Thank You, Miss Fluttershy

by TheDorkside99

Chapter 3

The next morning, 7410 opened his eyes and blinked a few times as he adjusted his sight to the brightness that filtered through the window. He sat up on the couch and stretched his large hooves up in the air, touching the tip of the ceiling with ease. Still bobbing from side to side, the groggy stallion stumbled to his hooves and stepped forward. A loud crack broke the silence of the morning waking the stallion from his trance. He looked down at his hoof and found the coffee table broken in two.

“Oh dear, what was that?” asked a soft voice from the kitchen.

7410 shot several looks down at his hoof and up towards the kitchen. He tried to stick the two end pieces back together in hopes the fibers that stuck out would hold the table together. Right as he managed to reunite the table into one with his front hooves, he realized he had been caught. Standing at the doorway, Angel tapped his foot and shook his said as if to say You’d be sleeping on the streets if it were up to me!

“Is everything okay?”

Fluttershy walked in the living room wiping her hooves on her pink apron. When she looked up, she was surprised to see the inmate standing with his front hooves awkwardly spread out over her coffee table. The discomfort of such a position produced a clenching of teeth foolishly masked as a grin on his face.

“Oh my, that looks uncomfortable,” said Fluttershy.

7410 played it off with a rapid nod. He straightened his legs and applied pressure to the two pieces of the table together as his grip kept giving way to the slippery wooden floor of Fluttershy’s cottage.

“Well, I made you some breakfast. You can come sit at the table to eat whenever you’re ready, okay?”

Again the inmate responded with rapid nods.

Fluttershy just turned to walk back into the kitchen when a loud crash broke the light hum of the room. She turned around and gasped as she saw 7410 sprawled on the floor between the broken pieces of the table. Standing with his furry arms crossed on the stallion’s back was Angel, shooting an unamused grin at the pegasus that stated Did I not tell you this stallion was trouble?

Fluttershy brought a hoof to her lips and stifled a giggle. “Oh my! I guess I should’ve moved that table out of your way. It’s okay, I was going to purchase a new one next week anyway.”

Angel peeled his eyes in disbelief with a face that said Since when do you buy stuff without letting me know, mare!?

Fluttershy walked back into the kitchen. 7410 lifted himself from the wreckage and shook his head free of the dizziness he incurred with the fall. Turning his head around, Angel tapped his foot and twisted his fuzzy face into a menacing scowl. The stallion returned the gesture with a mischievous grin as he lifted a hoof up to Angel’s furry behind and, with a flick of the wrist, sent the bunny airborne. The stallion lifted his head and trotted victoriously into the kitchen, leaving Angel upended and fuming in his basket.

“Take a seat right there, if you want.”

7410 let his weight drop on the chair that surprisingly supported his burly frame.

“I-I hope you don’t mind oatmeal and eggs for breakfast this morning.”

Fluttershy scooped a healthy portion of oatmeal and glopped it onto the white plate sitting in front of the wide eyed inmate. Fluttershy went back to the stove to retreat a pan of hot, fresh scrambled eggs. Fluttershy turned back and gasped to find an empty platter.

“Oh my, you were hungry this morning! Have some eggs.”

Before Fluttershy could scoop the large serving spoon, the pan vanished from her hooves and suspended in mid- air as 7410 scraped every bite into his overstuffed muzzle.

“O-Okay. I hope you enjoyed your meal.”

The only response she received for her delicious cooking was a slimy belch.

The shocked cook gathered her satisfied client’s dirty plates and made her way to the sink. As she washed the plates, she cast an empathetic glance at the inmate, who picked egg out of his teeth.

“I-I guess you didn’t eat too well at prison, right?” she asked.

The ex-con paused to think for a moment and solemnly nodded.

“Well, you can rest assured you will always eat to your heart’s content here with Fluttershy!” She flashed a pleasant grin which was returned with a blank stare. Fluttershy cringed uneasily as she placed the last dirty plate into the drying rack.

The inmate stood up to leave.

“Oh wait,” said Fluttershy. “I mean, um, I have to tell you something.”

He slowly turned his large body and returned to his seat.

“Um, take a seat please…I mean, thank you.”

Fluttershy took her seat across from her guest and fiddled her hooves.

“W-Well, you’re probably w-wondering why, I mean, what I need-need to tell you.”

She looked over for a response, but only got an indifferent stare.

“I got a letter from Twilight earlier this morning. And she said, um, that she wouldn’t be able to make it. Something about leaving on a much needed trip to Canterlot or something.”

Fluttershy uncomfortably flipped her mane behind her head and continued.

“S-So that means, I guess, we’ll have to start without her. But don’t worry, we’ll have the same fun just y-you and I, right?”

Fluttershy ducked under the table and pulled out a large blue box and place it on the table. The inmate watched intently as Fluttershy unfastened the simple locks on either side and flipped open the box. She reached inside and pulled out two pieces of construction paper and a box of crayons.

“Well, when Twilight said you were coming, I thought you were a colt. So, I thought of having you color a picture of your family for the first exercise.”

The inmate’s head dropped in disbelief at the pegasus’s idea.

“I mean, I know coloring is usually considered a child’s thing, but I still enjoy it from time to time. It’s very relaxing, and there’s nothing more exciting than to see something go from nothing to wonderful with just a little color, right?”

This time Fluttershy’s smile was met with the sound of a chair sliding back and hooves leaving the kitchen.

“Yeah,” Fluttershy sighed.

Moments later, Fluttershy lifted her head from the table in the kitchen and made her way into the living room. She spotted the coffee table that was broken in two and gave a light gasp. As she slowly walked closer to inspect the damage, she noticed something small that sat on the table also broke under the weight of the inmate’s hoof. She knelt on all fours and gazed longingly at a broken picture frame.

“M-My picture. But, this was sitting upon the fireplace. How did it get here?”

At that moment, 7410 walked into the kitchen from the restroom and paused with Fluttershy at his hooves looking up at him.

“D-Do you know how my picture got broken?” she asked with teary eyes.

7410 looked up at the front door which was closed and locked securely with two guards standing out front. He faced Fluttershy again and simply shook his head and stepped over her on his way to the window, ignoring her soft cries.

“Okay,” she said, wiping her eyes. “I-I’m sure whoever did it is really sorry and will remember to be careful next time.”

At that moment, Angel burst through the door and rammed into the inmate’s strong leg. After he shook off the impact, Angel looked at the table where Fluttershy still knelt then back up at 7410. His eyes narrowed and scorned the inmate who dismissed the visual scolding with a nonchalant huff. The bunny hopped onto the ground and on top of Fluttershy’s head.

“Angel, what is it honey?” she asked.

The bunny expertly flipped through the air and landed perfectly on his hind legs. He rapidly pointed to his wrist.

“Oh, um, are you late for something?”

The bunny facepalmed and pointed at her.

“Oh, I’m late for something?”

The bunny nodded then went into his next charade by placing his tiny fists on his hips and flapped his bent arms back and forth.

Fluttershy cocked her head. “Um, is it time to do the chicken dance?”

Once again, Angel expressed his frustration with a facepalm and dashed to the window. Ignoring the sturdy stallion that stood in his way, the bunny climbed over him and stopped at the top of his head. The ecstatic bunny hopped madly and pointed a paw out the window to Fluttershy’s chicken coop.

“Oh, I see what you’re saying,” said Fluttershy standing behind 7410 looking outside. “You mean it’s time to do the chicken dance with the chickens in their coop.”

This time, Angel hopped from one pony head to the other, and twisted Fluttershy’s neck to a side of the room where a bag of chicken feed came into her view.

“Oh, now I see it. I’m late to feed my chickens, which I usually feed at six in the morning, and not eight which it is now, right?”

Angel sighed and nodded.

As if hit with a ton of chicken feed, Fluttershy gasped. “Oh my, my chickens! They must be starving, the poor things!”

Fluttershy bolted across the living room, leaving a stallion spinning in her wake, and grabbed several bags of feed in her arms.

“I have to feed them. Now! Or, they’ll starve! Die even! No! We can’t let that happen!”

Fluttershy bolted to the door and rattled the knob until the door opened. Before she walked out, she turned to 7410, who sat on the ground with a hoof to his head recovering from the dizziness.

“Oh, I’m sorry, but I need to feed my chickens. Um, I’ll be right back, okay?”

Without waiting for him to acknowledge her statement, the preoccupied pegasus brisked across her front yard mumbling to herself.

“Oh my, poor babies. Felicity must be starving, and she’s close to laying her eggs anytime soon! And I know how feisty Trisha can get if she’s not fed.”

Fluttershy was about to open the gate to her chicken coop when she noticed a pair of larger hooves behind her. She looked up and was shocked to find 7410 standing there, waiting for her to let him in.

“Um, hi?”

Fluttershy fumbled with a bag of chicken feed and failed to keep it from falling on the grass. As she bent down to pick it up, a large hoof reached down and grabbed the bag before her. The inmate flipped the bag over his shoulder and gave the bewildered pegasus a slight grin. After a brief moment of silence, Fluttershy smiled and unlocked the gate.

“So, you wanna come help me feed my chickens?”

The stallion who dedicated his life to crime brought his shoulder blades over his ears and bashfully opened his mouth. "My-My momma use ta have chickens at-at home."

Fluttershy's eyes grew wide as her smile at the sound of his voice. She couldn't help but place a gentle hoof on his shoulder, though she had to reach above her eye level to do so.

"Really? That is just so wonderful! I would love to hear everything about it, if you don't mind, uh..." Fluttershy paused a moment as she decided how to address him. "Hey, what is your name?"

"Sev, I mean, Seventy four, t-ten," he replied lowering his head.

Fluttershy cocked her head and grinned. "I don't think so. What's your real name?"

"Why you wanna know?"

"Everypony has a name."

The ex-con lifted his head and sighed. "Grace."

"I love it," she replied. "It's a beautiful name, Grace."

The inmate gave Fluttershy a weak smile, but nothing more as they made their way into the coop.

You know why I gave you that name? Was it 'cause I thought you was a girl? Hell no, boy! I call you that 'cause only by Celestia's grace did she give me you. By her sweet Grace.

Comments

[MagicMissingno]

Felt a tad rushed but still good. Nice to see Grace opening up his mouth.

[Alexander]

Great chapter