Flutterberry

by Zytharros

Rating: everyone
Tags: Fluttershy, Random, My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic
Length: 1004

Fluttershy picks her first blueberry.

Fluttershy has just arrived in Ponyville. After warily exploring the town for a while, she sees her first blueberry plant. She picks the sweet fruit...

...and loses it.

Published 2012-08-04 07:54:02 UTC
Last updated 2012-08-04 07:54:02 UTC

Oh no!

The blueberry never asked for this. It merely grew, quiet and still, like a good little blueberry should. The fruit was joyous, tucked away in a corner of its bush from the prying eyes, beaks, and mouths of its predators and, above all, it's worst enemy. They couldn't get its plump juiciness here, protected by several layers of branches and a couple strategically-grown leaves. They didn't stand a chance.

It had taunted them, of that she was sure. She had only found it after a few minutes of daintily pushing the plant's branches away with her hooves, careful to do her best to not disturb any of its relatives. It was hidden quite well amongst the branches. The thick, blue berry hung like a well-ripened apple in that small, quiet, cool hole in the plant. The birds would have had to spend a lot of time searching for the berry. Normally, they would only pick the surface fruits until they had eaten their fill, so the position this berry was in was prime for its' optimal growth, hidden away from all of those who wished it ill. She praised the little berry for its' ingenuity at where it hid.

The birds had already eaten fifty of its siblings. If it could it would've fought back, so enraged was the berry. Yet, it could do nothing. None of its pals cried out for assistance, and yet it knew their pain. Even though it had no ears, it felt the violent premature separations, often ten to twelve at a time, as those evil predators raided its mom of her children, its siblings. It too knew its time was approaching, and Celestia help the predator who tried to take it from its mother bush! It would bombard the predator with flavour so succulent it would kill its assailant! It had sworn upon its siblings and their graves! By Zorhoof, it would not go down without taking something else with it!

So why did it not protest when she picked it?

She was so sure there would be a whimper, a squeak, at least, but there was no reply. Fluttershy winced as she held the tiny, helpless blue ball of sweet foodstuff. It was so docile, so precious... how could she even think of removing it from its perch, its home, its family, especially for her own wanton desires? Her hunger needn't be satiated by this berry, nor any others. Had she grown so savage that she could think of nothing but herself as opposed to this helpless berry that now rested, eternally-trusting and hoping, in her delicate yellow hooves? The grass could have sufficed.

A realization struck her like a twelve-ton goldfish. She had been unkind to the berry. She had just violated the progress of life to nourish herself. She had taken the life of a helpless, miniature fruit-stuff, taken the life of a baby blueberry bush! She had savagely done to this berry what all her animal friends had don in the past!

She had become a...

...murderer!

The butter-toned pegasus began tearing up. The thought crushed her delicate spirit. She wailed in agony, cried out apologies in sorrow, wept for the wild berry that would never blossom into a beautiful bush and whisper peacefully amongst its fellow brethren to bear more berries that would be victimized like it had. Her tears poured down her eyes and streamed down her face, fleeing like refugees to an evil, encroaching war.

That must be it, Fluttershy reasoned through her agony. She had unknowingly declared war to these poor plants. Their silence was evidence of their unbridled rage and sorrow for their lost child. She was sure they would attack at any moment, so intense was their rage. The images that came to her mind were of an army of blueberry plants, ten thousand hooves high and armed with blueberry cannons. They fired blueberries at her in waves. Some patches were so thick it looked like an arc of solid blue.

She envisioned the further carnage. Ponies, felled by the berry plants. Manehattan, occupied by cruel blueberry bush slave drivers. Celestia and Luna, bowing down before their new supreme berry-licious overlord...

And the worst part...

No more blueberry treats!

They would outlaw her favourite fruit to protect themselves, steadily settling into Equestria and dominating the pegasi, unicorns, and Earth ponies, crushing them under their roots, and slowly eliminating dissenters... it was horrible! Terrible! Terrifying! She couldn't bear the thought!

She shivered in fear and backed herself into the crux of a tree, cowering in the protection of the colossal evergreen. She begged the blueberries for forgiveness, pleaded with them to spare her life, and, fearing for the safety of the town of Ponyville she had just recently made her home in, she prostrated herself before the berry bush grove in humility, face in the dirt, begging knowledge of their intentions and desperately trying to salvage her new hometown's reputation.

When no response came, she curled up, completely lost to fear. She curtained her face with her pink mane, closed her eyes and shivered, bracing for the impact of a root through the gut, strangulation by branches, bombardment of berries...

She wondered then if the sun was allied with the plants. It continued its merciless beat-down of heat upon her delicate frame, warming her body. When no further harm came, it slowly eased her of her worries. Steadily, her thoughts drifted to other things, breaking away from the berries and towards her newfound animal friends. Her terror dissipated. Her eyes relaxed their cringed look. She slowly melted into the grass beneath her.

The cool breeze rustled the branches of a nearby grove of trees as the most delicate pegasus in Ponyville, warmed by the noon day sun and with having expended all her energy in being afraid, fell asleep in the presence of those she thought hated her.

And just before she did, Fluttershy ate the berry and thought...

"That was totally, utterly, and completely...

stupid."