Keen stared at the closed door, body slunk low as she fretted. Lightning was gone. She’d left her here!
She cast an eye up to her foalsitter, who noticed and shot her a warm smile. The last a time pony smiled at her like that, she’d nearly been turned into a monster, so Keen did what her five-year-old mind insisted: she backed away very slowly.
Fluttershy frowned at the filly’s behavior. “Is something wrong, Keen?”
Keen winced, eyes darting about for… she had no idea what for. All she wanted to do was flee the house and beg Lightning to never leave her again. She couldn’t lend her voice to any of the thoughts running through her mind, though, for her chest was too tight.
Fluttershy took a tentative step forward, and Keen backed even further away. Her foalsitter studied her for a few seconds, ears drooping. “You poor thing, you’re shaking like a leaf! I’m not going to hurt you, Pinkie promise.”
She sat and set a hoof to her eye, as if this were meant to assuage Keen’s anxiety. Keen tilted her head and tried to make sense of what the grown-up was doing.
“Oh,” Fluttershy giggled. “How silly of me! You haven’t even met Pinkie, have you?”
She smiled expectantly, and Keen realized she was supposed to answer. Her chest was still too tight, though, so she just shook her head.
“Don’t worry,” Fluttershy continued. “You’ll meet her, and soon! Pinkie never misses the chance to make a new friend.”
That was the last thing Keen wanted!
“Oh dear,” the foalsitter muttered, hoof to lips. “And ponies say I’m timid. Please, don’t be afraid. I’m just about the most harmless mare you’ll ever meet.”
Keen used to think that about Miss Spring. But…they were alone and she’d not tried anything yet. Maybe that was a good sign?
Something tapped Keen’s side. It was just the slightest touch, but in her tense state it felt like a jolt of electricity! She leapt with a yelp and bolted under the table in the kitchen.
“Angel! That wasn’t very nice!”
Angel? Heart pounding, Keen just barely poked her head out from beneath the tablecloth. She spotted Fluttershy looking down upon… a bunny? The white rabbit was making wild gestures of denial at Keen’s foalsitter.
Fluttershy’s face softened. “Oh, that’s okay, then. Just be more careful next time, okay?” She turned to look to Keen, who immediately pulled her head back behind the cloth and whimpered. “Keen? Are you okay?”
The filly curled into a small ball of white mane, hiding herself from the world. No, no she wasn’t! She was always scared. Every night, she had nightmares. Every day, she hid from others. She was so tired of being scared, but what was she supposed to do? She was just a little filly, but she knew the truth! The danger was real!
How could she trust anypony after what she’d seen?
She could feel something outside of her dark little world. She had no idea what it was, but it… was it petting her mane? She sniffed, rubbed the moisture from her cheeks and dared to peer out. There was the bunny, his ears low. When he saw her face observing him through her tiny cocoon he offered a smile and a carrot.
Keen eyed the carrot, then the bunny. “F… for me?” He nodded, and she slowly sat up and took the carrot in both hooves. “Umm… Thank you.”
Fluttershy’s voice came from just outside the tablecloth. “He’s very sorry for startling you. It wasn’t on purpose, was it, Angel?” Angel dropped to his haunches and shook his head, ears flopping about.
Keen tried to smile for him, but she just couldn’t work up the energy. She sagged a little and turned her face away. “It’s okay…”
There was a long, quiet pause.
“Keen? Please come out.” When she didn’t, Fluttershy’s voice grew kind. “That’s okay. You can come out when you’re ready. I have to feed my friends, but don’t worry. I’m right here if you need me.”
Angel’s frown faded in an instant, the bunny bouncing so high he almost whacked his head on the table above them. He darted out from under the table, a big grin on his face. Keen watched him go with a tilted head; why did the idea thrill him so? She was caught between curiosity and anxiety, and bought herself some thinking time by nibbling on the carrot.
“Come on out, friends,” Fluttershy called. “It’s time for breakfast!”
Keen blinked as an assortment on sounds hit her ears. Unable to resist her curiosity, she went back to the tablecloth and pushed it aside. Her eyes went wide at the sight of all sorts of animals; squirrels, chipmunks, mice, raccoons! A vast assortment of creatures were coming out from hiding holes all over the cottage. Not just rodents; birds of every shape and size fluttered about, and there was even a bear!
Keen, the tablecloth draped over her like a cape, sat and chewed on her carrot as she watched Fluttershy preparing food for all of them. Most of them were happy enough with assorted nuts and seeds being spread about the floor for them to gather, but a few demanded more specialized meals – such as the bear, who was given a large bowl of fruits. She noted that Angel received particularly good treatment, receiving a bowl of a very yummy-looking salad that he greedily dove into.
Before long all the animals were happily eating, Fluttershy standing in the midst of them like a mother satisfied with her children. She spotted Keen and waved. Keen blushed and offered a weak wave back.
“Are these… your friends?”
Fluttershy beamed. “Mm-hmm. It’s my job to take care of the animals around Ponyville.”
Keen shifted, eyes roaming the vast collection of creatures. It looked so strange. She was used to Foal Mountains, where the animals generally kept to themselves. “Why do they need you to feed them? Don’t they gather their own food?”
Her foalsitter nodded. “They could, if they had to. Before I came here, they did. But now we have a system: they gather the food, I store and distribute it. This way there’s enough for each and every one of them, and what they don’t eat is saved for a rainy day.”
Keen considered this, and found that she rather liked the idea. “Do they all stay here?”
“Oh, no.” Fluttershy shook her head as she walked a beeline through the animals for the filly. “Well, a few do, like Angel, but mostly they come and go. A lot of the space in my cottage is for hurt or sick animals that need special care.”
So…she was a doctor? For animals? Keen looked around, studying all the creatures in the cottage. Her eyes fell on a mouse with a bandaged leg, then a cardinal that was holding its wing funny.
She looked up at Fluttershy, who was smiling in her gentle way. This couldn’t be a monster. Her fear slowly fading, Keen sighed and sagged. “I’m sorry.”
Fluttershy tilted her head. “What for?”
“For being scared of you,” she replied, glancing away.
“Oh, that’s okay,” Fluttershy assured her. “I know what it’s like to be scared all the time.”
Keen looked up at her foalsitter, eyes going wide. “Really?”
Fluttershy nodded. “I’m afraid of so many things! I really am something of a scaredy-pony.” She beamed down at the filly. “I learned how to cope with my fears, thanks to all my friends, both animal and pony.” She knelt down so she was eye-level with Keen. “Don’t you worry, I’m sure you’ll learn to handle your fears, too!”
Keen bowed her head, taking a moment to nibble on her half-eaten carrot. “I hope so… but I’m so small, and they’re so scary.”
Fluttershy frowned. “They?”
“The monsters.”
“Oh.” The foalsitter sat up and regained her smile. “Monsters are scary, I know. You know what you should do about monsters?” Keen’s ears perked. “Make some friends!”
The ears drooped once more. “Friends?”
“Friends,” Fluttershy repeated with a nod. “I have many friends to help me. If I’m ever really scared or need help, I know I can call them. They give me courage, because I know that if I’m with them and we work together, I’ll be okay!”
Keen wilted a bit, turning her head away.
But she couldn’t trust anypony...
Fluttershy reached a hoof under Keen's chin and made her look into her eyes. “I know you’re new to Ponyville, but don’t worry; I’m sure you’ll make plenty of new friends before long! After all, this is Ponyville, and there are many nice ponies here.”
Keen couldn’t take comfort in those words, but she was trying to help. The filly was starting to like Fluttershy; she seemed nice.
“Oh, I still need to feed the chickens,” Fluttershy noted as if she’d forgotten. “Would you like to come and meet them?”
After that bumpy start, the rest of the day went very smoothly. With the help of Fluttershy and the animals, Keen gradually got over her nervousness and started to relax. She even began playing with the creatures, and in the afternoon she enjoyed a nap with Bearrington the Bear, curling up on his oversized belly.
She came to realize that she liked Fluttershy’s cottage. It was well away from the town, quiet and it was simply a nice place to be. She almost wished she lived here, but not quite; after all, that would mean leaving Lightning. Keen might only be five, but she was well aware that Lightning needed her just as much as she needed Lightning.
Even so, if this was where she’d spend her days while her new guardian was at work, she didn’t mind. She would have to thank Miss Dash for introducing them.
Well, in that case, maybe she should start to trust in Miss Dash, too? Keen wasn’t so confident about that idea, not just yet…
The morning wore on, and soon came the afternoon. Keen didn’t notice the passage of time until her belly rumbled at her. Fluttershy was already in the kitchen making daisy sandwiches when Keen went to look for her.
“So tell me,” Fluttershy asked as she lifted the small filly up to a seat at the table, “how are you liking Ponyville so far?”
“There are too many ponies,” Keen responded quickly, having at last growing accustomed to her foalsitter’s presence. “I wish we could live outside of town like you.”
“Oh, I don’t know.” Fluttershy set a sandwich down on a plate before her guest. “I think that, if you give it enough time, you’ll come to love it! Most ponies do.”
Keen drooped a little. “I guess…”
Fluttershy giggled at the motion before adding, “But you like it here, don’t you?”
“Oh, yes!” Keen bounced in her seat and flashed a grin. “It’s quiet and fun and the animals are cute.”
Fluttershy laughed and waved for the filly to calm down as she sat in her seat opposite with her own sandwich. “Glad to hear it! I’m sure all my friends will be happy to have you over any day, won’t we?” The dining room was filled with chirps, squeaks and other noises as the animals, most now residing in their cubbyholes dining on their own lunches, responded their pleasure. “See? They all like you, just as I knew they would!”
Keen beamed as she took her first bite of the sandwich pleased to find it very tasty. It had been so long since she’d really enjoyed herself....
“So how did you meet Lightning?” Fluttershy asked after a brief silence passed between them. Keen looked up at her foalsitter, her happy moment cracking.
Fluttershy misinterpreted her expression as confusion. “She’s not your mother, I can tell. I was just wondering how the two of you…”
Keen looked away, suddenly losing interest in her sandwich.
“Oh dear... I’m sorry, it’s personal, isn’t it? Please, don’t be upset! I was just curious. You don’t have to talk about it if you don’t want to.”
Images of the orphanage were already swimming through Keen's mind. First her parents, and then that… She turned back to Fluttershy, head hanging low, and spoke slowly. “Lightning... rescued me. From the monsters.”
“Monsters?” Fluttershy's curiosity got the better of her once more. “What monst—” There was a knock on the door, which made Keen jump in surprise. “I wonder who that might be?”
Keen sank low in her chair, watching as the pegasus made her way to the front door. Worry began to fill her mind; what if simply bringing them up was enough to lure the monsters here? She suddenly really didn’t want Fluttershy to answer the door, but couldn’t get her voice to come out and say so.
The door opened to reveal a trio of fillies who looked to be just a little older than Keen. “Oh, hello girls,” Fluttershy said. “Is class out, already?” Keen dropped from her seat and went to the corner of the door to watch the visitors more closely.
“Yep, we ended a little early, today,” said the leader, a light-purple unicorn with a yellow mane.
“It wasn’t my fault, honest!” cried a filly near the back. She was a pale yellow pegasus with a purple mane.
“Was too,” snapped a third filly. More purple… Keen wondered if the fillies were all friends because of the color. This one, who appeared to be the oldest, was an Earth pony with a purple coat and mane so dark as to almost be black. “You’re the one who wanted to prance around the woods looking for poison joke! I wanted to go to the arcade.”
“You always wanna go to the arcade,” the pegasus countered.
“Because it’s fun!”
“Maybe the first hundred times.”
“Well it’s more fun that skipping around in the woods like a—”
“Girls!”
They snapped to attention immediately at the leader's stern glare. She turned back to Fluttershy with ears tucked. “Sorry, Fluttershy.”
“Oh, it’s okay, Dinky,” Fluttershy declared with her usual kind smile. “But did I hear that right? You were in the Everfree Forest?”
“I just wanted to get my horn back,” the pegasus noted with a pout.
“You shouldn’t be wandering around the forest,” Fluttershy declared with genuine worry. “Don’t you know how dangerous it is?”
“We do, now,” the Earth pony admitted, cringing. She turned and helped a colt limp forward. Keen couldn’t believe it; there wasn’t a spot of purple on him! Instead he was green with a dark blue mane. He was holding one of his front legs high, wincing as he struggled to walk on the other three without it.
Fluttershy sighed. “Green Daze, you are the most accident-prone colt I know.”
Green winced, ears and eyes lowering in unison. “Sorry, Fluttershy…”
“We knew we were close to here.” Dinky patted him on the shoulder and looked up at Fluttershy imploringly. “So we brought him as fast as we could. Would you…?”
“Of course I will,” Fluttershy said with a smile. “Come on in, and let me take a look at that leg.”
No! Keen retreated till she was hiding under the table again, that determined fear back in full force. She kept as close to the center of the table as she could, trembling and listening with perked ears.
She covered her mouth, barely stopping a squeak as Angel abruptly appeared beside her. He studied her with a concerned frown and she shook her head at him. She didn’t dare speak.
“You just sit on the couch while I get my first aid kit.” Fluttershy's hooves appeared beneath the tablecloth. “Keen?”
Keen flinched. No, she didn’t want to be seen by the others! She dropped to her belly and covered her face. When she closed her eyes, however, she could see those scary blue eyes staring at her. She opened them wide and didn’t dare close them again.
Angel, observing her behavior, abruptly darted out from under the table towards Fluttershy.
“What’s that? Oh… I see.”
Another small set of hooves appeared. “What’s the matter, Fluttershy?”
“Nothing.” Fluttershy moved away from the table. “Just trying to find my kit. Now where did I put it?”
Angel appeared again once the ponies had cleared the kitchen, sitting before Keen with a smile and offering another carrot. Though her fear still gripped her, she smiled and hugged him. “Thank you,” she whispered.
He seemed very pleased with himself.
The two of them remained down there for a long time, listening as Fluttershy tended to the wounded colt. One of the fillies – Keen could only presume it to be the one named Dinky – was constantly fretting over him. Apparently he’d had his accident trying to protect her from getting hurt, and she was feeling not just a little guilty.
Keen finally overheard the names of the other two. Well, sort of; the first one was Apple Bytes, which was an easy enough name to recall, but the other had some strange, long name Keen wasn’t sure how to pronounce. The others all kept calling her “Ani” for short, so that was just how Keen would recall the name, too. Apple and Ani were constantly bickering and teasing one another. On more than one occasion Dinky would chasten them and they’d go quiet, though it never lasted long.
Green, for his part, was mostly silent, save to assure Dinky he didn’t blame her for anything or to respond to Fluttershy’s questions. He seemed like a fairly quiet pony.
“There you go,” Fluttershy said at last, “all fixed up! Now you stay off that leg for the next couple days and it should be good as new.”
“See?” Ani declared, “I told ya there was nothing to worry about!”
“Yeah… Thanks, Fluttershy,” Green said, sounding relieved. “I owe ya. Again.”
Fluttershy chuckled. “Oh, it’s okay, you don’t owe me anything! But you can do me a favor and stop wandering around places like the forest. Someday one of you will get hurt in a way I can’t bandage up.”
“We’ll play it safe from here on in.” Apple's voice took on a sour tone. “Assuming we can get Ani to stop going out in search of poison joke.”
“What? It’s not my fault!”
Dinky sighed as the two engaged in another brief round of verbal sparring. “Here, let me put the kit up for ya. It’s the least I can do.”
“Oh, why thank you,” Fluttershy replied. “You know where it goes?”
“We’ve been here so many times with scrapes and bruises, I just about have to.”
Keen, who had been lying on the floor next to Angel and listening, lifted her head as she heard the filly’s hoofsteps coming near. She clutched Angel and he squirmed against her tight grip. She realized she had him by the neck and released, casting an apologetic look as he coughed and glared.
“Hey, what’s this?”
Keen blinked and glanced to her side. Her eyes went wide as she realized that the tip of her unusually long tail was just sticking out from under the tablecloth… and Dinky’s hooves were right next to it! Hit by a moment of panic, she jerked her tail in and immediately regretted it.
Dinky pushed her head through the tablecloth, wide yellow eyes looking right at Keen. “Whoa! Who are you?”
Keen, body low and heart pounding, edged backwards with eyes locked on Dinky. Angel hopped between them and waved at Keen as if trying to encourage her to talk, but Keen had no words. She just wanted to run away!
The tablecloth shifted and the all-purple filly’s head appeared just next to Keen, making her leap back in fright. “Hey, it’s a new kid! Where’d you come from?”
“Oh, my.” Fluttershy apparently just noticed that Keen had been discovered. “Girls, please, let her be! She’s very shy.”
“Really?” A grin coming across Apple's face. “Don’t worry, we don’t bite! My name’s Apple Bytes… and, uh, I didn’t mean that pun. What’s yours?”
Keen dove out from under the table, only to smack right into the pegasus. “Whoa, careful; you’ll ruin my perfect coat.” Keen scrambled away, accidentally shoving Ani on her back in her rush to escape. “Hey! What was that for?”
Keen found herself in a corner of Fluttershy’s kitchen, surrounded by three supposedly curious fillies. She pressed herself against the wall, mind frantic and tears in her eyes.
“P-please… Leave me alone…”
They exchanged looks, brows furrowed as they considered her. Dinky offered a hoof. “What’s wrong? You act like we’re gonna eat ya or something.”
Keen dropped down and covered her eyes, but once again had that horrible vision of blue-eyed foals laughing at her with their hideous clicking noises.
“Girls!” Fluttershy appeared overhead. “Please, give her some room! She’s too shy to talk right now.” She landed between Keen and the others and shooed them back. “Go on, leave her be.”
“But we were just curious,” Dinky noted even as she let herself be ushered away.
“Yeah.” Apple shot Keen a raised eyebrow. “What gives?”
“Shouldn’t she at least introduce herself?” Ani demanded with head held high, though she was the first out of the room.
Keen sat up and sighed, a hoof over her heart as it slowed to a normal pace. She looked up in time to see the green colt peering at her from around the doorframe, his eyes wide. He winced as Fluttershy tapped him on the head, as if her gentle touch was enough to actually hurt, and quietly followed the others out.
“I really like her mane…”
Keen blushed and shoved her mane away from her face. She looked down to find her tail trailing along the floor towards the table. She gathered it up and tossed it behind her; stupid tail, getting her caught! What if they’d been monsters? She started to walk for the table, but jerked to a painful stop. She looked back and groaned at the sight of her tail caught on one of the drawer handles.
Fluttershy came back to find Keen stretching for the handle, her hooves not quite able to reach. At Fluttershy's giggles she blushed and dropped to her haunches to pout.
“Here, I’ve got it.” Fluttershy began working the hair from the knob. “I’m sorry about that, Keen, but you really don’t have to be afraid of them.”
Keen didn’t answer; she just hung her head and sulked.
“You know, you could try making friends with them,” Fluttershy suggested, finally managing to get the tail free. “They’re quite a fun bunch, actually.”
Keen turned her face away. “I don’t want to.”
“But why?” Fluttershy studied her, but Keen wouldn’t respond to that, either. After a time the foalsitter sighed and carefully set the rest of Keen’s tail neatly down to the floor.
“I guess it’s a long road ahead, huh?”
