A small and quiet alarm went off and Fluttershy awoke with a yawn. She rose her head and looked about room grogily. Everything was just as it was; Angel was asleep in his little bed, everything was neat and tidy, and the curtains were drawn. Though she'd rather stay in her warm bed and continue to sleep, she decided that it wasn't prudent to keep her responsibilities waiting. She slid delicately out of bed, as to not wake Angel up imediately. Silently yawning again, she tiphoofed out of her room, through the door, which creaked, much to Fluttershy's fear, through the living room, where all of her animals were sleeping soundly, and into the kitchen.
She opened up her cabinets and gasped. There was barely enough food for breakfast! She had never let them run this low before! She would have to find somepony to provide all of this food and then carry it all of it home by herself! She began to panic, but stopped herself and took a deep breath. "Okay," she said to herself quietly, "I'll just get some more after breakfast. Maybe the girls will help me carry it home too." Once she had calmed herself, she began to make breakfast.
Once everything was prepared in the kitchen, she, once again, made her way silently into her room to wake Angel. She opened the curtains to let the sunshine of the sunrise in. The warmth of the sun gave her a pleasant feeling. "Time to wake up," Fluttershy said in a sing-song voice. Angel furrowed his brow, eyes still closed. He turned away from the window, trying to get a few more seconds of sleep. Fluttershy kept persisting him, but he still lay there stubornly. Once she said the word "breakfast", however, he shot up like a bolt, which didn't surprize her. She knew him too well.
Once she was done getting Angel out of bed, she went to wake the rest of the critters up. She opened the curtains. That warm feeling wahed over her again as the animals got out of their beds. Smiling, she got out the food and fed breakfast to everyone. Then, as they were all eating, she went outside to get the mail. She had come outside just in time as the mailmare was walking up to her mailbox. She had foregone her nervosness with a small handfel of ponies, and this was one of them. She greeted her. "Hello Ditzy Doo. Have a good morning?" They had a breif chat before she got her mail from Ditzy. She thaked her and went back inside.
She sorted through her mail. She noticed that the small pile of letters and magazines was a bit heavier that usual. Wait, I didn't order any magazines. She looked at the bottom of the stack, and low and behold there was a Canterlot fasion magazine, called Mare's of Style, located at the bottom of the pile. There was a mare on the front with short hair, which was odd. Mares usually wear their hair down. She looked closely at the print at the bottom, and saw that it was addressed to Rarity. She realized that she had been given the wrong mail. "Silly Ditzy," she said to herself. Looks like I'll have to stop by Rarity's boutique while I'm running my errands.
Once that little conundrum was out of the way, she went about her regular chores and responsibilities for the day.
~
Eleven o'clock ran around and Fluttershy was making her way to the market, the magazine ticked underneath her wing. She thought that she would go to Rarity's first before anything. She walked and weaved through the busy morning streets of Ponyville before arriving t the Carousell Boutique. She walked slowly up to the door, and knocked gently on the door. She waited for an answer. Oh no. This is taking too long. She is probably in the middle of something important and I- Her thought was cut off by the door swinging open. Rarity smiled at the sight of her friend. "I'm sorry," Fluttershy began, "is this a bad time?"
Rarity laughed. "Of cousre not dear. Come inside!" She stepped aside to let her friend in. Fluttershy walked inside and Rarity closed the door behind her. "Now," the fashionista started quickly, "I only have a few minutes, so what did you need, darling?"
"Oh, well, um," the yellow pony stammered nervosly. She pulled out the magazine from underneath her wing and gave it to her. "I got your mail."
Rarity, much to Fluttershy's surprize, screamed exitedly. "Oh my goodness, Darling," she cheered happily, "You have no idea how long I've been waiting for this. Thank you, Fluttershy!" She thanked the timid pony by tackling her with a hug. She could barely breath.
"You're welcome," she said in a chocked, high-pitched voice. Seeing that her hug was far outside her friend's comfort zone, Rarity released her and blushed.
"Do forgive me dear it, it's just that..." She gave out another squeel of delight. "This is one of the most highly regarded magazines in all of Equestria!"
Fluttershy dipped her head and smiled. "Well, you're welcome, Rarity."
Figuring that her friend had not so much as looked into the magazine, she pulled her friend into her kitchen. "Oh my goodness, Fluttershy! You need to look at this!" She sat her down at her table, sat next to her, and opened up the magazine up to a random page.
Rarity went on a long speech about fasion and how this accents that and how these colors clash in just the right way, all while turning the pages that helped prove that ponts she was making. As Rarity was talking, Fluttershy noticed one commonality with all of the photos: all of the Mares had short hair. She thought this was odd. Mares didn't gennerally crop their hair so short. Some of them even looked like feministic stallions to her. She figured that it was the newest, big fasion in Canterlot.
After the long-winded lecture, Rarity thanked her once again, and Fluttershy took her leave to run her errands. She still didn't know how she was getting all of that food to her house. Perhaps she could ask somepony in the market to help her. No, I could never do that. But I do need the help...
~
Fluttershy's saddlebags were heavy. Painfully heavy. She was loaded down with almost all of the food she needed. She just needed to get over to the Apple Family's stand to get her supply of apples. She slowly made her way her way to the stand, almost dragging the overly full bags behind her. Once she had finnaly arrived at the stand, she set down her bags. She was looking down, out of breath. "Okay, Applejack," she breathed, exausted, "I need about twenty apples."
"Eyup," came a different, deeper voice. She looked up, surprized. Instead of Applejack, she found Big Macintosh behind the stand. She blushed heavily. She had always admired the large stallion, and now she was face-to-face with him. Well, more like face-to-side. He was getting her order for her. She was frozen in place just looking at him. He held out a ful bag at her. Her mind prosseced that she needed to give him the bits that he needed and take the bag very slowly. She fumbled with the coins as she shakily handed them to him. She took the bag and stuffed it into her own, and tried to lift her bags as quickly as she could, but the added weight made it impossible for her to lift it.
"Hey," the farmpony chuckled, but sill concerned, "You need help?" Fluttershy froze once again. Tears welled up in the nervos pony's eyes in fear. She thought that he was mocking her. She couldn't deal with with that kind of rejection. She stopped trying to lift her bags and flew as fast as she could to her home, sobbing.
"Wait!" Big Mac called, but she was out of earshot. He looked at her saddlebags and sighed. He walked over to them and took them. He flipped the stand's sign to closed and made his way to Fluttershy's cottage.
~
If anypony walked by the small cottage, they could hear a loud sobbing coming from inside. A sobbing of somepony whose heart has been broken and whose life has been ruined. The sound would've been heard, if there was anypony to hear it.
Fluttershy had her face in a pillow and was laying down on the couch, crying her eyes out. She felt that she had been rebuked, rejeced, and regurgitated. Not only id she blow it with her crush and fail to bring her animals food, but she also made a fool of herself. She decided that she would never leave the house. She would live alone and have her food delivered to her in a truck at the end of each month. She would live out her days as an outcast, shunned by society.
"It's because I'm ugly! Nopony wants to help a mare who is an insult to everyone!" Her animals, whom had gathered around her, gave each other sidewards glances. Normally, something like this happened once, maybe twice every few months; but this was more severe than anything they had seen. Even Angel, whom had been with her since he was a newborn, had never seen her this bad. One of the squierels gave her a chatter. She began to hyperventalate. Some of the birds had flown over and gave her a paper bag, which she either refused or didn't notice. The same squierel squeaked to her again, trying to calm her. She began to breathe deeply in and out, in an effort to calm down. One of the snakes hissed at her.
"Look at me!" she cryed through the pillow. "I'm hideos!" One of the badgers squickered. "Is it not obvious? It's my hair! It's too long and now everypony knows that I'm just out of fasion!" A bird tweeted. She laughed. "Yeah," she said more calmly now, "I guess I am sounding like Rarity." She looked up from her pillow to see all of her animal's smiling faces. She rubbed her sore, red eyes and smiled back, weakly. "I'm sorry everyone. I guess I just let my emotions get the best of me. It was silly for me to act that way, when the answer is right in front of me."
All of the animals looked around at each other, confused as Fluttershy walked into her bedroom. She closed her door, and the sound that it made drew the attention of all of the critters present. They all gathered around the door and wall, and put their ears up against it. They could hear the faint sound of snipping scisors...
~
BigMacintosh walked up the hill that led to the small cottage. The saddlebags that he carried with him were heavy; but not too heavy concidering the amount of work that he was used to. They were also small; not made for somepony his size. He found his way to the simple door that led inside. He gave a polite knock aa he wondered what could've scared her so. Though Big Mac was one of the kinder and simpler folks, not to say that he had anything on Fluttershy, but he wasn't one of the brightest. Sure, he figured that it was something that he might've done, but what he hadn't concidered was that a chuckle was not, perhaps, the best way to offer help to a struggling pony. Nopony had complained before, so why should they start now?
He waited in silence for a few moments, waiting for an answer from the door. One minute passed. Then two. Then five. At around that time, he knowcked again, this time more prominently. He heard a muffled movement inside. There were hoofsteps that came closer and closer to the door. Finally, it opened. What was found on the other side, left Big Mac in awe.
Now, it should be noted that Big Macintosh had always been fond of mares with long hair, and Fluttershy was no different. Plus, she had a personality to boot. So, when Fluttershy revealed herself, it left Big Mac more than a little surprized. Her hair was cut short, down to about her chin, and was uneven. It looked as if though she had layed down on her bed, scisors in one hoof and a mirror in the other, which was exactly what she did, and went through with cutting it. It was like she let a beaver barber trainee practice on her head. Needless to say, it was bad. She didn't even bother cutting her tail short.
Despite her appearence, the timmid pony was smiling, though it was apperent it was a bit crazy and slightly forced. While Big Mac as gaping, she spoke to him as if nothing had happened between her and he that morning and that they were old friends. "Well hello Big Macintosh," she said through her teeth and rather rigidly, "How nice of you to drop by! I see that you've brought my things! Great! Just set them inside." She turned, almost like a robot, and led the farm pony into her house. He set down the overly full bags down by the door and stood across from her, for she had taken a seat on her couch, with his eyebrow raized.
"Are you okay?" he asked gently, but suspiciously. She gave a cusual nod.
"Oh yes, I'm perfectly fine. In fact, I'm even trying out a new style for my hair. Do you like it?"
Big ac paused. He had a reputation, mostly from his sister, of being honest. Though he ddn't want to be unkind to the obviously upset mare. He concidered what to say carefully. "It looks, ah, different." Her smile disapeared instantly and her eyes got big. Tears began to well in her eyes. Uh-oh.
Fluttershy began to sob profusely. She dove into her pillow, crying the whole time. Big Macintosh, though being a farmpony, was still in one way or another a gentlecolt. He rushed to her side and began to attempt to comfort her.
"Shh. Shh. It's alright. Just tell me what's wrong."
"You of al stallions would know why," she screamed upsetly, but not coldly," Stallions are into short hair. I liked you so I tried to give you what all you colts want!" She chocked out another sob.
Big Mac blinked. He gave her a kind chuckle. "You know, as a matter of fact, I like mares with longer hair."
She looked up at him. Their eyes locked for just a moment, and then she launched her face onto his. Their lips locked for just a moment before she pulled back. Surprized, but not disabled, Big Mac pulled her closse for a big hug. He held it for a moment. They broke the embrace and looked at her.
"Come on," he spoke softly, "let's get you fixed up." He led her out her front door and outside into Celestia's setting sun.
~
Dear Princess Celestia,
Today I learned that there are alot of silly little things that we think are important. Sometimes, we forget to be ourselves in order to be the things that we're not and to be what we think everypony wants us to be. There are times when being yourself and having confidence can land you in the arms of somepony you love.
Your loyal subject,
Fluttershy
Author's Note
Not what I usually write. I had this Idea right before I went to sleep one night and when I saw hat there were no stories on this, I had to take the opportunity. Sorry for any mispelled words, the program I use doesn't spell check. |:|
Thanks for reading!
