Fluttershy made her slow way back home. She was deliberately taking her time, thinking about what would happen after today. She decided to try whatever Twilight said about noticing things, just to see if it would actually get her anywhere. She took a deep breath and opened her eyes, then opened her eyes again. What she saw was overwhelming for her. Fluttershy had never taken this much attention to everything, that was the sort of thing unicorns like Twilight did. She saw, or rather, observed her friend Applejack trying to help her sister and her friends to get their cutie mark, sadly failing, the apple stall hardly getting any customers. Sweetie Belle should really think about her singing talent, thought Fluttershy. She saw Pinkie through the window of Sugarcube Corner, baking what seemed to be rainbow cupcakes. She saw Rarity at a fabric stall, buying some blue and green material. Must be for Twilight, those colours look great on her, Fluttershy concluded. She smelt the smell that only fresh fruit and vegetables could smell like, and if she looked hard enough, she could even see a faint rainbow in the sky as Rainbow Dash worked on her trick for the Wonderbolts further. Everything in the town square had a sort of rhythm to it. It all had a pace and a beat. The beat thrummed through the marketplace, a faint thrumming, like a heartbeat. Fluttershy was in awe.
As she reached her cottage, Fluttershy was still unsure of the safety of these "lessons" Twilight was willing to give her. Again in her little bubble of thoughts, Fluttershy once again took little notice of what she was doing. She absent-mindedly opened the door to her cottage, greeted Angel Bunny, and made him a salad. As she was chopping vegetables, carrots to be exact, she thought of how many times changing what ponies thought ended in disaster. Back when Discord was evil, he had controlled the minds of her and her fellow friends, making them the exact opposite personality. Fluttershy hated that feeling of knowing what was going on, but having no control whatsoever. It was like looking through a window to all the things that she was being made to do, but not being able to control her own actions. She thought about Chrysalis, and how numerous ponies could have ended up mindlessly chanting the Changeling Queen's name, completely powerless against the oncoming swarm of Changelings. She thought of Twilight's spell on that doll that made everypony in Ponyville fall in love with it, and how embarrassed they were when it was all over. She then looked back on those memories, and saw a link. Control. Maybe if she could control her stare, she could control her own life. She didn't even need to control other ponies if she didn't want to, and she certainly didn't want to.
"Angel, what do you think?" Fluttershy asked her pet rabbit, knowing that no audible answer would come. "Do you think I should take the lessons Twilight is offering, or should I back out?"
Angel puffed out his chest, put his shoulders back and stuck up his chin.
"You're right. Everypony tells me that I should be less cowardly, so I'll give it a shot. For Twilight's research, mind, and not because I am curious," she said.
Angel rolled his eyes, oblivious to the fact that rabbits probably can't roll their eyes.
Fluttershy got into bed that night, mentally exhausted with all the thinking and decision making she did that day, and felt accomplished. She had just made a good decision, and was determined to carry it out. She was unable to think any more thoughts as waves of sleep washed over her.