Survival-shy

Fluttershy finished poring the last of the food in to the dish. She was noticing how many of the animals where staring at it anxiously, ready to pounce on their lunch as soon as it was finished being pored. Fluttershy noticed this "Now now, don't everybody rush at once". Some of the animals decided not to listen, and instead lunged for the food. The rest of the animals began to scold those who had been so quick to get to the food, and they began to eat at a slower pace. "And for you, Angel" she trotted over to the kitchen and came back with a bowl "your garden salad."

The Rabbit hoped over to the bowl to find his normal meal of lettuce, tomatoes, carrots, and cucumbers and began to eat. He still wished it was a bit more than just a normal salad, but after the last time he asked for a better salad, it caused an episode in which Fluttershy attended a help seminar held by a Minotaur named Iron Will, and for a time, she became a monster. He decided instead simply to eat his salad without complaint.

Fluttershy walked over to her door and began strapping on her saddlebags. "I'm going to go get some more food and return a book to Twilight. I'll be back in a little bit" she said to the bunny. "I'll see you later Angel!" She said as she was walking out of the door. Angel turned from his food to give a quick wave, and then went back to his salad.

Fluttershy had just gotten the food for her animals, and she was heading over to see Twilight. She had been informed by Spike that she was doing research on the edge of the Everfree forest close to sweet apple acres, and after returning the book to spike, she was on her way to see what they were up to.

When she got their, she found Twilight and Rainbow Dash looking at what looked like a test tube glued to an angle mounted on a stake, while Twilight seemed to be giving a lecture to Rainbow Dash.

"Hi Twilight, hi Rainbow Dash, what are you guys up to?" She announced herself to her friends. Twilight replied "Not much, just setting up some equipment". Fluttershy looked at the little device on the ground with confusion. "This device is a rain gauge." Twilight explained "In the spring, we use a lot of rain to help farmers grow their crops. Well, the Everfree forest also has a lot of storms too. What I am trying to do is see how much rain will fall in the next few weeks using this to see how much rain makes it in the tube, an with that, I can estimate how much rain falls in the Everfree forest every week"

Fluttershy looked back up at Twilight. "So, you're just going to see how much rain falls?"

"Yes"

"No"

Twilight's face went from content to annoyed "Rainbow!". Rainbow interjected "Twilight and I went over to Zecora's the other day, and long story short, Zecora says she gets and achy knee every time a storm happens. Twilight wants to be able to see how well it works, and whether or not it's like Pinkie's Pinkie-sense" Rainbow explained smugly.

"My experiments are in the name of science!" Twilight proclaimed "I will not have more sensing going on in ponyville without it being properly tested!"

Fluttershy sunk back a little, frightened by Twilight's outburst. "Oops, sorry Fluttershy" she replied after she noticed the frightened pegasus "guess I got carried away". The Pegasus propped herself back up and returned back to her content mood she was in before. "Okay, I'll see you girls later then" She replied as she turned to leave "I have to go tend to my animals at home". "See ya!" "Bye Fluttershy!" she received as replies as she began to head home.

The rest of the day was rather tedious, and involved simply tending to the rest of the animals. After all of the work was done and every animal was taken care of, it began to grow dark. She began to lay them to sleep in their beds one by one and preceded to blow out the lights in the downstairs rooms. She was on her way up the stairs, when she heard a noise coming from outside.

It was faint at first, like a distant cry without direction. She moved over to the back door and, as she listened further, she found that it was exactly that. A distant cry, much like a howling in the distance, but one that sounded distressed and desperate.

She thought about what it could mean, and instantly came to the very real conclusion It was  calling for help.

"Oh no, oh no" She thought out loud, frightened out of her mind "There's a poor animal injured in the Everfree forest!". The phrase carried several different meanings. The first was that there was an animal out there, perhaps alone and very injured, who needed her help, and she felt compelled to go rescue it. The second was that she would have to go in to the Everfree forest, which was quite a scary thought, and she shuddered a little bit when she realized this. The third meaning it had was that she would have to do this at night, which made her shudder even more at the thought of going in to the Everfree at night.

She let the thought sink in for a little bit, thinking about how scary it would be but also how compelling it was to help the poor animal. She thought about this for a few minutes, growing more and more scared and confused until eventually, she slammed her foot down in place. "No!" she proclaimed "I will not let my fears get in the way of helping a poor, innocent animal, even if it  means going in to the Dark... scary... forest... Her words trailed off as she looked out unto the dark forest in front of her.

She took a large *gulp* and went over to angel. "Angel Bunny" she gently nudged him from his sleep. He awoke and looked up at Fluttershy. "I need to go out, please make sure that nothing goes wrong while I'm gone." He gave a gentle nod, and rolled back over to sleep

She had packed her bags with what she thought she would need for a quick trip in to the woods: a small medical kit, a flashlight, some food for the animal, and a general map of equestria, which had the everfree forest on it and was the only map she had.

After packing her bag, she thought about how she was going to get back. "I know, I'll get some stones from the river bed." She walked over to the front of the house and down to the river that ran in front of it. She grabbed some small, smooth stones from the bottom of the bed with her mouth and threw them in her bag.

She was all set to go. As she neared the edge, she could still hear the howl of the animal far off in the distance. She tried to give herself more confidence by thinking about how scared it must be, and so she resolved to herself "Don't worry, little creature, I'm coming to help" She spoke to herself as she made her way in to the forest.