Last Option and a Pair of New Wings

In the evening, Fluttershy went on with her routine of tending to her animals. The war and its ruckus has been a bit disorienting. With forest fires starting and wild explosions sounding in the middle of the night, it was bound to scare many forest critters. Sadly a few nights ago, plenty of her chickens and small furry rodents were mauled to death by a timberwolf that had just so happened to find its way into her backyard and garden. Luckily Mr Bear was able to scare away the timberwolf before it could harm any more critters. But his trials resulted in a few injuries gotten from wrestling the timberwolf. A large bite mark, a few scratches and the all too familiar and horrendous stink of the timberwolf was enough to make Mr Bear more aware of his surroundings and more insecure.

All that were left now were a few baby bunny rabbits, two chickens, Mr Bear and a few mice. Even the birds she used to see had probably migrated somewhere else. Fluttershy felt less and less adamant to tend to her daily chores and routines because of this. She felt very heavy, her chest feeling as if it were trying to pull her down to the ground. She felt like she had failed. As a caretaker. Somepony who had made empty promises of protecting and caring for the animals for the rest of their lives. Seeing plenty of them vanish in only one night was a terrible feeling.

Although it may be the case, she still forced herself to do what she had to, put out some seeds and salads, fill up their drinking bowls and clean Mr Bear's wounds. She never had the time nor the spirit to clean the chicken coop anymore, so her line of chores would end there.

Walking inside with Angel's bowl of salad, she made her hoofsteps loud as to indicate that it was feeding time to Angel. Angel was less energetic than he used to be. Well, he was an old bunny. 7 years old. Fluttershy panned up to the stairs, awaiting Angel. As expected, he hopped out of hiding as he slowly went his way down the stairs. She set the salad aside for him as she walked away, feeling that Angel is considered taken care of for now. She trudged to her couch, where she slumped onto with a heavy sigh.

She felt so worn out. And she didn't even do anything too athletic that day. Maybe it was because she didn't sleep much the night before, maybe it was because she didn't eat in the morning, or maybe it was because she spent most of her time thinking back to what Rarity had suggested the day before.

She couldn't take her mind off of it. And she knew that Rarity awaited a response. She just didn't know how to respond. It was true. Celestia would never push away a guest, especially a friend as she would like to think. She just.....didn't want to. She knew how nice Celestia is. Celestia would never hold anything against her or her friends. Friends.

If she were Celestia, would she still consider him a friend?

No. No no no. She had no control over the situation. It wasn't her fault she couldn't get the full picture. She wished she couldn't undo what had been done. She couldn't forget the painful look he last gave her.

The look of scorn towards her. His eyes resonated within her memory. The sad, feeling of letting someone down. Surely that was what he felt. As if he had let her down somehow.

If only he was here. If only they had more time. If only she had the ability to overlook the future. If only she had known just what had happened actually. If only she had seen the bigger picture. If only she had known, she would've held his face in her hooves, comforting him and reassuring him that he was alright. If only she had the strength to talk over her friends that were doubting his innocence.

She knew that somehow he was innocent. He would never hurt anypony physically. If only she knew what circuit had gone off in his mind at that time. What gave him the sudden urge to maul her friend half to death. What gave him the urge to want to see her 'friend' suffer in such way.

If only they had more time.

Whatever happened after he left, surely Celestia would know. He visits her often. He wasn't the kind to shun his problems away if he had the opportunity to talk about it. Surely he told her all about it. How she looked at him, how her eyes looked at him feeling deceived, used, manipulated. How she looked disheartened at his actions. Surely he had told her what had actually happened. What did happened. What the truth was. And she was the only one that would ever know the truth.

Twilight is sadistic, she knew that now. And that could be the only answer to their dilemma. He was never the culprit. They were never victims. The only victim she knew at that point was him.

It's been five years. She doubts that Discord had never told Celestia about this. She felt so....so useless. She failed him. As a friend. As the pony who had sworn to protect him and show him the light of friendship, of how things.....

....may not always be how it seems.

Celestia.

Celestia would know what happened.

Celestia would give her the full story.

...

...would she?

Her thoughts were interrupted by a loud explosion. Quickly, she got off the couch and peeked her head out of the window. But as soon as she did, she retracted in surprise as she saw something on fire coming her way. As she retracted, it crashed into the walls of her cottage. Peeking out again to see what it actually was, it was a wooden plank on....fire.

Her gaze was caught attention by even more things in the sky, coming in the cottage's direction. Her eyes shrinked as she yelped in surprise, looking down at her critters who were all looking at the sky in terror at what was to lay upon them.

At instinct, she tried jumping out the window to save them. But a magical aura pulled her away forcefully from the window at the lift of a hoof. "FLUTTERSHY, YOU'D GET YOURSELF KILLED!"

"NO!" she shouted back as her eyes streamed with tears, her hooves reaching out for the window but was slammed down into the ground instead. "THEY'RE OUT THERE!!"

As she felt the magical aura let go, immediately as the force subsided she dived again to the window. But was held back by Rarity as this time she wrapped her forelegs around her neck. "FLUTTERSHY, STOP!!"

As soon as she said that, thuds hit the roof as the cottage was being bombarded by whatever was coming their way. Rarity pulled her away and into the kitchen. By the cupboards, she pulled Fluttershy into her embrace as they sat in between the corner of a wall and the side of a cupboard. She remembered that this method could potentially help them to avoid getting squashed by the ceiling less it decides to collapse.

"RARITYYY......" Fluttershy bawled and whine as she tried to make Rarity released of her, even going so far as to bite her.

"OW!" she winced as she smacked Fluttershy's snout in response. "QUIT IT, WILL YOU?!"

Fluttershy flinched and stopped as she got smacked. Clearly being treated as if she's some sort of dog. Then again biting her friend is very dog-like of her. "....s-sorry...." The thuds came louder. The obvious smell of smoke came through the cottage. They were even more surprised when they heard glass shatter. "..sounds like they broke one of the windows."

Gradually but slowly, the curtains and carpets and anything flammable had caught on fire. Fluttershy gulped as the flames entered the kitchen, now overbearing with smoke as well. The 'throwaways' as they call it sounded as if they has stopped coming. Either way, they were still in alot of shit. Fluttershy's eyes followed along to where the flames are trailing. From the doorway to her cabinets to her table......

"Fluttershy, quick!" called out Rarity. Fluttershy broke out of her stare as she staggered off as well, feeling slightly embarrassed that she didn't even notice her friend walk away. It was a little hard to maneuver their way out as the place had been filled with smoke and it was blinding. Rarity led her to the back door of the cottage that led to the backyard, where it had been left untouched due to it not facing where the things have been launched towards.

Walking out, they staggered out, taking a deep breath along the way as they were in clear of the smoke. Well, most of it. Fluttershy turned her gaze to the side of where they stood however, and was relieved when she saw a few of the animals huddled in a group in the corner of the backyard. "Oh goodness...." she flew straight towards them at the sight.

Rarity looked at her with half lidded eyes. Fluttershy can be very careless when it comes to her own safety, yet the safety of her animals would always come first. Although that did show off the title 'Element of Kindness', she still disliked how her own safety was never prioritised. The animals should be worried about later on. Looking at the scene, even without her help the animals were able to escape unscathed. If Fluttershy had gone out and gotten herself hurt, it could've been all for nothing. Also noted after staying with her and her animals, if Fluttershy were to react a certain way towards them, they'd probably react the same way. For example, if she were to panic about their safety, surely they would panic as well, aggravating their escape and maybe they couldn't even have came out as unscathed as this.

"Are you poor dears alright? Did anyone get hurt? Second degree burns? Third degree burns? Did anyone fall down while running and hurt themselves? Did anyone end up getting hit by anything? Is everyone sure everyone is alright???"

"Fluttershy, I'm sure they're fine." she replied. She turned back to the burning cottage, hoping that the snow would help cool it down.