You are going to FEAR ME

“Goodbye, Klutzershy!” Dumb-Bell said mockingly to Fluttershy as he dangled her precariously over the Everfree Forest. His partner, Hoops, tugged at her wings, pretending to tear them out, laughing all the while. She was helpless to stop them from bullying her, and she resigned herself to tears and let the two bullies have their way with her.

Suddenly, Dumb-Bell dropped her. She plummeted towards the ground, and her weak flying abilities coupled with her lack of preparation prevented her any chance to try to stop herself. The piercing tree tops grew closer very quickly, and she flailed around, trying desperately to halt her decent. As she failed to do this, she screamed for help. But none came, and still her inevitable doom came closer.

Her body came to a stop. Her landing wasn't a crash land into the earth, surprisingly, but instead, she had landed on a mattress of many tiny winged ball-like creatures. The living mattress descended through the forest canopy and onto the ground, where they let her off before surrounding her and chirping at her.

Never before had she seen creatures like these, but she also didn't know if they were at all dangerous. Scared, she backed away from those in front of her, only to realize she was approaching the ones behind her. She jumped back to the center, where she cowered and covered her eyes. The creatures stayed put and continued to make noise, quickly driving the poor filly to tears.

The noise attracted the attention of a nearby manticore who had been resting. Irritated by the disruption, the manticore stalked over to the disturbance, hiding in a nearby bush. The fluffy creatures picked up the manticore's scent, promptly halting their noise and looking over to where it was. Having been discovered, the manticore crept out of its hiding spot.
Fluttershy, meanwhile, continued to have her eyes covered. When the noise about her seized, she continued to cover vision. Curiosity quickly got the best of her, and she unveiled one of her eyes, only to find the manticore's own only a few inches away. She yelped and jumped back, pleading with the creature to not eat her. Still annoyed about having been disturbed, the manticore prepared an extremely loud roar to silence the pony.

In the sky above them, a multicolored aura exploded into existence, followed by a earsplitting sonicboom. The unexpected noise frightened everything. Fluttershy once again yelped in fear, the ball creatures scattered, and the manticore fled while whimpering. Surprising herself, Fluttershy calmed herself in only a few seconds and looked up to see her one of her classmates zooming through the sky followed by a long rainbow trail.

And now she was alone. Even the creatures of the forest had abandoned her. One one hoof, she was glad to have not been eaten, but on the other hoof, she knew how scared they all must have been. Her compassionate side coming out victorious, she went to comfort the scared animals. “C-Come on out, fluffy critters,” she said shakily. “It was just a-just a sonic rainboom. Th-there's no reason to be sc-scared...”

The manitcore stuck its head out of some nearby foliage and looked to Fluttershy both fearfully and questioningly. “Even though I tried to eat you, you want me to come out?” it asked her in a muffled voice.

For the third time in the past minute, Fluttershy yelped and covered her mouth. She returned the manticore's expression. “I-I can...you...I can understand you?” Her cutie mark appeared on her thigh then, but she didn't notice or care. All she wanted was to get out of the strange woods, so she got to her hooves and bolted away from the manticore.

She ran for many minutes, occasionally stumbling or tripping on upturned roots and the like. Finally, though, the days events bore her down, and, exhausted and lost, she found a large hollow stump to try to rest in. Sleep didn't come easily, though, as the days developments plagued her thoughts. Now matter how hard she tried to suppress her thoughts, she couldn't help but feel abandoned and alone.

Everything's alright, she tried to assure herself. By the time I awake, there'll be ponies looking for me, and those bullies will get what they deserved, and everything'll go back to normal.

But...what if I don't want things to be normal? What if I don't want to be such a push-over anymore? And what if nopony really will look for me? I mean, nopony stopped them from dropping me, and nopony made to help me when they did. Maybe...maybe I'm just not wanted...

The revelation made her heart sink. Not only had the bullies abandoned her, but so had everypony else. Overwhelmed by loneliness, she reverted to something that she had done quite a bit that day already: crying.

She was too exhausted to really cry, and instead she whimpered and sobbed. For many minutes she lay as such, before being interrupted by a light tapping on her hoof. Slowly, she opened her eyes to see who had tried getting her attention, finding a small white bunny standing nearby. It cocked its head to the side curiously, inspecting Fluttershy, surprised at her lack of reaction to his presence. Finally, the bunny spoke.

“I have an apology to make on behalf of my manticore friend. He wished to apologize, but didn't want to risk spooking you further. I am Angel, and I would also like to personally welcome you to the Everfree Forest.” Angel hopped up Fluttershy's side and nestled into her long mane. “This place isn't nearly as bad as you ponies make it out to be; it's just that none of you can understand us, which makes communication difficult. But anyways, you look tired, and I know I am. Know any good lullabys?”

“Um, one,” admitted Fluttershy nervously. Some tapping from the bunny indicated for her to continue, which she did so hesitantly. “Hush now, quiet now, it's time to lay your sleepy head. Hush now, quiet now, it's time to go to bed,” she sang. The lullaby had done its job, and light snoring could be heard from the rabbit on her head. She continued anyways. “Hush now, quiet now, it's time to lay your sleepy head. Hush now, quiet now, it's time to go to-” she yawned “-bed...”
With that and Angel's surprisingly comforting presence, she fell asleep, and this time, not a fitful one.

Alas, good things must all come to an end. Angel had woken up some time ago and had gone out in search of some berries and other food for the forest's most recent guest. Upon returning after his collection, however, he found Fluttershy twisting and turning within the log. “Hoops, Dumb-Bell, please...leave me alone,” she complained to a dreamt version of the two ridiculously named ponies.

Concerned, Angel put preparing the food on hold to instead wake Fluttershy up and get her out of her dream. Like last time, he tapped her hoof with his foot. Unlike last time, she panicked, awaking instantly and shooting up. “No, no, I'm up. Just don't tear out my feathers-” she screamed, smashing her head against the top of the hollow log before finishing. “-again...” she finished, slowly realizing that she was no longer dreaming. She looked down to Angel sheepishly. “Um...sorry.”
Angel was no stranger to the pain of having feathers torn out. He had never experienced it himself due to his lack of feathers, but he had seen other winged creatures loose their good feathers and had seen the pain they were left in. He put a paw on Fluttershy's hoof and rubbed it comfortingly, pointing to the meal he had prepared for her as well.

“Oh, um, thank you,” she said, having not realized how hungry she was until seeing the food. Her stomach rumbled greedily, and she shied away bashfully. “Sorry,” she apologized again, causing Angel to face palm. He pushed it aside, however, and put the meal of berries and other edible plant closer to Fluttershy. She gratefully partook.

As she ate, Angel put his paw to his lips and gave a loud whistle. Within a few moments, a falcon burst through the forest canopy and perched itself on the ledge of the log the Fluttershy occupied. “This pegasus got a little messy while running through here yesterday,” Angel told the bird.

It's been a day already!
“Her wings look like they could use some care. Could you preen them for her?”
“Oh, no, that's not-” Fluttershy tried to oppose, but the bird had already begun, carefully searching through her wings and pulling out any broken or mangled feathers. Undeniably, it felt nice.

“The Forest as a whole owes you an apology,” elaborated Angel. “And it sounds like a couple of other pegusi do as well. A 'Hoops' and a 'Dumb-Bell'?”

“Oh, was I sleep-talking?” she inquired, curious as to how the rabbit had found out. Angel nodded in confirmation, causing Fluttershy to blush and smile sheepishly. “Uh, um, well, you see...” she started, but couldn't seem to form a more coherent thought; the treatment to her wings just felt too nice. After another minute, the falcon had finished its job, giving Angel a salute before flying away.

No longer distracted, Fluttershy recalled her stories about the bullies, including their most recent act of dropping her in the Forest, as well as recounting what had transpired since landing.