//------------------------------// // Oh, Most Black of Nights! // Story: The Two Deaths of Fluttershy // by Draco Dei //------------------------------// Technical Note: Partially or fully absent capitalization in speech by Fluttershy indicates she is talking especially quietly. Big Macintosh had been wearing his "Mac the Knife" costume every day for the past week. He found it helped set the right mood for him to do what needed doing. He held the razor sharp stiletto loosely in his jaws as he looked down past the patch of slowly clotting blood on his chest to the unmoving form that he cradled to him. The yellow pegasus in his lap did not move, did not breathe. Her form was cool to the touch. Big Mac the Knife considered reopening the wound that lay just below the wooden collar around his neck, but decided he would prefer not to do anything to ruin this perfect moment. He smiled blissfully and gave his beloved cadaver a careful squeeze. Three Weeks Earlier: Luna lounged on a moderately sized storm-cloud, bringing fear to Ponyville on Nightmare Night. Pinkie Pie and Twilight Sparkle were on either side of her, both looking downward through telescopes. Pinkie was commenting non-stop, making suggestions to Luna, and complimenting her on each scare, while Twilight took notes. Since they were focusing on a more "technical" role in the night's activities none of them were wearing costumes. "Wow... I thought I would be learning something about spellcraft seeing her work, and goodness knows, I DO miss being able to talk about magic quite so often with someone who really understands the theory, but I keep getting distracted by what Pinkie has to say." Twilight thought to herself as she scribbled down another note on the artistic and psychological theory of giving good scares. "Not that I mind, surprisingly enough... general spellcraft I can learn from a book, or at worst get Princess Celestia or her to show me some other time. But this? She isn't just casting spells, she is playing the entire town like an instrument! Having an entire year to make her preparations over really helped. I don't think that there is a single foal who is going to have a nightmare tonight, nor a bruised hoof or nose in the entire town from jumping in the wrong direction or running into something, and yet at the same time everyone who is out has gotten at least one REALLY good scare. Hmmm... I wonder if any of this could be adapted to allow more effective disaster management for genuine threats? Keep ponies evading or hiding more effectively? I'll have to see if I can find any books on the subject... if nothing else Shiny could probably recommend a few titles." Moving the cloud forward a little, Princess Luna summoned up a few wooden spider-puppets near where Applejack, in her scarecrow costume, was crewing the apple-bobbing tub. Despite having bodies the size of cantaloupes the badly applied and brightly colored paint jobs combined very obvious jointing rendered them distinctly lacking in scare value... until the farm-mare took a few steps closer trying to figure out why anyone would waste their time with such a lame scare, only to have them ripped apart from the inside by poison-green termites the size of Sweetie Belle's horn. Twilight giggled in joy at the clever ruse. "Playing on her perfectly reasonable fear of crop destroying pests? Nice! But it seems a bit too much, I wonder how she is going to... AH HAH! A swarm of bats with glowing red eyes." "Brilliant! That should keep AJ from having any lingering worries! The evil evil tree-eating menaces have been vanquished!" she exclaimed, clapping her hooves. "Yeah! AJ was all like 'huh?' and then you were all like 'TERMITES OUTTA NOWHERE!' and then she was all like 'Yaaargh!' and then you were all 'Oh, and by the way, BATS!'." "Indeed, and I thank you Pinkie." Luna swiveled the cloud around, searching out her next group of targets, settling on the hay-wagon, drawn by Big Macintosh, who had a rather... odd look in his eyes, something a little sad, but also determined. The Cutie-Mark Crusaders were looking out the back of the wagon for "threats" while Pipsqueak "Crewed the crow's nest" from the peak of a small pyramid of hay-bales. The wagon was currently in a darkened alley (thank heavens Luna had cast those night-vision spells on both of them, temporarily making their vision almost the equal of Adamant and Westwood, her chauffeurs... although since they were on break right now it was "Adam" and "West"). "And there's the thought detection spell... she isn't going TOO deep, but her speed is AMAZING, I think she is scanning EVERYPONY in that group in less than a second! Now to see what she will..." Luna gave a tiny cry, her horn-glow beginning to flicker and pulsate oddly... tiny but SHARP. Twilight looked over to her, and saw an expression that she couldn't quite place which quickly melted into sheer horror. She made as if trying to VERY CAREFULLY cast a quite powerful spell, but nothing happened. "Sparkle, summon our sister, have her meet us at... at Fluttershy's cottage immediately.", said Luna, now looking resolute, but with a catch to her voice as if she were engaged in some extremely difficult spell-casting. "But she's NOT casting anything, not even on herself. Why is her horn glowing then, and where have I seen that expression before? And why does she want me to get Princess Celestia? Princess Celestia has retired to her bedchambers by this time of night, and besides which I am sure that Princess Luna could use her own magic to contact Celestia!" "Immediately!" Luna repeated giving Twilight a little cuff with her wing to break her out of her shock. The dark alicorn took to wing and burst towards the Everfree Forest with a CRACK-WHAM. Twilight Sparkle looked around wildly for Spike (dressed as a knight this year) in the crowds below then summoned her magic and teleported down next to him. "Spike, take a letter!" "What? Huh? Can't hear you!", said Spike, wiggling a claw in his ear. "That's right", Twilight thought, "he was outside of Luna's protective aura when she broke the sound-barrier." Twilight flipped rapidly to a fresh page and wrote out "EMERGENCY! Meet Luna at Fluttershy's house NOW!" then tore it off and shoved it in the small dragon's face. "OK SURE!", shouted Spike, still a little disoriented, and ran off. He got about two pony-lengths before Twilight grabbed him with her telekinesis, floated him back to her, and spun him around 180 degrees. Once she was sure she had his attention she gestured to the floating paper with one hoof, then to her open mouth with a back-hooved motion as if she was throwing something out of it. "HUH? OH! RIGHT!" said Spike, still shouting in the manner of the temporarily deafened... although slightly less loudly. He breathed a gout of green flame at the floating parchment. As the smoke flew off towards Canterlot, Twilight paused a moment, considering the situation. Glancing up at the cloud she saw Pinkie Pie peeking over the edge looking down at her. Twilight wrote again in her notebook, the quill flying across the page: PL looking at hay-wagon before incident, scanning surface thoughts. May have found something bad. Changeling again? You start interviewing all present. TPing to get PP and 'scopes then Direct to F's cottage. Return to Library upon green flare. Disengage to Canterlot if red flare. Tearing the sheet out of her note book she practically threw it at Spike, then vanished in a flash of purple light. A matching flash could be barely seen from the top of the cloud high above the little dragon, then barely two seconds later another flash. Arriving just outside Fluttershy's cottage with two telescopes and a startled looking Pinkie Pie, Twilight looked around. "Hey, Twilight, didn't Fluttershy used to have a door?", said Pinkie Pie in a surprisingly normal tone of voice, in contrast to her usual loudness. A little earlier in Canterlot: Princess Celestia was laying upon her bed, her eyes staring ahead, unfocused and with long, slow blinks spaced wide enough apart that your own eyes would tend to water on her behalf if one were, for some odd reason, to end up in the position of looking at them while she took her rest. The "sleep" of the greater alicorns is a strange thing, and scholars are uncertain whether to even categorize it as "sleep" per se. Suffice to say that Princess Celestia noted the arrival of the missive and was intrigued by the fact that it wasn't rolled up and that it had one torn edge. This roused her enough that a few seconds later she actually read the brief message as it lay before her. In an instant she was on her hooves and striding toward the doors of her chambers even as she opened them with her horn. Approaching one of the guards at her door, she spoke gently. "I shall be departing for Ponyville. Something has come up, perhaps related to the Everfree Forest or Fluttershy. Wake up the royal physicians, place the guard on one-tenth alert for deployment and the Wonderbolts on half-alert... oh, and when that is all done, alert Luna's senior press-agent." The guard saluted and galloped off, leaving the one she had not spoken to to guard her chambers alone until his return. The Princess of the Sun teleported off to a point about 500 pony-lengths above Fluttershy's cottage, then began to circle, assessing the situation. She noted Pinkie Pie and Twilight standing near the cottage, but did not call out to them or go down to them just yet... best to check for threats moving towards Ponyville first. "Quiet Pinkie. Stay here." said Twilight, saying a silent prayer of thanks that, for once, Pinkie had spoken at a normal volume. She eyed the shattered remains of Fluttershy's entrance with rampant anxiety. Not only was the door splintered to kindling, but part of the wall next to it was missing too. Tiphoofing to the edge of the hole and darting her head out for a look, Twilight glanced Princess Luna, her horn aglow, and her head slumped. Fluttershy was laying on her back nearby, her legs stiff in the air above her. Lighting up her horn, she stepped through the door. Twilight shied back as Luna whirled around, only for the Moon Princess to fall down before her in a posture of surrender, including closing her eyes. "Princess Luna?" "Twilight Sparkle...", Twilight had never heard her speak so softly, "It appears we were all incorrect. The Elements of Harmony did NOT cleanse us of all our dark powers. Some shred of our former evil must, even still, be lurking within our mind, for no true Princess of the Silver Light COULD have cast the spell we did. Indeed we barely managed to make it to here so that we could release the dire spell on she who is most able to bear it." "What? You cast an evil spell on Fluttershy? Why would you do that?" "We stumbled our horn. We realized at the last instant what we were about to do there upon that cloud and managed to turn something that could have been even worse than what we did into a stumble... although now we wish we had found some other victim. Fluttershy is one of our saviors, and she does not deserve what we have done to her." "I... I'm sure that whatever it was you did, it can be undone. We will find a way." said Twilight. A stumble? That explained it. She had stumbled a few spells herself in her years at Princess Celestia's School For Gifted Unicorns. If a unicorn fully formed a spell within their horn, but attempted to NOT release it, then sometimes their horn would "stumble". Sometimes the spell could be dissipated without effect, and sometimes it would leak out within a few seconds to minutes however much the unicorn might fight it... the phenomenon was roughly equivalent to a psychic sudden urination urge, although a careful unicorn might never experience the sensation in their entire life. "My sister searched long centuries for a cure. She never found it. It is possible that the Elements of Harmony might have some effect on her. Please, do not stand between the door and ourselves. My sister will be here soon to take both Fluttershy and ourselves into custody and we would not have you standing anywhere that might block her path. We only hope that she will find some more comfortable prison for me this time around. We shall have to serve my time for my crime... after that, it is perhaps even possible that my cleansing could be completed, or at least we might be de-horned and released.", replied Luna hopelessly, not rising from her position of surrender, her eyes closed and her legs splayed in such a way as to make rising as difficult as possible. "Luna... what... what did you do exactly?", asked Twilight, taking a single step to one side. "Ha..." she said softly "at least one more good deed may we do this night... cast the spell we showed you to touch Dear Fluttershy's mind." Twilight stepped towards her friend with trepidation. On closer inspection she saw two things. The first was a sleeping Angel Bunny on the far side of her, the other was a thin wire, perhaps a support wire from a lamp, strung tightly across her chest, the ends of it driven into the floor, perhaps via telekinetic force. "Neigh Twilight, do not approach her, it is not safe. Back away and cast your spell from-" "Hey everypony! What's going on in here!", shouted Pinkie from the doorway. "Luna... that is... Fluttershy's hurt. Go back outside. Celestia will be arriving soon and-" "In fact, I am here now Twilight Sparkle.", said a serene voice. Twilight looked towards the front door, and saw Princess Celestia's head framed in the door-way. "Princess Celestia! You have to help your sister, she thinks she did something horrible to Fluttershy, but I KNOW that the Elements changed her back to good!" "I see." said Celestia, her voice slightly more serious. Coming in the door she looked towards Luna and said "And what exactly do you think you did dear sister?" "We think it best that Twilight Sparkle discover the truth of the matter for herself, to give herself strength for the trials that are to come. We were just about to have her cast a thought-skimming spell on her. But now Sister, you must bind us, but... have a care with thy magic, Fluttershy might now be harmed by it." "I hardly think that will be necessary Princess Luna." "We insist.", said Luna firmly, still not opening her eyes. "Very well, if you are so worried about it, then step outside so my magic may not harm Fluttershy." "Wait! Princess Celestia! What is going on?!" "I have a guess, but can not know for sure. I think it is best if you cast that spell now... don't let her get near you my faithful student, and go as deep as you need to satisfy yourself of what is going on." "Shall we move now sister?", asked Luna with shame in her voice. "Rise my Sister." Twilight began to cast the spell as Luna crawled towards the door. "Pinkamena Diane Pie, dost thou have thy party cannon with thou?" "Yep-aroony!", said Pinkie, producing the cannon from... wherever she normally produced it from. "Enter then, and train it upon thy fallen friend. If she manages to rise, or uses any magic then thou must fire without hesitation. Twilight Sparkle's very life may depend on it." said Luna, still crawling towards the door with her eyes shut "Twilight, if it comes to it, you must englobe her in a shield, only this will contain her well enough that my sister may not have to slay her. It must be an..." "Wha...wha...what are you talking about? F-fl-fluttershy is nice." said Pinkie Pie. "She isn't right in the head right now, and she now has her own dark powers. Your streamers and confetti shall work no lasting harm upon her. We will again mention that it may be that once again thou may succeed where our sister and ourselves failed and she may yet return to us... but we dare not hope for even that." Celestia looked vaguely worried, and took a moment to rescue the rest of the animals who had been buried under, or trapped in their houses by various bits of debris, and to float Angel Bunny away from Fluttershy. Apparently Luna had been making a start of this before Twilight had entered. "Come with me little ones, this is no place for you to be.", Princess Celestia said, as she began to depart with all the unconscious animals, plus Luna, held in her telekinesis. Just before she was moved out of view Luna added "As we were saying earlier, the shield must literally be airtight." Twilight gulped and eyed the unconscious pegasus from across the room... "I've seen Fluttershy faint a few times, and that looks like the posture she normally assumed when that happens... something is off though... well, according to both Princesses I will know soon enough!", she thought as she began to cast the mind-reading spell... At first, she found only the dim emotions and thoughts of a pony making the long swim back to consciousness... nothing clear enough to have any real meaning. Deeper... A terrifying image of a grim-faced Luna literally flying through the wall... standing over her... a bleating sound coming from Fluttershy's mouth as she started to faint. Deeper... On the verge of passing out... were those tears in Luna's eyes? Deeper... now she was past memories being accessed, even subconsciously. Breakfast that morning. Walking across clouds to school one day in Cloudsdale. Munching on hay. erp! Running away from a scary looking Pegasus she had never seen before who had come around a corner three blocks in front of her on a busy street in Cloudsdale. Mending a mouse's broken leg. Trying to give Philomeena a pill. Deeper... A crush on a dark blue pegasus she had seen one day in town... she didn't have the nerve to try to talk to him. Writing a mean letter to her mother... why she had asked her own mother not to write quite so often to remind her to look for a nice stallion... tearing up the letter and burning it lest anyone see that she had written such a horrible thing. (Heh... only you Fluttershy could think of THAT as being mean.) The next memory was personal enough that Twilight recoiled from it out of embarrassment. (Ugh.... this is getting me NOWHERE! I think if I put a twist on it, I can find any unnatural mental influences... that MUST be what Luna was talking about. Here goes... CAREFUL! Stop... think first... don't want to mess this up and swap minds with her or something! Ok... 1... 2... 3... SLOWLY....) A feast... all for Fluttershy... every sort of food known to Pony-kind, her favorites nearest to her, expertly prepared to even Applejack's high standards of cooking. DISGUSTING! INEDIBLE!!... you want BANG-SQUEEEAL!!! "Sorry! Sorry! She just twitched a little! My hoof slipped!", said Pinkie as Celestia's head suddenly appeared in the circle of sky visible through the door-hole. "She awakens then... Twilight, hast thou looked upon the evil our hooves have wrought? We can only beg thy forgiveness and that of Dear Fluttershy." came Princess Luna's voice from somewhere outside. "I don't know what you are talking about! I looked around her head, but the only thing I saw was that you made her hate every kind of food imaginable! Shouldn't be THAT hard to fix, if I remember my Appetite Alteration correctly..." Celestia gingerly reached out her magic, a very very dim glow appearing around Fluttershy. "How deeply didst thou look?" said Luna, entering the cottage once again. Hoof cuffs were on her feet, connected by heavy-looking chains that floated a little off the ground. Glowing bands encircled her wings at the mid-point with chains running to the lower chains. Finally, a helmet, linked with two more chains to the fore-hoof manacles, and sealed with three large locks on it held a horn-binder in place.... all in all this did very little to impede Princess Luna's movements. Twilight recognized the set-up as being a more advanced version of a contingent restraint system. The chains were probably keyed to shrink upon command from Celestia, or if Luna moved more than a certain distance from her.... she noted that Luna still wore her peytral and her crown rested precariously atop the helmet, although both had a single glowing crack in them, thus preserving as much of her dignity as possible while denying her the benefits of the enchantments placed upon them. "Deep enough to see some of her romantic fantasies." "And what was she doing to the pony in question in these fantasies?" "UGH!!! Nothing! What business is it of yours?!" "Actually Twilight, I'm afraid you should answer my sister's question.", said Celestia, the glow of telekinetic force around Fluttershy growing stronger. "What? You too Celestia? She was just noticing a cute colt, and then some other time she was having a perfectly harmless clop, not thinking of anypony in particular!" "I... see..." said Celestia. "We would remind thou that Honesty is one of the Elements of Harmony. Denying the truth to yourself will only make things worse in the long-run." "I'm not denying anything! Look, maybe I did the spell wrong! That happens occasionally! Happens to every unicorn sometimes!" "I see... well then, my most faithful student, let me check your work.", said Celestia, the glow of her horn changing as she cast a second spell in concert with the first. "ummm... excuse me?" "Fluttershy! You're awake!", shouted Twilight as Pinkie pulled out a noise maker and marched in a high-stepping circle around the prone pegasus blowing it. Luna started to bow her head, then raised it, standing tall before her fate as she saw it. "Are you OK Fluttershy? How do you feel?" "Ummm... I feel just fine. Umm... actually... I feel a bit sick to my stomach... I don't suppose you could let me up?" "You... will have to talk to Princess Celestia, she is inside your head right now, checking you out." "Oh! That's so sweet of her! Did I hit my head when Luna startled me?" "Err... no she..." Twilight's attempt at some sort of explanation for the events even she didn't understand was interrupted as Fluttershy began to vomit. Twilight did her best to catch the half-digested matter with her telekinesis. After Fluttershy had finished Twilight looked at her carefully, but without approaching, to make sure she was alright. "Luna! Celestia! She's not breathing!", shouted Twilight, tossing the vomitus aside and diving her telekinesis into Fluttershy's mouth, looking for a blockage. "Now you begin to understand Twilight Sparkle. She hasn't been breathing since we cast our spell upon her." "What? Of course she was, she was talking to me!", said Twilight as Pinkie Pie performed a deft hop onto Fluttershy's stomach, then bounced away again in an attempt to perform the Hiemlich-maneuver without exposing herself to... whatever danger it was that Fluttershy presented. "And that is all her lungs are good for now, talking... We twisted her life into an abomination. We only hope she can find it in her heart to forgive us..." Celestia snapped out of her trance. "Ok everypony, one thing at a time.", said Princess Celestia, then turned to various ponies in turn. "Twilight, Pinkie Pie, Fluttershy is in no further medical danger." "Fluttershy, just relax and be strong, I'll let you up in a moment, but you must be strong in your heart. Resist anger. Resist violence." Both Twilight and Pinkie Pie looked very taken aback by this statement, but Celestia forged ahead, undeterred. "Luna my dear sister, it appears that Twilight may, in fact, have been correct... I didn't actually find any great anger or... hunger in her. I think after a detailed check of your own mind, I will be able to release you. After that, if you still feel you need to make amends to Fluttershy I will leave the details up to you." Celestia moved over to Fluttershy and yanked the wire that somewhat restrained her out of the floor. "Come my little pony, I would suggest you rinse your mouth out, then gather a few things for a stay of two or three days at Twilight's house while I examine my sister, I would also recommend you use the toilet, and take a bath. And it must be a bath, not a shower, don't get in until you are done running the water." "Celestia... you aren't really going to de-horn Luna are you?" said Twilight with a shudder. "What ever gave you that idea?" "She... mentioned it as a possibility." "I shouldn't think that would be an option with anything to recommend it. Tell me Luna, what inspired you to cast the spell in the first place? None here will repeat your words." "Cross my heart and hope to fly, stick a cupcake in my eye." said Pinkie Pie with noticeably less giggle in her voice than usual. "You have my word Princess Celestia." Celestia gave them a look that said "Yes dears, I know I can trust you, you don't have to delay things to promise." "We were being intuitive with our magic and drawing somewhat on theories of mind and magic that we had crafted during our possession, believing that any magics that remained to us must be pure. Pipsqueak, for whom we have... greater noblesse oblige than for most of our citizens, was considering his costume for next year, thinking that being a pirate three years in a row might demonstrate a lack of creativity. He idly considered the malediction we have inflicted on Dear Fluttershy, then was at least briefly considering combining the two into a single costume. We thoughtlessly nearly granted his wish, then stumbled our horn when we managed to hold back at the last instant. Unfortunately the spell would have had sufficient targeting abilities once released that we could neither direct it at an inanimate object, nor even a plant or beast. Given its range and complexity neither could we modify it or cast a teleportation spell of sufficient range without a grave chance of releasing it on the spot." "How... how great a chance?" "We estimate a fifty-seven point three percent chance of failure with a teleportation, and even worse than that with attempting to modify it so we could direct it at some target it could not effect. In hindsight we should have snatched thou up bodily Twilight Sparkle and commanded thou to cast a shield about Fluttershy in hopes that it could have absorbed the spell." "Perhaps dear sister, but it seems to me that that might have risked slaying Fluttershy outright if the spell were only partially stopped. In any case, I can see foresee no case in which a dehorning would have anything to recommend it. At the worst, I would think that a horn-binder WITHOUT a lock should allow you a space of time to learn to cast only in an intentionalistic manner. A decade or two at most." "Say rather centuries." "I have more confidence in you than that, and would use that method even now if I were not sure that my stubborn little sister would refuse such freedom. But let us allow Fluttershy to tend to herself." Fluttershy began walking to her bathroom, followed by Luna, then Celestia, who had to duck her head to enter the lower ceilinged portion of the house. The other two little ponies followed close behind. Once Fluttershy entered the bathroom, a golden glow covered both the door and part of the wall. "Princess Celestia, why are you projecting a shield over the entire bathroom?" "I am being cautious. Just in case there IS some subtle evil ahoof." "Yes, but the entire wall? Wouldn't just the door and the window do?" "Probably, but her new abilities come with a certain amount of intuitive understanding of how to use them." "What abilities? Just tell me plainly what is going on! Please?" "There isn't actually a word for what seems to be going on, and I know how much you like precision my most faithful student. As we have a bit and you may have need of the information, I shall give you a lesson. Luna's magic created a bond between Fluttershy's flesh and soul. As the two are already as bound as they can be, this would have had no effect, except that this bond is empowered by life itself. As such, it caused her body to die as the energies of life were instantly transformed into pure magic. Fortunately for her the effect is also instantly lethal to any micro-organism that enters her, and includes among several side-benefits a stasis of certain chemical processes that would usually follow death. Due to this she need not..." Pinkie's hoof shot into the air and she looked at Celestia expectantly. "Yes Pinkie?" asked the Princess of the Sun. "So Fluttershy is a zombie?" asked Pinkie in a surprisingly neutral tone of voice. "No, certainly not! Even if my sister's over-reactions had been true, that wouldn't have been what she would be. Even the word 'undead' is greatly dubious to use in connection with her at this point. The dictionaries are going to need some updating to handle this one." "Oh! Ok!" chirped the pink pony. "However the effect is especially destabilizing of the bond between cells, although the effect is fail-safe in that anything that would counter that aspect of the magic would result in the reintegration of the cells... even if they had become displaced from their usual positions in the mean-while. She can, however, nearly completely remove those bonds, and direct the cells in an semi-independent way, much as her flight as a pegasus is augmented by magic. So each cell is capable of rapid levitation. In practical terms this means that she can appear to turn into a substance that would share many properties with the less morphologically stable sort of clouds, and then re-form herself into her standard pegasus configuration at a later time. Such a form would likely have a faint yellowish glow to it as her intrinsic power becomes more visible, much in the same way that a unicorn's horn glows when using magic. This glow would over-ride the normal coloration of the tissues in question." "So she can turn into a yellow fog and fly around?" "An apt simplification Pinkie, but I am afraid I must ask you to avoid simplifying this. Twilight needs to be thinking of this in terms of the most.... think-y sort of thinking if she is going to be best able to help Fluttershy." "Gotcha!" "Err... Princess, won't this scare Fluttershy?" "Wise thinking my most faithful student, but the shield doesn't let any sound en-" Celestia's explanation was interrupted by a terrified yelp from inside the bathroom. She opened the door, and stuck her head in. She then floated the curled up pegasus out of the tub (perfectly dry, she had apparently been hiding, not bathing). "What happened my darling little pony?", said Celestia in a motherly tone, sitting back and wrapping her forelegs and wings around the quivering yellow and pink lump. A nearly imperceptible whisper came from inside the shelter of her wings. Celestia extracted Fluttershy's head from the tangle and gently held her mouth open a little to look into it. "Why yes, I do believe there HAVE been some changes. But its OK, I promise... here, let me give you something nice.", said Celestia. Then raising her head to look at Twilight she continued. "I shall need to perform a small amount of magic upon you. You are in good health I trust?" "Yes, I am, but why should that matter?" "I promise I shall explain later." "Sister we think that if you are going to be... showing her that it is OK to do what she must now do, that we should be the one to provide... that which must be provided." "No no Luna, I'm sure Fluttershy would appreciate the offer, but it simply wouldn't be wise, given your power..." "Ah, we see your point, perhaps then it should be Pinkie Pie who should... no, wait... that could be utter disaster." "Indeed my sister." "Of course, this method hath its own dangers... but thou art long familiar with those we should think." "Quite." said Celestia, looking at Twilight fondly. "Curl up now my little pony, and I shall give you something tasty." Fluttershy's head disappeared back below Celestia's wings and a golden glow appeared around the lower part of Twilight's left fore-leg. The glow began to pulsate, as small smacking and slurping noises came from inside Celestia's wings. "On *tiny gulp* that DOES taste nice." "You are... you aren't NURSING her are you?" asked Twilight. "More like giving her a bottle." "Should she be so close to you while she is doing that dear sister?" "Fret not Luna, I am monitoring her thoughts. She really is most delightfully pure of heart right now." "Princess Celestia... what are you...that is..." "I am employing the corrected version of Mirror Pool's Seventh Transposition, except with the destination point being Fluttershy's mouth." "Mirror Pool's Seventh Transposition? But... wasn't that not only universally fatal, but so fundamentally flawed that the only way the problem was ever solved was that the isolated village of New Hoofington was so lacking in records that Red Horn the Lesser had to work from scratch rather than trying to build on Mirror Pool's work?", said Twilight as the golden glow faded. "Precisely Twilight. The spell I cast has NOTHING to do with Mirror Pool's actual work, it merely achieves the same ends as what Mirror Pool intended." "Well why are you calling it that when you could just say...", Twilight cut herself off as Celestia gave her a significant look. "I...", Twilight trailed off as she began to connect the dots. "Ok... ok... just boil this down to the most important part for me." said Pinkie, a serious expression on her face."Is this the sort of situation for a 'Glad You Are OKAY!' party, or would a 'Get Well Soon!' party be what we need?" "The first I believe, with a touch of 'We Are Going to Help You Adjust to Your New Life So It Is Ok'." replied Celestia. "New life? But... I like my old life. I like caring for my animals and my cottage and... I don't want anything to change... except less monsters and meanies... that would be good. I mean I know you need my help but..." "Oh, my little pony!", said Celestia with a light tone, "I don't think any of that is going to change. You are going to need to stay with Twilight for about the next three days, and then you can probably get back to your animals as soon as you like. I shall even have the Elements of Harmony made available to you to see if they can reverse what has happened to you, but since there seems to be no evil within my sister's spell, I don't think it would do anything." "But... if she couldn't hear us, what scared her?" asked Pinkie Pie. "If I had to guess, I would say she looked in the mirror. Here... why don't I have her show you." "No, please, I don't want them to think I am some sort of monster." "Ok, but did I guess right?" "Umm... yes... I rinsed out my mouth, and I was going to brush my teeth... for a second it looked like I was all see-through, so I looked closer and then...", said Fluttershy, finishing on a shudder so hard it was visible through Celestia's enveloping wings. "Well, I am sorry to say that you can't hide in my wings forever... go get whatever you will need." "Can I bring Angel Bunny? Oh! Is Angel Bunny ok?" "Yes/Neigh." spoke the Princesses at the same time. "Ok, first things first. Fluttershy, Angel Bunny is fine, my sister had to send sleep upon him to keep him from hurting himself trying to protect you. As for whether he can come with you," said Celestia turning to look at Luna "I THINK that if Pinkie Pie brings him along he can visit with you as much as you like. He will be able to get as close to you as Twilight herself may. Would that be acceptable to you dear sister?" "That would seem to be sufficient, yes." "Let it be so then." "Move along then. Fret not either for your house or your animals. Those under my sister's command shall ensure that neither shall lack for appropriate attentions." Fluttershy crept out of the wings of the Princess of the Sun, looking around timidly, and shying away from her friends. "But what about the ferrets, will whoever is taking care of know that they need very specialized..." "Don't worry about the details my little pony, you can explain everything to the ponies later." "CUPCAKE!" shouted Pinkie Pie, attempting to shove said confection into Fluttershy's mouth. "Huh? Usually when I do that I can get the treat in their mouth. Even with YOU." said the pink pony looking quizzically at the smashed remains of the cupcake. "You don't like cupcakes anymore?" "Actually, that was the one aspect that I detected that COULD be considered maledictive." stated Twilight "Apparently Luna put a spell on her to make her hate food. There may be more to it than that." "Oh no! I'll starve!" "No, actually you won't. Didn't what I gave you taste good?", said Celestia, as a golden glow cleaned the cupcake off of her muzzle. "Umm.... yes... but..." "Then it is my royal command that you shall eat that same thing." "That's silly! Why would you have to order her to eat tasty things? I mean sometimes my parents would make me eat alfalfa, which didn't taste very good, but if she likes whatever it is, why would she NOT eat it?" "Please Pinkie, just leave it alone. I think Fluttershy needs some time to adjust, and you aren't helping. Come to that I need some time to adjust. Actually, come to that Pinkie, I am going to tell you what you are going to call this, and you are not to use any other term for it, understand me?" "Umm... Twilight... why are you being so bossy?" asked Pinkie, raising one eyebrow. "Because while you are a great pony, sometimes you can say the wrong thing." "Hay! Wait a minute! I say exactly..." "Pardon me girls, I believe I have the solution to this." "Yes Princess Celestia?" replied Twilight. "I think that Pinkie should use whatever Twilight says to refer to Fluttershy, BUT that she should also try to come up with a bunch of silly names for it. Every so often you two should go off away from Fluttershy, and you should explain the newest batch of joke-names to Twilight so she can make sure they will be alright. Or Twilight should pick someone else you can do the same with. Is that agreeable to both of you?" "Okie Dokey Lokey!" "Yes of course Princess Celestia... Now, as I was saying I think you should call it... give me a second. I need to practice a bit silently so I can say this. If I were writing it, it would be much easier, but that might spoil half the point." Twilight made shapes with her mouth for a few minutes as Fluttershy went around gathering up a few things under Celestia's motherly eye. The purple unicorn then whispered the new name to Pinkie Pie. Pinkie Pie being Pinkie Pie proceeded to inform Fluttershy at nearly-full volume. "Hey, Fluttershy, you are a e-rip-mav now!" Celestia chortled. "An excellent choice my most faithful student. I think Pinkie Pie has been rubbing off on you." "Hey, does that mean she will be turning pink soon? Like streaks of pink on her coat? But I haven't been rubbing against her, except maybe when we have a group hug at a party, or maybe when I give her a noogie, but I don't do that to her very often and even then I think-" "Not what I meant my little pony... get Twilight to explain it to you some other time.... Fluttershy, how are you coming?" "Well, I don't know if I have enough tummy medicine for three days, because I was throwing up before and-" "You probably won't need any tummy medicine. That was just your body adjusting to your new diet. Speaking of which, are you hungry?" "Well... not really... maybe a little? I mean if you want me to eat something then I will do that, but I don't even know what I eat exactly, since I never saw what you gave me. I'm sorry! Should I have been paying more attention? I promise I will pay more attention." "That's quite alright. You did nothing wrong, absolutely nothing. Just relax and let Twilight worry about what you will eat. She can get you more tummy medicine if you need it too." "But... but... with only one thing to eat, won't she get bored? I mean there are so many wonderful amazing fantastic flavors out there, how could you pick just one food? And besides, isn't eating just one thing not good for you?" Celestia held up a hoof and waved it for silence, timing it precisely so as to stop Pinkie Pie neatly at the end of a sentence, rather than messily in the middle of a word. "As to the first, I think Twilight could look into that. She can research if different varieties of sustenance taste differently to Fluttershy and then if Fluttershy even CAN get bored of a given taste in her current state... although that second part should wait until I can double-check her procedures. As to the second, I am reasonably sure that no harm will come to Fluttershy from her limited diet, and if there would be, we shall deal with that when the time comes." It was at this point that Twilight Sparkle displayed a certain level of statesmareship. More specifically she walked over to Luna and whispered in her ear. "Yes. We can see the benefits of what you suggest Twilight Sparkle.", then turning with a slight rattling of chains Luna spoke again. "Pinkamena Diane Pie, recall thee now a night exactly one year ago. Upon that night thou didst accidentally offend against us. In order that thou not repeat thine error, it is hereby our decree that thou shalt have no fear of Fair Fluttershy, unless my sister, Twilight Sparkle, or ourselves should give thee leave." "Um... Okay!" "That was well done, both of you." said Celestia said to Twilight and Princess Luna. The rest of the time until Fluttershy was ready to depart passed without significant event other than Celestia producing a quill and parchment and writing out some sort of requisition order for Twilight to use, but with a long string of knock-knock jokes from Pinkie Pie. The alicorns lead the way out of the house, and Celestia took a moment to double-check the large amount of healing magic she had pumped into the injured animals, then excised a disk about two and a half pony-lengths in diameter, and about three hooves thick from the lawn. "What are you doing Princess?", inquired Twilight curiously, taking a moment to shoot a sphere of green light high into the sky, where it hung, letting Spike know he could head home. "Setting things up for Fluttershy's accommodations." she replied, setting the disk of sod to one side."If you could stand in the middle of it with your luggage Fluttershy?" "Umm... Okay." "Now listen carefully. Here is what you must do...", said Celestia, and then proceeded to list off a very complicated set of spell-parameters to Twilight in erudite enough terminology that Fluttershy and Pinkie Pie couldn't understand more than one word in six. "And remember, don't drop the shield until you hear from me, and she is not to leave your basement until the nightfall after that unless I tell you differently. Did you understand everything I said?" "Of course your majesty." "Well, I certainly didn't." said Pinkie Pie. "Don't worry about it Pinkie Pie, I will explain once I get her settled. Fluttershy, I need to put a quarantine force-field over you." "...ok..." Twilight raised a quick hemisphere of force around Fluttershy, then to Celestia she said, "But why aren't you coming to the Library yourself?" "I am afraid that would not be good for my dear sister's reputation. Since she insists on behaving like a captured criminal, I must humor her and investigate so she does not fret in her innermost heart. The trial should take all of one second once I have gathered the evidence, unfortunately gathering it will take us about two days straight. After that Princess Luna should be able to take over the government for the next day or so while I modify some safety measures I installed in the sun." And with that the alicorns vanished in a flash of golden light.