Post by singlesadact on Dec 1, 2017 20:01:03 GMT
I've written a few stories based on my Ponyworld, usually revolving around the social lives of said Ponies, but sometimes they involve other characters. The Glossary section & the Culture & Species section I posted give an indication on what kind of Ponyworld it is. One of the stories is Christmas-related, so I intend to post that later this month. But like I said in the heading, this one's a little bit different heehee...
The zebra wasn’t just nervous though. Her response to Tufty was stammered out of more than just the fear of strange movements in a strange place. “Wh-wh-wh-what?” She trembled, & Tufty could feel the resultant vibrations in the ground as she did so, so she came slowly closer still to the zebra, to see if she could find out what else was wrong. “Are you from here?” she tried asking.
“N-n-no,” the zebra stammered fearfully. “I-I-I’m l-l-lost…”
“Well I’m not lost,” Tufty told her, “so if you can tell me where you need to go I can help you get there. My name’s Tufty, & as you can see I’m a snake & a bright one. What’s your name, & do you need to go to the southern plains?” Tufty knew all the Plushian zebras lived in the southern parts of the plainslands, where it was warmer than here.
“M-m-my n-n-name?” stammered the zebra, even more scared now.
“It’s alright,” Tufty reassured her, “you can trust me, I’m not here to hurt you! Just tell me your name & I can take you where you need to be.”
“I-I-I-I’m sh-sh-sh-shy…” stammered the zebra, still not reassured.
“Shy?” queried Tufty. “That’s an unusual name.”
“N-n-not m-m-my n-n-name…” stammered the zebra.
“Awww, you poor thing!” comforted Tufty, as she wrapped herself gently round the zebra to try & calm her from her profound shyness. As she did so, she felt something unusual. The zebra felt like no Plushian she’d ever curled herself round before. No soft fur or yielding Plushian body lurked beneath the skin of this creature. Instead the body felt firmer, harder, like… like… erm… like a Doll-Person! No wonder the zebra was scared here! By the feel of her she needed to go to more civilised lands beyond the Great Steppes, not this wild, scary place!
“You wait right here!” Tufty told her. “You need to go on a much longer journey than even I can take you.”
With that Tufty unwound herself from round the zebra &, head sticking out above the grass to prove she wasn’t attacking, slithered off as fast as she could for the hill-caves where the Plushian unicorns & pegasi made their home, even as the zebra whimpered behind her. The zebra wondered what she’d done wrong, & thought her shyness had driven the snake thing away. She’d seemed very friendly, & her not being there any more left the zebra feeling another emotion alongside the fear & shyness. She now felt terribly lonely, & in spite her cries, the snake thing still left her, so she sat in that spot, not even caring for the slight discomfort caused by the tough stems beneath her, & shed bitter tears.
Tufty, as I mentioned before, has a map in her head, based on the texture, type, slope & temperature of the ground below her, & so her course for the hill-cave was straight & true. It still took her a long time, maybe a couple of hours, but Tufty is no stranger to travelling fast for long periods of time. And with her head above the grasses, she could see when the place was getting close, so the hope of nearing her journey’s end helped her make even faster progress for the last part of her travels. When she got there she saw Pansywing, a purple-winged pegasus, sunning herself near the entrance; until, that is, she saw Tufty. As soon as she saw the long slender body below the tufted head, she screamed “AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHH!!!!!! SNAKE!!!!!” as she took off rapidly in a flurry of purple feathers. “Oh bother!” exclaimed Tufty. “Why are pegasi always so scared of snakes?”
Fortunately Verdant, a green Pegacorn, did not share this fear & wasn’t too far away from Pansywing, having also been sunning herself nearby. So she addressed Tufty: “What brings you to the hill-cave which is our domain?”
“I must speak to Mystic,” Tufty replied. “We need her help.”
“I shall have her here in two shakes of a horse’s tail,” Verdant assured Tufty, just before she disappeared in a flash of green light. A short time later, less than a minute, & a flash of white light with swirling rainbows announced the arrival of Mystic, the most powerful & wisest unicorn in Plushia, who stood before Tufty; a majestic white figure with multi-coloured hair & an iridescent horn protruding from her forehead. “Tell me,” Mystic inquired, “who you are & why you need my help.”
“I’m Tufty,” replied Tufty, “& I found a peculiar peach zebra in the grass. She’s incredibly shy & has a body more like a Doll-Person than a Plushian. I know the plains well, but have never been beyond the Great Steppes to the land of the Doll-People, so wouldn’t know how to find it. You could help her get to where she needs to go though…”
“Yes I could,” Mystic responded, "but first…” She touched her horn to Tufty’s head, & found Tufty’s map indicating a path directly to where she’d found the zebra etched in it, then told the snake: “Now curl around my leg.” Tufty did as she was instructed, & saw herself surrounded by the white-&-rainbow light for a moment, before she & Mystic were back at the very place she’d been when she’d found the zebra, who now seemed to be crying. “Definitely to the east,” she noted. “Only Branded ones cry…”
Tufty released Mystic’s leg & immediately slithered over to wrap herself around the zebra again. “It’s alright,” she comforted, “I only went to get help. Now Mystic’s here, & she can take you where you need to go.”
“S-sorry,” the zebra stammered only slightly now, & only because she was almost done crying. “I-I thought you’d l-left me all a-alone here, that you h-hated me o-or something…”
“Don’t be silly!” chuckled Tufty. “I don’t hate you! I don’t hate anybody! I just went to get you some help.”
“Th-thanks,” replied the zebra. “I-I’m Zig-Zag, &… wow!!! I’ve n-never seen a unicorn that b-big!”
All other emotions were wiped out of Zig-Zag’s head by sheer awe at the sight of the gigantic, majestic, beautiful unicorn in front of her.
“That’s Mystic,” Tufty informed her, “the wisest & most powerful unicorn in Plushia, & she’s come to help you go home, wherever that is. Doll-Person Land?”
“N-no,” replied Zig-Zag, “I n-need to go to a pl-place called Cl-Clopton, at least I th-think I do…”
“Hello Zig-Zag,” Mystic said. “I can help you get to Clopton, if Tufty will wrap a curl of herself round my leg…”
No sooner had Tufty extended her body & wrapped part of it round Mystic’s nearest leg, than the white-&-rainbow light surrounded the three of them, & this time seemed to take a while to fade away. In fact if Mystic hadn’t told Tufty that part of their journey was over, she’d have thought they were still travelling. Releasing her companions, Tufty tentatively reached out her tail to touch one of the multi-coloured swirls, at which the shriek of “AAAAH!!! SNAKE!!!” greeted her, which told her instantly what the swirls were: pegasi! “Oh bother!” she exclaimed. “Why do pegasi always have to be so scared of snakes? Still, it looks like we might be close Zig-Zag…” She looked round to where the zebra had been last, but found that both she & Mystic had disappeared from sight! What was it with this strange, unnaturally soft stuff below her? Then something worse happened. She felt herself sinking through the stuff, slowly at first, but then as she came out the bottom, a good bit faster. “AAAAARRRGGGHHH!!!” she screamed, screwing her eyes shut in terror…
PLONK! Less than ten feet below the bottom of the cloud was a wooden platform, onto which Tufty had just landed. A little bruised from her fall, she was still reassured enough by the feel of the wood below her to reopen her eyes. Zig-Zag was already on the platform, & a white-&-rainbow flash preceded Mystic’s arrival on it mere seconds later. From this vantage point the pegasi were more visible, their tiny wings straining to take them higher & faster round the clouds. “Aaaah, snake!!!” shrieked one on seeing Tufty. “Oh bother!” snapped Tufty. “Why must pegasi always be so scared of snakes?”
“You try it,” replied a pinkish one, “when you’re wound so tightly in the coils of one you can’t even breathe, much less fly!”
“The way they move creeps me out!” added a purplish one. “I mean how can you move without legs or wings?”
“This still isn’t explaining,” a yellowish one pointed out, “what in Hasbronia a snake is doing in Cloud City…”
Cloud City? Oh no! Is this what this place was called? And probably so named because the entire place was made of… clouds!!! So that was what that soft thing had been! A cloud! And weren’t clouds those things that floated high in the air? Now it was Tufty’s turn to scream, for in case you haven’t guessed yet, what she, like all snakes, feared most is heights. Not up-a-tree-rooted-firmly-into-the-ground heights, or even at-the-top-of-a-cliff-any-snake-can-slither-down-easily heights, but suspended-in-midair-with-no-way-to-get-down-but-fall heights. And what was holding this platform up? “AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAARRRGGGHHH!!!!!”
The yellowish pegasus approached the terrified snake, & Tufty noted, from the middle of the platform, that her hair was blue & tied in ribbons: a navy one in her mane & a magenta one in her tail. “It’s ok,” she said gently. “We can help you. Hey, you’re the same colours as me! I’m Beyonce, & I like bouncing!” With that Beyonce bounced off the edge of the platform into the air & flapped her wings to continue the flight the bounce had started. Tufty felt the vibrations the bounce caused all through the platform.
“With that in mind,” the pinkish pegasus added nervously from a corner of the platform, “I need to go get it. I’m Nina, & I’m nine years old. We’re Pegasus Juniors, & this is one of our training platforms, & there’s no way off it except to, well, fly, so I need to get my mother to help.” Nina had purple hair & a navy mane ribbon, while her tail ribbon was blue like Tufty’s stripes. The brave young pegasus then took off from the platform & flew as fast as her little wings could carry her, while the yellow one, Beyonce, stayed nearby to bounce, jump, leap, flutter & try her best to cheer up the terrified snake.
Nina flew, feeling the strain in her wing muscles as she did so, but still determined to help the snake. She finally found her mother, consulting with some of her fellow lieutenants about something she wasn’t yet old enough to understand, but was aware that her mission was more important. “Mum! Mum!” she shrieked to get her mother’s attention. “We need your help! There’s a snake stuck on a platform, with a unicorn & another creature, & except for the other creature, they all seem pretty big. They’re stuck on one of our training platforms. Please help get them down!”
“Well,” her mother, a near carbon copy of her daughter, only bigger & older, smiled back, “it seems we have a training exercise for the G3 Division after all. It will take the lot of them. Starfinder, if you could please. I shall go to get the net.”
Lieutenant Starfinder went back to where she’d left the G3 Division at their race, with Starcatcher monitoring the finish line, & watched with her eldest as the others flew past, until the last of them was through. “Island Delight,” she sighed, “if only you’d stick to your course & NOT whirl round every cloud to see if there’s treasure behind it, perhaps you’d finish your race sooner. Anyway, all of you, listen up! We have another assignment for you: an endurance test. My colleague Lieutenant North Star is getting the net, & we will use it to carry three creatures down off one of the Pegasus Junior training platforms to the ground. When I say we, I mean us all, myself included. From what the Pegasus Junior Corporal has just informed us, two of them are as big as Plushians, so the load will be heavy. Lieutenant North Star will also be on hoof, but again, that does not entitle any of you to slack off. We need each & every one of you to pull her weight & make her best effort at this, understood?”
“Yes, Lieutenant!” chorused the entire G3 Division in response. Tiramisu sighed in relief that she’d had her annoying tooth sorted a few days beforehand, as using the net meant gripping with your mouth, & big meant heavy, & carrying something heavy with a sore mouth is not a good idea. Starfinder then led the division to the PJ training grounds, where she saw North Star, Nina & several other Juniors spreading out the net, with a good part of it held by some of the Juniors firmly against the platform. The net was made of gossamer & clouds woven together, so was very light, but incredibly strong, & it was often used by Pegasus Flight for carrying heavy equipment & suchlike. Starfinder assigned each G3 to a part of the edging, as she herself came close to the platform, ready to help North Star with that edge, interrupted only by Pearly Pie’s shriek of “Aaaah, snake!!!” as the yellow G3 saw Tufty cowering in the middle of the platform.
“They’re tiny,” observed Mystic, “even the biggest of them. I could get three of my Plushian pegasi to do this easily, but they need all these?”
For with the G3 Division, Starfinder, & North Star, that amounted to at least a dozen pegasus Ponies to carry the net.
Tufty was even more terrified than before, as she trembled, shaking the platform. “Oh no, they’re using a NET!!!”
Zig-Zag had no such qualms. In fact, she felt strangely at home with these Ponies, to whom she was very similar, in size, shape & intelligence; & her only fear of the net was the size of the holes in it, but if she positioned herself safely, she knew she’d be alright. Tufty’s fears of the net were: firstly, it WAS a net; secondly, it felt to her nervous tail prods like it was made of the same soft stuff the cloud was; & thirdly, you could see right through it to whatever was below. “I’m going to have a sore leg,” Mystic thought to herself as she instructed Tufty to curl round it, & she was right, as Tufty clung like grim death onto the firmest solid object within her vicinity ie: that very leg. Once Mystic was aboard the net & Zig-Zag safely tucked in a corner, the Juniors securing it gave their part over to Starfinder & North Star, & as the adults took the weight & began to slowly fly the net down, they continued flying round it, encouraging the older pegasi, with Beyonce always closest to Tufty. In fact it was Beyonce who told Tufty, clinging like mad to Mystic’s leg & with her eyes screwed firmly shut, when they eventually landed on Feather Bower. Nina meanwhile had been flying round the zebra, gently enquiring who she was & where they were going, & had learned that Zig-Zag was a Pony Friend, very shy, & had been looking for Clopton, but had got lost in some wild plains, where Tufty had found her.
When Beyonce’s cheery voice told Tufty she was on the ground now, Tufty timidly poked out her tail to explore what was below her. She felt the feathers first, strewn as they were all over the field, then beneath them, something very reassuring & ground-related: grass! With relief she unwound from Mystic’s leg & slithered across the feather-strewn land where they had all come to rest, opening her eyes only when the rest of her was assured it was safe, & seeing the pegasi, adult & junior, all around her, some of whom hid behind their colleagues in fear of her, & the feathers of all assorted colours everywhere, before having a proper look around. They were on a small hill, below which sprawled a great city, bright with life & colour. Tufty marvelled at this city, wondering how it had grown there. Plushians are intelligent, but aren’t that good at building houses & so on, especially not snakes.
“That,” Beyonce, who’d never strayed too far from her, informed her, “is Clopton, capital city of Ponyworld!”
“Clopton!” Tufty exclaimed happily. “Zig-Zag, we’ve done it! You’re home!”
All the pegasi cheered at this, scaring Zig-Zag with their exuberance, until Starfinder ordered the G3s to roll up the net, ensuring no feathers got caught in it as they did so, so that it could be put back by North Star. Mystic asked if Zig-Zag could find her way from here, & North Star assured her that she herself would help Zig-Zag settle in to her new home.
“It’s time to go back to our homes now,” she told Tufty, who chose a distinctly different leg to curl round from the one she’d clung to while they were being lowered in the net, & asked her: “Why do you think we ended up so high?”
“I forgot to figure height differences into my calculations,” Mystic responded. “The cave-hill is higher than most of the plainslands, & they are higher then the eastern lands because of the Great Steppes. We’ll have to remember that next time we find a stray Pony or Friend in Plushia.”
“We will indeed,” Tufty agreed as Mystic winked them to the top of the Great Steppes, & then back to the hill-cave, from where Tufty could easily find her way home, disturbing a rat’s nest on her way. Fortunately for her, it was full of dumb rats, so she had herself a good meal out of them.
North Star meanwhile, having escorted Zig-Zag to Clopton & got her a residence there, went to her commander to inform her of the day’s events. “So in conclusion,” she summed up, “I do believe that medals of bravery should be issued, especially to Beyonce & Nina, for it is a known fact that pegasi are afraid of snakes. Both these Juniors faced their fears & did what was necessary to assist the Plushian snake in her own fear.”
“Indeed, I agree with you,” added Commander Firefly. “Have all the pegasi mane-ribboned up for tomorrow. We shall have a parade to honour the bravest of them.”
As I’m sure you can imagine, the parade was a spectacular sight, & Nina & Beyonce glowed with joy as they received their medals. Also you can imagine that Zig-Zag, the fourth Pony Friend to arrive in Ponyworld, eventually settled in with the others, & made some friends among them. But this is where our story comes to an end, so I shall finish off now.
Added my photo of Tufty, the Plushian snake.
TUFTY’S ADVENTURE
A Ponyworld story
Located to the west of what is known as Ponyworld, past Bridle Rise & beyond the Great Steppes, are wild, untamed lands roamed by large, strange & unusual creatures known to those in Ponyworld as Plushians, & the lands they reside in are likewise known as Plushia. The lands are beautiful, but in a savage, dangerous way, like a tiger pouncing on his prey is beautiful, with high mountains, wide, exposed plains, raging rivers & streams, lonely crags, & entangled vicious scrublands, all dotted about like random over the whole terrain. There are forests too, but not the nice sort you can walk through & have picnics in. These forests are more like temperate jungles, wild, twisted, unregulated, & with not a trail to speak of. The southern parts of Plushia are warmer, & hold jungles more like those in Rudyard Kipling stories, with all sorts of exotic creatures struggling to survive the many deadly predators within, as well as vast deserts where little grows, there is naught but sand & rock as far as the eye can see, & the sun’s heat is merciless during its course through the daytime sky. What few creatures reside there are tunnellers, slumbering underground by day & only surfacing at night, when the temperature is more manageable, & drinking the small pools of dew that gather in clefts in the rocks as the sun begins to rise, before rapidly burrowing below ground as its heat intensifies. Meanwhile the northernmost reaches are bitter cold, with high winds blowing, often bringing stinging, ice-cold rains, or hail, or snow, or worst of all, sleet: the mucky, messy, slushy kind that soaks you right through with just-about-freezing water, chilling you to the bone. But our story commences in the central part of Plushia: the plainslands, where the winds are wild & the shelter from rain or sun is non-existent, but the temperature is at least comfortable enough for large numbers of Plushians to inhabit the area, helped by the streams that flow through the land, permitting grasses & other wild plants to grow, although due to the winds & the large presence of herbivores, that growth is never high, & the plants themselves have toughened. Through these flora slithers Tufty, a blue-&-yellow snake with an orange tuft on top of her head, having just had herself a refreshing drink from a nearby stream, & now humming softly to herself as she hunts for rats, voles & other small rodents who live among the tough plantlife, making nests out of leaves & stems, & burrowing in small holes between the roots; while feeling out the vibrations in the ground below her which could become her first warning of the movements of a large herd that could trample her into the ground, along with the less lucky specimens of foliage. In case you haven’t noticed this, Tufty is not your standard snake colours of greens, golds, browns & greys; instead, she is among those of unusual colour schemes, which gives her more intelligence than her more average-coloured kin, as well as ability to speak. Her hearing is very sharp, so not only can she hear the faint rustling of her own passage through the plains, but also easily detect the sound of any scurrying rodent who may be repairing a nest or foraging for seeds. Her eyesight is also good. She’s able to see in full-colour like us, but with a wider range that can detect infra-red, so she can tell the location of a rodent fast, then its colour. Her intelligence means she knows that dumb rodents are all grey, brown, black or white, so if any of another colour crosses her path, she leaves that one alive, even greeting the creature as a fellow bright one, as the unusually-coloured Plushians tend to call themselves. There is an unwritten rule in Plushia that no bright one ever breaks: no bright one is ever prey. Leave endangering the lives of the bright rodents to the green-&-gold snakes; Tufty would happily feast on the more dully-coloured vermin, of which there were far greater numbers anyway. And of course Tufty’s skin is sensitive enough to detect every vibration, texture & temperature nuance in the ground she glides across. Due to this she has a map of her home in her head, based on every plant, rock, slope & type of soil in the earth, & due to this map she never gets lost. But right now it was her ears that were on full alert, as she was in hunting mode, so she heard it no bother. Another faint rustling, not far from her, but smoother, faster, & more deadly, caught her attention. This was a snake who had sighted prey, & was moving in for the kill. Tufty knew from both the sound & the feel not only where the snake was, but where he was going. So taking care not to be too loud, Tufty risked sticking her tufted head above the grasses around her, & looked. In the path of the other snake’s trajectory, Tufty saw little more than the flash of a brown ferret’s body, leaping hurriedly out of the grass in its desperate attempt to flee. Had this been all Tufty saw though, we would have no story. But it wasn’t. For off to one side, getting nervous at the movements in the grasses she stood in, was a peach zebra with pink stripes, looking very lost indeed. Tufty’s decision was instant. Peach is not the standard colour of a zebra, so she was obviously a bright one at the least. And the ferret’s terrified path was leading it almost straight for her! No bright one is ever prey, thought Tufty, even as she too moved rapidly for the zebra to defend her from the attack of the snake, taking care to keep her head above the plants around her, so at least the zebra could see her. All attacking snakes, especially those with bright tufts on their heads, keep hidden right up until they strike. Tufty hoped the zebra was intelligent enough to know this fact, & be reassured by it, as she headed her way. Then she’d done it; she had at last put herself between the zebra & the ferret, & as she saw & heard the ferret approach, she let off a warning hiss to shoo the ferret in another direction. The ferret did so, with great speed, & the pursuing snake reacted by changing his direction also, as it was ferret he wanted to dine on, not zebra. “Phew, that was close!” Tufty sighed with relief. For she knew many of the dumb snakes were venomous, & even an accidental graze from the teeth of such a snake could sicken or kill a creature of at least ten times their own weight. She also spoke aloud as another way of reassuring the very nervous zebra, to let her know that she was no threat to the fellow bright one. Ability to speak was what unified all bright ones, & allowed communications between them, no matter what their species, a bit like the talking beasts of Narnia.The zebra wasn’t just nervous though. Her response to Tufty was stammered out of more than just the fear of strange movements in a strange place. “Wh-wh-wh-what?” She trembled, & Tufty could feel the resultant vibrations in the ground as she did so, so she came slowly closer still to the zebra, to see if she could find out what else was wrong. “Are you from here?” she tried asking.
“N-n-no,” the zebra stammered fearfully. “I-I-I’m l-l-lost…”
“Well I’m not lost,” Tufty told her, “so if you can tell me where you need to go I can help you get there. My name’s Tufty, & as you can see I’m a snake & a bright one. What’s your name, & do you need to go to the southern plains?” Tufty knew all the Plushian zebras lived in the southern parts of the plainslands, where it was warmer than here.
“M-m-my n-n-name?” stammered the zebra, even more scared now.
“It’s alright,” Tufty reassured her, “you can trust me, I’m not here to hurt you! Just tell me your name & I can take you where you need to be.”
“I-I-I-I’m sh-sh-sh-shy…” stammered the zebra, still not reassured.
“Shy?” queried Tufty. “That’s an unusual name.”
“N-n-not m-m-my n-n-name…” stammered the zebra.
“Awww, you poor thing!” comforted Tufty, as she wrapped herself gently round the zebra to try & calm her from her profound shyness. As she did so, she felt something unusual. The zebra felt like no Plushian she’d ever curled herself round before. No soft fur or yielding Plushian body lurked beneath the skin of this creature. Instead the body felt firmer, harder, like… like… erm… like a Doll-Person! No wonder the zebra was scared here! By the feel of her she needed to go to more civilised lands beyond the Great Steppes, not this wild, scary place!
“You wait right here!” Tufty told her. “You need to go on a much longer journey than even I can take you.”
With that Tufty unwound herself from round the zebra &, head sticking out above the grass to prove she wasn’t attacking, slithered off as fast as she could for the hill-caves where the Plushian unicorns & pegasi made their home, even as the zebra whimpered behind her. The zebra wondered what she’d done wrong, & thought her shyness had driven the snake thing away. She’d seemed very friendly, & her not being there any more left the zebra feeling another emotion alongside the fear & shyness. She now felt terribly lonely, & in spite her cries, the snake thing still left her, so she sat in that spot, not even caring for the slight discomfort caused by the tough stems beneath her, & shed bitter tears.
Tufty, as I mentioned before, has a map in her head, based on the texture, type, slope & temperature of the ground below her, & so her course for the hill-cave was straight & true. It still took her a long time, maybe a couple of hours, but Tufty is no stranger to travelling fast for long periods of time. And with her head above the grasses, she could see when the place was getting close, so the hope of nearing her journey’s end helped her make even faster progress for the last part of her travels. When she got there she saw Pansywing, a purple-winged pegasus, sunning herself near the entrance; until, that is, she saw Tufty. As soon as she saw the long slender body below the tufted head, she screamed “AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHH!!!!!! SNAKE!!!!!” as she took off rapidly in a flurry of purple feathers. “Oh bother!” exclaimed Tufty. “Why are pegasi always so scared of snakes?”
Fortunately Verdant, a green Pegacorn, did not share this fear & wasn’t too far away from Pansywing, having also been sunning herself nearby. So she addressed Tufty: “What brings you to the hill-cave which is our domain?”
“I must speak to Mystic,” Tufty replied. “We need her help.”
“I shall have her here in two shakes of a horse’s tail,” Verdant assured Tufty, just before she disappeared in a flash of green light. A short time later, less than a minute, & a flash of white light with swirling rainbows announced the arrival of Mystic, the most powerful & wisest unicorn in Plushia, who stood before Tufty; a majestic white figure with multi-coloured hair & an iridescent horn protruding from her forehead. “Tell me,” Mystic inquired, “who you are & why you need my help.”
“I’m Tufty,” replied Tufty, “& I found a peculiar peach zebra in the grass. She’s incredibly shy & has a body more like a Doll-Person than a Plushian. I know the plains well, but have never been beyond the Great Steppes to the land of the Doll-People, so wouldn’t know how to find it. You could help her get to where she needs to go though…”
“Yes I could,” Mystic responded, "but first…” She touched her horn to Tufty’s head, & found Tufty’s map indicating a path directly to where she’d found the zebra etched in it, then told the snake: “Now curl around my leg.” Tufty did as she was instructed, & saw herself surrounded by the white-&-rainbow light for a moment, before she & Mystic were back at the very place she’d been when she’d found the zebra, who now seemed to be crying. “Definitely to the east,” she noted. “Only Branded ones cry…”
Tufty released Mystic’s leg & immediately slithered over to wrap herself around the zebra again. “It’s alright,” she comforted, “I only went to get help. Now Mystic’s here, & she can take you where you need to go.”
“S-sorry,” the zebra stammered only slightly now, & only because she was almost done crying. “I-I thought you’d l-left me all a-alone here, that you h-hated me o-or something…”
“Don’t be silly!” chuckled Tufty. “I don’t hate you! I don’t hate anybody! I just went to get you some help.”
“Th-thanks,” replied the zebra. “I-I’m Zig-Zag, &… wow!!! I’ve n-never seen a unicorn that b-big!”
All other emotions were wiped out of Zig-Zag’s head by sheer awe at the sight of the gigantic, majestic, beautiful unicorn in front of her.
“That’s Mystic,” Tufty informed her, “the wisest & most powerful unicorn in Plushia, & she’s come to help you go home, wherever that is. Doll-Person Land?”
“N-no,” replied Zig-Zag, “I n-need to go to a pl-place called Cl-Clopton, at least I th-think I do…”
“Hello Zig-Zag,” Mystic said. “I can help you get to Clopton, if Tufty will wrap a curl of herself round my leg…”
No sooner had Tufty extended her body & wrapped part of it round Mystic’s nearest leg, than the white-&-rainbow light surrounded the three of them, & this time seemed to take a while to fade away. In fact if Mystic hadn’t told Tufty that part of their journey was over, she’d have thought they were still travelling. Releasing her companions, Tufty tentatively reached out her tail to touch one of the multi-coloured swirls, at which the shriek of “AAAAH!!! SNAKE!!!” greeted her, which told her instantly what the swirls were: pegasi! “Oh bother!” she exclaimed. “Why do pegasi always have to be so scared of snakes? Still, it looks like we might be close Zig-Zag…” She looked round to where the zebra had been last, but found that both she & Mystic had disappeared from sight! What was it with this strange, unnaturally soft stuff below her? Then something worse happened. She felt herself sinking through the stuff, slowly at first, but then as she came out the bottom, a good bit faster. “AAAAARRRGGGHHH!!!” she screamed, screwing her eyes shut in terror…
PLONK! Less than ten feet below the bottom of the cloud was a wooden platform, onto which Tufty had just landed. A little bruised from her fall, she was still reassured enough by the feel of the wood below her to reopen her eyes. Zig-Zag was already on the platform, & a white-&-rainbow flash preceded Mystic’s arrival on it mere seconds later. From this vantage point the pegasi were more visible, their tiny wings straining to take them higher & faster round the clouds. “Aaaah, snake!!!” shrieked one on seeing Tufty. “Oh bother!” snapped Tufty. “Why must pegasi always be so scared of snakes?”
“You try it,” replied a pinkish one, “when you’re wound so tightly in the coils of one you can’t even breathe, much less fly!”
“The way they move creeps me out!” added a purplish one. “I mean how can you move without legs or wings?”
“This still isn’t explaining,” a yellowish one pointed out, “what in Hasbronia a snake is doing in Cloud City…”
Cloud City? Oh no! Is this what this place was called? And probably so named because the entire place was made of… clouds!!! So that was what that soft thing had been! A cloud! And weren’t clouds those things that floated high in the air? Now it was Tufty’s turn to scream, for in case you haven’t guessed yet, what she, like all snakes, feared most is heights. Not up-a-tree-rooted-firmly-into-the-ground heights, or even at-the-top-of-a-cliff-any-snake-can-slither-down-easily heights, but suspended-in-midair-with-no-way-to-get-down-but-fall heights. And what was holding this platform up? “AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAARRRGGGHHH!!!!!”
The yellowish pegasus approached the terrified snake, & Tufty noted, from the middle of the platform, that her hair was blue & tied in ribbons: a navy one in her mane & a magenta one in her tail. “It’s ok,” she said gently. “We can help you. Hey, you’re the same colours as me! I’m Beyonce, & I like bouncing!” With that Beyonce bounced off the edge of the platform into the air & flapped her wings to continue the flight the bounce had started. Tufty felt the vibrations the bounce caused all through the platform.
“With that in mind,” the pinkish pegasus added nervously from a corner of the platform, “I need to go get it. I’m Nina, & I’m nine years old. We’re Pegasus Juniors, & this is one of our training platforms, & there’s no way off it except to, well, fly, so I need to get my mother to help.” Nina had purple hair & a navy mane ribbon, while her tail ribbon was blue like Tufty’s stripes. The brave young pegasus then took off from the platform & flew as fast as her little wings could carry her, while the yellow one, Beyonce, stayed nearby to bounce, jump, leap, flutter & try her best to cheer up the terrified snake.
Nina flew, feeling the strain in her wing muscles as she did so, but still determined to help the snake. She finally found her mother, consulting with some of her fellow lieutenants about something she wasn’t yet old enough to understand, but was aware that her mission was more important. “Mum! Mum!” she shrieked to get her mother’s attention. “We need your help! There’s a snake stuck on a platform, with a unicorn & another creature, & except for the other creature, they all seem pretty big. They’re stuck on one of our training platforms. Please help get them down!”
“Well,” her mother, a near carbon copy of her daughter, only bigger & older, smiled back, “it seems we have a training exercise for the G3 Division after all. It will take the lot of them. Starfinder, if you could please. I shall go to get the net.”
Lieutenant Starfinder went back to where she’d left the G3 Division at their race, with Starcatcher monitoring the finish line, & watched with her eldest as the others flew past, until the last of them was through. “Island Delight,” she sighed, “if only you’d stick to your course & NOT whirl round every cloud to see if there’s treasure behind it, perhaps you’d finish your race sooner. Anyway, all of you, listen up! We have another assignment for you: an endurance test. My colleague Lieutenant North Star is getting the net, & we will use it to carry three creatures down off one of the Pegasus Junior training platforms to the ground. When I say we, I mean us all, myself included. From what the Pegasus Junior Corporal has just informed us, two of them are as big as Plushians, so the load will be heavy. Lieutenant North Star will also be on hoof, but again, that does not entitle any of you to slack off. We need each & every one of you to pull her weight & make her best effort at this, understood?”
“Yes, Lieutenant!” chorused the entire G3 Division in response. Tiramisu sighed in relief that she’d had her annoying tooth sorted a few days beforehand, as using the net meant gripping with your mouth, & big meant heavy, & carrying something heavy with a sore mouth is not a good idea. Starfinder then led the division to the PJ training grounds, where she saw North Star, Nina & several other Juniors spreading out the net, with a good part of it held by some of the Juniors firmly against the platform. The net was made of gossamer & clouds woven together, so was very light, but incredibly strong, & it was often used by Pegasus Flight for carrying heavy equipment & suchlike. Starfinder assigned each G3 to a part of the edging, as she herself came close to the platform, ready to help North Star with that edge, interrupted only by Pearly Pie’s shriek of “Aaaah, snake!!!” as the yellow G3 saw Tufty cowering in the middle of the platform.
“They’re tiny,” observed Mystic, “even the biggest of them. I could get three of my Plushian pegasi to do this easily, but they need all these?”
For with the G3 Division, Starfinder, & North Star, that amounted to at least a dozen pegasus Ponies to carry the net.
Tufty was even more terrified than before, as she trembled, shaking the platform. “Oh no, they’re using a NET!!!”
Zig-Zag had no such qualms. In fact, she felt strangely at home with these Ponies, to whom she was very similar, in size, shape & intelligence; & her only fear of the net was the size of the holes in it, but if she positioned herself safely, she knew she’d be alright. Tufty’s fears of the net were: firstly, it WAS a net; secondly, it felt to her nervous tail prods like it was made of the same soft stuff the cloud was; & thirdly, you could see right through it to whatever was below. “I’m going to have a sore leg,” Mystic thought to herself as she instructed Tufty to curl round it, & she was right, as Tufty clung like grim death onto the firmest solid object within her vicinity ie: that very leg. Once Mystic was aboard the net & Zig-Zag safely tucked in a corner, the Juniors securing it gave their part over to Starfinder & North Star, & as the adults took the weight & began to slowly fly the net down, they continued flying round it, encouraging the older pegasi, with Beyonce always closest to Tufty. In fact it was Beyonce who told Tufty, clinging like mad to Mystic’s leg & with her eyes screwed firmly shut, when they eventually landed on Feather Bower. Nina meanwhile had been flying round the zebra, gently enquiring who she was & where they were going, & had learned that Zig-Zag was a Pony Friend, very shy, & had been looking for Clopton, but had got lost in some wild plains, where Tufty had found her.
When Beyonce’s cheery voice told Tufty she was on the ground now, Tufty timidly poked out her tail to explore what was below her. She felt the feathers first, strewn as they were all over the field, then beneath them, something very reassuring & ground-related: grass! With relief she unwound from Mystic’s leg & slithered across the feather-strewn land where they had all come to rest, opening her eyes only when the rest of her was assured it was safe, & seeing the pegasi, adult & junior, all around her, some of whom hid behind their colleagues in fear of her, & the feathers of all assorted colours everywhere, before having a proper look around. They were on a small hill, below which sprawled a great city, bright with life & colour. Tufty marvelled at this city, wondering how it had grown there. Plushians are intelligent, but aren’t that good at building houses & so on, especially not snakes.
“That,” Beyonce, who’d never strayed too far from her, informed her, “is Clopton, capital city of Ponyworld!”
“Clopton!” Tufty exclaimed happily. “Zig-Zag, we’ve done it! You’re home!”
All the pegasi cheered at this, scaring Zig-Zag with their exuberance, until Starfinder ordered the G3s to roll up the net, ensuring no feathers got caught in it as they did so, so that it could be put back by North Star. Mystic asked if Zig-Zag could find her way from here, & North Star assured her that she herself would help Zig-Zag settle in to her new home.
“It’s time to go back to our homes now,” she told Tufty, who chose a distinctly different leg to curl round from the one she’d clung to while they were being lowered in the net, & asked her: “Why do you think we ended up so high?”
“I forgot to figure height differences into my calculations,” Mystic responded. “The cave-hill is higher than most of the plainslands, & they are higher then the eastern lands because of the Great Steppes. We’ll have to remember that next time we find a stray Pony or Friend in Plushia.”
“We will indeed,” Tufty agreed as Mystic winked them to the top of the Great Steppes, & then back to the hill-cave, from where Tufty could easily find her way home, disturbing a rat’s nest on her way. Fortunately for her, it was full of dumb rats, so she had herself a good meal out of them.
North Star meanwhile, having escorted Zig-Zag to Clopton & got her a residence there, went to her commander to inform her of the day’s events. “So in conclusion,” she summed up, “I do believe that medals of bravery should be issued, especially to Beyonce & Nina, for it is a known fact that pegasi are afraid of snakes. Both these Juniors faced their fears & did what was necessary to assist the Plushian snake in her own fear.”
“Indeed, I agree with you,” added Commander Firefly. “Have all the pegasi mane-ribboned up for tomorrow. We shall have a parade to honour the bravest of them.”
As I’m sure you can imagine, the parade was a spectacular sight, & Nina & Beyonce glowed with joy as they received their medals. Also you can imagine that Zig-Zag, the fourth Pony Friend to arrive in Ponyworld, eventually settled in with the others, & made some friends among them. But this is where our story comes to an end, so I shall finish off now.
Added my photo of Tufty, the Plushian snake.