"Fluttershy, was it?" Lauren spoke to the shy mare, who tried to hide behind her mane the moment she was spoken too.
Aww, cuteness overload indeed. The queen giggled inwardly before moving up to the butter colored pegasus. Fluttershy looked like she wanted to disappear into the ground, which hurt Lauren. Was she really that intimidating because she was so much bigger than anyone else? Regardlss, the alicorn of writing (authors?) continued her approach until she was right in front of the mare. Carefully Lauren extended one of her wings, wrapped it around the smaller pony and pulled her closer. With her other wing, Lauren slowly stroke down Fluttershy's back.
"There, there, no need to be afraid." she cooed motherly. Need. To. Suppress. Squeal. She's just too cute. Oh, why did I make her so cute. I hope Luna and Celestia won't be jealous.
Really Faust? Now you actually start thinking about them as if they're your daughters?
Fluttershy in the meantime relaxed inside Lauren's grasp. For once she got to experience what her animal friends normally did. Slowly Fluttershy brought her face out from behind her mane, looking up at Lauren like a cute little animal. From a former humans perspective she was a cute little animal.
The others looked at the scenery with various dumbfounded expressions, except for Pinkie Pie who kept smiling. Lauren kept doing the gesture for a little more, until she was sure that Fluttershy had fully calmed down. "Feeling better?"
"Y-yes." came the meek reply from the pegasus.
"Well then Fluttershy" Lauren let go of said mare, but still stayed close to her "why don't you tell me a bit about yourself?"
The others shifted a bit in their positions, so they were sitting (more or less) in a circle again.
"W-well, I take care of a lot of animals in Ponyville." she started explaining. The alicorn's hope to hear something she didn't know quickly disappeared after the first line. But then again, what else had she been expecting? Animals were her life.
"I let them stay in my cottage, take care of them...nothing special."
The alicorn couldn't help but snort. "Nothing special? I think this says otherwise." she pointed at Fluttershy's cutie mark. "You shouldn't be so hard on yourself. Living with animals sounds very exciting, but I guess it's not easy taking care of....how many animals are we talking about?"
"Oh, well, half of them actually don't stay in my cottage, they just live around town or maybe in White Tail Woods. Goodness, I never really counted them."
"Sounds like a lot."
"You can bet on that!" Rainbow Dash zoomed in front of Lauren, surprising the author a little. "She's got like a ton of animals at her place and looks after each of 'em, like they're her foals or something."
Fluttershy blushed at the praise.
"Really?" Lauren faked her surprise as best as she could. "Now I have to see how you live. I always wanted to have a dog, but my mother was allergic against dog fur. And afterwards I just didn't have the time to take care of one."
"Oh that's too bad." Fluttershy commented.
The newest/oldest alicorn in the meantime didn't notice the mistake she made. She had mentioned her own parents, ergo Celestia's and Luna's grandparents. The thing was neither of them ever met their grandparents and didn't even know that they existed, although it was only logical. Still, they would have some questions for their mother, later as soon as the three were alone again.
Seeing that despite her efforts Fluttershy still wasn't much of a talker to strangers, Lauren tried to hold a conversation with one of the other ponies, namely Applejack.
"Ah swear, that li'l filly gets herself in more trouble than RD and that's saying somethin'."
"Hey!"
Lauren giggled, after hearing stories about the crusaders, even she didn't know about. One particular being where Sweetie Belle tried to give Applebloom a new haircut. It didn't end so well.
"I suppose your sister sees you as her role model, Rarity." Lauren commented after hearing the story of the haircut. Come to think of it, wasn't one of them supposed to get her cutie mark as a hairstylist? Oh right, no. That was Babs.
"It's not that I don't feel honored." Rarity bit her lower lip. "It's just that sometimes, she can be a tad too enthusiastic at times."
"Kids will be kids and they should enjoy being young, while they can." Lauren giggled. "Why I remember the time Luna and Celestia had their little prank war going on, they accidentally burned each others mane and dyed my fur a deep black. I couldn't reverse the effect until the ambassador of the dragons arrived. I think it worked to my advan....tage..." the alicorn trailed off, as this time a set of pictures came along with the words she said.
The princesses were torn between embarrassment, happy that their mother regained even more of her memories and worry, because the queen was rubbing her temples with both hooves, obviously experiencing a headache.
Wh-what is this? This looks like Celestia and Luna....only younger and...they're charging up their horns and then...I try to interfere...this feeling of...that is magic...their magic, they accidentally used on me....ARGH! Lauren groaned as her headache was starting to get worse. In less than a moment, Celestia and Luna were beside their mother, each asking if she was alright.
"I think...I need to go to the bathroom for the moment." the former human stated. As quickly as possible she was escorted there with her daughters flanking her on each side. When they arrived in front of the door, she insisted on going in alone. Although a little hesitant, the princesses complied to their mothers wishes and left her alone inside.
After some fiddling with her hooves, Lauren awkwardly managed to spray some water into her face. It felt kind of weird getting her fur soaked. It was like she was wearing some wet clothing around the facial area.
"What's going on?" she mumbled to her reflection. "You're Lauren Faust, an author. You write stories for little children, cartoon stories. You have a husband named....oh dear, Craig." How could I forget about you?! Oh, he must be worried sick already! Needless to mention Lauren's mood dropped immediately. What would happen if she didn't find a way back? What if she was stuck here with no way of even calling her husband one final time, leaving him to wonder for the rest of his life what happened to her?
"No, I can't just throw in the towel. How long have I been here, a few days? Plus I managed to get here somehow, meaning there should be a way out of here. If I play my cards right, I can convince Celestia and Luna to help me find a way back, maybe I can connect it to the mirror. And those "memories" I can sort out along the way. I just hope it won't take centuries for them to find a way back. Maybe I should start studying magic just as obsessive as Twilight does? Yeah, me and magic, I can already see the chaos coming from a mile away.
...
Chaos...
Dimension?"
"And one of the guests almost banished a pony into another dimension!"
"Discord!"