ECHIDNA

Pony (Part II)

Fluttershy smiled and let herself being carried up by the branches of flesh that surrounded her; she caressed them, smiled at the eyes, mouths, and hulking shapes to which the limbs belonged, recognizing every single of them, Slivering tongues lapped at the marks left by the newcomer, and Fluttershy felt the healing action of the sedatives making her scratches go numb; other appendages massaged her sore limbs and wings, and Fluttershy left herself be carried away by the pleasant sensation.

Even if it was becoming each time more and more difficult, she always came here.

And the things encircling her, those who had been there for mere months and those she had known for years, awaited her visits with eagerness and joy – and she too was happy to see them, it was one of the things that made the journey through half of Equestria to the Gates of Tartarus more bearable.

She had no other choice, after all.

The first time, the very first time this had happened, she had been too afraid to think straight, and the creature coming out of her had just left for the Everfree. She had come to meet her, from to time ; it was faring pretty good.

But, given it had happened just six months after she had had her Cutie Mark, Fluttershy had just called it an odd accident, and had prayed it never happened again.

Six months later, it happened again.

And again the Everfree was the place for it, but, Fluttershy reasoned that this couldn't go on much longer. After all, the ponies living in the outskirts of the forest had said to have seen... strange things moving through the leaves. Strange even by the pretty high standards of the Everfree.

So much strange, so much odd, and so much frightful that a hunting party was dispatched, and they had got the beast after a week and three dead, half-digested ponies.

Fluttershy had wept.

And she had decided that it wasn't going to repeat, ever again; she studied the old maps, and the old legends, to find for a place where her... her... awkward friends could live.

A few she had dropped on the northern hills.

But it was here, in Tartarus, that Fluttershy had decided to leave them be; here they had everything they could hope for: food, water, and playground. Even if the rivers and the food that was here was... pretty strange... they seemed to enjoy it.

She had believed to have found a solution; though in later years her leaves of absence had become closer and closer. Six months. Five. Four. And now she had had the last one just two months before.

Fluttershy opened her eyes, looked around at her friends, and smiled.

Oh, well. She would find of a way to fix that too.

Like she always did.

And then, she stood on her hooves, and, foretasting the two or three days of playtime – if talking of days in this place out of time had any sense - she was going to have before coming back home, she started to sing for the enjoyment of her friends.

At least, no one of them was a dragon.

ECHIDNA

THE MOTHER OF MONSTERS

END