Fluttershy screamed in fright as she was awakened by a loud sound that seemed to shake her out from her deep sleep with her pink mane a frazzled mess, and leaping into the air from her bed. The yellow-coated pegasus was quite frightened by the noise and being awakened so suddenly as she slowly got up onto her hooves. Fluttershy then slowly got up on her hooves and slowly moved down the stairs towards the first floor of her cottage. There she gave a deep sigh pressing a hoof to her chest feeling relieved no pony broke into her home. But now the questions were going through her mind who was that? Who made such a terrible noise? She turned to see that Angel was nearby hopping up and down in a panicked state pointing a paw outside. She then went outside and there she saw Rainbow Dash on the ground with a gold trophy held tightly in her hooves. The daredevil pony however slowly got up being rather dazed from being hit with a water balloon. She then adjusted the bright green army helmet atop her head and shouted, “that was cheating!”

Fluttershy blinked turning to see a Pinkie Pie wearing a similar helmet with her party cannon loaded with water balloons shouting, “there’s nothing against the rules of using my party cannon!”

“Ugh, hey Fluttershy,” Rainbow dash grumbled getting up onto all fours as she turned her attention towards her friend and asked, “hey I know you don’t like this stuff but the pegasi need your help!”

Fluttershy sighed slamming a hoof to her face it was the annual water balloon fight between the earth pony, pegasi and unicorns fight they have every summer. She was never a fan of it and tried her best to not get involved.

Rainbow Dash trotted over grumbling. “Pinkie Pie and the earth ponies have been using some dirty guerilla tactics and aren’t playing fair we need your help. Maybe get some of your animal friends to join in with the pegasi so we can even the playing field.”

Fluttershy gulped unsure if she wanted to get involved and squeaked, “I…I’m not sure if that’s a good idea?”

“Ugh come on! We’ve held the trophy for the last twenty years! Right now we're on the brink of losing it!” Rainbow Dash pleaded.

Fluttershy shook her head “no” she was a pegasus but she had no desire to use her animal friends for violence.

“Sorry, but I will not do that, I compromised before using my stare on the bat ponies and almost became one. I will not do that again.”

“I never said anything about using the stare.” Rainbow Dash grumbled. Just then a bunch of water balloons came flying through the air in all directions Fluttershy squeaked and cowered near the ground as Rainbow Dash was bombarded by water balloons on all sides!

The daredevil pegasi fell downward as she hoofed the gold trophy to Fluttershy and groaned, “take it! go and make sure the pegasi win!”

Fluttershy lay on the ground cowering in fear as Dr. Whooves used some sort of rapid-fire catapult hurling dozens of water balloons toward her while Applejack was bucking water balloons towards them.

“She’s down! Come on guys get the trophy!” Pinkie pie, Dr. Whooves, and applejack then ran towards the trophy at full speed. Fluttershy then snatched the trophy and ran off screaming as she did so.

________________________________________


Fluttershy ran blindly into the Everfree Forest unaware of where she was the pegasus looked around her trying to gauge where ponies could be, they could be hiding in the trees, or the bushes. Water balloons flew left and right of her and she did try to catch them and throw them back. But every shot probably missed but she didn’t care! Fluttershy needed to keep the trophy safe! Rainbow dash risked everything for it, and she couldn’t let her sacrifice be in vain! As Fluttershy made her way to a clearing she paused to catch her breath shaking all over being furious, angry and scared all at the same time.

She was scared out of her mind, and she had no intention of being involved in this stupid game in the first place! She stomped a hoof on the ground and shouted, “this is crazy! I never wanted to have this stupid trophy or be involved in the water balloon wars!? Why did Rainbow Dash even trust me!?”

“That's not the question you should be asking yourself. Instead, you should be asking do you trust yourself?"

Fluttershy turned around to see that an old grey coated horse had a short cropped grey mane with a white cloth wrapped around him, he was tall but was shrunken with wrinkles lining his weathered face, with a long black beard going down his face and he seemed to be rather wise and had this air if wisdom around him like Zecora has.

“Wh…who are you?”

“My name is Guru Adil, and would you like a cup of tea?”

Fluttershy then for the first time noticed she was indeed in the Everfree forest but the area was beautiful there was a pond nearby with some lilypads floating on the surface with a waterfall running down the rocks and hitting the water beneath it. The guru as he called himself was sitting on top of a rock while using his hooves to drink from a small cup made of stone. The place was serene and beautiful and Fluttershy felt like she could take a breather. Fluttershy sat across from the horse and took a cup of tea and sipped it. Fluttershy reared back at first as the tea was quite bitter and earthy tasting but as she continued to sip from her cup. After finishing she felt much more relaxed as she turned to face the guru and asked, “so…yously not from here? Where did you come from?”
The wise old horse smiled at her and said, “I’ve traveled the lands for many generations and have been on a journey to find my grandson.”

“Oh!?” Fluttershy was surprised she remembered that a Donkey that now lives in Ponyville was doing the same thing and asked, “so your grandson lives in Ponyville?”

The horse chuckled, “I believe so, but I am not sure. As for you? I see you're in quite alt of trouble?”

Fluttershy rolled her eyes, “oh don’t get me started, I woke up to my house being bombarded with Water balloons, and my friend Rainbow Dash got me involved in this stupid game the ponies play. I didn’t even want to be involved but she gave me this trophy which everypony is after!”

“Ah I see!” the old wise horse replied as he sipped his tea. “so, how long do you have to keep the trophy?”

“Well, um…I believe until Luna raises the moon if I keep the trophy until then the pegasi win.”

The old horse nodded and asked, “so, you think you can do that?”

“No…I…I can’t I’m not good at physical activity and my aim is terrible worst off I'm far from my animal friends…I…I don’t know what to do?” Fluttershy cried.

The old horse gave a nod and said, “yes, but you have conquered your fears before have you not?”

Fluttershy thought back to the many times she had taken on her fears. Having taken on a dragon, getting Discord somewhat reformed, and that time she helped get water from Ponyville to Cloudsdale,” Fluttershy paused reminiscing then said. “yes I have.”

“Well, it’s simple really, you’re in a position you never wanted to be in but now you are. Don’t focus on the how or why. But what you can do now? You can easily give up and give the trophy to your enemies…or instead prove to yourself that you can do this by confronting them.”

“T…thanks!? Th…that’s what I needed to hear!?” Fluttershy exclaimed being rather surprised by the wise words from this guru.

“Thank you, Guru Adil! I’ll go prepare to protect the trophy!” Fluttershy exclaimed she then flew off through the Everfree Forest with more confidence in herself. He was right she could easily just give up this stupid trophy and forget about this silly game…no…she’ll take on the earth pony and unicorns! She wasn’t going to let Rainbow Dash down!

________________________________________

One hour left until sundown… Fluttershy thought to herself as she was now in the old ruins of the old Castle of the princesses. The place was much nicer after she and her friends refurbished it. But now Fluttershy will use it as her place to keep the trophy safe she now had her own army helmet with green and brown face paint, she brought along Angel who had a basketful of water balloons. They were now all prepared for the upcoming battle that was commencing. But the silence and the unnerving feeling surrounding the place was nerve-racking as she had no idea what was going to happen. No other pegasi have shown up to help as she assumed they have been all tagged out by a water balloon thus making her the last pegasus to keep the trophy from falling into the enemy’s hooves. Then a ton of water balloons appeared out of nowhere and started to drop on top of her! Fluttershy took the trophy and flew out of the way as they collided with the floor. Then twilight appeared with a few unicorns with a smirk, “clever seems Fluttershy is the only pegasus left!”

The usually timid pegasus who was cowering for a moment slowly stood up and with a smirk exclaimed, “oh Twilight you just fell into my trap! Angel now!”
the unicorns then raised their water balloons over their heads but they didn’t see Angel and a group of bunnies jump out of nowhere showering the unicorns in water balloons tagging them all out at once!

Twilight was now soaked with her mane splashed over her head with its dripping water and cried, “ugh!? Should’ve expected her to use her animal friends!”

“But she didn’t expect a surprise attack!”

Fluttershy gasped as a dozen water balloons came from the rafters above and she had to once again quickly fly backward to avoid a bombardment of the plastic bulbs as they exploded onto the tiles below. Then the most serious-looking horse she’s seen came out from the shadows. The stallion had a dark black coat with a grey muzzle and with a scar on the right side of his face. He looked a lot like Tempest as he rose and said, “so this is the infamous Buttershy I’ve heard about.”

Fluttershy squeaked from fear feeling rather scared of this horse and whispered, “it’s Fluttershy...and who are you?”

The stallion threw a smug grin back at her and said, "oh just the horse who shaped up the earth pony battalion that's been winning this war," The stallion replied with a blush as he scratched his mane. "oh your name is Dustershy my bad?”

Fluttershy blinked looking rather confused as to why he couldn't get her name as she mumbled, “it’s Fluttershy, not Dustershy?”

“Oh, your name is Butterfly ugh!? It’s so obvious!?” the horse exclaimed.

Soon everypony in the castle started to snicker at the gaffes that the new horse was saying. Fluttershy couldn’t help but giggle and tried saying it louder, "no it’s Flut-ter-shy.”

“Flutterpie got it! I didn’t know you were a relative to Pinkie Pie?” The horse asked with a blush growing on his cheeks out of embarrassment.

Everypony groaned as hooves slammed into faces.

Pinkie Pie then jumped into the middle of the two and shouted, “oh for the love of Pies!? Let’s just throw water ballons and grab th-“

“it’s over!” Spike exclaimed coming forward. “the sun has set and Fluttershy has retained the trophy and hasn’t been hit by a single water balloon! The pegasi keep the trophy once again!”

Fluttershy squeaked as she threw her wings over her face expecting everypony to groan and attack her for winning but instead everypony cheered and came over congratulating her on how well she played. Fluttershy slowly threw her face up admiring the crowd of ponies and shaking their hooves as they came by. Eventually, the crowd died off with many ponies yawning being rather tired from a long water balloon fight. Meanwhile, the newcomer just stood there blinking, “wait…this was just a game?”

“There you are grandson,” an old guru said as they turned to see the Aldi slowly trotting over towards the younger horse and hugging him. “you see, this game taught you a thing about humility did it not?”

“Yes grandfather, I…I thought the ponies were at war with each other…”

Pinkie Pie blinked and said, “um…no you must’ve heard me wrong when I asked you to come play? I said it was just a water balloon war?”

“Yeah…should’ve guessed since we were using water balloons…” the stallion stammered as he awkwardly brushed his hoof over his mane. Fluttershy came by giggling, “well if it weren’t for your gaffes you would’ve won…”

“Yeah, next time we do this I’ll be sure to remember your name Fluttershy,” The other horse replied.

Fluttershy looked at the stallion he was tough and stern looking, but he had this soft side to him that she wanted him t stay and know more about. “um.. what’s your name?”

“Batuk.”

“Well Batuk, if you wish to come by I would love to have…have tea with you?”

Batuk was going to say yes but turned to see Angel just giving him a death glare and he started to sweat. “I…I would love to if your pet bunny doesn’t mind.”

“Oh, don’t worry about him.” Fluttershy giggled as she ruffled Angel’s ears. Batuk gave a nervous chuckle still being weary of the creature. The two then trotted off together chatting about their day as Adil gave a smile sitting down and pouring himself a cup of tea.