Fluttershy

Fluttershy is a yellow-coated, pink-maned Pegasus pony with butterflies for a cutie mark. She is one of the "mane 6" characters of the show, and represents the element of kindness.

Portrayal in the show and in fanworks
Fluttershy is usually portrayed in as a calm, quiet and timid pony. This is reflected in a great amount of fanfics written about her. In later episodes of the show, she has been shown to have different, more aggressive (and perhaps frightening) sides to her personality, some of which have led to nicknames/memes (see below) and have also been picked up by fan labor creators.

Some fan works take Fluttershy in a completely different direction. For example, in the abridged series "Friendship is Witchcraft" (episode one), Fluttershy is reimagined as an evil sorceress; in the fanfic Tales she turns more and more antisocial and eventually becomes a hermit, more concerned with the lives of animals than with those of her fellow ponies.

A very common theme in fan fictions featuring Fluttershy is the establishment of a relationship between her and Big Macintosh. While other pairings are obviously able to be formulated by the writer, a relationship with Big Mac is the most seen, which is very odd given the small interaction they have in the actual television series.

In My Little Pony: Guardian Mares, she is the Guardian Mare form of Rebecca Grey

Popularity
Fluttershy emerged as the winner of the "favorite pony" poll conducted in May 2011 on Equestria Daily, asking readers who their favorite pony was. She also came in a narrow third in a similar poll about which pony wears socks best (a reference to a common image motif).

As of October 26, 2011, Fluttershy leads another poll on the official My Little Pony Facebook page by a wide margin.

Among target-demographic fans, the three most popular characters are Pinkie Pie, Twilight Sparkle, and Rainbow Dash, with Fluttershy, Rarity, and Applejack trailing far behind them.

Flutterrage
D_1Ch_fKrvA Flutterrage (also often "Psychoshy") is a nickname given to the more emotional and deranged side of Fluttershy's personality. While hinted at in previous episodes, it first comes to the fore in the episode The Best Night Ever, when Fluttershy cannot seem to make friends with the animals in the royal garden in Canterlot. She becomes more and more unhinged, and irritated. So much so that she begins trying to make friends with the animals by force, until she finally herds them into the palace ballroom and screams: "You're going to.... LOVE ME!" It has become a meme to fans ever since.

Flutterbitch
Flutterbitch (also known as "Flutterjerk", "Flutterwry", "Bittershy" and "Fluttercruel") is a related term, often used for Fluttershy's Discord-influenced persona that inverted her usual kindness and made her bully other ponies (see The Return of Harmony Part 1 and Part 2). It is also mentioned because of the events in Putting Your Hoof Down as a non-discorded persona.

Fluttercry
Fluttercry refers to a common exploitable image altering a shot of a crying Fluttershy from the episode A Bird in the Hoof to have her hold something else in her hooves, often a television set; this image is then combined with a clearer shot of whatever Fluttershy is looking at. Episodes 3-9 of The Mentally Advanced Series show the first part of this image (with Fluttershy holding the severed head of Pinkie Pie) as part of the end credit sequence.

Fluttershy is a tree
Prompted by an offhand remark Fluttershy makes in the episode Over a Barrel, Fluttershy's "wish" to be a tree has jokily been taken literally by some fan art creators. In Hurricane Fluttershy, she actually does disguise herself as a tree. The portmanteau fluttertree is also common.

Hootershy
In humanized and anthropomorphized MLP fanart, Fluttershy is frequently depicted as being more curvaceous than other humanized/anthropomorphized Pegasi; who are typically depicted with slender/ectomorphic builds; as well as having the largest bust of the Mane 6. Proponents of the Hootershy meme base their depiction on the assumption that since Fluttershy has ties to the earth rather than the sky, she naturally would have a more robust appearance than other Pegasi.

Metalshy
A less common, but still notable interpretation of Fluttershy depicts here as being a fan of Heavy Metal, often as the singer of an underground metal band. In video this is often portrayed by dubbing a death metal growl over the scene in Green isn't Your Color where she lets out one of her squeaky screams, or giving here the singing part in PMVs for metal songs. There is also numerous fan-art and even fanfics depicting her as such. This sometimes overlaps with Flutterrage. Bronyfied, a popular Brony Metal musician, has a logo consisting of Fluttershy and an electric guitar.

Fluttershed
This meme is directly based on Fluttershy's characterization in PONY.MOV. Specifically, it is about Fluttershy having a shy demeanor on the outside, but inside her shed, which she repeatedly warns ponies to stay out of, she kills woodland creatures, and hangs their pelts and entrails from its walls.

The meme got its start solely from The PONY.MOV series, from two lines spoken by Fluttershy in DRESS.MOV, and since her episode of the series, has taken off in popularity.

Emoshy
One known alternate personality of Fluttershy, is Emoshy. She is depicted as "emo" and has black stripes running through her pink hair, instead of it being a solid pink, as can be seen in the image to the right. This is based a upon a picture of her on the cover of a magazine in Green Isn't Your Color. With this variant, her personality is altered so rather than just being shy she is more depressive. This interpretation frequently overlaps with Metalshy.

Relationships
Fluttershy is not often targeted for shippings, but when she is, it is usually with Pinkie Pie, Big Macintosh or Rainbow Dash. These shippings are called "Pinkieshy" or, alternatively, "Flutterpie", "FlutterMac", and "FlutterDash", respectively.

She is also at times paired up with Gilda (rarely), Discord, Rarity, Applejack and Twilight. These pairings are called GildaShy, Fluttercord, Rarishy (or FlutterRare), "AppleShy", and FlutterLight (or TwiShy).

Since the premier of Keep Calm and Flutter On, Fluttershy and Discord pairings, usually known as Fluttercord have become increasingly popular.

Gallery

 * Fluttershy image gallery