Fluttershy trotted around the rolling green hills of the meadow looking for flowers and grasses that dotted the landscape here and there for her pets' lunchtime meals. Her animals had become very picky over the years, wanting only certain vegetables in their lunches, sometimes only on certain days, but she liked the work. It gave her something to do.
On this particular day, however, she'd made the mistake of deciding to accept special orders on meals, seeing as it was Hearts and Hooves Day, a holiday of kindness, and practically all of her animals pulled out lists and photographs to show her exactly what they wanted. Fluttershy simply couldn't work up the courage to say no.
Currently, she was working on her last order, Chuck's, one of her beavers; lettuce, cucumber, dew-dropped blue flowers, roasted almonds, and light Italian dressing. She'd have to go into town for the almonds and dressing later, and the lettuce and cucumber she could get from her garden, but the flowers were something she couldn't find anywhere but here.
Fluttershy lifted the flower she had just picked carefully into her basket so the dew wouldn't slide off. She knew she spoiled her animals to a point where not even a high level magic spell could bring them back to ripeness, but she didn't mind a little extra work to please them.
As she placed this last flower in her basket, she looked around and noticed that the spot she was in was now completely devoid of blue flowers, and she still didn't have enough for Chuck's meal. She sighed and scoured the rest of the field for anything remotely blue in color, until a slight blue glint caught her eye. It was the reflection of a dewdrop on a radiant blue flower.
"Oh my," she breathed as she trotted over to where the flower was growing. It was even more beautiful up close. Each dew drop seemed to glint on it’s own accord, making it so that no matter where you stood, the sun always shined brightly off of it’s surface.
“It’s so gorgeous,” Fluttershy tried not to disturb the flower’s tranquil surface as she leaned down to get a better look. “A flower like this deserves to be recognized a little bit more for it’s selective traits.”
Fluttershy’s deft jaw quickly plucked the stem of the flower from the ground, transferred it to her hoof, and from there into the crook behind her right ear, all without the slightest movement on the surface.
“There now,” she smiled. “I’ll bring you into town with me so everypony can admire you.” She began to gather up her basket and start towards town when suddenly a horrifying thought entered her mind.
“But what if ponies ask about you! Oh, I won’t know what to call you! And I feel so bad, I never asked! What is your name?”
No response.
"Okay, didn’t think that one out,” Fluttershy thought to herself. “I suppose I should name you,” she mused. “What’s in a name? That which we call a rose by any other word would smell as sweet,” she said philosophically. “Oh no, that’s just silly. A name means everything! I’ll call you Florent,” she finished.
With that settled, Fluttershy happily skipped into town, Florent tucked safely behind her ear. Upon arriving in the business center of Ponyville, which consisted mainly of produce stands being run by ponies who could be spending their Saturdays doing much better things, Fluttershy encountered several ponies who were entranced with the flower as they walked by.
“See how much they like you?” Fluttershy whispered up to Florent. “This is where you truly belong.”
Thinking he had gotten enough time in the limelight for now, Fluttershy checked her list of errands to see where she had to go first. The first stop was for Chuck's roasted almonds, and since nopony was in line there, Fluttershy walked right up.
Open Fire welcomed Fluttershy warmly. "Hey there Fluttershy! Back for some of Chuck's almonds, I see?"
"Do I really buy them here that often?" Fluttershy queried.
"You were here no more than three days ago."
"Oh."
"Well, I'm glad you stopped by, anyhow," Open smiled. She noticed the flower sitting on her head. "Like the new look you've got here," she commented gesturing to the flower. "It really complements your mane."
"Does he really?" Fluttershy blushed and raised a hoof to cover her embarrassed smile.
Ignoring the masculine pronoun, Open proceeded with the conversation. "So, what can I do ya for? We got almonds of all kinds here," she ended with a salesman-like smile.
"Oh, yes," Fluttershy said, focusing on her errands. "Um, I would like a pound of roasted almonds please."
"Can do," Open nodded, and warmed up a small burner to the side of her stand. It was any wonder it hadn't burned something down yet in the cloth fire hazard that was the almond stand. "It'll be a few minutes before they're ready. Hope you don't mind waiting."
"Of course not," Fluttershy grinned. "I'm always happy to talk to a friend."
Open brightened at this comment. "Thanks, Fluttershy. It means a lot to hear someone say that to you, especially today."
Fluttershy was slightly taken aback. "Oh, I didn't mean that I--"
Open cut her off, "I know what you meant."
Fluttershy nodded. "Um...right." The conversation became awkward. "So, uhhh, that burner ready yet?"
"Huh? Oh yeah. Should be by now," Open checked the temperature of the pan, and discovered it hot enough to start roasting. She weighed out a pound of almonds, and began to stir them slowly in the pan.
Once they were ready, Open poured the contents of the pan into a medium sized burlap sack, and handed them over to Fluttershy. "Here ya go, Fluttershy. These are on the house."
"Oh, no, I couldn't possibly take that," Fluttershy began to pull out a small coin purse from nowhere.
"Please, my gift for the holidays," she placed the sack into Fluttershy's saddlebags. "Perhaps not the most traditional of gifts, but you get the idea."
"Oh, thank you!" Fluttershy said, quite grateful. "Have a happy Hearts and Hooves Day!"
"You too, Fluttershy!" Open waved at her as she trotted away. "Keep the flower, I love the look!" she shouted to her.
"Thank you, he really is quite a beauty!" Fluttershy responded, and the was out of sight.
Open shrugged at the repeated use of 'he', but decided to once again ignore it. Who was she to judge other ponies?
Suddenly, the thought of judgement made a new thought enter her mind. "The safety inspector is coming by later today!" she realized. Open moved the burner to a safer location.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~
"Lunch is almost ready, my lovelies!" Fluttershy catcalled throughout her cottage, and creatures came running from all directions. She had laid out all the meals with name cards of the respective animals who had ordered them leaning against it, as well as table settings which most of them usually ignored.
"I worked very hard at preparing these meals for you, so what do we say?" Fluttershy asked.
There was a cacophony of animal noises.
"That's right, 'thank you'!" Fluttershy smiled.
After that, any motion to say anything else was utterly useless, as despicable, repulsive sounds of absolute gluttony could be heard throughout the cottage, and to a few passers-by outside, who wondered what could possibly could be making such slobbery noises. Remembering what day it was, they quickly moved on.
Fluttershy just giggled, as she was quite used to this sound, but this display was rather excessive as compared to others when it was usually just a few animals at most. Soon, she found it slightly hurtful on her sensitive ears, so she retrieved some earplugs from a drawer and put them in as effectively as she could.
Upon feeling around her ears to see if they were in well enough, she found that something was missing.
Florent was gone.
Fluttershy panicked. He was gone. He was completely gone. Quickly, she went over all the possibilities in her mind. She'd had him all the time at the marketplace, she had him when she got home, she had him when she was putting groceries away, so that must mean she had lost him when she was...
...preparing the meals.
Fluttershy's eyes widened in realization. Florent was somewhere in one of the animals' meals. She searched what was rest of the meals as fast as she could, but she couldn't make anything out in the flurry of fur and vegetables. In a desperate attempt to stop them, Fluttershy shouted at the top of her lungs, but even she could barely hear herself over the eating orchestra tuning to all the wrong notes.
Fluttershy didn't know what to do. The animals' meals were growing smaller and smaller by the minute, and there was absolutely no way to stop them. No way except for...
As a last resort, Fluttershy used The Stare on every dining creature at the table.
They all stopped, from the strongest bear to the tiniest chipmunk. A unanimous freeze-frame out of fear.
Guilt setting down heavily in the pit of Fluttershy's stomach, she began her frantic search through every animal's meal that had contained blue flowers, as she would have noticed if he had fallen in any of the ones that hadn't. She began with Tortue's, her tortoise, who had requested only a small amount in his, but they were already all gone. Hopefully he hadn't been there.
Next she checked Adrian's, one of her chipmunks, who had a few blue flowers left, but none of them could even compare to Florent.
Lastly was Chuck's. Fluttershy was now becoming increasingly anxious as to whether or not he would be here, because this was the only other place he could be. She ravaged his meal, searching for that one thing that was not like the other, the one thing that could bring her joy...
And she found him.
Near the bottom of the bowl, she found him, still extraordinarily beautiful though being squashed by all the other vegetables. Picking him up in a careful (and awkward) hug, she whispered, "Florent! Oh, I missed you so much! I thought I'd lose you forever..." she trailed off. Once she finished the embrace, she realized that she was standing smack dab in the middle of her dining table. By this time, the effect of The Stare had worn off, and all of her creatures were eyeing her curiously, some even a little bit doubtfully.
"Oh, um, sorry everyone," Fluttershy managed, highly embarrassed. "Please, uh, do continue," she mumbled as she slid from the table and into the next room. Her animals simply shook their heads and kept eating.
Alone at last, Fluttershy shared counsel with Florent. "Everypony in town seemed to like you so much, I couldn't bear the thought of what it would do to them if they couldn't get to see you again. What it would do to me..." she let slip out. Hearing her words, she blushed. "Oh, I mean, not that I...I mean I guess I do but," she blushed again, "Wait! No, that's not what I meant to say..." she looked helplessly at Florent, who seemed to glisten back in approval.
Fluttershy's mood brightened significantly. "Do...do you mean, you feel the same?"
The same glisten.
"Oh...this is not what I was expecting at all," She nuzzled his petals with the tip of her muzzle. "I guess this day was a little more rewarding than I had thought."