The Nightbook

by Sunset-Chan

V. Eros

A moment of silence passed then.

“I hadn’t expected you of all ponies to say something like that,” Twilight said, sighing, “or that you were that good at analysing other ponies.”

Rainbow Dash giggled, “I’m not an egghead like you, but I like talking to ponies. There’s a lot in books I admit, but personalities are way more awesome.”

Twilight nodded. There was a truth in that and if anything, personalities could be nothing like a pony expected. With that she let night come, though she did find no sleep at first. Her thoughts were practically drifting across all of Equestria. Would something like a ‘Caretaker’ really help? Was this whole playing foal even the right way to go about her perfection problem? What was she doing? Silence came and after a while the loud snoring of Rainbow Dash rose. Twilight could only take it for so long before she went for her pacifier and stuffed it right into Rainbow Dash’s mouth. The ensuing quiet suddenly made her understand why Spike loved doing that so much. Still, she went back to her bed and she tried thinking. A suckling noise came from the guest’s bed.

If she left all those things that made her her behind, then what was left? She had thought that the answer to that had been a simple: “Nothing.” Somehow Rainbow Dash’s appearance had shaken her resolve on that matter. She had spread herself out beneath her sheets, staring at the ceiling, the light of the moon and the stars falling into the room just the way she liked it.

Had she just wanted to believe that nothing else was there? She wasn’t quite sure, but she drifted off to sleep nonetheless. Her room was exchanged with a field,the snoring of Rainbow Dash ended and instead a queer nothingness of sound came to her. Twilight recognized where she was standing. White towers went up into the air all around her, with roofs of many colors. The Canterlot Playground.

Her own hooves were tiny things, or was everything around her just that big? She didn’t know. There was a sandbox she saw, a seesaw, a climbing frame. She had often walked past this thing, so she knew the shapes and how they stood. She took her steps towards them now, maybe for the first time. She stared at the frame then, seeing how it was made up of tiny letters and numbers, she turned around and so was the seesaw. The sandbox, too. Every grain of sand in it was a letter. It was a sandbox worth of letters and a library worth of words. She went towards it and touched it, lifted some up into the air and let it fall down, off her hoof and onto the ground, where the letters took shape. They formed real words now, spreading across paper, a binding seemingly lifting itself out of the sand. The sand was still trickling down her hoof and then rain fell past. Tiny drops touching the ground, the grass, the letters it was made of. Words came, then books, a field of them. Twilight saw the playground vanishing. For some reason she wanted to yell: “No!”

She couldn’t instead something picked her up by her neck. She wondered who? Was it her mother? She turned her eyes but what she saw wasn’t some pony she had known. This one had a coat of lavender and her mane was purple with streaks of a lighter color in it.

Twilight opened her mouth, she still felt the filly’s coat on her teeth and so she looked down but found only another book. There were lists in it and things she needed to do. So many things and the clock by her side told her that she didn’t have the time. She frowned, stood up and galloped.

Spike reigned her in, yet he didn’t. Spike wasn’t here. Spike was gone.

Spike wouldn’t come back.

Suddenly she was alone, pages from books coming down by her side like two giant waterfalls. She didn’t know from where they came or where they went. She stared at them for a while and then looked forward. The pages were forming a corridor and there was something at the end. She walked and she didn’t know for how long she did that. Her legs felt weak by the end and she wanted to rest. Yet the room waited at the end. A big, black room with nothing inside.

Twilight blinked.

A village, rain falling down from a black sky and a pair of swings standing there, lonely as they were. She looked at them, not feeling the rain, not hearing the train approaching. Not at first at least. The train. I have to catch the train. The swings were waiting. Should she? Once? Twice? The train might wait for her if she took this moment.

She stepped towards the swings and the sound of the approaching train became louder.

“We need to go,” she heard a voice and turned around.

Twilight looked at herself, yet looked at a pony she had never known. A mare whose coat was of a pale lavender and her mane was white and falling out. Her cheekbones were like swords, trying to cleave through her cheeks and the ribs were clear on her body. Her legs looked strained and were shaking. Yet this Twilight looked at the Twilight who dreamt and stated with a firm voice: “You need to wake up. There’s things that need to be done. Schedules, plans.”

Pages from a book were falling, a book with a week worth of writing in it and the swings were waiting as Twilight stood in the rain, unfeeling. “I don’t want to,” she said as she walked towards herself, towards the train and away from the swings. “I want to play,” she said as she walked past the thing she knew she would become and saw the doors to the train open. She wanted to turn around, to cry out, wanted somepony to help her, somepony to reel her in. Spike was gone, Spike wouldn’t come back. Nopony else was there. She hoped for Fluttershy, Rarity, Rainbow Dash. She hoped for Applejack, even Pinkie.

She walked through the door.

---

The only reason Twilight and Rainbow Dash got up around the same time had been because Twilight had failed to stand up correctly for about an hour, but she still thought it was a good start. The pegasus had never noticed the paci, having spilled it out well after Twilight had drifted off to sleep. RD made off after breakfast, quiet as a mouse. Twilight had known her friend wasn’t a morning person, but by Celestia, she had never seen a pony looking so grumpy while eating cereals. Still, it made no matter, she told herself, this was going to be a good day.

She didn’t quite know what kind of approach to take on this whole caretaker business, so she put it in the back of her head for now. The dream was all but forgotten and Twilight went to the first task of the day: Reorganizing her literature. One might think that she was shuffling through her books because of her problem, at least that’s how Spike seemed to have it figured out, but Twilight actually did it for another reason. It was a task that could go on for a long time, since the library of Ponyville was rich of writings. It was also a task that cleared her head like nothing else. Looking over the titles over and over again, changing something here and there. It was a small ritual, albeit one that was ruined by her having to re-check everything over and over again. The lingering feeling that she’d made a mistake was always there, biting at her.

Still, her morning went on like this, easy as it was and in her mind, Rainbow Dash’s words rang true and truer. Every time she was alone she had to do everything in a perfect way to achieve a perfect result. Halfway through the books she thought that it would’ve been better if Spike was actually here. She was aware that the young dragon had enough initiative to overcome her, even her own desire for perfection was something he could help her with. Twilight had to wonder if it was really this idea of hers or Spike himself, that could make her better.

Another book found itself into her hands. How To Raise Your Foal, the title said in some elaborate font. She had almost forgotten about this one. It was a moment’s curiosity as she opened the books, mindlessly going through the pages. What was she doing? That was the question that revolved in her mind. A simple little sentence of four words.

Therapy.

She stared at some letters, some words but didn’t care to read them. Instead, she just shook her head.

“What am I doing?” she repeated, the sound moving through the air, solitary as it was. Once more, she repeated it, each word coming from her mouth and then she understood at least why she posed herself that question. Because she knew, that it wasn’t for therapy. It was because she was turning weird. Or was she? It rang through her head but she couldn’t quite comprehend it. An adult foal, that’s how Rainbow Dash had described it. She had to wonder.

There had never been any swings in Canterlot and her own past had been one of books and lands of fantasy. A childhood that had entirely revolved around her own mind. She didn’t want to recreate that. It was a happy memory but there was one thing wrong with it. She wanted to let go of that child exactly because of that reason.. The friendless filly in Canterlot. For every good thing in her past, there was one thing she now understood to have been entirely wrong about: friendship.

She looked at the book and made her choice.

---

Minutes later she checked the front door again, making sure it wasn’t locked and the ‘open’ shield hung visible, so anypony knew that the library was accessible again. After the fifteenth time she had made sure everything was right and her mind could calm down, which was well enough and she could finally go to Fluttershy’s place. She turned around and made her way towards through Ponyville. The town was covered in a thick layer of snow. Walking past Sugarcube Corner she saw that the grass peeked out around it, while an army of snowmen guarded the patch of green as well as the door.

Pinkie must’ve been busy.

Other ponies didn’t find the snow so good. She saw Roseluck waving half-heartedly at her, a shovel for the snow resting against her shoulder. The only reason why Roseluck survived through the winters without getting a depression was the glasshouse in the backyard of her home. It was a well-known fact throughout Ponyville that out of the flower trio, she was the one who had her whole life revolving around plants. At least Lily was famed for attending almost as many social events as Pinkie or Berry and Daisy was rumored to have her whole basement stuffed with miniature trains. Unlike Roseluck, the two others also enjoyed the company of other ponies.

Hesitantly, she waved back, continuing on her way. Despite the boots, scarf and hat, she still felt the winter chill. It was almost like the windigos had descended again. Why did Fluttershy live on the darn outskirts of the city? Thinking about it, she and Pinkie were the only ones who lived right in the middle of Ponyville. She was basically friends every ponyvillian outside of Ponyville.

Up until right now Twilight hadn’t quite seen the joke in that, but it made her smile and that let her grumbling fade once more. Happily, she walked across town and past the last house and then the snow got much worse. The path to her home was long enough and nopony really bothered with it during winter. So she was knee-deep in the snow and had to jump to get forward. Between jumps she had to wonder how long it was until Winter-Wrap Up.

One jump followed another and then, by the line of trees that marked the halfway point to the cottage, she saw the yellow pegasus shoveling snow away, all on her own.

“Hey! Fluttershy,” Twilight yelled, waving during a jump, making the other look up. Fluttershy wore a green woolen hat with white bunnies holding orange carrots holding stitched on it, alongside a fitting scarf. It was very ‘her’.

The pegasus followed Twilight’s jumps, her head going up and down with her and she seemed quite enthralled with the sight, while Twilight just tried to keep the distance between every jump the same.

“Twilight, hello. . .” she said as Twilight finally came to a halt before her. “What are you doing here?”

“Oh, you know,” Twilight began, putting on an awkward smile as she suddenly became aware of the fact that she didn’t know how to open the kind of conversation topic she wanted to open. “I just. . . Wanted to check on you?”

That seemed to work as Fluttershy gave a smile in return, “Oh, thank you. I’m doing fine. And sorry. . . I should’ve been going faster with the shoveling, now you had to go through all that snow. Really, I wanted to finish as quickly as possible, but I didn’t expect visitors today. I hope you’re not angry. You’re not angry, are you?”

Ever the worried one, Twilight thought and shook her head. “No, it’s fine. Good sport, this jumping. Keeps the body and mind fit.”

Fluttershy looked at her for a moment, not saying anything at first. And then, “Oh, you want to go to my place? I wanted to finish this first, but it should be fine. Nopony ever visits me during winter, except Rainbow Dash, but she tries to visit me as often as possible.”

"Yeah, she does that.” A pony could say about RD what she wanted, but she loved to hang out with her friends. “But if you want I could help you. I mean, from what I can see it’s a bit uneven, the way you shovel and I’ve got a perfect method to get just the right amount of snow-” She explained, looking over the white that went towards ponyville, only to look back at Fluttershy and see a somewhat discomforting look in her eyes. “Is something wrong?”

Fluttershy immediately shook her head, and then looked down, for a moment not saying anything. “I’m sorry. It’s fine, I like doing this thing on my own, anyway. Plus, I’ve got some zebraican tea from Zecora which is perfect for this time of year. Come on, you’re going to love it.”

Twilight nodded hesitantly, but relented. Tea sounded well enough and maybe they could get to the point quickly.

Next thing, Twilight took off her hat, boots and scarf, before she seated herself at Fluttershy’s beckoning. A pair of cushions had been laid out by Fluttershy in front of the fireplace and the moment she sat down on one of them, she let the warm fire crackle and let herself relax for a bit. This whole place felt somewhat homely to her. It was a small paradise far off the rest of the world. In one way, it was exactly how a home should be. Not Twilight’s way, though, since there were hardly enough books in here and it was too far away from any market to buy food.

Fluttershy remained quiet, for the entire time, only speaking up once she got outside the kitchen, balancing a tablet with a pot of tea and two cups on it on her back, placing them between the cushions. “It’s an old recipe from Zecora’s home.”

“The western mountain regions, right? She told me about them,” Twilight answered, looking at the artfully designed cups. White porcelain with rose colored paintings of flamingos on them.

“Yes,” Fluttershy answered, herself sitting down. “She said that it was close to a forest much like the Everfree. The leaves for this tea actually come from a very rare plant. If I remember it was called ‘the Lone Stranger’ in our language.”

Twilight squinted her eyes as she went through the catalogue of her mind to find whether she had ever read about this flower. “I never heard of it,” she stated.

“Oh, yes. It doesn’t grow anywhere but in that forest. She mentioned it was like the Zapapples up here in the Everfree Forest. The flower is magical, too and there’s only ever one of them in the entire forest.” She poured some of the tea for the both of them. Twilight looked at the liquid spilling out of the pot and it was quite easy to see that the claim of magic was true. The tea’s color was impossible to describe with an actual color. The only word that came to Twilight’s mind as she looked at it was ‘delicious’, and obviously that wasn’t a color. She didn’t linger on the thought, since it made her head hurt.

Fluttershy gave a smile, as she looked at the tea, settling down within the cups. “The legend says that the plant is actually a common grass in the lands of the dead. There was a zebra that died, a long, long time ago and he went into the world beyond. Arriving there, he was greeted by all the friends and tribe members that had died before him, all telling him how happy they were that he could stay with them now. But the lone zebra had a loved one in the realm he’d left behind and so he walked away from the lost ones, telling them how he wouldn’t leave the friends and the people he loved behind. He refused to die before any of them.

“So he ventured out into the never ending grasslands, to where the other dead rested. He met the gryphons and they couldn’t tell him the way out. He met the minotaurs, and they couldn’t tell him the way out. He met the ponies, and they couldn’t tell him the way out. He met the dragons, and they never laughed at his quest, telling him to accept his fate, since others take a lesson from it and those lessons were important.

But the zebra ignored them and moved on, until he came to a small pond, with grass around it and a tree by its side. A fox was fishing there and looked him straight in the eyes, as he asked for his way out: “It is good that you don’t give up, but the dead don’t breathe anymore. The dead don’t need sleep and the dead don’t need food, my friend. I am sorry, but the dead don’t need time, either and wherever you come from, chances are its long since withered away and all those you knew have already come to see the rest of your tribe. You should go back and if you want to go to them.”

Twilight picked up her tea, it was still hot, she knew, so she took the moment to ask: “Did he turn back?”

“He pondered it and he did so for centuries, since time is not a concept for the dead. He pondered for a long time, before he asked: “If the dead don’t need food, why are you fishing?” The fox didn’t answer that and so the zebra decided, that maybe food was something that was for the dead and maybe, if they could try to eat, they could try to die again, so that they’d reach our plane once more. He bid the fox to build him a grave made of common grass, before stepped into the pond to drown himself.”

Fluttershy paused and took a sip from her cup. Twilight could tell from a glance that she didn’t want to continue the tale. She herself looked at the tea, again. Right now, she didn’t quite comprehend why Fluttershy told her this, so pressing her would reveal something. . . Maybe.

“Fluttershy, what happened next?”

Her friend looked at her. “He let himself go down the pond, on and on and on and on. He let himself go until he couldn’t make out up or down, until he had forgotten that he’d even jumped in a pond, but still he went farther into the depths, where true blackness was the only thing to exist. And then he hit the ground.

“He looked down and saw a sight most peculiar, as an old zebra stared back at him, just as amazed as he was. He turned around, seeing a tree on the other side and the light of the sun. Still, it was the zebra that catched his attention. There was shock written on her face at first, but then her expression changed to sad or happy. He couldn’t tell, but tears came from her eyes, as she opened her mouth and spoke her last words: “I waited. I waited and you came back.”

“She died there on the other side, his love who had waited for him a thousand years and all he could do was smash his hooves against the mirror in despair, not wanting to leave her again. He knew he couldn’t go back, since he didn’t know how to go up again. He longed for the one he loved, the one on the other side. Maybe the one who died hadn’t been her, maybe she was still waiting for him. So he smashed himself against the wall, the pond’s surface until he and the water became one. From the water, then, a lone flower sprouted, with leaves of a glowing blue that would wander the world to find the one it loved.”

Twilight didn’t quite know what to say to that, so she kept her mouth shut and took her first sip of the tea and found the taste. . . Well, she found it strange. It was calming, soothing, but there was something else in there, something she couldn’t quite put her hoof on. Her eyes went to Fluttershy again, who sighed.

“It’s a sad story, sorry. Zecora told it to me and I hadn’t had a chance to share it with anyone yet. That and. . . You’ve locked yourself away in your ivory tower the moment the snow started falling. I didn’t know whether I’d done something wrong or something had happened,” she put on a brave smile. “I’m really happy to have you here, Twilight. With Rainbow having her weather duties and all my animal friends out in the woods resting I’ve been getting rather lonely. If you got here, that’s a wonderful sign.”

Twilight nodded, still trying to get the story. It was about yearning for something, she figured. Yearning for something and trying to get to it, simply prolonging its appropriate arrival in one’s life. She shrugged it off, conversation was the key, not overthinking things that didn’t matter. Right now, she didn’t want to do anything wrong.

“Yeah. . . I’ve been making some progress on my method to combat my problem.” Twilight knew she had to handle this delicately. Still, even finding a proper beginning was something hard. Fluttershy was timid, yes. Fluttershy was also not very assertive, yes. Still, she was basically the ultimate caregiver and there would be no harm in asking her. At least, Twilight thought, if done proper. There were so many ways she could muck this up, she already had half a mind to just bolt out of the window, leaving Equestria and starting a new life as an apricot farmer south of the griffon lands, together with a small parrot she would name ‘Larry’. She would make an extra effort to train him, so that he would say: “Bow before me, mortal,” whenever a stranger spoke to him.

“Your method?” Fluttershy asked carefully, ending Twilight’s fantasies about a parrot with a god-complex.

“I told you, a few weeks before winter, didn’t I?” Twilight said but Fluttershy didn’t seem to remember. You kept it extra vague the last time, Twily, so that’s no wonder. Despite the thought, she gave a smile. “It’s a bit complicated, so, give me a moment,” she said, taking another sip from the magical tea.

She let the moment practically wash over her. The warmth of the fireside, Fluttershy eyeing her curiously and the tea’s taste in her mouth. The last wasn’t something she could really describe, but it did feel incredibly soothing. Putting it into the right mindset, she could liken it to a lullaby sung to a sleepy child. On a metaphorical level that worked. For once, her head seemed to rest. No fears of her mistakes, no adjusting of her failures. She took a deep breath, before she looked at Fluttershy again.

“This may sound a bit weird but bear with me,” Fluttershy put her head sideways at that description, apparently wondering what Twilight meant. “I am basically trying a sort of regression. Well, not sort of. . . Basically, to get through my obsessive compulsions I am trying to get into a mindset where I don’t have any control, a foal’s mindset, so I can, basically, re-learn how to not be obsessive and compulsive.”

Twilight blinked. How friggin’ awkward can you get? Her mind’s voice screamed at herself, but she tried to put on a brave smile. “As I said, it’s weird, but I think it’s working. My life is orderly enough so that I may do things aside from being obsessive-” Stop repeating yourself, “you know what, and I think in the long run I can achieve something.”

Fluttershy took a breath and put her cup to the ground. “Uhm. . . If it’s okay with you, can I ask something?”

“Yeah, sure.”

“What are you talking about?” The pegasus’ question was asked in a tone that felt somewhat unsettling to Twilight, but a look in Fluttershy’s eyes undid her fears. She seemed more worried than anything else.

“It’s complicated,” she said but tried to go the lighthearted route. “Basically, I dress up in a diaper and try to project myself into the position of a foal. It’s weird, I know, but as a therapy sort of thing, it works. I only have one problem and that’s, I may need somepony to help me with it. You could say a caretaker.”

Fluttershy looked down, thinking about what to say. Twilight wondered if she should press on, but, considering Fluttershy’s nature, decided against it.

“That is weird,” the pegasus stated matter-of-factly.

“Y-yeah, I know. It’s just to try and get me out of my current mindset, though. Spike’s trying to help, but, well, he’s more in it for himself. That’s I wanted to ask you, you’re good with the critters and you babysat Applebloom, Sweetie Belle and Scootaloo, right?”

“Twilight,” Fluttershy started, looking up again. Twilight knew how she could sometimes take her time with things, so she gave her an encouraging smile.

“I think you should leave now, Twilight.”

For a moment she simply stared at her friend, surprised at how cold the look Fluttershy gave her felt. She might have said something stupid, but to upset her friend like this. “Fluttershy, I-”

“Out. Now.”

She didn’t feel like pressing the matter, she hadn’t Fluttershy seen like this since. . . Well, forever and she didn’t want to get into an argument, or anything. Instead she excused herself, emptied her cup and then went to get her things. After that, she faced the cold once more, only looking back once, wondering what had happened just now. You completely blew it, you idiot, she told herself. She had gone in too direct. Maybe she had simply not read the mood quite right. Maybe Fluttershy wasn’t as good a friend as she had always pretended to be, kicking Twilight out like that.

She shook her head at that last thought and trotted over the path until the snow started again. She used her magic to shovel the second half of the way free. Twilight didn’t even know why she suddenly started throwing small heaps of snow to the sides, she also didn’t know why she didn’t really care about the size or portion or where they landed. Her eyes felt watery, all of a sudden and then tears came, moving cold against her coat. She knew she had done something extraordinarily stupid, she knew she had upset Fluttershy and she knew that this thing she was trying wasn’t simply weird. It was quite frankly abominable.

That was right, it wasn’t Twilight, it wasn’t Fluttershy. It was this thing, this regression business she had wanted to try out. Rainbow Dash had been wrong, she had been wrong. There was no need for it. She could do it without, all she would need to do was fix this problem on her own and in a different way. All she needed to do was fix this in a perfect manner. Perfectly doing anything was something she excelled at. Being perfect was her thing nowadays, wasn’t it. Her wounds might start bleeding, her mind might break, but as she was right now, no matter what she did, she would always do everything in just about the most perfect way possible. Right now, she could do anything, fix anything. She was Celestia’s student, a prodigy and the Element of Magic. She couldn’t do anything wrong, she couldn’t fail at anything.

She broke down, crying loudly.

---

Twilight returned to the library much later. Her eyes were reddened and she felt exhausted like never before. By this point the only thing she wanted to do was cradle herself up beneath her blanket and call it a day. Who would deny her that, she asked herself as she opened the door. Inside she found Roseluck going through some books, probably about flowers.

Twilight didn’t care but noticed how the pony jumped as she noticed Twilight stepping in and turned around. Like a criminal who was found red-hooved. That was followed up by an awkwardly delivered, “H-hey, Twilight.”

If it hadn’t been Roseluck Twilight might’ve been worried about the reaction, but one of the early things she had learned in her time in Ponyville had been, that the so called Flower Trio was made up of the three most easily scared ponies she’d ever known.

“I’m sorry, Rose, but we’re closing soon,” she stated tiredly, not wanting to deal with another pony today.

“Oh, yeah. . . Sure. I-I’ll be leaving. Right now.” Roseluck giggled in a bewildered way. Twilight looked at her, not saying anything. You better leave. I don’t want to ruin my life even more than I already did.

The red-maned pony turned towards the exit, only to turn around once more, “Uh, Twilight,” she started but immediately shook her head, “Ah, you know what. . . Forget it, wasn’t important anyway.” With that, the door closed and Twilight was alone in the library. The sun would soon set on the horizon and she had no idea what to do now. Should she go to Rarity? Ask Rainbow Dash for advice? Applejack?

No, she had to deal with this on her own. It was her mess, after all. She seated herself in the middle of the room, looking at the books and then going to rearrange them in her own way. All the while she tried to figure out a new way to solve her problems. She needed to talk to Fluttershy, set things straight. Maybe throw the diapers out, since most of the clothing was basically essential for the winter. Spike would help her, no matter what.

As that thought came across her mind, the dragon’s voice echoed from the door: “I see you’re rearranging books once more. No wonder I always get asked why the books are never where they should be.” Though he said that, her eyes didn’t move from the shelves, at least until she felt his claw bumping against her shoulder.

“Everything alright?”

Twilight stopped her arranging and turned towards him. “Well, actually I-”, she stopped the moment she saw how his left claw was bandaged. “What happened?”

“Oh, not much. Just a small cut from one of those gems we found,” he told her, holding the claw up and moving it as to show that, really, everything was alright. “Anyway, you are looking incredibly horrible Twilight.”

“Well, Spike, let me phrase it this way: If you try to be perfect at everything, suddenly you make mistakes at the most basest of things. Help me arrange the books in order of weight and I’ll tell you the whole story.”

He gave a curt nod but even his mood was wrecked by the time the books stood all as neat as they could be and Twilight had told him of her day. Even though his sister told him that she’d fix the mess with Fluttershy, Spike would later go to bed without saying anything and Twilight would dream the same dream as the night before.

Comments

[spacecardswell]

ohh twilight I hope things between you and fluttershy get fixed, I cant stand to see you like this

[Twinkie Hoof]

Way to be a friend, Fluttershy. It might be weird and everything, but still, she's just done wonders for Twilight by treating her in a notably unkind fashion. Very bad wonders.

[SuperPinkBrony12]

That was very OOC of Fluttershy. I could maybe picture Applejack having that kind of knee jerk reaction but not Fluttershy. Bad Fluttershy!

I think now Twilight needs to go to either Rarity or Rainbow Dash. Let them sort things out, or maybe let one of them take a crack at the care taker role.

Or if she's really desperate just go to Pinkie Pie and be subjected to uder chaos.

[iamli3]

well that took a major donwer turn.....

[Cold Spike]

Go read one of my stories and you can repeat your self people say I was OOC with Fluttershy, but it all worked out in the end. Give it time. I'm sure the writer has their reasons... better be some good ones though. Oh and good chapter! 3136483

[Bennet001]

Wow... I'm stunned. What was the story supposed to mean? I've got 7 things it could mean, but I don't like guessing.
Okay onto review. This chapter was good, a few placement errors, but it only threw off the pacing for a few moments, we got to develop a little friction between Twilight, Fluttershy and her problem. I must say Fluttershy shouldn't have been so blunt. Things like that are what makes sociopaths and problems. I love the calm and wise Rainbow Dash, she's not always present as such, it's refreshing to see a mare that socializes realize that, yes, there are many types of ponies in the world.
Reread your stories before putting them out and they will be 2 times better.

[LittleAcorn]

The only reason I can think for Fluttershy to behave like that is if she's aware of Pattycakes, or if this is in the same universe as Pattycakes - but RD made no mention of that, so I doubt that's it. And this story doesn't seem to be going for that kind of humor. I'm sure it will be explained, however, and good update.

[FleetlordAvatar]

There could be another reason for Fluttershy's reaction...lets play this by ear as see what happens.

[Cold Spike]

I have a few theories as to what is going on. By the way, how this story does not have a SAD tag is beyond me. 3140053

[read read read some moar]

Fluttershy. Why. Also, where's celestia in all of this? Isn't she a mentor to twilight? And a immortal diety to the sun? She should be able to help a little with this sort of thing.

[Tramper]

3136183 I hope things get fixed, too-
3136439 Fluttershy's a kind soul, but she's also not known for being a good psychologist and OCD is already established in this verse as being considered more of a 'small problem' than a disorder.
3136483 Don't worry friend, I'm actually going somewhere with this.
3136980 It did, didn't it?
3137183 Actually, she's just mad because her mother wouldn't buy her enough ice cream when she was little.
3138756 Ah yes, proof-reading, my eternal enemy. One of these days I'll hopefully vanquish it, until then: Thanks for the advice and as for the story: Don't worry, it's important for Fluttershy so it's bound to pop up again.
3139427 Actually her reaction would make no sense in the pattycakes-verse. Here? She has reasons for reacting the way she did.
3140053 I'm going either with the ice cream or she's a robot. Haven't decided, yet.
3144772 Because to me Sad = Tearjerker = Something I can't write. It's just a bit sad in my opinion, too.
3194670 She's probably off doing all that princessy stuff, like dressing up, having make-overs, throwing bureaucrats out of a window. No, but srsly, she's ruling an entire kingdom during daytime and I don't like bringing alicorns into the mix unless there's no other way.