Twisted Moose Magic

Magic

    Fluttershy woke up the next day and began her daily routine, her daily grooming rituals completed on autopilot before she was even fully awake. Other, more specialized, grooming was done before the moon had even begun to set. She had to wake up so early in the morning that it hadn't stopped being late at night yet, in order to help more nocturnal animals.

    Groggily, Fluttershy made breakfast. She was adjusted to waking up this early in the morning, but normally, she found time for at least a nap around midday. She couldn't quite remember at that moment why she hadn't had one yesterday, or why she had nightmares all last night.

    Vague, half-remembered images of judgment and isolation floated through her mind, out of context but no less chilling for it. Losing her appetite, Fluttershy pushed her breakfast away and decided to check if there were any new patients in tonight.

    Fluttershy always thought of them as both patients and friends. She only called them “animals” when she was talking to other ponies. She would never say it to anypony else, but if she was really being honest with herself, Fluttershy preferred dealing with her patients more than she did other ponies. They listened to her, and while she hated to even think it, she felt like they respected her more than most ponies did.

    She gradually made her way through her cottage, to all the dark crannies where nocturnal friends with problems waited when they didn't require immediate attention.

    It was a quiet night for her. Only a horned owl with sore wing was waiting for her attention. Fluttershy's careful ministrations revealed a broken feather that had been bleeding, and after several minutes the owl was perched inside of a cubby in Fluttershy's wall. Fluttershy left the owl with a bit of fish and told it:

    “Now you stay off that wing for a day or so, and I'll be back later with more food for you.”

    Checking the rest of her cottage, Fluttershy was once again surprised to find that the owl truly was her only patient for tonight.

    She had an agreement with the animals: around her cottage was neutral ground, and she would treat any animal who respected that rule. In return, they brought her food in times of plenty, and anything they thought might be useful to her. It was not uncommon for even small but valuable things to turn up, such as jewelry or even bits (she was actually the local lost and found because of it). Along with what she made as the local vet, and a retirement, she was pretty well off.

    Fluttershy peeked out the window into the pre-dawn light to see if she had any overnighters too large to fit through her dog door. Outside, she saw a large hairy mass in her front yard.

    “Oh, Harry must have come to visit me!” Fluttershy rushed over to her front door and jerked it open (relatively speaking. Rainbow Dash would have used different, slower words).

    And then Fluttershy stopped dead where she stood, as several things came to mind. The first was that Harry wasn't as big as this. The second was that Harry's silhouette looked nothing like this, especially his head. And the third thing, racing ahead of the other two to occupy most of Fluttershy's mind: Harry didn't have antlers.

    The monster that had haunted her dreams last night turned its massive head and looked directly at her. Fluttershy felt its terrible blind gaze fall upon her, judging her, revealing her.

    Fluttershy could almost hear her friends now. In fact, she could hear exactly what they would say inside her head.

    “I'm sure I can find a book on how to fix you, somewhere.”

    “All those years in flight school and you never told me?!”

    “I never would have been friends with you if I knew you were so uncouth.”

    “Now that just ain't honest. While I'm mighty disappointed in you, Ah can see why you decided to hide that away.”

    “I left you alone with Pound Cake!? Mrs. Cake is never gonna forgive me!”

    This kept going on and on until Fluttershy felt like she could feel the judging eyes of her friends glaring at her, tearing into her.

    Tuntuvak stared at the little pegasus practically having a heart attack on its front porch.

Could I have done this to the poor little creature? I mean my voice isn’t that scary is it?

    Then it looked like it was about to collapse where it stood. Without thinking, Tuntuvak was there in a flash, the rumbles of his thunderous gallop felt through the ground. This seemed to break the pegasus out of its stupor.

     Tuntuvak stopped his charge, and the pegasus stood and stared at him. It quietly squeaked the front door closed. A soft thump could he heard as something hit the other side of the door, accompanied by a click, and a subtle magical glow from around the door.

     There was a long moment where Tuntuvak wasn't sure what to do. One of the major disadvantages of magical sight was limited range. He couldn't exactly see long distances. Especially not from, say, the cottage to Ponyville, or indeed any landmarks in the distance that ponies would normally navigate by. Everything outside of the range of his magic was simply darkness. Tuntuvak would have been more creeped out if things inside that radius weren't lit up clear as day.

     After a long minute, Tuntuvak walked up the cottage and attempted to gently knock an antler against the door.

     Fluttershy felt her heart running a mile a minute, her back pressed against the magically deadbolted door. Suddenly, she felt the door behind her vibrate. She shrieked and attempted to fly behind the couch. Unfortunately her wings locked up halfway there, and she ended up on her back no less than three feet away from where she started.

     She lay there for a while trying to get a hold of herself, when she heard the noise again. Fluttershy realized that the... whatever it was, was knocking on the door.

     Fluttershy crept up to the door, debating her options. On the one hoof it was rude to ignore somepony knocking on the door. But she really didn't want to open the door to that, if it even was a somepony. Then an even more horrible thought came over her.

     It knew about her.

     That meant it could tell other ponies about her, if it ever met them

     Fluttershy swallowed hard and put the little chain on the door. It really did look like a pathetic chain compared to the magical deadbolt she had installed. She opened up the door.

     Tuntuvak was preparing to knock a third time, when the door opened very slowly on its own. The yellow pegasus hesitantly poked its head out. Tuntuvak had to strangle the impulse to hug it right there, but judging by its past reaction to him he didn't think it would take kindly to that.

     “Mmmmphh mmm, mrr pppffff.”

     Tuntuvak forgot he was holding its mushroom basket in his mouth. Tuntuvak gently set it on the porch, noticing that the pegasus never stopped staring at his face in horror.

     "Umm, excuse me, sir, do you know where I could find a hospital?" Tuntuvak boomed.

     The pegasus looked down with an expression of deep shame.

     "Please don't call me that..."

     Tuntuvak tilted his head to the Pegasus and made a deep questioning sound.

     "Please don't call me ‘sir.’” Fluttershy continued. “I.. I'm not like that anymore."

     Things started to click in Tuntuvak's head, or rather, they didn't. Tuntuvak at this point was acting on instinct. Words, mannerisms and spells came to him naturally. Social skills however, did not.

     "I'm sorry, sir. I just need to get to a hospital soon, before it gets worse."

     "Before what gets-"

     Inconveniently, Tuntuvak was already on the ground. It was much worse this time.

     HATRED, the sound of a mallet hitting wood, bones, endless fields of bones, auburn hair, HATRED, HATRED, HATRED! HATRED!!

     Tuntuvak writhed on the ground, every muscle contracting in his flood of undirected anger. He was foaming at the mouth while uncontrolled magic spiraled out of his antlers.

    Unexpectedly, Tuntuvak felt something gripping him around his neck. As Tuntuvak calmed down and regained control of his magic, he saw that the little Pegasus was hugging him around the neck as tightly as it could.

     "I'll help you."

     It looked at him with a steely gaze for a moment.

     "But we have to get this whole 'sir' thing straightened out."