Fluttershy

Quinn

I couldn't bare to think about what Zoe might have been feeling right that moment when we left her in Quiverer's Cave. Hurt. Scared. Betrayed. Cold. Quiverer's Cave might not have been deadly for the icy coolness, but it still was like an ice box.

However, it felt good to be back in the castle. I didn't realize how much I had missed my family and Nathan. And a bed bigger than my own body felt much better than a slim mattress fitted exactly for my size. The food was better than ever, as well. Human food was alright, but nothing compared to gargar pudding.

I had been locked in my room until further notice on my father's orders, so Nathan and I were expelled to speaking to each other for the next couple of hours. Nathan had slipped out my balcony to check on Zoe, so I sat in my room looking over everything I'd missed.

I guess being a princess wasn't as bad as I had thought earlier. I didn't have to walk everywhere like a human either, so it wasn't as bad being a fairy either. Out of everything I had endured being a human for a few weeks, my feet hurt the worst. But, if I had stayed in Zoe's world, I wouldn't have missed the corsets. I wondered how Zoe had done with wearing them. 

And speaking of Zoe, I wondered how it felt to be a fairy for the first time. She didn't have the learning abilities of a true fairy, so she had to learn how to do everything that a fairy had in their instincts. Fly, use her powers, even act like a fairy would have had to be difficult for her. And on top of that, keeping a secret that would have her life on the line. She was half-human the entire time.

For some reason, I couldn't shake my mind away from Zoe's experience here. And when I did take away the rest of the objects from her body that I had given her, I couldn't erase her memory of it. Alicia and Harley would ask too many questions for her to understand. She had to remember this, so that to not forget it. But I wondered what would happen if I did.

Zoe's whole life had been affected from the past two weeks here, and she would most definitely be scarred in her soul for what she had endured. 

And it was all my fault.

It was hard enough being a teenager and having a hard time balancing life with work. Zoe had endured plenty more than any creature, human, or living thing should in a million years. But so have I. Not only am I a fairy, I'm princess of all fairies, and about to be queen. To run off with nothing but the clothes on my back and a human half-breed fairy to cover for me, I didn't understand why I wasn't worried sick about the downfall of my kingdom.

Zoe deserved better. She deserved a choice, but I didn't give her one. She was put here against her will, and she was never told what to do, when I would be back, or when she could return home.

As I pondered over this, I swung around a pillar of my bed frame as if I was swinging around a pole. Just at the moment when I let go of the pillar and fell onto my soft bed, Nathan landed on the balcony and folded in his wings. When he entered, he saw me with my hair over my face lying on the bed like I was dead. I heard him chuckle.

"Trouble in paradise?" He laughed, coming into my room and lying next to me with his hand supporting his head, facing me. I rolled over on my side to look at him and did the same thing with my hand.

"I'm just thinking." I sighed.

"About?"

"What did Zoe do to deserve my poor judgement?" I asked. Nathan smiled and looked down at the bed before he looked back up and responded.

"Where did you find her when you first met?" He asked.

"Quiverer's Cave, you know that." I said.

"No, I mean when you first first met." He laughed.

"She was human sized and I was a fairy, and she was wandering around the forest when she picked me up in her large hands. I bit her to get out of her grasp. It wasn't pleasant." I said, a smile on my face.

"That's right." Nathan said. "And why was she on fairy grounds? Shouldn't she had been on human grounds?" 

"I don't know how she got there, only how I got to her world." I said.

"When you were away, Zoe told me how she got here and met you. She didn't sound very thankful that you left her here." 

I huffed with annoyance at Nathan. "How did she get here?"

"She made a wish, on the moon." Nathan responded.

Every fairy knew that the moon had magical powers beyond what any fairy could ever imagine. Every once in a while, a fairy would make a wish on it, seeing that a fairy only had one wish granted by law. The law was written as not to take the moon's power for granted. A fairy only ever has one wish on the moon in it's lifetime, and it was only granted if the wisher meant the wish in their heart as if it were a fact. I had no idea that humans could use that wish as well.

"How did she know that she could wish on the moon?" I asked, sitting up a little taller to pay attention even more.

"She said that her father told her to wish on the moon." Nathan said. "Then Zoe continued to tell me that her father had died three years ago."

"But why does that tie to her coming to Fluttershy?" I asked.

"Well, I did a little digging when you and Zoe were under recovery, and I think I know why she came here."

"What?" I was eager to know now.

"She had wished to have a different life. Zoe didn't know it at first, but I know why it brought her here." Nathan paused as to create suspense. 

"What is it?"

"You know how when creatures die, they sometimes come back into the world as different things, like trees or different creatures?" Nathan asked.

I groaned in frustration at the subject change, and got up from the bed, rolling away from Nathan.

"I thought you were serious! Ugh! Now I feel like an idiot! Why would I even think about believing that there was another reason why this all happened?" I said, pulling my fingers through my hair to get it out of my face. I put my free hand on my hip just as Nathan stood up and took my elbow in his hand.

"There's a reason why I brought this up, Quinn." He said. I looked at him with annoyance, but I continued to listen. "I did some digging into the human world, and found that when one person in the human world dies, another fairy is born here. To contrast with the human time and the fairy time, for every year in the human world, it's about 6.3 years here. Three years ago in Zoe's world, Zoe's father died. In fairy years, that would be 19 years ago here." 

"So? What's your point?" I asked.

"With more calculations that I can't remember at the moment, I realized something." Nathan continued. "I'm 19, and according to Zoe, I have very similar characteristics of her father. Protectiveness, courage, kindness."

I now looked at him with a stern confused stare. "What are you saying?"

"Quinn," Nathan started, "I'm Zoe's father."