//------------------------------//
// Part 02.2: Initial Observation: Day 2 
// Story: Mechanist's Flutter 
// by ZekeDraco 
//------------------------------//

[Mechanist's Flutter Part 2]
[Initial Observations: Day 2]
[A Cheery Morning]
Morning came, Flutter woke up and looked around, it was the sort of dream that made her curious about what was really going on. It's not often that the Dragon she stared down would surface in something that wasn't a nightmare. It seemed like he was trying to tell her something when she finally got him to back down, something about an old castle. She shrugged it off, assuming that he was trying to talk about an old place that he used to live.
She pushed the sheet off of herself, after her wing blades had snagged on it once or twice. The birds outside were chirping energetically, each chirp playing off of another almost like a song specially arranged. She could even hear the beat and the rhythm as the serenade played on. Memories of how Fluttershy usually started her day went through her head and one figure was present in every one of them, "Where's...Angel?", she asked herself. During her time in Ponyville these last 24 hours, they have been completely void of even a single white hair of a familiar hare.
She turned to look around every inch of the cottage, looking for her the little bun. "Angel? Are you in here?", she called out to the room. Her mane was a bit of a mess, covering her metallic front legs as she knelt down looking for Angel. The bunny appeared with a smile and a salute.
"There you are, are you feeling well today?" She asked him.
Angel smiled so wide that it pressed his eyes closed, and he nodded enthusiastically.
She stood up and shook her mane back into its smooth curve, revealing her metal legs and body, "That's so great, let's go get you some breakfast."
Fluttershy felt a tiny paw tapping on one of her metal joints.
She looked down at him, "Huh? Is something...", she realized he's looking at her body, "Oh..."
He stood back from her so she can see the questioning look on his face. He shrugged his shoulders asking the unspoken question. 'Why?'
"You aren't hungry?", Flutter said, attempting to change the topic.
Angel narrowed his eyes, letting Flutter know how unimpressed he is. He shook his head, then stamped her metal hoof.
"It's just something to keep me safe from some things that would want to hurt me..."
He gave her an impressive eye-roll, before looking her in the eyes, expecting the truth.
She tried to ignore the little rabbit's stare, walking around him and to the window, "It really is a beautiful day", a few birds perched on the window frame looked at her, "Isn't that right?"
The birds seemed to sense something off-kilter and flew away from her.
"Oh my...", she looked back at Angel and grinned as innocently as she could.
The bunny brought a paw to his face.
Flutter looked a bit depressed, "I guess you're right, I can't be her, I can only sound like her, and partly look like her."
Angel's ears dropped, he approached the pony. Tapping her softly he looked at her with eyes that wanted to apologize.
"It's ok, Angel. I may not be her, but I still want to care for things in her place...hopefully she'll appear.", a moment passed and she realized, "We still need to get you something to eat."
Angel smiled and hopped out the door towards his little bunny house. Along the way he made sure to pass the word that this Flutter was to be trusted and treated like the Fluttershy they all know and love.

[o/* The best part of wakin' up, is Coltgers in your cup! o/*]
Twilight Sparkle woke up from a three hour nap, buried in a pile of books. The only thing on her mind was a cloud of fog. She pushed some books to the side revealing a small corner of her bed before climbing out of it. The aroma of freshly brewed coffee was flowing around the library, which meant that Spike saw the stack of books on her bed. She followed the sweet life giving aroma right to the kitchen. This coffee was strong, even just the smell was strong enough to start to lift the fog of sleep from the unicorn's mind.
Her green and purple colored scaly assistant was in a good mood, which meant he actually slept through everything that happened last night, "Morning, Twilight.", he greeted her.
Twilight didn't respond at first, she magically levitated the mug of steaming liquid from the table and up to her muzzle and took a good long sniff of her personal ambrosia. Almost as quickly as possible, she gulped down her lifeblood, two cups of piping hot caffeine and she grinned. Spike could have sworn that her throat was as heat tolerant as his. An enormous twitch and the cup rocketed to the ceiling, joining several others from previous mornings. Spike gave her the 3-hour night special, loaded with enough sugar to get that initial kick to hold her until the caffeine surged in. Finally she looked to spike with a little smile, "Good morning, Spike."
"You were up awfully late last night, were you researching another new spell?" Spike asked as he mixed a little salad for her.
"Not that I know of, last night...", she paused and thought for a moment, the morning fog in her mind cleared revealing Flutter hiding behind Rainbow Dash who was giving a rather sharp glare, "...right, I was trying to see if there was anything in these books to help me understand why Fluttershy would suddenly be wearing armor."
"Armor? Why?", Spike asked as he brought Twilight her breakfast.
"That's what I'd love to know. She's been acting like she's afraid of something...well...more so than usual."
"Maybe she saw something scary that looked at her.", Spike guessed.
"Doubtful, if it were something like that she wouldn't have been acting like she was last night. Normally if she's scared about something she would tell us, but last night she was even afraid to talk to us."
"Maybe she doesn't want help?"
"I wouldn't be a very good friend if I just let whatever it is her keep bothering her."
"I dunno, maybe good friends would know when to let something go.", Spike jumped onto a stool and bit into a small gem covered cereal.
"Either way, it feels like it can't be left alone."
Spike just looked at her with his mouth full of his breakfast. He recognized the way her eyes were narrowing, she had entered problem-solving mode. Spike swallowed his mouthful of milk and gems, "Anyways, I oughta get started on putting back those books you used last night."
"No Spike, I still need them." She finished her salad and went back to her studies.
Spike felt she was letting her obsessive personality get the better of her, again. This time Fluttershy was both the target, and the obstacle. This could very well ruin not only Twilight's relationship with her friend, but Fluttershy's willingness to trust any friend.
He took a moment to try and think of a more important distraction, he figured the best one would be her top obligation,  "Say, Twilight don't you need to send a letter to Celestia today?"
"I sent her one the other day, so I don't need to worry about that until next Tuesday."
Spike warded off the urge to face...erm...snoutpalm, one or the other. He started trying to figure out ways to distract her from going overboard with this.

[The clouds have eyes? This isn't that fungus kingdom...]
Flutter had finished feeding all the animals she could, some still ran away even with Angel telling them that they could trust her. She was happy that Angel tried to help her, so happy that she was trotting along. Maybe today would go better than yesterday, maybe everypony wouldn't be as worried and wouldn't bother her as much.
Of course, that didn't happen, no more than five minutes later Flutter was surrounded by ponyfolk who were concerned or curious about her armor and her behavior the previous day. Surprised Rainbow Dash jumped awake on her cloud and looked around for a moment. Nopony had crashed into the side of her cloud and there was not a single trace of something dropped from above. She looked down and noticed a pair of scared Cyan eyes looking up at her from inside the cloud, "S-sorry Rainbow..."
Rainbow sighed, "Lemme guess, Twilight?"
"No...Everypony else."
"Huh?", Rainbow looked over the edge of the cloud and she could see a gathered mass of ponies looking back up at her, "Oh..."
"I don't want them to keep bothering me..."
Rainbow hollered down at the crowd, "Hey, leave her alone, she's just..."
"Having a bad dream", Flutter suggested.
She just went with it, "...having some nightmares, alright?"
The crowd looked amongst themselves and gave a sigh of relief before slowly dispersing. Flutter felt some relief, and dug herself out of the cloud.
Rainbow stretched a bit, "Y'know that's twice you've gotten me to help you. I oughta start asking favors in return."
"Uhm...What kind of favors?"
"First off, you hafta help me find the real Fluttershy."
"I would have done that anyways."
"Second...", Rainbow paused and started to think.

[A favor?]
Sweet Apple Acres was in good health, aside from a couple ancient trees that had died a couple days ago after a little accidental flood. Flutter walked along the path to the Apple family house with Rainbow flying alongside her. They approached Applejack as she was trying to help Apple Bloom learn how to buck the apples off of a tree.
"Now, try it agin'" Applejack instructed.
Apple Bloom hit the trunk of the tree with her hind hooves, putting every fiber of her being, and her ribbon somehow, into the buck. She turned around ready to see an apple fall off, but only a leaf fluttered down. "Aw, phooey", she mumbled.
Applejack smiled, "Yer doin' better Apple Bloom, you got somethin' off it this time."
A challenging voice sounded a ways away, "Hey! Applejack, you still owe me a hoof-wrestling match!"
She looked in the direction of the voice, "What in tarnation?"
Rainbow dashed ahead of Flutter a little and landed in front of Applejack, "You heard me, we still have a score to settle."
"As much as Ah'd like to, Ah've got apples to harvest."
Flutter caught up, "I-I could gather some apples while you two do that."
"No offense, sugarcube... but you ain't exactly the strongest pony around. It'd be better to let other ponies take care of the hard work. Besides, with that armor y'all'd prolly end up hurtin' yerself."
"Well...I could try...if you don't mind."
"First off you dunno how to buck like we do, second off nopony can applebuck like an Apple."
Apple Bloom looked up at Applejack, "Ah could teach her, AJ! Ah've got lotsa practice!"
Applejack looks at her little sister, "Ah really don't want you to trouble yourself."
Flutter looks at Applejack, "It wouldn't be any trouble, Applejack."
"Well, alright, you can go teach Flutter how to buck, you've got the technique down at least."
Apple Bloom skipped around shouting, "Yay!"
"Now, why don't you go on ahead a little Flutter, I need to tell Apple Bloom somethin' right quick."
Flutter nodded, "Okay", then wandered ahead a little.
Applejack looked at Apple Bloom, "Now somethin's goin' on with Flutter, whatevah it is it's got her spooked enough t' wear that armor. Now don't you go askin' her about it, ya hear?"
"I'm Waaaaaiiiiting.", Rainbow loudly grumbled.
"Ah'll get to you in ah moment"
Apple Bloom looked up at her older sister, "Alrighty, ah won't."
"Good, now git goin'."
Apple Bloom ran to catch up to Flutter.
"You ready to do this, RD? Ya know Ah'm strong."
"Nopony is stronger than me!", Rainbow wittily replied as they locked hooves.

[Like a wound-up springboard]
A minute passed and both Applejack and Rainbow Dash have locked each other into a serious match of hoof-wrestling, Big Mac watching as the judge. In the meantime Apple Bloom and Flutter wandered out to a tree in the orchard. It was fairly healthy, a few dead branches were void of leaves, while the rest had apples waiting to fall. Flutter looked at it for a moment, oblivious to Apple Bloom who was using the reflection off her side to adjust her ribbon.
"Is this one the one we're going to use to teach me?", Flutter asked.
"Yep. This one's smaller so we have a better shot at knocking an apple off-a it.", Apple Bloom grinned.
Apple Bloom positioned herself in front of the tree, "So, ya place your front hooves in the ground, pull up yer hind legs and...", she followed through with her instructions and kicked the tree, "...hit it in th' right spot."
The smaller tree should have given at least one apple, but to Apple Bloom's disappointment not even the twig hanging from a thin spider web fell, "Awww...Well, you give it a try."
Flutter nodded, "O-okay."
She positioned herself, pushed her front legs into the ground, pulled her hind legs up--
Back near the farmhouse Big Mac was watching as neither Applejack nor Rainbow Dash had made any progress in the hoof-wrestling match, the piece of wheat he was chewing on was drooping, as though it shared his enthusiasm as he watched.
In the orchard a distinct KATHWACK could be heard, Big Mac looked in the direction the sound came from, "wwwwwwWhoa!", he jumped to the side and the uprooted practice tree landed next to him. Both AJ and RD looked at the tree completely surprised, the surprise lasted longer with Applejack, as Rainbow Dash took the chance to accidentally win the match.
Back at what is now a small hole, Apple Bloom was staring at Flutter completely amazed, and Flutter in the meantime was completely shocked blushing.
A grin crawled along the little filly's face, "That was amazin'! Can ya do that agin'?"
Flutter didn't respond.
Applejack, Big Macintosh, and Rainbow Dash quickly arrived. Applejack and Big Mac both looked at the hole that once housed the roots of a tree. Rainbow was just as surprised as Applejack, maybe not for the same reason, but still, rather surprised.
"A-Apple Bloom?! What happened?", Applejack asked.
"It was amazin'! Ah showed Fluttershy how to buck an' she copied mah instrucshuns and she uprooted this ol' tree!" Apple Bloom jumped around with excitement.
Big Mac looked at Flutter, "From out here clear to th' farmhouse's front path? That don't add up!"
Applejack gazed at Big Mac than back to Flutter, "Jus' how hard did you hit that tree?"
Flutter dug at the ground with a hoof, "I did what Apple Bloom told me, I dug my front hooves in, pulled my hind legs back, and put everything I had into it..."
Applejack looked at Flutter completely puzzled. Was there more to this soft, kind Pegasus? More than innocent little Fluttershy? If anything Applejack would have figured that Rarity would have more of a buck than Fluttershy, assuming she were ever willing to use it. She looked at Big Mac and for once she agreed with him on a topic he knew, "Yer right, this don't add up! Fluttershy what's goin' on with you?!"
Flutter could feel suspicions forming, stronger than last night at her cottage.
"Did somepony do somethin' to you? There's no way in all Equestria anypony can be that strong! Even Big Mac couldn't send a tree that far!"
"Eeeeyup..."
"I...guess the weight of my armor helped?", Flutter tried.
"Ah, don' buy it sugarcube."
Rainbow walked up beside Applejack, "Say shouldn't you two go clean up that tree? I don't think Granny needs to see that."
Big Mac sprung into action shouting, "Ah'll go take care of that!", before he ran off.
Rainbow's ploy only got one of the Apple's to head off, Applejack was still staring down Flutter, "You can tell me, who did what to you?"
Rainbow even knew trying to offer Applejack another challenge wouldn't work, she had no options outside of trying to scare off her friend. As luck would have it the familiar buzzing of two little wings was approaching, "Uhm...I'llbeback!", Dash dashed off.
Applejack started to move towards Flutter, who backed away with each step.
"Hey, Apple Bloom catch!" Scoots shouted from on top of Rainbow's back.
Scootaloo threw Apple Bloom's Cutie Mark Crusader cape towards her, and Rainbow did a quick sweep around it causing a small gust that carried the cape over AJ's head, where it caught the rim of her Stetson and covered her face, "What the hay?!"
Rainbow looked at Flutter and tilted her head quickly a couple of times, she took the hint and took off flying towards the closest cloud thick enough to hide her. AJ managed to shake the cape off, and looked at Rainbow Dash and Scootaloo.
Rainbow replied to AJ's annoyed gaze by saying, "What?"
"Whatevah's goin' on, ah'll get to the bottom of it. This here's fishier than that trout cake Pinkie gave us."
"You're just paranoid.", Rainbow looked up at the cloud Flutter went up to, "Whoops, missed a cloud."
Scootaloo jumped down from Rainbow's back and watched as she flew up and started to push the cloud along, "Fluttershy in armor, I guess that makes her cooler."

[Just a drift?]
Rainbow stopped pushing the cloud once she was sure that they were out of sight of Applejack, "So, you're also stronger than anypony I know. That is just plain cool!"
Flutter poked her head out of the cloud, "I could have hurt somepony..."
"Well, you lucked out, that tree didn't hit anypony. And lucky again, Big Mac had uprooted a tree before, which is why he only uses one hoof to buck with."
"He'll tell Granny Smith he did it on accident?"
"Yeah, AJ'd probably go along with it too. If I were you, I'd try to figure out how to control that awesome strength", an idea comes into Rainbow's mind, "Hey, maybe we could enter hoof-wrestling tournaments, we'd never lose! Wait, you're not that competitive...Are you?"
"Maybe when we find the real Fluttershy, I could try to be.", Flutter dug herself out of the cloud and stood on it, "We would make a great team."
"It's settled then, we find the real Fluttershy, then we start kicking tail!", Rainbow struck a pose.
"That sounds great, Dash."

[Apple and the Worm]
Twilight had entered her zone, she was reading a page of small print every three seconds. Spike was busy cleaning things, it turned out all the things he tried to distract Twilight with were his jobs. A knock came at the library door, Spike looked, while Twilight kept reading. He went to the door and opened it greeting the pony on the other side, "Hi Applejack, do you--"
"Twi...Now...", AJ was resolute in who she wanted.
"She's in the sea of books.", Spike pointed a thumbclaw behind him, at the enormous number of books stacked in the middle of the main room.
Applejack marched forward and pushed books to the side, heading straight for Twilight, "Twi...We need to talk..."
Twilight could see stacks of books moving and snapped out of her reading trance, "About what, Applejack?"
"Yer not gonna believe this but the Element of Kindness just kicked a tree a good 50 yards."
Twilight looked at Applejack questioningly, "If that's some kind of joke, it's not funny."
"Tain't a joke Twi, Fluttershy was learnin' how to buck apples from Apple Bloom, nex' thing I see is Big Macintosh dodgin' a tree! Went to go see what happened and Apple Bloom is jumpin' around Fluttershy who bucked the tree clean outta the ground."
"Are you feeling alright? I mean, Fluttershy couldn't possibly be able to--"
"Ah know that! It surprised me too. I start askin' her if somepony done some things to her and Rainbow Dash starts trying to distract me."
Twilight raised a brow, "Rainbow Dash was trying to distract you?"
"She got tricky and got Scootaloo to help her block my view, Fluttershy does a vanishin' act. Nex' thin' Ah know, Dash is cartin' a cloud off. Ah think Rainbow Dash might know somethin' about what's goin' on with Fluttershy."

[No, she doesn't blend...in]
Flutter and Rainbow both were flying over Ponyville, looking for anything out of the ordinary. Everything was normal around town, even Sugarcube Corner was relatively normal. The two met up back at the cloud they started from.
Rainbow asked, "Find anything?"
Flutter shook her head, "Did you?"
Rainbow gave a disappointed look, "Nothing. If nothing is out of place in Ponyville then maybe there's something in Cloudsdale, or the Everfree Forest. Hay, maybe even as far as Canterlot."
Flutter thought for a moment, "If three of us were in this we could cover all three at once.", she suggested.
"No way, I'll do Cloudsdale and Canterlot, you keep looking around here.", with that said, Rainbow blitzed away leaving a rainbow trail as she headed for her old hometown.
Flutter just smiled, Rainbow was being loyal to her wanting to keep the secret. She jumped off the cloud and landed on the ground, she was trying to decide where to go. Either she wanted to see the basement of Sugarcube Corner, or if the Carousel Boutique was open. She looked at the Boutique as Sweetie Bell, Scootaloo, and Apple Bloom all went inside. Within seconds of the door closing Rarity gave a rather epic scream of distress. Knowing that Rarity would be in as many pieces as her current project, Flutter wandered over to the sweet shop. As she walked along the ponies who weren't busy with chatter or tasks would watch her go by, some with worried looks. She counted the sets of eyes that she could see watching her, 12 sets in total, one set was looking in two directions at once.
She entered the sweet shop, the midday rush had already come and gone so there were only the Cakes and her inside. Mrs. Cake looked over at Flutter, "Oh, hello Fluttershy, I heard you were having some nightmares. They're only bad dreams, dontcha know."
"I still feel a little safer wearing this.", Flutter replied.
"You sure about that? It looks awful tight! How'd you even get it on? You look like you'd need a can opener to get out of it. I'm pretty sure I've got one somewhere...", A familiar voice says behind her.
"It's not tight at all, Pinkie.", Flutter knew this encounter was coming so she had prepared for the sudden appearance of the Pink Party Pony.
"A lot calmer today, that's good. Like I told Mrs. Cake, you were so wound up yesterday that you made me -- ME the premier Party Pony of Ponyville, maybe of all of Equestria -- look as calm as Twilight is after a 4-day reading spree!"
"Well...It's because I tried some of Twilight's...Coffee?"
"You tried some of -HER- coffee? Wow, that stuff is so potent that you get a super duper kick of energy just by being in the same house with it! No wonder you were so jumpy!"
"Uhm... Pinkie could I ask a favor, could I look in the basement real quick?"
"This place has a basement? Hey, Mrs. Cake does this place have a basement?"
Mrs. Cake looks at Pinkie, "Oh of course, it's where those Cutie Mark Crusaders went and found Spike when he fell into that vent over there. Feel free to go take a look, it'd be nice to turn that into an extra inventory room one of these days. Key is next to the back door, Pinkie."
"Okie-dokie-loki, let's go Fluttershy" Pinkie bounced out of the room with Flutter following her.
Around back Pinkie opened the basement door and wandered in, Flutter following. Pinkie lit a lantern revealing nothing more than an old rocking chair.
"Wow. It's pretty empty, it'd make a great place to put things." Pinkie Commented.
Looking around Flutter noticed the vent Spike had fallen in was boarded up. There really was nothing down here, nothing important at all. The lantern went out and she turned around, "Pinkie?"
The lantern relit, with its light focused pointing up underneath Pinkie's face and there was Pinkie, grinning widely at Flutter with a knife between her teeth and her mane folded flat, "There could be so many other uses too!"
Flutter shuffled back and Pinkie bit into the knife which gave a squeak. Pinkie just broke out into a laugh, "Gotcha!", as though she willed it her mane poofed back out again, "I'll hafta do this on Nightmare Night! It'll scare fillies muzzle to tail!"
"H-How did you do that?"
"Do what?"
"Make your mane flat?"
"Oh! This?", She makes her mane flatten again, "I figured out how to do that after you guys threw me that party a coupla weeks ago! What do ya think? Izzit a cool trick?"
"I guess so."
"And it worked so well I could hear your heart humming!"
"Uhm..."
Pinkie realized what she said, "Wait, humming? Don't hearts normally go ba-bump ba-bump?"
"Well...maybe it was going so fast it sounded like a hum?"
"I guess so? Oooh, you might still have some of that caffeine high from Twilight's coffee, maybe that's why.", somehow the pink pony made a -DING- sound, "I know! I've got a super-relax cupcake that I could make you that would help you get rid of the rest of that coffee! Come on!", with that Pinkie Pie dragged Flutter out of the basement and back into the store up top. She went into the kitchen and five minutes later comes out with a purple and blue cupcake, "Here you go!"
Flutter didn't know if she could eat anything without encountering problems, "Could I just take it home and eat it?"
"Why? it's blueberry flavored!"
"But I--"
Pinkie Pie shoved the cupcake in Flutter's mouth, "Eat up!"
Flutter swallowed and an indicator appeared in her sight, "Wha? 'Energy Level plus' what's that?"
Pinkie looks where Flutter sees the indicator, "That one's new to me! I'm used to seeing some 'ei' thingie there."
Flutter looks at Pinkie, "You can see that?"
"I see all sorts of things but that's new to me, oh, is that yours?"
Flutter looks around and Pinkie watches where it moves, "Yep! It's yours, what's it for? What's it for?"
"I don't know..."
"Well, it's yours so it's gotta be some important thing right? Hey look it's fading away"
Mrs. Cake happened to put some muffins on the counter, "What's fading away?"
"This thingie that showed up in Fluttershy's vision"
"Well, it may be a good thing it faded away", Mrs. cake went into the kitchen again un-fazed by Pinkie seeing things again, it happened so often it seems.
"Pinkie? Can you keep that a secret?"
"Of course I can. Cross my heart and hope to fly; stick a cupcake in my eye.", she replied, "Just let me ask something really quickly."
"What?"
"You're not evil are you?"
"No, I'm not"
"Yay! If you need any help just call on everyponys favorite party-host with the most!", Pinkie smiled widely.

[Metal Pony Flutter and Fashion has a Marshmallow flavor?]
Flutter wandered out of Sugarcube Corner as Pinkie started helping Mrs. Cake with a new rush of customers. She began to look around Ponyville, thinking about where she would look next. She figured that she could try to find other little hidden areas around town, until she saw Applejack talking with some pony. The pony pointed at Flutter, and Applejack turned to look, "There you are!"
Flutter didn't squeak, just ran. She cut between buildings and over fences, even quietly sneaking behind her pursuer in evasion. She hid inside of a bush, up in a tree, and on top of a low flying cloud. A low flying cloud low enough that it slowly sailed by Applejack after Flutter abandoned it. She finally evaded Applejack by hiding in a cart a stallion was pulling along. She jumped out in the wrong place though, because now Twilight had found her.
"Fluttershy? I think I figured out what could help you.", a book levitated up in front of Twilight, "It says here that a pony who spontaneously dons armor is likely to be fired out of a cannon...Oh wait, wrong book", She looked up and Flutter was gone, "Hey!"
Running around and hiding in more places, Flutter was positive she was teleported by Twilight around 7 times before she lost her second pursuer by ducking into a building, closing the door and locking it. She was so focused on avoiding everypony she knew, that she didn't notice that the building she was hiding in was the Carousel Boutique.
Rarity looked over at Flutter, with a little surprise.
"Fluttershy? What are you doing here?", she asked
"Well, I...", She couldn't find much of a reason but she didn't want to go back out there, "...I was wondering if you could make this armor less....obvious?", she had blurted out what she thought would get her off the hook.
Rarity looked at her, "But of course, Darling. Are you sure that's what you want?"
"Just a little something that can let me feel like I don't have my wings covered, and my tail..."
"Well, if you're sure... why don't you leave that armor... ummm... Ah!"
Rarity moved a pile of garments out of the way, creating a space for Flutter to leave her armor.
"There, leave your armor there and I'll see what I can do about it!" Rarity instructed. She was happy to have a different project to work on, as it would distract her from her current conundrum.
Flutter shuffled a little, "Uhm...I can't take it off, it's stuck"
"Stuck? Why didn't you say so? No wonder you're so sensitive about it. Here, let me help you out of that."
"Couldn't you work on while it's on me?"
"I don't know... it looks awfully tight, and I'd feel absolutely horrible if I hurt you..."
"Oh, I didn't want you to remove anything, just add things on.", Flutter grinned a little to hide a little bit of embarrassment.
"Now, Fluttershy, you know me better than that! I won't settle for doing second-rate work for anypony, especially for one of my best friends."
"Please, Rarity? I don't want to give up any protection..."
Rarity let out a sigh of defeat, "Very well... Just let me get some measurements and I'll see what I can whip up."
Some time passed as Rarity worked, Flutter was able to stand completely still when needed, almost as still as a mannequin. The result was very satisfactory for Flutter, even though Rarity couldn't go as far as she wanted she still put everything she had into it. She spread her wings and they looked the way the wings of a Pegasus should, her tail was now long and pink, matching her mane.
"Are you sure that's all you want?", Rarity asked.
"Oh, yes. This will do just fine."
"You know I could make something to cover the rest of...that...just to see if you like it?"
"No, thank you though."
"I could even stitch in your cutie mark?"
"No...This really is enough.", She said, a bit assertively.
"Alright, if you're sure."
A knock comes to the door, making Flutter jump a little, the voice on the other side is Twilight's, "Rarity, are you in there?"
"Coming!~" Rarity sang out.
Flutter looked around for a any means of escaping or hiding. In the meantime, Rarity had made her way to the door and, with a delicate touch of unicorn magic, opened it.
Twilight looked at Rarity, "Rarity, have you seen Fluttershy?"
"Oh, she's just upstairs, trying on some pieces I made to cover her armor. I can't, for the life of me, understand why she'd want wing coverings, but refuse to cover all of that dreadful armor."
Applejack walks up as Twilight asks, "Can we go and see how she's doing?"
"Of course! Come along!"
Rarity led both Applejack and Twilight upstairs, along the way Twilight looks at Applejack who gives her a confirming nod. When they enter the room Flutter is nowhere to be seen.
"She was just here a moment ago, honest!"
Twilight looked around for a moment and noticed that the curtains around an open window were drifting in the breeze, Applejack was able to comment the quickest, "I think she might've flown off."
Twilight groaned a little, "Still, we all need to discuss what's happening. Rarity, could you meet us in the library soon? We might be in for more than we thought..."
"Of course I will, I'm just as worried about Fluttershy as the next filly."

[A little tie-dye chat]
While Twilight and Applejack were at Rarity's house the library was empty aside from one figure. Spike wasn't in the library, he was sent off to run some random errand. Owloysius wasn't even around to try and help. Rainbow Dash was just going to have to sit there tied up until somepony untied her, preferably not the farmer who tied her up to begin with. She was tied up pretty well, too. Her wings tied close to her body and her four hooves up in the air tied together.
She grumbled for a moment then grumbled at herself, "Yeah, let's land on the cloud that's hoverin a few inches off the ground and try to unbury 'Fluttershy', digging right into a trap. Brilliant Rainbow, just brilliant...I oughta", she drifted into a little muffled rant.
The library door creaked open and Rainbow looked over briefly before diverting her eyes to, though she won't admit it, a book on the bookshelf. Applejack walked in half expecting Rainbow to have at least worked her hooves free, Twilight, Pinkie and Rarity behind her.
Applejack looked at Rainbow, "Well good, y'all still here."
Pinkie Pie looked at Applejack, "Did you really need to do that? She doesn't look happy at all."
Rainbow snorted angrily.
"Calm down there RD, we just need to know what exactly you know about Fluttershy"
Rainbow tried to cross her forelegs, "I'm not saying a word..."
"Horsefeathers! Somethin' happened to Fluttershy, thar's no way she shoulda been able to uproot Bloom's trainin' tree!"
Pinkie looked at Applejack, her mane subtly straightened out.
Even Twilight was taken aback by that outburst.
Applejack continued, "I wanna know why somepony would take a Pegasus sweeter than Celestia and turn her into that! More importantly a wanna know who that somepony is!"
"Now, now, Applejack", Rarity said, "There's no need to get upset, I'm sure there's a perfectly reasonable explanation for Fluttershy's behavior."
Pinkie's mane had gone completely flat, "Yeah, there's gotta be a good reason, right?"
"I'm sorry girls," Twilight said, even she was uncharacteristically somber, "I don't have an explanation."
"Rainbow, I know darn well that yer workin' with Fluttershy, y'all gotta know what the hay happened to her...", Applejack lost some of her steam, "Did those Diamond Dogs take her to somepony? Did she wander into that part of the Everfree Forest agin'? What happened?!"
Rainbow shook her head, "I made a promise, I can't let you guys know what's going on..."
"Tell...me...", Those words from Applejack were dripping with venom.
The mares in that room hadn't seen Applejack this angry since Apple Bloom was fillynapped by some trouble causing Pegasi, even Rainbow was starting to be more afraid of her than angry at her. Anything that would fillynap any child of the farmpony had a wrath waiting for her that would be bitter even after the end.
"I made a promise to MY friend that I won't go back on! No, She's OUR friend, you have to respect that at least! You can't go tying me up like a rodeo bull just because you're worried about something!"
"Ah don't care, ain't you supposed' t' be the loyal one? What happened t' that?" Exclaimed Applejack.
Rainbow glared at the farmpony. Applejack could swear she saw a red flame burning behind those rose irises. She backed down.
"I am being loyal!" Rainbow screamed, "And I'm sorry if you can't see that, but  I made a promise to a friend, and I. WILL. KEEP. IT!"
The girls looked at each other and the front door opened, Spike wandered in carrying a lot of scrolls, "I'm back, I couldn't get as many scrolls as you wanted, but the rest should be in by Friday. Woah! What's goin' on here?"
The four who had been questioning Rainbow looked as guilty as a Pinkie after she ate the Cakes' entire supply of corn-cakes. Rarity and Twilight looked at Applejack, their faces changing to disgust. She got the hint and loosened the rope. Rainbow immediately seized the opportunity and flew out of the open door. Her speed was so great that the rushing of wind she left behind nearly pulled the door closed on the baby dragon's tail.
Twilight was the first to speak up, saying, "I'm certain that when Fluttershy is ready to tell us why she's wearing...armor...and kicking trees, she will."

[With a friend]
Flutter was comfortable lying on a cloud, she watched as the moon rose up. She could see Luna had chosen to raise the moon from over Ponyville tonight. As she watched the Alicorn perform her task she felt the cloud shift a little. Flutter looked over at Rainbow, "Hi, Dash."
"Can you BELIEVE it? They accused me, ME of not being loyal! Just because I was keeping my promise!"
Flutter looked surprised, "What? They did that?"
"Hmph!" Rainbow snorted in disbelief.
Flutter stood up and moved close to her, "It'll be alright. We'll find the real Fluttershy and everything will be alright. Until then we have to stand by our decisions."
"Don't tell me what I already know! I am standing by my decision!" Rainbow Dash had started verbally lashing out, not caring who got caught in the fire.
"Dash? Do you want me...to leave you alone for a little while?", She asked gently.
The cyan Pegasus looked at Flutter, as if she just realized she was sharing a cloud with the mechanical pony.
"RRgh... I didn't mean to take it out on you, they just drove me crazy with all that!"
"It's alright, I understand.", she thought for a moment, "Dash?"
"Yeah?"
"You've been doing so much for me, I want to thank you somehow.", She grinned, "Something more than just saying 'thank you'..."
"Yeah? Like what?" Dash said, she couldn't put her hoof on it, but something about the offer intrigued her.
"Well, maybe I could help you and Pinkie with a prank? Or help with the weather? Maybe something else?"
"Hmm," Rainbow Dash contorted her face as her wheels began to spin, "I did always want to try to get one over on Pinkie. It's kinda hard to pull a two-pony prank when your partner in crime is the pony you're tryin' to prank"
Flutter smiled, "That would be...awesome."
"Y'know, 'Shy isn't much of a prankster, I'd say that makes you about 20% cooler!"
"Thank you, Dash. I can't wait to figure out the prank!"
"Hay, yeah! This's gonna be a Dash and - ..." Rainbow stopped, realization creeping up on her, "Hey, what should we call you? I mean, you're not exactly 'Flutter-SHY' are you?"
Flutter thought for a moment, "You're right, uhm...", her mind ran wild with ideas but she found one she felt comfortable with, "FlutterGear? Does that sound good?"
Dash tapped a hoof to her chin, contemplating the name, "Flutter-gear ... FlutterGear. Yeah, I like it!"
With a lot of volume to her voice, Gear shouted, "Yay!"
Rainbow Dash blinked a couple of times, before she raised her own voice, "YEAH! Now that's what I'm talkin' about!"

[The night was young but these two little ponies were drained, they drifted off into a sleep next to each other, both with a little smile on their faces. The dreams they would have tonight would be entertaining to say the least, one dreaming of machines the other of winning. Which one dreams what? I'll let you figure that out. But first this little Sublet needs a "Heart-to-Heart" before the network opens once more...]