A Short Tale

Chapter 21: Infestations

The morning was as normal. The sun was rising, animals were attempting to awaken an alien, and the strangeling was off doing her things. Travian was not waking up this early though because he just couldn't deal with being up and about when the light just shows up. It goes against his fake codes that he just made up called the 'morning laws'. He was thoroughly justified and stayed asleep. His slumber continued until a fluttery shy pony came his way. "Do you know anything about picking flowers?" And she was waking him up for this.

He groggily arose, a clear expression of hatred to everything visible upon his face. "No. I have never nor will I ever pick flowers. That is a waste of my time." He turned to Flutternot. "But you know what? I ain't got nothing else to do! So why not learn how to..." He said the last sentence rather sarcastically.

"Oh that's great- Wait didn't you say you weren't going to pick them ever?"

"I said I was gonna learn, not actually do. Don't you know anything about schools and learning?" It was true. Most of the things he went into the education system for was never used in his entire life. "Anyways... What do you need these flowers for?" She was much more eager to answer that question.

"Oh, well I wanted to give the princess some flowers as a gift just so she knows that I appreciate her..." Travian didn't appreciate her. She was probably the one who orchestrated those animals to wake him up, and then instructed Fluttersit to wake him up! What an evil mastermind, mimicking the dastardly nature of his brother. He would have to say something berating about her at some point, and then apologize profusely, stating it was an accidental sneeze! His revenge plan was perfect.

"That's great. That's absolutely fantastic. When do we get to the picking?" He was seriously not in the mood for this. He didn't even get up yet, and here he was, asked to do menial labor for a cruel tyrant of the deepest and largest amount of pure unflinching darkness and evil.

"Right now, I mean, if you don't mind, that is..." It was time for a question that was dangerous to ask.

"Hey Fluttersue, how can you be so lovable and adorable sometimes?" She managed to release a blush. "Is it like a talent of yours?" It was early, and he wasn't really thinking or listening to maximum efficiency.

"I... I guess so..." He flopped himself forward, falling on his face. "Oh my gosh, are you okay?" He wasn't fragile! He's only been nursed back to health by her like... Three times! He wasn't some sort of weakling.

"I'm not made of glass. I don't break because of this." He lifted himself up, although it was slow and clumsy due to his weariness. Seriously, he shouldn't even be up. How Mayella was up, he would never know. Maybe strangelings don't need sleep as much, or something along those lines.

She led him out to some sort of field and started to show him all the different varieties of flowers and which ones would be suitable for the tyrannical and evil morning princess of DOOOOM! She had some animals helping too. When she noticed him not paying too much attention, she tried to get it, as timid as she was. "Um... Are you listening to me, Longshot?" He was now.

"Huh. Uh, yeah. Totally. Flowers and stuff." He saw a lavender colored flower. "Look! A lavender! Those smell nice." He was completely guessing and or lying.

"Oh... So you were paying attention! That's good to know. But you know, it'd help if you started to pick some of these... I mean, if it isn't that big of an issue." Fluttershy didn't remember that he had claws. Claws and flower stems don't mix in a blender or in general.

"Well yeah, I'd love too, but I have these." He held up his hand. "Also, if I do that, I have to pay attention to flowers, and not your beautiful..." He received a look from Fluttershy for pausing there. Of course, he was trying to find something to make it complete. His eyes moved all over her, and he found something prominent and very noticeable from behind her. "Legs. They are very tasty looking..." Wait did he really say that? It was way too early! He didn't even have breakfast.

Fluttershy was now turned toward him with a terrified look. "What?!" While he didn't want to deny that fact as they did look nice and quite delectable, he had to for her sake.

"I'm sorry! I'm not fully awake... And hungry." With her reassured, she moved along. He noticed that she tried not to get too close to him because she had not been that meticulous about before the whole leg comment. She also tried to keep her front facing him more often, presumably to check on him.

After a while, one of her search animals arrived, some sort of furry brown thing with a large bushy tail, and it had some sort of white puffy flower. It grabbed her tail and shook it, causing her to drop down and look at it. "Thank you, little squirrel, but remember: these flowers are for Princess Celestia," remarkably known as the evil morning princess, "Only the prettiest ones will do." A gust of wind magically appeared out of nowhere and blew the entire flower apart, causing it to droop down.

Travian burst out laughing because of the moment, and he felt a little bit of him saying he was evil. It was okay because it was random, and random things are meant to be funny. Fluttershy gave him the look women give to men, causing him to stop, while the squirrel ran away to probably get another flower. Fluttershy decided to start a little talk about this, which was a poor move on her part. "You know, it really isn't kind to just laugh at such things. Somepony might feel hurt because of it." The difficulty card was rolled out. He decided to be very difficult. He couldn't let a timid pony like Fluttershy win an argument! Then she would start making more and more arguments, and eventually will tell him how to dress. He just couldn't stand for that.

"Good thing that wasn't a pony." Strike number one.

"But it was still rude."

"But it was funny." Strike number two. Fluttershy turned around. She looked upset at him, for some reason.

"Well maybe you offended me because you would laugh at a little squirrel for trying!" This wasn't like her at all. "Oh, I'm sorry for yelling at you... It's just sometimes you are so hard to talk to... I mean, um-" There it was. He just couldn't let her get on one of her tangents of apologies, so he interrupted tactically.

"Look, Fluttersoul, it's alright. I understand I was being rude. I understand you may have been offended, and I most certainly understand I can be difficult." Wait... He was letting her win! He could never let that happen. "But that doesn't change the fact I have a different sense of humor than you." Strike three, and so Fluttershy was outta there! She silenced herself for the rest of the walk to some place.

Travian followed her to a little basket full of apples. She forgot about the whole turning around thing for him. He was proven innocent, apparently. He also woke up quite a bit. What really woke him up was when they were nearing the basket and a noise popped out from under a rock. Fluttershy, naturally, freaked out and hid behind the basket. Her little flower container flew up in to the air with enough time for him to catch it. "Bah. You shouldn't freak out like tha-" He looked at the rock.

A pair of insect legs appeared, and next were insect wings. Then a circular body with overly huge eyes appeared. His first thought was to kill with extreme prejudice. Of course, Fluttershy jumped to it's side. "Hello little guy! I've never seen anything like you before." It flew around her and went for an apple on the ground. It then sniffed it quite a bit. No, seriously. The bug was sniffing the apple. "Oh, are you hungry?" She smashed the apple to bits, surprising Travian with her strength. Even he couldn't do that with his front leg- arms! She pushed the mush forward. "Here you go!" It didn't go for the apple, signalling a flag in Travian's mind.

It went for the entire basket of apples. That was two flags. He didn't know how it did it, but it ate the entire basket of apples in a matter of seconds. That was his flag that told him it was a parasitic organism that was going to have to die. It flew over to Fluttershy. "I guess you were hungry!" It started caressing her mane, but that was Travian's future hobby, maybe, so he couldn't let that happen.

"Eh little guy. Come 'ere." He held out his hand. It flew over to his hand and perched upon it. "Fluttershy, I'm gonna go have a walk with this little bugger. He's real..." Disgusting. "Cute." He started walking away with it.

"Oh I know! He was just the cutest thing ever..." Easy to please. Travian kept walking with it. He eventually was out of Fluttershy's sight. It was time.

"So tell me little guy. What's so special about you?" It did nothing. In fact, it looked like it fell asleep. "Ain't that just the cutest and most convenient thing." He grabbed the parasite and placed it gently on the ground. "Shame, huh? The world may never know of the harm you would cause it. Unlike me. The strong parasites survive, while the weak fall." He lifted up his foot.

He waited a bit before curb stomping the little guy. He let loose a maniacal laugh, but no one was around. It would have been really cinematic, and it was the reason why he said that whole parasite thing, but eh. He would have to go with it. He lifted his foot and started scraping it on the ground. "Disgusting. I hate this part of bug squashing."

He arrived at the cottage and he saw a rather daft situation. There was a strangeling in front of a Fluttershy, and nothing was happening. Mayella's little horn was glowing. He walked up to the two. "So... What would two sexy ladies be doing at a time like this? Not doing anything inappropriate, I hope. Otherwise, I would have to punish the naughty females..." Mayella was trying so hard not to respond, but he could see a faint blush on her face. "Lemme guess. She came out and was so quiet she was just in your face so you froze her." She nodded, focusing on the magic. "Tell you what. Turn into a rabbit on three, and I'll play the situation off like something was going on with her eyes." Travian then counted to three.

When he said three, Mayella turned into a bunny, and Travian put on a confused expression. Fluttershy freaked for a couple of seconds before Travian gently placed a hand on her back. "Hey, you alright there?" She gasped and jumped, as expected, and then she apologized.

"Yes, I think I'm okay... I just thought-"

"What? That Mayella here was some big scary monster?" Fluttershy hesitated before nodding. "You wouldn't have to worry. You know I'd protect you just as you have protected me." She was confused.

"How did I do that? That is, if you don't mind me asking..." How could she not see how she protected him?

"You gave me a place to stay. A place that I enjoy. That protected me from unhappiness, just as you do that normally with your overly adorable noises and actions." Mayella did not seem to like that little compliment. Fluttershy, on the other hand, was flustered.

"Oh... Well... Thank you," she responded. Now was time for the moment he loved to bring up.

"No," he said and paused. He waited until Fluttershy started to look slightly worried. "Thank you."

Travian decided a little walk was what he needed one day. With his escapade with the two women of the home, he had to take a breather and admire the finer things of life. At least, admire them until he realized his life is overly long and then stop admiring it. Then he would start resenting it, and hoping it to end. Oh how his thoughts escalate at quite quick speeds. His walk was stopped when he stopped in a peculiar place.

He was staring at a tree for a very long time. He took a step towards it, and the impossible happened. A pink pony appeared from the side of the trunk, her hair and body unaffected by the gravitational pull of the planet. She was suspended there with some sort of look on her face. Instead of where a smile should have been with large blue eyes, he instead got a suspicious face. She then started speaking in a low voice. "I know what you did."

He could try to pull her off track to replace his confusion, or he could ask her what he did. He preferred the off track option, and prepared to off road. "Look, okay. Fluttershy has nice legs and a cute face. I just couldn't help myself, alright!"

"Oh no, not that. I already know about that. But you stopped something... And I could feel it. Whatever it was, it was supposed to happen..." Her face was all up in Travian's grill. It found itself with a hand upon it, pushing it back.

"Pinkie. Stahp. You're too silly to be serious." She kept her serious face and shrunk back into the trunk, never to be seen there again. She gets around a lot. He would have to ask her how, though he dreaded the answer.