//------------------------------//
// Make Yourself Understood 
// Story: Magical Curiosity 
// by Comma Typer 
//------------------------------//

In Ponyville….


The two Rainbow Dashes hovered side-by-side, flying in sync. This caused a couple of ponies to flinch and balk at this unusual sight, but they shrugged and went back to whatever work they were doing, whether it was Cheerilee pulling a wagon of books and vegetables or Trixie comparing which fireworks were better by setting them off in the early morning.
“So, what’s it like to have to wings?” Rainbow said, giving her a curious glance. “Feeling the freedom yet?”
Dash giggled, wiggling her wingtips. “I was already capable of flying when your Twilight first went through the portal!”
“You’re right,” Rainbow answered, “but here, flying around is normal, and you get to keep your wings!”
Dash smiled. “Yeah!” Then, she hovered higher into the sky, Rainbow following her from above.
There, the two pegasi experienced a light current flowing their way, drifting a few clouds their direction. For Dash, she rotated her head this way and that, seeing no obstacles at all.
“I know you haven’t developed the skills to perform a sonic rainboom,” Rainbow said as they leveled off a good distance above Ponyville, “so I’ll go easy on ya’! Show me what you got!”
Dash flicked her mane, narrowed her eyebrows, pawed the air and punched empty space. “Oh, you asked for it!”
She spread her wings and zipped around, leaving behind a trail of rainbow colors. She performed loop de loops, barrel rolls, and even knifed a nearby cottage, forcing a stallion out of his bed to open the window and wave a balled up hoof at her. With that done, she stopped right in front of Rainbow who had her mouth open agape.
Then, Rainbow grinned, holding out a hoof. “Aww, yeah! You’re a fast learner!”
Dash smiled, ignoring that hoof. “Tons of practicing, and it paid off!”
Rainbow then eyed her suspiciously, then back at her own hoof. “Uh...you don’t know what this is?”
Dash tilted her head, wrapping her mind around that mysterious hoof. “No?”
Rainbow smacked a hoof on her forehead. “It’s a hoofbump!”
Then, Dash opened her mouth: “Oh! Like a fistbump but for hooves?”
“Yup!”
Dash extended her own hoof. “I’ll take it!”
They bumped each other’s hooves, then laughed together as they held one foreleg on each other’s head.
“Hey, Dash,” Rainbow said, but then she looked down, creeped out. “Wow. Saying your own name a lot is gonna get awkward.”
“Heh-heh!” Dash pointed at her. “With the two of us, we’re going to cancel the awkwardness out and be twice the awesome!”
“That’s the Rainbow Dash I know and love!” Rainbow shouted, performing a loop de loop on her own. Then, remembering what she was supposed to say: “And, did you crash around a lot while you were practicing?”
Dash blushed at the sudden question. “Eh-heh...maybe a little.”
Rainbow went to her side in mid-air and tugged her in with a hoof. “I can’t blame you. It must be hard to learn flying when you weren’t born with a pair of wings…but better than no wings, right!”
Dash grinned, spreading them more. “Totally!”
Then, they casually flew together in the sky, appreciating the grand view of Ponyville below.
“This is way better than riding an airplane!” Dash shrieked, looking down and not thinking about whether her pony self knew what an airplane was or not. “I can see all the houses from up here, and then some!”
Rainbow smiled and nudged her on the shoulder. “You know what?”
Dash looked her way, still flapping her wings. “What?”
For a second, Rainbow hesitated. “You remind me of so many colts and fillies when they first learn how to fly. So excited, so pumped up for a life of flight. The freedom, the boundless freedom to go wherever you want...it’s breath-taking, isn’t it?”
Dash looked ahead, seeing a great mountain not too far away with a medieval-esque city attached to its side. Then, as the wind breezed by her, she felt a tear stream down her hairy cheek.
She hugged Rainbow.
“Uh...what?”
Dash rubbed her eyes and her nose. “I...I know this is all sudden, but...thank you, me! Thank you for being so awesome and...f-flying with me!”
Rainbow laughed, lightly shoving her aside. “Slow down, buddy! We’ve known each other for less than an hour and you’re already getting emotional over it?”
Dash tried to laugh it off. “S-Sorry, but...I’ve...” sniffed, “I’ve always dreamed of flying and getting recognized for it! Being a pilot in the national aerobatics team was my dream job, but I heard that studying and training to be a pilot aren’t that easy.”
Rainbow gave her other self a tap on the head. “Look. I don’t know what pilot studies are in your world, but...I had to work hard and practice everyday to get a spot in the Wonderbolts, despite being lazy—which I know you are, too!”
Dash flitted a few inches away from her.
“Don’t deny it!” Rainbow said, spreading her forehooves in flight.
Then, rolling back to her side, Dash made a brief chuckle but said nothing.
“It’s not easy,” Rainbow went on, “but it’s worth it in the end. You know this, Dash!”
Dash sniffed. “I...I guess—wow...” she gave Rainbow a hard look. “I’m taking advice from myself and I’m right!”
And both Rainbow Dashes laughed at that, their identical voices blending with each other.
Rainbow ruffled her mane. “Hey, do you know this little indie author who goes by the name of...I don’t know, A.K. Yearling?”
Dash gasped, her irises shrinking in shock. “A. K. Yearling?! Author of the Daring Do series?!”
Rainbow pointed at her, her own irises shrinking, too. “You know her?”
“Know her?!” Dash spun around in the air in joy. “I idolize her!”
Rainbow grinned, rubbing her forehooves together. “You’ve read all the books?!”
“I’m waiting for the next one to come out!”
Then, Rainbow lowered both her brows. “How many books?”
“Seventeen!”
Rainbow grinned again, letting her teeth twinkle under the sun’s light. “Your Yearling’s a bit slow. Here, she’s got twenty.”
Dash squished her cheeks. “Eee!”
“Which is the perfect segue to introduce you to my house!” Rainbow said as she nudged Dash along to a floating cloud home not too far in the horizon.



In the outskirts of Ponyville lay Fluttershy’s cottage which, as usual, was packed with animals. Rabbits and bunnies hopped around by the front path, birds of all different kinds and varieties were perched on both branches and birdhouses, and ducks waddled around on dry land and swarm around in the creek, and that’s without mentioning the other pets hanging around like raccoons, owls, beavers, and one nice bear reading a book.
As the two Fluttershies crossed the land bridge over the little river, Fluttershy craned her head about, seeing the grand diversity of animals moving around with their feet, wings, fins, and what not. “This...this is incredible!”
Flutters nodded, smiling with closed eyes. “Don’t you have your animals?”
Fluttershy blushed. “They’re not really mine.”
Flutters stopped a bit. “Huh?”
“They’re…” and a foreleg swayed around. “Well, most of them are under the care of the local animal shelter. I work there, and I get to spend time with all of them, but pet-lovers like me stop by once in a while and I have to say my goodbyes to them.”
“Knowing that they will have a good owner,” Flutters said as they resumed their walk to the front door. Gesturing with her head towards yet more animals, “Actually, ponies from far and wide sometimes find their best friends here, so it really isn’t all that different.”
“Mm-hmm.”
Flutters opened the door.
And Fluttershy gasped, almost falling backwards.
She saw the room decorated with little homes for the smaller creatures including more birds and some mice who bolted around on the floor and back through their mouseholes. The pegasus looked up and let out an “Ooh!” at the swarm of butterflies overhead, seeing past the cabinets and shelves of feed, medicine, plants, and more. Chirps, hoots, barks, meows, and cock-a-doole-do!—all these sprung up in a symphony of creatures.
Fluttershy held a hoof to her mouth, eyes watering at everything. “It’s so natural! Our house is like this, but this...this is so much more than beautiful!”
“Really?” Flutters raised a brow, looking at her other self in awe. “Pardon me, but I see it as quite modest. It’s not really much when you see where my friends live.” Listing them off with her hoof: “Applejack lives in a big barn surrounded with lots of food, Pinkie Pie lives in a bakery also surrounded with lots of food, Rarity lives on the second floor of a fancy boutique, Rainbow Dash lives in a mansion in the sky, and Twilight...well,” giggled, “you know where she lives.”
“In a castle,” added Fluttershy.
After some shared giggles, the two went over to two green couches by a window through which they can see a dozen trees and a dozen birds fly around. Flutters took the small one, Fluttershy took the big one. As they drank in the warbling melodies both inside and outside, Fluttershy noticed the pillows on her sofa, which contained a stitched pattern of Flutters and some weird mish-mash of a being.
Fluttershy gulped and held up one of those pillows for her other self to see. “Is...is this Discord?”
Flutters nodded, keeping calm. “I’ve noticed that Discord is nothing but a fictional character in your world. You already know who he is here, don’t you?”
Fluttershy nodded back, gently putting the pillow down. “Yes, but...isn’t it weird to be friends with...the spirit of chaos?” Leaning her head to the side, letting her long mane cover half of her face, “What does that even mean?”
Flutters made a little laugh. “That means he has a special kind of magic no one else has, and Twilight calls it ‘chaos magic’.” Spreading her forehooves wide, “With chaos magic, Discord could do anything. He could send you into a different dimension, trap another in a time loop, and turn all the oceans into ice—just because.” Then, rolling her eyes and lightening up: “Sometimes, he may be too over-the-top with his jokes and his pranks, but, inside, he’s really a good guy!”
Fluttershy then cringed, sinking into the back of her couch. “What about the time...before he became a good guy?”
Flutters shivered, but steeled her face. “He…wasn’t pleasant. Discord turned Ponyville upside-down—he made the clouds rain chocolate, forced buffalos to dance like ballerinas, changed rabbits into giraffe-things, and turned us against our true selves.”
“That’s bad!” Fluttershy said in horror, holding up a hoof to her chin.
“Well, we won in the end,” Flutters said, “but what’s even better is that we made him realize why he shouldn’t go the rest of his life without friendship...and he’s pretty much immortal, so living thousands of years without a single friend would be very miserable.”
While trying to fathom the notion of being friends with an immortal, Fluttershy noticed the tea on the table, all prepared. “I didn’t know you made some tea for me.”
Flutters’s eyes widened, noticing the tea just now. “I didn’t, too.”
A poof! between them and Discord appeared, fanning Flutters with a chocolate fan. “Why, yes!” Turning to Fluttershy: “You must be Fluttershy’s doppelganger!” Then, wearing a bow tie and a hat which was also wearing a bow tie, he leaned his head and bowed before her. “It’s an honor to meet you!”
Fluttershy shivered, shaking his claw and noticing the oddities about him: His claw and paw, his horn and antler, his wings of feather and skin, his uneven fangs and eyes. “Um, uh...nice to...meet you!…”
“Psh, please!” Discord poked his teeth with a toothpick—and by toothpick, it was made out of tooth. “I know what you’re thinking right now. You’re scared, you’re terrified, because chaos personified is greeting you face-to-face and you could barely use your wings to flee from me.”
“Discord!” Flutters yelled, glowering down chaos personified.
Discord snapped his claw and dropped a pillow on his friend, then stared at still-shivering Fluttershy. “Anyway, what was I saying?” He stroked his unkempt beard, spraying cologne on it. “Ah, yes—“ and he took out a light bulb from thin air and turned it on by rubbing it. “But, not for now! We’re a bit busy with Big Mac and Spike.” He took out his bow and arrow. “The Golden Sail will not retrieve itself, you know!”
Discord snapped his claw and disappeared again in a poof!
Fluttershy blinked. Then, she looked at Flutters who was inspecting the new pillow with her hooves. “Is Discord always like that?”
“Not always,” Flutters replied, putting the pillow away. “If that were true, he would be predictable and that’s not very chaotic.”
“Is...that so?” Then, shaking her head as she also shook the thought out of her mind, Fluttershy inched towards the tea table.
She saw two pink teacups and a couple of buttered biscuits to accompany them.
Flutters bit the teapot’s handle and poured hot Jasmine tea into Fluttershy’s cup, flooding the cottage with a lovely, flowery aroma.
She was thrilled to be served tea by a pony with wings, and she would have wasted no time to pick up her cup.
If she knew how to hold her cup without breaking it to pieces, that was.
Flutters noticed Fluttershy’s hesitation, seeing her, well, shy away from the table. Bending closer to her other self, she said, “Don’t worry! All you have to do is to hold the plate from the bottom with your hoof.” She demonstrated that by placing her plate with teacup on her hoof. “See?”
Fluttershy gulped and tried to do it, first nudging the plate closer and closer to the edge of the table, her other roof right under to support it. Once the plate and its cup was completely on her hoof, she slowly raised both of them, expecting them to wobble around and fall.
Except they did not. In fact, they held quite well and stable on her hoof.
Flutters gasped, flapping her wings in joy. “You’re doing it!”
Without a word, Fluttershy flapped her wings, too, holding the tea with no fingers to help her.
Flutters poured a cup of tea for herself. Still facing her other self: “Then, with one hoof under the plate, you bring the plate close to your mouth and tip the cup over with your other hoof. It’s...it’s like eating soup from a bowl, but you’re drinking soup...but it’s tea...from a cup, not a b-bowl….”
Fluttershy blinked. “Oh.”
Flutters held up her plate and cup with one hoof. “Follow me very closely.”
So Fluttershy followed her pony self’s actions, bringing the plate and cup close to her mouth and then tipping the cup to her lips with her other hoof. She was rewarded with a flow of delicious tea gushing down her throat.
They were silent, admiring the animals and their sounds, admiring the homely environment around them, admiring the quiet and sumptuous tea.
Admiring their time together.
Then, Fluttershy looked at Flutters, giving her a strange look.
“Uh, what is it?” Flutters asked, noticing that strange look.
“Oh, uh…” Fluttershy gulped, putting down her cup. “It’s just...back in our world, horses are animals, too.”
Flutters perked her ears up. “I’m an animal and I don’t mind. Aren’t we all animals here in a sense?”
“Uh...yes,” Fluttershy replied, “but horses in our world aren’t sapient.”
“I know,” Flutters said. “So?”
Fluttershy looked away. “As much as I treat them with the utmost care and as much as I can talk with them because of my magical powers, I can’t shake off the feeling that, no matter what I do...” looked down on the rug, “they’ll always be a step below us.”
Flutters stood up from her couch and flew to her side. “Oh, Fluttershy. Just because they can’t speak back doesn’t mean they—“
“I know that, too!” Fluttershy interrupted, holding out a hoof. “I...I got o-over that….”
Which made Flutters blurt out a “Huh?”
Fluttershy nodded. “I don’t want to offend you, but...it’s weird, being a pony, being an animal you always took care some of the time. It’s like I’m stepping into their world...but not really their world; more like the world of magical ponies.”
Flutters made a soft smile. “I also find your world weird at times. Your technology sounds like something a science fiction writer would make up! Devices small enough you can carry in your pockets but versatile enough to communicate with your friends instantly and take pictures and videos?”
“And almost everyone in Canterlot City has one,” Flutters said, blushing, “although, honestly, I don’t use it that much outside of texting and messaging my friends.”
“Because you have animals to take care of?” Flutters suggested.
Fluttershy giggled. “How’d you know?”
And both of them laughed at that.
When they wound down, Flutters slouched on the couch. “You know? It’s oddly interesting to talk to another...me…or you….”
Fluttershy smiled. “Me, too.” She scratched her head. “Or was it ‘You, too’?”
Flutters straightened herself, picking up her cup of tea. “To be honest, I assumed that we’d be the same, just with different bodies.” Looking at Fluttershy after sipping her tea: “This morning proved me wrong.” 
Fluttershy matched that by sipping her own tea.
“While we are very similar in a lot of things,” Flutters continued, “I’ve noticed the subtle differences that make the both of us unique. For one,” pointing at her other self’s hair: “your mane clip.”
Fluttershy held her hoof to her hair clip. Then, chiming in: “And how you’re...well, older than me.”
“Only by a few years, it seems,” Flutters said. “Doesn’t make you less interesting or less responsible to me.”
Fluttershy blushed. “You don’t have to say that.”
“Oh, don’t feel so immature!” Flutters went on, gesturing around with a hoof. “Did you know? When Twilight was still new in town, Rarity went to a party Pinkie was hosting. You know what she did despite her quest to climb up the social ladder in the world of fashion?”
Fluttershy bent her head in, turning her ears to the side. “What?”
“She wanted to play Pin the Tail on the Pony!”
Fluttershy giggled at that, then stopped herself. “Wait...isn’t that mean?”
“We always share our ups and downs with each other,” Flutters said. “Rarity doesn’t mind, but that’s because we go around and do stuff like that, too. To tell you the truth,” shrinking away, “it took me some time to get over my fears of sharing embarrassing stuff with my friends...mostly because I did not want to contribute to gossip...because gossip’s bad….” Then, gaining more confidence with a deep breath, “However, if we keep it to ourselves, then it’s fine.”
Fluttershy nodded. “Yeah. I agree with—“
The door swung open.
Showing Pinkie Pie holding a couple of balloons tied to her mane. “Hey, Fluttershy!”
Both Fluttershies looked her way.
Pinkie sighed and smacked herself on the face with some cream pie. She then wiped the food out of her face, cleaning it in one swoop. “Um…I mean, that Fluttershy!” and pointed at one of them.
Both Fluttershies looked at each other, exchanging whispers about whom the hoof was pointing at.
Pinkie banged her head on the wall, cracking it. “No...the shy one!”
Flutters raised her hoof. “We’re both...uh...shy...?”
Pinkie scratched her chin, then combed her chin, than used a blow dryer against her chin. “This is a toughie!”
Fluttershy pointed at her mane clip. “Are you looking for—“
Pinkie flung two questionnaires at them, prompting the two Fluttershies to pick it up and see the array of random questions asking for favorite ice cream flavors, most disliked color, and what brand of alarm clock would they prefer if Princess Celestia would gift them one on the last Saturday of the month, among other inquiries.
“I just need to ask permission!” Pinkie said, trotting over to them and scaring some of the mice away. “I’m going to borrow a pillow, a glass of water, ten rubber bands, and some onion chives of an indeterminate number stat!”
Flutters rolled her eyes and pointed at herself. “Then you’re looking for me, Pinkie...you know, the pony who lives here?”
Pinkie took a magnifying glass and inspected Flutters’s face, examining her eyes and her mouth and her snout. Then, storing it back inside her mane, she shook her hoof, saying, “Glad that’s over! So, may I borrow—“
“Yes, Pinkie,” she replied in an amiable tone. “Anything for a friend!”
“Great!”
Pinkie zoomed around, becoming a rushing blur as she swiped everything necessary. Then, she returned to the two Fluttershies, holding everything needed in a single paper bag she balanced on her head. “Alrighty! Thanks!”
“Wait!” Fluttershy said, holding up a hoof.
Pinkie smiled. “Hey, other Fluttershy!”
Fluttershy tilted her head. “Uh, well—“
Pinkie grinned and shook her hoof. “So, what do you need? You want to eat some raw chives?”
“Uh—“
“Here!”
And she shoved some onion chives into her mouth.
Fluttershy chewed on them, felt its strong taste rising up to her nose. She gulped it down, smiling though a little conscious of her bad breath. “They’re...tastier than I remember….”
Flutters rose her hoof, catching Pinkie’s attention. “Um, what Fluttershy meant to say was...why do you need all of that?”
“Restock, silly!” Pinkie said, garnering confused looks from the both of them. “Also, Cotton Candy and I did some brainstorming and we thought we should try a challenge and make a catapult out of the items I just borrowed!”
Both Fluttershies looked at each other, still confused.
“Thanks, bye!”
And Pinkie Pie was out, flying thanks to the balloons tied to her mane.



In the middle of a sweet-smelling grass field situated not too far from Ponyville’s cozy homes, Cotton Candy was occupied with placing tape on snapped twigs and branches, connecting them together to form some kind of structure. She stuck her tongue out as her catapult-making challenge continued in full swing.
Then, Pinkie Pie fell from the sky and landed on all four hooves. “I’m back!”
Cotton Candy jumped up, almost knocking over her wooden progress. “Sweet!”
Pinkie spilled the paper bag’s contents down, somehow not knocking over the glass of water.
“We’re gonna make history here, folks!” Cotton yelled as she grabbed the onion chives and put them on a plastic spoon which served as the catapult’s bucket and arm.
As they were busy crafting their miniature siege weapons, Pinkie looked over to Cotton and asked: “How’s your pony experience so far?”
Cotton grinned, mouth stretched from cheek to cheek. “Great! I could feel all the magic going around even though I’m no pegasus or unicorn—and, for once, it’s great to not have sugar explode when you throw them around like a pitcher.”
“Really?!” Pinkie untied her balloons and put them inside her mane. “I didn’t know you girls had sugar baseball!”
Cotton pointed at her, winking. “Now that you thought about it...why not?!”
“Sugar baseball?” Pinkie said.
“Explosive sugar baseball?” added Cotton.
“Explosive fireworks sugar baseball?” Pinkie added further.
As they continued with their catapult construction, Pinkie said more: “Cotton, if you’re a lot like me…” gulping, her smile fading, “does that mean you also...uh, break down once in a while?”
At hearing the question, Cotton’s smile faded, too. She touched her mane which was curly and puffy like before—for now. “Yeah….”
Then, both of them sat down on the grass, sitting beside each other.
“So...what gets you down?” Pinkie asked, her voice having become a tad sorrowful.
Cotton sighed, studying the grass as it swayed under the light wind. “What happens when I encounter someone who’s clearly in need of cheering up, but refuses my help?” She raised her forehooves only to drop them back to the dirt. “I’ve already met some people like that, and I’ve done my best to turn those frowns upside-down, and most of the time they get happy, but...what if there’s a better way?”
Pinkie rubbed her head. “I’ve met some ponies like them, too.” She bobbed her head to the left and to the right, humming a smile-inducing song. “It depends on the pony. For some, you can step in and try to cheer them up anyway—if you ask around, you’ll find something. For others, stepping in is bad; perhaps they already have friends and...you just have to ask around.” She rolled her eyes. “Trust me. I’ve been to both places and it’s not nice when you’re wrong...but, well, being wrong is a good thing ‘cause we’re always striving to be...you know, to help others with what’s right.”
Cotton sighed again. “What about being too insensitive?”
“Yeah, me, too!” Pinkie said, pointing to herself.
“When other people just think that you’re all bubbles and laughter...” Cotton continued, spinning a hoof about, picking up a few chives. “They think that, since I smile too much, I’m just faking it.” She laughed at herself but that dripped with sarcasm. “Like...you think I’m faking bubbles and laughter since seventh grade?”
Pinkie smiled and pulled her closer. “I can see where you’re getting at.”
Cotton then pulled her closer to her side.
Both of them lied down on the grass, feeling the plants and the dirt on their backs as they rested, facing the blue sky with some clouds passing by.
“It’s comforting to confess your weaknesses to your friends,” Pinkie said. “What I wasn’t banking on was having another me to confess them to!”
“Hey!” Cotton said, poking her on the cheek. “You just took the words straight from my mind!”
The Pinkies smiled at each other, forehooves behind their backs.
“You’re thinking what I’m thinking?!” both of them yelled at each other together.
And they rolled around on the rugged dirt and in the cushiony grass, laughing and giggling at themselves and with themselves.
Zap!
“Agh!” they both screamed as they jumped out and clung to each other, their tongues zig-zagging out of their mouths.
When they got back down, they looked at their work-in-progress catapults and saw that they were burned, reeking of delicious onion smell from the spoon’s chives
Pinkie then slurped her mouth. “Grilled cheese?! Who needs that? We got fried onion catapult!”