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// 3.1: Pen and Parchment 
// Story: Rich Soil 
// by Moonbat 
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Where rabbits softly graze
The field came alive with the morning sun.  Two honey bees started humming flower to flower.  A mother bird flew to her nest and started feeding her hungry brood.  The sun silently crept over a sleeping unicorn.  A few minutes later and a rabbit hopped close to the sleeping form.  It was strange for a pony to be in the field, ponies rarely ever came here, especially unicorn ponies.  The rabbit gave the strange visitor a few sniffs, but then the form shifted.  Giving a small cry, the rabbit narrowly escaped getting smashed by the weird pony.  Scampering off, the rabbit decided it wanted nothing to do with the pony.
The unicorn slowly got to his four hooves.  He blinked a few times but kept his eyes narrow in the morning sun.  He saw that he was in a meadow, and that he was alone.  He couldn't remember how he'd gotten there, but took in the beautiful scene for a few moments.  He figured he needed to find other ponies.  Wait, he thought. Why ponies?  He heard the sound of running water nearby and trotted over too it.  Looking into a small stream, he saw a bespectacled face staring back.  He had a bushy, curly, mane, green fur, and a horn.  Oh, right, he chuckled.  I must have gotten hit on the head or something.  Wherever the river was flowing, he thought, running water would always lead to civilization; at least it should if he followed it long enough.  The river was flowing away from a mountain and toward a tree line in the far distance.  Platonic, he thought, as he trotted off toward the woods.  Simply beautiful.
After some time he made his way into the woods.  It was darker inside the woods for the sun had barely started to make its way across the sky.  Deeper in the woods he heard a sound other than the occasional rustle of leaves or the brook's constant babble.  He started to follow the sound as it lead deeper into the forest.  Suddenly, he came across a clearing.  A pony with yellow fur was near the middle of the clearing, talking to an owl.
“Now Mr. Owl, you absolutely must let me take you home.  I can only do so much for your wing right here.  I promise that I have nice, dark, shed that you can stay in.  I've even put fresh straw in it.”
“Hoo,” came the reply.
“Now don't be like that!  I know you like your home here, but I simply must take better care of that wing.  The unicorn approached and gave a soft cough, trying not to disturb either the pony or the owl.
“Eeep!” cried the pony, who beat her wings to back up swiftly, but she tripped back instead.   The unicorn realized that she was a pegasus.
“I'm sorry, I didn't mean to startle you.”  For the strangest reason, he thought she looked familiar.  “Have we met?”
“No. I-Im... Fluttershy.”  The poor pegasus avoided the unicorn's eyes.  He noticed how uncomfortable she looked and how softly she had spoken her name.  He couldn't blame her shyness, a unicorn walking out of the woods and trying to start a conversation would be odd.
“Oh, please don't be afraid.  I'm lost, you see, and I'm just glad to see another face.”
“Oh?  You're lost?  I can help you...,” she paused as her expression sunk, “at least I could if didn't have to help Mr. Owl.”
“Hoo!”
“You do too need help!  You hurt your wing and ignoring it won't make it any better!”  The unicorn was shocked at how passionate Fluttershy suddenly became.
“Hey, maybe we can kill two birds with one stone.”  He didn't know where the expression had come from, but he was instantly sorry that he said it.  Fluttershy's expression turned from horror to anger.
“You are not going to hurt Mr. Owl, you understand?”  She placed herself between the unicorn and the owl, gave her best war horse face and pawed the ground.  Her breath came out in short huffs.  It would have been fearsome if it weren't so adorable.  The unicorn had to stop himself from laughing.
“No no no!  I just mean we can do both.  I'm sorry, that's a bad expression.  What I meant to say was, we can get Mr. Owl to your home, and me to someplace safe.”
Fluttershy's eyes brightened as she realized that not only did the unicorn not want to hurt anypony, he actually had a good idea.  “Why, you're right!  Here.”  She lifted the owl with her hooves.  The owl tried to fly away but cringed as pain shot through his hurt wing.  Fluttershy lowered the owl carefully onto the unicorn's back.  The unicorn felt a wave of relief as Fluttershy seemed not to view him as a threat.  Relief was replaced with pain when the owl flapped his wings and dug in his talons.  “Oh my, are you okay?  Does it hurt?”
“N-No,” the unicorn lied, “just glad to be heading in ...ow...  the right direction!”  The unicorn tried to let out a grin, but it wound up looking more like a grimace.
Fluttershy bat her eyelashes, “ Oh, really?”
“Y-yeah,” the unicorn said, but the owl changed his grip and the unicorn let out a nicker from the pain.  Fluttershy giggled.  The two ponies trotted through the forest.  Anytime they had to go over uneven ground, or if the owl tried to get better footing, a small whinny could be heard from the unicorn.

There's no place like a home
“There.  Now, plenty of rest and keep that sling on for at least one day.  Actually, make that two...”  Fluttershy had treated the owl's wing and was giving him strict instructions.  The unicorn stood in the doorway of a cottage made from a hollowed out tree.  The cottage was simple and the unicorn felt that was probably what made it so warm and inviting.  “Now,” the unicorn hadn't noticed her come over, but she was behind him, looking down at his back.  She gasped.
“Oh I'm fine.”
“You are definitely not fine mister!”  The unicorn was forced to lay on a couch while Fluttershy rushed off and came back holding a small tin.  She brushed her long, pink, mane out of her eyes as she opened the tin and started applying a salve into his back.
“Ah!” He winced as the cold salve touched the claw marks.  “Aaaaahhhhh.”  He relaxed as the salve started to cool and soothe the cuts.  He felt a square of gauze get taped down.
Flying away, Fluttershy looked back and asked, “Um, could I get you some tea?”  the unicorn perked up.
“That'd be lovely.”
Fluttershy carefully flew back in after a few minutes and placed a teapot with two cups between them.  She poured them each a glass and the two sat opposite each other.  The tea was too hot to drink and there was an uncomfortable pause.
“So,-”
“I meant to-,”  they both started talking at the same time.  They stopped and chuckled.
“You fir-”
“Go o-,”  they did it again.  “Go on,” Fluttershy insisted.
“The first thing I remember is waking up in the meadow.  I couldn't remember who I was or what I was doing there, so I wandered until I found you in the forest.”
“You can't remember anything else?  What about your cutie mark?”  Fluttershy pointed at his flank, which bore a picture of his special talent.  This picture was forever marked on his haunches.  It was a picture of an unfurled scroll, and inkwell, and a quill.  “You must be good at writing.  Twilight would like you.”  The unicorn arched his neck to see the picture.  His stare went blank.  A spark of recognition seemed to grow.  His face brightened.
“Pen. Pen and Parchment.  That's it, that's my name!  And I can do magic!”  Fluttershy put down her tea and clopped her fore hooves together excitedly.
“Wonderful!  What else do you remember?”
“Let me see,” Pen and Parchment concentrated, tapping a hoof to his forehead.  “That's it for now, but at least it's something.”  Fluttershy nodded agreement.
“A unicorn who does magic and writes.  Twilight would really love to meet you.”  Pen and Parchment looked at his tea.  It was wonderful.  The owl, helping him, the tea.  Fluttershy was amazing.
“Fluttershy, what you did for that owl was very admirable.  You helped me to the cottage, made sure I had tea, and treated my wounds.  You even helped me remember a little about myself.  You're so kind.  I don't know if I'd have the same trust and kindness you do.  Thank you so much.”  Fluttershy blushed.
“Um, I'm just happy to help.  I hope you don't mind, but  I... um, thanks..  It's something anypony would do, really,” Fluttershy murmured as she looked away.
“What was that?”
“Oh, I was just saying that it was really nice of you to say that, but I think you would've done the same.”
“Aw, I'm sorry, I didn't mean to frighten-”  The cottage door burst open and a pink-maned, pink-furred pony came bouncing in.  Pen and Parchment tried to jump up, but felt a sharp pain in his back.  That's right, he thought, the scratches.
“Hey Fluttershy.  Bet you can't guess what just happened to me, can ya?  Haha, of course not.  You can't see the past.  Well, unless its your past.”  The bundle of pink started jumping around the room.  It would jump into the air with all four hooves, land, and then jump again.  Pen and Parchment thought it was making a circular pattern around the room.  “Well, unless you've got some sort of populous past pony peering device...,” The pink madness (Pen and Parchment was sure she was crazy) stopped to carefully consider this possibility (yep, absolutely nuts), “and I don't think you have one of those.  Anyway I found a new friend, isn't it great?  Somepony completely new showed up inside our basement.  At first I was like, hey where'd they come from?  But then he said that he couldn't remember  who he was or how he got there.”  Pen and Parchment's ears perked at the last sentence. “But then I thought, who am I to look a gift friend in the mouth, get it?”
“Um...okay,” Fluttershy squeaked out.
“Oh, wait.  You're right, that's what I said at first.”  The pink pony stopped. “Saaayyy, maybe you do have a  populous past pony peering device.  You know what this means?  Aaa paaarty!”  The pony jumped up again.  Only this time, as she went airborne, confetti, streamers, and party hats appeared from nowhere.  Pen and Parchment thought he saw a stray balloon.  “Oh and here, an invitation.  I didn't know you were having company, so I only brought one.”  Pen and Parchment wondered where the pink one stored the extra air that allowed her to keep talking.  “Hey, I've never met you before.”
“Um, Pinkie, we just met.  This is Pen and Parchment.”  The pink one, apparently named Pinkie, gasped with shock.  All at once she stopped moving, and a balloon made a raspberry as the air slowly leaked out of it.
“You mean, we get to have two, no wait, no yes, two times the fun?  This'll be the greatest party ever!”  Pinkie seemed to levitate and jitter with excitement.  Pen and Parchment was worried that two new ponies was too much for her and she would explode.  Pinkie grabbed the invitation back from Fluttershy.  She ripped it in half, produced a neon green crayon, and scribbled something on each half.  “Here ya go.  I've got to go to Rarity's and get ready.”  She squealed, placed each half in one of the other ponies' hooves and zoomed through the open door. “Oh and hey!”  Fluttershy cried out as Pinkie's head peered back through the door. “Gummy's bringing special party hats!  I'm so excited!”  With that, the countenance of excitement was gone again.
Fluttershy sat down.  As she did, her face started to contort.  Pen and Parchment started to get alarmed. When she started to sob, he panicked.
“Oh my gosh, what's the matter?”
“N-n-n, n-n-othing.”  Pen and Parchment wanted to believe her.  However, her quivering and sobbing was irrefutable evidence to the contrary.  He considered her for a moment.
“You've been through a lot today, huh?”  She nodded and promptly went back to looking miserable.  “I'd guess that you were trying to get that owl to come home for a long time.”  Another nod.  	“Then, taking a stranger into your home, you had to help Mr. Owl, and the new stranger who can't remember anything.  You probably also need to take care of the rest of your animals, too.”  Pen and Parchment couldn't have helped but notice a number of animals around the cottage.  Many of them seemed to have homes inside the cottage.  After everything this morning, the need to take care of her responsibility to her other animals, and now a party she hadn't planned for, it was pretty clear why she was so upset.  Pen and Parchment stood up.  “Alright, what can I do?”
“B-but, I've got to-” He silenced her with a wave of his hoof and poured her another cup of tea.  He passed her the tea with one hoof and put the other on her shoulder.
“I couldn't imagine you lifting a hoof after all you've done for me.  Here, have some tea and show me what to do.  I'd really like to go to the party because Pinkie said there was somepony else who couldn't remember who they were.  I don't know where the party is and I couldn't ask you to take me there and do all your chores.  That'd be too much.”  Fluttershy sat there, looking unhappy and adorable, but had calmed down significantly.  Pen and Parchment realized that he'd left his hoof on her shoulder and she started to blush.  He pulled back his hoof and looked at his half-invitation.  “It's what friends do for each other, right?”  She nodded through tear-stained eyes.  “So, where is 'Carousel Boutique,' anyway?”