And Marshmallow Makes Three

And Marshmallow Makes Three

A/N: This is my first story for MLP: FIM, so please no harsh reviews. If you find something that I can improve on in the next chapter (or if you have an idea or just want to let me know about something you'd like to read in the upcoming chapters) PM me or leave a review.

Chapter 1: Little White Skunk

   Fluttershy exhaled as she stood in front of her door. She wasn't usually one to venture off out of the comfort of her home unless it was absolutely necessary, like if she needed something or if she just wanted to visit her friends and see what they were up to, although more often than not they dropped by her house to see what she'd been up to as of late. She turned and smiled at Angel, her pet bunny who gave her a worried look. She walked over to him and patted him on the head. "I'll be back soon. I shouldn't be gone long."

   And with that, she opened the door and prepared to go outside, only she was stopped when she noticed something on her doorstep. She leaned down and gasped upon seeing what appeared to be a little white creature nestled in a little basket, comfortably wrapped up in a bright blue blanket. Looking down she noticed that the creature had a striped tail, and being that skunks were the only animals that she could think of that had striped tails, she concluded that the creature must have been a white skunk. But as to why it was on her doorstep, she didn't know. Carefully, she searched the basket but could find no note or anything that would answer her question as to why the skunk had been dropped off at her home. She supposed she should have answered the door earlier when she heard a knock, but she had dismissed it, thinking it only to be the wind.

   Just to be sure, she looked around the area only to discover that no other person was in sight. She looked back down at the baby skunk and smiled sweetly at it while it merely sucked on its thumb. Taking the handle in her mouth, she turned back and entered her house, shutting the door with her hoof before setting the basket down. The others were going to have to wait.

   She pulled back the blanket to reveal the skunk's upper and lower body. From here she could get a closer look at the skunk. The skunk was clearly female. One oddity about the skunk was that she was completely white, although she did have silver-gray stripes, starting at the base of her nose and running all the way to the tip of her tail, splitting at her upper back and reconnecting at the base of her tail, only for them to get separated once again. There was a tuft of silver-gray fur on top of her head. She had gorgeous golden brown eyes and a black, albeit small, nose.

   The skunk suddenly gripped one of its feet with both paws and began sucking on her toes. Fluttershy took this to mean that the skunk was hungry and began looking around in her kitchen for anything that could be edible for the tiny skunk. Luckily, she had a nice collection of baby bottles for when she was nursing her woodland critters friends back to health. Better yet, she had a jug of milk in her fridge. Unfortunately, she would have to heat up the milk via her stove. Thankfully, Angel helped her with pouring the milk in the bottle and getting other materials that she would need, such as a pan. Doing any kind of work with hooves was hard enough.

   The fire from the burner lit up in a dark shade of blue and yellow before settling and hovering underneath the pan, heating up the milk that was in the baby bottle. The baby skunk watched the bottle curiously, sucking on its thumb while sitting on Fluttershy's back, the only place the yellow pony thought she would be safe. She didn't want to run the risk of the child getting hurt.

   She yelped and jumped upon feeling a sudden tug at her pink mane. She looked up to see the white skunk snuggling with it and she couldn't help but smile. She wasn't sure what it was, but she, for whatever reason, felt a strong connection witht the child. She felt a strong connection with all of the creatures she looked after, but unlike all the others who would eventually scurry off back into the wilderness, she knew that this one was different. She couldn't just let her scamper off after a hot meal. If no one was going to look after the baby, then she would.

   "Hmm," Fluttershy pondered, "I suppose if I'm going to be looking after you, you'll need a name." She turned her head so that she could look at the child; luckily for her, the baby skunk was doing most of the work by leaning forward and turning its head so that they were eye-to-eye. "Now let me see . . ." Her face scrunched up in concentration until her eyes lit up and a smile crept upon her face. "How about Marshmallow?" She paused to glance at the child's reaction, only to see that there was none. "Would you like to be called Marshmallow, because you're all white?" She got her answer by the child laughing and she gently nuzzled the skunk's nose with hers. "I guess it's official then."

   At long last, the bottle was warm enough to be consumed. Once she had turned off the burner and retrieved the bottle, Fluttershy set Marshmallow in her lap and proposed the bottle to her. Almost instantly, the baby snatched the bottle and began sucking on the nipple, a warm smile coming across her face as she drank. Fluttershy gently rocked her back and forth, humming a merry little tune to keep the baby calm and to make it feel more comfortable. The skunk's tail curled up and began stroking Fluttershy's side, making the pony giggle with delight in response. She lowered one hoof and used it to tickle the skunk's somewhat distended belly and the child smiled up at her. Fluttershy didn't feel like she was going to let the skunk scurry off anytime soon.

***

   Fluttershy jumped and spun around in mid-air. Given that she wasn't expecting any visitors, she was quite taken aback to see Rainbow Dash entering her house. Couldn't she have at least bothered to knock? If she had, Fluttershy must have not heard her.

   "Where have you been all day?" Rainbow Dash demanded. "We've been waiting on you for half an hour."

   "Oh, sorry, Rainbow Dash," Fluttershy apologized. "I, uh, kind of got . . . a litle distracted."

   "What do you-" The iridescent pony suddenly stopped and looked down to see an albino baby . . . something or another cuddling with one of her hooves. "What is that?" Her head shot up at Fluttershy, demanding an answer, her other hoof that was being cuddled with pointed at the baby skunk.

   "Well, it's a baby-"

   "Yes, I can see that."

   "It's a baby skunk."

   Rainbow Dash blinked. "You'll let anything in your house, won't you?"

   "Oh, come on, Rainbow Dash. I can't just kick her out in the middle of the forest. She has no one to look after her." She brought the baby skunk over to her, much to the child's content, she could see.

   "Well," Rainbow Dash looked down at the floor, "I suppose you're right. So," she slowly lifted her head, "no picnic with us this afternoon?"

   Fluttershy shook her head. "I'm afraid not. But, I will need to pick her up a few things. I get the feeling she's going to be staying with me for a while. If you and the others won't to come up with, that'd be fine."

   "Shopping?" Rainbow Dash blinked. She snorted. "You'd have a better chance of getting Twilight to go a whole day without reading or to get Pinkie Pie to go on a diet or-"

   Fluttershy chuckled. "I get that shopping is more Rarity's department than anypony's, but, it won't be so bad."

   "Who's gonna watch the kid while we're doing all of this?"

   "Spike did a decent job watching my pets while we were facing down that big, scary dragon. Maybe he'd like to look after her."

   "You're going to entrust a dragon, who's a baby no less, with a baby?"

   Fluttershy blushed. "Now that you mention it, it does sound somewhat silly, doesn't it?"

   "You could probably get Mr. and Mrs. Cake to watch her. Or, better yet, Princess Celestia."

   Fluttershy shook her head at this suggestion. "No, Princess Celestia has too much to focus on with her being a princess and all, but maybe the Cakes wouldn't mind watchig her. I'd ask Pinkie Pie given that she's had some experience with baby-sitting, but we all now how distracted and hyper she is." She shook her head. "Bad idea."

   "Well, think of somepony fast, 'cause I'm hungry."

   Fluttershy blinked. "You didn't eat anything before coming over here?"

   "It's only a five-second flight."

   Fluttershy blushed once again, forgetting how fast her friend could fly. "Right. Sorry."

   Rainbow Dash grinned. "Ah, don't worry about it. I'll leave you alone so you can figure out what to do with the kid. I'll see you around, okay?"

   Fluttershy smiled and gave a nod. "Right." She watched in amazement as Rainbow Dash took off like a cannon. She watched her friend until the rainbow streak flowing behind her was out of sight. However, she wished that Rainbow Dash would have stayed given her current dilemma: finding someone to watch Marshmallow while she and the girls went shopping.