"Wasn't she wonderful?" Spike sighed from his spot on Shining Armors back. It had been five minutes since they had left Rarity behind, and the dragon had not said a word since, seeming to still be focused on the sophisticated mare they had just met.

"I had no idea you liked older mares, Spike," Shining Armor said with a grin, "or maybe it's the cutie mark. I know how much you like gemstones." He started to laugh to himself. He considered teasing the dragon about wanting to nibble Rarity's gems, or at least lick them, but figured it was too inappropriate from Spike and Twilight's age.

"He's blushing!" Twilight squealed out from beside her brother.

"No I'm not!" Spike yelled. "Shut up."

"Okay, okay," Shining said with a chuckle. "So what's next on the list, Romeo?"

Spike let out a snort and grabbed the sheet of paper.

"Let's see," he whispered as he read, "food, weather, decoration... Ah." Clearing his throat he spoke up. "We have one left. Music."

"Great," Twilight said as she sped up to get ahead of her brother. "That means once we're done, we can go to the library and-" she stopped as Shining Armor stopped moving, lifting a hoof and placing it on the filly's muzzle. The three of them listened for a moment.

Birds.

The three of them could hear birds singing. It was not like normal bird songs either. It sounded like multiple species all singing the same song at the same time.

Following the sound, the group found their way to a tree filled with birds of all different sizes and colors. The birds filled the branches as they all sang the same song at the same time. Although it sounded like one of them was off-key.

"Oh my," a creamy yellow pegasus with pink mane said gently. "Um, stop please everyone." Flapping her wings gently, she flew up to one of the birds.

"Excuse me sir. I mean no offense, but your rhythm is just a teeny tiny bit off." She moved back to her spot as she got a nod. "Now follow me, please. A-one. A-two. A-one, two, three."

"Excuse me?" Shining Armor said, getting a yelp of surprise from the mare and causing the birds to fly away. "Sorry. I was just here to check on the music."

The pegasus landed in front of Shining Armor, but did said nothing. Her blue eyes would occasionally glance at him from around the edge of her pink mane, but she looked more at her foreleg as she rubbed one hoof back and forth in the dirt.

Shining Armor smiled at the mare, but started to feel awkward as she continued to say nothing and occasionally glance at her from the corner of her eye.

"So, what's your name?" he asked.

"Uhm... I'm..." the rest of her answer was spoken so gently he heard nothing. He could only tell when she stopped talking because her lips stopped moving.

"I'm sorry, what was that?"

The mare responded again. But again, she spoke softly that Shining Armor had no idea what she could have possibly said.

He looked at her a moment. Was she always like this? She seemed so scared, like something bad was going to happen at any moment. Was she abused? Did some mean pony hit and insult her until her self-esteem was shattered, leaving this poor mare barely able to deal with other ponies socially?

Shining Armor closed his eyes and took a deep breath. He was jumping to conclusions with no real basis. He had to stop now before he got himself too upset over nothing. Being ready to beat up a hypothetical pony for hypothetically abusing a mare was not going to be of any use. Instead he relaxed and put on a friendly little smile again.

"How about we start over and I introduce myself? I'm Shining Armor. This is my sister, Twilight Spar-"

The mare let out a gasp and ran past Shining Armor, knocking him around as she went over to Twilight.

"Oh my," the mare said in a clear voice. "What happened to your leg?"

"My leg?" Twilight asked. Looking at it, she noticed that there was a red spot. "Oh, that? I scraped it when I fell off Shiny's back."

"Oh," the mare responded, "Well, we should get it cleaned and put a band-aid on it before it gets infected."

"I-i-i-infected?" Twilight's eyes went wide as she froze, staring off into space.

"Oh no," Shining groaned, rubbing at his forehead. He knew that look. Right now, his little sister's brain was sifting through the statement and possibilities, coming up with what would be a very bad -- if not the worst possible -- scenario of what would be the final result.

Twilight let out a gasping sob.

"I don't want to lose my legs and spend the rest of my life being pushed around in wheelchair!" she shrieked.

"Twilight," Shining Armor said gently, "you are not going to end up in a wheelchair the rest of your life."

"That's right," the mare agreed, "at most they would just have to remove the infected leg so you would still have three."

The statement got gasp and look of horror from Shining Armor.

"I mean," the mare said, "uhm... it's probably not going to be infected so you don't have to worry about any of that. But.. uh... just to be safe, we should get it cleaned and bandaged. My cottage isn't far from here and I have everything to take care of it."

"Can we, Shiny?" Twilight asked, looking at her brother.

"I don't see a reason not to," Shining said. It would also help keep Twilight calm instead of panicking about having her legs be amputated because of a scrape.

Before he even realized it, the yellow pegasus had taken a hold of Twilight and started flying off. Fortunately, she was only a few inches above the ground and not flying very fast. In point, Twilight Sparkle could actually set her hooves down and touch the ground, and Shining Armor and Spike managed to keep up with the mare and filly with ease.

As they went, Fluttershy (turns out that was the mare's name), started talking to Twilight. More accurately, Fluttershy introduced herself, then had Twilight start talking about herself. The yellow pegasus listened as the unicorn filly talked, only responding enough to keep the conversation going. Despite saying little, she actually responded with excited enthusiasm. So much so, the Shining Armor had a hard time believing it was the same mare talking as earlier.

Soon they reached what at first look like a steep hill. Getting closer, Shining Armor realized it was actually a house, although the top half of it was covered in grass. There was a small creek that the path bridged before leading up to the hill to the door.

What was more interesting was the area close to the house. There were homes for other animals all around it. There were dozens of birdhouses, but there were also openings to burrows and dens all around. Almost any small animal could find a place to make its home.

Fluttershy quickly went inside with Twilight, and Shining Armor and Spike followed quickly. The stallion stopped as soon as he stepped across the threshold. The first thing he noticed was a rabbit. In the middle of the living room, standing in the middle of the rug, was a white rabbit. It stood upright on its hind legs, arms crossed across its chest. Its beady black eyes narrowed to slits as it stared at the stallion with a scowl (Shining Armor did not even know it was even possible for a rabbit to scowl).

Slowly, Shining Armor moved further into the cottage, making sure to give plenty of space to the glaring rabbit. As he did, the unicorn stallion noticed that there were other animals as well. He saw squirrels, ferrets, and even some hedgehogs. There were also what looked like beds and hidey-holes for even more animals.

"Alright," Fluttershy said from another room, "This won't take long or hurt one bit."

As Shining Armor reached the doorway, he turned to look back at the rabbit one last time. It continued to stand where it was, its soulless black eyes watching. The rabbit uncrossed its arms, pointing at its eyes then at Shining Armor. The stallion resisted the urge to gulp in fear as he turned away, feeling vulnerable to attack as he took his eyes off the rabbit.

Shining stepped into what turned out to be Fluttershy's kitchen. There, the pegasus mare had just sprayed something on the scraped spot of Twilight's leg and was setting it back into a first aid kit. Fluttershy then pulled out two adhesive bandages -- pink with flowers -- and stuck them on the minor injury.

"There you go," she said with a smile, "All taken care of. And... uhm... don't be too mad at Rainbow Dash, please? I'm sure she didn't mean to hurt you."

"You know Rainbow Dash?" Shining Armor asked, getting the attention of the mare and the filly. "It's hard to believe. I can't see you having anything in common." He looked around the kitchen as he considered the last statement himself.

"She's actually my best friend," Fluttershy explained, "and I know she can be... uh..."

Reckless? he thought. Arrogant? Egotistical? Hot-headed?

"Excitable," the mare finally decided, "but she is a very caring pony who will do anything to help or protect somepony that she cares for. I'm sure you'd like her if you give her the chance."

Do anything to protect somepony. He turned away from Fluttershy to look at Twilight. The filly was looking at the table, watching a squirrel that was standing on it with some nuts on a plate.

"I guess I can understand that," he said aloud, "and she did apologize... Even if I had to make her at first." He turned back to Fluttershy. "Thank you for taking care of my sister's knee, but we need to get going."

"You're welcome," Fluttershy replied with a smile, "and you can come visit me again anytime." She suddenly looked down, hiding behind her mane. "I mean, that is, if you want to, of course."

"Come on, Twiley." Using his magic, Shining Armor lifted Twilight from her seat and set her on his back beside Spike. Carrying the two of them, he walked back through the living room and toward the front door. Once again, he kept his eyes on the rabbit in the middle of the rug and made sure to give it plenty of space. He would never want to admit out loud, but he sincerely believed that the thing was dangerous and could kick his flank.