Fluttershy's Cottage

Chapter 1

By LunarStar Princess Krystal

Author Note: I want to start this off by saying thank you to the many authors and stories that have inspired me. Ok disclaimer time, I do not own My Little Pony that honor belongs to Hasbro. The only part of this story that I do own are the characters Grandpa Haku, Artie Choke (he'll appear in another chapter), my perspective of the Equestrian universe, and the storyline. Now that has been taken care of on with the story.

"Hey Lyra, Bon-Bon, please move the banner to the other side. Carrot Top you and Berry Punch misspelled the message take it down. If you two take it to the Mayor she can help fix the mistake," a particular pink earth pony was instructing as she made her rounds in Ponyville. Overhead the sun was shining brightly and not a single dark cloud could be seen in the sky, although it looked as though someone with the bearer of generosity's creative side was having fun making shapes with the fluffy white clouds that hung in the sky. At the sight of the sky the pink earth pony called out, "Hey Rainbow Dash your weather team did a great job. Didn't I tell you that all you needed was …"

However before she could continue talking a rainbow maned Pegasus flew down interrupting her friend with, "I know, I know! Give it a rest Pinkie Pie you already got the whole town working hard, especially the weather team and me. I'm shocked that you haven't bothered Celestia and Luna to get the sun and moon in particular parts of the sky."

"Oh Rainbow Dash, that's just silly. I'm just making certain that everything is perfect today. I don't need to tell the celestial sisters what to do," Pinkie Pie replied before hopping over to where another of her friends, a purple maned Unicorn, was levitating into place decorations to dress up the Carousel Boutique. Pinkie Pie's face lit up in delight at the sight of all of the decorations and says, "Rarity that looks really good. I'm really impressed that you were able to make all of the decorations I asked you to make. You even did them in the exact colors I asked for."

The Unicorn, Rarity turned to her excited friend with a smile of her own. Rarity shook her head before replying, "Why thank you darling. It did take me some time to get the exact materials that you asked me to use. Although I must say that the decorations just look magnificent."

The information didn't seem to surprise the excitable Pinkie Pie, who shook her head, as though she knew what her friend was about to say. "I know that it was not going to be easy, but when it comes to being creative you are the best pony for the job. Everypony knows that and besides the party that I'm putting together today needs to be even better than the one I threw last year. It just has to be otherwise I will have failed."

"Why darling you don't have to be so hard on yourself. Last year's party was amazing and you've been preparing this year's party for a long time. I have no doubt that this year will be utterly charming."

"But it has to be even better than just charming. It needs to be even more special than anything else. It just has to! I don't want to make today a disaster," Pinkie Pie replied looking as though she was about to fall apart crying for an unexplained reason causing Rarity to put a hoof around her friend's shoulder to give a small hug.

Suddenly a purple alicorn trotted over asking, "Pinkie you don't have to worry about today being a disaster. We all know that she is going to love this party and I can't remember you ever failing to make anypony happy on their birthday. Although we did have to be careful about making sure that your birthday was a very happy one after you thought that we all were trying to make a farewell party instead of a birthday one."

Both Pinkie Pie and Rarity looked at their good friend Twilight whom Pinkie jumped over to hug while saying, "I know that I was really silly last year Twilight, but I need to make up for being such a pushy meany pants the other day when we were trying to take care of the bat problem. I really want to make certain that both the birthday Pegasus and the one whom I don't want upset with me not making today the best party ever for her. He would have really wanted today to be a happy day and not a sad blue make us want to cry day."

Twilight and Rarity gave each other a look before the alicorn asked, "How would anyone want to cry after you've been so careful about making every detail perfect and all of the party guests brought to town just to make today very special? I don't think that you've forgotten anything, but who else are you talking about? I don't understand what you are trying to say."

To this Pinkie Pie just shook her head saying, "I can't say his name, not yet. It's somepony very special to our special friend and I just can't stop thinking about how much he means to our friend and to all the ponies that he helped. He even helped me when I first arrived, but that's something we can discus later. I need to make certain that everypony is getting their part completed."

"Pinkie you can take a break you know. It wouldn't hurt to stop and let yourself maybe pull back on how much you're stressing on the details of every little part of today. I mean you have everypony in Ponyville, Zecora, and even the Cutie Mark Crusaders working on some missions today. You won't even tell us what you are planning to have the fillies do for you today, it isn't that we don't trust your judgment, but what are you planning? You can talk to us," Twilight asked looking very concerned and Rarity began to share the same look at the mention of the crusaders who were known to cause some trouble, but were willing to help if there was a chance to find their cutie mark.

Rarity began to look scared as she said, "I must agree with Twilight darling. Sweetie Belle wouldn't stop talking about how excited she is to have a new mission now that the group has grown with Babs Seed and Twist joining the trio. Pinkie could you please just give us some clue as to what you asked the fillies to do today? The girls met up earlier today and are more than likely on their way out of Ponyville right now. Please understand that we are just worried that something may not go as you plan and we would like to be able to make a backup plan in case something happens."

Pinkie Pie just smiled as she shook her head saying, "I can't tell either of you exactly what is going on, but I can say that the fillies are going to help keep an eye on our pony of the day and do what they do best. I'm glad that the girls are already on their way and excited to help me out today which will make everything a lot easier. Besides if anything does happen I already have one of the guests already helping me with anything that may need any extra attention. Even Zecora is giving me a hoof with some of the plans that I need her assistance on. I have backup plans for my backup plans and more backup plans to cover those backup plans. Now that I've stopped to chat I need to get back to work with checking on the arrangements that are already underway."

At her words both Twilight and Rarity couldn't stop their worry from showing, but they had learned to trust Pinkie Pie when she said that she knew what she was doing. Pinkie hopped her way across the street where she began talking quickly to a couple of ponies about the banner's that were being repositioned to suit her plans.

In another part of town the Cutie Mark Crusaders were all running around the adult ponies who were getting the food stands prepared for the party to take place later that day. The quintet ran as fast as their little hooves could carry them with their signature crusader capes billowing in the wind. The Cakes smiled to each other and as Granny Smith made her way over to the couple said, "It's really nice to see young ones this excited. It brings back memories of another group of fillies making their way towards the cottage years ago."

Both of the Cakes nodded their heads at the elder pony. Everypony in the area began to smile as they heard the young group call out, "Cutie Mark Crusaders masters of distraction and best friends forever." The adults nodded their heads before getting back to work on their projects or by working on their everyday jobs because Pinkie Pie had asked that some of the residents do their everyday jobs and make Ponyville look like nothing special was being planned.

On the road towards the home of the Pegasus of the day Apple Bloom cheered, "I can't believe that we were given such an important job today. This is so amazing."

This caused the other four to all have big grins appear on their faces as Sweetie Belle replied, "This is going to be so much fun. I don't know what we can do to be distractions because I don't think that we are distractions for anyone, but we will do our best right."

"Of course we will and with our newest member of the team we will be unstoppable. Hey look over there, we're already at the cottage. I wonder what we should do now, maybe we should…," Before Apple Bloom could finish her thoughts, Scootaloo and Twist pulled the other three fillies behind a tree motioning towards the cottage where a yellow Pegasus was exiting the building quietly singing with some of the birds that were flying around the front of the home. Scootaloo and Twist looked around the base of their hiding spot worried that the group had been seen, but thankfully their target wasn't even looking in their direction.

Once the pair finished looking around Twist whispered, "Maybe we should watch and see what she does before we do anything. Besides it looks like she is feeding the animals now. I think that we should let her finish what she's doing before we approach her."

The yellow Pegasus gave a smile towards the birds and started singing along with the birds a tune that the fillies didn't recognize. However though she was smiling the fillies noticed that she looked as though her mind was far away even though she was being careful about how much or what type of food she passed out. The moment the birds stopped singing to start on their breakfast a small smile began to form on her face but it didn't reach her eyes.

Even from a distance the five fillies could see that just as the Pegasus was preparing a large tray of a large amount of different types of foods for the rest of hungry critters of the area, a small bunny jumped onto her back. The bunny held a few white flowers in his mouth, but was extra careful not to break the steams. Her smile seemed to change to a happier one, although her eyes continued to not look as happy. The bunny appeared to notice as he placed his offering of flowers onto her back next to where he stood and gave a worried look as his foot began to repeatedly tap in a questioning manner. However the Pegasus shook her head before saying, "Thanks Angel, I will add these to the bouquet I'm going to buy in Ponyville. Please don't worry. Go ahead and eat."

The moment she finished talking she motioned toward a large carrot she had placed on the large tray of food. The bunny, Angel, gave a sad smile as he hugged the Pegasus around the neck before jumping down to grab the carrot for himself. The action was very confusing to the crusaders but at the mention of going into town they realized that they needed to do something. Just as she turned away to watch the animals eating the five fillies quietly left their hiding place with as little noise as possible to not be noticed. Once they were close enough to the fence around the Pegasus animal caretaker's home, they called out loudly, "Fluttershy!" The call caused the yellow Pegasus to turn around in surprise before waving happily in greeting.

When the quintet were within the fenced area, Fluttershy said, "Oh my, it's so nice to see all of you, Sweetie Belle, Scootaloo, Apple Bloom, Babs, and Twist. Wow it's really wonderful to see all of you here. Babs are you here visiting family again?"

The group smiled at each other at the same time that Babs gave a nod as she replied, "Yes I am. And I'm here to be the Manehattan representative of the Cutie Mark Crusader branch to welcome our newest Ponyville member Twist."

At this, Twist began to go a little pink as she rubbed a hoof against her left foreleg. As she turned away she whispered, "It's not much. It's really nice that they allowed me to join the group. I've even promised to help give cooking lessons so the others can try to get a cutie mark in baking of some kind."

Fluttershy just smiled at this before Scootaloo jumped in with a hearty, "Its more than nothing. It's a really brave act especially after three of us nearly made the whole town sick with that horribly dreadful batch of muffins." This comment made both Sweetie Belle and Apple Bloom groan at the memory as the other two crusaders chuckled.

Once the chuckling pair calmed down, Fluttershy led the group into her cottage as she carried the flowers Angel had given her. All five of the fillies looked around to find some ideas to distract Fluttershy, but Babs couldn't stop her gaze from drifting towards the edge of the Everfree Forest. Finally when she couldn't take it anymore she stepped forward asking, "I need to ask you something Fluttershy because this is something that has confused me for a while, but why do you live by the Everfree Forest? That's a really brave thing to do and you're one of the shyest ponies I know."

The four Ponyville crusaders turned to stare at Babs as though she'd grown another head as Fluttershy jumped from the direct question she'd been asked. However before she could answer, Twist jumped into the conversation by saying, "I've been wondering that too, but I was wondering how you were able to get this home when many of the adult Pegasi live in cloud homes or back in Cloudsdale."

Fluttershy's shock from all of the questions made a sad look, cross her face again. As she turned away from the fillies, Sweetie Belle noticed in the direction Fluttershy was facing hung a photo of a young Fluttershy with an elder white Unicorn stallion the young filly had never seen in Ponyville before. Sweetie Belle pointed at the photo to direct the attention of the others before slowly approaching the picture. Just when she was within Fluttershy's line of sight the young Unicorn asked, "Is that somepony from your family? He looks like a very interesting stallion. I don't think that I've ever seen him before or anypony like him."

This snapped Fluttershy back to the present as she placed the flowers on the table and then answered, "Actually he's the reason I live here. He's not a direct relative, but before he died I felt as though he was my grandfather. He was one of the bravest ponys I know even more than Rainbow Dash." Hearing this all five of the crusaders eyes grew wide with curiosity and excitement for the story. Even Scootaloo looked excited although she whispered in a slightly grumpy voice, "I doubt that anypony is braver than Rainbow Dash." Fluttershy gave a warm smile to the fillies motioning them to take a seat on her couch as she sat in her favorite chair saying, "I guess that I can wait on going into town to share the story of how I came to own this cottage and meet the Unicorn who was a master of writing haiku, but was the one I came to call Grandpa Haku."

Author Note: Wow, this was nine pages, but in the future some of the following chapters will be a bit longer so I hope that everyone enjoyed this chapter. Please let me know what you think, but please don't send any flames because I will pass them on to be the materials for the cutie mark crusader's next art project.