Gardening With Fluttershy
Fluttershy had just finished taking care of her bunnies outside. All of the predators were leaving their respective prey alone, and although the day had been nice enough thus far, it was suddenly beginning to lack something. Fluttershy just couldn't figure out right away what that something could've been exactly.
Her eyes trailed the walkway until she reached the entrance of her cottage, and she then noticed something. What few flora that remained were browning and dying away quickly.
"Oh, no," Fluttershy said melodramatically. "They've turned... brown. Again... That's right, what's missing here is my once beautiful garden. It's all a mess, and destroyed, and I've read the instruction manual that Twilight let me borrow so many times." She rolled her eyes, and then pulled the book out from underneath her wing, and then read, "Be sure to water..."
She then placed it back down, and mentioned with worry, "I've done that so many times today that I've lost count. What could I be doing wrong? Why can't these plants act more like my animals do? They're so easy to take care of! I can always tell whenever Angel Bunny's hungry, but how am I supposed to know when my ficus needs some water? Sheesh!"
She had obviously never really gotten the hang of this. At that time, Twilight had arrived to retrieve a few books that she had loaned to Fluttershy. One in particular book being the very same gardening manual that Fluttershy was failing miserably to understand. "Fluttershy, I'm here," she announced as she crossed Fluttershy's tiny bridge. "I need that gardening book back badly. The watermelons that I've been trying to grow aren't doing so well, and I-"
"Have you tried watering them?"
The pegasus stood at the side of her home with a running hose in her hoof. She didn't seem to care all that much about what she was doing and allowed the flowing water to overflood the dirt patch, forcing mud to slide down the slope and ruining the whole flowerbed.
"That's what I'm trying right now! Even though it never seems to really work... I'll keep trying."
"F-F-Fluttershy, stop!"
Twilight then halted herself as well and glanced all around. Fluttershy's lawn was completely barren and brown. The water flowing underneath her once cute and petite bridge might as well have been a biohazard. Even her vegetables were suffering and had shriveled into hardly anything at all.
"Oh... sweet Celestia, Fluttershy... You... You're a..."
"Huh?" Fluttershy dropped the hose, and came up next to the Princess to ask, "What's wrong, Twilight?"
"You're... a terrible gardener! I know that you had said that you weren't very good at it, but this... This is a nightmare!" She huffed, "That's what's wrong! Oh, Fluttershy, why didn't you tell me that you were so bad at this?"
Fluttershy merely shrugged, and admitted, "I always just left everything alone... but then, my lawn started to brown up in a few spots, and then the Homeowner's Association came by and left a rather distasteful letter on my door. Ever since then, Twilight, it's been one thing after another!" She pulled the book back out, and complained, "It just keeps saying to water your plants, but I've already done that. I keep doing it, and nothing happens! It just keeps getting worse, and worse... What'll I do, Twilight?"
The alicorn offered, "Firstly, stop watering your poor plants so much. The book doesn't say to keep going, th-they only need a little bit everyday! This was... way too much."
Fluttershy showed Twilight, "See? After every plant, at the end, it says to be sure to water them regularly. Well, how regular is regularly? I've hardly ever watered any of my plants since living here."
Twilight scratched her head, and said, "It... does seem to say that, like, alot..." She scoffed as she closed the book with frustration, and explained, "Look, Fluttershy, I'm really sorry for giving you such a dodgy book... but, it's not as if this is easy or anything. Gardening is hard for a lot of ponies, so let's give it another shot."
Fluttershy turned off the faucet, ending the endless streams, and said, "Sure, I wasn't about to give up anyways!"
Twilight took one last look around, and said, "I can see that..." They both laughed together, and then they got back to it. "There should be a watering schedule," Twilight told her friend. "Every other day is even a bit too much especially if it's been raining. Gardening isn't something that you can just do no matter what the Mayor advertises. I can tell that you were going all out."
Fluttershy nodded, and told Twilight, "The note I got just yesterday really freaked me out, and I always had such a wonderful looking yard. Like I said, I just never really tried bothering any of it."
Twilight used her magic to bring the mud sliding back up the slope while Fluttershy replanted the flowers. Angel even helped replant the carrots. "Wait... these are glass carrots," Twilight realized.
"Ahah... Yes, they are..." Fluttershy blushed, and Twilight giggled.
"How have I never noticed that you always fed Angel Bunny store bought carrots?" She looked at the dirt stains, and asked Fluttershy, "Why don't we go to the store and also pick up some seeds... and plant real, actual fruits and vegetables?"
Fluttershy gulped, and asked, "Isn't that going to be a bit too much all at once?"
Twilight promised, "I'll be sure to be there to help you take care of your garden the right way this time around. It'll be a bit of a learning curve for you, but I'm confident that with some assistance, it'll all work out. I'm pretty sure Angel Bunny would greatly appreciate the fresh, actual carrots, too. Huh, Angel?"
The bunny rabbit nodded, and flopped his tiny, fuzzy ears back and forth energetically.
Fluttershy sighed and smiled. "Alright, I suppose with somepony helping me... I'll give it a try, Twilight."
They both then shared a hug, and as they proceeded along to get some gardening seeds from the market that day, Fluttershy thanked Twilight once again for coming to her rescue.
