Fluttershy sipped tea from the cat-shaped mug, humming happily as the pleasant taste of chamomile entered her mouth. Not chamomile, but chameowmile as this tea was given to her by Discord, and he always liked to make her laugh with his new tea flavours. It was called chameowmile, not because of the mug she drank from, but because it literally meowed.
Perhaps not Discord’s most creative pun, but Fluttershy didn’t mind. She was currently in his house, as he was the host of these things every other Tuesday. Perhaps house was not the right word as today it was more of a reverse fish tank, the walls made of glass and revealing a mix of chaotic and natural fish swimming in the waters surrounding the two.
It was nearing the end of their tea date, as it was getting rather late in the day, and Fluttershy had to feed her animals soon. Fluttershy didn’t want to interrupt Discord’s rather enthusiastic display of chasing down a certain whale, but even Discord couldn’t slow time.
“Um, Discord…” Fluttershy started, lowering her head while gazing at the draconequus. Discord teleported back inside the chamber where the tea supplies rested, hearing her despite her low volume and the glass that had laid between them.
“Yes, Fluttershy?” Discord grinned expectantly.
“It’s getting a bit late… And the animals are probably getting hungry…” Fluttershy set down her mug and pointed to a clock hung on the clear walls, it ran backwards and the minute and hour hands were switched but Fluttershy was experienced enough with Discord’s chaos to read it.
Discord turned to look at the time, his eyes bulging out comically before deflating and sagging out of his eye sockets. His mouth drooped into an exaggerated, similarly droopy frown, and his shoulders slumped.
“How unfortunate, I suppose that means you will need to leave then?” Fluttershy nodded in response, and Discord snapped his fingers causing the beautiful scene that surrounded the two to return to his usual, or rather, unusual abode. His face returned to its normal state as well.
“Goodbye Discord, thank you for tonight, it was lovely.” Discord smiled serenely, waving his paw in farewell. Fluttershy waved back at him
Fluttershy walked through the door, literally as it wasn’t open, and the pegasus entered the more dangerous part of Discord’s home.
Discord’s realm of chaos was tricky to navigate but Fluttershy had experience, and the more aggressive creatures in the realm knew that attacking her would result in facing the Lord of Chaos’s wrath. This, of course, didn’t stop non-living anomalies from appearing but Fluttershy was quite skilled at avoiding them,
Fluttershy used her wings to float about the realm, without gravity they were used to steer rather than truly fly. Discord used to accompany her while she left but he eventually stopped as Fluttershy started visiting more often. Perhaps if he had accompanied her this time she wouldn’t make the mistake she soon would.
Fluttershy found herself at the portal to leave the realm, earlier than she expected but she was used to expectations being defied here. Rather than the purple light that the portal usually glowed it was a bright teal. She paid this no mind, it was the first time she had seen the portal change colour but the dimension of chaos had many secrets.
She closed her eyes and stepped through, the portal closing behind her as she returned to Equestria, feeling the grass beneath her hooves and birdsong in the air. Fluttershy paused, opening her eyes, her ears flicking in confusion. That was strange, she couldn’t understand what the birds were singing.
Maybe they weren’t singing about anything in particular, as they did occasionally, though it was uncommon without her guiding them to. She prepared to head back to Ponyville and then her cottage but as she began to walk Fluttershy realized she couldn’t find the path.
Alright, so the portal took her someplace else, this was fine, she just needed to fly up and look for Ponyville from the air. Fluttershy flapped her wings to take off but other than causing a slight breeze nothing happened. Her heart began to race when she realized she couldn’t feel the wind and air pressure with her wings.
If Twilight was here she would have figured out that magic acted differently in this location, causing pegasus magic to fail. From there perhaps she would even have figured out that this was another world rather than Equus. Unfortunately for Fluttershy, Twilight was worlds away and as such, she had no idea why her wings didn’t work.
It was a pegasus’ natural response to panic when their wings failed. Fluttershy, who infrequently used her wings for much more than reaching high shelves was not exempt from this. Fluttershy began to hyperventilate, her pulse quickening.
Fluttershy began to curl into a ball and quiver but then suddenly stopped. She was lost, without magic, Celestia only knew how far she was from home. She couldn’t just panic, no matter how much she wanted to. She took a deep breath, copying the technique Twilight had learned from her sister-in-law. It wouldn’t do her any good to be panicked.
She was fine, wherever she was it wasn’t the ever-free forest, and even if it was she and her friends had faced worse. She just needed to find out how to get home, she was fine. Fluttershy ignored the voice in her head that told her she needed to run away as she examined her surroundings.
The trees around her were oak, with the occasional white birch mixed in. Strangely enough, along with acorns the oak trees also contained apples. While she wasn’t as experienced with plants as she was with animals, she spent enough time with Applejack to know that that wasn’t normal. She looked for native bird species and found a cardinal sitting on one of the branches of the trees.
“Um excuse me, could you tell me where I am?” She asked the bird, who flew away in fear. Fluttershy was taken aback, the last time that had happened was years ago, during the first gala she attended. She saw a squirrel scuttle up the side of a tree and stare at her.
It chittered something Fluttershy couldn’t understand and when she moved it ran to the top of the tree. Fluttershy had no idea what it said, that was not normal. Birds sometimes sang nonsense, but squirrels didn’t. Not only was her flight failing, but her animal skills as well.
The little voice came back again and Fluttershy had to take deep breathes again to keep from panicking. It was fine that she was somewhere where she didn’t have magic. It was fine that she was lost. It was fine she was fine.
Fluttershy whimpered and collapsed, shuddering on the ground. Silently sobbing, she gasped for air as her chest felt like it would implode.
She had to get out of here. She had to find somepony, she may not have magic but she didn’t need it to talk to ponies, or other sapient creatures. She couldn’t just lie around and cry, she had to find somewhere safe, if there were any predators there was no way she could talk her way out of danger.
It felt hopeless but she had to try, she just had to. Fluttershy stood up, picking a direction and galloping. Eventually, she had to slow to a trot, as she began to feel hungry and tired. She needed to eat something.
There were those strange apple oak trees around, she wasn’t entirely sure they were edible but she had to try. While she didn’t have access to her magic that wouldn’t stop her from bucking them down. Pegasi were weaker than earth ponies but she saw no other option.
Fluttershy walked to the nearest tree, rearing up her hind legs and bucking it repeatedly, it had taken a few tries before something happened. And something most certainly happened. After around the fifth buck her legs, rather than hitting the trunk as expected, went through air.
She turned around in surprise, gaping at the sight. The place she was bucking was replaced with air, a miniature slice of log the same size and shape as the gap rested on the stump hovering and rotating slowly. The tree above where she had bucked was still there, just floating, completely intact.
Fluttershy pawed at the tiny log with a hoof, and when her hoof got near it gravitated to it. She grabbed it and inspected it. It was completely normal, just small. Her eyes narrowed as she inspected it, and it suddenly vanished from her view.
But she felt like it was still there, just not in her hoof. Closing her eyes and concentrating she saw a void, containing the log slice. After a second of concentrating once more, it returned to her hoof.
That was… strange, even stranger than her lack of magic. Though perhaps it was better to say her magic changed rather than left. Could she do anything else? Fluttershy closed her eyes again, seeing the void. The log was there again and she tried to do something, anything.
To Fluttershy’s ever-growing surprise, something new happened again. The log had glowed and it was replaced with blocks of wooden planks, four of them. Did she do that? That couldn’t have been a coincidence. She called the four planks to her hoof, though only one appeared.
Fluttershy set it on the ground but rather than floating like the log it grew to half her size, firmly attached to the soil. Another plank block came to her hoof after doing so. It was similarly sized to the log, maybe she could turn it into a small version again? Rather than bucking it she simply smacked it with her other hoof, cracks appearing on its surface.
She stopped, and the cracks slowly disappeared. She then hit it again repeatedly and it returned to its item form. This was something, sure she couldn’t buck the tree to get apples, but she could just build up to them! She used the planks she had in her inventory to build up and reach the apples.
Fluttershy swiped one of the apples, and when she did so she destroyed part of the leaves causing her to wince, but she got her prize. She ate the apple with wild abandon, fast enough to make her Flutterbat form jealous. She was still hungry so she grabbed the other apples on the tree, eating all of them save for two.
She accidentally swiped at a part of the tree without apples and a cutting fell off, at least she thought it was at first. Inspecting closely she saw roots, it wasn’t a cutting it was a sapling! It was miniature much like the log and planks and she placed it down, allowing it to grow in size as it planted itself on the grass.
The question was could Fluttershy put those apples she didn’t eat in her inventory? It seemed the answer was yes, she could. That was good, it meant she could save them for later, if she ever got hungry again before she got home that is. She should probably get more logs, that way she could turn them into enough planks to build a temporary shelter in case anything dangerous appeared.
She broke down the rest of the tree, turning all of the logs into planks, destroying the planks she had already placed down and returning them to her inventory. Fluttershy paused, could she do anything else with the logs? She had turned them into planks but maybe she could do more. Fluttershy closed her eyes and concentrated again.
This time, in her mind's eye she saw a book alongside her inventory, with Recipe Book written on the cover. She concentrated again to open it, finding some images of small items with a two by two grid containing other items beside it. She saw many items, along with names, sticks with the grid beside it containing two planks stacked onto each other, a button made with only one plank.
Something stood out to Fluttershy, a Crafting Table, constructed by four planks taking up the entire grid. She closed the recipe book, and arranged the planks in her inventory into the pattern from the book. The planks began to glow and when she opened her eyes a miniature crafting table was held in her hoof.
Advancement made!
Minecraft
Oh my.
Author's Note
First chapter! Hope you lovely folks will enjoy this series, I've got some plans for it.
Author's Note
Sorry this took so long, figuring out how Fluttershy would get the Stone Age advancement in an in character way was difficult.
Stone Age
Fluttershy squeaked in surprise at the unexpected noise, her hooves scraping the soil as she tried to back away from the text, it followed her eyes even as she turned away. So she did the only thing she could and stared at the text that appeared in her vision watching as it slowly began to dissolve. Advancement? What did that mean? Why did it appear?
Did making the crafting table do that?
Fluttershy inspected the Crafting Table that she had made in her hoof. Or perhaps crafted would be a more appropriate term. It was cube-shaped, just like it appeared in the book. What was she meant to do with it? Did it do anything? Surely it did if it led to her getting an advancement, whatever that was.
Although now that she thought about it, she was brought to this world from Discord’s dimension, perhaps logic wouldn’t apply here. Nonetheless, she had to try, maybe it would even send her home! She placed it down like the planks and sapling, it enlarging itself in the same fashion.
It looked the same as it had in her hoof, a cube of wood, with tools painted on the side and a three-by-three grid painted on the top. Fluttershy failed to see how four blocks of planks turned into something of the same size with an extra coat of paint but it was likely best not to question it for now.
Fluttershy prodded at it in a somewhat halfhearted attempt to make it do something, and, to her surprise it did. It produced what looked like a hologram of the same recipe book in her inventory. Opening it let her see that while it contained recipes she was already familiar with, albeit in a slightly larger grid, it also contained new ones that took advantage of the extra space. Wooden stairs, slabs, doors even.
To her disappointment, nothing seemed particularly useful for returning her home. She began to break it before she felt something hit her back. She reared up in surprise before realizing that it was just a stick.
Fluttershy looked up, and where a healthy crown of leaves once existed there were now only a few branches stuck floating in the air. It seemed that, without the trunk keeping them up, they eventually fell down. Fluttershy looked at the bare sticks and the lack of leaves on the ground. Maybe fell down wasn’t the right term, more like dissolved.
Fluttershy pocketed the sticks, as she saw a recipe for a fence in the book and that could be useful in the future. As she did so she noticed the recipe book on the crafting table glow, much like the book Twilight used to communicate with the human world. Fluttershy rushed back towards it, opening it to see six new recipes.
There were ladders, which would be useful due to her lack of flight. But what stood out to her were the tools, an axe, a hoe, a shovel, a pickaxe, and a sword. Fluttershy shuddered at the implications, if the book had a sword did that mean she’d eventually need to use it? She hoped she’d never be in a situation where she’d have to draw blood.
Being attacked was one thing, but hurting animals, or even ponies was something she never wanted to do. At least none of the other tools were weapons, even though they wouldn’t help her get home. Fluttershy was starting to worry about that, could she even get home? Discord probably could bring her back but who knows how long it would take for him to find her.
The portal destroyed itself as soon as she entered this world, and she had no idea how she could make her own. Fluttershy whimpered again, she couldn’t even make animal friends to keep her company.
She heard something. Her ears twisted on her head in an attempt to locate the source of the sound. She turned around spotting a quadrupedal figure blocked by the trees.
Fluttershy acted immediately, breaking the crafting table swiftly with her hooves and running to the figure.
“Hello?” She called out, “Oh thank goodness!”
She found herself face to face with a cow, admittedly they were oddly short, and rather than being taller than her height like most cows they were almost a head smaller.
“Could you tell me where I am?” Fluttershy spoke with excitement that normally only Pinkie could get to but she was just so happy to see another person.
The cow looked at her lazily and mooed, leaning down to chew grass.
“Um sorry, what was that?” No response. Fluttershy poked the cow in the shoulder before quickly drawing her hoof back. The cow mooed and looked at her, flicking its tail, before returning to chewing the grass.
That was strange, why would a cow eat grass? And the way they ignored her it was almost like… They were an animal. Fluttershy looked at the cow with closer inspection. It had horns, like a bull, but it also had udders. This was not a normal cow. Fluttershy wasn’t one to judge normally but there were too many things wrong with it.
Fluttershy heard the sound of hooves and watched two more cows walk to her and the strange cow. One was a calf and the way it followed the other it seemed like it was its mother, or would it be parent? Fluttershy’s head began to hurt, the older one looked like the first cow, with conflicting features. The calf didn’t display any but Fluttershy wasn’t about to check what it was if it actually was sapient.
These were not the cows she knew. Fluttershy backed away slowly, creeped out by their behaviour. Even animals paid attention to her, even without her ability they shouldn’t ignore her like that. Her wings flapped instinctively, in an attempt to get her off the ground but all that resulted in was her nervous escape attempt becoming clumsier.
This world wasn’t right, trees shouldn’t float or turn into blocks, cows shouldn’t be like that, and she should at least have her magic. How could she even get out of this? Her friends would know what to do but-
Her friends… Would she even be able to see them again? Or was she going to be trapped in this strange dimension forever. She wouldn’t even be able to make friends with the animals. Tears started to fill her eyes and she sobbed quietly. How long had she even been here?
Fluttershy looked up at the sky, hoping to spot some sort of celestial body so she could tell how much time had passed, of course, she had no reference for the sky during her actual arrival but at least she might be able to tell the time from here on out.
Fluttershy’s eyes widened as she saw an oddly cube-shaped sun was reaching the horizon. If she ignored the strange shape then that meant it was almost night. Fluttershy had enough experience with animals to know some of the more dangerous animals came out at night. And, without her animal skills to allow her to negotiate she would be in serious trouble.
She had to find shelter, and fast. Fluttershy ran as fast as she could, her eyes searching for anywhere she could hide, a cave, a hollow tree, anywhere. She couldn’t be out in the open after nightfall.
Fluttershy’s hooves skidded on the grass as she had to avoid rushing into a pool of water. If she hadn’t been looking where she was going she would’ve run straight into a lake. She looked at the scene in front of her, it was beautiful. A lake lay before her, a waterfall bringing a steady supply of water into it, somehow despite that it didn’t overflow.
Right beside the waterfall was a large cave mouth. Fluttershy cautiously walked along the side of the lake towards the entrance. Looking around she couldn’t spot any signs of bear inhabitation. She let out a sigh of relief, she wouldn’t have to worry about that then.
She couldn’t tell how deep it went, the darkness unfortunately obscuring any attempts at gauging its true scale. There were patches of what seemed to be some kind of bioluminescent moss or lichen along the walls, still too dim to really tell anything useful.
It seemed safe to go in though, and so she did, trotting inside the cavern. While the entrance wasn’t sealed she could likely change that by placing planks to cover it up, and then a door so she could enter and exit without having to break them. For now, she’d explore, maybe the portal out was underground the entire time
That was just wishful thinking but exploring could still be helpful. If this cave was going to be Fluttershy’s new home she might as well get to know it better. No, not home, just a temporary hideout. A home base maybe, but not a home.
As she went deeper inside the light dimmed too much to be able to see, but before the light went completely out Fluttershy spotted some strange dark spots embedded in the stone. She wasn’t sure what it was, not being experienced enough with rocks to know, at least not without her inventory telling her. For all she knew it was dangerous.
But maybe if she picked it up… She smacked it with her hoof, cracks forming. So it could break like the planks. It was harder than the wood, as it was stone, but after a good amount of effort it shattered, but rather than dropping anything it just vanished. Fluttershy looked around but it looked like all her efforts had left nothing but a hole in the cave wall.
Faintly, she remembered the pickaxe in the recipe book, did she need that to break stone? She didn’t see the point of a pickaxe if she couldn’t break stone, so maybe she did need one. But, unless she ran out of planks somehow, Fluttershy failed to see the point in needing to make one.
Fluttershy turned around, peeking outside. She snorted in shock when she saw the sun almost fully plunged beneath the horizon. Fluttershy went into action. She quickly grabbed her crafting table from her inventory, using the book to find the recipe for a door. She arranged six planks in her inventory on the table in the pattern from the book. The planks seemed to gravitate towards each other as they glowed, turning into three miniature doors.
Fluttershy placed two of the doors down, forming a pair of double doors, before arranging the rest of the planks in her inventory around the entrance, sealing the cave off from the outside. Fluttershy whimpered as, after she placed the final block, the cave plunged into darkness.
It seemed to press against her, suffocating her. What could she do? This darkness was too much. She broke a singular plank, allowing light to once more enter the cave. She sighed in relief. Fluttershy knew this wouldn’t last long though, as it was almost night.
Fluttershy didn’t know how to build a fire, she didn’t even know what she could use to make one without venturing out into the night, or using the planks she used as a wall. Sure she had sticks but she only had five, which was not enough for a fire. Fluttershy whimpered, if only she had some more wood, or coal. But without it she guessed she’d just have to deal with the darkness.
Wait, those spots in the stone. Could it be? No, she didn’t think it could, but she couldn’t stand the thought of remaining in the darkness. Fluttershy opened the doors and walked towards the only nearby tree, using part of the few precious minutes she had left to break a log. It splintered as it miniaturized into her hooves.
Fluttershy ran back indoors, shutting them tight once more. She used the planks from the log to make the pickaxe she saw in the books. She successfully held it in her mouth. Walking towards the stone ore she then used it to break it. This time when it shattered it dropped a familiar black lump, she grabbed it her eyes widening.
Fluttershy saw the recipe book on the crafting table glowing as soon as she took it. Fluttershy didn’t waste any time and harvested two more, she tried to get more but there was none, instead, she broke stone. She grabbed it anyways, but as she did so her vision was once more assaulted with text.
Advancement made!
Stone Age
Another advancement? Fluttershy was still startled but she was able to calm herself when she realized what it was. Now that she wasn’t as terrified she was able to actually look at it. There was an icon of the wooden pickaxe that she had just made beside the text. Said text was actually blocky, like the planks.
It dissolved as quickly as it appeared and she nervously went back to the crafting table. Fluttershy squinted at the book after opening it, the lack of light making it harder and harder to read. Her ears perked up when she saw a new recipe, a torch, that she could make. So it was coal.
Fluttershy cheered herself internally, she used her last three sticks to make a dozen torches, they lit up the room with their light, it was almost too bright compared to the suffocating darkness.
Fluttershy collected them, gently placing two of them on the floor. The same magic that had appeared when she placed the planks embedded the torches into the ground.
Fluttershy sighed in relief, she was safe. An entire dimension away from home, but safe. She repaired the hole in the wall that she had made while she was still worrying about the darkness. She dropped to the floor, shaking softly. Her heart still raced from the events of the day, and her ears pressed against the back of her head while she attempted to calm it.
Her animals, she remembered, she missed feeding time. Tears began streaming down her face again as she thought about what she had left behind. Did her friends know she was okay? Would Equestria be okay without her being there to use the element of kindness?
Fluttershy whimpered, it looks like it’s going to be a long night.
