An Unexpected Discovery

Hi, I'm Matt.

I live in a small town on the outskirts of Chicago. Life here is great. I have some lovely next-door neighbors, and nothing really beats the quietness of my neighborhood. On weekends, I love to hit the local bar and have a couple of drinks with my buddies. Life truly is great. I only thought about it that way until I was forced to move to another realm.. I'll tell you about that later.

One morning, I woke up in my apartment and got dressed. The usual routine. I went into the kitchen, opened the fridge and found that I was pretty low on food. That's never good, because I'm always pretty lazy to go to the store to buy anything. I knew that I'd probably have a pretty bad day if I didn't eat breakfast, so I reluctantly put my shoes on and went out the door.

I don't have a car, so I have to walk to the grocery store every week or two, but the walk isn't painfully far. I began my walk down the street, took a right, and pressed the button to wait for the stoplight to allow me to walk across the street. I then proceeded to take a left, and then the store came into view.

I walked inside the store, grabbed a basket, and began reading through my list. I picked up what I needed, like bacon, mini-sausages, orange juice, pancake mix, milk, eggs, and vegetable oil. That was just what I needed for breakfast. I was just dying to eat, being unable to wait to get home so I could dig into a delicious breakfast.

I payed for everything I just grabbed, and started to make my way home. I took the same route as I did to get there, only in reverse. Once I got home, I almost immediately began making breakfast out of what I had bought from the store. I followed the directions on the back of the box of pancake mix, being careful to add not too much, nor too little, of each ingredient. While the pancakes cooked on a large frying pan, I ripped open the bag of sausages and put a good amount (probably four or five, I can't exactly remember now that I'm writing it) into another slightly smaller frying pan. After a few minutes, I flipped the pancakes and the sausages. They looked delicious, and perfectly cooked on one side. I felt good about myself at that moment, knowing that I'm an acceptable cook.

When everything was finished cooking, I set out a plate for myself and put three pancakes and four sausages on it. They smelled delicious. I like my syrup warm, (but, then again, who doesn't?) so I threw a small cup of it into the microwave for a couple of seconds. I spread the syrup across the pancakes and sausages, and took a bite. Delicious. I savoured every last bit, and before I knew it, everything went from the plate to my stomach.

I then put the plate and used utensils into the sink, knowing and reminding myself that I had to wash the dishes at some point. Once all that was done, I was completely bored. I was lonely in my apartment, being the only one living there, so I decided the only two options I had were to watch TV, or play a game on my PC. I decided to do the laziest thing, which was sit on the couch for an hour or two and watch TV. I proceeded to do just that, I let myself fall onto the couch, and put my feet up on the arm rest of the other end. I hastily grabbed the remote for the TV, which was just waiting for me on the wooden coffee table in front of me. I pressed the red 'on/off' button on the remote and watched as the television sprang to life, but much to my disappointment, I saw that the childish show "My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic" was currently on the channel I had turned my TV on to. I let out a groan as the theme song briefly filled my head before I quickly changed the channel to something more appropriate for my age.

Two hours of shows later, I was bored of watching TV. I flicked it off and lazily got up off the couch, and walked into my bedroom to be greeted by my computer, my bed, and the light coming from the window. I walked across the floor, making occasional creaks come from the wooden floorboards under my bare feet. I sat down in my comfortable office chair, wiggled my mouse, and turned on the monitor.

I was greeted with my desktop, with very few icons covering my sarcastic wallpaper. It was something I came up with in Photoshop, just because I love simple wallpapers. It's basically a white background with three sentences:

You were probably expecting a background full of my interests.

Well, I think we both know this isn't what you were looking for.

Here's a white background instead.

I always get a good chuckle out of my own sarcasm. I took a few seconds to admire it before opening the browser. I was out of ideas for things to do, so I thought I'd look at a news site. Even though news sites aren't always that interesting, I thought it was worth a look. I typed the address into the bar at the top of my screen and pressed enter. My internet was being fairly slow that day, so I just waited. Waited, and waited, and waited, and waited. After two minutes of nothing showing up on the screen, I was fed up with it and closed the browser. I turned off my monitor and got up from my chair.

I decided there was nothing better to do than take a walk through the neighborhood. I walked at a moderate pace through the doorway of my bedroom, down the hallway, and over to the doormat at my front door. I slid on my shoes and opened the door before closing it behind me once I was outside, and locked it with the key I was given by my landlord when I first moved in.

I forgot to mention that the apartment block I was situated in had a slightly scary means of leaving and entering each apartment. The back of the apartment was the easiest way to get in, since it was closest to the parking lot. This meant that to get to each apartment, one had to walk up the rickety, rusted metal fire-escape stairs to get in and out of each apartment. This was especially creepy for people who were particularly afraid of heights, one of those people being me.

I walked carefully down the stairs, hearing faint sounds of metal meeting shoe as I took each step. Once at the bottom, I began to walk onto the sidewalk. I walked down the concrete sidewalk while listening to the sounds of car engines, horns blaring, and faint footsteps of other people nearby.

The town is known to have a lot of litter and garbage all over the place, so it was no surprise to see a lot of garbage spread across the street and sidewalks. I kept walking before hearing something.. It sounded strange. Like very faint squeaking. It seemed to be coming from one of the many alleyways throughout the streets. I decided that it must be a small animal trying to find its way home, but probably got lost along the way.

I made my way closer to the noise. As I walked, the squeaking became more audible. I started to feel worried about it, being the mostly kind person that I am. My walking speed started to increase into a speed-walk, trying to find the source of the sound. Once it was very easy to hear, I could now hear the squeaking echoing through the alleyway that was before me.

I slowly crept through the short alley, still trying to find the source of the already easily audible sound. I kept making my way down the brightly-lit alleyway before stopping. I could easily hear the sound, almost as if it was right in front of me. I looked around before settling my gaze on a box. It was making the slightest movements, almost as if whatever was inside wanted to get out. I ever so slightly made my way over to the box until I was standing right in front of it. Whatever was inside seriously wanted to get out.

I was quite nervous that what I found inside might be harmful to me, but since it sounded so harmless by the little squeaks it was making, I wasn't as nervous as I was a few minutes ago. I started to open the flaps on top of the box. The suspense was killing me. I quickly opened the flaps just enough to see what was inside, but what I saw was just mesmerizing.

Standing before me, sleeping inside the box, was a little Pegasus filly. She had her eyes closed, and was snoring in a way that when she exhaled, she made the most adorable little squeaks, most likely the noises that drew me to this little creature. I was absolutely astonished by what lay before me, inside this small cardboard box.

The little filly had a short pink mane, with a light-yellow coat. She was curled up under the protection of her little pink tail, still sleeping as I tried to be as quiet and careful as possible not to wake her. Once I averted my gaze from the little Pegasus, I looked to see if there was anything else in the box or around it, something to help me understand where this adorable little creature came from.

What caught my eye, however, was a small piece of paper, which almost looked like a scroll, judging by the faded and ripped texture and color of it. It rested just beside the little filly, so I had to be careful when I picked it up. Much to my surprise, as I carefully removed the slip of paper from the box, she did not wake up. Not even a hint that she could feel my presence.

Eager to find out what was on the note, I quickly unfolded it and looked at what was written on it. There was one word, which I assumed was the name of this little creature.

Fluttershy

"Fluttershy, huh?" I whispered quietly, being careful not to wake her up, "That's a nice name. I wonder where you came from?"

I wanted so badly to know more about the adorable little thing, but I knew the only way to get to know her more was to take her home with me. Well, since she was just left there, and her name was on a slip of paper, I thought she must have been abandoned.

Wanting so badly to take her with me, I tried my hardest to ever so carefully lift the box she was snuggled up inside so as to not wake her. I was surprised to know that she wasn't very heavy, weighing just a few pounds. She was the lightest equine I had ever seen. I also was relieved to know that she didn't wake up as I carried her in the box, with the flaps closed as to not reveal to any passersby that there was a creature inside the box.

I slowly walked, being careful not to wake her, down the sidewalk towards my apartment. This might be interesting, I thought, as I kept walking towards my apartment.