"Fluttershy, dear, where's the green paint?"
Fluttershy took the handle in her mouth and gave it to Rarity. "Thank you, Fluttershy." Rarity took the brush and, with great sweeping strokes, painted a big letter C, then an O, then an N, and so on, until the word "concert" was spelled out in green on the white poster board. "You know, dear, you could sing very well if you really wanted to."
"Stop it, you know I'm not as good as the girl who's going to..."
"Fluttershy, you stop it right now." Rarity stopped painting and stared at Flutters. "Don't talk down on yourself. You're a very special pony, you know. You can pull off lots of neat precision tricks when you're flying that nopony else can, you can talk to animals exceptionally well, better than Twilight can with her translation spells, and you're an Element of Harmony."
"That's true..."
Rarity leaned in close, then whispered, "If you ask me, Light Wishes is a bit of a snob." Fluttershy giggled.
"Excuse me."
A light yellow unicorn with a pale green mane that floated around her shoulders stood in front of the two. Her expression was condescending, much like a Canterlot noble, and she scared Fluttershy. Vinyl Scratch said she could be nice enough when she felt like it, but the girls had yet to see her sweet side.
"Miss Rarity, I thought you were working on my dress. I need to look absolutely stunning for this concert."
Rarity gritted her teeth. "Yes, but I'm also working on the sets and advertisements." She admired her poster for a moment. "I can't do two different tasks in two different places at once."
"Well, can't your little friend do the posters? She doesn't seem to have anything to do." Light Wishes turned her gaze toward Fluttershy, causing her to let out a small "eep" of surprise.
"Her name is Fluttershy, thank you, and only if it's okay with her and Vinyl. I'd have some explaining to do if I disappeared in the middle of when I'm supposed to be here." Rarity's irritation was clear in her tone.
"I'll go talk to Vinyl. Don't you worry your pretty little head." Light patted Rarity on the head and flounced off. Fluttershy looked at Rarity in confusion. "What dress?"
Rarity stamped a hoof on the floor. "She's been bugging me to make a dress for her so she looks 'absolutely stunning' for the concert. Never mind it's for charity, she has to look perfect or everything is ruined."
The end of her rant was punctuated by an "Oh, come on!" from up in the lighting booth, where Vinyl Scratch was watching everypony, followed by Light Wishes storming out of it.
Rarity's valiant efforts to contain her giggles would probably be sung for generations. "Serves the immature little filly right."
Vinyl Scratch came down from the lighting booth, looking tired and annoyed. "Okay, great job everypony. Rares, how are the posters doing? I was thinking we could get some of those hung, then go caroling or something." That was one of the things Fluttershy admired about Vinyl. Her production team was her family. If she was working on something with other ponies, she was always willing to do something with those ponies.
"I've gotten about four of them done, I think I can get three more done tomorrow if you want me to."
"Awesome. We'll hang those up, then who wants to go caroling?"
Everypony let out a cheer of approval. "All right! Flutters, how about you and some other pegasi go and get those up, we'll follow you." Vinyl smiled.
Fluttershy took the finished posters from Rarity and went to get Derpy and Flitter.
**************
"What do you mean, you can't come?!"
Fluttershy flinched at the loud argument going on up in the lighting booth. "What's going on?" she whispered to Rarity, who was working on another poster.
"Light Wishes had some schedule complications and she can't sing tomorrow night." Rarity whispered back. "Looks like Vinyl has issues with that..."
"You know what, go. Just go. Okay!?"
This was followed by Light Wishes running out of the theater, and Vinyl slumping against the backstage door, looking hopeless. "Great. Just great. Now we need a new singer."
"I'll sing."
It took Fluttershy a moment to process the fact that she had just offered to sing.
In front of a huge crowd.
On a stage, where they'd be sure to see her.
And all eyes would be glued to her.
Staring at her.
Menacingly.
"Great! You'll be singing Jingle Bell Rock, is that alright?" Fluttershy nodded, numb to everything and everypony around her.
"Awesome! Thanks for filling in, Flutters, I know how nervous you get performing." Vinyl patted her encouragingly.
Fluttershy stared at Vinyl's departing back.
"Nononononononono!"
She ran over to Rarity and clung to her. "Why did I say that!? I can't sing up there! I'll ruin everything! And I don't want everypony looking at me!"
"Fluttershy, calm yourself!" Rarity near-shouted. Fluttershy sat quietly, still clinging to Rarity. "If you said that without realizing, deep down you must want to sing, right?" Fluttershy nodded.
"I guess so..."
"Then calm down. Why don't you sing a bit for me?" Rarity unhinged herself from Fluttershy's iron squeeze, then sat in front of her.
Fluttershy took a deep breath, and sang quietly.
"Jingle bell, jingle bell, jingle bell rock. Jingle bells swing and jingle bells ring. Snowin' and blowin' up bushels of fun. Now the jingle hop has begun"
Rarity clapped. "You really do sound good, darling!"
Fluttershy blushed. "You really think so?"
"Mhm. You'll do just fine. I promise."
The rest of preparations passed in a blur. Fluttershy moved through it unfeeling, too consumed with worry that she would fail. She could see it now, getting the words wrong, or messing up a note, all of them laughing at poor, pathetic little Fluttershy...
Before she knew it, it was almost seven-thirty, and Vinyl was giving everypony a pep talk.
"Okay, first off, thank you everypony that participated in preparing, you've all been a big help. Film Reel, you've got the camera ready, right? I can't wait to see Cheerilee's face once she hears we're donating all the ticket money to the school. They all thought it was just a Hearth's Warming concert." Film Reel nodded, and Vinyl wore a conspirator's grin. She glanced at the clock. "Fluttershy, come on out, it's time to start! Everypony in position!" Vinyl dashed up to the lighting booth, and Fluttershy headed onstage. The spotlight almost blinded her, and the crowd hushed almost instantly. She could almost feel their eyes on her.
"Um, hello everypony, my name is Fluttershy, and I'm going to be singing "Jingle Bell Rock" for you tonight, hope you all enjoy."
Deep breaths, Fluttershy. And she began to sing.
************
"That's the jingle bell, that's the jingle bell
That's the jingle bell rock!"
She had done it. She had sung it the whole way through. The crowd was silent.
"Go Fluttershy!"
It was Rainbow Dash, cheering for her even when nopony else would. Despite everything, she felt warm inside.
Slowly but surely, more and more ponies began to cheer, until the entire theater was roaring. Roaring for her, for poor little Fluttershy. She beamed. "Thank you. Thank you everypony. Now, Vinyl Scratch has a very important announcement to make."
Vinyl took the microphone, smiling wide. "Thank you, Fluttershy. I am happy to announce that we're going to be donating all the proceedings to Ponyville Elementary!"
More cheering, but Fluttershy couldn't care less. For up in the front row, Cheerilee was crying with joy.
She composed a letter in her head.
Dear Princess Celestia,
Today I learned that helping others takes a lot of courage, and sometimes you don't think you'll be able to make a difference. But if you give it your all, and do your very best, sometimes just being there to help them helps the most.
Your faithful subject,
Fluttershy
*******************
Author's Note
I did not write Jingle Bell Rock, that honor goes to Bobby Helms. I got the lyrics from MetroLyrics.
