That Doesn't Belong In My Living Room, Does It?
Everypony needs a day off sometimes, and Fluttershy had actually managed to get one after the animals had overheard her talking to herself about it. As a result, Fridays had become somewhat of a rest day for her, when every critter scurrying around the cottage did so as silently as they could so that Fluttershy could sleep in. Of course, she still had to feed them, but on Fridays, they didn’t pester her about it as much as they normally would.
They’re so considerate, she thought with a lazy smile. She had woken to the sun shining in her face, but had—with a sleep-drunken grunt—rolled away from the window and managed to recapture the pleasant dreams she had been having for a few hours longer.
As she woke up the second time, however, she realised that she wasn’t alone. Her bedroom was abuzz with life. The birds had settled in the rafters, the floor was covered with all kinds of fur, and Angel had made his place on the foot end of her bed. It felt like every animal that lived with her had found some place in her room and was staring up at her with doleful eyes.
She regarded them with confusion. The rule was that her room was a place she could be alone, and they were only allowed to come to her if they had a problem. “Uhm... good morning?” she greeted them. “What are you all doing in here?”
A few of the animals cocked their heads, giving her confused looks as if to say ‘isn’t it obvious?’ A doe nudged Angel in the side. The bunny glared at the young deer and angrily pushed her away. He skittishly hopped forward and began pantomiming.
From what little she could decipher out of his rather frantic, hard to follow gestures, all of the animals had a problem, and they wanted—no, needed her to solve it.
She stretched her forelegs and her wings before lowering her head so she was at eye level with the bunny. “I’m sorry, Angel, but I don’t understand what the problem is.”
The bunny slapped himself in the face and grabbed one of her ears, pointing towards the door with the other paw.
Fluttershy waited until he let go of her ear before nodding. “Okay, Angel, I’ll take a look.” She slipped out of her bed. Whatever their problem was, it was downstairs. Getting out of her room without stepping on any of her friends was next to impossible, but a small space had been left open near the door, almost as if the animals were afraid of it. She decided that they were being silly, it was a beautiful day, and not every pony that happened to pass by was out to get them. She took a deep breath and leapt out of bed. She wasn’t the fastest flier, but she had been told she had a certain grace, and with a few wingbeats she managed to reach the door.
She hummed a little tune to herself and opened the door, closing it behind her to keep —whatever it was the animals were afraid of— out. She closed the door and nodded to herself with a small smile, which faded as soon as she turned around.
Her entire living room was a mess. Most of the furniture had either been shoved aside like a discarded toy, or was missing entirely. That alone would have been enough to frustrate Fluttershy, if only a little. She liked the couch she owned, and her favorite tea set had been on the table when she went to bed.
Instead of irritation, however, Fluttershy’s breathing picked up and she could feel her heart hammering in her chest.
Her cottage was missing a wall. Or rather, there was a huge gaping hole in it; and the cause was hard to miss. There was a manticore in the center of the room, and it wasn’t a small one like the one she and her friends had encountered during the Summer Sun Celebration either. It towered over the tallest closets she owned and had crushed the coffee table simply by laying down on top of it. Even from her spot at the top of the stairs, it was hard to see over the creature. Not only that, but its mouth was wide open, giving her a full view of the rows of razor-sharp teeth.
It took Fluttershy’s brain ten precious seconds to reboot itself and she finally ducked behind an overturned chair with a muted squeak. Luckily, the creature didn’t appear to have noticed. It was hugging one of her spare blankets between its paws as if it were a teddy bear and... Is it snoring?
She cautiously peeked out from her hiding place and found that the manticore was indeed asleep. It rolled over just as Fluttershy felt a little more comfortable, drawing another squeak from her.
Okay Fluttershy, calm down. It’s asleep... She gulped. For now. What do I do...?
Her first thought was to ask her friends to help her out, but after considering what their first reaction to the young manticore had been, she decided that holding off on asking them for help was probably the right choice. Which in turn made her question herself.
Why am I afraid? It hasn’t done anything... well, aside from destroying some furniture... How did it even get in? A brief glance at the wall told her the answer. Oh... right...
She took a deep breath and nodded to herself, refusing to admit that her heart was still doing a competent impression of a jackhammer. “I’ll just... make him some breakfast for when he wakes up.” And then we’ll eat, and we’ll talk, and everything will turn out just fine!
Nevertheless, she still remained as quiet as possible on her way to the kitchen. There she was faced with another unpleasant surprise; her uninvited guest had already eaten. She stepped into the kitchen to find that it was in an even worse state than the living room. All of the cupboards were empty, with several of them having had their doors ripped from their hinges; not to mention that the entire floor was littered with the leftovers.
I guess I’ll have to go to the market to get more food, she thought with a frown. Even though she had gotten much better at haggling, it was still something she wanted as little to do with as possible.
She gingerly made her way back to the living room, skirting around the beast and making for the door, but stopped with a hoof on the doorknob. She didn’t feel comfortable leaving her animal friends alone. Maybe I should ask around for some help after all.
Making sure her animals didn’t become snacks to the huge carnivore was the first priority, and after a bit of explaining and a tiny bit of pleading, she sent them off towards Sweet Apple Acres. She assigned Angel Bunny as the leader, and told him to keep the others out of trouble while she ran to town to get some much needed supplies.
With them safe, she hastened towards the town, determined to get the food in record time. She wasn’t going to leave them alone a moment longer than she needed to.
Determination, as it turned out, helped speed things up immensely. It had only taken her a little under an hour to get most of her supplies. She’d gotten the carrots, lettuce, radishes, and several other assorted vegetables, and she hadn’t even had to haggle with any of the sales ponies.
Buying all that food put one thing into stark perspective: she hadn’t had breakfast yet. With everything that had happened, she had simply forgotten about the most important meal of the day, and her stomach made her very much aware of that. When she passed Sugarcube Corner, it rumbled loudly, making several ponies look at her curiously. She blushed, stammered an apology and rushed inside, slamming the door behind her.
Maybe I could try a croissant, since I’m here.
The inside of the bakery wasn’t much better, however; ponies were still staring at her. She wanted to curl up into a ball and wait for them all to leave, or at the very least stop paying attention to her.
Salvation arrived in the form of a pink wall in between her and the crowd. It was accompanied by a shrill voice and a set of blue eyes that sparkled with joy on any day of the week, except for Mondays when even she needed a break from the constant activity she surrounded herself with.
“Come on, Fluttershy, smile!”
Fluttershy found herself being dragged away from the main room and up the stairs to Pinkie’s room. It was out of sight of the customers, which she was thankful for, though being guinea pig in another one of Pinkie’s food experiments was uncomfortable in its own right.
Pinkie finally let go and sat back with a smile. “Heya!”
Fluttershy smiled back. “Thank you, Pinkie.”
“You’re welcome!” Pinkie scrunched up her face before leaning down and plucking Gummy from her tail. She pressed the small alligator to her cheek and giggled. “Gummy wants to know if you’re hungry.”
“Well... I actually—” she was interrupted by another grumble in her stomach, which made Pinkie giggle “—Uhm... yes?”
“Great! Because I have just the thing!” Pinkie bounded off to get Celestia knows what. Fluttershy was left with precious little time to prepare herself for whatever her friend had cooked up. She let out a soft sigh and grabbed a ball from the table, rolling it in between her hooves while she pondered if she should ask Pinkie for help.
She was only halfway through her first thought when Pinkie came back, carrying a domed plate of which the smell made her eyes water.
“What in Celestia’s name are those?” The words were out of her mouth before she had time to analyze them, and her eyes widened in embarrassment. “I mean... if you don’t mind me asking?”
Pinkie set the plate down in front of her and took away the dome to reveal several bagels. They looked crisp and well formed, and might have made for an appetizing meal if it hadn’t been for the overpowering smell of peppers. “They’re pagels! Like bagels, but with peppers and zap apple jam. They’re yummy!” her smile fell an inch. “Although the others didn’t really like them.”
Fluttershy winced at the small smile Pinkie sported at that point. For Pinkie, a smile like that was akin to most ponies frowning, or even crying. She wanted to offer her sympathies but figured that the best way to do that was to oblige her friend. After all, there was no harm in trying, was there? She cautiously reached out and took one of the pastries, taking a hearty bite while she kept an eye on Pinkie. The latter’s smile had grown a little more genuine and her eyes were filled with hope.
She wanted to tell Pinkie that she liked the pagels; they had a hearty flavour with just a hint of sweetness from the inclusion of Zap Apple jam. Unfortunately, they were also very spicy. Fluttershy teared up after swallowing the first bite, and all of Pinkie’s happiness fled in an instant. “You don’t like them either?” she asked, her smile shrinking until it resembled the one from before. “That’s okay, they were just an experiment.”
Fluttershy coughed and waved her hooves at Pinkie. She had to cough again before the burning in her throat finally subsided enough for her to speak. “No, no. I like them, they’re just—” she gestured to her throat helplessly “—very spicy.”
Pinkie squee’d and jumped forward to hug her. “You really like them?”
Fluttershy nodded while silently trying to find a polite way to excuse herself. After all, it wasn’t that she disliked being here, quite the contrary; she would have loved to stay, and thanking Pinkie for everything was the least she could do. However, leaving her animals alone with a predator from Everfree on the loose didn’t sit well with her, no matter if they were tucked away inside Sweet Apple Acres.
The decision was made for her when a voice drifted up to them from the store below. “Pinkie, deary? It’s almost rush hour. Can you help Carrot prepare the turnovers?”
“Oki-doki-loki!” Pinkie called back before going from a happy to an apologetic smile. “Sorry, Shy-shy, but I have to go.
“Oh,” Fluttershy began, trying not to sound relieved. “That’s—” she saw Pinkie reach out, and before she knew what had happened, she found herself outside the door, with her saddlebags weighing a few pounds more than they had previously “—okay...” She blinked and looked around in confusion. “Pinkie?”
“Sorry, Shy,” Pinkie replied from the doorjamb. “I really need to get started. There were a lot of leftover pagels so Iputtheminyoursaddlebagsbye!”
The door slammed shut behind her and Fluttershy took a minute to try and comprehend what had just happened, before eventually deciding that it was for the best. She had one more important errand to run, after all, not to mention face the biggest adventure of her life. Or at least, the biggest one this week.
Her mission and the adventure weren’t mutually exclusive. In fact, dealing with the large predator in her cottage hinged entirely on being able to successfully complete her errand: Fluttershy was going to have to find some meat. Which was easier said than done.
She spent another hour wandering around the marketplace checking and double checking if she hadn’t missed anything. She hadn’t, which only confirmed what she already knew: unlike fruits, vegetables, or flowers, meat was a scarce commodity, if you could even find it at all. That is, unless you went to one of the few traveling gryphon markets where the avians frequently sold their hunting spoils at a premium, and Fluttershy had no intention of doing that.
She briefly considered asking Zecora if she had any spare meat for use in potions or the like, but discarded the idea when she realised how much time it would take. Instead she sighed and set out for her cottage. She was going to have to try and get the manticore to leave before it got dark, or she would cause Applejack a good deal of trouble.
I just hope it won’t be too upset that there’s no meat.
She made one last ditch attempt at the ‘Stranger Things Have Happened’ curio shop before making a beeline for home. The sun was already hanging low in the sky, which meant that she had precious little time left.
When she arrived at the cottage, she slowed down and cautiously approached the door. Her fear of the manticore had faded during her time in town, but that didn’t mean that she couldn’t be at least a little careful. Peering inside, she found that in all the time she’d been gone, the Manticore hadn’t moved an inch. The creature was still asleep on its side, facing away from the door and snoring loudly. Fluttershy tiptoed around the creature, squeaking when she stumbled on a leftover carrot. She only narrowly avoided hitting the door dividing the living room from the kitchen headfirst, and grimaced when the bag of Pagels tumbled out of her saddlebags.
She glanced back at the sleeping creature and breathed a sigh of relief when it didn’t show any signs of waking up. Given the state her kitchen had been in, she didn’t feel comfortable walking around with saddlebags full of potential meal; putting away the pastries would have to wait until later.
The supplies were unloaded and stored in their respective cupboards with a swiftness born from experience, and she decided to cook a little something for herself as well, as Pinkie Pie had derailed any lunch plans she’d had. Not too much later, Fluttershy stepped back into the living room, carrying a bowl of soup on her back, keeping it balanced between her wings. She had intended to put the soup on the table to cool off while she inspected the creature, but any such hopes were dashed when she found that the creature had tossed in its sleep and had hit the table, which was now laying on its side. She sighed and put down the bowl on the stairs; she wouldn’t be able to get the table upright without some help, so that would have to wait.
She took another look at the imposing creature and took a deep breath. Okay, Fluttershy, remember: it’s just like an oversized kitten. There’s no reason to be scared.
With her mental preparation done, she slowly, carefully, walked around the manticore, quickly discovering that ‘it’ was in fact a ‘he’, and that he wasn’t imposing at all. The poor dear was malnourished, his skin was flabby where once there had to have been a healthy layer of fat, and he had small but painful-looking scratches all over his body. The more she saw, the more she wondered why she hadn’t seen any of this before. Sure he was big, but he was only barely massive enough to be considered a fully grown manticore. Upon closer inspection, she found a few scars along his wings, and a tear along the side of his tail had only scabbed over recently, but beyond that, she couldn’t find any major injury.
After completing an entire round trip, she took another deep breath and stepped up to the creature’s face. She gave him a gentle nuzzle, trying to wake him up, but the creature simply snorted and rolled over, intent on continuing its nap in peace, which wasn’t the reaction Fluttershy had been looking for.
She circled around him and nuzzled him again, only to receive the same response. Things escalated from there. Fluttershy kept going, escalating her actions to nudging and even pushing the beast in the sides to elicit a response.
Half an hour, and several attempts later, Fluttershy’s stomach decided that one pagel for lunch hadn’t been quite enough. The loud growl that followed made Fluttershy decided that perhaps it would be a good idea to have dinner before she tried anything else. She sat down on the floor next to the stairs and softly blew on her soup before taking a sip.
That got a reaction from the manticore. The creature rolled over and opened its eyes, growling softly when it saw Fluttershy. She shrunk back reflexively, reconsidering her stance on thinking of the manticore as just a cat. At least, until she heard a dull thud and the following piteous whines. He had apparently tried to get up, but his legs had given out, leaving him unable to move.
Fear was no match for a nurturing instinct, and the manticore was a threat to her animals after all.
Fluttershy made her decision, and the manticore whined more urgently while she walked away.
When she came back, it looked like he had given up, his eyes closed and his head resting between his paws. For a brief second she was afraid he wouldn’t wake up again, but when she set the big pot of soup she’d made down, he cracked open one eye. There was no growling this time, just the exhaustion and pain she could read in his face. She spoke softly, giving him a nuzzle and encouraging him to eat. It quickly became clear that he didn’t even have the strength left to eat by himself; more drastic measures were needed.
She got up, which was met with more pitiful whining from the creature, but she smiled and softly patted it on the head. “Don’t worry, I’ll be right back.” Another quick trip to the kitchen later and she returned with a spoon and her medical kit. She set the kit down next to the stairs and took the spoon firmly between her teeth. Spoonfeeding was always a bit of an awkward motion, and required a lot of dexterity, patience, and experience to get right, all of which Fluttershy luckily had in spades.
Usually, the first spoonfuls were the hardest, as the animals she took in were usually wary of her at first. But while the manticore seemed grateful to her from the start, he simply lacked the energy to do much at all. Even so, after a minute and three missed attempts which all ended on the floor, he caught on, and opened his mouth so she could feed him little by little.
They kept at it, one spoon at a time, and by the time the sun set, she had fed the manticore the entire content of the pot. She shushed him as she got up, stifling the whine forming in the back of his throat.
“I’m not going away for long,” she said, giving him a warm nuzzle. “But you’ve eaten all there is, and I need to make some more.”
She wasn’t sure how intelligent manticores actually were, never having thought she would want to be around them for any considerable length of time, but he seemed to understand what she was saying and rested his head between his paws once more, his eyes following her as she went to cook up another batch of soup.
This time, she had a big bowl with her when she came back, spilling a little over the sides as she carefully set it down in front of him. He waited for her to take a step back, and started lapping at the liquid as soon as she did. Fluttershy smiled and nodded to herself, walking over to the stairs and breaking open her medical supplies so she could start the long and arduous process of nursing him back to health.
Learning how to make healing salves from Zecora had taken a lot of time, but the help and relief she could provide to her friends large and small had been more than worth it. Grind the root to a pulp annnnddddd... done! The bright green balm would increase the speed at which the body could heal and provide relief from the worst of the pain.
She had only just begun applying the soothing ointment to the bandages for the manticore’s bigger injuries when she was pushed to the side forcefully. The few off balance step she took weren't enough, leading to a stumbling sideways fall. A stinging pain shot through her wing when she landed on it, making her cry out. She winced and looked up to see the apologetic face of the manticore. Looking past him she saw the empty bowl and pieced together what had happened. He had apparently tried to give her a nudge to ask for more food, but had underestimated his own strength.
First order of business was assessing the damage. Fluttershy looked herself over, and intentionally put a little strain on each part of her body in turn. It was never pleasant, and she winced when she tried to flex her right wing, letting out a breath between clenched teeth while she quickly returned it to its folded position. It’s not broken... but maybe a bandage, just in case.
The manticore had made himself small as he could and crawled forward just a little in a show of submissiveness and regret. She gave him a pained smile, “It’s okay, accidents happen. I’ll make you some more soup in a moment.”
Seeing a manticore wagging his scorpion-like tail was high on the list of things she would normally find disconcerting, but the significance made her smile. He was happy, and even though he far from being completely healed, he was getting stronger by the hour.
Having been the one that fixed Rainbow Dash up after she invariably crashed into something made bandaging up her own wing a cinch. At least her wing didn’t complain every time she tried to tighten the cloth, even if it did hurt a fair bit more. When she finished bandaging her wing, soup quickly became the priority once more due to the nudges the manticore was giving her, which were luckily sedate enough that they didn’t send her flying across the room.
She spent the rest of the night that way; bandaging up his tail, parts of his wings and two of his paws which she found had discolored wounds on them; applying healing salves to the smaller cuts and bruises, and intermediately making soup when the big lug finished another bowl.
By the time the sun rose again, the manticore had eaten his way through every single one of the supplies she had bought at the market, and it was still hungry. The puppy dog eyes he gave her were a little odd, as they clashed with her idea of it being a big version of a cat, but she complied with a resigned smile nonetheless. “Alright, alright. I’ll go see if there’s anything left.” The large creature bounded up to her like it were only an eighth of its actual size, and she giggled when he licked her face.
As she’d said, though, there wasn’t an edible thing left in the entire kitchen. She yawned, and rubbed her eyes. She was going to have to go to the market again if she wanted to have enough for when her other animal friends returned, but it could wait for a while.
Back in the living room, she saw that the manticore had found the last food in the house, though she wasn’t sure how he had gotten a hold of them. She also wasn’t sure it was a good idea for the creature to eat Pinkie’s pagels. The manticore didn’t feel the same way, happily chomping down on the pastries even though his eyes were watering and he had to stop and pant every so often. Half of her wanted to tell it to stop and that eating something as hot as the pagels might not be good for it. The other half argued that it wouldn’t do any harm; he obviously enjoyed them, and she could use a little break from caring for the creature.
With a bit of effort, she righted the couch and sat down on the plush seats. It was a welcome change from the hard wooden floor and her muscles thanked her for it. Like everything to do with the manticore, however, her peace didn’t last long enough. He was once again making whining noises, looking back and forth between her and the hole in the wall with those big soulful eyes.
She wanted to tell him that he had to stay; the bandages weren’t going to do much good if he was going to get into fights or running through thorn bushes, after all. Yet at the same time, she knew she couldn’t keep him cooped up in her cottage. He was too big to care for with her limited supplies, not to mention the effect he had on the other creatures she cared for. So she made the only decision she could.
Putting up a stern expression, she walked over and waited for him to lower himself so she could look him in the eyes. “Now listen here, mister. I won’t stop you from leaving, but you have to promise me that you’ll take good care of yourself. No more fighting, and no more breaking into houses, alright?”
The manticore looked at her and whined softly.
She nodded resolutely. “Of course you can come visit; but not for too long. And I don’t want you eating any of the animals that live here. Is that understood?”
He nodded slowly.
She allowed a hint of a smile to creep onto her face. “I’ll make sure to have some more of those—” she indicated the now empty bag of pagels “—when you get back. If you really want to go, you need to come back in two days so I can refresh your bandages, okay?”
The creature wagged its tail and licked her face and mane, making her look just as messy as the inside of her cottage. It was like she had just had a run in with a... well, with a manticore, which was more appropriate than she thought it should have been.
Apparently he thought that was enough of an acknowledgement, stepping through the hole in the wall and taking off towards the Everfree. Fluttershy watched him until he disappeared amongst the trees, and then headed back inside. Her living room looked like a bomb had exploded, even more now than when she had woken up that morning, which would all have to be cleaned up before she could go and make sure that her little critters hadn’t caused Applejack any undue problems. Right now, however, she couldn’t find the energy to care about the mess. She yawned once more and stumbled over to the couch, collapsing on it and taking off to dreamland before her head even hit the pillows.
“—heavens, darling! What happened to you?”
Her wakeup call came all too early, in the form of a very worried set of friends who all seemed completely horrified by the chaotic state the living room was in. Fluttershy let out a yawn and rubbed in her eyes before coming face to face with a frantic fashionista.
“You’re hurt! Do we need to take you to the hospital? Ohhh, and look at your mane! Such a disaster!”
Fluttershy treated them all to a sleep-drunken smile while Rarity fussed over her appearance with a comb. Her friends hadn’t been idle, cleaning up the worst of the mess while occasionally shooting a worried glance at her.
“Were you attacked by something, Fluttershy?” Twilight asked. The unicorn was uprighting all the furniture with her magic, putting it back in its proper place, and even repairing some of the damage done to the chairs.
“Maybe she had a superduperific party!” Pinkie was wielding a feather duster with her mouth, had four of them strapped to her hooves, and was even holding one with her tail. She had been bouncing around but came to a halt in front of Fluttershy, the pout on her face powerful enough to reduce a lesser mare to tears. “Did you?”
Fluttershy merely giggled and shook her head. “No, Pinkie, I wouldn’t ever throw a party without inviting you.”
Satisfied with her answer, Pinkie sprung back into action, twirling around like a ballerina and creating a bigger dust cloud than should have realistically been possible in the small living room.
“Ah’m gonna get some replacement supplies, and make sure those varmints of yers haven’t broken down mah barn yet,” Applejack said, walking from the kitchen to the door.
“Uhm... could you bring them back here, please?”
Applejack nodded “Sure thing, sugar.” She glanced at the hole in the wall and added: “And ah’m also ask Hammer and Nails if they can take look at this here problem.”
Rainbow Dash was the only one who wasn’t actively doing anything. She floated around the cottage, inspecting the damage before settling down next to the couch. “So, what? Was it the bear again?” She asked nonchalantly. “Or did you have a chimera over?”
“Uhm...” Fluttershy couldn’t help but giggle. “It was a manticore, actually.”
All of her friends looked flabbergasted, save for Rainbow Dash, who grinned. “I knew it! Was it the same one we met on the Summer Sun Celebration?”
Fluttershy shrugged. “I didn’t ask, but he was really hurt so...”
“So you took care of him?” Rarity asked, disbelief clear in her voice. A disbelief that was mirrored in Twilight’s face.
“I think it’s great! Flutterbutter is the best, so of course that manticore would come here!” Pinkie came up to Fluttershy and gave her a bone-crushing hug, which was mitigated slightly by the fact that Pinkie had managed to get all of her friends in a single swipe, including a very confused Applejack who could have sworn that she had been on the road to Sweet Apple Acres a second ago.
“Quite right,” Rarity added. “Though it seems like it cost you your beauty sleep, darling.”
“Oh,” Fluttershy looked down and drew a circle on the couch with her hoof. “Uhm... I don’t really mi—”
“Nonsense! You need your rest just like any other pony. So today, we will take care of everything. Isn’t that right, girls?” She waited for the various nods and agreements before pressing Fluttershy back onto the couch. “You just relax, dear.”
She didn’t have the energy or inclination to argue, so she just lay back down and closed her eyes. The previous day had turned into an ordinary day, but if her friends were willing to help out today, she was going to take full advantage of a well-deserved day off.
