“Oh, they’re just tired.” Who: Navi, Fluttershy What: Singing to the flowerbeds! When: A week or so ago. Where: Fluttershy's Cottage. Ratings/Warnings: G. Seriously. These guys are just adorable. Status: Complete!
Fluttershy set up a table of refreshments and two very comfy chairs under an awning on her lawn, then pressed her hands together and wondered what else she could do to make Navi more comfortable if they needed a break.
She worried she was overdoing it, but she didn’t want Navi going into some kind of early labor over her flower garden either. It never hurt to take a break every now and then!
Now all she had to do was get the rest of the garden tools out and wait for her friend to arrive.
Navi walked up to Fluttershy’s house, looking at the flowers and smiling as she navigated. Her hands were on her very obviously pregnant belly, and she sighed happily when she saw Fluttershy. “Hey!”
"Oh hello there... you really are very pregnant, aren't you?" Fluttershy replied, in a way that wasn't meant to be insulting at all. She was more enthralled than anything, and she came over to try and give Navi a hug. Her usual shyness just couldn't cut through the cheerful air the other woman had about her.
"Can I... uhm..." she indicated Navi's belly and ducked her head a bit, "I've never gotten to try and feel a kick before, but I know you must be getting so tired of people poking and prodding at you."
“I’m due in a couple of weeks, yeah.” Navi hugged Fluttershy as firmly as she could, grinning. She adored the other girl, and was so glad that she could see her again.
Smiling, she guided Fluttershy’s hand to her belly. “Of course you can. I don’t mind it at all. She’s kicky lately, I think it’s because I’m excited to see you!”
Fluttershy ducked her head a bit more at the compliment, but most of her was concentrating on trying to feel a kick. Kicky babies were adorable, or... well, so she'd heard anyway. She'd never really gotten to feel one for herself and hadn't been around too many babies either.
"I'm very happy to see you too, it's been a long time and no one back home is as friendly as you are. Oooo, there! What strong little feet you've got in there!"
Navi grinned. “Yes, yes she does. She’s on my bladder half the time, so I have to make sure there’s bathrooms nearby. Pete’s been amazing, though, he’s so good going out to get me food and doing chores and stuff.” Navi was fond of her husband and it showed.
"Well we can certainly accommodate that. I've got a bathroom just through the mudroom and off to the side, through that door there." Fluttershy pointed with her free hand; Her other hand was still taking in the magical kicking feet she was feeling through Navi's belly.
"I also set up some chairs and some refreshments for break times. You can see how bad the flower beds are. They're so over grown and there's weeds everywhere, and... and crab grass. Oh, I have a back area, too, and you know... I was thinking, one of the areas of brick, I want to turn it up and see if I can plant a vegetable garden or some herbs..."
“Oh, that’s sweet of you!” Navi nodded. She moved to plop down by the weeds, carefully pulling them out with her clever fingers. Her hands were faintly calloused, nails short and rounded. She hummed a song that Link and Zelda would’ve recognized as Saria’s, coaxing the weeds from the ground.
Fluttershy knelt down beside her, trying to learn the song she was humming. The weeds weren't being coaxed out of the ground quite as easily for her, partly because she was trying to pay attention to the notes Navi was humming, and partly because they were very, very stubborn weeds.
After a few bars, she started humming along. Song was one thing she wasn't shy about, and her tone wasn't as soft as her speaking tone tended to be.
Navi smiled, her wings shimmering into iridescent existence behind her, fluttering a little. Even though she was super pregnant, she was just a fairy. “I’m glad you came back, Fluttershy! We all missed you.”
The wings were very pretty and didn't really take Fluttershy by surprise that much. After all, where she came from, lots of ponies had wings, and Rarity had made herself some really pretty shimmery ones like that before!
Navi called herself a fairy, and Fluttershy thought that was really cute, and wonderful, and safe, "I'm really glad to be back, you know... I missed you all, and I think it's so... very nice that I have you and Mr. Kirk and the others for friends. I wish I'd kept more in touch. Your wings are very pretty, too. I keep wondering if I'll get some."
“Oh, do you dream you have wings too? I hope you do, I’d like someone to fly with.” Navi couldn’t help but wiggle a little at the idea of flying with one of her best friends. “And it’s okay, I figured you were busy or things were going on that were scary.”
"I just... well my pet shop kept getting ruined, and that didn't help," Fluttershy admitted, with a bit of a sigh. She tugged out a particularly stubborn root and tossed it to one side, "But I wasn't doing enough. In my dreams, I'm so helpless. Curing sick animals is all I'm good at, you know... I got a little lost, so I went home to uhm... 'rethink my life choices'."
She nodded her head, then turned to smile at Navi, "But yes, I'm a ... pegasus pony, in my dream world. I'm not a very good flyer, but I like floating with them, sometimes. It's strange not to have them now when I wake up."
“Oh, I’m sure you’re good at other things, you just have to figure out what!” Navi smiled and let her wings flutter a bit more. “I dream I’m kind of klutzy, but it won’t ever stop me. I love flying too much.”
"Tending to the animals is my special gift, and I'm very happy with that, I always have been, ever since I first discovered that animals existed. And I teach them to sing, we have a bird choir, it's very nice," Fluttershy replied, in her usual soft-spoken tone.
"But I'd really... I think, I'd enjoy flying with you. Maybe I have to put together the whole ... story, you know. My dreams, I didn't get any new ones while I was away."
“That’s wonderful! I talk to plants.” Navi giggled, looking around Fluttershy’s garden. “It’s why I’m good with them. You’ll be able to fly soon, I have hope.”
"I have hope that you can talk these plants into being pretty... I have pictures of what they're all supposed to look like. There were these tall purple flowers over in that bed," Fluttershy gestured towards a bed by the fence facing the road, which was overgrown and currently had no flowers to speak of, "I think... maybe they bloomed in the spring and I missed them."
“Oh, they’re just tired.” Navi nodded agreement with the idea that the plants had already bloomed. “They’re not mad at you, they’re just having a nice nap. We’ll make their covers cosy and sing them some lullabies and before you know it they’ll wake up again, happy to see you.”
"I want to learn to sing to the plants. I think... talking to them can't be much harder than talking to the animals, can it? They just need love and care and understanding, and someone to be patient with them. I want my garden to be just... so pretty and happy when spring comes." Fluttershy gushed. When she realised she was gushing, she ducked her head a bit and blushed, then moved onto another patch of weeds.
"How long do you think it will take to put all the plants to bed and make them cozy for the fall and winter? Is that all they need?"
“That’s all they need, and maybe a few days with a lot of focus,” Navi grinned. “It shouldn’t be too hard!”
Fluttershy put on her super determined face, and nodded her head, "We can do it! Or... well, I can do it myself once you show me how so that you don't have to come over here every day. OH... and I'll probably need some things from your shop, but you can have someone deliver those?"
“We can do it too, and I can have someone deliver things, that’s easy!” Navi’s wings fluttered a little faster, and she moved so she was kneeling so she could use leverage to help herself pull out weeds. “I’ll make a list of what you need and have it sent by.”
"You're so wonderful... I'm glad that I asked you for your help, now," Fluttershy responded, her tone a bit more cheerful than previously. She started humming again, the song that Navi had been humming before, and got back to work on her area of weeds. It felt like the weeds weren't fighting her anymore. Maybe all she had to do was be willing to believe that humming to them worked every bit as well for her as it did for her fairy friend.
“You’re my friend, of course I want to help you!” Her wings fluttered a bit faster, and Navi hummed and leaned down to kiss one of the flowers, giggling when the petals tickled her nose. “And I like helping them, too.”
"Oh of course... that's your special gift, after all." Fluttershy replied, with a warm smile. She finished with her flower bed and wiped some sweat off her forehead, then took another look around the yard, "Lets get some lemonade before we work on the other beds!"
“Lemonade is always good.” Navi fluttered upward, to her feet, rubbing her stomach a little bit. “You’re such a good hostess, thank you so much.”
"I hope everyone in there is okay," Fluttershy got up and brushed dirt off of her hands, then motioned towards the table, where nice cool lemonade was waiting, and comfy chairs, "You're an awesome friend, I just like to take care of my friends, that all."
“I’m sure they’re fine. If they’re not, we can take care of them until they’re not.” Navi plopped into one of the chairs, poured a glass of lemonade for each of them, and beamed. “Well, I do the same thing, so we can take care of each other!”
Fluttershy lifted her glass of lemonade up to clink against Navi's, "Let's have a toast to friends taking care of each other... if that's okay."
“Of course that’s okay! I’ll always take care of my friends if I can, and I know you will too!” She grinned, taking a sip of her lemonade. “This is really good!”
"Oh thank you. It's fresh squeezed, and the strawberries I added are organic... I can't wait to try growing some of my own."
Fluttershy took a long sip off of her own lemonade, then set it down and leaned back in her comfy chair a bit, taking in the work they'd already done, "The garden already feels so much happier."
“Well, it probably missed you!” Navi grinned, looking over at her friend. “When the baby’s born, you’ll have to come play with her.”
"Oh I'd love to do that. I'm pretty good with children. As long as they aren't.. uhm... scarily badly behaved, anyway. I'm sure yours will be nice." Fluttershy remembered all of her times babysitting in the dreams. She thought she'd done a pretty good job of it, most of the time, though she wished that children were just a bit more quiet than they were.
“Oh, it’ll be too little to have any sort of behavior pattern. It’ll just be teeny and loud if it’s got an empty belly or a full diaper,” Navi giggled.
"Teeny is nice... I'm not so sure about loud, but uhm... maybe it would be okay. I'd still like to play with it, and maybe someday teach it how to take care of a little rabbit or fish or something." Fluttershy replied, with a nod.
“Oh, I’d love that! I’ve got two cats, and both of them will love having a baby around, but a bunny or a fishie would be different. They wouldn’t know people are friends, not monsters.” Navi grinned, bouncing a little in her seat.
"Then that's what we'll do. We'll get you a trained bunny... I know just the place to get a good bunny from, and I can train it, and they can grow up together so bunny bunny will be best friends with your baby," Fluttershy replied, clapping her hands happily (yet softly) together, "It's all settled."
That made Navi laugh. “Oh, Pete’s going to just have to deal with a bunny that loves the baby, yup.” She kicked her feet happily, wings fluttering a bit as well.
"I'm sure he'll uhm... warm up to the idea when he sees how happy the baby and the bunny are together. No one can really hate a bunny, can they? Bunnies are so adorable."
Fluttershy hoped so, anyway. She looked like she might be about ready to cry if that wasn't true.
“I don’t think he’ll hate it. He might pretend, but he pretends to hate a lot of things.” Navi grinned.
"Oh good!" Fluttershy smiled and drained her glass of lemonade, then got to her feet and dusted herself off. She had the next flowerbed in her sights, and she was confident she could sing those weeds into submission, "I think I'm going to get back to it. There's still a lot of singing to do."
Hopping up with Fluttershy, Navi grinned. “There’s always a lot of singing to do! That’s what friends are for!” She squeezed Fluttershy’s hand and walked off with her, glad her friend was back.