Fluttershy's Nature Show, Season Two

"Wowie, zowie, we're high up!" Pinkie Pie's words echo off of the dry, lifeless rocks that surround the crag they're approaching. "Not even the clouds were brave enough to fly this high up!"

"We're actually not that high up," clarifies Fluttershy. "We're actually just in an area where the air is uncharacteristically dense, which is causing the clouds to drop down. It's more akin to fog at this point."

Pinkie pans the camera around and shows the giant pillars of stone jutting straight out of the ground and up into the sky. As she peers over the edge of the hot air balloon, the area right beneath them is nothing more than sharp rocks and fog. But as she looks back up, Fluttershy has her gaze set on a mountain with a lot of caves bored into it.

"So, that's where we're going?"

"Yep."

"Not to be a judgy judgerson, but what kind of critter wants to live in a place like this, where there aren't any friends to make?"

"They can make friends with each other," answers Fluttershy. "They're actually very communal. Spend their lives together. Without a lot of ponies coming up here, they're reliant on each other for companionship."

"Well, they maybe wouldn't have to be if they were more willing to come on down to Ponyville. I'd make some friends for them in no time!"

"Well, actually, I--"

Fluttershy is cut off as the basket suddenly pitches, and Pinkie falls out. She screams for a few seconds as the camera tumbles aimlessly, then stops screaming a second before the camera locks in place, staring straight at the ground and panning quickly across the landscape until it stops, coming to a gentle sideways rest on the side of the mountain.

"Oh, you saved the camera, too!" squeaks Pinkie. "I'm guessing you're the creatures Fluttershy told me about?"

There's a warbling squawk from behind the camera as Pinkie picks it up and turns it to the hot air balloon, which is being buffeted around by the wind. That is, until some black blur grabs the basket and pulls it toward the camera. It stops, however, when it's out of the wind, grabbing a rope to tie the whole apparatus to a stone pillar. The balloon is still stranded in the air, but Fluttershy crawls out onto the back of whatever the black thing is and rides it to where Pinkie Pie is waiting.

"Wow, what a rescue! I didn't expect those winds to come out of nowhere like that! I bet it'd be fun to do wingsuit gliding out here!" As she claps, Fluttershy disembarks. "How about you?"

"Oh. No, I'm not a fan of horizontal skydiving. Or vertical. I would prefer a soft, gentle descent on the breeze."

"I wonder what caused the wind to go all loco in the coco like that?"

Fluttershy gestures to the ground below. "There are pits below those clouds. They might be causing some kind of low-pressure pocket that causes air to rush in, creating stronger winds."

"Indeed so," nods Pinkie, nodding the camera along with her head. "Most indeededly..." She whips the camera over to a couple of the black creatures. "So, are these your critter friends?"

The creatures have a body shape similar to that of an equine, except it's desiccated and thin. Even its ribcage is thin and sleek, and it goes back further than that of most animals, going almost straight to its hips. This is made apparent by the fact that its ribs show through its skin. Not that its skin has stretched so tight that its rib placement is notable, but that its ribs go out further than its skin does, creating a partial exoskeleton.

Its legs end in claws, similar to that of a gryphon, but in this case, it's all four legs, not just the two in front. Also like a gryphon, its face is capped with a hooked beak, though its face is more skeletal. Its wings appear to just be black, stick-like appendages, until it opens them, and a thin, clear film fills the space. The same is true of its tail, with the skeletal-looking vertebrae extending down, and a transparent, almost ghostly series of strands come out.

"These are thestrals," explains Fluttershy. "They live out here because they look scary. There have been reports throughout history of one of these creatures walking into town, and death would follow close behind it. This has led to a common misconception that they bring death, and should be cast out, or, more recently, there has been a more believable, yet equally untrue rumour that they themselves are killing ponies. This is a lie."

"So, I'm not going to contract some awful disease if I touch them?"

Fluttershy responds not with words, but by petting one's neck.

"Welp, that's good enough for me!" Pinkie's hand reaches out from behind the camera as it turns to one of the thestrals and gently scritches the underside of its jaw. "Thanks for the rescue!"

The thestral, in turn, nuzzles her hand.

"So, what do we call this little guy?"

"Veronica," answers Fluttershy. "She's a girl."

"Whoopsie!" giggles Pinkie. "My bad. I'm still learning."

Fluttershy gently pets the one she rode in on. "This one is named Thurston."

Thurston warbles and caws in the direction of the camera, then starts strutting off, bobbing his head forward and backward as he walks.

"Do they listen to a lot of music?" asks Pinkie.

"No. Why do you ask?"

"Just wondering why his head's doing that. Actually, lotsa birds do that. Sure would be nice to figure out why."

Fluttershy clears her throat. "The reason is actually pretty simple. If they keep their heads still on their necks and don't move them, they're going to see everything moving at once. If they move their head into position and hold it there for a second or two, then move again, Then the moment where they're not moving allows them to take in a lot of information very quickly. If they held their heads in place while the rest of their bodies moved, everything would be a blur, or, their eyes would need to twitch a lot, which becomes more difficult the wider your pupil is. So, since birds have very wide pupils, as do Thestrals, it's a lot easier to just bob their heads."

"Huh..." snorts Pinkie. "Well, I guess I learned something today. I'm clear to be ignorant for the next twelve hours!"