Many moons ago, in a faraway kingdom, there lived a very beautiful, but very shy, princess. She lived in a huge, white castle with her parents; behind her castle was a pond, where hundreds of animals lived. Every day, she paid a visit to the pond animals; she talked to them and played with them. Most of all, however, she liked to sing to them.
One morning, the princess was making music with her animal friends at the edge of the pond; she was holding an ornate wand in her mouth to conduct their music. “Oh, no—my wand!” she cried when she accidentally dropped her wand into the pond. A fish jumped out of the pond, and with a flick of its tail fins, it struck the wand and prevented it from falling into the pond. “My wand is gone!” cried the princess, because she could not find her wand.
A purple tortoise came plodding toward the princess; he was carrying her wand on top of his green shell. “Oh, thank you!” she cried, and extended her wing to pick her wand up. Before she could touch it, however, the tortoise put his head forward and snapped at her. “You scared me!” she cried in fright, which frightened the tortoise in return, who hid inside his shell.
The princess was full of remorse; it made her sad to scare any animal, much less one as shy as a tortoise. “Oh, dear—I’m so sorry that I scared you!” she cried. She picked her wand up with one wing and caressed the tortoise’s shell with the other wing. “I promise that one day, I will give you a place in my family, because I love you!” she told the tortoise.
The princess said good-bye to the tortoise and trotted back inside the white castle. “I made a new friend today!” she told her parents. Her parents, the king and the queen, were kindly pegasi, just like her. “My new friend is a tortoise, and he’s very shy!” added the princess.
“Your new friend must be very nice,” suspected the king. “Oh, yes—he is!” answered the princess. “He’s welcome to stay in this castle, but not in the palace,” warned the queen. “All right—I won’t bring the tortoise into the palace,” promised the princess.
Soon, it was bedtime for the princess. “When you wake up tomorrow, there will be a nice surprise waiting for you,” her parents told her. The princess trotted straight upstairs to her bedroom. “Good night, Daddy and Mommy!” she called over her withers.
That night, the royal gardeners, whom the king and the queen had consulted, made a special section in the castle courtyard for the princess’s new friend. The tortoise was nocturnal, so he spent all night plodding, very slowly, all the way from the edge of the pond to the courtyard. His special section of the courtyard was full of all sorts of healthy food for him. He ate his food until his stomach was full, and then, he hid inside his shell for a good morning’s sleep.
The next morning, the princess got out of bed and trotted downstairs to the courtyard, remembering to take her wand with her, only to discover that the tortoise was gone. “Oh, no!” she cried in despair. She galloped straight back into the palace to tell her parents what had happened. “Daddy and Mommy, the tortoise is gone!” she exclaimed.
“Dear Princess Fluttershy, do you know where the tortoise is now?” asked the queen. “No, I don’t; I already checked the whole courtyard!” answered Fluttershy. “If anyone is lost, then it’s your duty to go look for him or her,” said the king. “I will!” promised Fluttershy, and galloped out of the castle to continue her search.
Princess Fluttershy arrived at the edge of the pond at which she had met the tortoise. “Oh, my—I hope that he’s all right,” she thought, afraid that he was permanently lost. When she trotted toward the pond and tilted her head down to look inside, she saw him lying on his back on the pond floor. “Oh, dear—he’s drowning!” she cried in shock.
Fluttershy started to quiver in fear. “I never swam in that pond before, much less dove into it,” she thought. Deciding to be brave, she set her wand down on the ground and doffed all her regalia. “My parents are counting on me, as are all animals everywhere!” she thought, and dove straight into the pond to rescue the tortoise.
Princess Fluttershy emerged from the pond with the tortoise in her front hooves. “Oh, my goodness—are you all right?” she asked him after setting him gently on the ground right side up. To warm him up and dry him off, she caressed his shell tenderly with her wings. “Please wake up; I love you!” she pleaded, and tapped him gently on the shell with her wand.
“Oh—my—goodness!” cried Fluttershy, who got a very pleasant surprise. The tortoise had transformed into a baby dragon with purple skin and green scales. “Your Highness—I am in your debt!” he cried in just as much shock as Fluttershy was. She and the dragon kissed each other once on each cheek.
“Dad and Mom, meet my new dragon,” said Fluttershy, showing her parents the dragon who used to be a tortoise. “My name is Spike,” he told the king and the queen. “Fluttershy, you kept your promise to Spike,” the queen told her daughter. “And that’s why he deserves to be part of this family,” added the king.
From that day on, Fluttershy and Spike always lived together in the castle. Because Fluttershy had proven herself to be a responsible animal caretaker, her parents were proud for both her and Spike. As a dragon, Spike had permission to live in his special section of the courtyard, which still existed. Fluttershy took care of him, and in exchange, he helped her grow braver, and the both of them, as well as the king and the queen, lived happily ever after.
