You, I, and Fluttershy!
Techorse series: #38
By Spirals95
Shadow Breeze was one of the more recent residents of Ponyville, having moved there in order to study diplomacy so that he might one day help to make or maintain peace with other nations. Although he was very talented at settling conflict, he was currently facing a conflict of his own that he feared he couldn't settle without help from someone else. This had ironically left him without any peace of his own, and he had been staying up late trying to figure out how to approach his problem. The rather frustrated and uncertain pegasus sat at a desk in his apartment's living room that he'd normally use for writing, and had buried his head in his front hooves, trying to think.
Of course, the problem he was trying to resolve in his mind was not a simple one in the slightest. Over the past few months, he'd come to know Fluttershy as a good friend, as she liked to take care of animals, and he liked to take care of plants. Their shared love of the natural world and its inhabitants had drawn them together, and they had met up multiple times in the past to share a meal, talk, or go and take care of the flora and fauna they loved so well. But now, Shadow Breeze felt as if he had a different kind of feeling for Fluttershy, and wanted to try and ask her out on a “real date”, or so he thought in his mind. All of the previous outings were simply things they had done together, and he needed to take the formal leap into a relationship. He truly did care for her, and wanted to begin something between them as he saw in other couples, but he was stuck trying to figure out what to do once he actually went out on a date with Fluttershy.
“What would I even say to her?” he thought as he moped on the desk, “What would I do? I don't know how this works.”
Shadow Breeze lifted his head up and returned to a normal posture at the cherry wood desk.
The thought occurred to him that he knew somepony who had been on a date before, and he lifted his head off the desk, looking around at the rest of his home. His living room contained only a small couch and coffee table besides the desk, along with a few pictures of friends on the walls, and a small bookshelf where he kept his study books. The kitchen, tucked away behind a door on the other side of the room, was not visible, nor was his bedroom on the other side down a small hallway. Shadow took his attention off of his home, and returned to a few pieces of paper he was reading on his desk.
It was an advertisement for a brand new cafe that had opened up in the Baltimare Butterfly Conservatory. The cafe allowed guests at the conservatory to order lunch and eat while the butterflies living in the glass building flew around them, providing quite the show, especially for a nature savvy pony like Fluttershy. It seemed like the perfect place to go, and it'd be easy for him to have a good time as well. But he was unsure as to how the day was supposed to go if it was a date, and he really didn't know when to try and explain his feelings. Afterwords? Sometime in the middle? He wasn't sure, and it frustrated him.
At some point in his over analysis of the situation, he remembered that one of his friends had already been out on plenty of dates. Techorse's many reading and lunch dates with Twilight likely had given them some solid advice to share, and Shadow Breeze wanted that advice badly.
“Wait a minute,” he told himself, “maybe Techorse would know how things are supposed to go!”
Shadow Breeze picked up the papers in front of them, and placed them in a nearby saddlebag he'd normally use to transport documents for his career. He then went back into his bedroom, and opened his closet door to reveal a small gunmetal colored safe. The pony entered his combination on the dial, and opened it up, revealing the enchanted gold and ruby shadow amulet he owned. Slipping the magical jewelry over his head, Shadow Breeze smiled at himself in a mirror he'd placed in the closet, and adjusted the necklace part of the amulet to fit him. Excitedly, he hurried out the front door of his apartment, nearly forgetting to lock up behind himself. It was warm and inviting outside, and a gentle breeze helped to cool off the ponies going about their daily workdays. One of them waved to Shadow as he left his home and locked the door, and he waved back before continuing on his way.
“Hopefully I can find him before nightfall!” he said to himself, struggling to not gallop down the street.
Luckily, Techorse had been rather easy to locate, as he had parked himself on a wooden bench just outside of Sugarcube Corner. He was busy snacking on a brownie he'd bought from Pinkie Pie moments ago, not wanting to wait until he got back home to his fortress to eat. Shadow Breeze nearly knocked over a mare selling newspapers in the street in his rush, before he reached Techorse, who finished off his treat before greeting his friend.
“Oh hey, Shadow Breeze!” he said, “You look like you're in a hurry!”
“I am, to see you,” he answered, taking a deep breath after his sprint.
Techorse gave him a concerned look, “It must be important then, it seems you forgot you could fly to find me faster.”
“Oh... I guess I did,” he answered, looking back at the irritated mare he'd nearly run over.
“So what's wrong?” Techorse asked.
A robotic arm emerged from the saddle on his back, and a welcoming mechanical arm and hand patted the seat on the other side of the bench. It snaked back inside the device as Shadow Breeze climbed onto the bench and sat down across from his best friend. He then took the papers out of his bags and set them out in front of Techorse, who read them and seemed to be pleased with what they had to say.
“So, I wanted to go with Fluttershy to the butterfly conservatory for lunch, since they're doing that now,” Shadow Explained.
As he talked to his friend, he manipulated the amulet with his thoughts to project a shadow, which extended from the central ruby and landed on the paper. It was in the shape of an arrow, and it pointed to the cafe on the map of the conservatory he had brought along.
Shadow Breeze continued, “We'd be here for an hour or so, and then we'd go on the normal tour of the butterfly home. They have over fifty varieties of butterflies, and some of them are endangered! They need to live here so that they can lay eggs safely and increase their numbers before returning out into Equestria.”
“Fluttershy's going to love this!” said Techorse, a happy look on his face, “I don't see what the problem is.”
His friend answered shyly as the shadow arrow dissipated, “Well... you see Techorse, I kind of... am interested in Fluttershy.”
Techorse gave a wide smile as he heard those words, “Rarity's been saying for a few weeks now that something would come up between you two! We didn't believe her at first, but after a while we saw things her way, and this confirms it!”
“Oh, I didn't know I had you and the girls' support!” answered the pegasus, blushing slightly.
“Of course you do!” said Techorse.
Shadow Breeze smiled weakly, “Well, that's great, but I'm still a bit stuck. I want to ask Fluttershy out on a date to this cafe. Our first one.”
“But Shadow,” answered Techorse, “you've been spending time out with Fluttershy fairly often in the past few months. I doubt this'd be much different from any other time.”
“Those weren't real dates,” he countered, looking away from him and pushing a strand of his blue and charcoal colored hair out of the way, “Those are just fun things we did as friends.”
“I'm not so sure,” Techorse said, trying to use logic, “sometimes you'd just go and have fun for a little bit, but other times, you've told me you spent hours talking with Fluttershy about rather deep stuff, like what sorts of plans you have for the future. Like that time you helped plant the geranium garden in front of the east river bridge. Once the flowers were in the ground, you guys talked about what it'd be like to own a large garden together, and what you'd do to take care of it.”
“Fluttershy already has a small garden, we were just having fun,” answered Shadow Breeze, still avoiding what Techorse was really trying to get at, “but I want to know how to get a real date to work. I'm not sure how I'd do, so I was hoping you'd have some advice for me, since you've been out on plenty of dates with Twilight.”
Techorse raised an eyebrow at the comment, “You want my advice? Shouldn't you just be yourself? All you have to do is have a good time, and then tell Fluttershy how you feel later.”
Shadow Breeze protested, “I will be myself, I just don't know all the mechanics of the date. I can't tell her anything if it doesn't go perfectly! That's why I need you to come along and help me the whole time.”
“Woah, I can't do that!” laughed Techorse, “That's silly! Am I supposed to stand in a closet and pass notes to you or something?”
“Just pretend that by coincidence you decided to go to the conservatory on the same day,” suggested his friend, forming a plan, “then you can give me instructions on what to do, and it'll all work out!”
Techorse sighed, knowing that those were famous last words. However, he also wanted to help his friend, and understood that he'd be rather upset if he said no. If it meant helping his friend and making him happy, Techorse was willing to go through with it.
“I can take some time off to go see the butterflies,” he said, “are we going to go tomorrow?”
“Yes!” answered Shadow Breeze cheerfully, “And thank you so much! There are two trains that leave for Baltimare in the morning, so I'll give you a ticket for the one that leaves later than ours. We'll spend the day there and come back at night on the same train.”
“Sounds like a plan. See you tomorrow!” answered Techorse, faking security in the issue as he took his ticket and walked away from his friend.
In reality, Techorse was beginning to get concerned about what he had managed to get himself roped into. Techorse knew that Shadow Breeze was not being himself by trying to follow a specific formula for dating, but figured he wouldn't listen to him until after he'd tried it his own way the next day. He just hoped that perhaps his friend would understand that by the time he and Fluttershy got together at the conservatory.
Now that Shadow Breeze had secured Techorse's help in going on a perfect date, he flew over to Fluttershy's tree home to ask her out. With confidence he knocked on the wooden door until the light yellow mare opened it and smiled at him with a bright glow in her eyes.
“Oh, hi Shadow,” she said softly, “how are you?”
“I'm doing great Fluttershy,” he answered, “I actually wanted to ask you if you have any time off tomorrow.”
“I'm not doing much, most of the animals will be out playing tomorrow and won't ask for dinner until late,” she answered honestly, although she understood what he was about to say.
Shadow Breeze took out a picture of the new cafe from his saddlebag and displayed it proudly, “There's a new cafe in the Baltimare Butterfly Conservatory! I was hoping you'd like to get lunch with me there, and then afterwords we could tour the building.”
He added shyly as he thought about how direct he'd just been, “You know, if you want to.”
Fluttershy noticed that something was different about Shadow Breeze this time. Before he'd talk about what he was going to go do himself before inviting her along. She would do the same thing for him as well, describing what her plans were before extending the invitation. But this time he'd cut directly to the main point, that he wanted her to go with him to this event. Despite this, Fluttershy immediately pitched out all thoughts about Shadow Breeze's different style of speaking when she heard about the butterflies. She had never been to the butterfly conservatory before, and had been wanting to go for quite some time, but felt awkward trying to go by herself.
“I'd love to!” she answered, almost squealing.
She settled down and looked away for a moment, “I mean, it'll be really nice to see the butterflies with you. When will we go?”
“Tomorrow morning we can take the train there,” he answered, “I'll give you a ticket.”
“That sounds very nice,” she answered, “we'll go then. See you there, Shadow.”
Fluttershy took her ticket as well, and Shadow Breeze left with a very happy look on his face. He knew that Fluttershy was going to say yes, but he was not expecting her to be as delighted to go to the conservatory as she was. As he headed back home, Fluttershy closed the door to her home, and began to worry. She had feelings as well that she wanted to express, but being the shyest pony in town meant there was no way she was going to express them so directly.
“Oh, what am I going to do now?” she asked herself sadly, “Shadow Breeze is really sweet, but I don't know what to say to him. I've not been out on a date before like this, normally we've just gone some place to do things together.”
Angel hopped over to Fluttershy, and crossed his arms in disgust, as if to tell her to get over herself. The impatient little herbivore knew full well that Fluttershy had been spending plenty of time with Shadow Breeze, and was not looking at things the way they really were. Fluttershy looked down at the rabbit, and smiled.
“You're right Angel, I should just get some advice!” she said, interpreting his body language, “Twilight will know what I should say.”
Fluttershy immediately departed from her home to go seek advice from Twilight Sparkle, and Angel put a paw to his forehead in frustration, knowing no good could come from what he had just witnessed.
The library had already been closed for the evening when Fluttershy managed to make it there, yet the lights still shone through the windows on the organic home. She noticed that Twilight was tending to a window that seemed to be missing one of its panes of glass, and was likely trying to fit the piece back in before going back inside. The unicorn held the piece of glass in a gentle hover above her head using her magic, and concentrated carefully on re-inserting it, when Fluttershy approached and asked her question.
“Um, Twilight, are you busy?” she asked.
Twilight reattached the glass piece with a sharp pop, then sealed it up using a small bottle of adhesives sitting on the round windowsill.
She then turned around and answered, “Not anymore! How can I help you, Fluttershy?”
“Well, you see, Shadow Breeze asked if he wanted me to go with him to the butterfly conservatory tomorrow,” she answered, “I kind of don't know what to say to him while we're there.”
Twilight tilted her head in confusion, “What do you mean by that? Aren't you just going to talk to him?”
“Well... yes,” she answered nervously, “but you see... I kinda... don't think this is just hanging out.”
Twilight gained a cheerful smile, “Oh! You're seeing this as a date, aren't you?”
Fluttershy looked back at her and sighed in relief, “Yeah, and I was hoping you'd help me figure out what to say. I'm not sure how to tell him how I feel.”
“So you want some coaching?” giggled Twilight, eager to be of help.
“If you could maybe come along with me, and offer some advice,” suggested Fluttershy, “I'm sure we can have the best time ever, and then it'll be easy for me to... say something. Or maybe if you told me about how you and Tech go out together, I'd be able to do that.”
Twilight gritted her teeth, understanding that Fluttershy was asking her to tag along and try to avoid the two of them, while at the same time offering hints as to how to make the day go smoothly. She had talked with her friends in the past about Fluttershy and Shadow Breeze for a while, and thought that maybe something would come up between the two of them based on the large amount of time they had spent with each other. Now that the predicted relationship was finally starting to come into being however, the fact that both members were shy and had difficulty expressing their feelings was going to make it difficult. The unicorn mare felt as if she needed to help Fluttershy realize that being herself and saying something to Shadow Breeze were the only things needed, and would have to join her the following day to get her to see that.
“Please?” begged Fluttershy, “All I need is a little help. Will you be able to join me?”
Twilight rolled her eyes, but smiled and said, “Well, I guess it might be fun to go see the butterflies tomorrow. All right, I'll go. But if Shadow sees me, I'm there doing research on butterflies.”
“Oh thank you so much!” cried Fluttershy, who hugged Twilight tightly, and flapped her wings.
Both ponies were lifted into the air, nearly choking Twilight, who held back on to avoid falling to the ground. Fluttershy suddenly realized what she was doing, and laughed nervously as she returned her friend to the ground.
“I'll see you tomorrow morning at the train station, Twilight,” she said, happiness in her voice, “goodnight!”
Fluttershy spread her wings again and floated through the air towards her home, gracefully humming a tune Twilight didn't seem to recognize. Once the lavender mare had gone back inside the library, she thought eagerly about how great of an opportunity this was to learn more about friendship. This would be the first time helping a friend learn more about how relationships work, a juicy piece of material for her next letter to Princess Celestia. As she went upstairs to get ready for bed, she prepared in her mind what she was going to say and do the next day to aid her friend, and knew she was going to be able to help her succeed.
The cold of the morning had brought in a light amount of ground-hugging fog at the train station, barely enough to cover the legs of a few of the ponies working to keep the train fueled and stocked with supplies for the days' travels. Fluttershy sat on a green-painted wooden bench, waiting near the brown and pink painted locomotive. In order to have enough time to spend at the conservatory without wasting the effort of the trip, they needed to leave rather early, and Fluttershy's seat gave her the perfect view of the sunrise that morning. The reds and yellows of the light shone over the station, casting long shadows and warming up the morning air.
Soon she was joined by Shadow Breeze, who gave her a quick hug before they boarded their train. Techorse and Twilight would board the train after them on a different passenger car, to avoid being detected. Despite going to the same location that day, the two of them managed to board different cars altogether, and so did not see each other. Neither was aware of the other's plans to help their friend, nor their presence on the train. As the locomotive pulled away from the station and Ponyville disappeared behind them, Shadow Breeze and Fluttershy both sat with thoughts running through their heads about how the day would go.
Baltimare's Butterfly Conservatory was a large building made out of white painted steel and the finest reinforced glass bits could buy. The structure consisted of one large main dome, which allowed plenty of light in like a greenhouse to support the plant life grown inside for the enjoyment of the butterflies. In addition, a few branches extended radially from the main structure, which led to smaller domes used for raising caterpillars to adulthood, meaning the entire site looked like a large flower from above. Out front of the building was a large rose garden, grown along a brown tile path that led guests to the main entrance. A few decorative fountains carved in the shape of butterflies drinking from daises and tulips were placed along the sides, and several earth ponies tended to the outdoors, taking out weeds and keeping the roses watered and happy.
“This is amazing!” said Fluttershy with awe, “I've only heard about how amazing the inside of the conservatory is, but now that I'm here, there are so many lovely roses as well!”
“I'm sure I could get you one,” suggested Shadow Breeze without thinking.
Having brought along his amulet, he created a shadow image of a butterfly, which landed on a nearby rose bush, as if to suggest to Fluttershy which rose she should pick.
Fluttershy, understanding the significance of receiving a rose, tried to stop him, “But roses are so expensive... and it'd spoil my lunch.”
“Actually,” interrupted a brown coated earth pony near a white-blossomed bush, “We sell the roses pretty cheap inside the gift store. They're just 2 bits a piece.”
Fluttershy had a look over the succulent roses again, and asked meekly, “Maybe after lunch then?”
“Of course,” answered Shadow Breeze as he shut off his amulet again, “think I'll get myself a rose too, they look great.”
The two ponies walked side by side up the path to the front door of the conservatory, where they turned in their tickets to a unicorn mare running the desk outside. They entered the conservatory through a narrow hallway lined with black plastic combs of film that hung from the ceiling, likely to keep the butterflies from exiting in that direction, and emerged from the dark tunnel into the light of the main building. Fluttershy and Shadow Breeze both stood mouths agape in awe at the sights inside the building.
Every part of the conservatory was set up so as to mimic the natural habitat the butterflies called their home. Not an inch of floor was visible inside, as it was covered with a fine brown dirt taken from the forests of Equestria. Many tropical trees and ferns grew along the ground, creating a rainforest like setting that held the moisture in the air and providing landing spots for the inhabitants. Flowers of all variates, colors, and habitat ranges grew amongst the trees and bushes, from daises and tulips to more exotic flowers such as bright red hibiscus. An artificial river flowed through the carefully constructed rainforest, cascading over a stone basin waterfall, which featured a set of stairs for ponies to climb and view the butterflies at their proffered flying altitude.
Dozens of the highly decorated insects flew overhead, with wings of stunning patterns and bright, vibrant colors. Some varieties were ones that neither Fluttershy nor Shadow had ever seen before in their lives, likely the endangered ones the conservatory sought to protect. A rather large specimen with orange wings and black spots on each corner sat nearby Fluttershy, drinking sweet nectar from one of the hibiscus flowers.
“This is amazing!” whispered Fluttershy, about to collapse from joy, “I've never seen so many kinds of butterflies in one place.”
“And they're happy despite being kept indoors!” remarked Shadow Breeze, “You'd think they'd want to be outside, but they seem content here.”
As they walked forward to start their tour before lunch, a rope descended from the ceiling above, and Fluttershy stopped to prevent herself from walking into it. A unicorn mare descended down the rope as if escaping from something, and landed on all four hooves in front of the two ponies, who looked rather startled at her rappelling from the ceiling. Her tan coat and bright yellow and pink mane hair was curled tightly into braids, yet she kept her tail bushy and free. A pair of bright blue eyes completed her look, along with her cutie mark of a pickaxe overlapping a yellow flower.
“Hey!” she said, “I'm Aster Mountain. You guys must be Fluttershy and Shadow Breeze.“
“That's us!” answered Shadow Breeze, his tail swishing in delight, “Are we getting a tour from you?”
“Yes sir!” answered Aster with a delighted nod, “I'm the lead botanist who gets these fancy bugs their favorite food flowers from all over Equestria. But when I'm not climbing things, I'm here giving tours. Let's start with the main room here, shall we? We've got about two hours before your lunch, and then there's the other half of the tour featuring the hatching rooms!”
The two followed her off on their adventure with the butterflies, while a pair of ponies far behind them sought to keep their obligations to their friends. Techorse had followed the two closely, and used the rose bushes as cover to make it to the front door of the conservatory. After paying his entry fee and finding out his two friends were leaving on tour, he made his way over to the cafe, where he'd stay in disguise in order to help Shadow Breeze figure out what he should say. Putting on a gray trenchcoat and a matching hat, which gave him the look of a detective, he picked a table at the rear of the cafe and held a newspaper with his front hooves tightly, as using his battle saddle's mechanical arms would surely blow his cover.
In contrast to Techorse's approach to stealth, Twilight simply went in through the back entrance and kept her face buried in a book about butterflies she had brought along with her. She was careful to pick a path opposite to where they were going to tour, and kept herself occupied to help her wait for the two to start lunch. In secret, Twilight was also visiting to take pictures of the butterflies and do research on them, as she couldn't help but study anything she could get her hooves on. The unicorn mare took out a camera, and snapped a picture of a nearby blue butterfly, which did a small aerial loop in appreciation of the photo.
Aster took her two tourists to an open area featuring a selection of morning glories twisted around white fencing, making the area of the indoor forest resemble a common backyard garden. Common yellow and white butterflies preferred these flowers, and the winged insects dove down to feed on the blue and white blossoms. They were accompanied by a few of the larger varieties in orange and red, who would be careful not to knock their smaller friends off the petals as they hovered nearby in wait for a turn.
“Here you can see the meadow garden,” said Aster as she stopped the two and pointed at the fences, “The flowers grown here feed the smaller butterflies and provide a resting place. We've set up these fence pieces to support the flower vines, and the two colors chosen keep the butterflies happy.”
Near one of the fences was a young earth pony filly who was pouting and staring angrily at one of the large red butterflies, which scared the bug and caused it to fly higher away from her. Her mother pulled her youngster away from the fence, and scolded her gently about bothering the feasting insects.
“What's wrong?” asked Fluttershy gently of the mother.
She answered with an urban accent, “Oh, my daughter here's pouting because the butterflies won't land on her. She wants me to take a picture of that, but it ain't gonna happen if she scares 'em away.”
Fluttershy smiled and bent down to the filly's height before saying to her, “If you want the butterflies to land on you, you have to hold really still, and smile while holding your breath. Like this.”
After taking a deep breath, Fluttershy stood up on her four legs, and gave a small smile while looking at some of the butterflies above. None of them currently feeding on nectar bothered to leave their place, but a few of the smaller white butterflies came down from the air above and landed gently in Fluttershy's long pink hair, beating their wings as they came to a rest.
The filly decided to follow suit, and held her breath too while smiling. Soon, a rather large orange butterfly with pink spots chose her short blonde mane hair as its perch, and it stopped just to the left of her right ear. The butterfly's legs tickled her ear, but she dared not move it for fear of scaring her new visitor away. Her mother took the opportunity, and took the picture of her daughter with the butterfly, which left after the flash.
“Thank you so much!” thanked the young one, leaving with her mother.
“Oh, it's not a big deal at all!” answered Fluttershy, closing her eyes and grinning, “Just remember to do that every time you want the butterflies to land.”
Shadow Breeze congratulated Fluttershy as soon as the mother and filly had left, “That was amazing!”
“I gotta admit, there's many trained butterfly experts here on site, and we haven't seen such expert wrangling like that in a while,” admitted Aster, highly impressed.
“I've always known butterflies well,” explained Fluttershy, flapping her wings to join the swarm overhead, “I know exactly what they like, and how to take care of them, and that's why I'm so glad Shadow Breeze brought me here today. It's like a dream come true!”
“Hey!” reminded Aster with annoyance, “I hate to be a pain, but no flying allowed in the building, the draft knocks the more fragile specimens away.”
Fluttershy frowned and dropped back down to the ground, “Oh... sorry. I'll be more careful next time.”
Aster cautioned her and Shadow Breeze, “There's many rare butterflies here you probably haven't seen. We have strict rules here about flying and magic to avoid risk to them, not to be buzzkills. Protecting the endangered ones is a top priority!”
“I agree, and you do a good job, just look at all these plants for them!” commented Shadow Breeze, changing topic to his own favorite hobby.
“Plant guy eh?” laughed the tour guide, “Lucky for you, after lunch you'll get to see the plants we feed to the caterpillars. Think you might be interested in the variety we grow here.”
“It's really neat that there's something here for both of us,” cooed Fluttershy.
“Yeah, that's... pretty neat we both love plants and animals,” he answered, stuttering.
Unsure of what to say next, Fluttershy looked around nervously for Twilight in order to get advice, and saw the disguised mare across the way. Shadow Breeze was wondering when they would get to lunch so that he could talk to Techorse as well. Having brought up their love of nature being in common had left them hung up in an awkward moment, since they were both over thinking the situation.
Fluttershy remembered where Twilight said she would be, and said to Shadow Breeze, “I'm going to go see the tropical flowers again for a second, before going to lunch.”
“I'll meet you there!” he answered hastily, knowing this was the chance he was going to get to ask Techorse for what to say next.
The two ponies nervously ran away from each other in several directions, leaving their tour guide confused and looking back and forth as they dashed off to seek help.
“All right guys,” called Aster as they split up, “I'll see you after you finish eating, enjoy you two!”
After they had left, the unicorn mare took out her rope, which had a small lead loop on the end, and with her magic swung it around at rapid speed before tossing it up, which latched around a hook on a metal beam from the conservatory's dome ceiling. She then climbed the rope rapidly despite her hooves, and rested on the metal beam, pulling up her rope when she arrived. Some of the other ponies touring the conservatory stomped their hooves on the ground in applause for her skillful and risky climb, and the unicorn pony laughed and waved at the guests.
Fluttershy found Twilight reading her book near a tropical lily, and stopped in front of her.
The unicorn mare lowered her book slowly, and asked, “Hey Fluttershy, how's it going so far?”
“Good,” she answered, “but Shadow Breeze brought up that we both have a love of nature in common, and I don't know what to say next.”
“Just keep talking to him about it,” she suggested, “you don't have to say anything until later, trust me. Try to have fun, like I am studying these butterflies.”
“Oh,” whined Fluttershy, “but I'm just not sure what he'll think if I don't tell him his love of plants is really interesting to me.”
“Then tell him that later!” urged Twilight, “Right now just don't think about it and have fun like you always do.”
“I'll think of something,” said Fluttershy, backing off, “I have to go now to lunch.”
“All right,” she answered her, “good luck.”
Fluttershy walked back towards the cafe trying to figure out her next move. She was trying to listen to Twilight's advice, but also wanted to figure out what would be the ideal thing to tell Shadow Breeze in order to make her feelings known without ruining the day. Her ears drooped as she realized that she was never going to be able to figure out the perfect thing to say without Twilight, and hoped she would end up near the cafe as well in order to help her.
Meanwhile at the cafe, Shadow Breeze was not having much luck getting help from Techorse either. They were sitting at one of the carved wooden tables, and Techorse had put down his newspaper to offer his advice. But his friend seemed to make no sense to him, asking the impossible.
“I told Fluttershy it was pretty cool that there was something here for both of us,” he said, “now how do I tell her I think she's amazing for loving animals? I don't want to talk about myself, I want to make her feel special.”
“I don't know!” he answered, “Just tell Fluttershy you think her love for animals is great once the timing seems right.”
“That's not very helpful...” sighed Shadow Breeze, believing there was some magic formula he was missing.
“All you have to do is be yourself,” said Techorse as he repeated himself from before, “it sounds to me like everything's going great so far! You'll know what to do, buddy.”
Shadow groaned and covered his eyes, “I don't know. Stay here though in case I need help again, ok?”
“Don't worry, I will,” he answered, picking up the newspaper again, “come back if you need me again.”
Shadow Breeze and Fluttershy met up at a table just a few feet away from where Techorse was sitting reading his newspaper and drinking a hot glass of tea. The two incredibly shy ponies were trying to avoid eye contact with each other when thinking about what to say to be romantic, and made eye contact only when they dropped the topic. Eventually they were served their lunch, cucumber sandwiches on wheat, fresh cut carrots and celery, and spicy crackers cut into the shape of butterflies, as well as a whole kettle of camomile tea for them to share. The butterflies hovering around the cafe seemed uninterested in their food in favor of some sugar water dispensers hanging from the roof of the kitchen, which was a small green painted hut left in front of the cafe.
“It looks like they're joining us for lunch!” laughed Fluttershy nervously, as she picked up the tea kettle and moved it over to her cup.
“I don't think they eat sandwiches!” joked the stallion at the table awkwardly, “So, enjoying yourself so far?”
“Oh yes,” she answered, pouring the hot tea onto the table and the floor by accident as she maintained her focus on Shadow Breeze, “It was really nice seeing the rare species.”
Neither of them noticed the massive tea spill except for the waiter, who grumbled at the mess he'd have to clean up later. Eventually though, Fluttershy wondered why she wasn't able to drink any tea from her white porcelain cup, and found the spill.
“Oh my! Let me clean that up.”
She mopped up the stray tea with her cloth napkin, soaking it thoroughly with the dark drink. Once finished, she returned to her seat, and laughed.
“I'm so forgetful sometimes,” she said.
Shadow Breeze smiled, “Well, I can be too. One time I left my toast in the toaster and burnt it to a crisp.”
“Glad I'm not the only pony who's done that,” whispered Fluttershy.
A few moments passed before she added, “Um, Shadow, can I tell you something?”
“S..sure?” he said, his voice growing short as he wondered what she was about to say.
Fluttershy wanted to blurt out that she enjoyed his company, but fell short and nearly turned white in terror. She had no idea how to put this, and needed to ask Twilight again, who was near the gift shop on the other side of the cafe.
“I... I need to use the little mare's room. I'll be right back!” she whimpered, leaving the table.
As soon as she was gone, the equally pale-faced Shadow turned to Techorse and tried to get an answer as to what he should say as well. And so this continued, with the ponies trying to carry normal conservation on throughout lunch. Whenever they would hit a pause, instead of asserting themselves or using their own conversational style, they'd turn to their friend and get advice on what to say. This would lead to them saying something Techorse or Twilight would say instead of what they would, and it lead to awkwardness and lots of looking around. Eventually though, the horror of lunch together was over, and the two ponies were back on their tour to see the hatching rooms. They were sure to have more fun just doing what they loved to do together instead of being forced to talk about themselves.
Techorse sighed in relief when he watched them leave with Aster, and walked to the gift shop to purchase a disposable camera. On the way, he looked around to get a view of the butterflies, and carelessly bumped into Twilight. Down went the two ponies, who grunted in disbelief before standing back up and confronting each other.
“Hey watch where you're going!” said Twilight, “You almost...”
She recognized him immediately despite the disguise and asked, “Tech?”
Techorse tried to maintain his cover and answered nervously, “Oh, hello ma’am, Um... who's Tech?”
“You're not fooling anypony,” laughed Twilight, taking off his gray private investigator's hat,” I can clearly see it's you.”
“Darn, PAL was right, I should have gone with the mustache,” he joked.
They hugged quickly, and then he asked her, “So what are you doing here, honey?”
“You're not going to believe this,” snorted Twilight, waving her hoof in the air to mock her friend, “Fluttershy brought me here to help her figure out what to say to Shadow Breeze.”
“No kidding!” he said, mouth agape, “That's why I'm here! Shadow wanted me to help him with the same thing! Seems like they want to...”
“I know, and that's great!” interrupted Twilight, “But to be honest, I'm here to potentially tell Princess Celestia about what goes on. We're going to see them learn something out of this.”
“Yeah, that copying us isn't going to help them,” snickered Techorse, earning him a playful swat from Twilight's right hoof, which he ducked.
“I was kidding!” he said, “In all seriousness, are we going to follow them and make sure things turn out?”
“I think they can do that on their own,” she said, winking, “Let's go to the gift shop and wait for them to be done!”
The two crossed tails and walked into the gift shop to see what was for sale, while their friends on the other side of the conservatory went to visit the hatchery. It was a smaller glass dome, with red lights hung from the ceiling. Hundreds of butterfly eggs, small yellow specks that rested on plants grown in the room, were sitting underneath the warm light waiting to hatch.
“As soon as these eggs hatch,” explained Aster, “These caterpillars will crawl out and start eating like crazy. They'll eat one hundred times their own body weight before going into metamorphosis.”
An older caterpillar, about four inches long, crawled onto Fluttershy's nose from a nearby branch and took a short rest. Shadow Breeze laughed at the silly event, and Fluttershy gasped lightly.
Aster suggested to her, “Just pick a twig off the bush and put him back.”
Shadow Breeze warned, “A fresh twig? That'll hurt the plant.“
“It's just one twig!” criticized Aster, “What's the harm? The caterpillars are already munching off the leaves.”
“Yeah but a twig is much harder for the plant to grow back!” complained the stallion, knowing that the plant would likely be slow to regenerate the lost part.
Fluttershy, with a caterpillar still tickling her nose, weighed her options. She went with doing no harm the plant and making Shadow Beeze happy by carefully used her left wing to remove the larval butterfly and place him back on a leaf.
She said, “See, no harm done.”
Another caterpillar nearby was struggling to reach a leaf that was positioned a few feet above his head. It stood on its pudgy back legs, attempting to reach up with its mouth parts, but without success. Shadow Breeze took pity on the little insect, knowing Fluttershy was unhappy to see it struggle and picked the leaf above gently with his mouth, before giving it to the hungry bug below. It grabbed the leaf with its mandibles and starting eating joyfully.
Fluttershy gave a loving look to him, “How sweet of you, Shadow Breeze, I'm sure Mr. Caterpillar was very grateful for that.”
“Well it was nice of you to not get a stick from the plant,” he said.
They both wanted to say something, but tried to hold off until later.
Both of them thought, “Maybe I should say something now?”
Aster could sense the tension, but being just the guide for the day, said nothing to either of the ponies in front of her. She instead motioned for them to leave the hatching room to continue the day's activities.
“Anyways, let's move on, shall we?”
Before she could finish, a loud crash was heard outside of the room, and the three ponies dashed to find out what had caused the noise. A large pane of glass had been smashed from the side of the dome, shards lay everywhere on the dirt floor outside of the walk path. The intruder that had crashed through the dome was a very large, brown colored colored toad, with bright red eyes, and a set of gray-colored spines that ran down its head and back. Despite being nearly as large as an earth pony and weighing more than twice as much, the toad still possessed powerful legs and a thick, injury resistant body that had allowed it to crash through the glass without harm.
“A Dire Toad?” questioned Fluttershy, “He must have come a long way from the bog near Baltimare!”
“Oh no!” she gasped as its reason for being there struck her, “He must be here to gobble up the butterflies!”
“That's horrible,” said Aster angrily, “I'm getting the staff, we'll handle this thing!”
The Dire Toad possessed more intelligence than what the ponies had given him credit for however, and overheard their plans to chase him out of the conservatory. Spotting some nearby bamboo torches lit for an island effect, the toad croaked loudly before jumping into a row of the lighting, knocking them over. The torches split open, and fluid leaked everywhere before igniting into a massive conflagration. The fire alarm went off as the smoke from the fire reached the ceiling, and the patrons of the conservatory along with most of the employees screamed and ran away for the exits. Only two other employees joined Aster, who found her with Fluttershy and Shadow Breeze confronting the toad. It realized that its plan had only partially succeeded, and hopped away into the depths of the artificial forest in search of butterfly prey.
Twilight Sparkle and Techorse had noticed the fires and rushed over to help.
“What's going on?” asked Twilight, “Where'd this fire come from!?”
Techorse's trenchcoat parted where he was wearing his saddle underneath, and his robotic arms extended out, ready to help.
“Hey, wait a minute, what are you doing here Techorse?” asked Fluttershy, confused.
“And you, Twilight?” asked Shadow.
Twilight nearly ignored them but said desperately, “Both of you asked us to go along to help you out on your date, ok? Now back to the fire, what happened?!”
“We both had the same plan?” Shadow Breeze said as he turned to Fluttershy.
She looked back at him, and nodded slowly before they both blushed and knew what they had done wrong over the day.
“There's a Dire Toad loose in the building,” explained an employee who interrupted their thoughts, “it started this fire and escaped! What are we going to do?”
“We've got to stop the toad from eating the butterflies and keep the conservatory from burning down!” said Aster, “We can't possibly do both though!”
Fluttershy realized that Shadow Breeze and herself could do something about this, and spread her wings.
“We can too!” insisted Fluttershy, hovering up into the air, “Shadow and I will take care of the toad. You five put out the fire!”
“We will?” gasped Shadow Breeze, not sure she knew what she was doing.
“Do you trust me?” she asked as Shadow Breeze lifted up to meet her.
Her eyes met his, and they both stared at each other with determination and hope. They knew what they had to do to save the plants and animals they loved, and they knew they could do it if they worked together as a team.
“Yes.” he answered slowly, “Let's get him, Fluttershy!”
The two ponies flew off to go find their opponent, while Twilight and Techorse turned to the three employees.
“Let's see if we can convert the water pumps for the flowers into fire hydrants!” shouted Twilight, “I'll lend my magic where I can!”
Techorse added, “And I've got two arms for a fire extinguisher, if you've got one.”
“All right! Let's get to work!” said Aster, “Follow me to the pump room, maybe we can save the conservatory yet!”
They galloped away to grab their firefighting supplies and beat the blaze back, as the fires began to take on the trees in the building. If they hurried, they would be able to stop the flames before they got out of control, and both the building and the butterflies would be safe again.
The Dire Toad had reached the imitation backyard again, and spotted the butterflies still unaware of the roaring fire on the other side of the building. They were busy feeding from the morning glories still, and the toad below prepared to engulf them. But Fluttershy and Shadow Breeze had arrived at the scene, and tried to get his attention.
“Hey you!” shouted Shadow, diving in and landing on the ground.
The toad didn't bother to turn, and opened his mouth wide. His long, pink tongue tipped with several sharp barbs shot out and raced towards a butterfly. To stop him from gobbling up the poor insect, Fluttershy knocked over the fence, and the tongue overshot the target before hitting a nearby palm tree. In a display of brute strength, the amphibian drew his tongue back in, uprooting the palm tree and tearing it down with a mighty crash.
“Yikes!” gasped Fluttershy, covering her mouth with her hooves.
The toad tried to take aim at another set of butterflies flying high above, and Shadow Breeze activated his amulet, casting hundreds of shadow butterflies above. This confused the monster, and it could not decide what to fire its tongue at, missing several of its shots and having to reel in its long tongue every time.
Fluttershy flew up and smashed one of the glass planes on the roof, and then said loudly to the butterflies, “Hey! I need you to all leave until it's safe again, hurry!”
The insects obeyed Fluttershy, and left through the glass opening in large numbers while Shadow Breeze kept the toad distracted. Eventually they had all successfully escaped, leaving just the amphibious beast with the two ponies, who landed nearby. The monster became furious upon realizing that the two ponies had cost it its planned source of food, and turned to attack them with its barbed tongue.
“Now what?” whimpered Fluttershy, becoming afraid.
“I guess we're going to have to stop it!” he said, gasping as he realized they'd have to fight.
As the Dire Toad stepped forward to take revenge for the loss of the butterflies as its next meal, Shadow Breeze readied himself, and cringed slightly as the animal gave a dark croak at him. Fluttershy tried to figure out what she could do to convince the toad to stop causing mayhem, but understood that until it had calmed down, it was unlikely to listen.
“I'm going to try scaring it off.” he said.
She answered after a short breath, “All right, but be careful, and don't hurt him!”
The monster opened its mouth and shot its barbed tongue at Shadow Breeze, who leapt into the air and spread his wings to avoid the spiky appendage. Once the tongue had retracted, the toad recoiling from the force of its muscle reentering its mouth, Shadow Breeze charged his amulet, and shadow magic began to accumulate a dark aura around the enchanted object's primary gemstone. Again the toad jumped into the air to attack Shadow Breeze, ignoring Fluttershy as she had chosen to stay on the ground. Out came the long, sharp tongue, which streaked up into the air to grab Shadow Breeze and bring him down. The pegasus pony anticipated the attack and quickly fired off a blast from his amulet. A black shadow in the shape of a cartoon bomb, rounded and complete with fuse, was thrown from the amulet towards the tongue. It hit the end, and stuck before the toad reeled it in, landing on the ground with a sharp whack. As the shadow bomb exploded inside the beast, it puffed up temporarily before smoke poured from its lips.
“It's skin is too thick! I can't scare him away with my amulet!” cried Shadow Breeze, before the Dire Toad struck again with its tongue.
This time, the lengthy pink rope struck him, grabbing his shadow amulet. With a quick and skillful turn of its head, the creature ripped the jewelry off his opponent and slammed it into the ground along with its owner. Shadow Breeze slowly stood up, more shocked than harmed by the impact, and watched helplessly as the toad retracted its tongue and placed his prized amulet underneath its right left foot.
Fluttershy ran up to him, panic and concern in her eyes, “Are you hurt?!”
“It's not so bad,” he said, tears welling up from the pain, “I just got bruised a little, that's all.”
The toad croaked in a pattern that resembled deep laughter, likely amusement that the projectiles lobbed at it had no effect, while it was able to hurt Shadow Breeze easily. Fluttershy lost all patience with the creature at this, and turned around, rage in her eyes. The toad seemed to ignore her at first as she galloped up, but he fell just short of launching his tongue before the mare was upon him.
“You loser!“ she screamed, getting inches from his face, “How could you be so cruel as to try to eat butterflies, the most pacifistic insects in Equestria!”
It retreated a step backwards, releasing its hold on the amulet as Fluttershy pushed it backwards with her head, ensuring he was making eye contact with her. Shadow Breeze watched in amazement as she went to work on the creature, having only heard from her friends about her berating of vile creatures.
“Not only that, but we were trying to help you by stopping you from eating them,” she continued, “butterflies aren't colorful because they want to look nice. It's to warn dumb predators like you that they're poisonous! Imagine what would have happened if you'd eaten them!”
Although the amphibian had lost some ground, it was not giving up, and pushed back on Fluttershy, slightly opening its mouth to use its tongue again. At such close range the barbs would have terrible power, but Fluttershy was not about to give up, rearing up on her hind legs for a moment, she brought her front hooves back down and stomped on the ground before giving the toad her signature stare.
“You stop this RIGHT NOW!”
The toad continued to try and resist, but after a few seconds of Fluttershy's piercing gaze, it let out a terrified cry and covered its bulbous eyes with its front arms. Knowing she had won and gained his attention, she attempted to settle the matter with the beast.
“Now, now,” she said calmly, patting it on its head, “I know you're not entirely evil. You just got greedy, that's all. Do you think you can go back to your bog, and tell the other toads what I said about butterflies being poisonous? We wouldn't want any accidents.”
The Dire Toad nodded slowly, and gave a happy croak when Fluttershy ran her hoof over its spines, calming it down. It then hopped for the nearest open glass panel, and leaped out the opening, hopping back for home.
“Fluttershy, that was amazing!” said Shadow Breeze, running up to her, “I've always known you were good with animals, but I've never seen you do that before.”
She asked meekly, “You thought that was amazing?”
“Yes!” he answered, “I've thought you were amazing all along.”
“Well, what you did was pretty brave too,” she said.
After a pause for the two to look away from each other in embarrassment, Fluttershy continued, “Anyways... I need to bring the butterflies back now that it's safe.”
She spread her wings and flew up to the ceiling, disappearing through the hole she had created. Soon she returned, and a large stream of butterflies followed her back into the conservatory. It took the insects a full minute to return, and the entire spectrum of colors and sizes of butterfly were present as they filed back in. Eventually all had returned, and were flying above gracefully, celebrating the success of the ponies in saving them.
Fluttershy landed back on the ground in front of Shadow Breeze, and stared into his eyes. She thought about simply saying goodbye here and heading home for the evening, but realized that there was more she wanted to say. So she took the plunge, and opened up to him.
"I had a good time, you know, despite the mess," said Fluttershy, "but I'm sure the butterflies will be safe now thanks to you!"
"But Fluttershy, we worked together to save the butterflies, and I had fun too!" he answered, a glowing look in his eyes.
Fluttershy had never before expressed the feeling she had, and would normally have sooner died than say anything. But here, she worked up just enough courage to say what she had wanted to say.
"I..." she stuttered, "Think... I love you."
Fluttershy quickly kissed Shadow Breeze on the cheek, and her face turned red as she realized what she had done in front of other ponies! The guests at the conservatory had returned since the fires had been extinguished, and some of them cooed or sighed at the sight. Shadow Breeze seemed slightly less affected, but was still rather embarrassed.
"I love you too," he said, surprised, "I didn't think you felt the same way though."
She folded her wings tightly against her sides, and answered, "I have for a bit. But I was too scared to ask you out, until Twilight helped me."
"And I was too scared until Techorse helped me!" he admitted.
"And it almost didn't work out," Shadow Breeze said after taking a pause to frown and reflect on things, "we tried to do things just like them, instead of being ourselves. We should have listened to them sooner."
Fluttershy smiled, "Well, we're being ourselves right now. We're helping the plants and animals, just like we love to do."
Shadow Breeze gave Fluttershy another loving look, and she stared back at him with happiness and feeling. He leaned in and closed his eyes to kiss her on the lips, but opened them in surprise when he realized he was kissing a feather. Fluttershy had held her right wing up to his chin, and was stopping him.
"Um, maybe we could wait until another time. You know, when there's not so many ponies staring..."
Shadow Breeze looked up and around at all the ponies in the conservatory who were looking at them, with broad smiles on their faces in thanks for saving their beloved butterflies. He laughed nervously and blushed, and backed away from Fluttershy. Twilight Sparkle and Techorse as well as Aster and the other employees, had all returned from extinguishing the last of the fires, and found the two of them side by side, their tails interlocked.
"Oh, wow," said Techorse, the words barely leaving his mouth.
Twilight lowered her head in confusion and said, "I don't get it."
"What don't you get?" asked Shadow Breeze.
"Things turned out? I thought things were ruined after that fire and that dire toad attacking."
Fluttershy left Shadow Breeze's side and approached Twilight, "It didn't ruin anything, Twilight. You and Tech were simply right this whole time. Shadow and I like to help nature, and that's what we got to do today by stopping the toad from eating the butterflies. We like to do things our way, and we got to do that."
“Then you guys finally learned what I was hoping you would!” she said, thinking merrily to herself about her latest letter she'd write to the princesses.
"We're very happy for you two," said Techorse, giving them a thumbs up with one of his robotic arms from his saddle.
"And next week, there's a brand new flower garden opening outside of Canterlot," added Twilight, getting an idea, "I'm sure you'd like to go do that!"
Shadow Breeze and Fluttershy looked at each other, and both knew that after today, they didn't want to go to another event for a while until they'd had some time to recuperate.
Fluttershy answered, "Um, actually, we were going to make plans... to plant some catnip for Opal. I'm sure Rarity would appreciate it."
"Oh yes! I'd love to grow some catnip," agreed Shadow Breeze, "Let's go home and get to work on that plan."
"Let's!" said Fluttershy.
The two of them left together, side by side, both happy to be together, and happy that they were avoiding the suggested social situation.
Twilight and Techorse looked at each other and shook their heads in disbelief, yet smiled for their friends' joy.
Outside the conservatory, the sun had not yet begun to set, yet the cool breeze and the wonderful smell of the rose garden provided a wonderful setting for the two ponies leaving for home. Fluttershy and Shadow Breeze had wandered out behind the bushes on the exit path of the butterflies' home, and stopped just before a large bush full of bright red roses, each one glistening with dew from their most recent watering.
Shadow Breeze stopped her, and they looked into each other's eyes lovingly, losing themselves.
“Thank you for such a wonderful day,” she said to him softly.
“It was the best day of my life,” he answered, approaching her slowly so that their muzzles almost touched.
She whispered, “I... love you.”
“I love you too,” Shadow Breeze whispered back.
They closed their eyes, and then moved in gracefully, their lips locked for a few moments of time. Not another soul saw the act of love in front of the romantic flower bush, but that did not make it any less of a wonderful moment for the two ponies. After they finished their kiss and opened their eyes, they looked around to make sure no other ponies had seen them do that. Despite everything, they were still shy and reserved on the inside, and would be mortified if their display of affection had gone public.
“Let's go back and talk on the train...” suggested Fluttershy, “you know, if that'd be ok with you.”
“I was thinking the same thing, don't worry,” he answered quickly.
The two meekly headed on the path for their train, their tails twisted around the other's as they walked slowly off and out of sight. Without warning, however, a familiar pink pony bounded out of the rose bushes and into their path, and the three nearly collided had it not been for Pinkie Pie spotting them and grinding to a halt on her front hooves.
“Pinkie Pie, what are you doing here?” gasped Fluttershy.
Pinkie Pie answered with a giggle, “I'm delivering butterfly-shaped cookies to the cafe today!”
She then noticed that the two had their tails together, and gasped loudly, “Are you two... a THING now?”
“Uh oh,” whimpered Shadow Breeze.
“Yay!” cheered Pinkie Pie, jumping up and down, “I can't wait to tell everypony back in Ponyville! We're going to have a big party, and there'll be plenty of teasing from me just like I do to Twilight and Techie!”
“So much for things being private,” cried Shadow Breeze, his ears drooping.
“Um... Pinkie Pie, do you think maybe we could just, quietly tell the others ourselves instead of making a big deal about it?” asked Fluttershy gently, hoping Pinkie Pie wouldn't announce their relationship to the world.
Pinkie Pie stood still for a moment, and then gave a quick hop, making her fluffy hair and tail bounce, “Oh, all right! But we're still having a little private party back home. Just some cake with friends, ok?”
“That's much better!” said Shadow Breeze, letting out a breath in relief.
“We'll come back home with you and celebrate.” added Fluttershy.
“Great!” said Pinkie Pie with a happy grin, “Let's get to the train!”
The three left back for the train station, but not before finding Twilight and Techorse, who accompanied them back after a short break to purchase a few roses to eat on the way home. Fluttershy and Shadow Breeze knew as they headed back for home aboard the train, that they no longer needed to try and make every day together perfect, or have it follow a set of rules. As long as they were doing what they loved together, they were happy, and their love for each other showed that.