The Twilight Sparkle who walked back into town was not quite as flustered and confused as the one who had fled it an hour or so earlier, but she made up for that with an air of simmering frustration. Somehow, this quite failed to make her more approachable to the townsponies.
The fact that the majority of said ponies were stallions improved neither her mood nor her reputation, as she glared at any who came too close, muttering fiercely. The Prince… Princess of Friendship, it seems, was in no mood for friendliness today.
Unfortunately for all involved, she found herself once again unfortunately bereft of direction. Her next item on the checklist wasn’t due for another hour – for all of Applejack’s misdirected attention they had still completed the task within the allotted time, and while she had originally intended to relax at the farmhouse over an Apple family lunch…
Well, that’s probably not likely to happen anytime soon. The slightest edge of guilt threatened to nibble at the edge of her irritation, and she pushed it back down with a grunt.
…So she had an hour with nothing scheduled, and nothing to do but think about stallions and how ridiculously idiotic they were. One blasted thing on their minds, if you could even consider their minds to be what’s behind their eyes rather than between their legs. She snorted as she glared back and forth, seeing the colts all around her staring, averting their eyes quickly as they were noticed.
This version of Equestria is ridiculous. I mean, it’s not like all the stallions have to be like that! Why can’t they be more like my brother? I mean, he’s right over there and hasn’t even… looked…
…What?
She blinked, screeching to a halt again and spinning around, staring at the white-coated unicorn stallion wandering past with a wild shock of electric-blue hair, deep in conversation with a grey earth stallion.
…WHAT?!
While her mind reeled from the shock, her body seemed to take over on automatic. Her wings caught the air and carried her over the crowd to the duo, the words spilling from her mouth one after the other. “BBBFF? What are you doing here? And why are you still… a…”
“Oh! Heyyy there, Dusk! …Whoa, totally dig the new look.” Her ‘brother’ turned, grinning widely… behind a huge pair of sunglasses which covered much of his face yet still completely failed to hide the suggestive eyebrow waggle behind them.
Twilight blinked, glancing at the stallion’s music-notation cutie mark, and gave a groan as she facehooved, realising who she was talking to.
“Oh my…” The other stallion’s cultured voice cut over the awkwardness. “I… had heard the rumours around town, but…”
“Didn’t do you justice, Princey! Lookiiiiin’ goooood.” The DJ grinned, actually tilting his ever-present sunglasses up to appreciate the sight directly. “So, did you need me for something, or…”
“N-no. Just… thought you were someone else,” Twilight muttered.
“Well, since you’re here anyway… and you seem to have picked up some interesting new magic… I don’t suppose I cooaaaaaargh! Leggo, leggo!”
The earth pony beside him gave a quick bow to Twilight, resulting in a yelp and a whine as the DJ’s head was dragged down to ground level – due to his ear being between the cellist’s teeth.
“S’rry, y’maj’sty.” He smiled apologetically around the ear of the unicorn. “’ll go m’ke sure he won’ bother you.”
“Ow ow ow alright leggo this is NOT cool, Octavius! Okay, I get it, I won’t ask him to turn you into a filly OW OW OW!” His horn lit up, but extinguished a second later with a practised flick of the earth pony’s hoof.
“Turn ME ’nto a f’lly? ’m dism’ntlin’ that d’shw’sh’r when we g’t home.”
“Not my wuuuuuubs! C’moooooon!”
And Twilight watched in fascination as one stallion dragged another by the ear like a misbehaving colt, through the crowded market square, until they were both out of sight, and nopony else in town batted an eye.
…This town really is entirely crazy, isn’t it?
She sighed as she started walking again. Well, at least that’s one stallion who had the class to not say anything. Counteracted by another who didn’t even try to be subtle. And, in both cases, completely in line with what I know of them as mares. Rubbish outlier data points.
Also, how did I never notice how much my brother looks like that DJ? That is ridiculous. Note to self, look up some family trees when I get back to the library.
…I think I need something to eat, I’m not dealing with the rest of today on an empty stomach.
~-~-~-~
A few minutes later found her once again at the market stalls. At first she was expecting to be waiting a while to get anything during the lunch rush, but amazingly enough, while the stalls seemed to have a significant queue from a distance, it all seemed to clear away into ponies who just happened to be standing around nearby as she got closer. Like magic! Or friendship. Or something.
So it was, a few minutes later, she found herself standing at the Sweet Apple Acres cart, staring at Red Gala.
The eldest apple pony sibling was, as Applejack had suggested, larger than most of the stallions in town, but not nearly at the size of Macintosh or even stallion-Applejack. She wore her mane and tail a little longer, and the fetlocks a little shorter, resulting in a slightly wild-pony look that she still managed to pull off quite effectively.
Big Mac was often the talk of the mares of town as the pinnacle of masculinity – in this case, she theorised, the counterpoint attraction Red Gala held to stallions would be a challenge to be conquered, instead.
Then she realised she was getting into the heads of the stallions in town again, and scowled, putting an end to that.
Red Gala, on the other hand, looked over Twilight with her famous neutral stare, nodded once, and began packing Dusk’s usual order. “Bad day?”
“Stallions.” Twilight seethed.
That actually got a chuckle out of the normally taciturn pony. “Always. Get the barn set up?”
“Hmm? Oh. Yes. And you’ll be happy to know that your brother is… not currently trapped in a time-locked seal for the next few months.” She ground out between her teeth. “Despite probably deserving it…”
Gala’s smile faded to a rather dark look. “Somethin’ Ah should know?”
Twilight winced, remembering the mutual protectiveness of the Apple Family siblings. “Well, I may have shouted him into unconsciousness…”
No answer but a long, piercing stare.
“The whole Royal Canterlot Voice has a bit of a hair trigger on it sometimes… eh-heh…”
The stare continued unabated.
“I felt it was probably good if I made up for that by not sealing him in time, right? So no harm done?”
Green eyes bore down on her like stones. She cracked.
“He was… being a bit too free with his eyes.”
That got a reaction, her stare narrowing. “He do anythin’ you told him not to?”
“Well, no, but he was staring…” Twilight suddenly wondered why she should be feeling guilty here.
Red Gala suddenly brightened, chuckling. “Well, y’can’t expect him to not be honest with his feelin’s, can you?”
Twilight blinked, taking that in, before rolling her eyes with a snort. “…You’re no help whatsoever,” she groused, and stalked away from the stall with a huff as Gala shook her head with amusement behind.
Stallions are still jerks.
…I’ll go apologise to him later.
She huffed and took a bite from the apple, chewing thoughtfully at the delicious fruit.
…Maybe tomorrow, I’ll go apologise to my Applejack instead. That still counts, right?
~-~-~-~
“I know not if my eyes I can trust – a mighty change has befallen Prince Dusk!”
The accent and pattern of speech made the owner of the voice immediately clear to Twilight, and she smiled as she turned around. The zebra gave a wide smile, beckoning the alicorn over to his stall.
“I won’t argue that, though it’s probably not the change you’re thinking of.” She sighed. “Still takes a lot of adjusting, I’ll say that.”
The zebra’s form was still mostly covered by the thick brown cloak that Zecora usually wore, but beyond that his form was mostly as she expected – squarer jaw, slightly less prominent jewelry and mohawk, and slightly leaner than average build for a stallion. It was nice to know that she’d managed to find at least one individual who didn’t surprise her – or maybe she was just getting the hang of it now…
He chuckled. “I would not presume to know your magic’s works… let alone all of its troublesome quirks. Though zebra arts can produce such a change, I doubt through those works was your new form arranged.”
She looked up at him with interest, her scholarly mind conquering her current dilemmas. “You have a gender change potion?”
“A recipe I know, that does as you have done – to change one’s nature between mare and stallion. The magic, however, is one that must be shared – it may only exchange between a willing pair.” He blushed slightly. “A very close partner is an absolute must, with whom you can share an… unbreakable trust.”
“That’s… kind of unusual. I would have thought most potion magic is really a one-pony deal? I mean, only one pony can drink a potion, right?”
“…Such matters are best not spoken aloud, amongst the busy listening crowd?” He blushed a little deeper. Twilight stared, then sighed deeply.
“Of course. What else was I expecting? No, no, I assure you, it’s nothing like that. I’m… not even technically changed at all. It’s more of a swap between worlds – I know you as Zecora, a mare, like all my friends.”
His eyebrows raised. “A mighty magic feat you claim! But here, Zircon is my name.” He held out a hoof, and she shook it with a smile.
“Twilight Sparkle.”
“A pleasure to meet you, Princess Twilight! I hope your journey has not been a plight?”
She sighed. “Well, I’ll admit that it’s been… interesting, though perhaps not as interesting as all the stallions seem to find me.”
“To be expected, I would say – it’s hardly surprising, in multiple ways.”
“Yeah, well, it’s kind of annoying when you’re trying to make the best of it and do some study on how stallions differ from mares, and most of the difference can be summed up in the amount of drool they produce.”
“Perhaps, then, an additional change, to stop the ponies all thinking it strange? To observe the actions of stallions true, you might need to find a male point of view.”
“Yeah, I thought of that, but… wait, that sounded an awful lot like an offer.”
“Of all the ponies I might consider to share—”
“Zecor— Zircon.” Twilight’s eyes narrowed as she stared down the zebra. “Remember that we just talked about how unimpressed I’ve been with the attitude of the stallions around here. I don’t know the details of this potion of yours, but I can still see you blushing quite clearly. Tell me right now – do you think I am likely to be happy with how this conversation will end?”
“…Perhaps at this time, you are not the right mare.”
Twilight gave a long groan of frustration and turned away from the stall.
One more data point. I’d say I thought better of Zecora, but I don’t think I’ll be thinking better of anypony anytime soon…
~-~-~-~
The last of her lunch was polished off as she left the market. Equally full of apples and bile, Twilight made her way out of the town centre towards the Everfree, and the cottage on its edge. If anyone was likely to be able to calm her down from her still-simmering frustration, it was Fluttershy – or, in this case, Butterscotch. Twilight couldn’t even imagine the pegasus attempting anything approaching a lewd remark, let alone trying anything as bold as Rainbow Dash or Applejack had.
The reason for this visit was a fairly simple one – Fluttershy (and thus Butterscotch) was taking care of Owlowliscious for a short time. A couple of days ago, Twilight had been doing some fine-tuning on the same spell that she had discussed with… Applejack earlier that day, which turned trees into pony-tree hybrids.
Through a series of mishaps which everyone in the library was of the understanding would never be discussed, the result had been that her owl’s stand had been transformed into a rearing pony statue – which was then crushed as Owlowliscious was transformed into an owl-pony hybrid.
Given the spell was distinctly not prepared to do something like that, however, the result hadn’t been very neat, looking closer to Discord in its mismatched glory than any pegasus. She’d transformed him back immediately, and looked him over, finding nothing dangerously wrong, though he was quite indignant about the whole thing.
So she’d taken him to Fluttershy to check over, and then she’d insisted he stay for a while to make absolutely sure he was okay, and no amount of royal princess form or power was going to win her an argument on pet care with Fluttershy, so…
So today, hopefully she’d get her pet back.
Well, Dusk Shine’s pet.
Whatever.
And hopefully, after that, she’d be able to take a bit of time with Butterscotch and have a decent (or at the very least not indecent) conversation. She wasn’t due at her next appointment for a while after this, so some time to relax away from town would be nice… yes…
Here in the fields it was easy to imagine that everything was still normal, without any ponies to remind her of the change…
As if summoned by the thought, a familiar tingling at the edge of her senses caught her attention, and she gave a deep and long-suffering sigh just as a voice spoke behind her…
“Well hello there, my little pony! Don’t you look different today?”
…A deep, resounding, gruff and masculine voice?
She turned to face the figure behind her, and froze. The creature was… could only be Discord, but…
For starters, he was male, still. He hadn’t changed genders – indeed, it seemed that if anything, he’d gone almost as far in the opposite direction.
The normally serpentine body was shorter and stockier; the muzzle thick and square, and… very different from Discord’s usual visage. It was as if someone had tried to take the best parts of three different stallion ideal looks – maybe Bulk Biceps, Big Macintosh, and Soarin’ – and tried to blend them together, resulting in a face that you couldn’t pick out any one feature that was unattractive (except maybe that single protruding fang) but the overall result just… didn’t quite work.
His limbs had all changed – the forelimbs now resembling a gorilla’s arm and a red dragon’s talon, and the lower a white bear and a timberwolf, resulting in a much bulkier and more physically intimidating figure. His tail had changed from red to grey-green, and now bore two rows of longer spikes near the end.
And when he spoke, his voice merely filled in the rest of the image, a voice so rough and masculine it became more of a parody than anything.
“What’s wrong, Twilight? Happy to see a familiar face?” Well, the tone was still entirely Discord. Still, Twilight was still trying to process the rest of it.
“Familiar…?”
“Oh, absolutely! You didn’t think everything would change, did you? And what better to stay stable than chaos itself?” He threw a manly pose, flexing his arms, the muscles suddenly expanding and bulking them out to twice their previous size.
Twilight stared.
“And I know you were feeling a little stressed about how everything has changed, so I thought I’d come say hello, and give you something to keep your head on straight.”
Twilight stared.
“I know, devastatingly handsome as always, aren’t I? I don’t know how you ever kept your hooves off me.” He came up close, grinning
Twilight stared.
And finally, broke.
Into peals of laughter.
“HAAAAAAhahaahaha oh that’s hilarious you actually thinkahahahahaha oh I don’t even know where to start…” She flailed wildly, unable to control herself as she pounded her hooves against the closest surface, which happened to be the Draconequus’ chest. He looked down at the cackling alicorn, utterly unmoved by the strikes, but clearly perturbed.
“Not… really what I meant by not being able to keep your hooves off me…” He muttered.
“I know, I know, it’s just… ahhhh…” Twilight slowly calmed down, still chuckling, settling back to all fours. “You know I already know you’re actually female, right?”
“What? Who told you?” The form before her cried, before roaring upwards. A separate form spat out of the larger mouth, twisting around through the air like a snake before glaring directly into Twilight’s eyes, while the hyper-masculine Discord collapsed to the ground like an empty suit. “I know everypony you’ve talked to since you got here, and none of them have said a word about it.”
“You just did.” Twilight grinned smugly. The figure before her was far more how she’d imagined Discord’s counterpart to look. The limbs all matched species, the body a slightly more sinuous version of same, and the face looking like an unusually long mare’s muzzle that had been broken and reset a little crooked, with the single fang only enhancing that impression. A shock of white mane crowned her head, though she escaped the usual scraggle of beard.
Her opponent blinked, looking down at herself, then backed off a little with a pout. Twilight grinned.
“Did you actually think that’s what Discord looked like?”
“Of course!” she snorted, posing slightly. “I am, of course, the very pinnacle of femininity and grace – why would my counterpart be anything short of masculinity personified?”
Twilight snickered again and lit her horn, a small-scale image of Discord appearing above her head. The present Discord gasped in indignation.
“That is NOT what I look like!” she cried, waving a claw through the image to dispel it. It did no such thing, however, the tiny illusion wrapping around her arm like a snake and rubbing its nuzzle against her shoulder as she tried to dislodge it. Twilight smirked again – even though she had nothing to do with that manipulation of the image, it was still always entertaining to see any version of Discord looking discomforted.
“I’m interested to see you don’t know that. Not often somepony can surprise you, Discord.”
“It’s Eris, thank you very much. I will not be associated with this… this travesty any more than I have to be.” She finally managed to pry off the offending illusion, conjuring a bin and trying to toss it in, succeeding after a few missed tries as it seemed to cling to her fingers like sticky tape. “I am truly offended that that is what you would come up with for me as a male.”
“That I would come up with?”
“Oh, you don’t really still believe that you’ve switched between dimensions, do you, little Dusk Shine?” She smirked. “Honestly. Which do you think is really more plausible – that you managed to breach the barriers between two worlds and find a new world where everything is absolutely identical except for a few little in-out changes?” She made an EXTREMELY crude gesture with her hands, which Twilight immediately did her best to forget. “Or that you’d managed to just transform yourself, and mess with your own memories a little so that you remember everything being different?”
“Wait… what?” Twilight blinked.
“Oh, travel between dimensions is impossible, little pony!” Eris snickered, tearing a hole in the air and sticking her head through, coming out the other end with her colours apparently switched to negatives. “You can’t just pop over to another universe for a laugh! Or even for a good and proper conquering or other bit of fun. Can’t be done. But messing with your gender or your brain, that’s easy.”
She slithered through the hole entirely, her negative image an eye-watering counter to reality as she curved around Twilight, staring her in the eyes with cyan-on-blue orbs set in a grey-blue face. “So maybe you should stop fooling yourself and just go with the flow, hmmm?”
“Well, I’ve certainly learned a couple of things from this.” Twilight smiled, trying not to flinch away from the reality-shattering colour monstrosity before her. “One, you are way off your game. Two… you can’t travel between dimensions. And I can.” She grinned right back into Eris’s sputtering face.
“Maybe you weren’t listening when I said it’s impossible, little filly! I’m trying to do you a favour here!”
“Really? So that means you can’t jump between dimensions? Because I always thought ‘impossible’ was something that happened to other ponies – not the great spirit of Chaos him— err, herself…”
“W-well, of course I can…”
“Really now? Because you said yourself, you know everything that goes on… but you didn’t know what Discord looked like.”
“I can’t be expected to know EVERYTHING that goes on in here.” Eris rapped her on the head, and a mass of bookshelves and filing cabinets crashed down around them. Twilight looked around, seeing different shelves marked with various cutie marks – primarily those of her friends – and titles she recognised as referencing many of their adventures together; other shelves were marked with other labels like ‘Childhood memories’, ‘Useless trivia’, ‘The Life and Times of Star Whirl the Long Maned’ and ‘Best blackmail material’. Eris plucked a book from the final shelf, paging through it thoughtfully.
“This whole joint is just so orderly! A place for everything, everything in its place… I have no idea how you ever find anything. Especially a whole world you’ve just magicked into your own memories!”
“Hmm…” Even though part of her knew it was just one of Discord’s tricks, the idea of looking through the books before her was far too tempting – but not, fortunately, quite as tempting as what she was about to do.
Twilight sighed, deeply. “I… I suppose you’re right. It really does make more sense that I’d have transformed myself and my memories rather than moving between dimensions. Oh, if only I had some sort of safety spell that would let me know if something like that happened…
“Oh wait. I do.” She grinned, advancing on the female, palette-swapped Draconequus, who backed up slightly into one of the bookshelves. “I have more spells than you could count set up to detect and reset any changes that occur to my memories or body. I made absolutely sure there was no chance I would get stuck in a situation where I couldn’t cast magic to fix what I cast. And if I’d done something like that, I’d know about it. Besides, you think I couldn’t tell at least the basics of what a spell was supposed to do from the residue of it?
“So yes – I did move between dimensions. Which means… you can’t. Absolute power within the boundaries, but none beyond, hmmm?” She grinned. “I’ll have to make a note of that…”
Eris’s face fell to a dark frown as she clicked her fingers, the bookshelves falling away like cardboard cutouts, and the shadows fading with them, bringing back the light and turning her back to her usual colours in the process. “Well… I tried. Rest of it’s up to you now!” she said, a little too loudly.
Twilight tilted her head. “…What? That doesn’t even…”
“Oh, never you mind, little princess.” Eris grinned – though with noticably not quite as much carefree glee as she usually did – and hooked one arm around Twilight’s neck, mussing up her mane with the other. “You just go and have fun with little Butterscotch. Well… if you can.”
“What? What does that mean? Did you do something to him?”
“Oh, I didn’t do anything at all… just had this little chat with you. Heheheh…”
And on that note, Eris slid around as if to encircle Twilight again, but never came around the other side; and when she turned around, the Draconequus was gone, leaving only a chill in the air behind her.
“…Right. That was ominous. Perhaps no taunting the Chaos Spirit so much in future…”
~-~-~-~
Butterscotch’s cottage.
Finally she’d made it.
It seemed like she’d been trying to get to this house for months. Talking with Discord has that effect sometimes… she mused. Now to make sure my pet is fine.
And she knocked on Butterscotch’s door.
…
And she knocked on Butterscotch’s door.
“…Butterscotch? Are you there?”
…
…
“Of course not. Why would anything be easy today?”
~-~-~-~
A missing friend at an appointed meeting time was never a good thing, but like so many things it could be made much easier with a bit of deductive logic and a checklist.
So, first on the list: Was Butterscotch in trouble?
Answer: Almost certainly not.
If he was in trouble inside his cottage, his animals would be taking care of him, and one of them would almost certainly have either beckoned her in or warned her off. If he had been called out somewhere, he would have certainly left a note, or at least something, to advise of such – Fluttershy always hated being an inconvenience. If he had been kidnapped, the animals would have been in an uproar. She could see a few of the animals lounging around, but they seemed as generally sedate as ever.
Eris’s parting words gave her concern for a moment, but that wasn’t really the Chaos Spirit’s style – she wouldn’t have been able to resist giving cryptic hints if she’d actually done something to Butterscotch, and it wouldn’t be anything too drastic anyway – Twilight had to admit that the pegasus had the draconequus quite convinced to be friendly, unless there were some much greater differences between worlds beyond the obvious.
So, not urgently in trouble. Second: Was Butterscotch inside his cottage?
Answer: Almost certainly not.
She didn’t like the idea of simply bursting into her friend’s cottage – a little too Rainbow for her liking, Dash or Blitz or otherwise – so, as she had been doing increasingly often today, she cheated and used magic.
Fluttershy was always hard to sense, but even in a house so filled with nooks and crannies as the one before her, there were only so many places a pegasus could fit. So, after a minute or so of scrying, she was fairly certain that, unless Butterscotch was far more capable of concealment than she gave him credit for, he wasn’t home.
Third: If he isn’t in trouble, and isn’t home, where is he and why?
She was… fairly certain he was nearby. In the surrounding fields and trees, at least – there was that slight whisper that was all that signified his presence. But it was just a whisper, really, that was all, and virtually impossible to track.
But she couldn’t see him nearby, and he knew they had a scheduled meeting, which meant he was out for a reason. Out of his house, but staying nearby, but not clearly visible, and not with the nearby animals.
Which meant, probably hiding.
It didn’t take much to make the yellow pegasus go into hiding, but if he was, it would probably be inside the cottage. Unless he expected whatever it was would look there first. So, something had probably set the poor thing to cowering away… something that he didn’t feel his house was sufficient protection from, but not serious enough to abandon it completely. But there wasn’t anything like that around, that she could see… just…
Just a gender-switched version of a known-to-be-slightly-magically-unstable friend who stalked up the road in a clearly unhappy mood, before having an argument with Eris.
“Yeah. He’s hiding from me.” She sighed, taking wing. Time to flush out a pegasus.
~-~-~-~
If you took somepony who had never been to Ponyville, and told them that a canary-yellow pegasus with soft pink hair could be effectively camouflaged in a primarily green-and-brown environment, they’d probably laugh at you.
Of course, if you then explained the sort of places a pink-on-pink earth pony could hide and spring from without warning, they’d probably smile, avoid eye contact, and attempt to back away until some form of authority could be contacted. Ponyville wasn’t known for its ponies making sense, but that didn’t change the fact that Fluttershy – and by extension Butterscotch – had no business being as good at hiding as they were.
“Butterscotch!” she cried out, floating across the fields, eyes darting from one potential hiding spot to the next. Her eyesight had gotten a lot better when she’d picked up her wings – she wasn’t sure if that came with the pegasus power or just her ascension undoing the effects of years upon years of staring at books a couple hooves’ length from her face in questionable light – but she still couldn’t spot him.
“Please, come out, Butterscotch… I swear, I’m not going to do anything to you. I’m still your friend.”
No pegasus hid in the nearby caves and warrens; each bush and tree was bereft of Butterscotch; the underside of the bridge was quite pony-free.
“I know I look a bit different, and I was a little upset when I was coming in, but please don’t hide from me.”
She was even more sure he was in the area, though. If there had been any other ponies at all nearby she couldn’t have picked up his signature, and it was still barely there, but it was there.
How do I get him to come out? I guess I could try to scare him more, but that’d just hurt my case and with my luck he’d just freeze up totally. Also, deliberately terrifying your friends is bad and should not be considered.
Maybe I could appeal to his… oh, of course!
“Please! I’m just worried about Owlowiscious. I just want to talk to you,” she called out hopefully, standing very still and listening for…
…nothing.
…You realise that’s probably not Owlowiscious’ name on this side, right? So you’ve just actually done more to hurt your case by not knowing your own pet’s name.
She facehooved. So much for that tactic.
He was nearby, definitely, but there simply wasn’t anywhere close enough she could see that could hide a pony. And she had been hunting long enough that this was going to start eating into her next appointment, soon.
Right. Sorry, Butterscotch, but it’s dirty fighting, then.
“Well, looks like I’m going to have to ask your animals where you are. Which means I’m going to have to cast that spell that lets them speak. It might not wear off for days…” While Fluttershy had always had significant ability to understand the animals she worked with, once able to actually speak the pony tongue fluently, they were… well, crude was putting it lightly – at the very least, they did not share the pony hesitance to vocalise certain subjects. Fluttershy had been mortified when the chattering around her cottage had suddenly been fully understandable to her guests, and had refused to show her face for a week afterwards, thinking ponies would assume that she had taught them…
The squeak that came from the nearby bush sounded so much like Fluttershy that she momentarily forgot that she was dealing with a stallion – but it was more than enough to pinpoint her target.
She could have sworn that that bush could not have possibly hidden a filly, let alone a fully grown stallion, but her magic fished around and soon dragged out exactly that, and Butterscotch was soon plonked in front of her, shivering madly and curled up with hooves and wings covering his face, as if something which he couldn’t see could not see him in turn.
Now she’d pulled him out of his physical hiding place, she needed to lure him out of his emotional one.
“Butterscotch. Please look at me. You’re not going to be hurt. Open your eyes.” She tried to nudge his hooves aside with her own, but they were locked in place with that strange strength the normally weak pegasus occasionally possessed.
“Alright then.” Twilight grinned, pulling back her hoof and replacing it with a wing. Fluttershy had never been as ticklish as Rainbow, but as the speedster herself had demonstrated quickly on Twilight, any pegasus who left a wing open as Fluttershy had was exposing an impressive weak point…
Long purple feathers brushed against yellow underwing, eliciting another tiny squeak and causing him to jump to his feet rather suddenly, limbs all shooting out before leaving him standing ramrod straight for a moment, eyes wide open.
“See? That wasn’t so hard, was it?” Twilight smiled, looking over another friend, changed between universes.
Unsurprisingly, Butterscotch had the same long, thin and graceful limbs and form as Fluttershy had – or at least, they likely would be graceful when not locked in place. Although his muzzle was actually slightly more masculine than Rainbow Blitz’s if taken alone, the soft, flowing pink mane above it did much to counteract that.
His mane was about half the length of Fluttershy’s in the back, but the style was very similar, flowing down both front and back. The tail was a little shorter too, and looked shorter yet due to his increased height, though still long enough to drag on the ground if left unchecked.
All in all, the effect created was undoubtedly the least intimidating stallion ever encountered, and Twilight was entirely unsurprised.
Fortunately, once Butterscotch managed to regain control of his limbs, he didn’t try to flee, instead just whimpering, crouching slightly and hiding behind his mane – his manestyle very much designed for this purpose, despite being a little shorter.
“Why are you scared of me, Butterscotch? I’m your friend. I just look a little different today,” Twilight begged her friend.
“........” The pegasus’s mouth moved, and the vaguest hint of words could be heard, but certainly nothing comprehensible.
“I’m not a changeling or anything. They wouldn’t mess this up. Come on, please.” She tried to lift his chin slightly with a hoof, but he refused to look at her except through a curtain of pink mane.
“........” Still nothing.
“…Alright, this isn’t going to work. I’m sorry.” She sighed, disappointed and a little hurt that yet another conversation with one of her friends had been tainted by her effectively changed appearance – if in a rather inexplicable way. Fluttershy was usually wary around stallions, but she was wary around anypony she didn’t know – Twilight didn’t see why her change had brought about this sort of reaction.
“I’ll go as soon as we’re done. Can you at least tell me Owlow—” Name change, Twilight. “…My owl is okay?”
“........” Butterscotch whispered something again, still too low to hear. Twilight rolled her eyes, then closed them and lit her horn, casting a spell.
Butterscotch gave a sudden eep of surprise, freezing up again as the purple light washed over him, but there was no immediate effect. Twilight tried to smile reassuringly.
“Sorry. Could you repeat that again?”
“Umm… she’s— eek!” A yellow hoof flung to a matching muzzle as Butterscotch’s eyes went wide. Although he had whispered no more strongly than before, his voice was amplified significantly, clearly audible despite being barely breathed.
“She’s…?” Twilight prompted, getting a little anxious. Was the reason for his hiding to avoid giving bad news?
“She’s fine… umm… a little jumpy…”
“But she’s not hurt at all? She’s coming home?”
“…should be back tonight…”
“Anything I should watch out for? Avoid?”
“…No more magic on her?”
“Alright.” Twilight was really beginning to regret this, now. Seeing her friend afraid all the time was concerning enough, but for him to be so afraid of her was bordering on heartbreaking. “Look… I’m sorry. I just wanted to make sure she was okay.”
“…’sokay…”
“I won’t disturb you any further… Just… calm down, okay?”
“…’sokay…”
Twilight sighed. “Take care of yourself.” She smiled at her pegasus friend and turned to go back down the path, returning to town.
That… could have gone better. It really was sad she couldn’t work with Butterscotch. Maybe she’d be able to ask Fluttershy what that was about the next day…
She heard from behind her a long sigh, and a whisper on the wind, amplified by her still-active spell. “She’s beautiful…”
Twilight froze, and spun around as Butterscotch squeaked, his hooves flying to his mouth and his face burning red. Before she could put words together in her mind, he bolted – flashing away in a yellow-pink streak at speeds Rainbow would have been proud of, back towards the cottage.
Twilight blinked, one hoof up and mouth still open as she stared, barely a breeze remaining in the wake of the pegasus who had stood there moments ago. Finally, she sighed, bringing the hoof to her head and walking away, back towards the town…
Three for three. I’d actually almost managed to forget about it for a little while there.
…And next up… Rarity. “Elusive”.
…Maybe I should just give this up and hide in my library for the rest of the day…
She sighed. No. I’ve made it halfway through the day – I can see it through. It wouldn’t be fair on the others. And at least the others won’t be scared, like Butterscotch.
Still, he’s that scared of mares? I mean, I’m still not even as tall as him. It’s not like I’m a stallion looming over a…
Twilight’s heart skipped a beat, as did her gait on the road.
Oh no.
I’m not… but Dusk is.
And if all the other stallions are this bad here… and he went to visit Fluttershy…
…What is HE doing to MY friends, back in MY Ponyville?