Sweetie Belle looked in silence at the Caterpillar for some time.

"Sir. Sir, who do I have the honor of addressing?"

The Caterpillar puffed away without speaking for a few more moments, but at last he unfolded his arms, took the hookah out of his mouth, and answered her.

"Captain Shining Caterpillar, ribbon and bar, late of Her Majesty's Royal Guard, a true son of Equestria and its flag what..." He looked at her and added in a languid, sleepy tone, "Who are you?"

Sweetie Belle didn't think that was an encouraging opening for a conversation.

"I—I don't know," she replied, rather shyly.

"If you don't know who you are, then I don't know who you are," said the Caterpillar sternly as he went back to his hookah.

"I know who I was this morning, but I think I have changed several times since then,"

"What do you mean by that?" asked the Caterpillar.

"I'm afraid I can't put it more clearly," Sweetie Belle replied, very politely, "for I can't understand it myself."

"Explain yourself or you'll find yourself on a charge!"

"Well, I can't explain myself, Captain, because I'm not myself. Do you see?"

"No, I do not see,"

"Everyone should be the right size, shouldn't they? But I've been so many different sizes in one day it's very confusing,"

"Why?"

"Well, if you were to change, say, into a butterfly, you'd find it quite strange, wouldn't you?"

"Not a bit of it. Nothing's strange to me,"

"Well, perhaps your feelings may be different," said Sweetie Belle, "all I know is, it would feel very strange to me."

"You? Who are you?"

"I don't think you should talk to me like that," she said, feeling a little irritated at his remarks.

"Like what?"

"In short sentences,"

"Oh, ah, a-"

"All I know is that it's very disturbing, sometimes I start crying,"

"Why?"

"Because I don't remember things like I used to and I can't keep the same size for ten minutes together,"

"That's a rum-do," the Caterpillar said. "I'd keep an eye on it if I were you. Can't remember what things, exactly?"

"Songs and poems," she said in a very melancholy voice.

"Whoa, that's worse than having Swamp Fever. Umm, recite 'You Are Young, Princess Celestia,'" said the Caterpillar. "And try to keep in tune."

Sweetie Belle stood up and crossed her hands in front of herself and began to repeat it, but the words came out all different.

"You are young, Princess Celestia," the old man said.

"And your skin has become very white;

And yet you incessantly stand on your head.

Do you think, at your age, this is right?"

"I don't know if you were trying for the 'Paganini Variations' for voice and trumpet, but you missed five verses," the Caterpillar said.

"Some of the words did get a little altered," she admitted timidly.

"Young lady, it was wrong from beginning to end, and you can't get more wrong than that!"

"I'm afraid that's what always happens when I have to perform," she said sadly.

"You mustn't be afraid," Captain Caterpillar told her. "That's worse than not remembering."

There was silence for some seconds, then the Caterpillar spoke again.

"What size do you want to be?" he asked.

"I don't care about the size, just so long as I'm not changing all the time," she huffed as she turned away, crossing her arms in front of her chest.

"There you go again, losing your temper. It's against the Queen's regulations! Do you like your size right now?"

"I would like to be a little taller," she admitted. "This is a terrible height to be."

"Terrible?!" the Caterpillar shouted as he dropped the hookah and stretched out his arms.

And as it did, a pair of wings sprouted out.

"One side will make you taller, the other side will make you shorter," he told her.

"One side of what-?"

She had turned around to face him again and saw that he had transformed into a handsome butterfly.

"The mushroom. That's what it's there for. Everything has a purpose. Even here,"

"Thank you, Captain,"

The Captain laughed, then flapped his new wings, and in another moment, he was out of sight.

Sweetie Belle looked the mushroom over for a moment, trying to figure out which were the two "sides" of it.

"One side makes me taller," she said as she reached out and broke off a bit of the edge with her left hand. "The other side will make me shorter." She broke off another bit with her right hand and thought, "I wonder which one is which."

She nibbled a little of the bit in her left hand and the next moment, she could feel herself gradually growing until she was at her normal height.

"I think I'll keep these," she thought as she tucked the mushroom bits into her pockets. "They may come in handy later."