//------------------------------//
// Cute little animals 
// Story: The Gala Rocks 
// by CrossRedstone 
//------------------------------//

"There, there, you need to relax your muscles every once in a while. You don't want them to cramp up, do you?"

"Uh...any idea, when she's gonna snap out of it?" Rainbow Dash asked, as Fluttershy carefully massaged Rainbow's back, being especially carefully around the wing muscles. Their friend had entered some kind of cuteness overload stage and so far every attempt to snap her out of it failed. Well, they didn't try to hurt her, because it was Fluttershy!

Their solution? One stayed behind, while the others carried everything else over. Now they were finished and Fluttershy still didn't realize that she had been petting and taking care of her friends.

Rarity tried another approach, clearing her throat. "Ahem, Fluttershy dear. It's not  like we're not grateful for all the kindness you're giving us, but-"

"Oh my!" Fluttershy flew away (she somehow figured it out) from Rainbow Dash and over to Rarity. "Your mane is a little messy."

"What?!" Rarity looked over to the mirror and noticed that a few strains were out of nowhere. "Don't worry, I'll take care of that." From somewhere in Twilight's castle, Fluttershy was able to produce a brush and started carefully straightening out Rarity's mane.

"You have such a beautiful mane. Now, we don't want it to get all messy, do we? No of course not. You don't like it, when things get messy."

"Maybe we should just gently push her back through the portal." Sunset suggested, rubbing the back of her head. "I could levitate her over there, without plugging a single feather. Maybe on the other side, we'll have our Fluttershy back."

"That is, unless she doesn't jump through it right back." Applejack pointed out. "Shy seriously." Applejack tapped her friend a teensy, tiny bit more on the shoulder. "Shy, ya had yer fun, but we seriously need to go back or we'll miss the first period."

"Oh no, I can't give you another apple. You don't want to become...you know, a little overweight."

AJ facehoofed. "Ow." And accidentally hurt herself, not realizing that hooves were harder than hands.

"Come on Fluttershy!" Pinkie Pie jumped up and down in front of the momentarily pegasus. "I'll even make you a very special cupcake if you come with us." she turned her head upside down trying to get Fluttershy's attention with her little antic.

"Don't worry, I'm going to play with you, as soon as I'm done here. It shouldn't take more than a minute or two."

"Oh dear." Twilight rubbed her forehead. "I really hate to do it" she said, while levitating a bucket full of water over.

"Wait!" Sunset exclaimed, holding her hoof up. "Let me try something else, first."

"Uh, I think we've pretty much run out of options."

"Wait, sugar. Ah know we need a might more drastic measures in order to snap her out of it, but ya see, Shy had...a not so well childhood experience with a bucket full of water." AJ explained.

"Yeah, Twi." Rainbow walked up. "We pinkie promised not to tell a soul, but belief me. You don't want to do that."

"Alright..." Twilight reluctantly complied, but she knew better than to go against her friends' advice. 

"Oh my, Fluttershy." Rarity was viewing herself in the mirror portal. "I didn't know you were so skilled with the brush."

"There, now you're all pretty again." Fluttershy hugged Rarity from behind before going over to Pinkie Pie and gently tickling the mare under the chin. "Now what should we play today?" Pinkie giggled and was about to respond, but Sunset levitated Fluttershy over to herself and forced the butter colored pegasus to look into the unicorns face.

"Fluttershy, I know this is heaven for you, but we need to go back. Don't you have other animals to take care of back at home? What will they think if you'd stay here and never come back?"

The others flinched. Sunset was playing the cold reality card. It immediately showed an effect, as a few tears started to run down Fluttershy's face. Sunset let go of her face and gave her friend a big hug, while said pegasus started crying into the unicorn's shoulder.

"Sunset! I don't want to go! It's just...have you seen the outside! They're all ponies and...there're so many animals! I don't want to go! Can't I just take my animals over here too?"

If adorableness could kill, Sunset would have had ten heart attacks, the moment Fluttershy looked at her with those teary eyes. As best as she could Sunset resisted to comply to Fluttershy's wish and stroked her friend's back, while at the same time cooing softly into the pegasus' ear. The others too gathered around and hugged Fluttershy.

"It's not like we'll never come back here again." Sunset said softly. "I'm sure arrangements can be made, so you can visit here every ones in a while." Sunset gave Twilight an apologetic smile. The princess of friendship frowned a little, but then put a hoof under her chin and finally nodded. "Well...there are some experiments I wasn't capable of doing, mainly studying the effect of the mirror more thoroughly. And I guess it would be unfair if I was the only allowed traveling back and fourth. AGH!"

Fluttershy had tackle-hugged Twilight and thrown both against the wall. "Oh, thank you, thank you, thank you, thank you!!"