Fur as yellow as the morning sun,

mane as pink as a peppy teen’s cheeks,

cutie mark in the form of three simple butterflies,

and two, large, recently preened pegasus wings resting neatly across his barrel...

… Yup, this is a Male Fluttershy alright. No question there. Yup, not a single one...

...

… Well... except for maybe one actually…

… Ahem.

Why is he so bucking terrifying to behold?!

The longer I look the more I shake... and Dusk is doing the same! This giant stallion version of the soon-to-be Element of Kindness (better known as Butterscotch in this world according to the list) is so big and imposing that he’s causing a dragon like me and a freaking archmage like Dusk to tremble. Guy-shy here now holds the trophy for being the largest pony I’ve ever met... ever! Period!

Okay, that part might seem like a stretch to you. I mean, I’ve seen a lot of tall ponies in my time; obviously. I’m barely as tall as a foal! Everypony is a giant in my eyes. Even so, in comparison to the outliers… In comparison to, say, the tall and slender Elusive?

Nope.

To the large and powerful Applejack?

Nope.

To the even larger and stronger Red Gala?

Nnope.

And... compared to Prince Solaris himself? I think they’re easily at the same eye level!! He’s as tall as a freaking alicorn prince!

And… a-and there’s one more thing... He’s a-also, like I said…

… s-scary…

He’s so incredibly imposing... Worse yet, I can’t pinpoint what it is about him that’s causing me to shiver in fright like the child I am. Is it because of his long pink beard, the one that scrapes across the ground as he shuffles about? Is it his burly pink crest of chest hair, the one that gives him an aura of power and authority? Maybe it’s his shaggy, overgrown, and equally pink mane; the one that’s acting as a concealing curtain for his eyes…

… Maybe it’s just the fact that I can’t see his eyes at all! I can’t tell his expressions or emotions without those peepers. The flat line etched across his lips can’t reveal for me his true inner feelings. As he mumbles lowly to the choir of birds before him, perched upon a dead tree branch, I can’t tell if he’s still the same sweet and shy little mare from the cartoon or instead a lumbering monster of a stallion simply trying to do his job!

Frankly I don’t want to find out...

… Good thing I have this convenient scapegoat right here then.

“Well, Dusk?” I ask my quiet charge beside me, drawing his attention away from the pony in the distance. “A-aren’t you going to ask him about the music?”

Dusk blinks blankly at me.

“... Ladies first?” he replies weakly with a half laugh and a forced smile.

I quickly decide that I’m having NONE of that nonsense right now.

“Dusk,” I repeat, my words growing frantic. “N-no. Just… no. Be a gentlecolt already an-”

“But Barb!” he snaps back, cutting me off. “I-I can’t! Just look at that thing-”

“I AM!” I interrupt this time as my voice grows louder, though never breaking out of a whisper. “I am looking, Dusk… and you know what I see? I see a pony capable of flattening me like a pancake on accident!!”

“And he can’t me?!” Dusk retorts, eyes bugging out and voice just as loud and panicked now as my own.

I point a shaky claw at him. “Y-you’re blowing things out of proportion here!”

He points an equally trembling hoof right back at me. “I’m pretty sure I’m not, Barb!”

“Solaris wants you to talk to him!”

“No, he wants someone to talk to him!”

“Then go out there and do it already!”

“No, you!”

“I’m flipping seven years old!”

“Seven and a half!”

“Oh like that actually matters! The point is that I’m a kid, Dusk!”

“Well I’m a flipping bookworm, so there! We’re in the same sinking boat here, girly!”

“What?! But, I, you… Grrrr!”

“Grrrr!”

… Easing off of our growling, we both grow quiet as we proceed to glare at one another mutely.

“...”

“...”

I then lift up a claw and stretch it out. The joints pop loudly as I do.

Pop pop

Dusk horn glows with a bright light in response. It hums with power.

Twinkletwinkletwinkle

Our glaring intensifies as the silence between us becomes palpable.

“...”

“...”

… Whoosh!

We then proceed to rush toward one another and drench ourselves in glorious battle!

“Rock paper scissors shoot!”
“Rock paper scissors shoot!”

Glorious bloodless battle!

Laying my claw out flatly proves to be a brilliant tactical decision on my part as the imaginary paper brutally covers the magically constructed rock resting in Dusk’s cupped hooves, thus granting me the win.

“... Cheater,” Dusk grumbles.

“Sore loser,” I giggle victoriously.

Extinguishing his horn in a huff, causing the illusionary construct to disapparate as well, my frustrated charge groans as he exits our hiding bush and reluctantly approaches Butterscotch. Music accompanies Dusk’s solo trek as the birds performing in front of the colossal stallion reach an impressive, and synchronized, crescendo; almost as if they were heralding the coming meeting.

The unknown stallion made no move as Dusk approaches; whether he knew he was even there was anyponies guess. His entire attention was aimed on the avian orchestra he was… conducting? Conducting feels like the right word but there was no baton in this guy’s mouth or foreleg to indicate such a thing.

Yet, lead he did. There was a eb and flow to the music in the air. This was not simply mindless bird chirps, this was honest to goodness music. I had heard that such a thing was possible here in Equestria, but beyond the tv show I had never seen such a thing myself. It's quite the sight to behold both visibly and audibly-

“Squack!”

… For the most part. This is still just a rehearsal. Mistakes and screw ups are bound to happen. That’s what the maestro is here for in the first place, to buffer out these little blemishes. Said buffering can come in many forms and techniques. Maestros will often time raise their voices to bring attention to the hiccups, to encourage change. Others provide helpful feedback either after or at the time of incident. It can almost be likened to being a parent… though with obviously more pay and the power to (legally) fire someone who doesn’t listen.

Fluttershy fixed this squawker's major malfunction, from what I can still recall, by asking him politely to sing on key which is another valid option I suppose.

Guy-shy… doesn’t do this with his birds

I have no earthly idea what he does.

I mean… I can see what he does to lead his choir clear as day, even from all the way back here. He kinda just… stares at them to get them to do what he wants. Without so much as a word the off-key singing feather ball rubs the back of his head in embarrassment before resuming properly, no incident to speak of.

… Oh yeah, I forgot the mention that the animals here are kinda smart and do human-like things like this every now and then...

… Honestly it’s the least interesting thing in my life right now, which is saying a lot.

“Um… hello?”

“Gasp! Chirpchirpchirpchirp!!”

The most interesting part is currently happening right now, as Dusk attempts to make first contact with the stallion… and only proceeds to scare off all of his bird choir. The field is now quiet.

Quiet, save for the titan pony who stands as still as a statue in response to Dusk’s actions.

Dusk is similarly as still, though with about 90% more sweating. I can hear him gulping from here.

“...”

“... Hmph.”

After what felt like an eternity, the stalemate was broken by the larger stallion giving a simple low breath.

Whoosh!

With a mighty push downwards from his left wing, Butterscotch launches himself into the air… but only briefly; just long enough for him to rotate himself 180 degrees to face the one who had interrupted his choir practice. The landing from his aerial feat shakes the ground enough to knock me onto my back. As I lay, I can feel sweat start to fall from my face as well.

“H-holy crap,” I mutter lowly as I get back to my feet. Amusingly, I can read the same words off of Dusk’s lips as well as he shakily recovers from his own tumble.

Clearing his throat, Dusk attempts to try to sound as not scared as ponily possible as he continues. “I’m so sorry. I d-didn’t mean to frighten your birds!”

He failed miserably, though to his credit Butterscotch didn’t respond one way or another to the apology. All he did was stand there and stare at the unicorn in front of him through his blinding bangs. Angry, sad, scared… neither Dusk nor I have the slightest clue what’s going on in this guy’s head right now. The silence is really unnerving.

“... I-I’m… I’m just here to check up on the music,” our officially appointed event planner tries to explain, hoping to ease whatever wrath was about to be inflicted on him for his transgressions. “It sounded b-beautiful!”

Still the behemoth was silent.

This silence continues for a few painfully long seconds before my friend surprised me by making an honest attempt to be… friendly!

“I’m Dusk Shine… what’s your name?”

Oh wow! That was unexpected… ~Sniff, My baby is growing up!

Being the philistine that he is though, obviously not realizing the sort of ungodly miracle he had just bared witness to today, Butterscotch continues on with his vow of silence.

Suddenly, the brightly colored pegasus catches both Dusk and myself off guard by mumbling lowly under his breath. “... I’m... Butterscotch…”

From the bushes I don’t stand a chance of catching whatever it was he just said, and from the look of things Dusk didn’t catch it either. “I’m sorry. What was that?” he asks.

“...”

I lower my breathing and listen real close… but ultimately I can tell that the butterfly adorned stallion had returned to being a mute. There was no other attempt at communication; no cute whimper like his filly version from the show, no small attempt… all this has taught us about this pony is that he is the strong silent type. Between him and Fluttershy, it’s really hard to see the connection.

After Rainbow Dash and Elusive I’m not surprised.

As the coast became apparently clear the wayward birds slowly return to their places and await further instruction. Seeing his out, Dusk quickly takes advantage of the situation and beats a hasty retreat. “Well, um, it looks like your birds are back,” he points out, slowly turning around. “I guess everything’s in order. K-keep up the good work!”

Butterscotch says nothing as he watches the only other pony in the field start to leave. I watch Dusk for a second longer before I walk out of my bushy hiding spot and regroup with my friend. “Well… that was easy,” Dusk Shine retorts sarcastically to me as it appears our work here is done.

I really want to slap him for his poor choice of words.

After having accidentally summoned the dark powers of Murphy's law into the realm by the careless utterance of his words, Dusk and I suddenly find ourselves unable to react as what feels like a flipping earthquake starts to rock us. We’re thoroughly rooted in place by the event. As we are I suddenly gasp, and my partner slowly turns his head to bare witness to the same horrifying sight that's currently plaguing my own vision.

The sight of a half-ton stallion charging at us at full gallop.

With unicorn horn quickly igniting, his mind clearly being thrown into fear induced overdrive, Dusk attempts to form the magical shield spell his older sister taught him long ago… but it appears as though he doesn’t have the time or presence of mind to form the thing up fully. Butterscotch stampedes on through what little of the pink shield formed like it’s rice paper, and knocks my charge to the side without even so much as flinching. As he continues, it becomes quickly certain that the our resident nerd was not his target and that instead that honor belongs to… well, the only other being here!

“Barb!” cries Dusk from the ground, trying to quickly stumble back to his hooves.

My heart races as the trembling of the earth knocks me down yet again, and I’m forced to watch in horror as the being more train then pony barrels towards me at frightening speeds. My mind races; every scrap of higher brain function and useful show knowledge escapes me as he draws closer and closer. Every step seems to take years off of my life as my fear grows and grows and grows

Until it’s too late to do anything about it.

“Dusk!” I scream, raising my claws to my face in one last pathetic attempt to save myself. Closing my eyes, I wait for the end.

…

…

…

… I slowly open my eyes again once if becomes clear that the end had not come for me again.

Trust me, I’d know if it did. That’s not a feeling you forget after the first time.

The world I found myself in again was similar to how it had presented itself to me not two minutes ago. It was quiet again, with nearly a chirp, shake, or a quake to disturb it. The most I could hear was simply the pounding of my heart in my ears. Despite this, the world was still as scary as it had just been due to my vision being filled with a waterfall of pink hair.

Butterscotch, despite being the lumbering equine that he is, seemed to be in good control of his actions as he was seemingly able to stop all of his forward momentum in an instant. This allowed him to be able to get close enough to me to allow his head to dip low enough to be on eye-, er, on face level with my own. With his new vantage point, the stallion resumes to do much of the same thing he did when we first found him; stand and stare quietly.

In the silence, I try to catch my breath as my heart tries to slow itself for me. My guest waits patiently as I calm down, my best guess being that he is waiting on me before he continues.

My assumption proves correct for, after a solid minute of me trying to return to normal, he raises one of his massive forelegs up and forward. I flinch as he does. This causes the pegasus to pause for a brief moment before he moves his leg again. It quickly becomes apparent as he moves that he was not about to crush me with his tree stump of a leg. In fact, it wasn’t being moved for my sake at all. Butterscotch took his leg and brought it to his own face…

… so that he could part his mane and see me fully with one of his eyes.

One of his big, blue, innocence filled eyes.

“... A baby dragon!” he finally speaks, putting his whole heart into his words as his mouth opens wide in childlike amazement.

It suddenly feels like the entire section of my brain that is dedicated to managing my emotions was just struck with a case of whiplash...

… for like the fifth time today.

Sooo... this stallion just spoke those three simple words in what I can only describe as the cutest little baritone voice I’ve ever heard before. It’s like an untrained singing voice; it has no sense of authority in it and has no business being with this body type… yet it kinda works in a “This man is going to crush you dead, yet you’re not going to be too angry because it’s clear that he just wants to do his best” kind of way.

Weird, but it works.

What doesn’t work is him trying to gently flap his wings around me so he can get a better look. The wind alone knocks me on my back again, and in seeing this the smaller-in-heart-but-not-in-body pony blushes and tries to gently land. “I’ve never seen a baby dragon before!” he explains in a cheery tone. “She's so cute!”

Assuming he’s talking to Dusk, I look over to him only to find him still on the ground and wearing the same sort of confused look that’s probably on my face right now as well.

I nervously laugh a little over the absurdity of it all. “W-well,” I state as casually as I can. “He’s not wrong!”

The tiniest, most too-good-for-this-world gasp leaves the gentle giant’s mouth upon hearing this. “It talks? I didn’t know dragons could talk! That’s just so incredibly wonderful… I-I don’t even know what to say!”

You and me both buddy.

~Twinkletwinkle~

My scales begin to itch slightly with magic as a familiar feeling of weightlessness overtakes me. One quick uncontrolled float through the air later and I soon find myself deposited upon Dusk’s back. Little rude there buddy...

“Well,” Dusk starts, quite ready to get the heck out of dodge as soon as he can. “In that case, we better be going.”

With a clip and a clop Dusk starts to head on down the path with me in tow, though Butterscotch was clearly not done and begins to follow us slowly and deliberately. With his massive legs, it took little effort to keep up with our ‘retreat’.

“Wait, wait,” he begs as he follows, uncaring of the small tremors he leaves behind with each step. “What’s her name?”

Well… as admittedly weird as this is and as admittedly weird as this pony is… it’s pretty easy to see now that, despite my earlier claim, this really is this world’s Fluttershy. It’s fascinating to see the differences, but the similarities are also much welcomed right now.

Especially after the last two.

“I’m Barbara,” I reply with a smile, taking the burden off of the annoyed Dusk’s nonexistent shoulders. “Friends call me Barb.”

“Hi, Barb,” he replies sweetly, a little shy over talking to me directly. “I’m Butterscotch.... Wow, a talking dragon.”

I giggle over the earnestness in the properly introduced Butterscotch’s voice. There’s no fake pleasantries or fake enthusiasm here; this big sweet colt is just as excited to be talking to me as little Apple Buck was. It really warms my heart…

“And… what do dragons talk about?” he asks me sincerely, his eyes obscured but his voice true.

“Well, what do you want to know?” I offer.

“Absolutely everything.”

I can feel Dusk’s back muscles tighten up at this question, fearful of what is going to happen next.

He spares me a quick glance, looking for a response. I spare this a thought in return…

… before smiling wickedly.

Dusk Shine groans as he continues to trot, resigning himself to his coming fate. Hehe, sorry Dusk. I love you… but after the hell that was this day, I think I deserve a little R&R, don’t you?

“Well,” I begin. “I started out as a cute little purple and green egg…”

I do love sharing my Tale, afterall~

Author's Notes:

Message for new reader's; this chapter was cut in half from the next for pacing sake.

The rest is for those who waited three years for this.

Thank you all.

When I put down the pen for this tale back in 2015, it was because I had just left college and needed to focus on other things like starting a career and figuring out where I was going to live. What started as a quick break quickly turned long as... well... life happened. Simple as that. Life is STILL happening to be perfectly honest, but that's going to be a fact forever so what makes now any different?

Well, what's changed now is that, after some long soul searching, I think I've finally figured out WHY it is I write. My art is, and has always been, a distraction from both my anxiety and my boredom. There is nothing wrong with this, and in excepting it I can now see what it is I need in order to kick-start this back up. I want to shout out a lot of different people, but I want to limit it to at least Cantankerous whose last comment on the story last month reignited my own interest in continuing.

Now I need your help for continuing this;

Tell me... what is the one thing you each want to see more of in this story going forward? What is it about this tale that brought you back here three years later? Was it the characters? Their interactions with one another? I'm really looking forward to the next chapter where the guy six members get to bounce off of each-other a bit :)

Was it the comedy? The angst? Do you just love the flowery way I write things? Please let me know! After the two part primer episodes are done we'll be going into a more episodic format to better fit the show itself. There will still be an ongoing story exclusive to Barb and this cast, and a few episodes will also be unique to this world and NOT part of the show itself... but I really want to make sure these chapters will be filled with what YOU guys want. That's how the first book was written after all, with all of your feedback. Whether I'll be able to do that chapter a week thing I did last time is still up to debate but, well, I want to be optimistic.

I'll see you again soon

~Derply