“Please, Angel?”
The white bunny jolted his head away, folding his arms.
“Aw, c’mon,” Fluttershy begged, holding the carrot in front of him. “It’s your favourite, remember?”
Angel resolutely refused.
“I, um, I’ll leave it here for you,” Fluttershy conceded, placing the carrot beside Angel’s little blue bed.
Angel eyed the carrot warily, stamping a foot and hopping to the kitchen and pointing to the fridge, waving his paw about in frustration.
Fluttershy sighed, understanding Angel’s demands perfectly. “I’ll go get some asparagus,” the timid yellow pegasus conceded reluctantly, fastening two bags around her waist. Using her wings, she flipped the butterfly latches open and checked the amount of bits in her purse. Five cold coins stared back at her. That’ll be enough, she decided. I don’t want to wish I had more money, but... She wished she had more money.
“Okay, bye, Angel Bunny!” Fluttershy called, opening the door and shuffling outside. She closed it with a short click and trotted down the smooth stone pathway. Her animals greeted her with a variety of chirps, bleats, snuffling noises and squeaks. “Hello, cuties!” Fluttershy called happily, lifting her hooves high as she crossed a quaint wooden bridge, passing Berry Punch as she went. Fluttershy waved at the pink earth pony with a wing, and the gesture was returned – except Berry Punch didn’t have wings. She used her hoof.
Her shy personality didn’t mean she was unfriendly, exactly. She certainly enjoyed the company of others, and her confidence had been picking up lately. Saying hi to ponies in the street wasn’t a problem these days, but she wasn’t one to complain and ponies did tend to walk all over her because of that. But the pegasus kept going, trying her best to learn how to be more assertive and, most importantly to her, how to look after Angel better and make him happy without giving in to his every whim. Worry for the stubborn, demanding rabbit lightly poked her mind, requesting rather politely that she do something about his childish, selfish behaviour. It was but a slight prod, however, and Fluttershy knew that she had to be more confident for his sake-
“Hey, watch where you’re going!”
“Oh, my, I’m terribly sorry!” Fluttershy squealed, crouching in fright. She hid her face until the loud pony she had bumped into had left with an angry snort before picking herself up and continuing to the market, considerably disheartened. She flinched at every passing pony, jumping to the side a little when anything came too close.
Fluttershy lifted her head and halted suddenly, her teal eyes flaring in surprise. Without realising, she had managed to reach the centre of the market. Well, that’s good, she told herself, if a little surprising.
She scanned the area, looking for the fruit and vegetables section. Spotting the sign – an apple and a carrot painted onto a white background, making an arch over a path –, she smiled and trotted through the crowds of ponies, passing under the arch and searching for the correct stand.
It’s funny, Fluttershy thought, that each salespony seems to specialise in a single fruit or vegetable... She giggled slightly, lifting a hoof to her mouth so as not to disturb anypony. Once again, she looked around until her gaze snagged on a roughly scrawled, yet clear, picture of asparagus upon a wooden sign. The pegasus slalomed around each pony until she reached the queue; two ponies stood in front of her. She recognised the two pegasi as Raindrops and Sunny Rays – she had always got along with both of them, and they greeted her happily.
“See ya, Rays!” Raindrops called as Rays packed her bundle of asparagus into her bag, pushing the sun latches shut and giving Raindrops and Fluttershy a goodbye nod, flipping her bubblegum-coloured mane as she went.
“One bundle of asparagus, please!” requested the jasmine pegasus brightly, placing two bits on the counter. The brown stallion behind it nodded gruffly and hoofed over the asparagus, flipping the bits into a metal box.
“Oh, um... Bye, Raindrops!” Fluttershy called when she realised the weatherpony was leaving. Raindrops replied with something brief that Fluttershy didn’t quite catch; the tone was, however, friendly.
“Two bundles, please,” Fluttershy mumbled nervously, pushing four bits across to the stallion. He flung them into the moneybox and shoved the asparagus roughly towards the shy mare. She jumped back in alarm.
“Uh, thank you,” Fluttershy whispered, placing the goods in her off-white bags and backing off meekly.
Turning around, she broke into a canter and headed to the fence at the side of the market square, her eyes shut. As she reached the side, she stopped and opened her eyes, catching her breath. Slowly, she began to walk again, sticking to the sides and avoiding the crowd. She held her head low and began to make her way home to Angel.
Fluttershy sighed with relief as she left the market and entered main Ponyville, lifting her head slightly. Her candyfloss mane hid most of her face in a pink-tinted shadow. The asparagus salespony had frightened her more than the mare liked to admit, but she couldn’t quite figure out why.
A loud yell shook her thoughts violently out of her head as she collided painfully with something with a lot of parts sticking out. With a shriek, she and the object fell to the floor in a heap.
Fluttershy cowered, trembling, sharp pains pulsing all over her body.
“Oh my Celestia,” somepony whispered from above her. “Are you okay?”
The hurt pegasus merely whimpered, placing her hooves over her snout and her wings tucked close to her body. She heard the soft shimmering sound of unicorn magic and felt the debris of whatever she had crashed into lifted gently from around her.
“Miss?” the voice was questioning and shaky.
Fluttershy shook the dust and rubble out of her mane, and glanced up at the unicorn who had helped her. He offered a hoof out to the pretty pegasus and his face changed to one of shock and concern to one of amused nature. Fluttershy had the sort of eyes, he decided, that belonged to a startled rabbit or doe. They were innocent, young.
His mane was a tousled blonde and his coat was a wondrous shade of dusty blue-purple. He was smiling mischievously, almost as though he had planned the collision. Fluttershy followed his eyes and gasped at the perfectly captured image of the market imprinted on her chest. “Oh!” the startled pegasus squeaked, her eyes widening. She gaped, unable to shut her mouth.
“You look terrified,” the stallion chuckled. “Are you hurt at all?”
“Um, a little, but nothing lasting,” Fluttershy replied quietly, shaking a wing without looking away from her chest.
“My name is Ponet.” The stallion held out a hoof. Fluttershy hesitated for rather a long time before timidly raising her own; Ponet grasped it and shook firmly. Fluttershy pulled away and hid behind her mane with a squeak.
The handsome stallion blinked, looked at the smashed easel and sighed. “You managed to wreck my painting well and good, eh?” He chuckled weakly, running a purple hoof through his mane.
“Oh, I’m – I’m so sorry, Mr, um, Ponet!” Fluttershy squeaked.
“It’s alright. There’s a perfect replica on your chest.” His laugh was sincere this time as he slowly brushed Fluttershy’s pink mane away from her face. “C’mon, darling, you don’t have to hide in there. I won’t bite, I promise.”
Slightly reassured, the yellow mare raised her head. Her teal eyes caught with Ponet’s... and entangled themselves.
Unable to break eye contact and not honestly wanting to, both ponies were completely entranced. For Fluttershy, it was one of the first times she had ever actually looked into another pony’s eyes – other than her family and friends’ – and she was utterly enthralled. It was true, what they said, about the eyes being the windows to the soul. There were swirls and surges of emotion, currents rushing past and fading... it was like the ocean.
Ponet just loved Fluttershy’s eyes. Their curved shape, their subtle colour, their simple innocence and honesty...
Fluttershy blinked, and they both looked away, blushing.
“That was... kind of cliché,” Ponet mumbled weakly, the light pink dancing across his cheeks strengthening to a colour remarkably reminiscent of Pinkie Pie’s mane.
“Um, I’m terribly sorry about your painting,” Fluttershy tried.
“You don’t need to apologise twice,” Ponet assured her. With a nod of his head, they silently agreed to put aside the earlier... awkward moment. A dusky grey-green light shone from the tip of his horn and enveloped a large piece of wood from the demolished easel, gathering the pieces into a pile ready for removal. Fluttershy, noticing her bent legs, straightened and began nosing together the last pieces of broken wood.
“I’ll take these pieces back to mine,” Ponet declared, levitating the three largest planks in a bundle. “As for those...” he hoofed the ground.
“I will take them,” Fluttershy said quickly. I can use them to repair the chicken coop, she though as she checked her saddlebag. The asparagus was fine. She blinked and shoved as many pieces of wood as possible into the second, empty saddlebag. Two planks fell to the floor, and Fluttershy sighed.
“Here, let me help you with that,” Ponet offered, lifting the wood into his floating bundle.
“Oh, no, you really don’t have to,” Fluttershy murmured, raising a hoof slightly.
Ponet shook his head. “Really, it’s no trouble.”
“Uh, okay...” Fluttershy lowered her head and, slowly, nervously began to head home with Ponet.