Fluffing her wings, Fluttershy didn't take her foot off the gas until she reached the end of the block—thankfully, however, her van wasn't up to the task of any real acceleration. "Of course I'm okay!" she said to Bridget, who's soft growl was barely able to be heard over the van's engine. "I just need a Zephyr-free environment right now and—"
Sense filtered back into Fluttershy's head. She took her foot off the gas and let the van return to normal (for an old, beat-up van) speed. "His clothes would have only sat in the machine for a few hours if he hadn't completely ignored them when he got home. I just—I can't believe him!"
Fluttershy had two methods of driving. The first method was her most common, and resulted in everyone having right of way before her—there was usually a lot of people behind her honking their horns in this mode. The second method was what she was doing right now—Fluttershy leaned over the steering wheel, her eyes darting about and daring anyone to try to cut her off. She reached the Pie residence in no time flat.
Panting as she turned the key off, Fluttershy twitched at the touch against her side. Her head turned to see Bridget leaning against her. Her heart softened, and Fluttershy leaned down to kiss the wolfess on the nose. "Thank you for helping."
Bridget licked Fluttershy's chin and thumped her tail against the floor of the van twice.
The idyllic moment was shattered by the sound of drums and guitar. Fluttershy and Bridget snapped their heads around at the same moment to look at the Pie house. The song was heavily distorted by the walls of the house, but Fluttershy could make out the rhythm of Countess Coloratura's latest hit.
"I still need to go in, it's just my friends." Taking a measure of Bridget's stoic and wolfish indifference to everything that wasn't food, Fluttershy opened the door to her van and led the way toward the house. Her ears weren't folded back, rather, they were perked forward. Despite the less than ideal acoustics, Pinkie Pie and Sunset Shimmer knew how to play well.
The music called to something inside Fluttershy. She tilted her head up and knocked on the door. When Bridget made a little noise at her side, Fluttershy rolled her eyes. "Well of course it's loud. They'd be coming to answer the door if they could hear me—" The light bulb came on for Fluttershy, and rather than ring the doorbell she pulled out her phone and texted Pinkie.
—I'm at the front door. I tried the door bell, but I think your music might be a little loud to hear me. I hope it's okay for me to visit, but I have something really important I need to ask Sunset. So if it's okay, and not too much trouble, could you answer the door, please? If not, I can always come back tomorrow. Actually, I will. Sorry to have bothered you,—Fluttershy sent
The moment her finger lifted from the send button, Fluttershy heard the drumming stop, then the guitar, then a stampede of buffalo (if Fluttershy was any good at guessing animal sounds) approached the door from within.
Pinkie Pie, ponied up to the point of having a mane, tail, hooves, and a snout, poked the latter out the door after opening it. "Fluttershy! Come inside, silly. We were just practicing."
"A-A-Are you sure?" Fluttershy had but a moment to flee (which she didn't) before she watched Pinkie Pie step back from the door. Now she was committed, or so she figured—she was welcome. "All right."
Having learned what she considered the best thing ever about ponying up so much as to have hooves, Pinkie demonstrated her best skipping with a loud clop clop-clop sound to the garage.
Inside, Sunset still had her guitar on and was waiting to find out why Pinkie had run off. "Pinkie? Are you going to tell me— Oh! Hi Fluttershy." She turned her guitar to the side and walked across to hug her timid friend.
"H-Hello, Sunset. I came over to ask if you could contact Princess Twilight a-and maybe Spike—dragon Spike—too?" Fluttershy's nerves and anxiety were rising, but both drained away when Bridget's shoulder pressed to her leg. She'd certainly never told her partner about heeling, and dog-pet things, but having the wolfess touching her thigh reassured her in a way nothing else ever could.
Bridget was fully aware of her effect on Fluttershy. She tilted her head up and gave the slightest wolfish smile she could.
"Spike? Why would you need to talk to him?" Sunset was already reaching down to her bag, having slipped her Equestrian Journal in it as she did every day. She pulled the book out and grabbed a pen.
"It's obvious," Pinkie Pie said. "Rainbow Dash's pet dog, Thunderbolt, has turned into a half dragon, and Fluttershy is trying to work out what to feed him, so of course she's going to contact an actual dragon and the pony that knows the most about dragons." She paused a moment and tapped her chin in the silence her outburst had created. "Or would that be the pony version of Fluttershy? I bet she'd know all about dragons too!"
Fluttershy pointed at Pinkie Pie. "Yes, that." She knew better than to question the knowledge, and as she became less Pinkie-shocked (that is, shocked by something Pinkie Pie does or says), she realized the outburst had saved her from having to explain it.
Princess Twilight. I hope everything is going well there, we have some odd things happening (as I already described), but one of them could really use your help. Rainbow Dash's dog is turning into a dragon and we need to know what he should be eating. Uh, and we're turning into ponies more, I think. It's really strange. Whatever you have happening there, I hope you're able to be finished with it quickly.
—Sunset Shimmer
"There. I've been sending her updates on—well…" Reaching to her shoulder, Sunset Shimmer flicked her burning wing into her hand. "…this."
Fluttershy's hand drifted down to rest on Bridget's shoulder. She didn't pet Bridget unless she was doing it in a more personal manner, which excluded having friends around. "How long should I wait?"
Sunset shrugged. "Well, she does have a country to help run and protect. Princess Twilight could reply right away, or it could take days. Did you want to do some singing while you wait?"
Bouncing on her hooves, Pinkie Pie was practically exploding with excitement. "Come on! Your voice is amazing, Fluttershy! We've been playing through Coloratura's latest songs."
Bridget knew Fluttershy would let herself be talked into singing. To a wolf, vocalization was as important as hunting—it was part of hunting—and she liked the sound of Fluttershy's singing voice.
Walking to a spot in front of the trio, Bridget lay down and perked her ears forward. As a whole, Fluttershy's band always sounded wrong to Bridget. She didn't like the lowest notes that one of them made. When Pinkie began, then Sunset joined, and finally Fluttershy began to sing, Bridget actually wagged her tail.
While she watched, Bridget felt herself drawn into the music. Pinkie Pie's drums was the thunder of hooves and the patter of paws chasing them. Sunset Shimmer's guitar was the scents in the air that let wolves taste the quality of their prey before the first bite. Fluttershy's voice was the howl of the pack, coordinating to come in on their mark.
Bridget closed her eyes and ran through the wild of the music—letting it stir her instincts. Then the oddest thing happened. Bridget felt even more wild. Hunger, strength, and wild power surged through Bridget's body. She snapped her eyes open to see Fluttershy looking even more like a horse than a girl should, with big wings and hooves, but there was a glow of light around each girl. Orange. Pink. Yellow.
Fluttershy kept singing. Like usual, once she was in the moment, she was stuck there. She felt her wings grow, her snout push forward, and even her legs change into the strange part-pony limbs, but her eyes were fixed on Bridget.
As Bridget stood up on big brown paws, Fluttershy could see green magic surging around her. The words of the song wouldn't stop coming, and she was trapped as parts of her partner seemed to harden like wood. Logs, branches, and a bright glow were the biggest changes in Bridget, as well as her size. "STOP!"
Bridget stared at Fluttershy. She watched as the magic seemed to ease—at least Fluttershy stopped glowing. On her paws, Bridget took a few steps forward. Normally her head would be at Fluttershy's hips, but now Bridget's eyes looked firmly at Fluttershy's belly, and her ears brushed the underside of her partner's breasts.
"What's wrong? Are you alright?" Fluttershy could feel worry in her love, and ignored the stiff branches and splinters to hug Bridget around the neck. When Bridget whined, Fluttershy squeezed tighter. "I'm not going to leave you just because magic did something to you. Don't even say that."
"What the hay happened?" Lifting her guitar strap off her shoulder, Sunset put her instrument aside and rushed over to where Bridget and Fluttershy stood. A low growl, however, caused her to come up short.
Fluttershy gasped. "Bridget! Sunset is our friend!" She looked into Bridget's supernatural, green eyes and gave her partner a good staring. She didn't like to press on Bridget like a packmate might, but the wolfess was acting odd. "We'll go hunting once we're done here."
The promise of a hunt broke Bridget's focus on her anger. She lifted her head and licked under Fluttershy's chin. She felt wild, hungry, and the part of her that was simply a dog was now very small.
"Wait in the van, Bridget. I'll say goodbye to Sunset and Pinkie." With Bridget so inflamed, Fluttershy felt more wolfish than usual. She was grateful when Pinkie Pie activated the garage door and let Bridget out.
As the wood-covered wolf padded away, Sunset let out her breath. "We need to talk about this. When we move into a shared house, a timber wolf isn't exactly what I had in mind as a housemate." She'd pulled up the word from her memory. She might know nothing about dragons, but she knew of timber wolves.
"What's a timber wolf?" Pinkie Pie asked. "I mean, I know what a timber wolf is here, but I don't think that's what you mean."
Sunset shook her head. "Timber wolves are giant—compared to a pony—wolves made of wood. Nearly indestructible, they have been known to attack anything smaller than them, and a lot of things bigger than them when in a pack."
"W-We've already hunted together. I don't let her hurt anything." Fluttershy's eyes kept straying toward her van. "She won't be a problem, I promise."
With a sigh, Sunset Shimmer resolved to add another requirement to the house: must allow pets. "Alright, Fluttershy, but Bridget is it. No other pets."
Fluttershy smiled. "That's okay. The rest are my friends, not pets."
"Just Bridget. Each of us will only bring one animal," Sunset said.
"I'll bring Gummy!" Pinkie Pie completely failed to notice the worry break on Fluttershy's face. "And Rarity can bring Opalescence, and then Rainbow Dash can bring Thunderbolt, and—"
"I don't think Rainbow Dash wants to move in. She owns her house, Pinkie. And Rarity said she was leaving Opalescence with her parents." Sunset hated having to restrict Fluttershy so much, but she'd seen Fluttershy's trailer, and more, she'd smelled it.
An idea struck Fluttershy, and she felt hope rise within her. "Wait. Could I park my trailer at the house, and keep my friends in there?"
The question seemed surprising at first, but then Sunset thought about it. "I guess we could do that. It's not like you'd pay any less rent or anything. Might even try to find somewhere with an extra garage or something."
Fluttershy jumped toward Sunset and wrapped arms and wings around her friend in a huge hug. "I need to move out. I can't stand Zephyr anymore. Please find somewhere fast."
Returning the hug, Sunset felt the flash of her talent kicking in. Memories of Zephyr Breeze's laundry abounded, but Sunset got to witness nearly a dozen casual little slights to Fluttershy. When the vision ended, Sunset was pulled away from Fluttershy and held in pink arms.
"Oh my gosh!" Fluttershy said. "I forgot all about your power. I'm so sorry, Sun—"
"No, Fluttershy." Sunset didn't want to forget the vision, not until she'd freed Fluttershy from her brother's passive-aggressive ways. "I'm sorry. I'll start looking for a place right away. Today, even."
A howl from her van stole Fluttershy's attention. She opened her mouth to thank Sunset, but her hooves were already propelling her toward her mate.
"Do you have any idea what the deal is with those two?" Sunset asked.
"You know how I have these moments with all kinds of crazy inspiration and knowledge of things I probably shouldn't know?" Pinkie asked in return. When Sunset Shimmer nodded, Pinkie let out a giggle. "This isn't one of those times."