//------------------------------// // Fluttershy's Character Ark // Story: Return Of Puffony // by Runic Script //------------------------------// Fluttershy's hooves shuffled along the dirt path as she wandered through the maze. Lost was the last thing she wanted to be right now with Discord potentially waiting around every corner. She heard a twig snap, causing her to squeak and dash into the hedge walls, pressing herself into it as she glanced around. She saw a broken stick sitting where her hooves had just been, causing her to sigh and step down from the leaves. Continuing her slow progress forward and peeking around the next corner, she spotted a beach scene sitting at the edge of a tiny lake, complete with some comfy beach chairs, shady trees and a miniature summer sun. It caused her quite a bit of confusion, but did nothing to calm her nerves. Discord was nowhere to be seen, but there were a lot of animals coming out of the woodwork. All of them looked shiny and squeaky and had little valves somewhere, like Discord had taken a shop's worth of pooltoys and breathed life into them. A few large inflatable butterflies with pretty patterns on their wings and a few inflatable penguins were suddenly around her, gently nudging her into the open and towards the shore where a large inflatable dolphin was already waiting with a rubbery smile. "Oh, n-n-no, really, I'm awfully busy..." She tried to stammer out, but didn’t put up much of a fight against the penguins. She approached the beach chairs, feeling the warmth of the fake sun beating down on her. "R-really, you're very kind but-" She continued to mutter, hiding behind her mane as her voice grew softer. "W-w-w-well... if you..." Her protests were now incomprehensible with how quiet she was speaking, her own shy squeaks hidden by the squeaking of the animals. A pooltoy poodle bounced around her happily while a pooltoy bear fluffed up a pillow for her and laid out a thin blanket on the beach chair. Another pooltoy penguin came waddling over with a tray holding a fruity summer drink in almost all the colors of the rainbow, looking much like a waiter in a suit. Fluttershy took the drink, though she refrained from drinking from it. She lay on the chair, looking around at all the squeaky creatures. "I don't remember either of the sisters having a zoo like this..." She muttered, growing increasingly worried that the animals were just pretending to be nice. That any moment they'd all pounce upon her. That they'd try to capture her and steal her away from reaching her friends! The animals didn't seem to do anything of the sort, although they did do their best to help her relax. Chattering and natting at her, a small flock of songbirds squeak-chirping a song while the big puffy butterflies flitted around overhead, flying around one another and showing off their shiny, colorful wing patterns. As Fluttershy watched the butterflies floating around, she found her worries slipping away ever so slowly. The longer she watched, the more she relaxed in her chair. She absentmindedly took a sip from the drink. And another. And another. The drink was wonderfully delicious, and she found herself going from sipping to drinking to gulping very quickly. The squeaky animals happily kept supplying the drinks for her, some fanning her for a cool breeze with swirly-painted palm leaves while others kept moving around her to tend to her every other need. At least until one of the penguins slipped a small shiny rubber valve into her latest drink. As Fluttershy was taking another drink, she suddenly coughed, feeling something slip down her throat that wasn't fruity beverage. In her surprise, she spilled the drink over her, colorful juice spreading over her as she poked at her throat. She let out a squeak of worry, which was more literal than she had intended. A wheeze could be heard as she gasped, sounding like air flowing into a balloon. A few of the animals chuckled and giggled as they watched her squeak and wheeze. Before she could panic too much however a large pooltoy paradise bird landed on her chest, flapping his colorful wings and puffing up his swirly chest before leaning down to blow a large breath into Fluttershy's mouth. Meanwhile the others began pouring some more of the drink over her, covering her in the magical juice and letting it seep in until her whole body turned shiny and slightly transparent with a shimmering glow to it. Fluttershy flailed her hooves as she felt the air flow into her, her belly stretching slightly bigger as she received another puff. Her wriggling became slightly weaker as she stared up at the bird of paradise, watching the colors swirl in front of her eyes. Another puff as the squeaky bird's belly swelled up, and Fluttershy's wings started to change. They became the same bright colors as the bird puffing her up, flapping weakly in time with the bird's. The bird pulled away with a smile, flapping his colorful wings and inviting her to join him, squawking and squeaking about how much fun it would be, how nice it had to be for Fluttershy that she could share in the traits of all her animal friends and join them in their silliest moments. That even if it was silly and embarrassing, Fluttershy just couldn't help but indulge herself a little whenever one of her animal friends shared with her. Fluttershy, still a little dazed from the sudden swelling, managed to sit herself up in her chair as she watched the bird fly up and circle over her. She giggled, her own wings beating as she started to lazily take to the skies, drifting around and around as her wings squeaked and creaked with every beat. The bird landed again, perching on the back of her chair and showing off his wings while all the animals converged on Fluttershy as soon as she landed after him, dancing and bouncing and squeaking and creaking around her and singing a song for her about being kind and being puffy and being kind of puffy, all while every other moment an animal moved in to stick another valve to a different part of her body. Fluttershy was smothered by the multitude of cushy pooltoys, wriggling about as she felt a valve being pressed into her belly, onto her legs, her tail, and onto her flanks. She blushed brightly as several animals took their turns puffing and blowing into each valve, her cushy body swelling slightly as it transformed. Her tail flicked and squeaked as it became a thick crocodile tail, her hind legs puffing out into a dragon claw and zebra hoof. She pressed and squeezed on her ballooning belly as a whale huffed her up and up and up! A pudgy lion blew up her soft new squeaky paw while an octopuff provided the other foreleg. The paradise bird noisily defended and puffed up one of her wings, but the other was snagged and puffed by a big shiny dragonfly with extra shimmery wings. Her flanks were blown particularly big and bouncy by a pair of circus elephants before the animals all pulled back, parting to let Angel Bunny hop-bounce right in front of Fluttershy. The squeaky bunny pulled her head down and took a deep breath before blowing it right into her mouth, causing Fluttershy's ears to turn bright pink and pop out into a pair of long bouncy bunny ears, her muzzle to flatten out into an adorable pink bunny nose and her head to fill with thoughts of big squeaky puffy inflatable carrots for a moment. Finally Angel Bunny pulled back with a smirk, reaching out with a paw to boop Fluttershy on the nose and causing a pair of large inflatable bunny buck teeth to appear with a pop, hiding the valve lodged in her throat and keeping her mouth slightly open to make her squeaks even more frequent and more audible. Fluttershy stumbled about a little as she tried to get used to her new puffy body. Every little movement caused her to squeak and creak, which was only amplified by her now larger ears. She rolled backwards, flopping onto her thick croc tail, flapping her mismatched wings helplessly. She let out a long whine, pressing her hooves into her muzzle to hide her buck teeth and her wheezing as her belly inflated and deflated with each breath. "Oh d-d-d-dear..." She whimpered, looking at her chaotically composed body. What would her friends think when they see her like this? "Oh dear indeed, darling." Discord cackled from overhead. "I've rarely seen something more chaotic outside of a mirror." He floated down on an umbrella only to have it get hit by freak lightning, leaving his smoking body hanging in the air for a few seconds before he dropped to the ground in a heap, coughing out a small cloud of smoke. "Well I'll be, I do think I'm smitten." He disappeared in a flash to reappear right next to Fluttershy, putting an arm around her. "But enough of the symbolic imagery. What do you say, Cluttershy? Don't you love your bold new look?" Cluttershy tried to pull away from Discord, but he held her tightly against his belly. She looked herself over again, still whimpering softly. She looked like a toy that had been haphazardly stitched together, with all her different parts squeaking and creaking, and yet... Staring down at all the colors of her body seemed to make her worry less, just as watching the animals had. She poked at her belly valve, finding it oddly ticklish. She supposed it might not be that bad... maybe her friends would be willing to give it a try, especially if they found her array of colors just as hypnotic as she did. "I... guess it's ok. As long as I don't scare anyone away." "Oh dear, no, not at all." Discord grinned and poked her belly valve, pushing it in and out with a loud squeak. "How could they ever be scared of such a kind and beautiful soul. I bet if you make sure to show off your pretty colors and unique parts to everypony you meet, they will all be absolutely captivated by them and happily do whatever makes you happy." Discord smirked, moving his paw up to boop her nose. "And do you want to know the best thing? A gift, if you want... You do like gifts from friends, don't you~?" Fluttershy wiggled her booped muzzle, ears flicking and squeaking as she looked up in awe at Discord. "Ooh, I do like gifts, if it's no trouble, really. I don't mean to intrude, and you've been so nice already with all this." She said, much more captivated by her form after Discord's reassurances. "Especially if I can give a gift to a friend too!" "Your gift is your kindness, dear." Discord smirked and trailed a claw down Fluttershy's back, then leaned in to press his mouth on hers and blow deeply. Strangely enough none of her body parts changed or even seemed to get much bigger, but something was definitely filling her up, warm and tingly and focusing on each of her valves with a happy tickly feeling that made her feel light-headed from how long Discord was holding the breath. After a few moments of that Discord pulled away again with a grin. "There we go. I made you just a little more irresistible in your kindness. Now whenever you show kindness to someone, pony or animal, they will feel compelled to show their gratitude by puffing up one of your valves and giving you a wonderful new and silly look every time you live out that Element of yours. Doesn't that sound just perfectly silly and chaotic~?" Fluttershy's eyes spun as she reeled in the sensation, sending her stumbling left and right. She nodded, feeling appropriately air-headed from the puffing. She grinned widely, jumping up to give Discord a squeeze before bouncing off towards the exit of the clearing and back into the maze. "Oh, thank you Discord! I bet everypony is going to love it!" She proclaimed, shaking her elephantine rump left and right happily, occasionally bouncing along on her tail as she made her way forwards. Discord grinned and waved after her, turning around only to stop and glare at the plaid hearts floating teasingly behind him and the pooltoys dressed in cheap cupid costumes. "...I'm just going to ignore this." He huffed and disappeared in a snap of his claws, quickly followed by the chaos he'd left in this part of the maze.