//------------------------------// // Lost and Found // Story: The Lost One // by redpyramid1 //------------------------------// Among the birds and trees was a calm, peaceful small town known as Pony Ville, where ponies of all ages and professions gathered to converse, shop, and enjoy their time here. However, in the outer rim of Pony Ville was a home near the Ever Free forest, one that was owned by Fluttershy, who was the tender loving caretaker of the animals of the wild. She was a caring, sweet, soft yellow colored pony with long graceful looking pink hair. Her light greens eyes glistened in the sun as she walked along with a basket in her mouth to collect flowers. On her left Flank was a mark that looked like butterflies, showing that her Cutie Mark was her special skill with animals. She was in another one of her peaceful moods and was happily prancing along getting food for all her animal friends. As she was walking along gathering rose buds and dandelions, and all other manner of flowers, she noticed the sky begin to darken with clouds. “I guess a storm is supposed to come soon, I better head home then.” She said in her soft, humble voice. She began to make her way home, and soon, about half way into her trek home, it started to rain. Water began to poor out of the sky as it soon began to rain hard like a raging storm. Wind flew rapidly in the air that was once calm, and her mane became wet, mangled, and frizzy from the changing weather. Her coat would mimic the same reaction as she continued. Just before reaching her house, which was in view, she heard something. Her ears perked up and she gasped. It almost sound like the sound of… “A crying animal?” She hesitated to say. She was confused as to where the crying was coming from. She wondered what a creature would be doing out here in the cold wet storm instead of in some kind of shelter. Quickly Fluttershy started to search for the poor creature, looking under every bush and in every tree, trying desperately to find the poor thing. Fluttershy searched for about 5 minutes when panic started to set in. “oh no, what if I can’t find it in time. What if it freezes out here all alone with no one to help it.” With that thought, Fluttershy went into overdrive. She searched faster and without noticing, flew into the everfree forest. ~~~~~~ The crying quickly became louder, and clearer. She found herself in a large clearing with a ring of trees surrounding her. In the center of the trees was a small clear stream. Near the bank of the stream was a small creature, crying and completely oblivious to fluttershys presence. Fluttershy landed at the end of the opening and started walking towards the creature, relieved that she finally found it. As she got closer to the creature she noticed the size of it. She stopped walking and observed it. It looked to be about 1 to 2 feet shorter than her and wearing some kind of dirty black robe with a hoodie. As she observed the creature in front of her she began thinking of what her next step would be. She shifted her wait to her right fore hoof and heard a snap. She looked under her hoof to see a twig snapped in half. As she looked up she saw the creature jump up and make an “eep” noise then stumbled backwards and fell on its rump. She noticed it started to hyperventilate and pushed itself back a bit with its feet. Slowly fluttershy started to walk towards the small creature. “it’s ok, don’t be scarred.” She cooed. The creature, still crying, started crawling backwards with every step fluttershy took until it hit a tree. The creature looked like it was starting to panic because it seemed to try and push itself through the tree. Fluttershy started to slow her pace to the creature. The creature gave up on trying to go through the tree and curled itself up into a ball. fluttershy stopped walking when the creature was at her feet. She bent down to see the creature’s face, she gasped when she saw it had no fur or muzzle. It had a sort of flat face and had a small lump in the middle of its face. The creature, still crying, opened its eye a little to see what was going on but immediately shut its eyes. Fluttershy nuzzled the crying creature on its face. The creature gave a loud “eep” and began to tremble. Fluttershy began to try and relax it with her warm and gentle nuzzling. The creature stopped trembling and slowly began to stop crying. Fluttershy slowly held the creature, which was freezing cold to the touch, and started cooing it. The creature embraced her warmth and started to fall asleep. Upon seeing the creature start to embrace her fluttershy hugged the creature with her forelegs and wings until it fell asleep. After about 5 minutes of pure D’aww, fluttershy realized that she was in the everfree forest. Fear starting to take over she quickly and carefully scooped up the small creature in her forelegs and flew towards her home, her mind racing with questions on this strange creature that she’s never seen before. ~~~~~~~~~~ Upon reaching her home the storm started to intensify. Fluttershy quickly opened her door and closed it to stop the rain from entering. Once inside, she went to her bed on the second floor of her home and gently set the wet creature on her bed. She then went into her bathroom and grabbed a towel to quickly dry herself off. She then grabbed another towel and flew back to the still wet creature on her bed. Fluttershy saw that it had what looked like a hooded robe. She pulled back the hoodie and looked at the now sleeping creature. It had almost no fur on its face save for a small patch of brown hair on its head, and its ears were to the left and right of its head. Fluttershy stared at it for a little while stuck in a state of aw, until the creature opened its eyes. The creature sat up and stared at fluttershy. Fluttershy noticed it had beautiful hazel colored eyes. She stared at them for a little while until it sneezed snapping her out of her train of thought. She quickly remembered it was still wet, she walked towards it and started to dry its head off. To her surprise the creature let her dry its entire head without making a fuss. “There we go know your head is all dry, but maybe we should get you out of those wet clothes” she said as she started to remove the robe from the creature. Under the robe was a grass green shirt and ocean blue pants that reminded her of the gentle waves of the ocean at night. She removed the shirt of the creature and started to remove the pants, however this was proving difficult as the creature was holding on to its waist. Fluttershy gave a fairly strong tug and the pants came down looking at the pants then at the creature. She realized why it wanted to keep them on… she also realized it was a male. ~~~~~~~ After drying off the creature and most of its clothing, the creature and fluttershy stared at each other for what felt like hours. even though the clock on Fluttershy's nightstand said it had only been 6 minutes. Eventually the creature yawned, and was struggling to stay awake. Fluttershy was also struggling to stay awake to observe this new creature she found. Fluttershy, whom was sitting on floor in front of the creature, closed her eyes for a little bit. She felt something move under her, when she opened her eyes she saw the creature sitting right under her slightly trembling, he felt cold. Fluttershy wrapped her wings, and forelegs around the creature. The creature slowly stopped trembling, and embraced Fluttershy's warmth. Both the creature and Fluttershy gently faded off into deep slumber. ~~~~~ Fluttershy woke up feeling a bit tired and a little sore. She noticed she was on the ground and was wondering why she was sleeping on the floor. She then felt something brush up against her chest; she looked down to find the creature snuggling up against her chest. Fluttershy then remembered the events that took place yesterday evening. She thought about how this creature ended up alone in the everfree forest, and what kind of creature it was. She had never seen an animal like this before, it didn’t even have that much fur or paws. It had what looked like spikes claws but weren’t sharp at all. She also wandered where the clothes had come from; she pondered this for a while until she noticed the creature waking up. The creature yawned as it opened its eyes and stared into Fluttershy's eyes. Fluttershy returned his stare, with her own stare. The silence felt a little awkward for fluttershy so she decided to break the silence. “Good morning” she said in a motherly voice. The creature buried its face a little into fluttershys chest, slightly blushing. “are you hungry?” she asked. The creature didn’t say anything but its stomach let out a small growl. Fluttershy giggled. “I’ll take it as a yes then” she said as she began to get up from the grown. Fluttershy walked to the stairs and stopped at the top and looked at the creature, waiting for it to follow but for some reason he just sat there on the floor. Fluttershy thought for a moment on why he wasn’t following her. Maybe he didn’t know she wanted him to follow her. With that in mind fluttershy raised her hoof and moved it in a beckoning motion. The creature hesitated a bit, before standing up and walking towards fluttershy. Fluttershy was amazed and slightly shocked that the creature walked on its two back legs without a tail to balance it. it must have strong back legs. she thought. With the creature now following her she slowly went down the stairs, constantly looking over her shoulder to make sure the creature didn’t fall and hurt himself. Once they got to the ground they walked straight into the kitchen. Fluttershy turned to the creature and pointed a hoof at a chair near the table. The creature wasn’t sure what she wanted him to do, he just stood there with a confused look. Fluttershy then pulled the chair out from the table and beckoned the creature to come to her, which he did. Fluttershy then picked up the creature and set him down on the chair and pushed the chair back to the table. “There we go, now” she began “what kind of food do you eat” she said thinking about what to give him. “Maybe we’ll see if you eat fruit” she said as she grabbed two apples from a nearby bowl and washed them, she then took the apple to the table. She gave the creature an apple hopping it was an herbivore and not a carnivore. The creature then took the apple, inspected it and then promptly took a bite out of it. Fluttershy sighed in relief. She then began eating her apple. After they both finished there apples she started to talk the creature. “now then, what should I name you” she said rubbing her hoof against her chin. “Well” she began. “Let’s see, you have a brown mane, and you don’t have much fur, hmm… I’m not sure what to call you.” She sighed “What should I name you… oh! I know I’ll call you Colt, because you’re male!” fluttershy felt happy now that she didn’t have to call him creature anymore. After fluttershy gave colt his name, colt’s stomach growled. “Oh your still hungry, guess I’ll make you something else... I hope you like oatmeal.” She said as she turned to the stove and began making the meal. After they ate, Fluttershy picked up Colt and gently place him on the ground. Fluttershy, and colt exited the kitchen and began walking towards the door. Fluttershy opened the door and walked outside to look at the damage the storm caused. To her surprise there was little to no damage on the property, there were some twigs on the ground but that wasn’t much. Fluttershy turned and looked at colt standing in the doorway. Fluttershy began to beckon him to fallow her. “c’mon colt, it’s alright don’t be scarred”. Colt hesitated to fallow her but after some encouraging words colt left the doorway and stayed close to fluttershy. “Now then, let’s go feed the animals”.