It was a rainy day in Ponyville. The Pegasus Ponies had scheduled for a massive storm to make up for the intense weather that had been occurring as of late. The storm was expected to last for one and a half days. Everypony around was doing what they could to make their town safe before the major part of the storm hit. Even school was called off for all of the young fillies and foals.
A few hours had passed and the storm had started to pick up. All of the Ponies in Ponyville were now inside of their houses, taking shelter and happily spending time with their families. Well, not all of the ponies were inside.
Fluttershy, a young Pegasus Pony, was out attempting to safeguard all of the animal’s living spaces. Being as frightful as she is of everything, the only thing she has truly cared about more at this point was the safety of the animals that she knew and loved. She was rushing around; helping to board up bird houses and chicken coops, making sure that nothing around could harm her animals at all. She had almost finished completely, finishing up by tying the tree that all the squirrels lived in down so it would not fall. Then, all of a sudden, she heard a very, very sad whimper coming from afar.
Fluttershy looked up at the sky to see how the storm was coming. She knew that within the hour, the storm would be in full effect. She thought to herself “Should I go inside the safety of my cottage and hope the poor little critter finds a nice place to hide and be safe, or… *gulp* should I go out that and protect it from the storm.” Fluttershy had only thought this up when all of a sudden *KA-BOOM!* a large bolt of lightning struck close by. This caused Fluttershy to squee rather loudly and made her think of how the poor little animal must feel if it is hurt.
At once, Fluttershy set off in the direction she heard the little whimpers coming from. She looked everywhere she could see along her way, running as quick as she could since she still wasn’t all that great of a flier. As she kept running, she could hear the whimpering getting closer and closer.
Fluttershy came to a halt. She didn’t stop because of the storm, nor did she stop because she found the creature. She had stopped because she had been 4 steps away from entering the Everfree Forest. Fluttershy had never dared entering the Everfree Forest before. It had always given off such a creepy vibe that she didn’t even like to look at it. But now, she had overcome her fears for the one thing, at the time, which overpowered it all. This was her love of animals.
Fluttershy, very cautiously, started walking, hoof by hoof, into the Everfree Forest, calling out to try and find the source of the cries. As she had never been in here before, she did not know her way around, nor did she ever want to. Everything about this place was very dark and mysterious. The shadows around were not natural by any means even.
The weather here in the Everfree Forest did not seem to be the same as the weather in Ponyville. It was raining in here as well, but Fluttershy did not feel the same sense of security she had in Ponyville. She did not feel there were any Pegasus Ponies, nor didn’t feel that any pony at all was controlling this weather to make sure it doesn't gets too out of hand. Even though she had many trees over her head, the rain was still coming down very thick, and an ominous fog had seemed to always be looming around.
At this point, Fluttershy was not sure if she would even find the poor little critter. Then, all of a sudden, she saw it. There was a beautiful white fluff ball lying on the ground just up ahead of her. Fluttershy sprinted ahead, not worrying about a thing in the world at this point, other than to get to the poor injured little critter and help it. She reached it, but as she tried to stop, she slid and hit a tree stump. THWACK! The sound of her hitting the ground side first was very audible. She had attempted to spread her wing to keep her balanced, but all that had managed to happen was she landed on her right wing, spraining and breaking it.
Fluttershy grimaced through this pain because she knew she would be alright regardless. She may never fly again if it took her too long to get out of the forest, but she was alright with that. Her top priority was to fetch this little creature and protect it from any harm. In her undamaged wing, Fluttershy scooped the little white ball up and started running. The rain and the fog had made it near impossible to see anything, so she knew she would not be able to make it back to her cottage.
She continuously ran forward, looking for any type of shelter she could find. Finally, she had come across a small cave that had some very strange, but beautiful plants growing in it. At this point, Fluttershy laid down with the small little critter, keeping it tucked in her good wing for warmth. Fluttershy was in a great amount of pain at this point, and had passed out from it in consequence.
Fluttershy did not remember much for the next couple hours, she was in and out of consciousness. She remembers seeing a very unfamiliar creature that looked kind of like a pony, but could not recognize the color pattern, or the mane. She also remembers a small creature as well. She woke up after countless hours finally. She did not feel any pain anymore and noticed her damaged wing had been bandaged up very nicely. She looks to see where she is and then remembers “OH MY GOSH, WHERE IS THE LITTLE CRITTER I FOUND, OH HE MUST HAVE RUN AWAY BECAUSE HE THOUGHT I WAS SCARY AND WAS GOING TO HURT HIM. OH IF ONLY I WOULD HAVE STAYED AWAKE UNTIL IT WOULD HAVE WOKEN UP THEN THIS WOULDN’T HAVE HAPPENED!”
As she continues to panic, she hears a noise come from a little bit deeper in the cave. “MEEP! Wh… what w… was th… that?” Fluttershy starts to back away slowly when she see’s eyes starting to glow in the darkness. “SQUEE!! No, don’t come any closer!” All of a sudden, a little white bunny emerges from the darkness of the cave. Fluttershy sighs a sigh of relief. “Aww, it is just a cute wittle bunny!” Fluttershy goes and tries to pick it up but it smacks her hooves away. “Ouch, now that wasn’t very nice now was it?” The little bunny turns away as if to ignore her. Fluttershy then goes and apologizes to the bunny for trying grab him without even introducing herself.
The little bunny accepts her apology, he turns around and faces Fluttershy and gives her some flowers. The little bunny makes some funny gestures towards Fluttershy, being as good with animals as she is, knows immediately that he wants her to eat the flowers. She has never seen types of flowers as these before and is a bit skeptical about eating them or even touching them, but Fluttershy felt something about this little bunny that she could trust. Before she took a bite a flower, the pain in her wing had started to slowly come back. Fluttershy dropped the flowers and fell to the ground. As she was almost ready to pass out again, the little bunny had bolted towards her and picked up the flowers. Fluttershy told the bunny that this was no time for her to be just eating, she needed to get to a hospital, but the bunny insisted that she eat the flowers he had. She opened her mouth and he forced them into her mouth. As she swallowed the flowers, her hunger went away and so did her pain. “Wow little bunny, how do you know so much about medicines.” The little bunny starts making gestures that Fluttershy cannot completely understand, but does understand that he said a friend had taught him.
Fluttershy looked out of the cave front. It was still raining, that Fluttershy could hear, but she could not see anything very clearly. As she started to get closer to the entrance, she noticed that it was night time. She must have been out for many hours for it to be night time already.
She was now very scared, she didn’t know what to think. She had no clue where she was, she was injured, though it was now bandaged, and she had a little bunny with her that she swore to herself as a caretaker she had to protect. She would not let anything happen to this little critter. Ever since that day many years ago, she would never forget, she COULD never forget it.
But that is a story she could not think about now, she had to be in the present. She had obligations she must complete. Fluttershy did not know what time it was, she did not know where in the Everfree forest she was, if she was still there even. She only knew one thing. She knew she must protect this bunny at all costs.
Fluttershy found the little bunny again in the cave. She had decided to sit down and talk to him, hoping to reassure him that he would be alright, and she would make sure of that. Once Fluttershy had explained all of this to the bunny, she started to walk around the cave, in search of something edible to suffice him.
This cave seemed like somepony had been using it as a garden, but there were no plants she was able to recognize. She continued to walk around for what seemed like an hour. As time passed, she could feel the pain of her broken wing coming back slowly, but she decided she wanted to push on. She kept searching for something; anything that she was sure was edible and would not harm the little bunny in any way.
She had come to a point where there was no visibility, but having cared for animals for so long before, she needn’t be able to see the plants around her to know if they were safe or not, she could easily feel them. As she kept slowly walking deeper into the cave, she could feel it getting much cooler. Finally she hit a dead end. She had found no food for the bunny she swore she would save, and was in a very dark part of the cave where she couldn’t see a thing. On top of all this, her wing was in a great deal of pain again, she knew she had to get back to the front of the cave at the very least, but she didn’t know where to go exactly.
All of a sudden, Fluttershy started feeling moving behind her. What she thought was an inanimate rock wall, turned out to be a large living creature. A Dragon had lived in this cave! Fluttershy was frozen with fear; she could sense his massive size. As he started shuffling around, he blew some fire to light up some torches he had set up in this gigantic room. All around this room were huge piles of treasure that looked to be from all over the world.
Fluttershy could tell that this dragon had been around the world many times to have this much treasure. As she stood still looking at this dragon, she watched as its scales changed from an ominous black color, to a very deep and mysterious blue. He had massive burgundy spikes, and his eyes were the color of a burning sun. He was barely waking up now from being disturbed from his slumber when he noticed her.
As soon as the dragon saw Fluttershy, he was overcome with rage. Fluttershy finally gained her mobility back and started to try and run away. She wasn’t fast enough to outrun a dragon, and she knew this, but maybe if she would be able to run down and warn the bunny, he could be safe. She ran with all of her might to the front of the cave, dragon just now getting up to give chase. She tried to scream at the top of her lungs for the little bunny to get out, but heard no movements. She screamed louder than she ever had before, but still nothing.
As she was beginning to contemplate sitting there and letting the dragon take her so the bunny could hopefully get away, she saw something in front of her. With great speed, a white blur blew past her. She faintly saw it bouncing back and forth quickly. As this was happening, she could see the dragon getting closer, but she was more mesmerized as to what this quick white little blur is. And then it hit her, this blur was the same size as the bunny she had saved. As she realized this, she also saw she was at the front of the cave. She looked back towards the dragon and the little bunny, but she did not know what it was doing. She could not let it meet the same fate as the poor kitty long ago, she had to do something.
Fluttershy started running towards the bunny when all of a sudden *CRASH!* the back side of the cave came down, right in front of the dragon. Fluttershy could see small shots of flame come through the tiny cracks, but none were strong enough to make it anywhere. Fluttershy looked back towards there and saw the little bunny right there, standing as tall as he could. But as quickly as she was able to spot him, she also fell to the ground pretty quickly. Her wing was giving her more pain than she had felt before. There were now large amounts of blood coming from the bandages. They were no longer white, that had all been turned to a very dark red.
She laid down thinking “Will this be the last time I stand? Will my animals back at my cottage be alright? Will they miss me? Will anypony miss me?” Then, she looked at the little white bunny that had just protected her from a dragon. “I promised myself I would save you and protect you, but it turned out to be the other way around. You saved me from that dragon. You are like a little angel bunny. I think that is what I will call you while I am still here with you, Angel.” At this, Fluttershy closed her eyes.
Angel panicked; he did not know exactly what to do. This pony that he had just met and actually cared for was on the verge of death. The only reason she had made it this far though was some strange creature that did not fear these parts for she lived here, and this was her garden. Then Angel thought it through, if he could remake the potions to some degree this mysterious black and white creature had created to save her before, he could save her again.
He started gathering all of the ingredients in the order he had seen the strange one get them. The creature had left its mixing bowl here as well, so Angel split all of the collected items into even parts and mixed it up. He did this as quick, but carefully as possible. As soon as he had finished, he took off the bandages from the Pegasus Ponies wings and applied the goop to her wounds. They were bleeding very badly and this would be the only chance he had to save her life. She was quickly losing color with the amount of blood that had been lost as well. But as suddenly as the blood had started, it had stopped. The goop that he had mixed together had sealed itself over the wounds of this pony.
Angel, now still scurrying, went and found the flowers he had given to this pony earlier in the night. The foreign pony who spoke in rhymes had said “if you wish her to be pain free, these flowers here then she must eat. They may not cure her injuries, but will soothe her pain so she can get the help she needs.” Angel did not get why this creature had spoken in such weird ways, but it did not matter. The remedies that had been told to him worked, and that was what he cared about. He picked up the flowers that matched the ones he had before, and fed them to the yellow Pegasus.
It was now day time, the rain had let up and the path was now visible. Fluttershy had just woken up, no blood, no pain. She knows that the bunny she promptly named angel was the reason for this. She woke up to him cuddling against her, hoping he could help keep her warm she had guessed. She remembered losing a large amount of blood and her bandages being covered in blood. After that was darkness. As she woke up now, everything was clean, brand new bandages, fairly sunny out, it seemed very peaceful. Angel was still in a deep sleep, she had assumed he stayed up taking care of her and making sure she got what she needed until he was not able to stay awake anymore and feel asleep.
Fluttershy decided that as she could see the path now, it would be a great time to head back to Ponyville. She picked up angel in her good wing without waking him up and snuggled him in close to her body. She was able to walk through the Everfree Forest with no issues, as if the forest itself could sense everything she had been through recently. She decided she would need to go into the hospital and thought if she should lay Angel down somewhere or take him with her. She had decided since he had taken this much care of her, he would like to be assured that she would make it to the hospital to know she would be able to make it through with no issues.
Angel woke up calmly at first. As he opened his eyes, he saw white walls, white floors, white sheets, and was on a nice soft white bed. He did not know where he was, the last thing he remembered was being in the cave. He had seen the stranger who had helped him in the night come by to check on them before falling asleep next to the yellow pony with the pink mane and tail. The pony! Where was she? She was not next to him as had been when he had gone to sleep. Angel sprung out of bed, attempting to find this pony. He tore down the curtains that were next to him and saw her. She had a nice clean bandage and splint on her wing. There was a nurse standing next to her, finishing wrapping up the bandage.
The nurse looked at angel happily. “Oh, you must be Angel. Fluttershy here is doing much better thanks to you. She made sure that you had a nice place to lie down and sleep when she came here with you wrapped up.”
Angel was confused, where was he. He had never seen such a place like this before; he had only known the outdoors. Never being inside a building in his life, he was scared. The nurse saw this and said to him “It is alright Angel; this is a hospital, where ponies come to get treated if they are hurt or sick.” Angel gave a sigh of relief and looked back at the pony. Fluttershy was her name the nurse said. Before she even would get help, she had made sure he would be able to sleep comfortably. He had saved her life, and she had saved his and for this, she was grateful.
Angel contemplated going back off while Fluttershy was asleep. The outdoors is all he had ever known, it was his home. But this pony, despite the storm that had been coming, set out after hearing his cries to save him. He had braved a dragon as well in order to save her. They together would make an amazing team, he was sure of that. He decided to stay around with her, wait with her until she woke up.
A couple days had passed and Fluttershy finally woke up. She did not hurt anymore, her wing had healed of all of its cuts nicely, and they wouldn’t scar up surprisingly. It was still broken and would take some time for that to heal up, but when it was done, her wing would work just as well as it used to. The doctors told her not to use it too much, which she giggled at since she preferred to not fly around.
Angel had been right there next to her when she had woken up. She looked down at him and smiled as he was sound asleep. She knew he worried about him so much. If he didn’t he would not still be here next to her. He would not have taken care of her or saved her so many times. He could have left while she was out and not looked back, but he didn’t. He stayed there with her through the whole situation, he took care of her and helped her, he did everything he could for her and he didn’t even know her. As she sat there and thought of this all, he woke up.
They looked at each other, silently thinking about what to do. Fluttershy broke the silence. “Th… thank you for helping me. I would not have been able to make it without you Angel.” Angel looked up at her and felt honesty in her words. He could not say anything, but his actions spoke for his words. He looked up at her and hugged her.
Fluttershy spent another three days in the hospital, but it did not bother her, she and Angel got to know each other very well. She learned what he preferred to eat and how it would be made. Angel learned about Fluttershy’s fears of other ponies and how she didn’t go out much unless it was to get what she needed or to return someponies pet to them. Angel swore inside to himself that he would make sure to get her out more so she wouldn’t be alone without friends or a special somepony. She would lose at least a little of her fears of talking to others and be able to go out. It would take time, but he planned on staying with her for as long as he was alive, helping her when she would need it, forcing her to have a life outside of her cottage. He would be her helpful Angel from the dark.
