The sun was shining on yet another beautiful spring morning.  Fluttershy, perky as she could be, bounded from animal den to animal den and made sure her friends' comfort was at maximum.  Her already enjoyable daily "chores" were made all the more lovely by an exceptionally saturated, blooming sun hanging overhead; the colors beneath it were so intense that Fluttershy could swear that she was still dreaming.  Blue from the sky faded into babbling river water at her hooves, and as the otters thanked their neighborly pegasus for the fish she brought along every day she could spot the glistening of sunlight in every drop of water on their silky fur.  The caregiver went about her duties whilst humming a happy tune for as long as her good mood stuck around.  Come three o' clock, however, the excessively happy pony experienced the most horrendous crash in her lifetime.  There was actually a noticeable moment of change in Fluttershy's world where time seemed to slow, the surrounding colors dimmed and shrank back, and the vibrancy and simple happiness of Equestria just drained away.  

Fluttershy finished her duties, luckily only having a few dens remaining by the time of the crash, but was begrudging all the way nonetheless.  By the time everyone was fed, watered and generally catered to, Fluttershy wanted nothing more than to step into her home and fall asleep.  She sloughed off her saddlebags and let them clatter to the floor, and fell into the somewhat musty smelling sofa face first.  Instantly, or so it felt, Angel began drumming his foot on the couch to wake its occupant up; time for dinner and Celestia forbid it's one minute late.  The world seemed to conspire against the exhausted pony as she worked to create just the perfect salad for the horribly picky rodent.  All along the way her patience was tried.  She spent the trip between refrigerator and cutting board having to break up a fight between two larger birds and a smaller one, halfway through chopping vegetables she was nearly knocked down by four or five weasels playing a rousing game of tag just beneath her hooves, and finally just as she brought the dish out to her pet, Fluttershy was knocked prone as her needy Great Dane friend barreled into her, baying in anguish at the presence of a splinter in the thickest part of his paw pad.  Naturally, the salad went flying through the air and found itself upturned on her bedraggled head.

After going through those motions again, as well as a similar set for every single animal that demanded her attention for dinner, Fluttershy had to heave herself up every single step toward her bedroom.  She didn't even have the energy to keep her wings folded, so they dragged and clunked up the stairs almost as loudly as her hooves.  By the time her bedroom had come into view, the desaturated canary yellow pony skipped her nightly ritual entirely and fell into bed.  Though she sank into the comfortable mattress, and though the night outside was crystal clear and silent, she found herself staring at her eyelids.  Her mind just wouldn't turn off; worries about specific animals plagued her to start with.  What if Angel would hold dinner tonight against her tomorrow?  What if Mr. Great Dane felt horrible about knocking her over and was also losing sleep?  What if Mr. and Mrs. Otter still haven't worked out that love triangle fuss with Mrs. Mink?  And so forth.

Afterwards, thoughts of her own failings kept her up.  I didn't brush my teeth tonight... She thought to herself, trying to ignore the steadily more noticeable presence of plaque in her mouth.  She looked over at her clock and, with the starlight's help, was able to make out the time 10:34; she'd been in bed for nearly two hours without sleeping a wink.  After releasing a pathetic whine, Fluttershy poured herself out of bed once more.  This time she just hoped that brushing her teeth and hair would be familiar enough to trick her into falling asleep; any option seemed better than lying there uselessly.  She clumsily went about getting the paste onto the brush; more difficult than it sounds with hooves and jaw only, and started to brush.  The sound of soft scraping filled out Fluttershy's hearing as she worked and, with nothing to do with her eyes, she just glanced around the bathroom.  She couldn't find her hairbrush just from glancing around, but she did spot the little brown bottle with a foal proof cap, emblazoned on the front with a crescent moon and a very happily sleeping pony, that she'd left there that morning.  One glance and her mind instantly approved, but Fluttershy wrenched her gaze away, spat, rinsed and looked herself in the eye by way of the medicine cabinet mirror.  

"No.  I took some last night, if I keep that up before I know it I'll have a habit.  You've just gotta suck it up and get some sleep on your own, missy."  She said to herself, trying to be as assertive as possible.  As with all other times, however, Fluttershy's attempt backfired.  After trying to coax herself back into her bedroom, the weary pegasus muttered an absent minded, "screw it..." and returned to the bottle.  After gnawing open the cap with yet another comical display of -- as Twilight would call it -- "arcana deficient incompetence," Fluttershy poured the bottle into her hoof.  Way more than she had intended fell out, so she dumped them back; three remained in her hoof afterwards.  After attempting to separate one pill from the other two from her hoof with her other hoof, to absolutely no avail she gave up, popped them all and chased them with some water from the sink.  Without thinking about the increased dose, Fluttershy stepped back into her bedroom and lay down in her bed.  Before Fluttershy's clock got even a quarter of the way through a rotation, the curled and comfy pegasus was once again fast asleep; the pills had worked their magic.

That night, Fluttershy dreamed of her "happy place" if you will.  Any time she needed to think of an escape, she thought of a fictional valley somewhere in the wide wide world; so deep that water and sunlight and clouds all collected together and grew.  A verdant cross between Cloudsdale and the surface world, with high mountain walls on either side for safety and a gentle, warm atmosphere for everything alive.  As was per usual with Fluttershy's dreams, nopony else was present, though neither were her animal friends.  She wandered alone through the mist, listening to the quiet rustle of thick, moist wind passing through delicately placed leaves all around; not a bird, squirrel nor insect to interrupt.  The cloud-like mist flowed down the mountains like milk dropped into water and took its place all around the valley such that she couldn't see anything between ten feet in front of her, and the mountaintops beyond.  Fluttershy's imagination took off.  The topography of the land ceased to make any sense whatsoever, instead it took whatever shape would be the greatest combination of adventurous and secure as the jubilant pegasus frolicked in her dreamland.  Crevasses formed whenever she walked around something, but none came close enough for her to be threatened with a fall, and the mountains coiled around on themselves into a near dome above her.  

The mountains on the horizon eventually joined together at one point, and circled around entirely such that it seemed, from Fluttershy's perspective, to be a teardrop shaped valley.  The pegasus figured she ought to go see what's at the point and then explore down if it seemed like fun.  The casual simplicity of a dream was so captivating that, while capable of it, Fluttershy did not ever bring herself to realize her world wasn't real.  The peaceful misty valley itself caught Fluttershy in a solipsistic diversion and deliberate escape from real life.  But the world felt so real to her; the grass beneath her hooves bent with the limpness of dewy fresh morning blades, the air was cool and rich with moisture, and even had the highland smell that one would expect such a place to have swam through her nostrils.  The coniferous trees scattered sparsely about cast their mild perfume into the heavy air as well; it along with clover and orchids and berries and honey was absolutely intoxicating.  When she looked around she saw the spray of colors hit her vision as each scent was given form.  Sounds accompanied the new plants as bees, other insects, birds, and small mammals suddenly populated the bountiful scene of nature before her.  

Fluttershy meandered toward the conjunction of the little mountain valley and found the scent in the air beginning to pick up the very distinctive aroma of the ocean.  Fluttershy had only seen the ocean once in her lifetime, but the blue currents were so rich with life of all varieties that it permanently impressed the vision of pure beauty into her mind.  Fluttershy longed for the ocean again, and so she galloped through the tall grass and beautiful misty highland meadows until the air began to clear.  The mist spilled out over the seawater lazily and constantly; the mist itself was so still that it looked as if a glacier had intruded into a tropical paradise and melted away into steam just at the water's edge.  The striking sapphire of the ocean against the clear, bright blue of the sky bordered by mountains like castle turrets made Fluttershy's senses absolutely quiver in delight.  She sat down on the warm, white sands and listened to the music of the waves hitting the shore, the wind in the trees and crags, and the living creatures busying themselves to and fro amongst the plants.  This music brought a tear to Fluttershy's eyes, and she couldn't stop herself from falling back onto the sand and looking straight up into the cerulean hemisphere above her.  The beach was just as soft as her bed, and the environment was a hundred times as wonderful as Equestria's, so she sank back and relaxed into the beach.  

The natural music of Fluttershy's surroundings eventually bled into real music; birdsong was slowly replaced by individually plucked notes, wind was replaced by background harmonies that the pegasus could scarcely follow, and the lapping of waves on the water was drowned out by the echoing vibrations from a heavy stringed instrument.  Curious, Fluttershy sat up and looked around.  The world was roughly the same, she was still on the beach at least.  She did, however, see the source of her new music right away; it was the pony she had seen the night before in the woods.  He was sitting on the water's edge, letting the waves bash over the big, black, shining harp as he played it.  The numerous delicately tuned strings made their perfection beautifully apparent as the solid ebony instrument rang out with flawless pitch.  The water colliding with it didn't hurt the harp's sound whatsoever, in fact it almost seemed to go naturally well with the music.

Fluttershy was completely captivated by the music; so much so that she stood up and wandered slowly forward like a dazzled lark.  Her hooves sank further into the damp sand the closer she got to the mysterious green pony, and the spray of ocean mist cast little drops of dew into her mane.  She wanted to approach but didn't know what to say, or even how close to get before it was considered rude.  

"Hello again, Miss Pegasus!"  The pony's voice rose easily over the sounds of strings and crashing waves, over the sound of birds and wind and leaves, insects, animals, and the slow grinding of water, rock, sand and time.

Fluttershy opened her mouth to respond but couldn't think of anything to say; the only thing that happened was a gradual spreading of blush that radiated across her face.  The green, vine laden stallion leaned back from his harp, the notes becoming gradually higher and higher on the scale he was playing as his reach pulled back toward the shorter strings.  He tilted his head down and fell from his stool into the wet sand, but continued playing with his hind legs just as precisely as before, and with absolutely no interruption in the music.  He crossed his forelegs beneath his head for support, smiled up at Fluttershy and took a quick breath as the tide washed up over him.

"W-w-who are you?"  Fluttershy stuttered out.  She wasn't sure why she was stuttering, she usually only did that when she was afraid and he...  Well.  He didn't make her afraid.  He was handsome, talented, and appeared as sweet as can be, not to mention innocent.  His withers were narrower than the average stallion, as was his neck, and his flanks were generally wider.  His body looked somewhere between mare and colt, but as he was on his back and playing a harp with his rear hooves it was abundantly clear that he was strictly male.  

"You know...  I don't think I've ever been asked that question.  Who are you?"  He said in response.  His voice made the harp sound almost ugly.

"I'm F-Fluttershy.  I uhm...  I saw you in the forest, earlier.  You don't have a name?"

"Name?  You want my name?  But we just met!"

"Huh?"  Fluttershy tilted her head in confusion.

"Haven't you ever had a name before?  There's so much power in them!"

Fluttershy, still blushing, stared confused into the eyes of the relaxed looking stallion.  To which the green pony giggled and rolled onto his stomach.  The harp stopped playing briefly, but resumed after seven enormous vines climbed the ebony frame; as the wind blew, their leaves plucked and swept across the strings to produce the exact same beautiful song.  The colt was entirely clean, despite rolling in the sand, and only subtle drops of ocean water clung to his coat.  He spoke up again, smiling into Fluttershy's eyes as he did so.

"Here, let me demonstrate.  Would you come with me, Fluttershy?"  The colt smiled again, but this time it was irresistible.  Fluttershy was captivated by the twinkle in his eyes and the vines in his mane, and with more confidence than she'd ever had before, she stepped forward.  The stallion giggled again and began walking further down the beach.  Fluttershy obediently stayed beside him.   "See?  All I had to do was ask and here you are."

"But I..."  Fluttershy wanted to protest, but she hadn't even noticed that she started walking.  "Huh..."

"You're really funny, miss Pegasus.  I've never met someone who just gave their name away before."

"Where I'm from that's the first thing we do."

"You must live on the underside of the world, then, if everything's backwards like that!"  The forest green pony looked over and enunciated "backwards" with what appeared to be every muscle in his face.

"Hey,"  Fluttershy began, indignantly, "Things aren't so bad where I'm from.  The sun comes up every day at the same time, things grow and live long lives, and nature is absolutely splendid no matter where you look."

The stallion looked around at his surroundings and smirked, "Sounds weird.  Long lives you say?"

"Yes, most things live for dozens of years; a few can even survive--"  Fluttershy was interrupted when the stallion pulled away rapidly to pick something up from the ground.  She paused and glanced down just in time to spot him rising up with a tiny conch shell that he had inexplicably strung with a vine.  The colt delicately placed the piece of jewelry around Fluttershy's neck.

"There.  That's pretty!"  He smiled and continued along, and only paused when he realized that Fluttershy was dumbstruck. "Oh, sorry... Carry on."

Fluttershy picked the shell up with her hoof and examined it.  It really was beautiful; the conch seemed like it was made of coiled marble, and the inside shone with a glorious opalescent glitter.  The vine it was strung with was still alive and growing rapidly.  As if by nature alone, the vines grew and grew, and wove themselves into Fluttershy's mane.  "I-it's gorgeous..."

The stallion laughed and danced around in a giddy, somewhat girly fashion.  "Oh I'm so glad you like it!  You made it."

"Huh?"

His face contorted into laughter again, "This is your world, Fluttershy.  Didn't you come here to get away from something?"

She looked on with a blank stare.  Her mind was tumultuous with hundreds of questions all rattling around at once, but none of them getting answered.

"Is it so hard to believe?  This place is almost as pretty as you, you know." The stallion said, another smirk painting his dimpled, green cheeks.  "Where did you come from?"

"Ponyville."  Fluttershy looked ahead and kept walking alongside him, her face burning red with embarrassment.

"Which way is that?"

"Uhm..."  Fluttershy blushed once more, embarrassed for walking into that verbal trap.  She looked around and realized that she was, indeed, on an island.  She had no memory of flying there, sailing there, or even getting there.  Her worldview shattered before the prospect.

"I'll give you a hint.  You can go back any time you want, but you won't know how long you've been away."

"Hints are your favorite way of speaking, aren't they?"

The stallion laughed at this comment and even showed signs of blush under his thick, dark green coat.  "Specificity is for sunshine, if you tell people what you want them to learn, how are they supposed to learn it?"

"I guess that makes sense..."  Fluttershy, at this point, was just going along with the things he said.  He seemed insane, but insane enough to be the most intelligent pony she'd ever met.  Fluttershy thought that she herself might even be insane for not understanding it, or perhaps, insane enough to want to understand.

"Don't worry, Miss Pegasus, you clearly live somewhere constant, which means you have something that I don't.  Time!"

"Time?"

It was 8:21 AM, and Fluttershy's eyes opened just in time to watch her clock tick over to 8:22.  She was in her room, lying in her bed, and as the remnants of sleep and dream receded into her subconscious, Fluttershy remembered finally how she got there.  It was all just an illusion, but she knew that she had made a real connection.

The pegasus rolled over onto her back, and stared up at the ceiling, thinking, when she felt something on her chest.  It was small, round and hard, and pressed up against her body just where something might be if it were hanging around her neck.  Fluttershy sat up so quickly she might just as well have flown out of bed; was it real?

The shape moved itself away from the realm of touch and burst into view.  Fluttershy's quilt fell down and revealed a very distinct lovebird of hers that had snuggled itself into her embrace while she was sleeping, his beak pressed just where the shell had been.  

"Oh!  Good morning, Smoochy."  Fluttershy tried to hide her disappointment; secretly she wished the shell had been real, but she wasn't unhappy to see that particular feathered friend.  He could always tell when she wasn't sleeping well and absolutely craved snuggling under Fluttershy's wing, so he did this whenever he worried.  Fluttershy sat back and looked around her room, and the only thing that she could think about was how dull it seemed.  The colors had lost their saturation, and the cries and claws of animals were no longer natural music, but nails on a chalkboard.  She forced herself out of bed and into the shower to test the limits of her water heater's capacity; she had a long day ahead of her.