Fluttershy awoke to the sound of her various pets going at it in her living room. Despite the abhorrent, ear-rending sound—which the average pony would have clawed their eardrums out upon hearing—Fluttershy took it in stride, climbing out of her less-than-comfortable (due in part to the animal feces) bed with an audible groan. As she made her way to the bathroom, she took a quick glance at herself in the mirror on the vanity.
She sighed. Still uglier than Rarity, she thought to herself.
She performed her usual morning ritual; she brushed her hair. That’s it. After all, what’s the point in brushing her teeth if she’s just going to get worm guts in them when she feeds her birds?
As she made her way downstairs, she mentally went through the list of things she had to do that day.
Feed Angel, feed the rest of the animals after him (with lower quality food, of course), and then… um, what else? Hmm.
Fluttershy came to the sudden—and somewhat depressing—realization that she had absolutely nothing to do today other than tending to her animals. What had her life become? She could spend time with her friends, of course, but their bright personalities would completely overshadow her weak, quiet demure.
She sighed again. What am I supposed to do?
As she poured Angel Bunny’s expensive, imported food into a gigantic, mammoth-sized bowl, she thought she heard something. She stopped.
“H-hello?” she called out.
Stupid bitch, giving me this shit again.
“What in the world?” she exclaimed in surprise.
Looking around, she couldn’t pinpoint the source of the noise.
Who in Equestria was that?
Sighing—once again—in resignation, she continued pouring Angel’s unnecessarily large amount of food.
Ugh, I eat this crap every single day. I wish she’d just buy me something else.
Fluttershy gasped. Looking at Angel Bunny, who sat there with his usual unappreciative expression, she tilted her head. “Angel?”
He looked up at her curiously.
“D-do you like the food I give you?”
Angel began to sweat. Smiling nervously, he nodded his head in a rapid manner.
Well that was suspicious, she thought to herself.
She decided to brush it off as her mind simply playing tricks on her, and proceeded to continue feeding the rest of her animals. However, one by one, she swore she could hear numerous murmurs and exclamations of indignation for the food she was serving them.
Damn it, this again?
Wow, I’m so sick of this food.
Am I only one who is profoundly disturbed by the fact that none of us would survive if this pegasus didn’t pour us food every single day? Wow, we are pathetic.
Holy shit. I’m a fucking chicken. My life literally has no meaning.
“What’s going on?” Fluttershy asked, eliciting strange glances from her animals.
They were clearly unaware of her newfound ability, and the fact that she could hear all of their complaints. If they were aware, they would likely attempt to direct their thoughts away from the subject currently on their minds, as their fear of “The Stare” greatly outweighed their hatred for the food she was giving to them.
In truth, Fluttershy had never experienced anything like this. What should she do? Perhaps Twilight would have an idea…
----------
Fluttershy carefully knocked on Twilight’s door. As she stood there, waiting for the unicorn to let her in, she became increasingly anxious.
The walk here from her cottage had been bad enough. It wasn’t long before Fluttershy realized that her new telepathic abilities applied to other ponies, as well. As such, she felt the full barrage of everyponys’ thoughts as she made her way through town, completely unbeknownst to them. As such, well… everypony—regardless of gender—seemed to have rather naughty thoughts most of the time. It had never occurred to Fluttershy that other ponies thought of that sort of thing quite so often.
It made her very uncomfortable, needless to say.
As she stood there, quietly but impatiently awaiting Twilight to invite her inside, a large stallion—quite virile in appearance and mannerism—walked past her in front of the library. Being particularly close in proximity, Fluttershy couldn’t help but give a friendly wave and smile in his direction as an indication of common courtesy and neighborliness.
That’s all it took.
Mmm, what a cutie, she heard from him. I’d love to show her a good time. A pound here. A ram there. Oh, sweet Celestia, I’d love to lick—
Fluttershy’s face flushed red upon hearing these abhorrent thoughts. Oh, hurry up, Twilight! she thought to herself, holding her hooves to her ears in an attempt to block out the distasteful thoughts that intruded her mind, as if that would help. I don’t know how much more of this I can take!
As it turned out, Twilight was not the one to answer the door, but rather, her young assistant Spike. He stood at the doorway with a blank expression for a moment before looking up at her and smiling widely. “Hey, Fluttershy! What’s up?”
“Oh, um…” she trailed off, bracing herself for another barrage of mental vulgarities. To her surprise, none could be heard at present.
She sighed in relief. “Hello, Spike. I was actually looking for Twilight. Is she around?”
There was no visible change in his expression, but she could hear the disappointment at that request. Of course. Twilight this. Twilight that. Why doesn’t anypony ever need me?
“Sorry, Fluttershy. You just missed her,” he explained. “I think she said she was headed for Sugarcube Corner, but I could be wrong.”
In truth, Fluttershy felt bad for the young dragon. Too often was he brushed aside, despite the numerous things he’d done for everyone in the past. Maybe she would show her appreciation sometime in the future by baking him a gem-filled pie.
Focus, Fluttershy. One thing at a time. First, I need to figure out how to fix my own problems.
“Oh, okay. Well, thanks anyway, Spike!” she said, turning in the direction of town and giving him a friendly wave.
“No problem. See ya soon!” he said, waving back and promptly closing the door in front of him.
She sighed. Back to town, I guess…
----------
Did everypony in Ponyville have a dirty mind? Everywhere she went, Fluttershy heard almost nothing but awful thoughts coming from everypony in town. Was there nothing else worthwhile to think about?
When she finally reached Sugarcube Corner, Fluttershy dipped her head in a silent prayer. Please let Twilight be here. Please, oh please let Twilight be here!
She opened the door to the particularly flamboyant bakery, and breathed a deep sigh of relief when she saw Twilight at one of the tables further back, in addition to Applejack, Rainbow Dash, Pinkie Pie and Rarity. The five of them seemed to be conversing about something inconsequential, as Pinkie Pie—as usual—had an enormous smile plastered on her face, and everyone else seemed anything but serious.
Good, she thought, so this isn’t a bad time or anything.
She approached her friends with caution, trying her very best to ignore the always-filthy thoughts of those around her. It then occurred to her that her friends probably had those exact types of thoughts.
She stopped in her tracks to consider this for a moment. Do I… she zoned out for a moment. Do I really want to hear those thoughts from them, of all ponies? I know it’s going to happen, so…
She stood there, silently considering her options as a few ponies gave her strange looks. Considering she was just standing there in the middle of the bakery, it likely appeared quite odd to others.
Well, I suppose there really isn’t any other way. Let’s just hope my friends’ thoughts aren’t too awful.
With that, she made her final steps towards her friends. When they noticed her approaching, their faces lit up with delight.
“Hey there, Fluttershy!” Rainbow Dash said. “I tried to find you earlier. We decided to grab a bite to eat. Wanna join us?”
Fluttershy gulped. Looking around, she knew that at any moment now, the torrent of unwanted thoughts would begin their assault on her fragile mind.
She quickly glanced at the alicorn, who was taking a sip of her tea. Mmm, she could hear emanate from Twilight’s mind.
Well, innocent enough, Fluttershy decided.
“Umm, that sounds lovely, Rainbow, but actually, I really need to talk to Twilight first.”
“Oh, okay!” Rainbow said, settling back in her seat.
Man, she seems weird today, she heard. I wonder what the heck is— whoa! Check out the rippling muscles on that guy! I’d love to shove his—
Fluttershy squeaked.
“What is it, Fluttershy?” Twilight asked.
“Actually, I was hoping I could talk to you about something, you know… alone,” she said hesitantly.
“Oh, well… okay.” Twilight got up from her seat. “Where did you want to talk?”
“O-outside… behind the bakery, if that’s okay.”
The others gave each other weird looks.
Good heavens. There must be something seriously wrong if she needs to speak with Twilight alone, Rarity thought. I hope the dear isn’t— Oh, goodness! His outfit is atrocious! The colors clash so awfully with his coat and mane.
Fluttershy sighed in relief. At least somepony has other things on her mind.
The walls need repainting and ooh those cupcakes look delicious but I wonder what Fluttershy’s deal is with the size of those cupcake in comparison to the others so I wonder how many I can fit in there at once considering the circumference of my mouth times the radius cubed times pi times—
Pinkie Pie.
“Um, alright. If you say so,” said Twilight.
As the two of them made their way outside, Fluttershy couldn’t help but be immensely relieved for the twelfth time that day.
----------
“So wait… lemme get this straight. You can read everyponys’ thoughts, just like that?” Twilight asked incredulously.
“Yes,” answered Fluttershy. “Which reminds me, if you could keep those kinds of thoughts to a minimum, that would be much appreciated.”
“Those kinds of thoughts? What do you mean by—” Twilight’s face went red with realization. “Oh, goodness. Have you been getting a lot of those?”
Fluttershy nodded sheepishly.
“I’m so sorry. I know how disturbing that must be for you. Honestly, I have no idea why this happened so… well, randomly! Regardless, I think I know how to fix it. Hold still.” Twilight’s horn glowed with a magical aura as she prepared to cast the necessary spell… whatever it was.
The process lasted for no more than thirty seconds. Her horn dimmed just as suddenly as it had lit up, and the spell should have supposedly fixed everything.
“Alright, that should do it,” Twilight insisted. “Here. To make sure it worked, try to read my mind. I’m gonna think of something really simple.”
“O-okay.”
Fluttershy put every ounce of concentration she had into hearing Twilight’s thoughts, but alas, there was only silence.
At that, Fluttershy breathed one final sigh of relief. “Phew. I’m so glad that’s over with. Thank you, Twilight.”
Twilight smiled. “Don’t mention it. Did you wanna join us for a bite to eat, now?”
“Actually, I think I’m going to go home and lie down for awhile. Today has been quite exhausting.”
----------
As Fluttershy made her way back through town towards her cottage, words could not describe the relief she was feeling at that moment. The disgusting thoughts of others, gone! Finally, she could have some peace and quiet in her own head.
A quiet nap sounds absolutely wonderful right— Oh… my. That’s quite the… dashing stallion. I wonder…
At that, the stallion in question turned his head towards Fluttershy and smiled suggestively. “Well, there’s more where that came from, pretty lady. I can show you my collection, if you’d like.”
“What in the… oh, no…”
“Oh, yes,” the stallion corrected.
At that, Fluttershy immediately turned tail and galloped in the direction of Sugarcube Corner.
“TWILIGHT!”
