Fluttershy's Giant

-

Part Seven

Twilight gaped and took deep breaths.

"Her chicken coop was... gone?" she whispered.

Rainbow Dash nodded. "Yeah. Gone. Just splinters and a few broken bits of wood."

The mares shuffled nervously. "Twilight, do you know what happened?" Dash asked carefully.

Twilight shook her head at first. "No, I don't see what could have... Last night... something fell out of the sky... this morning, Fluttershy and I went to go look for the crusaders who disappeared in the early hours. We.... found something... those eyes...." she whispered and stroked her tail worryingly.

Dash shifted awkwardly. "Um. What did it look like?"

"Huge. Giant. Metal," Twilight whimpered.

Dash patted her on the head. "Hey, it's alright now."

Twilight looked up and smiled. "Sorry. It's just-"

"Fire! Fire in the Everfree!" a cry went up outside. "Get some water! If it spreads too quickly... get some water! There's a fire! Move it ponies!"

Both unicorn and pegasus jumped up and dashed to the door. They flung it open and spotted the fire brigade was screaming through the small town towards Fluttershy's.

Twilight shivered. "Let's go see if we can help."

Rainbow Dash nodded and helped her up. "Easy," she muttered.

Twilight smiled again as they galloped off towards the forest.

***

The ponies coughed and sputtered and fought for air as the smoke hit them.

DOG reached up and held them above the flames and the smoke.

"Thank you, DOG," Fluttershy coughed. "At least it's not a dragon causing the smoke..." she thought. She trembled and closed her eyes. "What if it's a dragon causing the smoke?"

The giant nodded and placed them on his shoulder.

"Help! Somepony help us!" a voice screamed through the flames.

DOG lowered his head, taking care not to let the ponies slip, and watched as a trio of figures stumbled around in the forest.

"Don't worry! We'll save you!" Scootaloo shouted bravely.

The mare shouting looked around for the unseen voice. "Where are you?!" she screamed, becoming frantic.

"Up here!" Applebloom shouted as she slid down DOG's arm and into his hand.

The mare squinted. As far as she could tell through the smoke, there was a small, yellow filly floating in mid-air, just in front of her.

"My husband! He's trapped under a tree!" the mare coughed and pointed over to a large tree. A struggling stallion had his hind leg caught under it.

Applebloom nodded. "DOG! Help that poor guy!"

DOG growled in response and set her down temporarily.

The mare gasped as she saw the giant, with two other fillies and a mare on his shoulder. "Wh-what?" she whispered and backed away in fear.

Fluttershy flapepd down and tried to hush her as the giant reached a hand out and lifted up the tree trapping her husband.

"He's friendly, really-"

"Monster!" The mare screamed and fled. "A monster!" she wailed as she charged through the forest, disappearing into the dark woods, away from the ponies and the giant.

DOG's eyes dimmed momentarily.

[Monster...]

"No! She's just scared. You didn't do anything wrong!" Sweetie assured him, her voice cracking at the ''no''.

Scootaloo snorted. "Maybe we should kick her flank to teach her not to yell at our friend."

Fluttershy scowled. "That's not very nice," she scolded, in a motherly fashion.

"Sorry, 'Shy," the filly murmured. "But she wasn't very nice calling DOG a monster."

"True. But she didn't know any better. She was just scared." Fluttershy counter-argued.

"Help..." the stallion whispered.

Fluttershy flapped down to him in DOG's palm. "Are you alright?" she asked.

He smiled gratefully. "I'm fine. Just... leg hurts."

The pegasus nodded and turned back to DOG. "We need to get him to Ponyville. He needs help."

DOG nodded and picked up all the ponies. His long strides helped them reach the town in no time, just as Twilight and Rainbow Dash reached Fluttershy's house, and encountered a wailing mare, screaming about a monster.

***

"Slow down. What monster?" Dash said, irritatedly.

The mare huffed and panted. "A g-g-giant in the w-woods. It had some f-fillies w-with it. It must have t-t-taken them p-p-prisoner, or... or brainwashed them..." she whispered, then bolted upright. "Oh Celestia... I left my husband there... the monster will eat him!" she squealed.

Twilight patted her on the back as she collapsed to the floor and wailed.  "It's alright. We'll get him home safely. C'mon Rainbow. Fly up and see if you can spot anything strange."

Dash saluted and flew into the air. "I can see the smoke. It looks pretty bad, Twi."

The unicorn looked down at the mare before her. "Wait here, we'll go and-"

"Twilight, Twilight, you've got to help!" Applebloom cried as she, and the other four ponies sprung out the forest. The poor stallion was fighting for every breath as he rested on Fluttershy's back.

Fluttershy coughed delicately and shook the soot out of her hair. "Um, please... we sort of... need help."

Her friends gaped at her disbelievingly.

"Since when does Fluttershy rescue ponies?" Dash exclaimed.

Fluttershy blushed and tried to hide behind her mane. "Um... I was... helping an animal friend. The fire happened... and I tried to help?" she murmured.

The crusaders hopped forwards. "She sure was." Scootaloo said. "We helped too."

Twilight frowned at them. "Do your sisters know you're here?"

Applebloom and Sweetie Belle hung their heads. "Uhh... no?"

"And since when does Scoots go off into the forest?" Dash asked and gently cuffed the orange filly on the head.

"Sorry, Dash." Scootaloo mumbled.

Fluttershy winced as she inched closer to the forest. "Well, I should go back now... nice seeing you two-"

"You!" the grief stricken mare shirked and pointed an accusing hoof at the butter pegasus. "You were with the monster!"

Twilight and Rainbow Dash blinked at Fluttershy.

"Fluttershy... tell us about this monster." Twilight said slowly.

Fluttershy's ears went back. "I... don't know what you're talking about." she lied. Her poker-face was worse than Applejack's (if that was even possible). "Honestly, I don't-"

Dash flew right in her face and scrutinized her eyes.

"Eep!" Fluttershy squeaked and dove behind the fillies.

Twilight tapped Dash's leg. "Ease off, Rainbow. If she says she doesn't know anything, she doesn't know anything."

Rainbow snorted. "Hmmph. Fine."

The mare started in surprise. "You mean you're just going to let that monster roam free?"

Her husband coughed and rose, unsteadily, to his feet. "There was no monster, love. It must have been the smoke," he wheezed and winked at Fluttershy.

The meek pegasus's cheeks turned slightly red as the stallion put a hoof around his wife and steered them both towards the hospital. The fire brigade ponies assisted them into the truck.  "Thank you," he called out to her. "I owe you my life. Thank you."

"Well... if it's alright, I should go back to my friend," Fluttershy whispered, shakily and shuffled towards the forest again. "He might be afraid, or hurt, or... something might have happened. So I'll just uh... be going now."

Her friends nodded. "Come on girls, let's get you home. You're all covered in soot," Twilight said.

The fillies moaned in complaint. "Do we have to?" Applebloom whined.

The mares nodded.

They hung their heads in defeat, waved goodbye to Fluttershy, and trotted ahead of the two mares.

Dash leaned close to Twilight. "We're following her right?" she whispered.

"Oh yeah." Twilight whispered back as they stopped following the crusaders. "Definitely." They held back to make sure the fillies were going home for sure, then quickly changed direction and picked up on Flutterhsy's trail.

***

Fluttershy slipped into the forest once more. "DOG?" she called and looked around fpr her giant.

The giant reached down a hand and scooped her up.

"Ahh!" she cried and clutched his finger. "Don't do that!" she giggled.

[DOG is a hero now?]

"Yes. I suppose you are." Shesmiled up at him and nuzzled his finger as it curled towards her. "Could you take me back to the clearing? I need to get Rainbow's books back."

He nodded and placed her on his shoulder, then set off at an impossibly long stride.

All the while, Twilight Sparkle and Rainbow Dash gasped in horror at the giant scooping up their friend and wandering off with her. They didn't hear her words of encouragement to the giant, only her small shriek as he picked her up.

"What... is it?" Rainbow murmured as she watched the giant thunder off into the dark woods.

Twilight shook her head in fear. "It can't be... not possible..." she whispered and began stroking her mane. "It's the monster we found the other night... oh by Celestia... Celestia!" she suddenly cried, making Dash jump. "We have to tell the princess there's a giant alien in the forest. And it's got Fluttershy!"

Dash nodded and flapped up into the air. "Let's go then!" she yelled.

Twilight's horn lit up and cast a purple glow over the both of them, whisking them away to Ponyville.