As the day had passed on, the girls had taken every precaution when following Flash around town. They'd ducked and weaved behind whatever cover they could find, be it simple bushes, walls, park benches, or even, in the case of Pinkie Pie, street lamps. Fortunately for all concerned, the boy had not noticed them once during their entire journey, not even Pinkie. Eventually, they stopped walking around, coming to a street corner where, oddly, Flash made a sudden turn, heading into the building which lay there. Twilight raised an eyebrow as she regarded the place, old and not as good a condition as the surrounding homes. But, what made it notable was the words etched just above the doorframe, which read "Canterlot Orphanage" in bold letters. Scratching her head, Twilight turned to her friends, all of whom seemed equally perplexed as to this turn of events.

"An orphanage? Any idea why he went in there?"

While many of the girls shrugged their shoulders at that question, Sunset, while placing a hand to her chin, thought harder on the matter.

"You know...now that I think about it, I do remember Flash going off at around this time of week like clockwork. He never said what he was doing though."

Looking to her, Twilight tilted her head.

"He kept it secret?"

To that, Sunset shook her head again, gaining a slight look of discomfort as she did so.

"Actually...in truth...I just don't think I was all that interested in what he did when I wasn't there."

Twilight nodded, acknowledging her point, after which she turned back to the building. After standing there and just staring at it for a few minutes, it became clear to the young princess that her quarry wasn't coming out anytime soon, leading to a grunt of frustration on her part.

"Ugh! I'm not going to be able to get any idea what's going on with him if I can't even see him!"

Placing her hand upon her hips, Twilight tapped her foot impatiently upon the sidewalk, thinking the matter over for another minute or so, after which, she suddenly looked like she had an idea of some sort.

"Say...do any of you know the layout of that place?"

The other girls, somewhat taken aback by that statement, looking to each other with confusion, after which they turned in unison towards Twilight, giving her a shrug of their shoulders. Getting a pretty clear answer from that, Twilight sighed, looking more than a little disappointed, until, all of a sudden, a solitary hand began to hesitantly rise, catching her attention.

"Um...I know."

All eyes turned to Fluttershy, who, as one would expect, was looking quite nervous about having spoken up like that. The other girls, after thinking about it, suddenly realised without saying anything that of course the girl would know something about it. Fluttershy and places of care went together like bread and butter after all. Lowering her hand again, she suddenly found that her hair began to fall in such a way that at least half of her face was now obscured by it, which was of great help to her at this point. As for Twilight, she soon broke out into a joyous smile, clapping her hands together as she drew closer to her friend.

"Excellent! Then you can go in and see what's happening!"

Needless to say, Fluttershy looked completely mortified by that prospect, and the other girls looked to Twilight with incredulous expressions, culminating in Rainbow speaking up.

"Hold on! I thought you said we weren't going to be talking to him?"

Looking to her friend, Twilight nodded a little.

"I did indeed. But, the important thing is that he be unaware of the study. If he happens upon one of you girls during his day, especially if it's something like Fluttershy visiting an orphanage, is he really going to suspect anything out-of-place?"

Rainbow opened her mouth, only to be struck with the realisation that her friend had a very good point here. Turning, the girl looked upon her other companions, but they too were found to be unable to come up with a counter-argument to that. So, sighing, Rainbow slumped her shoulders a little, instead going on to look at Fluttershy.

"Well, Flutters? Think you're up to it?"

Fluttershy looked to each of them before eventually settling on Twilight, who was looking as eager as ever to get on with this.

"But...but...but...what do I do?"

Moving closer to her, Twilight gently placed a hand upon her shoulder, giving her a reassuring look.

"Just do what you would normally do when visiting a place like this. If Flash sees and talks to you, don't panic. Just say you're there for a visit or something."

Thinking on that for a moment or two, Fluttershy took a deep breath before nodding to her friend. Smiling even wider than before, Twilight gave her a quick pat on the shoulder before gesturing to the orphanage behind them.

"Okay. Remember, we'll be here if you need us."

Nervously, Fluttershy nodded, after which she began to slowly make her way over to the old building, stopping every few moments to look over her shoulder to her friends. After a while of doing this, she reached the place, peering her head through the door and seeing nobody but the building's receptionist, a woman, who looked to her with a raised eyebrow.

"Um...can I help you?"

Thinking, Fluttershy eventually cleared her throat before speaking back.

"Y...yes. My name is Fluttershy and, well...I was wondering if I could help out here today?"

Hearing that, the older woman's face lit up somewhat.

"I'm glad to hear it! You're the second person who’s come here for that! By all means, go on through, I'm sure the kids would love some more people to spend time with them!"

Smiling back, Fluttershy went into the room the woman was gesturing to. As expected, it was filled to the brim with younger children, many of whom were busying themselves with playing with the toys set out for them, or doing games like hide-and-seek with their fellow orphans. Unfortunately, Fluttershy's assigned plan of staying out of Flash's sight was not going to be an option for her, as she saw that there he was, right on the other side of that open room. She saw that he was sitting down on a comfortable-looking chair, with what appeared to be a large book in his hands. What's more, he was surrounded by about a dozen or so boys and girls, all of whom were sitting on the floor, watching him with smiles upon their faces. Gulping, Fluttershy did her best to make her way close enough to see what was going on, but not so close as to be noticed. Unfortunately, given the lack of cover, the inevitable happened.

"Hey there, Fluttershy!"

"Eeep!"

Turning, the shy girl saw that, of course, she had been spotted, as Flash was now looking up from his book and had begun waving to her. The children too had turned to see her, and with so many eyes on her, she coughed nervously, before then giving a small wave back in greeting. Flash then gave a gesture that made it clear that he wanted her to come over, and seeing as she had no real reason to say "no", she soon ended up doing just that. Once there, Flash looked to her with a smile, finally speaking up.

"Good to see you again. Gotta say though, I wasn't really expecting to see you here today."

Letton out a brief-but-nervous chuckle, Fluttershy nodded before answering back.

"Um...I wasn’t expecting to see you either, Flash."

Letting out a hearty laugh, the boy nodded at that.

"Yeah. Guess I wanted this to be...well...my little secret, you know?"

For the first time in all of this, Fluttershy actually seemed to calm down, looking to Flash with a look of understanding.

"I...I think I know. I don't really like bragging about my work down at the animal shelter either."

Flash nodded at that, still smiling though.

"Well...working with animals and orphans, that's pretty awesome, Fluttershy."

To that, a small blush crept onto Fluttershy's cheeks.

"Oh! Well...I don't know about that."

Before Flash could respond, however, one of the kids, a small boy, spoke up to him.

"Um...Mr Flash? Could you keep telling us that story?"

Looking down to him, Flash gained a look of realisation.

"Ah! Right! Sorry about that, kids. Kinda got caught up with my friend here."

The kids giggled slightly at that, prompting yet another blush from Fluttershy. However, before Flash got back to his duty of story-telling, he got himself a look that suggested that he'd just had an idea.

"Hey...how about we both read it to them?"

Fluttershy, naturally, seemed taken aback by that.

"Um...both? Oh no! I wouldn't want to intrude!”

But the kids themselves looked very enthusiastic all of a sudden, looking to Fluttershy with massive smiles.

“Aww! Come on, Miss!” one girl cried.

“New storyteller!” another yelled.

As Fluttershy looked form one child to another, Flash gave another brief laugh.

“Better do it, Fluttershy. These kids can be vicious.”

The jokey way he’d spoken that did put her at ease somewhat, and that, coupled with all of the huge eyes staring at her, eventually led to her giving a small nod of consent, which was met with many loud cries of “yay” from the children. Giggling at this, Fluttershy looked over to Flash, who scooted over and gestured to the side of his chair, inviting her over. Although hesitant, she made her way over, taking a seat beside him. Smiling to his new companion, Flash looked again to the book in his hands, reading the words aloud.

“Once upon a time, there was a beautiful princess, who lived in a faraway land.”

He didn’t continue, instead looking to Fluttershy. It took her a few moments, but eventually, she understood, looking to the book herself.

“Oh! Um…and because she’d spent her whole life in a tower, her hair had grown very, very long…”

“And? What happened then?”

Twilight, looking upon Fluttershy, watched as she twiddled her thumbs for a few moments, thinking over what to say next.

“Well…after we told them some stories, we stayed to make sure the kids weren’t getting too rough when playing their games. Oh! And Flash also brought along his guitar to sing to them a few times.”

With every word she said, Twilight was taking meticulous notes, all while her friends were looking to their shy friend. Sunset in particular actually looked impressed by what she’d heard.

“Volunteering at an orphanage? Wow…never would have guessed.”

To that, Fluttershy gained a sweet little smile.

“It was really nice of him. The kids all loved him, always talking about how he goes there every week.”

Looking up from her notes, Twilight looked to Fluttershy again, looking more than a little enamoured right now.

“It really does sound like a good thing for him to be doing. A guy like that, well…it sounds like it suits him.”

But, her expression changed almost instantly afterwards, looking instead like one of a scholar and problem-solver.

“Doing things like that would certainly contribute to people liking him. Still…I never knew about that until now. Guess that means it can’t explain the crush. Nevertheless, good work, Fluttershy.”

The other girl nodded at that, but wasn’t able to say anything, as they all began to hear the distinct sound of someone opening a door. Ducking behind the corner of a nearby house, they all watched as Flash finally made his way out of the orphanage. Once out on the street, the boy looked down the road, seeing the setting sun, wherein he placed his hands inside his pockets before starting to make his way off. Emerging from behind the house, the girls all looked to one another before Applejack eventually broke the silence.

“Well…guess he’s headin off home.”

Looking to the sun herself, Twilight gave a nod.

“Yeah…it is getting pretty late.”

Turning, she instead looked to Pinkie.

“Um…I don’t suppose I could trouble you by staying over, could I?”

To that, Pinkie rushed forward, embracing her in a hug.

“Of course you can stay, Twilight! It’ll be the best slumber party ever! Well…since the last one anyway.”

Laughing at that, Twilight parted form her friend, after which she looked to the others.

“Thank you all for helping today. But this is only the first day of this. There’s plenty more to do, but I think we can all do with a rest for the moment.”

All of the girls nodded with agreement over that, and together, they began to make their way back the way they’d come, all in readiness to head off to their own respective homes. However, as they did this, Rainbow stopped, looking over her shoulder to see that Fluttershy was still standing there, looking out to where Flash had been.

“Um…Fluttershy? You coming?”

Realising she was being spoken to, Fluttershy immediately spun around, putting on a smile as she looked to her childhood friend.

“Oh! Sure! I’m just coming!”

Nodding, Rainbow turned and continued on, following the rest of the girls. As for Fluttershy, she gave one final look to the orphanage, with a slight blush upon her cheeks, speaking up in an almost hushed voice.

“…Oh dear.”