Dog Catcher's Mill Company

Fluttershy was flying through the Everfree Forest and tending to the animals,

"Here you all go." Fluttershy said as she fed acorns to the squirrels, she flew around a bit more and went to the wild boars,

"Enjoy." Fluttershy stated as she gave them their lunch, she flew around more and went to the last animals,

"Here, sorry I'm late." Fluttershy stated as she fed a group of wolves, she flew around and saw every animal was fed, her ears soon picked up on a sound,

"What is that sound?" Fluttershy asked as she flew a few yards to the direction where she heard the sound, she listened and heard dogs whimpering,

"They sound so sad, I can't imagine how they feel right now." Fluttershy stated as she flew to them, the whimpering got louder,

"It sounds so horrible, I can't bear to imagine what they're feeling." Fluttershy commented, she flew more and came to a clearing, she looked and gasped when she saw the puppies. She flew down to the puppies and saw them all in wire cages,

"Oh, my goodness." Fluttershy blurted out, she looked and saw the puppies were all dirty and anorexic, they ran to her and whimpered,

"Where's the entrance?" Fluttershy asked, the puppies walked and led her to it, she tried to pull it open but could not,

"Hold on, I'll be right back." Fluttershy promised, and she flew away.

Fluttershy returned about ten minutes later and Twilight Sparkle, Rainbow Dash, Pinkie Pie, and Rarity stood by her while Applejack and Big Macintosh pulled the wire cage apart,

"I'm sorry you found this, Fluttershy, there are many of these throughout Equestria." Twilight Sparkle said,

"But still, why must they be put in such horrid conditions?", Fluttershy asked,

"That is beyond me, the owner won't say anything about it, either." Twilight Sparkle replied,

"Who is the owner?" Fluttershy questioned,

"A unicorn named Dog Catcher, what you're looking at here is a puppy mill, he uses them to breed puppies and sell to them to ponies for money, but he's really picky with who he sells the puppies to." Twilight Sparkle explained,

"Do the puppies get happy homes?" Fluttershy asked,

"I don't know." Twilight Sparkle replied, Applejack and Big Macintosh got the wire cage pulled off and the puppies ran to Fluttershy,

"There, there, it's okay, I'm here." Fluttershy stated as she petted the puppies,

"Still, what's a puppy mill doin' all the way out here in the Everfree Forest?" Applejack asked,

"Yeah, that is strange, it's dangerous out here, too." Rainbow Dash responded,

"I wonder what the owner was thinking, I can't believe he would make these puppies live in such filth." Rarity said,

"*gasp* Look!" Pinkie Pie exclaimed as she pointed at one puppy, Fluttershy looked and saw the puppy had scars on its bodies,

"Oh, you poor thing, I'll get you cleaned up when I take you home." Fluttershy said as she petted it,

"Hey, look, the puppies back there aren't moving." Rainbow Dash stated as she pointed into the puppy mill. Fluttershy flew to the puppy mill and gasped when she saw dead puppies, she landed and began to cry,

"Ya think there could be anymore mills in the forest, Big Mac?" Applejack asked,

"Eenope." Big Macintosh responded,

"Let's go, Fluttershy, I'll help you get the puppies to your sanctuary." Twilight Sparkle stated, Fluttershy continued to grieve,

"Fluttershy?" Twilight Sparkle asked, she continued to grieve and finished after about twenty minutes,

"Let's go." Twilight Sparkle stated, and they did.

Fluttershy arrived home and her friends helped her clean the puppies,

"Thank you, I can take it from here." Fluttershy stated, and her friends left. She got dog food and began feeding them, the puppies ate slovenly and like pigs,

"Hey, slowly now, you'll choke if you eat like that." Fluttershy warned as she helped them chew their food, they slowed down their eating and she went back into her cottage. Fluttershy began tending to her other pets while she heard rustling on the grass outside, she looked and saw a big red fox walking to the puppies, it walked over to them and gave them meat, the puppies ate them and soon gathered around the fox, she went outside to go see it,

"Excuse me." Fluttershy stated, the fox just looked at her and turned back as the puppies, and her pet foxes, wolves, coyotes, and jackals gathered around it and bowed, the fox then walked into the Everfree Forest,

"Hey, wait!" Fluttershy called out, she ran but the fox was gone, she looked on baffled for the moment but headed back. She began getting all of her pets to fall asleep since it was almost dark, they all fell asleep after a while, she sighed and then laid in her bed and slept.

Fluttershy and her pets slept through the night peacefully until they heard voices and the puppies running and whimpering, the door got kicked open and Fluttershy screamed as she woke up, three stallions walked in and they were all earth ponies, one had a light blue coat and long white mane and tail, one had a light pink coat and a short red mane and tail, and one had a light orange coat and a medium-length yellow mane and tail,

"There she is." the blue stallion said, and they ran to her. The blue stallion jumped and landed on Fluttershy, she exclaimed as he held her down, he began punching her on the back of her head while the light pink stallion stomped her face onto the floor and light orange stallion kicked her in her face. The animals attacked them and they grunted as they got pecked by her birds,

"That's enough, everyanimal." Fluttershy stated, and they stopped, the three stallions got back up and tried to attack her again immediately, Fluttershy whimpered and vines grew out of the floor and tied and restrained them. Discord appeared in front of the three stallions,

"My, how rude, I am trying to enjoy my beauty sleep and you three barge in here and disturb my friend." Discord spoke, the three stallions growled,

"Who are you three?" Fluttershy inquired, they did not answer, she saw the light blue stallion had a brown saddlebag, she opened it and saw he had a letter, she unfolded it and read it,

"I am ordering you three to track down and kill that Pegasus known as Fluttershy, I don't care if she's one of heroes of Equestria, she took the puppies from my mill in the Everfree Forest and affected my business. I want you and your two friends to hunt her down and kill her, just like everyone else who affected my business and haven't agreed with me, now do your jobs as assassins, you'll get paid after you kill your target like always.

-Dog Catcher",

Fluttershy looked on with horror at the letter's content,

"There you go, you have made enemies with the puppy mill owner." the light pink stallion stated,

"Why do you all do such horrible things?" Fluttershy asked,

"Because we find it to be fun, Dog Catcher is also a childhood friend of ours." the light orange stallion replied, Fluttershy's eyes widened at what he just said,

"Tell us, what about those conditions those dogs are in?" Discord questioned,

"Dog Catcher's policies, he makes them as dirty as possible so the dogs will live in filth and get sick, he also doesn't feed them." the light blue stallion explained,

"Nopony will adopt them if they're like that." Fluttershy remarked, the three stallions laughed,

"Adopt? That's not why he has the puppy mills." the light pink stallion responded,

"Then why?" Fluttershy inquired,

"You'll learn eventually, if you manage to live that long." the light orange stallion replied,

"Discord, inform the royal guards." Fluttershy ordered, and Discord made a phone appear and contacted them, they soon arrived and arrest the three, Fluttershy and her pets then went back to sleep.

The next morning came and Fluttershy saw the red fox from yesterday tending to the puppies she found from the puppy mill,

"Um... excuse me." Fluttershy stated, the fox just looked at her,

"Uh... thank you... for taking care of them for me." Fluttershy spoke, the fox went back to feeding the puppies, walking was heard and a big black dog arrived and began licking the puppies. She looked on and sensed something off about the black dog, it seemed supernatural rather than a regular dog. The fox and the black dog ran off and Fluttershy flew up to see where they were going, the black dog was gone, but the fox continued to run past Ponyville and went past the next town before going out of her sight. She flew back down and took care of her animals for that morning. Discord appeared in front of her,

"Oh, Fluttershy, I think you might want to read this." Discord said as he held the newspaper,

"What is it?" Fluttershy asked, and Discord gave her the newspaper. She read through it and gasped when she saw the three assassins from last night were found dead this morning,

"What happened?" Fluttershy asked,

"What do you think?" Discord responded,

"Um..." Fluttershy muttered,

"They were killed by Dog Catcher." Discord spoke,

"*gasp* How are you sure?" Fluttershy questioned,

"Think about it, Fluttershy, Dog Catcher runs a private company, he sent assassins after you for messing up his business, you called the royal guard and had them arrested, and since Twilight said Dog Catcher is a unicorn, he disposed of those three with his magic to silence them and not have the government know of the conditions of his mills and the fact that he hires assassins to go after those who either ruin his business or don't agree with what he's doing." Discord explained, Fluttershy thought about it and tears began to fall from her eyes,

"I set up their dooms." Fluttershy lamented, and she cried a bit,

"Now, now, Fluttershy, no need for tears, I think they got what they deserved." Discord said,

"You don't understand, Discord, stuff like that lowers Equestria's defenses and makes more vulnerable to attacks." Fluttershy explained,

"Really? Does that also apply to animals?" Discord asked,

"Yes." Fluttershy answered,

"Well, then why don't you try to stop Dog Catcher's puppy mills, yourself?" Discord asked,

"I... I don't know where the others are located." Fluttershy responded,

"Well, let's go back to the one you found, surely, there's a clue on it." Discord spoke, and they headed into the Everfree Forest.

The two went back to the puppy mill and examined it, there was not a single clue on it,

"Weird, Dog Catcher's company name and mascot isn't on the mill." Fluttershy said,

"Let's keep looking." Discord replied, and they did. They looked at the entire mill and there was no clue on where Dog Catcher's headquarters was located,

"There isn't anything here." Fluttershy stated, Discord disappeared afterwards,

"Discord?" Fluttershy asked as she looked around, she did not find him anywhere, she got ready to go back to her sanctuary but she heard wolves calling,

"*gasp* That's a cry for help." Fluttershy exclaimed, and she flew.

Fluttershy flew farther into the forest and saw the howling wolves, they stopped and ran, she followed them and soon heard puppies whimpering,

"*gasp* Oh, no, another one." Fluttershy commented, and she flew more and arrived at another puppy mill. She flew to it and saw a herd of wolves trying to get the fence off of the cage, they made way for her and she tried to pull the fence off but could not, she made various animal sounds to call for help and various birds flew down and they all began working together to try to get the fence off. The wolves moved aside and Fluttershy looked to her right and saw the black dog running to them, it grabbed the fence with its teeth and pulled it off easily. The puppies ran out and went to Fluttershy,

"It's okay, I'm here." Fluttershy spoke as she rubbed her snout against the puppies, the black dog went to them and began licking them clean,

"Who are you?" Fluttershy questioned, the black dog looked at her and her eyes widened at seeing his glowing red eyes, but she noticed it just glanced at her and was not glaring. It went back to cleaning the puppies and they went to Fluttershy after they were cleaned, she waited until the last puppy was cleaned,

"Alright, this way, everypuppy." Fluttershy said, and they followed her.

Fluttershy began tending to the new puppies while she saw the ones from the first mill were hungry,

"Hold on, I'll tend to you guys after this." Fluttershy said, and she cleaned the puppies. She finished after a while and gave all the food she had for dogs and the puppies ate them all,

"I'm going to need help with this." Fluttershy stated, and she left. She came back and Apple Bloom, Scootaloo, and Sweetie Belle were with her,

"I appreciate you three coming to help, but are you sure you can handle this?" Fluttershy questioned,

"Yeah, Ah mean, Ah take care of Winona every day." Apple Bloom responded,

"Well, yes, but that's only one dog, Apple Bloom, look at how many I have." Fluttershy stated as Apple Bloom looked and saw there was about a total of forty puppies,

"Oh, that is a lot." Apple Bloom commented,

"See, there you go, it's going to be different from taking care of one dog." Fluttershy replied,

"Relax, Fluttershy, we got this." Sweetie Belle stated,

"Yeah, we'll figure something out." Scootaloo added,

"I know you will, but whatever you three do, make sure it's not harmful, be really gentle with them, too, they're scared of other ponies." Fluttershy explained,

"Got it." Sweetie Belle answered,

"Okay, good, I'm going to go shopping and get some food, Discord will guide you, I'll try to come back soon." Fluttershy said, and she left. She got dog food and quickly came back, she saw the Cutie Mark Crusaders having trouble tending to the puppies, she went to them and gave them dog food and the puppies began fighting one another,

"No! You all will share here so everybody can eat." Fluttershy commanded, the puppies calmed down and began eating while looking at her uncomfortably. The puppies finished their meals and the four ponies cleaned up the mess they made and took care of them,

"*pant* *pant* This is more exhausting than I thought." Sweetie Belle stated,

"See, it's not easy taking care of many pets, you three head on home now, it's getting dark." Fluttershy responded, and they left, she then got her pets to fall asleep and she slept for the night.

Fluttershy had nightmares about the puppy mills and assassins that were sent to kill her, she sprung up from her bed and sweated profusely, she felt something poking her front right leg and looked, she saw the red fox from before,

"What is it?" Fluttershy asked, and the fox ran outside,

"Hey, wait!" Fluttershy stated, and she flew after him.