Cutie and the Beasts

by AleximusPrime

Pinkie Lends a Hoof

CHAPTER 3 - Pinkie Lends a Hoof

“Okay Owloysius, this pill here ought to ease the pain in your neck. All you have to do is just put it in your mouth and then swallow it with some of your water, okay?”

The stressed owl didn’t seem too convinced by Fluttershy’s words but he reached his wing out and she dropped it on top of the feathers. He then tossed it into his beak and gulped and then turned himself around with his legs to get a sip of water from a hanging bottle taped to a pole next to him.

“Okay Angel. Owloysius’s pill. Check that off.”

Angel had a long list in front of him and used a little quill to put a check mark next to one of the items.

“Alright, now who is next?”

Angel flipped the paper around and pointed to a little doodle of Gummy.

“Oh right, Gummy. I hope he didn’t wander off again…”

She flew over to the couch where there was a little pillow that Gummy was resting on. Luckily he hadn’t wandered off, but he didn’t look too well. He was sweating and his eyes were half-closed. His thermometer was still in his mouth and Fluttershy took it out to look at it.

“Oh my…still at 78 degrees Fahrenhoof. That’s way too high for a cold-blooded reptile like you, Gummy! Maybe I should just give you an ice bag for your poor head.”

She sped off into another room and returned with a plastic bag with ice in it and put it on top of Gummy’s head. Gummy started to look relaxed and closed his eyes contently but then he turned blue and his jaw started chattering from the cold.

“Oh no, too much ice!”

She took the ice off but then his temperature went back up and he started sweating again. Fluttershy put it on but he went cold again. She put it back on and then took it off repeating the same steps over and over again. Finally she took out some of the ice and threw it on the ground thinking she’d remember to clean it up later and put it on Gummy’s head to see if that was enough. The mercury in the thermometer bounced back and forth in the vile until it started to slow down and stayed put on 40 degrees.

“Oh, good, finally! I hope that helps you out Gummy. Alright Angel, what’s next?”

Winona started howling in the kitchen which answered Fluttershy’s question before Angel could.

“Oh my goodness, Winona!”

She jumped up and then flew into the kitchen which caused Angel to get spun up in the list. In the kitchen Winona was there on her dog bed whimpering in pain like usual. She had already had her pain relievers but she was still hurting.

“Oh Winona, I’m so sorry but I can’t give you another pill until six more hours. Perhaps if I just massage your leg a little…”

She put her hoof on Winona’s leg and rubbed it until Winona stopped whimpering and started to close her eyes. The massage was working but then something else broke the silence. Opal could be heard hissing in the living room at something.

“Opal? Oh now what?!”

Fluttershy rushed back into the living room to see Opal on top of a little dresser with her tail and back hair standing on end. Below was Philomena looking up at her curiously.

“Opal, how did you get out of your cage?! You need to stay in there; you’ll spread fleas to the other animals!”

Fluttershy reached for Opal but Opal turned around and hissed at her.

“Oh no, not now Opal. Please, do as you’re told, I don’t want to have to raise my voice!”

Opal hissed some more and then sat herself down and started itching herself not listening to Fluttershy. Fluttershy thought for a moment and then went over and picked up a toy mouse with her hooves and hovered over Opal.

“Oh Opal, look at this tasty little mouse I have for you!”

Opal’s ears perked up and she turned around and started to bat at the mouse dangling above her head. Fluttershy tossed it into the opened cage and Opal went after it. Fluttershy quickly dashed to the cage and closed it locking it shut.

“Phew, that was close! Oh, Philomena, are you okay?”

Philomena made a sputtering cough and some of her feathers fell off. She was starting to look the way she did when Fluttershy first met her a while back.

“I know you go through this stage every so often and have to put up with it no matter what, but maybe you should at least take a pill to keep you well. Here, take this one right here.”

Philomena rolled her eyes and reluctantly pecked the pill and swallowed it but it got stuck in her throat and she started gagging.

“OH MY GOODNESS, YOU’RE CHOKING!!!” Fluttershy gasped at the sight of the royal pet fighting for her life and then went around her and picked her up in her arms hugging her tightly. “BRACE YOURSEFL, TIME FOR THE HOOFLICH MANEAUVER!!” she said right before squeezing Philomena to get her to cough up the pill. Philomena’s eye-balls inflated and her cheeks puffed up and then she spat the pill out which flew like a bullet and ricocheted off of everything it touched until it finally broke the lock to Opal’s cage and caused the door to swing open. Opal ran out and started chasing some mice that were wandering Fluttershy’s cottage freely.

“OPAL, NO, THOSE ARE INNOCENT MICE, NOT PESTS!! I LET THEM IN HERE, PLEASE DON’T HARM THEM!!!”

Opal luckily didn’t catch the mice; they got in their hole before she could get them but she slammed up against the wall and became dizzy from the impact.

“Oh my, are you alright? You really shouldn’t go chasing the mice you know, they’re fast and hard to catch. You might hurt yourself again.”

Opal shook her head back and forth and then Angel waved to Fluttershy and motioned that Opal had fleas and needed to be in her cage.

“Oh, right, thanks Angel. Opal, you need to go back in your…”

Suddenly Opal was climbing up a cabinet and swatting at some birds flying around the ceiling.

“OPAL, NO!!! NOT MY BIRDS!!!”

Fluttershy tried to go grab her but Opal dove in midair to get one of the birds but missed and landed on top of Gummy’s pillow causing it to puff up and launch him in midair. He soared through the air and almost landed smack on the ground but Fluttershy caught him just in time.

“Oh, that was close!”

She let Gummy down and he walked back over to the couch where Opal was clawing at the pillow.

“Opal, no, not the pillow!”

Winona started howling again and Fluttershy rushed into the kitchen but she didn’t have time to massage her this time.

“Oh Winona I’m so sorry, but I’m a little busy here…”

With Winona still howling, she turned around to see Opal jumping around on the furniture chasing more birds and Philomena was running around chasing a mouse. She ran towards Opal to stop her but slipped on the ice she forgot to clean up and smashed into a bookcase causing the books to fall on top of her. She poked her head out of them and then started breaking down.

“EVERYONE, PLEASE, I CAN’T TAKE THIS STRESS! I SPENT NEARLY ALL YESTERDAY AFTERNOON CLEANING UP THE MESS MY FRIENDS MADE!! PLEASE DON’T MAKE IT WORSE FOR ME!!”

Her eyes started to fill with tears and she put her head down with a book on top of it and tried her hardest to fight it back.

“Maybe Twilight was right. Maybe I can’t do all this by myself…” she thought to herself. “No, no I can do this! I have to try somehow! Oh but I lack the energy, I’m so tired from yesterday and I can barely get any sleep! How can I tackle all of this when I’m so tired?!”

Suddenly a knock was on the door and all the animals got frightened and went back to their spots and were quiet.

“Fluttershy, ya in there?! It’s Pinkie, I got something for you!”

“Oh, Pinkie? I wonder what she wants…”

Fluttershy went to open the door and saw Pinkie waiting there with a saddle bag around her back.

“Hey! How’s it going in there? Busy with the animals?” Pinkie said cheerfully.

“Oh, well yeah, of course I am. Not that it’s a problem, I can handle it but I was busy.”

“Oh, well I hope I’m not interrupting you then…”

“Not at all Pinkie, you’re welcome to come in.”

Fluttershy stepped to the side and put her hoof out welcoming Pinkie into the cottage.

“Whoa, I dunno about the animals but you have a serious bookcase problem there!”

“Yeah, that was my fault; I slipped on the ground and landed there causing them to come down. I’ll take care of that later though. Anyways, did you say you had something for me?”

“Sure do! Let’s go into the kitchen first.”

They both walked into the kitchen and Pinkie put her bag up on the table and sat in the chair next to Fluttershy.

“I figured since you have a lot of work to do with the animals and stuff, you’d be needing a little energy to keep you going, so I brought over some of my best coffee!”

Pinkie pulled out a little can of coffee that said “Extra strength for when you most need it!”

“C-c-coffee?”

“Yeah, it’s some great stuff! I have it every morning!”

“Every morning, Pinkie Pie?” Fluttershy said in a bit of disbelief.

“Well, every morning I need it that is. Sometimes after I throw a party, I’m really partied out the next day so I need to drink a little to get me going. Don’t worry, I don’t have a lot, that would just make me CRRRRRRRRRRAZY! Which reminds me, this one time I drank too much, like two or three cups, and I went soooooo crazy that I was like a whirling dervish, I mean you shoulda seen me, I was bouncing all over Sugarcube Corner and breaking stuff and trying to make some treats but I just ended up covering everything in dough and flour and icing and sugar and stuff and then finally Mr. and Mrs. Cake had to get Applejack to lasso my legs so I’d stay put and then they gave me some chloroform and the next thing I knew, I was in bed several hours after being put out! Funny story, huh?!”

“Um……I think I got most of it Pinkie Pie. So you want me to have a little to see if it will help me out then?”

“Of course! I even brought along a mug for you right here!”

Pinkie took out a little mug and placed it in front of Fluttershy and then went over to Fluttershy’s coffee maker and started brewing it up.

“Thanks Pinkie. I don’t usually have coffee, but I don’t think I’ve tried this kind before. Does it help you get a lot of work done at Sugarcube Corner?”

“Sure does, and it’s great for when you’re really tired and stressed out from a lot of hard work! By the way, how is Gummy doing?”

“He’s doing fine. Still has a pretty high temperature but he’s got a pack of ice wrapped around his head that ought to do the trick.”

“Do you mind if I go see him right now?”

“Sure, he’s in the living room over there on a pillow.”

“Okey dokey!”

Pinkie then walked into the room and saw Gummy on the pillow that had some scratch marks on it from Opal.

“OOOH! Gummy, there you are! So how’s life? Still have a temperature? Well don’t you worry, Fluttershy’s got it all under control here and that ice oughta do the trick! Man it’s boring at home without you around, I mean I have no one else to talk to, but it’s okay because last night was Lyra Heartstring’s birthday so I threw a party there for her and I had a bunch of friends to talk to obviously so I wasn’t that alone…”

Meanwhile in the kitchen, Fluttershy served herself some of Pinkie’s coffee and tried it out. The taste at first tasted like regular coffee but it had a somewhat strong chocolaty flavor. It was tangy like soda and left a bit of a shock on her tongue but it tasted wonderful.

“Oh my, this tastes great. And it is very invigorating; I feel energized already!”

In just a few moments she finished the coffee in her mug and let off a sigh of relief.

“I suppose it wouldn’t hurt to just have a little more……I’m sure Pinkie wouldn’t mind, and it would give me more energy. I gotta limit myself though, don’t want to overdo it.”

She poured herself another mug and drank away.

Back in the living room, Pinkie was still talking to Gummy.

“And then Lyra tried at Pin the Tail on the Pony and ended up pinning it on Berry Punch’s rump which caused her to jump in the air from surprise and then she landed in the punch bowl! HEHEHE!”

Fluttershy took her last sip of the second cup and her eyes started to widen a little.

“Wow, I feel a lot better now. I almost feel like I could take on the whole world! I suppose another cup wouldn’t hurt…”

She poured herself another cup of it and drank it up as Pinkie continued to talk.

“And then I was like ‘OOOOH, BERRY-PUNCHCEPTION!!! HAHAHAHA!!!”

Fluttershy chugged the last bit of her third cup of coffee and then set the mug on the table. Her eyes widened some more and were starting to go a little blood-shot. A smile slowly started to form on her face.

“I think I’ll have some more!”

TO BE CONTINUED…