A little less than a year before Twilight moved to Ponyville, Fluttershy was walking through town to buy supplies for her animal friends when her pony friend, Pinkie Pie, ran into her. Literally.
“Oh my gosh, Fluttershy, I’m so happy to see you!” Pinkie said excitedly. “I was planning a party for the day after my birthday party tomorrow, and I thought, ‘Hey! I could invite all of Fluttershy’s animals! They’re always in her house, and maybe they get lonely or bored, so I should throw them a party to cheer them up! Oh, but then I realized that I didn’t know what kind of party I should have! I mean, I don’t know any of their favorite foods or games or colors or anything! Normally I would just ask them, but I can’t talk to animals! But then I thought maybe you could teach me!”
“Um… you want me to teach you to talk to animals?” Fluttershy asked quietly, surprised. “I, uh, don’t know that that would work, Pinkie. Working with animals is my special talent, so part of that is being able to communicate with them, but I don’t know if anypony has the ability to learn…”
“Oh, but party throwing is my special talent, and since I’m throwing a party for animals, then that means I need to talk to them, too, so part of my talent should be talking to animals!” Pinkie declared.
“Well… I suppose it can’t hurt to try?” Fluttershy said hesitantly. “But don’t get discouraged if you don’t understand them, because I can translate for you, if you really want to talk to them.”
“Oh, I’m sure it’ll be fine!” Pinkie said. “Let’s go!”
“Um, in just a second,” Fluttershy said. “I still have a few supplies to get.”
Pinkie bounced impatiently while Fluttershy finished her shopping, and practically dragged the pegasus to her hut the moment she was finished.
“Ooh, teach me squirrel-ese first!” Pinkie said excitedly, pointing to a squirrel in the corner. She bounced over and grinned at the squirrel. “Hiya, I’m Pinkie!” The squirrel chittered in response. “Hey Fluttershy! What does chitter mean?”
“He… said hello,” Fluttershy translated.
“So, chitter means hello? Got it!” Pinkie said.
“Oh, well, actually, with that inflection it means forest,” Fluttershy corrected.
“Chitter?”
“Ah, no, that means lunch.”
“Chitter?”
“I’d rather not translate that one,” Fluttershy said timidly.
“I guess speaking squirrel doesn’t come with the gift,” Pinkie said somewhat sadly. She perked up less than a second later. “Maybe bunnies!”
No luck. Which was probably good. Angel Bunny was in a bad mood.
“Ferrets?”
Nope.
“Bears?”
“I’d rather not test that one out…”
“Cats?”
All that came of that was a few scrapes.
“Fish?”
“Fish don’t actually have a language,” Fluttershy said.
“Oh, I bet they’re just shy!” Pinkie exclaimed. “This time, for sure!” Fluttershy tried to protest, but Pinkie was already outside, so she followed reluctantly.
After a few minutes of fruitlessly persuading the fish to talk, Pinkie sat dejectedly by the stream that ran through Fluttershy’s yard.
“I guess I really can’t talk to animals,” she said sadly. “So this can’t be the best animal party ever.”
“Well, I could translate for you,” Fluttershy suggested again, not liking to see Pinkie looking down. It wasn’t natural, especially considering her birthday was the next day. Pinkie was about to agree, reluctantly, when a tiny cross-eyed alligator baby crawled out onto the bank of the stream just feet from where Pinkie sat.
“Oooh, alligator!” Pinkie said.
“Oh, I’ve never spent much time with alligators before, so I don’t know their language, but he is just so cute!” Fluttershy said happily. The alligator blinked at her, one eye at a time.
“What do you mean, you’re not cute, you’re a fierce warrior?” Pinkie asked, confused.
“Um… I didn’t say anyth-” Fluttershy started, but at that moment the seemingly docile gator launched itself into the air and began violently attacking Pinkie’s mane, while she giggled.
“Oh, you’re right, you are fierce,” she laughed, unable to feel the baby alligator’s teeth through the huge puff her mane lent her.
“You can… understand him?” Fluttershy asked in awe.
“Huh?” Pinkie asked, before realizing she’d been talking to the alligator this whole time and understanding him the whole time. “Oh, yeah! That’s so great! He says his name’s Snapper, since he likes biting things.”
“Oh dear,” Fluttershy said. “That’s not good. He could bite an animal that would get mad and attack, or if I took him in he might eat one of my animals.”
“Hmm…” Pinkie said. “I could take him! He can bite my hair all he wants and it won’t even hurt one bit! I’ve always wanted my very own pet, this is so exciting!” Snapper blinked.
“Well, you can understand him, and I suppose that’s as good a place as any for him…” Fluttershy said. “If you ever need any help taking care of him, though, let me know.”
“Okay! Come on, Snapper, we’ve got partying to do!” Pinkie exclaimed, reinvigorated and choosing to ignore the fact that Fluttershy still hadn’t helped her gain any info on her animals.
A few days later, after Pinkie’s birthday party, successfully improvised party for Fluttershy’s animals and Snapper, and another random party or two just because, Fluttershy went to check up on the pair.
“How is Snapper, Pinkie?” she asked politely.
“Snapper?” Pinkie asked, confused.
“The… alligator,” Fluttershy reminded worriedly. If Pinkie had forgotten about him and not taken care of him…
“Oh, him! I don’t call him Snapper anymore!” Pinkie giggled.
“Why not, I thought he told you that was his name,” Fluttershy pointed out.
“Well, it was,” Pinkie said, as if it were obvious. “But after the parties, he realized how much he loves sweets and partying and all the same things I love, and he ate so many sweets that all his teeth fell out!”
“All of them? In only a few days? How is that even possible? Oh, that’s awful,” Fluttershy gasped.
“So now I call him Gummy, because he only has gums!” Pinkie said happily. “Oh look, here he is! Hi, Gummy!” Gummy, who’d appeared out of nowhere by Pinkie’s side, blinked lopsidedly. “Aw, Gummy, I love you too! You’re such a softy!” Gummy launched himself at her hair and attacked it again, this time without teeth. Pinkie giggled. “Yes, you’re still a fierce warrior, too.”
“It’s nice to see you two getting along,” Fluttershy said happily.
“Oh, and guess what!” Pinkie exclaimed. “It turns out I can talk to frogs, too!”
“Um… frogs?” Fluttershy asked.
“Yup! See, my Pinkie sense was a-tingling and told me that I should go to the pond off the road, so I did, and the frogs there were almost as easy to understand as Gummy!”
“Um… great?” Fluttershy said, confused. She had a knack for picking up animal languages because of her special talent, but Pinkie’s special talent had nothing to do with animals and the languages she’d picked up she’d done so instantly, with no lengthy exposure to the animal at all! ‘Well, I guess there’s no explaining anything Pinkie does,’ Fluttershy thought with a smile.
“Oh, I should start planning Gummy’s monthiversary party!” Pinkie exclaimed dramatically. “I know he’s only been here for less than a week, but you can never plan too far ahead! Like, I’ve had a surprise party planned for the next pony to move to Ponyville for, like, FOREVER! It’ll be great! So, Gummy, what do you want for your party?” Gummy blinked. “Oh my gosh, that’s such an amazingly spectacular wonderful idea, Gummy! You’re the best!”
“Well, I can see you’ve got everything handled,” Fluttershy said with a smile, backing out of the bakery and leaving the energetic pink pony with her deceptively docile pet alligator, conspiring together to throw the biggest parties Ponyville had ever seen.