milliways_bar | Enter a pegasus

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Enter a pegasus

Somewhere out in the forest, a call is made. It's a very quiet call, but it really is intended to draw someone's attention.

"No, really, please do come back. I'm awfully sorry about the clock, but you really need-"

The voice cuts off as its owner comes into view. She's a small pegasus, looking around in confusion. Sure, she's not very familiar with the Everfree Forest, but this doesn't look anything like the parts she does know. And the rabbit she's been trying to catch is nowhere to be seen. And - are those buildings?

Well. Where there are buildings there are usually other ponies. She nervously steps out away from the forest's edge, softly calling "Hello?"

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That's not the sort of thing one often sees, even in or around the Everfree Forest. On the other hand, it's a new and exciting animal.

"Hey there, little guy," she says, crouching a bit. "Is this your home?"

It trots forward a few paces, then hops up onto its hind leg to get a better look at Fluttershy. It looks like its mouth is on its underside, near the two forward legs.

"I've never seen anything like you before," she murmurs. "I wonder what you're called?"

It is, perhaps, possible that there's some understatement involved there.

"Mmrr?" says the little beast, or something like it. At which point there's a crunching noise in the woods and a rather larger creature steps out.

"Mrs. Wilson? What'd you find now, girl?"

Wow, this place is just full of things she's never encountered.

But some of them seem to act more like ponies than like animals. Really big ponies.

"Um, i-is she yours?" Fluttershy's not sure that there's ownership involved, but that's not far from how Applejack talks to Winona.

"Sure is, uh..."

Shit. Talking ponies.

Talking ponies with purple hair.

And wings.

Shiiiiiit, this place just wasn't weird enough, was it.

"Ma'am," he finally says, figuring it's kind of hard to go wrong with being respectful. "Her name's Mrs. Wilson. She's a houndeye."

He'll remember to introduce himself in a bit. Because: talking pony with wings and shit. Whut.

"O-oh, um, you don't have to call me ma'am. I'm just Fluttershy," she says - how else? - shyly.

Honestly, she's not sure anypony's called her ma'am before. It feels rather awkward.

On the other hand, it did let her get both the who and the what of the smaller creature. 'Houndeye', she decides, is a very appropriate term.

"Force o'habit, ma'am," Shephard says. "My name's Adrian Shephard. Most folks just call me Shephard. You, uh... you new, here?"

"Oh, um, all right," says Fluttershy. She's not one to make a big issue of things.

"I... I think so." Certainly, none of this looks familiar.

"Gotcha," says Shephard. "Well, uh... welcome t'Milliways. Ain't where you came from, but you c'n go back the way you got here, shouldn't be a problem. You okay?"

"I'm fine," she says. She wouldn't want him to worry. "Is... Milliways part of the Everfree Forest?" Her voice shakes a little at the end.

"Doubt it. Ain't heard of the Everfree Forest, anyways," Shephard says. "It ain't part of nowhere else, not really. Folks say you git here by magic or science or shit like that."

"Oh. But... I'm a pegasus. I can't do any magic." Which is not to say she has nothing to do with magic - flying with wings that size and standing on clouds are hard to explain without it - but active magic is the province of unicorns.

"Naw, the place's magic, not yours," says Shephard. "I ain't got magic either, and I sure as fuck ain't a scientist. Time comes for you to go back, you'll be just fine usin' this place's magic to do it."

"Oh. But, um, how do I get back home?" she asks. She sounds a little bit frantic - as fun and interesting as it would probably be to get to know the animals here, she wasn't expecting to be away from home, let alone with no idea how to get back.

"Dunno about the woods, but you go into that building there and out the front door-" Shephard points. "And the door goes to wherever it is you came in from."

Fluttershy looks a bit unhappy at this. She came in from the Everfree Forest, after all, which is easy to get lost in. And, also, not a friendly place.

"I ain't the one who made the rules, ma'am," Shephard says, not unkindly. "You, uh... you got trouble waitin' back home?"

"Not... not exactly," Fluttershy says. She pauses, trying to decide just what to say. This Shephard is basically a stranger, and he said he doesn't even know what the Everfree Forest is.

Shephard grunts. "Things ain't always so hot the other side of folks' doors," he says. "Y'ought to know, time don't pass back home. Long as you're here nothin' happens. You go right back to whenever you left. So if you need t'git your bearings or somethin', you just go on ahead'n hang 'round here 'til you feel up to goin' back."

"Um, w-what?" asks Fluttershy. She must have heard wrong; even in old pony tales, time almost never stops. (The sun, occasionally, but that's different.)

"It's like pickin' up a book," Shephard says. "Shit don't happen in the book while you ain't readin' it. Pick up the book again and the story starts rollin' once you read it.... uh. Shit. Forgot you're a horse. You got books where you come from?"

Fluttershy nods. "Oh, yes," she says. "I don't read them as much as Twilight, but I have books."

"'Kay," says Shephard. "You just up'n stepped out of your regular book, so to speak. Soon as you go home you're back in it and things happen again, that's all."

"Oh."

...Fluttershy's feeling rather out of her depth at the moment.

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hecu_marine - 2011-08-11 02:47 (UTC) - Expand

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needs_fern - 2011-08-11 19:58 (UTC) - Expand

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