Fluttershy on Earth?

    The morning lights cascaded down from the poorly drawn shades that hung in front of the warm glass. Dust particles could be seen floating about. The red digital display of an old themed alarm clock boasted nine eighteen. The entire room looked as if someone had thrown a vintage filter over a photograph.

    I rose up quickly in my bed. It's almost noon, according to the window. I took a chance, and let my curious eyes wander over to my alarm clock. Bad idea. The sight of it made me shoot out of my bed, to grab a set of clothes I had laid out for myself off of my rustic dresser. I went to go change, and do the morning rituals, then immediately found out that attempting to brush your teeth while pulling a shirt on is not the best combination.

    Rubbing a toothpaste stained shirt with a damp washcloth from the bathroom, I raced out into the kitchen to prepare a bowl of raisin bran cereal. Hastily, I stuffed spoonfuls of the tasteless mixture into my dry mouth. Just because I got to bed late doesn't mean I can sleep away my mornings. The clients would be furious. I usually get up at around seven to preform my morning routines. If not that, then earlier, it seemed that everyone wanted first dibs with my calls, because I'm good at what I do.

    Enraged at myself, I stomped back into my bedroom, holding a cheap laptop meant for business purposes. Eventually, I got situated at my desk. I rarely used it because of its poor condition, but today I couldn't be bothered. The familiar clacking sound of the keyboard faltered my frustration. When I worked, a mindless version of me would take over to send checks, report open spots for potential careers, and file outrageous amounts of profile statistics.

    Just as I began to place my fingers correctly on the keyboard, the phone rang out its cry for attention. I swiveled the desk chair around, to face my rival. Tenderly, I stretched my hand out to the ringing receiver, and picked up the handheld.

    "Hello?"

    "Tony I need your help!" The speaker blared into my unsuspecting ear. I could recognize that voice anywhere. It belonged to one of my oldest business partners, now gone to work for an advertising company. He was also one of my most frequent clients. His name was Grant.

    "What happened this time?"

    "My boss is waiting for me in his office. He called me in so I could talk to him about the current campaign for the MixMarking company. The sales for their current product seem to be decreasing by the dozen every time our ad airs."

     "The blender company?" I was next to lost at this point. He slurred his words together in his panic.

    "Yes! Of course! He says we need to start a new campaign, but he's too stubborn to consider the cost. This could take everyone's pay grade down to about four an hour! I can't afford to take a hit that hard in my current state! I'd have to file for bankruptcy!"

    "Look, just drop this campaign and try a new one." I knew that it would be expensive to carry out the whole mess. In the long run though, I knew that it would turn out to be more than profitable.

    "Why are you taking his side on this? Look. I estimate about twenty grand at least. If a new marketing stunt costs the company that much, you are gonna have quite the run for your money."

    "If you can show me the commercial by next month, I might be able to help you out. I know your limits. We've been acquainted from the very beginning. You could pull this off, and then some."

    "Okay, okay. I'm trusting you on this. I'd like to tell you something though. If this gets me out of the job, I'm holding you personally responsible. Got it?"

    "Don't worry. If you throw me a screwball with this commercial, it can't be that hard to catch. I've got your back."

    "You had better be right about this." I heard the familiar click of the receiver on the other end finally being released from the normally sweaty hands of the customer that gripped it. I held onto my end for a bit longer though. What if I was wrong, and the whole ordeal would ultimately destroy my high reputation for a considerably long period of time? What if I had just ruined Grant's career as an envied publicity manager? What if I... What if... I can't think about that, I reminded myself. If my mindset were centered around negativity, my future would be balanced on a razor's edge. 'Think of this as an opportunity. Not a ball and chain.' I tried telling myself. It was hardly enough to keep my conscience clear.

    Enough time was spent pondering the outcome of my hasty decisions. I needed to get my morning fuel. If I had actually cooperated with my schedule, I would have handled that phone call almost five times as smoothly. With my work a bit more up to date, I held my head high, as my feet carried me to my coffee maker. The glass pitcher was soon filled with the dark concoction. I poured a generous amount of it into one of my bland coffee mugs, and stored the rest in the cheap refrigerator. As soon as the scorching liquid reached it's destination, my insides experienced some form of jump start. This was going to be a long day.

    Reluctantly, I made my way back to the faint glow of the laptop. I felt as though I were missing something. The thought was dismissed just as easily as it found it's way into my head. I got that feeling on a daily basis. It was nothing out of the ordinary. I scanned company's website with my eyes, and my fingers switched over to autopilot mode. A low hum of the fan inside the machine accompanied by the pecking sounds of the keys soothed me. It had a strange sense of irony to it, being the source of the problems and all. The clock in my head told me that I had been sitting there for over a month. The clock hanging above my door begged to differ. In reality, I had been sitting there for just over two hours. It was all spent on simple things, like browsing for recent job openings and scrutinizing 'employee only' sites, for a few statistics on some future plans in other corporations and businesses.

   A quiet whisper coming from the doorway awakened me from my state of deep thought.

    "Um...hello?" The small disturbance made my soul jump out of my skin for a few seconds. Everything from last night came rushing back to me. The only visible ailment in my body language was a single twitch of my right arm. I knew I should have listened to the nagging voice in the back of my mind, yelling at me for forgetting something.

    "hello." She flinched a bit, as of she didn't expect an answer.

    "U-um, I-I was...wondering...if I c-could have...breakfast," She stated her needs, as if she were a child delivering some news to her mother. Terrible news that would surely disappoint the adult. It was adorable when she stuttered like that. My authoritative tone faltered, as I answered her back.

    "Of course. How could I forget?" To me, it was apparent that I could forget in a mere two hours. Together, we strode our way back into the kitchen. "What do you want to eat? I still haven't gone out to get anything more... Never mind."

    "Oh, anything is fine. I d-don't want be picky."

    "No, no. You're my guest. You can choose anything you want from in here."

    "Are you sure?" I saw the eager twinkle in her eyes. She couldn't be denied with that kind of voice.

    "What's mine is yours." I gave a welcoming gesture with my arms to reinforce my words.

    "C-can I just l-look for a bit, and s-see what there I-is?"

    "Take all the time you need," and with that, I left the room. I gave her a while to poke around the kitchen, and see what suits her needs. If she found something she liked, maybe I could purchase more of it while I go off shopping. As loathing as it seemed, I had to go back to my work. I tried my best to block out all distractions for the best marathon working conditions. Of course, I would have to deal with Fluttershy's choice of breakfast food. I stalled a bit, as to wait for her indecisive stance. She was like a kid in a candy store.

    "Tony, can you come in here?"

    "Sure. I'll be there in a minute," if she had finally made her verdict, I would be happy to oblige, but if it were for some other sort of mundane task, she would probably be better off doing it herself. I sauntered back into the kitchen for the screw-keeping-track-of-times, and found Fluttershy in front of the now open refrigerator, trying her darnedest to reach up onto the back of the top shelf. The only object I kept up there, were the eggs.

    "Oh, um...hi," she looked embarrassed when she realized I was there watching her. She seemed very self conscious. "I was trying to get down the...eggs from up there. C-can you help me? I mean if-if that's okay," she quickly added. Her confidence in the words she spoke faded too quickly. If her sentence were longer, her voice would be reduced to nothing more than an inaudible mumble. It seemed that asking permission for everything was just a side effect of this.

    "Sure. It's fine, just scooch over a little bit," Fluttershy took her front hooves out of the first refrigerator pocket, and took a few steps to the right. I took that as my cue, and easily scooped the carton of eggs off of the top shelf. "What are you going to use them for?" My curiosity bested me.

    "I, um...saw the e-eggbeater, a-and I thought of...P-Pinkie Pie." Her eyes made a transition from fake confidence to brimmed with tears. It would probably be best not to mention any of her friends to her.

    "Look, do you remember what I told you last night? They're looking for you. Don't worry," I knew that if it had been a day already, they had to be getting close.

    "D-do you r-really th-think so?

    "I know so. Now what were you going to use an eggbeater for?"

    "I-I wanted to m-make...pancakes? Her voice grew shrill as she released those words.

    "I, uh, think you better let me do this. Just go wait in the guest room or something."

    "Oh... um... ok," she walked out with her head down. I didn't mean to hurt her feelings.

    "Hey, wait. Do you want to help?" She jumped around to meet me with a beaming face. She had quite a way of getting what she wanted. "Can you go grab the flour from the pantry? Fluttershy complied happily.

    About ten or fifteen minutes later, Fluttershy and I sat down at the small dining room table, to enjoy a plate of at least ten small pancakes. It tasted surprisingly good for my first time attempting to bake the delicious 'treat'. Not a single ward was exchanged during that small time period. Our mouths were stuffed with overcooked batter. At least mine was anyway. She still hadn't dropped the fancy dining etiquette.

    "Um... You can... Leave if you w-want to." She must've looked up from her plate to examine my face. If that were so, then she may have seen my face turn a bit red. I was spacing off, staring at the window just across from us.

    "Oh, yeah I need to get back to work." Fluttershy seemed disappointed with my decision, then quickly realized that she had given me the option. I was just as mournful, and then some. Working for me was a pastime that helped pay bills. I have no idea where I would be without it. Probably on the streets, trying my hand at a cheap harmonica or something. The only problem is, is that without her, I could work freely with no regrets whatsoever. With her in need of my attention, I couldn't feel worse about it. Work is work though even if I wanted to oblige or not.

    For today, I would only allow myself to commit three hours to my hard earned job. I had too much to worry about. In reality, I was only required to slave over the keyboard for about forty hours a week. I would wake up, do my assigned duties, then mill about for the next few hours. I fitted my hours so that I could stop at six like everyone else, and take Saturday and Sunday off. Just like everyone else.

    I needed to focus on Fluttershy's needs. I wanted her to feel as welcome as possible. It was currently lunch time, so I needed to run by the local store to pick up some bread, lettuce, carrots, pancake mix, and of course apples. I felt like I should throw in a dessert as well. Almost half of the foods in Equestria (mentioned be the show) were sweets. In conclusion, I decided on some sort of cake mix.

    Now that I had finally turned all power consumers in the house off, I would need to make sure that Fluttershy would stay hidden. There wasn't a room in the house that was completely void of windows, except for the one small bathroom. I wasn't going to have her hole up in there though. I guess she could stay in the guest bedroom, so long as I covered the windows.

    "Fluttershy."

    "Yes?" A soft whisper carried through the empty space, almost lost through the door frames.

    "You need to stay in your bedroom until I get home. Understand?" I was taking my time in reaching the open door to where she lay.

    "Um...why?" She probably didn't know what was going on.

    "I'm going to go out for a bit. You need to stay in your room. I don't think my neighbors will take too kindly to a yellow pegasus."

    "Oh...ok." She sounded slightly offended. I don't know why she would take offense to that though. I stepped through the doorway. As I expected, Fluttershy was peacefully sitting on the cushioned bed.

    "Sorry, but I'll need to cover the window."

    "Um... Why?

    "If the neighbors saw you, things could happen."  A puzzled expression broke out onto her face. "Bad things," I added for clarity.

    "Uh... What kind of bad things?"

    "Let's just rerun this topic later okay?" She nodded with a contempt look in her eyes. She's a master at masking her body language, or maybe it's the fact that she is a pony. I'll never know.

    The shopping endeavors were mildly uneventful. The only thing notable about it, was the look on the cashiers face when she saw me bring in my selected items. She smiled mockingly at a thought of some sort of diet. It was too easy to scoff that assumption though. Who would start a diet consisting of large quantities cake, eggs, apples, peanut butter, jelly, white bread, and pancakes? It would likely be years before some last resort attempt at halting my small sweet tooth cravings would become this desperate.

    I slowly wandered over to the spot my bike was sitting, on the rusted bike rack. I was lost in a world of thought. How would this whole thing work out? Would Fluttershy's friends come back to Earth in some sort of dramatized fashion, like the infamous reunion in a personally heart wrenching story, My Little Dashie? Would she still be at the house by the time I got back? The last thought made me quicken my pace. Concern seeped into my mind. What if she had hurt herself somehow? What if someone else saw her? What if... 'Stop it!'. Why was I worrying about this? She wasn't one to break rules. Rainbow Dash on the other hand... Lets just say that I would rather have three Fluttershy's than a single Rainbow Dash.

    If I could have played music on the way back, I would have blasted it into my ears. Anything to keep me from being the little worrywart under stress, I normally am. I pulled up onto the rarely used driveway, and opened the garage using the remote. I would put it in my pocket every time I left to go somewhere. I rushed inside with even more implied haste. This was one of the only exceptions to closing the door on my way inside. It was normally a habit, and a habit worth keeping at that. I threw the recently purchased items on the ground, and flew over to the room Fluttershy had been staying in. My sudden appearance at the doorway must have startled her, because her initial reaction was to flee to safety under the bed. My senses flooded back to me in a brief realization of my 'overprotective' attitude. I've lost too many things in the past. I noticed the tv remote she dropped on her descent. It wasn't on, so her attempts on working the device must have been fruitless.

    "It's okay, I'm back," I said half panting. She popped her head out of the small opening. It was a marvel on how she managed to cram her way into the little nook under the bed.

    "Oh...ok sorry. I didn't realize."

    "No no, it was me who startled you. I have lunch though. Just stay here and I'll bring it to you." I left her alone before she could find a reason to keep me from going back out. Hurriedly, I grabbed two slices of white bread from one of the three bags I had gotten. My next destination turned out to be the back patio, if you could even call it a patio. I thrust the sliding door open, and grabbed handfuls of grass from the lawn. She may not like the type of bread or plant I was using, so in my head this seemed to be a long shot. How wrong that statement turned out to be. I brought the catastrophic confection back to the guest bedroom, on a plate from the cupboard. Her face lit up.

    "Ooh! A hay sandwich!" Her overexcited attitude quickly changed back to the polite posture she usually attained. "Th-thank you, Tony." She calmly took the plate out of my hands, and set it down in front of herself.

    "No problem. Just a little taste of home." I quickly realized my mistake, when her eyes turned sour. She pushed the plate aside, and leaned against the headboard. "Sorry. They'll find us sooner or later... Right?" I wanted confirmation from her, so she could feel a bit better herself.

    "Um, I guess."

    "Look, don't feel bad. I think lunch will make you feel a bit better." Behind my sincere eyes, I was dwindling all of my will power away. My friends had left me, but they never came drifting back. I knew that I was on the verge of tears. All I could do, was reassure her with false hope.