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// Day 2: Fluttershy 
// Story: Magical Mystery Cure (my take) 
// by Phazon_Corrupted_Unicorn 
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	Fluttershy stirred from sleep as a soft beam of sunlight poked through her window. She stretched her legs, feeling more relaxed and rested than the night before. She giggled slightly at the thought, sleeping anywhere but on the floor was more relaxing and comfortable.
She sat up in bed, rubbing her eyes and seeing a small, white shape at the hoof of her bed.
“Good morning Angel,” she yawned, her eyesight starting to clear. She rubbed them again for good measure then, tossing the comforter and sheets off her, she got out of bed and headed for the shower.
She washed her mane, enjoying the softness of it, then scrubbed down her body and dried off. She stepped out of the shower and smiled at Angel who was standing at the door to the bathroom. She patted him on the head and moved to the kitchen, Angel following her. She started to get out the ingredients for a salad when she heard a knock on the door.
“Oh, my. Who could that be this early in the morning?” she asked Angel who just shook his head. She trotted over to the door and looked out the window, only to gasp and duck her head back down. “Um, oh my, Angel, um, it’s, well, it’s her,” she stammered only to have Angel shake his head and facepaw.
Fluttershy eeped as he leapt off the counter and scampered toward the door. He jumped up and grabbed the doorknob, turning it and pushing the door open with one paw on the doorjam.
Fluttershy tried to compose herself, but a slight blush colored her cheeks as Pinkie Pie bounced into the room.
“Good morning Fluttershy! It’s a really nice day out! Rainbow Dash must have done a great job with the weather last night. Oops, that’s right! Rainbow Dash isn’t a pegaus anymore, she’s a unicorn! Does that change her name? Maybe instead of Dash she could be Sparkle? No, that means that she’s married to Twilight and how silly would that be?” –Pinkie Pie gasped, a thought crossing her mind—“but maybe they want to be married! Now I’ll have to plan a wedding and a bachelorette party, or maybe two of those, and a reception and a—“ Pinkie would have continued if it weren’t for the butter yellow hoof that found it’s way into her mouth.
“Pinkie,” Fluttershy sighed, though a small grin touched her lips, “it’s early in the morning. I need to feed my animals. I haven’t even had breakfast.”
“Oh,” Pinkie Pie gasped around Fluttershy’s hoof, “I’m sorry! I didn’t know! I just figured that you’d been up a lot longer. I could help you make breakfast and tend your animals, if you don’t mind.”
The idea made Fluttershy freeze and her hoof fell away from Pinkie’s mouth. Part of her brain knew she’d died during the night and gone to heaven, there was no way anypony wanted to help her, timid, lonely Fluttershy, with her animals willing. And especially not Pinkie Pie of all ponies. She was way too energetic to do anything calm.
Fluttershy mentally shook her head, there was that one time that Pinkie had duplicated herself six- or seven-fold. The town had been thrown into so much chaos that she and the girls had created a watching-paint-dry test to determine which one was the true Pinkie. If she could sit still for that long, Pinkie could do anything.
“Um, well, sure. I mean if you don’t mind, that is,” she said, timidly.
“Sure, I never mind helping a friend!” Pinkie bounced into the kitchen and smiled at Angel as she passed. She began pulling out knives and bowls, then started to layer lettuce leaves in the bottom of each bowl. Fluttershy watched her work, slightly amazed at how she seemed to be in two places at once, but she’d learned a long time ago not to question Pinkie. She just stepped to one side and started making Angel’s breakfast, Angel hopping up on the counter to watch her.
They finished their preparations quickly with the two of them working at it and Fluttershy delivered a heaping salad to Angel, who smiled as it was placed in front of him. They then turned to feeding the rest of Fluttershy’s animal friends. Fluttershy fed the ones she could reach from the ground while Pinkie Pie flew overhead and fed the ones just out of Fluttershy’s reach.
Once they were done, Fluttershy trotted back into the kitchen and started preparing a salad for herself and Pinkie Pie.
“So Pinkie, what brings you over this early in the morning?” Fluttershy asked as she placed leaves of lettuce in a bowl.
“Oh yeah! That’s right! Yesterday I had a great day, let me tell you about it!” And Pinkie Pie proceeded to do just that, Fluttershy listening intently as the tale wound on for almost an hour. When Pinkie got to the part about Princess Celestia visiting her and the conversation they had on a cloud Fluttershy gasped in surprise.
“What do you think she means by the Blessing?” she asked, causing Pinkie to pause in the middle of her story.
“I don’t know, but Pinkamina said that I was going to have a doozy when it happened, and you remember what happened the last time I had one of those,” Pinkie bounced around the room. Fluttershy nodded, the scene coming back to her.
“Do you think this has something to do with the rest of the girls?” she asked. Pinkie froze in midair and placed a hoof on her chin, thinking.
“It seems likely, and Pinkamina thinks so as well. You were all there the last time I had a doozy, but you weren’t the focus of the doozy, it was Twilight,” Pinkie stated.
“So do you think it has something to do with Twilight? But what could the Blessing be? It’s nothing I’ve heard of. Maybe Twilight will know,” Fluttershy paused in her food preparation to think.
“I don’t know. But—“ Pinkie started to say but stopped. Then, right in front of Fluttershy, she changed. Her mane straightened and drooped over her head and back like wet seaweed. Her coat became a darker pink, almost graying.
“Hello, Fluttershy,” the voice that came from Pinkie’s body wasn’t Pinkie. It was slightly deeper, and sounded less coated in sugar.
“Um, hello,” Fluttershy timidly replied.
“Come now, there’s nothing to be afraid of. It’s just me, Pinkamina,” Pinkamina stated. Fluttershy cowered on the ground. She’d never seen Pinkamina except for that one time when they threw Pinkie a surprise birthday party. She’d been really worried that they’d never see Pinkie again, but that had quickly vanished when Pinkie’s mane had popped back to its normal cotton candy look.
Fluttershy closed her eyes as Pinkamina drew closer to her and she whimpered.
“Poor Fluttershy, such a burden you bear in your heart,” Pinkamina whispered, her voice close to Fluttershy’s ear. She whimpered again as she felt something touch her chin, but she opened her eyes and looked up at Pinkamina’s calming eyes as Pinkamina gently lifted her chin up off the floor.
“Um, what do you mean?” Fluttershy asked softly and Pinkamina grinned at her.
“You know of the thing that I speak of. I can see into your heart and I see the weight you carry. Perhaps you only need a chance to express it,” Pinkamina walked slowly into the front room, her wings fanning out.
Fluttershy blushed as she watched Pinkamina move, then tried to cover it up when Pinkamina turned around and smiled at her.
“I’m afraid Pinkie and yourself got a little distracted from your question. You asked why we came over here so early in the morning?” Pinkamina asked and Fluttershy nodded, trying to rid herself of the blush that was turning her cheeks a strawberry blonde. Pinkamina sat down on the ground and spread her wings as wide as they can go.
Fluttershy moved into the room, her eyes glancing over the pink mare’s body. Her eyes were drawn to Pinkie’s wings and she switched into analysis mode.
“Your wings are a wreck. Your primaries are shooting out at odd angles and your secondaries are out of alignment,” Fluttershy muttered as she lifted one of the wings with her hoof, then she continued, “your feathers are dirty and streaked with grime and grit that make your wings heavy and hard to use. You’ll need a good preening before you can use them again.”
“Then why don’t you go ahead and give me one?” Pinkamina asked and Fluttershy could hear the sly smile in her voice.
“Um, ok, but only if you want,” she replied.
“Yes we do. That’s the reason we came over here,” Pinkamina stated.
With that, Fluttershy got to work. She fanned the wing she was holding out farther to separate the different feathers, then gently took each feather in her mouth and pulled on it, using her teeth to brush out many of the larger dirt particles and straightening the plume.
“What are you—oh, that feels good,” Fluttershy watched as Pinkie’s coat burst back into its bright pink and she felt the mare almost melt on the floor, moaning slightly as she pulled at each feather, cleaning it. She did this for each feather, then moved over to the other side and repeated the process. Once she was done with preening, she stood up and moved into the bathroom where she picked up a basin and filled it with warm water, then grabbed a rag and a wingbrush. She trotted back into the front room and took up position on one side of Pinkie.
She dipped one wing into the wash basin, eliciting a yelp of surprise and contentment from Pinkie as her wing touched the warm water, then started to gently wash each feather. She ran a hoof over each feather, rubbing it softly as she tried to get much of the dirt off it. Then she lifted the wing out of the basin and placed it on the rag. She grabbed the wingbrush and slipped it on a hoof, then proceeded to comb the wing, from the front to the rear, making sure that she got each feather.
Pinkie Pie moaned as Fluttershy stood up, then moved to the other side and repeated the process, dipping the wing into the water and washing it gently, then placing it on the rag and brushing it out. Fluttershy blushed slightly as she thought of how it felt. She didn’t have anypony to preen her feathers, but there had been once or twice when she’d had Rainbow Dash around to help her and she smiled as she remembered the calming feeling that had washed over her as Rainbow had expertly preened each feather.
Fluttershy finished with Pinkie’s wings and she sat back on her haunches as Pinkie stretched and sat up.
“Thanks, Flutters! That feels wonderful! I’ll have to have you preen my wings every day!” Pinkie bounced around the room as her wings fluttered slightly.
“Oh, um, that’s no problem,” Fluttershy was distracted as she watched Pinkie bounce, her eyes drawn to the pink wings on her back. “How does it feel to have wings?” she asked, absentmindedly.
Pinkie stopped midbounce and dropped onto the ground. “It actually feels fairly normal,” she said, thinking, “it kind of feels natural.”
Fluttershy nodded in understanding, then walked to the door and pulled it open. “Um, if you don’t mind, would you like to, um, spend the, uh, day with me?” she asked, turning and looking at Pinkie Pie who sat on the floor. The pink pony nodded and leapt into the air, falling in line behind Fluttershy.
Fluttershy walked out the door and Pinkie followed her, bouncing along down the path. Fluttershy proceeded, along with Pinkie’s help, to feed and care for the outdoor animals.
It was about the time when they were feeding Fluttershy’s chickens that Pinkie’s tail started to twitch.
“Twitchy tail! Twitchy tail!!!” Pinkie cried as she glanced around and up. Fluttershy eeped, then ducked into the chicken coop. She poked her head out and glanced around. She watched Pinkie look around, then saw her staring at a tree. Fluttershy looked at the tree and saw that a mother bird had made her nest in one of the branches and that one of her baby birds was teetering on the edge of the nest.
“Oh my!” Fluttershy gasped as she launched out of the chicken coop, trying to get to the tree before the baby bird fell. As she ran closer she saw, as if in slow-motion, the baby bird slip and start to tumble out of the tree. She watched, helplessly, as the newborn tumbled toward the ground and she willed her hooves to run faster. She gasped as she realized that she wouldn’t make it and she started to tear up. She shook her head to clear her eyes and in that split second she saw Pinkie appear right under the bird and grab it out of the air with a wing.
Fluttershy stopped in surprise, then turned around and stared at the place where Pinkie had been mere seconds ago, then she gaped at Pinkie who held the baby bird in her hooves, slowly beating her wings to raise herself to the nest where she gently placed the baby bird back in the loving wings of its mother.
“How did you…” Fluttershy trailed off as she watched Pinkie float back down to the ground.
“I don’t know,” Pinkie replied, smiling, “but I’m just glad that that baby bird is just fine.”
Fluttershy nodded, then her mind roamed back to what they’d been talking about earlier.
“What do you think Princess Celestia was talking about when you talked to her?” she asked.
Pinkie shrugged, “I don’t know, but I do know that it’s no fun to be thinking about things like this on an empty stomach!” She turned and walked toward Fluttershy’s cottage again.
“Um, Pinkie, we just had breakfast,” Fluttershy reminded her.
“Well, yeah! We may have had breakfast, but we haven’t had snack yet! And luckily I have quite a few snacks with me. I’ll pull them out when we get settled,” Pinkie Pie smiled.
Fluttershy just sighed and walked with Pinkie to her cottage door, then she opened it and walked inside. Pinkie Pie took a seat on the couch while Fluttershy trotted up the stairs to her bedroom and retrieved the slip of paper with the cryptic riddle Discord had given her. She walked back downstairs reading the riddle to herself and she froze as she reached the bottom step.
Pinkie sat among dozens of snacks, from cupcakes to muffins, and cakes to donuts, and she had a cupcake in one hoof and a cup of cider in the other. She looked up as Fluttershy gave a subconscious squeak and smiled.
“Good! I hope I brought enough treats, I’d hate to run out in the middle of an important thought.”
“Pinkie, how—“ Fluttershy trailed off, then shook her head. It was Pinkie being Pinkie.
Fluttershy just sighed and sat down on the couch next to Pinkie and handed her the slip of paper. Pinkie read it several times, then sat there for a few minutes.
“What do you think it means?” she whispered and Fluttershy shook her head.
“I don’t know. It could be anything,” she replied.
“But,” Pinkie stated, “with what we know about the doozy that will be coming and this riddle, coupled with the fact that the last big doozy I had I was close to Twilight, means that we need to talk to Twilight soon.”
Fluttershy nodded, then stood up. “Then let’s get to the library, that’s the last place I saw her.”
Pinkie stood up and walked to the door, pushing her way through the pile of sweets and Fluttershy followed her. They opened the door and walked outside, heading for the library.

It didn’t take them long before the massive tree that contained the library came into view. They smiled at each other and trotted faster down the lane. As they got closer, Fluttershy paused for a breath as she recognized a familiar chariot sitting outside the door to the library and two royal guards standing to attention beside the door.
Pinkie looked back when she realized that Fluttershy had paused, then looked at the library and smiled.
“Good,” Fluttershy stared at Pinkie Pie as Pinkamina’s voice came out her mouth, “this means that we can get a few answers.”
They hurried to the door and Pinkie pushed it open, the guards recognizing them and nodding.
“-And that is why you need to gather the rest of the girls and come to the castle tomorrow as soon as you can,” Princess Celestia was saying. She turned to smile at Pinkie and Fluttershy who closed the door behind them.
“Well, this is a change,” Pinkie’s mane deflated and her coat grew dark as Pinkamina took hold, “I get to see you twice in two days. To what do I own the honor?” she sneered.
“Pinkie!” Rainbow Dash shouted, “show some respect!”
“It’s alright, Rainbow,” Princess Celestia stated, waving a hoof dismissively, “I’m used to being addressed like that with her.”
Pinkamina thrust Fluttershy’s piece of paper into Princess Celestia’s face. “Perhaps you can tell me what’s going on and why Discord gave Fluttershy this riddle?” she glared.
Princess Celestia took the piece of paper in her magic and held it farther away from her face so she could read it. She muttered to herself as she read it, then smiled and frowned quickly.
“It seems Discord has already started the ball rolling sooner than I thought. This is his lesson, in fact,” Princess Celestia smiled at the three ponies in the room.
“So it’s Discord’s fault we’re like this!?” Rainbow Dash shouted at the princess, who nodded. Rainbow growled in frustration. “When I get my hands on him, I’ll personally turn him back into stone!”
“Would you do it if I gave you the opportunity?” Princess Celestia asked and Rainbow Dash gasped.
“You mean you would reverse everything that you’ve done and let us turn him back into stone?” she asked, confusion on her face.
“I could set up an opportunity, but this would require all six of you girls at the castle tomorrow, with the Elements,” Princess Celestia stated and Rainbow yelped with joy and leapt into the air, pumping a fist.
“Finally! We’ll be free of that god of chaos!”
“Oh my,” Fluttershy stated, hiding behind her mane.
Princess Celestia smiled at the three ponies, then moved to the door. “Now if you will excuse me, I’ve got a few more things I need to get done today at Canterlot to prepare for your arrival.” She opened the door with her magic and stepped out, closing it behind her.
“I’m sorry Fluttershy, but sometimes the best thing to do for people is to just let them stay the same,” Rainbow Dash stated and Fluttershy just nodded, sorrow in her eyes.
“Where’s Twilight?” Pinkie asked, her mane and coat back to its normal bright pink.
“She’s staying at my house for now, until I can call the Cloudsdale Cloud Construction Corporation to get a new home for her,” Rainbow replied.
“Oh, so we can’t actually talk to her,” Fluttershy said.
“That’s alright!” Rainbow stated, “I’ll have Derpy deliver a letter to her tomorrow in the morning telling her that we want to see her at the library. I’ll mention that Princess Celestia wants to see all of us at Canterlot. She won’t deny that!” Pinkie Pie and Fluttershy nodded. Then Pinkie smiled and leapt into the air.
“Ooo!! Then tonight we can have a sleepover! It’ll be great! We’ll roast marshmallows and eat sandwiches and tell ghost stories!” the pink mare was almost bursting with energy and excitement at the idea.
“That would be nice,” Fluttershy stated and nodded.
“Great! I’ll get the treats!” and before they could blink, Pinkie was gone.
Rainbow just shook her head and smiled. “That’s Pinkie for you.”
Fluttershy nodded, then left the library to prepare for the night. She headed back to her cottage and gave Angel instructions as well as had some of the other animals help out while she was gone. With that done, she walked upstairs and gathered up a few things. She packed her saddlebags and left the cottage.
She arrived at the library just as Pinkie charged into the library and deposited dozens of treats on the floor and in the kitchen. She smiled at the sight of her friend and closed the door behind her.
They spent the rest of the day and night telling stories of their childhood and sharing jokes and memories. Eventually Fluttershy decided to get some sleep for the day tomorrow and she gathered up her bedroll and laid it out in one corner. She slipped between the blankets and quickly fell asleep, nervous and excited for the day tomorrow.