Elements: Beautiful Stories for Ugly Children

It was another lovely evening in Ponyville. Perfect for walks among lush gardens, picnics out in the fields, or even jobs that took full advantage of the great out doors. Not a cloud was in the sky, and everyone was in a rather merry mood.

Not everyone was able to enjoy the atmosphere however, as a very professional-looking, grayish amber, earth stallion stood just a stone's throw away from a particular, magnificent looking cottage. He grumbled to himself as he readjusted his red and gold dollar sign tie and slicked back his dark grayish mane once more. His satchel bobbed slightly as he did so, before he readjusted it as well. Today is going to be a very troubling day, he thought as his light azure eyes looked down upon his watch. Looks like I have about two hours before tee-off time. I should try to make this as quick as possible if I want to get my errands done in time before then.

Trotting up to the cottage door, the stallion in question cleared his throat, adjusted his collar and lapel, before knocking upon the door. There was a light squeak before the door slowly opened and a familiar, yellow earth bound pegasus peaked through the opening.

"Ms. Fluttershy," he greeted with a slight bow.

"Oh! Mr. Filthy Rich. What an unexpected surprise!" Fluttershy quietly exclaimed, opening the door much wider, "Come in, come in!"

"Thank you." Filthy Rich stepped through the threshold of the cottage and gently closed the door behind him, before following the demure pegasus to the adjacent living room. He spied the couch that stood next to the window and decided to take his seat there. Filthy Rich then took off his satchel and placed it beside him, readying himself for the incoming conversation.

"Would you like some tea?!" Fluttershy asked, out of sight in a different room.

"That would be quite lovely," replied the businesspony.

"Do you have any requests?"

Filthy Rich pawed at his chin for a moment, before he waved his hoof in dismissal. "Surprise me," he said in nonchalance.

There was a clattering of dishes and the whistle of boiling water as Filthy Rich reached into his satchel and retrieved a few documents, laying them upon the table. He leafed through the pages, gazing upon the numbers, variety of listed items, and descriptions for everything. Gazing at the documents, he wondered why it came to this.

Many, many moons ago, the one Ms. Fluttershy, who's cottage they were in right now, had requested financial assistance in order to help run her in-home animal shelter and care-giving clinic. While not a full fledged veterinarian, she was indeed skilled enough to tend to and patch up a variety of animals. Many of the residents in town relied upon her services for their pets, as well as a variety of the local wildlife. In terms of profits, it wasn't exactly a big generator, but he understood the benefits of happy pet owners and happy wildlife. Still, the meager profits that were present were still profits, so he took a blind eye when the occasional financial spike happened, especially during emergencies or cases happening all at once. However...

"Tea is ready!" Fluttershy gently exclaimed before she trotted out of the kitchen, pushing a cart with said tea and filled teacups to the coffee table. She noticed the papers lying upon the surface, and took great care to keep the brew she made far enough away while placing said tea upon the table. They did look rather important, after all. Then came the snacks, which were set between her and her guest, right before she sat down upon the comfy chair that headed the table.

Filthy Rich gently picked up his cup and saucer and took a sniff of the tea he was given, noticing a spicy yet sweet aroma wafting from its depths. Honestly, he's never smelled such a blend before, but he was all for trying new things. Especially since he was here to deliver bad news.

"I hope you don't mind," Fluttershy started, "But I didn't quite know what kind of tea you preferred, so I chose one of my favorites."

"That's quite alright," he replied, taking a sip of his tea. Indeed, the blend had a bitter, spicey tang to it, followed by a cool sweetness.

"So, what brings you here today, Mr. Filthy?"

The businesspony balked upon hearing the first half of his name without the second half. He gave a sigh, and gently reminded her to address him as Filthy Rich or Mr. Rich. She sincerely apologized with a look of worry upon her face. Filthy Rich sighed again, placing his tea down, deciding it would be best to quit the subterfuge.

"I am here to discuss with you some... financial issues that have cropped up as of late," he announced, reaching for the documents.

The demure mare sat and nodded gently with a stoic expression, taking this conversation as seriously as possible.

He then explained the nature of his business relationship with her: How he and his associates provide Fluttershy with finances and supplies as an investment, where she in turn would use said supplies to conduct her work and return the monetary gain from paying townsfolk. How, up to roughly several months back, said agreement and business relationship, though turning a very small profit, was none-the-less kept in the black much of the time. How he can forgive those prior, few times in the red where there had been emergencies or otherwise unforeseen circumstances dipping into any profits that could be made.

"With all that said," Flithy Rich continued, "I'm finding it very difficult in justifying some of these... expenses, as of late." He flipped through some of his pages, and began to read. "One ten times extra large dog brush..."

"OH! That was for an Orthus was was lucky enough to take care of for a while. He was such a sweetie."

"Indeed," he said with a raised eyebrow, right before he continued with the list, "One barrel of anti-slime solution..."

"Discord wanted to introduce me to a friend of his and... well, he's really messy, so I was just getting what was going to be a necessity for future visits."

Ignoring Fluttershy's interjection, Filthy Rich concluded with, "And one of the most egregious examples was an order of three tonnes of assorted, frozen fish..."

"Well, I do have a lot of-"

"Per week." Fluttershy fell silent as Filthy Rich decided to repeat what he said. "Per. Week. Ms. Fluttershy. This was once a bi monthly order, and you've gone and octupled the amount for the last while! Do you have any idea how pricey it is to collect, freeze, and store that much fish on a week to week basis?"

"I'm ever so sorry, Mr. Rich. I truly am, but..."

"But?" he parroted, almost curious about what reason would be needed for such supplies.

Fluttershy then became quiet, fidgeting in her seat.

"Ms. Fluttershy, if I don't have a proper justification for this, I'm afraid this business investment is going to head south. I haven't even MENTIONED the other expenses yet. I mean, tiny custom furnishings and stress relief equipment?"

"Oh, those were for the Breezies!"

"Right," Filthy Rich uttered, irritated.

Silence lingered for a moment as he continued to hold the documents. He gave Fluttershy a look of disappointment mixed with slight ire. It was less about the mare's odd spending habits lately, and more about what he was losing with seemingly out of nowhere reasons. Especially with the massive increase of fish purchases.

Fluttershy put down her teacup and gave a deep sigh to relax her nerves. She then looked directly at Filthy Rich. "Have you met my new friend?"

"Pardon?"

"The reason for the fish. If you haven't, would you like to?"

Filthy gave her a quizzical look, and thought about it for a moment. When it came to the normal expenses, Filthy Rich could see where it all went, with the evidence of birds and forestry critters, along with a few pets from other owners, all of which were just out of sight. When it came to the more bizarre requests, he had yet to see hide, hair, feather, scale, or what have you of some of these creatures, and felt the money he was investing was just being taken for a ride. That is, save for the scant few sightings of something massive that tended to linger behind her cottage from time to time. He could never quite get a good look at it, as he rarely had a reason to visit the cottage officially, but from what he could tell, it seemed to resemble an over sized frog, of all things. If he could directly interact with that strange entity that Fluttershy was now seemingly involving herself with, then perhaps...

"You know what? Sure. Let's meet your new 'friend'," he decided.

Fluttershy gave a little squee as she clacked her hooves together in excitement. Rising from her seat, she beckoned him to follow her. He saw no real reason to entertain this, as he was still on a time limit, but he figured the sooner he met the "reason" for the expenses personally, the quicker he'd be able to put the kibosh on the whole thing, one way or another. As a grace of charity, he'd at the very least suggest alternative plans of action just to cut back on such egregious spending. Especially in regards to the colossal amounts of fish.

Filthy Rich himself rose from his seat, staggering a little and felt slightly dizzy, only to catch himself from tipping over. Shaking his head, the dizziness deteriorated and he felt in full control again. Must of gotten up too quickly, he considered, I'm getting on in years.

Soon enough, he followed Fluttershy outside the cottage. Rounding the side the the quaint building, they soon came to what seemed to be a cellar hatch at the back of her homestead.

"Discord helped make it for me so he wouldn't be stuck outside all the time. It would be ever so rude of me if I couldn't allow such a sweetie into my home due to his size, so we compromised," she explained, opening the door. Inside was a set of stone stairs leading deep into pitch black darkness. A sudden gust of surprisingly cool air escaped from the opening, sending a shiver down Filthy Rich's spine. Noticing, she gave a slight giggle. "Oh, you'll get used to that the longer you're around him." She then, with her front hoof, tapped the edge of the cellar door's frame twice, causing torchlight to appear in places further down the steps. She took a step in and started to head down, just before turning back once to say, "Please, watch your step."

"Th-thank you," Filthy Rich replied, as he followed Fluttershy down into the sparsely illuminated stone stairwell, deep, deep below the world, away from the sunlight's reassurance. Before he knew it, the cellar doors closed behind him, causing Filthy Rich to snap his attention to the entrance.

Fluttershy giggled again. "I jumped too the first time that happened. The doors close on their own automatically after a short amount of time. It's to keep too much of the cool air from escaping... among other things."

"Pardon?"

"It keeps the cool air from escaping and other things. Too much of a chill can harm plants in the back yard."

"Right... Right..."

They continued their descent down the stairwell as the air slowly, but noticeably, became colder and colder. If he would have known this would happen, he would have brought his fancy velour jacket that was surprisingly toasty even in the harshest of winters. However, despite being able to plan for most things, each of the Element bearers were decidedly unpredictable in the grand scheme, he had learned. Sure, they seemed rather simple to figure out, but there was always SOMETHING they knew or had that would throw him off of his game in some way. Fluttershy, whom he interacted with the least, had seemingly finally shown that game throwing side.

"I'm sure you're going to enjoy meeting him, Mr. Filthy, as I'm sure he'll enjoy... hmmm-eating you."

"It's Mr. Rich, or Filthy Rich, please."

"I'm sorry," she giggled, sounding less sincere compared to her previous faux-pas.

This is ridiculous, Filthy Rich thought irritably, This is becoming a waste of my time. I should probably just cut this little meeting short and tell her what I intend to tell her. Just say it, Filthy; funding is cut. End of.

"We're here!" Fluttershy exclaimed with a hint of joy.

Stepping down from the last step, Filthy Rich had found himself in what seemed to be a very large room with an equally large, metal door. It almost looked like some sort of dungeon entrance that he read about once when he was just a colt, only greatly expanded in size. He then noticed just how cold it was, now that his mind was away from stewing in his irritated thoughts. "Wh-... what is this?"

Fluttershy gave the door three solid taps, which rang out with metal clangs, reverberating around the room they were in. As she stepped back, the doors shifted and began opening, roaring with heavy metal scraping and grinding as they slowly swung open, inviting them in. The moment they were sufficiently open, the cold air soon became much colder. Filthy Rich shivered as Fluttershy gave a smile, a slight giggle, and practically pranced beyond such an intimidating entrance. Swallowing hard from his chapping mouth, Filthy Rich followed after her slowly, alarm bells going off in his head the whole time.

"Come on, Mr. Rich!" Fluttershy exclaimed from the darkness.

"I, uh, I d-don't think this is a very good idea, Ms. Flu-"

The sound of heavy metal swiftly grinding against the ground could be heard as the businesspony whipped backward to catch the doors closing. He raced to the thick barriers, knocking against them with his hooves in panic. Something was definitely wrong.

"Don't be afraid," Fluttershy said with a sweet, gentle voice.

"I-I am... most certainly not. I was... just a bit startled, that's all," he lied, slicking back his hair and readjusting his collar once more.

"Then," she said in the darkness, as a soft blue glow started to shine through, "I would like to introduce you to my guest, Mr. Rich. This is Bael."

The blue light then became strong enough that it was able to seemingly take form and even illuminate the outline of Fluttershy. The form in question was a massive, horrifying creature that resembled something he swore was only the size of a horseshoe. Except for the jagged crystals on the back, red piercing eyes, needle like teeth, and strange curled spikes along the massive lip. It was indeed the thing he caught glances of from time to time; the strange, giant frog-like beast, and now he had a name for it.

"Don't worry," she started with a playful voice, "you'll be safe. You could even feed him!" She then opened her wings and leaped into the air, flying up to the creature's head and landed between the crystals. "Do you wanna play? He's almost tamed."

The creature, Bael, gritted his horrifying, sharp teeth as his limbs flexed and tensed up as his bulbous body dipped back slightly into a pouncing position. Filthy Rich's fight or flight instincts kicked in immediately upon seeing this, causing him to run to the right in a panic. As soon as he started, the great big monster leaped forward, gaping maw wide open, attempting to swallow the businesspony, missing by inches. The rush of cold air from the mammoth beast's sudden presence brushed at Filthy Rich's coat, pushing him to flee faster. He could hear the heavy stomps of the creatures limbs beat the ground rhythmically, causing the fleeing pony to chance a glance back, only to see that the beast was readjusting his body to be pointed at the soon-to-be victim.

"Oh, Bael likes playing Tag," Fluttershy cooed with a giggle as the monster stomped after his fleeing 'playmate'.

This isn't play! he shouted in his head as sounds of fear and panic escaped from his lips in the form of incoherent screams. Filthy Rich then abruptly stopped running as his face collided against the wall before him, causing him to tumble back and fall to his hindquarters. Rubbing his face in pain, the sobering feeling reset his emotions and forced him to come to terms with the situation. With such a terrible revelation, he took another hard left and tried to come up with some sort of plan of action. He was a businesspony, after all. He didn't become who he was today being a fool without a plan. I can at least see that thing quite clearly, despite seeing very little otherwise, he considered, I should be able to use that to my advantage. He looked to his immediate left, and only saw darkness. Question is, how do I capitalize on it, especially without it knowing. He then came up with an idea. It was risky, but there wasn't much else he could do.

He veered to the left for a moment before taking a hard right, to run towards the wall. Just before he reached it, he leaped with all of his might, landed against the wall hooves first, and pushed off with as hard of a jump as he could muster, channeling good ol' earth pony magic into his action. He was still a little heavier set compared to when he last did this, so his descent was quicker than he liked, but he never-the-less tucked himself in, rolled as silently as he could across the ground, and came to a stop, keeping low against the floor.

He watched as the creature stomped up to where he was at moments before, and slowly crawled backwards through the dark, keeping an eye on the blue light of the monster's form. Bael stoped, looking about for a moment, growling in irritation. Filthy Rich could just barely see the outline of Fluttershy atop the monster, giving off what seemed to be a hint of disappointment from the barely visible face. Then, she smiled and laughed.

"Oh, how wonderful. This sweet little thing was growing tired of tag anyway," she declared, gently petting the head of the monster, "But, I'm so glad you've just suggested to play his favorite game..."

Filthy Rich raised an eyebrow, keeping low and quiet in the dark, watching their every move. He then witnessed the thing breath in deeply, ballooning the grotesque upper half of the underbelly like a frog, and holding it. Bael's blueish glow then became slightly brighter. Something was definitely, deeply wrong.

"Hide and seek."

The creature then roared, letting out quite the noxious gas as the light that came from the monster's body slowly dissipated, until only the red eyes could be seen. Soon enough, those too disappeared, and now Filthy Rich could no longer keep track of his tormentors.

Filthy Rich remained still, desperately trying to control his breathing to stay as quiet as possible while he was still unseen. Slowly, he shifted his hooves, taking great care to not let each calculated step make a hint of a noise. As his eyes were slowly starting to adjust to the darkness, now at least able to perceive his immediate surroundings, his focus snapped back and forth, trying to find any indication of the monster and the keeper.

"Ready or nooooooot," Fluttershy cooed, somewhere nearby.

Filthy Rich's breath hitched slightly as he did his best to avoid panicking. He looked about in the dark, searching for any sort of advantage or way out of the situation. It was then that he noticed a sliver of light. A very thin line at ground level, barely noticeable before, but now much more apparent after his eyes adjusted slightly to the shadows. Disconcerting how long the line was, even at this distance, it must be from the chamber behind the doors.

The doors! He remembered. They opened at Fluttershy's tap, but perhaps there was some sort of mechanism attached to it to allow it to open and close. If I could make my way there without getting caught, I might be able to make a run for it.

There was then the sound of rushing air and a sudden crash that was heard no more than a few paces beside him. His heart jumped into his throat, spooked by the sudden noise. Following that was twinkling and the sound of what seemed to be glass scraping against the ground. Then, Filthy Rich felt something bump against his hoof. He raised the touched leg slightly in reaction, noting the cold feeling it gave. Gently, he tried touching the object, noting the perceived temperature and concluded this was not glass, but ice.

A monstrous, mocking, deep chuckle could be heard nearby as the hairs along the back of his neck stood on end, pushing him to make haste to his desperate plan. As he moved toward the thin source of light, the sound of crashing ice could be heard around him, as if it were a hailstorm with ice chunks the size of bowling balls raining down in the dark. He swore one barely missed him, causing him to let out a highly restrained yelp of surprise.

Soon enough, he finally made it towards the door, and began pawing at the surface, looking for anything that could possibly denote the presence of a door mechanism. Due to his panic, he failed to realized the clattering of his own hooves were now drawing a certain party's attention.

"Oh my! I think we're getting close to finding him, Mr. Bael." Fluttershy said sweetly, as if she were talking about a missing child, or perhaps a missing pet.

Slow, heavy stomps then followed as Filthy Rich picked up the pace in his search, trying desperately to find something, ANYTHING that he could use to get himself out. His hoof then touched an object that protruded from the normally flat wall next to the door. His heart skipped a beat as he fiddled around with it, looking for a button, or switch, or something that may open the door. To his surprise, he did indeed find a button. To his horror, all it did was light the once unseen torch overhead. His face fell as he watched the light above him get brighter, betraying his position to the master of this domain.

She gasped in false shock, "There you are!" she exclaimed in a sultry, breathy tone. "We found him, Mr. Bael! But, I guess the game's over now."

"W-wait! Wait wait wait!" Filthy Rich screamed, extending his hooves forward in pleading and begging, "Why are you d-doing this? Please, don't do this! I-I have a wife and daughter! P-Please, j-just let me go!"

There was silence. Then, the outline of Fluttershy emerged from the darkness, her face stoic and her eyes more piercing than he ever believed she was capable of.

"You're going to cut off our supplies and funding," she stated, matter of factually, "How am I supposed to feed Bael and all of my other little animal friends?"

Filthy Rich was taken aback, "I-I never said that! Not once!"

"You implied it! Why else would you aggressively read off the expenses like they were a list of crimes!" she argued back.

He remained silent, unable to really counter the point. He WAS rather confrontational with the infamously non-confrontational mare. Who wouldn't recognize the issue with how he was behaving during the conversation?

"W-we could have n-negotiated a deal!" he stated, trying to turn the tables.

"Even though you wanted to wrap things up and run off to play your golf game?"

Filthy Rich had no retort to that as his face felt more pale than it already had. How did she even know about that?

She scoffed, "It doesn't matter now. Bael is hungry, after all, and you need to feed him."

"N-NO! WAIT! P-please, I'm beggin' you, Ms. F-fluttershy! Don't do this! I'll, I'll cancel my golf appointment! We can sit and talk about this!"

Fluttershy ignored the pleading pony as she turned away from him and cantered back into the dark. As she did, a gust of sub-zero air rushed forward, freezing the ground around him, and much of his body, encasing it in thick ice. His head, now shaking and shivering from the extreme cold, was the only thing left uncovered.

"Go ahead, my sweet killing machine."

From the shadows, red eyes and a blue glow emerged with sharp, needle-like teeth slowly opening into a massive, wide maw. As his consciousness was slowly fading from the extreme temperature drop and his vision began to blur, he swore the last thing he saw was the beast lean back its body before abruptly leaping forward into a powerful lunge, poised to devour Filthy Rich in one big bite.

-o-v-o-v-o-v-o-v-o-

Filthy Rich's eyes slowly creaked open as he found himself in a white, sterile looking room with a surprisingly comfortable sheet tucked around his body. He slowly sat up, just before he started coughing up a fit. He was chilled to the bone and drenched in sweat, on top of having a hard time breathing.

"Oh! Thank goodness you're awake!" The sound of the familiar, demure voice called out

Said voice caused him to jump as his gazed fixated on the source with shock. However, unlike the monster he witnessed before, here was just the ever worried look of the kindly pegasus mare that greeted him at the cottage door. His fear instantly evaporated, witnessing the innocent and concerned visage of Ms. Fluttershy.

"Wh... what happened?" he managed to squeak out, holding his head gently, only now registering a throbbing sensation at his temple.

"Y-you had an allergic reaction and passed out, hitting your head on the coffee table! Why didn't you tell me you were allergic to mint!" she shouted, almost crying.

"First I've heard of this, Ms. Fluttershy. Though, I've never had mint before in my life," he said, with a chuckle. She then gave the old stallion a swift and tight hug as her sniffles muffled against his coat. "Hey, hey, hey! Ease off a bit! I'm fine now!"

She let go and leaned back into her chair. "Sorry," she squeaked out.

Filthy Rich grumbled, as he attempted to look at his watch, only to notice it was missing, "Gosh darn- Do you know what time it is?"

"Six thirty in the evening," she replied, "Roughly that."

"I've been asleep for THAT LONG!?" he shouted, before he slumped back into his bed. I missed my golf game. He gave a deep, defeated sigh as he stared up at the ceiling. Silence floated through the air for a moment as Fluttershy watched Filthy Rich, whom was resting, pondering over a few thoughts to himself.

"Hey, uh, Ms. Fluttershy?" he started, addressing the young mare.

"Yes?"

"You don't have... like some sort of weird cellar... basement... dungeon below your cottage, do you?"

"Heavens no!" she exclaimed, "Why would I ever need of such a thing?! How would I even get one?!"

"No reason. Just-" he said, shaking his head, "I had the strangest dream." He then gazed back towards Fluttershy again, and continued. "About our talk earlier..."

"Thinking back, those expenses were a bit extreme," She admitted, "I wouldn't mind cutting back on a few things, but I suppose that means a little froggy I know would need to visit less frequently."

"Right, right..." he agreed, before he said, "Maybe, we can hash out a deal."

"Once you're feeling better," Fluttershy replied, only to rise from her seat, "Doctor said you should be here for a couple days to recover. I'll let your wife know you've woken up."

"Ah, thank you." He then watched as she cantered out of the hospital room, stopping only to wave goodbye one last time, before she left him finally alone. A small shiver crawled up and down his spine as he snuggled deeper under the comfort of his surprisingly warm sheet. He felt exhausted, like he had just ran for his life, so it wasn't long before fatigue caught up with him once again.