Locked Out Kindness

by Onyx Archer

Part 1: Please Let Me Know

Please Let Me Know

Winter has always been a time of year that Fluttershy could relax a little. Due to the hibernation and migration cycles of the majority of the animals she tended to, she was able to put her hooves up and enjoy a nice calming cup of tea and some biscuits. Sometimes she’d spend this time with Discord, but she made it a point to not let that be a daily occurrence. Discord was a total sweetheart deep down, but he still had his quirks that were best experienced in small bursts.

In fact, today was a day where she felt like having fun rather than relaxing. If one had suggested that she’d be the kind of pony to actively seek out fun two years ago, she would laugh. Well, not really, but she has come a long way in the past couple years. She still prefered to keep to herself most of the time, but she had become more comfortable engaging others. Somedays she actually wanted to spend some time out of the house, with somepony else.

Much to her disappointment, however, most of her close friends were occupied. Twilight was currently taking an extended vacation in the world beyond the mirror, although Spike had told her that it was because the random weather had stranded her at Sunset Shimmer’s place. Apparently the mirror world lacked a weather team, which Fluttershy found a bit odd.

Pinkie was currently out of town visiting her family for the holidays, as was Applejack. They weren’t spending the holidays together this year, however. This year, Applejack’s aunt was incredibly ill, and she and her family went to go look after her. They’d likely be back soon, as Hearth’s Warming was over.

Rarity was unavailable due to the mass amount of orders she needed to fill after her brief holiday break. It was one of the few drawbacks to being an entrepreneur, but Fluttershy knew Rarity wouldn’t have it any other way. Well, maybe she’d want a short spa break. She could see Rarity wanting a pedicure after all of the orders were taken care of.

And then there was Rainbow Dash. She was probably the one who Fluttershy had expected to be free. Interestingly enough though, Rainbow was occupied with her duties as a reserve flyer for the Wonderbolts. Apparently Spitfire had decided that the two highest ranking reserve flyers would do a routine together, which had taken up pretty much all of Rainbow’s free time. Fluttershy had briefly met Rainbow’s routine partner the other day when they had taken a day off to rest after three straight days of practice. Her name was Indigo Zap, if she was remembering right.

Even Tree Hugger was busy. She, like Pinkie and Applejack, was visiting some of her family in the Manehattan area. She never met Tree Hugger’s family, though to be fair, Tree Hugger hadn’t really met her family. Unless she counted her friends as family, which they were, at least to her.

As she walked the snowy streets of Ponyville, she couldn’t help but let out a sigh. She couldn’t help but find it somewhat ironic that on a day she wanted to spend time with her friends, none of her friends were free. Despite that, she decided she’d make the most of it. It was a nice day, if a bit chilly, but that was because it was winter. Perhaps she could get some peppermint hot cocoa from Sugarcube Corner, and enjoy some of their gingersnaps. Maybe she could play with the twins for a little bit? It was certainly better than nothing.

Settling on the way to fill some of her afternoon, she made her way through the snow to the home of the Cakes. As the snow crunched under her hooves, she shivered a little. She had woken up in a warm cottage, a fire burning brightly in the fireplace. It was a stark contrast in comparison to the chilly air that filled the streets of the town. Adjusting her scarf (a Hearth’s Warming present from Rarity the year prior), she continued walking to her destination.

That is, until she heard the sound of somepony’s frustrated groan. It had caught her attention since the streets were relatively bare this afternoon. Most ponies were inside, or out of town, so only the odd few were strewn about the streets. Not able to find the source of the groan in a cursory glance of her surroundings, she continued down the street. Whoever it was, it was clear they were in a sour mood.

“Oh for the love of Celestia!” erupted from the direction of the prior annoyed groan. However, this time, when Fluttershy had looked, she saw a pegasus pony with a rose colored mane that had a single streak of aqua running through it. She seemed to be carrying some saddlebags with groceries in them. Not only that, but she appeared to be looking on the ground in the street with an irate expression. It didn’t take a genius to see that she had dropped something. “Where the hell are they?!”

Taking note of the mare’s displeased expression, and rather crude language, she almost wanted to just keep walking and pretend she saw nothing. That, however, wouldn’t be very nice, and Fluttershy was anything but rude. She was quite shy around ponies she didn’t know, sure, but she wasn’t rude. Walking over to the clearly upset pegasus, Fluttershy felt her heart race, as it normally did around new people. Her nerves started to scream at her to change her tune and walk away, but she was not that kind of pony anymore... on a good day. It just so happened to be a good day that day too, nerves be damned.

“Umm... excuse me, but did you... uhh, lose something?” she asked the stranger timidly. The mare looked up from the ground, her unpleasant expression all but disappearing. It was kind of troubling in Fluttershy’s mind, but she shook the thought, not wanting to judge somepony she didn’t know at all.

“Why yes, yes I did,” the mare said with an overly sweet sounding voice. It was a stark contrast to her tone of voice from earlier, which Fluttershy found a little bit odd. The stranger smiled at her, and it looked genuine enough. “I dropped the keys to my house somewhere, and I’m having a hard time finding them in the snow.”

Her voice shifted from being sweet to the familiar crass tone from earlier. She was able to shift between them on the dime, which was certainly an interesting habit. Fluttershy simply smiled, albeit a bit nervously. The mare likely was just frustrated about her not being able to find her keys.

“Well... umm, if you want some help, I could... uhh, lend a hoof,” Fluttershy offered, her voice wavering slightly, which wasn’t out of the ordinary for the pink-maned pegasus. “Is there, uhh, any place you’ve been since you were last at home?”

The mare’s face shifted into one of deep thought. It was a much more neutral expression than the overly nice or gnarled bitter looking ones Fluttershy had seen from this pony. It was a welcome change of pace, although it didn’t last long.

“I’m new in town, so I was trying to get used to the area. That and do some grocery shopping,” the girl replied, her face turning sour as soon as she was done speaking. “Which means they could be anywhere in Ponyville. Greeeeaaaaaaat.”

That was certainly a problem. She had been all over Ponyville earlier in the day, which was a lot of space to cover alone. It didn’t help that it was cold out, and the temperature would drop as the day ended. If she had to search for her keys alone, she’d probably end up catching a cold, which was never a good time. Fluttershy knew that this girl needed her help, and it’s not like she had anything else to do today.

“I’ll help you look. Umm... I mean, if you’d like me to,” Fluttershy once again offered. “I’d hate to see you get sick.”

“Why thank you! I’d really appreciate it,” the mare said with her overly sweet sounding voice. Offering an outstretched hoof, she introduced herself to Fluttershy. “I’m Sour Sweet by the way, it’s so nice to meet you.”

“I’m Fluttershy,” Fluttershy said, introducing herself to the new resident of Ponyville. She accepted Sour Sweet’s hoof, and gave it a timid shake. “It’s nice to... uh, meet you too.”

With that, the two newly acquainted pegasi began their search.

“Is there anything that’ll... uh, help us spot the keys in the snow?” Fluttershy asked the rose haired mare beside her. “Like a keychain or something?”

“Yeah, there’s a keychain with a replica of my cutie mark on it.”

Taking a quick look at her new friend’s cutie mark, she memorized it rather easily. It was a simple heart design with lines that made up a gem looking shape over top of it. It was a cute design, as was typical with a cutie mark, though it was definitely a unique looking design for the most part.

“It’s rude to stare at somepony’s flank...” Sour Sweet spoke, her voice course tone snapping Fluttershy’s attention away from her cutie mark. Blushing, she smiled awkwardly at the other girl.

“Sorry... I was trying to memorize your cutie mark so I could... umm, spot it... easier,” she explained, although her tone didn’t make her excuse sound convincing. Sour Sweet, with a cocked eyebrow, just nodded, accepting it for now. “Is the one on the keychain... umm, exactly the same? Or is it a solid color?”

“It’s the same, but with a silver looking edge,” her friend replied, her face pointed at the ground. Her voice was relatively neutral this time, though she was occupied scoping out the ground around her as she walked. Nodding, Fluttershy began walking away.

“I’m going look over this way... how about we... uh, meet at Sugarcube Corner in a little bit?” She suggested, before realizing that Sour Sweet might not know where that is “Oh, umm, do you know where that is?”

“It’s kind of hard to miss,” was the reply she got. “See you in a little while!”

And with that, the two pegasus ponies split up, expanding the coverage of their search for Sour Sweet’s keys.

Fluttershy surveyed the streets as carefully as she could, not wanting to accidentally miss the keys as she walked. She recalled the times she had lost the keys to her cabin when she was out getting some food for her animal friends. She’d end up spending a good hour looking for her keys, only to find that she had passed by them multiple times. It always made her feel somewhat silly when she found them. Of course, she knew the area around Ponyville extremely well, having lived her for a number of years.

Sour Sweet didn’t have that kind of advantage, and was likely so visibly frustrated because she didn’t want to be locked out of her house in the middle of the winter. It was probably a terrifying thought that she would have to sleep in the cold, which certainly wouldn’t help prevent the onset of a potential cold.

Determined to help, Fluttershy even took minutes to fly over some of the areas, to get a better vantage point. Sadly, it didn’t really help, and ended up being a waste of energy. What made matters worse was there was a slight breeze that blew some of the loose powder snow over the ground, which likely covered the keys.

After another ten or so admittedly frustrating minutes of searching, Fluttershy decided it was time to meet Sour Sweet at Sugarcube Corner. She, after all of the moving around in the cold, could really go for a warm cup of peppermint tea.

Arriving not five minutes later, she saw Sour Sweet sitting inside, clearly very annoyed. She had clearly had just as much luck as Fluttershy in finding her keys. As she walked over to her, Sour Sweet looked up at her, wearing a hopeful expression. Shaking her head with a frown, Fluttershy watched as the girl frustratedly pulled her cheeks down with her hooves. Her scowl was made even more bitter looking as she held her face, a low growl coming from between her clenched teeth.

“Dammit! Where the hell are those god forsaken keys!?” she muttered angrily. Fluttershy could only put a hoof on her back and offer a smile. “I’m never going to find them am I?”

“Don’t say that. I’m sure you’ll find them before the day’s over,” Fluttershy said, moving to the counter. “Why don’t we just have a cup of tea and warm up for a little bit? We can go back out and look later.”

Sour Sweet opened her mouth to protest, but oddly enough no angry sounding words left her mouth. She just sighed, and looked at Fluttershy with a defeated look on her face.

“Alright...”

Fluttershy gave her a soft smile, before walking up to the counter.

“Hello Mrs. Cake. Do you think we could have some peppermint tea and gingersnaps please? She’s had a really rough day,” Fluttershy asked, placing the necessary bits on the countertop.

“Certainly dear, I’ll have it ready in a minute,” Mrs. Cake said, accepting the bits.

“Thank you.”

Author's Note:

So here we have the first half of a simple two part story that doesn't involve SunLight. Surprising I know. Instead we get to see a glimpse of another two ponies interacting. The idea of Fluttershy helping Sour Sweet randomly entered my mind one day, and I couldn't shake the idea, so here we are. I wanted to see if I could write a half decent Fluttershy, so I hope that I did well enough. I also wanted to try my hand at writing Sour Sweet, and since I have little canon material to work with, I took elements from DragonShadow's Sour Sweet. More of those elements will be present in the second half, as it will be following Sour Sweet.

I will likely write more little spin-offs and what not as I think of them, as it'll help alleviate some I get when I'm working on one fic. It helps keep the juices flowing, so to speak. In case it wasn't obvious by the little tidbit that Rainbow Dash was working with Indigo Zap, that's a planned two parter I'll write once I'm finished this one, and have a third and fourth chapter of "Cracks In Our Reflections" done. I'll make a blog to explain how I'm going to handle to writing/release of the main fic and the spin offs.

See you all soon!
Onyx Archer