You are Fluttershy, and today has definitely been a weird day. You found a strange creature sleeping next to a tree near your house, and the next thing you know, you’re stalking him through the Everfree Forest and dragging his bloodied corpse back to your house to get stitched up. You had to get some help from your good old friend Mr. Bear – he was just too heavy to carry, and you don’t think you would have been able to convince him to come into your cottage on your own – but you knew it was the right thing to do. After all, the Everfree Forest is a dangerous place to travel about alone. You never know what sorts of strange creatures are likely to attack you if you just go it alone. Yep. Today has definitely been a weird day.

But it hasn’t been all that bad. The creature you brought into your care turned out to be very nice. He was very gracious for all that you had done for him, and even offered to be your friend. Of course you accepted – you like to think of yourself as a kind pony, and what kind of kind pony would decline such an offer? Especially when he has such a nice name – Anonymous. He said he likes to go by Anon though, you’ll have to remember that – friends always remember things like nicknames.

Friends also don’t spread rumors around town about another friend’s character, and as it turns out, a certain friend of yours and Anon’s has been doing just that! In fact, that certain friend happens to be one of your best friends, Twilight Sparkle. She’s always been a good friend, and you’re not sure what had gotten over her, but you’re certain the two of you will be able to talk things out. She just made a mistake in her judgment, and you could never hold that against a friend.

You exit your cottage after letting Anon know you will be leaving to talk to Twilight. He had groaned at the sound of the idea, but honestly, if he’s not willing to fight these kinds of battles himself, he can’t complain when somepony else decides to step up to the plate. You also tell him to get some rest, and that you will make dinner for him when you get home. As you lock the door to your cottage, you wonder to yourself what kinds of foods he eats. You had seen him eating fish when you were following him in the forest, so perhaps he is a carnivore? You do hope that he likes other types of food as well, as it would be quite the bother for you to have to go fishing every day for him. You make a note to stop by Sweet Apple Acres before heading back – no one you know has ever turned down one of the Apple family’s pies before, not even some of your wolf friends you made a few years back.

As you trot on to the library where Twilight is staying, you take note of the fact that the weather is unbearably hot. Although it is several hours past Noon, the midsummer sun has hardly begun to approach the horizon. You begin to envy Anon in that he does not have a coat of fur covering his body, but question the logic as to why he would wear clothes on such a day. Not even unicorns – who seem to wear clothes more than anypony else – would be caught dead wearing anything other than a sunhat on a day like this.

When you reach the main plaza of Ponyville, a few blocks away from the library, you are noticed by Rainbow Dash – a blue-coated Pegasus with a rainbow mane that you have come to consider one of your best friends – who is once again lazing around on a cloud after a hard day’s work clearing the skies, without a care in the world to the fact that her chosen spot to rest happens to be one of the busiest and loudest sections in Ponyville. As you walk past her cloud, she jumps off to give you a hug. “Hey Fluttershy, it’s been a while since I’ve seen you. What’ve you been doing in the past few weeks? It’s like you never come into Ponyville these days.”

Leave it to Rainbow to be concerned for you. She’s one of the few ponies out there who can and would notice that you were gone at all, so you suppose you owe her a bit of an explanation. “I’ve been taking care of some sick animals lately. First Angel Bunny gets sick, then it’s my birds, and now I’ve got a whole new creature that I’ve taken under my wing who got hurt out in the Everfree Forest.”

Rainbow gives you a look of interest. “A new creature huh? What’s it look like?”

At this point, you are reminded of the fact that Anon had told you that by now, everypony in Ponyville hates him, and you realize that this could include Rainbow. You don’t want to lie to her, and you don’t want to have to explain to her your situation with Anon until after you’ve spoken to Twilight and can get her to apologize to him, so instead you decide to be very vague. “He’s um… tall… and he doesn’t have fur.” You pause for a moment to think of something else to say. If she guesses who he is, you don’t want her freaking out about you harboring a member of a so called ‘dangerous species.’ “And, um… he’s very gentle.”

Rainbow laughs at that one. “Well shucks, Fluttershy, I thought you were going to say you were taking care of a dragon, but it looks like you’ve got something from another world in there.” ‘From another world’ – she might be onto you. You need to defuse the situation. “Um, Rainbow, Spike is a dragon and he’s very gentle.”

This doesn’t seem to faze her. “Yeah, but he’s not tall,” she says in protest. “Just wait until he’s too big to fit in Twilight’s library and see how nice he is then.” You really don’t want to get into an argument with her about the quality of Spike’s character now. He was a good friend, and probably one of the only dragons you could get along with without getting scared. Fortunately, Rainbow seems to divert the topic a little. “Well tell me this much, is he at least cool?”

This you can answer. “Oh I’d definitely say so. Maybe I could show you him sometime later, though right now I need to see Twilight about something.” Rainbow shrugs. “Alright, I guess I’ll catch you later today or tomorrow then?” You nod. “Okay. We can come to my cottage later tonight if that’s what you’d like.” “Alright, sounds good. See you then!” With one last hug from Rainbow, you head back on the road to the library.

You gently knock at Twilight’s door. With most ponies, you would have to knock several times in order finally to get their attention, but Twilight and Spike have come to recognize your knocks just aren’t as loud as everyone else’s, and tend to pay a bit more attention for the sound of a door knocking just in case. It probably helps though, that their home is a library, and doesn’t get very loud anyways.

The door is answered by Spike, who seems a little bit surprised that you’re here. “Fluttershy, long time no see. What can I do you for?” Normally you’d be keen to engage in a few pleasantries with Spike – he’s always been a fun one to talk to – but you really want to this thing with Twilight over and done with as soon as you can. “Um, Spike…” you say, “is Twilight around?” He nods. “Yeah, sure. Hey Twilight! Fluttershy’s here to see you!”

After a few short moments you see Twilight descend down the steps from her room to meet you at the door. “Oh hey Fluttershy. It’s been a while since I’ve seen you. What have you been up to?” You decide to skip the bullshit. “Twilight, we need to talk.” It takes her a few seconds to process what you just said. “I’m sorry what? Did I do something wrong?” Her voice grows even more worrisome. “Does this have to do with why you haven’t been seeing me? Because whatever it was I didn’t mean to…”

You place a hood over her mouth. “Twilight, this has nothing to do with why I haven’t been able to see you in the past few weeks. I’ll talk to you about that later, but this is something different.” She breathes a sigh of relief. “Phew. For a second there, I thought I’d done something to hurt you. So what is this about?”

“Ahem.” You clear your throat. “This doesn’t concern me so much as a certain mutual friend of ours.” Twilight looks at you confused. “Who? I don’t remember Applejack, Rarity, Pinkie Pie or Rainbow Dash being particularly upset at either of us, and…” You interrupt her. “Anon.”

Twilight stares at you blankly before turning you a worried look. “Fluttershy, you didn’t…” You aren’t going to have any of this. “Actually, Twilight, I did make friends with him just today after he tried to enter the Everfree Forest carrying nothing but a crude spear and a sack of food. He’s now recouperating in my cottage after he was almost killed by a wild animal. Now why do you think he would do something as foolish as that?” As you say this you begin to give Twilight the stare. With this stare, you’ve been able to tame many animals, including dragons, into obeying your will. It isn’t something you employ very often, but you feeling a bit livid right now with Twilight.

She struggles to come up with a response. “Fluttershy, I didn’t mean to…” “Didn’t mean to what!?” you demand loudly. Twilight flinches at the sound of your suddenly raised voice, but you continue and let out everything you have on her. “Had you even considered what you might have done to Anon when you told everyone in Ponyville that he was a monster? And how do you think he felt when you judged him for all the things others in his species did? You don’t see me calling Spike a monster in front of the whole town just because a few other dragons happen to be rather mean to ponies. Or maybe I should judge you as a unicorn for how rude Trixie is whenever she shows up into town. Honestly, what do you have to say for yourself, Twilight Sparkle?”

Twilight pauses for about half a minute, trying to comprehend everything that just happened. You’re not always a loud mare, but when you need to, you can make even fully-grown dragons weep. Although you did not cause Twilight to burst into tears, you had broken her spirit. She could hardly speak, let alone even begin to formulate a counter-argument. All that was left now was to get her to apologize to you, and eventually to Anon. Finally, she speaks up. “I – I didn’t mean to hurt him like that. I was scared, and didn’t want to be around him anymore, so I told him he was worse than a changeling – which in hindsight, wasn’t really true, it just felt right at the time. I didn’t go around town calling him a monster, though I suppose I was a bit… loud about things. I suppose I owe him an apology.”

‘Well that was easy,’ you think to yourself. You’ll have to remember that Twilight can be persuaded very easily by being loud and assertive, and by belittling her ego by not letting her get a word in edgewise. Hopefully though, you won’t have to do this again. It’s a little bit exhausting to go all out like this for very long, so you decide to return back to your usual quiet and more kind demeanor. “Well, actually,” you say in a more appeasing tone, “if you don’t mind, you could see him tonight and apologize. If, um, that’s okay with you, that is.”

Though still a bit shaken from having been read the riot act, Twilight is nonetheless able to affirm your request. “Sure, why not? Just let me um…” she pauses for a second as if trying to think up an excuse. “Just let me get a few things done first.” You give her a warm smile. She just had a harsh few minutes, so you might as well go easy on her. “Of course, take as much time as you like. I’m in no rush, and I’m sure whatever it is you need to do, I can wait.” At your permission, she runs up the stairs of the library into her room.

A few minutes pass by as you hear the sounds of Twilight frantically digging through her room searching for something. She isn’t entirely the best at hiding her struggle, shouting “where is it, where is it, WHERE IS IT!?” before eventually stopping at an “Aha! Found it!” About a half hour more passes by before she descends back down the stairs, looking much more mellow and smelling faintly of Berry Punch’s ‘secret stash.’ “Okay, I’m ready, let’s go.” Her voice sounds much more chipper, but in a way, it seems forced. You begin to wonder if going from normal, sweet and kind Fluttershy to screaming in your best friend’s face was really such a good idea in hindsight. Twilight doesn’t normally drink, but when she does, it usually means she’s in shock from a new situation that she doesn’t know how to handle. It isn’t exactly good for her, and it’s never led to her making good decisions. In fact, you’re almost entirely certain that the number of rash decisions she made during the night of the Summer Sun Celebration, such as trying to charge a manticore, may have been due to the influence of some alcoholic tobasco sauce that Pinkie Pie had given her as a joke. Nonetheless, bad decisions aside, you decide not to push her on it. After giving a quick reminder to Spike to watch the library while she is gone, Twilight and you leave the library.

The first half of the walk to your cottage is uneventful. This is partially a natural consequence of both you and Twilight being introverted ponies – neither of you tend to have long, meaningful conversations on normal days together, and the only thing you could think of to talk about was how unbearably hot it was. Part of you wishes that weather ponies could do something about the heat of the day, but the sad reality was that although they could control the clouds and the winds, it just was not possible for them to control how hot the sun was blaring. The sun was Celestia’s domain, and sadly, in the grand scheme of things, she just wasn’t going to turn down the sun just so a nice yellow pony could have a more comfortable afternoon. The plants needed to sunlight to grow after all, and putting provisions on ponies’ plates was particularly a priority for the princess.

When you reach the outskirts of Ponyville, you are met with a familiar sight – Rainbow Dash, who is currently practicing what you can only assume to be one of her newest flight tricks. You know from watching her that many of Rainbow’s tricks tend to end rather poorly when she first tries them out, and this time is no exception. After what appeared to be an attempt to pull off a sonic rainboom while spinning, you watch your daredevil friend crash into the ground after a failed attempt to pull upwards at the last minute, sliding a couple of yards before stopping just short of your hooves.

Though she appears to be a little bit bloodied from the experience, she nonetheless appears alive from the experience, and does not seem to have visibly maimed herself. How she manages to walk away from these sorts of things without even so much as breaking bones is beyond you, but you nonetheless feel the need to share your concern for her. “Rainbow Dash, are you okay?”

Twilight looked like she was about to ask Rainbow a similar question, but before she could get much out of her mouth other than “Rainbow,” she is interrupted by Rainbow, who appears to be trying to lift herself up, though having issues with wobbly legs due to what you can only assume is dizziness. “It’s alright girls, I’m –” Before she can finish her sentence, Rainbow once again collapses to the ground, unable to support her own weight. “– fine.”

“Do you need… help?” Twilight says, offering a hoof to Rainbow.

“Ya, that would be great.” Rainbow grabs Twilight’s hoof and uses it to pull herself up. Though on all four hooves, she is still a bit unstable, and is about to fall over again, but you manage to extend a wing to catch her.

“Perhaps you should take a rest for the day,” you say with a hint of concern to your voice. Twilight nods in agreement and adds, “Yeah, I don’t think you’re going to be handling walking too well for a little while. Tell you what, how about I carry you on my back with us to Fluttershy’s cottage, and you can crash on her couch for the rest of the day. Does that sound good?”

Rainbow protests, “I don’t need you to carry me, I’ll be fine on my own.” As she says this, she attempts to get back onto her hooves again, and with a bit of difficulty, manages to push herself back into a state of semi-stability. “See, I’m fine.”

In spite of the fact that she is managing to stand, you still feel a little bit of concern for her. “Um, if you don’t mind,” you say, trying to not seem too overbearing on your hubristic friend, “it’d still be nice if you could come over to visit. I haven’t seen you in a while, and I was just about to make dinner, and um…”

Rainbow cuts you off. “Yeah, sure sure. Was planning on hanging out with you sometime later anyways. Oh, and by the way, while we’re on the subject, do you mind if I use your shower? I’m pretty sure that crash did not do too many wonders on my mane… or my face.”

“Oh that would be no trouble at all,” you offer, “feel free to make yourself at home, and let me know if there is anything else you might need.”

“Um… thanks Fluttershy, will do.” Rainbow’s response sounded a bit… awkward. You contemplate over the fact that perhaps you do not need to push yourself into caretaker mode whenever one of your friends is hurt. As much as you love caring for other ponies, you have been starting to get the feeling that some of them – in particular Rainbow Dash, whose pension for getting herself injured earned her the nickname “Rainbow Crash” back in flight camp – might perceive your care as a bit much. No matter, at least your animal friends appreciate it, and you’re almost certain that your newest friend, Anon, will be thankful to have been in your care.

The rest of your walk back to your cottage goes by fairly quickly, with Rainbow keeping things from becoming too boring by describing to you and Twilight all of the details of her latest stunt. She calls it the “Sonic hurricane-boom,” in which she tries to create a hurricane from a sonic boom. Although she obviously can’t create a hurricane in the current weather, as there is not a cloud in the sky to provide moisture, she has been practicing the fundamentals – that is, not spinning out of control and crashing into the ground – so she can pull it off when there is more rain scheduled for Ponyville.

When you reach your cottage, you motion to your friends to be quiet. It is very possible that Anon could be sleeping at this moment, and you wouldn’t want to wake him just yet. You open the door cautiously and let your friends inside.

“I hope you don’t mind,” Rainbow whispers into your ear, “but I think I’m going to take that shower now. Where was your bathroom again?”

“It’s right next to my spare room,” you say, keeping your voice as low as Rainbow’s, “just try not to wake up any of my animals.”

Rainbow nods, and walks off in the direction of the bathroom. You then turn to Twilight, and are about to tell her that she may have to wait for a little bit to make her apology, when you hear Rainbow shouting from the other room, “OH COME ON! REALLY?”

‘Oh horseapples,’ you think to yourself as you realize that you had not told Rainbow just who it was that was staying at your house. You rush off into the other room as fast as you can. “Wait, Rainbow, I can explain, I…” you say frantically as you turn the corner into the hallway.

You are quickly brought to silence by what you see next. The first thing you see is Rainbow. She is not angry, but based upon the hoof she has applied to her forehead, you can only guess that what she is looking at must be completely embarrassing. Next, you look into the room, you see Anon, fully naked on the bed. His face is beat red, showing his own embarrassment. The last thing you notice is that his hand is still wrapped around his cock, with little dribbles of cum strewn about his chest.

“Oh my…”

Author's Note

Edit: Realized that my visualization of Fluttershy's house was not quite in line with how it should be in the show. I've given her a second, spare room near a hallway to her bathroom. I'm borrowing a model of Fluttershy's house from some image I found on DA and adding an additional room that will act as a first-floor bedroom where Anon is currently. The only change to the story was adding the word "spare" before room when Fluttershy was telling Rainbow where her bathroom is. Obviously her personal bedroom cannot be down a hallway and next to a bathroom, because that is upstairs with no adjacent rooms. Does this matter in the grand scheme of things? Probably not, but I like consistency. And in case anyone was wondering why Anon had never met Fluttershy in spite of having spent 3 months living with Twilight, I've got some ideas I'm currently working on in chapter 3 to solve that.

The reference image:
http://fc07.deviantart.net/fs71/f/2011/359/4/4/fluttershy__s_home_by_aurebesh-d4k7jpu.png