IMPRISONED
Fluttershy woke up from her mysterious slumber dazed and confused.
When did I fall asleep? And why was I sleeping on the ground?
As she tried to stretch her limbs across the “ground”, they were abruptly met with rough, jagged walls.
Where am I?
She opened her eyes to find herself still surrounded in darkness, except for a sliver of light coming from a tiny hole at her eye level.
What’s going on?
She stood up to the hole and peeked through it. What she saw was an unfamiliar forest. It was at this point that Fluttershy began to put the pieces together…
Rough walls, faint smell of bark, forest surroundings… I’m trapped inside a tree!
She attempted to shift around the tree to get an idea of how big it was. She found that its diameter was only slightly larger than Fluttershy’s body length (while lying down).
There must be a way out.
Fluttershy lifted herself on her hind legs and started to fly upward. As she did, the walls got narrower and narrower. When there was no more room to flap her wings, she grabbed a hold of the walls, and began to climb the rest of the way. The walls continued to get narrower; and suddenly Fluttershy realized she was stuck. She attempted to wriggle herself back down to the floor. In the process, she lost her grip and fell down right on her back, squealing as she hit the ground.
Well, no way I’m getting out that way. How did I even get in here if there is no way out? Did somepony teleport me in here? I have to remember what happened before I passed out…
Fluttershy was journeying to the marketplace to buy more food. Her spoiled bunny, Angel, wanted his complicated salad recipe, again.
This time, I must get those cherries before they are sold out. I don’t want to have Angel get angry at me again. I hate every time I have to use the st-
“Excuse me?”
Her inner monologue was interrupted by the voice of a small colt around Applebloom’s age. As Fluttershy turned to face him, she was immediately shocked by how weak the young unicorn looked. His turquoise body was so skinny you could see the outline of his bones. It was also bruised in multiple areas, including his knees, his cheeks, and a large radius of the forehead underneath his horn. His indigo mane was dirty and ragged. He had been severely beaten and malnourished.
Just who is this pony? Is he an orphan? Does he have abusive parents?
“Oh sweet Celestia,” exclaimed Fluttershy, “What happened to you?”
“I’m sorry, I’m just hungry. And … I wanted… something to eat.”
“Don’t worry, Fluttershy will get you something.”
The kind Pegasus had some extra cash floating around since last week, when she was asked to care for zoo animals while the zoo was being renovated. She would gladly use the extra cash to help another pony in need. Normally she was scared of meeting strangers, but she was never scared to spread kindness with a much younger pony.
After buying enough food to feed the mysterious colt for a full day, Fluttershy offered to walk the colt back to wherever he lived.
“So, where do you live?” asked Fluttershy.
“Umm … Miss Fluttershy, I … um … this way.”
Wow, this little pony is even shyer than I am, thought Fluttershy. Then again, he is really brave to ask for help. I wish I had that courage when I was his age.
“There is no need to worry,” she said. “I’ll help you get back to where you belong.”
While it may seem like a bad idea to take him back to a seemingly dreadful place to live, Fluttershy had learned not to jump to conclusions from her little incident with Philomena. She was determined to fully assess his situation first.
The unnamed colt led Fluttershy to a small alleyway; in it was a single tarp, being stretched between two houses. Under it laid an earth pony with a neon green coat and a yellow mane, also malnourished but not injured. She was wearing a large overcoat which covered up her cutie mark. Fluttershy could only assume she was the mother.
“Mommy, Fluttershy here was kind enough to bring us some food.”
The green mare turned to Fluttershy with a shocked look on her face.
“YOU are Fluttershy?” she asked. “The element of kindness?”
“Um … yeah, I guess,” said Fluttershy nervously.
The mysterious mother used her hoof to scoop out a strange white powder from one of her bags lying underneath the tent.
“What … is that exactly?” Fluttershy asked.
The mare did not respond. Instead she took a deep breath and forcefully blew the white powder at Fluttershy’s face. She attempted to turn away, but was already feeling lightheaded. Before she knew it, she had descended into darkness.
So that was how I ended up here, in a tree. Somehow one of them managed to teleport me in here. Now why would they want to do this? I’ve done nothing but try to help them.
Fluttershy’s first priority was to see if anyone was around. She brought her mouth up to the hole in the tree.
“Hello?”
There was no response. Fluttershy called out again.
“Hello?”
“Well, looks like our little captive is finally awake.” It was the gruff voice of a stallion coming in from beside the tree.
“Eep,” squealed Fluttershy as she withdrew from the hole.
So the only people around are my kidnappers. No way am I getting the help of a passerby.
“Well, what did you want to ask?” asked the stallion forcefully.
Fluttershy was too nervous to answer his question.
“Maverick, we don’t negotiate with our captives.” Fluttershy recognized this voice as the green mare from earlier.
“If she wants to ask a question, let her ask one,” replied Maverick.
“NO.”
“Fine,” Maverick said as he backed away from the tree.
So the mother is the leader behind my abduction.
A few minutes later Fluttershy started to feel lightheaded and panicked from her tiny prison. Pegasuses, being flying creatures, were claustrophobic by nature. It was at this point that something caught her eye within the tree.
Wait I saw something, is it, a squirrel?
“Um … hello?”
Her voice was replied by a squirrel’s squeak. Fluttershy breathed a sigh of relief. Her nervous feelings had been calmed.
“Oh thank goodness, it’s nice to find a friend in here. Or anyone to talk to.”
The squirrel replied in a language that only Fluttershy can understand.
“I need you to do me a huge favor, I’m trapped inside this tree and I need you to find my friend Twilight. She will be able to gather our friends together and rescue me.”
Hopefully, Twilight knows to associate this squirrel with me.
The squirrel responded affirmatively.
“Oh thank you so much. Twilight is a purple unicorn that lives in a tree; not this kind of tree though; a much bigger tree with doors and windows near the center of Ponyville.”
The squirrel replied in acknowledgement.
“Please hurry.”
The heroic rodent proceeded to wriggle through the hole in the tree. Once he was out Fluttershy finally felt relaxed.
It’s only a matter of time now. Perhaps it is time I try to negotiate with my kidnappers, if they are willing to.
“Um … excuse me, Maverick?”
Fluttershy began to hear hoof steps approaching, but she wasn’t ready for the angry response.
“WHAT?” shouted the green mare, striking her hoof against the tree.
“Eep… uh, never mind.”
“That’s what I thought.”
Okay, don’t try to negotiate with my kidnappers. Or should I? I don’t know.
She heard Maverick trot up next to the tree. He foolishly got close enough to the tree that Fluttershy could hear his whispering.
“I’m telling you, she sent that squirrel to go get help. She has the capability to communicate with animals.”
“Don’t be ridiculous; nopony can talk to animals,” she replied as they returned to their posts.
After what seemed like an hour, the skyline on the outside of the hole slowly turned to the color of an orange sunset, indicating that twilight was approaching. Fluttershy began to feel lightheaded again. She knew this was a result of her claustrophobia and that the hole in the tree provided plenty of oxygen, but it didn’t help. She began to breathe heavily, thinking she was going to suffocate. It was at this point that she heard another mare’s voice from the top of the tree.
“A bunch of ponies are coming!”
They have someone at the top of the tree? Wait, is it my friends that she’s seeing? I’m going to get out of here!
“Are they the other ponies that represent the elements of harmony?” asked the green leader.
“Looks like it.”
“Did you make sure to give Rarity the note, telling them the money that we wanted?”
They are holding me for ransom! How much did they ask for?
“Yes, of course.”
“I don’t think you did, the fact her friends are coming means that either you didn’t get the right message across or that she intentionally ignored the orders on the message, which told her to come alone.”
“I made sure she got the right message delivered, why won’t you believe her?” questioned Maverick.
There was the sound of a buck coming from where he just was.
“OW, what was that for?” asked the annoyed stallion.
“I’m tired of you always acting so smug.”
“You know, just because you’re in charge doesn’t mean you can hit me all the time.”
Fluttershy can hear those two beginning to fight each other with their hooves.
“THERE THEY ARE! STOP THEM!” This was a familiar and trustworthy voice.
RAINBOW DASH!!!
It looked like Fluttershy was finally going to get out alive.
“GET US OUT OF HERE! TWILIGHT WILL JUST BE ABLE TO TELEPORT HER OUT.” shouted Despera. Suddenly, Fluttershy felt a force of magic acting on her. Her body became surrounded by a magical green aura.
What’s going on?
Fluttershy was suddenly in an entirely new environment. This time the one light in her prison came from a skylight in the ceiling. Its diameter was only slightly larger than hoof. No way would Fluttershy be able to fit through that. The rest of the ceiling was much lower this time as well, standing only inches above Fluttershy’s head. As she analyzed the walls of her new prison, she concluded that she was once again, in a tree, but a different one. Somehow the abductors managed to carve a half hourglass shape at the bottom of it. It was a perfect shape except for a small hole within the side of the wall.
“YOU LEFT HER BEHIND?” shouted the leader, causing the yellow pegasus to jump up in fright and bang her head on the ceiling.
“I’m sorry…” said the weak voice of a familiar colt.
So that colt was in on the whole thing. Makes sense, seeing as he is the son of the leader.
“Calm down Despera,” assured Maverick. “They may have taken her prisoner, but she isn’t going to talk.”
Despera is the name of their leader, where have I heard of that name before?
“But she is still our lookout, now we won’t see them coming,” replied Despera angrily.
“Doesn’t matter, the operation was a failure; it’s obvious that they aren’t going to bring any money,” Maverick replied.
“Yes they will, because we still have the hostage.”
“So what?! You really need to think these things through. You can’t just meet a celebrity and impulsively decide to kidnap her and demand ransom from her richest friend. This is what got you in trouble last time.”
“Well I wouldn’t be carrying sleeping powder if I wasn’t planning on doing so at some point. Look, we’ll figure something out. Indigo, write a new message telling them to leave the sum of cash at our old campsite and that we will pick it up in the morning and release the prisoner then. Once it is done, you will leave the message at the old campsite.”
“Okay mom.”
The colt’s name is Indigo, what a lovely name.
“See, no problem,” Despera said.
Maverick sighed, “Alright, we’ll keep going, but we better make sure that she doesn’t send anymore animals out. You saw that a squirrel was leading them to us, right?”
“No I didn’t, enough with your crazy animal conspiracy theories.”
“But that is the only explanation for how Rarity’s friends found out even though we told her not to tell anyone.”
“But what you suggested is simply ridiculous. She probably just didn’t listen to us.
“But…”
“End of discussion. Now let’s eat the… YOU LEFT THE FOOD BEHIND TOO? That was a day’s worth of food that the idiot pegasus bought us.”
“I’m sorry,” replied Indigo.
“RRRRRRGGGHH. Come on Maverick, we’re going to go scavenge for wild fruit.”
Fluttershy could hear the two trotting away. Fluttershy could do nothing at this point except hopefully wait for another animal to come in through the skylight and ask for its help.
The sky was getting dark and cloudy. Indigo had left a while ago to drop off the new letter. Fluttershy’s claustrophobia was taking its toll once again; her panting began to accelerate once she felt a drop of rain on her head.
But, it isn’t supposed to rain until tomorrow. How far am I from Ponyville?
It only took a minute before the rain picked up into a downpour. As Fluttershy looked up through the skylight, she noticed that the skylight’s walls had large amounts of water flowing down into her chamber.
This entire tree is acting as a funnel… I’M GOING TO DROWN. My abductors are still out scavenging for food. What to do, what to do?
Fluttershy was hoping that the water would drain out of the small hole in the wall, but it wasn’t.
A woodpecker had flown into the hollow tree through the skylight into the chamber with Fluttershy. It was hoping to get some shelter from the rain.
“Oh, hello there. Can you please do me a favor?”
The woodpecker ignored Fluttershy and started to fly out, realizing that this tree was a poor choice of a shelter.
“Wait, I need you.”
The woodpecker paused to address Fluttershy. Meanwhile, the water level had reached Fluttershy’s knees.
“Can you please get your woodpecker friends to make holes in the bottom of the tree so I don’t drown?”
The woodpecker looked at Fluttershy with an apathetic face.
“If there are any sick woodpeckers, I’d be happy to care for them once I get out of here. So can you pretty please drain the water out of my tree?”
The woodpecker eyes lit up. It gave a salute with its wing and flew off.
It wasn’t long before Fluttershy heard about 30 chirping birds surrounding her prison. At this point the water was up to her chest.
“Okay, I just need you to make holes in the tree, so that the water can drain out.”
Immediately, Fluttershy began to hear multiple pecking sounds surrounding her.
I hope they are fast enough.
Suddenly, Fluttershy heard the voice of Despera.
“SHOO SHOO GET OUT OF HERE.”
“I’m telling you, this pony is an animal commander,” Maverick asserted.
The pecking sounds on the tree began to diminish and Fluttershy could tell her rescuers were flapping away. Only three woodpeckers actually managed to make a hole within the prison. One of the holes was directly in front of Fluttershy, and the other two were off to her sides. Although the water had slowed down in its ascent, it was still rising, and up to Fluttershy’s shoulders. She could still hear the woodpeckers chattering amongst each other nearby.
“Do you believe me now?” Maverick asked.
“Fine, I guess she does have this type of talent. I’ll stay here and prevent the woodpeckers from breaking her out.”
Do they not know that the tree is filling with water? I have to muster up the courage to talk to my abductors.
“Um… excuse me Ms. Despera, but those woodpeckers were just draining the water out of…”
“QUIET, I DON’T WANT TO HEAR ANOTHER WORD OUT OF YOU.”
I have to summon the courage.
Fluttershy took a moment to get herself together. The water had reached her chin at this point.
“Excuse me, Despera,” exclaimed Fluttershy. “Your prison is ...”
“What part of being quiet do you…”
“IF YOU DON’T DO SOMETHING I WILL DROWN. DO I MAKE MYSELF CLEAR?”
Despera didn’t respond. The water forced Fluttershy to tilt her snout to the ceiling in order to keep breathing. Suddenly the water stopped rising and began to lower. Fluttershy could hear the water flowing out through the hole in the wall.
The drain must have opened up, but what exactly is it used for?
Meanwhile, soft trotting was approaching Fluttershy's tree, indicating that Indigo had returned.
“Did you leave the message at the tree?" Despera asked.
"Yes, and they were long gone."
"Well congratulations Indigo, you’ve nearly drowned our hostage when you left,” said Despera.
“But... it was your idea to…”
Fluttershy could hear Ms. Despera buck Indigo against Fluttershy’s prison, scoff in disgust, then walk off.
NO! I can take this kind of abuse, but nopony treats their foal like that. NOPONY. I think I can get him to stand up for himself, like how Iron Will taught me. Well maybe not exactly like him, but this seems like an extreme case.
“Indigo… you are powerful enough to stop her, you know the spells.” said Fluttershy.
“But Ms. Fluttershy… she’s so scary.”
“You can’t be such a pushover Indigo. You are stronger than her. She doesn’t deserve to be your mother.”
“Actually she isn’t my real mother. I’m… an orphan.”
“Well, then what is your relationship with…”
“GET AWAY FROM THE RESEVOIR,” interrupted Despera. Both Fluttershy and Indigo simultaneously squealed in shock.
“Good luck Indigo, I believe in you,” said Fluttershy.
“SHUT UP!”
Oh, so they normally use this place to gather their water. That makes sense.
Indigo began to walk away from the prisoner’s chamber. Fluttershy’s first assertiveness training course was over.
Wait… Oh no! what have I done?! He’s still just a colt. What if he loses? What if he gets hurt?
She began to sob.
Another hour had passed and Fluttershy had finally stopped crying. Her coat was still soaked by the earlier flooding, and the persistent rain kept her prison filled with a good two inches of water. She had been shivering cold. The silence of her abductors plus the splashing sound of the rain drew Fluttershy to the conclusion that they had dozed off.
I’m getting sleepy myself. I think it’s time for a little snooze; hopefully I will wake up and find a new way out of here.
She began to doze off when she suddenly remembered something important.
Twilight said that ponies will die if their body temperature falls below 95 degrees Fahrenheit. Something called “hypothermia.” The circumstances that can cause this include a coat that remains wet for a long period of time plus cold weather.
And tonight was a cold and rainy night. Once Fluttershy fell asleep, she would never wake up. She quickly bit herself on the shoulder to stay awake. But it wasn’t enough, she continued to get sleepier.
She then bit her shoulder extremely hard. Hard enough that she began bleeding. She continued banging her head against the wall instead, but this made the dizziness worse as the blood flow to her brain was already dropping.
Stay awake, stay awake. My friends are on their way.
At that moment she heard the caw of an all too familiar old friend.
PHILOMENA! What is she doing here? Is she here to save me?
“OVER HERE,” shouted Fluttershy as she got under the skylight.
As Philomena stopped to look down she saw Fluttershy. She dropped a purple conch shell down into the chamber and flew away. The shell bounced off the floor of the tree and into the corner.
“WAIT, DON’T LEAVE ME HERE!” but the phoenix was already too far away to hear.
Well I suppose he left to lead my friends here.
Fluttershy was still shivering and lightheaded from her increasing hypothermia, and was growing increasingly dizzy. She slowly moved to pick up the purple conch shell that had dropped.
What is this thing? What does it do?
As she was examining the shell, she heard a voice coming from inside it.
“Hello … Fluttershy?”
TWILIGHT!
Fluttershy began to talk to the shell.
“Twilight, I am so happy to hear you, where are you?”
“FLUTTERSHY! She’s okay everyone!” said Twilight her friends. “Listen, we are doing everything we can to get you out of there.”
“You aren’t actually going to give them any money, are you?” asked Fluttershy?
“No, of course not, but Princess Celestia did send Philomena to aid in the search. The fact that you are listening to us means she finally found you.”
“Hurrryyyyy. I’m freezing. It’s raining nonstop and I’m so soaking wet I can’t feel my knees anymore.” Fluttershy continued to fill Twilight in on her current situation.
“Can you tell us anything at all about your environment at all?” asked Twilight. “Something that would give us an idea of your general location. If you are suffering from hypothermia, we may not have time to wait for Philomena to return.”
“Hold on, I’ll check.”
The individual holes made by the woodpeckers were small, but perhaps Fluttershy could peek out one of those holes. As she looked around the hole directly in front of her, she saw a light revealing another layer of bark around her prison.
What’s going on? That looks like the inside of another tree.
“Apparently, I’m in a tree within a tree,” Fluttershy said into the shell-phone.
“Can you maybe try to look for a landmark?” asked Twilight.
Fluttershy turned to one of the holes on her left and saw the sleeping bags where her kidnappers were sleeping. There was also an open window directly above them in which there was nothing but miles of trees.
That must be where the woodpeckers got in.
She turned to one of the holes on her right: She saw another window with a light in the distance. As she tried to focus on it, she noticed that the light rested on something red.
“To my right, I’m noticing a small light resting on top of something red,” Fluttershy said to Twilight.
“That must be mah barn.” said Applejack over the shell-phone.
“Okay we have a pretty good idea where you are, just hold on,” said Twilight. “Try to keep jogging in place in order to keep your heart rate up. Meanwhile, Princess Celestia is conducting an investigation into this matter. Have you found out anything about who kidnapped you?”
“I managed to catch a few names,” replied Fluttershy.
“Great, I’ll redirect you to her right now. Tell her everything you know.”
There was some static over the shell phone. A moment later, it was broadcasting Celestia’s voice.
“Fluttershy?” she asked.
“Princess Celestia!” exclaimed Fluttershy weakly. She had begun to drift out of consciousness.
“Fluttershy, try not to fall asleep. Please, you have to tell me the name of your kidnappers.”
“Um… I think there was a colt named Indigo, a stallion named Maverick, and the leader is a mare named Despera.”
“Despera, that’s an interesting name. Can you tell me what she looked like?”
“Um … fe had a green coat and a red maneth.” The hypothermia was beginning to slur Fluttershy’s speech.
“So … SHE is the one behind all of this,” said Celestia to herself. Meanwhile Fluttershy could care less about her identity, as she was trying to focus on staying alive.
“Princeth Celethia, I don’t fink I can hol on eny longer.”
“Have faith my little pony, your friends are powerful, and you will be saved.”
Celestia was cut from the shell-phone and replaced by Twilight.
“Don’t worry Fluttershy, we ran into Philomena and she will lead us to where you are. We should be less than a minute away from your location.”
Suddenly a snap was heard on the other line of the shell-phone; and a large bell was suddenly ringing just outside of Fluttershy’s deadly prison.
“TWILIGHT! IT’S A TRAB.”
“Okay, I’m going to use an invisibility spell, so they won’t see us coming,” replied Twilight. “In the meantime, distract them long enough to prevent them from teleporting again. Once I’m there, I will cast a teleport block spell, and they won’t be able to escape again.”
Fluttershy acknowledged Twilight and began to talk to Despera.
“Desper, I know abou the thing you dib,” she bluffed.
“What thing I did?”
Fluttershy began to ponder deeply. She knew that she had heard of Despera before and now was the time to figure out who she was.
I know that Indigo is an orphan.
“It’s bab what habbened to the orpanage.” Fluttershy hoped she was on the right track.
“I know what happened, but I can fix it with your cooperation.”
Wow, I actually got it right. But why would such a kind pony that helps orphans be doing this to me?
“Dere are um… ofer ways to fix the problem that you hab.”
Ahhh, I can’t speak straight at all.
“There are ‘over’ ways?”
“Ofer ways.”
“What?”
“She means ‘other’,” said Maverick.
“NOW!” It was the voice of Twilight.
Fluttershy couldn’t tell what was going on, but she could hear spells being cast and ponies fighting around the house that was the outer tree. As another spell was cast, Fluttershy could see a purple magic enveloping her body, indicating that she was about to be teleported again.
Fluttershy had found herself to be standing in a small room carved out of a tree. She was surrounded by her friends and her now defeated kidnappers. The stallion named Maverick lay unconscious in a corner. He had a large bump on his head, indicating that he had been knocked out by Rainbow Dash. Now that Fluttershy could get a good look at him, she saw that he was a brick red earth pony with a pink mane. He was also skinny. No one in this trio seemed to be well fed.
These ponies need more help than I do.
Despera, the green mare, was lying on her side with her limbs tied up; no doubt Applejack’s doing. The little colt named Indigo was cowering in a corner. He was surrounded by a tornado of purple magic.
That must be Twilight’s tele-block spell.
“Quick Rarity, wrap her up in something,” Twilight said.
Rarity took out a large, warm fleece blanket with magic and wrapped it around Fluttershy’s body. Fluttershy began to settle down and stop shivering. Her memory was also beginning to come back to her.
“Time to throw these jerks into the dungeon.” Rainbow dash was eager to for the abductors to get what was coming to them.
“Wait,” said Fluttershy. “I want to hear what happened to the orphanage that Despera was running.”
“What orphanage?” asked Twilight.
“Anypony who runs a home for foals without a home must be a good pony. We should hear her story before throwing her in the dungeon,” Fluttershy asserted.
“Well now that I know you DON’T know what happened, I don’t see any obligation to tell you,” Despera said.
“Mom… You should tell them.” The colt had come out of its corner.
“No, I’m not telling them.”
“Then I will tell them.”
“Don’t ... you ... DARE.”
“I’m tired of being pushed around, its time they figure out the truth.”
Despera angrily struggled but the ropes around her limbs were far too tight. Meanwhile, Indigo walked up to Fluttershy, and proceeded to tell the story. The others gathered to listen.
“So ‘Mom’ here is actually Despera Measures. I’m the only one here who still calls her that. She owned an orphanage in Fillydelphia. The same orphanage where I lived.”
“NO, DON’T TELL THEM.” Despera continued to struggle within the corner.
“Go on,” Fluttershy said.
“It was a very successful orphanage. Despera rescued dozens of orphans that were wandering the streets. She seemed like a mother to all of them, and we eventually started to refer to her as such. The nearby ponies were generous too, so the place had plenty of money to raise these foals."
No one had noticed, but Despera had loosened the ropes around her limbs.
“Despera was a truly selfless pony indeed. She would work around the clock taking care of the orphans within the facility; much longer than any of the other employees could.”
Meanwhile, Despera had managed to free her left foreleg.
“But her desire to save these ponies got carried away…”
Fluttershy had an epiphany; she had finally remembered who Despera Measures was.
“I heard about it in the news,” said Fluttershy. “She was arrested for kidnapping a young filly because she believed her parents were neglectful and incompetent.”
“E…Exactly, she had this belief that she was the one to save these children from all the unhappiness in the world,” replied Indigo.
“YOU LITTLE WEASEL!” Despera had broken free and began charging toward Indigo. Indigo got scared and cast a magical shield around the group. Despera bounced off the shiny blue barrier and fell back on her side.
“Mah bad, guess it wasn’t tight enough,” said Applejack as she quickly readied another rope and proceeded to tie her up again.
“Well done, Indigo,” congratulated Fluttershy. “Way to stand up for yourself.”
“Mom, perhaps you should be the one to finish the story.”
The green mare was no longer angry, but scared. Tied up and cornered, she reluctantly began to talk.
“After my arrest, the integrity of the orphanage was called into question. From what I’ve heard while serving my time in the dungeons, the local community had stopped giving donations. As a result, the facility couldn’t feed all the orphans still under their care. Many had to be transferred to more poorly conditioned orphanages, or put into foster care of guardians with too many kids already under their roof. I swore that as soon as I got out of here, I would do whatever it took to get the place the money it needed and deserved. All the starving foals in the world, I had to help them.”
“Listen Despera,” started Fluttershy. “You can’t save everyone on your own, it’s just not realistic.”
“What would YOU know?”
“Despera, listen, I take care of sick and injured animals. Often, there isn’t enough room for all of them to fit in my tiny cottage. It breaks my heart to do so, but even I have to turn some patients away when there is no room. But there is absolutely no excuse for kidnapping…”
Fluttershy paused and remembered the time she kidnapped Philomena, because she thought that Celestia wouldn’t be able to take care of her.
She is no different than I am. She is kindness taken to the extreme. I guess the Fillydelphian police weren’t quite as forgiving as Celestia.
“You don’t understand, the orphans, the employees; they were counting on me to make sure that everyone in the orphanage eventually found happy lives. But by the time I got out of jail, the orphanage had closed down, and… and…”
“We had to release the orphans onto the street again.” Maverick the red and pink stallion had woken up from his concussion. “Despera never recovered from when she heard the news that day. Ever since then, she’s been demanding and cruel. Her goal was to start a new orphanage here in Ponyville, where fewer ponies knew her name. She contacted everyone she knew to help her round up some new funds, but only Indigo, Maverick, and their sister All Eye were willing to help. By the way, where is she? Did you find her at our old campsite?”
“Yes, and she’s fine,” replied Twilight. “She is being ‘questioned’ by our friend Pinkie Pie.”
“Good. Anyway, since we were completely broke, we had to carve our own house out of these trees.”
“If I may ask, this tree-house, it surrounds another tree right?” asked Twilight.
“Yes, we carved our home out of the outer tree and used the inner tree as our water source and later, to hold our prisoner. Most of our time was spent making our home while begging for food or some sort of job. And when Despera met the element of kindness; that is when she saw the opportunity to fulfill her goal.”
“Why did you help her?” asked Rainbow Dash.
“She saved our lives, back when we were little. We still felt loyal to her even after what she did.”
There was a moment of silence.
“A touching story,” blurted Rainbow Dash. “But that doesn’t change the fact that you kidnapped our friend and held her for ransom. You still need to take responsibility for what you did.” She was angrily pointing her hoof at the trio.
“Rainbow Dash, I think we can show a little mercy this time,” said Fluttershy.
“Darling, you can’t be serious, you know what they did to you right?” asked Rarity.
“They need help more than I do.”
“Ah’m not sure, y’all. Twilight, what do you think?” asked Applejack.
Twilight began to ponder, a few moments had passed before she began to speak, “I think I can sort out a pardon with Celestia, but we need to make sure that Despera here sets herself some more realistic goals.”
“I think I will,” replied the broken mare. “I think I let the expectations of my peers drive me to the point of insanity. Fluttershy has shown me through mercy that true kindness comes from wanting to help other ponies, rather than fulfilling an idealistic vision.”
That was enough for Applejack to untie her.
“I’ll go get All Eye,” said Rainbow Dash as she left the room.
“Well what do we do now?” asked Maverick. “We are still completely broke.”
“I don’t know, but I think we can get by with little help from our friends.”
