A cold morning on the streets of a forest town, with trees reaching high into the sky like monoliths. Leaves were dangling low from the branches, before being plucked daintily by the winds, leaving them to dance in the air in a miniature cyclone of movement, spinning like discs as they twirled to the ground, marking the pathways and giving the grey some colour. Said path strung out, linking itself to a number of houses adjacent to the road, with gardens and porches accompanying the route to the front doors.

In one particularly ordinary bungalow, a man named Keychain was going about his morning routines. Keychain was a man with a simple body. Chunky, but not plump enough to be deemed as fat. Arms and legs with just enough meat on them and a face with blue eyes and curtained brown hair. He wore a simple white shirt and some sweatpants, with nothing yet to be seen on his feet. He pulled himself from his bed and strode towards the nearby bathroom, wherein he grabbed his toothbrush and some paste.

Squirting a multi-coloured blob of the cleaning product out onto his brush, he planted it into his mouth and proceeded to vigorously brush away. Quartering his mouth so that every thirty seconds, he went onto the next part of his mouth. Bottom front, top front, bottom back and top back. A tradition that he did every single morning and night without fail. After spitting out the remnants of sludge, he washed it out with some water from a cup, spitting it into the sink and wiping whatever was left with the back of his hand.

"Nothing ever changes, does it?" Keychain asked himself as he slid some slices of toast into the toaster and pushed down on the handle, letting the heat do its' work as he trudged towards the living room. "Same old day, same old night. I should be bored senseless of it by now, but I know that life has its' ways of working some wonders whenever needs be." He stared around for a brief instance, letting out a sign as nobody listened to his words. "I'm talking to myself again. As usual."

Keychain had lived alone ever since leaving his parents' house. He had never really dabbled in the art of love, mostly due to his commitments to his job and to that of his own household. It was a ruthless game of juggling what was important and what wasn't at the right times. And, sadly, love was completely overshadowed by all others. Had he been given more time, he would have pursued someone into a happy relationship, but his hours said otherwise.

His work was a simple job. He worked for a logging company, taking what remained of the trees that had reached the end of their lives and using them to create new objects like tables and chairs. Keychain would often mourn the loss of the trees that he had to brutally murder, but it was all in the course of his job. That, and the fact that trees never really had any feelings so he never had the chance to hear their side of the story or any complaints that could have come with it.

"Still, though. Gotta think on the bright side. Somewhere, someday, something, it's all gonna come together." Keychain put a smile on his face as he went back to the toaster, watching as the metallic cube spat out the now cooked slices of bread. Quickly pinching both pieces and laying them out on a small plate nearby, he headed on over to the fridge to grab some butter and jam, as well as a knife to spread them on. "One of these days, the world's gonna wake up, see me, and give me something to break the chain. Something that I didn't even know I was missing. I just know it." He was so distracted by his spreading that he inadvertently broke a slice of toast. "Yeah. That'll be the day..."

With his splintered toast and the one piece he had avoided butchering, Keychain took a seat on a green armchair in his living room and turned on the TV, laying his plate down on the glass coffee table in front of him. Once his hands were free, he reached over for the remote and started flipping through channels. He went through a number of different categories on his channel surfing. From news, documentaries, re-runs of old shows, even the odd music channel. All with the same schedules, yet different content for each day.

Eventually, the tedium became too much, so the TV was turned off by a rapid jab on the power button from Keychain. He simply went to his slices of toast, lifting the first one close to his mouth. Crumbs scattered towards the ground, weaving themselves into the carpet. Nothing a little vacuuming wouldn't fix, he thought. Driving his sharp teeth into the crust of the toast, Keychain shredded a huge chunk of it into his mouth and proceeded to chew.

The morning seemed to drag on and on as the first piece of toast eventually met a grizzled end at the hands and teeth of Keychain. As he was about to take a bite out of what remained of the second piece, he heard a knock at his door. That's odd. The news shouldn't have come for another few minutes. And I'm not expecting any mail today either... Keychain lifted a brow at the door, yet he still put down the toast and walked over. An unsightly mess of crumbs shifted as he stood up, most of them hitting the ground with the rest careening towards the plate that he had hastily grabbed so as to catch the others. With the toast avalanche over, Keychain returned the plate to the coffee table and planted his hand on the door.

Keychain opened the door and looked out. There wasn't anyone that he could see that was around his height level. Only the road, trees, other houses, and pathway. But as he was about to turn back, he looked down at the foot of his door to notice someone was standing there. A small, butter-yellow girl with long pink hair. Tied up by butterfly-shaped accessories into the shape of a large heart. She was wearing a bright pink coat with white fur across her neck, elbows, and waistline along with two small pink shoes with little buckles. Her eyes were a bright shade of teal and were wide as saucers. When she locked eyes with him, all that she could do was smile.

"Huh? A little girl?" Keychain parroted as he knelt down to her. "Well, what are you doing here? Are you lost?"

The girl didn't give any words. She just put her teeny hands onto Keychain's face and cooed softly, her hair flowing gently in the cold breeze.

"Well, do you know where your mommy and daddy are, little girl?" Keychain asked, trying to pry her hands off of his face as gently as he could. The prolonged squat was going to get to him soon and do a number on his legs. "You should probably go back and find them before you catch a cold."

The girl's coos stopped as her hands fell from Keychain's face. As the words swam in her mind, she just stood there, looking down at the ground with trembling palms. She was only young, carefree and adventurous to the world around her. It got to the point where her own travels and her own mindset had played around with her more than that of her parents. Despite her having some semblance of memory of them, she had no clue where they were. As she thought more and more about it, she sniffled slightly, before letting out a tiny sneeze that sounded much like something a baby panda would have done.

"Oh..." Keychain could immediately tell that talking about the girl's parents wasn't going to bring them back any time soon. He plucked her from the ground and carried her into the house, shutting the door behind him and locking it up tight with a key on the hook by him. "Well, it's fine if you can't remember. But I can't let you keep running around outside in this weather. It's frightful this time of the year."

The tiny girl pulled herself out of her little trip and looked up at Keychain, the smile only faintly returning as she noticed a small piece of tissue paper being wiped against her nose.

"In the meantime, you can stay with me until we do find your parents. It's the least that I can do to a kid like this in weather this bad." Keychain carried her through the corridors of his bungalow into another room; one with a large desk and some bookcases lined by the walls. A small stack of paper could be seen on the nearby desk, accompanied by a small pen. He plucked the pen and a sheet of paper before making his trip back into the living room, where he put his things down with the toast, before putting the girl down at the edge. "Do you have a name, at least? Something that I can call you by? I can't just keep calling you little girl or kid while you're here."

Looking up at the titanic Keychain once again, the girl was hesitant to do anything. She just sat there for what seemed like forever, before eventually, she summed up some courage and turned to the table. She grabbed the pen and placed the tip of it onto the paper, beginning to scribble away. At first, she drew some pictures of butterflies around the edges of the paper, humming to herself as she created life in the form of doodling them into existence. Once that was over, only the center of the page remained, where she let the pen do all of the speaking for her. An F, then an L. U. T. T. E. R. S. H. Y. She dotted the end of the paper and handed it to Keychain.

"Fluttershy? Is that your name?" He asked the girl. As soon as he finished talking, she nodded on the spot, clasping her hands together. "And these butterflies... Do you like them?" He got another nod from Fluttershy. "I see. Well, feel free to make yourself at home, Fluttershy. There's some fresh food in the fridge if you need it and the TV's got the full package if you wanna watch some kids shows."

Again, Fluttershy didn't say a single word as Keychain just handed her back the paper and the pen. Instead, she just continued to scribble away on the paper, making even more butterflies around her name. She drew so much that it became autonomous, robotic in nature. The only thing making her seem human was the unabridged smile on her face and the gentle, rhythmless tune that she was humming to herself.

"You don't really talk a whole lot, do you?" Keychain asked, but got no response for the umpteenth time that morning. "Well, I'm sure that you'll be fine. And if you need anything, just let me know."

As Fluttershy went on with her drawing spree, Keychain took away the toast from the table and brought it over to the kitchen table, where he sat down on a stool and watched over Fluttershy from the other room. He spent the rest of his breakfast half-eating the toast and half-watching Fluttershy continue to draw away on that single piece of paper, letting her mind run away to all sorts of places as more and more cartoonish characters appeared on the paper around her name.

So strange... Some kid wanders away from her parents and finds her way here. How in the world did that happen? Keychain pondered to himself as he let another piece of toast fall victim to his maw. Poor Fluttershy. I bet her parents are probably worried sick trying to find her. Still, she's so brave, being able to find some happiness in this kind of situation. Let's just hope that she can keep it.

As he finished off the last slice of toast, he took another look at Fluttershy again to see that someone else had entered his house. A small cat, marmalade in colour with a white belly. Its' paws were de-clawed and it had a very slender, arched body as it strode across the living room towards Fluttershy and the table that she was working at.

"It's that stray again," Key muttered to himself as he slipped the plate into the sink and sprayed it with a concentrated arrow of water, before tumbling into the drain at the base of the sink. "I swear, someone needs to find that cat pretty soon. The thing's been strolling this part of the country for weeks now; always popping into people's houses and interfering with their lives. Whoever owns that cat is either just as worried as Fluttershy's parents or is gonna be pretty angry when that cat does eventually come back."

As he walked back into the living room to try and make the cat leave, he saw a rather unusual sight. Fluttershy had turned from the paper that she had been so fixated on and saw the cat staring at her. She blinked for a few seconds, then tipped her head to the side again, prompting the cat to do so in response. Fluttershy straightened her head up, causing the cat to mirror her movements. She took one small step forward. Then another. Her balance was very good for someone of her age and stature, but there were times when it wobbled. To compensate for this, Fluttershy stuck her arms out to maintain her posture.

She arrived at the cat and fell to her knees, throwing her arms over the cat and letting out a high-pitched giggle, pulling the cat into a tight hug, petting its' fur tenderly as the cat's legs shook like frail sticks towards Keychain. The cat cuddling went on for a while, with Fluttershy's head eventually falling into the fluffy body that she had wrested from the ground. At last, the cat could bear it no more and shook around so much that it broke free out of Fluttershy's hands. She lurched forward to collect it again, but it leapt out of the way and leapt towards the open window, scampering out down the path in a blur.

Fluttershy once again looked crestfallen at the cat's departure. She was about to lower her head again when Keychain came over and laid a hand on her shoulder. She turned to face him and the frown was averted.

"It's alright, Fluttershy. That's just a stray cat. It wanders in and out from time to time. I must've left that window open." Keychain went over to the open window and closed it up, lifting the handles over to engage the locks. "Anyways, you've been rather busy with that paper, haven't you?" He noticed that the paper with Fluttershy's name on it had been noticeably much more filled with content than the last time he saw it. Now, it was a whole menagerie of animals lining the paper, from dogs and cats, to fish, even a few birds scattered around. "So... I'm guessing that it's not just butterflies you love, is it? It's all creatures great and small." To validate his claim, Fluttershy gave Keychain another nod.

So. She's young, she's lost her parents, she's shy by name and nature and she loves all the animals this planet has to offer... Keychain watched as Fluttershy simply cuddled his leg. You know, had it been another life, I could've really loved having a kid like her in my life. So sweet, so innocent, so pure and uncorrupted. He tousled Fluttershy's hair, causing her to let go of him and explore the living room. Now, Keychain stood still as he watched a tiny, timid toddler tenant traversing the tranquil living room, letting out tiny little noises as she took each step.

I don't exactly know what's happened, but I think the world might have heard me when I said that there was gonna be something interesting happening sooner or later... He saw Fluttershy arrive at the armchair that he had been sitting on. She tried to reach for the remote, but her little arms couldn't reach it. So, she resorted to climbing the chair by clutching onto the cushion, wriggling her legs as she hoisted herself up. She stood on the chair and plucked the remote, rubbing her hands over it. "Hey, Fluttershy? Have ya ever heard of a TV before?" Keychain asked, walking back over to his chair. He looked down at her, causing her to crane her neck skyward once more. "Here. Let me show you something amazing." Keychain took the remote out of Fluttershy's hands and turned the TV back on.

The black box immediately sprung to life with noise and colour, causing Fluttershy to jump at the sudden developments. After which, she brought her hands up to her ears, plugging them up from the amount of noise the device was making. Keychain took that as a physical indicator that his TV was too loud, so he pushed a button to turn the volume down. Small boxes with numbers and a symbol of a speaker appeared to show exactly how loud his TV was as he turned the volume down from his usual "30" setting to the "20" setting. After that, Fluttershy removed her hands from her ears.

"Sorry about the noise, Fluttershy. Didn't know how you were gonna react." Keychain gently patted Fluttershy on the head, causing her to let out a sigh and drop her arms entirely. "Now, normally, I'd let you go out into the garden to play around for a bit, but the weather's colder than the last time my uncle tried his hand at ice sculpting. That, and I wasn't expecting to care for any kids today, so I think some TV's a good option for now." He quickly opened a menu and flipped towards the kids' tv channels. He had no other reason to use them except now. As he highlighted each channel, a compact box in the top-right corner of his screen showed the show highlighted on the screen. "What looks good, Fluttershy?"

Fluttershy took a look at the box, leaning forward as she watched Keychain flip through a series of different shows. Some about animated cartoons and others about live-action people interacting with the world around them. Eventually, the screen showed animated animals, prompting Fluttershy to point to the screen in seconds.

"This one, eh? Well, why not?" Keychain pushed the large central button at the heart of his remote, which made the small box encompass the whole screen, showing the program to Fluttershy in its' full size and scale. The lights and colours immediately filled the room, standing out in seconds from the rest of the walls and decorum. As Fluttershy began to watch the show, the beam on her face grew from cheek to cheek as she watched the escapades of the animals on the TV.

Keychain just stood there and watched Fluttershy watching the show. He had no interest in what was going on and stood by just to make sure that she was alright. She was, after all, a lost girl who had trudged through a frigid morning wind. The very least that she could have had at this point in time was some fun, games, and laughter. And so far, he had given her just that. Whether the search for Fluttershy's parents lasted for days, weeks, even months or years, he'd do his best to keep her from crying her eyes out over the situation. And if the TV was the first step, then it was a step that he was glad to take with her.

So. Welcome to Heart-a-Flutter! This story won't have a main drive or story goal outside of Keychain and Fluttershy trying to find her parents. Instead, it's gonna be a slice-of-life, reaction-heavy story with each chapter taking on a different discovery that Fluttershy makes, kinda like a TV show where characters do something different in each episode.

With that being said, because of that, you guys can leave some suggestions as to what smol Fluttershy and Keychain get up to on their little escapades. From going out for a walk in the forest, to going to the shops together, even some bits that take part during holidays like Halloween and Christmas, you guys can leave whatever you'd absolutely love, love, LOVE to see this sweet incarnation of Fluttershy doing in this story.

I really hope that you guys and gals enjoyed this, the first chapter of this little story. I've been super-excited to do a story about this after having seen this picture and now it's finally come true. And I hope that you guys will enjoy reading it as much as I enjoy writing it. And as always, thank you for your time in reading my stories.