//------------------------------// // 18 // Story: Twilights Mane Passion // by Darkonshadows //------------------------------// There she stood staring at the somewhat dilapidated, grown over and in need of some reconstruction home with a lot of wild animals running around outside of it. She had a slight frown on her face and she had tears in her eyes at the sight, her friends were just so wonderful to her and this place was beautiful. She didn’t know how to pay them back for such a wonderful place they kindly acquired for her. Sure it would take some work to make it that much better, but Fluttershy was a pegasus that could put in the hours to make this place look like a beautiful sanctuary and it’s only currently rough around the edges. It would become a place for all her friends’, animal or pony. Fluttershy was almost ready to burst into song, but first she had to make some assessments of the grounds. The soil certainly looks fertile enough, so she would need to get some seeds for a garden to help save on costs of feeding some animals by producing some food herself. The cottage would take some time to clean up, maybe build a second floor and she could even ask Twilight and Tress assist her with that. Fluttershy’s tail slowly swayed at the thought of her two most wonderful friends, it made her really miss Rainbow a lot though. Two years with Rainbow Dash who protected her from the worst of the bullying and didn’t care that she couldn’t fly well. Then came the griffon she spent the one year trying to befriend like Rainbow had only to be pushed away and then the next three years after were completely lonely in terms of pony companionship. The most of the last two years were with a friendly loving family and the two most wonderful friends a mare could ask for in the rather bizarre home they had lived at. Thinking of family made Fluttershy realize she still hadn’t sent a message to her own parents; would they be happy that she was out of their lives or were they worried about her? She sometimes thought it was better off not knowing some things. She wouldn’t even know if they moved or not unless she went back to Cloudsdale and she really didn’t want to. Fluttershy had found it somewhat hard to leave Canterlot, mostly because Velvet wouldn’t let go of her and kept hugging her. Thinking of friends, Fluttershy’s thoughts turned to Tress as she was always making sure no pony ever bothered her and was always so protective. Sure Tress was a bit crass and looked to be lazy at times, but once you got to know her she really was sweet and her heart couldn’t be any more in the right place when it needed to be. Tress really made a lot of money doing modeling work, mostly in magazines Twilight didn’t read though Fluttershy certainly did. Tress put her heart into helping Twilight and her get their lives started; it was kind of hard to see what Tress herself desired when she was mostly busy with her friends’ happiness. Tress’s origins were quite strange and had to be explained to Fluttershy and despite the weirdness of it she accepted her fully. Tress was a pony that just needed some attention and kindness. Now Fluttershy’s thoughts were on Twilight, she was always so willing to help her learn things. At times Fluttershy wished Twilight didn’t have to trim her mane or tail even if it did get a bit long and in the way. Even then at some point Fluttershy had to admit that Twilight really did a good job with mane care, even if it wasn’t her special talent and just something she did that she loved. It was something for her to look up to. Twilight's special talent was magic in general and she cut Fluttershy’s mane only when Fluttershy herself asked her to. Twilight would never force Fluttershy to do stuff she was uncomfortable with, which was her problem with the pegasus school systems as she was a weak flyer and still is even to this day. That didn’t mean Fluttershy didn’t go flying at her own pace or kept her wings well exercised, she just wasn’t meant for high altitudes or extreme speeds and was perfectly fine with that. There was just something special about Twilight, Fluttershy just knew it and one day the world would probably know it too. Thinking back to when Fluttershy asked Twilight to test her flight speed, she had barely registered even a one on an anemometer. Fluttershy found herself hard pressed to have a reason to fly faster which was already hard for her to do to begin with. She was sure if push came to shove she’d do her best to perform three times better then she already does in the air and only if she truly needed to do so to help her friends. After staring at the random animals standing scattered about the area minding their own business, Fluttershy decided to approach the chickens to start getting to know the animals around here. “Um, excuse me…” Fluttershy’s soft voice suddenly alerted the chicken she called out to, it tilted its head and clucked questionably at the Fluttershy. “I’m new here and I was wondering, how long has it been since a pony has live here?” The chicken ambled over to Fluttershy and started clucking while flapping her wings in a somewhat agitated manner. It wasn’t an angry manner, it just somewhat sad since they hadn’t been tended to for a long time. They were surviving well enough on their own, though the winter months were a lot harsher for them. “Oh my, I’m so sorry to hear that Miss Elizabeak. I’m going to try my best to help all of you and all of the other animals here.” Fluttershy gently nuzzled the chicken and it quickly crawled onto her head and sat down. She giggled at the chicken taking an instant liking to her. It even clucked that it wanted to know what she was going to be doing. “I just need to introduce myself to all the animals around here. Once they get to know me I’m sure we’ll all be the best of friends.” Fluttershy walked around back after setting her luggage down by the door; she really didn’t think any pony would bother to steal it as it looked like none really even come out this way. Hearing a loud groan of pain, Fluttershy turned and looked at a large brown boulder. After a second of staring she realized it was a bear and one that was complaining about its back by all the angry groaning it was doing. “Miss Elizabeak, could you please get off for a second?” The chicken fluttered to the ground and watched as Fluttershy marched straight up to the bear, she started to approach cautiously it as she got closer. “Okay, tell me where it hurts.” The groan of pain was soon followed by a roar of anger in Fluttershy’s face and she stood her ground resolutely. The poor bear was hurting so much that Fluttershy didn’t care that it was slightly angry at her; she just wanted to help him. The bear had at least given her an idea of where all the pain was centered around though. “Please forgive me for what I’m about to do to you, this may sting a bit so bear with me.” A lot of curious animals in the area knew better then to go near Harry the bear; he had recently become real angry all the time. He was strong and big and in comparison to the smaller friendly Fluttershy, the animals thought the bear was going to rip her to shreds. Imagine the surprised look on all the animals when Fluttershy flipped the bear despite him being heavier and much larger then she was. After getting onto his back Fluttershy gave him a sharp tug of his neck to cause a large cracking noise. None of the animals had any idea of what Fluttershy was truly capable of, but after a moment they notice Fluttershy moved onto putting pressure down on his shoulders and a few pops could be heard. What was that crazy pony doing to that bear? “You’re really so tense, do you stretch in the morning? You really need to take care of yourself better Mr. Bear.” It was one of the things Fluttershy liked doing when she was learning multiple medical practices. It took Twilight some time and convincing to come around to letting Fluttershy do something for her for a change, but Tress was all for the massages she gave. It was one of the ways she thought she could pay her friends back for their kindness. Fluttershy just didn’t feel it was enough, even if she can get Tress to exclaim that she felt like melted butter under her gentle caressing. The bear in questioned didn’t know what happened after he roared at the pony. One minute Harry was standing tall while in pain and the next some really sharp pain that bled into the blissful feeling of two hooves kneading his back. At this point he didn’t care the pony was standing on him, she made him feel better and as such he would protect her as long as she continued to help him like she was doing right now. He groaned out his name to Fluttershy and an apology. “Harry, that’s a nice name for a bear and no need to apologize. My name is Fluttershy and I need you to help me help you get better. So how long have you been like this? I’m finding a lot of problems throughout your back muscles.” Fluttershy pushed and shoved her front hooves over the muscles getting a feel of what would cause him pain or bliss. So far she had only hurt him a little and eased his pain by a lot. Groaning Harry started to direct Fluttershy. The more he told her, the better he felt after a few pinches of pain here and there. They were nothing compared to the sudden comforting feeling of not being in so much pain. “There there, a full season of this is a long time to be having these kinds of problems. Just relax. How have you been sleeping lately? That might be the cause.” Fluttershy continued to work Harry over making sure he would be smiling sooner rather than later. In the background a bunch of little animals that live around the general area came out and looked up to Fluttershy in awe. It took a few minutes, but Harry was soon completely fine and sweeping Fluttershy up into gentle bear hug. Fluttershy accepted it gracefully. “Now are there any other problems I should take care of or know about? If you know any other animal that’s sick and injured please bring them to me.” That Fluttershy addressed all the animals from the bear’s arms made them look to each other. After chattering for a bit the animals all spread out. A minute later two animals carefully carried back a confused cardinal with a broken wing, the poor guy was chirping erratically at suddenly being accosted and from the pain of its wing. “Harry, set me down and go to the front of the house and bring me my bags around back please. I have a medical kit in there and I need it for this poor bird.” Fluttershy even illustrated what they looked like using the dirt and soon the bear was back setting the bags down near the pony. Fluttershy turned to her chicken friend. “Elizabeak can you go get me some twigs, I need something sturdy to hold his wing in place after I set it if the poor dear is going to get any better. I’ll go inside and quickly get some water, make sure he doesn’t go anywhere.” The animals watched as Fluttershy cleaned, set and wrapped the birds’ wing. Then she worked on tying the twigs the chicken brought back to its wing to make sure he couldn’t move it very well. “There now, all you have to do is not move it too much and don’t remove those bandages. You’ll be staying with me for a while and I’ll make sure you get to fly again.” The bird chirped happily and rubbed himself up against Fluttershy’s right hoof as he felt better already. “Thank you so much for bringing him to my attention and to me. That was really nice of you and that you took the time to be gentle with him really helped out.” The two animals that brought the injured bird to her looked rather bashful at the praise. It made Fluttershy sad to see others injured or in pain, but she was happy to have a home and patients to take care of already. She needed to go over some things with Harry and she would need to make sure the birds’ wing recovered correctly. As long as Fluttershy had friends like Tress and Twilight around and she was at a place where she already felt like she belonged, she would be happy. She even felt like she was finally at home in her heart.