> Wallflower's Bud
>  by Shadowmane PX-41
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

> A New Lifelong Friend
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

Sunset Shimmer strolled down the street towards Canterlot High, ready for another long day of classrooms and activities with the rest of the Rainbooms. Things had been mostly on the up and up for her ever since the Fall Formal, but even then, there were the occasional moment where she had been shown her place and needed to fight for the friendships that she had forged, including the ones she could have potentially destroyed at the Friendship Games.

Even now, with the Memory Stone being a thing of the past, she was once again reminded of just how much work she had done since the Fall Formal, and how much she was willing to fight for the chance to be a part of the society she had worked for. But again, she found herself wondering the same, tired question: When would the next time come when she had to stand up for herself and prove that she had changed once and for all? And who would be the instrument of such suspicion and doubt among her peers?

That question quickly faded away as she saw Wallflower Blush walk up to the entrance, still clad in her casual striped sweater and jeans. Things had changed for her too since she tried to wipe everyone's memories clean, and now that she finally had a voice and a vision, her life had been filled with so much more life than ever. More and more people were joining her gardener's club and her circle of friends was beginning to grow even more.

Still, Sunset couldn't help but think. She had been alone for the longest time, even as a child. She couldn't go through something as heartbreaking as a loss of friends after how adamant she had been in her plans to wipe her out of the other students' minds like that. Making a decision, Sunset decided to walk up to Wallflower and make sure that she didn't go through that torment ever again.

"Hey, Wallflower." She gave her a wave as she chased her up the stairs.

"Oh. Hi, Sunset." Wallflower smiled and gave her a soft wave back. "Nice day, isn't it?"

"Yeah. The sun's been really nice this past week." Sunset smiled as she held her hand out, as if she was holding a sunbeam in it. "Perfect weather to go to the beach, get some ice cream, and I bet your gardens are flourishing in this weather."

"They definitely are, Sunset. I don't think I've ever had such good luck like this for a long time." Wallflower reached over Sunset's back and patted her shoulder. "And I have you to thank for it. Even though I kinda went ahead and got rid of everyone's memories of you..."

"Don't worry. I know how it feels." Sunset grinned back as the two of them walked into Canterlot High together, their legs almost in perfect sync with each other.

Canterlot High's foyer was as abuzz as ever. Students hanging out by the walls and lockers chatting up a storm as they passed time before their first classes of the day. Teens of all different educational levels, from freshmen to seniors were gathered around, all with their own topics of discussion running around in the others' heads. 

"So, how does it feel to have everyone in the school finally taking notice of you, Wallflower?" Sunset asked, as the two of them walked down the first corridor in the rotunda, towards their class.

"It feels great, Sunset. I don't think I've ever had so much to talk about since... ever!" Wallflower threw her arms out. "I've been able to share so many more passions than just gardening. The drama kids are helping me become a better actor, the posh kids are keeping me in the loop with all the latest trends, and let's just say that I might be joining a band pretty soon." She gave her a little wink."

"You do have a pretty good singing voice, Wallflower," said Sunset. "I bet you'd do great in a band, and all the others would love hearing you perform."

"Thanks." She chuckled, bringing her hand to her cheek as they turned red. After all of the time she had stayed transparent to the world, compliments and recommendations were fairly new territory for Wallflower. "So, what else do you wanna talk about, Sunset?"

"Well... I've been thinking." Sunset sighed to herself. "You've been isolated and shut off from the world for a pretty long time. What with the Memory Stone getting you wiped from everyone else's minds as well. And now that you're starting to make more and more friends, I feel like you should at least have someone, or something in your life to depend on if you come across more problems."

"Sunset, I appreciate the idea, but I'm totally fine now. Heck, I'm getting more friends than I could have ever hoped for." She looked back at Sunset. "You, the Rainbooms, my club, and even a few unexpected friends along the way. If anything, I'd say I'm much better off now."

"Yeah, but still, I think it'd be best if you have someone who you know will never leave your side, like a pet." Sunset tipped her hand. "Me and my friends all have pets. Twilight has Spike, Applejack has Winona, Fluttershy has a whole animal shelter,  Rarity has a cat, Rainbow Dash has a tortoise, and even I have Ray. If we ever do have to part ways, at least we know that there's someone who we know would stay with us."

"Yeah. I guess..." Wallflower brought her hand to her chin now, letting Sunset's words sink in and swirl around. As she remember all the bitterness and suffering she had spent alone, having a pet seemed less and less like a bad thing. "But wait, what about that pink girl, Pinkie Pie, I think? Does she have a pet?"

"Well, she has a plushie, but she likes to think it's a pet." Sunset just let a small giggle slip. "It's Pinkie Pie. Best not to question things."

"I don't think I've ever had a pet before." Wallflower tapped her feet as they stopped at a classroom door. "My sister, Fuchsia Blush used to own a guinea pig when we were in kindergarten together, but let's just say some things... happened along the way with it."

"Fuchsia? I didn't know you two were related, Wallflower." Sunset tilted her head to the side.

"We usually talk a lot back at home. Outside of Canterlot High, she was one of the only people I could have depended on; and even then, she was off with Trixie and her other friend, Lavender Lace, ever since that whole Battle of the Bands nonsense happened." She pressed her fingers together. "Heck, even now, she's still hanging out with those two, so I really only see her on mornings and when we both come home now."

"Then I think a pet would be just the right thing for you." Sunset laid a hand on Wallflower's chest. Then, moments later, the bell rang, indicating that class was about to start. "Meet me at the animal shelter after school, and we'll see if we can find one that'll make you happy, alright?"

"Sure." Wallflower's grin came back as she and Sunset went into class. "Sounds like a plan."

And with not another word, Sunset Shimmer and Wallflower sat at their respective desks, pulled out their pencil cases, and slid their bags underneath their chairs. The other students around them did the same as their teacher entered the class, closed the door behind them, and took their position in front of the blackboard.





The day seemed to pass like an eternity for Sunset and Wallflower. While the both of them sat their classes and hung out with their various friends, the conversation that they had been having earlier still hung deep on both of their minds. The fact still remained, that outside of the school, she still didn't have anyone to speak or bond with, as Fuchsia was always with Trixie and Lavender. Even if it was a sisterly thing and they would still be together forever, Wallflower still felt a small hole in her heart begin to form.

For Sunset, she could sympathise with Wallflower, knowing full well what it was like to be brought back to reality after being knocked off of a high pedestal. After all that she had done and how tight a grip she had on Canterlot High, she knew just what kind of suffering Wallflower had gone through, and the steps she had taken in order to lash out at her both for her own misdeeds as the ruthless tyrant of CHS and for everyone flocking to her while she was left alone.

For both of them, one thing was beginning to become more and more clear: Wallflower Blush needed a pet, so that she would never have to go through the heartache of being invisible ever again.





Eventually, the day came to an end, and all of the students all burst out of Canterlot High, still chatting up a storm as they were glad to see the day's end. The younger ones ran off as fast as they could, while some of the older students hung around for a few more moments before packing up and leaving for home.

For once, Sunset wasn't with the Rainbooms as they left, and the six other girls just walked out without her. Though, it wasn't because they had been avoiding her or vice versa, but rather that she had sent them all a text message that read, 



Sorry I won't be able to leave with you girls today. I'm helping a friend out with something important. I'll definitely see you all tomorrow, though.



"So, shall we get going?" Sunset asked, leading Wallflower to the steps.

"Yeah. Let's do this." Wallflower nodded and held Sunset's hand, now that she had been given some time to think about the pet proposal.

Together, both of them held hands and began the long walk to the shelter, passing civilians and drivers on the road on their little walk. They didn't really speak to either of them, though; nor did they ask for any small favors. Instead, the two of them made good time, which was passed with more light conversations like what they had for breakfast, or if there were any celebrities that they liked more.





The shelter was just as just as well kept as all the other times Sunset had been to it. With a straightforward road leading inside. Cream-coloured walls covered every inch of the reception as both Sunset and Wallflower walked inside. Fluttershy was waiting at the reception, managing papers about the animals she still had in stock, as well as the people who had come and made adoptions recently.

"Oh! Hello, Sunset. I didn't expect to see you here today." She pulled herself up from her papers as Sunset and Wallflower approached the desk. "Is this the friend you told me you were helping?"

"Yeah. You remember Wallflower, don't you?" Sunset asked, stepping aside so that she could introduce herself. She could only watch as Wallflower gave her a meek little wake.

"Oh yes, I remember you quite well. Even though I couldn't remember much of Sunset when we first saw each other." She twiddled her fingers as she blushed. "But I'm sure that everything's much better for you now, right?"

"Yeah. I've made much more friends after Sunset and yours broke me back into Canterlot High." Wallflower smiled; her confidence growing back like the flowers she tended to. "My own circle of friends is getting pretty huge now, but we just wanted to make sure that I have one that's never gonna forget about me, or leave me behind if they all have other plans."

"Well, you've definitely come to the right place." Fluttershy walked out from behind the counter and guided both Wallflower and Sunset to the next room. "I've got lots of different animals here for you, Wallflower. Just take a look around and let me know if there's one you like in particular."

As Sunset and Wallflower looked around the room, they saw a nimiety of animals of all shapes and sizes. Snakes, cats, bats, tortoises, and many more filled the pens in the room. Small cards with details of the animals could be seen either on or next to the glass panels keeping them from escaping. Stuff like their names, dates of birth, and many more could be seen.

"So many pets..." Wallflower took one glance at the wide variety of options for her to choose from. "How will we know which one's the best one for me?"

"I'm sure we'll be able to find one, Wallflower." Sunset still held Wallflower's hand while she held her free one out. "When I was looking for Ray, I had to go through a few different animals before I found him. Just think about what you'd like in a pet, and if she hasn't got it in, then I'm sure that she could find one for you later and let you know."

"Well... I kinda want a pet that I can cuddle. Someone cute and fluffy, with just enough energy to play too. Someone that I can always run around with." Wallflower held out her hand and used her fingers to list off all of the different characteristics. "I guess what I'm trying to say is that... a dog would be nice? I've seen so many people with their dogs in the park, and they seem like lovable pets."

"We do have a kennel here at the shelter." Fluttershy came up to Wallflower and wrapped her arm around Wallflower's back. "Why don't I take you to it? If you want a dog, I could show you all the breeds we have at the moment."

"Thanks." Wallflower walked with Fluttershy, with Sunset following close behind them both.

The kennel at the animal shelter wasn't anything special, but it was still pretty welcoming nonetheless. The walls had been painted bright blue and the ground was coated with tan terracotta tiles. At the end of the room, there were special facilities where the dogs could have their fur cut and washed, with a door leading to a yard outside where they could play and do exercises.

"Take a look around, Wallflower. We've got lots of dogs who would be glad to be your pet." Fluttershy backed up and let her walk ahead. She could already see Wallflower looking in to each of the different pens, eyeing up some of the dogs, before turning away and moving on to the next one.

"Cuddly, cute and fluffy, and full of energy." Wallflower repeated over and over again in her head as she looked at the dogs. Most of them failed to fit the bill, despite wagging their tails and panting as she came up to their pens. Sighing, she was coming to the last of the pens, running out of dogs to choose from. "Wait. What about that one?" She ran over to one of the pens at the end of the room and squatted down so she could get a good look at the new dog.

The puppy Wallflower had her eyes on was full of energy, running around in a circle as it tried to catch its' tail. It had an orange coat and purple tufts of hair at the top of its' head and on the edge of its' tail. Its' two giant teal eyes eventually saw her and caused it to start pawing at the glass panel, showing off the collar with a heart-pendant hanging from it, and two massive, curled up ears.

"Who's this little cutie?" Wallflower asked, feeling her whole heart melt as she and the puppy continued to lock gazes with one another.

"Oh. That's Smolder. She's a very new dog, actually. She was imported all the way from the other side of the world, and she's gone through a pretty rough journey to be here today." Fluttershy came over and squatted down with Wallflower. "I bet she'd love it if you chose to adopt her."

"And she's everything I asked for, for sure." Wallflower gushed over Smolder as her tail wagged more and more. Metaphorical hearts formed around her as she lifted the glass panel up and felt the puppy tackle her to the ground. She could only giggle as Smolder ran up to her face and licked it affectionately.

"I'm sold! I'll take her!" Wallflower exclaimed, holding Smolder gently in her arms as she stood back up.

"Wonderful!" Fluttershy felt a surge of joy flow through her as well as she started to lead them both back to the reception. "If you'd both like to follow me, we can get all the paperwork done and you can take Smolder home today."

"That was pretty fast, huh?" Sunset grinned as she witnessed Smolder continue to lick Wallflower's face, letting out a few yips as she curled up in her grip.

"Yeah. But she just looks like an adorable little bundle of energy and fun and I think I'd be able to do a lot of stuff together with her." Wallflower took her eyes off of Smolder for that one instance to speak with Sunset. "I can't wait to get her home and show Fuchsia. I bet she'd be swooning over how cutesy-wutesy she is too!"

"I'm glad you two are getting along so well." Sunset felt the hole in Wallflower's heart begin to fill up, slowly but surely. If everything went well with Smolder and Wallflower, she wouldn't have to worry about her returning to the isolated, ghost of a human she had once been. "Hey, why don't you let me and her friends buy some supplies for you? After all, she's gonna need some food, a bed, and some toys to keep her busy."

"You'd really do that for me?" Wallflower asked, before pulling her into a small hug. "Thank you, Sunset!"

"No problem, Wallflower. Anything for a friend." Sunset hugged back, holding onto Smolder so that she didn't fall onto the floor.

"I'm so glad that you're adopting Smolder today, Wallflower." Fluttershy slipped back behind the counter and pulled up documents about Smolder. She wrote down Wallflower's name and the date before pulling out a small stamp and pressing down on the papers, leaving a mark that said, "Adopted" once she lifted it back up. "It always makes me happy to see someone come to the shelter and find a new FFF; a furry friend forever!"

"And I'm glad that I came down here today to meet little Smolder here." She nuzzled her, and she was nuzzled back by her new puppy. "I bet the two of us are gonna go along great; just like flowers and soil."

Fluttershy finished off the paperwork and shook Wallflower's hand, filing the papers away with the other successful adoptions that she had managed at the shelter. Once that was done, she politely shook Wallflower's hand and watched as both she and Sunset walked out with her new pet in hand.

For all of them, one thing was certain: It was the start of a whole new adventure for Wallflower Blush, and for her new pet dog, Smolder.
> The First Day
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

"Aww, who's a cutesy-wutesy little thing? You are, yes you are!" Wallflower held Smolder close to her face, cooing and petting her as she walked down the street with Sunset. "And once we get home, you and I are gonna have so much fun together. I bet Fuchsia would love to meet you too!"

"You're pretty taken with her, I see." Sunset smiled at Wallflower as Smolder looked up and licked her cheeks. "Now, all we've gotta do is get you set up with all the stuff you'll need to take care of her."

"Like what?" Wallflower asked, lifting a brow at Sunset.

"Well, first, we're going to need a little bed for it; somewhere cozy where it'll be comfortable. Maybe next to your bed or at least close to it." Sunset whipped out her phone and opened up the internet, quickly scrolling through her browsers before making it to the online pet store. "Then, there's the issue about food and drink. I'm sure that we'll be able to get a pair of dishes for her at a good price. After that's all said and done, we can move on to grooming and exercise. Now, you can choose whatever you want from here, just as long as your puppy gets lots of love and care, it should never leave your side and—"


"Sunset." Wallflower gently slapped her hand to her friend's mouth. "I appreciate all the stuff that you're doing for me in the wake of what I did, but we should at least get back home first, just so I can show Smolder around. You and your friends can handle all the rest from there, right?"

"I just wanna make sure that there aren't any issues, or that you feel uncomfortable with handling Smolder without all of the right tools." Sunset put a hand on Wallflower's shoulder and looked into her eyes. "The last thing we want is for you to feel like I mislead you and got you to make a decision you didn't want to make."

"Sunset, it's fine. Don't think about the end before we even begin. That's only gonna make you keep on worrying and stress you out more." Wallflower just smiled and pulled Sunset's hand off. "Just focus on what's important in the now, and if there are any trouble, you and I can work them out together, right? That's what friends are for, after all."

"I know, I know. I just don't wanna take any chances, that's all." Sunset looked down at the pendant around her neck. "Of all the times dark magic or some kind of dastardly plan was being hatched, I think yours was one of the more impactful ones. Sure, I might be a bit of a hypocrite for saying this because I was evil once before, but out of everyone I've had to stop before they went too far, you were one of the hardest cases yet."

"Yeah. An artefact that can erase memories and re-write everyone's perception of you? That's something that the government or those secret service agents would want to get their hands on." Wallflower let the memories of her syphoning other memories play out in her head. "If someone else got control of the Memory Stone and caused chaos with it, we would be living in a completely different world right about now, where everything else would just look peaceful, but just end up being a distorted and warped enigma of its' former self."

"That's a pretty heavy description, Wallflower," said Sunset, already picturing her thoughts.

"Thanks." Wallflower blushed and hugged Smolder more. "I got an A+ in creative writing the year before I came to Canterlot High. Though, you're one of the first I've told about it; even with the new friends I've been getting recently."

Smolder then noticed something in the park nearby and barked playfully, squirming around in Wallflower's hold and trying to scramble out of it. Its' tail wagged rapidly, swatting Wallflower in the face repeatedly before she finally broke free and ran off.

"Where's she going?" Wallflower asked. "Come on, Sunset. Let's not lose her right away."

Both Sunset and Wallflower ran to the park, their shoes leaving the sidewalk and meeting the cobblestone path leading towards the fountain. Their eyes were fixated on Smolder, as she ran towards another dog in the distance with a purple coat and green ears. He had a spiked collar with a small trinket hanging from it. He had a green breast and was seen chasing after a frisbee hurled by another girl. At least, he was until Smolder dashed past him and intercepted it.

Smolder yipped, practically running on the spot as the other dog came and tried to snatch the disc away from her, only to run off with it and bring it back to Wallflower and Sunset.

"Oh. Did you want to play with this?" Wallflower asked, taking the disc out of Smolder's mouth and holding it up to her chest. "Well, it's a nice gesture and all, but we really shouldn't take things off of other owners."

"Yeah. Especially when those owners are trying to train their own dogs." The other dog ran up to them both and gave a small glare to Smolder.

"Whoa!" Wallflower jumped in the air and flailed her arms, almost feeling like her skin was going to fly off at any moment. When she finally landed, she couldn't take her eyes off of the purple dog. "You can... talk?!"

"Well, yeah. I've been talking for a while now." The dog walked up to Wallflower and craned its' neck skyward, seeing her as a giant. "My name's Spike, by the way. And the frisbee that your dog took belongs to Twilight, my owner."

"You remember Twilight, don't you, Wallflower?" Sunset wrapped her arm around her back as Twilight approached the both of them. "She joined Canterlot High after the Friendship Games, and she's been by our side ever since."

"Yeah. I remember. She also turned to the dark side like you and I did." Wallflower reached down and picked Smolder back up. "Actually, isn't it weird when you realize how similar the three of us are? We all got our hands on magic, we all used it for our own benefits, and all nearly ended up ruining everything for everyone else because of it."

"True. But we all got ourselves back on our feet, and now look at us. Everything's on the up and up." Twilight just smiled and clasped her hands together. "Also, I didn't know you had a dog, Wallflower."

"Oh, I just got it from the shelter a few minutes ago. Her name's Smolder and she's just the cutest little thing I've ever laid my eyes on!" She brought the puppy to her face and brushed herself against it vigorously, cooing and babbling incoherently as she rubbed her belly. She saw Twilight give a small giggle, prompting her to stop and chuckle herself, setting Smolder down. "Anyway, Sunset helped me find her just in case I winded up being a lonely ghost again."

"That's a very nice idea, Sunset." Twilight flashed her a smile. "A dog could be the perfect companion for Wallflower." She watched Smolder jump back down and run up to Twilight's feet, yipping as she looked up at her. "And an energetic one at that."

"We were just going to take her home and get her settled in with Smolder. Then, I was gonna get you and the rest of the girls to go shopping for her; to get all the stuff she's gonna need to help raise her." Sunset reached over and petted Smolder on the head, brushing her big, horn-shaped ears downwards.

"Why don't you just bring her over to Twilight's place first?" Spike asked, propping himself on Wallflower's legs. "She's practically got everything already. It'd be a great place for her to relax, eat, and do whatever she wants." He looked towards a fire hydrant in the distance and watched another dog assume the position and raise its' leg. He cringed at the sight. "Almost anything, that is."

"Well..." Wallflower looked down at Spike, his tail subconsciously wagging as her gaze shifted back to her own puppy. "Alright. But first, I think she wants to play with that frisbee you've got there, Twilight."

"Oh. This?" Twilight looked back at the disc in her hand. "Well, I still had some time left with Spike, but I'd be glad to let you have a go with it, Wallflower. Anything to help your own dog stay happy and healthy." She handed the disc over to Wallflower, who put Smolder down next to Spike. "Plus, I think Spike could use a new canine friend. He doesn't really seem to have many others."

"Twilight, I'm fine with the friends I have already." He rolled his eyes as he pawed the ground. "You, Rarity, Pinkie, Fluttershy, Applejack, Rainbow Dash, and Sunset are all that I need."

"Yes, but other dog friends wouldn't hurt now, would they?" Sunset smiled, pinching Spike's cheeks. "Wouldn't it feel great to have other dogs to race with? Or to show off your tricks to?"

"They wouldn't understand what the heck I'd be doing, though. Not all dogs can talk like I can." Spike shook his head. "And most of them just do... that." He pointed back to the dog that had finished its' business at the hydrant.

Twilight just grimaced at the sight and shook her head. "Come on, Spike. Just give Smolder here a chance. Who knows? You might end up loving her.

"Yeah, or I could get really jealous and end up having a rivalry that could wear thin after a few days." He deadpanned.

Twilight just rolled her eyes and walked Wallflower towards a clearer area of the park, watching Smolder follow after them both. "Have you ever used a frisbee before, Wallflower?"

"I did once, back in 2nd grade, but that was when I was just a kid, and I didn't even know how to use it properly." She pressed her fingers together, her cheeks again flushing a faint shade of red.

"It's not that hard, really. Let me show you how to use it." Twilight took the disc and motioned for Spike to come forward. When he did, she coiled her arm and pressed the frisbee against her chest. "It's all in the wristwork, really. Just throw it as you straighten your arm out, like this." —She tossed the frisbee, and Spike immediately dashed for it. As it started its' descent, he leapt for the plastic toy and grabbed it in his maw, landing on all four paws as he brought it back to Twilight— "And the rest should be plain sailing from there on out."

"Okay then..." Wallflower took the frisbee out of Spike's mouth and walked out, taking the same position that Twilight did when she hurled it. Looking back, she saw Smolder sticking close to her side, panting as its' eyes stayed focused on the toy in her arms. "All in the wrist, huh?"

Wallflower took a few deep breaths before throwing the disc out. She didn't supply much power to her throw, so it travelled much less distance than the one that Twilight had sent out. Regardless, Smolder still shot forward like a horse out of the gates at a race and lined herself up with the disc, making a jump up. She barely missed the frisbee as it grazed her ears and plopped gracelessly behind her. She still picked it back up and delivered it back to Wallflower.

"Ooh. So close," said Twiligtht, walking back up to Wallflower. "Maybe try bending down a little bit, don't give it too much altitude. It should be a tad easier for her to make the grab if there's not that much of a challenge behind it. You can work on doing it at a higher speed and height once she's got the hang of basic catching."

"Alright." Wallflower squatted slightly, still secure in her stance as she readied the disc for another throw. This time, she looked at Smolder, and waved the frisbee in front of her face, watching as her head followed it from left to right. "Ready for this, Smoldy?"

"Smoldy?" Sunset cocked a brow, then smirked. "Not even ten minutes into owning her and you've already given her a nickname."

"Well, yeah. It's short for Smoldy-Woldy." She briefly glanced back at Sunset, then heard Smolder let out another high-pitched bark again as she wriggled her body, ready for the run. "Now, go get it, girl!" Wallflower threw the frisbee again.

This time, Smolder ran to the disc and stayed behind it, instead of trying to get ahead of it. She made the jump for it as it dipped in height and managed to land it directly in her mouth, landing back on the ground once again as she brought it back to Wallflower once again.

"You got it! Nice work!" She clapped her hands and gave Smolder a pet on the head, causing her to drop the frisbee and shake her head to the side, with yet another bark slipping from her muzzle. "And just think; with some more practice, you'll be able to run faster and jump even higher than that!"

Sunset watched as Smolder ran into Wallflower's chest as she reached out for her, and saw Wallflower giving a hug to the dog. A smile appeared and stayed on her face as she knew the first part of her job was complete. Now came the other parts; getting the supplies and getting Smolder settled in to Wallflower's house.

Reaching into her pocket for her phone, Sunset Shimmer opened the chat application and opened a group chat with the rest of her friends. She typed in a message and sent it off, slipping the device back in her pocket as Wallflower sent the frisbee flying again, causing Smolder to run for it again.

Twilight smiled as well, watching Wallflower begin to bond with Smolder. As she watched the two playing together, she was reminded of the time that she broke free from Crystal Prep and Cinch's rules, letting go of all of the bad things and spending time with a new crowd; a new set of friends. Even if she had never known Wallflower before any of the mishaps involving the Memory Stone, she wasn't going to forget about her anytime soon; especially now that she had a new friend for both herself and Spike.





Wallflower and Smolder eventually performed their last frisbee throw and catch together before giving the disc back to Twilight and Spike.

"Thanks for that, Twilight. It felt so good to give Smoldy here such a good workout." She bent down and picked Smolder back up again, the cradle-hold returning as she pointed Smolder's belly towards the skies.

"No problem. Glad we could help you out." Twilight smiled and put the frisbee back to her side. "Do you want to come back to my house for a bit while Sunset and the others get you the supplies you'll need to raise her?"

"Oh yes, I'd like that very much, Twilight." Wallflower nodded, then turned towards Sunset, who saw the other Rainbooms beginning to gather around her. "I'll send you all the address to my house once you get everything. Meet me there, okay?"

"Got it." Sunset nodded and gave her the thumbs up. "Me and the girls shouldn't take long anyway, but feel free to enjoy spending some more time with Twilight and Spike. I'm sure the both of you would have a lot to talk about." She then took another quick look at Smolder, and heard the umpteenth yip out of her mouth. "Or, at least, one of you will have a lot to talk about."

"Don't worry about it, I understand dog pretty well." Spike put a paw to his chest, boastfully. "Me and Smolder could chat for a bit, if she's alright with that."

"Oh, I'm sure that she will be." Fluttershy tapped on the pendant around her neck. "I can talk to her too, so if you need help to translate what she wants, Wallflower, I'm ready if you need me."

"Thanks, Fluttershy. You're the best." She grinned at her and walked out of the park with Twilight by her side. "So, which way is it to your house again?"

"It's not a long walk from here. We actually live close to the park, conveniently." Twilight lifted a finger as Spike walked by her side as the group left the dirt and grass behind and landed back on the cobblestone paths.

Once Twilight and Wallflower left with their dogs, the Rainbooms put their heads together and began to chat and mumble to each other, going over plans and what they would need to keep Smolder happy. Rarity and Fluttershy's talks were mostly on grooming, while Pinkie went on about the food with Rainbow Dash. In the end, that left Sunset and Applejack to deal with the bedding that she would need, along with any other essentials that Wallflower could benefit from.

"Alright. So, we're all going to the same place, right?" Sunset asked, as the group stood upright again. "Pet Palanquin, right?"

"Yep!" Pinkie nodded.

"Uh-huh." Fluttershy and Rainbow did the same.

"Without a shadow of a doubt, darling." Rarity put her hands to her hips.

"Then it's settled." Applejack nodded, lifting her thumb to her cheek. "We should be done in no time at all, providing that we don't have a spat over those gosh-darned brands everyone seems to like."

"Oh, pish-tosh, Applejack. It's always good to have a reliable brand to fall back on," said Rarity.

"Yeah. Remember all those party supplies that I keep using for Canterlot High's many events and ceremonies? It's all thanks to that lovely little slice of heaven on 34th street called the Party Palace!" Pinkie reached into her hair and unfurled a poster for said establishment. "And every tenth shop gets you a free birthday cake. Can't pass up such a great deal like that; especially when there's cake involved."

"Yeah, yeah. I got it." Applejack just pushed her arms out. "Just don't wanna have a little fight over something small like that."

"Then let's get going, girls. Off to the Pet Palanquin!" Pinkie pumped her fist into the air and skipped off, the other Rainbooms following close behind her.

For Sunset, all of the pieces of her puzzle were beginning to fall into place. All that was left was for her to finish it and see what Wallflower thought of all the hard work she had done for her. Any thoughts of her being alone were beginning to fade from her mind altogether as she crossed the road with her friends.
> Two Dogs Walk Into a House. You Can Figure Out the Rest
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

Twilight's house was not something particularly special, but it did stand out from the rest of the houses in the district, mostly for how much it looked like a small mansion in a movie rather than that of an actual house. With a pair of ivy-ridden pillars that stood by the front door, holding up the shelter above the door, which seemed to stretch up in a tower-like fashion. A small garage stood by the right-hand side of the garage, with a small path connected to a smaller door on the edge of the house. There were more windows on the left, both separated by another, slanted roof.

"Wow. This is your house, Twilight?" Wallflower asked, as she walked Smolder up to it. "It looks... really nice, actually."

"Thanks. It wasn't whole lot, but it was the only house that we could find that hadn't been taken." Twilight just gave her a gentle grin. "Plus, it was a total bargain. Mom and Dad couldn't believe it."

"Well, it's good to hear that you got all your money's worth." Wallflower took a look around, mostly at the shrubs and the barren grass, devoid of any flowers or other colours. "Though... I think it could use a bit of sprucing up."

"Sprucing up?" Twilight lifted a brow and turned back. "What do you mean by that, Wallflower?"

"Well, I mean, it's a nice looking place and all, but I can't help but think that it could use a little bit... more? Is that the right word?" She shrugged awkwardly, lifting her hands in a sense that she would a doll's hands.

"More how?" Spike's ears pricked up. "This place already has everything! Wide open spaces, lots of room to run around, and it's got everything that Twilight and her family could need." He was quick to dart up the stairs to the front door. "Plus, if they don't have something, then she always comes up with an invention to help them out. She's, like, a total genius!"

"Okay, Spike. I'm not one to boast." Twilight just chuckled, reached down for Spike's hair and tousled it with her hand. "But it's true, I'm always making new things to help my friends and family. Not just for their benefit, but for mine as well. I still need to keep up my hard work, even if I'm not a Crystal Prep girl anymore."

"You used to go to Crystal Prep?" Wallflower asked.

"Yeah. I did. I wasn't very happy there, though, always being left to my own devices and receiving nothing but filthy looks from other students. Even the team I was with on the last Friendship Games didn't care about me or the spirit of the competition that much." Twilight just felt a weird sensation rise in her throat, only for it to vanish quickly as spike brushed his head against her leg. "But that's all in the past. Now, we've just gotta focus on the future and whatever comes with it."

"Yeah. I guess." Wallflower started to ascend the stairs herself, standing daintily with Twilight as she opened the door to her house. Smolder was quick to follow, and yipped up at her, prompting her to pick her up and hold her gently. "Aw... someone's eager to go inside, aren't they?" Her response was Smolder licking her face affectionately.

Twilight's entrance hall was quite the oddity to say the least. There was a coat and shoe rack on the right, which, despite being large, only really held a handful of shoes and coats. The sounds of machines and the scent of some motors could be heard around the house. As Twilight and Wallflower left their shoes at the rack, they wandered into the living room, found the nearest couch that they could find, and took a seat.

The living room had a bunch of pictures strewn about on the walls. Some where in line with others, while the rest seemed to have been put around haphazardly and unorganised. The floor itself was entirely carpet and the ceiling had a crystal chandelier dangling from the center. A large glass cabinet sat at the corner by the window with some trophies and certificates inside. There was an HD TV on the wall, despite it being turned off, the screen was blending in with the rest of the environment. Wallflower couldn't entirely make out whether it was on or off, but her eyes were pried away from it as soon as Twilight lifted Spike into her lap.

"So. Wallflower. How have things been since the whole incident with the Memory Stone?" Twilight was the first to ask, breaking the momentary silence around them.

"Well, it's been fine, really. Not great, not terrible, just fine. And I'm glad to have been able to make all these friends since." Wallflower had shied her face away for a moment, but it quickly came back into line with Twilight's. "Outside of that, though, not a whole lot's been different at home. Me and Fuchsia are still working on the flowers and making sure that everything's all in the right places, but still, I'm just a bit... alone at home. I guess that Trixie girl she's friends with must have a lot of stuff planned involving her and their other friend." She just let a small half-laugh slip out. "It's almost like they're BFFs or something like that."

"Well, Trixie, Fuchsia, and Lavender have all been pretty hard-working at CHS," said Twilight. "Always going on about magic spells and sleight of hand, but y'know, I think it really suits them. A magician does need some assistants, after all." Twilight tapped her geode and reached for the remote. It gained a magenta aura and flew right into her hands. "Unless you have Equestrian magic on your side, that is. But even then, it's just good to have help in general."

"How so?" Wallflower asked as she watched Spike take the remote and put it by Wallflower's side.

"Well, if you make yourself lonely, you can also make yourself sad." Spike said, climbing onto her side of the couch. "Just like what you did with the Memory Stone, you barricaded yourself off from everyone else even though you didn't mean it, and all that loneliness really ate away at you."

"But when you make friends, they can really help you out in a number of situations." Twilight could only smile as Spike came right back to her side, before she cuddled him and gently stroked his fur. "And if it's hard to make new friends and expand, then be glad for the ones that you already have. After all, it's better to have a friend than to have no friends."

"But even then, you need to treat your friends with respect, and treat others in the same way. What I did to Sunset, what she had to go through on those few days? It was horrible, and I can't even imagine how much heartache it would be if I were the one forgotten about and ostracised by my friends." Wallflower's breath grew cold as she just looked down at Smolder, who just gave another high-pitched bark. Seeing the energy on her new puppy lit a fire in her heart, and after blushing, she just brought the puppy to her chest. "But now, I don't need to remember that anymore. I just need to be grateful for what I have and move on. And I'm sure that, with this little puppy, I'm going to see a lot more joy in my life from now."

"Yeah. I'm the same, really. If it wasn't for Sunset and the others stepping in, I would have done something horrible to everyone at the Friendship Games. I could've caused complete chaos for everyone involved." Twilight could hear Midnight's laughter echoing in her mind, in the deepest pits of her memories. "I guess that's one thing we do have in common, isn't it? We've both made a lot of mistakes in the past, and we've both accepted forgiveness."

"True." Wallflower looked Twilight in the eyes, seeing a faint glimmer of herself inside them. She had never really given it too much thought in the days after the stone had been shattered, but looking back at everything that she had done, she could really feel that her heart was more tender than she remembered. And that she, much like Twilight, were almost one in the same, despite their passions being fairly different from each other. "So, Twilight, did you wanna know an answer to my question about sprucing the place up?"

"Sure. What did you mean by that?" Twilight asked, looking around the room. She didn't think that the house itself needed any changes, but she was still willing to listen to what Wallflower had to say.

"Well, I noticed that there weren't a lot of flowers on your front lawn. And I didn't check the back yard, so I can't be sure about that, but I think your house would look a bit better if it had some flowers growing," she said. "And I am head of the Gardening Club at Canterlot, so I could give you some help with that, if you want."

"Oh. I had never really invested that much into flowers around the house. Mom and Dad never did, either, always saying that flowers were optional, or that the house was fine just the way it is." Twilight, while she was saying it, did another quick frisk of the room she was in. Now that she thought about it, she stopped what she had been saying and took a moment to think about it. "But... I think I can see where you're coming from, Wallflower. It does seem to get a bit dull and drab from time to time; especially in the gardens."

"True dat," said Spike. "As a dog who's been running around Twilight's place a lot, I can agree with that. Though I never really take much notice, since she's always just playing with me or testing if I can still catch balls and frisbees."

"Well, that's nothing some flowers won't be able to fix. Do you have any preferences, or are you someone who likes every type of plant?" Wallflower asked, immediately going for her phone and opening up an app with a flower icon on it. "Trust me, there's this great place downtown that does the best flowers. They've got something for everyone down there; no matter who you are or where you live."

"Thank you for the offer, Wallflower. I might just take it into consideration." Twilight flashed her a grin as she stood back up again. "For now, though, I think the dogs could use some exercise. Plus, you said it yourself; you've never seen my backyard before. Well, now I think it's time we changed that."

"Yeah. Come on, Smoldy! Let's go outside and play for a bit!" Wallflower just rubbed Smolder's little cheeks and watched as she wagged her tail and gave her face a good licking from top to bottom.

Twilight and Wallflower went through the kitchen, then out the back door into the garden. It was much wider and more open than the front yard and, despite the lack of flowers as Wallflower had predicted, there was still plenty of room for her and the dogs to run around in. Very quickly, she let Smolder leap out of her arms and run across the grass, barking loudly and gleefully as Spike was quick to follow. Wallflower watched as the two dogs started by chasing each other around, while Twilight went over to a nearby shed and walked inside. It didn't take too long for her to come back, though, with a double-knotted rope, some balls, another frisbee, and even some hula hoops.

Spike and Smolder quickly darted to the dog toys once their eyes locked onto them. Twilight threw a ball out, prompting both of the dogs to give chase to it. They leapt at the same time and even ended up bumping into each other, but when they both landed and the ball tumbled before them, Smolder was the first to grab it and bring it back to Wallflower, while Spike returned the second to Twilight.

"So, have you ever played fetch before, Wallflower?" Twilight asked, walking up to her side, idly tossing the ball and catching it with a single hand. "If you haven't, it's a very simple game."

"I know how to play fetch, Twilight. We used to own a puppy back in kindergarten." Wallflower took one look at the ball, and another at Smolder. She tossed it out into the garden and watched as Smolder immediately turned and ran after the ball. Though she failed the catch the ball in mid-air, it didn't take her long to find it and return it to her owner. "Each day, we had to feed it, train it, and one unlucky kid even had to clean up the... stuff it left behind."

"Ugh. TMI," Spike pinched his nose and waved his other front paw in front of the held nose.

"Anyways, how long have you and Spike been playing it?" Wallflower asked, sitting down on the grass.

"We've been doing this for a few months now. Ever since Spike got the ability to talk, we've been doing it more and more. He always wants to show me how much better he's been getting at chasing down stuff." Twilight gave him another pet and threw the ball out, eyes focused on Spike as he kicked up the grass behind him as he ran for the ball. With one single leap, Spike was able to clutch the ball in his jaws before it impacted the ground. "What do you think, Wallflower?"

"That's pretty impressive, Twilight. But you never know. Me and Smolder could be hot on your tail..." Wallflower curled her arm back for another throw and hurled the ball out. Smolder saw it and gave chase once more. Again, she couldn't catch it in time, but it landed very close to her muzzle before it rolled and she scooped it up with a hasty bite. "See that? I threw it with the same amount of force, but she did it better that time."

"Well, I'd say that she could still use some work, but that was still quite a lot of energy out of a dog." Spike strode over to Smolder and watched as she dropped the ball by Wallflower's knees again. "Y'know, I think you and I could get along pretty well." Smolder just barked at Spike, and in response, he just chuckled. "Well, thanks. I have been getting it groomed lately."

What followed from there was a conversation between two dogs. While both of their dialogue was reduced to barking noises and the occasional laugh from Spike, the both of them were really getting into it, sharing a bunch of different dog topics with each other, with Wallflower and Twilight just standing by, hanging on every single noise they made. For some moments, Twilight wished that Fluttershy was there so that she could translate what the two of them were saying, but she could still get the general gist from both Spike and Smolder's body language.

"Trust me, girl, you're gonna love playing with me. I'm sure that I can keep up with you." Spike gave Smolder a simple nod before turning back to Twilight. "Hey, Twilight? Do you think you could set up a racetrack for me and Smolder? She wants to challenge me to a race."

"Well, I'm not sure about actual racing equipment, but I'm sure that I could make something up." Twilight went over to the shed and used her geode once more, lifting a bunch of items out of it, wrapped in her aura once more. Taking a look at the garden, she arranged the items in a bunch of different ways, shifting objects around again and again, before setting it down to make what looked like an obstacle course out of a dog show, complete with a tunnel, some poles, a hoop to jump through, and even some see-saws. "There. Do you think that'll work, Spike?"

"Oh, definitely, Twilight." He was already taking up the position by the first obstacle, standing proudly. He motioned for Twilight to come over before turning his attention to Wallflower and Smolder. "Do you two have a stopwatch or a timer?"

"I have an app like that on my phone. Just give me a moment." Wallflower quickly went off of the flower app and went into her clock settings. Switching it to the stopwatch settings, she stood to the side of the track with her finger over the button. She barely even noticed Smolder following her and standing by her feet. "Okay, you two. I've got the time set up right here. When I say go, you two have gotta keep on going until the end. After the last obstacle, I'll stop the clock."

"Sure thing." Spike twisted and turned his head, feeling the bones inside of it click into position. "Come on, Twilight. Let's be sure to put on a good show for Wallflower and Smolder." He gave her a confident nod and took up a racing stance.

Twilight just grinned and went into a stance of her own. "Okay, Spike. Let's do this. Together." She grinned.

"Ready? Wait for it..." Wallflower dragged it out for a few moments, watching as the both of the lowered their brows, waiting for the signal to go. With a single push of the button, Wallflower yelled "GO!" And the clock on her app began to start.

Twilight and Spike were immediately off down the course, with her standing by the side, ready to offer any assistance if needed. Spike didn't need it, however, as he quickly cleared the first balance beam and ran through the first tunnel, popping out on the other side. As he twisted and turned through the obstacles, ran and vaulted himself over the high ones, Twilight kept up with him, always watching as he bobbed and weaved his way through the course, making it to the see-saws, and then to some hurdles. It seemed like nothing would stop him, and even Wallflower was amazed at how nimble and agile he was. She had always known dogs to be fast, fleet of foot, and never slowed down by anything, and he, performing in this makeshift race was a prime example for her. She watched as Spike made it through the last obstacle, prompting her to stop the time.

"Got it!" Spike threw his paws to the skies, before giving Twilight a high-five. "How'd we do, Wallflower?"

"You guys are actually pretty good at that. Like, wow, I'm impressed." She could barely contain herself as Spike came up to her. "I don't know if we're ever going to be able to beat that time."

"Eh, don't worry about it. You and Smolder could be really good and end up nailing the whole thing with seconds left to spare. But hey, who am I to judge? I've never been in a race like this before." Spike shrugged to himself.

"Go on, Wallflower. Now it's your turn." Twilight patted Wallflower on the back and took her phone to keep track of the time. She saved the time that she had put down with Spike, before refreshing the clock to zero for the next run. "And don't worry if Smolder ends up making mistakes. That's what you're there for. To guide her. And you can easily bounce back the next time with a lot of hard work and training."

Wallflower just grinned and watched as Smolder immediately ran through the course, without Twilight even needing to give her the signal. This, immediately caused Wallflower to run after and catch her, bringing her straight back to the start. "Look, I know you're eager, but we've gotta wait for Twilight to tell us to start. Okay?" She just got another lick in the face from Smolder, which made her giggle once again. "Okay, okay. I got it." She put Smolder back down at the start again. "Whenever you're ready, Twilight." She made a thumbs-up pose and watched as Twilight hovered her finger over the start button.

"Get ready..." Twilight said, watching Smolder pace on the spot and wag her tail faster and faster, panting with enthusiasm. "GO!"
> Not the First
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

The sun was beginning to set for both Twilight and Wallflower, who were sitting under the shelter of the back porch. The giant amber orb sinking beneath the clouds and giving the leaves, trees, and grass a golden tint to them as the sky melted from bright blue to orange, and getting ever darker with each passing second.

"Man. I gotta hand it to you, Twilight. I don't think I've ever had a workout like that in my life." Wallflower rubbed the back of her head, the sweat she had been feeling beforehand starting to diminish, but not entirely vanish from her locks. "How did you manage to get through that course without breaking a sweat?"

"Well, I might have had a help from Rainbow Dash..." Twilight gave her a wink, still having the memories of her rigorous training burned into her mind. How she lasted longer than Sunset was still a question that puzzled her to this day. "You weren't too bad yourself, Wallflower." She reached over and petted Smolder, who was sitting daintily on Wallflower's lap, panting after a fun session with her. "You or Smolder for that matter. You seem like you'd have lots of fun playing around together."

"Yeah. We did have fun, didn't we?" Wallflower gave Smolder a tender rub under her neck, causing the dog to fidget and shake her head in satisfaction. A small sigh slithered out of Wallflower's lips as she wrapped her arms around Smolder, letting her fur brush her arms.

Suddenly, a thought popped into Twilight's mind. "Hey, Wallflower? This is gonna sound a little odd, but did you ever own a pet before?" She asked, the truth of Wallflower's past isolation still playing on her mind. "Like, when you were a bit younger?"

"Well... now that you mention it, I did have some faint memories of this big dog my family used to have when I was just finishing pre-school." Wallflower turned to Twilight, her brain beginning to dig deeper and deeper into the recesses of her mind to find some trace of it. "I think his name was... oh, now was it Fluffy or Rover? Either way, he was a big dog. Big enough to little kids to ride on his back." As she spoke, she brushed Smolder's back tenderly, ruffling the fur on it.

"What kind of breed was he?" Spike asked with a raised ear. "Was he a Great Dane? Those guys are big. I'm talking super big, girl."

"No, I don't think he was that big. I'd say he was more like a Rhodesian Ridgeback." Wallflower splayed her fingers out and wobbled them, as if to give a 'so-so' gesture. "But regardless, he was pretty nice. He always had a thing for licking me and Fuchsia too."

"That's just a sign to say that a dog loves you, Wallflower. Either that or he's licking the salt off of your face. One or the other," said Twilight. "Just make sure Smolder or any other dog you see licks any wounds you get now, because they can accidentally reopen them, and that'll just make the pain even worse."

When the word hit her mind, another question ran through Wallflower's mind. She watched as Twilight had a small chat with Spike; the words blurred as she just let the shaping do the talking for her. Eventually, after struggling to find her breath, it finally escaped her lips. "Twilight? Was Spike your first pet? Or was there another?"

There was a long silence between the two of them after that. That single sentence ruptured the tranquillity and sent a small shiver up Twilight's spine. Something that she had long neglected to talk about, for fear that she would have let the pain return after all these years and swallow her whole. It had been ages since she had even tried to remember, or even recall his name after all this time, but at long last, she slumped her shoulders, took a huge breath and felt her face melt into a frown as she let the harshness of the past burrow into her mind.

"Well, it's... funny that you mention that, Wallflower. Y'know, considering we were just talking about your last dog," even her sheepish chuckles couldn't mask what she was really feeling, and the muscles stretching on her face just added to that. "But... I did have a pet once, when I was young. A very special kind of pet; and a bit of an odd one too."

"Oh, I'm sorry. Did I strike a bad nerve?" Wallflower put her hand to her mouth, watching as Twilight began to turn pale. "It's alright, Twilight. Really. We don't have to talk about it if it'll make you feel upset. We could just move on to a different subje—"

"No, Wallflower. This is something I need to get out to someone." Twilight just pushed her hand into Wallflower's face, "I can't just let this go by silently. I don’t know just how much it'd hurt more and more if I just kept it to myself."

"Well, okay. I only ask because it looks like you're about to burst into tears over it." Wallflower lowered Twilight's hand and put it back to her side. "So, who was your pet back when you were a kid?"

"Okay. It was back when I was just starting out at grade school." Twilight paused, took a moment to compose herself, then stood up, the wind briskly passing through her clothes. "I was young, and I had trouble staying up to do my studying. My mom and dad were worried that my grades would start to slip up if I didn't balance sleeping, playing, and working at the same time.

"So, one day, when I came home from school, my family all invited me to the living room, where they had a cage with a blanket over it. The blanket was pulled off, and lo and behold, there was an owl living inside of it." She opened up her hands, letting her fingers spread out and stretch, to emphasise the wings of her old, feathered friend. "Yeah. A real life owl just sitting there for me and me alone."

"Whoa, whoa, whoa. Hold on a sec. How come I've never heard of this owl?" Spike interjected, his paw tapping on Twilight's leg. "I thought you said I was your best pet in the whole wide world!"

"You are, Spike. And you still are to this day." Twilight just gave him a pat on the head. "Not many dogs I know can talk like humans can. But Owlowiscious? He was a special kind of special; the kind that makes many kids stand out just for being with them." As the sun finally faded away from the skies and blanketed the two of them in the ethereal glow of the night, owls started to hoot in the distance, with each one making her wince. "But sadly, it wasn't to last between us..."

"How come?" Wallflower asked, standing up and letting Smolder roam the lawn again.

"One one of our field trips, I brought Owlowiscious with me to the forest. We had a few little games together, shared our food, talked about the odd little subject here and there, but then..." She stopped, not bearing to think about the next part. A small tear began to form in the bottom of her eye. With a single blink, the drop split into dozens and soaked her eyelids. "He just... flew away.

"LIterally, out of nowhere, he just decided to run away from me. I tried to chase him down and tell everyone that he'd gotten away, but by the time I got everyone together to look for him, he was just... gone." She fell to her knees and let more and more tears appear. "Even to this day, he still hasn't come home. I mean, the lifespan of owls is pretty long, so I don't think he's gone for good, but still, it made me feel terrible. I didn't stop crying for weeks after he had gone."

In that moment, all Wallflower could do was wrap her arms around Twilight's chest, and pull her into a small hug. "I'm so sorry for your loss, Twilight," she whispered in her ears, in a tone so inaudible that it could have sounded almost like she had turned into Fluttershy. "I don't know how we can ever fix that hole in your heart that Owlowiscious left behind, but you've got me and your friends to help you out."

"Uh, hello? Right here, y'know..." Spike deadpanned and rolled his eyes.

"Wallflower...?" Twilight turned to her with wide and soggy eyes.

"Trust me. I've been there before. But my story didn't have a happy ending either." Tears were showing up in Wallflower's eyes as well. "During one of our little trips to the park, my last dog ate something really bad and got sick in a flash. We took him to the vet, but sadly, he didn't pull through. When my parents told me that he had gone off to play in a special little place that humans couldn't see, I was gullible enough as a kid to believe them. But they knew the truth; my dog was dead." Her throat felt numb as she began to choke on her own memories. "That's the one memory I wanted to remove myself with the Memory Stone, but sadly, it doesn't work on your own..."

"Now, it's my turn to be sorry, Wallflower." Twilight turned around and hugged Wallflower back, pressing her face into her chest as her hands locked themselves around Wallflower's back. "Here, I was moping about my pet just being lost. I didn't think that your dog was gone for good."

"It's alright. There's a lot of things that a lot of people don't know about me. Probably comes with the whole idea that I sucked any mention of my existence out of their heads until Sunset showed me a better way." Wallflower's eyes were a pair of waterfalls now, that flowed even if her mouth wasn't wailing like a siren. "If anything, I think it's better that I still have things that I don't share with others. I don't wanna bring down their days with the fact that I've had a dog that passed away."

"But that's why we're friends. We can share the pain together. After all, a problem shared is a problem halved." Twilight just closed her eyes and sniffled, letting her tears drizzle down onto her shoes.

"Yeah. Thank you so much, Twilight." Wallflower also started to bawl, clutching Twilight close to her as the two of them turned into a human water feature, with Spike having to jump off of the porch so as not to get himself soaked.

"Man, Wallflower could have not picked a better time to get Smolder, could she?" Spike watched as Twilight and Wallflower sat themselves back down again, still crying to themselves. His eyes then drifted off to see Smolder running the course again, still barking and yipping to herself as she nimbly ran through posts, tunnels, and up some of the see-saws. A leap from the puppy landed her by Spike, causing both of their eyes to lock. "Well, at least you're still happy about this." His cheek was then licked by the orange dog.





Eventually, the skies turned as dark as possible, the streetlights filling up the light that had left the town, casting thick spotlights down on the sidewalks and giving each house a slight shade of colour in the shadows. The air had grown noticeably colder than usual and many of the people had vanished into their houses for the night, just leaving Twilight and Wallflower together with their dogs.

The two of them had stopped crying at long last and the grass had been completely stripped of the course that they, Spike, and Smolder had been using together. Now, the two teenagers were just gazing up at the stars, with Twilight pointing out each constellation in detail to Wallflower.

As the two of them were lost in their little stargazing venture, Sunset and the other Rainbooms approached from the distance, carrying supplies, toys, and other dog essentials in their arms, with some of them about to give out from a combination of the weight they were holding, in conjunction with the long travel they had taken from the pet store to Twilight's house.

Wallflower was the first one to notice, and stood back up when her eyes caught that of the Rainbooms'. "Hey, girls. Was it a long day at the store?"

"Long doesn't even begin to describe it, darling." Rarity fanned her face, while still keeping a steady grip on her items. "Queues aside, we really had to think long and hard about what would make Smolder happy, so we just decided to by a bunch of things on a whim. And then it struck us that we needed to all chip in in order to get everything and only barely made enough to reach the budget. So let's just say that this little venture put quite a dent in our wallets, so to speak."

"A dent? More like they completely tore our wallets to shreds, Rarity!" Rainbow Dash groaned as she let her things fall to the ground. Luckily, she was only carrying the food, so nothing really had been at risk of being broken. "I'm gonna have to pull a lot of jobs on the side in order to get that money back!"

"Oh, quit yer bellyachin, Rainbow Dash. With the speed of how you work, those jobs'll just fly by. Especially with that little doohickey around yer neck and all." Applejack just tapped on Rainbow's geode. "Why, I bet you'd be able to do every small job in a single day with that kinda magic."

"Yeah. I wish." Rainbow just groaned as her entire body gave way and fell to the ground. "You don't know how hard it was just to keep hold of this thing all the way without having to use it. You're lucky you've got that super-strength magic of yours, otherwise you'd be complaining about this kinda stuff too y'know!"

"Welcome back from Pet Palanquin, everyone." Twilight got back up herself and rejoined the Rainbooms. "Did you get everything?"

"Yeah. We got food, toys, grooming brushes, everything that Wallflower needs to make sure that Smolder over there has a nice, happy life with her." Sunset jabbed a thumb towards Smolder, who just leapt into Wallflower, toppling her to the ground.

"Aww, look at the two of you. You make the best of friends!" Fluttershy just swooned at the sight of Smolder licking Wallflower's face. "I should get my camera out. This'll make a wonderful picture."

"Hold on, Fluttershy. Before you do that, I think we need to get into a better place." Twilight went off to pick Spike up and carry him over to the porch. "It is pretty dark out here, and I think it'd be better to get a shot in a place that has a bit more light to it, don't you agree?"

"I agree with that. In fact, come on, Smolder. Let's get going." Wallflower clamped her hands around Smolder's chest and lifted her over towards the porch, before sitting back down and letting her curl up on her lap again. "There. Now, be sure to get our good sides, girls."

Twilight sat down beside Wallflower, with Spike brushing smugly up against her as she put her hands on her chin, pointing her elbows to the ground. While her feet dangled over the bottom step, Wallflower's legs were crossed, almost like she was sitting on a yoga mat. A big, almost cartoonish smile took over her face as she showed off Smolder for the shot.

Then, with a click of the camera, the picture was taken. The friendship between Wallflower and Smolder solidified in a grand, digital, singular image. Now, she had a new friend for life; one that would never leave her side.
> The Next Day
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

The sun streaked down onto Wallflower's bedroom the next morning, creeping through the windows and onto her face, stirring her from her seemingly impenetrable slumber. Beneath her bed, Smolder was sleeping curled up on a fuzzy, white fibre dog bed with a paw-print pattern running across the edges. The both of them flailed around in their beds before lightly opening their eyes to the blinding light of the sun. In its' intense rays, Wallflower could only blush as she sat up and threw the covers off of her body, yawning loudly as her arms twisted and stretched outward.

She got out of bed, the creases in her chartreuse flower-pattern pyjamas and droopy wrinkles under her eyes showing themselves as she trudged over towards the window, opening it outward. She was greeted with a blast of cool wind that drifted through her room and across Smolder's fur. She woke up once the airwaves tickled her nose and she trudged over to Wallflower's legs.

"Oh. Good morning, Smoldy." Wallflower squatted down and gave Smolder a few strokes of her fur, watching as she gave a smile, wriggling around on the spot before barking giddily. "Had a good sleep?" She didn't receive any other answer than panting, although she didn't really need one. She could just tell by the energy Smolder had as she dashed to the door of her room.

"Okay, okay. Just give me a sec. I gotta brush my teeth first." She just chuckled before going into the bathroom to do her deeds. After a good few minutes of brushing, followed by a gargle and a spit, Wallflower came out of the bathroom, looking much more clean and awake than when she had walked in. Wallflower went to the door and opened it, letting Smolder gallop off downstairs.

Wallflower's house didn't have many things that made it stand out from the others. Standard kitchen and living room with cream-coloured walls and soft carpets, pictures and ornaments decorating every single nook and cranny that could be found, and the odd couches and chairs surrounding TVs and tables. What it lacked in special features, though, it made up for in flowers. There were flowers aplenty in Wallflower's house. Poppies, fuchsias, begonias, even a sunflower bloomed by the front door. Many people would have called it a gardener's paradise. Wallflower called it home.

She went into the kitchen where a figure was already sitting at the table. She had a bowl of cereal by the edge and was reading a newspaper idly. She briefly lowered it when she heard Wallflower enter the room, revealing her magenta skin and dark pink hair. She wore a dress that looked like a combination between a dancing dress and a wizard's outfit, with a gold trim around her waist and shoulders and a single sapphire gem holding the shoulder-pieces together.

"Morning, sis." The girl called, giving Wallflower a grin. "Did ya sleep well?"

"Yeah, Fuchsia. I slept like a log," Wallflower replied as she went to the cupboards to get herself some breakfast of her own. She pulled out a white, ceramic bowl and poured a load of cereal into it, almost filling it to the brim. "Honestly, I haven't slept like that in a long time."

"That good?" Fuchsia asked, lifting a brow slightly.

"Mm-hmm." Wallflower gave a gentle nod.

Smolder then came into the room and dashed under the chair, straight onto Fuchsia's legs. The sudden jump caused Fuchsia to yelp, as well as jerk her arm out. The sudden reaction almost sent the newspaper tumbling to the ground in the process. Some pages had begun to dangle, but she was quickly able to slid them back into place and put the paper down safely before getting a look at Smolder.

"Oh. Hey, little guy. What are you doing here?" She asked, tousling the fur on Smolder's head.

"That's Smolder. She's my new pet." Wallflower came over to the table, laid her bowl down and watched as Smolder dashed back to her side. "Sunset and the others got her for me so I wouldn't have to feel alone. So far, I'd say that it's going pretty great. Isn't that right, Smoldy?" Wallflower picked her up and let her lick her face, causing a chuckle to tumble out.

"Seems like she's really taken a shine to you, Wallflower. Good for you." Fuchsia laid the papers down and kept her eyes solely focused on her and the dog. "Still, you think that you're ready to have another dog after what happened to... well y'know?"

"Fuchsia! Not in front of Smoldy like that!" Wallflower groaned and slapped Smolder's ears shut. "I thought we weren't going to bring up Buddy or Fluffy or whatever the heck his name was!"

"Whoa, hey! Chill, chill, girl. You know I didn't mean it like that." Fuchsia hastily raised her hands and pushed them outward. "I didn't mean to offend you or your new friend like that. Really, I didn't!"

Wallflower just pouted and turned Smolder away from Fuchsia, cuddling her close to her chest. "Y'know, I know you think that being with Trixie and Lavender's made you feel more confident and all, but you've really gotta learn that there are some lines to cross. And bringing up a dead pet to a new pet isn't the best answer now, is it?"

"Sorry. I was a complete jerk. I shouldn't have said that." Fuchsia stood up, slid her chair back underneath the table and trudged over to Wallflower's seat. She laid a hand on Wallflower's shoulder and let out a sigh before kneeling down to her height. "Hey, c'mon. You know I mean the best, right?"

Wallflower just let Smolder down and watched as she dashed off towards the back door, which now had a bowl of water and one that had yet to be filled sitting beneath it. "I know you mean the best, sis. But there are times where you can let your... less than kind side out."

"We all have a bad side to ourselves, Wallflower. But we learn to look beyond that and think about the moment; not about the past." Fuchsia patted Wallflower's back. "You know that saying, 'it's good to be bad'?"

"It's one of the reasons why that new video game did so well recently, isn't it?" Wallflower tipped her hand out. "Because you got to play as a bad guy if you wanted?"

"Yep. It's good to be good, but it's not always good to be nothing but good. No matter how hard we try, there's always two different sides to the same coin; a good side and a bad side. You can't have one without the other." Fuchsia closed and opened her hand, causing a coin to appear on it, before showing both sides to Wallflower. "Remember when we were in Kindergarten together? I had that cavalier queen bee attitude and you had to always reign me in?"

"Oh yeah. I remember. You were always being a jerk and I was the only thing stopping you from scaring the kids into submission." Wallflower nodded. "It's funny. You always said that you could do anything, no matter how old you are. And you'd go to any lengths to get it. Need I remind you of the Battle of the Bands nonsense?"

"Funny how you didn't take part in it, Wallflower. I don't remember anything else other than it was a total blast. You, me, and Lavender would've made an awesome trio of singers, don't ya think?" She grinned.

"Not really. Plus, I had much better things to do with my time than pay attention to a load of people trying to kill themselves over music. Seriously, all that bad tension and drive to win just went to your heads." Wallflower just splayed her fingers out and wobbled them. "That, and you know the Rainbooms. Those girls literally do everything with their rainbow lasers, wings, and hair extensions. They're like characters from a cheesy cartoon that's too afraid to do sad endings. It was obvious that they'd win, so the excitement just died off for me." Her eyes turned to Fuchsia's and she lowered her brows. "That, and well, I don't think I enjoy the idea of trapping people underneath the stage and not letting them out."

"You... saw that?" Fuchsia recoiled. Now the memories were beginning to flood back. "Wallflower, I can explain about tha—"

"Don't, sis. It's clear that you've got a certain level of hate for the Rainbooms." Wallflower just pushed her hand into Fuchsia's face. An inch further and it would've been considered a slap.

"Well, I don't hate them now! It's just that... I mean I really wanted to, see the thing is that..." She tried to dig up an excuse, but she couldn't find one. Defeated, she just hung her head in shame and limped like a ragdoll. "You're right. I was angry. I didn't want to just lose like that."

"Trust me, Wallflower. I know. I can relate. I know what it's like to be the bad guy." Wallflower stood up and held Fuchsia's hand, rubbing the back of it with her fingers. "We've both taken potshots at Sunset Shimmer and the Rainbooms, we've both made mistakes that we did out of pure hate, we both feel terrible about it. That's what it's like, right?"

"Well, N..." She was about to say something, however a look into Wallflower's eyes changed that. "Yes. Yes it is. We've both vented off the bad sides. Just another thing that we have as sisters, isn't it?"

"Yeah. Just another thing we have as sisters." Wallflower nodded. "C'mon. Super Sister Hugsies? We always used to do it when we were kids."

"Mmm. Sure. It always cheered us up." A smile came back onto her face.

The two sisters wrapped their arms around each other and brought themselves into a hug, squeezing themselves as tight as could be, before simultaneously saying "When you're feeling super down and you don't know what to do, just find your Super Sister and bring 'em close to you. Hug yourselves together, then the smile you'll see. A Super Sister Hugsy is good for you and me! Super Sister Hugsies!" The two of them giggled like little girls and broke off shortly after.

"Man, I haven't done something like that in years!" Fuchsia grinned from ear to ear. "Glad to know that it still holds up, even when we're a couple of teens in high school."

"Totally," Wallflower added.

As the two of them began to calm down, Smolder began yipping as loud as she could, pawing the empty bowl by her feet. Her stomach let out a little rumble, and that was all of the evidence that the two Blushes needed to know that she was hungry. Smolder just sat on her haunches and watched as Wallflower got out a bag of dog food and laid some out into the bowl, along with a small chunk of leftover chicken from the fridge. As soon as her meal was laid out for her, Smolder just burrowed her head into the bowl and started to munch away.

"Still, what are you gonna do about her?" Fuchsia pointed towards Smolder. "We've both gotta get to Canterlot High, and you know how tough they are about pets, right?"

"Oh yeah..." The smile on Wallflower's face began to fall ever so slightly. She hadn't thought about that glaring issue staring her in the face until then. "Well, couldn't we just do what that Fluttershy girl does and just smuggle her in my backpack? I'm sure that she won't mind."

"Well, it's possible, but then what are you gonna do about feeding her? Unless you can take those bowls around with you all day, I don't see how you're going to be able to handle Smolder's needs." Fuchsia twisted her wrist in a circular motion. "Not to mention there's the whole issue about dogs... needing to do their business."

"Hmm... Wallflower put a hand to her chin and scratched it, looking as Smolder moved from the food bowl to the water bowl, drinking her fill carefree. Once she was finished, Smolder turned to face Wallflower with her tail wagging and eyes wide. "This is a toughie. How are we gonna get past this?"
> A New Dog State of Mind
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

Smolder stepped out of Wallflower's house, onto the pathway leading to the sidewalk. Panting eagerly to explore the world beyond, she stood in wait for her owner, as Wallflower came out shortly after, holding a small leash in her hands; the wire clipped onto Smolder's collar. Now, they were ready to go.

Smolder didn't think much about the outside world, given how she was nothing more than a little dog in a place that was half-town, half-city. Many sights caught her eye along the way, however, albeit with most of the colours skewed from her vision due to her canine genes. That didn't matter to her. All that mattered to her was being with Wallflower.

"You know, I still don't know how this is going to work, the two of us going to school together," Wallflower said, cutting up the silence. "Dogs aren't allowed on the premises, but Twilight's always carrying Spike around with her so..."

Smolder just gave her a short glance, before turning back to her route.

"Yeah. Not a whole lot to talk about when you've not got a voice." Wallflower sighed as she just led her down another street. "Well, at least you'll be in good company. If it's not Sunset and her friends, then at least you've got me. And I've got you too." She leaned down to pet Smolder, causing the dog to wriggle her body and bark giddily.

Outside of small talk with Smolder, the journey to Canterlot High was mostly uneventful for Wallflower. The same old route, day in, day out. She'd walked there so many times that she could do it all with her eyes closed in the windiest day imaginable. Even if she'd purged it from her memory, it would come back to her pretty easily. At least this time, she wasn't walking alone.

And just as she saw Canterlot High in the distance, she was greeted with another friendly face on her travels.

From just behind her, Spike darted up close to Wallflower and Smolder, with Twilight just behind them. Twilight was wearing her casual attire while Spike, as usual, had nothing but his fur and collar.

"Hey, Wallflower." Twilight gave Wallflower a wave as she came up to her side. "How'd it go last night?"

"Oh, same old, same old, really. Fuchsia was out all night last night with Trixie and Lavender, so I had to show her Smoldy in the morning." Wallflower shifted her eyes so that they locked with Twilight's. "She was still delighted to see her."

"Good to hear that." Twilight smiled, approaching the road between them at Canterlot High. "Y'know, some people can get a little bit shocked by new things."

"Speaking of new things, how has Smolder been doing?" Spike spoke up, sidling next to her. "It's a whole new environment she's in, getting out of the pound and all. It's totally fine for a dog like that to feel a bit... uneasy." His voice started to drag as he got a look at Smolder in a different way. The way her hair stood out in the majestic sunlight, her long and floppy ears almost resembling horns, the look in her eyes as she gave Spike a quick glance, and the shimmer coming from her eyes was a sight Spike hadn't seen in a dog before.

"Well, that's why she's got Wallflower. Someone to really help her break into this new life," Twilight responded. "Isn't that right, Wallflower?"

"Yeah. Yeah, it is." She gave a little nod. Wallflower had only received Smolder yesterday, so already it was an experience for her as well. Wallflower was entering the world of pet care while Smolder was entering the world of being loved by someone. A mutual pilgrimage between them both.

Smolder just stood there, wagging her tail as she gazed at Canterlot High for the first time. A towering temple for teenagers traversing the tantalising tightropes of knowledge and future careers. A part of her was as nervous as the other excited, she didn't know how this was going to play out but awaited the result regardless.

Twilight and Wallflower crossed the road, their dogs stayed by their side. It didn't take long to get to the other side for any of them. But Twilight was the only one to take some steps forward, as she lifted Spike up and put him in her backpack. Wallflower and Smolder hung back, looking like they were frozen in place.

"Hey, what's up?" Twilight asked, quickly noticing the two of them stricken with insecurity. Then, the truth dawned on her. "Oh, right. First time taking a dog to school. I got it." Twilight, with a smile, came over and wrapped her arm around Wallflower's shoulders. "I used to feel the same was going to Crystal Prep. If any of the students there found a dog on the campus, things wouldn't have been so pleasant, to say the least."

"So, does Principal Celestia have anything against dogs and other pets at Canterlot High?" Wallflower asked, curling up almost akin to how Fluttershy would react in a moment like that.

"Well, she doesn't have a personal agenda against them, but she's still got a no-pets-on-site rule." Twilight just twisted her wrist, rolling her eyes at the same time. "Kinda sounds like she's being a bit hypocritical don't ya think?"

"Don't worry. Me and Twilight have done this all the time." Spike swept his paw across the air. "I just hang out in Twilight's backpack the whole day and only really come out when the coast is clear. It's actually a lot comfier than you'd expect in there too." He gave a jab to the bag.

"What if Smolder does her... business in my bag, though?" Wallflower placed her hand to the side of her mouth as if trying not to let Smolder hear her.

"Business?" Spike cocked a brow. "Oh yeah... That business. Never found that much of an issue."

"Maybe you didn't, but I remember well, Spike." Twilight folded her arms, the severity in her voice shifting. "The first day we went to Crystal Prep, you dropped a nasty one in my bag. Thank goodness I took some bags and wipes with me. If it helps, I can give you some, Wallflower. Just in case." She reached into her bag and fished out a pack of smaller bags. "You can never be too careful, even if you've had a dog for a long time."

"Thanks, Twilight." Wallflower took the bags, putting them into one of the side pockets of her backpack. "Now, how do you think Smolder will behave once she's in the bag? In fact, how would she even breathe in there?"

"I breathe just fine in there, so... maybe Smolder would too?" Now it was Spike's turn to look dumbfounded. "But... if she's not comfortable, I suppose maybe the locker would work fine too?"

"I suppose, but maybe Smolder would get lonely or hungry. Not to mention, she could bang on the door, bark, make any kind of noise and get spotted if she's unlucky." Wallflower reached down, wrapped her arms around Smolder's belly and lifted her up from the ground. "I know I've had her for a day, but I don't want to separate her that quickly."

"You're right. Still... how can we get around this?" Twilight tapped her foot on the ground almost rhythmically as she tried to formulate a solution. Just as she got a train of thought going, the bell began to ring. "Uh-oh! No time to explain. Just put Smolder away!" Her arms spasmed at the noise.

"Wait, now?!" Wallflower almost lurched back. "B-but we haven't figured out how we're gonna do this!"

"If we don't go in there right now, we're gonna be late. And trust me, being late does not look good on your permanent record." Twilight took off the bag, opened it, and swung it in a crescent moon style, scooping Spike up instantaneously. "Look, if Smolder does get caught, we'll figure something out together, okay?"

"Alright then." Wallflower just muttered and planted Smolder within the backpack. She took one last look at her eyes as she lifted the edges up and pulled the zip until it closed, encapsulating the puppy inside. A small sensation formed in her chest in doing so. She didn't want to do it but had no choice in the matter. If Smolder was hurt because of this, it would be down to her and her alone. "Let's get moving, Twilight." Together, the two dog-owning girls went into Canterlot High together, ready to face the trials and tribulations that came with it.





The day was mostly the same for Twilight and Wallflower. The brutality of math class, the deep and intrinsic meanings that came with literature class and the history class where interest in the subject matter depended on a number of variables. Nothing really special for them, save for the odd bit of gossip during their breaks between periods, but as it stood, not a whole lot happened for them.

Smolder, for the most part, was tucked away in Wallflower's bag, surrounded in pure darkness. She whimpered, trying to figure out where she was or what anything was from pure touch alone. Smolder even tried to curl up in places, shivering from head to toe as she contemplated what could have been waiting for her in the black void of Wallflower's closed backpack. Just as her delusions begun to take form, a split formed in the darkness. Taking no chances, she burst her head through it, back to the world that she knew about, the world with Wallflower and her friends. Her sorrow instantaneously evaporated when she saw Wallflower's warm smile, and the moment she was set down on the grass, she barked gleefully once again.

"Hey. Sorry about that." Wallflower tousled the hair on Smolder's head. "I would've gotten you out sooner, but I got into a talk with some of my friends in the gardener's club and it seemed to go on forever." She went into her bag and retrieved some treats for Smolder, in the shape of bone-shaped biscuits. "Here. You want one?" Wallflower asked, holding one of the biscuits out for her.

Smolder examined the biscuit from top to bottom. First, she felt it with her paws, then she sniffed it with her nose. It didn't seem like much to her, but as she slipped it into her mouth and began to chew on it, she got a pleasant surprise in the form of a turkey flavour. She continued to savour her treat, letting the flavour hit every corner of her mouth, before swallowing it proudly.

"Ya like it? I got it from Fluttershy." Wallflower sat down and crossed her legs. "She said that it was one of the better dog treats on the market from her own experience."

"Well, that and Applejack was always asking me to look after Winona whenever she and her family went on vacation." Fluttershy chuckled to herself as she arrived with Twilight by her side. Both of them sat down and let their pets out as well.

"So, how'd it go, Wallflower?" Twilight asked as Spike went over to her side. "Did she feel any sense of unease?"

"Okay, I'm gonna be a bit honest with you, Twilight, I barely had any time to see Smolder between lessons," Wallflower blushed from cheek to cheek. "See, after I went through one of my classes, my friends in the gardener's club all had a talk about going to this flower festival in the park, then I ran into Silver Spoon who was considering joining up with us and, well, let's just say I only got Smolder out for a few moments before the bell went again." She looked down at Smolder, who was in the middle of a rather one-sided conversation with Spike. "Sorry, girl. I didn't mean to do that to you..."

"Oh, I'm sure that you didn't mean it, Wallflower." Fluttershy bent over into a crawling posture and gave Smolder a tender petting as well. "If you want, I can try and get a fundraiser going for Canterlot High to have a pet stop if you feel uncomfortable carrying her around."

"It's nice of you to be looking out for me, Fluttershy, but I don't think that the bag's the issue. I should've given Smolder some more time when I had it, not just leave her alone in that bag while I put my friends first." Wallflower hung her head, bringing Smolder into her lap.

"Your friends are important, but so are the things that matter to you. What happened happened, and now you've got plenty of time to give Smolder the love and attention you want to give her," said Twilight as she adjusted her glasses once again.

"Besides, now that you're here, I get to have another look at Smolder again," said Spike, swooning over her once again. "Y'know, this might be a bit sudden, but I think I might be in love. Think we can share a treat together?"

Smolder took a look at Spike this time, looking at all of his distinctive features. His unique colour palette was what caught her eyes. Despite the fact that she couldn't see all of the colours properly, she at least saw the pattern that they were making. One quick sniff of his butt later and she couldn't help but give him a grin in return, letting off another yip.

"Sounds like that's a yes, Spike." Twilight went for some of her own dog treats, gave one to Spike, then patted him on the back. "Go on, Casanova."

Spike chuckled to himself before blushing, handing Smolder another biscuit. Within seconds, she gobbled it up and resumed wagging her tail, panting excitedly. "Glad you liked it. So, no—"

Then, out of nowhere, in a move that no-one else saw coming, Smolder gave Spike a big, sloppy kiss on his lips, mouths interlocked with each other the whole time. Spike's eyes bulged as wide open as they could while Smolder's closed themselves shut as she delved into the embrace she was imparting to him. All the while, outside of everyone's field of view, small twinkling magical particles drifted from Spike's mouth into Smolder's mouth. As soon as the kiss ended and both dogs took a step back, the magic stopped.

"Wh-whoa! I wasn't expecting a kiss out of that!" said Spike, who backed up so much that he bumped into Twilight's knees. "I never have that much luck with other dogs!"

"I guess she must've been looking for a mating partner. Isn't it romantic?" Fluttershy just put on the biggest smile she could muster. "It is that time of the year, after all."

"B-b-but I'm not ready for puppies!" Spike whined.

"Oh, I'm sure you'd be a good dad, Spike," came a new voice. One that came out of Smolder's mouth. It was husky and gravelly, almost as if a teenager with a bad case of tonsilitis was speaking. After she finished talking, Smolder just gasped. "Wait, what just happened?"

"Smolder? Did you just..." Wallflower's eyebrows shot to the top of her head as her mouth hung open.

"I can... I just..." Smolder had just as little grasp on the scenario as Wallflower did. "I just TALKED!"

Everyone let out a scream that was so loud, it caused a flock of birds to fly off in the distance.
> Speak, Smolder, Speak!
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

"I can talk... I can talk." Smolder hyperventilated, beyond newly-acquired words for just how much of a shock to the system it was for her. Not two moments ago, she was just an ordinary dog under Wallflower's care. Now, she had the ability to talk, to think, even. "B-but how is that possible? All I did was kiss Spike!"

"Much to my surprise as well, I'll have you know!" Spike piped up from Twilight's side. "I told you I wasn't prepared for puppies!"

"I don't think any of us were ready for that today!" Twilight swung her hand downward at Smolder. "I mean, it shouldn't come as a surprise given how we're a magnet for magic, but for you to get a dog that talks, Wallflower, I just didn't see it coming!"

"You're telling me. I mean, a talking dog? In what world is a talking dog normal?!" Wallflower asked, her arms splayed out like jagged bolts of lightning.

"Uh, this world, apparently?" Fluttershy just lifted a finger in response. "I mean, at this point, we have to accept the fact that normal life just isn't happening for us anymore. Magic came, it's here to stay and we have to just live with it now."

"But it's not normal for me! All I had was one experience with some kind of runic stone!" Wallflower retorted. "I mean, is this kind of stuff really a regular thing for you and your friends, Twilight?"

"Definitely not. Not under any circumstances. Not even if the moon was blue on a leap year when all of the planets aligned." Twilight rolled her eyes. "But even so, this magic stuff decided to challenge the odds over and over again, now here we are today."

"It gets to the point where you eventually learn to bear with it; especially when it gives you perks like magical girl powers, the ability to have a talking dog, contact with a pony princess from another world, et cetera, et cetera." Spike spun his paw in a spiral motion.

"But what's everyone gonna think when the word gets out?!" Wallflower put her hands to her temples. "I can't just let the world know that Spike talks, otherwise it's gonna be like those movies where the government comes crashing through my house, telling me to give up the dog and surrender quietly so they can study it for whatever purposes, or maybe they'll just end up dissecting it because that's what people usually do when they see something they don't understand..."

"Okay, you're definitely overthinking this, Wallflower." Twilight tipped her hand. "In what world would anyone want to do that? Especially to a dog of all things?"

"Says the only other girl in Wallflower's circle of friends who even HAS a talking dog," Smolder deadpanned, gazing into Twilight's eyes.

"Hey, it's not my fault that magic just so happens to exist in this world!" Twilight barked, swinging her arms out. "I wasn't the delivery girl for everyone getting themselves into all of these little mishaps!"

"Okay, okay, look, things have gotten off to a rocky start. Let's just find an answer before we start running around like headless chickens, using paper bags to breathe." Spike put a paw over Twilight's mouth, watching as her arms drooped limply down her sides. "The last thing we need is a case of Wallflowering."

"Wallflowering?" Wallflower cocked a brow at the verbalization of her name.

"Yeah. Whenever Pinkie Pie goes off on one of her little tangents, we call it Pinkieing. Same can be said for Applejacking, Rainbow Dashing, Fluttershying, Twilighting, and even Raritying," said Spike before a big, dopey smile formed on his face. "And trust me, Raritying is one of my favourite. I could just watch her get inspired for hours on end."

"So, what? Is Wallflowering whenever I get really angry about something? Because that seems like a terrible verb to put upon me, Spike." Wallflower lowered her brows and folded her arms, a seething gaze piercing into his body all the while.

"Well, not really when you're mad, just... Uh..." Spike tried to find an answer that would dig him out of this situation. "You know what? Forget it, I retract my statement."

"Well, let's try to think about the positives for once." Wallflower just lifted Spike onto Twilight's lap, then picked up Smolder. "What are the good things about having a talking, thinking dog?"

"For one, now you know exactly what she wants, when she wants, and exactly what she's feeling." Fluttershy lifted her finger again, but this time, with a grin on it. "Normally, owners would have to guess what their dogs want without any clues," she chuckled for a brief instance, "Or without my geode." Fluttershy held it out to the sunlight, where it shone a radiant shade for everyone around her.

"Oh, that's magical?" Wallflower asked, eyeing up the trinket around Fluttershy's neck.

"Mmhmm." She nodded. "I got it at Camp Everfree along with all of my other friends and theirs. Mine gives me the power to talk to animals without them being able to talk, Twilight's gives her access to all sorts of magical powers. As for the others, well... I think it's better that you see them for yourself."

"I got a taste of what Sunset's could do when she dug around in my mind for information about the Memory Stone and why I was so heck-bent on wiping her out of everyone's minds." Wallflower tipped a hand. "But I think we're getting a bit off-topic here. We're supposed to be talking about what's special about having a talking dog, not a magical girl."

"We got the knowing exactly what I want and think stuff down," Smolder interjected, sprawling her posterior over Wallflower's legs. "What about the other stuff? Does being able to talk let me think what other dogs are thinking? Or would I need to kiss them as well?"

"No. No, no, no, no, Smolder. The last thing we want is news of a dog going around town trying to make love with every other dog she finds." Spike hastily shook his paws in front of his face, trying his hardest not to envision the scenario.

"Well, what else is there apart from me being able to talk that's so good about it?" Smolder huffed, folding her paws. "I didn't choose this, y' know."

"Technically, you did, when you had your dog mind." Twilight readjusted her glasses, looking down at the little, fiery-skinned puppy. "But still, this is fascinating. When Spike first coalesced with Equestrian Magic, he gained sapience. I thought that power could only be given to other dogs that crossed the stream as well. But your kiss just changed everything, Smolder..."

"So there's that point. I'm an interesting freak of nature with another freak of nature." Smolder looked Spike in the eyes, half-disgruntled, and half-cheeky if such emotions coming together was possible. "Guess we'll always have each other, won't we Spikey-poo?"

"Spikey-poo?!" Spike jumped back so suddenly into Twilight that he ended sending the both of them to the ground, colliding with the grass.

All the while, Smolder just laughed at the two's bumbling. "Guess that's another perk of being a talking dog, huh?" she said.

"It's not funny, though!" Spike growled, his tail brushing Twilight's face as he clambered off of her body. "I'm not ready for puppies or to have some sort of lover's nickname!"

"It is pretty cute, though." Fluttershy just brought a hand to her mouth and chuckled. "I've never seen Spikey-poo get so flustered before."

"Not you too, Fluttershy..." Spike groaned and hung his head.

"Okay, not gonna lie, that's another good benefit. I'm able to have fun in more ways than just sniffing other dogs' butts, playing games and racing, and doing all of the other dog-heavy things." Smolder stifled another chuckle. "That opens up a lot of doors for me."

"Well, what about the benefits for me?" Wallflower asked, her fingers pressing themselves against each other. "What would everyone think of me when they find out that I have a talking dog? Not counting Sunset and her friends, that is..."

"Oh, I'm sure that they'd all understand." Twilight just tipped her hand. "By this point, everyone in Canterlot High knows that Spike can talk, so what's the harm in letting them know that Smolder can talk too? If anything, it'd make her a lot more interesting for all of them too. You might end up making more friends because of this."

"Friends because I have a walking roadside attraction?!" Wallflower's eyes bulged.

"I'm no roadside attraction, I'll have you know." Smolder puffed out her chest. "I'm a well-bred dog with a human mind, who has an owner who's been nothing but good to me. How would you like it if I called Spike a roadside attraction? Would he find it any fun?"

"Oh, come on! What is this? Everyone Pick on Spike Day?!" He yelled, slamming his paws on the ground with a fire in his eyes. "Y'know what? I don't need this. Twilight, come and get me when class is over." And without further ado, he darted for Twilight's backpack, put himself inside, and zipped it up tight.

"I'm... sorry for that. I didn't mean to phrase it like that." Twilight blushed, rubbing the back of her head. "What I mean to say is, you're a very good dog, Smolder. When I said that you would make more friends, I meant that more people would be amazed and how wonderful it is to know another talking dog. I mean, how many people do you know who've met a talking dog before?" She asked, putting her hands on Smolder's cheeks.

"If anything, you should be very proud that you've been given this gift. Oh, I'd do anything to have that kind of magic work on some of my animal friends," said Fluttershy, as all of her pets gathered around her. "I'd be curious to hear what Angel Bunny's voice sounds like without having to rely on some shiny magic crystal to do it for me."

"Yeah, I'm sorry for snapping like that too." Smolder reached up to Twilight's hands and held them gently. "I mean, I've just been given this gift to speak, to think like you, and not like the rest of the dogs in this world. I'm shocked, you're shocked, we're all a little shaken up by this. But I think what we should do now is try to move forward, to see where this takes us, right?"

"Y-yeah." Wallflower nodded, collecting Smolder from the ground and putting her into her backpack, leaving the zip open so that Smolder could stick her head out. "Still, I'm a bit nervous to know what everyone will think of Smolder now that she can talk."

"Well, there's no knowing what the answer will be until you find out for yourself, right?" Twilight asked as she picked up the bag, slipping it around her arms. "In any case, you might have some time to catch your breath, seeing as how class is about to start." As soon as Twilight began to walk away, the bell went, signalling everyone to return to their school-related duties.

"We'd better get a move on too." Fluttershy signaled for every one of her creatures to return to her bag, using hand signals to attract them towards her. Once they were all inside of her bag, she closed it up and walked off as well, taking the remnants of the picnic along with her. "See you after class, Wallflower. I can't wait for the other girls to meet the new Smolder."

"S-see you too, Fluttershy." Wallflower gave a small, lame wave to Fluttershy before she groaned, sliding her hands over her eyes as she slumped against the wall. "How, in any sense of the word is this going to work?"

"You can drop the worrying attitude for a start," said Smolder from the bag. "When I had a dog's mind, I didn't think about the consequences of actions, and look what happened. Nothing bad whatsoever."

"And your point is?" Wallflower tipped her hand.

"You should just go in there with as much confidence as you have. Be proud of what you have, proud of me and my magical talking powers." Smolder put her paw to her chest as if she had a thumb in its' place. "Plus, if everything goes wrong, you can just call Twilight, Sunset, and all of their friends to back you up."

"I mean, they are very supportive people who've helped people, but how are they gonna explain you to the rest of Canterlot High? The fact that for starters, You. Are. A. Talking. DOG!" Wallflower howled at Smolder, swinging her arms back and forth.

"Seriously? A second talking dog is the weirdest thing at this high school?" Smolder cocked a brow. "If anything, I'm more curious as to what happened that caused all that magic mumbo-jumbo that the girls were talking about." She then pulled her paws out of the bag and planted them on Wallflower's cheeks. "Get over yourself, girl. You're gonna be fine. Just trust me on this, okay?" Another bell sounded, and Smolder retreated to the luxuries of Wallflower's backpack.

"Oh, okay then..." Wallflower closed the bag up, taking one step towards Canterlot High's nearest door, her legs as wobbly as some of the finest jelly she could think of. No matter how much she believed, whatever courage she mustered up, or what good outcomes would happen if she revealed Smolder's newfound powers to talk, she still couldn't walk coherently without her body looking like a mess. "This is not going to work..." She whispered as she stumbled through the door, ready to face the struggles of her next class.
> A Talking Dog Is The Weird Thing In All This?
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

Wallflower Blush knew CHS like the back of her hand. She knew the students, which classes they had and when they had them, where said classrooms were, everything had already been checked in her head prior to entering for the umpteenth time. But now that Smolder was a talking dog, she had no clue about what she would do if someone heard her speak. She couldn’t use the Memory Stone anymore—not that she ever planned to do so if someone else found out—and people didn’t forget magical goings on that easily. She was going to have to play her cards right in order to survive and keep the secret she carried intact.

Smolder popped her head out of the backpack after the chore of unzipping it from the inside. Which, given that paws were much chunkier than fingernails had made it hard for her to move the zip. Still, she was out of the bag now and looking around CHS in all of its’ splendour. She had never been inside a place like it before, so a lot of her time, her gaze was locked on to whatever caught her eyes. Lockers, trophies, papers on bulletin boards, the entire trip was junk food for her eyes. And her wagging tail, big grin, and the way she was leaning out of the bag just proved that for Wallflower.

“Why didn’t you tell me you had such a great school, Wallflower?” Smolder asked, resting her head on her owner’s. “I never saw anything like this back at the shelter.

“I’m glad that you’re enjoying the view, Smolder. But I have to get to my class now. Another lecture on physics is the last thing I need to add stress.” Wallflower rubbed underneath Smolder’s chin briefly before trekking down another corridor.

“Lecture? What the heck’s a lecture?” Smolder blinked twice at her with a tilted head, sending one of her floppy, horn-shaped ears into the side of Wallflower’s head.

“A lecture or lesson is where people go to learn things,” she said with a raised finger. “Kinda like how dogs get taught to sit, roll over, lie down, shake, all that sort of stuff.”

“Oh. I get what you’re saying now. You just do whatever your owners say without anyone questioning it.” She gave a dog-shaped thumbs-up to Wallflower before hiding her paw away in the bag once more.

“Well... not exactly like how dogs do it. Maybe we do in preschool and kindergarten, but not in a high school like this.” Wallflower tipped a hand and twisted her wrist. “When you grow up, you’re given these things called pens and paper. You write on the paper with a pen, then the teacher decides if you’ve been a good dog or a bad dog by giving you a grade from A to F. If that makes any sense.”

“I think it does. But why would you ever want letters anyway? Sounds like a way of overcomplicating it. All you need is a treat and that’s it. No point in this letter hooey.”

“If you say so, Smolder. But we get much better treats if our grades do well. So it’s kinda important to us humans. Not to say that the dog way is bad, it’s just...” she fumbled with her words, face falling apart as she tried to simplify the expression without hurting Smolder’s newfound feelings.

“Suit yourself. Still, everyone else here would be much better if they behaved more like dogs. Y’know, fewer letters and more treats for being good boys and girls.” Smolder rolled her eyes. “But hey. It’s your life. Your strange, unique, human life.”

As Wallflower arrived at her next class, she hid Smolder away by pushing her head gently under the zip and sealing it back up again, leaving a small gap so that Smolder could at least breathe. Wallflower didn’t want to take any risks for fear of everyone else’s reactions. What else could she do? Magic always seemed to command attention at CHS, distracting everyone else from the point of coming to a school in the first place.

Wallflower walked over to her desk and planted her bag by the side, before reaching into one of the pockets on the side to retrieve a fuzzy, teal pencil case. She unzipped the case and laid her stuff out on the desk, giving glances toward some of the other teens in her class. None of them were Sunset or her friends, but that just built up more and more pressure for her. If Smolder got restless and wanted to get out, that was game, set and match.

As she started to think about the lesson, her teacher for the day walked into the class. She had a jagged and slender physique, with plain black shoes, black leather trousers, a green shirt with a pocket protector and a pair of sharp-edged black glasses. Her skin was a pale white and her hair was what could only be described as cotton candy coated in honey, as her hair was a large puff of topaz with pink points at the end of every strand of hair. This was Icy Fire; one of Wallflower’s many teachers at CHS. And from the way she gave the students a little gaze of her own spelt a sense of unease within them.

“Okay, class. Now, let’s pick up where we left off. I’m sure that you’ve all taken centrifugal force to heart after last week’s assignment I gave you, but there more to physics than just how things move and the impact that they have on the world around them. So with that being said, let’s take a look into magnetism and more importantly, how it works as a whole.”

As Icy wrote the lesson down and Wallflower took notes, her backpack rattled and shook as Smolder tried to find something inside that would help her pass the time. With the lack of visibility, she couldn’t make anything out within the shadowy sarcophagus sealing her off from the rest of the world, so tried to get a look at what was going on outside. She batted the zip once more, pushing at the metal piece holding the zip in place. It took a few attempts, but Smolder widened the split separating her from the other side. She popped her head out again only to see a desk and lots of legs, with shoe-tips either on the ground or pointed toward it.

So many shoes. Are they asking for me to go and take a bite out of ‘em? Smolder’s tail swished back and forth as she continued to gaze further at the footwear. I mean, okay. But it’s their fault for wearing them...

As Smolder tried to escape from the bag, Wallflower had noticed the excessive shaking and rumbling. Smolder’s little chance at feasting on feed was thwarted by the face of Wallflower as she tried to put her back in the bag.

“What are you doing? I told you to stay in the bag...” Wallflower whisper-groaned as she shoved Smolder back inside. “Don’t you know that if I show you here, I look like a bad girl?”

“Ms Blush? I don’t think I need to remind you that lack of attention leads to a lower grade, do I?” Icy Fire folded her arms as she glared at Wallflower, who not begot the attention of the whole class. “Stay still, sit up straight and pay attention.”

“Yes, Mrs Fire. Sorry, Mrs Fire.” Wallflower sunk deeper into her chair, feeling the weight of embarrassment crushing her from the head down. She had never had a moment like this before, but thanks to Smolder, it had finally happened.

The lesson resumed, all eyes off of Wallflower and back on to the whiteboard, where Icy Fire was beginning to write down a diagram of the subject matter she was talking about. Everyone in the room, Wallflower included were scrawling notes onto their notepads, taking in as much as possible.

“This is the weirdest lesson I think I’ve ever seen. There’s no body action, dogs aren’t allowed to be seen in class, and I just got Wallflower scolded.” Smolder fiddled with her paws within the confines of the backpack. “Magic or no magic, I’ve gotta spice this up somehow. Plus, Wallflower needs to stop worrying about what may never happen. This is just the kicker she needs.”

Smolder once more tried to pick at the zip that was keeping her locked inside the bag. The struggle resumed for her, but at long last, she pulled the zip open wide, completely bathing her in the light of the classroom. She wasted no time in darting out of the bag and up the body of one Icy Fire, who let out a yelp as the small puppy’s jump knocked her onto her rear end.

“Y’know, it’s one thing to talk about lessons and stuff, but that’s not the best way for people to learn things.” Smolder’s tail was swiping itself across the fazed woman’s chest as her gaze drilled into hers. “I know that you humans live the lives you want, but there’s no shame in being more dog once in a while. All you need to do is give them one-word commands and promise treats. Then, they’ll be sure to listen and remember.”

The whole class fell silent. The eyes of the students had been opened so wide that they were on the verge of popping out. As for Icy Fire, she couldn’t make coherent sentences anymore, trying to comprehend the fact that Smolder had a voice and wasn’t afraid to use it. All Wallflower could do was bury her head in her hands and moan to herself. This was a disaster in her eyes.

“You... you’re a... you’re a TALKING DOG!” Icy Fire screamed as she jabbed a finger at Smolder’s nose, inches away from booping it.

“Yeah, yeah. I know what you’re gonna say. I’m not the first one. You can thank Spike for that.” Smolder turned to the rest of the room. “I just have to ask this: why do people have to be so paranoid about all this stuff? There’s no point in it all. I mean, seriously, Wallflower Blush thinks I’m gonna be carted away by some government people because I can talk, yet the same thing’s never happened to Spike and he’s been talking much longer than me.”

“Maybe because, uh, Spike comes from a group of magical girls, for one?” Diamond Tiara cocked a brow at Smolder. “The Rainbooms get immunity from this kind of stuff.”

“Then why shouldn’t Wallflower and I have those same liberties?” Smolder asked. “Dogs are meant to be free. They shouldn’t have to hide. If magic can make me talk, then I’m taking it and running with it; not just trying to fit in because apparently ‘magic is bad if it’s not being used by Twilight and her friends’.”

“It’s not magic, Smolder. It’s the fact that it is a lesson that will help me later on in life; one that you just hijacked with that ballsy move of yours...” Wallflower lowly growled as she picked up Smolder with the backpack slung around her. “I’m gonna be sent to the principal’s office now to be put in even more trouble.”

“Ah, who cares about some stuffy old principal anyway? You don’t need that kind of person to say what’s wrong and what isn’t...” Smolder rolled her eyes.

“Maybe you don’t, but I do. If I don’t graduate CHS, I can’t get a job, a career, or anything nice at all. I’d be in a permanent doghouse all my life with no way of ever getting out of it!” Wallflower gnashed her teeth, prompting Smolder to recoil. It took Wallflower a few minutes to recompose herself afterwards, but a sigh followed with her hanging her head. “Sorry, Smolder, but I worried that this was going to happen. I was worried that you’d get restless and want to disrupt the class. I should have just left you at home instead of getting myself in trouble like this.”

“Are you really in trouble, though?” Smolder tilted her head. “Is this teacher saying ‘bad Wallflower’ to you right now?”

The both of them looked over to Icy Fire, whose face was hard to read. She was both enraptured by Smolder and her words while also trying to decide on how to feel towards the fact that her lesson had been interrupted by a talking dog; something she had never seen in all the years she had been down this road. When she did try and say something with a raised finger, Smolder just interrupted again.

“See? She’s not angry. And I don’t think anyone else in this class is gonna want to rat you out like that. Heck, they’ve been friends with Fluttershy and the Rainbooms for a long time, so trying to do that wouldn’t really fly well with them; especially since it was Fluttershy who loved me before all of this.”

“Smolder, I...” Wallflower wanted to talk, but a paw against her mouth silenced her in an instant.

“If everyone were more dog-like, there’d be no reason to worry about things. Not just for you and your friends, but for every single person on this planet.” Smolder looked out to the other students. “Think about it: If all of your lives just revolved around learning like dogs do, living like dogs do, maybe even playing like dogs do if you wanted to go that far, you’d never get bored, you’d be much more fit, and there’d be much more fun to be had day in, day out.” As the students tried to make a rebuttal, Smolder turned back to Wallflower. “Worrying’s a bad habit. You need to drop it; live like there are no consequences for anything and never worry about something that may or may not happen. They say that you can’t teach an old dog new tricks, but that doesn’t apply for humans now, does it?”

“If we could just talk for—“ Silver Spoon wanted to try and get a word in, but Wallflower just took back the conversation once again.

“Smolder... I... I don’t know what to say.” Her eyes shifted all around her sockets as she tried to come up with a counterargument, but nothing came to mind. Either it was her shock leaving her paralysed with how much this class had gone off of the rails or the fact that Smolder had openly spoken her mind to everyone in the room.

“Look. If you want to meet this principal guy or gal so we can settle this issue once and for all, I’m down for that. But I just needed to come out and say that before I went mad and you got overworked with stress. You don’t need that kind of stuff, so why think about it?”

"Because, well... I..." Wallflower's hands danced through the air, eventually causing Smolder to leap off and land by her feet.

"See. There's no reason for you to ever worry about anything. As long as you take it easy like us dogs do, you shouldn't ever have to think like that. But, just to be clear, I think we should go and see this principal character you're talking about, just so that we can clarify the issue." Smolder looked at Icy Fire. "You don't mind if we excuse ourselves and see them, do we?"

"I... I was going to tell you to go anyways..." Icy Fire blushed as she stood back up and readjusted herself. "But to answer your question, yes. Yes, you can see Principal Celestia."

"Well, this is gonna be the most interesting trip to her office I've ever seen. And witnessed." Wallflower took the backpack, scooped Smolder back up, and walked out of the door. All the while, the students and Icy Fire could not take their eyes off of her and her talking dog. "Come on, Smolder. It's time to face the music."

"What does that even mean? How do you face the music when it hasn't even got... well, a face?" Smolder asked as the two of them went down the corridors together, nothing but their footsteps accompanying them all the while. "Just a bit weird to think that music's got human-like traits when you think about it..."
> When a Dog Meets a Principal
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

Wallflower and Smolder stood outside Principal Celestia's office, both staring at the closed door before them. Wallflower had never been to the office during class usually, but now that she had been put into this position by Smolder, a number of thoughts consumed her. Whether they were of Principal Celestia freaking out about her new companion, being harsh enough to tell her to take her home and leave her there, or being the opposite of both of them and being welcoming towards the talking dog. All the options stared her in the face, but neither one seemed certain to her just yet. Perhaps she had been thinking about it too much like Smolder had been saying? Or rather, was she thinking too little about it?

"You still thinking about the outcome?" Smolder asked, climbing out of the bag and down to Wallflower's feet. "You've just gotta think more dog, girl. Then you'll be totally fine."

"Wallflower, I am speaking to PRINCIPAL CELESTIA. She decides whether or not we're good boys and girls or bad boys and girls. Just like how people who own dogs call them good or bad, she decides whether or not we're in the right and what to do with us if we're not." Wallflower picked Smolder up and looked deep into her eyes, causing her to back up. "Didn't you ever get into trouble with the handlers back at the shelter before I adopted you?"

"Well, I did, but Fluttershy's generally not one to give out punishments to animals, so I really got let off without any treats that day." Smolder rolled her eyes. "But still, that doesn't matter now. What does matter is that you need to make yourself clear that you own a talking dog, are proud to own a talking dog, and that it makes both you and I feel good together. Then, I'm sure that she'll understand."

"It's not exactly that easy, Smolder. There's a bunch of rules here and—"

"Again with the rules! Blah, blah, blah. I'll be in trouble if I don't follow these exact rules. One of the beauties of being a dog, is that you don't always have to follow the rules to a T. They're just there for guidance more than anything." Smolder just shook her head, ears flapping like martial arts weapons in all directions. "Look. People love dogs. I've seen it a million times before. We just go in there, speak with the Principal, she falls in love with me, problem solved." Smolder leapt up to the handle, pulled it down and went into the office as the door swung open.

"Smolder, wait!" Wallflower darted in with the dog, then stopped on the tips of her feet as she stared at Principal Celestia, whose eyes had widened at the sudden intrusion. Wallflower stopped at a position so askew that she ended up falling onto her face in front of the principal, who looked over the desk to see her arms and legs splayed across the floor. "Uh... permission to come in?"

"Wallflower? Whatever are you doing here? Class is still in session." Celestia reached over the desk and pulled Wallflower back up onto her feet "Don't tell me that you got into trouble. You're one of the clearest students on record."

"Well, I was sent by a teacher, yes. But not because I'm in trouble or anything. At least, I don't think it's like that." Wallflower brushed her body down, then pulled a chair over to the desk and sat at it, picking Smolder up and putting her on the desk before taking her seat.

"Wallflower's here because apparently, I may or may not be breaking some kind of human rules because I'm here." Smolder paced back and forth in front of Principal Celestia. "And yes, you can touch me all you want. I'm a real dog. With real flesh, real fur, and a completely real voice. Ya never seen a talking dog before?"

"I..." Principal Celestia couldn't muster up any words to try and put her stake in the conversation. Eventually, she had to sit upright, blink for a few seconds, then try and clear her throat. "Well, Wallflower, I must say that I'm stumped beyond belief. I didn't even take you for a dog owner, let alone a talking dog owner."

"Yeah. I don't really know how to tell you this, but it turns out that Spike, y'know, Twilight's dog? My dog Smolder decided to kiss Spike, and somehow, she gained the power to talk." Wallflower rubbed the back of her head, letting out a weak chuckle as Celestia took a closer look at the talking dog. "I know that Canterlot High has a rule against pets being on campus, but I couldn't just leave her at home since both me and Fuchsia live in the same house together. I also don't know what you're going to think about this whole thing."

"In short, Wallflower says that she's gonna get in trouble because she brought me on, but rules are just silly things that aren't concrete law, especially for dogs like me. She was worried that you'd hate me; that you'd hate the idea of another talking dog on site." Smolder stretched her paw across the desk. "But I keep telling Wallflower that there's nothing to worry about. She still doesn't want to believe me, but it's the truth, isn't it?"

"Well, I'm not really a dog hater by any stretch of the word. In fact, me and my sister both own a pair of dogs back home." Celestia stood up. "That being said, rules are rules, you two. And like it or not, they are here to stay."

With those words, Wallflower's head hung once more. Because of Wallflower, she had just gotten into trouble. A surge of emotions bubbled in her chest as she stared at the dog who had inflicted her with the punishment that she was yet to receive. A mark on her permanent record that would forever be reflective for the rest of her life, she thought.

"Whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa. That's not how things work around here, is it? Because it if is, it's highly discriminatory. You're telling me that because we're friends, she's gonna get in trouble for it?" Smolder spoke up, cutting through the silence. "Nuh-uh. I ain't buying it. There's gotta be a flaw in the system somewhere."

"Smolder, don't make the situation worse than it already is..." Wallflower grumbled under her breath. "I've already had enough trouble out of you today..."

"Kid, I'm sorry to say it, but if friendship between dogs and humans is gonna be frowned upon here, then I don't think you should come back anymore." Smolder turned back to Wallflower. "I mean, all I did was talk to everyone, and suddenly, they're all coming down on the both of us like a group of ants at a picnic. Not happening on my watch."

"You didn't exactly let me finish, Wallflower's dog..." Celestia lifted a finger.

"I have a NAME you know. It's called Smolder. Learn it." She said, sticking her tail up at Celestia.

"R-right, Smolder. What I was GOING to say is that rules are rules, and they're here to stay. But who's to say that we can't alter the rules?" She looked up at Wallflower and gave her a wink, a small sparkle in her eye flashed as she did so. "You're right on one thing, Smolder. Rules aren't exactly the law of the land here. They're just things that students listen to in order to avoid any misdemeanours. If your hand was forced, then it isn't technically a violation of the rules. Rather, an unfortunate circumstance."

"Wait, what?" Wallflower's eyes lit up, as did her face. Pulling herself out of despair, every thought that she once harboured for Smolder about her almost getting into trouble evaporated into thin air.

"It's true. I can't condone any form of cruelty towards a student and their pet. The point of CHS is that it's a free place for students to be themselves. And if that means that they can have their animals on site, then I can't really say no to that, just so long as they're controlled, that is." Celestia knelt down to Wallflower, slipping her arm around her shoulders. "I hope that's the answer that you wanted to hear, Wallflower."

"Well, it was. But I'm still completely taken aback by all of this. The fact that my dog's talking, that it's got a mouth and isn't afraid to use it and that I nearly ended up feeling really sad that I'd gotten into trouble for the first time here at CHS." Wallflower deadpanned as she picked Smolder up from the table. "So, forgive me if I withhold my enthusiasm. I'm glad, for sure, just... not able to let out the right emotions right now."

"Feel happy, Wallflower. You've just been let off the hook." Smolder jumped off of the desk and vaulted herself up Wallflower's legs. "For a moment there, I was pretty mad about things too. I was about to call Celestia a really nasty dog word as well. Thank the stars that I didn't."

"I'm honoured that you've let us off, but if we're gonna make this new rule that pets are allowed, then we need to make sure that there's a place that the students can keep them, with people willing to look after them." Wallflower tipped her hand to Celestia. "I mean, Fluttershy did suggest that we have some kind of pet corner, but I'm not entirely sure how onboard you and Vice-Principal Luna would be with the idea."

"I would have to speak it over in great length with Luna, but from what you're presenting to me, I'd be glad to lend a helping hand whenever I can." Celestia reached a hand out for Wallflower, who slowly reached forward and took it, standing up with her. "I think both of us were caught off-guard today. But it's highly against me to make students dislike being here."

"So... we can keep being together?" Smolder asked, looking Wallflower in the eyes with a smile before giving her a hug across the chest.

"Just as long as you can follow through with your idea of a pet corner for any students who want to bring their pets over that they can't take care of themselves." Celestia lifted a finger. "If it turns out that this entire meeting was all for nought, then, needless to say, I wouldn't be very pleased."

"Oh, don't you worry, Celestia. We've totally got things covered." Smolder pulled herself out of Wallflower's chest and her a nod. Anything to make sure that people and dogs were in each other's good books. "All we gotta do is round up Sunset Shimmer and her friends, bring them together, and build the place up. Simple as that. I'm sure that they'd be ready to lend us a hand."

"They may even want to sing a song about it like they usually do with stuff like this," said Wallflower, rolling her eyes. "Seriously, I take notice. Whenever something like this happens, they always sing in one form or another. Whether it's a little sing-song from Pinkie or Rarity or a full-blown musical act, there's gonna be some singing inbound if we're lucky."

"Or they could probably not sing for once?" Smolder asked, flitting her eyebrows. "I mean, if it's possible to sing about everything, then everything that we say could very well be put on a stage for all the world to hear, right?"

"Sure, if you want to put it that way." Celestia let out a small chuckle as she saw herself on stage, living out a day of her life entirely in song format. "I've always wanted to be an actress myself."

"So, what we're gonna do is that we're gonna speak with Sunset Shimmer and her friends after class is done. Then, we can hopefully try and get them to sort out this pet corner plan that we've got. Then, if you and Luna like it, then we open it up to the students. Sound good?" Smolder asked, returning to the topic at hand.

"Of course. I'll make sure to inform the other faculty members not to interfere with your work. Make sure that you and the girls can work on the corner without being disturbed." Celestia gave them a wave as the two of them went over to the door. "I'm counting on the two of you to follow through as best as you can, alright?"

"Sure thing, Principal Celestia. We won't let you down." Wallflower put a smile on her face as she opened the door, letting Smolder walk out first. "You have my word and the word of my dog Smolder that this pet corner is going to be a good thing for the school." As soon as she shut the door, the smile on Wallflower's face immediately melted away into another frown. "Oh, what were we thinking?!"

"What do you mean, Wallflower?" Smolder tilted her head to the side. She hadn't expected Wallflower to turn emotions that suddenly. "Don't tell me that you're worried again. You know that we can do this, right?"

"Smolder, I said that it was a consideration, not an actual idea that we actually had to pull off! And on such short notice with no clue how much time we've got to make it... I don't think I can handle all of the pressure..." With no more words to say, Wallflower just began hyperventilating on the spot. Her heavy and rapid breathing was immediately brought to a halt when Smolder shot up her body and delivered a paw slap to her cheek before landing on the ground once more.

"CALM DOWN, Wallflower! There's nothing to be worried about. All this worrying stuff isn't good for you." Smolder shouted, throwing her face forward at Wallflower. "Dogs have no concept of worry. You shouldn't have any of it either. We're gonna pull through with this. Why are you so worried that the possible is turning impossible?"

"It's the fact that I've got no idea how a pet corner would work, what we would need to make a successful pet corner, who would be willing to run the pet corner and how much they'd actually want to keep a place like that up. Not to mention the students who'd be worried for their pets now that they're on site and could escape if something goes wrong, therefore causing even worse things to happen to them and—"

"Kid. Stop. NOW." Smolder gave Wallflower a death stare that immediately caused her to lurch on the spot and stop her rambling. "You're gonna be just fine. We're gonna be just fine. You're just making a big deal over nothing now. How is that gonna resolve the issue?"

"I... I..." Wallflower tried to find something to latch onto in terms of a rebuttal, but the fire in Smolder's eyes was going to shoot her down immediately. She just knew it from the stare alone.

"See? There's nothing to be worried about. There never will be. The more that you worry, the more you hesitate. Now, let's get going. We've got a corner to set up." Smolder ran behind Wallflower, reaching up for the bag that had once held her in place

"Well, if you say so..." Wallflower scooped Smolder back into the bag once more, letting her rest, but as she walked off back to class to begin thinking about the pet corner that she had been encumbered with, she couldn't help but shake the thoughts off of the potential outcomes. Would it be something that she and she alone would use? Would the other students even like the idea of a pet corner in their school? And would she even be able to complete the task that had been thrust upon her and Smolder? Her brain throbbed with every single little thought, leaving a stinging sensation forming in both of her temples, one that she felt with the tips of both of her hands and rubbed to try and ease. One thing was sure though: She needed to do some work. And some good work at that.
> In Which a Talking Dog Rallies Together Seven Magical Girls
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

"Alright. Now that we've gotten all of the bad stuff out of the way, I think it's time that we get everyone together, Wallflower," said Smolder to a Wallflower who had frankly lost any form of resistance by this point. Her dog had started talking, knew no filter when it came to when it was right to speak and not to speak, and had no regards for whatever outcomes would befall her or the other people around her. Not that Smolder knew that. "I mean, we're just a talking dog and a teenage girl. We could do it ourselves, yeah, but it'd take far too much time."

"Smolder. Don't you ever think that you don't know when to stop?" Wallflower groaned, slapping her head with the tips of her fingers. "I mean, thanks to you, I've not only been sent off to Celestia's office but now I've gotta make some big project that may or may not be used by everyone in CHS..." She moaned, knowing full well how large of an undertaking it was as well as the backlog that she was going to have to fill in terms of her lessons.

"Well, sorry if I don't know how to stop, alright? I'm an ordinary dog who just got the ability to speak. Ya think I'm not gonna use that?" Smolder cocked a brow. "Look at Spike. That guy talks and talks and talks to no end and his owner seems to like it. I'm not just gonna say bark or yip or whatever other noises we dogs make because, to be honest, that isn't proper talking."

"Well, Spike has an owner that's dabbled in magic all the time. The only time I was ever involved was when I plucked some rune and used it to take everyone's memories. And even then, that made me look like the bad guy..." Wallflower thought back once again to the Memory Stone. It was an unhealthy obsession for sure, but even then, she needed to remember how bad she was before so that she wouldn't stumble down that dark path again. "Smolder, I know that you mean well. But I'm still trying to get used to the idea that you're talking. All of this added stress isn't doing me any favours either."

"And I keep telling you that you need to be more dog. I'm not saying that you have to get down on all fours, chase your tail, and eat little pellets in a bowl or something. You just need to forget about consequence and focus on the here and now." Smolder put a paw on Wallflower's cheek. "I mean, I've told you repeatedly about this. I'm half-expecting you to actually snap at me right now as a matter of fact. But it is the truth. You keep putting yourself down and choosing not to take the risk. When in truth, the risk is one of the most fun things about life. The less you know about the outcome, then the greater the feeling you get."

"But when the outcome turns out to be a bad thing, then what? What do you do when it turns out that the ending is terrible? Or that we did all of that for reasons that we didn't need to know." Wallflower turned her head to Smolder's.

"That's why the outcome's boring. You don't wanna know what's gonna happen. You just wanna live in the moment. That's what I do, at least," said Smolder in response. "No matter what you say to me, it's not gonna change jack. We've gotta do things in order to change how it ends, not say things in order to change it. And right now, I think it's time we get Twilight and her friends together."

"Like talking to a brick wall..." Wallflower scowled under her breath. The novelty of a talking dog was beginning to wear thin for her. Nothing she said or did made any difference. Smolder had completely hijacked her life. "Y'know, I'm starting to wonder if there's a cure for your ability to talk..."

"Oh, c'mon. You know you really like it, kid. How many other people apart from Twilight do you know have a talking dog?" Smolder chuckled and tipped a paw. "I'm willing to guess not a whole lot."

"Well, at least that's something we both agree on." Wallflower rolled her eyes.

"Now, if my theory—and your timetables—is correct then the bell should be ringing right about... Now." As soon as Smolder stopped talking, the bell went, and students filed out of their classrooms in lines, already abuzz with conversations as the silence around Smolder and Wallflower was shattered. A spectrum of coloured clothes and hairstyles filled the area, almost to a degree where it became harsh on the eyes. "Knew it."

Wallflower swam through the crowd of people, gently pushing and slipping through them. It was one of the more easy parts of being at CHS. Her time being invisible courtesy of the Memory Stone had helped her to slip through without disturbing anyone. Or even being noticed for that matter. Bobbing and weaving through the crowd like a snake on two legs, Wallflower was able to get from one end of the corridor and arrive at the main hall without any issue.

"Okay, now I've gotta admit that was some pretty impressive slaloming, kid. Just like a dog at the agility trials, eh?" Smolder playfully elbowed Wallflower's neck. "You've been practising for this kinda stuff, haven't you?"

"Well... not intentionally, but yeah. I'm pretty good at avoiding large crowds." Wallflower lightly blushed. "N-not that I don't enjoy other people. Just that..." She knew there was no salvaging what she had just said, so a sigh replaced her words. "Never mind. Let's just meet up with Twilight and the Rainbooms."

"No need. Looks like the news spread around pretty fast." Smolder jabbed her paw forward, pointing towards the group of seven teens approaching her. "Guess Twilight and Spike told everyone. Don't really blame 'em. Spike especially. The guy's in love with me. Calling it right now."

"Hey, girls. How's it going?" Wallflower meekly lifted a hand, quickly slapping her palm with the same fingers it was attached to as a form of waving.

"Oh, things have been going fine, all things considered. Same old lessons, same old classes, the usual. It's like an endless loop when you think about it. The only difference is that the lessons are different each time." Sunset shrugged. "How are you, Wallflower?"

"Yeah? How are you and your new super-duper incredible talking dog Smolder doing?" Pinkie slid up to Wallflower's face and pulled her into a tight hug, poking her head over to see Smolder resting Wallflower's backpack. She gave the fiery-furred dog a boop and tousled her fur. "You've gotta tell me your secret, Smolder. I wish I could have a talking pet like Wallflower and Twilight..."

"Okay, Pinkie. Let's not suffocate Wallflower." Rainbow Dash walked over and grabbed onto Pinkie's shoulders, delicately pulling her away from Wallflower and Smolder. She barely even noticed the puppy-dog eyes forming on Pinkie's face. "Still. Twilight and Fluttershy told us everything. So, you've got a talking dog too now, do ya?"

"Yep. All thanks to a certain you know who over there." Smolder pointed a paw towards Spike. "One kiss and Spike gave me the power to talk. Who knew that he was a regular Casanova?"

"Casanova? M-me?!" Spike's eyes bulged so much that they nearly popped out of his sockets. "Smolder, you went in for the kiss, I just sat there and took it! How does that make me the love expert here?"

"Ah, don't put yourself down like that, Spike. You know that we'd make a great couple." Smolder couldn't help but giggle some more at Spike's embarrassment. "Plus, I bet the puppies that we'd make would be cool too."

"I've told you already and I'll say it again: I'M NOT READY FOR PUPPIES!" Spike yelled so much that he threw his paws backwards, only to be greeted afterwards by grins from the Rainbooms, who couldn't help but beam at his plight.

"Oh, I'm sure that there's no harm in you and Smolder being in love, Spike. Even if her advances are a bit more... action-heavy than word-heavy." Rarity pushed her thumb and middle finger together at her.

"Yeah. And besides, ah bet Winona would love the puppies you and Smolder would make together."Applejack decided to give Spike a small snicker as well. "But seriously, Spike. There ain't nothing wrong with a little bit of love."

"Easy for you to say. You're not a talking dog who's been kissed by Smolder." Spike just rolled his eyes. "But, if you girls think it's puppy love, then by all means. Gush away... It's not like I get a choice in the matter, do I?"

"Oh, Spike. Lighten up a little. I'm sure that Smolder's love for you wouldn't be that erratic and rapid..." Twilight just rubbed his skull with the palm of her hand, messing up the hair on his head. "But in all seriousness. How did it go, Wallflower?"

"Well, how didn't it go?" Wallflower sarcastically chuckled to herself. "The lesson was pretty so-so. But then Smolder decided to get restless and burst out of the bag. Went on about all kinds of stuff, including dog rights as she likes to call them." She rolled her eyes at the ludicrousness of it all. "I got sent up to Celestia's office for it."

"Oh my... That didn't sound good." Fluttershy was the first to react, shivers present on her shoulders as she watched Wallflower stare back into Smolder's eyes.

"Relax, Flutters. The kid's not entirely in trouble or anything like that. Celestia's just tasked the two of us to make some kind of pet corner. Y'know, a place where animals have just as much right to talk, do their stuff and basically just be there without causing the others any hassle?" Smolder twisted her wrist in a circular motion. "Don't know exactly why this whole place doesn't think more dog and just let pets be allowed in regardless, but it is what it is. Humans are just dogs with better taste. And tougher rules..."

"A pet corner? Well, that's an... unusual thing to get out of a trip to Celestia's office." Sunset lifted her arms upward. "Usually, you'd get a talking to or some kind of slap on the wrist for disrupting class like that, not a pet corner job."

"Sunset, is it wrong to say that neither of us had any say in anything? Smolder just did all of the talking for us, saying that it was completely wrong for humans and dogs to be split up because of some kind of educational society like this or something like that. Truth be told, I kinda tuned out when she went on and on about most of it..." Wallflower took her backpack off and let Smolder down, watching as her paws touched the glossy ground of the school once again.

"I just think that dogs have just as much right to do anything and everything that humans can. If the rules say that dogs shouldn't be allowed in because they're dogs, then that's totally prejudiced and biased. I mean, have dogs ever done anything bad at CHS before?" Smolder scampered up to the Rainbooms and craned her head upwards. "Think about it. When, if ever, have dogs or any other pet here ever caused humans any issues?"

"Not... anything that I can think of." Fluttershy brought her hand to her chin and scratched it. "But then again, I can't really give you a good answer, Smolder. The rule's been there ever since me and all of the others were freshmen..." She squatted down to Smolder and gave her a scratch under the chin. "But I get what you're saying. I really do. If I could, I'd bring all of my favourite pets and animals into Canterlot High and let them play around. Sadly, rules are rules at the end of the day."

"Me too. I'd totally bring in Gummy if that was the case, but I'm pretty sure that alligators fall under the 'no pets allowed' rule too, whether they're stuffed or not. Actually, how do you think I'd look with a real pet alligator? Not counting the biting things all the time and everything. Bet it'd be a combination of weird, fun, and slightly strange at the same time. Funsteired? Nah, doesn't really work..." said Pinkie Pie.

"Anyways... If you need some help with that pet corner, as much as I'd love to help, it's all a little bit sudden. I mean, you both just sprung it upon us out of the blue like that." Twilight lifted a finger. "Don't get me wrong, it's a very good idea for everyone who has a pet. It would alleviate some of the guilt they feel for leaving them at home all day without a sense of love, but there's so much stuff that we'd need to go through. The proper materials, who'd look after all those pets, all the supplies you'd need for them, it's an ambitious goal, but the timeframe may or may not be too much for you."

"I don't think I've got any choice in the matter. If I don't get this thing done, then Celestia's not gonna be happy with the fact that Smolder crashed my lessons for nothing." Wallflower folded her arms. "And if it ends like that, Smolder's gonna get a lot more snippy. She'll practically be parading outside of Canterlot High with a protest sign saying 'Dog Rights Matter' if this project falls through."

"That's an... oddly specific thing to think about, kid. But she's right. I'd be very upset if this project ends up failing. Which is why we've just gotta buckle down and do it." Smolder paced back and forth in front of the Rainbooms. "And, I mean, it's much better to have a group of humans doing this kinda stuff than one human and her talking dog."

"Look, I get that you have lessons and stuff. That much I can agree with. But... if you want, perhaps at the end of the day when everyone goes home, we can work on it then?" Wallflower shrugged. "When everyone goes home, there won't be anyone around to distract us, and we could get a whole lot more done when we're not constrained by any schedules. That being said, if you've got your own stuff to do back at your homes, I can't really tear you away from it if it's all that important to you, can I?"

"Eh, I didn't really have anything on my schedule anyways. CHS's sports teams are already as awesome as they could possibly be and the rest of my stuff's just simple things like getting the groceries. So, I think I could lend you a hand at the end of the day, girls." Rainbow Dash tipped her hand casually. "Plus, some hard work does a radical body like mine some wonders."

"Sure. There's nothing really that special going on tonight. So I'm free as well." Sunset lifted her hand. "What about the rest of you, girls?"

"Harvest time ain't here yet, so I'm down for some work on this pet corner." Applejack was the next to raise her hand. "Rarity? Y'all got any projects you've yet to finish?"

"Nothing really, Applejack. My latest line in Summer Sequins is yet to be launched and there's still plenty of time left for me to make some alterations. However, I could have some kind of surprise order later down the line, so I could come along, but whether or not I can stay around is another story..." Rarity rubbed her chin with her fingers. "One of these days I really should teach Sweetie Belle how to properly make some dresses, that way she could cover for me whenever I need to do something important."

"Count me in too!" Both Pinkie and Fluttershy spoke together, then put their hands to their mouths and turned to one another before letting out small chuckles.

"Well, if you're all down for this, then I suppose I am as well. It always helps to have a little bit of magic in your corner, doesn't it?" Twilight remarked, looking down at the geode hanging around her neck. "Don't worry, Wallflower. By the end of the day, this little idea you've got planned is going to come true, I just know it will."

"Thanks, girls. I really mean that. You've totally saved our bacon." Wallflower's smile finally re-emerged as she scooped Smolder back up into the backpack.

"There's bacon? Where?" Both Smolder and Spike reacted in unison with each other, panting excitedly as their eyes darted around the room for the heavenly slabs of meat that had been spoken of.

To this, the Rainbooms and Wallflower couldn't help but share a laugh together.
> When All's Said and Done
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

After a hectic day of lessons, filled with many different verbal storms from Smolder in each of her classes, the day came to an end for Wallflower at long last. Not only did it feel like her body was about to give out from all of the trouble that she had gone through with Smolder, but it wasn't even over yet. If she didn't build that pet corner with the Rainbooms in time, she was finished. Done. Kaput. Sent packing.

"Okay... Well, I can safely say that I'm gonna have to start hiring a dog sitter from now on." Wallflower muttered to herself as she walked down the steps towards the base of the still-ruined statue. "Seriously, Smolder. Those were some ballsy moves that you did today."

"Thanks. I do my best." Smolder put a paw to her chest, pushing it out with a sigh.

"IT WASN'T A COMPLIMENT, Y'KNOW!" Wallflower snapped, roaring like a demon into Smolder's face. "I'VE BEEN GETTING SHOUTED AT BY TEACHERS ALL DAY BECAUSE OF YOU!"

"Because they don't like dogs at Canterlot High, it's a completely screwed up system you guys have, yadda yadda yadda." Smolder just rolled her eyes, unfazed by the shouts of her owner. "Look, kid. I know that you humans don't exactly do everything the dog way, but I think this time, you should. Your teachers should just learn that there's no such thing as a perfect animal and just learn to chillax a little."

"Smolder, just..." Wallflower tried to find the words to further her verbal assault, but she could only scratch her head and babble incoherently. "Rrgh! I don't even know why I try with you anymore. You've got a motormouth with enough horsepower to run the Whinnyapolis 500 and all of its' cars!"

"And that's a bad thing, why?" Smolder clambered out of the bag and sat on Wallflower's head. "Kid, you're just going around in circles. At this rate, you're gonna be a lost cause by the end of this little project thingy we're doing. I mean, come on! You do nothing but worry, worry, worry all day! You're a HUMAN! Humans don't worry!" She grabbed onto Wallflower's cheeks, hung her head over Wallflower's face, and glared into her eyes. "Humans just look happy, play with their dogs, be happy to be with their dogs and nothing else. Whatever happened to those days, huh?"

"Smolder. You've only seen the good parts of being a human. Trust me, if you had to spend even a day in my shoes, you'd know exactly why I've been restricting you, why I've been saying not to do things, why it's a bad idea to make the situation even worse. But do you listen? No you don't!" Wallflower grabbed Smolder and hastily planted her on the ground.

"No duh, I don't listen! Dogs don't exactly follow human rules, ya know!" Smolder slapped Wallflower's hands away with her paws. "Just because you own me doesn't exactly mean I have to follow every single beat of your drum, kid. I'm a DOG. We do DOG things. And DOG things are different to HUMAN things. So, WHO IN THE WORLD CARES? We're doing what we're MEANT to be doing!"

"I know you don't follow human rules, Smolder. But it wouldn't kill you to show some kind of restraint once in a while. In fact, I can't follow the rules myself because the rules require that I just get on with my work and not have a talking dog pop out literally every other second to talk her mind!" Wallflower's eye twitched.

"Then that's exactly why we've gotta change the system, Wallflower. We can't just let the rules tie us down like this. If you can't do what you do because I'm doing what I'm doing, then that's a horribly unbalanced and unfair system." Smolder folded her paws.

Wallflower growled as her face turned red as she bent her fingers sporadically. It got to the point where steam blew out of her ears. "I don't want you coming out of that bag until the project's over, Smolder. And that's an order!" Wallflower pushed Smolder's head into the bag and zipped it up tightly. "You've caused me far too much trouble today and I'm not gonna get any more flak for what's been happening today!"

"You know I'm totally right, though! The system's playing against both of us!" Smolder yelled from the bag's interior, the volume muffled, yet still audible. "You'd be a lot better off just not following any rules and being free, like me!"

Wallflower gave no reply and just sat against the base of the tower, kicking the back of it softly with the sole of her shoes. She watched as the Rainbooms finally came out of CHS with Sunset leading them. It didn't take long for the group of seven to find Wallflower, idly standing by the base of the statue, still with her brows lowered.

"Hey, Wallflower. How'd it go?" Sunset was the first to break in the conversation.

Wallflower just let out a long and weary sigh. "Well, let's just say that class after class has been a battle for me today. Every single one of them, Smolder just yipped on and on and one. Every teacher wanted my head on a plate for disrupting class and causing trouble, even though all of it came from her." She poked her thumb at the firmly-zipped up bag. "I don't think I've ever had a single day in Canterlot High where every single one of my classes has been an absolute disaster for me because of her."

"Oh... I'm sorry to hear about that." Fluttershy stood next to Wallflower and wrapped her arm around her shoulders. "And I'm especially sorry that Smolder's been making things harder for you. It shouldn't ever have to be like that. For any pet owner."

"Yeah? Well, it is. And quite frankly, I've decided that Smolder's grounded until we finish this project." Wallflower huffed, blowing her nose violently. "She's already said far too much and got me into far too much trouble. I'd rather not hear her voice until this stupid pet corner's finished and we can all be happy with ourselves again."

The Rainbooms all flinched at Wallflower's outburst. They hadn't had any idea that things had been so rough for her that day. Sunset out of all of them felt the most guilty for Wallflower's disastrous lessons. She was the one who had put forward the idea that she should have a pet as a way to help get over her loneliness and now it was beginning to take its' toll. If the rift between Wallflower and Smolder wasn't patched up, Sunset could only see things getting far worse.

"Hey. Wallflower?" Sunset finally mustered up the strength to walk forward, planting a hand on Wallflower's shoulder. "I know that today's been kinda rough on you, what with Smolder being able to talk. But at least it's over now. We can work on this little thing of yours without having to worry about someone barking at you for having a dog in school."

"Don't know whether that's really a blessing or a curse." Wallflower muttered. "But, at least we can finally get to work on this little pet corner thing. The project's been breathing down my neck ever since I spoke with Celestia."

"I've actually been thinking about that, Wallflower. And, I don't really think that a corner's a really good idea. I mean, what if the pets manage to get out and cause trouble for the students?" Fluttershy lifted a finger delicately. "I mean, there's a good reason why only service animals are allowed in schools like CHS."

"So... you're saying that everything's ruined before it's even begun?" Wallflower's brows lifted high into the air. Everything that she had endured, all of the angry words from teachers, the endless scolding that she had been given, all of it was for absolutely nothing. "Great. Yeah. Thanks, girls. Makes me feel real good about things, doesn't it?" Wallflower threw her backpack to the ground and walked away.

"Hey, Wallflower. Wait up!" called Sunset as she tried to keep up.

"Look, Sunset. I don't wanna know what kind of magic got itself into Smolder's systems, but right now, I need to stay as far away from it and her as possible until this silliness comes to an end." Wallflower stopped on the balls of her heels, turned around, and glared into Sunset's eyes ferociously. "I've learned my lesson on how to never mingle with magic. Because all it does is ruin lives!"

"Now that's just not true, Wallflower. Look. Maybe ya just need to calm down and think this over." Applejack took some steps forward.

"Think it over? I don't need to think it over. I don't even get to think anymore. That MUTT does all of the thinking and talking for me!" Wallflower howled at the bag, jabbing a finger at it. "The Smolder that I knew and loved is gone. She's been tainted by magic and I don't like it at all! I shouldn't have brought her to Canterlot High in the first place. I should have just left her with a pet sitter or somewhere safe for the day."

"Wallflower. A talking dog isn't all that bad. Please, just—"

"A TALKING DOG DUG ME INTO A HOLE THAT I'M NOT GETTING OUT OF, FLUTTERSHY! DON'T YOU REALISE AND UNDERSTAND THAT?!" Wallflower screamed so much that it blew Fluttershy's hair into a new style; one that looked like a series of thorns poking out behind her. She recoiled at Wallflower's explosion and tried to fix her hair up.

"Hey! That's no way to treat Smolder!" Rainbow Dash stomped up past Fluttershy and stared right back into Wallflower, unfazed by her seething fury. "Whatever happened happened. It's over! Move on!"

"That. Is. Not. My. Smolder!" Wallflower threw Rainbow Dash to the ground, turned tail, and ran as fast as she could away from the Rainbooms, leaving them and her equipment behind. None of the others could see her face after that, but she let some small droplets of tears trickle down past her, littering the ground and leaving tiny marks for short instances.

With the Rainbooms and the backpack abandoned by Wallflower, the girls could only regroup and unzip the bag, letting Smolder out of it. Within seconds, the dog took some deep breaths of fresh air, her belly growing and shrinking in size with every breath that she took.

"Okay. Rule of advice, Smolder. Don't ever let a human try and talk too much. They seriously hold themselves back half of the time." She muttered to herself as she climbed out of the bag. When she saw that Wallflower was gone and all that was left were the Rainbooms, she just craned her neck upward and tilted her head to the side. "Wait, where is Wallflower?"

"Smolder? I'm sorry to say this, but I think Wallflower might have run away on you." Twilight came over to Smolder, squatted down, and patted her on the head. "I think you might have really upset her today. And I'm being completely serious. To her, you've been a very bad dog."

"Bad dog? Me? Nah. That can't be true, right? I'm sure that any second now, Wallflower's gonna come running straight back to me and say how bad she was for just abandoning a dog like that in the middle of the school." Smolder looked out to the road and waited for Wallflower's return. Dozens upon dozens of people came and went. Going into houses and down the path. But not a single one of them was her. None of them, not even someone with an uncanny resemblance to Wallflower showed up. "Any second now... Any minute? Hour?" When Smolder saw the people come less and less, a hole began to form in her heart. It grew and grew, with the only solace coming from the petting that the Rainbooms were giving her. "Oh no... No, no, no, no, no, no, no, no. Not again! I can't be a stray dog again! I just can't!" Smolder's eyes shot open and she ran around in a frenzied state, head shaking in all directions. "I'm not going back to that shelter!" Destroyed by anguish, Smolder buried her head into Fluttershy's legs, waterfalls of tears shooting out of her eyes as she started to bawl.

"There, there, Smolder." Fluttershy sat down and pulled Smolder in close, giving the dog a hug as her legs grew damper and damper with each tear shed. "It's alright. I'm sure that Wallflower will take you back once she calms down a bit and we fix this mess."

"But what if she doesn't?" Smolder pulled herself up from Fluttershy's legs. "What if she doesn't ever want to take me back and leaves me here like this forever? I don't wanna have to go back to that dark, cramped, dirty animal shelter again! I don't wanna be locked up in a cage again! Please!" She then started to cry again, letting the tears once more wash Fluttershy's trousers.

"What's eating her?" Spike asked, leaping out of Twilight's bag. "I thought she was supposed to be this super-brave, no-nonsense dog who wanted to make out with me..."

"Well. The truth is, Smolder never really had an easy time before she came to the animal shelter." Fluttershy just patted Smolder on the head more and more, brushing her fur with every single stroke. "She never really had a good time on the streets, let alone where she was raised."

"Hold on. Let me tell them." Smolder pushed herself out of Fluttershy's legs again, still dripping with tears. She wiped some of them away with the back of her paw, but her eyes were still more liquid than solid with how much she had cried. "I know what you're gonna say. You're gonna wanna tell 'em and try and present a less painful version of things. But I NEED to get this off of my chest."

The Rainbooms all gathered around Smolder as she tried to clear her throat, putting her paws to it. For a few instances, Smolder debated on whether or not she should have even told the story in the first place, for fear that it would have made her seem more guilty for making Wallflower leave her for the way that she had acted. With everything weighing down on her, Smolder coughed and choked on the very air that she was trying to breathe for a while, before at least, she recomposed herself and took another deep breath.

"The thing is, girls. I came from Dragon Town. The roughest and harshest part of Canterlot." Smolder stepped forward, with every single step that she took feeling like a violent smash against the earth. "Out there, nobody cares for anyone and everyone's out to completely ruin everyone else's lives. Even if you think that life there could be swell, it really isn't. Because if the locals don't want your head on a plate, then perhaps the rampant crime would convince you to never set foot on it.

"I had another owner before Wallflower came and adopted me from the shelter. Her name was Ember. Pretty cool girl, not gonna lie. She's kinda like me. Rough and tumble, not afraid to use her mouth, real competitive gal." Smolder sighed, memories of her former owner coursing through her mind. She could perfectly envision her old apartment, as well as all of the sights and smells that came with it. "Her dad, on the other hand, Torch? Let's just say that he had ways of... motivating his daughter to do things. Not that she didn't like, but stuff that you wouldn't like. The point is, they were a tough dad and daughter. The kinda company that I felt comfortable around in such a place like Dragon Town.

"By the time that Ember and Torch decided that I was quote-unquote 'too weak' to be their pet, it was too late for me to stay any longer or present my case. Not that I could or even had any idea of it at the time. Y'know, dog mind and all? Anyways, I'm getting a bit off-topic here." Smolder shook her head, but could already see the Rainbooms gearing up to shed their own tears with how their faces were beginning to fall. "The last words that I heard from Ember were 'I'm sorry' before she threw me out of the house, turned her back and closed the door. I tried to get back in, naturally, but it wasn't happening. At all. Ever.

"I wandered the streets of Dragon Town. Alone. Afraid. Hungry. Vulnerable to others. That last one's especially big as to why I don't wanna go back to that shelter. Some bully dogs tried to take advantage of me and the fact that I was a worthless puppy who'd just been thrown away like that. Of course, when people took notice, they called the pound on the lot of us and got us all locked up." Smolder could see the bars forming in her head. "Let me tell you right here and right now, girls. The pound? It's not pretty. At all. At least with Fluttershy's animal shelter, I had some kind of freedom and joy. But here? None of it. I was just in a cage for the sake of being in a cage. No-one was gonna come and get me and I was never gonna see the light of day again."

And cue the waterworks in three... two... one. Smolder stopped momentarily to see the Rainbooms begin to cry. First, Rainbow Dash, then Pinkie, followed by Twilight, Rarity, and finally Applejack, though she tried not to show it with an elbow against her eyes. Fluttershy shed her own tears, but she wasn't physically wailing like the rest of the girls was. Smolder was given a small push by her to continue the story.

"After a few nights in the pound, I found a way to escape. Some local punks had crashed their truck straight through the pound. And in the chaos, my cage just happened to be opened up by it. I didn't wanna take any more chances in there so I just ran. I ran very fast away." Smolder swallowed, continuing her tragic tale. "I went on forever, almost to the point where I thought I was gonna have to leave the city. But then, a miracle happened. This girl. This girl right here, Fluttershy. She found me scampering on the streets when she was going home for the night."

"That's right, girls. I found the poor thing a couple of weeks ago, tuckered out and almost exhausted." Fluttershy picked Smolder up and rubbed her underbelly. "The shelter was closed, so I kept her home with me and some of my other pets. I didn't want to tell anyone about her since she told me that she came from Dragon Town and that someone might have tried to take her back to that awful pound."

"I'll admit that being left in a cell wasn't one of the best things about the shelter when she brought me back there the next day. But she allowed me to come out; she gave me proper baths and food; let me run around and play with a lot of the other pets there. It was a lot cosier than a pound. Way more fun as well." Smolder nodded, feeling a weight being lifted off of her back; and not just from being lifted by Fluttershy. "But even then, I felt lonely being stuck in there with no real owner to call my own. But then Wallflower came along and the rest is history." The relief quickly vanished when she remembered what had just transpired. "And now she's thrown me away. Just like Ember did. I need to fix this. I'm going to find Wallflower!" Smolder ran off down the streets in pursuit of Wallflower.

Fluttershy could only smile as she and the other Rainbooms gave chase to Smolder, running along with her down the streets. Together, they would all try their very hardest to repair the damage that had been done between her and Wallflower. Or if not, at the very least, they would let Smolder's tale be heard.
> If A Dog Could Apologise
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

Wallflower sat alone on the edge of her bed as the sun began to set that evening. It was a feeling she had been quite well-versed in. For her, loneliness was just another word. Invisible to the majority, always cast aside, and even now when Sunset’s little idea to give her someone to keep her happy backfired. She should have been more upset than usual, but she couldn’t muster up the disappointment to feel tears. It was all just another day in the life for her as a sigh escaped her lips and the clock ticked on.

Another thought flickered into her mind as she sat in solitude. The prospect of magic and what could have been different if never happened in the first place. Before Smolder started talking, before she found the Memory Stone. Even long before the other Twilight came through from that mirror world she had been hearing so much about. But as she did so, another thought came to mind. How different would everything else had been? Not just her own experiences? Before magic came along, everyone else stayed isolated; closed off to their little circles and nothing else. Where would she have fallen in such a world where magic didn’t exist? And how would it have been in comparison to her own situation with a talking dog in her care?

But then again, it never mattered what she thought. Everything happened and she had zero input or say in any of it. The only thing she ever had any control of was her life and even now, she was having difficulty trying to maintain herself after having thrown Smolder out. Anger for how she had been given a rough time by her, yet also sorrow for throwing away the closest friend that she had ever had. A double-edged sword of emotions that was repeatedly hacking and slashing away at her soul until it was nothing more than a pile of pieces on the metaphysical ground.

“Hey, Wallflower?” The door creaked open and there on the other side of it was Fuchsia. She pushed it wider and stepped inside the room, taking a seat next to Wallflower’s side. “Are you alright? You’ve been sitting in your room for almost an hour.”

Wallflower didn’t respond.

“Hey. C’mon now. You can tell me everything, Wallflower.” Fuchsia wrapped her arm around Wallflower’s shoulders, pulling her in for a sideways hug. “We’re sisters. They’re supposed to be super-close with each other, right?”

“Fuchsia. I don’t wanna talk about it right now.” She blew a singular strand of hair up as she turned to face Fuchsia. “Let’s just say that, after today, I don’t want to see another magical talking dog for as long as I live and breathe.”

What happened, Wallflower?” Fuchsia responded with folded arms. “And don’t just give me the whole ‘I don’t wanna talk about it’ skit. That’s only gonna make it even worse. Y’know that, right?”

“Yeah, yeah. I know.” Wallflower just let out another sigh as she flopped backwards onto the bed, flattening the covers under her weight. “But chances are, you wouldn’t understand unless you know the ins and outs of Equestrian Magic.”

"Which I don't. But that still doesn't mean I'm just let you sit around and be a misery-guts about this whole thing." Fuchsia patted Wallflower on the back slowly and rhythmically. "Seriously, Wallflower. You're not one to end up crying like this. Sure, you've been known to just shy away and hide whenever things go bad, but this isn't like you at all."

"I know, I know. But this just feels like a betrayal of the highest caliber. Not betrayed by Sunset or any of the other Rainbooms or my friends, but this is something completely different. It feels like I've been betrayed by something that I just started making a friend with..." Wallflower just put her hands against her eyes again. "Why, Smolder? Why did you just have to be you? I know you have a mouth and wanna use it, but not in school time! Now I look like a bad dog..."

"Oh... It's about Smolder? Now this, I need to hear from you." Fuchsia's hug on Wallflower tightened, immediately causing her to lower her guard and turn to face Fuchsia. "C'mon, Wallflower. Spill it. Not talking about it is only gonna make things worse."

"Well. When I took her to Canterlot High today, she met with Spike. Y'know, that dog that Twilight Sparkle's always carrying around with her? The talking one?" Wallflower, still with small tears in her eye sockets wiped them dry as she told Fuchsia Blush the story. "Out of nowhere, after a little chat, Smolder decided to go in and kiss Spike."

"Kiss?" Fuchsia's tone of voice warped slightly as one of her eyebrows climbed to her forehead. "Didn't know that your little puppy was frisky. It's not even the right time of year either..."

"It's not that at all. Basically, when Smolder kissed Spike, she got the ability to talk. She got a mind of her own and her mouth started running a mile a minute..." Wallflower jolted her arms to the ground, glaring ferociously at the floor. "Then, she decided to talk some more. And some more. It got to the point where she was interrupting every class and giving her own little thoughts and feelings on EVERYTHING. At the end of it, Principal Celestia decided that I needed to make somewhere at CHS where I could curb her, or I'd get in real trouble if I ever brought her there again..."

"And... what's so upsetting about—"

"Because of everything that had been said, because of all this chaos, and now the fact that Equestrian Magic has once again caused me problems, I'm now starting to question whether or not I could ever consider Smolder my friend, or just another... thing that's been twisted by another world's stupid magic..." Wallflower pouted as she pulled herself out of Fuchsia's hold. "Aaaaaand, screaming at Smolder like that, running away from her? Not gonna sit well in either of our books."

"You yelled at Smolder?" Fuchsia's eyes widened. Then, as the picture came together, she couldn't help but sit there, looking at her sister for a good few moments. To picture someone like her snapping at a small animal was almost unheard of. But given the scenario, the problems, the result of Smolder's interventions, Fuchsia sucked up her emotions and wrapped herself around Wallflower as tightly as she could, hugging her so tightly that her arms stuck up.

"Fu...Fuchsia?" Wallflower's emotions, forcibly dropped along with her guard, could only look at her sister's closed eyes with hers wide open.

"Sister, I know this is hard for you. Coming hot off of the heels of an Equestrian Magic plot yourself. But you can't just let your anger reach out towards dogs..." Fuchsia muttered as she kept the hug up. "At the same time, I can't just meet your anger with more of it for what you did. It wouldn't be right to add fuel to the fire. What you need right now is this; a hug from your super sister bestie."

"Fuchsia... I know that you mean well, but I think it's gonna take more than a hug to cure this. I mean, after all, it feels like my heart was just ripped out in front of me by Smolder and now I'm the one suffering for it." Wallflower slid out of Fuchsia's embrace, walked towards the door and glanced back at her. "I get it, though. Dog that learns how to talk wants to never stop talking. I understand and appreciate the concept. But there is a time and a place for everything. That was neither the time or the place in my eyes."

"Then when WILL it be the right time or place?" Fuchsia stood up, walking back to Wallflower's side. "You can't expect her to stay quiet forever, sis. And you certainly can't expect her to speak when you want her to. Now, you want my advice? You need to go back out there, find Smolder, apologise to her and make things up. If you don't, then both you and her are gonna end up miserable."

"After what happened back there? With all the pressure mounting up? I... I... I'm not sure if I can." Wallflower clutched her hand, bringing the knuckles to her chest as she peeked down the corridor of her house. "The deck's already stacked too high and too unfairly against me, Fuchsia. I'm not sure if I can play through like this."

"Well, whether you're ready or not, I'm pretty sure that Smolder's heartbroken that you've just left her like that. She's your dog; your friend. You threw them away because they got you into trouble. If Sunset Shimmer were here, she'd give some long speech about her friends always stick by each other, even when one's causing the other small little nitpick-style problems like this." Fuchsia wrapped her fingers around Wallflower's shoulder, looking into her eyes again. "Also, consider this; you could have had some friends of yours help with this pet place for CHS, right? Why shoulder the burden all on your own?"

"It's just that... given everything that's been seen in this world so far. Between demons, seahorse people, tree monster people, all kinds of other things, I don't know whether other people would think I'm completely sane or if I'm lost in a delusion and wanna send me to the crazy house." Wallflower twisted her wrist. Again, the memories of the Memory Stone incident hung on her mind. "Call me a hypocrite with that rune I used to blank everyone's memories of Sunset, but my point still stands. No-one on this planet is going to believe that Equestrian Magic is going to be the be all and end all of everything. And the people who've never heard of Equestrian Magic when I try to present the story are gonna think that I'm a total whackjob. So help's pretty sparse for me."

"Yeah, but it's better than absolutely no help whatsoever and to go through your chores on your lonesome. Especially with this big pet corner job that I've heard you've got. That kinda stuff is something that you can't make all on your own..." Fuchsia's grip tightened slightly.

"I just... I need... I mean..." Wallflower tried to find a word that would continue the discussion, but nothing came to mind. Defeated in the verbal showdown, she ran down the corridor as fast as she could, not even bothering to look back. All she could hear were her own footsteps and that of Fuchsia's as she made it to the door, threw it open, then stopped at who was on the other side.

Standing there, right before her were Sunset Shimmer, the rest of the Rainbooms, and Smolder in Fluttershy's hands. All of them standing on the garden. Wallflower threw herself backward so as not to crash into her guests, yet the sheer sight of Smolder again after all that had been said and done was too much for her to bear, so she ended up tumbling onto her back, knocking her head against Fuchsia's knees and causing her to topple over Wallflower as a result.

"Uh... is this a bad time?" Smolder asked, hopping out of Fluttershy's grip with a hint of hesitation in her voice.

"No. Not a bad time at all, actually. I was just... showing Wallflower to the door so she could meet you guys!" Fuchsia made some lame chuckles as she tried to make the best out of the situation. "Anyways, if you don't mind, I'm just gonna... uh... head back upstairs so I can do... stuff! That's right. Good ol' Fuchsia Blush stuff." She sped off back to the top of the stairs, only to poke her head back out. "Uh. And, also, don't tell Trixie or Lavender about this, okay? The less they know, the better, right?"

"Al...right?" Sunset Shimmer blushed, rubbing the back of her head as she walked into the house, with the other girls close behind. "Well, that was certainly awkward."

"What are you all doing here?" Wallflower was the first to ask.

"Ah think the better question is what in the hay were you thinkin'?! Leaving Smolder all alone like that with no-one to protect her?" Applejack's brows lowered into a small glare. "Don't you know what happens to dogs when their owners decide to dump 'em like that?!"

"Don't you know what happens to humans when their dogs decide to get them into trouble every single waking moment of their life? Do you?" Wallflower glared right back, jabbing a finger at Applejack's chest. "They get wracked with stress, rough lives, and don't need other people to rub salt in the wounds!" Once she had let off her little tirade, Wallflower took a deep breath, exhaled, then hung her body to the ground. "Look, girls. You probably don't get it because you and your pets are on the best terms with each other, but this is me with a new pet with the ability to talk. So I can't help but feel majorly put off by the fact that our relationship's a little... fractured."

"I'll say it's fractured! Throwing a dog away like that is one of the worst things that a human could ever hope to do!" Rarity swung her arm out in a sweeping motion, almost as if she were karate chopping the air. "I mean, of course, pets can be rambunctious little ragamuffins, but the one thing that we NEVER do is wish harm or abandonment on them!"

"Girls... this isn't what we were planning to—" Fluttershy found herself silence by the next Rainboom to raise their voice.

"I mean, yeah, it's a total downer when we get into trouble for stuff that's totally not our fault, but that doesn't mean that we should be mean and nasty to the ones who actually got us in that sticky situation in the first place! And no, I don't mean the kind of sticky when the spoon's stuck in the bowl and you can't for the life of you get it out even if you hired the best people in the city to do it for you!" Pinkie barked ferociously.


"If we could all just calm down a bit and try to speak rationally for—" Fluttershy's words were once more shut down by the next person to speak.

"Go ahead, then. If this is all one big circle of how Wallflower's a terrible pet owner that shouldn't be allowed to raise a talking dog, then let's keep the train rolling. Let's see what you've gotta say next..." Wallflower grumbled, folding her arms over. "Come on. Lay it on me! Let me hear just how much you dislike the fact that I ran away from the fact that a MAGICAL. TALKING. DOG. FROM. A. PONY. PLANET. GOT. ME. INTO. DEEP. TROUBLE!"

"I'm just gonna go out on a limb and say that this isn't how we planned it at all, right?" Smolder tilted her head towards Fluttershy, who finally lowered her brows, created a fist with her hand, grabbed her geode with the other, and called in a horde of creatures to hold the girls down.

"If all of you could just LISTEN to yourselves for once and let me SPEAK, we wouldn't be in this mess!" Fluttershy howled, looking into the eyes of each of the Rainbooms with tranquil fury as she gently walked over to Wallflower. "Now then. I believe that you and Smolder need to have a little talk. Not one about how your differences make it harder for you, but one where you apologise. Unlike my friends, who seem to think where you're bad because you didn't get along that well." Fluttershy stepped back and clicked her fingers, causing the animals that were holding Wallflower to release her.

Wallflower dropped to her knees and looked Smolder in the eyes, watching the small puppy raise a paw gently, then retract it for fear that she would get another verbal shredding. When neither side spoke up for a few minutes, Smolder was the first to do so. She took a sigh, then walked forward with her neck craned upwards so that she could see her owner's face. Then, the words came.

"Wallflower. I'm so, so, so sorry about what I've done to you." She said, rubbing her pawprints against the ground. "I've just... been so focused on myself that I didn't think about you. I let my words get ahead of me and I put everything else on the backburner. It's just that... I've not had a good owner like you for a long time now, not since Ember decided to let me go when I was raised in Dragon Town." Some tears began to form in Smolder's eyes as she took another step forward, planting her paw on Wallflower's chest. "I just... I don't wanna be abandoned anymore. It's not a fun life to live; one where you're stuck on the streets, stranded and struggling to survive. And that shelter? It was nice, but it didn't feel right. I can't go back to either."

"Dragon Town? Wh-what are you saying? You came from that... horrid, rough-and-tumble place?" Wallflower felt her heart begin to wobble like jelly as Smolder took another step forward, leaning her whole body against hers. "I... I didn't know that. I thought that you just came from a regular old place on the street; not that place." Wallflower couldn't help herself any more and wrapped her arms around Smolder, bringing her into a small hug. "Come here, Smolder..."

Both Wallflower and Smolder stood in their hugging posture for a few moments, with the other Rainbooms watching with awe. Fluttershy had released them from their furry, fauna shackles and let them get back under their own control, then sent all of the critters off with a wave of her hand. Wallflower and Smolder eventually couldn't hide their emotions anymore and decided to cry into each other. Wallflower into Smolder's furry body and Smolder onto Wallflower's cheek. Both of their wails touched the heart of everyone around them.

"I... I know it's a bit sudden, but... do you think that we could be owner and pet again?" Smolder asked inbetween sobs, her eye sockets still damp and runny from all the crying that she had already done. "I promise that I won't talk if you don't want me to. Promise."

"I'm sorry, Smolder. Of course I'd love to be owner and pet again, just like before you learned how to talk." Wallflower was still in the middle of her own cry-fest, but still found the time to use her sleeve to sponge up the tears and give her a somewhat clear gaze at the dog. "And I promise you... I'll try to be a bit more dog if you want."

Wallflower and Smolder cried for a bit more, then finally let each other go and stood together, walking towards Fluttershy with a small, quivering smile on both of their face. Fluttershy strode up to the both of them with her hands clasped together.

"There you go. Now that wasn't so hard, was it?" She asked, tousling Smolder's head and giving a pat to Wallflower's back. "See. You shouldn't meet each other with anger because of how different you all are. You should be able to learn to appreciate and respect each others' differences and learn from them."

"Y-yeah." Wallflower sniffled one last time and gave her eyes another rub with the back of her hand. "I see that now. I'll be sure to let Smolder loose, but not too loose. You'd like that, wouldn't you, girl?"

"Of course. And I totally understand if you wanna be a good girl in class. I'll pipe down if you don't want me talking." Smolder looked up at Wallflower once again and laid a paw on her shoes.

"Now. Let's see about this pet corner." Wallflower, with a pumped-fist, looked at the girls with confidence.

"Um, actually... we've been thinking about that and, why not, instead of a whole corner, we make a whole 'nother wing in the school so that students can learn how to take care of pets?" Fluttershy lifted a finger as some of her hair drifted over her eye. "And, on top of that, I could organise a special extra-curricular club inviting students with pets of their own to come in and work together with each other. I think it'd be much better than just some stuffy old corner where people could just leave them behind like that."

"You sure about that? I mean... it's such a big ask and we're just... a group of teenagers." Wallflower looked away and idly rubbed her arm, still thinking about the size of the project and just how much time and effort it would take.

"A group of teenagers with magic." Twilight clicked her fingers, causing a magenta aura to pluck a couple of small daisies from the nearby hedge and stick them in Wallflower's hair. "Don't worry about a thing, Wallflower. We'll be glad to help you out. What's so wrong with reaching out for a little help these days?"

"Don't ever feel too afraid to ask others for help, Wallflower Blush. And don't ever think that you can just hide away and shoulder all your burdens by yourself." Sunset Shimmer finally came around and pulled Wallflower into another sideways hug. "Because, hey. There's always gonna be someone who'd be glad to lend you a hand or two when things get rough." She stretched her hand out towards the other girls, who couldn't help but smile at Wallflower.

"Th-thanks, girls. For everything." Wallflower finally conceded and smiled herself, her cheeks turning crimson as she motioned everyone in for a hug, which she responded with a hug of her own.

"Now, let's make this pet wing!" Fluttershy, with a determined grin looked out into the distance. It wasn't long before she turned back to Wallflower. "And let's all make it together. As a group; not just by ourselves." She closed her eyes and returned herself to the hug, nuzzling Wallflower's neck slowly.
> At The End of the Day
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

The Rainbooms, Wallflower, and Smolder approached Canterlot High. The sun was just about to set, bathing the area in a golden glow, with faint slivers poking out from the roofs of buildings and bushy trees. Armed with building materials, paint, and other such stuff, they stared at the school with intent.

"So. We've gotta come up with this little wing by tomorrow, the sun's about to set, and Celestia's entrusted Wallflower with a big task." Rainbow Dash folded her arms, surveying the area. "Yep. Sounds just like another day in the life, eh? Nothing too big for us to handle."

"And that's saying a lot, considering that we've had to fight evil magic, monsters from another world, and a whole bunch of other stuff between." Fluttershy rubbed the back of her neck, blushing slightly as she turned to the other Rainbooms."

"Don't worry about a thing. We've got this." Sunset gave the girls a nod as her grip on her paint bucket tightened. "Just remember that this is for Wallflower and Smolder's benefit, as well as everyone else's. We do this, then everyone gets another class to learn at CHS, and these two can come together without any kind of major consequence."

"Yeah." Wallflower's smile was light as she nodded in response. "Plus, with your girls' superpowers, we're gonna be able to finish this kind of job in record time, right?"

"Yep. You know it!" Rainbow pushed her thumb against her chest. "Just leave all of the heavy lifting to us, the Rainbooms. You and Smolder just take it easy and help wherever you can; you kinda need a lightened load after everything that's happened today."

"Thanks, Rainbow, but I still think I need to contribute something to this little construction job. I can't just pawn off all of my work to you when Principal Celestia told me and me exclusively to do this." Wallflower started to walk over with some beams of wood. "You have to really consider the fact that this is my proverbial bed I made, so I've gotta lie in it."

"Suit yourself, then." Rainbow shrugged.

"Well, I think this is gonna be a super-duper fun job! We're finally gonna have a place where Gummy, Opal, Angel, Winona, and all of our other pets can go to, without having to smuggle them into CHS like a bunch of shady crooks!" Pinkie threw her arms out, unintentionally tossing away everything she had been carrying in the process. She was about to catch them, when they were all ensnared in a magneta aura generated by Twilight. "Oops... Sorry about that." Pinkie slunk backwards, taking everything she had tossed back into her own hands.

"It's alright, Pinkie. Just... try to control yourself." Sunset tried to give Pinkie a pat on the back, but it felt more like knuckles with her paint buckets.

"Same goes for all of you." Twilight pushed her glasses closer to her face. "The last thing that we want is for this job to become sloppy because Rainbow's going too fast, Pinkie's getting too distracted, or Applejack and Rarity bicker about how the place should look."

"Trust me, Twilight. I can absolutely guarantee you that there will be absolutely no quarrelling between me and Applejack." Rarity put her hands by her hips. "Not everything has to be absolutely glamourous, especially given the origin story behind it."

"Wow, Rarity. Can't believe you're actually makin' a lick of sense for once." Applejack grinned widely. "If that's the case, this should be finished faster than a beaver dam on a hot day."

"Now, let's get started, shall we?" Sunset walked on towards the school just as the sun started to creep lower and lower behind the buildings and trees. The nearby streetlights began to turn on in response, and the houses nearby started to show lights turning on in the windows.

With the girls and their dogs in tow, the group approached CHS, letting nothing but the ever-approaching twilight evening blanket them as they got to work. Woodwork was laid down, concrete was mixed, and the paint cans were cracked open. The start of a long and arduous task to come was their first contributions, being that of the groundwork needed for the new wing.

As time went on, each of the girls found themselves in a role designated by Twilight. Pinkie Pie and Fluttershy were set to working with the paint, while Applejack and Twilight did most of the construction work. Rarity and Wallflower focused on how the interior would look, while Sunset and Fluttershy oversaw each individual part and offered their helping hands wherever necessary. Which, in Sunset's case was a lot of the time, given how huge a task was and how staggering the margin of error was. Everything had to fit perfectly, or the project would be a disaster.

Wallflower had some time to think inbetween the choices for how the place would look. Would everyone really have benefitted from this place, or was it just her little treat? Were the Rainbooms taking pity on her for everything that she had done in the past? Or was it something more than that? Was the idea of everyone having a free and open place to keep their pets at CHS a dream that only she saw? Or would it be possible that everyone else would benefit from her problem? Regardless of the outcome, she couldn't think about it in greater depth. After all, she and the Rainbooms were already deep into the work now and there was no time for them to stop and take it all back; especially not after everything that had been said and done involving her and Smolder.

Smolder watched the building work go on and on, imagining already what the wing would look like and all of the pets that she would be seeing in the future if everything went well for them. In the midst of her little visions, she turned her attention to Wallflower and exactly how much she had done to her to have caused the rift in the first place. For all that it was worth, it was a blessing and a curse at the same time. A small sigh escaped Smolder's mouth as she found herself torn between pleasure and guilt.

The work went on for minutes upon minutes on end, until Wallflower finally decided to take a break. And just at the same time the sky began to darken as well. If not for the lights around them, it would have been spent in complete darkness. Just as she propped her back up against a nearby streetlight, she watched as Smolder came up to her legs and pawed at them.

"Hey, Smolder. What's up?" Wallflower asked, slinking down into a squatting stand as she brushed Smolder's fur.

"Eh, not much. Just... doing some thinking." Smolder rolled her eyes. "About this whole pet wing you and the girls are working on."

"Yeah. It's gonna be great, isn't it?" Wallflower couldn't help but smile, picking Smolder up and bringing her to her chest. "You're finally gonna have a place to be where you and the other pets the students can be together while everyone else learns how to care for you. It's like everyone's your owner now."

"See... that's the thing about it. I... I didn't want any of this to happen in the first place." Smolder burrowed her head into Wallflower's belly. "All of this, this whole project. It's just... I wanted it to be a treat when I heard about it, but after what's been said today and how you snapped at me, I can't help but think about other pets who would do the same to their owners like this. This is all just gonna be a big reminder that I nearly tore up my friendship with you, Wallflower."

"Oh, Smolder..." Wallflower just gave her another hug, squishing her tenderly against her chest. "You don't ever have to think like that. Especially after the way you bore your heart and soul to us about the whole Dragon Town story. It's not your fault that you're like this. And I should have been more patient with you. I'm sorry."

"Nah, it's not your fault. It's all mine." Smolder shook her head, her fur lashing Wallflower's jumper with each shake. "I should have behaved better in class instead of getting you into trouble like that. We're still... friends, right?"

"Y-yeah. We are friends, Smolder. No matter what, we're made for each other. Sure, there's gonna be some bumps along the way, but what kind of friendship doesn't have them?" She asked, holding Smolder's head up so that their eyes were locked with each other. "Heck, I'm sure that the other girls have had their fair share of ups and downs along the way but they're still going, right?" Wallflower looked back at the Rainbooms and saw the progress that they were making—or tried to see through the ever thickening nighttime veil of shadows.

"Still... is our friendship gonna last long?" Smolder picked her head out of Wallflower's chest and looked deep into her eyes. "I mean, given what's been going on today, I can't help but notice that I'm gonna have to put in some work to make our friendship strong again."

"Well, we can only really be friends if you want us to be friends. I can't make that decision for you and you can't make it for me." Wallflower gave Smolder some more strokes. This time, she did it on Smolder's head. "Thing is, dogs and owners make themselves friends by choice, not by some laws or fate. "If you don't want us to be friends anymore, then I'm not gonna stop you. But at the same time, we can't really be friends unless you choose that you want to be friends with me. So, I ask you, Smolder. What's your choice?" Wallflower grew another one of her smiles.

"I want to be friends. I don't wanna go back to that shelter. I want to have a real owner that loves me and wants to keep me forever." Smolder leapt up to Wallflower's face with a grin and rested on her head. "And, girl. I think that you're just that kind of owner. In other words, yes."

"Then that settles that, Smolder. We're friends now. Friends until the end of time." Wallflower chuckled and plucked Smolder off of her head, carrying her in both hands back towards the site. "Now, let's do this little job with the girls together, as a sign of our newly rekindled friendship!"

"Testify, girl!" Smolder paw-pumped as she rode Wallflower back to the wing.





It was now late at night, the moon was hanging high in the air with the odd star accompanying it. The girls had gathered some torches and other such lighting apparatus to work the later shift, but from what they had done, it was well worth it. They had made a lot of progress on building the new wing, to the point where the exterior of the building was nearly complete, with only a couple more rooms and materials to put into place. What would have taken a couple of days was almost done thanks to the girls and their Equestrian magic geodes.

Wallflower and Smolder made some contributions to their work as well, with both of them working in harmony with each other to fetch certain tools for the other or to give the others a hand whenever it was needed. When their gazes crossed each time, there was finally a smile, without a sense of doubt or unease to follow afterwards. It was as if the largest shackles conceivable to man—and dog—had been broken and they were finally free to express themselves without any tension.

When all of their work came to an end and the wing was finally complete, all of the Rainbooms took a few steps back, wiped the sweat off of their heads, and stared at their creation, along with Wallflower and Smolder. Though it was concealed in the nighttime dusk, there was indeed a new addition to CHS standing there for them all to see; one that would be unveiled tomorrow.

"Well, I've gotta say, I'm really impressed with you all." Sunset Shimmer was the first to break the silence, by walking up in front of the Rainbooms and Wallflower. "We've managed to pull through with this wing in record time thanks to all of your skills and I can't thank you all enough." She turned her attention to Wallflower and Smolder. "I hope this goes well with you and Principal Celestia, Wallflower."

"I'm sure that it will, Sunset." Wallflower gave Sunset another warm smile. "Thank you. All of you. For helping me finish this job and taking a whole load off of my mind. I'm sure now that all of the students are gonna love this new pet wing."

"I must admit, doing all of this work was no easy task. But we're always willing to lend a hand to people that need it; no matter the kind of troubles they face." Rarity gave Wallflower a pat on the back.

"Hear hear, Rarity. I hope that, with this new wing and their little quarrel resolved, both Wallflower and Smolder can move on from this and be happier with each other for it." Fluttershy nodded as Smolder leapt up into Wallflower's arms.

"Yeah. But now, I think we all need to get some sleep." Wallflower pulled out her phone and took a look at the screen. The time read 22:30. "Holy... is that the time? We've gotta get some sleep, or we're gonna be completely exhausted for tomorrow!"

"Well, what do you know? It is rather late. Much later than I usually go to sleep." Rarity started to walk away from the school. "It has been a pleasure working with you, girls. But I think it's time that we all retire for the night. It would be dreadful to wake up and realise that we've got no energy to use."

"Same here. Reckon ah'll tuck in as well. Have a good night, ya'll." Applejack waved the other girls goodnight as she too went off to her own house.

One by one, the other Rainbooms said their goodbyes and headed off for their own homes, leaving Wallflower with Smolder. The two of them decided to walk together, rather than Wallflower giving Smolder a ride in her backpack. With their feet and paws rapping on the ground with each step they took, Wallflower and Smolder walked down their proverbial road to recovery back to their own house. With their bond mended and all of their problems gone, a good night's sleep would do them both wonders...
> The New Wing
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

The shrill blaring of an alarm clock was quick to wake Wallflower and Smolder up the next day. The sunlight streaking down both of their faces was an accompaniment to that as they shuffled out of their beds. Wallflower made quick her morning routine, systematically getting her shower with a spritzing of deodorant afterwards, followed by brushing her teeth, combing her hair, and then going to get her clothes. Meanwhile, as she did that, Smolder just clambered up onto her bed and waited for her, panting excitedly for the day ahead.

With both of the girls ready to make their move, Wallflower picked up her phone. No sooner had she put it into her pocket that it started to buzz. As quickly as she had put it in, Wallflower fished it out and looked at her message. The following could be seen in the app.

"Hey, Wallflower! How's it hanging?" A text message covered with emoticons and a pink, candy-like speech bubble said. It didn't take Wallflower long to deduce that the message was sent by none other than Pinkie Pie. "Didja have a super-duper good night's sleep last night? I hope so, because we've got a long day ahead of us! We've gotta open up this new pet wing and get all the students hyped up!"

Wallflower chuckled to herself as she turned her phone off and arrived at the kitchen, where Fuchsia was already standing making her own morning meal. "Hi, sis!" She gave her a wave as she went for a cupboard to fetch a small cereal bowl.

"Hey, Wallflower. You look perky today." Fuchsia flashed Wallflower a grin as she poured some cereal into her bowl, then went over to fix up Smolder's breakfast. "Especially after what happened last night and all..."

"Yeah. Sunset Shimmer and her friends pulled a lot of strings with me last night to get this little pet project of mine done real quick." Wallflower filled up Smolder's dog bowl with dog food, then melded in some pre-cooked meat from nights prior with it. "Whether or not you want the pun to be intended is down to you."

Fuchsia just gave a chuckle. "Well, I hope you have a better day today, girl. Same goes for you too, Smolder." Fuchsia pointed over to the dog, who was already muzzle deep into the food. "You've gotta make sure not to compeltely hijack my sis's day, alright?"

"Yep. Got it!" Smolder didn't even lift her head out of the food, and so kept on munching and chewing away at it.

"How are you today, sis?" Wallflower asked, as she took her food over towards the table and sat down with it. "Ya doing good with Trixie and Lavender? They're not working you too hard?"

"Nah, we're good. Trixie's especially proud of me actually. She said that I was 'almost as great and powerful as she is' when we came out of our latest gig. Which, coming from someone like her, is a pretty big compliment." Fuchsia's face flushed a shade of red as she came over to Wallflower's table with her own breakfast. "You should've seen Lavender's face after that. She looked super-jealous of me, that much is for sure."

"Oh, I can bet." Wallflower cracked a little mischief-filled grin of her own. She had known all about Trixie and the Illusions from all the gossip that her sister had been saying day in and day out. "But hey, don't let it go to your head now, alright?" Wallflower pointed a finger at Fuchsia with a tinge of sass behind her movements.

"You know me too well, sis." Fuchsia gave off her own chuckle.

Time eventually passed, and both sisters decided to leave the house and go to Canterlot High together, with Smolder walking alongside the both of them. No longer was she confined to Wallflower's backpack and left to fester within the darkened, fabric cage that she had once been enthralled within. Now, she was free to wander the streets with her owner; a true mark that the past was in the past and that they were all ready to move onto the future together.

"So, what we did last night is... gonna be a little bit unexpected." Wallflower pushed her fingertips against her other fingertips. "But, see, since the Rainbooms have magical powers, we kinda did some rapid-fire, magic-assisted construction last night. So now, Canterlot High has a completely new wing. As for the other amenities, you wouldn't believe how smart Twilight is. How she was able to work out everything else was beyond me."

"Yeah, Twilight's a miracle worker at times. But at the same time, she's not really perfect at the same time. Remember the whole Crystal Prep shctick back at the Friendship Games?" Fuchsia tipped her hand.

"I remember, yes. Granted, I didn't even take part in the games, but I saw what Twilight became on that day." Wallflower rolled her eyes. "Personally, I think that Sunset and Twilight are pretty much made for each other, given everything that they've been through and how they've developed since then."

"Yeah. Sunset and Twilight are definitely... made for each other." Fuchsia playfully lowered her eyebrows as she looked into Wallflower's eyes.

"Wh-what?! N-no! Not like that!" Wallflower immediately saw what Fuchsia was doing, stumbled on the spot, tripped over Smolder's body and landed on her side. Various shocks ran up her body as she tried to get up, helped in no part to the laughter that came from Fuchsia, who was clutching her stomach with laughter.

"Oh, that's actually hilarious, sis!" Fuchsia spluttered out, still in the midst of her laughing fit. She didn't even give Wallflower another look, so couldn't have seen Wallflower's own face grow red; but not out of awkwardness or embarrassment.

"Hardy har har, Fuchsia. Laugh it up all you want, why don'tcha?" Wallflower rolled her eyes as she finally stood back up, watching her sister calm down at long last; her laughing session coming to an end.

"Yeah, yeah, yeah. But still, ya gotta let a girl have her fun while she still can, right?" Fuchsia shrugged innocently. "I mean, when are we ever gonna be kids like this again, sis? Live life while ya still can, I say."

"You say." Wallflower pouted, but couldn't help but grin afterwards. "Besides. I've gotta think of a way to get you back for this now."

At long last, Wallflower Blush and Fuchsia Blush arrived at Canterlot High for the umpteenth time. The building still standing tall as a constant reminder as to what educational gauntlet they faced on a daily basis. Wallflower went in with a bunch of other students, with Fuchsia hanging back to wait for her own friends.

"Wallflower?" came the voice of Principal Celestia. She had easily been able to pluck Wallflower out of the crowd of students she had sunken into. "Can you come to my office please?" She asked, then noticed Smolder by her feet. "Oh. And bring your dog with you as well. I think the both of you need to have some time in it."

"Uh oh..." Wallflower felt the heavy feeling return again. Celestia's tone was hard to pin down, as her voice did a great job of masking her true intentions. "Do ya think we overdid it last night, Smolder?" She asked, looking down at her puppy while trailing Celestia to her office. "I sure don't hope that we get punished for all that work..."

"Hey. Chillax. With everything that we put into that new wing, I'm sure that this is all your principal's way of thanking us for a job well done." Smolder still kept a grin, despite the circumstances. "After all, how else would they have been able to plan this whole new wing thing, let alone all of those boring number thingies that would go into making sure the place stays up?"

"Y-yeah..." Wallflower had almost forgotten that it was all on her and the Rainbooms' hands that they had created the wing, which included all of the lighting, heating, and other such neccessites that came with a new school wing. She hadn't even thought about the numbers side of the project; how much it cost, how much it would cost to keep afloat, and whether or not the students would even benefit from it all. "But hey. We did all of that, so technically, those burdens should be ours to bear; not Celestia or Luna's, right?"

"Yep. So what's their deal if they're so worried about it?" Smolder rolled her eyes. "Humans. Ya can't live with 'em and ya can't live without 'em. They're a wild bunch, but so long as ya got the right ones, you're gonna have a great time." She waddled over and brushed her head against Wallflower's leg. "Glad I got one of the right ones, eh?"

Wallflower just picked Smolder up, cuddled her close to her chest, and kept her held there as she turned another corridor, the walk to Celestia's office continuing as expected.

When they both arrived at Celestia's office again and stepped inside, the door was shut tight behind them both. Wallflower was about to take a seat, but was quickly motioned not to by Celestia herself.

"I don't know how exactly you did it, or with whatever means, but I've heard from a few little birdies that you and some friends decided to build a new wing for us here at Canterlot High." Celestia started, once more masking her true thoughts and intention behind a neutral tone of voice. "A wing all about animal care. Just like how you told me you were going to do something like that to safeguard yourself from breaking the rule of bringing pets onto school grounds."

"Look, Principal Celestia. I don't wanna get talked down at the start of a new day." Wallflower curled herself up slightly, only taking short looks at Celestia's face as she turned away, almost showing the same level of shyness as Fluttershy would have in this position.

"I'm not gonna yell at you. In fact, I'm very proud of what you've done, Wallflower. And in such short time with such high quality." Celestia's smile grew, until it spread to both of her cheeks. "We didn't even need to spend a penny on construction or electrical wiring! Now, granted, it's going to be a slight increase to our electrical fees, but it's only a small bump up. Nothing really worrisome here." She splayed her hands on the desk, leaning over it as she looked into Wallflower's eyes with an almost fanatical gaze. "You simply have to tell me how you were able to pull this off, Wallflower! It's amazing!"

"Uh... thanks?" Wallflower was not expecting that reaction, so could only really force a smile. But she knew that deep down, it was a huge weight off of her and Smolder's bodies to know that their work was indeed accepted to Celestia's standards. "I-I-I mean, thanks! Thank you very much for that, Principal Celestia!" Wallflower jerked her body and grew her smile sporadically, not wanting to sound like she wasn't showing the right level of gratitude. "I really mean it, Principal Celestia. I didn't think I was gonna be able to pull this off, all things considered."

"Well, that's just the magic of hard work and determination, isn't it?" Celestia came over and laid a hand on Wallflower's shoulder. "If you can put your body and mind to it, then you can achieve anything you want."

As soon as Celestia finished speaking, the door opened again. And on the other side of it was Vice Principal Luna, dressed in her attire. She approached Wallflower and Smolder, standing beside Celestia almost as if she were a guard in a fantasy story.

"So. I take it that this is the fabled talking dog of yesterday?" Luna asked as she leaned in to Smolder. She was examining the puppy from ears to tail, taking in every single colour and distinguishing feature. "In any case, I am thankful that you were able to handle the concept of a new wing for the school. Now, let us see if you are able to deliver with the idea that it is just as needed as everything else here at CHS."

"In fact, why don't you come on over here and make the announcement with us?" Celestia pulled out a microphone on a stand, with a button underneath it. "After all, this was your project, after all? It's only fair that you be the one to break the news to every single student."

"A-are you sure about that?" Wallflower looked at the mic. She had only ever heard and known that the principals used this to relay messages to the school's students. She had never considered the fact that she could finally take control of what was being said one day, whether she was helping the staff or not. "I mean, it's an awfully big thing, letting a student announce to the whole school via PA system, Principal Celestia. Vice Principal Luna."

"Indeed. However, we feel that you have earned this privilege." Luna walked Wallflower over to the mic, letting her release Smolder onto the table. "First, we shall start with our words. Then, you will be the one to announce the new Canterlot High Pet Wing as open. Just speak into the mic as if no-one else is in the room with you, Wallflower."

"O-o-okay then." Wallflower came over to the mic, feeling the exact same kind of nervous nature that she had felt when she was first beckoned to the office in the first place. Even as she firmly took her place by the microphone, a bulbous lump began to form in her throat. Not one of phlegm, but one from sheer unreadiness for the situation ahead. She was about to speak. To the entire school. Through the PA system. This is gonna be such a major shock to the system...

Then, with the push of a button, Celestia arched herself over the mic and began to speak. "Good morning, students of Canterlot High. We would like to remind everyone that today is yet another day for you all to strive; to enjoy yourselves while delving into the wonderful world of learning and education."

"However. Before you all head off to your classrooms, there is a special announcement that we have to make." Luna took over, coiling her hand around the stem of the microphone. "As some of you will have seen by now, there is an entirely new portion of the building that was added overnight. How it got there is a mystery many of you will be asking yourselves, but the short of the matter is that it is a very significant extension to Canterlot High; and one that was planned and made by one of our own, with some assistance from some of her friends."

"And now, some words from the student who made this all possible. Head of the Gardening Club herself, Wallflower Blush." Celestia stepped aside and ushered Wallflower over to the mic.

Wallflower gulped for a second, then shakily laid her finger down on the button. Time seemed to stop for a second as her whole body grew cold. She had one chance to say the right thing and now wasn't the time for her to mess up. She inhaled deeply, then exhaled just as much. Then, the words started to come out of her mouth.

"A little while ago, I was a lost soul with nobody but myself and my sister Fuchsia to turn to. But not long after Sunset Shimmer and the Rainbooms opened me up and let me open my heart up, I decided to go and get a new close-friend of mine." As she spoke, she flexed her fingers at Smolder, who pattered across the table to her side. "A dog. Her name was Smolder and she'd fallen on hard times. I decided to take her in and give her a home where she thought all hope had been lost; just as Sunset and her friends did for me when I thought that I was at the end of my rope in a social standpoint.

"It's been quite a hectic couple of days with Smolder by my side. We've had some fun, some shocks, some tears, but now we're both going to move forward together, hand in paw, to face the future together." She watched Smolder smile, which caused her to respond in kind. In what seemed like an instant, every single piece of Wallflower's hesitation went up in flames. "But it's not just us that are gonna take this step together. No. I'm openly inviting anyone who has a pet, or who just has an affinity for all creatures great and small to walk this path with me. This new wing? It's gonna be a blessing for everyone. The students who worry about their pets when they leave them at home; who fear that they have no choice but to bring them and know full well the consequences of what could happen if they get into trouble. And for those who just want to see these pets together in school while also learning a thing or two about the animal kingdom. This is all for you." She looked back at Celestia and Luna one more time, who both nodded at her. "I. Wallflower Blush, with the approval of Principal Celestia and Vice Principal Luna, declare the Canterlot High Pet Wing open!" Her finger came off the button as she slumped backward, sighing contently at what she had just done.

"Oh, and by the way, Spike? This goes for you too. Bring that Twilight girl of yours and come on down. I'm sure we'd have lots of fun together." Smolder had her paw planted on the button, then took it off once she had finished saying what she needed to say.

"I'M NOT READY FOR PUPPIES!" Spike's voice could faintly be heard on the other side of the door. He was screaming as hard as he can, but to the people inside the office, it was almost like muffled noise.

A little trickster's laugh came out of Smolder's muzzle as she jumped back into Wallflower's arms. "That was awesome, girl! We rocked it out there!"

"Anyways, that will be all, students. Carry on with your day. And for those of you who want to sign up for Wallflower's new Pet Wing, then the extra-curricular applications are already open. You'll find them by the front door to the wing." Celestia gave that closing remark, then turned to Wallflower and Smolder. "Congratulations, Wallflower." Her hand stretched around Wallflower's back and patted it tenderly, with every single motion tender and smooth. "Now, run along to class. I'm sure that you're going to want to be seen after all you've said and done here."

"Thank you, Principal Celestia." Wallflower, slightly teary from what had just happened, gave a nod to Principal Celestia and headed out of the room, cheering and hollering with Smolder as they hurriedly darted down the corridors towards their first class of the day.
> The End
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

The day went on and, after the last lesson, Wallflower couldn't help but grin from ear to ear as she scurried down the hallway like a squirrel towards its' nuts. She had been waiting all morning to break in this new wing for herself, but lessons had eaten up all of her time. But with her schedule finally free for extra curricular activities, there was no better time for her and Smolder to open up the doors.

At long last, she pushed through the doors and stepped through into the new wing for Canterlot High's pets. She could see the separate rooms and how they had made habitats for each and every kind of creature, whether they were big or small. From dogs, cats, even the occasional exotic animal, there was a room for everyone and every creature.

"This is the time, this is the time, this is the time!" Wallflower kept repeating to herself with a grin on her face as she barrelled through one last set of doors. And there it was. An massive room devoted to pet-lovers. There were tables for them all to do their work at, with secluded corners for people who just wanted to be alone with their own pets. Already, there were some people gathering around with some of their own pets, ready for what was to come.

"Looks like we've got a good audience, girl. Now, let's give 'em something to shoot for!" Smolder giddily scampered around the room and underneath the large table at the center of it all, with Wallflower closely behind her.

Wallflower, smiling to herself, took her position at the table, plucked Smolder from the ground, planted her paws on the tabletop, then gathered the attention of the students by gently slapping the table with her hand.

"Everyone. I'm very grateful for you all coming here today," said Wallflower, as all eyes turned their attention to her and Smolder. "Now, I know that we humans might be the dominant species, but that doesn't mean that we shouldn't snub the other animals around us." She brushed Smolder's fur gently. "They, much like us, have just as much of a right to exist fairly and with all of the freedoms and luxuries that we have."

"We might just be small, but we're only gonna get bigger and better," Smolder added her own words to the introductions. "Whether you're owners with pets you've loved for years; pets who've been saved from bad situations; or recent besties, there's no exclusions here." She puffed out her chest.

"Thank you for that, Smolder." Wallflower picked up Smoler and held her like her own child. "When I first met you, I didn't know whether or not it'd help fill the loneliness that I felt. But now, after all of this, and with the opening of this new wing of Canterlot High, I can honestly say that my life has gotten a whole lot better."

"Same here, Wallflower. I thought that I was gonna end up stuck in that shelter forever. But then you came along and everything changed in a ton of different ways." Smolder smirked. "Thank you, Wallflower. For being there when it mattered."

"You're welcome, Smolder." She gave her a gentle little boop before letting her skitter back onto the table. "And I think, on that note, we should get this started. So, it gives me great pleasure to say that I call this very first meeting of the Canterlot High Animal Care Club to order!" Once she finished, everyone let out their own cheers.





As the day came to an end, Wallflower and Smolder walked out of the door chuckling to each other. The first people that crossed their paths were the Rainbooms with all of their individual pets. They all gave Wallflower and Smolder a wave, to which she hurried on over without hesitation.

"So? How'd it go?" Rainbow Dash grinned as Wallflower came within conversation distance.

"Wonderful, girls!" Wallflower jubilantly grinned, pushing her wrists together as she put on the largest smile she could muster. "I've never met and made so many new friends all at the same time outside of the Gardening Club!"

"Sounds like someone had a blast, huh?" Applejack had her own tranquil grin as she crossed her legs and folded her arms. "Reckon you'll do just fine if you enjoyed yer first session with the others.

"I guess I really rubbed off on you, didn't I?" Fluttershy walked over to Wallflower and wrapped her arm around hers. "I'm so happy that you and Smolder are happy, Wallflower."

"Thanks, Fluttershy. But most of all, I want to thank the girl who helped me take this step in the first place." Her gaze turned from Fluttershy to Sunset, who quickly returned it. "Sunset. Thank you for taking the time to fill that little hole in my heart. I didn't think I needed a pet in my life, but now you and your friends have shown me just what a pleasure it is to have one. This wouldn't have been possible without Smolder here." She reached down and gave her dog another petting.

"Aww, stop it. You're gonna make me blush," said Smolder, even though she was already doing it.

"Get used to it, Smolder. There's a LOT of that when you've got a good owner like Wallflower." Spike cocked a smirk.

"I'm glad that you've taken this well too, Wallflower," Sunset Shimmer said. "After what happened involving the Memory Stone incident, I figured that you could use a lot more friends than just human ones like us. Someone who's always there to keep you company; to keep you smiling even when you're away from all of the other people in your life that matter to you." She lifted her hand and laid it down on Wallflower's shoulder. "You're welcome for everything."

"So, what are ya gonna do now?" Pinkie Pie asked, holding a small alligator plushie in her hand. "I know what I'm gonna do. I'm gonna take Gummy here and whip up some super-spectacular, ultra-magical extra-fantastical cupcakes!"

"And I think Tank could use some exercise too." Rainbow gave the shell of her pet tortoise a couple of taps. "Isn't that right, buddy?" No response came out of the tortoise's mouth, but it still craned his neck to her.

"Winona's gonna wanna play with Smolder and Spike, knowin' her." Applejack looked down at her own pet dog and, sure it enough, it began barking as it ran over to Smolder and Spike, yipping giddily as it was panting and swishing its' tail. "What about you? Ya'll wanna go with her?"

"Oh, sure." Smolder cracked her own devilish smile once again. "On one condition." She foxtrotted around Spike, letting her tail slap against his fur. "And I think you know what I mean by that, Spikey-Wikey."

"Oh, great. Now you're saying it?" Spike despaired. Only Rarity was allowed to call him that. To hear those words come out of Smolder's mouth with those intentions could only mean one thing.

"Yep. We're going to have a date." Smolder finished by placing her paw on his nose, before shuffling back to Wallflower's side.

"Look. I've said it before and I'll say it again. I'm not ready for—" Spike was about to finish, but he knew that it wasn't going to be any different. Nothing he said was going to get through to her, so the only logical thing for him was to sigh. "Fine. Fine. You win, Smolder. We're going to have that little date of yours." He rolled his eyes.

"Yes!" Smolder paw-pumped in glee as she pranced on the spot. "Come on, girls! Let's all head down to the park and celebrate!" Smolder scurried off.

"H-hey! Wait for me!" Spike raced off after Smolder, and then the other Rainbooms gave chase to them too, with their own pets in tow afterwards.

As Wallflower ran with the Rainbooms under the rays of the warm sunlight, she felt more than just its' warmth in her heart. Now she had a real, furry friend that she could count on, rely on, and have fun with whenever she wanted. And now, nothing was going to come between her and Smolder for years to come. She hurried down the path and out of view of CHS, without a care in the world. Animals and owners in harmony, with no more boundaries between them.