Friendship Is Hard Work

by EntropicIrony

Fluttershy

After the day I’d had with Balloon-Butt I decided I needed to have a slow, restful day. So naturally I chose Fluttershy. How wrong I was.

“There you are Discord.” Fluttershy smiled gently as I appeared. “You’re just in time to help me with breakfast.”

“Breakfast?” I asked. I was starting to like the sound of this already. To my surprise I was suddenly handed a bucket full of oats, grains and other stuff.

“You can start with the animals out the back.” Fluttershy explained. “The pigs are on a diet so don’t overfeed them, even if they ask. Captain George the goat is a picky eater, so make sure he eats his corn. The chickens are mostly well behaved, but Swanson the rooster occasionally likes to sneak into their nesting box so don’t let him. Betsy the goose won’t leave her eggs, so you have to…” This went on for some time.

To my surprise I found that Fluttershy could be rather stern when it came to her animal friends. I found myself redoing a lot of things more than twice, and once she even scolded me. So much for the restful day I hoped to have. If anything, she seemed to work me harder than Sparkle-Butt and Balloon-Butt had. It seemed I had barely finished breakfast and we were already starting to prepare lunch. How she found the time to take care of the animals and still had time for her friends I’ll never know.

“You can rest now Discord.” Fluttershy smiled, bringing out tea and cookies. “Thank you so much for helping me with my chores today.”

“Is that it?” I asked hopefully. “Can I go after this?” Fluttershy merely giggled, shaking her head.

“We still have dinner to prepare.” Fluttershy responded. “I just thought that you were doing such a good job helping me today, that you deserved a break.”

“How do you do it?” I asked. “How do you manage to take care of all these animals and still have time for your friends?” I had always felt most comfortable talking with Fluttershy.

“Oh, well…” Fluttershy blushed. “To be honest… You’ve been slowing me down.” She looked uncomfortable. I flinched awkwardly.

“Surely I haven’t.” I was quickly on the defensive. “Perhaps it’s your fault for not explaining things to me properly.” Fluttershy noticeably winced.

“I’m sorry.” She squeaked. “I didn’t mean to…” A twinge of guilt – curse that mare – caused me to blush.

“It’s alright dear Fluttershy.” I quickly responded almost nervously. “I was only joking.” She brightened slightly at this and my guilt quelled. Darn that mare and her uncanny ability to make me feel guilty.

The remainder of the day went rather well and I found myself once again collapsing into bed. So much for ‘understanding my friends’; all I had learnt so far was that Sparkle-Butt was boring, Balloon-Butt was hyperactive and Fluttershy wasn’t as much of a pushover as I had assumed. At least I was already halfway there.

Author's Note:

Since she's his first friend, I doubt Discord would call Fluttershy "Flutter-Butt"