//------------------------------//
// # ~ The Glasshouse Appendicies (Spoilers ahoy!) 
// Story: A Glasshouse Butterfly 
// by littlerobotbird 
//------------------------------//


~Appendix01~


~Introductions~


The hollow of her abdomen and the absent replies.

They were all that she could sense as she tumbled down from the branches once again , crashing against the hard forest floor. She trembled, rising on legs shaken too many times by the impact, carapace pliable where it should have been strong, the strange breeze of her impotently buzzing wings both comfort and reminder. Memories fumbled in her head with each ill-placed hoofstep, lessons and observations all a jumble. But most of all, at the fore of it was the hunger, gnawing rapaciously at her innards, threatening to leave her bereft, and the silence, the lack of chorus in her acts.

Hunger and silence.

She trembled at the ever-present realization of it. The unfamiliarity, a sudden lack of guidance plying her mentally as the Everfree tore at her physically. She found her thoughts hewing to old, well-trodden edicts and even older instincts as she swept through the barren gray of ancient forest, seeking a spring, an oasis.

The thorns and branches of the brush mattered little as they scraped at her once hard, plated hide. And though the beasts and plants of the forest might have her eventually, it seemed to her that they would not be quick enough to their claim. It would be starvation.

She felt a weight settle upon her as she realized the thought, the sole creation of a singular mind abandoned.

The now silent voices had once whispered warnings of such things, of an end inevitable for such a state of singularity. Thus had the hollow once been filled to the brim.

But how long since?

Weeks? Perhaps months since she had been satiated?

Despite the occasional satisfaction to be had in the lessers of Everfree, she found herself weak and emaciated as she forged on without direction.

She recalled for the briefest of moments the plan that had left her in such a state. There, a brief burst of anger at the memory before it was quickly culled from her thoughts, fading to a gentle, pervasion of longing and she quickly shifted her mind to its basest cause, uncluttered by context or effect.

The princess. The prince. The pair, once a greater source than could be recalled by the whispers, had been the cause, the flame to the moth.

Even as she was cast from the city of Canterlot, the physical blow of their barrier sending her careening towards Everfree, she could feel something beneath it. The source of their barrier a purest of sustenances, just beyond her reach.

She recalled that the first moment of silence had been then. The chorus fell quiet, an assault of silence upon her as her mind had raced to fill the void with the anger and fear that filled her so copiously. She recalled the swirling path of the sun in her vision as she had tumbled down, wings unable to steady her before she had hit the first tree, the first trunk, the branches and then the ground.

She found her way into a small clearing,looking back a moment at her disabled wing, the glossy surface shimmering softly in the morning’s light, sun glinting off the glassy edges of the crumpled chitin. For a moment her horn and wing glowed green before a twist of her abdomen reminded her acutely of the hunger. She grimaced and pressed on into the brush.

Then, she felt it.

The tiniest, quivering sense of it. Distantly, she sensed it. A lilting scent of it wafting on the forest breeze, her mouth hung open as her mouth salivated slightly and her stomach made its demands known.

An unrequited desperation set amidst the deserts of absence.

A lush oasis in the grand empty of the forest.

Excitement coursing through her, she scrabbled through the brush to find a proper, albeit disused, path worn into the forest. In the distance, drawing closer as she ran, the hint chimney smoke curling into the atmosphere from a small cottage at the edge of Everfree, awash in the scent of sustenance.

Nearer and nearer she galloped, edict, training and instinct forced beneath by desire, but still their hooves scraped and dug and clawed at her conscience until she halted mere yards from her destination at a sudden swing of the cottage door.

With a cascade of dirt sent down the path, she dug her hooves in and lept for the brush that had taunted her for so many moons, seeking safety in the spiky leaves of a holly bush.

After a bit of fidgeting, she managed to worm her way to the ground beneath the brush, burrowing down, staring out from under the leaves at her potential prey. Quietly she stared at the yellow-hewn pegasus as she closed the door, a long-legged bird having followed close behind her, the wondrous scent emanating from both.

And, surely, edict and instinct returned fully to her.


~o~0~o~


"Angel Bunny! You come back here this instant, mister!" Fluttershy called after the rabbit, mixed worry and reproach tinging every syllable of her attempted affectation of authority. "It's dangerous!"

She hovered meekly down the path towards the forest, eyes darting between her rabbit’s bouncing white form and the bobbing pink form of the lapine’s quarry.

"Angel Bunny!" She folded her wings, dropping into a steady trot as she crossed the subtle threshold that separated Ponyville and the Everfree Forest. She turned a moment and the rabbit was ahead, nary hide nor feather of the pink bird was left.

As the sun’s light dimmed overhead, the forest leaves seemed to sharpen, branches becoming more wicked with each subsequent hooffall.

"Angel, what are you doing? She’s gone by now."

The rabbit simply glanced back over his shoulder, eyes narrowed angrily. Fluttershy could only wonder at the lagomorph’s motives.

Usually it was food or the lack of food or the lack of quality of the aforementioned food or a lack of qualified presentation of the aforementioned food, quality-lacking or non. Something to do with food.

But he seemed relatively satisfied with the fulfillment of his dietary needs—after all, she had been extra generous with the 	vegetables lately. He just seemed so arbitrarily moody as of late, more so than usual, just staring out the windows of the cottage for hours on end without even a word. Not even a squeak of discontent or a hard-tossed, well-aimed carrot from the rabbit.

Angel, what aren’t you telling me?

He’d just been so ornery lately, ever since Sir Pinkington the Third had been spending time with that female flamingo. Pinkington had been so lonely for such a long time. Fluttershy was happy for him, but Angel… Angel seemed to be holding a grudge against the pair.

Is that it? Are you just jealous, Angel Bunny? she wondered as she quickened her trot to a slow gallop to catch up.

As they arrived in the forest proper—her cottage having finally disappeared from sight as the pegasus made her frequent check of where she’d been—the rabbit seemed to slow, stopping every few hops to sniff at the air. His whiskers twitched in agitation, eyes carefully examining the branches above as Fluttershy caught up to the rabbit.

"Angel Bunn—"

She was cut off by a fuzzy little paw pressed to her lips, the rabbit's eyes glinting. Before Fluttershy could even lift a hoof to remove the rabbit's paw, Angel had grabbed ahold of her mane and swung himself onto her back. He landed, digging one of his toe claws into just the right spot of her back and involuntarily, the pegasus bucked her hindlegs with a panicked flare of her wings, sending the bunny rocketing into the branches.

"Angel!" Fluttershy gasped, guilt immediately burrowing into her conscience as she heard a rather loud series of thumps from the tree tops.

Then there came a squawk and honk in answer as leaves began to shake down from the topmost branches of the tree. Fluttershy watched, aghast as the tremors moved about the canopy.

Instinctively, she scrambled back as a lump of pink and white crashed down to the ground.

“Angel Bunny! What are you—” she tried to reprimand the rabbit—being jealous was one thing, but this was simply unacceptable behavior—but before she could the rabbit’s hind paw thumped against the avian’s skull, sending a wave of green fire across it.

A black and blue, pony-sized lump lay there, a pair of glassy, insect-like wings buzzing in a panic beneath the now triumphantly-posed Angel Bunny.

Fluttershy froze, pressing herself to the ground as she stared wide-eyed at the fallen changeling, the strange holes in its armored shell, the shimmering black chitin glinting threateningly in the low forest light, the sharpened horn and protruding fangs... the crumpled and torn wings... the fearful sheen to its wide eyes... forelegs held to its chest in a sign of submission...

And then it whimpered.

"Angel Bunny!"

The rabbit's triumphant grin all but vanished as Fluttershy stared him down. Forelegs crossed, he hopped off the changeling, giving the dirt a petulant kick before plopping down in a huff, back to the both of them.

The changeling gave out a relieved sigh before sucking it right back in as it found itself beneath the full force of Fluttershy's piercing stare.

Stepping closer as she stared the changeling into continued submission, she finally dropped her gaze to the rest of it. Dutifully, she examined it, taking its limbs one-by-one in her hooves, muttering softly to herself as one of the changeling's forelegs refused to extend.

"On your stomach," she ordered in her soft voice and the shocked creature immediately complied, rolling over with a slight wince. Cautiously, she ran her hooves over its crumpled wings. "Shhh... shhh... it’s okay..." Fluttershy hushed as the wings began to buzz haphazardly between her hooves.

It settled down, wings stilling.

"Okay, now stand."

It stared at her a moment, head cocked to the side.

"Just as best as you can, okay?"

It nodded, lifting slowly up on three of its legs, holding one of its forelegs gingerly in the air.

Moving quickly, Fluttershy moved beside the creature, worming her way under its belly until it rested not terribly comfortably on her back, the changeling giving a little yelp of surprise as she did so.

"Okay, Angel Bunny. We’re going back to the cottage now."

Angel's jaw dropped. Letting out a series of disbelieving squeaks, he hopped up and down in front of the pegasus, jabbing his paws at the changeling accusingly.

"Yes, I understand that."

Angel settled down, rubbing at forehead with a paw before letting out another series of less panicked rasps.

"And that's why you're going to run ahead and tell everyone. So they no one panics when we get there."

Angel threw up his paws in frustration, letting out a dissatisfied grunt.

"Angel Bunny! You know better than that." She paused a moment, looking over her shoulder at the thoroughly flabbergasted creature on her back. "Changeling or not."

Angel stewed on this point for a moment before drawing a paw to his eyes, pointing to the changeling and then back to his eyes again. But, with an angry thump of his hind paws on the dirt, Angel complied with Fluttershy's wishes, shooting back along the path to the cottage as the pegasus began her careful trudge back home.

"Oh dear..." she whispered quietly as she caught a glimpse of Ponyville and Canterlot beyond through the trees, thoughts of dungeons and banishments racing through her head.

But she couldn't very well do nothing.

All creatures deserved at least a little kindness after all.


~End Appendix01~







~Appendix02~


~A Storybook Romance~


“Hm… How about…” Fluttershy sifted through the books that now littered the living room carpet, trying to find one that might strike her charge’s fancy. She tilted her lantern forwards, dusting off the cover of a particularly disused volume.

Somewhere in the darkness of drawn curtain, she could hear the ruffle of hooves and buzz of wings before a thin, pink tome thumped down in front of her, landing atop a hardbound collection of Bird Fancy Quarterly’s Aviaries of Equestria Roundup.

It was pink—a smile crept across Fluttershy’s features rather incidentally—with embroidering of both red and white flowers encircling its title with floral heart.

“This one?” She glanced up, eyes matching the changeling’s seemingly pupilless blue eyes with her own quizzical one. But, with a nod from her charge, she took up the book in her hooves. “‘The Tragical Tales of the Lives and Loves of the Ladies Primrose’? Oh, that sounds a little too”—she hesitated momentarily as the weight on her back shifted, a pair of eyes peering down over top her mane—“tragic?”

An assertive chirp silenced any grievances, however, and with a pat-pat from its hole-ridden hoof on her mane, the pegasus come pillow pushed back the encroaching nest of texts to lay open the tale before them.

It was a rather old volume, perhaps the oldest in her meager personal collection—which, mayhaps, did not speak as ill of her literary tendencies as one might think, considering one would have to compare said collection to those of her more… inclined pony friends. It was one that she could faintly recall having heard bits and pieces of before her mother had decided the content was a bit overly… intense for such an emotionally sensitive soul.

Fluttershy had to admit to herself that the drudged-up image of her mother’s face, scrunched into a look somewhere betwixt disgust and bewilderment whilst scanning through the latter half of the book did lend a modest amount of intrigue to it.

Besides, it had love right there in the title. How tragic could it honestly be?

“In a realm of creatures pellucid, one—”

A gargled chirrup halted Fluttershy’s recitation as she felt trio of hooves hop awkwardly over her back, scraping past her folded wings. She watched over her shoulder as the changeling walk-hopped over to the largely now empty bookcase, returning quickly with a familiar, gently gnawed book balanced atop its head, fangs tucked sheepishly inside its lower lip as if in request.

“Thank you. That’s much better behavior. Did you want to…?”

The changeling nodded fervently, setting her book to Fluttershy’s side before gingerly nudging it open to the P’s with a hoof. Fluttershy simply kept watch, a wry smile upon her face as the bird intently scanned the pages, flipping dutifully through with careful slides of her beak. After a few minutes, it let out a cheerful squawk and nudged Fluttershy back towards their chosen reading.

“Alright.” Clearing her throat, she began again. “In a realm of creatures pellucid, one and all, beneath Sun’s light”—Fluttershy paused a moment as the changeling settled its head atop her bent foreleg, eyes glancing between her and the storybook—“there was born a pretty little filly whose future role could not be foretold whether by sage’s breath or Moon’s starry sky.

“Hers was to be a role most unnaturally natural amongst the royals of her empire.

“From birth she held a crystal circlet upon her crown and a spoon of silver within her jaw—as any respectable pony of House Primrose was expected.

“She was a curious and innately rapacious pony, blessed and cursed with the entirety of the royal library to draw from in her foalhood quests. Since first the runes had changed in her mind from nebulous shape to concrete letter, she spent all time not reserved for the study of etiquette and decorum befitting her station utterly ensconced in the deep lake of verbosity.

“Worlds crept up from the pages to invade her thoughts, filling her head with dreams of far off oceans and mountains ripe for conquest, deep jungles to be explored, heretofore unknown creatures to be discovered. The land outside her kingdom was one of 

“But, as with the many of her ilk, she was a mind exposed to the world, a condition most unfortunate for the events to come. Indeed, upon her entry into marehood, the most unfortunate of events that could befall any such princess did transpire:

“Suitors.”


~o~0~o~


“—it was on the night of the Full Hearts’ Centennial Ball that she would meet the unscrupulous rapscallion that was to be the third of her suitors. 

“Where Sir High Lord Ironstag the Twenty-Third had merely been an incompetent—his ‘high lordship Flint,’ as he was so wont to be called, having been kept blessedly harmless in his circle of serviles and kept far from actual power by his born privilege—made the fool revealed, and Grand Duke Upperlip of Trottingham had simply been far too stodgy an old codger to merit the allowance of a mutually assured pursuit, this newest suitor was not just a stallion of means and ways, but one of desire and cunning.

“For many a year, this stallion had waited in the background, of parties and festivities, of social functions and receptions. Anywhere the princess had gone, he had followed under the auspices of duty and obligation, having worked his way into her graces to become her ladyship’s solemn, ever present confidant.

“And, naturally, it was in this role that she did discover and dismiss so many of her prospective suitors out of hoof.

“Too old. Too young Too feeble of mind. Too feeble of body. Too involved in his body. Too lost to the pursuits of the mind…

“The list of potential defects close at hoof numbered perhaps tenfold, nay, twentyfold the suitors awaiting their opportunity.

“Indeed, what use was a royal alchemist to his lady were he not available at ev—”

A chime of the clock from upstairs cut the story short as Fluttershy gently lifted her wing from beneath the languid changeling’s form.

“Alright, it’s time for changing,” she said with a smile, stretching out her stiffened legs before trotting towards the bathroom before a soft, mournful churr halted her. “Now you just wait there a moment and I’ll be back before you know it.”

She disappeared into the bathroom, smile replaced by a frown that furrowed her features with worry.

“Oh, what am I even thinking…” she muttered to herself as she dug through the lower cabinets for a fresh roll of gauze.

And that was when she heard it.

"Oh, hiya!" came the familiar high-pitched greeting. “I haven’t seen you before.”

Fluttershy's blood ran cold as she heard the clunk of the cottage door knocking against the interior wall as it finished its inward swing. Nary a moment later, the pegasus skidded into the main room, fresh roll of bandage dangling from her mouth, just in time to see Pinkie Pie strolling happily into the cottage, saddlebags bulging at her sides.

"Painkay?"—she spat the roll onto the carpet—"Pinkie Pie? What are you doing here at this hour?"

"Fluttershy!" Pinkie chirped excitedly, "I was just saying 'hiya' to your new friend here… wait, this hour?"

Eyes wide, Fluttershy glanced about before settling on the rather conspicuous pink flamingo hopping languidly on one leg behind the earth pony.

“Did I miss daylight savings?”

"Oh my, goodness, you shouldn't be… up like this yet," Fluttershy gasped out, fumbling with her uncertain reproach as she fluttered past Pinkie and slipped beneath the lanky wading bird. "What are...? How did..." The slight verdant gleam in the bird's otherwise yellow-pink eyes granted relief and apprehension in equal measure. "Later..."

The bird gave a honk of agreement as it nested between the pegasus's wings.

"Aww... you two look so cute," Pinkie cooed, sliding her bags onto the large table at the center of the living room before trotting back to Fluttershy. "Soooo... who's your new friend?"

"Oh, um." Fluttershy glanced up at the flamingo expectantly.

"She hasn't got a name yet? Aw, that's so sad!" Pinkie pouted. "Oh, lemme help! Please, please, please!" she begged, pressing her forehooves together and letting her eyes water just the right amount. “I’m great at names, I promise!”

"Oh, that's not up to m—"

A squawk cut her off, the flamingo giving the pink pony's mane a playful nip before nodding its assent.

"Yes!" Pinkie shouted triumphantly before shooting to her hooves, staring at the flamingo. "Okie dokie... so what kind of flamingy do we got here..."

Around and around the pink pony went, circling around the pair as Fluttershy found streaks of sweat streaming down her brow and stinging at her eyes.

"Lessee... Andes? No, too masculine. Jamie? No, too pink for that. Oh! Pink! Pink Flaminkie! We can even call you Pinkie for short!"

"Pinkie?"

"Oh, right, that's taken already. Can't be confusing everypony with two Pinkies, right? That’d just be silly.” Pinkie tut-tutted quietly a moment, lifting the bird’s unbandaged wing for a closer examination of its plumage. “Besides, more of a fuchsia anyways."

Fluttershy just stared in shocked silence as the pink pony rubbed a hoof over the fur on her chinny chin chin so fast the pegasus worried she might cause a fire or at the very least an awful abrasion.

"Hmmm… mmmmmmmmmmm… hm!" 

Fluttershy stared upwards as the flamingo craned its neck over her head, the pink pair staring at one another in silence as the pegasus fidgeted as quietly as she could.

"Oh, how about Flammy? Flammy the Flamingo!"

"Flammy the Flamingo?" Fluttershy echoed, her charge cocking its head to the side as if in consideration, Pinkie beaming at them in assumed triumph.

"I think she likes it," Pinkie declared as the flamingo patted her on the head with its curved bill. “Alliteration never goes outta style. Never.”

"Well... Flammy it is." Fluttershy smiled, fears assuaged for the moment.

"Please t'meet ya, Flammy the Flamingo!" Pinkie declared, thrusting out of hoof in greeting. “I’m Pinkie the Pony.”

"Oh, she's hurt, Pinkie, I don’t know if..." Fluttershy watched as the pair worked out a complex, albeit slowed down shake of their hoof and flipper, the flamingo letting out a pleased churr when they had finished. "Well... at least you're being careful."

"Careful is my middle name!"

Fluttershy opened her mouth to comment on the fallacious nature of that particular statement but found herself already being forcibly pushed towards the table. With an audible thwump, the pegasus was seated at the table and, with a few quick zips about the room, Pinkie had the newly christened Flammy on a cushion beside her.

Another round of zippety-zop-zops later, the pink pony had rounded up a dozen or so of the pegasus's resident critter friends; Mr. Mouse and his family were seated around a rodent-sized table atop the regular-sized one; a somewhat disoriented Angel Bunny, nightcap well and truly askew, had found his sleeping basket flipped into a table for lagomorph and mustelid alike; an immature crabapple tree had been jury-rigged into a perch for Hummingway, Roby, Elizabeak and the rest of her in-house aviary.

Pinkie stepped back for moment, framing the tabled menagerie of critters and pony with her hooves before nodding in satisfaction. Everyone in their proper place, Pinkie grabbed up her saddlebags and, with a expertly choreographed twirl of her head, sent two empty plates of cupcakes onto the tabletop, somehow still looking fresh from the oven, lilting trails of steam and all.

"Whattaya think?" Pinkie grinned from across the table at her self-assembled audience.

"Um... they look… tasty,” Fluttershy replied uncertainly as she held back a drooling flamingo from clambering up onto the table.

Pinkie just stared a moment before forehoof met brow with frustrated thonk. "Oh Pinkamena, you silly pony. Have to start with the pitch!"

Fluttershy cocked an eyebrow as the pink pony burrowed headfirst into one of the saddle bags, inexplicably fitting the whole of her upper body into it.

"A-ha!" she yelled in triumph, popping out of the bag, arms filled with papers and a easel. "Now, I've been working on this for Mr. and Mrs. Cake, so I want you to be completely, one-hundred—No! One-hundred-and-twenty-nine-point-five percent honest with me."

"Of course."

"I mean it, Fluttershy." Pinkie was suddenly muzzle-to-muzzle with Fluttershy, eyes pleading and watery. "I need your most brutally honestly honest honesty! I need you to be the most savage of critics, stalking the plains of Pitchistan, tracking down the coarse and the unpolished before sinking its mighty criticisms into it—RAWR!"

Fluttershy found herself leaning about a far back as she could, her stock stiff wings the only thing keeping her from being on her back as the earth pony snapped back, the bestial growl buried once more beneath her wide, wide smile.

"'Kay?"

"I, um"—Fluttershy shrank back a bit as Pinkie's pouting personage filled her vision—"I'll do the best I can."

How else could anypony respond to that face? Either of them… 

"Perfect!" The pink pony grinned, slapping a black top hat onto her noggin before suddenly all the carefully arranged lanterns in the darkened cottage went out.

Fluttershy sat a moment in silence, blinking as her eyes tried to adjust to suddenly black as pitch room before, with a double clop-clop of a pink hoof, a spotlight flared into life. There before them, in a halo of light, was Pinkie Pie, now sporting a monocle attached to a gentlemarely vest and pipe in addition to her top hat.

"Sweets," she began almost tonelessly. "For centuries—NAY!”—she stamped a hoof for emphasis—“for millennia, ponies everywhere have enjoyed these magnificent morsels of pure and plenty, oh so superiorly saccharine—if you'll allow—for the sublimely sagacious among us." She paused a moment to blow a few bubbles on her pipe. "But, alas—alackaday!—there are the most venerably vulnerable amongst us whom give to us so much love and hardly asking anything in return. They have been cut off from the exquisite ecstasy of flavor that are desserts for far, far too long!" Pinkie slammed a hoof onto the table. Her pipe slipped from her mouth at the impact, nearly clattering to the floor before the pink pony snatched it up between her teeth, glaring up at the assembled audience before snapping back into her place of regal revulsion. "Our most faithful of friends and most courteous of companions neglected, scandalously shunned by our overt oversight."

Fluttershy raised a hoof.

"Yes, the pegasus in the back row."

"Um,”—Fluttershy blinked as her thoughts collected themselves—“well, if you don't mind me asking, who are we talking about?"

Pinkie shifted her pipe from one side of her mouth to the other, squinting her eyes accusingly at the pegasus. Quickly though, her expression morphed into her normal joyful one, monocle popping out and dangling from her lapel.

"Our pets, silly!" she called out with a slight bounce, grabbing the top sheet of paper on her presentation pad and tearing it off to reveal a rather simplified drawing of numerous animals in various stages of sweets mastication, a flurry of hearts drawn over their bowed heads. "I was thinking of all the fantastic treats we sell at the Sugarcube Corner and how all the poor little pony pets  don’t have their own Sugarcube Corner to go to so they never get to consume the cherishable custardiness of a cannelle or to partake of a perfectly piquant pineapple pudding without their owners worrying themselves to pieces! I know couldn't take if Gummy were to get sick and I know all the other ponies feel the same way, so…" She smiled brightly before tearing off another page; 'Pinkamena Pie's Palatably Perfect Pet Partakeries' it read in fanciful magenta calligraphy. "Or P.P.P.P.P.P. for short!" she stated, sounds for a moment not entirely unlike a stalled zeppelin, sending a tiny bit of spittle into the air. "We'll have everything from apple tarts for aardvarks to zucotto for zorillas! Doughnuts for dogs! Cakes for cats! Butterscotches for bunnies! Bundt cakes for birdies!" Fluttershy's eyes widened at the earth pony's increasingly excitable tone. "There are no limits to where we will go and what we will eat when we get there!  Mayhaps someday we shall reach the moon and taste of its cheese!" Pinkie lept onto the table, taking up her still bulging pack and thrusting a hoof towards her quadruple-P—her perfectly perplexed pegasus pal. "Will you join me on the tabletop? In this brave new world, this final frontier for all ponypetkind?"

Fluttershy couldn't help but let out a giggled as she allowed herself to be yoinked up onto the table. Pinkie hugged her with one forehoof as the other began to toss plate after plate of confection after confection from her bag, each dish clattering down in front of a different animal.

"Then let us feast not famine!" the pink pony declared triumphantly and the animals quickly dug into the desserts, barks, yips, coos and chirps of satisfaction soon following.

"Um… Pinkie?"

"Yeah, Fluttershy?" Pinkie asked, still holding the pegasus in one arm.

"If I'm going to be honest..." she hesitated with her words a moment as the earth pony stared at her, eyes shimmering hopefully. "That may have been a teensy-weensy little bit…”

"Too much?"

"Too much."

"Aww, pickles and sauerkraut," Pinkie harrumphed, clopping a hoof as the spotlight went off and the curtain rolls all flipped up with a fwap-fwap-fwap from the windows, letting the fading daylight stream into the cottage. "I was so sure I had it too."

"Well, maybe it was a bit too… inspiring."

"Aww...but that's exactly what the book said to do"—she put on a most businesslike expression, voice dropping into a lower, more serious register as she relinquished her hold on the pegasus to strike a dignified pose, forehoof tucked into her vest—"'Don't just sell to your client; INSPIRE them to reach the very heights of commerce!'"

"I’m not sure they meant that kind of inspiring..." Fluttershy trailed off as she stepped back into her seat, the pink pony plopping down opposite her. "I um..."

"Pleeeeease, Fluttershy. BRUTALLY honest," Pinkie reminded.

"Well…" Fluttershy took a deep breath, holding it while she looked over at the smiling pony. "Okay." She closed her eyes, focusing on the mental checklist she had dutifully compiled. "Your performance was over the top, your diction was lacking, the alliteration was way, way overdone, and your tone was simply not conducive to a business proceeding." The pink ponies eyes widened by degrees as the list wore on. "And your initialism sounds like a zeppelin that's run out of fuel."

"Oh..." Pinkie murmured tonelessly.

"I mean, parts of it were nice… maybe you just need to relax a little."

The pink pony looked crestfallen, but soon pepped right back up. "I knew that I shouldn't have gone with a voiceless bilabial stop. No wonder Pound and Pumpkin couldn't stop giggling in rehearsal!" She gave the table a determined tap of her hoof. "But how can I relax, Fluttershy? This is serious business. I want"—she paused—"I need to prove I can handle things. Serious things! Business things!"

"Why would you have to prove yourself to Mr. and Mrs. Cake?"

"They don't trust me," Pinkie stated with a little sigh, letting her head flop onto the table top, top hat tipping askew over her eyes. "I mean look at what happened with Pound and Pumpkin!"

"What do you mean? You've been great with them. You foalsit almost every week.”

"Yeah, now!" She flopped back, hat settling on her belly as she waggled her forehooves in faux surrender. "But they went and asked everypony else they could find before I even got a chance! They even asked Rainbow Dash before me! Have you seen Dashie with foals?"

"Um, no I haven't."

"I know, right?!" Pinkie shouted, popping up into a sitting position with hooves held skyward before they clopped down in front of her. "Not even a shred bit of experience entertaining and playing with foals, and still they asked her first. Rainbow Dash! She wouldn't know the first thing about dealing with foals. She can’t even deal with fillies and colts unless they're chanting her name!" The pink pony froze a moment. "Oh! Don't tell her I said that! She's awesome. Just, y’know, less awesome with foals." Pinkie's cheeks flushed as she glanced around the cottage, certain the walls had grown a cyan-furred ears and magenta eyes.

"But… didn't that already prove something to them?" Fluttershy questioned, trotting around the table to comfort the distraught earth pony. "Surely they wouldn't have you foalsitting their foals if they didn't trust you, right?"

Pinkie sighed. "I know. But I want them to trust me all the way with serious things. I mean, even when I open the shop, Mr. Cake double, triple and quintuple checks all my work. They don't think I can take things seriously at all."

"Well..."

Pinkie pressed her forehooves against the pegasus's chest, looking utterly aghast at the implication. "I can totally be serious! Look!" Pinkie frowned, pursing her lips tightly as her eyes narrowed. "See," she began without hardly moving, "serious face."

"Pinkie," Fluttershy intoned gently. "Just relax and explain your idea to them normally. You don't need to go overboard. You really do have a great idea and, as business ponies, I'm sure the Cakes will appreciate it. Just think of all the pets in Ponyville that could use a cake on their birthday, a Hearth's Warming pie or just a sweet treat when they've been good." Fluttershy smiled her widest grin at the still grimacing earth pony. “It’d be wonderful.”

"I know! And all they get right now are treats that taste like dog treats! Or cat treats!" Pinkie's face scrunched up into a look of disgust. "Would you want to eat a dog treat? They're awful!"

"You ate a..." Fluttershy flushed green for a moment.

"Hah! Gotcha!" Pinkie laughed out loud before pulling the pegasus into a quick, tight hug. "Thanks lots, Fluttershy!" Pinkie zoomed quickly out of Fluttershy's unconscious grasp, rounding everything back up into her saddlebags in a whirlwind of pink and magenta.

"You're very welcome."

"I'll be sure to bring the first batch over as soon as I can!" A cacophony of animalistic cheers greeted the news, Fluttershy letting out a sigh at her animal friends' eagerness for more treats. "Wish me luck!" the pink pony shouted before zooming right out the cottage door.

"Good luck!" Fluttershy called after the pink pony.

Moving methodically to shut the listing cottage door, she hardly noticed the flash of green from the table before she found herself face to face with—

"Pinkie?!" she cried out, tumbling back onto her rear as the earth pony stared down.

"Na-na-na-no," the pink pony stated with an odd stutter as she experimentally tapped her tongue against her palate. "Oooo…fun."

"Not… Pinkie?" Fluttershy murmured, face flushing as she noticed a slight glimmer of green in the earth pony's eyes. "Flammy? Wh-why are you being Pinkie?"

"Beeeeecause you like her!" Not Pinkie stated with a little, three-hoofed hop. "You like her, you like her, you like her!"

"Well, of course I like her; she's my friend," she replied, face flushing further as her brow furrowed in confusion.

"Na-na-no! I mean like-like-like! The other like! You like her lots and lots!"

"She has always been a good friend."

"No-no…I..." Not-Pinkie grimaced, growling in frustration. "Like love! Like this!"

With that, the doppelganger tackled Fluttershy to the floor, their muzzles meeting in a furious and incredibly awkward kiss before Fluttershy instinctively bucked her legs, sending the pseudopony crashing against the table some many feet away.

"Oh my goodness!" Fluttershy cried out as she realized what she'd done, rushing to the gently writhing changeling's side.

"I was right!" it declared triumphantly if a bit deliriously as its eyes danced in merry little circles in their sockets. "You doOOoo like-like-like her..."

"We're friends," Fluttershy muttered somewhat uncertainly, blushing furiously as she found herself unable to look the pink pony in the eyes. "Why would you do that?"

"So you'd know too!"

"I, but, I don't even think about things...like...that."

"Do too!" The pseudo pony hobbled to its good hooves, making its way to the bookcase as Fluttershy watched in horror, nearly galloping over to support the injured creature.

"What are you talking about?" she asked, sliding herself under its belly as it rummaged through the shelf before letting out a triumphant squeal.

"These!"

Fluttershy's eyes widened as the changeling hefted her somewhat extensive 'private' book collection from its place masquerading as a full run of the Equestrian Bestiary Volumes i through xxxii.

"Oh…my..." she gasped as the titles flicked by: The Secret Diaries of Madame Firefly, Romancing the Knight, A Offer from a Gentlemare… the latter having a well-worn cover behind which an elegantly scrawled ‘Rarity U.’ could be seen. "How did you find these?"

"Saw you reading them," was the simple response, the changeling grinning, clapping its ill-gotten hooves together with a joyful clack of keratin. "You like-like-like those and you like-like-like her, don't you?"


~End Appendix02~



~AppendixS.06.01~
~While You Weren't Looking ~ Edition the First~


“I don’t know!” she finally shouted out and Fluttershy felt herself sink, hiding in the waves of fabric of Rarity’s beautiful gown. She could still hear the pink pony talking, but the words came upon an uninterested mind.

“That’s okay,” Fluttershy answered rotely. She felt strangely empty all of a sudden, as if the butterflies that had flocked to her abdomen had fluttered their way off to some faraway land. Now there was simply a crumbling chasm in her stomach as her mind slowed more and more, a peculiar scent lingering in the air.

Pinkie was yelling something now. The clouds and the night beyond had all disappeared from sight behind a great black wall as Fluttershy vision wobbled and blurred. The scent was oppressive, her head swimming her face flushed a sickly green.

The balloon began to list, the balloon collapsing in on itself as hot air escaped the open top while the swirling black drove away any replacement air. Pinkie seized the gas pull with her teeth, basket in her hooves, opening it full blast and illuminating the swarm for what it was.

Changelings, dozens of them in tight formation as the orange flame reflected off their shining chitin, the buzz of a hundred wings almost deafening. Still swinging from the pull, Pinkie began hurling plates, silverware and leftover food at the swarm until, low on ammunition, she pitched the basket at them. She dropped back to her hooves, flames dying out as she released the pull.

As Fluttershy cringed in the corner, Pinkie grabbed the only thing left, hefting the shimmering dessert before the balloon suddenly pitched to one side. Losing her footing, the cake smashed into the pink pony’s face before she was carried away in a sudden stream of black chitin.

Trembling, Fluttershy stared as the swarm rose high into the air and streamed towards her, fangs their glinting in the moonlight. She heard yelling somewhere over the dozens of buzzing wings as she was swept up into the swarm, leaving the falling balloon behind. There, between the mass of chitinous hide she saw a flash of pink cresting the balloon.

Pinkie gave a bounce and lept towards them, hooves outstretched. She grabbed onto a changeling’s leg, clambering into the swarm proper.

With a jump off the changeling’s back, Pinkie grabbed Fluttershy hooves and pulled hard, eyes wide. It was there that Fluttershy noticed an odd green sheen to the earth pony’s eyes before, moments later, she was ripped away, their hooves twisting for one anothers.

Fluttershy couldn’t help but yell for her as the swarm closed in tight, her last image of the pink pony her plummeting towards the forest.

“Pinkie!” Fluttershy cried out out, shooting up straight.

In bed.

In her own bed.


~End AppendixS.06.01~