Feral

by wellthen93

Ch. 2

Three years later.

“Confound it, it happened AGAIN,” Applejack complained as Fluttershy looked over the Apple Farmer's wares.

“Oh dear, you mean something got into your barn again last night?” The timid pegasus looked over to her friend as she made her selection. “What'd they get away with?”

“Half a bushel of Granny Smiths just like the night before, ate 'em right there in the barn leaving
cores er'ewhere, had to get poor Applebloom to clean 'em up before she went off to school this mornin'.”

Fluttershy placed a few bits on the stand for a particularly large and healthy looking Red Delicious. “Well... hopefully you can catch him...or her. Have you thought of maybe asking somepony to watch the barn overnight?”

Applejack raised a hoof to her chin and made round motions with her hoof as she gave it a thought.

“Well, Big Macintosh and myself cain't exactly do it ourselves seein' as we gottah be up early e're mornin' to work anyhow, but maybe...”

Applejack set her hoof back down and looked back at her friend inquisitively.

“Ya think maybe Twilight would oblige? I know she's a librarian an' all but seein' as she stays up late most nights anyway maybe she could watch the barn for a night?” Applejack inquired.

“Oh, I don't see why not,” Fluttershy responded.

“I'll make a complaint with the Mayor as well, maybe see if we cain't catch this varmint red hoofed before it makes off with another one of our loads.”

---

It was getting late in the evening as Fluttershy was coming home. Along her way she inquired back with Applejack to hear about her progress setting things up with their librarian friend and everything had already been set in motion. Twilight would stay the night at the barn and monitor things and as an added bonus, Mayor Mare had set up a volunteer night watch to keep an eye on the Apple Property.

Fluttershy set about her usual routine of setting out meals for her animal friends. Thankfully Angel Bunny had been unusually content with a simple meal of carrot sticks. He'd been out more often and Fluttershy could only fathom that it was perhaps that season again for him.

Once she had ate her own meal she settled down for the evening, curling up in her bed with a nice book.

---

Fluttershy awoke to the sound of commotion out in her chicken coop. She rolled over, half asleep looking over to her clock.

“Two in the morning...” she thought to herself.

She sat up and turned on her night lamp, rubbing her eyes with her hooves to drive away the burning sensation of the sudden brightness. With a yawn she stepped out of her bed and made her way downstairs.

Opening her back door she gazed out from her her home at the chickens now running about in the wired in yard aimlessly, squawking and clucking madly. Fluttershy raised an eyebrow, seeing nothing inherently wrong from a first glance. The wire fence didn't look like it was broken into so it couldn't have been timber wolves or any predator she could think of for that matter. She had the fence built after the escape of one her chickens into the Everfree forest and the whole fiasco with the CMC and that cockatrice. No predators could get in as far as she was concerned.

Fluttershy spread her wings and flew up over the fence. As she landed she drew up a comforting face hoping to put her chickens at ease.

“There there now shhhh, let's all calm down now and pile together so I can get a count of all of you.”

Fluttershy lightly prodded a few of the chickens as they blindly ran past her in their fright. Slowly her presence became more acknowledged and the chickens gathered around her, lightly clucking and looking up at her inquisitively. With their full attention she started her count.

“...Thirteen, fourteen, fifteen.... fifteen... I'm missing one,” Fluttershy quietly mumbled to herself. Maybe she's still in the coop, she chouldn't have gotten out.” Fluttershy looked over to the coop and didn't notice anything inherently wrong with it. As she drew closer however, Fluttershy could hear movement from the inside. She walked up slowly to the side and stuck her head up next to the wall to listen in.

From within were sounds foreign to the pegasus. She could hear small grunts, and the faint sound of chewing, but not the sort typical of her animal friends. Fluttershy retracted her head back and made her way to the entrance stopping just shy of the side. From there she peeked in but the light of Luna's moon did nothing to help her see what was within.

“He.. he.. hello? Is somepony there?” Fluttershy stuttered as she peered from the side. The sounds suddenly stopped.

Her heart began to beat loudly in her ears and more frequently as she spoke again, “I-i-iif y-y-you'd jjj-j-jj-just co-c-cc-come out-”

A high pitched screaming suddenly filled the air, sending the other chickens into a frenzied confusion as Fluttershy ducked and covered her head with her fore hooves.

Fluttershy shakily got to her feet and looked inside wide eyed in panic to see what the source of sound could have been. She shakily put one hoof out before the scream came again and suddenly Fluttershy felt something hit her square in the face. She fell back on her haunches and shook her head. As her vision cleared she peered down to look at what hit her.

Wide eyed in terror, Fluttershy's heart began racing harder and she started breathing heavier as she peered down at the now mangled corpse of her sixteenth chicken.

She spread her wings and bolted out of the fenced in area and ran.