> My Little Hope: Caring is Magic
>  by batman0889
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

> Chapter 1 Awaken
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

Chapter 1 Awaken

An attempt to truly describe this pain indeed appears to be difficult as it frustrating, yet the need to verbalize it is overwhelming. The foal opened his mouth in hopes of expressing his anguish to anybody around him, but due to his severely dry and tired throat his voice was barely louder than a whisper. If anybody had been close enough to hear him, they would have probably heard something sounding like this, "Fuuuwaaarrrgg!" What he said wasn't so much a word but as slur of sound, even through that was not what he wanted to say but nonetheless made him felt better saying it. Now that pain was subsiding he then realized he had no recollecting of this place or getting here. He looked down to see that he was covered in bandages; both arms and legs were in bandages. To an outside observer he must have looked like a baked potato covered in tin foil but instead of tin foil it was a bandage. The recent comparison of the potato had reminded him that he hadn't eaten in recent memory, his stomach started to crave food such as marzipan wedding cake, mooncakes and bananas. Wait what's a mooncake.
His brain conjured up the image of a typical mooncake being round or rectangular pastries, with a rich thick filling usually made from either red bean or lotus seed paste surrounded by a thin crust. He thought to himself serious brain, you can recall what a mooncake looks like and what it is made of but the name that you have identified with for so many years eludes you. He had to get his mind of food before he drove himself mad, so he surveyed the room he was in. He saw some light coming from a window, it was clearing sunshine, so it must be day and judging from the angle its coming in at it was probably noon. The room had pink wooden walls with a small window, he was currently sitting on and a bedside lying on a pillow and a yellow blanket had been tucked in around him. I feel so scared and alone in this place.
I try to move a little but I received a jolt of pain in my back legs. So I try to move my head, bad idea too, I received a pain in the back of my neck. For the moment I just lay there due to every movement I made was received with pain. To keep his mind of the pain and keep it busy he started making a checklist of his current situation

I cannot move.
I do not know where I am.
I do not know who I am.
I am hungry and thirsty with no relief in sight.
I do not even know my own name.

Yep I'm completely hopeless right now, His thoughts were interrupted by a sound of someone walking up stairs.
He felt scared, he did not know who or what it was coming up to see him. As I hear someone coming to the door I hide under the blanket hoping that the person would not see me. But I quickly realize that it stupid trying to hide because the person knows that I am in fact right here where they left me. So I just lay as still as I could, hoping that the individual will think I am sleeping and leave me alone. So then the door opens to reveal a large yellow pony with elegantly fluffy wings, with long flowing pink mane and tail. Then I noticed some strange pink dots on her flanks that looked like moths or butterflies. Through my squinted eyes I made eye contact with two soft gentle blue eyes. Curses she made eye contact she knows I'm awake. She suddenly began to open her mouth, I wonder what she is going to say; wait I hope it's a she cause this going to be weird if it turned out to be a he. 

"OH MY GOODNESS LITTLE COLT, YOU'RE AWAKE!" she happily exclaimed. I winced in pain at her volume, it felt like my ears were being pierced with a needle, I would have need some major counselling after this, did she even know how loud she was being. I don't think anybody could be friends with somebody so loud. "Oops! Sorry if I'm being too loud," she said lowering her voice. Is she a mind reader the colt said to himself trying not to think of anything. Fluttershy continued in her warm motherly voice, "I was so worried about you and was starting to think you were never going to wake up."
“So how are you today little colt” she ask joyfully. I did not answer her I just stayed quiet. “Is everything alright, do you feel ok” she asked sounding very worried. I still didn’t answer her but stayed completely quiet and tried not to make any eye contact with her.
She came over to me by the bed “here let me feel your forehead, I want to see how your feeling” she said putting her right hoof out to me. But I quickly moved away from it, Feeling scared of this pony. She quickly reassures me. 
“It’s ok little foal I won’t hurt you I promise” she stared at me with her big blue eyes.
I could tell by her eyes so loving so full of care and kindness that she would never hurt a thing, she was someone I could at least trust. I look up at her and nodded, letting her know that I trust her.
“Thank you I won’t hurt you little colt I’m just trying to help”, She gently puts a hoof on my forehead to feel my temperature.
”Oh good your fever has gone “she said happily.
I twitch in pain as she touches my head, the touch of her hoove send a sharp pain to my skull. She looks at me and she could immediately tell by my face that I was in pain.
“Oh, you must be in a lot of pain right now, let me get you something for that”, She started to leave the room but quickly stops and turns around to face me. 
“By the way my names Fluttershy “she said with a happy grin on her face. And with that she leaves the room to go get something for me from downstairs. I just laid there for the moment thinking to myself. Who is that pony and why I am here. Mm... Fluttershy what a weird name she has, is she the reason why I’m here?
A few minutes later Fluttershy comes back with a cup of some steaming liquid and a few bandages. She places the bandages on the small table and walks over to me. 
“Here, drink this medicine, it will help ease the pain.”

I try to get up and take it from her; however I received a pain in my back and immediately lay back down on the bed. I let out a sigh of pain, feeling yet again hindered by my condition. 
“Oh let me help you “she said gently putting a hoof around my back to help me get up, she lent me up with care without putting pressure on my back.
She brings the weird smelling medicine to my face and I slowly take a sip of it. But immediately pull away from the drink with a disgusted look on my face as it went down my throat.
It tasted revolting, like if you mixed bananas and cherries then mixed it with fish scales and cheese it would taste just a bit like that but a lot worse. It tasted so horrible. 
“Oh dear, I’m so sorry about the taste but this medicine will really help you” she said trying to convince me to drink that poison.
I refused to let a nether drop of that horrible medicine touch these lips. 
“Please little colt, I really want you to get better and if you drink this you will feel better much quicker.”
She stared at me with those soft gentle blue eyes. For some reason I just couldn’t say no to her with those caring eyes of hers.
I let out a sigh, well I’ll drink this if you say it will help, but I really really don’t to do this, I quickly drink all of the horrible medicine in one gulp, nearly throwing up from the taste. As it seem to go down like rotten fruit. She smiled at me “There now that wasn’t so bad “she said with a mixture of joy and giggling.
I frown at her. Sure it’s funny for you but for me it’s a nightmare trying to drink that poisons I thought to myself.
She places the cup on the small table and pats me on the shoulder.
“Thank you, I know that wasn’t easy drinking it, but you did it anyway, thank you very much.
Why was she thanking me? It’s not like I did anything amazing, I just helped myself nothing special. 
“Now I think it’s time you had a bath, who knows how long since you last had a bath, you must be filthy.”
Bath? What is a bath I wonder what that is? “Now you stay here while I go run the bath “she said as she left the room, like I have a choice.

I hear a door open and a sound of something metal twisting, Pipes clinking and the sound of water splashing. I could see steam coming out of the room. This happen for a while, then I hear it again the sound of the metal twisting and suddenly it all when quite. Then Fluttershy came back into the room. 
“Ok now let’s get you out of those bandages and into a nice warm bath.”
She came over to me, takes the blanket off and sat down next to me on the bed. She took my front right arm and slowly unrolled the bandage. “See I said that the medicine would ease the pain” she said happily. Wow I thought, she’s right she holding my arm and I can’t feel any pain in my hoove.
She unrolled my bandage front right arm to reveal my small arm; I now relies why I had bandages on in the first place, my arm had several cuts going down it, I had to been in some fight to get cuts like that. Also with the bandages off I could now see what my fur colour was. My fur colour was a nice light blue, a bit like the sky. 
“Well this arm is healing, well nothing’s wrong with it, right on to the next arm. “
She finished unrolling my right arm then went to the left arm and did the same. She did the same with the left she unrolled it and looked for any infection, but everything was fine with my arms. 
“Now” she said” it’s time for the legs”.
She went to the back right leg and started to unroll the bandages. But suddenly a quick shot of pain when through my right leg and I twitched in agony. Fluttershy stopped unrolling the bandages and looked up at me with a worried face. 
“Hold on a second I think this leg is broken, tell me does this hurt when I do this” she said as she move my leg upwards.
I bit down hard on my bottom lip as a great amount of pain came from my leg.
“Oh I’m sorry little colt, I’ll take that as a yes, don’t worry I’ll be extra careful with this leg.”
Well she did say that the medicine would ease the pain, she never said it would get rid of pain it.
It was painful but it didn’t take long to unroll my bandaged leg. She lied my broken leg down gently and when to the other leg and started to unroll the bandage. When she finished taking all the bandages off my legs she helps sit me up right being gentle so she won’t put pressure on my back.
“Now it’s time for the chest “she said. She started to unroll the bandages on my chest revealing more cuts and bruises down my chest. 

“Oh you poor brave thing you really got banged up” she said as she continued to unroll the old bandages.
I thought to myself where did I get these cuts from. 
“And your wings are getting better too” she said.
I have wings? I’m a winged pony like Fluttershy. Yeah, I am one step closer to finding out who I am. But my wings they feel strange, probably having wings feels strange if you can’t use them. After she had finished unrolling all the old bandages she took all of the old bandages downstairs to dispose of them. She quickly came back upstairs and back into my room.

“Now” she said “are you ready for a nice warm bath.”
I shrugged my shoulders, I really didn't have a clue what a bath is. She gently picked me up in her arms being careful of my leg. Wow I thought I really am small she picks me up with no problem at all like I’m a kitten. She walks across the landing with me held gently in her arms.
And that’s when I see it a giant bowl of bubbling hot water and she’s going to put me in it. She’s going to drown me. As she’s about to put me in the bath I grabbed hold of her chest for my life. 
“Oh come now it’s not going to hurt you” she said, trying to pull me of her.
I’m not listening to what she says; I’m not going in the bath. 
“Please little colt, the bath will help” I shook my head, no I’m not taking a bath, no no no no.
“Please, do it for me” she begged, she stared at me with the soft gentle blue eyed stared again.
I shook my head again. Oh no, it’s not going to work this time, stare at me all you want but I’m not going into that bath. Fluttershy tried everything to get me into the bath but I just keep shaking my head.
Fluttershy sighed in defeat. I didn’t want to do this but he has left me no choice, I can’t get him off me without it probably harming him, I’ll have to do it the hard way, she thought to herself. ”well little colt if you won’t go in the bath I guess I’ll just have to come in with you.”

UN OH I didn’t plan for that to happen. I quickly try to break free from her grip but she held me tight in her arms. “Time to take a bath” Fluttershy said as she hops in the bath with me in her tight grip. I shrieked in terror as the water touched me, squirting to break free of Fluttershy’s grip but with no success. 
“Shhh...It’s ok its ok look, there, See the water’s fine” she said trying to reassured me.I was too busy splashing around in a panic screaming and getting water everywhere to hear her.
"Shhh...Its ok little colt... “She said in her gentle sweet motherly voice, "It’s ok. I’m here there is no need to get scared over water“ my panicking starts to boil down and I stop splashing in a panic, it’s not boiling, hot it’s warm with bubbles. I looked back at Fluttershy, now completely drenched in water from head to back hoof, her pink hair was now all wet and covering her face.
“There now” she said moving her soaking wet hair out the way of her face to reveal a cross yet joyful Fluttershy, ”It’s not so bad now is it”, she started giggling at my silliness.

I look at her with a silly look on my face. Why was I so scared of taking a bath, it's just water nothing to get scared over? Oh I feel so stupid for making such a fuss over nothing. 
“Now let’s get you cleaned up shall we then“ Fluttershy said enjoying herself with me. She got a jug from the side, filled it with water from the bath and poured it over my head. I shriek as I feel a sudden splash of water going over my head. 
“Shhh...It’s ok she said it’s just water remember no need to get scared “she said laughing a little at me. I stop panicking and thought to myself yes it’s just water.

She got something from the side of the bath, Shampoo; she puts a little on her right hoof and started to rub it into my mane gently. As my mane was now wet, some of it cover my face and I could see what colour it was, My mane was dark blue a bit like the night sky. There was the smell of coconuts in the bath; I think the Shampoo has coconut in it.

“Ok let’s wash that hair of yours, and don’t worry I’ll be careful about your horn and your eyes”.
What did she just say, the thought went through my head like lightning?
Did she just say I have a horn? I’ve got a horn. I put my right hoof on my head I feel around .I feel something sticking out of my head. Yes I do have a horn. 
“What the matter little colt don’t tell me you didn’t know that you were a unicorn.”
A unicorn so that’s what I am.
Now if only I could remember who I was and why I can’t remember any of my past, oh well I guess I just have to wait and see what happens.
“Now let’s wash the shampoo out of your hair“she said as she poured water over my head. 
“Now it’s ok it’s only water” she said hoping not to have another outburst of fear. But this time I didn’t shriek in terror but instead giggled with joy.
Fluttershy looked at me with sudden surprise at my joyful giggling.
”Oh so you do like the water now do you” she said happily as she started to giggle too.
I simply nodded back in enjoyment. I splashed around in the water enjoying myself as I played in the bath. Then fluttershy joined in, by splashing me back, I guess this was payback for the getting her wet, but I didn’t care, I was having fun. Fluttershy and I played in the bath, with the fun seeming endless. We played with the bubbles, we messed around with each other’s mane, and splashed each other with the water, we played for hours on end.
But Fluttershy kept having to put more hot water in the bath and taking the plug out so I wouldn’t get drowned by the overflow of water. Finally after two and a half hours Fluttershy finally decide it was time to get out. 
“Come on little colt it’s time we got out the bath now.”
But I didn’t want to get out, I was having too much fun. I shook my head refusing to get out the bath. 
“Oh little colt you made such a fuss about taking a bath at the beginning and now you don’t want to get out, my you are a silly little thing” she said playfully.
Fluttershy got out first to dry herself off and then she picks me up gently in a soft pink towel and pulled the plug out the bath.
She happily walked out the bathroom with a spring in her step taking me back into my room and setting me softly down on my bed.

“Now we better dry you before you catch a cold.”
She dried me off gently in the towel making sure I was completely dry but also made sure she wasn’t hurting me as she did it.When she finished drying me off she tells me to wait here.
Again is she really that forgetful I CAN’T WALK IN MY CONDITION! What’s so hard to remember about the condition that I’m in?
She left the room and then back into the bathroom. I could hear her going through the cabinet searching for something. Then there was the sound of the cabinet being shut and she came back into the room. She held in her hooves a bottle filled with a green liquid and some cotton wool buds.
She came and sat down next to me. She unscrews the bottle top and put some of the green liquid on a cotton wool bud. 
“we just need to clean your cuts and put some new bandages on you ok.”
She held my front left arm in place as she was ready to start cleaning my cuts.
“Sorry for this” she said as she puts the wet cotton wool bud on my cuts.
Sorry? Sorry about what why is she saying sorry for------ AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA! IT BURNS!, IT BURNS! There is a burning pain from my cuts. It feels like someone is pouring acid into my cuts.
“Sorry” she said “but this hurts me more then it hurts you” I would rather have your pain right now. I bit my lower lip it was like I had been set on fire. 

“Come on we don’t want you to get any infections now do we”, I don’t know Right now the infections sounded like heaven then going through this torture. I try not to cry out in pain as she cleans my cuts.” "There there little colt it’s ok your feel much better now on to the next arm, we got to clean all your cuts."
WHAT! I have to suffer four more times? This is a cruel Punishment. AAAAAAAAAAHH! IT BURNS!
After ten minutes of torture and putting on some new bandages, it was finally over. Thank goodness that was all over I thought to myself. She went to the closet and got out some more pillows. She puts a pillow behind my back and a pillow on my broken leg, after making sure I wasn’t in any pain she placed the yellow blanket on me.
“Now would you like something to eat”,I looked at her but before I could think of anything my stomach growled as if it was trying to answer to me, so I nodded.

“Okay I’ll go downstairs and make you something to eat back in a minute”, and with a flash she left the room and the sound of her rushing downstairs could be heard all around. For some reason I feel safe around her even though I’ve barely known her for that long, I feel a somewhat connected to her in some way.
Downstairs there was the sound of metal pans, water and something being poured into a pan. Sometime later Fluttershy came back into the room, with her steaming bowl of food.
”Now I’m going to feed you this yummy oatmeal, is that ok with you”, I don’t know, is it going to be like the revolting medicine is it? I thought to myself. She put a spoon of garish yellow blob to my face but I wasn’t eating it, it didn’t look yummy at all. 
“Oh come on it’s not like that medicine from earlier, I promise, It’s really yummy I put bees honey in it to make it taste nice just for you” What’s bee’s honey; I didn’t know what that is? Come on brain, you know what a potato is, but not bee’s honey, jess your useless brain, anyway I didn’t care I was not falling for that again. 
“Look, I’ll even try it for you, see”, She put a spoon of the oatmeal in her mouth and swallowed it. Making mmmmm noise as she swallowed it, “Mm... see it tastes yummy and it's good for you.” She put another spoonful of oatmeal to my face. Ok I’ll try it then, but if it’s bad it's going all over your face. I open my mouth and she put the spoon of oatmeal in my mouth, I swallow it. Mm... It tastes much better than the medicine, soooooooo much better. 
“See I told you would like it”, she would feed me a spoonful of oatmeal at a time.
“So little colt you’ve been awful quiet haven’t you, in fact you haven’t said a single word”. She looks at me with a worry face, head slightly bent as if she’s trying to figure it out. I didn’t know why really but something keeps telling me not to talk. So I just shrug my shoulders at her question. 

“Oh it’s perfectly fine if you don’t want to talk; I was a bit like that when I was a filly.”
“I’ll just ask you a yes or no question, okay then“she said happily. I nodded as she fed me another spoonful of oatmeal. “So do you remember anything “she asked hoping for any new leads about me? I shook my head my mind was blank. “Oh so you don’t know if you have a mommy and daddy”I shook my head again, her guess was as good as my. 
“Do you even remember your name?” I shrug my shoulders at her question.
“Oh Celestia you don’t remember a thing and you don’t have a name well we’re just have to think of one for you”.

”Hmmm let me think”. “Hmmm how about Akuma”? I shook my head I don’t like that one.
“How about Ken?” I shook my head again. 
“How about Dudley?” I shook my head yet again. 
“How about Gouken?” I shook my head at her bad names. 
“How about Dhalsim?” I shook my head yet again at her attempts to name me. Jess where in the world is she getting these names from, they don’t sound normal.

“How about max?” I nodded, finally a normal name, one that I like. It was better than being call little colt all the time. “Ok then max it is”. She scoops the last amount of oatmeal into my mouth. “Now“she said “would you like some more oatmeal”. I nodded. She left the room and went downstairs to go get some more.
After three bowls of oatmeal I was finally full with my little belly sticking out. That’s was good, I can’t remember eating anything that good, then again I can’t remember anything. “Oh my, you were hungry “She said giggling at me,” Well I’m not surprised since you were asleep for a week.”
A WEEK! I was asleep for a whole week. How could I sleep for a whole week, why was I so tired? 
“Wait here max I’m going to go get something “ she quickly went into her room and brought something back. She had something behind her back, but I couldn’t see what it was. “Well I have something for you max”. She brought the thing from behind her. It was a stuffed brown rabbit plush.

“tarr darr, It’s Mr. Button brown ,he was my favourite toy when I was a little filly and I want you to have him.” She placed the toy next to me. It was almost the same size as me. But I hugged the big soft toy rabbit, I love it. ”Aww! I’m glad you like him. Max” she asked softly “you’ve been asleep for a while and it hasn’t given me a chance to examine you, so I was wondering now that you're awake could I take a better look at you...if that’s ok with you”?
Examine? Examine..... Examine what does that word mean, I’ve heard it before. I sigh and just nodded not knowing what I was getting myself into. 

“Good ok then I’ll go get my medical bag, back in a second” she quickly left the room and returned with a big white medical bag in her arms. She places the bag on the ground and started to set out her equipment.
She came up to me with something around her neck. “Max this thing here *point at the thing around her neck* is call stethoscope, we’re going to use this to listen to the heart beat; here you want to listen to my heart.
By letting him listen to my heart I’ll be able to gain his trust so that he will let me examine him Fluttershy thought to herself.
She placed the stethoscope around my head making sure it was on right. She placed the end of the stethoscope in my right hoof and guided me with her hooves to her chest.
"See max this is where my heart is and what you’re hearing is my heartbeat” Her heart beat was slow and gentle. Listening to her heartbeat was kind of soothing in a way that I can’t explain, just listening to it made me a little sleepy.
"Ok max I’m going to listen to your heartbeat and check for any abnormal signs, is that ok”.

I nodded. She takes the stethoscope from me and places it around her neck
“Ok max I’m going to begin now, just sit still and it will be all over before you know it" she gently place the end of the stethoscope on my bandaged chest and waited. She was looking up at the sealing and moving her eyes around as she listens to my heartbeat. She listens to my heart for a minute or two before removing the end of the stethoscope. 
“Oh perfect your sounds hearts just perfectly fine and healthy” she said sounding relieved.
She put away the stethoscope and brought out a weird pointy thing. “This max *pointing to the object* is an echoscope, I’m going to use this to look inside your ears. Now I’m just going to place it in your ear now, okay so don’t feel scared if it hurts a little, ok here we go”. She grabbed my right ear and inserted the echoscope. She started to moves the object around my ear. After she finished looking in my right ear she quickly pulled the echoscope out my ear, took the end of the echoscope and replaces the end and did the same to the other ear. After finishing looking in my ear she put the echoscope away. “Your ears looks fine, nothing wrong with them, Now last test max.”
Fluttershy then went into her bag and pulled out a small gizmo. “Now I just have to check your blood and this little machine will tell me if there’s anything wrong with it”. “Now I just need to get a bit of your blood, I’m going to use this little pin to get some blood from you, sorry if it hurts”.
She took my right hoof in her left hoof; she brought the pin to my hoof and dug right into it.OW OWWW that really hurts fluttershy.
“There now that wasn’t so bad, now I’m just going to test it."
She put a small drop of my blood into the machine and waited. Then was a little beep from the machine. Fluttershy look closely at the machine. Fluttershy suddenly came over to me and engulfed me in a tight hug. 
“Oh good news max you’re healthy, well you a little underweight, and have a broken leg and all your cuts, apart from that you just fine, isn’t that great” she said with such joy in her voice. It sure felt good when someone tells you that you’re fine and I felt safe with Fluttershy. 
“Now that the tests are all over we can have some play time now.”
Fluttershy went into her bedroom to get some things to play with. She placed the things on the bed, small square blocks. 
“Those are building blocks, you put them on top of each other to build things, watch” she picked up some blocks and made a small tower out of them, seeing the blocks for the first time I really thought they were just normal boring square blocks, except when fluttershy talked about them and she made a tower out of them, they suddenly looked really fun, I wanted to play with them.
The rest of the afternoon was spent with me and Fluttershy playing with the building blocks. I love building a tower only then to knock it down, it was fun playing with Fluttershy; she always made me laugh. She really made me feel happy when I was playing with her. But soon it started to get dark and Fluttershy started to pack away the blocks.
”Oh look at the time; it’s time for your dinner come on let’s go downstairs for dinner.”

She gently picks me up in her arm carrying me out the room, and downstairs. When we got downstairs I finally got a look at her living room. It was pretty big. It had brown walls much better then pink walls. There was a big couch, a big stove with a big bowl on it with something was cooking inside it, a small table with pots on it. Many little boxes with holes in them hanging on the walls. A big blue carpet on the floor and next to it was a big bookshelf, Paintings on the walls of other creatures and lots of other things that I was clueless about.
She put me down on the couch and then walked over to the big stove. She got a bowl and poured some bright green liquid into it and came over to me with a delicious smell coming from the bowl.
” I hope you enjoy this soup I made.”
She got a spoonful of the soup gently blew on it, and then put it to my face. I open my mouth and swallowed it. mmm the soups  really good, maybe even better then the oatmeal. ”You like it” she asks. I nodded with the spoon still in my mouth.
”I’m glad you like it; it’s my mother’s recipe, she used to make it for me whenever I was ill as a filly.”
She fed me spoon after spoon of the delicious soup. After she finished feeding me she wiped my face clean from the soup. “Well max did you enjoy that?”

I nodded with full satisfaction of the delicious soup. 
“Oh good I’m glad you like it” she said sounding Pleased with herself.
She looked at the clock and then back at me.” Well it’s time for bed” I frowned at her; I didn’t want to go to bed. 
“Come on now it's bed time I’ll make you some warm milk and I’ll read you a nice bedtime story to help you sleep, now does that sound better” She said in her gentle sweet motherly tone.
That made me a bit happier, but I still didn’t want to go to bed. She picked me up in her arms and took me upstairs to my room. She places me on my bed, puts a pillow under my broken leg turned on the lamp and tucks me in bed.
“Now I’m going downstairs to make you a drink and get you a bedtime story back in minute.”
She turned around and went downstairs. There was the sound of pans clicking around and milk being poured. After few minutes she returned with a glass of warm milk and a book. She places the glass on the small table. She then opens the book and began reading the story. It was about a little wooden pony puppet that comes to life, His dream is to become a real pony and it meant to be a real pony, it said to never lie or else your nose would grow large. It’s a good thing I don’t talk. The book was called Pinocchio, I like the story, and especially the way fluttershy read it.

She spoke of every scene so perfectly with every little detail to create the image in my mind as If I were there that very moment, and whenever a character would speak in the book, she’d change her voice to fit the character whether it be a small pony clueless of how the world works, to a big scary stallion trying to keep you all to himself so he can make a greedy profit of you. I was hook on every word and I always wanted to hear what would happen next. After three chapters she stops reading. I tap her on the arm and give her an unhappy look; I want to hear what happens next to Pinocchio.  She looked at me and sheepishly smiles, “oh max, I know you want to know what happen next to Pinocchio, but your just have to wait till tomorrow” ohhhhh but I want to know what happens  to Pinocchio now! Does he ever become a real pony, or will he stay a puppet forever.
“Come now max, drink the milk and go to sleep, you need rest more than the story”, even though I want to her more of the story, I was feeling rather tired.
Fluttershy brought the drink forward and prop me on my back as I drink the warm milk. “Now don’t drink it too fast“, she said in a caring tone. So I slowly drink it with the help of Fluttershy. The warm milk it tasted nice. After I was done drinking she took the glass from me. She came closer to me and gave me a big hug. She hugged me tight and gave me a loving kiss on the forehead.” If you have any problems I’ll be downstairs or in my bedroom if you need me.” after she finished hugging me she took the book and the empty glass and left the room. Not before saying to me “good night max, sweet dream my little prince.”

She then went downstairs. The room was nicely lit as I was left there with thoughts. I laid there with Mr. Button Brown and try to sleep. But I couldn’t sleep there was too many questions that haven’t been answered yet. Why was I asleep for a week? Why can’t I remember who I was? And how did I end up at Fluttershy’s? Why do I have a horn?
But soon I started to drift to sleep. Before I know it I was dreaming.

My dream wasn’t one beauty nor was it a happy one, it was bad. I was in a dark place with nothing else but miles of pure black obis. I started to walk forward into the darkness except there was no sense of direction in this place, I wasn’t sure if I was walking forward or backward.  Time itself seem to be slow in his place, it was hopeless I was stuck with no chance of getting out of this place. I didn’t know if this was a dream or real life. I could feel my heart beating and I feel my legs moving, so am I awake? I don’t know.

But just as I was giving up hope, a bright object caught the corner of my eye, I turned around to face it. It was a pure white unicorn that I could see from a small distends. But that pony seems unusually happy for a pony to be in a place like this. As I walk towards her I could start to make out what she look like. Her mane and ponytail were pure white; she had a black spot on her flanks. I was now closer to her, but then she suddenly stop what she was doing and turned around to face me.
At that moment the whole world seem to change from both perspectives, from a happy go lucky pony to my worst nightmare. Her eyes changed from a beautiful green emerald to an empty black darkness with blood coming out them. She started to slowly come toward me. the beautiful buttercup she held in her right hoove changed into a sharp knife. She smiled a creepy smile that says there no hope you’re going to die. I didn’t need anypony to tell me to get the heck out of here. I started to run as fast as I could, I was running away from her into the darkness but she just keeps go coming after me.

She screamed at me “YOU'RE GOING TO DIE NOW YOU LITTLE RUNT."
I keep running but, she jumped upon me, nailing me down to the ground and keeping me from moving my hooves. I can’t move she had me right where she wants me. She took the knife in her left hoove. She slowly brings the knife down to my chest.
“Wait, wait, what are you doing?” She looked at me then to my chest then back to me, “What are you doing with that knife? Wait! No not there! Not the chest! No! AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA.”
She slowly brought the knife into my chest. I felt the knife digging into my chest cutting through my ribs in one quick motion of the blade, this was truly pain. As she cut open my chest she smiles happily. I was scared out of my mind. As she finished cutting thought my chest.
She stops and looks at me. She stared into my eye with those empty black eyes of hers. Her eye started to tear with blood. She opens up my chest as if it was a lid. I could see all my internal organs.
Seeing my own organs moving right In front of me was horrifying, seeing, hearing, and feeling all my internal organs right in front of me. I was going to vomit from the site, it was so sickening but before I could the white unicorn grabbed hold of my throat tightly with her right hoove. She brought her left  hoove to my lips.

“Shh..... No, not now. You're not going to ruin my fun are you?" she said in her creepy voice, "you're not going to ruined my enjoyment, no you’re going to be quite.” She looked around my opened chest, till she found what she was looking for.
She put a hoove into my opened chest and places her hoove over my beating heart with her right hoove still on my throat. She looks in my eye and smiles a happy smile. But I did nothing I could feel my own lungs moving. She laugh creepily as she grabbed hold my heart. She came right up to my ear and whispers a cruel message to me.
”I hope you enjoy the pain you received as much as I enjoyed it, NOW TIME TO GO NOW”. And with that she ripped the heart right out of my chest.
I scream as I felt the worse pain of my life, as I felt the connection of my heart suddenly ripped out of my body. I look at her with my still beating heart in her hooves as she licks it happily. 
“Ha ha ha! It soooo worth the wait to taste this, it’s the most delicious thing in the world.”
She actually enjoys the taste of my heart, this was one sick pony. Then the rest of the world started to fade away and finally the heart in her hooves stop beating as I shut my dying eyelids.
Suddenly I woke up. Breathing heavily beams of sweat going down my head and pains in my chest.
Why was I am dreaming of that? Why did my mind think of that? Who was that white pony? Why did the pain feel so real? And why did she enjoy my pain so much?

I felt so scared of the world around. I didn’t want to go back sleep, what if I saw that white pony again? Suddenly I thought about what Fluttershy said earlier; maybe I’ll go to her, she’ll make me sleep better. I grabbed Mr. Button and jumped out of bed and hit the floor with a thump. OW maybe it wasn’t such a good idea to do that, well there’s no going back, I can’t reach the bed.  So Fluttershy it is.
It was very hard crawling on three hooves and carrying Mr. Button in my mouth. The medicine must of wear off as every movement came with painful aches from all directions.  After a lot of hard work I manage to crawl out of my room and onto the landing. It was pitch black, apart from a beam of light coming from a door. It had to be Fluttershy, I crawled toward the light. Using my right hoove I open the door. And there was she was, Fluttershy was in her bed writing in a little book. She looked up from her writing and stared at me. She could as soon as she laid her eyes on me from the look in my eyes that I had a nightmare. 
“Oh max did you have a bad dream”, She has no idea what a bad dream meant. So I nodded. She jumped off her bed and walked over to me. She then put a hoof on my shoulder gently calming me.
“There there max I’m here for you, it’s alright" she said in a caring mother tone. “No one’s going to hurt you, it was just a bad dream”.
As she looked down at me she could see that I was scared out of my wit and just going back to my bed was not going to solve it.
“Max, you want to sleep with me in my bed tonight.”
I quietly nodded. There was always something about Fluttershy that said caring and kindness. “Alright, come on then."
She picked me up in her arms and carried me and Mr. Button to her bed. Her bed was a very large bed, the sheet was pink,  the pillow were pink and the wood posts of the bed were pink. I guess she like the colour pink.
She laid me gently on the bed. The bed was so soft it was like sleeping on a clouds. She gently tucks me in and place Mr. Button next to me.
“Now you’ll be alright sleeping here tonight, won’t you?”
I smile at her but quickly yawn with sleepiness. She smiles back at me. She got back into bed, picks her book back up and continued writing in it again. So I laid there in the big soft pink bed trying to sleep but I was waiting for Fluttershy to finish what she was doing.  I’m not sure what she was writing, but It may be a diary and she was talking about her day, After Fluttershy finished writing in her book she puts her book on her table, turns her lamp off next to her. Then lay her head on the soft pink pillow. 
She turns to face me. “Goodnight max sweet dreams little one” she said as she kiss me on the forehead. After she kissed me, I hugged her back. 
“Aww, Thank you for the hug max, you sweet little thing."
I may not able to speak but I do know how to show my love. She gently nuzzled me as we both started to drift off to sleep in each other’s grip.
That night I fell asleep in her arms, she was always there to keep me warm through the night and her wings to shield me from the nightmares. I love the kindness of Fluttershy. I've never said a thing but she understands me so as well as a pony. I don't care that she was not my real mother she has taken care of me like I am her own child, I love her like if she was my own moth--- no wait! she is my mother and I’ll will always love her.
As I slept in her arms that night there were no bad dreams no nightmares and no white pony’s only peaceful dreams with my mummy.

> chapter 2 A small day out
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------


Chapter 2 - A Small Day Out

The next morning, Max awoke with the beautiful morning sun beaming on him. He was still lying down in Fluttershy’s arms. She was still deeply asleep, holding Max just as she did all night. For the moment, he just laid there in her arms peacefully, her body heat keeping him warm. That was one of those moments where it just felt great to be alive. Where your outlook on the world is really beautiful for what you have, when you can appreciate life for what it truly is, and yet Max felt happy for what he had in this world. He still didn’t know what it’s like outside, in the real world, and he wanted to see it, but right now he was happy where he was, with Fluttershy. For about an hour, he just laid there, relaxed and snuggling with Fluttershy. His whole mind was at ease just watching her sleep. Just in the arms of his mommy, who, he loved more than anything. 
Then, as if somepony pressed the start button, Fluttershy started to wake up and the day could begin. She sleepily yawned and rubbed the sleep from her eyes as her mind started coming to realisation of the past events. She smiled happily at Max, still a bit sleepy.

“Good moooooooooorning, my sweet little Max. Did you sleep alright?” she asked with a sleepy yawn.
Max nodded. It was one of the most peaceful nights of my life, Max thought to himself. 
“Oh good, I was so glad you kept me company last night, you sweet little thing”. As she looked at Max, she suddenly realised that she was still holding him in her arms.

“Oh. I guess I slept with you in my arms all night Hehe, silly me”. She let go of Max and sat up in her bed.
Fluttershy looked outside the window “Well, it looks like it’s going to be a beautiful day today, what should we do today, Max?”
Max didn’t really know how to answer this question, so he just did what he normally did at questions like this, shrugged his shoulders.
”Oh well, I’ll need to go into town get some things. Since I wasn’t really expecting you, I didn’t stock up enough food for the both of us, so I’ve got to go get some more. Do you want to come with me?”
Max nodded, he didn’t like being on his own.
Well, of course I’m not leaving Max on his own, Fluttershy thought to herself. 
“Ok then we’re going into town, but first we should have some breakfast, don’t you think?”Max nodded. I could really go for something to eat right about now, he thought to himself. 
“Ok Max, I’ll go make us some breakfast. I’ll be back in a sec.”
Fluttershy jumped out of bed and landed softly on the floor. She had a quick stretch of her legs and headed downstairs. So now Max was all on his own, just lying there in the soft bed with Mr. Button Brown. This gave him some time with his thoughts. His mind started to wonder off on its own, as all minds do, but soon his mind came back to last night’s dream.
He remembered every single detail of the horrible dream. He felt all the fear he felt in his dream, striking his heart like a silver arrow. Just thinking of it made his spine shiver. 
The white unicorn who was she? How could anypony enjoy butchering someone like that? I remember her laugh as she cut into my flesh, she really enjoyed my pain and there was a lot of it. But the face of the pony, it seemed somewhat familiar to me in some way. Maybe my mind is trying to tell me something, but what is it trying to tell me? Max sighed. Maybe I should just forget about it after all, I mean it’s just a dream, they don’t always make sense, he thought to himself. So Max tries to think about something less morbid, anything to get his mind off that dream. So what are Fluttershy’s friends like? Are they like her? Nice, sweet, kind and caring, or are they different?Max wonders this for a while.
Soon after that, Fluttershy finished cooking breakfast and was coming up the stairs. Max could hear the sound of humming. Fluttershy was in such a good mood that morning, she just felt like humming to herself. She came back into the room with two bowls of oatmeal, some more bandages and a glass of medicine. As soon as Max saw that glass and what it was containing, he felt a lump in his throat and a bad feeling in his stomach. Max looked at Fluttershy with an unhappy look on his face knowing of the pain that was to come.

“Yes I know, Max, you don’t like the medicine, but I only want what’s best for you and this will help you get through the day.” She looks at Max with the big, blue eyed look again. For some reason Max couldn’t say no to her. It must be the eyes. That have to be it, Max thought to himself. So Max gave in and nodded in agreement. She walked over and placed the two bowls on the table, then over to Max. She helps Max up and brings the drink to him. Max took a deep breath for the horror that he was about to receive. Then, like lightning, he gulps the whole drink not missing a single drop, trying not to throw up from the gut wrenching taste. Max let out a sigh of relief after the feeling of being sick had gone. 
“See Max? It’s not that bad” Fluttershy said trying hard not to laugh at Max’s face, the look on his face was just priceless.
Max looked at Fluttershy with anger in his eyes. You're enjoying this aren’t you? Max thought to himself. 
“Well, now that you had your medicine, you can have some breakfast” Fluttershy giggled.
She brought a bowl over to Max and started feeding him the yummy oatmeal. She started to talk to him while she fed him. 
“Ok, first we’re going to see my friend, Rarity. I haven’t seen any of my friends in a while, and Rarity might be able to help with some clothes. See, Rarity is a famous dress designer and if anyone can help with clothes, it’s her! Then we’re going to Sweet Apple Acres to get some food from my friend, Applejack. During the winter, she helps me with the food. And maybe if you’re lucky we can go get something from Sugarcube Corner. One of my best friends, Pinkie Pie, works there.” Max looked at Fluttershy, a little confused as to what she was going on about. 
“All my best friends are special. We share a very strong and unique bond.” 
Max looked at her, confused again. Hmm, maybe I should tell Max about my friends so he can understand, Fluttershy thought to herself, but where to start?

Fluttershy started to tell Max everything, her six friends, Princess Celestia, Princess Luna, Nightmare Moon, and Discord. By the time she had finished talking; Max had already finished his oatmeal. 

“Ok, now I’m going to eat, and then we’re going to get ready to go in town, ok?” Max nodded she gave him a lot to think about. Like what is a dragon? And what does a Sonic Rainboom look like? Really, she ate a whole cake in one bite? Max understood some of what Fluttershy said but he was still felt confused with some things.
When she finished eating her oatmeal, she picked the bowls and glasses up. She went downstairs and put them in the sink. 
Today is going to be great, I just know it! Fluttershy thought to herself as she came back upstairs into her room. 


She went to her dresser and got a brush from one of the drawers. She gently brushes her long pink mane, and then put some makeup on. She went to her closet and brought out some things. A jacket, two pairs of socks, two pairs of shoes, ears muffs, a saddle bag and a blanket. She put the socks and shoes on first, then the jacket and the ear muffs. She then straps on the saddle bag. She wrapped Max up the blanket and gently places him in the right pouch with Mr. Button Brown. He was small, he fit right in the pouch with no problem.
“Read to go, Max?” He nodded with his head sticking out the pouch. “Ok then, let’s go”. She went downstairs. She got to the door and stop. She reaches for something on the small table and put it in the left pouch. 
“Can’t forget the bits to pay!” she said.

She opened the door stepped outside into the world. Max stared in awe, seeing the outside world for the first time, everything was cover in white snow, from tops of the forest trees to the snow cover hills everything was cover in the snow.

“Max this is winter, this is when it gets colder and then it snow, that white stuff is snow, just be careful it really cold snow, you could froze bit if you get too cold” fluttershy was talking in a lower tone to try and tech max about winter”.

Cooool the snow looks fun, ooooo what’s that oh and that and that max had a curious mind and like all curious minds, he was amazed by new things.

Fluttershy walked through the snow in her casual way, her hooves crunching softly on the soft snow. Max was just looked around at everything he could see. The snow was beautiful; it covered everything in a thin layer of frost, making the world glitter. Everything was so beautiful and peaceful .Max could see his own small breaths as they twisted in the air making snowflakes dance. It was all relaxing and silent aside from the birds singing their morning song. But the silence and peace was intruded by the sound of someone shouting.
“LOOK OUT”.
Followed by a loud TUMP as if somepony had hit the ground. Fluttershy went over to the crash site that was a pile of snow. Suddenly, Max saw a large grey pony with wings.
“Oh hey, Derpy....umm....Are you alright ?”Fluttershy asked. 
“Yeah, I’m fine. It's nothing new, I’m always crashing into things.”

Derpy stood up and shook all the snow off of her face and wings. Her mane was yellow and she had some grey bubbles on her flanks. Once she opened her eyes, Max shrieked in fear and quickly pulled the lid down of the pouch of saddle bags. Derpy's eyes were yellow and creepily off-center.
“Sorry, I didn’t mean to scare the little foal.”Derpy said “Is he going to be ok?” Derpy said in a sad, derpy way.

“Don’t worry; Max is just a very shy pony. You just surprised him, that’s all” Fluttershy said. Max slowly pops his head out of the pouch.
“Hey there Max, I’m Derpy Hooves! I’m the mail pony. I didn’t mean to scare you, sorry about that.” Max just stared at her.
“Oh, I guess you noticed my silly eyes. Don’t worry; I won’t hurt you, Max. My silly little eyes may look weird, but I’m your average, happy-go-lucky mail pony!”
Huh what, was she saying something? I was too busy staring at her weird eyes to pay any attention to what she was saying .Max thought to himself. 
“What’s the matter, little foal? Did one of Fluttershy’s cats get your tongue?” 
“Oh sorry, Max doesn’t talk yet” said Fluttershy. 
Actually I was too busy staring at her eyes but either is fine, Max thought to himself.
“Oh okay then, just as long as he’s alright. He sure is small, even smaller than my daughter, Dinky.” “Yeah I know, but he’s very intelligent for his age.” 

“Oh that max is extremely curious, he wants to know all he can” derpy chuckled, "Yeah reminds he of young pony I once knew." Fluttershy replying slightly surprised, "You know Twilight when she was young?"
Derpy laughed, "Fluttershy always were a bit clueless in certain areas. I was talking about you, silly filly. You saying you don't remember all the times you came to me and Rainbow Dash to regale us stories about the different species of animals you saw when visiting the ground.
so anyway, what brings you here?” asked Fluttershy. “Oh yeah, your mail” remembered Derpy. The mail pony searched into her bag, brought out some mail and handed it to Fluttershy. Fluttershy then put it in the left pouch of the saddle bag. 
“Sorry but I’ve got to get going. I’m on thin ice with my boss since that accident when I dropped the piano on Twilight, I swear it was a accident!”.
“Oh that’s ok. See you later then” Fluttershy said.
Fluttershy waved goodbye to Derpy as she started to fly away. Derpy waved back hitting several trees. 
“That’s Derpy, she's always bumping into things, but at least she’s a good mother for Dinky.”
Fluttershy continued to walk toward town. On the way through the snowy paths to Ponyville, there were young ponies everywhere, playing in the snow and having snowball fights. Max kept the lid of the pouch down tightly, just in case a snowball came his way. Fluttershy stopped for a minute and watched all the young ponies play. As she watched the ponies play in the snow she thought of all the moment like this she could have with Max. She thought of when she could play with Max in the snow ,when he would say his first word, and what it would be, getting to help him with his life , she felt the joy of what having a child is like and she was going to enjoy it. After her quick day dream she continued to walk through the snowy path once more.
After a few minutes they both finally arrived at Ponyville which was a busy place with everypony busy with something to do. There are shops, homes, food stands, market stands flower stands and many, many more wonderful things. Max was amazed by what he saw, he had never seen something like this before in his life. There where unicorn ponies, Pegasus ponies, earth ponies, and young ponies everywhere. Strange, Max thought. There aren’t any ponies with horn and wings?Max just kept the lid of the pouch down and poked out a hole in the pouch to see. Fluttershy kept walking through Ponyville until she finally reaches her destination. 
Carousel Boutique. It was a very tall building like a tower and so beautifully designed. 
“Ok Max this is Rarity’s home. We're going in to talk to her, but I don’t think you’re ready to meet my friends yet, so if you could keep your head down that might be the best thing to do, ok?”. Max nodded and put the lied down in the pouch. Fluttershy opens the door of the boutique and went in. As she went in, Max could not believe his eyes. It was such a beautiful place with so many wonderful colours he had never seen before. Fluttershy was met by a “Hello!” from somepony coming downstairs. 
As the pony came downstairs Max’s heart stood still. She was beautiful white unicorn, with a purple mane and tail. She had beautiful dark blue eye with long eyelashes and three blue dots on her flanks. 

“Oh hello Fluttershy dear, I haven’t seen you in a while! We really should meet up more!” said Rarity.
That was the pony in Max’s dream. Max felt really scared of Rarity. Maybe it was a sight to keep clear of this pony, Max thought to himself. 
“Oh I’m sorry... I’ve just been a little busy with the errr.... animals lately” Fluttershy answered quietly.
Rarity raises an eyebrow. It's winter, most of her animals are hibernating, how could she be so busy? Something doesn’t fit with her story, Rarity thought to herself. It’s probably nothing I mean Fluttershy wouldn’t lie to one of her best friends
“So Fluttershy dear, what brings you to my Boutique, anyway?” Rarity asked. 
“Oh, well a friend of mine just had a foal and I want to give her some foal clothes as a gift” said Fluttershy, followed by a squeak.
“Well dear, you came to the best place for clothes. Hmmm, foal clothes… they're on the top floor. Ok then, let’s go look for some clothes” said Rarity feeling excited that she could finally do some clothes shopping with Fluttershy. Normally, Fluttershy was not the type of pony to indulge them with clothes. Fluttershy was quite shy about her body especially when Fluttershy did modeling for Photo Finish.
“Ok then, let me just put my saddle bags down first”.
She carefully unstrapped the pouches and lay them down gently. She whispers to Max,
“I’m just going upstairs with Rarity to look for some clothes for you, ok? I'll be back in a minute”. With that, Fluttershy went upstairs with Rarity to look for some foal clothes.
For several minutes he waited, then got bored and decided to have a look around. He jumped out the pouch and started to look around. There were many things to look at. There were coloured stones that shined in the sunlight, fabric with weird patterns on them and a creepy modelling pony. Then something caught the corner of his eye, something moving. It was a mirror. He came towards it. He hadn’t seen what he looked like and became curious. He was very small but didn’t realize how small he was. He had a small body with a slightly larger head. He was very skinny. His eyes were blue. His mane and ponytail were dark blue. But for some reason, didn’t have anything on his flanks. Why don't I have any marks on my flanks? His thoughts were interrupted by the sound of the front door opening.
“Hey Rarity, I’m home!”
He quickly jumped back into the pouch and closed the lid, hoping that the pony didn’t see him.
“Hey Rarity, where are you?” said Sweetie Belle. 
Sweetie Belle suddenly stopped and stared at the pouch. She saw something moving. Now, any normal pony would have just ignored it, but Sweetie Belle was a Cutie mark Crusader and she and her friends were always being nosey. She came over to the pouch and lifted the lid.
There was a shriek from Max and Sweetie Belle was in shock.
“Hey, you’re really small. You’re even smaller the Pipsqueak, and he is really small. So who are you?” she asked.
Max said nothing. He wasn’t going to start talking to a pony he had just met. Sweetie Belle was a white unicorn. Her mane and ponytail were a light purple and pink. Her eyes were green and she had no marks on her flanks. She really scared Max.
“What the matter? Can’t talk or something?”She said.
He nodded.
“Well, my name’s Sweetie Belle, and Rarity is my big sister. My mom and dad are on holiday and she's been looking after me. Do you have a mom and dad?”, she asked
He shrugged his shoulders.
“What? You don’t know if you have a mom and dad?” She said.
He nodded.
“What the matter? You got no memory or something?”
He nodded. For a filly, she sure asked a lot of questions. But what do you get if you can’t talk and you’re facing a young filly who doesn’t know the fact of life yet.
So Max just stayed quiet and stared at her. She gave up and asked him a different question.
“So you got your Cutie Mark yet?” she asked.
Max look at her confused. What was a Cutie Mark? He thought to himself…
“What? You don’t know what a Cutie Mark is?”
He nodded.
“Well, a Cutie Mark is a unique mark you get when you find out what you’re good at. My friends and I are always trying to find out what our's are!”
Ohhh, so THAT’s what those marks on Fluttershy’s flank are,he thought.
He shook his head at her question.
“Ok, so how did you get here then?”
He looked at her with an angry look on his face. Ahhh…Hello? What part of 'I don’t talk' don’t you understand silly filly?, Max thought to himself.
“Well, if you’re not going to talk...”she said as she left to go upstairs to find Rarity.

Oh dear, what is that filly getting herself into? Max thought to himself.

Upstairs, Fluttershy and Rarity were picking out clothes and talking. Then Sweetie Belle came rushing up stairs and came to Fluttershy and Rarity.
“So how’s life, Fluttershy?” the white unicorn asked.
“Errr things are ---“Suddenly Fluttershy was interrupted by Sweetie Belle.
“Rarity!”,shouted Sweetie Belle.
“Not now, Sweetie Belle. I’m talking to Fluttershy!” Rarity said, a bit annoyed by Sweetie Belle interrupting her talk with Fluttershy.
“But Rarity---“
“No! Now, go to your room”
“But Rarity, why is there a unicorn in a pouch downstairs?”
“What are you talking about?”
“There's a unicorn in a pouch downstairs!” Sweetie Belle said.
“No, don’t be silly Sweetie Belle. Why would there be a unicorn in Fluttershy’s pouch? Now stop goofing around and go to your room.”

Sweetie Belle looked at Fluttershy with a sad look on her face.
Fluttershy winked at Sweetie Belle. 
Sweetie Belle smiled and went to her room.
“What was that all about?” Rarity said to Fluttershy
“Oh, you know children and their imagination.” Fluttershy said, followed by a squeak.
“Oh, you're probably right” Rarity said.
After ten minutes, Rarity and Fluttershy came downstairs with a bunch of clothes.
“Ok dear, that will be ten bits, and that’s with a discount for friends” Rarity said.
Fluttershy came over to pouch and got the right amount of money from the left pouch. She handed Rarity the bits and placed the clothes in the left pouch then strapped it back on. She then said her goodbye to Rarity and left the Boutique. Fluttershy started walking to Sweet Apple Acres.
“Well, we got you some nice new clothes so you don’t get cold”, she said.
Good. Now I won’t feel naked amongst the other ponies, he thought to himself.
She walked for 30 minutes until they finally arrived at Sweet Apple Acres. The place was massive. Trees as far as the eye could see.
Suddenly there was a barking sound come toward them and Max shrieked and quickly hid in pouch.
“Oh, hello Winona. What are you doing?” 
Max peaked out the pouch and saw a small brown dog. Winona came to the pouch and started barking at it. It scared Max a lot. “WINONA! STOP!” a voice said from somewhere.
“Oh, howdy Fluttershy! Sorry about Winona, she normally doesn’t bark at anypony, probably something in that bag of yours” Applejack said as she arrived. Applejack was a strong, light brilliant gamboge coloured pony. She had moderate sap green coloured eyes, pale, light grayish yellow coloured mane and ponytail and three red apples for her Cutie mark.
“Oh, that’s ok. She didn’t mean any harm” said Fluttershy
“Yeah, I reckon I haven’t seen you for a while” said Applejack 
“Oh, I’m sorry... I’ve just been a little busy with my animals” Fluttershy replied quietly.
“Ah, shucks! It doesn’t matter, much. So anyway, what brings you here?”
“Eeeerrr, I came here to get some food.... if that’s ok with you. I mean if it’s not I can come some other time”
“No no, that’s ok Fluttershy! You’re always welcome to be fed from the Apple family! So what ya’ll need then?” 
“Uhh, let me see...I need some carrots, apples, lettuce, and some hay....ummm...If that’s ok with you....I mean, if you don’t have any, I can go somewhere else for some food, I mean, if you’re too busy with something more Important to do, I understand” Fluttershy said in a very shy tone that Max hadn’t really seen before.

“Oh, don't you fret, Fluttershy. Any friend of mine is a friend of the Apple family! Come on, follow me and we’ll sort you out some food”
“Oh, ok then, thanks”
Fluttershy followed Applejack into a giant red barn. The barn was quite old, one of the oldest thing in Ponyville. It was a dry dusty place but over the years, the roof had been damaged and they had to it covered in hay. Still, it was the best place to keep the food in the winter. Applejack called out to somepony.
“HEY BIG MACINTOSH! WE GOT COMPANY! COME ON OUT HERE!”.
“ALRIGHTY, GIMME A SEC!” the red stallion replied
Then out of the hay stack came the biggest stallion he'd ever seen. Big Mac was a large red stallion with a very muscular body. He had moderate sap green eyes, light gamboge mane and ponytail, light yellowish gray hooves and his Cutie mark was of a Green apple sliced in half. He really did make Max feel small, even more than usual. He could feel the floor move slightly with every step he took. The smell of body sweat was strong in the air as Big Mac approached them.
“Howdy, miss Fluttershy!” bellowed big Mac.
“Oh .....ummm ....howdy Big Macintosh” said Fluttershy blushing a bit.
“So what can I help ya’ll with, then?” asked big Mac.
“Errrrr.....we need some food, please” Fluttershy said quietly.
“Pardon I didn’t hear you”
“Errr..... Some food please” Fluttershy said quietly again.
“Sorry, speak up a bit” 
“She came for some food. She wanted some carrots, apples, lettuce, and some hay” said Applejack, getting a little impatient with Fluttershy's shyness.
“Ok then, I’ll go get them for you“, replied Big Mac, going off to get the food.
This gave Applejack a little more time to catch up with Fluttershy.
“So Fluttershy how ya’ll been this winter? Not getting lonely?”

“N-No....I’m alright.”

“Are ya’ll sure? Ah mean ya’ll are normally all on your own in winter”

“I’ll be fine, really. I'm okay at my cottage”

“I'm worry 'bout ya, Fluttershy. If ya’ll need anything, please come see me”

“Don’t worry Applejack, I will, but I’m perfectly fine”

“Fluttershy, have ya ever thought 'bout getting into a relationship with some stallion? Ya’ll know some you might like to spend yer life with?”

“Errrr....I...I don’t know if I'm pretty enough to meet someone”

“Fluttershy, ya got to stop putting yerself down like that. Yer a beautiful mare, and one day ya'll'll make a stallion really happy. You could even started a family”

“I just don't think I’m ready to be in a relationship, yet, ” Fluttershy was getting a bit angry at Applejack. She had came across a really sensitive subject for Fluttershy. She had a few bad relationships, none of which had ever ended well. Normally, she was the one left heartbroken. 

There was an awkward silence as they both waited for Big Mac. After a few minutes the red stallion came back with the requested supplies.

“Here ya go, Ms. Fluttershy. All the stuff ya wanted. Here, let me help you put the food in your saddle bag” He approached Fluttershy, but the second he put his hooves near her bag , she quickly backed away from him.

“Don’t touch my saddle bag!” she shouted. Applejack and Big Mac looked at Fluttershy in shock. She was normally such a quiet pony.

“Fluttershy, what's wrong with ya? Big Mac was just trying to help”

“Oh......I'm....so sorry....I didn’t mean to shout. I just don’t like other ponies touching my saddle bags” The two ponies stared at her. She just shouted angrily at Big Macintosh, and now she quickly turned back to her normal, shy self.

“Here, let me just pay for my stuff and I'll let you get on to your important stuff”

Fluttershy quickly put her food in her left pouch. She paid Applejack and left the farm in a rush. The two farmers watched as Fluttershy became a yellow dot in the distance.

“I worry 'bout her, Mac. I really do”

“Eeyup”

Fluttershy kept flying for some time until she knew she was out of Sweet Apple Acres. When she knew for sure that she was alone, she stopped flying. She landed on the ground and looked around for anypony. She took a deep breath, she suddenly felt her anger start to leave her. Max popped his head out the pouch and looked at her with confusion in his eyes. He hadn’t seen anyone act like this before, but as she looked at him, she feet all her fear and anger melt away. She couldn’t stay mad looking at his cute little face, so young and clueless.

“Sorry you had to see that, Max. I just feel a little angry but I’m alright now” If only max could understand me, it would make me feel all the better in some way. She felt a little strange talking to such a little colt like Max.

Max placed his left hoof on her side. It’s alright Fluttershy. I don’t blame for what you did. I just wish I could tell you this, Max thought to himself.

Fluttershy looked at Max, giving him a small smile “You’re the sweetest little thing, aren’t you?” She patted him on the head.

I hate being so small everyone keeps reminding me of this. Why can’t I just be big like a normal pony? Max thought to himself.

“Come on, Max, let’s go to Sugarcube Corner” Max popped his head back into the pouch. Fluttershy started heading back to town. It had gotten a bit busier than earlier. Fluttershy flew up in the air to get to Sugarcube Corner, she didn’t want Max getting hurt by some pony bumping into her.

She carefully flew down to Sugarcube. As she entered, Max was amazed by what he could see and smell.

There were cakes, cupcake, muffins, doughnuts, small chocolate candies, and other sugary treats. Max was starting to get hungry. He'd never seen such delicious treats in all his life.

Fluttershy came over to the counter but there was some pony in front of her. That pony was pink with blue hair, blue eyes, and grey bird for her cutie mark. She was talking to Pinkie Pie, who was working at the counter.

“So that will be five bits Misses Cock....” Miss Peacock gave Pinkie Pie a unhappy look. She wasn’t happy with her jokes.“Oops, I mean Misses Peacock”

“Yes I should say so myself young lady. Now here is your money. I shall leaving now. Good day Miss Pinkie Pie”. Miss Peacock was a Canterlot pony with a fanys Canterlot accent, she wasn’t really the one for Pinkie Pie’s jokes or humor.

“Fluttershy!” Pinkie Pie came bouncing over to Fluttershy.

“Oh.....err....hi...Pinkie,” Fluttershy said in her normal shy way.

“Oh my gosh! I have seen you since that party about a week ago and I really, really wanted to see you, but you're normally kept inside your house in the winter because all your animal friends are sleeping. I never understood why they need to sleep for so long. I mean, a pony doesn't need to sleep for that long and if we did we would probably become fat or lazy. Isn’t that weird?”

Fluttershy was getting lost in Pinkie Pie's fast talking. Max found Pinkie Pie to be so strange. This must be the pony Fluttershy was talking about earlier. Well, she wasn’t lying about her. She's mad! And why is there smell the of candy floss? Mmmmmmm, candy floss. How do I know what that is if I can’t remember a thing? Maybe I had it before in the past but just don’t remember, Max thought to himself

“So....errr...how have you been Pinkie Pie?”

“I’ve been great! I feel like super-duper great! But my Pinkie sense is going. It’s telling me that there is going to be a new pony here. I got to throw the new pony a welcome party! Whoooo! I have to see the new pony! I just can’t wait, wait, wait to throw a welcome party!”

Fluttershy could feel her body sweating. She wasn’t ready to reveal Max yet, but if Pinkie Pie knew there was a new pony in Ponyville it was just a matter of time before she would find out; and this is Pinkie Pie we’re talking about!

“Umm, I haven’t seen a new pony in Ponyville,” She was hoping that the pony wouldn’t noticed her saddle bag or the game was up.

“Oh, where is that new pony? I just want to throw a party,” Pinkie moaned “So anyway, what brings you here, Fluttershy, huh, huh, huh?”.

“Errr.....I came to get some cupcakes......If you don’t mind”

“Sure what kind of cupcakes?” Pinkie Pie bounced back to the counter. She started showing Fluttershy what types of cupcakes they had. “We have chocolate cupcakes, banana cupcakes, strawberry cupcakes, white chocolate cupcakes, dark chocolate cupcakes, cherry cupcakes, rainbow cupcakes (which don't sell very well for some reason), vanilla cupcakes, super chocolate cupcakes, mint cupcakes, all freshly baked this morning. What would you like?”

Fluttershy was having trouble deciding. There were so many to choose from, and she wasn’t really the one who could make up her mind easily.

“I’ll have the....no wait, the mint....no wait, the chocolate....no....errr, I don’t really know what to pick. What do you think Pinkie Pie?”

“Oooh, oooh! The super chocolate ones are the best cupcakes”

“Well ok. Then two super chocolate cupcakes, please”

“Okey dokey!” Pinkie bounced into the kitchen and brought out the chocolate cupcakes. “That will be four bits, please”

Fluttershy when into her left pouch, looking for the right amount of money. She put the bits on the counter. Pinkie Pie handed her the cupcakes and she put them in her pouch.

“Well I better be off. See you later” Fluttershy turned around and started heading out of Sugarcube Corner but Pinkie Pie quickly stopped her.

“Wait Fluttershy! You’re leaving already? But I’ve only just seen you. I haven’t seen you since my last party. Why don't you stay and talk?”

Fluttershy felt a little guilty now that she hadn’t been seeing her friends much lately, but she has to look after Max for now.

“Sorry, Pinkie Pie. Maybe some other time. I’m just a little busy, today.”

Pinkie’s ears fell down in a sad way hearing this. She wasn’t really good with disappointment and had a tendency to go a bit crazy.

“Alrighty. I’ll see you later.”

Fluttershy went out of Sugarcube Corner and start flying away. But as she looked back she saw a sad looking Pinkie Pie waving goodbye to her. But Fluttershy didn’t wave back, but just kept flying. As she flew, the thought of her friend kept sticking in her mind.

I really haven’t seen much of my friends. I’m starting to miss them a bit, but I should be looking after Max. Oh what should I do?

And like a cross eyed bird flying in the sky, an idea hit her.

I’ve got it! Maybe it’s time for me to show Max to my friends. That way, my friends could support me and still know I'm doing alright.

Fluttershy landed near Twilight’s library “Max, I’m just going to stop to talk to my friend, Twilight” 

“Twilight....Twilight.... Oh yeah, you mean the smart know-it-all pony you told me about earlier?”

Fluttershy knocked at the door. There was the sound of hooves at the door as some was opening the it. Out popped Twilight. The brains of the Mane 6, happy to see Fluttershy.

“Hey Fluttershy! What brings you here. You’re normally at home during winter”

“Errr....Twilight are you doing anything tonight? I mean, if you are I don’t want to bother you. I could come back later if you like, or I could come another time if you're too busy.”.

“Fluttershy, I’m not doing anything tonight and I always have time for friends. So, what do you want?”

“I wanted to have a meeting tonight with Rarity, Rainbow, Applejack, Pinkie and you sometime around five, if you don’t mind”

“Sure I’m free for tonight, but what’s the meeting about?”

“It’s a surprise. Could you tell everypony to meet here at five and tell them it's a surprise?”

“Ooooh, sounds good. Alright then, I'll get everyone together. See you at five!”

Fluttershy went home to get Max ready for tonight. She bathed him, fed him, and let him have a little nap before it was to finally time to reveal Max.

She gently woke him up after he had been sleeping for three hours. “Max, it’s time to go.” Max nodded. She gently picked Max up in her arm and place him in the pouch.

She made her way downstairs, stopping as she reaches for the front door and looking down at Max.

“You ready to met my friends?” Max nodded “Alright Max, let's go.” And with that she made her way to the library. 

A.N 

I’d like to thanks a lot of people who have been helping me write this story and also the people who have been supporting me and patient for the next chapter of my story.

Thanks to 

SalaComMander, FiercyHooves,xBluePony who have taken they time out to help me spell check and write this story.

Also the list of people who have helped me with support and ideas.

8loodyrain, alternatepony, SmexyLittleKitten, Silveon, Awesome-Cloud, CrystalGem523

KittyKagaine95, cartoonfan88 and xkimiax.

Without these people I may not have been able to have written this story so thank you all for you help and support.

Now enjoy the story.
> Chapter 3 A Dark Night with Pink Balloons 
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

Chapter 3 - A Dark Night with Pink Balloons 

The sun was melting into the horizon, the sky was turning a marvellous orange shade. Fluttershy looked at the setting sun and felt disappointed. She wanted to be at Twilight’s place before the sun was this low on the horizon. Even through the sun was setting it was still warm humid form earlier in day still hung in the air. Fluttershy continued her walk to Twilight’s house. 
Fluttershy’s friends were gathered waiting for Fluttershy at Twilight Sparkle’s house. The five friends were gathered around the main table in Twilight’s library. They were sitting together, chatting excitedly about what their friend was going to reveal to them. 
“Hoo hoo! What do you think Fluttershy asked us all here for?? Maybe she made a cake for us to celebrate our friendship. We have all been together of one year three months, two weeks, three days, eleven hours, forty-seven minutes and thirty-three seconds?”
Twilight Sparkle whips around from talking with Applejack, “Pinkie pie, that’s incredible! You can remember the exact time for how long you have known us”
Applejack smirked, “That’s nothing, Pinkie a mathematical genius when it comes friendship. I’ll prove it to yea, Twi. Hey Pinkie?”

Pinkie Pie turned around from describing to Rarity and Rainbow Dash what the best friendship cake would have in it. “That’s why only the most triangular of strawberries would be used. . What’s that Applejack?”
Applejack innocently asked, “Ah how many ponies have visited and/ or moved in and out of Ponyville since you came to ponyville?”
“Well, the first summer I was living here thirty- seven ponies moved it to town, fifty six ponies visted and .. .” Pinkie Pie rattled off the number of ponies going in and out of Ponyville.
“That’s ridiculous, she can remember all those ponies,” exclaimed Twilight.
Applejack playfully smiled, “That’s our Pinkie!”

“You all have it all wrong!” Rainbow  excitedly exclaimed, “I think Fluttershy is really a secret ninja that hunts downs evil doers in the night. Fluttershy has now seen our skills and prowess in a tough situation and she wants to invite us into her super secret society of stealth ponies.” 
“Rainbow my dear, you know this is our Fluttershy? Right? You know how gentle and caring she is with animals,” replied Rarity in disbelief and slight amusement.
Rainbow Dash slammed her hoof on the table, “What if that kind-hearted persona is all a façade for her cold-hearted killer alter ego? Did you think about that Rarity?”
“Fluttershy, the one who wouldn’t even harm a fly. Then the time she did accidentally hurt a fly she nursed it backed to health,” retorted Rarity.
“Well . . .what if . .but what about. . .. ok fine your right Rarity!” replied Rainbow Dash defeated.
“Well now that the sillyness is over, Rarity sighed “what is taking that addle brain so long to get here.”
“Rarity, we haven’t seen Fluttershy in a while, and it’ll be nice to see what she has been up to,'' scolded Twilight.
'' When is she even going to get here?! We’ve been here for ages waiting for her,'' said an impatient Rainbow Dash.
“Errr... raibow? It's only been twenty minutes?” said Applejack. Rainbow Dash shrugged.

Pinkie Pie interrupted, ''Oh oh oh I hoped it was a new friend for us! Because my Pinkie Sense is tingly, and if it is right I can throw a party for the new pony!!''
''Really Pinkie,'' Twilight rolled her eyes. ''I still have a hard time believe you can predict when your going to meet someone without seeing them.”
Everyone looked at Twilight for what she had said, the whole room became muffled in an awkward silence with all eyes on Twilight. But before anyone could say anything, there was a knock on the door. Due to her embarrassment, Twilight rushed to the door to answer it.

“Hello Fluttershy, come in,” said Twilight.
“Oh, thank you Twilight,” Fluttershy walked in to the library and sat down next to her purple unicorn friend.
She made herself comfortable on the couch and everyone was waiting for her to talk.
“So what is it that you want to tell us then?” Rainbow demanded.
Fluttershy smiled and blushed slightly under the gaze of all her friends. “You've probably been wondering why I’ve been so busy?...There is someone I want you to meet, I’d like everyone to be nice and gentle, he’s easily frightened.”
She got up from the couch and walked to the centre of the room, she opened her pouch and everyone just stared.

Very slowly Max popped his head out from the pouch. Everyone stared at him with wide eyes; they couldn’t believe what they were seeing. “Everyone meet Max, he is the little colt I’m looking after.” Her friends couldn’t believe what was in her saddlebag, they had heard the words but the message didn’t seem to connect to their brains, they were speechless.
“Shucks, was wondering why Winona was barking at you. I thought she learn her lesson the last time she barked at you after her kerfuffle with Angel,'' said Applejack. 
“Oh so that is what Sweetie Belle was talking about when she said she saw a unicorn in her pouch!” said Rarity as if the last piece of a puzzle clicked into place.
As Max surveyed the room it hit him he was being watched by all these ponies. He shrieked and quickly disappeared back in the pouch. 
“Now Max its ok, no one is going to harm you, so come out.” She gentle grabbed by the nap of his neck with her mouth and gently placed him on the wooden library floor. But his legs were too weak, so he stumbled a bit, he just couldn’t stand up right. Fluttershy intervened by propping him with her hooves, however once she let go he just fell down.
“Awwww, the little thing can’t even stand yet, what an adorable wittle thing!” said Rarity in a rather babyish tone.
Max felt so petrified - everypony had their eyes on him, and they were all so much bigger than him. All these unknown strangers all staring at him, his heart was a flutter with fear.
''Well shoot if he ain’t the spitting image of an adorable, you sure have a cute little colt you got there, Fluttershy, ''said Applejack softly as in hopes not to startle Max anymore than he was.
“Awwww he’s so sweet, is he yours, Fluttershy” Pinkie Pie asked quizzically. Twilight looked at Pinkie Pie in away that was all to familiar to Pinkie Pie; she then continued to reply to Pinkie, “You do know where babies come from... Right?” Pinkie Pie scoffed in response to question, “Of course I do there is the child friendly stork story, then there the adult version when a mare loves a colt....” But before pinkie Pie could get another word out Rarity covered her mouth, Pinkie was still talking but it was inaudible to other ponies.” “What our rather straight-forward Pinkie Pie is getting is what are your plans with the little one?” Rarity asked politely yet the look of curiosity was etched on her face.

Fluttershy looked down at her hoof where Max laid sprawled on the floor, she then proceeded to answer Rarity question. “Well ..I’mm not biological related or .. at least to my knowledge, but…. yeah you could say I’m his mother.” 
After Fluttershy’s comment Rainbow Dash couldn’t hold back her sarcastic jeers, ''Hahah! This is so Fluttershy of you to choose the runt of the litter. To think what I thought before was a possibility makes this even more funnier. He’s so small l bet he would get mix up with a rabbit. Hahahaha he’s the size of a rabbit plush but with half the stuffing! Where you get him from Flutttershy, hahahah the bargain bin from the toy store? Couldn't you resist getting the tiniest plush?'' said Rainbow Dash laughing hysterically at her joke. Everyone was taken back by Rainbow Dash’s ludicrously unruly remarks. Rarity removed her hand from pinkie Pie mouth to gasp. Pinkie pie continued on her train of thought, “Then if she really loves you she let you go to the fifteenth level.” Just as Pinkie finished that sentence her brain finally yet her realize what had just occurred around her. So subtly Pinkie Pie said in a disappointed sombre tone, “That’s not funny, it’s just mean-spirited.” 
''Now Rainbow, smarten up! Don’t poke fun at the little feller- he can’t help being the size that he is!'' said Applejack smirk, but then realized this wasn’t the time for joking around. 
Rainbow Dash picked herself up, still snorting. “Oh lighten up, will you? I'm just teasing with the little guy!”

Unaware to Rainbow Dash, Max was actually quite hurt by this. He found it troubling that someone so colourful and pretty could be so harsh and depressing, it only made Max feel even more empty and useless. Max tried to quietly sob with his front hooves barely covering his face, he just wanted to cover up the tears falling from his eyes and the sobbing noises his mouth was making.

How could such a wonderful pony being such as Fluttershy actually care for me?

Max felt like he was the most worthless, feeble, stupid excuse for a pony be worth of even an ounce of love from such a loving pure creature as Fluttershy.

Max thought to himself, I wish I were dead. No, death is too good for me I should be curse to walk around in the wretched body for all of eternity, never truly being feeling love or affection. Fluttershy said they were nice ponies then why do I feels worse than when I got here, Max thought to himself stewing in his thoughts of self-loathing and pity.

No one noticed that Max was crying because they were too busy bickering about what Rainbow Dash had just said. Then there was a knock at the door they stopped arguing so Twilight could answer the door. It was Spike at the door carrying two big bags of groceries.” “Hello everypony, sorry I was late the market was super busy,” said Spike as he proceeded into the library and put the groceries down. Spike spotted Max on the floor crying; curious Spike asked, “Hey what’s with the crying colt on the floor?” Everyone then turned their attention back to Max.

Fluttershy she felt like such a fool getting over protective when she should have been more supportive; she brought her head to Max. As Fluttershy looked down at Max she did indeed see tears trickling down his face. “Max what’s wrong?” Fluttershy asked in a worried tone, hoping to find what was making him cry. Max put out his left hoof and pointed at Rainbow Dash. “So what did Rainbow Dash say?” asked Spike still confused by the whole ordeal. Twilight Sparkle leaned down and whispered what Rainbow Dash had said in Spike’s ear. As Spike was a about to burst out laugh, he saw out of the corner of his eye Twilight giving him a glare that meant he was going to regret his current action. “HahaHow horrible of you, Rainbow Dash to *snicker *say that to such a bunny-like *mphf* foal. Your .. . better than that!” said Spike before he muffled himself so he wouldn’t make a bigger fool of himself.

Fluttershy picked up Max, she cuddled him in her arms as she normally did to comfort him. Max burying his head in the comfort of Fluttershy’s flowing pink mane and continued to cry. She could feel his little body tremble as he cried, she spoke in her gentle tone, “Shhhhhhhhh, it’s alright, please don’t cry.” Unfortunately Max wasn’t cooperating, he was not calming down.
“Rainbow Dash look what you’ve done...” Fluttershy said calmly as she tended to the distressed foal in her arms. 
“What?” asked the clueless blue pegasus.
“Really Rainbow, ya’ll don’t know hurtful words can be to foal of that age.?” said a sarcastic Applejack.
“No...Well I? …It was suppose to be funny? He’s just to sensitive!” Rainbow stumbled to stand up for herself not fully realizing what she said.
“Rainbow, you’ve hurt his feelings” said Twilight.
“Indeed Dash, you really shouldn’t be making fun of him for his size, now you’ve hurt him, the poor thing,” said Rarity.
“Hey! What about Spike? he was laughing at him too!” Rainbow pointed accusingly at Spike.
“We’re not talking about Spike; we’re talking about you! You hurt a young pony’s feelings, and you’re the one who said the mean joke,” scolded Rarity.
Rainbow Dash glanced over at Fluttershy, she was trying to calm down Max. At the moment he had stopped crying but he was still teary-eyed, seeing the little foal like this made Rainbow Dash feel like the biggest jerk ever.
“Oh okay, I guess I went too far with the joke,” Rainbow Dash recurrently apologized while rubbing the back of her neck.
“I think, ya’ll should be apologizing to the litt---“Applejack paused as she realised what she was about to say,” I mean you should be apologizing to the max.”
Rainbow Dash walked over to Fluttershy, “Max” Rainbow Dash asked in a nervous voice. Max brought his head up from Fluttershy's hair. His little eyes were bloodshot, as he saw the big blue bully pony looking down at him he started to cry again.

“No-no wait please don’t start crying! Max, I’m sorry for what I said about you,” said Rainbow Dash recurrently to say anything in case it might set Max off even further.
Max stopped his crying as one of his ear perked up he heard the word sorry.
“I didn’t mean to make you cry. I was just making a general observation and just trying to get a laugh that’s all. I didn’t mean hurt your feeling and I didn't mean anything by that stuff anyways, please forgive me. I know now, I was being an idiot...” Rainbow Dash dreaded that Max would never forgive her and hate her forever.
Max was hesitant in what he should do. He didn’t know whether he should accept her apology or not, Rainbow was getting nervous; while awaiting Max’s answer.
Max looked up at Fluttershy who could tell what he was thinking. She nodded at him with a smile on her face, he look up at Rainbow Dash. He gave a weak smile and nodded. A noticeable wave relief washed across Rainbow Dash’s face.
“Are you going to be alright now?” asked Fluttershy, Max nodded, and she then placed him down on the floor where he struggled to stand upright at first but he eventually was able to stand by himself. 
“Why doesn’t everyone come up and introduce themselves to him?” suggested Fluttershy relaxed now that Max wasn’t upset.
''Sure, that sounds like a good idea, I’ll go first if that’s alright Fluttershy?” Fluttershy nodded at Twilight. As Twilight approached, Max was weary of her. He moved behind Fluttershy’s legs as she came closer, she brought herself down so that she was now eye level with him.
“Hello there, I’m Twilight Sparkle; this place is my library. It’s where a pony can read and learn about many great things, you’re welcome to borrow some books for Fluttershy to read to you. What do you think about that?”

Max didn't utter a word, he just stared at the purple unicorn. 
“What’s wrong little guy, I’m not that scary, am I?” Twilight joked. 
“Oh, he doesn’t talk yet, although he can answer yes or no questions....I was the one who named him max, he seems to like that name, that’s really how far I’ve gotten with him because he dosen’t remember anything of his past .”
“Awwwweeee you can’t talk yet! Could I please see one of your hooves?” Twilight wanted to examine Max as she was wondering as to why he was quite small in his size.
Max was a bit nervous to let some stranger touch him, on the other hoof he didn’t think she would hurt him. Max lifted his right hoof up for Twilight inspect, who gently took it hoof and inspected it from every angle.
“Peculiar indeed,” Twilight muttered.
“What is it, what so peculiar?” asked Fluttershy.
“His hooves, they're not like a normal ponies, they seem much more like Applejack's but still different from her,” Twilight was surprised at his hooves, but Max was getting too frightened of Twilight and pulled his hoof away from her. “Hey wait I wasn’t finished looking.”
“Twilight I think he's had enough of you, someone else come up.” Twilight Sparkle stood up and walked back to her place.
“I’ll go next” said Rarity as she walked towards Max, he squeaked and hid again.
“Max don’t be rude, come out and meet Rarity,” Fluttershy tried to coax Max to come out but his whole body was in lockdown, he wasn’t moving an inch.
Rarity brought her face down so she could see him but he didn't look at her. ”Hello there Max, my name is Rarity. I make all sorts of designer clothes and accessories for all sorts of ponies, I bet I could make you an adorable little outfit!” 
How this white unicorn carried herself reminded Max of something or someone in his past. He didn’t know if it was positive or negative, all he knew was it was painful to remember.
Max just tightened his grip on Fluttershy’s leg, Fluttershy could start to feel the pressure of him digging into her leg.
“Errr.....Rarity....I think some else should come up now” Rarity was disheartened by his response to her but she respected Fluttershy’s concern in not wanting to agitating him again. Twilight whisper to rarity, “hey do you think he might be afraid of you rarity”, rarity frown at twilight unhappily.
“Why would he have any reason to be scare of me, he’s probably had some of fluttershy’s shyness rub off on him that’s all” rarity whisper back at twilight, who in return just rolled her eyes at her friend. You may not know fear when you see it rarity but I can see fear from a mile away, that unicorn was scare of you, twilight thought to herself.
Next to come up to Max was Applejack, as soon as Rarity was some distance from Max he trotted forward to Applejack.
“Howdy there Max, my name is Applejack, my family owns Sweet Apple Acres, and it’s one of the biggest and best apple farm in all of Equestria if I do say so myself.” Max found Applejack to be nice, he liked the hat she was wearing, but he found her accent was intriguing to the speed she talked was at times hard to understand.

Next to approach Max was Pinkie Pie, she bounced over to Fluttershy excitedly, she couldn't wait to meet Max, she took a deep breath then began  to sing her greetings, “Welcome, welcome to Ponyville! It's such a good pleasure to finally meet you, my name is Pinkie Pie and soon you will see that you and me we’ll be the very best of friends!!” after she finished her little song she lowered her head to Max’s level, his face was a one of surprise.
How did she make up a song on the spot like that Max thought to hime, little did the foal realize that was the same question everyone asks themselves when they first meet infamous Pinkie Pie.

Then it was finally Rainbow Dash's turn, she had already planned out in her head what she was going to say to him. ''So hey...there....I’m Rainbow Dash, or you can call me by my title as the fastest flyer in all Equestria!” Rainbow loves boasting about her flying skills but she was just a show off, which really didn’t impress Max that much and proceeded to go back under Fluttershy’s legs. Rainbow Dash realized that she was going to have to really try her best to make up for those comments she made earlier to even try to get back on Max’s good graces.

And last but not least it was Spike's turn, no one was sure how Max would react to Spike. Spike sauntered over to Max, “Hi, I'm Spike, Twilight Sparkle’s number one assistant. Spike put emphasis on the word one. Unlike the other ponies Max didn’t feel scared of Spike, he came out from Fluttershy’s legs to take a closer looked at the purple dragon. 
Max tilted his head to one side as he examined Spike. Everyone looked at Max as they found his curiosity to be adorable. So this is a dragon, huh? It’s not as scary as Fluttershy made them out to be, so exotic compared to a pony. Max thought. Suddenly he tripped losing his balance because of how lost he was in his own thoughts. Luckily Spike thought fast and caught him, helping him back up on his hooves.

“There you are, careful where your walking or you could have hurt yourself next time” said Spike. Max smiled at Spike and came over to the little dragon to give him a hug. Due to max’s height he could only reach spike’s stomach which wasn’t a problem as such, it just made spike feel so what good about himself, normally he was the smallest of his friends, now max took that spot, and he was being hugged by someone smaller than him. 

Everyone aaaaw'ed, they found it so sweet that Max was giving Spike a hug for helping him. Everyone gazed happily at the scene, everyone except Spike who found the whole thing to be childish and annoying. “ Awww come on guys stop looking at me like that. Hey Max could you maybe stop hugging me it was really nothing,” said Spike embarrassed at all the attention he was getting. ”Looks like you've made a new friend, Spike” said Twilight in an over-sentimental tone.
Spike blushed,” It was nothing anybody else would have done the same, I just stopped him from falling over.”
“Oh but it wasn’t just that, you helped the little thing find it’s feet , your so kind my little Spikey wikey” said Rarity feeling proud of Spike, which only caused Spike to blush more hearing Rarity say this.

After Max finished hugging Spike he when back to Fluttershy's side, “Max you’ve met all my friends, is there anything you want to say to them?” asked Fluttershy
Max looked around, they were all looking at him, he opened his mouth a little, everyone was on the edge of their seat leaning forward, curious at what Max would say. “Aaaachooo!” Max sneezed. 
“Bless you!” said Fluttershy.
The others felt disappointed, it was just a false alarm. 
“So you’re going to be looking after him like a parent or something” asked Spike.
“I’m hoping so, I really love Max with all my heart and he really seems to love me, don’t you Max” Fluttershy brought her head down to Max who nuzzled her face.

''What about your animals, what are you going to do after they wake up from their winter hibernation?” asked Twilight.
Fluttershy brought her face back up from nuzzling Max to answer Twilight, “I guess I'm going to have to look after less of them now.”
“What about Angel, isn’t he going to be jealous of Max?” replied Twilight.
“Angel is just going to have to accept him, Max is more important to me now.”
Her friends couldn’t believe what they were hearing, this whole thing was like some bizarre dream, Fluttershy was caring for a foal, she was thinking of getting rid of some of her animals, animals were her life she had always loved them. Fluttershy had been known for her tenderness towards animals. She was even being less shy, Max had really started to change her. But is it for better or for worse, Twilight Sparkle pondered it for a moment before snapping back to reality.

“So Sweetie Belle wasn’t lying earlier, Fluttershy” said Rarity, looking angry at Fluttershy.
''I’m sorry...but I didn’t think he was really ready to meet you all yet...'' said a defeated Fluttershy,
Rarity sighed, ''It’s ok Fluttershy,'' she could never stay mad at Fluttershy.

Then suddenly Max was snatched up by Pinkie Pie who hugged him tight. “Oh my gosh he's so cute and small like a teddy bear. I just never want to let him go, oh we’re going to throw you a big party just for you!!' said Pinkie Pie.
Max tried to break her grip but she was too strong. She's hugging me too tight - I can barely breathe! “He’s so soft ,like a big soft marshmallow” huuuuu I think the marshmallow you’re talking about are my organs. Max felt like she was squishing his entire innards out. “Pinkie Pie! Put him down, he doesn’t like being picked up,” said Fluttershy worryingly.
“But he sooooooooo cute I just want to hug him for like forever!” said Pinkie Pie. Please, just do what she said you pink idiot or I think I’m going to pass out.
“PUT HIM DOWN NOW! YOU'RE CRUSHING HIM!” Fluttershy shouted.
Pinkie Pie quickly did what Fluttershy said, Max shrieked as he got released from the bone crushing grip, he crawled over to Fluttershy and hid behind her legs.

“Pinkie Pie, look what you’ve done! You've really scared him” Fluttershy wasn’t very happy, she came here so Max could see how nice her friends were, but already she was proven wrong by rainbow dash and Pinkie Pie. 
''Sorry Fluttershy, but I can’t help myself, his just too cute,'' said Pinkie Pie.
“Look, he is not a toy Pinkie, so be careful,” said Twilight Sparkle.
“Pinkie, just look at Max” Pinkie looked down at the little colt she had just hugged, he was quivering nervously, and when Pinkie tried get close to him Max kept moving away from her.
''Sorry little Maxie, I don’t mean to hurt you..'' she said, looking a bit sad for what she had done.
''It’s ok Pinkie, just be careful,'' said Fluttershy.

“Okay dokay Fluttershy” said Pinkie becoming her happy self again..
Max was too scared to do anything now, so he just stood there. Fluttershy brought her head down to max, he quickly rushed to her fluttershy, “there there now max calm down she didn’t mean to hurt you” she nuzzled him to calm him from his ordeal with pinkie pie.
Applejack couldn’t wait any longer and asked the question they all had been thinking. ''So Fluttershy...how on earth did ya find him anyway?'' asked Applejack. “Yeah where you get max from and why is he bandaged up like that” asked an impetuous Rainbow Dash. "It’s kind of a long story, I haven’t told max yet how I found”, fluttershy thought if she should say it in front of max, although he probably wouldn’t hurt him, “well alright I’ll tell you.”
"It all started about...8 days ago. I remember it was night time. I was really tired after Pinkie's party, so I made my way to my house by taking a shortcut across Sweet Apple Acres. As I was leaving the farm grounds, I thought I heard something rustling in the bushes. I was about to strike it up as the wind and continue on my way home. Then all of a sudden it started to snow and as the wind picked up, I started running so I would get got in the freak storm. After a while, I heard the same noise again - it was somewhere close by. Then something caught the corner of my eye, so, simply thinking it was a bird or a rabbit I went to investigate. What I saw was horrifying!”
It was a small blue colt, lying in a pool of his own blood, shivering from the cold, unconscious and bleeding heavily, and was barely breathing! His wings were twitching mindlessly as if they were trying to fly, I could he was still alive but he would be for much long if I didn’t do something. I had to do something quick or he wouldn't survive. Since Ponyville's hospital was too far away, I had to take him to my cottage to treat his wounds. I decided to take him home as fast as I could, knowing that if I didn’t he wouldn’t live to see the morning.
When I got home I rush to my first aid kit I cleaned his cut and also stopped the bleeding. Then I bandaged him up, and I gave him a bed in the spare room. I stayed by his bed the whole night; I was so worried about him. He was in a deep sleep for about a week. I kept checking on him every hour of the week. I was so worried that he would die. And then yesterday at about three pm I came to his room and he’d moved. He was awake! I was so happy that he made it, and that's why you're all meeting him today.''

After Fluttershy had finished everyone in the room was in tears, even Rainbow was crying a bit. 
''Wow Fluttershy, that really is amazing how such a small thing is still alive.'' said Twilight, with tear still running down her face.
''But wait did you say wings?'' asked a befuddled Rainbow, peering curiously at the foal.
“Uh-huh.” Fluttershy picked Max up, she started to remove his bandages from his chest, and sure as day there were wings, little dark blue wings at his sides.
''Ohmygosh ohmygosh ohmygosh Fluttershy! Do You know what this?!'' said an ecstatic Twilight.
“Err....what” said Fluttershy, a little confused, she didn’t realise how special max was but she would soon find out.
“He’s not a unicorn, he’s an alicorn! Only the rarest pony type you can get! The only alicorns are Princess Celestia, Princess Luna, and Princess Cadance!'' said Twilight.

“Really?” Fluttershy suddenly felt proud that she was looking after a rare alicorn foal. Rainbow flew up in the air,”Wooo-whooo arrr-yeah score one for the Pegasus ponies!” she happily cheered.
Everyone chattered excitedly about how they could help him, and the whole time Max just stood behind Fluttershy, too scared to move.
Rainbow Dash was saying that she could teach him how to fly; Rarity was saying that she needed someone to model for her new foal range of clothes but Max didn’t like the sound of that at all. Applejack was saying that her sister may have a new friend...meaning more trouble from the Crusaders, and Pinkie was just bouncing around thinking about the party she had planned for him. 
Fluttershy was happy her friends were showing some interest in max.

''..So Fluttershy....Max has no memory at all?'' asked Twilight.
''No, he doesn't seem to remember anything . ..'' said Fluttershy.
''Well, I have a spell that might just help...'' 
''Errr... Twilight, I don’t think that's such a good idea... I-I mean he’s not so strong, and it could hurt him more.''
''Ohhh come on it won’t do anything bad! I promise, what's the worst thing that could happen?'' said Twilight as her know-all self.
''Well I just don’t know that it's safe that’s all,'' said Fluttershy unsure of what she was saying herself.
''Oh come now dear. It's just a spell to help Max to get his memory back, nothing bad could happen'' comforted Rarity.
Fluttershy let out a sigh of defeat. ''Fine, you can try the memory spell as long as you say its safe'' said Fluttershy.

''Ok girls stand back, let's get started then, shall we?'' said Twilight. 'Now, Max, come here,'' said Twilight playfully calling out to Max.
But he didn’t move, he didn’t want to leave Fluttershy’s side. “Oh Max, you need to go to Twilight so she can help you.” Max shook his head. I’m not moving. But before Fluttershy could say anything, Twilight used her magic to levitate him over to her. He tries to move, but his hoofs didn’t touch the ground. She brought him over to her face. 
“Now,'' said twilight “we can get started.”

Twilight lowered her head, and her eyes scrunched up with the look of concentration on her face. Her horn started to glow, giving off a deep purple light that lit up the room and cast long black shadows around the library. As she gathered the magical energy needed for the spell, she looked back up at Max, and her eyes were shining with the magic’s crackling purple light.
Max looked at his own forehead, and watched as his horn started to glow faintly. Suddenly, he felt himself slipping away and his vision went white as snow. He felt an odd sensation in his head. That must be Twilight...looking for my memories...
Suddenly he felt a big CRACK in his head. What is she doing?! What’s happening to me?! CRACK - he felt another shockwave.

Wait, what’s wrong? I can't seem to find anything in his mind! No! I’ve got to look harder, there must be something, Twilight thought to herself. Max shrieked as a sharp pain enter his head. Everyone watched in horror as the scene unfolded, Fluttershy could see Max crying out in pain, she knew something was going to go horribly wrong.
Fluttershy shouted, “TWILIGHT! STOP IT QUICK!”
But it was too late; there was a big bang as an explosion of purple magic flung Twilight Sparkle back into one of her bookshelves. She hit the bookshelves hard, and an avalanche of books fell on top of her.
Applejack and Rarity rushed over to Twilight.
''Ya’ll alright Twilight?'' asked a concerned Applejack.
“Yes....I think I’m alright, but...that's never happen before...” replied Twilight.
But Max was far from fine, Max was screaming in pain. An array of pictures, words, voices were flooding through his head, he felt like he was going completely insane. Max was on the floor huddled in a ball, crying and shaking like mad. 
“MAX!” shouted Fluttershy as she rushed over to him. She gasped when she saw what was wrong. There was a massive crack going down the centre of his horn. Little tendrils of crimson blood were running down from the horn onto his forehead. 
Fluttershy shook with fear and anger as she turned around to face her friends.

“TWILIGHT!” shouted Fluttershy angrily. ”What have you done, he’s hurt and bleeding!”
“Sorry Fluttershy, I didn't mean to hurt him....” mumbled a distraught Twilight Sparkle still shaken by what had just unfolded.
Fluttershy was furious, she didn’t wait for Twilight to finish her sentence before ripping into Twilight. 
''It's a bit late for that! I asked you that it wasn’t a good idea but no – miss know-it-all always know what's best, don't you!'' She walked over to Max without even missing a beat. ''I mean you always know what to do because you just sit and read books all day. You've never truly experienced the real world as much as you should have, Nooooo, you' haven’t cared for injured animals like I have Twilight. You’re always held up in your library reading most of the time, but with all that reading your still clueless.''

Tears dotted at Twilight's face; she’d never seen Fluttershy so enraged like this. Nobody had really got Fluttershy so riled up before.
Fluttershy turned to pick the little broken alicorn up but she scared him, by reflex his little hoof swung out and hit her in the face.
''Ow Max, you hit me!'' said Fluttershy shocked.
Max had given a bruise beneath her eye. She tried to pick him up but he screamed in pain as his mind was preoccupied with chaotic torment that was going on in his head. She persisted and very gently lifted him back into the pouch. 
Everypony else was silent watching this scene occur in front of them until Twilight spoke up, “Fluttershy, are you sure you can even look after Max all on your own? It might be better if he goes into foster care with a family who can handle him.”
“What are you trying to say - that I can’t look after a foal is that it? No. I’m not going to give him up like that, I promised him that I would never abandon him!”
”Fluttershy, please you’re not being reasonable here. He could go to someponys who could really help him through, it would mean you wouldn’t see him that much anymore” Twilight pleaded to Fluttershy’s reasonable side.
Fluttershy kept going on her angry frustrated rant, “No, now you listen here, why should I have to abandon him, I’m the one who found him. I took him into my home and named him. I took care of him while he was recovering and now you just want me to give him up. Just let him think that I don’t love him, that I abandon him. No I’m not going to do that, if you think I should just abandon him then I guess you’re not really my friends.”
And with that, Fluttershy stormed out of the library whisking Max away in her saddlebag.

“What’s with her? I don't think I've ever seen her like that,” said Rarity. Applejack went to twilight’s side and put a hoof on her shoulder, she was still quite upset with how one of her best friends just treated her, “it’s ok twilight, you won’t to know that the little feller would react like that.”
“But twilight was the one who wanted to use the spell on max, so isn’t it technically twilight’s f----“ applejack shot spike an angry look, spike instantly shut his mouth in fear of applejack applebucking him. “I know it was my fault but why did she have to be so mean, she’s suppose to the element of kindness” said the twilight still sobbing. “Yes it was most unlike fluttershy to be angry with us like that” said rarity.
Rainbow Dash sigh “You guys I've known Fluttershy for a long time, but I’m her oldest friend. Something once happened that she still blames herself for what happened....Flutt....Fluttershy lost her foal...” said Rainbow Dash, barely holding back her tears. 
“What...Fluttershy....lost....her...foal” said Twilight Sparkle in a surprised tone of voice.
“Yes... I was there when it happened...'' Rainbow Dash rehashed what happened on that dreadful day. 
It was a few years ago. Fluttershy was six months pregnant and very happy with her boyfriend, her life couldn’t be better. I was in the Ponyville Park with Fluttershy, she was happy, we were talking about names for the foal. I was talking to her about my Wonderbolts tryout a little later that day. Time went on and before I knew it, it was time the tryout, I said goodbye ready to wow the judges with my amazing tricks. But as I flew off, I heard her scream. Then it happened - Fluttershy collapsed to the ground. There was a lot of blood and she was in lots of pain, I panicked at that moment, what was I to do, I then quickly realised what to do, I picked Fluttershy up, I placed her on my back and rushed her to the hospital as fast as I could. When I got there the doctors tried everything to her save her.
The usually brave pony's voice was breaking. When she came to I was able to go in to her room and see her. She looked so weak, so pale. She could barely talk a word. Then the doctor came and gave the bad news, the news that broke Fluttershy’s heart. 

Rainbow Dash was finding it hard to speak, what she had to say next wasn’t easy. “Fluttershy had a........” the rainbow pony couldn’t hold her tears back any longer, “fluttershy has a miscarriage, her body wasn’t able to keep the pregnancy. At that moment she just broke down crying, a-and I cried with her too. I missed my Wonderbolts tryout because being with my friend when she really needed me was more important to me than anything else. She was never the same since that day. She broke up with her boyfriend and he left town. Just seeing him reminded her of what had happened, it was the best decision for both of them. It still broke her heart to make that decision. I tried so hard to help Fluttershy after the miscarriage.... except she became depressed and.... she d-didn’t want to live any more. I spent so much time with her, I almost had to be her bodyguard against herself. It took months for her to recover, even when she did recover she was never the same. I never brought this up, so please nopony say anything about this to her.” 

Actual tears were running down Rainbow’s face at having to recall these memories, she promised herself she would never relive that moment. Pinkie Pie and Rarity were bawling their eyes out nobody in the room could barely make what they were saying if anything at all.
''Poor darlin'...why ever didn’t she think about adoption? She'd make a great mother...'' asked Applejack. 
“She didn’t like that - she felt that it was wrong taking a child that wasn't hers” said Rainbow Dash. 
“So is that why she’s so shy” said Pinkie Pie in between wiping tears from her face.

“Oh Celestia, what have I done? I’ve hurt our friend's feelings..'' said Twilight. She felt so guilty for using her memory spell on Max. “Our friend came to us with an ill pony and we made him even worse, what sorry excuse for friends are we?”

A.R note 
Thanks to SerenDipityDixie and 3Bri111 for their help in this story
And a very big thank you to alternatepony.
Chapter 4 is coming soon don’t worry

> Chapter 4 Think of what you have
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

Chapter 4 Think of what you have.

In a little town called Ponyville, all of the young fillies and colts were asleep in their beds, all huddled up in their blankets, cosy and warm. Anypony still awake was probably sitting in front of their fireplace with a mug of hot cocoa, enjoying the late evening and staying warm. The night-owls would sit on their couch and gaze out the window and see thousands of snowflakes fall ever so delicately down to the ground Say to themselves, “I sure am glad I'm not out there in the cold.” continue to sip their cocoa and stare aimlessly into the open world beyond window until they've convinced themselves that it was time to go to bed. Anypony with any sense was indoors on the crisp, wintry night. 

The night was completely silent, all except for the gentle snowflakes falling from the sky. But the anxiety of a certain pegasus had become too much. This wintry harsh night was disturbed by the pastel pegasus in a rush, heading over to Ponyville General Hospital. Only this trip wasn't for the purpose of spreading cheer to the patients, but one of desperation; for Max hadn't got any better after Twilight had cast that spell on him. 
In frustration at her situation Fluttershy muttered aloud, “AARGH! What was Twilight thinking?! 'Oh, Fluttershy can’t look after a colt, she a big ball of empathy. I know what’s best for every situation because I have read so many books!' Pfft, what a good friend she is!”
Tucked away in Fluttershy’s pouch was Max, barely moving. He was experiencing a searing, nerve shredding pain that was pushing him in and out of consciousness. When he was awake, he could only think of how Fluttershy's friends had betrayed him. Fluttershy had assured him that they were nice, but she was wrong. 
What did I do to her? Why did Twilight hurt me? Fluttershy should have good friends, but those ponies were mean.... And.Max's strength drained and he fell unconscious, Noticing the increased movement and heat coming from the bag. 
Fluttershy called out, “Don’t worry Max, were almost at the hospital. We're going to get you checked out.” Turning her attention back to flying, Fluttershy hoped to get to the hospital as timely as possible, yet still in one piece.
“Why did this have to happen to me? Max has made my life so much sweeter. But my friends-no, my ex-friends had to ruin everything. Max and I will live in my cottage forever. We won't need anypony else to mess up what we have.” Fluttershy said to herself, disgusted. But before Fluttershy could finish her self-deprecating thoughts, she spotted the hospital in the ground below. She started her descent, still bitter at the whole world.

Max came to again, his horn in agony. All of Fluttershy's friends were scary. The bright pink one, she was too loud and in-your-face, Max didn't like her at all. The pretty rainbow one was mean, even though she said sorry, Max still didn't forgive her. The orange one talked funny, Max didn't trust her. But most of all the unicorns scared him. The white one was so familiar and her big blue eyes pierced into his soul. And the purple one was the worst of the bunch, for she had lied to him. Max was very hurt. So hurt he passed out again.
“Okay, Max here it is. We're at the hospital, it’s going to be alright!” Fluttershy choked out the sentence, reassuring herself more than anypony else. 
But Max didn’t hear her for he was unconscious. 
Composing herself, Fluttershy strode into the quiet hospital. The usual timidness pushed aside for the needs of this colt. Her hooves clocked on the cold tile floor as she strode with a propose towards the desk. The plain white walls and the distinct smell of disinfectant may have intimidated Fluttershy at any other point in time, but not today. As she stopped at the front desk, she saw a mahogany-coloured mare sitting behind it, filing medical files for the doctors and insurance details for the administrative staff.
As Fluttershy began to come to her senses, the courage from before started to fade. “Umm …. Excuse me?” asked Fluttershy nicely. But the receptionist did not seem to hear her. Annoyed at this Fluttershy raised her volume. “Excuse me?” But to no avail the receptionist still didn’t acknowledge her presence. Fluttershy was getting rather angry by the rudeness of this mare, she took a deep breath and shout. “EXCUSE ME?!” finally the receptionist heard her and looked up from her busy work.

Staring at the chocolate mare, Fluttershy felt a sudden tang of sympathy for her. Upon closer inspection, the mare's blond mane was frazzled and unkempt, and there were deep bags under her eyes, barely hidden by her glasses. 
Oh, the poor thing, Fluttershy thought. She looks like she probably hasn't slept in some time! I'll bet the only thing keeping her awake is the coffee.

Indeed, there was a stained paper hospital cup sitting next to the receptionist, which looked like it had once been used for coffee.
“Yes, hello there, how may I help you?” the receptionist snapped quite rudely at Fluttershy. 
“Oh...err...yes I was hoping to see a doctor,” said Fluttershy feeling a little uncountable around this receptionist.
The receptionist stared closely at Fluttershy, she closely examined her, she didn’t really anything wrong with her apart from her black eye. 
“You don’t look that bad to me, you even know what a doctor is for because there really for the ones who need them, and a black eye isn’t the biggest of worries.” 
Fluttershy was getting rather unhappy with the way she was being treated, she knew what a doctor was; everypony did. However she didn’t want Max to been see yet, she only wanted to come in and get out as soon as possible. 
Fluttershy got an idea. “It’s...actually about something more personal...you know, mare things.” She whispered shyly, with a perfect embarrassed blush.

The receptionist seemed to catch on suddenly, and hurriedly gushed, “OH...Okay, I didn’t need the extra information. Fine, I can have a nurse come take a look at you, just take a seat in the waiting area over there until the nurse comes,” as soon as the receptionist finished talking to Fluttershy, she went straight back to her tedious work.
Fluttershy just sighed at the impatient receptionist in wonder. How anypony could be so rude was beyond her.
Nevertheless, Fluttershy did what the receptionist had told her. She went over to the bunch of chairs and sat down, sliding off her saddlebags as she did.

Opening the bag, she peered in the pouch. Inside Max lay face down, shaking uneasily with many little twitches, only making Fluttershy more worried. She was scared, watching him suffer, and she wished that she’d never brought him to see her friends in the first place.

From Rainbow Dash bullying him about his size, Pinkie Pie treating him like a soft toy whilst crushing him in a hug, and then Twilight causing the most damage by thinking it was a good idea to use a spell on him.......Twilight!
Fluttershy felt sudden anger begin to boil in her mind at the thought her friend and where her carelessness had gotten her and max, I told her!! I told her that spell wasn't a good idea! But she didn't listen to me, and look what happened! Nopony listens to me! NOPONY EVER LISTENS TO ME! There not my friends, none of them are my friends, I don’t need them, and I don’t need any.....any....
Fluttershy anger came to a halt as see stare down at the saddle bag in front of her ,seeing max twitching and making little painful moan replacing her rage with sadness and worry and soon she started to cry a little. Fluttershy reach down and softly stroke max’s mane, “I’m sorry max, this is my entire fault, I never meant for this to happen to you”
She had only had him for two days... and she was beginning to doubt her mothering skills. Fluttershy waited in the waiting room, trying to take her mind off “the worst possible thing that could happen” to Max.

The time seemed to be going so slow for Fluttershy. There was no clock in the waiting room, she had no idea how long she’d been there for. She constantly looked back at Max seeing if anything had changed, but always seemed the same.

“Fluttershy, hello.....are you here?” a voice called out from behind her. Fluttershy turned towards the voice. It was nurse red heart an old friend of hers.
“Hi, Nurse Redheart... It’s been a while.” Fluttershy seem shy of her old friend, for they hadn’t talked in four years. Fluttershy used to be a nurse at Ponyville hospital a few years back, she and Nurse Red Heart were friends when they worked together.
Nurse Redheart walked over to Fluttershy and sat down next to her “Yeah, it’s been too long. It’s so good to see you, and you’re in luck. I’m the one checking you up.” Nurse Redheart lifted her clipboard and pointed to a printed piece of paper with Fluttershy information. Fluttershy felt a huge weight lift off her shoulders. 
“My goodness, your eye!” said Nurse Redheart, wanting to tend to it immediately. 

“Oh, my eye’s fine,” Fluttershy said, placing a hoof gingerly on the tender skin, “I actually came here for a different reason. Could we go somewhere more private?”
“Sure thing, let’s go and see if there’s a room free,” Fluttershy got up from her seat and walked with Nurse Red heart through the hospital.
Being in the hospital brought back a lot of memories for Fluttershy; some of them good, but bad for the most part. A hospital was a place for a wounded pony in need of help. Death's touch was a familiar visitor to this place. Fluttershy found it hard to cope with, which was the reason why she left the job. Someone dying is never an easy thing to watch, and when your job involves seeing death daily, it's not easy.

Fluttershy shook these thoughts away and turned to her old friend. “I-I need your help with a little colt I’m looking after,” she began, “He’s been really ill these past few days and now he has a crack all the way down his horn. He’s in a lot of pain.”
“Well then,” the white pony smiled comfortingly, “First let’s take a look at the little feller, shall we?”
Fluttershy opened up her pouch and reached down to a still disoriented and terrified Max. He kept squirming in Fluttershy’s grip, moving fatally in panic. Fluttershy thought she was going to drop him if he didn’t stop flailing. 
“Well, he certainly is lively for such a small thing,” Nurse Redheart commented as she stepped in, trying to help out Fluttershy and get a look at Max, but the small foal was having none of this.

Get off me! Stop it, stop it, stop it! I don’t want to be touched! I just want these voices to stop!
Max thrashed around in Fluttershy arms, trying desperately to break free from her grip and left alone. As he flailed his legs slip free and accidentally hit the nurse in the head.
“Ow!” Nurse Redheart placed a hoove on her forehead. She could already feel a small bump beginning to form. 
“He’s too scared for us to be able to do anything for him…If you want me to have a look at him, we’re going to need to sedate him.” The white earth pony said conclusively. 

The nurse peered at Fluttershy anxiously, knowing that she would have mixed feelings about this. To her surprise, Fluttershy paused for only a moment before giving her a quick nod of agreement,
Between the two of them, they gently carried Max down the hall and placed him on a nearby table. He was so tiny that they didn’t a big area to hold him. Being pinned on the table, Max struggled and writhed but the act was futile. He screamed out, trying to break free.

“Okay, I’ve got the needle. I just need a clear shot to inject him,” Nurse Redheart said, “You’re going to have to hold his head still, or it could cause more damage to him.” She paused and struggled to hold down Max’s left leg with a hoof. She raised the other, and prepared the needle for the injection.
“Okay max we’re going to-er- inject you with...Something to make you feel...better” said Fluttershy, but he was too busy trying to break from her grip to listen to what she said. She moved her hoof to his head, holding with such surprising force that he couldn’t move.

In one swift strike, Nurse Redheart injected the purple fluid into the back of his head. “AAAAHHH!” Max screamed, the fluid in his head burning like acid, only making him scream and struggle more. He kept screaming loud with the two mares holding down. “I thought you said that was support to calm him down.” said Fluttershy trying to shout in her quiet way over Max’s crying.

“It'll take a minute or so to kick in” Nurse Redheart shouted back.
The two watched as the injection started to kick in. Soon his struggling slowed and eventually subsided entirely. His screaming became little moans, getting more and more quiet. The fluid in his head had stop burning and had silenced the voices and noises in his head, finally giving time to think strait. 
Err... Thank goodness. I can hear myself think......huh! Wait a second I can’t move, I can’t move my arm or legs. 
Max’s entire body was immobilized with the effect of the injection, he could only blink. “Now then,” said the nurse in a hushed tone as she picked max up in her arms. “Let’s get a better look at you. Shall ---” Nurse Redheart paused. She moved Max up and down in her forelegs to feel his weight. She would have sworn that she was imagining it, except she was right. Max really did feel that light. “My word, he’s so light. For somepony of his size and age he should weigh more.”
Max didn’t take that comment very kindly. 
Again with the size? Well you’re not so thin yourself, maybe if you lay off the chocolate... Ugh, I wish I could use my hooves right now, Max thought to himself.

Max’s weight aside, Ponyville's best nurse carefully examined Max’s bleeding horn. The crack was very large; going all the way down the centre, a crack this size was in need of attention. 
“Oh, it looks bad, the crack looks like a deep one; if this isn't tended to it could lead to problems. We'd better get this X-rayed to see if there any further damage. Are you fine with this? Seeing as you are responsible for his well being.”
Fluttershy thought about the idea of an X-ray and what would happen, but she didn’t think it would damage Max any further. “Um, I guess so. Whatever you think is best.”

Nurse Red heart left the room to go get things sorted out for Max. Now Fluttershy was left alone with her little foal. She looked down at the small colt in her hooves. He looked so tiny and helpless, still sedated and weak; everything but his eveys unable to move.

“Max!” Fluttershy scolded. “What was that all about? All of your thrashing hurt me and Nurse Redheart” she looked at Max angrily. All poor Max could do was state guiltily at his mother figure and endure her stare of disappointment. 
I didn’t mean to hurt you Fluttershy, I didn’t mean to make you angry, I’m sorry, max wish he could tell fluttershy he was sorry but at this moment in time couldn’t even move.
In the time the nurse was absent, Fluttershy decided to explain to Max what was going to happen. She felt sorry for her colt, because being in a place unknown to him must be very scary. “Now Max, we’re going to take you to a room so you can get X-rayed. An X-ray is a big thing that takes picture of your insides, so we can see if there's anything wrong with your body
For some bizarre reason max picture a giant eye attached to a wall that would look at him and see into his body, in truth his childish imagination would only make him feel more scared in place like this. Minutes later Nurse Redheart came back into the room.

Fluttershy silently followed Nurse Redheart through the hospital halls with Max back in the saddlebags. The shy mare stared at the pristine white tiles on the floor as she walked, trying not to look in the many rooms they passed. She could barely contain her worry; her worry for Max and her worry for being in a hospital after so long.

Hiding behind her thick, pink mane, Fluttershy told herself to focus on something else. Focus on your hoovesteps, focus on making them as quiet as possible. Anything to distract her from the painful memories from the past and the oblivion in the future. Fluttershy lifted her hooves carefully and set them back down in a rhythmic motion, barely making a noise.
The nurse led the trio around many corners and corridors until they stopped at a lead-lined door. On the wall was a giant sign with big letters reading X-RAY ROOM. Underneath the large type were several lines in considerably smaller print including various warnings and safety precautions.

Max felt himself being lifted from his saddlebag by Fluttershy and set on a cold table.
“Ready?” Fluttershy asked. Max would have nodded his head if it weren't for the injection. Forgetting for a moment that Fluttershy didn't work here, she placed a lead sheet on his (well, you know what.) She suddenly remembered that she didn't work here anymore, her eyes widened with sudden realization and with a blush she backed away to let Nurse Redheart do her job. 
“Okay Max,” Nurse Redheart said, “The X-ray is about to start.” Max's eyes looked at Nurse Redheart with understanding and a little bit of fear. 

“Fluttershy, I'm going to need you to step outside for a minute, okay?” the nurse asked, but Fluttershy was already on her way out, knowing she couldn't be in the room during an X-ray.
“Max, I’m just going outside; back in a minute” Said Fluttershy before stepping out the door and shutting it softly behind her.
“Okay, Max I’m going to start the X-ray now.” Nurse Redheart turned on a switch then he felt a beam go though him, hearing the sounds of beeping and clicking. Max felt a sensation from his head to his hooves; a sensation of something going right through him.
The nurse flipped the switch again and the feeling stopped. 
“Okay, Fluttershy. You can come in now” Said Nurse Redheart.
Fluttershy came in and picked up Max in her forelegs and took him back to the waiting room to wait for the X-rays to be developed.
She hoped the crack in Max's horn wasn’t too bad. She wasn’t a unicorn, so she didn’t know how bad a cracked horn was, but she hoped they be on their way home soon. Finally Nurse Redheart came back with the X-ray, Fluttershy couldn’t wait to hear the news, her anxiety soon going to consume her.

“Fluttershy? could I speak to you alone? Please?” Nurse Redheart asked in a rather nervous voice. Fluttershy carefully placed Max down on a table nearby, and he just fell limp like a rag doll. Fluttershy felt like she really shouldn’t be leaving Max like that; except she didn't have any better ideas, so she just followed her friend down the hallway. Down the corridor, another white pony, a doctor, joined them in their walk. 

He wore a crisp white lab coat with pens in the top pocket, big glasses with thick black frames, and a stethoscope hanging around his neck. Fluttershy vaguely recognized him as the doctor who treated her friend-well, ex-friend,- Rainbow Dash when she had hurt her wing. 
“Miss Fluttershy, is it?” the doctor spoke, “Hello, I’m Dr. Stable On behalf of the hospital, I would like to say that we are amazed to discover your son is an alicorn. It absolutely extraordinary this thing, this creature is surely one of a kind.” Fluttershy got bad vibes about this doctor, the way he was talking about Max like he wasn’t a pony and more like a lab experiment.

“Well he’s not my biological son...He’s an orphan.” Fluttershy said it like she was ashamed of herself for it, like she should have told them sooner. 
“Oh! So that would explain this, it’s imposable for a pony to give birth to a alicorn, in fact there’s never been a alicorn birth recorded in the history of Equestria, how exactly did you acquire this creature?” Dr. Stable asked.
“Max! His name is Max. Stop calling him a creature or a thing, he’s a normal pony just like you. As to have I came to care for Max, I found him abandoned all alone, bleeding heavily and near death. I took him into my home and took care of his cuts, and I look after him like he’s my own child, I’d like you to treat him like a pony and not a lab experiment.” The two ponies froze in place after Fluttershy's sudden anger, leaving Dr. Stable feeling like he was a huge a jerk and feeling somewhat scared of the yellow mare. 

“Well, I apologize, Miss Fluttershy, for the words I used toward your child, it was quite rude of me.”
“Oh, I'm sorry too. I just can't control my anger sometimes.” Fluttershy returned back to her normal shy self, Dr. Green eye stared with his mouth wide open at the mare he feared just moments ago now a shy normal pony.
“Well,” Dr. Stable adjusted his glasses, “I have some good news and bad news.” He said, hoping to get back on topic.
“What's the bad news?” Fluttershy got a lump in her throat, her anxiety worse than ever.

The doctor opened a door with his magic and ushered the mares inside. “The X-rays came back and it seems worse than we thought.” Dr. Stable lifted up Max's X-ray to Fluttershy's face. That word hit Fluttershy heart like daggers as she showed Fluttershy the X-rays.
“What is that?” Fluttershy pointed to a small white object at the base of Max's horn.
“Were not positive what the object is, it seems to be a sharp metal object logged in a dangerous area of Max's brain.” The doctor said, with legitimate sympathy in his voice. 

That next word hit Fluttershy like a rock. “What? No, it can’t be!” She didn’t want the horrid words to be true.
The unicorn cleared his throat. “We need to get it out as soon as possible. It may have already caused some internal bleeding in his brain. But if only the bad news could end there, that's not all.” The doctor pointed at a different section of the X-ray entirely. He pointed to Max's x-ray.
“Several of his ribs are broken, which has most likely weakened his heart, liver, kidney, and other vital organs could be forced to shut down.”
This news was crushing Fluttershy's heart. No, no, no! This can’t be happening! Not now, not to Max! How could this happen? He was fine yesterday. Fluttershy screamed in her head, 
“We need to get that shard object out soon NOW! or else he won’t have too long to live. I’m afraid he’s got a 10% chance of survival because of his size and the stated of his body right now, but that number will be even lower if he doesn’t has the operation. You need to make the decision now.”

“He needs that operation.” Fluttershy said, her verdict made without hesitation. 
“Good, we’re need to get him prep for surgery. You’ve got 30 minutes and then he’s going in for the operation.” Dr. Stable said, pleased at Fluttershy's decision. She went back to the waiting room to spend as much time as she could with Max. She picked him back up and brought him up to her shoulder and carried him back to Dr. Stable and Nurse Redheart. She felt like crying but she didn’t want Max to know anything was wrong, but Max could sense something was up. She was being more touchy then she usually was with him and he could tell she was holding back tears. 

“Max, these ponies are going to make you feel better in a minute. And when you’re out the hospital we’re going to have so much fun together. We can go for picnics in the summer, and you can help me with the animals when the winter's over, and when it’s time for you to spread your wings I’ll help you to fly.” Fluttershy kept trying to keep herself from crying by saying about the good things in the future, although deep down in her heart something was telling her that it might not come true.
She hugged him tight and whispered in his ear. “I’m always going to be there for you. Always.” Max just managed to spread his hooves around Fluttershy's neck to hug her back, sending chill down her spine as she feel his little warm hooves around neck, knowing it may be the last time she ever get to feel this.

Finally Fluttershy gave Max to the group of doctors surrounding an examination table set up for their patient. “Don’t worry, Miss Fluttershy, we have the most qualified doctors for the operation; we're going to make sure this alicorn lives.”
“Thank you, that means a lot.” Fluttershy took a deep breath, her anxiety as strong as ever.
“Take three breaths of this sleeping gas, little guy. It'll make you feel better.” One of the doctors held the mask to Max's muzzle. Immediately he began to feel a little bit light headed and then Max looked up at Fluttershy, who was putting on her brave face. She nodded, silently telling him that the doctor's words were true.

With his mind getting dizzy, he started to lose his vision, getting more and more discombobulated. He felt like he was drifting in mid air, then he suddenly realized he didn't want to leave Fluttershy. Looking up at her, he saw a single tear trail down her check and land on his face. She gave him a sympathetic smile as if to say, “It's going to be alright. Just you wait and see.” Max started to panic.
No, I don’t want those strange ponies take me away! I don’t want to die, Mommy, please don’t let them take me! Please! 
Max started to cry and struggle in Fluttershy's arms, he moved his hooves to the mask and tried to pull it off  his face.
“Max, no! You need to breath in the gas!” Said the doctor, trying to hold the mask to his face but the little foal kept taking it off. 
No! Leave me alone, I don’t want you to take me!
“Max.” Fluttershy brought her little Max up to her face until the squirming foal was eye level with her. “Please, Max. You need these ponies take you away to make you feel better. I know you're scared, but sometimes we all have to do things we’re scared of. But you have to believe me when I say it'll be alright. I promise. I’ll be here when you wake up. I promise. Just do this for me. Please.” Fluttershy had tears streaming freely down her face in honest lament.
Max put his little hooves around her neck and gave her a hug, nuzzling against her. She could feel his tears dripping on the back of her neck as her foal sobbed in her hoove. I will.
I’ll do it for you, Mommy, Max thought to himself.

Breaking away from the hug, Fluttershy looked at her little Max, his giant puppy eyes only make it harder her to let go of him. “Come on, it's time to go.” Max gave a little nod as he allowed the doctor to place the mask on his muzzle.
Max reached out his right hoof and placed it on her nose, taking comfort in knowing she was still there. He opened his mouth to say something, but instead inhaled the last breath of sleeping gas to put him asleep. Max suddenly felt all his energy leave him in a flash, his breath became shorten with every second past, his eyelids soon felt like heavy weight. The last thing he heard was his Mommy telling him, “I love you max” until the drowsiness became too much and his eyes slowly began close; the last thing he saw was Fluttershy's sympathetic smile. Then all the colours around him started to fade away until there was nothing.

> Chapter 5 Heart Strings to Play a Violin
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

Chapter 5 Heart Strings to Play a Violin
I held him tenderly in my hooves as Max slowly went into a peaceful hibernation. I knew that this moment maybe the last I ever see of him. Even though I’ve only known him for 8 days I felt so attached to him. Even though he was only awake for two of them, even though we didn't get to spend much time together, even though I know barely anything about him, I love him.

I whispered softly in his ear, “I love you.” I knew once he was sound asleep I had to give him to the doctor. But I didn’t want to leave him, I didn’t want to let him go, I didn't want him to leave me. I wanted to actually know what it’s like to be a mother. I wanted desperately for all our problems to disappear and to just go home with him in my arms. But I couldn’t let my selfish fantasies get in the way if I wanted to be a mother for Max. 
I hand him over to the doctors, handing this small clueless foal over to some doctors felt like the hardest thing to do for me, it felt like I was giving him to some strangers, never the less I handed him over to the doctors, who carefully place him in the bed.

I look at him one last time before the group of ponies take him away. I watch as he gets taken in to the operations room. Once he’s out of my line of vision, I begin to shake silently, letting tears spill down my face freely. I’m worried for him, I wish for him with all of my heart, my Mother used to tell me, if you believe with all your might, it could come true. That’s what I wish for today, I wish for his well-being.
He's just so young, and I don’t want something that has just began life to die. I don’t want someone I loved to die. 
Suddenly, I feel a hoof rest on my shoulder. I turn around and see my friend Nurse Redheart standing there, a funny expression on her face. She looks… sad? Worried...? I think she’s worried about me. 
“Fluttershy, it’s alright. He’s going to be fine.” She reassures me. I sniffle and blink at her.
“Yes,I-I know. And he’s in good hooves. But I'm just so scared at the thought of him dying.…” I look away and wipe the tears from my eyes.

Nurse Redheart stoops down and stares into my eyes. “Look, Fluttershy, you need to be strong. Not just for Max, but also for yourself. I tell you this from one friend to another. Be strong. Go home, get some rest and come back in the morning.” She pauses, and then gently brushes my wet mane out of my eyes. 
“Tsk, tsk. Oh, Fluttershy,” she coos, her tone having changed. “What are we going to do with you? You’ve got to stop hiding behind that mane of yours! C’mon, let’s go.”

She helps me up and walks me to the front of the hospital. When we got to the entrance, Nurse Redheart asks me if I’m okay and if I need any help getting home tonight. 
“No, I’m fine to walk home,” I say, needing some time to myself and my thoughts.
She gives me her signature expression of worry, “Are you sure? I could walk you home.”
I sigh. “No, it's fine, really. I just need some time alone.”
“If you say so” I can tell that the nurse is not too convinced, but she carries on anyways. “come back tomorrow morning, and please try not worry about the little feller. He’ll be right here when you get back.” She smiles, resting a comforting hoof on my right wing.

“Yeah” I lower my head to the ground “I hope so.” The thought of Max not making it through the night scared me.
I walk slowly home with my head down. I thought of all the fun I had with my little Max. Like when he had a bath, or when he had the medicine for the first time… I giggled a little at the thought. 
Then the haunting thought comes back to me. What if I wasn’t meant to be a mom? What if I’m just not cut out to look after a child? Without warning, I am suddenly thrust back to that day. I squeeze my eyes shut, trying to block out this terrible, terrible memory, but it’s too late; the horror has arrived, and I begin to whimper and shake, having to once again relive the day, the day I lost my child.

The hospital, hearing ponies shouting out, feeling light headed, waking up to see a close friend by your side, worried about you, then having the news broken to you, only leaving you to feel empty where life had once grown. Nothing has destroyed me more than that moment. The pain comes rushing back, sweeping over me in waves, all the sadness, the emptiness, the horrifying realization of what has happened, I can’t have a child of my own. I’m not strong enough to carry one. 
When the stallion I once loved came to be there for me the day it happened, he came with panic look on his face and sadness in his eyes, he only got more upset when I told him the terrible news, he came to me, he hugged me tight and told me we’d get through this fog together.

But the worse part was I didn’t feel happy around him anymore, his warm touch only made me feel guilty for losing the foal, we had planned a life together, a family, future, except the one piece of the puzzle now broken everything fell apart, the love for him die along with our child, and things never got any better from there.

For a few days I stayed at the hospital with the loss of my child hurting me every minute I was awake, I was given drugs to keep me from getting depressed, and talks with ponies who try settling my mind. The whole time I was there I felt like they were wasting time. Somehow through all the pain and depression, I managed to become sane.
Finally the day came when I left the hospital to find what the world had left me now, my friend rainbow dash help me out the hospital and walk with me to my home. She tried her best to keep my spirits up, although nothing had seemed to make me happy after what happen.

Coming home to find the one I loved greeting me with open hooves, trying his best to show his love was still there for me, just brought tears to my eyes. I breaking away from his hug, I told him I want to be alone for a while, he agrees and I went upstairs to lie down.
I opened the door to see our foal's crib, right next to our bed, waiting for a child that was never going to happen. Seeing it made the whole thing come back to me and I soon found myself on the floor, crying and screaming, gasping to find air.
I lay on the floor for a long time, wailing and shaking. At some point I rolled over and saw Rainbow Dash standing in the doorway, she must've been let in by my boyfriend, she had tears streaming down her face which were dripping onto the floor. I don't know how long she'd been standing there, but she walked over to me without a word and lay down next to me on the floor. She pulls me into a hug and we both laid there for a long time, with silent tears wetting our manes and making our eyes red and puffy. But that didn't matter then. Nothing mattered then. My brain was in a jumble, and I couldn't organize my thoughts. All I knew was that my baby was gone. But Rainbow was there and I was eternally grateful.

I trudge through the thick snow that has built up on the path to my house. As I walk by, I glimpse a couple drinking hot cocoa on this late night and laughing. I notice that the mare is pregnant.
Will I ever get to have that? I think. All I have ever wanted was to be able to have that kind of relationship.. Mother, child… happy family. Up to now, my animals have tried to fill this gaping void on my life, but now Max has come into my life. And he has changed everything. He has reopened that void. He has torn apart the stitches that held these old wounds together; the scars that cannot ever be fully healed.

I walk away from the couple. I don’t want to hear their laughter! I don’t want to see the happiness they share; the joy, the celebration of new life. I hate them for it! And I hate myself because of this…
I begin to trot, trying to escape their laughter, but it begins to get louder and louder. I break on to a run, frantically racing for my cottage, blinded by my own tears mixing with the falling snow.

I burst into my cottage, and immediately collapse on the floor, sobbing. 
“Why? Why?! WHY?!” I shout as loud as I can, filling the whole cottage with my voice. My shrill rage is met by complete silence, only highlighting the fact that I am all on my own in this terribly empty cottage. 
“It’s all my fault he’s in hospital. If only I had waited a little longer to show him to my friends. I bought a poor little thing like Max to my friends and they hurt him. I’m a terrible pony.” I stand up, no longer sobbing, but instead with anger in my eyes. I don’t know if I am angry at myself or at my friends, but I am angry. 

I walk over to my table, and see the things lying there. The muffins. The clothes. Mr. Button Brown. I’ve planned a new life to raise a child and already it’s about to end because of my foolishness. I pick up Mr. Button Brown and hug him tight, wishing it was really max I was holding in my arms, not a soft toy plush.
“How did he even get a piece of metal in his head?” I ask myself, I wonder if I would ever get an answer to that question.
Suddenly there was a knock on the door. I walk over to the door slowly, not in the mood to see anypony. I open the door and, to my surprise, it was my five friends.

Twilight stands in the middle. Her face in authentic melancholy. “Fluttershy Are you and Max okay? We came by earlier and you weren’t here.” She says, her concern blatantly obvious in her and her voice. 
“No,” I pause, and wipe my eyes, I don’t want them to see I have been crying, “I’m not alright. I went to the hospital with Max. He had an X-ray and they-they found a sharp piece of metal lodged in his brain.” I sniffed, my eyes are welling with tears again. I tried not to meet their eyes.
“And-an-and he’s gone in for a-an operation an-and he-he’s only got a 10% chance of surviving.” I find myself breaking down into tears despite my best attempts to stay strong.
The second my sentence is out of my mouth Rainbow Dash and Rarity rush over to my side. Dash grabs me and pulls me into a bear hug, allowing me to hide my face in her shoulders. Rarity joins in on the hug from the side, her eyes red and watery. Applejack and Pinkie Pie come over next, both not knowing quite how to react.

Twilight stands in my doorway for a moment with shock written all over her face, before she tentatively walks over. There is a long moment of silence with only Rarity's occasional sniffs. I let the tears flow onto Rainbow's shoulder, and she just hugs me harder when she feels my body start to shake. Pinkie Pie and Applejack don't have any room to be in the hug, but they still do their best by patting my back and stroking my mane. 

Rarity breaks the silence. “Fluttershy dear, it’s going to be alright.” 
“No!” I push everypony away. Their faces show shock and hurt, but I don't care. “He’s not going to be alright! He’s in the hospital right now having an operation with only a 10% chance of surviving it! How are things ever going to be alright?! He could end up dying, How…How…” I pant, the rage draining from my body. The gravity of my yelling soon came to me and I whimper.
Rarity gives me another hug from the front, just her and me this time. “Stop that right now, Fluttershy, what sort of mother thinks like that, giving up before the fight is over? If you talk like that, why what sort of mother...” She trails off, letting everypony draw their own conclusions.
“Don’t you worry, he’ll be flying around the place before you know It.” says Rainbow. I can see how worried she is about me. She’s the only one who when through it all with me.

Applejack breaks in with pure kind-heartedness on her face. “We’re all going to stay here with ya tonight.” 
“Oh, you don’t have t-to do that,” I say, still fighting a battle with sobs. 
“No, no. We have promised ourselves that we will always be there for our friends in their hour of greatest need” Says Rarity. 
“B-but what about Sweetie Belle?” I protest feebly, but I know that her mind is already made up.
“All taken care of, we dropped her off at Sweet Apple Acres, and she’s havin’ a sleepover with Apple Bloom and Scootaloo” says Applejack. 

“a-and Spike, what about him?” I say, desperate for an excuse for them to leave.
Twilight sighs and joins the conversation at last. “Don’t worry about Spike. He’ll be alright on his own, it’ll give him more time to nap.” She says briskly. 
“Thank you, girls.” Now that I knew I wasn't going to be all alone in my cottage tonight, the weight on my shoulders didn't seem nearly as bad. 
“It’s really dark in here. Are there bats in here?” Asked Pinkie Pie. She looked over at Applejack. The farm pony was giving Pinkie a well-known look. “What?” Pinkie asked in defence, even though she knew that this was not the time or place for her random outbursts.

I turn the hallway light on and went upstairs to get pillows and blankets as it was going to be a night down stairs. With the blankets and pillows distributed, everypony picked a spot to lie down. 
Applejack curled up on the floor. Pinkie was dozing against the wall upside down; she was always doing the most normal things weird. Twilight slept with body her against the couch. I slept in the middle of the couch, nestled between Rarity and Rainbow Dash. 
“G’nite everyone,” I yawned. 
“Nighty-night,” They all chorused back. 
After a few minutes of silence, Rainbow Dash whispered in my ear, “Don’t worry. Everything is going to be okay. I bet my wings on it.”
Long after everypony fell asleep, I still lay on the couch, thinking about what she said. “I bet my wings on it.” Rainbow only said that in honest-to-Celestia serious situations. She'd literally give up her wings if it came to it. She was serious, and I hope she's right. I stare out the window to see that the snow ceased falling. Hope. That's all I have to hold onto right now. All I can do is hope with all my heart. I look into the night sky and seeing all of the beautiful twinkling stars. 
“Goodnight, my little Hope.” I whisper, before drifting into sleep.

(BACK AT THE HOSPITAL)

As the doctors were doing their best to save max’s life, deep within the small foal’s mind he was in the snow and everything around him was white. He felt cold and alone in this lifeless place. 
“Wooo, I’m in this place again huh, it’s really change since the last time I was here.”

“So what do you think?” said a mystery voice from behind, max suddenly felt a chill go down his spine, was it that white pony from his dream, he could already feel his legs ready to run, but he couldn’t help looking behind.
Max turned around slowly to see a pure black pony facing him. She was tall, her mane and ponytail was black and her Cutie Mark was a white spot.  Seeing it wasn’t the white pony from last time, he decides she wasn’t a threat to him.
“Think about what” he asked her.

“This place, it’s very peaceful don’t you think.” the pony seem quite calm and relax  like she was happy when she spoke , almost in a disturbing sort of way that made max feel scared, making him question himself  if he really was sane if his mind could create such bizarre characters.

“Yeah it’s nice I guess, I mean in all honesty I find it weird how I can only feel countable enough to talk in this place, but then I did meet a pink pony named pinkie pie, so I guess not everything is impossible.”
“You’re not actually talking max, what you’re saying right now is from your mind and not your mouth.”
Max hesitated for a second trying to understand if what she said made sense, “well that maybe so but what is this place I’m in, where am I?” 

“This is what you may call the opening of life or a home for you.  You’ve met me before or at least part of me.”
“No we haven’t met before” max didn’t know a single thing about this pony, nothing about this pony seem familiar at all.
“Yes, the white pony in your dream me.”

“Wait that was YOU! You were the white pony trying to kill me.”
“No that’s was part of me ying, I’m yang.”

“I’m confuses your saying we’d met before but you say that it was ying who tried to kill me, what’s going on.
“Well you see we are Ying and Yang, good and bad, light and dark, we are always one person and we are the nature balance. You can’t have one of us without the other or the world is out balance. We have many names and many forms, I have no real name so you may call me yang, I like the name yang, it has a nice ring to it.”

“So what do you have to do with me, why did you try to kill me?” max asked, max wish he could of just dreamt of normal dreams, like adventure in a magic forest, exploring an empty cave with a cybernetic mare as your companion, or a world of chocolates and sweets, not asking a pony why she tried to kill him in his last dream.  Something told max that nopony would dream of this, making him feel all the stranger.

“All truth will come when time is right, except if you die now you will never know the truth.”
“So then tell me now!, I want to know in case I die” max felt he should at least know in case his didn’t  make it.
“I can’t, only when time is just right” she stop dead centre with a look that told max, she wasn’t going to speak a word of it.
“When is the time right, how long?”

“The time happens when time come” she spoke in a humours way, which max felt right now wasn’t the time for riddles.
“Why am I so cold then?”

“Your life is hanging on the balance, if you don’t take control soon, it’s all over.”
“So what can I do, I don’t want to die.”
“You need to focus your energy” she said as her body began to faded, and pretty soon max could see through her.
“Wait don’t go, not yet, I still have a lot of questions to ask you” max shouted to her.

“Farewell may we meet in again in better circumstances next time” and with that she was gone, the words she spoke still keep going.   

“Focus your energy, focus your energy, focus your energy” it kept repeating itself.
“Focus my energy? But how do I do that?”

Max looked around, no one was there, he was surrounded by an empty white land, Max sat down on the cold white ground, laid his head down, close his eyes, and concentrated hard.

“I hope I’ll get to see you again fluttershy, when I wake up........if I wake up.”


> Chapter 6 A penny for your thoughts 
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

Chapter 6 A penny for your thoughts 
When I walked into the hospital, I stopped for a moment to look around. The atmosphere at the hospital seemed different than usual but it wasn’t Whatever Fluttershy, you came here to see Max not to evaluate whether the choice of décor that the hospital has chosen is dreary or not. I just over analyzing ever thing so much because I’m just worrying too much, yep oh worry wart Fluttershy. Always thinking of the worst case scenario. 
I bet Max is perfectly fine just a minor inconvenience, yeah totally in agreement. I stood there for a moment the awkward silence soon followed. Silly Fluttershy, what did you think was going to happen a light bulb ding or Pinkie Pie come out of nowhere with a check mark. Or fact any of your friends showing up to reassure you that it will be alright. 

Being angry at your friends is hard, I know they didn’t mean to do it but I was expecting more from them. After all the are my best friends. Max being in this state has been messing with my brain its like an all consuming virus. Why did this have to happen to I had a wrenched gut twist feeling, like how I feel after waking up from a nightmare. The world almost didn’t feel real… but I knew it was real. 
All anguish he has caused me now is worth what short time I spent with him was worth all the heartache. But as I was reminiscing about my time spent with Max, I sudden bumped into someone, I hadn’t realized that I was wandering the hospital lost in deep thought. ”I’m so.. Sorry. I didn’t ..” but before Fluttershy her apologize did she realize who it was she had bumped into none other than Nurse Redheart. 

She dusted herself then looked up to see the face of the buffoon who had walked into her. When her gaze met with her gaze her facial expression of frustration and irrational changed to an expression of sorrow and regret, “WHY… Fluttershy ….we need to talk… somewhere private. Follow me.” 

I stared at her quizzically, she said nothing but motioned me to follow her. Throughout the whole walk she did not reveal anything else to me, she continued to avoid my gaze. Following her through the long hallway, the hospital seemed to be rather quieter than it usual is. After an awkward silence, she turned left into a dark room that had been used just recently. I went in shortly behind her, but as soon as I stepped in, I knew that something was wrong.
The room smelt of something quite putrid but it was familiar, I just put my hoof on it. The smell sent chills down my spine. In the centre of the darkly lit room, there was a table
with a small, lifeless body on it. Then it hit me it was Max.

In that one moment I wanted to do some many things but I couldn’t decide on one. I wanted to fall down and cry me eyes out until I died of dehydration, but I didn’t. I felt like I could scream my lungs out in rage and anger over what had happen in hope they would either burst into flames or I died from exhaustion, however I could not do it. I wanted to turn around and walk out, while simultaneously walking out on life I had given up on it. No matter how much I wanted to do any and all of these options, I instead could only choose this stupid response.

“Oh my…. That’s….. Max…… Is he ….. dead?” I sqeaked out meekly as a single tear raced down my face.
I knew the answer but it still hadn’t clicked for me, I was in denial. Turning to face me she replied, “Yes.” Nurse Redheart then proceeds to tell me what happened during the surgery and what the doctors and nurses did to try and save him. However important the details of how it happened might have been I wasn’t paying attention to Nurse Redheart, I was too busy trying to deal with consequences of what happened in my head. I know that they tried their best but their best wasn’t good enough. All the pain that came with becoming attached to the little guy… the hurt, the remorse! A family friend warned me about this how my own kindness would be my biggest weakness.

I wish he were here to give me some words of advice right now. As if on cue I started to recall that instant and what he said that one summer when he said to me verbatim. “Your kindness is like the sun in many ways for it can give an individual a reason to get up in the morning and it can be a ray of light in a rather bleak time. And just like the sun your kindness get abused and lost over time. But Fluttershy my dear, I bet your heart is so big that it could rival the sun in pureness and warmth.” I replied to him like any filly at age would have said,”Hehe your silly True Bright, my heart isn’t the size of the sun.” He laughed reply, “True Fluttershy my dear, most things I say nowadays don’t even make sense to me. But I want to warn a sweet thing about the harsh reality of life, the more you open yourself to others the great the chance of heartbreak.” I stared at him wide-eyed not understand what it meant but know it was important. He chuckled, “There I go again, come here you adorable I’m going to tickle the cute out of you!” I screamed, “ Ahh HEEHEEE . . Stop. .. Hehehe.” I miss him so much.

I must have started to smile at that thought because Nurse Redheart, stopped talking and walked over beside me. Nurse Redheart put her arm around me trying her best to comfort me, she was not just comforting me to be professional but in that moment I knew she was comforting me as a friend.

I went over to pick him in my arms, just to hold him one last time.
Picking him up, holding him tight, he didn’t feel like Max… he… he was just an empty shell…. His body had lost its entire colour, making him a ghostly white. Maybe Pinkie Pie was right he was like a toy. He was like my little teddy bear; I got one Hearth’s Warming Day. He was my favourite, I took him everywhere with me and I did everything with him. Bathing him, feeding him and dressing him was not a chore but a delight with him. 

I let my friend see play with him but they played too hard with him and broke him. And just like my teddy bear, Max is nothing but a broken toy. “NO!” I screamed in my head, “he is not like a toy he was a living thing.” In the dark recess of my mind I hear a murmur, ”The thing was a toy.” Ignoring the voice, I stroke Max’s little mane. His previously lush mane seemed to have lost its beautiful colour, it was a dark lifeless black as if death was try to escape its bonds of this organic capsule it inhabited through his hair. After what seemed like moments… which turned out to be hours… of sitting there, cradling the body, keeping it warm. 

Realizing that I had to let go, slowly looking once more at the face… oh, that face! Max’s eyes shot open, and were now staring blankly into the distance. I was about to scream but now coming to term with that fact Max was dead. He will never be able to look at anything again… I began to sniffle.

I swallowed my sorrow, and whispered to him as if he were still alive, “L-Looks like you didn’t make it little f-feller… I-I’m sorry I won’t be able to do all those fun things I promised we’d do.” My eyes watered as I remembered my plans. Our plans…blubbering, “I- I’m sorry that I w-won’t be able to see you grow up, I- I’m sorry I w-wasn’t there f-for your last moment of life… y-y-you didn’t even manage to get your cutie mark.” By this time, tears were streaming down my cheeks, “Y-your life barely b-began… and… and it ended so t-tragically short… y-you were the only thing that g-gave meaning to my life. I-It s-seems pointless… there- there is no meaning in my l-life no matter what I’ll do! Y-you were the most s-sp-special thing to me t-true happiness!”

Crying as much as I did tears were falling on to Max’s face, dampening his mane and flattening it… After a few moments, I composed myself reminding myself of my responsibility… as an adult… to Max.
Lower my head to Max’s body, softly kissing him on the cheek. Lovingly stroking his mane… I didn’t want to put him down I wanted hold him in my arms forever. Someone I could love and someone who would love me back for just who I am. Remembering my mother’s lullaby that she used to sing to me when I was young, there was no more fitting time to sing it but now.

“Oh little colt, the day has just begun, 
In the morning we see the sun, 
Let’s not go and waste the day,
So let’s all go out to play.
This life we have, the joy we share,
That’s all it takes to show we care, 
Now… hush little colt, you’ve had your fun,
We’ve laughed and played in the morning sun.
But now, the day is near the end,
It’s time for us to make amends,
Now you can go and count some sheep,
And dream new adventures as you sleep.
Now, hush little colt,
I will always care,
Whenever you’re frightened,
I’ll be right there.
It’s time to sleep,
And time to lie,
So rest your head, 
And don’t be shy, 
In the morning, I will come 
And we’ll start a new day, with lots of fun, 
...so, goodnight...my love,
Rest as an angel… you’re a dove,
Have…. have peaceful rest, and dream...With...Care...
Remember, for you… I will always… be there,”

After I finished my lullaby I kissed him for the last time. Gently caressing his face, wiping away my fallen tears from his face. Which almost made it look like they were his. Closing his eyes ever so gingerly of the colt that had once filled her life with such joy. I kissed the colt that had been my unforgettable blessing, a final goodbye.

“Goodnight sweet prince, I’ll never forget you. As luck may have it you may not have had the best start at life but at least you died with a mother who loved you. I love you Max, the only thing I wanted to hear you say was ‘I love you mummy,’” I paused, “b-but I guess I’ll never hear you say that now. I…. I- I should have been a better mommy, now it’s my fault that you died… I’m so sorry Max, sweet dreams, my little hope. Just always remember… I love you… and you will always be with me in my heart…”
I placed him back down on the table, and, once again, felt my heart breaking. I left the room quietly, leaving Nurse Redheart with glistening red eyes.
I had decided... never to try and be a mommy again... Looks like it just wasn’t in the cards to have another child. Hearts doesn’t seem to be my suit, even in the heart of the cards. I... I don't know what my destiny or fate is... 
I turned back once again, but when I looked back at Nurse Redheart she wasn’t there. My gaze shifted to the body on the table… but nobody was on the table. 
“What’s going on?” 

The pounding in my head was all I could hear and feel my heart beating at an accelerated pace. My ears felt like they were on fire. This wasn't right, this couldn't be right! I whipped my head around, searching desperately for Nurse Redheart, Max, anyone! The room slowly faded, becoming darker and darker until I couldn't see anything at all.

The pounding in my ears sped up until it became a low whine then silence. That’s it I thought my ears burst deafening me, making me aware of how utterly alone I was. Whimpering, I curled up into a ball, not daring to move for it was a hopeless endeavour. The sweat poured down my face in torrents, soaking my mane. Time was meaningless now, for seconds turned into minutes turning into days. Each moment I lay there the demons and shades that hid in the shadows encroached upon me as the light slowly died down. With a stifled sob I cried out, “Not now!” Halting their progress, terrified and alone in the darkness with some many eyes.
"Surely, I've suffered enough!" Bitterly cursing through my tears. I just wanted something to happen...anything....anything to end this torture of darkness and solitude...

Without warning, the room started to turn red and suddenly the floating demons and shades fell to ground. They were in fact dead bodies now crawling everywhere they seemed disoriented. Slowly getting up… the stench of rancid flesh was choking out smell of everything else. Gagging for a moment before heading towards the clearest path through this living horror. Looking back all I can see is a sea of cold, hateful eyes staring back at me.

Not realizing what was in front I stumble backwards in shock, only to bump into five ponies that I knew…“Ha look at Fluttershy she can’t even look after a squirt like that …what a loser,” laughed a cruel undead Rainbow Dash before her jaw fell right off.

“Better make a hat with matching mittens from the colt you killed,” said a one-eyed Rarity, not to miss out on the fun.

“Yes… YES… yes… it says in my book, 1001 things to know about fillies and colts, that children should actually be looked after, not murdered,” Added an ever knowledgeable bodiless apparition of Twilight.

“Yes… YES, we-ell, surely his body would’a been mighty good food for my worms back at the farm,” joined Applejack with half her face missing.

“Oh oh oh!!! I know it’s too late to throw a surprise party, but how about a surprise funeral instead!” Cried a rather normal looking Pinkie Pie ecstatically, only to drop into a giggling fetal position.

Whirling around in terror once more facing of those…. those terrible dead bodies! They begun to laugh... slowly at first, and then more manically. As they laughed, the stench of decay seeped out of their mouths, and slowly over take me and my senses. “I’ve got to get out of here!” I rallied to myself.

Trying to move pass them to escape, my insides felt like they were melting and breaths got shorter and shorter. Beginning to feel light-headed I went to my knees, it wasn’t too far before I doubled over and began to vomit and cough up some black fluid. At this point I couldn’t tell where it was coming from but it was coming from inside me. 
Sensing my weakness, they surrounded me, they all pointed they’re rotting hooves at me and started chanting, 
“YOU’RE A MUDERER, YOU’RE A MUDERER, YOU’RE A MUDERER”, as if it was a cruel joke.

The vile liquid I had just expelled from my body began to take shape and move.
Curling up, seeking comfort from my own body, attempting wildly to conceal myself… to protect myself… I lay there, curled in a ball of terror, shaking wildly.
I yelled in protest, “I’m not a MUDERER I’m NOT a MUDERER I’M NOT A MUDERER!” 
From behind the pony corpses I heard a voice that silenced the crowd, “Oh my sweet little Fluttershy, your pleas are in vain. I’m going to open your eyes to whole new experiences.”

In desperation I called out for the royal princesses for help, for guidance or for any scrap of seeing an end to this. With parsimonious tone, almost like a metronome it laughed, “No one can help you now.” The crowd of bodies began to part as this mysterious figure move closer to me. In a last ditch attempt for my survival, I screamed my lungs out emptying them completely,”AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA!”
Suddenly I awake screaming, in sweat drenched bed

“Fluttershy, Fluttershy!” barely opening my eyes I squint to see the source of the sound is, making out a blue-ish blob that is shaking me awake. “Ohmygosh… Are you ok?” With a gasp, Fluttershy shrunk away from her friend; covering her face with her mane. Rainbow Dash persisted, “It’s alright; it was just a nightmare," Panted the prismatic haired pegasus, hastily trying to console her friend.

Replying to my worried friend, “I’m fine Dash, I just a little surprised having you hover over me.” A little embarrassed Rainbow Dash brushes her hair out of her eyes, “I’m sorry it sounded different to me but is there anything I could get you?” “Space would be nice,” I remark gingerly. “Space? Well I could probably fly you up their but you wouldn’t…” but before a helpful Rainbow Dash can finish that thought, our eyes make contact and she understands what I meant. Rainbow Dash plants a hoof on her face, “Personal space, of course.

Well I go tell the others you’re awake.” Getting out of bed I remark, “No it’s not a problem that they need to concern themselves with.” But it is too late Rainbow Dash has left and closed the door. Utterly exhausted and confused, I quickly survey the room nothing seems out of place. Then out of corner of my eye I notice some dark dart out the window.
Looking out the window I see nothing, must have just been an eyelash in my eye. My hair is a complete mess, so I clean my face and brush my hair in till it has its natural flow back. Making the bed before heading downstairs to tend to my houseguests. 
As a look around the room, I see the faces of my friends standing around at the bottom of the stairs staring blankly at me; I see the sun beginning to rise out of the window. It’s morning. I begin to become aware of myself… my breathing seemed laboured, sweat was glistening on my forehead, and I have a numbing pain in my stomach.

After acclimating myself to my surroundings, looking over at Rainbow Dash, the cyan pegasus is the closest to stairs; her hooves still on her stomach from where I grabbed her after she woke me up. Fluttershy stared at Rainbow Dash, seeing the concern in the other pegasus' eyes. Closing her eyes taking a deep breath, preparing herself to lie to Dash that she was infact all right.

“Yes… it… it was just a bad dream…. That’s all,” I calmly reassured everypony else. However I was still a little bit shaky at the mere thought of that so vivid nightmare.
Twilight stepped forward, her eyes wide with concern. “Are you sure? I could have sworn I heard you talking in your sleep… something about… about murderers,” she trailed off.
Applejack chimed in, “You were making more noise then when one of cows are giving birmphf..” But before Applejack could finish her sentence Pinkie Pie had jammed her left hoof into Applejack’s mouth and continued Applejack sentence, “Giving milk of course, because cows give us milk. And golly they can be noisy at times.” 

Pinkie Pie smiled her toothy grin, proceeding to slowly remove her hoof from Applejack mouth. Applejack glared at Pinkie Pie with a look of disbelief plastered across her face. In response Pinkie Pie flopped her ears up and down and blinked her left eye twice. No sooner did Pinkie Pie do that then Applejack’s facial expressions changed from one of anger to one of shock and disbelief. They were up to something, Fluttershy thought to herself. 

Pinkie Pie butts in,” How did you get all the up there, silly. You were sleeping downstairs last night.” Fluttershy looking around again, I guess I was upstairs, “Clearly all this stress is getting to me, and I must be sleeping walking.” Pinkie Pie ponders for a second, “that clearly makes sense and should never ever be put to question by anybody who I tell this story to or even a write version of this incident, Okie Dokie Lokie.” Fluttershy in disbelief; what is she talking about, “Ok Pinkie Pie.”
Moving on from what had just occurred, Fluttershy began to move to the bottom of stairs trying to muster a more confident face. What was it that Iron Will told her once, What’s there to gain, from showing them you’re in pain! Ok buck up sister. “No, no. I’m alright girls, really I perfectly fine as it is.” Reassuring them before asking, “So, who’d like Breakfast then?”
“Shy, you know we come down her to make sure your alright, not come over for breakfast,” concerned jested Applejack.
Fluttershy blinked, “No, I insist. It’s the least I can do for you guys, and I’m not taking no for an answer” she said, making her way over to the kitchen. “Who else is having some?”
Applejack waited for a moment before responding, “…Okay then… I’ll have some then.”
All of sudden with a loud snap Pinkie Pie shot to attention, “Ooohh ooohh did somebody say breakfast! I’ll have …” Pinkie Pie took a large inhale getting ready to list off a rather large order. 

Fluttershy grabbed a pad of paper and pen, preparing for Pinkie Pie breakfast request. Pinkie proceeded to list what she wanted “I’ll have a three triple chocolate pancakes with white chocolate chips, with some cinnamon roses in caramel, along with a two strawberry banana waffles with a side assortment grasses on the side with a big cup of Apple cider with a barley broth to top it off.” 

Everybody else just looked at Pinkie wide-eyed then to Fluttershy who was furiously writing down the order. Panting in disbelief Fluttershy asked, “Is that all, Pinkie?” Smiling back Pinkie Pie gestured, “Heehee actually, I just want a cherry chimichanga.” As if on cue the rest of the gang, fell over in disbelief. Rainbow Dash snickered to herself but Fluttershy just smiled and shortly relied, “Oh ok, Rarity would you like some breakfast?”

Picking herself up after almost fainting after Pinkie Pie comment, Rarity brushing herself off turned to Fluttershy, “That would be lovely dear I’ll have some of that baked good you made last time I was over, please,” she added sweetly. 
Trying to recall the last time they shared breakfast thinking for a moment then it came to me, “Oh the giant cinnamon apple pancake, yes of course. But that is a lot for just one pony.” Applejack looked at Rarity seriously, ”What I have been working hard this week, I deserve a treat,” Rarity replies in a sanctimonious and self-righteous tone.

Applejack looks at Rarity she tries to avoid make eye contact, “Sigh, fine Applejack and I will split the giant cinnamon apple pancake. But you owe me, Applejack,” remarked a defeat but playful Rarity. Applejack grinned then turned to Fluttershy, “Oh ok Fluttershy, you twisted my rubber arm, I’ll split apple pancake with Rarity. But by any chance do you have any parsnips, Fluttershy? ” 
“Oh AJ, you do know your growing cycle of plants,” I replied coyly. “Well, it is my job to know, otherwise I would be a lousy farmer,” replying in a matter of fact tone. Fluttershy just smiled and nodded her head, turning to Twilight,”What would you like for breakfast?” Looking up from her book Twilight Sparkle smiled, “Oh I just have what you’re having Fluttershy, I don’t want to be any trouble.” 

“Are you sure everybody is having something different are you sure?” But it was no use Twilight Sparkle was back in her book thoroughly reading and comprehending the advanced text. Fluttershy just smiled and headed off to the kitchen.
Fluttershy busied herself by preparing the pots and pans in the kitchen.

As she was going over the order she realized she forgot to ask Rainbow dash what she wanted. While waiting for Rainbow Dash to reply to her. When she heard nothing, she called out, “How about it, Rainbow Dash?” But got no response, sighing, calling out her name even loud then before, “RAINBOW SERENITY DASH!” and looking back into the living room. Rainbow Dash had fallen asleep, reflecting back, I should have realized I should have done this sooner. 

This was the norm with her; due to her athletic and adventurous lifestyle her metabolism was relative high level and due to this fact if she was not eating at regular times she would in fact doze off. Which was usually inconvenient at times, if not slightly humorous at times?
Rarity gently prodded the dozing pegasus, “Rainbow my dear, it’s not becoming of a lady pony to partake in a nap on the host’s table,” commented in a displaced tone.

Rainbow Dash sleepily responded, “Erffllggguhh…. gnn… not yet Mom…. five… more minutes…”
“Mother? MOTHER! Why I never!” responded Rarity in a surprised yet odious tone. “Whoa there girl, Rainbow Dash clearly called you mother because off your loving and caring melodiously voice reminded her of her mother,” said Applejack charismatically as she gently forced the stool down that Rarity was holding above her head about break it over Rainbow Dash’s sleeping head.

“You really think so,” said Rarity as she lowers the stool to the ground, “If it were anybody else I would call them a silver tongued devil and a suck up. But since it’s you, I know it to be true.” Pinkie Pie pops in between Rarity and Applejack from underneath the table and interrupts the two of them, “Hey girls, not that I don’t love complement each other. Because I totally do but those mother comments might be offend a certain delicate Pegasus we know.” The look of horror and shamed started to creep across Rarity and Applejack faces. 

Rarity in a fervent murmur, “Oh my word, how could be so insensitive I just … got caught up in the fun Applejack and I were having to realize how it would affect dear darling Fluttershy.” “Hopefully she didn’t and thanks Pinkie Pie always with details,” added Applejack apologetically. Pinkie Pie now less serious, “No problem, I don’t think she heard you guys.” As they all look at Fluttershy who is moving around preparing breakfast in the kitchen.

I heard what they said but that isn’t what bothered. It’s the fact they think I’m too fragile to deal with at the current time or that they are trying to protect me from my own emotions. Shouldn’t friends have more trust in friends or do they just care for me that much. But before Fluttershy could give it anymore thought she saw Rainbow Dash had gone straight back to sleep. 
Knowing that Rainbow Dash was heavy sleeper, she would have to be to sleep through her own snoring. Never did wake up easily, but she still knew the best way to wake her up. With a brief sigh, she then yelled excitedly, “OH MY CELESTIA!!! RainbowRainbow! Izzat SoarinandSpitfire overthere!?!”

Immediately Rainbow sprung up, “WHAT WHERE?” she shouted, before a stroke of realization crossed her face, and she added coolly, “Oh. Ha-ha, Fluttershy, that old trick. I knew it was a joke the whole time.”
The kind pegasus sniffed dismissively, “Yes, well it still works. Now would you like some breakfast?”
The pegasus tried to act cool in front of her friends, pretending that the previous scene had never happened. “Sure I don’t ever refuse if somepony offers me breakfast,” she stated nonchalantly.

Rarity interjected, “Fluttershy dear, do you mind if I had a bath before breakfast?” she asked. “No, not at all my friend, what is mine is yours while you stay here. It’s upstairs the second door on your right,” gestured Fluttershy. “Thank you dear,” Rarity grinned before grabbing her bag and heading upstairs. Twilight Sparkle was lounging on the loveseat reading one of the books she brought.

Taking out the supplies I’ll need to prepare breakfast, I glanced over at the oatmeal, for a moment I pictured him reach for the oatmeal while I would be measuring out his medicine from cabinet beside the oatmeal. Brushing it off the oatmeal tin… I really shouldn’t think about Max right now…I turn to way from It’s a beautiful winter day, I’ll see Max soon enough after breakfast. Breakfast. Focus on breakfast. I take a deep breath, turned around to cutting board and looked out the window. Exhale; winter can be so refreshing at times. Getting out some eggs, milk, and flour, and start on the pancake mix getting separate bowls for Pinkie Pie and Rarity’s breakfast. As I combine the ingredients, I can hear Pinkie Pie and Applejack speaking in the other room. 

”How’d y’all sleep then last night, Pinkie?” commented casually Applejack. 
“I sleep super duper fine! How did you sleep?” is Pinkie normal chipper response.
Applejack hesitates, “Well I had a bit of a hard time on the floor last night, but it’s nothing an Apple can’t handle,” she smiled before continuing with, “The fact is that I was up a little night…because I couldn’t sleep. I was… I am worried about Fluttershy, Sugarcube, she’s really stressing herself out and what with how she reacted this morning, I really am concerned…” 

Putting a hoof around Applejack Pinkie Pie chuckled, “Well secret to my wonderful sleep was that I was dreaming about all the fun times I going to have the little colt as his favourite big auntie.” “Whoa hold up favourite auntie that title will being go to me, Pinkie pie.
As they both refuted their cases for best auntie, turn back the breakfast at hand tuning them out. Eavesdropping isn’t something I like doing but sometimes it can’t be helped. But are they that serious about wanting to care for Max and… they are really worried about me? I think. I don’t want them to be worried for me… I don’t want them to waste time worrying about me… I know, deep inside, that I want them to go away… curse them for causing me so much heartache. I want to blame them for what happened to Max… But now… no they’re being all nice and concerned for me… I don’t know what to do. 

I can’t be angry with them now… but I still am because now I can’t be angry with them! I am so frustrated. 
As Fluttershy thinks about how her relationship with her friends, she carefully spoons the pancake batter into the frying pans while Rarity and Applejack’s giant pancake cooked in the oven. 

By the time she has finished making breakfast, she was still at square one with still no answers. She carried the tray balancing it on her back with wings spread out from the kitchen. Twilight Sparkle looked up from her book, “Let me help you with that Fluttershy.” “Oh thanks, Twilight I didn’t think of how I was going to serve out each plate.” Rarity was walking down the stairs padding down her hair with magic, “Hmmmm smells delicious Fluttershy, ooh the cinnamon smells delightful.” 

Twilight’s magic lifted all the plates at once. ”Put them over there,” I motioned over to the table but glancing over at the table expecting it to be bare but all the forks, knives and condiments were already set up. As Twilight sets all the plates down, I look towards Applejack and Pinkie Pie, “Since we weren’t allowed to help with the cooking, I got Pinkie Pie to pop in and get all the cutlery and condiments while you weren’t looking.” Flabbergasted but before I could respond.

Pinkie Pie laughed, “I’m very sneak like the night! Heeheehee, but it’s even easier when your target is in deep thought.” “Well thank you both very much,” looking over to the couch where sleeping rainbow Dash was sleeping; she was gone. “Hey girls, where is Dash,” still looking over at the couch. I hear a muffled, “I’m here.” I turn back and there is Rainbow Dash with half a pancake in her mouth, “How.. what.. you what it doesn’t matter.”

I take my seat at the head of the table; I hear them all call out praise for the breakfast I made them. But before digging into my own pancakes I silently observe my friends. Twilight Sparkle is to the left of me still reading her book she wasn’t noticed the size of the pancake I gave her it’s too big for the plate I gave her but she doesn’t seem to mind while simultaneously using her magic to levitate spoonfuls of the delicious syrupy goodness into her mouth.

Rarity and Applejack occasionally spooning breakfast into their mouths while discussing whom is the better big sister, truthfully I think both Applebloom and Sweetie Belle are lucky to have sisters as good as them. I wish I could have had an older sister, having only an older and talented brother was hard. But then again without my older brother I wouldn’t have met Rainbow Dash, my oldest and dearest friend. Glancing over to Rainbow Dash with a grin on my face. She was engaging Pinkie Pie in a syrup contest chugging contest again, looks like she is actually giving Pinkie Pie a run for her money this time. Oh Rainbow, always trying to push your friends to be the best they can be.

Even though Fluttershy was watching her friend happily eating away at their breakfast, enjoying each mouthful as they bite into they’re pancakes, she felt no desire to eat this morning. Her stomach felt like it had been tied into a tight a knot, making the slightest thought of food sickening to her. Right now she just wanted to get to the hospital as quickly as possible. 

Max was the only thing she could think about. There we sat eating breakfast like a normal bunch of friends would and I forget my problems and worries for that short time. After they all thank me for the breakfast, and begin to dig in ravenously, still adding compliments between gulps. I happily tuck in to my own, and decide: I still might be upset with my friends just a tiny bit… but I have to give them credit… they are doing their best to help me in my time of need.

Miraculous I finished first guess I was in autopilot mode. While everypony else continues to eat, I excuse myself... I’m not... I can’t be angry with them anymore. Walking upstairs into the bathroom, turning the taps to max to fill up tub as fast as possible. As I sit there, letting the steam from the hot running water overwhelm me, ever so slowly stepping in to the tub, settling down and letting the overpowering warmth from the water. 

The water is hot, so very hot... and it hurts at first, but it then subsides into pleasure. It makes the aches and pains of the last few days go away, and it makes me feel clean. Clean, as if everything has been stripped away... my shields, my barriers, and with my guards down, me alone in this thick impervious shield of water... I feel ... I feel safe.

Snuggling down in the water like it was a warm protective blanket. What’s that smell? Looking to the tableside beside the tub I notice the incense smells of lavender and tiger lilies, it must have been Rarity’s. So very relaxing smell is so overwhelming my sense start to blur, I shut my eyes and begin to dream. 
What will my life be like if Max dies? I’ve dreamt of having a child of my own for such a long time... I’m so close, but it’s out of my grip. I think about my dream, my nightmare that I have had. 

I haven’t had a dream like that since.... Since that day...when I lost my child, as these thoughts wash over me, my mind searching for an answer... but I can find nothing... there’s nothing there for me... Am I a stupid girl for even dreaming that I could? It's a crazy idea that you were made perfectly for me. It can’t be helped now that I have you.

After a few minutes of soaking in the bath, Fluttershy starts to move to get out with a heavyhearted sigh. She reached out for a nearby towel and drying herself off gently. Heading over to her room to prepare for the day. After drying off and getting ready, trotting down the stairs again. Her friends have just finished cleaning up breakfast and were waiting at the table.
“Okay girls, I’m ready to go to the hospital,” she said quietly, but assertively.

The others glanced at each other for a moment, before Applejack spoke up. “Already? But y’all haven’t had breakfast yet, Sleeping Beauty,” she jokingly replied but you still tell their concern about the night still evident in her honest green eyes. The rest just chuckled at Applejack at joke. Fluttershy looked down, “I did eat breakfast I was just not that hungry. Also it wasn’t that long of a nap. I just would to get going to the hospital,” she stammered before looking down unable to meet their eyes.

I know that I’m mad at them... but I know that I can trust them...they're my friends...But even though I know that still I don’t! I want to trust them, I really do, but I can’t, and I don’t want them to know how upset I really am.
Twilight Sparkle was the first to step forward. “If you’re sure you’re ready to go, we’re ready then too,” she said quickly. It was easy for her to see that Fluttershy was having some issues with trust. Then, Fluttershy looked up with a small weak smile, and trotted over to the door. Together, the six friends began to leave the house. Suddenly Fluttershy turned right around, leaving the group mumbling something about leaving something behind.

Her friends walked out of the cottage, and waited at the end of the gate. Fluttershy called back, “I’m just about leave... but I almost forgot the most important thing! Rushing over to the coffee table to grab Mr. Brown Buttons before flying out the door. Mr. Brown Buttons is Max’s favorite toy. Now that I was outside I began to flap my wings and flow up in the cold winter sky. I found myself flying fast this morning, really fast, determination giving me exhilaration like I have never experienced. I escalate and dive, enjoying the freedom that my adamancy gives me. 
As I start to see the hospital come into my line of vision, I begin to slow down, swooping onto the pavement. I walk up to the hospital doors, and wait by the hospital door. Then, my friends begin to arrive, beginning with Rainbow Dash settling beside me. 
“Wow....hurr...Fluttershy I’ve never seen you fly that fast before.”
“I don’t know what came over me really” 

There Rainbow dash and I stood there waiting in silent in front of the hospital for five minutes for the other to come.
As I stood there beside Rainbow Dash, waiting in silence for the others to arrive, thoughts of worry and concern started to flood my mind. What if Max was on his last leg, barely holding on to his last ounce of breath. 

Fluttershy is picturing a tense scene with nurses scurrying about following the orders that the doctor was giving out in a last ditch effort to save Max’s life all while keeping a commanding tone. Leaning towards Max, the doctor says to Max firmly, "Don't you dare think about leaving me now, colt. I having given hope on you and neither will you. Just hang in there!" Fluttershy shakes her head; no Max is not in that kind of state. The hospital would have sent somebody to get me if something like that would have happened right? Of course I'm right, even so I would have sense something was wrong when I got here. Unless he was… already dead, tearing up at just the thought of that. 

Fluttershy starts to picture that she is entering Max’s room to her surprise she enters to a sombre scene of the doctor and Nurse Redheart looking grimly at Max’s bed. “Where is he?” I ask sacredly as I move from behind the drawn curtain. There is Max’s bed empty. “He passed away peacefully in his sleep.” No this is just a flashback. Shaking my head vigorously I come back to my senses.

Rainbow Dash must have noticed my uneasiness. Rainbow Dash turns around to face me,” Flutters, I’m going go looking for Nurse Redheart. Ok?” Surprised I replied, “Maybe I should go and you wait for them.” Resting a hoof on my shoulder Rainbow Dash stares right into my eyes, “You know perfectly why I can’t let you do that because you would run of in a haste to Max and then we wouldn’t know where you have gone off and I hate waiting.” Rainbow Dash grinned, sighing I discouragingly replying, “Oh ok, fine Dash just come straight back.” As soon as I was finished Rainbow Dash was off into the hospital without even a glance back.

Oh well, I wonder what’s taking the girls so long? It is kind of not fair for me judge them on tardiness since she does have wings and the rest of her friends don’t. As Fluttershy toils over the pluses and minus if she only had Pegasus friends. A lone snowflake falls on her nose distracting her. 

Hey little snowflake where are all your friends? Wait your all alone too, what a shame well at least you don’t have expectations of your friends and yourself. I almost envy you snowflake freedom to go wherever the find blows you. As if on cue a slight breeze blows by, Fluttershy hair blows up and gets into her eyes. Brushing it out of her eyes, are you still here snowflake. Surprisingly the snowflake was still there, Fluttershy then realizes that there are more snowflakes falling now. 

Wow this is such a gorgeous sight; hopeful I am able to show Max this or he at least has a window. What do you think snowflake but as Fluttershy looked back at her snowflake another five snowflakes had fallen on her nose, all land in very close proximity to the first snowflake. Oh I see your friends arrived to enjoy in this experiment. Wow really Snowflake, you’re so sensitive to my needs. What I never, you’re serious aren’t. I have friends too, probably better than yours. I never knew snowflakes could be this smug. Angrily wiping the snowflakes of her nose, fine I didn’t want to introduce you to Max either. You shut up; Max is an angel and would never think of such things."

“You shouldn’t get mad at snowflakes, their pretty emotional since it’s there seasonal,” Pinkie Pie regretfully commented. “Aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaahhhhhhhh,” Fluttershy screamed, “Where did you come from, Pinkie Pie?” shuttered Fluttershy still shocked from Pinkie Pie sudden appearance. “Oh I just got here I would have got here earlier but those slowpokes slowed me down.” 

as she pointed to Twilight, Rarity and Applejack who were just coming over the last hill before the hospital. As they run up to Fluttershy and Pinkie, A slightly out of breath Applejack asks, “Wow Pinkie Pie your fast I’m surprised you don’t run in the running of leaves.” 

“That’s easy I like letting other ponies have the fun of knocking down leaves,” giggled Pinkie Pie. “Am I glad that I go jogging with Twilight on Saturdays otherwise I think I might have died,” gasped an out of breathed Rarity between ever four to five words breathing in deeply. “Ok let’s go find Rainbow Dash and Redheart,” roused Fluttershy, they all sighed at the thought of walk more but continued on nonetheless.

No sooner had we but turned the corner to head to the information desk, there walking towards was Nurse Redheart and Rainbow Dash did make did need to know.

Nurse Redheart smiled, “Oh Fluttershy its good news, he’s made it through operation.” There was a collective sigh from everybody else especially fluttershy, she felt a hug weight attached to her heart suddenly disappear. Nurse Redheart just smiled, “Ok then Max is on the second floor just head all the down that hall then take a left at the end then take the second set of stairs up that should take you to the waiting room.” Oh thank Celestia he’s ok. I felt the fear melted away. Nurse Redheart added, “However, he is still recovering from the heavy anaesthetic right now. 

"But as he will be well enough to have visitor I will let you see him. It shouldn’t be too long.” 
”So when can we see him,” Fluttershy asked getting a bit ahead of herself. Nurse Redheart looked warmly at Fluttershy and smiled, “Well I have to check with the doctors you go wait in the waiting room.” She when off to do to deal with the task at hand and resume her duty. We turned left heading towards the waiting room. 

Fluttershy leads the convoy of ponies down the long sterile white hall with everybody else trail two to three paces behind; Pinkie Pie jovially trots up to Fluttershy. Sigh, Why now Pinkie Pie? Fluttershy thought. I just want to be by Max’s side, I don’t want to deal with Pinkie Pie’s antics at the moment. “Hey shy, can we chat a little,” asked Pinkie Pie cavalierly almost oblivious Fluttershy’s demeanour. Reluctant Fluttershy answered, “Oh I guess there would be any harm in that.” Half-heartedly smiling at Pinkie Pie, grinning back with her infectious smile Pinkie replied playful, “Ok Sweetie, You little pretty.” “How can you be so chipper all the time?” asked a jaded Fluttershy. ”What mean do mean by that, shy?” Pinkie replied curiously. 

Fluttershy not sure herself what she meant calmly replied, “I don’t know; like why can’t you act like a normal pony? Why do you have to be so?” But before Fluttershy could finish her train of thought Pinkie had finished the sentence herself, “So me?” An embarrassed Fluttershy looked down, “Well actually, yes.” 

Pinkie Pie nodded then pondered for a moment before answering, "Well to answer why exactly I’m so me. I want to share a nugget of advice my father once told. Dad and I were taking a break while waiting on my sisters and mother to finish up lunch." 
"He asked Why do you think I respect rocks honey that my father once said you have
Childishly replying, Is it because they’re cold, efficient and they’re easier to deal with than farm animals.
He chuckled and rubbed my head; No, Pinkie Pie even through that’s true. I find rocks to be inspiration. Why? I asked him. He replied, no matter the weather, or the physical pressures you exert to a rock." 

"That Isn't going change the fact that a rock will always be a rock. Sure the environmental changes will cause changes in the rock by smoothing off its edges or make grooves in the rock. Changing it for better or worse but in the end the rock is still a rock.” 
Dumbfounded Fluttershy replied, “But that still doesn’t explain why you’re so happy- go lucky all time.” 
“It’s simple really fluttershy, you can’t always predict how the world is going to react to you, but you can predict how you’re going to react to the world. You can be your one constant in your world. So why not be as optimistically expressive as possible instead of dreary dull negative Nellie.” 

“But what does have to do with me?” asked Fluttershy.
“It’s because I miss you Fluttershy. I’m seeing a side of you that I don’t know.
It’s not  that I dislike it, I just miss the old Fluttershy, the one who wore the lampshade at the last winter wrap remember,” Pinkie Pie teared-up a little but still smiled. Fluttershy blushed embarrassed at the thoughts smirk she replied, “It was only that one time.” 
Giggle Pinkie Pie remarking, “Are you sure? because I have some photos that say otherwise.” Fluttershy sighed letting loose some of her stress, “I miss her as well, but things have changed pinkie.”
“Like a rock,” motioned Pinkie Pie with a fist in the air. Fluttershy chuckled, “Ok Pinkie, you got it, like a rock.”

Pinkie Pie smiled then bounces back to join the other ponies are walking a couple paces behind Fluttershy. "This is as good time as any to talk to her, Twilight," whispered Pinkie Pie to Twilight Sparkle.

Twilight Sparkle nods and runs up from the back to up Fluttershy. “Fluttershy, first let me begin by saying by saying no amount of apologizing will make up for what I accidentally did to Max.“ Fluttershy scoffed a little to that response; Twilight flinched slight to that response but took a deep breath and continued,” I was wondering if I could possible tell you about a scare I had with Spike a couple years ago.” Fluttershy rolled his eyes and nodded. 

“This takes place years ago back when Spike was almost incapable of doing most things himself. I took him out to the bookstore to buy some books for my studies. On way Spike was being a curious but irritating dragon. Ask stuff like where are we know how far is it from palace to here and how far away the house was we were staying. 

I was trying to answer each one of his questions but it was starting to wear my patience thin. Once we were inside the bookstore I let him run about while I searched for my books, I ignored him for the most part because I was focusing at the task at hand. I didn’t realize until I was leaving the store that he wasn’t there. 

I panicked and went to the authorities to start a search party. I spent the better part of the day scouring the city for Spike, only having to give up the search after the loss of daylight. I went home depressed and worried over what could have happened to Spike. To my utter surprise Spike had actually made his way home by himself. He was asleep on the couch, I was so overjoyed that I picked him and hugged him for what seemed an eternity. Tears were streaming down my face, he asked what was for supper. I said he could have whatever he wanted, he settled on ice cream. The reason I wanted to you to hear this story is that I know what it is like to have a loved one in trouble and be unable to help them. Along with telling you that it will be alright.”

Fluttershy stops walking then whips around, verbally tearing into Twilight, "No! No you don't Twilight Sparkle. You don't know what I am going through. I knew where Max is at all times; your worry comes out of the unknown. While I know the danger and problems he is dealing with!" Twilight tries to interject, "But..."but instead got cut her off by Fluttershy who is still frustrated at Twilight’s story, “I’m not done TWILIGHT SPARKLE, let me finish what I was saying. Spike was all right in the end, while with Max the effects of what has happened will affect the rest of his life. You know the story did make me think, maybe Spike's lack of trust in you and so he made sure he remembered his way home. I wish I had Spike's forethought to not trust you." 

Pinkie Pie appears bouncing in front of Fluttershy, “Hey girls, I think we’re all just worried about Max and factoring how tired we are from all the running or flying we have done today. So let's all calm down and hug it out before we reach the critical care waiting room. How about that?" smiled Pinkie Pie, while trying her best not let it show how much it was hurt her seeing her friends fight like this. Fluttershy looked a Pinkie and nodded still visibly angry then to Twilight who nodded with blank look across her face. 

The gull of that pony not to be so cold and calculating at a time like this, but as they all began to walk again, Fluttershy casual remarked to Twilight Sparkle in a facetious tone, "Do see one similar between your story and my situation." "What's that?" Twilight Sparkle without knows what she was walking into. Fluttershy partial looked back with one eye keeping eye contact with Twilight Sparkle, "Oh that you were the source of the problem in both. All that did was give me further proof that you’re incapable of dealing with children!“

Everybody gasped in shock and horror to what Fluttershy had just said. Twilight Sparkle stopped in her tracks and lowered her head so that her bangs covered her eyes, "You guys go on ahead, and I think I forgot something." Fluttershy replies, "Ok," before starting a brisk walk towards the second floor. Rainbow Dash sprints up to Fluttershy and tries to reason with her. Rarity and Pinkie Pie follow short behind them as the look back apologetically. 

"I said you can go without me, why are you still here Applejack?" said Twilight Sparkle with her head still down, trying to keep her voice from cracking.
Raising her hat to brush the few strands of hair in her eyes Applejack just smiled, "Sugar cube, what kind of friend would I be if just up and left you in the sorry state that you’re in without trying to console you. Twilight Sparkle looked up with tears streaming down her face. Trying hard to form audible and understand words will still sobbing Twilight pleads to Applejack, "I didn't mean to. I didn’t mean to cause any harm to him.” 

Twilight Sparkle broke down and fell to the floor bawling her eyes out. “You were just trying to help Fluttershy and Max. Even you had the best intentions at heart, it can sometimes end up with consequences that you hadn't planned for,” Applejack reassured Twilight Sparkle while gentle stroking her mane. 

“But why can’t Fluttershy see that as well, I don’t deserve all this hate,” remarked a crying Twilight Sparkle who was trying to stop crying but only seemed to make it worse. Continuing to comfort Twilight, Applejack said, “Of course, Twilight no pony goes out of her way to be hated, it just something that due to unforeseen circumstances that causes it to happen to an individual.” Twilight Sparkle turned to Applejack and threw her arms around her embracing Twilight Sparkle in her arms. Twilight Sparkle confided in Applejack, “I just want to fix everything and make it go back to before this happened.” “Sugar cube, you have to realize that you can’t always use magic to fix everything.

Anyways you can’t use magic to fix a broken heart and trust. Only way to fix that is with time and effort,” Applejack gently reassured Twilight Sparkle. “I don’t deserve such a good friend like you Applejack,” admitted Twilight still hugging Applejack. Applejack gently patting her back before letting go over Twilight, Everypony deserves a friend like me, but you only get have a friend like me when you can be as equally good friend back.” Pulling herself together Twilight Sparkle took two breaths before wiping away her tears, “Ok let’s go, I’m ready to face Fluttershy again.” 
“That’s the spirit, Twilight!” replied proud Applejack. The two then set off to meet up with their friends.

As Applejack and Twilight arrived, Rarity, Rainbow Dash and Pinkie Pie were calmly sitting beside a sleeping Fluttershy. An hour passed before Fluttershy awakes to Rainbow Dash being asleep beside her. She looks so peacefully sleeping Fluttershy thought, looking around. Fluttershy notices across from her was Twilight and Applejack were playing cards that Applejack had probably stashed in her hat earlier. Couldn't tell what game they were playing but they were sure concentrating hard on the cards.

Off to my right Rarity sits, conversing with the nurses on break about everyday beauty tips for the working pony. Pinkie Pie wasn't in sight but we had passed the children ward on our way here. But from the sounds of laugh echoing down the hall, I can safely assume that is correct. Just hearing the sound of overjoyed childern laughing to their hearts content, without any cares, worries, or regrets to weigh them down in this moment of sheer bliss. My eyes start to swell as the thought of max came into my mind, I can feel tears swelling I hope they don’t notice me like this cause it will prove to them how weak I am.

The nurses all started to disperse from Rarity as their breaks were over. Glancing over at Fluttershy, she noticed that Fluttershy was crying. “What’s wrong my dear?” asked a concerned Rarity as took a sat beside Fluttershy. “Nothing, really,” commented Fluttershy sheepishly slightly crying. “That may be true, but the stress is still getting the better of you. It’s a crime against everything beautiful in this world having such pretty face be so full of tears of anguish,” said Rarity brushing Fluttershy’s flowing mane from out of her eyes so get a better look at those big blue globes that is Fluttershy eyes. 

“Oh Fluttershy dear come here,” Fluttershy went to hug Rarity resting her head on Rarity’s chest. Rarity smiled softly and continued to stroking her mane and humming softly. They sat there, Fluttershy leaning on Rarity as she hummed a soft melody. Just enjoying the tender moment they were sharing. Fluttershy was the first to break the silence; she looked up to Rarity, “Thanks I need that.” “No problem, not to seem cliché or anything but I want to tell you something that’s been on my mind for last couple days.” Curiously Fluttershy asked, “What’s that?” “You help others with so little regard to yourself. Generosity is not giving someone something that which he or she needs more than you do, but it is giving them that which you need more than they do. Which is your time and kindness, it’s real quite inspiration. I think of you as an inspiration hero who is also my great friend. 

I even made a little bracelet with initials W.W.F.D. meaning What Would Fluttershy Do?” Chocked up Fluttershy replied, “Really?” Looking intently at rarity, “Yes to everything,” rarity paused for a moment, “well except that bracelet. They are so tacky, why would I need a bracelet to remind me of beliefs.” 

Shivering in disgust at the bracelet, Fluttershy laughed followed by rarity joining her for a chuckle. Applejack looked over, “What are you girls talking about that is so entertaining?” Replying in unison, “Nothing!” which set they both into a fit of giggling. Twilight Sparkle and Applejack just looked at each other and chuckled themselves. Rarity wiping away tears of joy from her eyes, “Fluttershy promise me something.” 

Still giggling Fluttershy answered, “What would that be?” “I want you to promise me that we will go to Spa every second Thursday like we use to, after all this is sorted out,” comment content Rarity. “But what if I can’t make it?” asked Fluttershy cautiously. “Well then I will go by myself, but knowing you,” smiled Rarity jubilantly, “You’ll show up no matter what at some point.”
Intoxicated with joy Fluttershy hugged Rarity tightly, “Ok, that’s a promise.” 
"and you'll have to bring the little dear max alone, the little thing would love it, and it would help him get better." fluttershy question the healing possibilities a spa would have, she could only think of stress relief.
she didn't think about it too much though. "sure rarity he'll come too." 
Rarity giggle "wonderful dear i look forward to our time together."

That will be nice thought Fluttershy as she released rarity from her bear hug, picturing all the fun she would have maybe bringing Max the odd time. Just picturing him, contemplating, and trying to figure out what a mud bath is made Fluttershy grin. Twilight and Applejack finished their game and Twilight declares she is done playing games in a slightly frustrated tone for being so easy defeated. it was her fault though as she let Applejack pick the game which she happen to be really rather good at. She heads off to look at the hospital library that they have. Rarity tags along to see if there is any fashion magazine she hasn’t read. 

As those two turned the corner heading towards the hospital library. Applejack came over to sit beside Fluttershy, who was playful looking straightforward. 
Applejack sighed, “I’m not going to pretend like I know what you’re going through at these moments with Max in the hospital. I will say that it is emotional draining having family members in the hospital.” Fluttershy being reculant to comment looked over at Applejack who was trying her best not to cry. Applejack went on, “I know you think of him as your own flesh and blood. It’s just …” taking a breath before continuing, “The last time I was in this part of the hospital was day of parent’s accident.” “I am so sorry, I didn’t know,” replied Fluttershy regretting that she had even brought Applejack to the hospital. 

Nonchalantly with a hint of regret and tenderness Applejack continued, “No, you shouldn't feel sorry. It’s not as traumatizing as you might of thought it was. Luckily, I was at an age that I didn’t full grasping the gravity of situation. Almost might have believed that everything was going to work out in the end cause I still believed in the equestrian dream, that everybody lives happily ever after. But I could still see the emotion impact it had, the impact it had on Grannie Smith and Big Mac. I also think that’s why Big Mac is so quiet cause the last time he saw mom and dad he had a bit of a spat with them. It’s also why I wanted to leave Sweet Apple Acres a few years later cause the pain of missing them was getting to me.” 

Fluttershy felt like she was on an emotional roller coaster, she was curious but knew it was a sensitive topic. Fluttershy calmly said to Applejack, “Thank you for sharing that with me, I knew it must have been tough.” Sighing Applejack, “I feel all lot better from when it happened, I just wanted you to know that know. That I will always be there for you and the little guy.”

“Thank you, Applejack,” said a ball of tears that was Fluttershy hugged Applejack. By Celestia am I crying again, thought Fluttershy. How do I still have any tears left to cry? I better stop this other I might just start crying blood. 

Finally the moment of truth came. ”Ok Fluttershy we’re really for you Fluttershy,” said Nurse Tenderheart. Tapping on Applejack shoulder to release her, Fluttershy then waved to Nurse Tenderheart to signal that she was Fluttershy. Turning to Applejack; Fluttershy asked,”Wait should we wait for everyone else?” ”No you should have your time with him first, so why wait for everybody else there busy entertaining themselves,” said Applejack. “What about you and Rainbow Dash?” asked Fluttershy. “Well, Miss Lazybone is still sleeping and I think of a way of entertaining myself,” smiled Applejack as she waved a felt pen she was given by from one of practicing residents.

With that Flutershy and Nurse Tenderheart headed out towards Max’s room as they walked Fluttershy was asking how the operation when and how was he doing. “I’m sorry to say but we had to shave his mane off to get to the area of his brain, as in the whole of his mane, so his now bold on his head,” Nurse Tenderheart seem to be talking in steady way to Fluttershy as if one little thing could send her off in a sea of worry. 

Fluttershy was actually fine with the news; just hearing Max was in good condition made nearly any bad news seem like nothing to her at the moment. Now Fluttershy he’s just came out theatre and the anaesthetic hasn’t worn off yet." 
“Oh but he is going to be all right, right? asked Fluttershy with a hint of fear in her voice. 

“We had to get an Oxygen Concentrator to stabilize his breathing once he came out of the operation and we’re still monitoring him, but for now we can say he should be okay. So are you ready seeing him?” I nodded I just wanted to see max. ”Ok then,” she said she’d showed me to he’s room. There he was, Max was sleeping in a big hospital bed, the small foal had wires going into his body connected a machine that beeped with every beat of his heart and a mask had been place on him to assist with his breathing. The top of his head was banged up from the recent operation. Seeing max in the state he was in now made Fluttershy feel like crying. 

i slowly moved close to him and sat down by a nearby chair, bring my hooves to max, i held his right hoof, his hoof felt so cold to the touch. For a while i just sat there silently, time seemed to slowed down as i stared down at the little foal slowly breathing with the aid of a machine. Eventually i felt myself starting to cry.

Why eyes, why do you give me up so easily. “You've made it” i whispered softly, “you made it this far, I’m going to help you get through the rest of it.” “You’re my little joy, a little buddle of joy that’s brought me a new outlook on my life. I’ll never let anyone hurt you; I’m always going to be there to protect you, like a mother should. I’d hug you and kiss you, I’d tell you everything would be all right. But I’d be scared that I’d hurt you with just the sliest touch, like a Lilly, beautiful and yet so delicate. I love you max” i gently kissed him on the fore head, “I’m going to be there for you and I’m always going to care.”

“So it’s true then, there is a new alicorn in Equestria.” Fluttershy turned around to see standing there was Princess Celestia, Princess Celestia, and “what are you doing here?” I asked. “I was inform by Twilight who sent me a scroll last night of you having found a alicorn and only this morning was I inform by shining armour that this hospital had sent out a message to me saying they had operated on an alicorn of poor health, I’ve come to see if this alicorn really does excites” said Princess Celestia. “Max his names max” states Fluttershy livid. 

“Interesting. Now to the point of my visit,” as she looked out the window at the falling snow; Fluttershy curious and confused asks, “And that is?” Princess Celestia being the master of captivation and manipulation of emotion turns her head and neck to the side just enough to make eye contact with Fluttershy.

Before she states in a matter of fact tone, “I’m here to take Max into protective custody at the royal palace.”

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A.N special thanks to alternatepony, OhStyx, LulamoonSparkle and LaLaLaNiceLady for their help with this chapter, without their help this story won’t be possable. And thank you the people who read this story, without you, this story would be nothing.