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// ... 
// Story: What Shy Did on Her Summer Vacation 
// by FanOfMostEverything 
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Footsteps approached the clearing, moving in time with a hummed tune. No growth impeded the approaching figure. No creature molested her beyond a bluebird roosting atop her bandana. She looked up at it fondly without dropping a beat. She only let the music stop when she was a few steps away from the center of the grove.

Tree Hugger did not see the grove the way others did. Ever since Sunset Shimmer began a truly new age, Tree had found her vision changing. The auras of life and emotion that she had barely glimpsed before became more and more prominent, slowly overtaking the physical world. And here, those auras had taken a turn for the truly surreal. It had been a good thing Applejack had asked her to come now. It had been easy to the coax the pale purple off of the red-green lattices of the plants and rebalance the simple auras of the park's residents, but given more time, Fluttershy's skill might have improved beyond Tree's limited experience.

Tree considered Fluttershy's material shell, a small tree whose trunk curved in a way that suggested it had been carved in the shape of a young woman some time before. The face made it clear that it hadn't simply grown that way, still retaining most of its features, though these too had lost some of the fine detail. Its aura was... worrying. Stretches of it had decentralized into a red, vegetative state, especially along the roots and higher branches. Thin veins of that unhealthy looking purple branched out of the main body, some creeping back out to brush against the other auras in the area even as Tree Hugger watched. The rest was diffuse, a pale, ochre cloud only vaguely connected to the head region.

Taken all together, Fluttershy's chakras were... unraveling. There still was a Fluttershy, at least for now, but she was losing herself to the physicality of her current state. Worse, she was enjoying the sensation of that loss far too much to stop.

"This," said Tree Hugger, "will be an interesting journey for the both of us." She put a hand on a suggestion of a shoulder, trying to spool Fluttershy's essence back into her form. It was slow going. Not only did Tree have to work against Fluttershy's wishes, there was only so much she could do without some kind of foundation to brace against, for lack of a better phrase. Applejack would've helped, but she'd promised not to come back, and her integrity was too fundamental to her self for Tree to ask her to betray it.

After Tree Hugger has rewound as much of the girl as she could, she said, "Fluttershy? You there?" 

A rustling sound made Tree Hugger pull back in time to see Fluttershy's eyelids finish opening, revealing eyes far greener than normal. Fluttershy gave a creaky smile, flecks of bark falling off of her face. "Tree Hugger," she said dreamily, pink splotches blooming across her aura. "How lovely to see you. What brings you here?"

"I was asked here by an emissary of the Maiden-Goddess."

Fluttershy took a moment to reply. "Maiden-Goddess?"

"She'll probably become a Mother-Goddess at some point, but she's still a little young for that, you know? Point is, she asked me to come here because none of your other friends can reach you. You're in too deep."

"Too deep into what?" The pink reddened and spread.

"Your magic comes from a twist in your throat chakra, Fluttershy, not your root. Your soul is tied to the air. It's cool that you want to get in tune with other life, but right now you're suffocating yourself. You gotta let yourself breathe, you know?"

"I'm sorry, but I just don't understand what you're talking about." Fluttershy yawned. A crack spread from the right edge of her mouth to the base of her ear. "I have everything I could need here. Sun and soil and..." She gave a sleepy little giggle, her orange flaring. "Hummingbirds."

"Your friends are worried about you, Flutters, and that includes me. Your aura is barely tethered to your material form. Your journey shouldn't end here."

When Tree Hugger had first seen Fluttershy after the grand change, she'd thought she'd needed to refine her understanding of her aura vision.

Fluttershy blinked, not a speck of understanding in any part of her. "Where else would I go?" She shut her eyes. "Please, just let me go back to sleep. I was so comfortable."

There had been something there that had made no sense.

Tree Hugger took a deep breath. "If you do not know, then I will show you the way." She turned her body, pointing her left shoulder at Fluttershy and planting her right foot behind herself. It sank into the soil. Grass reached out and wrapped around it, holding it in place.

A strange depth to her aura, as though there were more to her than most people.

"Tree Hugger?" Fluttershy's eyes fluttered back open. "What are you doing?"

When Tree Hugger saw Applejack and Sunset Shimmer, she finally understood.

"Haaammm..." Tree let her left foot sink into the ground as well.

Between the orange-purple farmer and the humanoid constellation, there had been a link.

"I... I can tell you're doing something."

And with it, many other links flowing through the emotional energy-space that connected all life, including some leading into this very grove.

"Haaammm..." Other voices seemed to join hers in the mantra.

Seven girls. Seven chakras.

"Please, tell me wha—"

A single superconsciousness. A single place where Tree Hugger could stand as she drew Fluttershy back into herself.

Tree Hugger swung her body, driving her right hand into the bark around Fluttershy's throat.

"Grkl."

The mantra went unspoken. Nature itself thrummed with power instead. The muscles in Tree Hugger's arm, shoulder, and back bulged. Wood strained, then splintered. The emotional spectrum briefly went kaleidoscopic. With an almighty heave, Tree pulled Fluttershy out of her wooden cocoon and, with gentleness in sharp contrast to that heave, onto the loam.

"Wha... wha..." Fluttershy's aura spiked red, her eyes darting about, her body thrashing like a fish on land.

Tree Hugger held her until she went still, passed out from hyperventilation. Once Tree made sure Fluttershy was stable, she turned back to the tree that had held her. "Sorry for the rough treatment. I know it wasn't your fault." A careful arrangement of its life pathways ensured it would survive the extraction.

That done, Tree wrapped Fluttershy in the bathrobe she'd brought with her and carried her out.