A bunny hops over to a butter colored pegasus lying alone on the couch. He thumps his foot worriedly, the pegasus mare makes no attempt to move. Her gaze is fixed on a single point, a single picture. The picture is on the ground, encased in a battered frame. The glass is cracked and the photo has tear stains on it. The mare continues to stare at it with malice in her eyes, the picture is just a reminder of what happened a year earlier on this same dreaded day.
The rabbit taps the mare tentatively with his foot, she swings her head to him. Her gaze is cold and sharp, it pierces his heart as he looks into her judging eyes. She turns her head away in irritation after seeing him cower there. The rabbit just hops away sadly after the mare releases him from her stare, he leaves her to brood alone. He passes by various other pictures that have been abused, victims of one of Fluttershy’s violent outbursts after another. All the ones he passes by are cleaned up as well as Fluttershy could, when she feels remorseful she attempts to tidy up. She’d been having stronger mood swings today, but she’s been stuck like this for the past hour. Less animals come by now a days, but they all eventually come around.
Fluttershy stares at the picture as her anger swells, she can’t help it as her mind drifts back to that day…
~~~~~~~~~~~ 12 months earlier ~~~~~~~~~~~
“Twilight? What are you doing exactly?” Fluttershy speaks up.
“Well, I’m testing this new spell that I think you will enjoy. That I think you all will enjoy,” Twilight sets up a full body mirror beside her, the other five ponies that were asked to come watch in anticipation.
“Where’s Spike? Doesn’t he usually help you with your setup?” Rainbow says as she looks around.
“I sent him to get a package for me, he should be back soon,” Twilight looks at her set up with admiration. Satisfied with the end result, she turns back to her friends. “Okay, I’m all ready to show you the spell,” Twilight turns to the mirror and her horn lights up. There is a light lavender flash, everypony looks excitedly to see the effects. Twilight looks unnaffected, except that both Twilights look the exact same.
“Oh my gosh! Two Twilights?! That’s like being… twice as smart!” Pinkie bounces up and starts hopping round the two Twilights. Everypony else just watches in awe, surprise, and a slight hint of fear.
“Did y’all learn nothin’ from Pinkie’s last experience with clones?” Applejack exclaims.
Both Twilights open their mouth to speak, but they become self-conscious and look at eachother. One of the Twilights bows its’ head and submits to the other, this Twilight smiles before continuing. “It’s not a clone, it’s a projection. And I’m not Pinkie, this projection knows it’s not real,” Twilight explains. She let’s the other mares admire her copy, Pinkie looks at both of them closely.
“Wow, you look exactly the same!” Pinkie exclaims as she circles the two ponies.
“That’s why I needed the mirror, to have a fresh image in my head,” Twilight explains.
“Ooh, do me next!” Pinkie exclaims.
“No!” both Twilights shout in panic.
“Aww,” Pinkie deflates a little, but she immediately perks back up.
“I’m sorry Pinkie; no offense, but the world can’t handle two of you. Projection or not,” the first Twilight says.
“Ain’t that the truth…” Applejack mutters, her thoughts turn to the incident with the mirror pond. “But that does bring up another question, could y’all make a different pony?” Applejack asks.
“Sure, you could make anypony you can remember clearly. Rainbow? could you be our test subject?” Rainbow shrugs and lands next to Twilight. It’s not long before there’s another flash of bright lavender light and an extra pegasus.
“Woah, that’s cool,” both the Dash’s say in unison.
“Hey there good lookin’,” one of the Dash’s says.
“You’re not so bad yourself,” the second Dash replies.
“Bet I’m faster than you!” The first Rainbow Dash exclaims.
“Try me!” The second Rainbow Dash challenges, before they can test it Applejack attempts to talk some sense into them.
“Y’all are the same pony! You’re just as fast!” She shouts at the two of them. “An’ I thought Trixie was full of herself…” Applejack mutters.
“We know that Applejack, but who else is gonna give me this great of a challenge?” The first Rainbow asks.
“Besides, the wonderbolts are always talking about how the first step to being a winner is beating yourself!” The second Rainbow Dash finishes the firsts’ argument. They both give the other a smirk and rush out the door, they’re far gone before anypony can stop them.
“Yeah, but the wonderbolts probably don’t mean it literally” Twilight points out, rather pointlessly seeing how their already gone.
~~~~~~~~~~~ Present ~~~~~~~~~~~
Fluttershy’s remembrance of the day is interrupted by the sound of knocking on wood. It sounds like some-ponies at the door, so Fluttershy moves over to the door in an attempt to take her mind off of things. She opens the door a crack and looks out, she sees nothing. Fluttershy closes the door in annoyance and starts to walk back to the couch.
Fluttershy hears another knock at the door, she eyes the door curiously. She walks slowly over to the door and opens it quickly. The door snaps open, there is nopony there. Fluttershy jumps at the sound of knocking on wood, her eyes dart around in search for the source of the sound. Looking up, Fluttershy finds where the horrible knocking sound is coming from, a couple of woodpeckers are pecking away merrily.
“Stop your infernal knocking, you wretched birds!” She shouts at the woodpeckers, they take off in fear. Fluttershy’s rage leaves her and her shoulders sag, she begins to cry again. “No, I didn’t mean it… please… come back…” Fluttershy slinks back to the couch as the door slams shut behind her. As she gets to the picture lying on the floor, she stares at it. Finally, she decides to pick it up, it doesn’t deserve to be lying on the floor.
Fluttershy attempts to pick up the picture, but some of the stray glass shards manage to cut a tender part on her hoof. As single drop of red falls off the cut, and a single drop of blood lands on the picture. Fluttershy ignores the pain emanating from her hoof to inspect the damage done to the picture, what she sees terrifies her. The miniscule droplet of blood landed directly on her face, on the Fluttershy in the picture. The blood seemed to be trying to remove her from the picture, seperate her from her friends.
Fluttershy drops the picture, then she slowly backs herself against the wall. Clutching her tail close to herself, she tries to steady her erratic breathing. Her emotions flux in and out of varying degrees of terror and anxiety with a pinch of sorrow. She fights back the steady wave of fear washing over her, but she is fighting a losing battle. The terror seems overwhelming, a tsunami of fear washing over her senses. Fear of that day, fear of her inadequacy…
~~~~~~~~~~~ 12 months earlier ~~~~~~~~~~~
Fluttershy’s eyes dart open in panic, she feels herself slide off of something warm and onto the cold hard ground. Fluttershy turns her head to see what it was she was lying on, but her breath catches at the sight. Her mind freezes up trying to process the horror in front of her, nothing could have prepared her for the harsh reality of her situation. A fire is blazing, engulfing the entirety of her vision. The bold flames flickering at the edges of her sight were searing their image into her minds eye. Not even her thoughts were safe from the fire that was consuming the library, the flame didn’t seem like it was close to stopping.
The thing that had most rattled he wasn’t the flames or the sight of what they were burning. She hadn’t seen a dragon or anything else that could have caused the fire. She hadn’t seen anything considered scary or frightening, but nothing could have made her sadder. She had seen her savior, but only just barely. She had seen Rainbow’s vibrant mane, full of vigor as usual. She had seen her rushing, but in the wrong direction.
All Fluttershy wanted was safety, for herself and her friends. Rainbows rushing had alerted her to one thing, there were other ponies in there. Rainbow had been rushing back inside to try and save them, and fluttershy couldn’t take it. She curled up on the spot, the disaster was much more than she could manage.The tears didn’t ask permission as they began to streak down her face…
~~~~~~~~~~~ Present ~~~~~~~~~~~
Fluttershys’ head is jerked up as she hears a familiar knocking sound. `Oh, they’re back. Thank goodness!` She thinks to herself as she rushes to go apologize to the supposed birds, but when she opens the door she’s met with a surprise.
“Ah!” She exclaims as she opens the door to find a stranger. A look up at the spot the woodpeckers had been at shows her that the woodpeckers had, in fact, not come back. This pony had been the one to knock.
“Oh, I’m sorry. I hadn’t meant to startle you,” The mare says softly.
“You should be!” Fluttershy shouts, but she catches herself immediately. “I-I mean…” Fluttershys’ eyes go wide as she realizes what she’s done, she immediately starts whimpering. “I’m sorry, I didn’t mean to shout!” she chokes out the words between sobs.
The stranger did a very sudden and unexpected thing, the stranger comforted her. “There, there. Let’s get you inside,” the mare moves to help her inside but Fluttershy resists.
“Let me go!” Fluttershy exclaims forcefully, she can’t believe that she had almost cried in front of this pony. The mysterious mare complies and backs off ever so slightly.
“I don’t mean to harm you,” the mare gives Fluttershy a soft smile.
“Oh? And what do you mean to do? Take advantage of me in a moment of weakness?!” Fluttershy retorts, her voice dripping with fiery malice.
“Help,” the mare replies simply. It’s such a simple response, but it manages to make Fluttershys’ aggression halter.
“Help?” Fluttershy starts to back away in fear, the mare makes no attempt to follow. Fluttershys’ mind is thinking of all the ways she’s heard help in negative connotations, she shudders in fear.
“Yes, help. you’re hurting,” She continues.
“You don’t say!” Fluttershy rushes forward so she’s face to face with the mare. “Anybody can tell me I’m broken! You probably don’t even know why!” She screams in frustration, the mare doesn’t even flinch.
“You’re mourning your friends,” the mare offers Fluttershy another smile. The smile isn’t cruel or unkind, but true. It’s an honest smile, and it sets off butterflies in Fluttershys’ stomach. Even if it’s a nice feeling, it’s nonetheless unwanted to her.
“Shut up!” Fluttershy shouts, she maintains a glare as tears make their way into her eyes. Fluttershy’s lip starts to quiver as her steely resolve breaks down. The tears stream down her face as she holds her glare, she clenches her teeth angrily. “You don’t know what it’s like…” Fluttershy mutters through her clenched teeth.
“I do, and I can help-” the mare starts, but Fluttershy interrupts her with more sobbing.
“How?! How do you help someone that’s dead?! She cries as her legs finally give out and she slumps to the floor in tears. She buries her head in her hooves as she weeps, the sadness overtaking her.
“Oh, Fluttershy… let’s get you comfortable,” This time she doesn’t refuse help as the mysterious mare helps her to the couch, she just keeps crying. I hate to see you tearing yourself up about this, it isn’t your fault,” The mare says, fluttershy just shakes her head. The unicorn attempting to comfort Fluttershy floats a pillow over for Fluttershy.
“How can you say that? I couldn’t help them… I’m useless,” Fluttershy looks up at the unicorn mare. It may just be the light and her teary eyes, but it almost seems like the mare is sparkling. The mare’s hair is a dark brown that reminds her of the soft touch of damp soil under her hooves. The red tips of her hair seem to glow like an ember in a fire place. Her soft grey coat is like the foundation of a canterlot building, strong enough to support other ponies.
“Don’t you hear yourself? You couldn’t help them, not `you didn’t help them`. It’s not even an entirely true statement either, you did help one pony, or, more specifically, a dragon. You may not have been able to help at the time, but you were there when he needed support most,” Fluttershy’s thoughts float back to that day once again.
~~~~~~~~~~~ 12 months earlier ~~~~~~~~~~~
Fluttershy is thrust out of her thoughts when she hears the soft thud of a pegasus landing over the din of the flames. She runs over to Rainbow as she makes it out once more, Dash lays Spike down on the floor. Fluttershy makes it to the two just in time, just in time to try and stop Rainbow. Rainbow attempts to go back into the library, but Fluttershy’s mouth is gripped firmly onto her tail.
“Fluttershy? What are you doing?! I have to go back in!” Rainbow struggles against Fluttershys’ grip, but it’s no use. Fluttershy is holding on to her as tight as she can, she won’t let the tears keep her from saving one friend. She wants to explain, to tell Rainbow to stay. She wants to cry on her shoulder, to have her there. She doesn’t want Rainbow to go back in, but she can’t risk saying it. She can’t risk opening her mouth in case Rainbow just darts in; she feels selfish thinking these things, but she doesn’t want to risk the alternative.
Rainbow sees her expression and stops struggling, she understands. “Fluttershy, you have to let me go,” Rainbow looks deep into Fluttershys’ fear filled eyes. She can see all her old fears, all the fears she felt as a filly. Rainbow can understand, because she’d felt it before. Underneath her brave and brash exterior is the same scared little filly that doesn’t want to disappoint anypony, the same filly that doesn’t want to lose anymore ponies that are close to her. Rainbow can see the same fear in Fluttershys’ eyes that she always felt. Fluttershy knows deep down that Rainbow has these fears even if she never shows it, Fluttershy can see the understanding.
Now though, all the fear is gone from Rainbow Dash. Dash is exempt of her fear, she’s free of the cold claws of loss. Dash has a chance to save them and she’s not going to lose it. “Fluttershy, I can do this,” Rainbows voice is pleading and positive at the same time, Rainbow truly believes her words. “Please, Fluttershy,” Rainbows eyes are soft but urgent.
Fluttershys’ grip on the tail drops and she sits back down, Rainbow nods and silently Dash’s back into the house. They’re encounter wasn’t more than two minutes, yet it had seemed to stretch on for hours. Fluttershy sits in wait for Rainbow, she has to make it out… she has too. Several minutes pass, but they feel like days with the heat of the raging inferno. More ponies can be seen watching from their houses as multiple groups of pegasi scramble to get storm clouds.
Fluttershy’s ears perk up as she sees the slightest hint of rainbow hair through the fire, she can see Rainbow Dash struggling to carry all five of their friends. Rainbow looks up from her path to see out the door, she sees Fluttershys’ scared eyes. A small smirk rises to Rainbow’s face to assure her scared friend, it works. Fluttershys’ face softens in in delight at the sight of all of her friends, they are so close to safety. Fluttershy sees something that makes her blood run cold, a small flash. A small, minute detail. A detail that she noticed, that she feared. Fluttershy felt what was happening next before it happened. She had noticed the unconscious Pinkie Pies’ tail twitch ever so slightly.
“Rainbow!” She cries out, her wings flare open to an action position. Rainbow had been proud, she had it all but finished. Rainbow was happy, fulfilled even; She had been so close. As Rainbow revelled in her success and continued making her way out she noticed Fluttershy’s frantic shout, but her step didn’t waver. Rainbow then freezes at the sound of a loud crack, her face contorts in fear as she looks up. Fluttershy’s wings droop in shock as the ceiling collapses on all of her friends, spare none. She can’t peel her eyes from the scene as she watches the pegasi arrive with a multitude of rainclouds, the fire is slowly put out.
Fluttershy doesn’t move once while the world continues without her, she just continues to stare blankly at the last place she had seen her friend. She shouts with all of her might into the dark of the night, Rainbow had been so close! She returns to staring at the scene before her blankly, she doesn’t realize that her scream had woken Spike. She barely registers as a purple dragon tries to shake her out of her stupor, without even so much as a bat of her eyelashes she pulls the dragon close to her body.
`Spikes been orphaned,` the thought comes out of nowhere and she peels her gaze from the ashen ruins to the distraught
dragon in her grip. `I’m all he has, we need to be there for eachother,` Fluttershy makes a silent vow to care for the baby dragon, things are sure to be difficult and different. she has to be there for him, she has to care for him. she hates that it came to this, so she weeps openly into the dragon as he does the same to her; they are the others crutch.
~~~~~~~~~~~ Present ~~~~~~~~~~~
Suddenly a purple dragon walks in the door, it breaks Fluttershy from her memory. He looks at the visitor with surprise clear on his face, he hadn’t expected anybody other than Fluttershy here. He inspects the mare for a second before turning to Fluttershy, he sees her crying. Fluttershy sees Spike and her mood sinks deeper into sadness, she can’t help but feel that she’s failing him.
“Now Fluttershy, you’re not disappointing anyone. Spike would love to agree that you’ve treated him so well, but he’s
scared…” Spike perks up at this and slowly walks towards the two mares. “You haven’t been yourself lately and he fears for you. He just wants the old Fluttershy back,” Spike takes a worried glance over at Fluttershy and then turns towards the mysterious mare. The mare motions for Spike to say something, his voice catches in his throat.
“I-I couldn’t have said it better…” Spike answers warily. he’s still not sure who the mysterious mare is, but she seems to be helping Fluttershy. If anypony is willing to help his horribly depressed friend, he isn’t going to stop them. Fluttershy had been growing increasingly manic and it was true that he fears for her health, both mentally and physically. He wants Fluttershy to move on like he had, but she was dead-set on remembering them. He doesn’t want to make it seem like he doesn’t care, so he doesn’t want to just leave and let this mare do all the work. He just doesn’t know what he can do, is just being there enough for Fluttershy.
“That’s all you’ve ever had to do Spike, that’s what she needed,” Spike jumps at the mare’s words. She had answered his unspoken question, even if it was rhetorical. Before he can say anything the mare continues, “But it’s time to move on Fluttershy. It’s obvious that you need a push, and both Spike and I are here to give you the support you need. I understand that you’re in pain, but you’re only hurting yourself. This wasn’t your fault, think back to that fire, what caused it?” Fluttershys’ memory reaches back to before she woke up with the fire blazing.
~~~~~~~~~~~ 12 months earlier ~~~~~~~~~~~
“Okay girls, stay quiet.” Twilight a hoof up to her lips and waits in anticipation. She and the other four that remained in the library had come up with an idea for a prank after seeing what the projection does after it’s deactivated. Now Twilight, Applejack, Pinkie Pie, Rarity, and Fluttershy all lie in wait. They all are waiting for Spike to come back with the package, then they would have some fun. They wait for several more minutes before Spike walks in.
“Twilight, I have that package for you,” Spike says as he walks in the door.
“Thank you Spike, please put it on that table over there.” the Twilight projection says
“Okay, how did your presentation go?” Spike asks.
“Oh, it went fairly well. The girls sure enjoyed that spell,” the Twilight projection smirks at the thought.
“Really? I was sure that they would be apprehensive about it because of that mirror pond incident,” Spike says.
“Well, they were, but I explained it to them,” the Twilight clone smiles widely.
“So, what now?” Spike asks as he turns around to see Twilight smiling.
“And now, for one last trick,” the Twilight clone says as her hooves start dissappearing.
“Um, Twilight?” Spike asks in apprehension, “Did you learn an invisibility spell?” he asks worriedly. Twilight’s projection just continues to smile sweetly as she starts to fade. Spike just looks on in horror as the real Twilight sneaks up behind him followed by her friends. As soon as the Twilight projection is gone, Twilight speaks up.
“Boo!” Twilight whispers with a giggle, Spike jumps forward in fear with a loud yelp. He lets out a small burst of fire that engulfs one of her open books. The book is whisked away and the five girls just laugh at Spikes reaction.
“Yeah, yeah, very funny. I should have known it was just a projection, I’ve seen it do that before.” Spike grumbles as he picks himself up.
“Oh, that was good…” Twilight says as she stops her laughing, she turns to look where the book that disappeared once was. “I’ll probably be getting that back at some point,” She comments.
“That was really cruel,” Spike says as he walks away.
“I’m sorry Spike can I make it up to you with a cupcake?” Spike perks up and nods his head vigorously. Twilight pulls out a box and floats on over to him, she turns to the other girls and offers them one as well. Everypony but Pinkie accepts, she’s already munching away on one that she just happened to have on her.
“So what’s in the package?” Pinkie asks.
“Some expensive fuel for an experiment that I’m doing,” Twilight says non-chalantly. Spike is about to ask something when he feels something force it’s way up through his throat. He lets out a belch and a book plops out with a note attached to it, it read `Be more careful -Celestia`. Spike picks up the book from off the floor and moves towards Twilight.
“I believe this is for you,” he says, but he notices Twilights gaze. He follows it and sees the package on fire, Twilight’s staring in fear at the flaming wrapping.
“Everypony! Get do-” the rest of her words are drowned out by an explosion that Twilight attempts to contain with a shield. The shield breaks and the last thing Fluttershy remembers is a feeling of intense heat on her side and weightlessness. Then the weightlessness is exchanged with increasing velocity and then nothing as her vision goes dark and she loses consciousness.
~~~~~~~~~~~ Present ~~~~~~~~~~~
Fluttershy snaps back to the present as the memory ends, she looks at Spike and her guest in turn. “It, It wasn’t anyponies fault,” she admits with tears in her eyes.
“We know that, but do you believe it?” the mare asks. She has a soft smile and is looking at Fluttershy in wait of an answer. Fluttershy thinks hard on the question, she had always blamed herself for something or some other. She hadn’t managed to stop Rainbow Dash. She had tried to stop Rainbow Dash. Maybe if she hadn’t tried to stop her, then they might all be ok.
“We cannot worry about what has already happened Fluttershy, But you can decide what you’re going to do,” Fluttershy looks up and she thinks on all the things she has done. She turns to Spike and a smile creeps onto her features. She thinks on all the other things and her smile leaves her face, the only other things she’s done are be depressed and angry. She hasn’t done anything noteworthy in the whole year she’s been in mourning, maybe it’s time to change that. What would her friends think of this new her? Had she learned nothing from her Iron Will experience? Fluttershy looks back up with a small smile despite her sadness, she feels all her aggravations and old anger wash away as she looks at Spike and the mysterious mare.
“I do believe it, now,” Spike’s face lights up as he hears Fluttershy speak those words. Nopony had dared to even talk to her, and now that somepony did she has finally been able to move on. The mysterious mare smiles wide as Fluttershy wipes her eyes.
“Who are you exactly?” Spike asks suddenly, it’s the one question that had been bugging him this whole time. Fluttershy looks up expectantly and waits for an answer.
The mare lets out a small laugh and then answers, “My name is Starlet, Starlet Mint.” Fluttershy pulls Starlet in for a hug and Starlet hugs her lightly back.
“Thank you Starlet, thank you so much,” Fluttershy whispers into Starlet’s ear as tears of joy begin to fall.
“Now, now. That’s enough crying for today,” Starlet holds Fluttershy in front of her and wipes Fluttershys’ face with her hoof. Fluttershy sniffles as she stops crying and smiles wide.
“Sorry,” Fluttershy says softly, “I’m just so happy. It’s the first time I’ve felt happy in so long.” Starlet shushes her again.
“Theres no need to apologize dear, I understand,” Starlet lets her go and fluttershy stands up on her four hooves. “Now let’s see if we can’t do anything about this mess,” Starlet says as she looks around. Fluttershy nods warmly and looks at the mess, it’s going to take a while. Good thing she has good friends like spike and Starlet to help her. Is Starlet her friend? She must be,
because Fluttershy only felt this good when she was with her friends.
~~~~~~~~~~~ 3 hours later ~~~~~~~~~~~
“That looks much better,” Starlet comments as she looks at the crystal clean cottage. They had taken the time to clean absolutely everything, not one crevice was left dirty.
“Yes,” Fluttershy replies simply, she turns to Starlet and she feels an urge to hug her again. Maybe this is what Pinkie always felt, a need to always be happy. “Thank you so much. For everything,” Fluttershy says once more.
“It’s okay Fluttershy, there’s no thanks needed. I just couldn’t leave you like you were,” Starlet says modestly, then she looks down at Fluttershys’ neck. She nods and then looks away. Fluttershy looks down and gasps in shock at what’s around her neck. Spike walks into the room and he sees it too, he stops in his tracks.
“Fluttershy? Where did you get that?” Spike stammers in shock.
“I… I don’t know. It just appeared,” Fluttershy gives a sideways look at Starlet.
“Don’t look at me, I didn’t give it to you,” Starlet holds up her hooves in innocence.
“But, it’s working! They don’t just work on their own! They only work if all the elements are together! It shouldn’t be doing what it is right now!” Fluttershy just stares at the element as Spike goes on, but she’s too busy admiring the element. She can feel the power of harmony coursing through her veins, then she feels a small tug at the back of her mind. She looks around and sees nothing, but then she feels the tug again. She looks to Starlet and she can feel purpose.
“I think… I think that I’m supposed to do something.” Fluttershy says decidedly as the tug gets stronger. She looks at Spike and she hugs him. “I have to do this Spike,” Spike is surprised but he accepts her hug. When he releases her She’s gone, she just dissapeared.
“Uh oh… that’s not supposed to happen,” Starlet says as she looks around worriedly.
“What did just happen?” Spike asks in confusion.
“I need to go get her, I’ll make sure that she get’s back Spike. You have my word,” Spike stares at Starlet dumbly as he watches her disappear in the same manner that Fluttershy had. Spike looks on in confusion until he finally shakes out of his stupor.
“Ponies randomly disappearing, Elements working independently, there has to be a book about it somewhere, right?” He says to himself as he runs to the library.
~~~~~~~~~~~ A moment ago ~~~~~~~~~~~
Fluttershy blinks her eyes a couple of time, she assumes she does, and she can only see pure black. She had felt the tugging and it had increased to a yank. Now she can’t see anything, except herself. She continues to look around in confusion till she hears a familiar voice speak up from behind her. “Welcome to void space,” Fluttershy spins to see Starlet, but she also sees some other very familiar faces. Fluttershy sees Starlet being squeezed by a certain rainbow maned pegasus, she sees a pink earth pony clutching her head in confusion. She sees a teary eyed farm-pony, and she sees a surprised fashionista.
“What is this?” She hears Rarity ask. Fluttershy looks around for an answer, but she can produce none. She is completely at a loss for words, so she settles for a smile.