//------------------------------//
// An Intruder 
// Story: What Shy Did on Her Summer Vacation 
// by FanOfMostEverything 
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Pinkie skipped her way to Fluttershy. She wasn't sure how it felt for people who weren't earth ponies in the pony world, but the place made her even happier than usual. It was so full of life that she could actually hear it sing on the edge of her hearing. She hummed along with it. She'd have joined in, but choir pieces weren't her favorites, and even if they were, she didn't speak Equin. 

"Hi, Fluttershy!" she cried as she tromped into the grove. Critters of all descriptions scattered, squeaking and squawking.

"Who— Pinkie?" Fluttershy's face flickered through several emotions. Confusion, shock, even a moment of anger.

"Yup!" Pinkie's expression fell. She knew why that last one was there. "Sorry for disturbing your animal friends. And that I took so long to come to see you. I trusted Zephyr to visit regularly but... Well, I don't want to say that he flaked out on you, but that's kind of exactly what happened."

Fluttershy had calmed down by this point. She shrugged. "He has to find his own path."

Pinkie rolled her eyes. "Well, right now that path led him to asking your parents to buy him Lure Modules." She sighed and wilted. "Still, it's not like we were any better."

"I don't mind being alone, Pinkie. You know that."

"Yeah, but you're still our friend! It's just that this whole summer has been downright cuh-ray-zee! Every time me and the girls try to get together and plan out some time to see you, someone remembers something she just can't put off! Rainbow Dash has swim practice, Applejack has something to harvest, Rarity has a rush order..." Pinkie gave a wry smirk. "It's been nuts, and that's me saying that. You'd think between me and Twilight we'd be able to coordinate schedules, but nothing doing! Isn't that weird?"

This got a noncommittal grunt. "I suppose."

"Plus, I've been putting in as much time as I can with the Cakes. I need the money, because magic has opened up so many party possibilities!" Pinkie grinned with twice the force as before. "You have not hit a piñata until you and it are both in midair, locked in a piñata dogfight! I can't do it myself because, you know, no wings, but everyone who's tried it has told me that it's the most fun they've ever had blindly swinging a stick! And believe me, that is a high bar to clear." She hummed as her brain hit a snag. "Though, since they can fly, I guess the idiom doesn't work very well."

"Pinkie."

"Oh gosh! I'm totally hogging the conversation, aren't I? Here I am, blabbing away while you can't get a word in edgewise. Well, that's going to stop here and now." Pinkie plopped down in front of Fluttershy. "The two of us are going to have the biggest, bestest, longest catch-up session in the history of my friends turning into trees, with completely equal speaking time." With that, Pinkie shut her mouth.

After a few seconds, Fluttershy said, "So, what made you decide to come now?"

"Well, one day I said to myself, 'Pinkie, you've got to stop talking to yourself or other people are going to think you're crazy!' But then it hit me: What about Fluttershy? You don't have anyone else to talk to most of the time! No one to keep you from going off the deep end. Though there's no pool in the park, which is why I didn't bring a swimsuit. And really, the best we could do for you would be a bikini top, and that's before trying to get you into the pool. No, the logistics were just not working out there. So, if we couldn't have a pool party, we'd just have to have a regular party instead!"

"I don't really want a party."

Pinkie shrugged. "It doesn't have to be a big ol' streamers-and-balloons party. It can just be a friends-sitting-and-talking party. You know I can be flexible."

"Are you sure you aren't somehow... uncomfortable around me?" Fluttershy shook her head. Her hair barely moved, waving more like thin tangled branches than anything human.

"Are you kidding? I think this is the most incredible thing since chocolate fountains!"

"So you don't feel awkward or confused or anything like that?"

Pinkie tilted her head. "Why would I? Just because you're in a firsuit?"

"I'm pretty sure I'm a willow."

"Either way, I say let your freak foliage fly!"

Fluttershy just stared at Pinkie with the befuddled expression that many people seemed to develop around her.

"Really, the most confusing thing is what to call you. I mean, you're part dryad, part druid. I'm not sure if that makes you a druad or a dryid." Pinkie shrugged. "Either way, you're clearly having fun, but you know what would make it even more fun?"

"Enjoying the tranquility of nature?"

"Sure." Pinkie leapt to her feet and cried, "An enjoying-the-tranquility-of-nature party!" The few creatures that had come back to the glade went scattering again.

Fluttershy watched them go, then turned back to Pinkie, scowling and Staring. "Earthen one."

Pinkie stiffened to attention. "Yes'm."

"You disturb this place with your raucous ape noises. Begone."

"Yes'm." She turned in place and marched out.