When the alarm blares this morning, the last thing on your mind is getting out of bed. You're sore. You're tired. You've got a headache. You've spent the entire night sleeping short bursts then waking up in a cold sweat from anxiety dreams.

You've got to go and make your living. Without a job, you can't sustain yourself. You've been liberal with your snooze alarm as of late, and you fear that the laxness to your morning routine is bound to bite you sooner rather than later.

But you're tired. And not just in the whiny way. Your body hurts from the tips of your fingers, to the back of your neck, and right down to the tips of your toes. You open your bloodshot eyes and take a deep, helpless breath. What's got you in such a hissy fit?

Simple. Equestrian taxes.

Your residency status has you in quite the odd situation. You're not just paying residency dues to Equestria so you can become a fully fledged citizen, but property taxes, city taxes and countless other fine print things that take more out of your daily income than you'd like to admit.

So you've spent day in, day out after work doing small projects and handy-work in an attempt to make some under the table cash to get through this month of scalping to your wallet. You'd make a joke about taxation being theft or something, but to be honest? You can barely summon the energy to push yourself out of bed.

But you do though. You've got to eat. You've got to survive. There is no other choice. There is no other choice.

You toss on some work clothes to head down to city hall and prep a cup of coffee when you hear three gentle knocks on your door.

You know what? That's fucking it.

You've taken a lot of harassment up until now. Hell, even assault and battery. Stalking. Strange things you'd rather not repeat. But this is not the time. This is the last straw. This is what broke the camel's back.

You stride to the front door, feeling the blood boil to your face. You can feel yourself become light. The room begins to spin. You've advanced from normal anger. Your knuckles are white from the tightness of your fist. Your teeth grind. You are ready to finally end this.

You toss the door open and unleash a torrent of fury before she can even open her mouth.

"Why the fuck do you even fucking try, you stupid fucking horse. When are you going to fucking realize that I will never want you. I will never love you. You are a waste of energy, space, and time. And this bullshit that you do every fucking morning only pisses me off. If you want to be a fucking royal pain in my ass, then you fucking nailed it. Fucking Bravo, employee of the fucking year. But if you have even the slightest delusion that we can ever even fucking be FRIENDS, then you're lucky that your animals depend on you, because you'll be lucky to ever experience love in your fucking LIFE."

You huff and puff, feeling the blood rush through your face. Fluttershy's ears fold down and her wings hang loosely from her side. Her tail falls limp and she looks to the ground, a tear falling from her eye.

Your gaze follows the tear down to a small cake. Covered in white frosting. In green, a small message saying "Hang in there!" with a happy yellow pony face is on the cake.

"Do you feel better?" she asks, her voice audibly cracking.

You open your mouth to speak, but nothing comes out.

"Have a good day at work, Anon."

The yellow pegasus turns tail and gallops away, refusing to look back.

Fluttershy sits alone in her home, surrounded by her animals. Harry the Bear gently pats her back as she sobs into a couch cushion. Not another sound can be heard through the home as Angel lies in her lap, snuggling up to his owner.

She sniffs then takes a deep breath, tossing the pillow aside.

"Thank you, everyone," she says to her animal friends. "You guys won't let me be alone, right?"

The assorted animals that surround the yellow pegasus each chirp, squeak, or wail in unison. The faintest of a smile grows on the edges of Fluttershy's lips.

Then, she hears three knocks on the door. Fluttershy's head tilts, and the animals around her grow silent. Nervous at the prospect of a visitor.

She rises and moves to the door. Tossing it open, there on the other side is you, holding a familiar white cake.

"Mental health day," you say. "I, uh, I wanted to apologize. I went too far. I've just really been having a hard time lately..."

Fluttershy smiles and nods.

"Do you wanna talk about it?" Fluttershy asks.

You shrug and hold up the cake.

"Only if you'll share this with me. If I ate this whole thing, I'd get fat."

Fluttershy snickers.

"Of course, anytime."