The bike rolled to a stop in the small wooded car park, crunching and turning over gravel. It was empty today, which was reasonable enough, seeing as no-one would have wanted to have a picnic or a walk in the woods after a night of torrential rain. That is, except for Fluttershy, for a reason she hadn't explained. I'd chosen not to push the matter, since she seemed to be a little sensitive about it.

Fluttershy let go of my waist as I dropped the bike's kickstand, and I took a breath. While Fluttershy had gotten used to the small, mostly quiet roads of Lincoln, she still wasn't adept at travelling along the four-lane motorway necessary to travel from my flat and the woods.

I looked back at her and took off my helmet. "You okay?" I asked.

She was trembling, but nodded bravely. She shakily put her feet down and climbed off the bike, reminding me of the first time she had got off it as I followed her. How long ago had that been? It seemed like weeks, but it had couldn't have been more than one, surely. So much had happened lately.

Fluttershy had taken off her helmet by now, so I took it from her and put it down on the bike's seat with mine. No point carrying them around if we could just leave them here.

"So, Fluttershy," I began. "Where exactly did you want to go?"

"I'd like to go back to where you found me, please. Is that okay?" She asked quietly.

I nodded at her reassuringly. "Sure. Just follow me."

She nodded and I set off across the gravel towards the small path leading into the woods.

I glanced sideways at her as we walked. She was looking down, fiddling with one of the sleeves on her bike jacket. She had left it on seeing as it was cold, even though we had both changed into more suitable clothing. For her, that was her yellow sweater and brown blouse.

I decided to stay quiet until we got to where she wanted to go, while dodging puddles of water still present from the rain last night, and let her talk when she wanted to. Fluttershy stayed silent as well, apparently wrapped up in her own thoughts. Eventually I could hear the tell-tale trickling of water that was the stream. A few seconds later and I could see it, flowing faster and wider than usual, carrying away all the water the rain had deposited. The small stepping stones were almost invisible, but we wouldn't have to cross the stream.

"I first heard you from somewhere in here." I explained, gesturing into the trees. I walked over and pulled a branch aside.

Fluttershy followed me as I started making my way through the shrubbery.

"Look out for the mud." I warned. Seconds later I put my foot down into an inch thick pit of it. Wonderful.

About a minute later I reached the little clearing. Sunlight was peeping through the gaps in the leaves, leaving the place with a somewhat magical feeling, like something out of a fairy tale. I wished I'd brought my art stuff. This would have made an excellent drawing.

Fluttershy stepped timidly past me and looked around the clearing, expressionless. Which was odd, actually. It was like she was hiding her emotions, and she didn't seem like one to do that.

"Are you okay Fluttershy?" I asked her, feelings of concern starting to stir in my mind.

She nodded quickly without looking at me.

I studied her for a second, then decided to ask a question I'd been wanting to ask for a while, no longer able to hold it in.

"So, why did you want to come back here?" I asked quietly.

Fluttershy slowly walked over to the boulder where she had been sitting the first time I saw her, not answering me. She looked at home here, in her characteristic clothes, yellow sweater just visible under her bike jacket. I made a mental note to draw this later, if just as a reason to remember it.

"I'm… not sure." She admitted after a few more seconds. I walked over to join her as she sat on the boulder, metaphorically deflating.

"No?" I asked, confused.

She shook her head as I sat down next to her. "I… it's just… I miss my friends." She revealed, looked down and fiddling with her jacket sleeve again.

I stayed silent.

"A-and, I miss Ponyville… and my cottage, and my animals… and Angel." She sniffed. "A-and, this is the first place I saw…" she trailed off.

I reached out and held her hand, grasping gently. "And it makes you feel closer to them?" I guessed.

She nodded, sniffed again and leant against me. I rubbed the back of her hand with my thumb and put my other arm around her shoulders without even thinking, trying to reassure her.

"Don't worry Shy. I'll find a way to get you home. I promise."

She sniffed again, and rested her head on my shoulder. "Thank you Jamie."

I rubbed her arm. "It's no problem." I said.

I looked out into the woods, where Fluttershy had run away from me to when she'd first seen me. Thinking back, though, I couldn't blame her. If I had somehow teleported from my flat into some forest, in a new body, and someone came up to me in that kind of body, I'd be scared as well. And on top of that Fluttershy was naturally nervous anyway.

"Shy?" I asked quietly.

"Mm?"

"When you first saw me, and ran away into the woods… why did you stop?"

She didn't respond for a second. "…I don't know." She said eventually. "You looked kind, and I thought I could trust you."

I smiled – the comment was kind - and looked at her. She sniffed again and turned to look up at me. I let go of her hand for a second to wipe a tear from her face. She sniffed again and smiled up at me. For a bit I just sat there and looked into her eyes. Turquoise green, with a sparkle that made them look magical. She gazed back at me, smiling softly.

After what seemed like an eternity, Fluttershy laid her head back down on my shoulder, still looking up at me. Without even knowing it I held her a little closer as I felt the soft touch of her hair against my neck.

I was content just to sit there for the rest of the day with Fluttershy. Something about the little meadow, the dew on the grass, the very air, and Fluttershy sitting next to me… it was puzzling, but at the same time, comfortable. Cosy, even, though part of me hated to admit it.

Eventually, though, the little sunlight that was seeping through the leaves paled suddenly as the sun fell behind some clouds, and a cold wind flew through the trees. Fluttershy shivered next to me.

"Getting cold?" I asked quietly.

She nodded against my shoulder.

"I guess we need to get back then." I whispered reluctantly.

"I'm sorry." She apologised a second later.

"Hey, it's not your fault. To be honest I'm getting a little cold as well." I said, reluctantly and gently letting go of her hand and slowly standing up.

As Fluttershy rose to her feet, I noticed a flash of blue ribbon, just behind the boulder. I looked round the massive rock, and there was a woven basket nestled against it, decorated with a few strands of red, green and blue silk. The wind had blown a piece out, and that's what had caught my eye. I reached down and picked it up.

"What's this?" I muttered aloud.

Fluttershy looked over at the basket and her eyes went wide. She took it from me and looked it over.

"I-it's the basket I had on the morning I teleported here." She explained. "I was using it, to hold food for my animals."

"So it must have come here with you." I deduced.

Another gust of wind made me shiver.

"Shall we go, Shy?" I asked, rubbing my arms.

She nodded, still holding the basket. I slowly started walking towards the trees, but Fluttershy grabbed my sleeve quickly and tugged on it, wanting me to turn around. I looked back, and she was staring eagerly at a couple of deer, grazing in the trees, ten meters in from the other side of the clearing.

"They're so beautiful." She whispered.

I nodded. I felt Fluttershy reach for my hand, and I took hers as we looked at the animals.

After a few more minutes we left and headed back to the car park.

We saw Miss Mayley again as we entered the flat building. She didn't say anything and looked like she was in a hurry, but she still smiled and waved as she went past. I did the same, and Fluttershy just smiled at her.

As we got into the flat I sat down on the sofa and checked the time on my laptop. It was 11:21am now. Was it really only that early?

Just before I shut the laptop, I remembered Steven's email from last night and decided to get it up. As I did so Fluttershy sat next to me. She had brought the basket back from the woods, and was cleaning it up.

As I opened Hotmail it showed two new emails. I decided to look at them in a second, or I would just get distracted, but before I could open his one from last night I realized one of the new emails was from him, and titled 'URGENT LOOK AT THIS RIGHT NOW JAMIE'.

Well, that seemed pretty important. Postponing the original message, I opened the new one. It was lacking any real grammar, but it was at least legible, unlike Drunk Steven's email.

'jamie! check your email, quick!' I sighed. Only Steven... 'remember my last email? the one about the professor dude? i got a reply from him! He said he'd message you about fluttershy.'

I raised an eyebrow. The professor? Had he really replied that quickly? Back in my New Mail, the other message was from a 'Zhi Han Huang', from the University of Research in Lanzhou, China. Was this the message Steven was talking about?

Fluttershy noticed my puzzled expression. "Is something wrong?" she asked.

I shrugged. "I'm not sure. Remember a couple of days ago when we found that website with that professors theory?"

She looked blank for a moment but nodded a second later.

"Steven contacted him," I continued. "And I've got an email from him."

"Wow, the mail travels really fast here." Fluttershy noted.

I smiled. "You have no idea." I waved Fluttershy over and opened the email from the professor before reading it through.

'To Jamie Goodwin

Hello, my name is Zhi Han Huang. I am the assistant of Professor Shang Kai Hong at the University of Research in Lanzhou. Your friend, Steven, contacted the Professor about this 'Fluttershy', or Florence as you have named her for incognito purposes, and how both he and you believed that she is from another dimension, explainable by Professor Hong's theories. He also mentioned that you would like to send her back, but are not sure how, and that this is the reason for contacting the professor. He has thus asked me to contact you, and to pass on his message that he would of course be willing to help. However, he first requires a photograph of her to be sure that what you are telling us is true. Please take it in the manner of a passport identification photograph, and the better the quality the better. Your friend also says that 'Fluttershy' has what he called a 'Cutie Mark', like the characters from the show you believe she originates from. A photograph of this would also be helpful. The Professor does believe he may be able to help though, and we will respond as quickly as possible.

Thank you, and please reply quickly

Zhi Han Huang, 韓梔黃 University of Research, Lanzhou, China

I finished reading it and sat back to mull it over. A photo? I wasn't really expecting the professor to ask for proof it was her, but it did sort of make sense. They wouldn't want some fake to turn up, trying to get into another dimension.

I realized how insane that sounded. If someone told me a month ago I would find a girl in the woods that actually came from another world, and was, in actual fact, a pony, well, I would have told them they were insane.

Talking about a girl in the woods, I needed to figure out what had happened between me and Fluttershy. I'd been trying to comfort her, as I would anyone that was crying, and then I'd looked into her eyes and been entranced, almost. No, actually, entranced sounded about right. The setting hadn't really helped, with the romantic feeling in the woods, and…

"What does this all mean?" Fluttershy asked, thankfully pulling me from my thoughts.

I shook my head quickly before answering her. "The Professor thinks he can help, but first he wants proof that you are who we say you are."

"My Cutie Mark, and a 'passport identification photograph'. What's that?" Fluttershy asked.

"It's a picture of a person's that they put on passports, to prove the passport's theirs." I explained. Hmm…

Fluttershy nodded. "And what's a passport?"

"A document you need to travel between countries on Earth." I said. Hmm once more. "And he wants us to reply as soon as possible. I think I have an old digital camera somewhere that I can use. It should still be day in China, so if we do it now they might reply right away." I said, briefly wondering where the camera would be.

Fluttershy nodded again, smiling now. "That sounds like a good idea."

"Alright, give me a second and I'll get the camera." I said, standing up and heading into my room to do so. It took about a minute of rooting through my chest of drawers to find it and the lead. It was only a cheap thing I'd bought to take pictures of things to draw from later, as a sort of reference thing.

I walked back into the living room and switched on the main light, needing more than just the sunlight coming through the window for a decent picture.

"Alright Fluttershy," I began, kneeling in front of her and turning the camera on. "For the first picture I need you to sit up straight and look straight at me. And try not to move, this isn't the best camera." I fiddled with the settings to get the lighting right, trying to remember how to get through the little menus, and after a few more seconds I tapped the little button on the top. There was a tiny flash and the picture saved itself onto the camera's memory card.

"The picture's taken Shy." I told her, turning the camera around so she could see. She looked at it unsurely and her smiled faded.

"Oh, I don't look very nice. My hair is all messy, and I look stupid." She said, frowning at the image.

"Nonsense, you look beautiful." I assured her.

Her cheeks flushed ever so slightly. "Really? You think I look beautiful?"

I felt my own face heat up as I realised what I'd just said. "Uh, yeah." I said. Good job, just embarrass yourself then give the worst reply known to man I berated myself inwardly.

Fluttershy smiled anyway. "Thank you Jamie. That's sweet of you to say."

I smiled awkwardly back at her. "No problem. Uh, shall we take the next picture?" I asked.

"Oh, yes, lets." She agreed, looking away.

I nodded, still kneeling on the floor. "Okay, could you just stand up quickly and show me it?" I asked.

"Alright." She said, rising to her feet. She gently pulled down one side of her blouse to, keeping decent, to reveal the three pink and light blue butterflies on her upper thigh. I did my best to keep the camera still and snapped one more picture then quickly looked away, embarrassed.

"Thanks Shy. I just need to upload these and I can send them to this professor." I said, standing up and stretching my legs.

"Then what?" Fluttershy asked, sitting back down.

"I'm not sure," I admitted, taking the memory card and slotting it into my laptop. "The professor says he can probably help, so we'll just have to wait and see what he comes up with." I said, finding the pictures and attaching them to an email as I spoke. I typed out a message quickly, thanking the assistant Zhi for the quick response and asking him what was going to happen next now he knew Fluttershy was legitimate. I sent it a couple of minutes later.

"There. They have the photos, so now we just need to wait for their reply." I said, leaning back. "So we just have to wait until then."

Fluttershy nodded.

"Now if you'll excuse me," I stood up and looked over at my easel, then Fluttershy. "I have a drawing I'd like to get down on paper."

A little while later and I was almost done outlining the basic parts of the drawing. It was the one I'd remembered from earlier, in the woods with Fluttershy. For the past half hour I'd been drawing and thinking back to that scene, and of course my moment with Fluttershy. I'd been replaying it over and over in my head, but I still couldn't really make sense of it.

Alright, so: I'd gone into the woods with Fluttershy. Okay, got that. She had gotten upset because she missed her friends and home. Understandable. Then I had tried to comfort her, and wiped away one of her tears. Then looked into her eyes, and then…

I sighed. Had I really been entranced, and then hugged her like that? And then just a little bit earlier I had called her beautiful, to her face no less, without even realising what I was saying. In all honesty though, I did think she was beautiful – I'd realised as much in the forest – but how much so? That much?

"What are you drawing?" the subject of my troubled thoughts asked, suddenly beside me.

I gasped suddenly, shocked by her sudden appearance, but recovered. "I-it's from earlier." I told her.

She gasped softly as she realised it was herself. "It looks wonderful Jamie." She complimented, smiling as she looked over the rough ground and trees.

"Thank you. But it's nowhere near finished yet." I added, taking in the praise. "Are you enjoying that book?" I asked. The other day Fluttershy had asked if I had anything to read, so I'd shown her my mediocre collection of books. She'd picked one called The Roar, by Emma Clayton. I'd only read it once a few years ago when it was published, so I couldn't remember what happened, but Fluttershy liked it.

"Oh, it's very good. Thank you for letting me borrow it Jamie." Fluttershy smiled at me.

"No problem." I replied. Fluttershy went and sat back down down on the sofa and I smiled as I continued to draw.

Not a minute later the phone rang. I raised an eyebrow and reached to pick my phone up and answer. It was Steven.

"Jamie, have you checked your emails?!" he asked loudly.

"Yep, calm down Steven." I assured him.

"Dude, we have talk face to face. Meet me at Gregg's?"