The Lessons Left Unlearned
“The Lessons Left Unlearned”
by Donny’s Boy
-----
“I’m really, super-duper sorry.”
“I know.” Fluttershy smiled. “You always are.”
In response, Pinkie Pie frowned. She knew smiles better than she knew almost anything except muffin recipes. She was a connoisseur of smiles, one could say, and while some ponies thought there were only one or two different kinds of smiles, Pinkie knew better. There were lots and lots of different kinds of smiles, including smiles that didn’t ever reach the eyes. Smiles that hurt to look at, smiles that weren’t the least bit happy. Smiles that weren’t really smiles at all.
Smiles like the one Fluttershy wore right then and there, and seeing it pointed directly at her made Pinkie’s stomach churn a little.
“Fluttershy?” Pinkie nibbled on her lower lip uncertainly. “Are you mad at me?”
Slowly, thoughtfully, Fluttershy shook her head. “No. I’m not angry. I’m not even disappointed, really. I’m just …”
“Just what?”
“I’m not sure I should answer that,” said Fluttershy, her voice sounding heavy and tired, like a balloon filled up with ball bearings instead of helium. “I’m not sure you’d really listen.”
Pinkie gasped. “But I would! I totally, totally would!”
Fluttershy sighed a quiet little sigh and got up from the table. She trotted over to her cottage’s cozy little kitchen, where a kettle sat upon the stove. In silence, a silence as terrible and empty and deep as the river, Pinkie watched as Fluttershy poured still-steaming water from the kettle and prepared some tea. Finally, after a seeming eternity, Fluttershy returned to the dining area of her cottage, carrying two cups of tea along with her.
Pinkie accepted her cup without a word.
“All right, Pinkie.” Fluttershy took a sip of tea, her mane falling over her eyes as she leaned down to her cup. “All right. Tell me then, please, why you’re sorry.”
Pinkie perked up a little. That seemed like an easy enough question. “Because I made you upset!”
Fluttershy hesitated, her brows furrowing, before at last she nodded. “Yes. That’s … I’m afraid that’s true. You did.” Fluttershy lifted her head slightly, and her mane fell to the side, revealing her eyes. They stared across the table at Pinkie Pie with an intensity almost on the same level as The Stare. “Do you know why I was upset?”
“Because …” Pinkie paused. She fidgeted with her hooves under the table. “Because Twilight and Rarity told me you were upset?”
Fluttershy just smiled again and sipped her tea.
It was awful.
Over the course of the next couple days, Fluttershy kept on smiling, and it was never the right smile. At parties, at the spa, running errands in the marketplace--Pinkie would run into Fluttershy at least once or twice a day, and always Fluttershy would give her that smile that wasn’t really a smile. Every one of those terrible smiles dug into Pinkie, like some foul tiny biting beast, and they lodged themselves deep down inside her, filling her up with their poison.
Pinkie Pie didn’t know what was wrong, but she knew she was the cause. She knew it was her fault. She tried asking Twilight about it, because Twilight was the smartest pony she knew, but Twilight just hugged her and said it was something she should think really, really hard about and also maybe talk to Fluttershy about some more. Pinkie explained that she’d already tried that, explained that it just plain hadn’t worked, and Twilight hugged her harder.
“Have you ever heard of something called the Golden Rule?” Twilight asked.
Pinkie shook her head as she hugged Twilight back.
“The Golden Rule means you should treat other ponies the way you’d like to be treated yourself.” A pause, followed by a small cough. “But, uh, in your case, you should probably interpret that fairly non-literally.”
“Okay,” said Pinkie, not knowing what else to say.
Rarity said a lot of things about Fluttershy and Pinkie Pie being very different kinds of ponies, and so did Applejack. Though Applejack added some extra words about how Pinkie didn’t listen too great all the time, said in that tone of voice that was almost mean but not quite exactly. It was hard finding a time when Rainbow Dash was alone to ask her about everything, but when Pinkie did, in the big field where Rainbow Dash liked to practice her tricks, Dash pinched her lips together and shook her head.
“Pinks, you know I love you. And you know ‘Shy does, too.” Rainbow smiled. It wasn’t awful like all those times when Fluttershy smiled at her recently, but it still didn’t feel the way a Rainbow Dash smile ought to feel. “But I swear, sometimes you can annoy the stripes right off a zebra. You get what I’m saying?”
Pinkie Pie nodded, even though she didn’t really. But Rainbow Dash didn’t sound mad at her at all, or like she thought Fluttershy was super mad at her, so nodding along felt like an okay thing to do.
She tried baking cupcakes for Fluttershy. Everypony liked cupcakes. And Fluttershy said she liked the cupcakes, and she acted like she liked the cupcakes, but Fluttershy’s smiles were still wrong and awful and made Pinkie feel cold and scared and alone. She tried cookies and brownies next, but the results were so poor, she ended up canceling her plans to bring out the bigger guns, like moonberry pies and towering, multi-layer cakes.
Desperate, she went back to Twilight. She suggested maybe throwing a party, but Twilight said that wasn’t a good idea. Normally Pinkie Pie would call that just plain silly because why would a party ever not be a good idea? That didn’t make any sense. But this wasn’t normally. Things weren’t normal, not at all, and so Pinkie decided maybe she should listen to Twilight this time and not throw a party. Or maybe she’d postpone throwing a party. She’d give it another week or two, at least.
At a slow, morose trot, Pinkie returned to Sugarcube Corner from the library, the short journey taking twice as long as it usually would. Ducking her head into the kitchen, she asked for the rest of the day off. She didn’t do that very often, and maybe she looked about as miserable as she felt, because Mr. and Mrs. Cake didn’t argue at all. They just gave her hugs and told her to take all the time she needed. Pinkie smiled at them even though it hurt a little and, after thanking them and hugging them back, she dragged herself upstairs to her room.
She locked the door behind her and gathered Gummy up in her fore legs, carrying him over to her special thinking window. There wasn’t anything different about her special thinking window from other windows, but she liked to prop her head on the windowsill whenever there was something to be pondered over. Twilight had told her to think really, really hard. Thinking wasn’t one of the things Pinkie liked doing or was particularly good at doing--it required a lot more staying still and staying quiet than what suited Pinkie’s nature--but this was important. Fluttershy was important.
At first, she didn’t know just what she should think about, so her mind thought about anything and everything. About the Cakes and the twins and bake-offs and screwdrivers and hammers and balloons and parties and more parties and all the great parties she’d put together in the past and all the great parties she wanted to put together in the future, and by the time Pinkie realized she hadn’t done any thinking about what she’d been supposed to be thinking about, the hour had grown late and the sky very dark.
Pinkie Pie let out a frustrated little grunt. This was no good at all. Frowning, she wondered what had gone wrong, and a tiny little voice whispered that maybe she wanted not to think about things with Fluttershy. Maybe all the baking and talking to her friends had been part of that, too, and maybe it was because of that cold, scared feeling that ran through her every time something reminded her about how very wrong things still were. It was even worse than the time she’d been trying to make friends with Cranky Doodle Donkey, and that had been a really--
Cranky. The thought of Cranky set Pinkie off on a whole other different set of memories. But maybe they weren’t really so different? Which was a confusing thought to have, but it stuck with her, like taffy to the roof of her mouth, and Pinkie followed that thought to the next one and to the next.
By the time Pinkie was done thinking, the first hints of daylight were visible over the roofs of all the houses in Ponyville.
Fluttershy smiled her not-smile as soon as she’d opened the door to her cottage. “Good morning, Pinkie.”
“Hi.” Normally Pinkie would bounce or wave or sing a little good-morning song, but this wasn’t normally. Instead, she scuffed a hoof along Fluttershy’s front stoop. “Um. Can we talk maybe?”
A pause. A hesitation. Then, nodding, Fluttershy replied, “I’m in the middle of feeding the animals, so if you wouldn’t mind, we can talk while I work.”
“Sure! I don’t mind at all!” Pinkie asserted, following in Fluttershy’s wake as the pegasus trotted back inside the cottage. “I was thinking. Really, really hard. Twilight told me I should, and Applejack and Rarity and Dashie too, and so I did!”
Fluttershy picked up a bag of birdseed and poured it out into a wide, shallow dish. When she glanced back at Pinkie, she didn’t say a word, but her smile was gone. Pinkie couldn’t decide whether that was a good thing or not.
“And I ended up thinking about Cranky Doodle Donkey a lot, which was kinda weird, because you’re not Cranky. I mean, you’re not even a donkey!” Pinkie frowned at herself and thoughtfully stuck out her tongue. This wasn’t quite what she’d wanted to say to Fluttershy when she’d rushed over from the bakery, but she supposed it was close enough. “But then I wondered if maybe I was thinking about Cranky for a reason.”
Fluttershy carried the dish of birdseed over to an open window in her living room, Pinkie trailing her all the while, and set it on the windowsill. In a quiet voice, she offered, “I like Cranky. He seems like a very nice donkey.”
“Oh, yeah! He is!” Pinkie nodded enthusiastically. It was comforting to have something solid and concrete like that to latch onto, because of course Cranky was a nice donkey. “And you’re a super nice pony, too!”
Fluttershy blushed a bit. But Fluttershy blushed all the time, so that probably didn’t mean anything. Probably. Maybe.
“But I know Cranky likes a lot of peace and quiet, and so do you, and there’s lots I don’t understand about Cranky ‘cause sometimes he doesn’t make a lot of sense to me and …”
Trailing off, Pinkie glanced down at her hooves. She’d felt a lot more sure about all of this back when she was still at home, alone with Gummy and watching the sunrise. She knew she’d already screwed up a whole bunch, and she didn’t know how much more screwing up she could do without things getting even worse than they already were. Without things getting so much worse that she couldn’t fix them.
“Pinkie Pie? Are you all right?”
Pinkie took a deep breath. “It doesn’t make sense why you’d have stage fright, because come on, you have the most beautiful voice ever--oops, pretty sure I said that already, sorry--and everypony absolutely loves your singing, and so maybe I acted a little silly because I thought it was silly.”
The only sound to be heard was the chirping of birds by the windowsill. Pinkie needed to lift her head, to see if Fluttershy was listening, to see how Fluttershy was reacting, almost as much as she needed to not see all of that right now. But for the moment, she continued staring down at all the swirls and whorls in the wooden floorboards of Fluttershy’s cottage.
“Whenever I’m scared of stuff, I just laugh, and that makes it better,” Pinkie continued, her voice wavering. “But … but I guess that didn’t make it better. Not when it’s stuff you’re scared of instead of stuff I’m scared of.”
“Pinkie ...”
“I still kinda don’t understand, I don’t think, but I want to! I really, really do! Because you’re my friend, and I don’t wanna hurt you like that ever again.” Pinkie lifted her head. Fluttershy was staring straight at her with tears in her eyes. “And I know maybe you won’t wanna because I already upset you a whole bunch, but … could you maybe help me? To understand? Pretty please?”
It started slowly at first. Subtly. Just a twitching at the corners of Fluttershy’s mouth, followed by a crinkle around Fluttershy’s eyes. But when Fluttershy smiled, it was a real smile, warm and beautiful and bright as the sun after an eclipse, and seeing that smile on Fluttershy’s face felt better than throwing the biggest and amazingest party in the whole wide world.
The mid-afternoon sun warmed Pinkie’s belly as she lay flat on her back in the grassy meadows just outside Fluttershy’s cottage. It felt nice but not as nice as having Fluttershy resting beside her, as the two of them chatted. It had taken some time to work through Fluttershy’s entire to-do list--there were a lot more animals in the cottage than it seemed at first glance--and their talk during chores had been interrupted by a badger here or a toad there. Not that Pinkie complained. She was happy as long as Fluttershy was happy, and even if Fluttershy wasn’t exactly and perfectly happy right now, she was a lot closer to it than the last time Pinkie had come over.
“Let me think if I can come up with a good comparison,” said Fluttershy, frowning thoughtfully. “It would be like … Pinkie, do you remember the surprise birthday party we threw for you? The one in Applejack’s barn?”
Giggling, Pinkie nodded. “Well, of course! It was only the absolute best surprise birthday party ever!”
“Well, I’m glad you think so.” Fluttershy giggled a bit, herself, before quickly turning sober again. “But you didn’t think that at first. At first, you thought we were avoiding you on purpose. Remember?”
Pinkie stopped giggling, too. She remembered. She didn’t want to most of the time, but she remembered. Fidgeting with her hooves, she managed a nod in response to Fluttershy’s question.
“And do you remember how it made you feel? When you thought we didn’t want to be your friends anymore?”
“Not good.” Pinkie’s ears went flat against her head. Almost involuntarily, that terrible afternoon rushed back to her, flooding her mind with all its painful memories, and she whimpered a little. “It felt really, really not good. Like I’d eaten ten bags of sour apple candy or something, and I couldn’t even throw them up to try to feel better, ‘cause it was bad feelings making me sick and not actually candy.”
A look of mild distress, possibly disgust, crossed Fluttershy’s face, but it passed quickly. “That’s a, uh, a very interesting analogy. I don’t eat much sour candy, but I do know what it’s like to not be able to get rid of those kinds of bad feelings.”
“You do?”
Fluttershy nodded. “It feels exactly like that whenever ponies laugh at me. Or whenever I even just think ponies might laugh at me.”
Pinkie Pie opened her mouth--to say what, she didn’t really know--but clapped both forehooves over her muzzle before she could. She couldn’t just say whatever popped into her head. Well, actually, she could, and she probably would in the future, at least most of the time, but sometimes it was really important to think first about what she wanted to say. She felt pretty sure this was one of those times.
So she thought about it. She thought about having that icky sick feeling down in her stomach and about how it would feel if it came around every time somepony laughed at her. It was really hard to imagine, because ponies laughed at her all the time, but she tried anyways. She even scrunched her eyes shut tight, for maximum thinking power.
Finally, as her eyes popped back open, Pinkie quietly said, ”I’m sorry I said stuff that made you feel like you’d eaten ten bags of sour apple candy.”
“Thank you, Pinkie.” Fluttershy reached over and gave her a hug. “I appreciate the apology.”
Feeling warm and happy all over, Pinkie Pie hugged Fluttershy back for all that she was worth.
“I’m supposed to meet Rarity at the spa soon, so I have to go back home to get ready, but …” Fluttershy glanced up towards her cottage. “Well, if you’d ever like to come over for tea and to just, you know, chat like this again … that might be nice.”
“Sure! That sounds great!”
Pinkie hopped to her hooves and followed as Fluttershy headed up the path that led to her front door. By unspoken agreement, they stopped at the fork in the path to say their goodbyes. To the right stood the cottage, while to left stood Ponyville. Fluttershy turned around to face Pinkie with a new and strange expression in her eyes.
“Pinkie Pie? I don’t really think you have a simple little brain, and I don't really think that parties are frivolous.”
“Well, of course! Parties are the best! Besides, that was a super-duper long time ago, and it’s silly to still--”
Fluttershy winced, just a little, and Pinkie swallowed her next words. Then she took another gulp of air to make extra sure all those words stayed down. It wasn’t silly. Fluttershy thought it was important enough to bring up, and if Fluttershy thought it was important, that meant it wasn’t silly at all.
“I mean, um, thanks, Fluttershy!” Pinkie turned up the wattage on her smile, as high as it would go. Then, remembering what Fluttershy had said to her just a minute ago, she added, “I appreciate the apology.”
And when Fluttershy smiled back, she knew she’d said the right thing.
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I know Pinkie was just being herself in Filli Vanilli, But it was really upsetting to me that she never caught on that what she was saying was hurting Fluttershy. She never even caught it when all the others got upset at her. I'm glad you carried that over into this story, and I really like how you handled Pinkie making it up to Fluttershy. Fan-made episode closure: Well Done. Nice, short, sweet. Great job Donny!
I don't quite get the upvotes for this because I read it and it seems like you've used Fluttershy's legit fears and Pinkie's misunderstanding to turn everyone but Pinkie into passive aggressive jerks
I admit it, I teared up. Of course, I tear up at everything these days, but it was still a really sweet story, and you write a great Pinkie. Thanks for writing this, I'll recommend it to the folks I know who were most unhappy with Pinkie in the last episode. This felt much more like Pinkie, and I think readers will appreciate that.
Nice I'm glad I read this. Incredible way of making the reader feel the emotions of the characters.
I don't care how kind of mean Pinkie was last episode, she's still my number 1 pony
3965482 Pinkie was just having an off day. I think this episode might have been a leftover script from season two.
Awesome stuff. I especially like the 'Shy characterisation, but the Pinkie is great too - as always.
3965482
I disagree. I see Pinkie acting as the Devil's Advocate during that episode. Fluttershy's the type who wouldn't conquer this fear of hers /ever/ without a push. The type who'd push back if you tried to be gentle with her, preventing you from helping her get anything done. She's intoned many times she'd prefer to never get over her problems and would rather just hide forever. That is drastically unhealthy.
All I see is people complaining about Pinkie without realizing the role she played. Someone had to give Flutters the boot to the rear to get her out of her emotional bunker. The rest of the group acted as a foil, to help Fluttershy when she was made vulnerable (by Pinkie) and thus not resisting as harshly. Both to comfort her and show her the right way.
For that matter, I can't see that it was Fluttershy crying because Pinkie "was mean to her" so much as she was crying about the fears that she kept pushing aside instead of confronting, which Pinkie was bringing up. Knee-jerk reactions to protect Fluttershy because she's weak as a person are normal, but mollycoddling someone who hides from themselves is just enabling them to further hurt their ability to grow and become stronger. In the end, a lot of the reactions I see in defense of Fluttershy are for all the wrong reasons - and would be very ill-advised were you people dealing with someone real.
If anything, Pinkie's the one who helped Fluttershy the most. I really doubt the other girls could have done what was necessary.
tl:dr: Don't blame Pinkie. Fluttershy needed the tough love. We should all be so lucky to have someone who cares about us enough to slap us upside the head when we need it and didn't realize it.
Thanks for all the comments already! Wow, that was fast. I shall return to respond to them each in turn, but in the meantime, a quick request:
Please do not use my story's comments section as grounds to refight all of the "Filli Vanilli" battles re: Pinkie's actions. By all means, comment on how you think this story does or doesn't work in terms of the episode, or Season 4, or Pinkie's general in-show characterization, or Fluttershy's general in-show characterization, or whatever. But if all you have to say is about the episode itself and nothing about this story specifically, then that's what you have your own Fimfiction blogs for.
Thanks much!
I don't know. It seems kind of much for Fluttershy to be all torn up about Pinkie's behavior for weeks afterwards. The mane 6 are usually really good about forgiving each others' craziness, whether it's Twilight mind controlling everypony or Rarity turning their hotel room into a sweatshop.
3965975
Agreed. Even if one were to assume that Pinkie was 'being mean' or somesuch, much worse has been done between the girls already and they were over it within relative hours. If that long. Just seems out of character overall. Not to mention with how overly forgiving Fluttershy is, if we're assuming Fluttershy was all broken up due to feeling like Pinkie attacked her or whatnot, she'd have forgiven her by now - and thus no longer have a reason to feel like this.
(Personally I feel this helps to flesh out my point that Fluttershy was more afraid of being forced to deal with her fears rather than the way Pinkie had to go about it.)
3965484 Which isn't incorrect on some stances. The show isn't... too consistent, so I think the author is excused. The ponies can act quite jerk-ily sometimes and they don't always catch up on it. Pinkie was a jerk in this episode and I agree that all her friends are acting like passive-aggressive ones; but the magic lies within the fact that they don't catch up that they're being jerks to Pinkie (in this story).
To me, at least. IDK.
I think my favorite thing about Pinkie as a character is her occasional inability to see the direct consequences of her actions; it's (in my mind) one of her greatest strengths, as it's a factor for her nearly inexhaustible confidence and joy in absolutely everything, and also her greatest weaknesses, especially around ponies like Fluttershy and/or occasionally Applejack and Rarity. As usual, Donny, you did a fantastic job both showcasing that delightful character flaw and addressing it. This story definitely made me get all sappy and introspective, like I kinda expected it would. Most of what you write has done similar things to my state of mind. But it also made me fall even more in love with Pinkie, a thing I didn't think was possible. So thanks for another great story, I guess is what I'm trying to say here.
New Donny's Boy fic wooooooo
3965937 sorry man, I thought the story was really well done, passive-aggressiveness isn't really my thing, but I like it when everyone's friends again at the end :3
Okay, first up! Thank you to everyone who's read and reviewed! Like just about all authors, I live for feedback, so I really appreciate y'all taking the time to type up a few words about this story.
3965482
Thanks! I think it's probably obvious that I too think Pinkie went kinda overboard in how she was treating Fluttershy, given the story I've written here, and I thought some exploration of potential post-ep aftermath would be interesting.
3965484
3966035
I really didn't mean to make Pinkie's friends seem passive-aggressive or like jerks! Especially with Twi, Rarity, AJ, and Dash, I mostly wanted to convey that they were at a loss for what to do. They'd all already offered corrections to Pinkie in the episode itself, so what more could they say to make Pinkie understand? (Probably there was stuff they could! But I could see them feeling really uncertain about that.) I wonder if this story being in Pinkie's POV adds to the impression of the others being passive-aggressive--I do apologize for that.
3965489
3965497
Thanks! I'm glad to hear you liked it and found it in character and emotionally resonant.
3965497
Thank you!
3965550
Oh, yeah, Pinkie Pie's still my number one girl, too. No doubt.
3965638
Aww, thank you, Piggins.
3965811
My opinion on the episode was much more that Fluttershy was asserting reasonable boundaries and Pinkie was (unintentionally, for sure) being pretty insensitive, and that's definitely the viewpoint that this story takes. So for folks who disagree, likely they'll disagree with the characterizations and entire premise of the story here, I imagine.
3965975
3965999
That's true and a really good point. I do think some of the episodes have resolutions that, probably just because it's a 22-minute show, feel a bit rushed or like they could use some expansion. I felt like that with "Putting Your Hoof Down," for instance, and I felt like some additional exploration of stuff in "Filli Vanilli" wasn't necessarily REQUIRED but could be neat. So I wrote some.
I'm sorry, by the way, if it seemed like a whole TON of time had gone by. I'd had it in mind that it was only a bit over a week or so before the final convo in the story, and I'm sorry I didn't communicate that clearly.
3966099
You know, I'm not sure I'd really thought of things in quite exactly those terms, but I really like that viewpoint of Pinkie. I dig it. And I'm really glad you liked the story and came out of it loving Pinkie even more, because I MAY have a SLIGHT pro-Pinkie bias. *cough*
3966146
Hope you like it okay!
3966237 TESTIFY BROTHER!!! /)
Nice story. I liked it.
I'm usually all for stories that expand on episodes (I've written a few myself), but this kinda felt heavy-handed. It's a decent explanation for Pinkie's lack of tact; don't get me wrong. But I agree with 3965975 and 3965999 when they say that it doesn't make sense for the Mane 6 to be mad at Pinkie for this long. This is especially true with Fluttershy. Flutters doesn't strike me as the type of pony who would hold a grudge like that. She is the Element of Kindness, after all.
In fact, it would've been better if the rest of the Mane 6 weren't mad at Pinkie. Which is why her interaction with Twilight is actually my second favorite part (my favorite being Pinkie's lament and explanation), even though it was just a few lines. Twilight understands that Pinkie wasn't trying to be mean; the others don't seem to get that. Or if they do, they don't seem to care. That's a problem.
Otherwise, eh, it's okay. Again, I like stories like this, and I could easily buy Pinkie's reasons for why she did what she did. But the whole thing with everypony holding a grudge like this just didn't sit well with me.
Oh, and one last thing:
3965811 I suppose I can kinda see this, but I'm not sure I could buy Pinkie using tough love. The only time she's done that is with Pound and Pumpkin, and even then, she still tries to make them smile. You can't make someone smile with tough love, at least not right away.
Those youthful of heart may remain blind to darkness,
and so in bliss.
But such is the curse of co-existence that only at the expense of another will this be achieved.
You should grow up, Pinkie.
Excellent work, dear Author!
I said this on the comment thread for the episode, too, but it's worth repeating: to me, Pinkie Pie is just too oblivious to ever be actively vicious to anyone (least of all to Fluttershy). How canon it is or not, Pinkie thinks differently to every other pony, and I think that allowances have to be made; she doesn't have that filter to let you know something is a bad idea, and has to take her hints from the other ponies around her.
So. I really liked how you worked that into the story, as well as her ability to "read" smiles. She might not be Doctor Lightman, but the premier party pony would know if someone was having a good time or not.
Anyway, on a more personal note, this is something that's happened to me more than once. People have thought I was joking when I'm being serious, and vice versa. It's maddening, and the fact that we sometimes just can't see that opposing point-of-view makes things difficult.
3966237 Pro-pinkie biases may be contagious, since I may have picked mine up from you ... at least a little. But seriously, Pinkie is fantastic and you always write her with incredible depth and skill. Which I love so very, very much.
3965482
Actually, I disagree. Pinkie was everything BUT herself that episode.
Just look back a few weeks to Pinkie Pride. This was stellar display of her character.
She values fun, but she values her friends even more. She is very sensitive and pays close attention to the feelings of her friends. I mean cmon, in season 1 already, she refused to prank Fluttershy knowing it would hurt her feelings.
And just by the way, who was the one getting upset about Gilda shouting at Fluttershy and making her cry? Hm?
Now, she just acts like she mixed coffee with cocaine, puts her own entertainment and desire to just babble out everything none stop above the feelings of her friends.
No. This is seriously a case of out of character Pinkie and in all honesty, I could murder her for what she did to Fluttershy.
That pink little selfish piece of buck made her cry a total of FOUR TIMES in one episode! FOUR TIMES! Unforgivable.
3966624 Indeed. And the saddest part is that this was the same writer who gave us "Pinkie Pride" in the first place. So there's no excuse, especially since Pinkie Pie's behavior was used for jokes, just like Spongebob in the newer seasons. But playing insensetive humor for laughs just makes the character pulling it off seem like a jerk.
Finally another story from you. We all miss you on here dude i know the last story you wrote was that raripie Halloween fic. But even that seems so long ago.
3966456
It didn't seem like the mane 6 were holding a grudge against Pinkie Pie to me. Rather they were giving her the cold shoulder to make her understand what she did is not acceptable. As Fluttershy mentions early on Pinkie Pie is "always sorry" and "never listens". To make Pinkie Pie really truly understand what she did they would need to give very clear visual and "physical" signs that everything is not ok instead of trying to explain it.
It also seemed like the mane 6 all had a meeting discussing what to do about Pinkies behaviour before this story. Everypony except Pinkie that is. So everyone knew not to give too much hints and to giver her the cold shoulder yet show they are still her friend.
At least that's how it looked to me.
// Sphex
3965482
I don't get what people are complaining about. She's like that all the time, especially in Luna Eclipsed. It's not like she was out of character here.
I smiled that evil non-smile Fluttershy had during the first half of the fic.
To hell with the Pink menace.
I'm glad it ended happily, but I would've preferred an alternate ending where she doesn't forgive Pinkie.
3966624 I know right? What's up with that?!
3966624 That was literally the only thing wring with that episode though imo
3966896 Well, maybe "grudge" isn't the right word. It's more like the rest of the Mane 6 were treating Pinkie like a child who's misbehaving in this story. But despite her antics, Pinkie is not a child. She would've been able to figure it out on her own. In fact, she did figure it out on her own when she remembered Cranky. So why was it necessary for the Mane 6 to be mad at her for so long in this story?
3966972
Yes I totally agree with you.
I dont get why people keep bickering about Fluttershy learning the same lesson over and over again. Its a different fear and personality issue each time. Maybe for those who cant relate to Fluttershy as much don't understand it. But anyway, all other characters were great in the episode, I really enjoyed Rarity being in the supportive role and not a drama queen for once, big mac was singing, we had flutterguy returning and overall, this episode was extremely diabetes inducing. Fluttershy was as sweet as ever and when she had those begging eyes, I really thought I was gonna get a heart attack.
3967123 I especially don't have a problem with her re learning lessons because Kids often have to as well so this is actually good
3967168
Its not about the learning of lessons itself. Thats what all characters are doing.
Its also not about repeating the same lessons in different packaging.
Fluttershy is a character full of fears with very low selfesteem and self worth.
She is easily crushed and nothing scares her more than doing something wrong and having others blame her for that.
I fully understand that because I am just the same. And those fears that are tackled in her episodes are all very different, even though they may appear similar. But this is just the thing with a person that is so locked in her ways as she is. Every issue must be dealt with on its own and must be taken serious. You cant rush her, you cant crush her and you cant stress her. This is what so many just dont seem to get.
Some argued that the topic of stagefright had been tackled before in Hurricane Fluttershy. Well, to make clear how delicate but significant the difference between fears is: In Hurricane Fluttershy, she was pressured to help. Everyone was expecting something of her and if she wouldnt reach what was expected, she would humiliate herself.
Filli Vanilli is entirely different in that matter, because it is not based on pressure, but based on voluntariness and dreams. She actually WANTS to sing, she is just afraid of being judged.
If you can see the difference here, you can rewatch all her episodes and come to realize that not a single time had been the same topic hit twice in a row.
Everything I wanted to say has alreasy been said by previous readers so I instead I just want to say good job! Pinkie struggling to understand is very fitting and makes sense as a whole. Nicely done!
This was an extremely satisfying story to read in the wake of that episode. Pinkie needed redemption.
3965811
She was perfectly describing everything Fluttershy feared most as exposition because Fluttershy herself would never have gone into as much detail. This was proven by FS's reaction to it in that negative way. 
Everyone knows that if you do not have that fear then Pinkie's ranting would not have affected you as much and you might even laugh at how silly the fear sounds. 
I completely agree with you on the Pinkie issue.
3965937 I really enjoyed this story though because Pinkie is pretty easily forgivable and we can all move on from the necessary role she had to play in the episode.
I knew following you was a good decision. 
As much of a dick as Pinkie Pie was in the episode, so Black Kyurem has heard, the problem with Fluttershy is that she's degraded as a character to a level where no one can win with her. More often than not, when others put one toe out of line with Fluttershy, they inadvertently drive her into having a total meltdown. But they make things worse when they lie to Fluttershy. Because lying is not good, especially when a lie is discovered and it hurts even more than being told a painful truth. In "Hurricane Fluttershy", it's like others have to walk on eggshells, something no person in this world will ever do, not even to people who are more sensitive. In "The Crystal Empire", Rainbow ends up having to bend to Fluttershy's sensitivity and cowardice. Quite frankly, to be brutally honest, Black Kyurem is getting sick of Fluttershy's character personality, as it doesn't seem to have improved at all since the very beginning of the series, when she was more balanced as a character who was just quiet and overly shy. Now she's totally sensitive to even stepping on ants and the slightest things set her off and she was a total meltdown over them. So yeah, while Pinkie Pie was a jerkass, make no mistake, it goes to show that Fluttershy hasn't improved either. Not good, really.
3966237
for me it shouldn't matter if Pinkie understood why Fluttershy was upset, so them being at a loss on how to deal with Pinkie, when they knew she was trying to apologize to Shy doesn't really justify anything. So I suppose that's why they come off as jerks and passive agressive to me.
Frankly, considering the stuff Dash has put Fluttershy through is kind of worse than Pinkie putting her hoof in her mouth
3966896
I don't think that's how friends act
3966256
Heh.
3966301
3966464
3967753
Thank you!
3966456
3966896
3967026
3967874
I think I'll probably revise the section with Twi, et al, to make it seem less like they're mad or deliberately being jerks to Pinkie. I didn't want that to be the take-away impression at all, so obviously I screwed up there.
3966476
That's kind of a semi-head canon I have for her, and it ends up in a number of my stories.
Really glad you liked the bit about Pinkie being able to "read" smiles.
3966595
*whispers* Pink pony is best ponyyyyyy.
3966624
3966706
3966954
My own view of the ep and the whole "Was Pinkie in character?" question is kinda a mix of yes and no. I think Pinkie does have a strong strain of similar obliviousness, such as in "Luna Eclipsed" and "A Friend in Deed," but I'm not sure she should've been written as quite THAT oblivious. Which is probably shown in the characterization approach I took in this story.
3966837
I've got a multi-chaptered story in the works, too, which hopefully should be ready in the nearish future.
Ha, I know, right? It's good to be posting fic again.
3967706
Thanks! Glad to hear you thought it made sense!
3967767
I tend to disagree. I think probably she's been a bit unevenly written over the course of the series--I think probably all of the characters have, at various points--but I do think there's been a definite character arc for 'Shy that involves her learning and growing and coming into her own.
3967765
Ha! I shall try to continue being worthy of following.
One of the few stories I've read that is directly based from an episode. And I'm glad I did, this helps fill the hole left by Pinkie not understanding what she did was wrong in the episode. It was written and handled well as well, making Pinkie come to the realization herself rather than be told by her friends. Great job.
I say this was a good fic. It seem to be kept in check and in balanced. And good dialogue. It would appear than Pinkie tend to not think before she says anything.
Alas I have but one thumb to give. This was so good.
Honestly the whole thing felt very out of character.
And I don't mean Pinkie in the episode.
This level of passive-aggressiveness is deeply at odds with how the characters normally act, and Twilight is usually more than happy to help try and explain things to people even when they don't get it - indeed, especially when they don't get it. But she's hardly the only one - see also Applejack with Rarity in Sisterhooves Social. Indeed, they're all quite quick to forgive, really - we don't see a whole lot of lingering bitterness between them.
The entire premise of the story, and the overall structure of it, is very forced, as was noted by others, and it just doesn't really work well.
And quite honestly, the biggest problem with Pinkie in the episode wasn't her accidental terrifying of Fluttershy, but the particular content of her lines as she did so. Her accidentally scaring Fluttershy by accidentally putting a bunch of pressure on her shoulders is legitimate, I think, but the whole bit where the crowd turned on her, ect. felt off.
3967026
I think I know what you're getting at, Metool Bard, but please feel free to correct me if I am wrong. You're of the mind that if Pinkie Pie really did hurt Fluttershy, she wouldn't need the rest of her friends acting distant to understand she may have crossed the line. Yes, Pinkie is impulsive and, at times, oblivious to the wishes of other ponies; but when someone seriously corrects her, she gets the idea. It also may be rather odd that Twilight, Rainbow, Rarity, and especially Applejack can offer no concrete advice for Pinkie on how she may have erred.
That having been said, I did enjoy the fic as something of an alternative rendering of the events portrayed in "Filli Vanilli"; but your commentary did get me thinking more deeply about the story as a whole.
3968190
I don't know, barring Rainbow Dash, who did come off like a jerk, most of the other friends advice was 'talk things over with Fluttershy', right? That's a bit more of a "Friend A and Friend B are fighting and I do not want to get in the middle of it" vibe than passive aggressiveness to me. And that's a valid choice in that situation.
3967767 Remember back in season one, when they had to get that dragon out of Equestria? Fluttershy acted then how she acts now, something that you'd think she'd have outgrown after a while.
Just for the record, Fluttershy said this before.
To a friend she knew very well that hates the thought of losing.
3967985 *whispers back* I knowwwww .....