From then on, I took Fluttershy to that field whenever I could. We spent most of the summer there, in fact. We, or more specifically, she had made so many new friends. She loved being outside during the summer, being with her animal friends, being with me. We shared many more kisses after that night, and many more utterances of those three lovely words, “I love you.”

By this point, Fluttershy and I were taking things quite seriously. And, neither of us thought of what we were doing as weird. We were well aware of our differences, most obviously in species, but it didn’t bother us much. We weren’t concerned about the aesthetics. All we needed what was the love we felt for each other.

Boy was that corny.

Regardless of the corny nature of our relationship, things continued on mostly as they were. Beginning right at the start of that September, I began college. I described to Fluttershy how it would work; it was mostly the same as high school. However, with college, I would be able to come home in between my classes. It really depended on my schedule for the day. Some days I was able to get home earlier, and others, I was able to wake up later, but I had to stay at school later.

Fluttershy didn’t mind. I had begun leaving her comics to read while I was out. During the summer, my stock had increased exponentially, so I had a lot of material for her to enjoy. Sometimes, she would even read ahead of me. Mostly, she did this to tease me. I really didn’t mind though. She was cute when she teased me, often giggling her cute little laugh and giving me a somewhat-seductive wink.

One of the best times of my first year in college came during my Christmas/winter break. When the winter arrived, I informed Fluttershy that most of her animal friends wouldn’t be out as often as normal. This disappointed her, but, luckily for me, I told her this on the day she would first see snow (at least, in my world).

She loved it. She thought it was beautiful. She wasn’t that big of the desolate and empty trees of winter, and really, who is? But, she absolutely loved the snow; how it covered the ground and made the world seem like a different place. I told her that while it seemed gloomy as the snow fell, once the sun came out, everything would look so much more beautiful. The sun would cause the white snow to glisten while we might play in the snow.

Fortunately for us, we found a day to take a trip to the field while the elementary students weren’t in school. Fluttershy and I arrived at the field, but this time, rather than hide her in a bag, I let her walk with me. I always enjoyed the crunching of the snow beneath my feet, and she seemed to as well. I had managed to get two pairs of boots for her, so her hooves wouldn’t get cold, and I provided her with a comfortable vest and scarf to keep her body warm.

We walked over to our usual spot. I decided not to sit to keep my ass from getting soaked, but Fluttershy seemed to find some sort of comfort in the coolness that the snow provided as she sat down. While she admired the beauty of the snow on this sunny day, I started walking around, trying to see if I could walk across some of the frozen sheets without falling through. My rate of success was lacking.

I kept swearing under my breath as I continued to fail, which made Fluttershy giggle continuously at me. I turned back at her and childishly stuck my tongue out at her. She laughed and flew over to me, knocking me down into the snow.

“Oops,” she said playfully, laughing as she flew away from me.

“Oh, you’re dead!” I exclaimed, getting up and chasing after her. Ever since she started flying, Fluttershy had just been getting consistently better at it, to a point that I couldn’t keep up with her very well. And now, considering that I was running through high sheets of snow, I was even slower.

So, seeing as though I couldn’t catch her, I made myself a few snowballs. I made sure none of them were too hard or had any pieces of ice in them before beginning my assault. As I started pelting Fluttershy with snowballs, she squeaked in surprise at the first few, then she began laughing as I continued to miss (my aim wasn’t top notch). Finally, I managed to hit her, which caused her to lose her balance. I got under her and pulled her down to the ground.

We tumbled together in the snow as I started tickling her. She was laughing hysterically, begging me to end the torment. But I continued on, not letting up for a moment. Yet, somehow, she found the strength to lift her wings up and started tickling me with them. And soon enough, I was on my back, being tortured through my heavy coat by her wings.

“Is somebody ticklish?” she playfully asked me. I tried to answer, but she was so relentless that no words could escape my mouth. She giggled as she continued her unending spree of tickling. I began tapping the ground.

“I tap! I tap! P-Please stop!” I managed to speak. She finally stopped, hovering above me. I picked up some snow and threw it at her. “You stink.” She giggled.

“You started it.” I began to breathe heavily, trying to pick myself up. She landed behind me and helped me to sit up. She then wrapped her wings around me and hugged me.

“Thanks,” I said, as she rested her head on my shoulder. I pecked her on the cheek and rested my head against hers.

“Of course,” she replied. I turned to face her and I wrapped my arms around her, the two of us melting in the warm embrace. We just sat there, without a care in the world. The rest of what was happening around us didn’t seem to matter to us. All that we were focused on was each other. We found ourselves sharing a few kisses, but we seemed to spend more time locking eyes with each other.

Her eyes. Whenever I looked into Fluttershy’s eyes, I always seemed to find myself in a different dimension. It was sweeter than candy, more intense than the sun going supernova, and deeper than the furthest depths of the ocean. Looking into those cyan blue eyes of hers was an experience I hadn’t been able to feel for the longest time. What made it better was that Fluttershy and I often found ourselves staring into each other’s eyes quite often. Whereas in the past, I never felt these moments at all, I now got to experience the feeling of ecstasy almost every day.

I found myself lying back down, and Fluttershy came with me. She was lying on top of me, resting her head peacefully on my chest. I began to stroke her mane, looking up into the sky as the sun beamed down on us and the snow surrounding us. It was just so serene and enamoring. Fluttershy found herself ensconced in my arms, and I found myself teaming with joy having her there with me.

It felt like this moment could last forever. I wish it could have, but unfortunately, the moment was interrupted when I heard voices from afar. We did as we usually would when people would arrive on the field; we ran behind a line of trees across the field that no one could see behind. We waited for the children to pass, then we made our way back to my car.

Before getting in, Fluttershy shook off the remnants of the snow that was on her. I patted the snow off of myself as well, and then we got in the car and headed home. Fluttershy hadn’t had enough of the snow however, so when we got back, we just sat out in my backyard. There were bushes surrounding the yard, so no one would see us. We just sat there and continued to admire each other and our surroundings.

It was the moments like these that I had grown to cherish the most. They were so important; not just to me, but to Fluttershy as well. We spoke no words to each other. All did was just enjoy each other’s company. And that’s all we needed.