Is Fluttershy Funemployed?

Someponys' professions are obvious: Applejack is a farmer on the family owned farm Sweet Apple Acres, Pinkie Pie is an apprentice baker at Sugarcube Corner, Rarity is an entrepreneur, she owns and operates the Carousel Boutique where she designes and manufactures her own clothing. Twilight Sparkle is not employed, per se, but is the personal protégée of the god-empress Princess Celestia, and as such is living off a royal stipend. She comes from Canterlot, her brother is the Captain of the Royal Guard, and she was raised by royalty, so it is safe to say that her family is very wealthy and she has no financial concerns.

Rainbow Dash is a bit harder to place. She longs to be a Wonderbolt stunt performer, and has take steps toward that end, as seen in "Wonderbolt Academy" (though the ending was ambiguous as to whether RD is still in training as nothing more has been said in any subsequent episodes!). Her day job appears to be weatherpony for Ponyville; a job she does not seem to relish in the least as she is most often seen practicing her stunts, goofing off, or sleeping.

Fluttershy is the odd pony out. I can't seem to figure out what her profession is, and if I sent some Spartans to ask she would run and hide.



Fluttershy obviously has money. We've seen her paying inflated rates for goods at the market in "Putting Your Hoof Down." She has a whole huge menagerie to take care of, and even if animal feed were very cheap the vast quantities she would have to buy would still demand a healthy sum. And it is those animals who demand the bulk of her time and attention. She not only feeds, and houses, and cares for the hundreds of animals that she lives with, she also helps wild animals too, like that bear with the shoulder problem and the beavers who were arguing with Applejack.



Wild animals don't have money, and it seems doubtful she gets paid to have a whole lot of pets (if a welfare system existed in Equestria then Applejack wouldn't have to work so hard to pay for Granny Smith's hip surgery, her old age medical benefit would). The little time Fluttershy has that is not spent taking care of her animals is spent with her friends going on crazy adventures she would rather sit out. To date (as far as I can tell) we have never seen Fluttershy perform any job for money, leaving me to wonder how she is able to support herself financially.

It is true that she has had a few one off jobs, such as conducting a bird chorus for state events such as the Summer Sun Celebration and the wedding between Cadance and Shining Armor, but even if she did perform at these events for money how long would that sustain her? She was also a successful fashion model once (a job she hated), but only for a short time. We can't expect her earnings from that job to last forever, and she clearly was living quite comfortably before that, so she has to have some other form of income. The question remains, what is it? If Fluttershy does have a job we will have to wait for some future episode to find out.