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// New Joys 
// Story: The Gifts of the Night 
// by Paxequinas 
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All Fluttershy remembered from when she was transformed was a confused jumble; thunderous hoof beats, rough wings frantically seeking a safe place to land, bellowing, roaring, a sweet beguiling odor commandeering her thoughts, and fright at the strange creature staring back at her from a mirror. A powerful urge to let the wind and sky lead her to a safe place battled her equally strong desire for sweet apple juice. She felt as though her body was not her own while her new instincts dueled reason for control.

When the spell was lifted, Fluttershy felt whole again, but not quite back to normal. As the brilliant light faded, she found she experienced the world in new ways. Her senses were very much heightened; she could hear, see, and smell things she couldn’t before. Apples still had a siren’s song; one whiff of that sweet juice could summon her from a few miles away when the wind was right. Unsurprisingly, it made visiting Applejack awkward, especially during cider making and apple bucking. It was everything Fluttershy could do to keep from diving into the cider press and guzzling the sweet, sweet juice staining the wood. (maybe that wasn’t so odd; Rainbow Dash also hovered anxiously when Applejack made her famous cider until she had a mug to drink)
Later one night, Fluttershy flew in her sleep. The seductive scent filled her dreams, leading her on until… she crashed into the barn door. Thankfully, there was very little damage done, other than poor Fluttershy ending up with a headache. Applejack came outside in time to see her friend rubbing her head and wistfully snuffling at the cider press. Applejack correctly interpreted it as a wish for more cider and, chuckling, gave Fluttershy a mug before sending her home.

However, despite her new-found inclination to sleep-fly whenever cider was made, there were two wonderful gifts the spell left her. She could understand her animal friends better than ever. There had been subtleties she had missed before, slight differences that changed and expanded upon the meaning of their words. Now, she almost always knew exactly what they had said. She surprised Angel bunny the day after by both correctly interpreting his comments. At breakfast, he demanded more carrots and Fluttershy passed him some. It took him a minute to realize that Fluttershy had known what he wanted without him having to pantomime. He convinced himself that it was a lucky guess based on her knowledge of his preferences. However, when he started complaining about how Opal had behaved during their last visit to Rarity, calling the cranky cat a fat furball, Fluttershy told him off in detail. His little mouth fell open.

The downside was that anything loud hurt her ears a bit. It took time for Pinkie and Rainbow Dash to work that out. Thankfully, they eventually DID understand that she needed them to be a bit quieter around her. Pinkie learned that she needed to play quiet music when she invited Fluttershy over for a party and Rainbow Dash learned to not shout near her. It was amazing how much more she enjoyed their company once they knew! Until then, poor Fluttershy clamped her hooves over her ears, curled up, and shivered when the noise got to be too much for her. It was Twilight who explained the problem to them after she’d fled from a particularly loud party. Pinkie decided then and there that a party didn’t need to be loud for it to be fun and to not play loud music when Fluttershy was around. She put on a much quieter album before leaving to find her. She convinced her friend to return.
However, Fluttershy’s improved hearing came in handy very quickly, when one of her charges decided to explore the Everfree at midnight. A cat in her care chased a cricket into the woods and promptly got lost. It didn’t take long at all for her to track the cat’s complaints.

Now flight no longer terrified her, especially not at night. She had a strange urge to let the night breeze carry her wherever it blew. When she had trouble sleeping, floating on the wind now soothed her. Even in the daylight, she trusted her wings and the air much more. She surprised Rainbow Dash one day by performing a slow barrel roll past the cloud Rainbow had been napping on. She thought she was still dreaming until Fluttershy floated past a second time, dancing on air. Rainbow Dash decided to teach her friend some acrobatics. They had fun with some of the simpler tricks. Rainbow Dash even got her to race a little, weaving between clouds. However, Fluttershy still wouldn’t perform a Sonic Rainboom or try any of the Wonderbolt’s extreme maneuvers, much Rainbow Dash’s disappointment.

Twilight had a lot of fun tracking Fluttershy’s changes over the next several weeks. Oddly enough, so did Fluttershy. A number of the tests involved apples, lots of them. One test had Twilight Sparkle cutting an apple and hiding it for her friend. They found out that Fluttershy needed to be over two miles away before she couldn’t smell the apple juice, and that was if the wind was at her back! When the wind carried the scent, she could smell it from much farther away than that. (as evidenced by the cider press incident) They also decided to find out how close she had to be to hear someone cutting an apple. The answer was that she didn’t have to be close at all to hear that. They also tested her hearing with soft music. It turned out that Fluttershy really couldn’t turn it up very much before it ceased to be pleasant.

However, even with the changes, one important thing remained consistent. Her friends were still her friends, both her pony friends and her animal friends. They made it clear that they’d be willing to watch over her, loved her, and were not afraid of how she’d changed. If anything, they were closer than ever.