It was the end of a particularly long week for Fluttershy; she and her friends were called off to save Equestria yet again. It was starting to get a bit old; the same six ponies seemed to be the only ones in all of Equestria that could solve any major problem that reared its ugly head. If Fluttershy had the audacity to do so, she would have started to question the competence of Celestia and Luna. However, she was far too timid to actually do that. It would have been disrespectful to the princesses. Besides, questioning their competence was a bit harsh anyway; they were the leaders of Equestria, the ones everypony looked to for guidance. They couldn’t fight every battle themselves, and even two great alicorn princesses needed an army. It was too bad that “army” was Fluttershy and her five friends since they all represented the six different Elements of Harmony. A part of Fluttershy wished that responsibility was never bestowed upon her. She was perfectly happy living out the rest of her days in her small cottage out on the edge of the Everfree forest, caring for her various animal friends. Although, having this responsibility did instill Fluttershy with a bit of pride, even though dealing with these major problems almost always ended with sore muscles and aching hooves. Shaking her head, Fluttershy didn’t want to dwell on this topic anymore. Right now all she wanted to do was take a nice, hot bath to relax away all of the stress brought on by this past week.

She walked at a leisurely pace along the familiar path that led to her cottage. The weather had begun its seasonal change to autumn. There was a slight chill to the air, not enough to require a jacket, but enough to let a pony know that winter was on the way. The trees had started to change colors from their lively green to various hues of yellow and orange. It was a season that Fluttershy enjoyed the most; the blistering heat of summer was gone, but the chilling cold of winter wasn’t quite here just yet. It was a happy medium.

Breathing a sigh of relief, Fluttershy finally arrived at her cottage. Not wasting any time, she pushed open the front door. Musty air rushed past her due to the house being closed off for so long. She took a long, slow inhale of the air regardless of its mustiness.

“Home sweet home,” she muttered.

Her belongings were as she left them when she had to leave several days back to assist with the saving of Equestria. Luckily for her, Discord no longer lived here since he could now be trusted enough to live in a place of his own. That was another thing that got a bit old, coming home to find that Discord had used his chaotic magic to create some crazy mishmash of something that barely resembled anything of this universe. She loved Discord as a friend, but he knew how to push a pony’s buttons. Even though Fluttershy said she was sad to see him move out, in a part of her mind she was happy. Happy that now she can have some peace and quiet, and that’s exactly what she needed right now.

Using her wing power, she made short work of opening all the windows in her cottage so the cool, autumn air could blow through and rid the house of its stale, musty smell. She worked as quickly as possible because her wings ached the most; the past couple of days she had to do more flying than what she was used to. Luckily for her, she was done in barely a minute. She tucked her sore wings to her side to continue on with whatever needed addressing.

She had one last thing to attend to before she could relax, Angel. Since Fluttershy was gone for so long, he had free reign of the house to do whatever he wished. It mainly involved him getting into something he wasn’t supposed to and/or making a huge mess for Fluttershy to clean up. Something he recently started doing was helping himself to her bed, usually right after Fluttershy had just finished making it. Reluctantly, she pushed open her upstairs bedroom door to find exactly what she expected. Her blanket and sheets were a wrinkled mess, food scraps were scattered everywhere, and Angel was sprawled out on the bed in a rather victorious pose.

“Really, Angel? Really?” Fluttershy deadpanned.

Angel responded in his usual manner, by twitching his nose, staring at Fluttershy like he had no idea what she was saying, and then taking off at a full sprint out the door.

“Celestia grant me strength,” Fluttershy muttered after an annoyed sigh.

She started with sweeping up the food scraps as best as she could. She really had no idea why he did this, but it was probably just to piss her off because he knew he could get away with it. Angel was becoming more and more like Opalescence every day. Once the rubbish was cleaned up, she pulled off the sheets and blanket so she could wash them…again.

After several minutes, the bed was made with a fresh set of sheets and a new blanket. Luckily for Fluttershy, Angel only did this when she was gone. She guessed he was smart enough not to do it while she was here and could catch him in the act.

Once that annoyance was taken care of, Fluttershy could finally start relaxing. She trotted down to the kitchen where the switch for the house’s water heater was. Since this house had an old fashioned boiler for hot water, she had to turn it on and wait a while for the water to warm up to the appropriate temperature so it could be usable for bathing or washing the dishes. It also meant she had to wait a little longer for her hot bath, but it was something she could tolerate. She didn’t have one of those fancy water heaters like Twilight or Rarity did which gave you hot water almost instantly, but it was fine; it reflected Fluttershy’s attitude of simpler is better. It sure beat taking a cold bath, which was something she didn’t even want to think about right now. It was bad enough that winter was on the way, which meant several months of snow and ice.

Seeing as how she had plenty of time to wait on her water to heat up, she took this opportunity to eat something, to which her stomach growled in agreement. In a medium sized salad bowl, she mixed a conglomeration of grass, hay, vegetables, and some edible flowers. It was a simple dish, but she liked it.

As she sat and ate her food, her mind wandered to her friends and all the adventures they had gone on together. It was one hell of a ride in which she was pushed way outside her comfort zone on more than one occasion. Even though it had brought a lot of hardship, it made her into the pony she is today and she wouldn’t have traded it for anything.

She continued munching through her meal while waiting on the water heater to warm up, which usually took no longer than twenty minutes. Pausing for a moment from her salad, she tested the temperature of the water by running some of the water from her kitchen sink faucet on one of her hooves. A moment was all it took; the temperature of the water was perfect. Excitement began to build up inside Fluttershy; it was bath time! She quickly wolfed down the rest of her meal and tossed the bowl in the sink. This was what she had been waiting for this whole time and her body was ready.

In the bathroom, Fluttershy began filling her bathtub with the warm water, after testing it again first. She liked her baths a little on the hot side, especially after a long week such as this. It took mere minutes for the tub to fill with the relaxing hot water.

Once she had all of the items she needed for bathing, she slowly eased herself into the tub so her body could get used to the warm water. She didn’t want to go too fast because that would be far too uncomfortable. Like everything she did, she did this at a slow, easy pace. Eventually she slid down into the tub where the water level came to her neck. Closing her eyes, she quickly dunked her head underwater to wet her face and the rest of her mane. Now, it was relaxation time. She sprawled her wings out in the tub so they could soak up as much of the relaxing warmth as they could; she let out a pleasurable moan as she did. The water felt amazing.

She loved taking these hot baths whenever she could. It reminded her of the few times she accompanied Rarity to the spa and why Rarity loves that place so much. It was nice, but you still had to pay a decent amount of bits for that place. Fluttershy liked taking a hot bath at home because she could do it for free. The warm water on her skin felt like an infinite number of hooves all working in unison to massage away the stress brought on by this hectic week. This was the life; she wished she could sit here all night. Unfortunately she couldn’t since all the heat from the water would eventually dissipate and would leave her sitting in an ice cold bath. She shook the thought of that out of her head and focused on the present.

Her mind wandered to the various villains she and her friends had to deal with ever since Twilight showed up in Ponyville. First was the return of Nightmare Moon and her almost ruining the Summer Sun Celebration. Next was Discord escaping from his stone prison and trying to turn Ponyville into the chaos capital of the world. Then who could forget Queen Chrysalis and her changeling army crashing Shining Armor and Cadence’s wedding? Next was King Sombra coming back to torment the ponies at the Crystal Empire. Yeah, that was fun. Spending a few days freezing her ass off up in the frozen tundra that was the Crystal Empire. Next was the time Twilight cast that spell that accidently caused their cutie marks to become mixed up. That was another fine mess. Then rounding it all up were the vine things from the Everfree forest, compliments of Discord, and finally Lord Tirek. Never a dull moment.

Before she started bathing herself, she took the time to give her wings a thorough preening. She didn’t have a chance to do it all week because of how busy she and her friends were. One by one she carefully plucked out any feathers that were loose while taking care to avoid pulling out any healthy ones. Since she had to use her mouth to do this, she had to take care where the loose feathers ended up. The larger ones were fine, but the smaller ones sometimes had a bad habit of getting stuck to her tongue. Even something as mundane as preening her wings felt amazing.

Once her wing preening was done, she took her time bathing herself, getting at every last nook and crevice of her body. The length of time was mainly from her savoring the warmth of the water for as long as she could. She liked to be clean although it wasn’t anywhere near Rarity’s level of cleanliness. That pony would make a fuss over a speck of dirt that somehow found its way into her mane.

With much disappointment, Fluttershy pulled herself out of the tub and quickly grabbed a towel to dry off with. She made haste with getting herself dry before a cool breeze caught her still wet body and sent a chill down her spine. Once as dry as she could get, she donned one of her fluffy bathrobes. It served two purposes, wicking away any excess moisture she may have missed and keeping her warm. It was autumn after all.

She pulled the drain stopper to let the water in the tub empty out and then headed back into her living room. She stopped in front of her stereo system that she had set up. It wasn’t anything too fancy, just two main speakers connected to an amplifier, followed by two subwoofers. She liked to feel her music as well as hear it, and the subwoofers did their job perfectly. It wasn’t anywhere near what a pony like Vinyl Scratch used. She could get her hooves on some professional concert grade equipment, including some speakers that looked like if you fed enough power into them, they could sonically destroy a house. Fluttershy didn’t need anything like that; she was perfectly happy with what she had.

She scrolled through her music player while deciding what artist she felt like listening to today. She was definitely feeling some Ponydweller today, and then following it up with some Blue Stallion. Those two artists had a good mix of the rock and electronic genre sound to their music, as well as a great deal of bass. It was one of those days and she wanted to listen to something with a lot of bass in it. She queued up the playlist of songs from those two artists, but didn’t start playing it just yet. She needed to get one more thing.

She trotted into the kitchen and flew up to a cabinet that was up near the ceiling. Luckily for her the bathrobe had wing holes in it so she wouldn’t have to take it off if she wanted to fly. The high cabinet was primarily to keep its contents away from snooping critters or curious fillies. This cabinet in particular held Fluttershy’s liquor stash. She opened the door to various bottles of different sizes and containing different colored liquids. Scooping up a hoofload of a few specific ones, she flew back down to the ground.

Taking an inventory, she had three bottles. The first was a yellow liquor made using a neutral spirit and over one hundred different herbs from all over Equestria, and then aged for several years. It had a distinct honey, citrus, and violet taste to it. The next bottle was a vanilla flavored liquor made with over thirty herbs and spices including star anise, juniper, and lavender. Last, but not least was a bottle of vanilla vodka. This liquor was created by ponies that resided in the frozen north, up near the Crystal Empire, by distilling potato skins and then adding some vanilla flavoring. It may seem like an odd choice of liquor to some ponies, and it was, but Fluttershy liked it. It was a recipe that she got from Princess Cadence of all ponies. She may have been the princess of love, but she knew her liquor.

After adding some ice cubes to a shaker, Fluttershy began to pour the perfect amount of each liquid into the shaker. She finished it off with a generous squirt of simple syrup because she liked sweet drinks and never could develop a taste for bitter ones. Besides, this drink called for some syrup anyway. She gave the shaker a hearty shake and then dumped the contents into a tall glass, ice cubes and all.

She took a sip of her concoction to make sure it was mixed to her liking, which it was. Maybe her true calling was being a bartender. That had a funny ring to it, Fluttershy the bartender. Although, Fluttershy didn’t think she would be able to deal with those drunk stallions and mares on a nightly basis.

After putting the three bottles back in their rightful place, she scooped up her drink and trotted back into the living room.

Now it was time for the second phase of her relaxation. She turned on the stereo system and hit the play button on her music player. The first song had a slow build up, so it gave her time to settle into her comfy couch that faced out toward an open window. She stared out at the wilderness landscape that lay just outside the window as the sound waves from the music washed over her. The sound was almost as relaxing as the hot bath. This was a guilty pleasure of hers; no other pony knew she was into this kind of music, other than Vinyl Scratch, whom Fluttershy procured most of these songs from. Everyone just knew her as regular timid Fluttershy, a pony that was almost afraid of her own shadow. Although, she was working on that, and trying to assert herself a little more; it was something she wanted to take baby steps with. No need to rush something like that and end up like when she had to deal with Iron Will.

For now, she only wanted to focus on one thing: relaxing. She lost herself in the music, taking regular sips of her drink, and daydreaming about whatever came to mind. The alcohol added to her relaxed state after the first couple of minutes due to Fluttershy’s low alcohol tolerance. She wasn’t one to drink very much and only did it on rare occasions such as this. It was the end of a long week, so she could let herself indulge a bit. Much like how Pinkie Pie rewarded herself with a sweet treat after she had accomplished some major goal. Although, the problem with Pinkie Pie, she rewarded herself for even the most mundane accomplishments such as going to the grocery store or selling a pie to somepony. It was surprising that she didn’t have diabetes yet. Must have been part of her special gift, other than throwing amazing, over-the-top parties. Regardless, it was still nice to unwind and reward yourself after some hard work.

Fluttershy once again lost herself in the music. The deep, booming bass seemed to penetrate all the way to her bones, massaging her aching muscles in the process. The only thing that would top this is a trip to the spa. It was tempting, but she didn’t feel like leaving the house. For now the loud music, comfy couch, and stiff drink would have to suffice. Maybe tomorrow she would treat herself to a trip to the spa. The thought of having a massage only tempted Fluttershy even more. It was settled; tomorrow, after completing her chores for the morning, she would treat herself to a spa trip. Maybe she would see if any of her friends would like to tag along. Rarity would definitely want to tag along; she went to the spa several times a week for any reason she could come up with. Twilight, Pinkie Pie, and AppleJack most likely would join, granted they weren’t busy with anything. The only one that wouldn’t join was Rainbow Dash; she didn’t care much for the spa, plus she had that phobia of other ponies touching her hooves.

Eventually, the playlist of songs came to an end, the sun had set, and Fluttershy’s glass was empty save for a few ice cubes. She had a good buzz going from her drink. One was usually her limit and she didn’t feel the need to drink more, which was confirmed as she stumbled a bit as she pulled herself off the couch. It was bedtime now anyway.

After clicking off the stereo, she carefully made her way back into the kitchen to deposit her glass in the sink to be washed tomorrow morning. Carefully, she closed the windows so no bugs or small critters could sneak in during the night. It took her longer this time since she didn’t want to rush in her buzzed state and end up injuring herself.

Once the last of the windows were closed and all the lights were out, she headed to her bedroom. The only thing that would cap this night off was if she had a nice stallion in bed to keep her warm at night. Although, she was much too shy to put herself out there to grab the attention of any eligible stallion bachelors. For now, her fluffy blanket would have to suffice. She tossed her bathrobe aside and climbed into her bed. The soft, feathery mattress cradled her body like a young foal being held by her mother. The alcohol made falling asleep rather easy, and it wasn’t long before she drifted off into a deep, restful sleep.

Author's Note

I started working on this story shortly after I started One Night with Celestia, but I stuck it on the back burner so I could finish One Night with Celestia. I've been working on this story on and off for a few months now. The inspiration came from the image that is the cover art for this story. It's nice at the end of a long day to take the time to relax and unwind. Whether it's taking a hot bath, watching a movie, playing a video game, listening to your favorite music, or having a good drink. It's nice to destress once in a while.

Also, I put a reference to some musicians in this story. Hint: They both are under the FixT record label.