An Overgrown Attachment

It's been about two weeks since your arrival to Ponyville. You've met almost everypony in this small town, making every encounter you had a little more friendly. You've even gotten the opportunity to see the many hot spots that ponies told you about. But your best experience by far was finally being able to see the nature.

Sadly though, you haven't been able to go back to Fluttershy's and see anymore of the wildlife ever since your first day. You've been too busy with your new job as part of Ponyville's Weather Team. It's eaten up a lot of your time, but at least you haven't had to worry about making enough bits to stay here.

Plus, your job isn't all that bad. You get to hangout with a lot of other ponies and make friends. Your boss, the rainbow maned Rainbow Dash from before, actually does a really good job with the organization and treats you all pretty well. But you still wish that you had more time for leisure.

And today was just like any other day: get ready and wait for Rainbow to knock at your front door. Since you were "new," she always gave you the harder and more persistent jobs, which ate up almost all of your time. You thought she must be trying to evaluate or test you, but if not, you might as well try to get used to it.

Then, the awaited firm knock at the door arrives. You trot over and open it to reveal Rainbow, as expected.

"Hi" you greet her with a smile, just like any other day.

"Hey... So I noticed that these last two weeks you've been putting a lot of effort and dedication into the assignments I've been giving you. And as a reward, I wanted to give you the day off" she says with her familiar confident smile.

Stunned, and barely concealing your excitement, you barely mutter a "Thank you."

"No problem. But I do expect that tomorrow, you'll be in tip-top shape for work," Rainbow says.

"Of course," you respond.

And with that, she flies off to deliver the assignments to the other pegasi. You shut your front door after her absence. "Yes!" you scream.

With your day-off, your thoughts immediately began pondering what your day would entail. First, you would head to Sugarcube Corner where you could get some great morning pastries. From there, you could go see Fluttershy and the animals. And then, you could even go catch the Wonderbolts show in Cloudsdale. So excited for the day, you rush out of the house and head straight for your first destination.

You trot through the streets of Ponyville, giving and receiving greetings from everypony you pass. And you eventually arrive at Sugarcube Corner. The gingerbread-ish house always leaves your mouth watering when you enter it.

You push the front door open to reveal Pinkie Pie behind a counter of sweets.

"Hi there! Anything I can get for you?" she asks in her quick and hyped-up manner.

Since it was breakfast time, you wanted something simple, like a muffin. "Can I get..."

"We have sugar danishes, puff pastries, pinwheel pastries, croissants, cupcakes, cinnamon twists, muffins.."

"I'l take a muffin," you say, knowing she would go on forever if you hadn't stopped her.

"Well, what kind?" she asks, but before you can utter a response, she immediately continues, "We have blueberry muffins, cranberry muffins, cinnamon muffins, chocolate muffins, pumpkin spice muffins, lemon poppy-seed muffins, ooh ooh, or..."

"I'll just take anyone of those," you say. All of them sounded really good, and you couldn't just sit there, listening to her list off every possible muffin, there were other things you had planned.

She plops a random muffin into a bag and hands it over.

"Thank you," you say before exiting.

Once you leave, you and your random muffin go and take a seat at the nearest bench. You reach into the bag to find a poppy-seed muffin. Yum. You sit there, until the entire muffin is gone, before getting up and heading for Fluttershy's.

On your trot to her cottage, you daydream about all the creatures you'll be able to see.

When you finally arrive, you slowly approach the nice wooden door before softly knocking.

After several light thuds of your hoof hitting the door, you can hear approaching hooves from the other side.

Then, the wooden door opens, revealing Fluttershy. You watch as her expression changed immediately when she saw you.

"Hi Fluttershy" you greet her.

She doesn't move. It's as if she is utterly shocked that you came back, as if that's an abnormality with the ponies she meets.

"Oh, hi" she responds, with a smile growing at an exponential rate.

"Sorry I haven't been able to see you in a while. My new job has been taking up a lot of time lately" you apologize.

"N-No worries, at least you're finally here" she responds in her sweet and comforting voice. "W-Would you like to come inside?" she asks, opening the door fully.

You accept her invitation and step inside. You'd never actually been in her cottage before, you'd only seen it from the outside. And similarly to the exterior, the interior had bird houses in every direction you faced. In addition, there was a couch and soft lounge chair on the opposite side of the room. The light colors of the room also added to the comfortable atmosphere of the house.

Fluttershy trots over to the lounge chair and asks you to sit in the couch next to her. You happily oblige and take a seat.

Then she began, "So tell me everything that's happened since we met."

When you begin telling her of your experience since having met her, you realize the complete and utter concentration that she has on you. You tell her about the good, like all the great friendships that you've made since your arrival. And even some of the bad, like how much time your new job has taken up.

Eventually though, you've ran out of things to tell her about, and thus ask her a question. "How about you? What have you been up to since we met?"

"Oh, me? I've just been tending to the animals, making sure Angel and the other critters are happy. And although I love their company, I've still felt lonely since you left" she says with blushing cheeks.

"Well if you felt lonely, why not just invite one of your close friends like Rainbow or Pinkie?" you ask with a puzzled expression.

"It's just not the same" she says.

"What do you mean?"

"Well, I see how much you care for the animals. Like how I do! I've never met another pony who loves little wooden creatures as much as me. And, I don't know, I feel that we have so much in common. From the very first day I saw you, I felt a strong connection between us." Fluttershy says with a hefty smile.

You return her smile with your own, while also taking a quick peek at the clock on the wall. '2:26' it reads. Uh oh! The Wonderbolts show starts at 2:30!

Your smile immediately vanishes as you get off the couch. You look back to see Fluttershy's grin disappear as well, as her face picks up a concerned look.

"Where are you going?" she quickly asks.

"I'm so sorry Fluttershy, but I've got to go. I'm going to be late for the Wonderbolts show! Let's talk later though" you respond, hurriedly making your way to the door.

As you get closer to the front door, you reach for its handle. But all of a sudden, you feel something flat and hard knocking you off balance from behind, while a loud metal sound rings throughout the room. You fall, your side landing on the hard wood floor. And then, your vision begins to blur before going completely black. The last thing you hear before losing consciousness is Fluttershy, "I'm sorry, but I can't let you go so soon."