Pinkie skipped her way to Fluttershy. She wasn't sure how it felt for people who weren't earth ponies in the pony world, but the place made her even happier than usual. It was so full of life that she could actually hear it sing on the edge of her hearing. She hummed along with it. She'd have joined in, but choir pieces weren't her favorites, and even if they were, she didn't speak Equin.
"Hi, Fluttershy!" she cried as she tromped into the grove. Critters of all descriptions scattered, squeaking and squawking.
"Who— Pinkie?" Fluttershy's face flickered through several emotions. Confusion, shock, even a moment of anger.
"Yup!" Pinkie's expression fell. She knew why that last one was there. "Sorry for disturbing your animal friends. And that I took so long to come to see you. I trusted Zephyr to visit regularly but... Well, I don't want to say that he flaked out on you, but that's kind of exactly what happened."
Fluttershy had calmed down by this point. She shrugged. "He has to find his own path."
Pinkie rolled her eyes. "Well, right now that path led him to asking your parents to buy him Lure Modules." She sighed and wilted. "Still, it's not like we were any better."
"I don't mind being alone, Pinkie. You know that."
"Yeah, but you're still our friend! It's just that this whole summer has been downright cuh-ray-zee! Every time me and the girls try to get together and plan out some time to see you, someone remembers something she just can't put off! Rainbow Dash has swim practice, Applejack has something to harvest, Rarity has a rush order..." Pinkie gave a wry smirk. "It's been nuts, and that's me saying that. You'd think between me and Twilight we'd be able to coordinate schedules, but nothing doing! Isn't that weird?"
This got a noncommittal grunt. "I suppose."
"Plus, I've been putting in as much time as I can with the Cakes. I need the money, because magic has opened up so many party possibilities!" Pinkie grinned with twice the force as before. "You have not hit a piñata until you and it are both in midair, locked in a piñata dogfight! I can't do it myself because, you know, no wings, but everyone who's tried it has told me that it's the most fun they've ever had blindly swinging a stick! And believe me, that is a high bar to clear." She hummed as her brain hit a snag. "Though, since they can fly, I guess the idiom doesn't work very well."
"Pinkie."
"Oh gosh! I'm totally hogging the conversation, aren't I? Here I am, blabbing away while you can't get a word in edgewise. Well, that's going to stop here and now." Pinkie plopped down in front of Fluttershy. "The two of us are going to have the biggest, bestest, longest catch-up session in the history of my friends turning into trees, with completely equal speaking time." With that, Pinkie shut her mouth.
After a few seconds, Fluttershy said, "So, what made you decide to come now?"
"Well, one day I said to myself, 'Pinkie, you've got to stop talking to yourself or other people are going to think you're crazy!' But then it hit me: What about Fluttershy? You don't have anyone else to talk to most of the time! No one to keep you from going off the deep end. Though there's no pool in the park, which is why I didn't bring a swimsuit. And really, the best we could do for you would be a bikini top, and that's before trying to get you into the pool. No, the logistics were just not working out there. So, if we couldn't have a pool party, we'd just have to have a regular party instead!"
"I don't really want a party."
Pinkie shrugged. "It doesn't have to be a big ol' streamers-and-balloons party. It can just be a friends-sitting-and-talking party. You know I can be flexible."
"Are you sure you aren't somehow... uncomfortable around me?" Fluttershy shook her head. Her hair barely moved, waving more like thin tangled branches than anything human.
"Are you kidding? I think this is the most incredible thing since chocolate fountains!"
"So you don't feel awkward or confused or anything like that?"
Pinkie tilted her head. "Why would I? Just because you're in a firsuit?"
"I'm pretty sure I'm a willow."
"Either way, I say let your freak foliage fly!"
Fluttershy just stared at Pinkie with the befuddled expression that many people seemed to develop around her.
"Really, the most confusing thing is what to call you. I mean, you're part dryad, part druid. I'm not sure if that makes you a druad or a dryid." Pinkie shrugged. "Either way, you're clearly having fun, but you know what would make it even more fun?"
"Enjoying the tranquility of nature?"
"Sure." Pinkie leapt to her feet and cried, "An enjoying-the-tranquility-of-nature party!" The few creatures that had come back to the glade went scattering again.
Fluttershy watched them go, then turned back to Pinkie, scowling and Staring. "Earthen one."
Pinkie stiffened to attention. "Yes'm."
"You disturb this place with your raucous ape noises. Begone."
"Yes'm." She turned in place and marched out.
Hoooooooo boy.
AJ's going to have some words, ain't she.
Basically, trees are bitches.
7583068 Wouldn't that be birches
She's gone down-right ENTISH on us....if not Huornish. This needs to stop. She needs her RDA of Getoverherself.
Pffft.
Awww, that wasn't very nice.
Oh! The narration's not calling Pinkie by her name... I guess it reflects Shyad's thoughts on the person. I'm gonna fall in with Masterweaver and say the next and possibly last one is Applejack, but what will she be called??
7583354 Tree Kicker, Kicker of trees!
... Oh wait. That's the pony version.... Or is it? We have never seen the farm, or how they harvest it. Maybe she does kick trees here too. Especially now.
The firsuit comment was genius.
It's a little unsettling seeing Fluttershy losing her humanity here. Kinda reminds me of how I get when I spend too many days without going outside.
7583068 7583133
I think we can all agree that Fluttershy is being a humongous birch right now. (Unless someone wants to complain that she's really more of a willow.)
7583418
Maybe she punches trees in this 'verse.
7583056
Quite a few, yes.
7583283
Getoveryourself is very hard to get on a locavore diet, especially one that consists of sunlight and soil nutrients.
7583307
Original credit for the pun goes to the fine folks at Derpibooru.
7583418 7583561
Pretty sure the human Apples neither punch nor kick trees. At least, not in this universe.
The firsuit thing made me laugh out loud. I think this chapter needed that laugh.
7588340
It's Pinkie Pie's chapter. Of course it needed a laugh.
Holy shit.
This tree state is doing things to Fluttershy.
Also, that alone is a sign to get Sunset if I've ever seen one. Fluttershy can get angry, but this is something else entirely.
Wow... that went downhill quickly. I had assumed as much from the chapter title, but wow.
"Firsuit".
The title shows her distance growing.
7583133
There are also aspens out there.
Oh zephyr.
I don't think 'firsuit' is a word.
This chapter was great, but my only complaint is the title. Why is it titled an intruder if pinkie is in it?