//------------------------------//
// Chapter 15: The Big Reveal 
// Story: The Defective Warp Pipe 
// by Level Dasher 
//------------------------------//

	It took a long time, and me being the only one at the door, for Fluttershy to finally open up. They knew it would be the only way, so Rarity, Spike, and Twilight all left before I knocked. Before she departed, Twilight told me she was planning to write a letter to Princess Celestia about the past month and send it ASAP. She asked me to relay that message to Fluttershy if and when she let me in.

When she finally opened the door after midnight to let me in, Fluttershy and I first exchanged profuse apologies over her keeping me a secret and my yelling. Luckily, it seemed that Fluttershy couldn’t stay upset at me for long. She squeezed me close and held me like she would never let me go. Fluttershy just couldn’t stay angry— she cared for me too much... as I did for her. I squeezed her back just as tightly, and decided not to tell her Twilight’s message right away.

When I did tell Fluttershy about Twilight’s upcoming letter, she didn’t seem to object as much as I thought she would. She told me she knew it would happen eventually, and she realized it had been far longer than she originally thought she was going to ask Twilight to keep me out of her letters. She told me that as time went on, she got more and more scared of revealing my presence to the Princess, so she never talked to Twilight about her letters and decided to try and keep me out of them as long as she could.

We talked about the whole situation for quite a while, since I still wasn’t totally sure why I had to be kept a secret in the first place. I didn’t really understand the reasoning Fluttershy had provided Twilight and me. It seemed, as Twilight put it, simply absurd. Fluttershy tried to explain how she felt about how she had been acting and her being the Element of Kindness like before, but it still just didn’t make any sense. I told her that she had clearly been over-thinking how the Princess would react to my presence. She conceded that I was probably right, and chalked it up to nervousness. She then yawned, nuzzled into my torso, and fell asleep instantly. I looked at the clock— one in the morning. We needed rest, so I drifted off just as fast as Fluttershy. 

What happened the next morning was quite a shock.





The two of us woke up at the same moment— ten minutes to eight, just in time to start breakfast. As we both cooked for the animals and ourselves, we chatted briefly about the conversation we had had the night before.

Fluttershy kept beating herself up. “I can’t believe I’ve been so selfish. I don’t know why I never told Twilight to start putting you in her letters. In hindsight, you’re all right. I don’t know what I was thinking!”
“Don’t stress out about it. I can understand being scared over approval, but like I said last night, I have a feeling you were just over-thinking. I don’t think your Princess would have objected to my being here if she knew what had happened.”

“INDEED I WOULD NOT HAVE.”

The two of us dropped our cooking utensils. I was scared stiff, but despite her looking just as frightened, Fluttershy seemed to understand what was going on, so I relaxed slightly. She slowly walked to the door, opened it, and made a small “Eep.” She beckoned me over and walked outside. What I saw was almost as incredible as what I saw on the moon: a large, glowing-white pony with wings and a horn (Twilight later told me the term was ‘alicorn’), along with a gleaming sun as a cutie mark. I made the correct assumption of who was standing in front of us.
“Uh… um… h-hello, Princess,” Fluttershy stammered.

Twilight was by her teacher’s side, with Spike next to her. I wasn’t sure what to make of it at first, but if Twilight had no qualms and Fluttershy could speak to her outright, I determined I had nothing to worry about. I assumed I should still be formal if I addressed the princess in front of me, but I was cut off before I could even begin.
“Yoshi, it is a pleasure to finally meet you face-to-face. Twilight Sparkle sent me a long-awaited letter last night, and I determined it was time to meet you immediately.”
I didn’t understand. She didn’t seem upset, nor did she seem surprised by my presence.
“Oh yes, the letter I received from Twilight last night was not the first time I heard of your appearance in Equestria. I heard from another source— my sister, Princess Luna.”
What? How? I had never seen another princess around here at any point… WAIT— Princess Luna? Luna… moon… She must have known about my visit to the moon with the Doctor. Uh-oh… I was going to get busted big time.

“Um… Princess?” Fluttershy seemed like she thought she was about to be thrown in a dungeon. “How did Princess Luna know?”
“I will get to that in a moment. First of all, dear Fluttershy, Twilight told me essentially everything that has happened since our friend here arrived. Believe me, it was a LONG letter. It took me until morning to read it, if you can believe that. Anyway, I must agree with her. The fact that you asked to keep him a secret is rather appalling, especially since he was in need of help. I could have assisted.”
As the Princess spoke, Fluttershy was lowering herself closer and closer to the ground, holding her hooves over her head. “I’m sorry! I spoke with Yoshi about this last night, and I agree— I don’t know what I was thinking!”
“Well, I understand the being scared, dear. However, I promise that you have nothing to fear from me.” The Princess trotted up to us and spoke in a whisper so only we could hear. “Besides, Yoshi was right. I don’t expect you to repress yourself forever just because you are the Element of Kindness. I agree with him— the connection you tried to make between the two things doesn’t make sense. I’m actually quite proud of you!”

Wait, what?

The Princess tapped me on the shoulder and said, “Thank you for breaking her out of her shell!” That moment was a bit awkward for me… But then I realized something. I knew Fluttershy would also be feeling a bit too awkward at the moment to translate, so I motioned for Spike.

“Princess, how do you know about what I said yesterday?”
“Ah yes. I talked with Twilight about this before we came here. My sister, Princess Luna, found out about you when you went to the moon.” Uh-oh, here it comes. “She told me about the presence of an odd creature, and since then, I’ve been keeping track of you myself. I have my ways, and I’ll leave it at that. I was simply waiting for a letter from Twilight to explain your appearance. When I didn’t get one, I had a feeling something was going on, but I did not interfere. I trusted that there was a reason. However, when Twilight told me what the reasoning was in her letter—”

She had good timing.

“WAIT! MOON?? WHEN WERE YOU ON THE MOON??” Fluttershy managed to time it perfectly so that she saved herself another bout of humiliation. I, on the other hand, was not looking forward to this, even though I knew it was coming. Since Spike now knew she could understand me, and everyone else around knew about my trip, there were no translations necessary.
“Um, well, do you remember when I told you Doctor Whooves told me about the time lapse?”
“YEEEESSS…” She was glaring at me with daggers in her eyes.
“Uh, well, when we went to his house to talk about his research, we took a bit of a detour in his TARDIS…”
“HMM… I WONDER WHERE? WHAT WERE YOU DOING?”
“Fluttershy, please! Let me explain! I felt I had to repay the Doctor somehow for the information he gave me, and he asked me to take a quick trip with him to help his daughter get over her fear of heights. I took ONE jump in low gravity, and the Doctor declared it a success. We came right back after that, I swear!”
“I can attest to that. My sister told me the same.” Spike had been quietly translating for the Princess anyway, and I was thankful that she had my back. I was more scared of Fluttershy at this moment than anyone else. “Besides, had Yoshi not made that trip, I would not have found out about him until last night. And to be honest, Fluttershy, I am glad.”

In that moment, I saw Fluttershy’s expression change from one of rage to one of guilt as her piercing eyes softened, then slowly closed as she bowed her head. I hated to see her like that, but I was just happy her anger had vanished. “I’m sorry, Yoshi. I wish you would have told me, though.”
“Well, I didn’t want to see that Fluttershy— that’s why I didn’t. I knew you would be angry that I wasn’t resting.”
“Um, I guess I can understand that. I don’t particularly like that Fluttershy either.” She gave a very small smile. The other ponies softly chuckled, including the Princess.
“You see, Fluttershy, that is why you are the Element of Kindness. Even your anger is fueled by your care, which clearly knows no bounds. Besides, no element of anger exists; I am happy that I do not see you portray that emotion too often, if ever.” Fluttershy frowned, with more guilt in her eyes than ever. The Princess helped that to pass, however. 
“Now that that is dealt with, I have some news to share. In the week that I have known about our friend here, I have been able to do some research on my own with what little spare time I have had. I will help you when Yoshi and his friend in Fluttershy’s shed do finally go back to their home world. The information Twilight read when she discovered the enhancement to the teleportation spell was, unfortunately, out of date. We now know that trying to use this enhancement to a point where it is most helpful completely drains the life force of the pony casting the spell. There is, however, another way to go about this. You will be happy to know your search for the Augmentation Stones was not in vain; I will explain all that later.” The Princess then turned to her pupil. “Twilight, I was able to find the exact location of the Mushroom Kingdom through the inter-dimensional wormholes…”

Princess Celestia trotted away with her student alongside her, discussing the exact process. I was relieved to know that she knew about Discord’s antics, and hopefully how to fix them, as well as the way to get Toad and I back home, now that we knew our original plan would essentially have killed Twilight. However, I was more worried about Fluttershy. She still didn’t seem to get over everything that had just happened; her downcast eyes, flattened ears, and slow movements showed me that. The mention of my leaving probably didn’t help, either. I could tell it was going to be a long day…