The Sad Song of Fluttershy

She unlocks the door and walks in. The entire building then flares up with sounds. What you can hear in the darkness is barks, meows, and wings flapping. "Hold on, I'll get the light." You hear her shoes hitting the floor. Sounds like it's tile. The fluorescent lights flicker on, few of them continue on flickering. When you get a better view of the store, makes you feel unwelcome. The baby blue walls are chipped, the floor tile floor is cracked or missing a piece, and a few of the cages are rusty. This place looks barely livable for anyone or anything. "Everyone, calm down. This is a friend." May of the animals stop hitting or scratching their cages and start moping. If you were to guess, they're begging. "Sorry about that, they aren't used to people other than me here."

"Yeah, I can tell." You walk along with her and get deeper in the store. As you walk by the cages, the dogs whimper or scratch the door. The scratching isn't to frighten you, but rather, they want to get out. What the hell is going on? "Fluttershy, what's wrong with them?"

She stops and looks down. "They want to be adopted." That's pretty obvious. "This place, they never get used to it."

"It's better than the streets, right?" You question the standards for the animals.

"For a few of them, yes. Others prefer to stay in an alleyway in the city." Refusing a roof and place to eat? That's just messed up. You look around in each cage. The food bowls look like they're full, and the water looks like it's half empty.

"What's up with their food? It looks like they never touched it."

"I usually overfeed them, just in case of something happens, like band practice." Makes sense, since Rainbow tried to push it to us earlier. "Please, follow me." You do so and look at the cages passing by. Each dog or cat you pass seem to either be excited or worried. Looks like people don't come here often.

"Fluttershy, how often does this place get volunteers?"

She stops again. You see her hands clench into fists. "Y... you're the only one." She chokes on her own words.

You walk over and rest a hand in her shoulder. "Come on, others came over right?" Fluttershy immediately turns around and clutches you. Her face is buried into he center of your chest.

"You're the only one who ever came!" She muffles into your shirt. You decided to let her sob into your cotton shirt and comb over her hair with your hand. This went on for a few minutes while the crying slowly dies down. As it finally was just a few sniffles, you thought of something to keep her distracted.

"Hey, how about we finally help the animals?"

Fluttershy didn't make a sound when you said that. "That's... Not the reason why I brought you over." She releases you from her pity hug and heads into the back room. You follow her into it, regardless if it does creep you out. It looks like a room for a young girl. Some plush animals on the bed, a desk with a mirror, pretty much stuff for a teenage girl, only more rundown.

"Do you live here?" She ignores your question, and walks over to a door beside her bed. It reveals to contain a bunch of supplies. Tiles, paint cans and brushes, hot glue gun, light bulbs, all the necessary stuff to make this place back up in shape.

"I've invested so much into this place. Even if I live here, it's not enough time to get me started on it." She sits on the side of her bed.

"What about your family?" Almost on cue, she cries onto her hands. That already tells you enough about her relations with them. You walk over and sit beside her. "I'm sorry to ask. I didn't know that you were all alone this entire time."

"I'm always alone!" Fluttershy wraps her hands around her pink hair. You laid a hand on the side of her waist and let her tilt a little to you.

"I'll be here. I'll help out the best that I can." Her hands slide out of her hair and she looks up to face you.

"You, won't leave me?"

You put a hand under her chin and use the other to wipe a tear away from her face. "I'll always be around." A small smile cracks the side of her check. She lays her head on the side of your arm. How cute. Too bad you have to ruin this for something. That something is, what is up with the song she gave you? What's so important about it? You will hold onto that for later. Right now, you want to help her out with whatever you can. "You want some help with changing a few lights?"

She shines those lovely blue eyes at you. "You, want to h-help?"

You chuckle."Isn't that the reason on why I'm here?"

"Well, n-not entirely." She sheepishly rubs the back of her neck. "C-can we discuss this, maybe later?" Cute, weird, and strange.

"Sure, the lights won't change themselves."

Both of you give out a half-assed laugh and get up. "You're really great Anon."

"Nah, I just help those who need it."

"Oh, uh, okay then." She mumbles out. You walk past her and start to get a light bulb and a screwdriver.

After you tighten the last bolt, you look down to see Fluttershy smiling. "There, that's the last one."

"Thank you for doing this. I really appreciate it since, I can't go higher than the first step."

"It's not a problem, learned it from my dad." You say while putting the screwdriver away.

"What does he do?"

"Electrician, I tag along when it's the weekend." You get off at the final step and set the screwdriver aside. Just as you do, she wraps her arms around you.

"You're so brave, Anon."

"Come on, it's just a few light bulbs."

"No, I mean it. Staying here, not afraid of anything, not even if the lights might explode or afraid of falling from such a hight."

"Fluttershy, I was only five feet off the ground."

"I can't even imagine how it would look up there." You shake your head and stop when your phone goes off. You get it out to check that it is a message. it's your mom, saying "Where are you?"

"Is everything alright?" Fluttershy asks.

"Yeah, just need to send a quick message." You send a message back. 'Helping out a friend, might come home late.' You put it back in your pocket and see that Fluttershy is concerned at something.

"Do, you need to go?"

"No, I can stay a little longer."

"A-are you sure? I don't want you to get in trouble or anything."

"Don't worry, my parents are usually fine with it."

"Oh, okay then." Your stomach grumbles. You had to skip out lunch today. Then again, it was taco Tuesday. Actual shit in a shell, and yet Sonata is able to stand that crap. "A-are you hungry? I know a place down the street."

"Sure, I can go for a bite."

"Eee! I'll get dressed." She runs back into her room. You decided to start to put the stuff away buy folding the ladder up and setting it aside at a corner. The screwdriver is beside it, now all that leaves is the box filled with these worn out light bulbs. It's best to just leave it on the counter for now, you can barely thing with this damn stomach smacking you a bit. "Okay, I'm ready." She comes back out, wearing a dark blue dress and matching shoes.

"Woah."

"Oh dear, I should have worn something a little more simpler. Is it too much?" You look on how it's a little shorter than her usual green skirt. "I'll go change real fast."

"It's great, I like it." She blushes while playing with her hair. "Come on, let's go for that restaurant."