid slowly covered the table’s surface. As Sunburst nervously inspected this strange and extremely slow moving liquid, he noticed some items creeping upon the surface.
The first item seemed to be a line. But when the line unnervingly opened up, it turned out to be a wide, fanged smile. The second and third items that popped up were two round balls. However, these two balls were not as they appeared, mainly because they began to blink, revealing them to be two wide, reptilian eyes.
Sunburst almost fell out of his chair as the liquid began to take shape, forming into two pointed ears. Then, the grin, eyeballs, and ears found a home upon the giant oval that began to form. And before he could fully process it, the shape solidified and created a very large, fluffy, but disturbing looking cat.
As the creature’s eyes started to open, Sunburst finally lost whatever nerve was keeping him in place and jumped as the beast started gasping violently for air.
Once the cat stopped coughing and regained its usual breathing pattern, the feline proclaimed, “Fin… a… lly! Ugh! Do you know how long I was cramped into that itty, bitty thing?! Two words: two days! Two. Days.”
“Ah Capper, there you are,” Discord’s muffled voice quickly chipped in. “We were wondering where you scurried off to.”
Capper rapidly began to search for Discord, his eyes instantly dismissing Sunburst’s presence and the monstrous ravens, mind set on a single goal. That desire: Finding Discord and making that bone headed mage pay.
Once his gaze finally found Discord at the end of the table, Capper pointed his claw at him and growled loudly, “You!”
Like a lion escaping from his cage, Capper ran down the long table towards Discord. Crashing into every dish along the way. Fangs flared out, his sinister grin grew wider with rage, and his bright eyes narrowed upon The Chaotic Mage.
Once he reached his desired destination, he halted hastily. This halt caused some of the plates and cups to go flying and shatter upon the floor.
Fluttershy squeaked in fear and ducked underneath the table, shielding Angel from the chaos. But, this didn’t stop the bunny from growling in her arms. He didn’t need to see who it was in order to recognize. Capper’s scent alone gave that away to Angel.
As for Discord, he didn’t duck or hide from this display. He didn’t even flinch, merely looking upon the entire affair with as much casual amusement as one would have watching a play.
“Alright you no good, slimey, grim reaper knockoff,” Capper barked, surprisingly well for a feline. “It’s time for you to pay up. Give. Me. Back. My. Body.”
“You know Capper,” Discord responded with delight. “If this minion of God wasn’t here right now, I would say that you were the most annoying little bug in this room. At least he knows the meaning of the word respect. Tell me, why should I give it back to you after treating me so terribly? Hmm?”
“Because I did as you asked,” Capper answered through his gritted, forced grin; knowing, despite his outburst, there was no way he could harm the mage... not physically anyway.
Suddenly, he pointed his claw towards Fluttershy. “You got the girl. I did the dirty work. That… was our deal.”
Fluttershy shuddered, and hid behind Angel to try and avoid the cat’s claw. Normally she’d simply hide behind the long bangs of her hair, but as soon as she arrived back at the cottage, she found her butterfly hair clip and pinned it back into a bun. She felt so naked without her clip. Meanwhile Angel snarled at the sound of Capper’s voice.
However, her fear was quickly forgotten as she finally realized what exactly he’d just said.
“He… he was there,” She thought. “At my house… because of Discord? Discord… hired him? But why? Why did Discord need Capper to… bring me to him?”
“And your help wasn’t much help at all, was it?” Discord reminded the feline. “Turns out that you couldn’t even retrieve Fluttershy at all. Verko and his minions accomplished that in a quick second, while it took you all day just to even an inch close to her.”
“You never specified how to get the girl, just to make sure that she comes to you. And, oh! Would you look at that? She’s right here! With you!”
Angrily huffing for a moment before calming down as he saw he was getting nowhere, Capper let out a defeated sigh. “Look, we can go on and on all day about this. You hate me and I hate you. You don’t want me to be here just as much, if not, more than I do. If you want me to scurry off, then just give me back my body. Okay? I mean, can’t we just agree to disagree?”
Discord suddenly but steadily rose from his chair, creating a lumbering shadow over Capper. Said cat's eyes followed upward until they reached his glowing red gaze, which slightly lit his shadowy, ever unreadable face. The magical cat instinctively gulped.
“Ha ha, well done kitty”, Discord purred and chuckled deeply in his throat. “Well done.”
This dark sound of his voice, not only sending chills down Fluttershy’s spine, but even Capper’s spine. The cat remembered who he was exactly talking to, and regretted everything he ever uttered in this moment. He was beyond grateful that The Chaotic Mage was more amused by this situation than insulted.
If this guy was insulted,... who knows what he would have done to him? All kinds of possible tortuous spells, transformations, and incantations came to Capper’s mind.
“You just gave me an offer I just couldn’t refuse,” Discord continued. “Bravo. Although, I would have appreciated this offer a lot sooner. Just sayin.”
SNAP!
Capper hissed and shielded his big, sensitive eyes from the quick flash of light. After blinking several times, trying to re-adjust his sight, he pulled his paw away and looked down at it. He smiled and let out a elated sigh of relief. At last, he was his tall, rather sleek and roguishly handsome humanoid cat self again.
The sight left Fluttershy equally stunned, a great deal of her previous fear now gone, as her previous attacker looked quite different from before.
Instead of looking like the demon brother of the Cheshire Cat, Capper looked like someone that could’ve been part of Robin Hood’s merry band of thieves from the Disney movie.
He had light brown orangish fur, and like a Siamese Cat, had faded, dark brown spots that covered his face, the tips of his ears, his paws, his hind feet, and the tip of his slightly fluffy tail. Attire wise, he wore a long, patchy, red trench jacket that emphasized his height and slender form. Smooth, lengthy whiskers and a tuft of dark purple fur on top of his head. A dark piece of cloth wrapped around in the middle of his tail, signifying some kind of battle wound that still needed to heal.
But, the one detail that captured Fluttershy’s gaze the most was his eyes. For the most part, they were the same bright, vibrant green she remembered. The only real difference now was the fact that his eyes were truly feline in nature instead of reptilian like they were before.
“Is he,” Fluttershy wondered. “Is he an Abyssinian?”
“Notice something you like, Miss Queen Bee?” asked Capper, raising an eyebrow at her and smirking towards her way with a wink.
“Huh?” Fluttershy answered, finally noticing just how long she had been staring at the tall cat. “O-Oh! I’m so sorry! I-I didn’t mean to stare at you like that. It’s just… “
The young woman cleared her throat before continuing calmly with, “We haven’t officially met, have we? My name is Fluttershy. And your name is Capper?”
“Yes ma’am,” He responded confidently with a light bow. “In the fur. Or should I say, in my true fur at last.”
“Thanks to your, um, ‘friend’ over there,” Capper casually but still cautiously gestured his head towards Discord’s direction, “Let’s just say that… you got a different impression of who I truly am. But still, apologies are still long overdue and I’m sorry.”
“It’s alright Capper. There was, um, no real harm done.”
Meanwhile, Angel, while no longer baring his “fangs” at the feline anymore, was still glaring at Capper suspiciously, making a point to blow through his lips at Fluttershy’s description of events.
“No real harm done, huh?” Angel pondered, “Getting sold into the underground black market and then pulled out by a despicable monstrosity is considered ‘no real harm’ done here?”
Capper snickered, and before Fluttershy knew it, he pounced over to the window sill behind her. Fluttershy let out a scared peep and ducked her head out of Capper’s way. She twisted around in her chair and found Capper hanging from the open window; smirking at her all knowingly.
“You’re real forgiving, aren’t ya Sleigh Beggy?” Capper perceived humorously, “If I were in your shoes,...”
He gave Discord a sideways glance, which made the mage’s eyes glow bright in the dark, graveyard room.
“I wouldn’t be as… saintly… ” Capper finished.
Before Fluttershy inquired into Capper’s odd little observation, he leapt through the window. Her eyes followed him as his body disappeared into the tall grass, wondering where in the world he was heading.
As she observed the rustling field, Fluttershy noticed something else that was gently walking through the grass. Strolling through as if it was the breeze itself rather than a living creature, an forbidding sight finally came into view.
It was a stocky built horse with little but mighty legs, and a long flowing mane. Her gaze widened when she beheld it’s black and white coat, and it’s glowing yellow eyes. Even in the daylight, it’s eyes glowed bright like the sun. Almost reflecting, no, competing with the sunshine itself.
“N-No… it can’t be… “Fluttershy muttered in horror in her mind, “It’s just… it’s just a coincidence! Yes, j-just a coincidence. But,... that coat… those colors… those eyes… Oh Fluttershy, there’s no use in denying it. The giant hare back at school had the same coat and eyes. But, why is it here and how did it find me? Was it following me? Oh goodness, it doesn’t matter. That horse,... that hare,... that fae,... that whatever is,... that thing showed up right before everything fell apart. Capper, the Timberwolves, Discord, and Verko.”
“Oh nobody,” said Discord, seemingly to no one.
This drew Fluttershy away from the window and the omen like fae wandering around outside.
“Just a mangy stray that has lost his way,” Discord continued, looking up towards Sunburst up in the tree. “Nothing for someone like you to be concerned with.”
He held up a piece of written paper high into the air with his magic, high enough for Sunburst to see. “This is all, I suspect?”
Before Discord could pause and let his guest answer from where he’s at, the mage quickly added, “Good! Toodles!”
SNAP!
A distant poof could be heard at the end of the table, and Sunburst was nowhere to be found, leaving Fluttershy to look up at the tree in wonder. Obviously her main concern was where Discord poofed Sunburst to, but she also wondered if she'd get the chance to get this priest someday. He seemed so gentle and kind. She didn’t understand why Discord had so much disdain for the young man. More importantly however, she couldn’t help but wonder if Sunburst was like her or not. Was he a Sleigh Beggy too?
Maybe… just maybe… she wasn’t alone in this crazy, fae driven world…
“Let’s see,” Discord mused while scrolling through the now unfolded paper, poofing tiny reading glasses to appear at the end of his boney nose. “Boring, boring, cliche, expected, oh please! Really? I swear.”
Fluttershy opted not to ask what he was looking at, figuring it was best to just roll with whatever he was up to.
“Hmmm…,” Discord hummed aloud. His eyes are now reaching towards the bottom section of the scroll and he reacted with, “Wait! Ha ha, now this is what I'm talking about! For once, the Church actually has some good timing.”
While poofing away the glasses and the paper away in the process, he announced with flare, “Autumn, pack up Fluttershy’s bags! The first day of class has officially commenced! Our classroom awaits far yonder!”
Autumn magically poofed in between The Chaotic Mage and his possible soon to be apprentice, holding a large suitcase in each hand. Soon after her arrival, Discord’s magic made three other large suitcases fall from the sky and almost smashing Fluttershy’s feet, making the shy girl scatter away from Autumn and Discord.
From where the Sleigh Beggy stood, she noticed how droopy Autumn’s ears look and the small but still forced smile that accompanied the droopy ears.
“Already ahead of ya, big guy!” Autumn rallied, swinging the suitcases about with so much cheer. When she placed the suitcases down on the ground by Discord’s sides, she reached into her dress pocket and pulled out a tiny piece of luggage. With a genuine excited grin towards Angel, making the bunny back away slightly, she added in a cutesy tone, “I even packed a little travel bag for this cutie right here.”
The bunny gave a gravely disappointed and exhausted glare towards Autumn and her tiny suitcase. He cranked his head to the side, desperate to find his human mom’s gaze. Once he found her, he gave her a pleading look. Begging her to save him from this crazy maid.
“That won’t be necessary Autumn,” said Discord. “The rabbit will be staying here with you.”
“Why can’t Angel come?” Fluttershy responded in concern.
Angel began to hop up and down furiously, squeaking loudly in bunny talk, “Yeah! Why can’t I come, you stupid mage?!”
“You’re using too much unnecessary magic in order to communicate with that… wittle bunny of yours.” Discord answered through gritted teeth, his nasty stare directed towards Angel. “And for our first lesson, you’ll need to be in top shape by preserving all the magic in your body as much as possible. Performing your first proper spell will be draining, and I don’t need any other useless spells taking their toll on you as well.”
Both Fluttershy and Angel cocked their heads to the side in confusion to Discord’s explanation. Then, Fluttershy hesitantly uttered, “Umm,... I don’t use any magic to ‘talk’ to Angel.”
“Then, explain how you’re able to perfectly understand his squawking all the time, and how he’s able to understand you in return.” He questioned.
In that moment, Fluttershy of all things, giggled. Discord’s eyes unconsciously sparkled with interest hearing this light hearted sound from her. If he didn’t know any better, this is the first time he had ever heard her laugh, if not the first time she’d ever smiled. As a matter of fact, this was the first time that anyone had smiled towards his way and laughed freely in his presence.
Discord cocked his head to the side in confusion, feeling unsure as to why his question was so humorous to her, but also… why such laughter towards his direction didn’t bother him. Usually, if such a creature dared chuckle at him, they would be rewarded by being transformed into a half apple, half raccoon creature.
“What’s so funny?” He inquired.
“Oh, sorry,” She apologized in the midst of her giggling. “I didn’t mean to laugh. It’s just... your question was so funny to me because, well, I had to teach myself to understand Angel’s language over time. Believe me, when we first met, neither of us could understand each other. It took me an entire month to gain his trust before actually getting to know him. After that, it took us a couple of years to get to the place we’re at.”
“Hmm,” Discord pondered aloud while stroking his boney chin. “Still though,... you do have to admit that… it’s technically an unnatural ability for a human to have. Self taught or otherwise.”
“That… that is true,” Fluttershy realized aloud.
“I… I hadn’t thought about that,” She thought in awe. Not even Dr. Fauna, one of the most dedicated, animal loving veterinarians she knew, could communicate with animals like she could with Angel. “Maybe I did use some magic after all.”
“The same kind of logic goes for that bunny of yours,” Discord explained, now pointing his gloved finger towards Angel. “Learning your language is unnatural for creatures like him. Animals may have the power to see the fae like you do, but they don’t naturally understand us. The only way that they can is through a spell or a potion.”
He brought his attention back to Fluttershy and continued with. “You may not be casting a spell, but like I’ve said before, sometimes one can use magic without even realizing it. Trust me, I know. As the embodiment of all things chaotic, more often than not, my magic will act on its own and create chaos without me even noticing it.”
Clatter! Crash!
Fluttershy rapidly whipped her head around to the sound of clashing and breaking plates behind her. Her eyes grew wide when she witnessed the sight of the giant ravens devouring all the food on the dining table, fighting over each scrap like ravenous vultures. Such a sight made the Sleigh Beggy shudder.
“Speaking of,” Discord emphasized while gesturing towards the huge magical birds, before snickering, “Those rascals. I just might keep those two. Once they cough up all your school supplies that is. Anyway, just in case if you are using magic, I’m afraid your white ball of fluff has to stay here for your first lesson.”
Fluttershy looked down at Angel sadly as he stomped about and squeaked angrily at Discord. Thinking about going out on this journey alone, going to who knows where without Angel, was absolutely terrifying to her. Angel had been with her ever since this nightmare began. In fact, he has always been there when things had been hard at school, when things were rough with Sunny Flare, when things were unbearable with Aunt…
As scared as Fluttershy was, she once again remembered that she made a promise to Discord. She gave him her word that she would give him a chance. She promised him that she would give magic a chance. She had to be brave and participate in his first lesson, or else, she would never know if Discord was her only chance in surviving this horrifying, magical world. So far, he had been taking this lesson seriously. In his own way.
“A-Angel,” She spoke out to the seething rabbit in a guilty tone. “S-Stop. Discord… has a point.”
Angel immediately halted his infuriated frenzy against Discord, and stared up at his guardian with wide and bewildered eyes.
Fluttershy winced at such a look from her bunny, she almost couldn’t look at him. “I’m sorry, but you know that Discord is right.”
“Could you please not say ‘I’m sorry’ before stating how right I am?” Discord interjected, “It’s taking away my credibility in this situation.”
“I could be using a lot of magic right now just for us to have conversation together without even knowing it,” Fluttershy continued, completely ignoring Discord’s interjection. “I’d be making myself even more vulnerable than I already am. Who knows what kind of dangers are out there when you’re around a defenseless Sleigh Beggy like me?”
Angel squeals softly in response, trying to convince her out of Discord’s suggestion. But deep down, he knew that Fluttershy was right and begrudgingly so was the mage.
“I know you can protect me.” She answered his weak squealing. “Believe me, I know. You’re the strongest bunny I know. But,... I care about you too much to get hurt for my sake. Deep down, you know that it’s my job to protect you. Not the other way around.”
Suddenly, the memory of her imprisonment in Verko’s grips flashed in her mind. She remembered how terrified she was when she heard Verko and his men discussing how they captured Angel, and how they refused to confide in her in where they kept him.
“I’m sorry sweetie,” was all that Fluttershy could utter in response to such an emotional memory. “But,... you have to be a good boy and stay here.”
“At last!” Discord rejoiced in his consciousness, “We’re finally free, for the moment, from this wretched bunny! Note to self: work on some good arguments to convince her to ditch the rodent for good.”
Autumn picked up the very shocked Angel Bunny gently and assured her, “Don’t worry Fluttershy, I’ll make sure to take good care of him while you’re gone.”
Autumn then proceeded to snuggle into his soft fur, which made Angel snarl in her grip.“ We’ll have soooo much fun that the time will just pass on by!”
“Thank you Autumn,” Fluttershy thanked with a soft, relieved smile. “I can’t thank you enough.”
Autumn pulled herself away from Angel’s soft fur and commented, “As much as I love a good thank you coming my way, there’s really no need. This is what family does for family after all. And you and Angel are part of our family now.”
Fluttershy was once again taken back by Autumn’s use of the word “family”. As unsettling as it was for Fluttershy to be part of a family of fae, Fluttershy couldn’t deny that Autumn at least cared about her and Angel. She’s so kind and nurturing despite being a fae, so much so she couldn’t help but be reminded of her own maid back home.
“Mrs. Cake,” She remembered sadly.
Meanwhile, Discord, with a swish of his long robe and sleeves, made all the suitcases disappear into the long threads of his attire. Before Fluttershy could say goodbye to her pet and the kind maid, Discord swished his robe and sleeve over her and said, “La revedere Autumn! La revedere Angel!”
“W-Wait! Discord, hold on! Ang-!”
Fluttershy was soon cut off by Discord’s magical robe and sleeve as they quickly engulfed her into their darkness. Tenting her into it’s dark, ever expanding vortex. Before she could scream out Discord’s name, shout out for help, and find a way to escape this, her eyes met with a bright ray of light.
As her eyes slowly opened and adjusted towards the light, she was happy to see that she was no longer in the mysterious darkness created by Discord’s long clothing. Oh no, she was in a place that she has only seen in her dreams.
Fluttershy had never thought that she could find a spot even more beautiful than Discord’s cottage and the Trottingham countryside that it resides in.
While standing on top of an evergreen hill, she looked over a sunny, lusciously green valley just nestled near the comforting shadow of forestry hills and some snowy blue mountains off in the distance. In the center of this beautiful valley was a quaint fairy tale like village and rows upon rows of fruit trees of all kinds. But strangely, these fruit trees had no fruit on them. It was summer, and they should be full of fruit by now. Maybe they were already picked?
While the gentle cottages of this town couldn’t compete with the height of the orchard’s trees, the town’s church certainly can. The church, with its height, it’s soft yet timeless architecture, and it’s mossy roofs, looked like a castle watching vigilantly over its small kingdom.
Fluttershy had to know the name of this breathtaking paradise. And unluckily for her, Discord was happy to give her the answer before she could even ask, “Welcome Fluttershy, to Tramplevania!”
“Some old wounds never truly heal, and bleed again at the slightest word.”
George R.R. Martin, Game of Thrones (A Song of Ice and Fire, #1)
What Would A Mother Not Do For Her Child?
“Abacus Cinch speaking.”
Echoed Abacus Cinch’s voice slightly in the silent, ominous, nightshade home study. Her voice muffled through the tiny speakers of her royal purple laptop.
The moonlight and pitch black sky shining from the windows complimented the darkly lit office so well. Such light even gave glimmer and shine to the school principal’s glasses in the midst of this lightless void. While the artificial, bright screen of her laptop shined upon the two mysterious yet well dressed gentlemen by her office’s doorway. The light gave prominent attention to the dark sunglasses they wore, the deep black color of their suits and ties, and the stern expressions on their faces.
While their attention was focused on the recording, Abacus subtly shifted her gaze to the open folder that she hid behind her laptop. In the open folder was a document titled, “Last Will & Testament of Curta Cinch”.
No matter how much she told herself not to read it, her eyes couldn’t help but do so. She knew this document like the back of her hand. The number of times she’d read it were simply incalculable, having thoroughly memorized it to the point she could recite it perfectly. She told herself not to look for it, yet she did it anyway.
“To Abacus Cinch.” Later down the document read, “I devise and bequeath guardianship of Fluttershy Cinch’s trust until she has reached the age of eighteen.”
Trust.
Abacus’s mind recalled this term clearly from the definition section of this document. And according to this short will, “trust” means Curta Cinch’s entire estate and property, real as well as personal.
And knowing that information as she did, forced her tohid her gritted teeth behind her closed frown. Her hand subconsciously commanded her hands into tight, balled fists.
This Will… this unnecessarily short Will… her last written testament on this earth…. everything that her mother had… all too neatly placed within one trust alone… and that trust belonged to her.
To Fluttershy.
To her sister’s daughter.
To her sister.
To Sunf…
If only she knew all this beforehand… before taking her mother’s vile deal on the day of her sister’s funeral.
“Oh please, dear,” Her inner voice hissed. “Just admit it. You would have taken the deal anyway if you knew.”
Despite how unearthly and demonic this voice sounded, Abacus couldn’t help but find her own voice to match it, ignoring the somewhat concerning implications that came with such a thing.
“Do you honestly have nothing better to do than to criticize me?” Abacus argued with her inner voice silently.
“And you do realize that the girl is eighteen and out there in the world without you?” Her cruel inner voice responded. “Without your guidance? Spending allll that money… without a care to spare.”
Suddenly, Abacus’s mind couldn’t help but punish her by presenting a memory she would rather forget. Her thoughts flashed back to when her own mother pushed her out of the house. Her younger self cried and begged, groveling shamelessly upon the ground. But, this didn’t provoke any emotion from her mother, only her signature cold yet stern look before elegantly closing the door on her face. Her younger self ran to the door, calling out her mother’s name, and struggled to open the locker door with all her strength.
She looked so tall then. Towering over her till her shadow consumed her completely. It was like looking upon a stone monolith, cold, hard and unfeeling …
“Why did I…?”
Abacus silently sneered in pain as she felt a quick but sharp migraine like pain in her head. Despite its short appearance in her mind, the pain of such sting lingered. The principal made a note to herself to run for her medicine cabinet as soon as this meeting was over.
“Hello?”
Abacus’s muffled voice interjected, breaking the lull of silence in the room at last. Breaking her attention away from the will…. and her thoughts. Every individual in the office brought their attention closer to the laptop, their ears lingering on that static quiet. This quiet did not last long as the fast click ended the call. Cinch reached over to the keys and stopped the recording.
She lifted her cold, narrowed leer to her guests and this prompted one of them to question, “And you believe that this call was from your niece?”
“Who else would know my personal number gentlemen? Only my daughter, my maid, and my niece have this number.”
“Any calls from this number or any other unknown number since then?” The other man in the room inquired.
“No,” said Abacus as she closed her laptop. Before she rose from her seat, she pulled out a red folder that was underneath the folder for her mother’s will. Once in her arms, she slowly directed herself towards the straight laced men.
“However, I was able to track the number to Leapdon. As to where in Leapdon,...”
She reached into the pocket of her jacket, and pulled out a written check, which she was quick to present to the two strangers.
“That’s where you gentlemen come in.”
As one of them politely reached out for the check, Abacus recoiled it back like a viper ready to strike its prey. Then, she reminded them in an icey tone, “I expect nothing but the utmost discretion, gentlemen. If any of you breach this particular element in our contact, do expect an expensive lawsuit and a ruined reputation among the aristocrats of this country and beyond. The Cinch family is well regarded globally after all. Is that understood?”
“Understood,” One of them affirmed in a deep tone, with a little bow of his head.
“We shall not fail you, Ms. Cinch,” The other affirmed right after, following in his partner’s lead by bowing his head as well. “Nor your family.”
With a murmured, unconvinced scoff under her breath, she slowly handed over the check. No matter what she said,... what matter what she did or ever did in the future,... in the end,... these men would always be loyal to her mother. Not her.
Tension of the office was soon broken when the front door to the Cinch household opened. Abacus focused heavily on the sound of bags being placed by the front door, along with the sound of steps passing by the closed office doors.
“Sunny,” Abacus commanded sternly. “Come here for a moment.”
Abacus couldn’t help but roll her eyes and groaned once she heard the faint, annoyed moan that escaped her daughter’s lips.
The doors to the office flung open due to Sunny’s careless and belligerent touch. As for the Men in Black wannabes in the room, they swiftly stepped away from the flying doors in order to avoid their blow. However, their faces showed no concern or surprise when this occurred.
As for Abacus, she was completely yet silently appalled at what she was witnessing. Sunny wore an outfit that the principal could only describe as “trashy”. Added to this, the attire was completely torn and stained to the point beyond salvation.
Her school uniform from earlier was nowhere to be found… for the third time this month. The girl’s scent absorbed all the booze, drugs, and illness that occurred at the hormone induced party from earlier. And this scent completely conquered all the air in her precious office. Sunny’s hair was a mess, her heavy makeup was smeared, and dark circles weighed down underneath her already cold yet unforgiving eyes.
“Hmm, my my,” The inner voice taunted. “I wonder who she got those eyes from huh? Certainly not from her father.”
“Shut up, shut up, shut up,” Abacus internally fought back. After she did so, another surge of pain stuck her mind.
“You rang, Cinch?” hissed Sunny in her slightly drunk but mostly tired state, making a point to emphasize her hiss at the end.
Abacus’s attention turned towards her guests, in order to hid her frustrated yet annoyed expression from her daughter. She quickly composed herself during this turn and commanded the men in the room, “Gentlemen, could you wait outside for a moment? I would like a word with my… daughter.”
“Of course,” One of them responded, before closing the doors behind them.
Once the two were alone, Abacus’s attention returned back to Sunny. Before she could say anything, Sunny quickly interjected with, “Ugh, could you, like, do me a big favor Cinch and hurry up with this whole grounding thing? I neeeeed some sleep and I’m too tired to put up with your-.”
With a wave of her free hand, Abacus replied with, “There’s no need for that tonight. Instead, I believe I have a proposal that you will find quite… appealing.”
“It better be, Cinch.”
Abacus gave her daughter a subtle, but nasty look before walking towards her office window, “Things have become dire in terms of the case surrounding your cousin’s disappearance.”
“Do you mean the case surrounding my cousin running away from you for good, and thus making the best decision of her life?” Sunny commented with a smirk. “You know, that kind of dire. Yeah, I think I’ve heard.”
“Hold your tongue,” Abacus snarled.
“Oh c’mon! You know that I’m right,” Sunny continued, her smirk grewing with each word uttered, utterly unfazed by her mother’s wrath. She couldn’t even help but let out a drunk chuckle through her smirk.
“As I was saying,” Abacus responded, drawing back her anger and returning to her previous tone, “things have become dire when it comes to finding your cousin. The law enforcement in this town are completely useless, the mayor is an idoitic fool, and the media has been no help done to our cause.”
“Don’t you mean your cause?”
“Do. Not. Test. Me.”
“Oh I’ll stop,... as soon as you stop making it too easy for me.”
“Sheesh, she’s quite clever when she’s drunk, isn’t she?” Then, Abacus mentally calmed herself with, “Just be patient, Abacus.”
“As a result,” Abacus explained further. “I had no choice but resort to The Cinch Security Force.”
“I thought those guys looked familiar. Haven’t seen them since Aunt Sunflower’s-”
Abacus whipped around furiously at the mention of her sister’s name. She gave her daughter a fiery look and scolded, “I told you to never mention that name in this house!”
“Why?! Because only you, and you alone are allowed to say her name?! Wow, once again Cinch, you never fail to be hypocritical! Not to mention cruel!”
“One more smart remark out of you and I’ll shred this!”
Abacus aggressively presented the red folder, unconsciously going against the perfect plan she had laid out in her head beforehand.
Sunny’s eyes fluttered in surprise at such a presentation. However, such shock didn’t last long and her tired yet bored expression returned, “Uh, what’s that?”
Abacus’s gaze widened as she realized what she had just done. What her temper and impatience had done. She quickly regained her posture and demeanor. Then, she took a step back from Sunny and answered in a fake casual tone, “Oh this? It’s nothing much. Just the ticket to an early departure from this household.”
“You mean, I don’t have to wait until I get into college to move out?”
“That is correct.”
“Pfft! I don’t believe you. There’s no way that you, of all people, would propose something like that in a million years!”
“Then again,” Sunny then thought to herself, somehow maintaining her clarity of mind. “She is desperate.”
“You’re right, Sunny,” Abacus responded honestly, “I wouldn’t. Which is why I need you to do something for me in return.”
“Ah, there is. The strings. I should have known,” Then, the young teenager groaned. “Alright Cinch, what is it that you need me to do?”
“I need you to accompany The Security Force and find Fluttershy.”
“What?!” Sunny exclaimed, any sense of alcohol induced lethargy immediately leaving her. “You’ve got to be kidding me! There’s no way that I do that! I knew you were desperate Cinch, but I didn’t know that you were crazy too!”
With one eyebrow lifted, Abacus questioned, “Are you saying that you’re refusing my offer?”
“That’s exactly what I’m saying, Cinch.”
“That’s too bad, my dear daughter.”
“I told you to never call me that,” Sunny mumbled angrily.
But Abacus ignored this mumble and explained further, “I was rather hoping to give a little extra reward to go along with your new ticket to freedom. Maybe,... perhaps,... oh I don’t know,... the name of your biological father?”
Sunny’s eyes slowly widened at the mention of her father and her mouth fell slightly in shock. Abacus had just witnessed something truly rare from her rebellious daughter: silence.
The older woman waited patiently for her child’s response in the darkness. She quietly absorbed all the distress and stupor slowly spreading across Sunny’s face and body. For a moment, Abacus could see Sunny tremble a little.
“Wha… What?” Sunny stuttered in disbelief softly, “What did you… just say?”
“You can even have his address if you wish. But, based on your current interest in this conversation, I can see that you have no inkling to visit and converse with him. So, I’ll just-”
“NO! WAIT!” Sunny emotionally called out, while desperately reaching out to her mother.
Abacus stopped instantly at her daughter’s plea, halting her journey to her desk. Abacus smirked with great satisfaction before turning around to face Sunny. The smirk did not last long and her composed, resting expression returned.
“There’s no need to shout, daughter,” Abacus scolded insincerely, “If you’ve changed your mind, you could have just calmly said so.”
“B-Before I accept your deal,” Sunny stuttered in horror along with a bit of disgust in herself for being brought to begging. “I want to know one thing.”
“Go on,” said Abacus, giving her the permission to proceed with her question.
“How long… how long have you known?”
“About his location? Oh just recently, I assure you,” Abacus lied. “I was going to tell you sooner, but given how… ‘busy’… your schedule has been, I haven’t had the chance to tell you.”
“You… you were?”
“But of course,” Abacus lied once more. “He is your father, you have every right to this information… that is… if you behave and do as I say.”
Sunny trembled once more and tore her gaze away from her mother’s eyes in order to process everything that was going on.
The more time she spent in this room with her, the more air she felt leaving her body. It was suffocating. She felt like the walls were caving in slowly all around her. This office was getting smaller and smaller by the minute. Sunny was feeling everything all at once. Hope, anger, sadness, guilt, confusion, greed, selflessness, and maybe happiness? It was hard to tell.
After so many years of being emotionally numb,... Sunny’s mind and body didn’t know how to respond to this fast rush of emotions. She didn’t know if she could make such a decision right now. All of her common sense and logic was leaving her. But her mother gave her no time to properly think things through.
“So,” said Abacus, presenting the red folder in front of Sunny once more. “Do we have a deal, my dearest?”
Sunny lifted her bewildered and shaky gaze just high enough to see the red folder. She couldn’t see her mother’s patient yet calculating gaze, too busy drowning in her own emotions.
Sunny’s hands acted on her own, shakily reaching towards the folder. Without reflecting upon what her hands were actually doing, she grabbed it. Abacus released the folder with ease.
As Sunny defenseless stared down at the folder, with fear and hope, Abacus directed back towards her desk.
“Thank you so much for assisting The Security Force on this matter, Sunny. They shall be most appreciative for all your help. Oh speaking of, could you be a dear and let them back in? There are some details that need to be ironed out before the three of you can venture out and find your cousin.”
Before Sunny could respond or move, the office doors behind her opened. The two men in suits welcomed themselves back in. As they walked past her, her mother quickly shifted her attention towards her guests.
Sunny had lost all sense of what to do. She could feel the tension of her building emotions inside her body as she stared at the scene before her. Her feet slowly and hesitantly moved her backwards without her even realizing it. Before Sunny could question anything, she was out of the office and ran up the staircase.
As for Abacus Cinch and the Security Force, none of them were aware of the medium sized fae sitting on Abacus’s shoulder.
The fae was a white Macaque-like creature. A fuzzy, seemingly cute ape from afar; but, if you glanced at it carefully, you can see that the seemingly soft fur was actually prickly and sharp. There was a black undertone to its white fur that covered the creature’s face instead of the white fur. Adding to its menacing appearance were the dagger like claws on its hands and feet.
These hands were petting and stroking Abacus’s slightly frizzed, bunned up hair. Fangs subtly protrude from it’s tiny mouth. It’s thin lips were closing to Abacus’s ears, moving up and down in a hushed manner. A mouth that was easily overshadowed by its huge, glowing, aye aye like eyes. The glow from these eyes highlighted the heavy bangs that hang under Abacus’s cold stare.
Meanwhile, Mrs. Cake had just pulled out a fresh, warm, dry load of laundry and carried it to Sunny’s room. As she folded the heavenly scented clothes upon Sunny’s bed, she couldn’t help but think about her children and her husband waiting for her back home. Making the long day’s of work all worth it. Just to kiss her babies good night. Just hop into a warm bed with her husband. Mrs. Cake let out a tired yet soft smile instinctively at such thoughts.
Suddenly, Mrs. Cake jumped at the sound of the bedroom doors swinging wide open and hitting the bedroom walls behind them. The maid spun around as fast as she could, and was met with the instant collision with Sunny.
“M-Miss Sunny?! What’s going-”
Before she could finish her question, Sunny answered by wrapping her arms around Mrs. Cake and sobbing into the understanding woman’s shoulder. Sunny dropped the red folder upon the floor as she tightened her hold on Mrs. Cake.
Mrs. Cake’s surprised and tense body relaxed as she returned Sunny’s hug.
“There, there,” Mrs. Cake whispered in a comforting tone, “I’m here, dear. I’m here.”
