Fur and Feathers

by Nexas


Helping

Twilight, once again, walked down the dirt path to Fluttershy's house. Owlowiscious slowly stepped beside her, occasionally tripping up with Twilight quickly reaching to help him.

She inspected her pet's injury for probably the hundredth time, all while trying to hide the irritating smirk that kept trying to sneak onto her face whenever she remembered why he was injured.

"How are you feeling?" She asked, unable to stop a small giggle from getting out. Owlowiscious shot a hard glare at her, which only caused him to wince at his eye. The mark from where he had been punched had turned a darkish color.

"I'm fine, my self-esteem's bruised but it'll heal-Ah!" His little joke caused him to wince again. "It's a pretty small bruise but that doesn't mean it doesn't hurt as much."

"You really have a way with kids." She said jokingly.

He grinned slightly despite the pain. "I suppose so. I've already been set on fire. The only other thing I needed was to be punched by a foal and zapped with magic."

"It's not so bad though. The Cakes apologized when they found out about what happened."

"And so did Pinkie. And I have to admit, her apology was incredibly sweet."

"Yeah, all of us think her 'apology cupcakes' are the best." Twilight levitated her apology up to her mouth and took a bite out of it, delighting at the sweet taste of the colored frosting and sprinkles.

"Actually, I meant that those cupcakes of hers could give you cavities." He smiled slightly at the tasty memory though, stopping for a second to brush some leftover crumbs from his muzzle. "It's still a lot tastier than the food I ate as a bird."

Twilight looked at the pegasus in shock. "What? But I went out of my way to get you the best worms and grubs!"

"Worms are still worms Twilight; especially after you've tasted Pinkie's food."

They continued in silence. Not too long after, they reached Fluttershy's house. Fluttershy's many animals meandered about as usual, none the worse for wear after sleeping outside. A group of them noticed the two ponies coming up the path and ran up to meet them. Ponies of every type surrounded the two; happily chattering in their various animal languages while being particularly interested in Owlowiscious.

"Looks like somepony has a little fan club." Twilight noted cheerfully.

"Lucky me." Owlowiscious gently pushed the animals inside his personal space bubble away. The animals insisted and even more of the joined in, pushing the two from behind so they move forward.

"What are they saying?" Twilight asked over the noise.

"Uh, something about how happy they are that we're here..." He tuned his ears to the various animal voices, trying to distinguish and translate the different languages. "...And if we have a cure yet."

Twilight looked down sadly and didn't reply. The more they were pushed towards the building the more they realized that something was indeed going on. All of the ponies seemed to be gathering in a crowd, chattering amongst themselves about something. Twilight and Owlowiscious were pushed through the crowd until they saw Fluttershy and Angel.

Twilight called out to them. "Fluttershy, there you are!"

Fluttershy turned to the sound and smiled when she saw her friends, waving to them excitedly. Angel noticed them too and went over to meet them.

"Finally." Angel said with irritation, although he was smiling regardless. "It's about time you two got here." He raised an eyebrow disapprovingly at Twilight. "And here I thought you were the punctual one."

"Angel, be nice." Fluttershy scolded him softly as she joined them. Angel rolled his eyes at the meek pegasus but became quiet. "It's nice that you're here Twilight. And you too, Owlowisc-Oh my!" She ran right up to Owlowiscious and inspected his black eye. "Are you alright? How did this happen?"

"I'd... rather not say." He told her calmly, hiding his embarrassment. "But I'm fine, really."

Twilight cut into the conversation before anything else could be asked. "How's the music coming along? Do you need our help with it?"

"Music? Nah, we had all that straightened out before that magic wall of yours destroyed our house." Angel said smugly. "We've finished training and already found all of the birds. Only now we have a pegasus choir instead of a bird symphony."

"And they're still good singers?"

Angel held his head high. "The best. Though..." His expression dropped. "I don't get it, I mean, why are they so popular? All they did was whistle nicely."

"Well then, I guess our work here is done. Let's go Twilight." Owlowiscious and Twilight were right about to leave when Twilight looked back at Fluttershy. "Do either of you know where Rainbow Dash is? We were going to check up on her."

"Right now?" Angel gave an amused grin, his eyes turned to the sky above. "Right above us."

Everypony looked up into the sky as well. Three shapes were moving through the empty sky, twisting, barreling and soaring through the air. Well, two of the shapes were doing that. The third shape seemed to be flying with some difficulty; going fairly slower than the other two and not doing nearly as many tricks.

Twilight was legitimately dumbfounded. "Is... is that Tank, flying?"

"Yup." Angel nodded, none of them looking away from the three shapes. "Dash wants him to be able to keep up with her and Tank didn't disagree. In fact I think his exacts words were: 'sure'."

"My birds have been helping her teach him to fly but there have been some problems."

"Problems?" Twilight asked.

"Tank's..." Angel thought about what to say. "Tank's a tortoise. He's just slow."

"Um, is it just me..." Owlowiscious stated, slowly understanding something. "Or are the shapes getting closer?"

Everypony focused on the shapes above them and realized that they were, in fact, getting larger and getting closer and closer to the group.

"Look out!" Twilight dove out of the way and the others did the same. It was just in time too as the shape crashed into the ground where the four were just standing. When the dust cleared the ponies were clearly recognizable. Tank the now-pegasus was now laying in a small crater he had created. Rainbow Dash fluttered down from the sky, landing with a slightly pained expression from her splinted leg. "Alright, how long was that Angel?"

Angel helped Tank to his hooves; he actually didn't seem to be hurt. "Longer than last time. He actually moved around this time."

"Awesome. Let's try again and-" She stopped when she noticed Twilight. "Twilight, hey!"

Twilight smiled kindly. "Hello Rainbow dash. You're teaching Tank how to fly?"

"Yeah, since I didn't have any work today I thought it would be good to teach Tank a few tricks." She wiped her brow of sweat. "You wouldn't believe how hard it is though."

"I can. He's a tortoise." Owlosiscious pointed out matter of factly.

Angel nodded. "Yeah, Tank wasn't the most aerodynamic creature before he became a pegasus."

"But he can do it!" Dash insisted. "And he wants to try anyways, right Tank?"

After a brief pause, and after brushing some dirt from his fur, Tank nodded slowly. It was at a that point that the third shape, a petite, green pegasus landed next to Fluttershy, weakly wobbling on its hooves before collapsing on its side. Fluttershy knelt at her side, concern painted on her face. "Oh, poor Hummingway. Are you alright?"

"She kept flapping her wings too fast. She tired herself out before we even got that far into the air!" Dash complained. "I need somepony else that can help me teach Tank." She looked at Twilight. "Can Owlowiscious help?"

"Well..." She looked to Owlowiscious for an answer.

"We still have to go see Applejack and Winona about the apple production." He reminded her.

"By the time you get there they'll probably still be working." Dash pointed out. "And besides, it's not like anything interesting will be going on."

***

"...And always make sure that the thread goes through the needle. A single, fraying strand can run the whole thing." Rarity demonstrated with her sewing needle and did a few stitches in the fabric hanging on her mannequin. "And that's how you make clothing. Any questions?"

Across the room of Rarity's boutique, Peewee had fallen asleep a long time ago, curled up in a pile of scarves on the floor. Spike was laying on the ground right next to Peewee; fast asleep like his pet with a gemstone sticking out of his mouth. The only pony awake to listen to Rarity was, unfortunately, Opal, who was currently lounging lazily on a couch.

"Amazing." Opal said in a sarcastic tone. "You can put a thread through a hole."

"Oh be quiet. You know, you really should be helping me right now."

"Why? You never asked for my help before."

"You were a cat before!" She shouted at Opal angrily. Neither Spike nor Peewee awoke from the shouting.

Opal remained indignant. "Whatever. You've had me for my entire life and you've never needed my help."

Rarity fumed quietly, steeled herself, and returned to her work, choosing to ignore her pet, rather than try to get her to work anymore. "Ugh..." She muttered to herself. "Sometimes I wonder why I..."

Opal picked up on her mumbling, though, she only heard a few words. "What was that? I couldn't hear you."

Rarity sighed and focused on her work. "It's nothing, never mind."

Opal, for once, decided not to pry and returned to doing nothing; the room was enveloped in silence once again. Rarity continued her work slower than before, addled by memories and other thoughts. She tried to push those aside and resume her stitching. The silence was thankfully broken by a loud force unceremoneously slamming into the front door; startling both unicorns and waking Spike from his sleep.

"...Ow..." They heard somepony groaning in pain on the other side.

"Somepony is at the door." Opal noted dryly. "You should probably answer it with that ridiculous sing-song way you use."

Rarity glared at her, almost like she was trying to burn a hole through Opal's skull.

"Fine." She groaned exasperatedly. "I'll get it myself; just don't say I didn't do anything for you."

Opal sluggishly got up from the couch, walked across the room, accidently stepping on an awaking Spike in the process, and went to the front doors of the store, manually opening the door slowly with a hoof. She peered out into the open.

"Yeah? What do you wan-Ah!!"

Opal shrieked in fear and backed away from the door. Right outside the doorway, rubbing her sore head, was the one thing she didn't want to see today: Winona; the disgusting farmer's pet. Opal suddenly felt it becoming hard to breathe as she stepped away from the canine.

"Howdy." Winona said in a friendly tone, not looking up from the ground while she rubbed her forehead and not noticing who exactly she was talking to yet. "Ah was just wondering if this is Carousel boutique. Ah been looking around town for a while and there's only so many times that you can crash through doors..."

"You're in luck; you are in the right place miss-?" Rarity walked up to the doorway, not noticing her cat's perpetual horrified expression. Her own expression lit up and she gasped. "Why Winona! Whatever are you doing here?"

"Hoo-wee! Finally, uh... Rarity, right? Ah actually came here because-" It was at this moment that she finally looked up and saw who she was talking too and gasped. "Cat..." She growled.

Opal replied with a scared squeak.

Winona crouched low like a predator. She eyed her terrified prey with anger that wasn't even hinted at before. Opal knew that she would have to run but found that she couldn't move. Winona reared back and was about to spring forward...

"Winona, heel!"

Against all odds, Winona froze. The furious look in her eyes disappeared in a snap and Winona dropped to all four hooves again. From behind Winona, three fillies, that Rarity knew fairly well, appeared.

"Winona..." Applebloom glared in an annoyed fashion at her dog. "What did Applejack say about coming with us to Rarity's?"

Strangely enough, Winona seemed embarrassed. "That Ah wasn't supposed to attack the cat." She repeated from memory.

"Good girl." Applebloom reached up and scratched her dog's ear. Winona panted happily and her tail wagged back and forth.

"Sweetie Belle, girls..." Rarity sighed, confused for what was probably the hundredth time in a few days. "Just what it going on?"

"We heard that everypony's pets turned into ponies." Scootaloo explained.

"And we wanted to see if the pets knew anything about cutiemarks!" Applebloom cut in.

"And we already talked to Winona." Sweetie Belle finished. "So we want to talk to Opal."

Rarity inspected the three faces; each of them looking up at her hopefully, smiling that cutesy smile that they used to will something to happen. "You're serious." She concluded. They nodded. "Fine, I suppose a few minutes wouldn't hurt anypony. You may all come in, including you Winona. But please be careful, I have a lot of work to do."

"Yay!" The crusaders and Winona cheered. They all ran in past Rarity and Opal into the boutique. Rarity quietly closed the front door and walked back in. "Close your mouth dear, you'll swallow flies." She smiled as she walked past a stunned Opal, the sound of quiet laughter not escaping Opal's ears. Opal was extremely confused by the sudden turn of events but she did know one thing.

Rarity had been standing on her tail the whole time.