It was a warm sunny day on the outskirts of Ponyville. The woods roaring with the sounds of nature. Everything was just right. Fluttershy was outside tending to the animals around her home. She had been up since early that morning tending to the needs of her woodland critters. She looked up at the sun and figured that it was just after noon. "Oh goodness, I'm going to be late" she said aloud to herself, forgetting that she had to make a stop into Ponyville soon to get medicine from Dr. Whooves for her animals for the upcoming winter. She quickly finished putting seed in the feeder she was filling and flew off toward Ponyville. She stopped out in front of the doctors office. She walked in through the front door and went up to the desk. The doctor was sitting behind it, reading some documents. "Umm...hello, i am just here to pick up some medicine for my animals, if thats ok" she said quietly to Dr. Whooves, who was still reading his documents. He put the papers down and looked at Fluttershy. "Ah Fluttershy, your here for your wintertime medicine for your woodland critters I presume?" he said to the nervous pony in front of him. "Yes" Fluttershy replied back. " Well, here's your medicine for them, I'm hoping this will suffice?" he said placing a bag full of medicine on the desk next to Fluttershy. "oh yes, this will be plenty, thank you so much" Fluttershy said grabbing the bag. Dr. Whooves nodded in approval then went back to reading his documents.

Fluttershy left the doctors feeling happy. None of my babies are going to get sick this year, she thought to herself. She walked around a corner and saw her friends talking in front of a cart. "Yeah, well I don't see why we should care, so what that she can calm big animals, big deal" she heard Rainbow Dash say to the group. "I know, and she is real mysterious like, if ya ask me; never talking much; I say we hog tie her and send her out on a rope" Applejack said after Rainbow Dash. Fluttershy couldn't believe what she was hearing. She moved up closer and hid behind a wooden crate so she could hear more. Twilight was the next to speak, "Well. she is a very shady pony I'll give you that." "I think we should have nothing to do with that pony, never really liked her anyways" Rarity said to the group. They all nodded in agreement, "then it's settled, we just wont talk to her" Twilight said finally. Fluttershy didn't want to hear anymore. She turned around and left, leaving her friends. "they don't want to talk to me anymore, why?" she said to herself as she walked out of town toward her home. "I never done anything to ever make them want to do that, did I" she said starting to get worked up. She continued to walk home thinking about what she just heard her friends talking about.

She walked into her tree home and slammed the door. She dropped the bag of medicine on the floor where she stood. "They don't want anything to do with me, FINE, let them, I don't need them anyway" She said anger in her voice. Her mind had started to believe that what they said was truly about her. "I don't need them, I don't need anypony" She said as she walked upstairs. She went into her bedroom and lay on her bed. She looked outside, the sun setting over the distant hills. She then stared up at the ceiling, thoughts swirling through her head about her friends laughing at her,mocking her, and ignoring her. Tears started to roll down her cheeks. "what if they never really liked me, what if they just used me and pretended to like me?" she said aloud. Anger suddenly flared through her, "I'm not mysterious, and so what if I calm animals, it's what i do best, they are just jealous." She lay there until it was dark outside thinking about what her so called "friends" said about her. She layed there for a while longer until sleep finally took her.

Fluttershy woke up and started crying. She had a nightmare about her friends. She was sitting on the ground and they were in a circle around her. They were all pointing at her and laughing. "Awww look, little Fluttershy's crying; you should have been called Fluttercry with all the crying you do" Rainbow Dash said mocking her. When she tried to get up they pushed her back down. "Please leave me alone" Fluttershy said to the laughing ponies around her. "What, is Fluttercry going to cry some more if we don't?" Rainbow Dash said down to the crying pony. "You never were my friends, you were just a bunch of bullies" Fluttershy said to Rainbow and the others. "Well, look who finally caught on, it took you long enough" Rainbow Dash replied scoffing. Fluttershy pushed the thought away. "Leave me alone" she said to the thoughts spinning throughout her head. After having that nightmare her mind had made her truly believe that her friends never truly were her friends. "I never want to see them ever again" Fluttershy said aloud with anger rising in her voice. She got off of her bed and went over to get ready to do her daily chores around the grotto, all the while still thinking about the nightmare.

The horrible thoughts never went away as she worked on her chores. It was all she could think about. She never changed her attitude toward her animals though. She still loved them, even if she had thoughts about her friends mocking her, saying she was useless. She didn't want to go to Ponyville anymore, she thought that if she did she would just get picked on. She was safe here at her home, knowing that she couldn't get picked on by them. Her mind has become so clouded that she feels that if she went to Ponyville she would be picked on by Rainbow Dash and the others would just laugh at her for being picked on. The thought of that made her eyes well up with tears. "They never cared for me, never" she said as she gave angel a carrot, which he took into his burrow. She had finished her chores and went into her house. She lay on her sofa. She was exhausted, with the lack of sleep from the previous night and the chores from this morning. She closed her eyes and fell into a light uneasy sleep. When she woke up it was dark outside. "Gosh, I must've needed the sleep" she said as she got up and stretched. She had temporarily forgotten about the horrid thoughts and images. She went up to her room and lay down into her bed and quickly drifted back off into sleep.

END OF CH.1

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