//------------------------------//
// Day 15: Fluttershy's First Day in Ponyville 
// Story: NaPoWriMo 2014: A Compilation of Pony Tales 
// by Fluttercheer 
//------------------------------//

	A loud rumble sounded across the sky.
The yellow pegasus filly who cowered on the ground looked up. Dark clouds had covered the sky that was sunny and blue just a few minutes ago. A thunderstorm came up and it began to rain. Big, heavy raindrops hit the filly that was there on the ground. She sobbed and pressed her nose against the head of the bunny that was sitting between her hooves and nuzzled it.
Everything was over. She could not continue her way through the forest to get back home and now it even began to rain, most likely causing her to become a cold. And nopony was here to save her. Except for the bunny, she was completely alone. The sensitive little filly sniffled.
The day, her first day in the quiet, little town of Ponyville, had begun so good and now everything ended so terribly.
“What went wrong?”, she asked herself desperately. “How could it even come so far?”


~*~


Fluttershy pulled her head out of one of the cartons around here. Finally she had found what she was looking for! She lifted the cuckoo clock out of the carton and walked up to the wall. A big nail protruded out of it, waiting for it that something got hung up on it. Fluttershy flew up the wall and placed the clock on the nail. She landed and smiled satisfied. Then she looked around in the room. A lot of the cartons were still unopened and it would be much work to unpack everything and to arrange the rooms in a way she felt comfortable with. Luckily, at least the furniture was already there.
When she was in Ponyville for the first time, she was asking around to find a house that was free and the mayor told her about a little cottage outside of Ponyville, near the Everfree Forest and not far away from Sweet Apples Acres. It was abandoned since the pony that lived here died a few years ago and so she suggested her to move in there. Fluttershy followed her tip and inspected the cottage. She found the building itself and the interior in good condition and so she decided to move in here. Since the pony that lived here had no relatives, nopony was claiming ownership of the cottage after it died and so, Fluttershy could live here without having to pay for it, which came in handy for her.
She just moved from Cloudsdale to Ponyville today and she still had to find a job here to take care of her needs. Of her's and of the needs of many animals that hopefully lived here soon. Since she got her cutie mark, taking care of animals became her big passion. She loved all woodland creatures, no matter if big or small, and here, she wanted to create a sanctuary for them where they could live without having to be worried about finding food every day.
If that would be okay for them, that is.
The last thing she had in mind was to force animals to live here. Every animal could stay as long as it wanted and come and go at it's leisure. She also wanted to take care of animals that got hurt or were sick and nursing them until they were fit again. Thinking on taking care of injured animals remembered her on something.
She looked down at her left hoof. It was covered in bandages and still hurt a little. This injury was bad timing. Exactly on the day before she accidentally cut herself as she was chopping some carrots. She was thinking about delaying her move to the town until the injury had healed, but she had already packed almost everything and could not wait to reach her new home and so she decided to stick to her plan.
Fluttershy went to the window that was aside from the entrance door and looked outside. The cottage stood on a little hill, with a little creek in front of it and lots and lots of space. She clapped her hooves together excitedly. Soon, she would build a lot of vivariums and houses for all sorts of animals here. Doing that would be even more work than to arrange everything here in the cottage, but for the animals she loved so much, it was worth it. Fluttershy would do everything for animals.
In the distance, she could see the dark Everfree Forest. It was a place that scared her. It was a haunted, cursed place the ponies in Ponyville said. The mayor told her about it and the dangers inside. She heard about strange creatures that were completely different from animals living there. One of them were creatures called “timberwolves”. Fluttershy loved wolves too, like every animal, but these were no normal wolves, as the mayor told her. Their bodies consisted of dead wood and according to her, every time a pony managed it to destroy a timberwolf's body, it was put together again by a mysterious, unknown force. Fluttershy shuddered at the thought of it.
Living near a place with demonic creatures like this was nothing the timid, little pegasus desired. Every time she thought on the Everfree Forest and the creatures that lurked inside of it she wished to be back in Cloudsdale again. Up there in the clouds it was safe. No scary creatures and no haunted forests existed there. But there she could also meet only a few animals, big birds who could fly up so high, and living without animals was something she just couldn't anymore. And this cottage was a cheap place to live in, exactly what she needed, and so she swallowed the bitter pill.
She was sure that she would get used to the dangerous forest soon. And technically, there was no risk for her as long as she stayed outside of the forest. According to the mayor, it was never witnessed that a timberwolf or another creature left the Everfree. Every encounter with ponies and timberwolves happened when ponies were foolish enough to enter the forest. For an unknown reason, the timberwolves stayed there. And entering this scary forest was something that would never come to her mind. And since she couldn't think of any animal that would dare to enter it and that had to be rescued from there due to this, there was really no risk that she would find herself there one day. Thinking on animals again, she realized that she almost forgot something.
While it still had to happen that many animals came to her sanctuary, one animal was already there, in fact. It was a little bunny. Fluttershy was not sure if it would stay, but when she came here today, it was sitting outside in the garden and for some reason, it did not leave. So she decided to take the opportunity and to take care of this bunny. Maybe, if it should left one day, it would tell other animals about her sanctuary. Having that bunny here was a good start. Fluttershy smiled.
Then she went into the kitchen. It was already stocked with all of Fluttershy's kitchen tools and the fridge was full already as well. It was the first room she had equipped today, a few hours ago, after her arrival at the cottage.
Fluttershy opened the fridge and pulled out some carrots. She placed them on her back and then she trotted outside to give her first animal friend here something to eat. When she saw the bunny the last time, it was sitting down at the creek, drinking some water, so Fluttershy went there first. But the bunny was not there anymore. Fluttershy searched around in the garden, but she couldn't find it. Suddenly, she noticed something. In front of her was a sharp-edged stone and on it's edge were a few drops of blood. And this was not the only trace of blood she found. In small intervals, more drops of blood led away from the sharp stone. Fluttershy became frightened. This could only mean that the little bunny had hurt itself. She had to find it quickly!
Fluttershy bent down and sniffed at the blood. It was still fresh. The bunny had not come far yet. The carrots still on her back, she followed the trace the bunny had left with it's injury. It led out of her garden and directly into the direction. Fluttershy began to shiver. “Oh, please, don't lead into the Everfree Forest!”, she thought angsty. To her luck, it didn't. After some meters, it changed the direction. Following it for a while, Fluttershy found herself in a forest. The grass was fresh and green and the trees around her were full of green leaves. It was the complete opposite to how she imagined the inside of the Everfree Forest. This must be the Whitetail Woods she heard about.
The blood led deeper into the woods. Following it, Fluttershy wished internally that the bunny was okay. Suddenly, the trace vanished. Fluttershy looked around everywhere, but she could not find any more blood on the ground. The wound must have stopped bleeding as the bunny reached this place. Fluttershy galloped around frantically, calling the bunny and looking everywhere for it. In her worried state, she overlooked a big stone and tripped over it.
She was rolling down a slope that was immediately behind it and at the bottom of it, she landed on her injured hoof. A loud scream of pain escaped the little pegasus' mouth. Her own wound was hurting more now, fresh blood dripping out of it. She wasn't sure if she could still trot now, but then, she saw the bunny she had searched for in some distance in front of her and this revived her spirit. Limping, she slowly trotted over to the bunny. As it saw her, it folded one of it's ears to wave at Fluttershy.
As Fluttershy had reached the bunny, she immediately looked at it's wound. It was only very small and it turned out that Fluttershy's injury was far worse. But she only thought on the bunny now. “You poor little thing! We must get you back to the cottage and take care of your injury.” She thought for a moment and then she lifted up the bunny with her bandaged hoof. Carrying a bunny was sure easier than trotting with an injured hoof.
Fluttershy aimed for the slope to climb it up again, but after only a few steps, she collapsed. Apparently, it wasn't as easy as she thought. Her hoof hurt even more now and more blood was flowing out of it. She could not go on. Fluttershy looked down to the bunny in her hoof. It's injury was not of much concern, but she would got into trouble if she wasn't found here. Fluttershy began to cry.


~*~


And now she was here. Helpless in the rain, without a pony at her side. It wasn't noticeable in the strong rain, but Fluttershy was still crying without hesitation. She laid her head on the ground and cried into the wet grass. Suddenly, the rain stopped.
Fluttershy opened one eye and peeked a little at the ground in front of her. There were still new raindrops hitting the ground some inches away. Confused, she looked up and saw a huge leaf hanging over her head.
“Hi, I'm Pinkie Pie!”, a muffled voice sounded near her.
She followed the source of it. A pink earth pony filly stood on a rock in front of her, completely soaked with the rainwater that was still pouring down from the sky. She was holding the stalk of the leaf in her mouth.
“P-Pinkie Pie?”, Fluttershy asked surprised.
“Yep, that's my name!”, the pink filly answered cheerfully. “I saw that you were in trouble so I came to help you!”, she said like it was the most natural thing in the world.
Fluttershy smiled up to the little filly in front of her, still some tears in her eyes.
It took about an hour until the rain stopped, but Pinkie Pie just stood there, patiently covering Fluttershy and the bunny with the leaf. She got even more wet while standing there, but Fluttershy could see that she did not care. Instead of going away to bring herself into a dry place, she stood there until the rain was over and in the meanwhile, she even tried to entertain Fluttershy with telling her all sorts of things, like that she came from a rockfarm and how she got her cutie mark. Fluttershy was amazed. Up in Cloudsdale, she never met a pony that was so kind.
As the rain was finally over, Pinkie Pie put down the leaf and jumped down to Fluttershy. “I saw that your hoof is injured. Can you still trot?”, she asked for her condition.
Fluttershy rose up and tried to do a few steps, but her hoof was still hurting very much. She grimaced in pain. Pinkie Pie went at her side. She lifted the bunny on her back and then supported her while they walked out of the woods.
As Pinkie Pie had accompanied Fluttershy back to her cottage, Fluttershy lied down on the sofa, exhausted from the little adventure she just experienced. The pink filly was leaving her side for a moment and when she returned, she had a roll of bandages in her mouth.
“Where did you get them from?”, Fluttershy asked surprised. “Even I don't know anymore in which carton I have packed what.”
“That was easy!”, Pinkie Pie answered. “I just looked into the one that has written “First Aid Equipment” on it!” Then she proceeded to remove the old bandages on Fluttershy's hoof and patched it up with new ones.
Fluttershy blushed. In all the stress of the day, she completely forgot that she wrote on the cartons what was inside! If she would have remembered that, she would have been much faster in unpacking her things, maybe even finished already. Pinkie Pie just solved this problem for her.
As Pinkie Pie was finished with patching her hoof up, she placed the bandages beside Fluttershy on the sofa. “Is there anything else I can do?”, she asked her happily.
Fluttershy looked around. She could need help some help to pack out her things, but she did not wanted to demand too much from the filly that just helped her so generously. She shook her head. “No, I think I can take care of the rest by myself. Thanks, Pinkie Pie!”, she said.
“Okie Dokie Lokie!”, she answered. “But if you need me, you can always count on me! I live in Sugarcube Corner, that's the big bakery in the middle of the town! Just come if you need something!” Then she turned around and hopped out of the door.
Fluttershy was happy. Just a short time ago, in the woods, she felt desperated, but now the tides had turned again, thanks to Pinkie Pie. Having found a friend and that despite her shyness, that made it hard for her to get to know to other ponies, was more than Fluttershy ever expected from her first day in Ponyville. She looked after the happily bouncing earth pony and smiled.