Author's Note
Yes, I already did that.
Yes, this is actually a pretty lazy idea.
Yes, this is my 12th story, if this gets approved.
I JUST CAN'T HELP IT!!! IT NEEDED TO GET OUT OF MY SYSTEM!!!
Chapter 1
Fluttershy considered herself an expert on animals. Others considered her to be the best animal caretaker that has ever existed in the entire history of Equestria, princesses included. It came as no surprise that, when Derpy found an unknown creature near the Ponyville borders, she and Rainbow Dash would bring said creature to the shy mare. The creature was similar to a minotaur, just without horns and fur, a white skin and a red mane on it's head. Her overall body structure identified her as female. Rainbow once saw a female minotaur.
The creature was also wearing clothes, indicating it was intelligent. However, neither Derpy, nor Rainbow thought of getting this minotaur thing to the hospital for some reason. The now dubbed "minotaur thing" wore some sort of red shirt, blue pants made of a material nopony had ever seen before and had something hard covering up it's hooves or claws, nopony took them off.
And now Fluttershy found herself looking after a creature nopony seemingly ever heard of. Rainbow Dash and Derpy had to leave, because of their jobs.
"Oh dear." Fluttershy whispered to herself, as she watched the whatever it was seemingly sleeping in her bed. In the background Harry, Angel and a couple of squirrels watched her with interest, having stopped their game of poker for the time being. They watched as their caretaker and arguably foster mother, started inspecting the newcomer from head to tow.
"Hmm..." Fluttershy took a notepad and a pencil and noted that there were no obvious injuries from the outside. Placing the pencil next to the notepad, she proceeded to take temperature, measure the creature's height, heart rate, even check the bone structure and teeth.
"Oh my. I didn't expect this." Fluttershy whispered, carefully closing the creatures mouth again. It had canine teeth, meaning it ate meat, like Griffons. Of course, Griffons don't exactly need to eat meat to survive and Fluttershy hoped the same went for this creature. But just in case, she would have to check on her secret meat stash. For the animals who only digested meat of course.
"No fever, she ate well, no injuries..." Fluttershy went down her list. "She seems fine, but why isn't she waking up? Oh no! Did I overlook something?" The pegasus went back to her examination, especially around the head area. She suspected the poor girl had been struck unconscious and checked for inner bleeding, but found luckily nothing of the sort.
"Maybe she is just exhausted from something." Fluttershy reasoned and put the blanket back on the creature's body. Since her knowledge about the creature was fairly limited, she figured making sure it got water and some bed rest would be enough for the time being.
Urrgh, hangover. Lauren groaned mentally. Perhaps it hadn't been such a good idea to party with the rest of the crew until morning, celebrating their success of the finale of season 5. Their view ratings had been going down for a few weeks, but spiked once again, when the finale of season 5 of My Little Pony, Friendship is Magic aired.
Leave it to the bronydom to drop everything else and watch a TV show for little girls. Lauren chuckled internally, ignoring the headache she was having. Craig must have put her to bed last evening. Or possibly this morning. Heck, scratch that,it was most likely afternoon already and she missed an entire work day!
Groggily, the woman slowly got up, yawning and stretching her arms in the process. She rubbed her eyes and blinked a few times in order to get accustomed to the light. And then she screamed.
"AHHH!"
To her left side stood a gigantic bear, looking at her with a curious expression. Harry the bear was used to new ponies in town reacting that way, when they first saw him, so he didn't react, when the newcomer fell out of Fluttershy's bed and crawled backwards, until she hit the wall. It was actually quite the amusing sight to see.
The scream had caught the attention of the other animals in Fluttershy's cottage. They all came upstairs, wanting to know what all the fuss was about. It didn't take them long to realize what was going on. A lot of animals react the way the newcomer did, when they first saw Harry without Fluttershy reassuring them that he wouldn't do anything to them.
A few squirrels took the advantage and ran up to the newcomer, who still had her eyes focused on the bear. She let out another shriek, when two squirrels started to climb around her body, until they nestled themselves in her lap.
Lauren's heart was pumping blood, as if she was running a marathon. Waking up next to a bear, an animal that could easily kill her, was frightening enough, but then realizing that you're not in your own house, but a stranger's one was worse. And although the squirrels only meant the well, the fact that they were all of the sudden cuddling the woman didn't help at all. If anything it confused her even more as to what was happening or rather as to where she had ended up.
There was just so much happening, so many animals around her. Not that she had anything against animals, she adored them. But if you were in her situation and suddenly you were surrounded by what seemed to be the entire wood life of your local forest, you would freak out too.
Luckily the animals could sense her distress. By an unspoken command, most of the animals went back downstairs. The squirrels and Harry remained in the room, though at this point, Lauren's brain was ready to shut down. She couldn't come up with any kind of explanation as to why the animals were behaving the way they did. The squirrels proceeded to rub their heads against Lauren's head. Harry was lying on the other side of the room, watching.
Still utterly confused, Lauren carefully raised a hand started slowly rubbing it down one of the squirrel's back. The animal froze up for a second, before it relaxed and enjoyed the treatment it was getting. Seeing this, the other squirrel increased it's rubbing, until Lauren found herself in the awkward position of petting two squirrels at once. She struggled with the multitasking, but none the less started to smile. I mean, when do you ever get the chance to enjoy the company of squirrels?
However, the woman didn't manage to fully relax. For one, she didn't know where she was. Now that she took a closer look at the room, it was actually really nice decorated and a little retro with the wooden floor and everything. For some reason it looked familiar, yet the woman was sure she had never been wherever she was right now.
Another point was, there were a lot of animals in this house, a bear being one of them! Although he seemed peaceful, Lauren knew enough about animals that even a tamed lion had instincts. There was a reason it always came to accidents in circuses and zoos.
Last but not least, she didn't remember how she got to this animal infested house. The owner must really love animals. Or possibly be obsessed with them. The last memory she had was saying something really stupid, after John managed to convince her to try a tequila. That was about, when her brain must have shut down or it just suppressed the memory.
Oh dear, so much for not partying too hard.
What's with the bear, anyways? He's watching me like a dog guarding the sheep or something.
Oh cute little squirrels, I so want one!
...?
What's that sound? Footsteps! Wait, why would I wake up NOT in my house or workplace in the first place? Oh dear, I hope we didn't have a traffic accident!
Lauren's train of thought was interrupted, when she saw a equine like shadow approach the door.
Wait, a horse? I heard of animal love, but this is just unhygienic. The woman scolded. She gasped, when the squirrels jumped off her lap and ran towards the shadow. The bear got up into sitting position, seemingly looking forward to the horse or maybe a foal, judging from the size, to come in.
Lauren Faust decided not to make any movements, as long as the bear was still in the same room as her. She switched from looking at the approaching shadow, to watching the bear every few seconds, until it was finally there. It turning out to be a butter colored pony pegasus with a pink, impossible long mane and tail. It had a tattoo of three pink butterflies on each side of its flank.
"Fluttershy?!" Lauren exclaimed, startling the pegasus a little, as it flew into the air.
Seeing her guest awake and sitting on the floor, the pegasus quickly flew over to her patient, who backed off against the wall a bit.
"Oh, I'm so sorry." Fluttershy stopped in mid-air. "I didn't mean to startle you."
"Wha.....?" The woman didn't understand a word the pegasus said. It was obviously the voice of Andrea, when she spoke Fluttershy's lines, but it came out as gibberish to the woman, as if she was speaking another language entirely.
This is Fluttershy....her bedroom....the animals....the cottage....
Lauren's head hit the floor.
"Oh dear. Harry, could you please help me? If you don't mind that is."
