"I bloody KNEW it!" Steven said, as loudly as possible with a hangover.

"Steven! Be serious!" I scolded.

"Fine. You have a crush on Fluttershy, so what? That's a good thing."

"Hey, I never said I did. I just said it was a… highly likely… possibility." I trailed.

"So yes?"

"That's not the point Steven."

"Then what is?"

"It's a problem, that's what."

"But how?" Steven asked incredulously. "Your girlfriend just dumped you," tactful as ever Steven, thank you. "And now you've already got a crush on someone else, and she's pretty. Plus you two are perfect for each other."

"Maybe so but that doesn't mean it's a go- Steven!"

He laughed. "You admitted it."

"Shut up Steven, I said nothing. Even if we were perfect for each other, there's still a problem."

"What?"

"She's from another world. Dimension. Thing. What about when she goes back?"

"Alright, no need to be so dramatic. But I can see how that might be problematic."

"Yeah, only slightly." I muttered sarcastically.

"But you two are cute together, more than you and Jas. And besides, what if she likes you back?" Steven asked.

It took a moment for what Steven had said to sink in. I hadn't considered the idea that Fluttershy might like me before, but brushed it away. Impossible. She'd said herself that she had never even had a special somepony. It got me thinking back to the forest, though.

"Jamie, you still there?" Steven asked.

"Yeah, yeah, just thinking. What should I do?"

"Well what do you normally do with a girl you have a crush on?"

"I dunno, ask her out on a date." I said dumbly. I realised what he meant. "Steven, I can't do that."

"Why not? Hold on… crap I gotta go."

"Yeah, I need to get back too. I only came out to take the rubbish out. Shy will be wondering where I am."

"Hehe. Shy. You do like her."

"Goodbye, Steven." I hung up the phone before he could reply, and made sure to say my goodbye loudly. As good a friend as Steven was, he liked to wind people up. Mainly me.

I sighed and walked back indoors and pondered Steven's suggestion as I climbed the stairs. Why not?

Because what if she said no? I could already imagine it, her face going red, wondering how to refuse without being mean. Or worse, what if she said yes just to not hurt my feelings, and didn't actually want to…

I slapped myself. I was overthinking this. Alright, I thought to myself, I have a crush on Fluttershy. I'll admit that much. But it's probably a passing feeling, from missing Jas. It's a rebound thing. And here I was thinking that I'd be enlightened when I realised what was getting me so confused. I felt like a character in a clichéd romance novel. And not a very good one, either.

I opened the door and stepped back into the flat. I peered into the kitchen as I closed the door behind me and saw Fluttershy at the sink, just finishing washing the dishes. She turned around when she saw me in the door.

"Are you okay Jamie? You were gone a while. Are you sure you're not angry at me?" she asked timidly.

I shook my head, eyeing the plates sitting on the drying rack. "Definitely not. You really washed up all of these that quickly?" I asked, surprised, gesturing to the sink. It had been a sizeable pile. "They look so clean."

Fluttershy smiled proudly. "Thank you."

"No problem." I muttered, still looking at the dishes. When I finally looked round, Fluttershy was standing almost next to me, enough for me to accidentally lock eyes with her, just for a millisecond. I looked away quickly, not wanting to get caught up. I scolded myself inwardly for doing it at all. "I could, uh, use a bit more help with the cleaning if you're still up for it." I said, admiring a particularly interesting section of wall.

"Of course. I'd like to help." Fluttershy replied, giving some sort of reaction that was unclear in my peripheral vision.

"Thank you." I said gratefully, turning back to her and smiling quickly. "Let's get to it then."

I put Mits' basket back down, cleaned and fluffed, as my final act of housekeeping for the day. I felt guilty as I realised I had hardly given her any thought since earlier, but she was in good hands.

The last hour and a bit had been spent tidying up the flat, which was a fairly quick effort thanks to Flutershy's help. We occasionally made small talk, but a lot of the time was spent in silence, me thinking over my current feelings for the girl staying with me, and her just thinking, as far as I knew.

I stood up and walked into the living room where Fluttershy had been avidly dusting. The room looked immaculate, and I could have sworn I saw it sparkle once or twice. I nodded, impressed.

"Wow, this is looking as clean as… well, as I've ever seen it." I said, running a finger along the coffee table. Fluttershy watched, smiling at the comment and cringing as I inspected, as though I would turn up a rogue flake at any second.

"Thanks Jamie. I'm used to doing a lot of dusting, what with living in a tree house and all, but usually I'd have my little animal friends to help." She looked whimsical for a moment, thinking about her woodland creatures for a moment; and, subsequently, her home again, no doubt. When the apparent thought had passed, she turned to me and quietly asked a question I can fully admit I hadn't expected her to ask.

"J-Jamie, do you think, if it's not too much trouble, I mean, that we could… go for a walk?"

My puzzled reaction must have been clear, if the way she looked down at her feet was any way to gauge it.

"Uh, sure, if you want to. Where do you want to go?" The incident in the woods when we last visited was still fresh in my mind. I really didn't need something like that to happen again. Even if-

"If it's okay, I wanted to walk around… Lincoln?" She pondered over the name.

"Yeah, it's Lincoln." I assured her, but that made me more confused. Lincoln wasn't exactly a massive city like London, or Birmingham, but it was still a sizeable and populated place. The most she had really seen of it was the occasional trips to Greggs to meet Steven and or Brit. And that was barely reaching into the city centre.

"Well, if you want to, I don't see why not. But, if you don't mind me asking, why?"

She shrugged and twiddled her fingers slowly. "I wanted to see it a little more, if I might be going back to Equestria soon." She looked up at me hopefully. Whether that hope was for the simple walk, or getting back home to another dimension, I wasn't sure.

Regardless, I nodded and smiled softly. "I don't see why not." I agreed.

After a mug of coffee for me and a cup of tea for her as a kind-of-reward for organising my small flat, we started the walk. Though that was a loose description, given that it was mainly just me leading Shy through the streets of Lincoln. I didn't really mind, though.

It was coming up to half seven, so it really wasn't all that bright, especially with the constant ominous cloud cover, but it meant there were less people driving around on the roads, and the wind had calmed down to a breeze, at least.

For her part, Fluttershy was just looking around curiously. She still jumped occasionally when something drove past, particularly if it was something bigger like a van or in one case a full on lorry, sending up a passing wind that scared the life out of her. From that point I made sure to keep myself between her and the road.

It didn't take too long for us to reach and slowly pass through the shopping area of Lincoln that we'd already been to that day to meet Steven and Brit, and from there we continued into the town centre proper. With more people around, Fluttershy was sticking closer to me and occasionally brushing against my arm. She was obviously, well, not exactly frightened, but wary at least. I was impressed she was still persevering.

After a few more minutes of walking, I led her down Brayford Way. It was a main road through Lincoln, but it had a spectacular view. The three lanes of traffic to our left as we approached the bridge was making Fluttershy flinch every time a car went past, so I pulled my gloved hand out of my pocket and linked my arm through hers, ignoring what my mind said as I did so. She seemed to relax somewhat and smiled gratefully.

Eventually we reached the crest of the bridge and I stopped, turning us towards the stone wall and looking over the water. Below us was a car park and facilities for something called Emmtec, bordered by the river and moored private boats. Behind us was an eight or nine storey apartment building, and down the road to our left, clearly visible on its hill over the town was Lincoln Cathedral.

Fluttershy let go of my arm and laid her hands on the rail, looking around in a soft mix of awe bewilderment at the several tall buildings made of brick, glass and steel. Standing next to her, I got caught up in the feeling, and looked around with her. I had to admit, the modern buildings around us did contrast a little with the huge stone cathedral atop the hill, and brick semi-detached houses leading down from it.

"It's all so… future-y…" Fluttershy muttered next to me. I chuckled when she said that, and she looked at me oddly.

"Yeah, but to us this is just modern." I explained. After a few seconds of thought I continued. "You know, Earth used to be like Equestria too, you know, before technology developed. We used to have buildings just made of wood, with straw roofs. No cars, or Internet, or electricity. It was a few hundred years ago, but you know…" I trailed off.

Fluttershy furrowed her brow then looked back over the water, thinking. "Maybe, then, one day, Equestria will be like… this…" She muttered.

I raised an eyebrow, surprised at the philosophical idea. "I didn't know you were such a deep thinker Shy."

She giggled quietly, barely able to hear over the noise of traffic behind us. "Thank you. I like to think a lot." She twirled her fingers again, though I noticed her hands were shaking.

"Cold?" I asked. She nodded.

"My, hands, are a little."

"Do you have any gloves?" I asked, gesturing at her coat pockets. She reached in and felt, but shook her head. I took my own gloves off and handed them to her. "Here, take mine." I offered.

She smiled appreciatively and I helped her put them on, taking her hands and rubbing them quickly to warm them up, then helped her pull the gloves over her fingers. She squeezed her hands, feeling the gloves over her digits. She looked up and showed the same smile from a second earlier.

"Thank you Jamie. They're very warm. But, won't your hands be cold now?"

I shook my head. "I'm used to the cold. I live in England." I chuckled at the joke, but Fluttershy just looked perplexed. "Right, different world and everything. Remind me to explain that to you later."

She nodded slowly, still a little confused, and went back to thinking and looked over the low skyline of Lincoln. I stood next to her, arms crossed and leaning against the stone wall and rail. My hands clenched as I thought about rubbing Fluttershy's hands. I tried to settle my mind on less confusing and difficult subjects, like the development of the human race. Yes. Much easier.

I wasn't sure how much time we ended up spending there, silently thinking and admiring the view. It must have been late, because the street light next to us turned on suddenly, creating a pool of light and making Fluttershy jump and knock into me. She looked up at the metal light source oddly.

"It comes on automatically when it gets dark enough." I explained, straightening myself.

She nodded and turned to me. "S-sorry. It startled me." She explained.

I nodded. In truth, it was kinda cu- shut up. "I guess we should head back now. It's gonna get cold soon. Well, even colder." I smiled again and rubbed my hands together.

Fluttershy nodded and blinked slowly, looking sleepy. "Thank you for bringing me out here Jamie. It was wonderful." She smiled, and her gratitude was enough to warm my heart.

"It was no problem, honestly." I stepped forward and linked my arm through hers again, and she held her arm comfortably in place through mine. Much of the way back was spent by Fluttershy quietly asking questions about the town, and the more modern world we lived in, most of which I was happy to answer. A few took a bit more explaining, but all in all I was surprised she was being so talkative suddenly.

"You're being unusually inquisitive today Shy." I smiled after answering maybe her third or fourth question about the Earth's geography.

"Oh, sorry, I didn't mean to-" She stammered out an apology, and I cut her off.

"It's fine, it's fine." I chuckled. "You don't have to apologise all the time."

"Oh, sorry." She apologised again, and I chuckled. When she realised what was funny, she giggled too. Walking along like this with her, my mind felt… settled. I asked her a few questions about Equestria back, and by the time we reached my flat she was deep into relating a story about one of the finer points of Ponyville. I didn't even realise I had been holding her hand until I let go of it to unlock and open the door.

I'd left the window open to air the room out of any dust after the spring clean, so my first action was to quickly close it and turn the heating on, all the while still listening to Fluttershy's story. She walked in and pushed the door shut behind her, and I smiled as she whimsically finished her story and made her way over to the sofa, shivering as she sat down.

"Sorry it's cold." I said quickly, turning the heating up. I picked up a spare blanket from the chair and tossed it to the empty space on the sofa next to her. She pulled it over her gratefully and yawned.

"Tired?" I asked.

She simply nodded softly in response. "A little bit. I usually feel tired after a walk." She explained.

I looked at the clock and saw it was just after nine now. "Are you hungry? I could get you something to eat before you go to bed." I offered.

She shook her head, pulling the blanket up to her neck. "No thank you. I'm not feeling hungry."

Watching her settle and get comfortable in such an adorable way…

Ahem. I sniffled and stood up. "I think I'll get an apple then hit the hay, then." I mumbled, standing up and heading to the kitchen. I heard Fluttershy's blanket rustling while I grabbed and bit into an apple, defying my thoughts, and the bathroom door closed quietly a few seconds later. I crunched through my apple quickly, sighing as my mind refused to leave the topic of Fluttershy.

Tossing the core of the somewhat fulfilling fruit into the bin, I turned the heating down slightly now that the flat had reached a bearable temperature, and just walked into my bedroom. I heard the bathroom door open again as I was changing into sleepwear, and thought about closing the bedroom door, but I figured it would be fine. I pulled my shirt on and turned around, heading for the bathroom. As I passed by, Shy's bedroom door shut with a soft bang. Peculiar.

The simple affair of brushing my teeth later, I looked into the kitchen, instinctively checking on Mits, and my heart fell when I remembered. As I switched of the light and sat on the side of my bed, rubbing my tired legs, I found myself not thinking about Fluttershy for what seemed like the first time, and again hoping Mits would be okay.

Before I got the chance to start feeling down once more, the door slowly opened and Fluttershy appeared once more, in the same loosely fitting pyjamas she'd worn last night.

"Is there something you need Shy?" I asked.

"Well, I-I was lying in my bed, and it's very comfortable, but…" She looked down, embarrassed about what she was saying. "I-it's lonely." She whispered. "U-usually I h-have Angel Bunny with me, or at least in my bedroom. A-a-and, he's not there, and it feels… feels…" She sniffled.

I realised what she was getting at, and waved her over and spoke in the softest, most reassuring voice I could muster. "Hey, hey, it's okay. I understand."

My mind was telling me what would happen if I let her. My crush on her would just get worse.

"I don't mind…"

Don't do it.

"...if…"

Noooooooo.

"…you want to sleep with me for tonight."

She looked up hopefully, eyes moist. "You don't mind?"

My heart imploding, I shook my head and pulled back the blanket for her. "No."

She smiled the softest smile I'd ever seen, and gently climbed into the bed. I walked around the other side and shyly got in next to her. After some shuffling around to get comfortable, I ended up on my side facing Fluttershy, and she was doing the same. She smiled sleepily at me, and I smiled and blushed back. In a few moments, her eyes closed and a minute later she was asleep.

Okay, Jamie. She's just a friend, who's lonely, and you're being kind. It's nothing to fall in love about. And you probably could've tried to make that sound less suspicious.

Fluttershy murmured in her sleep and reached out for my hand, holding it and pulling it closer to her, like some kind of stuffed toy.

…dammit.

I sighed, resigning myself to this adorable fate. Doing so, I let myself think the single lock of pink hair falling across her face while she slept was cute, too.

The next day was spent relaxing in the warmth and comfort of my flat while I suffered from my cold after waking up in another awkward situation, with Fluttershy holding my arm until she woke up. From that point on though, the day was mostly uneventful, bar two things.

The first was a phone call from the veterinary hospital, confirming that Mits was illness free and as feisty as ever apparently. The news was enough to make my day, and I'm sure Fluttershy felt similar. Mits would stay in the vet's kennel for a day or two to heal some more and make sure she was okay. Though he mentioned he 'couldn't wait for me to be reunited with my loveable ball of fur', which was sweet of him.

The second event of the day came when I was casually painting on my easel, and Fluttershy noticed a blip on my laptop screen while she was reading.

"Jamie? There's a little number one next to the inbox thingy." She explained as best she could, pointing at the screen timidly.

I put the brush down and walked over curiously, sitting down next to her and turning the laptop to face me to have a look.

"It's from the professor…'s assistant." I muttered, opening it quickly.

'To Jamie Goodwin

Hello again my friend, it is Zhi Han Huang, Professor Shang Kai Hong's assistant. We received the photographs you sent us in good quality, and we have compared them to sources of information at our disposal. Both he and I, as well as our information sources, have deemed them to be accurate, and that you are telling the truth. This does indeed mean the Professor MAY be able to help. However, for him to do so, this Fluttershy will have to be physically present for some testing. Unfortunately, the more time that goes by, the less likely it may be possible for her to make a 'return trip', so to speak, so we require her to be here as soon as is possible. Thus I have, under the professor's instruction, prepared for you travel and accommodation to the University here, details of which you will find in a document attached to this email, with tickets for both her, and yourself to accompany her to the University.

I will not bore you with science you may not understand, Mr Goodwin, but I must make it clear the tests and procedures we are to run are crucial, and cannot be done without this Fluttershy present, here. And, as I mentioned, time is of the essence.

Thank you for your help and co-operation Jamie

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

I took a few moments to take in exactly what that meant. Fluttershy leant back a second later, perplexed and somewhat frightened. "What does he mean?" She asked.

I rubbed my face and turned to her. "I think it means, we have to go to China."