I had no idea where I was walking to. I just kept walking to wherever my feet led me. Soon enough, I found myself at an old train yard, filled with trains (obviously). They were all broken down, rusted, and out of use. Just looking at all of the decrepit trains made me feel depressed. But hell, at that point, I was depressed. But keeping in line with my agenda, I decided to continue walking.

I started to follow an unused train track. It seemed to go pretty far, which would give me a good amount of time to think. That was something I really hadn’t done a lot of lately. I never had to think about anything, I just did everything. That was all because of Fluttershy.

‘Why did I let them take her away like that?’ I asked myself in thought, as I continued to walk. The question had been rattling inside my head for the past 24 hours, and it showed no signs of letting up. It was a tough question for me to answer too. The only thing I could come up with was that she didn’t belong here, and that she needed to go home.

‘They say home is where you belong… what a bunch of bullshit,’ I thought. Sure, home is where you belong, but it’s not just that. It’s where you belong and who you belong with. Sure, Fluttershy was where she belonged, but she wasn’t with whom she belonged. Well, maybe she was.

‘They’re her friends after all. They love her, and they need her. I had to let her go. I couldn’t just take Fluttershy away from them like that. That would make me no better than… well, somebody out there.’

Continuing along the tracks, I looked up into the sky. The day was still young, and the sky was still clear. A few clouds lingered here and there, but it wasn’t anything too bad. Looking up into that sky made me think of how fun it would have been to fly with Fluttershy.

‘If only…’ I looked back down to the ground with a heavy frown on my face. All I wanted was to be with her, yet at the same time, I knew that that wasn’t meant to be. When I first found Fluttershy six years ago, I told myself that this would eventually come to an end. Yet, over time, those thoughts became nonexistent. I had deleted them from my mind entirely. But, when Celestia and the rest of Fluttershy’s friends appeared at my doorstep, all of those crippling thoughts came right back to me.

“How could I have let my defenses down like that? How in the world did I ever come to think that she was going to be with me forever? I’m a fucking idiot!” I said. I realized I had spoken out loud, but I didn’t care at all. No one was around to hear me.

“She probably hates me now. Hell, I just gave her up with little to no resistance. What good does that make me to her?” I asked myself. I was beating myself up, and I deserved it. At least, to me, I deserved it. I had given up the one person… the one pony, who managed to turn my life around for the better. She loved me like no one else before, and I loved her. And I was stupid enough to throw it all away.

I stopped walking and let my head hang on my neck. I couldn’t forgive myself now that I was thinking about it all so much. I fell to my knees, hitting the train tracks with a hard thud. There was a bit of pain, but I didn’t care.

“I’m sorry Fluttershy… I’m so sorry,” I spoke. I started to cry, lifting my hands up to hide my face from no one. I cried into my palms like a little child. I had lost so much in just one day, and I already felt like my life was coming to an end. The thought crossed my mind again about opting out of the whole life thing, but I remembered what I told Fluttershy, or at least, what I told her image. I wasn’t going to give up so easily.

With that in mind, I wiped off my tears and stood up. I pulled up my hood and continued to walk. I didn’t think as to why I pulled up my hood, only that I needed it up. It was something I did very often when I was playing Assassin’s Creed or if I was feeling a little low. Other times I might just wear it to look good or feel cool, and that was most of the time. Even when I went on parkour runs, I had my hood up. But, I hadn’t had to wear my hood because I was feeling sad in a long time. Now was a very appropriate time to wear it.

With my hood up, my tears dried, my legs moving, and my mind swimming, I continued to walk down the track. I still had no idea where I was going, only that I was going somewhere.

I decided to look back up into the sky. At first, all I saw were clouds. I could even see some of them forming shapes. One looked like a sword, another looked like a shark, and another looked like a very deformed car. A turtle, an igloo, a turkey’s head, a baseball bat, an actual bat, Fluttershy…

“Wait, what?!” I looked clearly into the sky, and I was looking right into Fluttershy’s eyes. I was looking right at her entire face. I didn’t know if what I was looking at was just a vision or the real thing. I wiped my eyes and looked again. She was still there, only now, she was smiling at me. I saw a small tear roll down her cheek. Something told me I was just looking at a vision because I was going crazy. That was really Fluttershy.

“Fluttershy!” I shouted into the sky. As soon as I shouted her name, a smile spread across her face.

“Can she hear me?” I asked myself. When she nodded to me, a big, warm smile spread across my face. I started to laugh to myself out of pure joy and happiness. All the while, Fluttershy was still smiling at me. Yet, I wondered why she didn’t respond.

“Fluttershy? Why don’t you say anything?” I asked her. The smile on her face disappeared. She shook her head in response. My own smile vanished as well. I lowered my head for a moment, then looked back up to her.

“Well, if you really can hear me… I love you.” I smiled up to her as I spoke the words. She nodded her head and smiled right back to me as her image faded from the sky.

I looked down from the sky and stared straight ahead. There was a whole lot of track for me to still walk. Yet, at the same time, I had a nagging feeling in my head to go home. I decided to listen to that nag and turned around. I started to walk back home with my head held high and a soft smile on my face. The only thing out of place was the hood resting on my head.

I pulled my hood off and let the breeze fan over my head. I took in a deep breath as I let the wind wash over my body. The breeze helped me to relax my entire body. As an actor, I had been trained to relax my body entirely, but this breeze made it all the more easier for me to do so. I stared straight ahead again with that smile still on my face.

‘Time to go home,’ I thought to myself. With the image of Fluttershy’s smiling face in my mind, I started to make my way back home. Whatever had just happened was a true miracle. I didn’t care how it happened. All I cared about was that it did happen.

Author's Notes:

Now wasn't that a cute little moment?! Writing this chapter was pretty fun actually. It's such a simple chapter, yet at the same time, it has a heavy emotional feel to it. At least, I think so. But yeah, it seems as though Matthew is doing better than he believes. But, things can change. Will his state of happiness last? We'll just have to see where everything goes.