The Shy Driver

by Wiz Ahmad

A Threat and A Talk

Author's Note:

Note that this chapter is shorter than the others. anyways enjoy and leave your comments!

By afternoon, the kids came home, tired and complaining of homework. Carter had a small scar on his cheek. Another nasty bullying incident, Fluttershy thought sadly. Ashley, on the other hand, was happy, bright, and eager to continue the day.

“How was school?” Lorraine asked, but Carter didn’t stop to answer. He ran upstairs to his room, threw his backpack in, ran to the upstairs bathroom, and shut the door.

“My day was great!” Ashley replied joyfully. “I learned a new multiplication strategy in math, and also about air currents in science!”

“Nice to know,” Lorraine said with a smile, helping Ashley out of her clothes. “Could you help me cook dinner?”

“Sure!” Ashley replied. “Once I get all that homework done.”

Lorraine was about to stir a hot pot of food on the stove when she heard a clanging and bang, as if something had dropped from a considerable height. From the storage room, out walked Fluttershy with a vacuum cleaner and a duster.

“Can I vacuum, Mom?” Fluttershy said, her voice slurred slightly with the duster handle in her mouth. “I wanna clean up the house.”

Lorraine let out a squee and smiled. It was hard to say no to Fluttershy, even if she knew that ponies couldn’t handle items made for humans very well. “All right, Fluttershy, yes you can. Ashley! Come over here. I need you to teach Fluttershy how to vacuum.”

Fluttershy found the appliance real awkward and was even scared of it for a while, but soon got used to the loud purring of the motor. She used her wing to manipulate the main unit while grasping the hose handle with her hooves. After sucking all the dust balls and scattered dirt from the carpets, Fluttershy used the duster to remove excess dust from the wooden floor and the shelves, bookcases, chairs, and other furniture.

As she walked down the stairs, Jack walked in the door, fresh from a hard day’s work.

“Hi, Jack! How was your work?” she called out, but Jack just looked back at her like she was a scuff mark on the wall and turned to take off his shoes. Fluttershy smiled sadly and walked down the hall towards the kitchen, where the delicious smell of a fresh chicken stew was stirring.

Fluttershy was rather disturbed by the presence of chicken, as she considered meat “non-sentient”. Thankfully, Ashley knew of this and made her a substitute – vegetable soup with cheese bread.

“Jack, honey!” Lorraine greeted her husband with a hug and kiss as he stepped into the family room. In the process he noticed how amazingly clean and dust-free it was.

“Well done, Carter,” he said quietly, then from the corner of his eye he noticed Fluttershy wearing a big grin…and his eyes widened.

“You did this? You, of all creatures, cleaned up this room?” he said rather loudly, causing Fluttershy to cower a bit.

“Um, yes,” Fluttershy replied. “I like homes that are clean and neat. And I figured that what I apply to my own house I should apply to others’ homes too.”

Jack pulled up a chair and sat down. “Good on you, ‘cause when it comes to chores Carter can be real stubborn.”

Fluttershy giggled. “I’m sure he’ll change once the dirt and dust overtake him. Then what he dislikes doing will become the only way to get him out of his own trap.”

Just as everyone was about to begin eating, Carter burst into the kitchen. “Sorry I’m late, I had to take a shower and shoot out a few Facebook messages. Crazy sweat from gym class.”

“Homework?” Ashley snapped rudely.

Carter stared right back. “I’ve got that covered.” He turned to Jack. “So you might ask, what did I learn? Well, I discovered the basics of Calculus, constructed some new French sentences properly, and beat the rival team by 6 baskets. Waaaaaaaaaaaay better than last time, remember, Ash? Speaking of which, I noticed something really weird…There was this little girl who passed by the basketball court and she was wearing a shirt with a picture of you on it.” He pointed to Fluttershy, who gasped in shock. “I’m not kidding.”

Fluttershy remained silent for the rest of the day, clearly shocked at what Carter had said. Was she that famous that someone had somehow got a photo of her and branded it on clothing for children? And what would people think of her now? Surely everyone who saw that girl would recognize Fluttershy if they saw her?

It became too evident after dinner as Carter washed the dishes and Ashley cleaned up the table and floor, while Lorraine and Jack chit-chatted outside on the back porch. Fluttershy just sat on the couch in the family room, flipping through pages of a recent edition of modernCat magazine, not saying a word and wearing a half-glum expression.

Even after Lorraine tried to convince her to come upstairs and sleep in bed with her, Fluttershy just murmured that she’d prefer to sleep on the couch.

“Suit yourself, pony,” Jack blurted, and walked down the hall after his wife to the stairs.

---

As night fell, Fluttershy closed the blinds, locked the patio door, and flipped the magazine shut. The house no longer seemed like a place of safety, but a prison. In her eyes, it served as a strong cage, blocking her from the outside world that seemingly would ooh and aah over her so much. She had a new caring family, but no real freedom. On top of that, she still missed her best pony friends back in Equestria.

“How can I ever get to be who I am with both a loving pony and a loving world together?” she thought sadly, shuffling up the steps. As she lay on the carpet in the upstairs hallway, a brief thought hit her and she tapped on Carter’s door.

“What?” The response was abrupt.

“Uh, um, it—it’s me, Fluttershy.”

“Come in.”

Fluttershy turned the knob and pushed the door open. Carter was sitting there, hunched over his laptop. Man, his room was messy. Dirty clothes were piled in a corner, and his bed was unkempt. There were three posters on the wall – all of popular movies. Crammed into a blue storage box were some old toys. On the screen: Facebook. Posted was a message with really foul language and an image with big bold letters that read:

ALL YOU DO IS SHOOT BASKETS. YOU'RE A F**** PEDOPHILE, YOU KNOW? I KNOW ALL OF YOUR FRIENDS AND I WILL SEND THEM THE VIDEO. IF YOU DON’T WANT IT TO HAPPEN, GIVE ME YOUR LOCATION.

“How did this happen?” Fluttershy asked.

Carter stopped crying and sighed. “Please please please! I beg of you don’t tell Mom!”

“All right, I won’t. But please explain.”

Carter cleared his throat and belted out the whole story. “It all began with one misinterpreted incident. About a month ago a little girl, even younger than Ashley, slipped and fell in one of the classrooms while reaching for her lunch bag that she forgot in the classroom after everyone else had left. I happened to be passing by, and helped her up and gave her a hug and kiss. However, from the angle of the security camera in the classroom it made it look like I was kissing her on the lips. This freak on Facebook claimed to know all of my friends and hacked the camera and stole the footage. He sent it to me along with this threat that you saw. I don’t know what to do now. I want to call the police, but I’m afraid Mom will get angry and we’ll have to move and everything… it’ll be too stressful.”

Fluttershy sighed. “Sometimes it’s best to do the right thing to solve a problem, even if it means facing the worst or putting all your hopes in one shot. I suppose you’ll be taking care of all this mess, huh?”

Carter banged the desk in frustration. “Yeah. I was going to but then I got this message and…”

Fluttershy cut him off. “Ok, I see. Friends are hard to manage sometimes. Especially if they may not seem like real friends at times.”

Carter nodded sadly. “I’ve tried to make friends at school, but all I got are the top shots at the basketball team I play on. Yeah I hang out with them and stuff but I can’t really call them my friends, ya know what I’m saying?”

Fluttershy nodded in agreement. “But at least you gave me an opening to a new world where I was take in and loved. You helped me make friends.”

Carter’s eyes widened a little. “I never thought of it that way.”

Fluttershy smiled and put her hooves on his thighs. “I think you can solve this problem with help from the same friend who helped make a friend.”

Carter looked lovingly into her beautiful teal eyes. “You…want to be m-m-my fr-friend?” he stuttered in surprise.

“Of course,” Fluttershy then asked in a sweet voice. “You've proven to be stronger in such unexpected situations than most I've seen.”

Carter laid back on the bed in his PJs, knocking off his socks and pulling the blanket halfway over them. Their heads relaxed on the soft blue and yellow pillows that adorned the bed’s headboard. He looked into her eyes longingly. “Thanks so much.”

Fluttershy smiled with a cute shy blush. “You're welcome.”

Fluttershy curled up and gently closed her eyes, and Carter comfortingly wrapped an arm over her. For Fluttershy, it was an amazingly relaxing and peaceful moment, showing love to someone else she cared for and also who cared for her love and comfort. On the other end, Carter had discovered friendship in someone he’d never even dreamed was possible.