[Ponyville] Winter Setup (Open)

[Corsair]

As they approached the main den area on the edge of the forest, Fluttershy's companions continued their scientific discussion. Flitter in particular seemed very enthusiastic about the subject, and the technical terms were coming fast now. The lavender mare was recommending that Fluttershy read something that Bramble had written, but she might as well have been speaking gibberish beyond that. Not wanting to be be seen as rude, she murmured "Oh, um, I'm sure its, um, interesting..." Fluttershy had a feeling that Bramble's writings would probably just just as confusing to her as this conversation. Her preferred reading materials were things like animal care, romance novels, and the occasional fashion magazine.

What Flitter said next did grab Fluttershy's attention, however. Bramble was a model, and a scientist pony? She took a closer look at the stallion, and realized that he did look a little familiar. While she didn't read Fashionista Today as regularly as Rarity, Fluttershy did like to keep up with the current trends. She just hoped Flitter didn't bring up...

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“ooh! Ooh! Fluttershy here was a model too, a supermodel in fact! You can tell just by looking at her, doesn’t she look like a model!”

Oh no... Fluttershy wanted to sink into the ground. The last thing Fluttershy wanted ponies to remember about her was her brief modeling career. If the constant attention hadn't been bad enough, she'd also lost any control over her own schedule, her free time, and she'd nearly lost her friendship with Rarity. The complements she received for her work and her looks just made her feel all the more uncomfortable. Most ponies did not know the whole story, how she had been 'discovered,' and why she had quit. Maybe she could stop this conversation before her embarrassment got any worse...

In an effort to forestall Flitter's energetic recital of her assets, Fluttershy spoke up. "Um, actually, I..." she began, but her voice was too small to be heard by her companions.

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"But Fluttershy, I can see that you're a natural - you always seem to move with such inherent grace and delicacy, like every step is thought about ahead of time, yet not in a self-conscious manner, like your careful demeanor is just part of who you are. It brings an elegance to everything you do."

Fluttershy cringed away from the stallion's complements, her face feeling like it was on fire. Her 'demeanor' was what had drawn Photo Finish to her, but Fluttershy felt that she was anything BUT a natural. Almost all of her photo shoots had been the the photographer mare catching her unawares... Trying again, Fluttershy said, "Um, thank you, but really, I..." But once again it seemed her voice was too soft to be heard. Bramble Rose resumed his scientific discussion with the other mare. Well, at least they weren't talking about her anymore...

As the trio reached the treeline, Fluttershy stopped to get her bearings. The porcupine den was that way, and the rabbit warren was over there... At that moment, a huge form rose up from behind the brush. The creature faced the ponies, and gave out a loud roar at them, forelimbs raised above its head. Caught by surprise, Fluttershy back-winged, taking to the air before screaming "EEEEEEEeeeee!"

​

[brianblackberry]

Flitter walked along side and just behind Fluttershy, eager to help, and eager to observe the yellow pegasus and her amazing gift of communication and inherent empathy with all the fauna of Equestria. She was so pretty too, and modest! Flitter bet she just loved modeling, although it made the lavender peagsus wonder, why did Fluttershy ever stop her modeling career? Maybe she was just too busy with her animal care. Only one way to find out! "Say Fluttershy, I was wondering, you were really popular as a fashion model for a little while, how come you stopped? I mean, c'mon, you definitely still have it." Flitter looked back at their unicorn companion, "heck, both of you have that look."

As interesting as fashion talk could be, and as much as she would like some advice on what is currently "cool" in Equestria, Flitter couldn't let herself get too distracted, after all her own research proposal partially depended on paying attention to Fluttershy's abilities. She needed to be observant, and follow the pink maned pony's instructions. Just as she was about to ask in regards to the task at hoof some shadowy, and gigantic, form leaped up from the nearby hedgerow.

Flitter couldn't tell what it was in the shadow of the bushes and trees, only it growing and it was huge! There wasn't time to think clearly, just to react, and for Flitter that meant jumping back and instinctively hiding behind somepony, which in her case was Bramble Rose. She squeaked and hid as best she could while holding onto the silver maned stallion out of sheer panic!

[Bramble Rose]

Bramble Rose swiftly scampered backwards, his green eyes wide as something HUGE loomed before them. He would have screamed except his throat seemed too tight to make even a squeek. He lifted up one forehoof in front of Flitter as she dived behind him, pushing her back further behind him as his other forehoof raised up before him in a mystic gesture. His horn glowed a bright green, and a half-dozen vines followed the gesture of his hoof to spring out of the ground in front of him, lifting up six feet tall into a series of makeshift bars to guard against whatever it was attacking them!

​

The vines aren't really all that tough - they're just vines. Any large critter like a bear or something could claw through them easily. Bramble wasn't really thinking, he was just going, "AUGH KEEP IT AWAY!"

[Corsair]

Fluttershy... fluttered several feet above the ground, her heart beating rapidly. Something huge had come out the the forrest! It was big, and hairy, and brown and... wait... The creature dropped back down to all fours, a toothy grin on its muzzle. Fluttershy's face fell into a disapproving frown. She put her forehooves on her hips. "Bruce!" she exclaimed, in a scolding tone. "That wasn't very funny!"

The large brown bear looked up at the pegasus. He growled at her, somehow sounding as though he asked a question. The expression on Fluttershy's face softened. "Ok, it was a little funny," she admitted, giving the bear a small smile. Then, however, Fluttershy saw the reactions of her companions. Flitter had dropped to the ground, and was cowering behind Bramble Rose. The small unicorn didn't give much cover, but he had... wow! He had used his magic to make vines grow up out of the ground!

Fluttershy immediately dropped to the ground as well. "Its... its OK..." she said to the ponies, awkwardly. She was not used to being the one calming others fears... "Bruce... Bruce is my friend. He didn't mean anything by it!" Fluttershy took to the air again to look over the wall of greenery at the bear. "Now, look what you did!" she scolded. "You scared these poor ponies! I want you to apologize!"

Bruce's face fell as the pony lectured. He then used one huge paw and moved the vines to the side. He stuck his head though, and growled something at the pair of ponies. Fluttershy landed to give the bear a pat on the head. "There, that's better," she said gently. She then turned back to the ponies. "Bruce says he's very sorry, he was just trying to play a joke on on me," she said. "Can you, um, put those plants back, Mr Bramble Rose?"

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[brianblackberry]

Flitter just hid behind Bramble Rose and his wall of vines as best she could, it was all that she could think of at the moment. So panicked was the lavender pegasus mare, it didn't even occur to her that the most obvious way to get herself out of the potentially dangerous situation with the monster was to simply fly away.

Instead Flitter trembled as she used Bramble's tail as some sort of "protection", only to finally look up when she heard Fluttershy's voice, one of stern disappointment instead of panicked fear. The 'monster' turned out to be nothing more that a prankster of a bear, Well... Still scary, but not quite as scary as Flitter had originally imagined, which was something more akin to a three headed hydra. It didn't help her situation though when the bear stuck his muzzle through the vines, Flitter just eeped and pulled more of Bramble's tail over her, eyes wide with uncertainty; only when Fluttershy assured the pair, did she finally feel safe enough to stand up along Bramble and give an awkward smile. At least Cloudchaser didn't get to see the embarrassing reaction. Just as important though was how the yellow pegasus handle the situation. "That was amazing Fluttershy! How do you do that? How are you able to understand animals like you do?! I don't even know any earth pony caretakers that have the ability to communicate with fauna so effortlessly! I knew studying you was the right idea!"

Of course as awesome as Fluttershy was, Flitter couldn't forget the brave stallion who put up a shield in her defense! She gave Bramble Rose a warm, close embrace born of momentary enthusiasm and relief, "and thank you for standing up to the monster!"

[Bramble Rose]

Bramble Rose watched in awe as Fluttershy confronted the massive bear, his eyes wide. What courage! What gumption! What iron nerve! He shrank back as the bear brushed his vines aside like so many ... well ... vines, but everything seemed to be ... all right. The beast was just a prankster of a bear. He could appreciate a good prank! Though he kept a wary eye on the bear all the same...

He blushed at Flitter's praise and embrace, his purple cheeks turning pink. "Oh, well, it was nothing," he assured her, taking hold of the vines and pushing them down towards the ground. They sprang back upright as soon as he let go of them, and he blushed more, and pressed them down again, "heh-heh ... They just keep coming up." his horn glowing green as he reinforced the movement with his magic, guiding the plants down and creeping them towards a nearby tree, letting them wrap around the trunk. "Ah-heh... Glad that my rescuing wasn't needed, though. The real hero here was Miss Fluttershy." He turned towards her with a grin. "I must say, I've never seen such a brave and bold pony as you, Miss Fluttershy! You must have seen some pretty impressive stuff if a rampaging bear holds no fear for you!"

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[Corsair]

Once again, Fluttershy found herself blushing at Flitter's excessive praise. "It... its not that tough, really," she stammered, averting her eyes. "Bear wasn't that hard to learn. Squirrel was much more difficult. They have so many different ways to say 'acorn...' " But then, something that Flitter said to Bramble stopped Fluttershy short. Monster. She flitted up by Bruce's head, then looked down at the other pegasus. "Bruce isn't a monster!" she said, defensively, wrapping he hooves around the bear's neck. "He just forgets he how big he is, sometimes."

Fluttershy saw that Bramble seemed to have some difficulty dismissing the vines that his magic had summoned. When the unicorn finally got the plants to move, Bruce dropped back down to all fours. Fluttershy landed at the same time, then shook her head at Bramble's words. "N-no. I'm not a brave pony," she said, haltingly. Then, more firmly, "I just hate it when ponies assume that because a creature is big, that they have to be mean and scary. I've known Bruce since he was a cub, and he'd never hurt anypony, and he wouldn't ever 'rampage.' "

The bear at her side chose that moment to yawn widely, showing off his huge teeth to the ponies before him. That reminded Fluttershy what it was they were supposed to be doing. "Oh! Bruce, you must be getting sleepy!" she said with concern. "Have you been eating well? You know you need a good reserve to make it through the winter!" The pony poked her hoof at the bear's side, gauging his fat layer. Bruce pulled away, batting away the hoof as if to say 'I'm fine!' However, he did growl something at the pony that caused Fluttershy to frown. "Oh dear..." she said, turning back to Flitter and Bramble. "Bruce says that part of his hibernation den collapsed over the summer. I think we might have to dig it out!"

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[brianblackberry]

Flitter felt pretty embarrassed, she didn’t mean to insult Fluttershy’s ursine friend, as she didn’t realize he was "just a bear", it was an honest mistake! “Oh, I didn’t know he was friendly, truth is I have never actually met a bear before, it is just I saw was this shadow and then suddenly this mighty roar..” Flitter stopped herself; she was just making excuses, which didn’t help the situation much, even if the bear, Bruce, didn’t appear to be terribly upset about it, "still, umm good to know, they are friendly, heh. Still, surely it would help if Flitter made more of an effort to apologize. She flew up to the pair and hesitated at first, but then gave the ursine a hug around his huge neck, “sorry about that Bruce, I just was startled, that’s all, didn’t mean anything by it.” He appeared passive; hopefully he understood what she was saying, as she didn’t have that connection to the animals Fluttershy had.

Flitter floated over to the silver maned stallion and gave a reassuring smile, “even if it was all a misunderstanding, thank you again.” She wondered if he wasn’t that good at plant magic when startled though, given his vine trouble, but thought it best not to bring any attention to it. Besides she wanted to be on Bramble’s good side! Maybe, just maybe, she could convince him to be her academic advisor, provided she gets into the graduate program of course, or at the very least a letter of recommendation to go along with her application, or maybe he’ll let her be a teaching assistant! He was a professor after all, right? She forgot to ask…

Before Flitter could make an inquiry of Bramble, Fluttershy reminded them why they were all there. More urgently, her bear friend’s home needed digging out. Flitter eagerly saluted Fluttershy, “I can do that! No problem!” She zipped over to the cave, being such, it dawned on her that her cool winter clothes were about to get dirty, but it would be worth it for science! With that inspiration in mind, she threw caution to the wind and flew right in; only to crashed into a pile of dirt and stone, which caused her to tumble head over hooves backwards out of the cave mouth just as quickly.

She gave an embarrassed smile as she laid splayed in front of the den, “I think we will need some light first, heh…” At least Cloudchaser didn’t see that idiot move.

[Bramble Rose]

Bramble shuffled his hooves abashedly at Fluttershy's scolding, and mumbled, "To be fair ... I assumed he was scary and rampaging because he was trying scare us with a fake rampage ..." But then Flitter was there with encouraging words, and he grinned shyly to her, a big goofy grin. "Well, you're welcome," he replied, happily. He followed after, his hooves lifting. At least Flitter seemed all right with how he'd acted. She even thought he'd been heroic or something. He felt a good six inches taller!

He grinned down to her, as she ended up on her back at his hooves. His horn glinted, then glowed with a green light. "I think I can help with that," he said, offering his hoof to get her back on all four. Then he trotted on in, his magic showing the way.

Woooog. That was a cave collapse, all right. "Either of you two mares know about structural reinforcement?" he asked, uncertainly... "I can weave some roots through the roof to help hold whatever we put back, but I'm not sure that'll be enough for the long term. Bruce can help with the big rocks, right?" He was about to say something more about how he wasn't sure how to go about this, but Flitter was watching, and she seemed to think he was so smart and everything ... he didn't want to look like he didn't know what he was doing! He took off his front boots and put them to the side. "All right... let's start at the top and reinforce that, then we can clear our way down to the bottom!" And with that, he scrabbled up the mound of dirt and rocks and started digging!

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[Corsair]

Fluttershy was relieved to see that the ponies were no longer panicking due to Bruce. Flitter even went so far as to come up and hug the bear! She could tell they were still a bit nervous, and she guessed she could understand that. Bruce was the size of several ponies put together, and could be intimidating if you didn't know him. Of course, they hadn't seen the huge ursine crying like a cub the last time he'd gotten stung trying to get honey from a bee hive...

Bruce smiled crookedly down at the lavender pony, and then patted her on the head with one of his huge paws. He growled something at her, then looked over at Fluttershy. "Oh, Bruce says 'No biggy,'" Fluttershy translated. "He gets that a lot. You should have seen the first time I introduced him to Rainbow Dash!"

Fluttershy followed Bruce back to the cave he'd used his his hibernation for the last few years. Flitter zipped ahead into the darkened space, but immediately came tumbling back out. Fluttershy winced in sympathy, and quickly checked the other mare over for any injuries, Most pegusii knew how to crash land safely, but it was always better to make sure. "Oh my! Hold still a moment, please," she said as she checked for scrapes and bruises. Meanwhile, Bramble Rose had lit up the interior of the cave with his horn, It didn't look good. This cave used to be deep enough for Bruce to get deep inside away from the winter chill, but now it was blocked very close to the entrance.

As Bramble assessed the cave, Fluttershy pondered the unicorn's questions. Bruce, however, moved up and started trying to move one of the larger chunks of rock. "Now you be careful, Bruce!" Fluttershy admonished him. "I don't want you hurting your back again!" The bear just kept at it, grunting back at the pony. Fluttershy frowned a bit, but said, "Ok, if you're sure." She then looked back at Bramble, who was also starting to dig in. "Um, I don't really know anything about fixing a whole cave..." she told him. "But I know someone who might be able to help!" She then tapped her hoof on the ground twice. Within seconds, a small furry head popped up out of the ground, followed by several others.

Fluttershy looked down at the mole family. "I'm terribly sorry to interrupt," she said to the the group. "I know you're probably busy with the other dens, but we could use your help!" The little balls of fur eagerly saluted her with their big forepaws, then immediately disappeared again, tunneling toward the cave entrance. After several moments, one of the critters popped back out of the ground and began gesturing to Fluttershy. What ever the little creature was saying, Fluttershy's face relaxed. "Oh, good, that's a relief!" she said.

Turning back the the ponies, Fluttershy said, "The foremole says that most of the cave is still clear, we just have to clear the entrance. If Bramble Rose helps with his magic, we can make sure that it doesn't collapse again! Um, I mean, if that's not too much trouble, Mr. Bramble..."

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[brianblackberry]

Flitter felt far more embarrassed than anything else from her face on collision with the earth blocking the cave entrance. A feeling of worry crossed her mind as she hoped her incompetent accident didn't cause Bramble Rose to question her intelligence. She was appreciative of Fluttershy's attentiveness though, even if the lavender pegasus was merely shaken up and nothing more, "oh I'm alright Fluttershy, it was just mostly dirt anyway, the only casualty is my scarf here, it'll take hours to get all this dirt out. Here, could you wear it while I work inside there?" Without even waiting for a reply, she wrapped the scard around Fluttershy's neck. "Thanks! Oh and you look super adorable in it!" Of course she did, if Flitter knew how to do one thing with her wardrobe, it was accentuating adorableness!

With renewed determination, Flitter flew right back into the cave, this time being aware of what laid ahead; of course it helped that Bramble illuminated the area too. Oh I should totally complement him on that! "Oh! Good job Bramble! We can see everything now thanks to your magic!" that sounded good, right? Not too stilted? The purple unicorn appeared open to her praises thus far. "Here, allow me to help you with those top stones and stuff; it'll be no problem since I can fly and all. I mean, not that you can't with your magic, but umm, you know what I mean!" She gave Bramble a wink as she picked up the first boulder with her hooves. Carrying such a stone didn't keep her from flying, it did though slow her down as she was tipped forward by the rock's weight as she struggled to carry it out. Still, no way Flitter would give up, she didn't want to look as if she couldn't handle a difficult challenge!

Of course as she dropped the stone outside, Flitter was reminded of her primary reason for volunteering as she again witnessed Fluttershy talk to animals as if they spoke perfect Equestrian! All she could hear was gibberish from the mole as he shared his findings with the yellow pegasus. How did Fluttershy able to understand like that? Earth ponies usually were the ones who have some degree of inference when it came to what animals were trying to communicate, but never to the degree Fluttershy could! A pegasus who could fully talk to animals! It was fascinating! "I couldn't understand anything the.. er Foremole was saying. How are you able to understand animals like that? I'd sure like to tag along with you more and maybe learn more about your connection, you'd be alright with that, right? I'll be totally quiet!" Surely Fluttershy wouldn't mind, she knew Flitter well enough, they worked on that tornado together!

Speaking of questions, she had one for Bramble as she flew into the cave in order to carry out the next boulder. Partly out of sincere scientific curiosity and partly out of the hope she could further impress the silver maned stallion, she had formulated the perfect question in her mind to further break the ice between them. With a broad, bright smile, and a little blush out of shyness, Fitter came up right next to the digging unicorn. "So umm, Bramble, I am curious. I've studied your research, which was very thorough by the way, on flora-aspected aetheric phenotyping, but I was wondering have you studied fauna-aspected phenotyping as well? Since it is just another resonance of the same primary archetype after all." That sounded smart enough, with not too many presumptions! Well maybe one large one, but Flitter was confident he would agree, and not only that, be impressed by her interest and deep understanding!"

She could see that future thesis coming together already!

[Bramble Rose]

Bramble Rose looked in surprise as Fluttershy talked to the moles. What a magnificent magical talent! And clever, too. "Good idea, Fluttershy! I'm sure those moles will have more experience with reinforcing tunnels than I do. Just let me know if they want me doing anything other than I am. I'm more than glad to help however I can! That's why I'm here!" He turned back to look at the roof slowly being exposed, and his horn glowed a little brighter as little tendrils of roots writhed and dug through the dirt and rock above, weaving a secure and natural mesh that would reinforce the ceiling once this mound was cleared away.

"Oh, well, thank you, Flitter!" he said, glad that she couldn't see him blushing right now as she complimented his scholarly work. She did seem to be *very* complimentary of him. Nono, he shouldn't read too much into it. Still. He couldn't help but feel ...

"I wish I could direct you to some fauna-aspected research data or a published paper on the work that I had done, but I'm afraid that I haven't managed much towards that aspect yet. My main focus has been on the flora-aspected, for obvious reasons. It may just be variant resonance on the main wave form, but those variants are fairly significant. In fact, one of the reasons I'm here with the animal team instead of with the plant team is to make some preliminary observations on fauna-aspected interaction as a forerunner to some more serious hypothesis and studies. Though if you are looking for interesting research, I have some papers in my saddlebags outside that are very in-"

Bramble had started to lose focus on what he was doing, just yanking and tugging at the dirt and rocks to send it tumbling down behind him - but this particular rock had been a bit stuck, and when it gave way, Bramble fell backwards, rolling down the mound to land heavily on the bottom, then letting out an OOF! as the rock landed on top of him, his legs and head sticking out from under in every direction and his eyes bulging just a bit as the wind got knocked out of him.

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[Corsair]

Fluttershy breathed a sigh of relief that Flitter was not hurt. Pegusii were built to withstand an occasional crash landing, but it was always better to be careful. Fluttershy was, however, taken aback when Flitter wrapped her scarf around the yellow pegasus' neck. "Oh, um, that's really not nessesar..." was all she managed to get out before the other pegasus took off. Well, it was a nice scarf, at least. She'd have to try to keep it from getting any dirtier.

Between Bruce and the two other ponies, there wasn't a lot of room for Fluttershy to get into the cave entrance. She supposed she'd have to stay back to keep an eye on Bruce, anyway. He was likely to get carried away. She let out an "Eeep!" as Bruce rolled a large rock out the the cave mouth right toward her. Yes, he could definitely get carried away. "Not too fast now, Bruce," she cautioned. "You don't want to make things worse, do you?"

When Flitter again commented on Fluttershy's talent, the yellow pegasus blushed, but smiled a bit. Fluttershy was proud of her talent; she just didn't like to make a big deal about it. "It, um, it just seems to come naturally," she told Flitter. "Ever since the first time I came to the ground as a filly, I've just been able to understand them." She glanced back at her own cutie mark, remembering. Then, speaking to both science ponies, she added, "But, um, I'm really not sure what you could learn from me... Twilight might be be able to help you both more than I could..."

Flitter and Bramble continued their scientific discussion as they worked. Fluttershy really didn't understand much of what they were talking about, but they did seem to be getting a bit distracted. "Um, maybe you should both, um..." tried to suggest, but just at that moment, a stubborn rock broke loose, causing Bramble to stumble backward! The stallion took a tumble, and the rock he'd been digging out landed on his chest! Bramble might have looked funny on the ground like that, but Fluttershy's first aid instincts took over first. "Oh no!" she called out, flying over to the wounded stallion. Before she could treat Bramble, she needed to get the rock off of him. But, just rolling it off might hurt him more! She looked over to the cave and said, "Flitter! We need to lift his off of him!"

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[brianblackberry]

As Flitter carried out each smaller rock one at a time, leaving Bruce to handle the large boulders, she figured this was as good of a time as any to attempt to woo the purple unicorn wither own theories in hopes that he may accept helping her in an advisory role once she complete her thesis and is accepted into the graduate program at Canterlot, which she was totally confident that she would. "Oh, it's very exciting, you won't regret it! The fauna-ley integration patterns are fascinating, though there's a certain question of causality because many migration patterns are founded not on natural animal instincts but are instead prompted via pony action. But what hasn't really been studied, and this is what I'm hoping to do my dissertation on, is a subsection of that particular field: insect-ley integration! Insects have more agency in their role in the environment than any other creature - aside from beekeepers, about the smallest that ponies help with are Breezies. And even beekeepers just work to provide a home, but don't necessarily help the bees in any other way - with a couple of exceptions."

"And if you study the pony-insect dynamic, you'll find that insects are almost as much guiders of the environment as earth ponies are! Earth ponies and insects work together in almost everything they do! Bees and butterflies spread pollen for the fields, and if the earth ponies have a problem with aphids, who do they turn to? Ladybugs!" Flitter gave a little *squee* at the thought, bouncing on her hooves as she started losing the scientific slant and took on her 'pitch'. "And yet, so little research has been done on how much magic they use, or can sense! I have big suspicions about the shift in bee populations and latent ley lines, but I need to find some funding because I can't study the ley lines directly, so I need equipment or unicorn assistance.” That sounded good, right? Unlike the majority of Flitter’s ideas about stuff, such as the nature of clouds and the mixing of prism, she was quite knowledgeable in this area, her confidence not born of hope but of hard work, research, and most importantly, genuine love of the discipline, and of insects.

Flitter listened with rapt attention as Bramble replied about his own research instead of giving any thought to her own job; the result was Flitter was either grabbing mere pebbles, or to Bruce’s amusement, attempt to pull on a large boulder or two before the bear effortlessly pulled them away with his own massive paws. The silver maned unicorn mentioned he had some of his research with him! Flitter was about to excitedly ask if she could see them when Bramble suddenly tumbled out of the cave backwards in a mini-avalanche!

The lavender pegasus squeaked in horror as Bramble laid there on the grass with the boulder resting on his stomach. She quickly flew over to him; not paying the slightest attention to what Fluttershy had just said she started to pull on the boulder and gave the yellow pegasus a pleading look, “don’t just stand there, we need to lift this boulder off of him and fast!” Flitter lifted with all her strength, but the rock barely even budged! How they could use an earth pony right about now…

Fortunately a pony of the earth wasn’t needed as the large brown bear made a bemused grumble and rolled his eyes before lifting the rock right off of Bramble with a single paw and handily tossed it aside as if was a piece of fluff! “Wow….. Thanks Brucie!” Flitter gave the bear a hug around his burly neck before floating down to Bramble. She lowered her head until her muzzle was scant inches from his and gave a reassuring smile, “Mr. Rose, er Bramble, I think you’ll be alright, we got the rock off of you…” Last thing she wanted was for him to have to retire from winter setup, how would she secure the deal for him to advise her then?!

[Bramble Rose]

Her face was right in his, half-lidded eyes and all, peering at him with such concern. She was so cute, he almost forgot he couldn't breath.

Almost.

Bramble groaned and coughed a couple times, curling up round his stomach, then gave a weak little grin and waved his hoof. "I'm fine," he croaked. "Just got the wind knocked out of me. Don't mind me." Oh, how foolish ... yeah, there was a good impression. "Perhaps we can save the shop talk for later, eh? Like when we're not dealing with the primal forces of gravity and the earth itself?" He grinned as he made 'hauling dirt' sound rather more impressive than it was. "After we're done, we can sit down for a meal. Or maybe next weekend."

After a few minutes, he was back on his hooves, but Bruce seemed to have taken care of the majority of the rocks and dirt. Bramble's woven roots seemed to be keeping the cave roof well secured, and he turned to Fluttershy. "Could you have the moles check the ceiling for me? I'm sure they know more about structural support than I do, eh?" He gave a wry grin. Besides, then he'd get to see the fascinating display of magic as she spoke with the creatures, once more.

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