Fluttershy's Wynter Sonnet

by Night Rush

Chapter 4

After the doctor left, Fluttershy let out a sigh of nervous relief. She was very happy to find out that the foal was in good health, but the whole time the doctor had been there, she had been afraid that Doctor Soft Heart would tell her that something was wrong with the filly. While she waited, she played peek-a-boo with the foal. The foal would giggle every time she uncovered her face. It was right after Fluttershy had finished a round of peek-a-boo, that Delicatessa came back into the the room.

“Miss Fluttershy, may I ask you something?” Fluttershy nodded to Delicatessa wondering what the hoofmaid could want to ask her.

“If I can arrange it, would you like to learn how to prepare her food? I could even show you a few tricks that might help you with her a bit more.?” Fluttershy’s face lit up upon hearing this, and she gave an enthusiastic squeal of excitement.

“Oh my yes, I would love it. I know a lot about animals but caring for a foal is new territory for me. You would really do that for me?” Delicatessa smiled. “Absolutely dear. That is what I am here for.”

Fluttershy walked carefully away from the young foal who had easily fallen asleep after playing so much. When she sat down at the table, Delicatessa had a quill in her pink magic and was writing a list. The list appeared to be the different things that Delicatessa was going to show her. The list had things like formula and mash preparation, shopping for supplies and feeding practices.

“These are some of the things I thought would be helpful, I know they would have been when I had my own foals.” Delicatessa commented as she reminisced back to when she had her first foal, “Let me tell you now I am going to work you like the proverbial red headed step child until I am satisfied you can care for her properly, But before that I believe you have an audience with their Royal Highnesses.who knows maybe we can even get Cadence in on the fun heaven knows sooner or later she is going to have a foal of her own.”

After Delicatessa’s reminder, Fluttershy hurried about the room picking up things from the floor and quickly cleaned up the small mess she had created while playing with the baby.. The last thing she wanted was for the Prince and Princess to come in and see a mess after their kindness in helping her and giving her a room to use. Just as soon as she had finished, a knock was heard at the door. When she opened the door, the Prince and Princess were standing there waiting to be let in.

Cadence and Shining Armor stood there like Royals. Normally, Fluttershy would be flustered and stuttering, but after everything that had happened at the wedding, she found them to be less frightening than a Prince and Princess would seem. Fluttershy gave them a warm smile and stepped aside. She lead them to the same table that she had been talking with Delicatessa at and sat with them, taking the seat closest to the open bedroom door. She kept an ear out for the filly just in case.

“Fluttershy,” Princess Cadance began, “I have sent guards out to check the local villages and towns to see if there are any missing foals. I have had some of the guards look up whether there have been any reports of missing foals in the city, as well. So far, we have not had any luck in finding her family. For the moment, I am still waiting to hear back from two of my pegasus scouts that went out to the farthest towns, one of which has been known to have a small thestral population, but until then I will not know any more on the matter.” Cadence let out a heavy sigh and looked Fluttershy in the eye with a sympathetic and worried expression on her face.

“Yes.” Cadence said. “I want to be ready for the worse possible solution, of course, but if we can’t find her parents, would you want to take care of her?”

Fluttershy’s ears swiveled as she heard rustling in the bedroom, followed by silence. The foal shifting put her mind at ease as she considered Cadence’s question.

“You don’t have to give us a response immediately. I do want you to think it over. Being a parent is a huge responsibility and I don’t want to force it on you. You are free to say no.” Cadence continued with a smile. “But she would be your’s. Its a decision that would change both of your lies, forever.”

“If her family is not found….I...I would want to take care of her.” Fluttershy said sincerely to the royal couple. “I do have a question though. Would It be okay for me to name her?”

“Until we have final confirmation of whether or not the possibility for you to adopt her even exist, I think it would be in both of your best interests that you did not.” Shining Armor replied to Fluttershy’s question. “I don’t want to see one of Twily’s friends get hurt because you got too attached to her. After caring for her for so long, I can only imagine that it would be painful to give her back if her parents are found.” He said as he placed a tender hoof on Fluttershy’s shoulder.

Fluttershy looked at them both on the edge of tears. The mere thought of giving up the foal was a gut wrenching idea, but should her family be found she would, for the last thing Fluttershy wanted was to break up a family. She knew that if it were her, she would want the foal back had she gone missing from her sight. Before she could say anything more, a cry from the bedroom told Fluttershy that the infant had woken up.

“Excuse me.” Fluttershy said to excuse herself to tend to the foal.

The yellow pegasus could tell that the filly needed to be changed the moment she reached her side. Fluttershy gently scooped her up and took her to the bedroom where she began to change her. As she changed the filly, Fluttershy thought of how bereft she would feel if she had to give the infant up. Despite not being with her for very long, the time that Fluttershy had spent with the filly made the thought of parting extremely painful and deep inside of her, the wish for her more time with the filly whispered at her. As she pushed the selfish thought aside, she wrapped the scarf around the foal's neck and carried her out to where everyone else was waiting. She placed the foal down at the table and let her crawl around on her own. The foal headed back to the living room and to where the stuffed bunny was waiting on her.

“Fluttershy, it’s not that we do not want you to have the foal. We want what is best for everyone and that means we have to make sure that you do not get too hurt in this process whatever the outcome is.” Shining Armor reiterated his previous point, “But, should we not find her family you will have our full support whatever you decide.” Shining Armor said to her as his wife nodded agreement with him.

As Shining Armor finished, a knock was heard at the door. Not knowing who it could be, Fluttershy got up and went to answer the door. On the other side stood Blast Centurion in full armor.

“Miss Fluttershy, would you let the prince and princess know that I have a message for them?” Fluttershy nodded to Blast Centurion and went to the table to deliver the message.

She ventured over to the Royal Couple and told them. A silent look passed between the royal couple as if they were having a conversation that needed no words. Shining Armor stood and left the table to see what message was awaiting them.

“Umm… Delicatessa when can you start showing me how to make food for the little one? she should be getting hungry any moment.” Fluttershy asked as the princess made her way over to the foal and started playing with her.

“Hmm, well I suppose we can start as soon as you are through hosting the Prince and Princess. That is assuming the princess herself does not wish to participate.” Delicatessa said with a laugh as she and Fluttershy watched the baby crawl on the princess as they played.

The Princess overheard their conversation. She laughed and called over her shoulder, “No thank you. As much as I enjoy playing with this little lady, I would much prefer to leave that to the one who has much more experience than me.” No sooner had she said that than the foal crawled in her lap and pulled on her mane to get her attention.

“Ow!” Cadence laughed. “Alright you have my attention. Now, let go of my mane.” As she returned her attention back to the foal, Fluttershy’s attention was arrested by the dour look on Shining Armor’s face as he returned to the table.

“It appears one of our two scouts has returned.” Shining armor said letting out an unhappy sigh, “The scout reported that no one in that town was missing any children and that no thestrals have lived in that community for the past decade. That leaves us waiting on the report of our final scout. We probably will not hear back from her till tomorrow due to how far out she was sent.” He turned to look at his wife who was happily entertaining the foal and said to her, “Honey, I think it is time we got going. Your second court session will begin soon and it would not be good for us to keep them waiting.”

Having heard what Shining Armor said to Cadance, Fluttershy quickly made her way over to the Princess and took the baby off her hooves so she could be on her way. Cadance smiled and gave the foal a kiss on the cheek before she and Shining Armor made their way to the door.

“We will keep you informed of what we find out about the foal as we get it, but until then, relax and think things over” Shining Armor said as he and Cadance exited the room.

Shortly after Cadance and Shining Armor’s departure, Fluttershy and Delicatessa made their way down to their kitchens where Delicatessa would show Fluttershy how to prepare a couple of things for the filly. Fluttershy carried the infant in her makeshift pouch as she flew behind the crystal unicorn.. When they reached the kitchen, Delicatessa briefly had a conversation with the head chef to make sure that it was okay for her to use a small area for Fluttershy’s instruction. Having gotten the chef’s approval she led Fluttershy to a small double burner stove that had a table and sink next to it.

“Alright first things first, you need to hand the foal to me seeing as you will be doing the work so that you have first hoof experience.” Fluttershy reluctantly handed the baby over to to Delicatessa who held her to her carefully with her magic until she securely got her foreleg around her.

“Now, the first thing we need to do is to take those apples that are on the table to the right of the sink and start peeling them.”

Fluttershy picked up a knife and began peeling the apples. She slowly ran the knife over the edge of the apple so as to not cut too deeply into it and possibly cut too much off. It was as she finished her sixth apple she received her next set of instructions.

“Next, get a frying pan from the chef or one of his assistants and fill it with about an inch of water. Once you have done that begin roughly chopping up the apples into small pieces. When you are ready, bring it to a boil, then lower the heat, cover and simmer gently until the chunks of apple are tender. That should take about ten minutes to get the apple to the appropriate tenderness.” As Delicatessa dictated these instructions to her Fluttershy found herself thinking that the she was lucky to be getting help. Meanwhile, she had to track down a the chef or one of his assistants, so that she could get a frying pan.

Once she finally got her frying pan she hurried back to her work station and filled it with an inch of water before she started the chopping of the apples. After she had the apples in the pan and had the lid on it she took a deep breath. She now had renewed appreciation for the cooking and all it entailed, also it felt good that she was learning to make the food herself instead of relying on others.

“After your apples reach the appropriate tenderness take them out of the pan and mash them to the desired consistency and place them in a bowl ready to serve, and that fluttershy is how you make applesauce. ” After that Delicatessa started instructing Fluttershy on how to make Curried Carrot slices that would be tender enough for the foal to eat with little to no problem at all.

Fluttershy did her best to keep the instructions straight in her head. If there is one thing she did not like it was performing in front of others and here she was cooking in front of what to her felt like the most important audience in the world. At one point, after adding the carrots to the pot, she took those two minutes and used them to have Delicatessa check her preparations and to take a deep calming breath. She felt like she was back on the runway in front of Photo Finish with all the pressure she was placing on herself. She wanted to do it perfectly.

“Fluttershy, dear you might want to attend to you carrots or they will burn.” Delicatessa said to her snapping her back to reality and to the task she had at hand. when it was all finished the carrots were just a tiny bit over cooked from her moment of spacing out. All in all she had done an excellent job and Delicatessa even said as much later.

“Now Fluttershy, I want to show you how to feed a child of this age. when they are seated take a spoonful of either the applesauce or the carrots and guide them gently into the foal's mouth. there will be times that they will try and refuse eating. I found that at least with some kids that if you make it into a game, such as the spoon is a train or some other such thing you will have better luck.” After explaining that to Fluttershy Delicatessa demonstrated what she meant and had Fluttershy repeat it.

When fluttershy went to feed the filly with the spoon she initially refused the spoon after that she tried the train method suggested by Delicatessa, this too ended in failure.

Not knowing what else to do fluttershy preceded to say, “Open up for Fluttershy, say ahh!” and without another complaint the little one opened her mouth and took a bite of applesauce. causing both Delicatessa and Fluttershy to smile. So for the next ten minutes she sat there feed the foal the applesauce and carrots feeling extremely proud of herself for making the food herself.

“Delicatessa, thank you, It… It means alot that you helped me like this. If there is anything I can do to repay you please, oh please let me know.” Fluttershy said to Delicatessa her voice ladened with gratitude for what had been done for her.

“I will keep that in mind dear, but for now lets move on to preparing formula and how you feed it to the foal when you hold her.” With that the instruction continued. By the time Delicatessa Was done showing her how to make the formula the little imp was starting to fall asleep.

“One thing you need to remember Fluttershy is that whenever you hold her you need to support her head so that it does not hang. It is important to do that for one if you are feeding her because it will help insure that she does not to choke on her food, and another reason is that it is better for her spine. also do not forget to burp her. it also helps to ensure she grows up healthy.” Having finished her explanation she demonstrated each of the different thing she had talked about from placing the foal on her shoulder and patting her back to the cradling of her head while holding her in her arms.

Afterwards Fluttershy did the same feeling once again both proud of herself and grateful to Delicatessa for being here for her. When they returned to their rooms the sun had already went down. Seeing this Fluttershy thanked Delicatessa for her help and wished her a good evening. Walking over to the sink she filled it with lukewarm water. Afterwards she undressed the foal and began gently washing her with the brand new foam sponge lying beside the sink. After this was finished she took the little one to the room and laid her down in the center of the bed and waiting till the filly was asleep before taking her own quick shower. When she returned to the room she quietly laid down in bed beside the foal place one arm around her and fell asleep.

Author's Note:

Sorry it took so long to get out.

Comments

[Just another hoerse love]

Much kawaii

[RainCrasher]

Hmmm. Reading this story I have to say it has an overdose of cuteness. anyway It was decently written but I like the concept. The story kept me engaged and wanting me to keep reading to find out more. I hope to see more of this story.