//------------------------------// // The Start of Stress // Story: Cutie and the Beasts // by AleximusPrime //------------------------------// CHAPTER 1 - The Start of Stress It was about 3:00 am when Fluttershy was awoken by whimpering in her kitchen. She sat bolt-upright in her bed scared half to death until she realized what it was. “Oh dear, Winona, she’s hurting again!” She rushed out of bed and went into the kitchen to see Winona in her dog bed lying down completely still but making very loud whimpering noises and barks. Fluttershy immediately opened a nearby cabinet with some pain-killer pills for Winona. She put one in her hoof and went over and set it in front of Winona to eat but Winona wouldn’t eat it because she didn’t like the taste. “Oh please Winona, you have to eat it or you’ll keep feeling the pain! Please eat it!” She begged but the poor dog wouldn’t touch the pill. Fluttershy thought about what she could do to get Winona to eat the pill but nothing would come to mind. “Well I would put the pill in a piece of meat but I don’t have any meat. Will she get up to eat her food out of the dish though? I guess it’s worth a try…” Fluttershy went and put some dog-food in a bowl and dropped the pill in and mixed it together a bit and brought it close to Winona for her to eat. “Here you go Winona, eat your food, it will make you feel better.” Winona was still lying down and wouldn’t get up and found it hard to reach her bowl while she was on her side. She wiggled her front legs to try and move herself across the ground but it didn’t work. Fluttershy moved the bowl closer but Winona wouldn’t be able to stick her snout down in to eat the part that had the pill in it. She tried getting herself to sit a little upright but her leg was in so much pain it was hard to do. Finally, while giving a loud howl, Winona got herself to sit up and put her mouth down into the bowl and ate her food up. “Oh thank goodness! I was worried I’d never be able to get you to eat that. I thought I’d be up the rest of the morning trying to figure something out. You gave me so much work earlier today that I…” She looked down to see that Winona was finished eating the food and licked her chops but the pill was all that was left in the bowl. “Oh…you forgot the pill honey.” Winona started whimpering again followed by coughing noises coming from Philomena in the living room. “Oh dear…” “I sure hope Owloysius is doing okay over at Fluttershy’s cottage.” Twilight said trotting down the road with Spike sitting on her back. “Twilight, look, it’s Tank!” Spike called pointing to the skies. Rainbow Dash’s pet tortoise, Tank, was flying around with his propeller contraption strapped around his shell with Rainbow Dash close behind. He was trying to get the hang of making sharp turns. “Here Tank, like this!” said Rainbow Dash doing a short demonstration of turning while Twilight and Spike watched from below. “Hello Rainbow Dash!” Twilight said cheerfully. “Oh, hey Twilight, hey Spike! What are you guys up to?” “We’re going to Fluttershy’s cottage to check up on Owloysius.” said Spike. “He hurt his neck the other day and we got him a neckbrace but Twilight won’t take care of-“ “Um, what Spike means to say is that I’m too BUSY to take care of him and we had to take him to Fluttershy’s to have her do it instead.” Twilight said interrupting Spike. “Oh, Owloysius is hurt too eh?” “Huh? Who else got hurt?” Twilight said perking up her ears. “Well Princess Celestia asked me to take Philomena over to Fluttershy’s cuz she’s entering her molting cycle and is gonna die before reviving herself again from the ashes. She wanted Fluttershy to take care of her since she likes Philomena and is good with animals. Say, you wouldn’t mind going to check on her too for me, would you?” “Fluttershy is taking care of Owloysius AND Philomena?!” Twilight said surprised. “Yeah, there anything wrong with that?” Rainbow Dash asked. “Well, yeah, kinda. It’s a bit too much asking for her to take care of not just one but TWO of our animals!” “Aw relax Twilight. Fluttershy’s good with animals anyway.” Spike said patting Twilight on the back of her neck. “Yeah Twi, she’s got this. Philomena won’t give her any trouble this time around anyhow, she likes Fluttershy now. And Owloysius is well-behaved.” “Well…” Twilight thought hard before realizing that they were right and that it would probably be no difficult task for Fluttershy. “Eh, you’re right guys, I’m sure Fluttershy is doing just fine.” “Well I gotta go you guys. Tank and I have a lot of flying lessons to catch up on.” And Rainbow Dash sped off with Tank following her close behind. “Well Spike, we’d better go to the cottage and see if Fluttershy’s doing alright with Owloysius……and Philomena.” said Twilight while trotting down the road to Fluttershy’s. As soon as they got there, Twilight knocked on the door politely but no one answered. Instead, Twilight heard a bunch of chattering and shrieking noises in the cottage. She thought maybe there was an accident. “Oh no, Spike do you hear that?” she asked Spike worriedly. “What the hay is going on in there?” Twilight put her head against the door to hear. “Fluttershy? Is everything okay in there?” Twilight couldn’t wait any longer and opened the door on her own to see not just Owloysius and Philomena, but also Winona, Gummy, and Opal in the room. Some birds were flying around because they were very skittish about two large birds being on their perches and a cat being present in the room. Twilight stood with her mouth open. “Wow, looks like somepony’s been a busy bee.” Spike said looking around the room with wide eyes. Fluttershy then walked in with her hair all messy and a plate of food for Owloysius in her mouth. She nearly dropped the plate at the sight of Twilight and Spike in the door but regained her balance quickly and put the plate in front of Owloysius who didn’t really seem interested in eating at the moment. She then turned to talk to her friends. “Twilight, Spike, what are you doing here?” “We came to see how Owloysius was doing.” Twilight said “But Fluttershy, why in the wide wide world of Equestria are you watching everypony’s animals all at once?!” “Well it’s simple really: you all asked me politely and I accepted politely in return of course.” “But isn’t this a bit too much work for you?” “More than usual but I think I can manage. I’m good with animals.” “Well okay, but are you sure? Things might not go too well, don’t be afraid to maybe give a few of these animals back to their owners. Heck, you can even give us Owloysius back if you want.” Twilight then started to walk towards the owl hoping Fluttershy would say yes but she stepped in front of her. “I’ll be alright Twilight, honestly.” Twilight looked carefully at Fluttershy whose eyes seemed a bit red with wrinkles underneath from lack of sleep. Fluttershy could in fact NOT handle all these animals, but was it really worth arguing with her about? She seemed quite persistent to keep watching them so perhaps Twilight should just let her do it and see if things turn out. “Well………alright fine. I’ll let you watch Owloysius, but just remember that you can always come and bring him back to us. I’ll be busy but I can always work around time to take care of him while doing my studies.” “Thank you, Twilight. Oh, and you wouldn’t mind not telling the others about this, would you?” Twilight sighed and her ears dropped. “I won’t tell the others Fluttershy. But you should probably let them all know about this yourself. Don’t be too dishonest with them.” “Well, I guess……maybe I could. I’ll see, but I should be alright. And I’ll promise to get enough sleep so I can meet all of you tomorrow morning for our picnic like we planned.” “Alright then, I’ll see you later. And take care of Owloysius, he seems to still be in a lot of pain.” Twilight walked out of the cottage with Spike putting his head down dodging the little songbirds that were darting back and forth in the room. Twilight looked worried like usual. Once they were out, Twilight started talking to Spike. “Now do you think Fluttershy can handle all the work, Spike?” she asked him. “Alright, I guess I was wrong. She’s got too many animals this time. I dunno Twilight, what if maybe she really can handle them?” “Spike, this is serious! Did you see her eyes and how tired she looked? She isn’t liking this one bit! She might act like she does, but I can tell when Fluttershy’s stressed and when she’s not.” “Okay, okay! It’s overkill, I get it! But we should probably just leave her be and see how things turn out, you know.” “I dunno, I wish there was some way we could all help her out…” TO BE CONTINUED…