The sun beat down on Ponyville, creating rainbow heat ripples in the middle distance. At her cottage in the woods, Fluttershy had her hands full. The menagerie all had different needs. The pigs needed sun cream and wouldn't stop wriggling long enough to receive an even coating. The birds were panting in whatever shade they could find. The lizards hopped with a mixture of delight and pad pain in the energising warmth. Fluttershy smiled happily to herself despite the hard work. It was a labour of love and she wouldn't give up her animals for anything.

She was so carried away that she hadn't noticed the shadow fall behind her. The figure watched Fluttershy for a long time, then took in all the animals with a slow stare. He reached out and gently placed a raspberry and a cube of fat on the ground behind Fluttershy, before slinking back out of sight. The rabbits and the crows didn't need telling twice: they were on the limited treat supply like a shot: victorious rabbit chewing furiously, his red-stained lips chatting away to themselves. The triumphant crow flapped lazily up to the weathervane with his prize while the others sulked and plotted his demise. Within moments, the juicy morsels were gone and Fluttershy was too concerned with the commotion in front of her to pay any heed to the one behind.

In fact the first she knew of her unexpected company was the loud snort by her left ear, accompanied by the furious clamour of wings to her right. She turned to see a dappled grey stallion standing fetlock-deep in shrews, moles, hedgehogs and rabbits - with a flock of corvids orbiting his back.

"Goodness! They do this all the time, wherever I go. I can't tell you how... Good this feels," the stranger's brilliantine smile drew attention away from the nerve twitching by his eye as one of the more persistent crows landed on his back and tugged his mane to try and dispense more treats.

"They never normally react like this to strangers," Fluttershy smiled sheepishly.

"Perhaps that's because I'm not a stranger, at least not any more. I'm Hengst, pleased to meet you," he reared up, puffing out his chest and trying not to wince as the crow scrabbled to keep a purchase on his steeply-inclined back.

Fluttershy looked down, uncertain what to say. This stallion seemed so full of confidence, he was the epitome of everything she wasn't. He didn't deserve to be stuck with her - better he find a confident mare like Rarity to talk to. They'd know what to do. She liked how fond the animals were of him - that had to mean something, right? she became acutely aware that she hadn't said anything for what felt like hours. He was smiling! Of all the nerve! Why didn't he mind that she was being such a plank?

"Excuse me, Miss..."

"Fluttershy!" She blurted out. The lights of recognition went on in Hengst's eyes.

"Oh you're Fluttershy! I was told you were pretty but I had no idea," he said.

Fluttershy scuffed the earth awkwardly with her hoof, overturning a family of woodlice.

"Sorry!" She said, patting the soil back around them.

"No need to apologise," Hengst grinned.

"What? Oh..." In the moment, Fluttershy had forgotten he was there and wasn't about to make a bigger fool of herself by admitting it.

"Listen, I'm going to stop by tomorrow with a picnic basket. You wouldn't leave a new friend to dine alone, would you?"

"Um... No?" She flushed crimson with humiliation, "I have to go," she galloped headlong back into the cottage with her entourage of woodland critters.

Hengst looked at the crow sitting between his shoulder blades. "You understand me, don't you?"

The crow cocked his head and nodded.

"Good. The treats are our little secret, got it? Keep it a secret and you'll get many more. Breathe a word of it and you'll never get another treat ever again."

The crow sized Hengst up critically, then nodded.

"The rabbit won't tell either - right?" The threat was in the inflection. The crow shrugged and flapped off in the direction of the cottage.

Hengst watched it go, a sneer of disdain on his face. A bright yellow pair of eyes watched the dappled grey stallion trot off. The trembling crimson pupils took in the woodland stranger. A click of fingers echoed through the trees and somewhere else in the woods a parrot started shrieking from the wrong end.

Author's Note

My first attempt at a FiM story. Constructive brutality welcome.