//------------------------------//
// Angel's List (S7: "Fluttershy Leans In") 
// Story: Pony Postscripts 
// by MythrilMoth 
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Fluttershy sat in a booth in the corner of Hayburger. It was a slow hour of the day, perfect for having a private conversation, which was why she had invited her guest who sat across from her.

Double Truck was a wide, portly stallion with broad jowls and a wide head with a shaggy mane. One of his ears was badly mangled. He sat amid a pile of balled-up fast food wrappers; a hayburger lay open in front of him as he added extra ketchup and pepper to it. "So, what's this big idea you have for the Ponyville Gazette?" he asked.

"Well," Fluttershy said, "I recently had a terrible experience with some 'experts' who contracted to do a job for me, but ended up not remotely following any of my plans and doing whatever they wanted. They made a huge mess of it and I ended up having to hire somepony else to finish the job the way I wanted it done."

"Ah, yeah, I heard about that," Double Truck said. "The pet sanctuary. Funny, Hard Hat's usually a more reliable worker than that."

"Right, well," Fluttershy said, "it's not the first time I've had trouble with ponies I've hired. There's the gardener who overwaters everything, for example. And there are merchant ponies who aren't very nice to customers either, like a cherry seller who tried to scam me this one time, a long time ago."

"The cherry seller, yeah, I know him," Double Truck said sourly. "He's gone out of business now since Cherry Jubilee started exporting and has a sales partner here in Ponyville, but I used to see him changing his prices based on what he thought he could con out of ponies."

"I noticed," Fluttershy said. "Anyway...the experience I had with Hard Hat and those other two ponies that screwed everything up got me thinking, and...I'd like to maybe suggest a new feature for the Ponyville Gazette. Something that would maybe help ponies make informed decisions about ponies they might hire or buy things from? To let ponies know who's reliable and trustworthy and who's...not so much."

Double Truck rubbed his chin with a greasy hoof. "Hmm," he said. "I kinda like the idea, but my boss would never go for it. It'd paint a great big libel target on our backs, and nopony wants that." He frowned. "Now if you wanted to do it as a free circular, like those shopper savers they have at Barnyard Bargains? You could do that, but it'd have to be completely nonprofit. That'd deal with any pesky libel charges, especially if everything you print is true."

"Like true accounts of experiences real customers have had?"

"Exactly!"

"That's pretty much what I was going for anyway." Fluttershy's brow furrowed. "So I'd have to do the work myself, or...or get some ponies I trust to help, and it'd have to be paid for out of my own saddlebags?"

"Or as a group project," Double Truck said.

"Well, I'm certain some of my friends would be on board."

"And there are a few printing presses around town you can use for that kind of thing," Double Truck said. "I can give you some advice on how to get started, but that's as much involvement as I can have."

"You've already been a big help just listening to me," Fluttershy said with a smile. "Thank you, I really appreciate it."

"Happy to help," Double Truck said. "I look forward to seeing where you go with this."

It ended up taking six weeks to iron out all the particulars and arrange financial support, but with the help of her friends, Fluttershy succeeded in publishing Equestria's first customer review circular for goods and services. The idea caught on, spreading from Ponyville to Canterlot to Manehattan and beyond. Although no two towns' versions of the circular were written and operated by the same group of ponies, they all operated under the same name, creating a brand that was trusted from one end of Equestria to the other...

And it all started because one little pegasus got mad at some idiots who wouldn't listen to her.