The Lightest Touch

by DoctorDerpy

Howling

The afternoon sun shone above as Fluttershy lifted a watering can in her mouth and began to slowly sprinkle its contents over the garden. The water spilled across the flowers, wetting the dirt and sinking down to the roots to fully nourish her plants. Once each flowerbed was watered she then began the process of weeding and pruning. Fluttershy had been somewhat negligent of her garden of late, allowing unwanted plants to grow around her precious flowers. And her guilt was a partial contributor to that afternoon’s gardening session.

The yellow pegasus made made up for it by caring for each flower carefully and individually. One at a time, she pruned then pulled out any weeds she could see. Her ministrations were gentle, as the flowers were delicate, requiring a soft touch. She took her time, wary of each petal; fragile as tissue-paper.

AROO

The pruning shears fell to the ground with a clatter. Fluttershy blinked. She stared, transfixed at the single delphinium in front of her eyes. It was almost shivering as she looked down at its blue form. She reached out a hoof to touch it.

AROO

The pegasus jumped slightly at the sound, looking around. With the help of her swiveling ears, she was fairly certain that the noise was coming from the Everfree Forest. Feeling jumpy, she shook her head slightly then went back to caring for her garden. Only then did she notice that she had dropped the garden shears in her lapse of attention.

“Oh Fluttershy,” she quietly scolded herself, “You’re such a clumsy pony.”

She had picked up the shears once more in her mouth when the noise came out again. It sounded, to the animal carer’s ears, like a wolf howl. She hadn’t seen many wolves in her lifetime, as they were hard to find and usually kept clear of the Everfree Forest. And while they did have timberwolves, they were only named such by their resemblance but were far from the same species. As she the howl once more she worried for the creature. It sounded to her, that the animal was scared. As if it were in trouble.

She placed the gardening shears at the base of her flowerbed and trotted tentatively past her chicken coop, toward the edge of the darkened forest. Peering into its depths, she squinted, looking out for the creature. As she stared into the forest she thought she saw something moving, past the gnarled trees shrouded in darkness. But before she could get a good look at it-

CRACK

A sudden clap of thunder caused the pony to yelp and jump at least five hooves into the air. She gasped as she hit the ground. Snapping her head upward the frightened pegasus saw that sky had become obscured by dark and fast-approaching thunderclouds. That was odd as she hadn’t remembered seeing a thunderstorm in the weather schedule for that week.

Fluttershy shivered as cold droplets began to fall. The water hit her, beginning to soak into her fur and mane. She started back to her house and could see the sky quickly darkening as the clouds began to pour in earnest. The dripping pegasus trotted as fast as she dared back to her home, trying to not slip in the small puddles that had begun to form. Once there she opened the door with a hoof and was about to head inside when she stopped, then looked back at the forest. Even through the rain rattling her rooftop, drowning out everything else, she could hear the wolf howl once more over the strengthening roar of the rain.

Brow furrowed and large cyan eyes full of worry, Fluttershy stood just inside her home, frozen with indecision. She took a few more steps into the house. She closed her eyes, concentrating to block out the noise and the feeling of damp fur. With a deep breath she walked further inside, trotting faster as she swept into the empty house. She came to a stop by a large cupboard, opened it and pulled out a first-aid box full of necessary supplies.

Placing it on her back, she rushed to the open doorway, watching the many streams of water cascading down in front of her. It was almost like a wall, undulating and translucent and she would have to cross it to continue. Fluttershy took a deep steadying breath and made the step.

She had thought she was drenched before, but now it felt like she would never feel dry again. Luckily, Fluttershy spotted her umbrella a short distance away, leaning against her home and picked it up. She opened it and raised it to act as a barrier against the onslaught. Almost immediately, she could feel the many droplets hammering on the umbrella’s surface. Steeling herself for the journey through weather and a dangerous forest, she took a step forward, then another.

The rain seemed like it had no intention of stopping as the world around her slowly filled with water. But she soldiered on regardless, wading through the deep puddles surrounding her house and stopped as she reached her flowerbed. The flowers that she had just been caring for so meticulously had drowned, the dirt being washed away as the rain flooded the area. She watched sadly as the stems drooped and the petals fell off one by one into the rapid stream below.

She shook her head and she continued on, feeling a steadily growing sense of dread as she stepped into the Everfree forest.

Fluttershy dripped water along the forest floor as each step brought her further into darkness. The canopy above blocked out all light and sound from the outside world, but on the bright side, the rain couldn’t penetrate its thick covering. She shook some of the water off herself, closed the umbrella and placed it underneath a wing.

Fluttershy felt her determination, which had been fueling her confidence, begin to melt away the darker it became and soon enough she was quivering with anxiety. The deep shadows from all around her were watching her every step and the longer she walked the more she felt as if she was being smothered from all sides. Her eyes flicked back and forth rapidly as she tried to see what was hiding in the suffocating blackness.

And despite that, Fluttershy keep pushing on. For if there was a hurt creature out there she would do anything to help it.

A little while later she she was further inside the forest than she had been for a long time and the wolf had yet to howl again. In fact it was almost completely silent, all she could hear were the crunching of leaves underhoof and her own breath coming short and fast.

The sudden snap of a twig caused her to gasp in terror, her heart beating triple-time. She spun around to face the sound, expecting the worst. But instead of the bloodthirsty and monstrous nightmare that she imagined, there stood a wolf.

It was a majestic and beautiful creature, which stood almost as tall as herself. It had a gorgeous light-grey coat, which, Fluttershy noticed was matted with sweat and blood, and in some places burnt fur. The wolf limped cautiously towards Fluttershy and she gasped in pity flying over to the injured animal.

“Oh you poor dear!” she cried out. But the wolf took a few steps backwards, watching her warily as she drew near. Fluttershy landed, looking bashful and instead opted to approach the animal in a more placating manner.

“It’s alright, I’m here to help. Don’t worry.”

As she smiled, the wolf’s eyes met hers. She was taken aback at how much worry and sadness she could see in them. For a few seconds they both looked at one another, and then the wolf sat down on its haunches in a clear sign of acquiescence.

Fluttershy placed the first-aid kit on the ground, reached into it and pulled out a bottle of saline solution, antibiotic cream and several bandages. With practiced ease, she gently lay the injured animal down and got to work. As softly as she could, the animal carer cleaned out the wounds with the solution, the cuts were luckily fairly shallow so wouldn’t need stitching. Fluttershy used a hoof to feel through the creature’s fur for all cuts and scrapes.

There were some large bruises along its side which looked nasty, but would heal. She noticed several burns and some singed patches of fur, so she applied a salve to soothe the pain and help with healing. As she worked, she noticed that the wounds seemed to shimmer and glow, and she hoped that the damage wasn’t done magically, as that would be something much harder to help. When she was done Fluttershy wrapped the wolf in bandages and gave it a soft hug.

“There, all better!”

The wolf stood up and looked down at itself. It seemed to be pleased as it began to do some slow bouncy laps around her. She giggled as the fluffy creature trotted around with its partially bandaged body.

“Now don’t do that too much Mr Wolf,” she laughed, “We don’t want your bandages to come undone!”

Fluttershy began to pack away her things. “Just make sure you stay out of trouble for at least a couple weeks, in fact I would prefer it if you stayed with me while you healed but I know how much wolves like their space so…”

As Fluttershy put the kit on her back the wolf barked and she looked up. The creature took a few steps away and then turned around to bark once more, looking expectant. “Are you alright? Is there something more you need?” The wolf once again took a few steps away and barked. “Would you like me to follow you?”

The wolf looked at her, its eyes piercing hers, and then walked deeper into the forest. Fluttershy felt that sense of dread sneak in again as her only source of comfort left. She hesitated for a moment before following.

The two walked through the gloomy forest. Fluttershy’s furry companion turned every so often to make sure she was still there. After a half hour of travel Fluttershy thought that the way ahead was growing lighter. Her curiosity rose as the light became brighter and brighter, they were very deep within the forest now, there should be almost no light at all. What was out there?

When the bandaged wolf stopped again she followed suit. Out in the clearing she saw something so odd, she was sure her eyes were playing tricks on her. Unable to believe what she was seeing, Fluttershy walked a few steps forward to get a better view of the long stretch of water and a sunset in the distance glowing through thick, darkening clouds.

There was an ocean in the Everfree Forest.

Comments

[Venerable Ro]

Well this is different, lets see where it goes.

[tryingmybest1111]

I like it and you use imagery well enough. There are some issues I noticed after skimming it that I would say need to be fixed ASAP.

Your grammar has a couple of glaring lapses, here's some examples:

The sun shined above, as
From the very first line, an unnecessary comma

looked down at it’s blue form.

You use apostrophes in 'its' wrong frequently

Also, I know it was a stylistic decision, but I hate the bolded CAPITAL LETTERS you often insert for dramatic effect. It breaks up the flow of your story in a bad way and distracts me as a reader, you should remove them I think. Overall, you don't have a bad story here, but if you want to improve then I'd spend more time proofreading before posting.

[DoctorDerpy]

9109242
Thanks for the advice. I'll have detailed read through and see if I can fix up any grammar issues now that you've pointed them out. Also I was wondering weather or not I should keep the onomatopoeia, but this nails it on the head.

[JackRipper]

That cover art alone made me add this to my 'tracking' list. I still haven't read the description yet.

[DoctorDerpy]

9109282
Fingers crossed the story lives up to the cover art then!

[Fluttercordia]

I think this is going to be a beautiful story, the imagery you've created make my heart flutter!

[Silverintuition]

Interesting so far, needs as little editing still, but not too bad. The imagery isn't bad, just seems a little over the top in spots. Overall I like it, and I am curious about where this is going.

[Meadow Feather]

Wow what a nice opening chapter! There’s really not much more that I can say that hasn’t already been said, but I will have you know that I’m going to be keeping an eye out for the next chapter. Can’t wait to see where you’re going to take this.