The nanny and the princesses merrily skipped trotted into the town of Dracoville. The girls were mesmerized at everything they saw from townhouses to toy shops to bakeries! Although none of the local Draconians spotted the princesses, a few were curious about them.
"Are those the princesses?" A magenta earth pony, named Daisy asked to herself.
"Look, Cranky," said a female mule. "I think those girls are the princesses, don't you?"
"Ridiculous, Matilda!" Her husband barked. "The King would never let them out of the palace! And he would not let them wear those ridiculous clothes, either!"
The fillies giggled silently to each other, hearing those comments from the bystanders. It was interesting how brand new clothes could easily fool somepony!
Fluttershy took the children to a shop and each mare bought something. Fluttershy bought a guitar, Screwball got a baseball bat and ball, Babs Seed received a toy sword, Scootaloo found a scooter, Apple Bloom got a baseball mitten, and Sweetie Belle-pink necklace. Afterwards, Fluttershy and the children stepped into a bakery, Gilda's Griffon scones. The children have never tried griffon scones before thus, Gilda was more than happy to show the scones off to them. The scones were so delicious that Apple Bloom could not stop eating them!
"May I have another scone, Miss Fluttershy, pretty please??" Apple Bloom whined.
"Apple Bloom you just had three scones," Fluttershy said, kindly but firmly. She worried that Apple Bloom might get a stomachache if she ate another scone.
"Oh let the squirt have another one!" Gilda said, handing Apple Bloom a new fresh scone. "My Grandpa would be tickled that a filly loved his scones so much!" After Apple Bloom gobbled up another scone, Fluttershy and the fillies bid goodbye to Gilda and promised her to visit her shop again.
Fluttershy's eyes sparkled at seeing the grass and flowers on big wide hills. The fillies were mesmerized too and did not hesitate to gallop around, letting the wind blew their manes. While galloping, Scootaloo tripped over a rock and bumped into Apple Bloom.
Apple's face was flat on the ground.
"Ow, get off me!" Apple Bloom muffled.
"Sorry, sis!" Scootaloo yelped, smiling sheepishly. She quickly sat up and helped her grumpy and messy sister up. They caught up with Fluttershy and thier other sisters. After much running and twirling around, everypony sat down on the grass.
"You girls are so sweet!" Fluttershy gushed, ruffling Scootaloo's mane.
"Of course, we are Miss Fluttershy!" Screwball boasted, pointing to her chest with her hoof. "Why wouldn't we be?"
"I haven't had this much fun since we put centipedes in Miss Happyglow's bed!" Babs Seed reminiscences.
"Oh yeah, that was priceless!" Screwball laughed, throwing her head back. "After that, she called us brats and slapped father when he fired her!" The other girls fell on their backs, squealing with laughter. It took the princesses ten minutes to calm down and sit up.
Fluttershy shook her head, sadly, not finding their past pranks very funny.
"Oh dear, " she sighed. "I don't understand, how can such sweet girls play such mean tricks on the former nannies?" The fillies shared looks of guilt with each other. Were they really that mean to Fluttershy and the previous nannies? At least Fluttershy did not yell and walk out on them like Mrs. Harshwinny, Miss Heartstrings, or Miss Bon Bon.
"Well, how else are we supposed to get father's attention?" Screwball answered, smartly.
"Yeah," Apple Bloom added. Now their reason behind the pranks made sense to Fluttershy. The fillies didn't want a nanny, they wanted their father! They don't get to see him because he's always away! Pulling off pranks was an instrumental tool to get King Discord out of his meetings and outings, just to see them! Perhaps, Fluttershy could help the children find another way to capture the King's attention without being punished by him.
"Hmm, we'll have to think on that one," she mused. Her train of thought was interrupted by Sweetie Belle who tugged on her sleeve.
"What subject do we do next?" The other fillies faced her as if they were asking the same question. Fluttershy tried to think of a subject to do that is educational and fun.
"Um...Music lessons!" She solved, her eyes on her brand new guitar.
"Music lessons?" The children repeated.
"Yes, we can sing some songs as I play on my guitar!"
"But we don't know any songs!" Babs Seed, spoke sorrowfully.
"You don't!?" Fluttershy exclaimed. The children shook their heads with their eyes downcast.
"We don't even know how to sing!" Sweetie Belle lamented.
Fluttershy began to feel sorry for the children, she had never met any pony that did not know how to sing! Surely, these princesses must have received singing lessons from their former nannies, right? Or maybe their father forbade music as it never appeared on the schedule that Sunset had given her. Still, no filly and colt should ever miss out on something as remarkable as singing!
"You don't need to worry, I will teach you how to sing!" She grinned, positioning her guitar in her hooves. "And once you learned how to sing, you will be great enough to sing for Lady Chrysalis and your Uncles Flim and Flam!" The children still looked a bit uneasy.
"But Miss Fluttershy, Father hates music!" Apple Bloom explained. "What if he-"
"Never mind, what your father said," Fluttershy assured her. "If he asks, I'll say it was my idea and take the heat from him." The fillies were still a little bit anxious about singing but they felt comforted that Fluttershy will take the blame for them. Even if their father would give Fluttershy more than heat. They all gathered around in a circle and faced Fluttershy. "Welcome to Music 101!" The buttercream pegasus strummed the strings to find a beat. She started off with the basics of 'do-re-mi.' The girls were confused thus Fluttershy had to come up with strategies to help them memorize the notes.
After singing some notes, the children laid back and gave a hearty laugh. They never knew that singing could lift up their spirits.
"That was so much fun!" Screwball chortled.
"Now I know how to sing!" Sweetie Belle squeaked. "Thanks for the music class, Miss Fluttershy!"
"Oh but the lesson is not over yet, girls," Fluttershy giggled. "That was lesson number one. Now, we're going to do lesson number two!
Do re mi fa so and so on, are the only tools we use to build a song. Once you have these notes in your head, you can sing a million different tunes by mixing them up!"
She demonstrated how she mixed up the tunes and the girls repeated after her.
"Good job!" Fluttershy praised them. "You're learning fast!"
"But Miss Fluttershy, those words don't mean anything?" Apple Bloom interrogated.
"So, we put in words," Fluttershy clarified, kindly. "One word for every note!"
After leaving the park, Fluttershy and the children had rented scooters from a local bike shop and scooted around the town square. It was an activity that Scootaloo wanted to do since she loved riding around in scooters. Draconians gave them odd looks for singing but the nanny and the princesses did not seem to mind.
Another activity that Fluttershy and the girls participated was ride in a wagon, which was pulled by a griffon, Gaston. At first, Fluttershy did not have a baton to direct the children's singing. Luckily, Screwball secretly summoned one up for Fluttershy so she could use it. Each child had their turn singing each note.
After riding on the wagon, they got off and still sang as they danced near the town's water fountain, its garden, and its statue of a black draconequus, King Q (great-grandfather of King Discord).