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// Stand-in Singer 
// Story: Fluttershy's Voice 
// by Stratocaster 
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Chapter 2: Stand-in Singer

The next morning, things were slightly less lazy than yesterday. Three eggs belonging to a pair of cardinals had just hatched in Fluttershy’s bird aviary outside her cottage. Unfortunately, the parents wouldn’t be back for a few days and now the gentle pegasus had three more mouths to feed. Of course this didn’t bother her much with her knack for animal care. She was more than happy to baby-sit the little chicks. Fluttershy carried a basket full of soil and live worms and trotted out into her front yard where the nest was waiting for her on a bird stand.
“Okay little cardinals, time to eat.” She called.
The tiny featherless chicks peeped with excitement poking their heads out from the nest.
“Now, now, settle down, their’s plenty for all of you.”
One by one, she dangled the worm larvae over the chicks and they gulped the maggots down with glee. Then Fluttershy felt a slight tap on her side. She looked down at the unhappy face of her pessimistic bunny.
“Angel, I’ll give you your breakfast after I’m done with these chicks. Just be patient.”
That he did not. In a melodramatic fit, Angel stomped his large feet rapidly. But the shock from his immature pounding shook the bird stand tilting the nest over the side and causing it to careen to the ground. Fluttershy gasped in horror.
“Oh my goodness!”
Without hesitation, she dove and caught the doomed nest just inches away from the ground. She sighed with relief as the chicks screeched in fright and she looked angrily at Angel.
“Bad, Angel! Naughty bunny!”
As the fussy rabbit hopped off in a huff, Fluttershy turned her attention back to the nest.
“Oh, it’s alright, little chicks. Don’t cry, now.”
As she replaced the nest back on the stand, she racked her mind for a way to sooth the panicking baby birds. Then it came to her; she could sing to them. Fluttershy cleared her throat and began singing non-lyrical vocals in a tranquil lullaby. Sure enough, the chicks ceased their screeching and slowly began to close their big beady eyes. Before long, Fluttershy had successfully lulled the little birds to sleep.
“Phew.”
“Excuse me.”
“EEP!”
The skittish pegasus jumped and hid behind the bird stand, making sure she hadn’t woken up the cardinals. She poked out from behind the stand to see another familiar face. This time, it was somepony she had never met. There standing on her walkway was a deep blue male pegasus with a longish brown mane, tail and matching colored eyes. It took Fluttershy a second to wrap her mind around who it was until she noticed the electric guitar cutie mark.
“Oh sorry, I didn’t mean to scare you.” Stratocaster said scratching the back of his head.
As she came out from behind her poor hiding place, she stared at him in shock and confusion. What was the fabled biggest rockstar in Equestria doing on her lawn? Fluttershy kept staring without a word. Stratocaster spoke for her.
“Um, anyway, my name is Stratocaster, that is if you don’t already know. And who might you be?”
Fluttershy scuffed the ground casually before answering. “I’m, um…I’m Flutt...” She trailed off into a silent mumble.
“I’m sorry, what was your name?”
“…um…Flutter…” Another mumble.
“Didn’t quite catch that, say again?”
She only hid her face behind her long flowing pink mane and whimpered nervously.
“Wait, did you say your name is Fluttershy?”
She perked up a bit; this was the first time somepony had guessed her name right. “Um, well, yes.”
“Nice to meet you.” Stratocaster gave a friendly smile. “Listen, I was just walking by to tour the Everfree Forest when I passed by your house here. I heard you singing to those baby birds, and I got to say, you have a beautiful voice.”
“Oh, um, uh, thank you, I guess.” Fluttershy blushed. “I do like to sing to my many bird friends every once in a while. It’s not much really.”
“Not much? What are you talking about? Yours is one of the best singing voices I ever heard. I mean it, it’s practically angelic. You could be a real concert soprano.”
“Uh, well I don’t know about that. I could never sing like that.”
Then, as if on cue, one of Fluttershy’s blue jays swooped in and perched upon her back.
“Well, let’s find out.” Stratocaster suggested.
Fluttershy looked between both blue winged visitors. The lone jay whistled three ascending musical notes. Instinctively, she copied the jay’s notes precisely with her soft voice. The spunky bird then gave her five notes in the same fashion. Sure enough, she repeated his pattern. This went on between Fluttershy and the blue jay with the pattern of notes becoming more and more complex and she nailed every echo with vocal accuracy. Eventually, the pegasus and the jay ended up harmonizing in sweet melodic tones that rose skyward in pitch. At last, Fluttershy ended with a sustained high C and the jay stopped, his little chest puffing as he gasped for breath. She ceased her note and looked back at the tuckered bird who gave her a feathered thumbs up and flew off. Then she looked back at an astonished Stratocaster and hid behind her mane in embarrassment.
“Eh heh heh, sorry, was that a little much?” she asked returning to her hushed tone.
“Fluttershy, that was spectacular!” he replied. “There’s no doubt in my mind, you have the voice of a professional. In fact, I want to make you one.”
“Uh, what do you mean?”
“Well lately, I’ve been looking for a singing partner for my next album. But some ponies just don’t really cut it. But you, Fluttershy, you’re perfect for this job. I want to make you my new singer for my band.”
“Me? A singer? But, but, don’t you want to keep singing?”
“Eh, my voice isn’t what it used to be. All of this touring has really done a number on it, and I’m afraid of losing my vocal cords entirely if I have to sing again. I guess that’s what I get for experimenting with grunge rock. But I think a female voice will be just what I need to kick off this next album. Ooh, or better yet, why don’t you come perform at my concert this Saturday?”
Fluttershy gasped a little. Singing was one thing, but doing it in front of an audience was an entirely different matter. She cringed at the thought of thousands of pony eyes staring at her onstage. She remembered what it was like to get stage fright while performing in the Hearth’s Warming Eve Pageant with her friends. It was brutal, and she considered herself lucky that she made it through the play without freezing up. She shook her head in refusal.
“No, there’s no way I could possibly sing…live.”
“Oh come on, it’ll be a blast. Haven’t you always wanted to perform onstage in front of a thousand ponies watching nothing but you?”
She moaned in fear and covered her eyes trying to erase the awful image from her head.
“No, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no,”
“What’s wrong? Are you alright?”
She peeked out from her hooves. “Um, well, it’s just that, I’m terribly scared of being onstage. I can never deal with the pressure. Just the thought of all those ponies staring at me, pressuring me, mocking me, waiting for me to slip up, just makes me want to…to…” She sat on her haunches, hid her tearing eyes behind her hooves again and began sobbing lightly. Stratocaster now looked at her more sympathetically and laid a hoof on her shoulder.
“I’m sorry about that, Fluttershy. You know, I was a lot like you when I began my career just a few years ago.”
Sniffling, Fluttershy looked up at the stallion with glassy eyes. “Really? You had stage fright too?”
“Of course. I had just graduated from the Cloudsdale Arts Institute and I already booked my first gig. It was at a local club so I didn’t think it would be so bad, until I saw how many ponies were there. They were crowding the entire place waiting for me to come on; I even saw a few Wonderbolts in the audience!”
“My goodness, you must have been so nervous.”
“I certainly was; so nervous in fact, I actually puked all over the club manager.”
She gasped in sympathy. “You poor thing!”
“It was lucky I wasn’t kicked out. But I was such a wreck I couldn’t even bring myself to speak when I went out onstage with my bandmates. But you know what I did? I just closed my eyes for a few seconds, paid no mind to the audience, and looked deep inside myself to find the voice that I lost. And just like that, I sang as loud as I could into the mic. And when I finished, the audience cheered for me.”
“Wow, so it was that easy for you?”
“It’s easy for anypony. Listen, Fluttershy, it would really mean a lot to me if you came to sing at my concert. I know it seems scary, but all you have to do is look deep inside yourself, and find where that voice of yours has been hiding whenever you get nervous. I promise you won’t regret it. So, what do you say?”
Fluttershy stared into Stratocaster’s eyes. There was a strange sincerity in his face which caught her by surprise. Her vision of a typical rock artist had always been pompous, rude, egotistical, and downright smelly; but not this time. She actually saw kindness in the blue pegasus who stood there waiting patiently for her answer. With newfound trust, Fluttershy gulped and spoke.
“Um…well…okay, I’ll do it.”
“Fantastic! Why don’t you come visit me later today? I’ve rented out a studio for the week near Sugarcube Corner. If you stop by, I’ll teach you a song I think you’ll really like.”
“Alright, that sounds nice.”
“I’m glad to have met you, Fluttershy. I think we’re going to be fast friends.”
“I’m glad I met you too, Mr. Stratocaster.”
“Please, you can just call me Strat.”
“Um, okay…Strat.”
The two pegasi shook hooves and Stratocaster walked off down the trail from the cottage. Fluttershy watched him wander off with her mind racing. Suddenly, she had an obligation to sing at this celebrity stallion’s concert in just a week. Had she lost her mind? There would be thousands of ponies there, including her friends. And she would make a complete foal of herself in front of all of them. It was then, that Fluttershy felt another poke on her side. Angel looked up at her with curious eyes.
“I’m stumped, Angel.” She said to him. “I don’t want to let him down. But if I go onstage and…sing, then I’ll just freeze up or even pass out, and I’ll be the laughingstock of Ponyville. Oh what ever should I do?”
She felt Angel’s little white paw touch her shoulder and she looked at him to see that he was smiling encouragingly.
“You’re right, Angel, I can’t be a quiet little filly forever. I’m going to step out onto that stage and sing the best that I can…I just hope I’m not kidding myself.”