The library was a finely-ordered cacophony of chaos. If genius tended to show itself in displays of complete and utter mess, then Twilight Sparkle was having the inspiration of a century. There were books on the floor. Books on the tables. Books on the books. The only place that there was no books was on the shelves.

It had begun that morning, when perusing a volume of the writings of Buttercup the Lesser a brainwave had struck. One of those rare once-in-a-lifetime revelations where suddenly everything clicks into place and the complex world resolves into childish simplicity. That the last time such a level of inspiration had struck ponykind was the reason that the Magnaron Mountains were now the Magnaron Lakes did not stop Twilight.

She had pulled down all the volumes of Periwinkle the Younger, to compare them to Buttercup’s work. Quickly cross-referencing them with a rare pocket almanac by Underwood the Unready, she discovered an incredible possibility that somehow only she in all of history was privy to.

By the time that Spike had tramped downstairs, blearily wiping the sleep from his eyes, the front room was already a whirl of paper and magical sparks, and Spike found to his slight annoyance that he was to spend the rest of the day ferrying hard to find and expensive magical supplies to Twilight, who assured him that she would pay him back at some point.

This was the reason that Fluttershy found Twilight buried upside-down in a pile of books with the odd puff of magic flapping a page or two about.

“Come in, come in!” Through the mountain of books, Twilight was sure that she had heard the muffled sound of the front door. Her research was at a delicate stage, and she stared intently at the book in front of her, lit only by the light from her horn, scrunching up her face and trying a new incantation. From deep within the pile of books she could smell something burning, but she was relatively sure she would be able to extract her head before it was too late. “Is that Zecora with the crystal tomatoes I need?”

“Um, no. Sorry.” Fluttershy stared with some mounting alarm at the state of the room. From within the huge pile of books that engulfed the room was poking the hind quarters of her friend, sticking straight in the air, the flick of her tail all that showed she was alive. “Are you… are you okay? Do you need help?”

“No, I’m fine!” came Twilight’s muffled voice, before her head burst from the pile of books with a yelp, her mane on fire. “Ow! Ow! Ow!”

Fluttershy clapped her hooves to her mouth in shock. “Oh! Twilight! Your head’s on fire!”

Clearing a small pile of books, Twilight sat herself down at a table that was stacked with even more books, plunging her head into a handy vase of flowers in one deft motion. “There!” she beamed at her friend. “It’s all about efficiency, Fluttershy! Especially when I’m changing the world!”

“Oh… dear…” Fluttershy’s face fell. “Are you sure you want to change the world. You remember the last time…”

“And Blossomforth made a full recovery!” Twilight nodded firmly, thumping open a hefty tome and pouring over it. “Eventually. Anyway, Fluttershy, you know that you can store raw magical potential in objects, right?”

“Um, yes.” Fluttershy didn’t, but this was no moment to be rude.

“And more complex magic needs spells, right? And unicorns can direct magic into spells.” Twilight continued, her gaze now flicking between two ancient-looking books. “So I thought, what if you cut out the middle-mare, as it were. If you could stuff spellbooks full of magic, then they could become self-activating! Anypony could do magic if they had the right book, not just unicorns! Doesn’t that sound amazing?”

Horrible. Terrifying. Awful. These were the words that flittered about Fluttershy’s mouth, but instead she just replied with: “That sounds nice.” She took a step back in a bid to escape and warn Ponyville. Twilight would give up after a while, she usually did, but until then it was wise to take precautions.

“Don’t step there!” Twilight’s head shot up and she peered around at Fluttershy. “That book’s live! I can’t get them to stop going off. Or activating properly. It’s a work in progress.”

Fluttershy’s hoof paused over the book that it was about to descend on. It was humming slightly, greenish sparks flickering out from under the cover as if it were about to explode. “Oh, that’s um…” she searched for the correct word, before giving up “… nice.” She considered Twilight, who sat with her back to her, frantically hammering a crystal ball against a book for no discernible reason. “Look, Twilight, you’re obviously busy, I don’t want to distract you, so I’ll just…”

“No, no, stay, I’m interested!” Twilight mumbled back half-heartedly, flinching away suddenly from the book in her hooves before relaxing with a smug smile. The book promptly exploded, covering her in soot. “Always make time for friends, that what I say!” She made no effort to turn around and engage Fluttershy in eye-contact, instead she grabbed another book and hunched eagerly over the table.

“Oh. Right. Well…” Fluttershy trailed off, before slumping her shoulders in despair. “I don’t know, Twilight, I’m so busy recently I just feel exhausted! I agreed to help out with the school talent show, and I’m supposed to go to the Cloudsdale arena with Rainbow Dash, and Applejack wants me to do something apple related…”

“I know what you need!” Twilight stared intently at the volume in front of her. The pages crackled with an eerie blue light as they thrummed with magic. “There’s a book on the left hand side of the table next to you.” She knew the library like the back of her hoof, even despite the mess. ‘101 Equestrian Holiday Ideas’ would be right up Fluttershy’s street.

Fluttershy looked about in confusion at the table. “What, this one?” she squeaked, nervously picking up a hefty book that thrummed with barely-contained magic, entitled ‘Deadly Transmogrification Spells’.

“Yeah, that’s the ticket!” Twilight kept her full attention on her own work, carefully sprinkling some ruby dust on the margins of the book. “No, no, don’t thank me.”

Fluttershy was in no danger of thanking Twilight. Instead she stared at the book, knees knocking together. “I… I don’t know, Twilight; it seems like a big step…”

“Ugh!” Twilight spilled some of the powder over the lettering, causing a page to catch fire. She quickly fanned the flames with the nearest object to hand, which unfortunately was a petrol-coated rag. “Look, Fluttershy,” she yelped out in annoyance, smacking the flaming rag against the flaming book, “You need to take a break! A change is good! What’s the worst that can happen? You can’t just sit in your house all day!”

“I don’t know…” Fluttershy hesitantly opened the first page, to be met with a diagram of a pony turning into a frog. A frond of green magic curled towards her hoof, and she slammed the book shut with a squeak. “It’s scary!”

“Scary? What?” Twilight poured a nearby vase of water over her desk, before frantically trying to rescue the sodden, charred mess that her book had become. “Trust me, Fluttershy, this will be a welcome change for you! New sights and sounds! Perhaps…” she turned to give a sly wink, “even a little romance?”

Fluttershy turned another page, and stared glumly at a picture of a pony turning into a snail. “I don’t know, Twilight… I like me the way I am…”

Twilight rolled her eyes. If Fluttershy had her way, she would hide in her little cottage forever and be overwhelmed by the demands of her friends. “It’ll be great! You’ll feel like a new pony, I promise you!” Even more inspiration struck her. “Turn to page fifty! I remember we all did that as a family a few years back!” Page fifty was all about Fluffyland. Technically that was a holiday resort for little foals, but Twilight imagined it would be right up Fluttershy’s street.

Fluttershy turned to the requisite page. A drawing of a fire-breathing dragon glared back at her, as the book crackled with barely restrained magic. “I… it looks terrifying!”

“Argh!” Twilight whirled around again in annoyance. “What is wrong with you? Look, I’m your friend and I want what is best for you! Trust me! Go home and follow the guidebook! I’ll look after Angel, don’t worry.”

Fluttershy stared with mounting horror at the dragon again, before slamming the book shut. “I… I’ll think about it…” she squeaked, backing away and trying to slip the book back onto the table.

“Take the book!” Twilight barked. Almost instantly, Fluttershy grabbed the book and scampered out of the library.

Twilight returned to her work with a satisfied grin. “I’m such a great friend!”

***

The morning sun hung over Ponyville the next day as Twilight and Spike strolled out of town. Spike stifled a yawn, toddling after Twilight as fast as his tiny legs could carry him. Any time in the morning was too early in the morning for him.

“Hurry up, Spike!” Twilight turned, snapping back at her little friend. “We’ve got to get to Fluttershy and give her the holiday book! I can’t believe she managed to leave it behind, I was sure she took it! She can be so sneaky when she wants to be!”

“Yeah, whatever…” Spike clambered up the hill that led out of town, trying not to slip in the dew-sodden grass. “Can’t you just leave her alone? If she doesn’t want to go on holiday, you can’t force her! You don’t like being told what to do!”

“Yes, but that’s different. I know I’m right!” Twilight made a soft tutting noise. “And don’t try to change the subject, Spike. I’m still annoyed that you’ve not found that copy of ‘Deadly Transmogrification Spells’ yet.”

“You did trash the library! It’s probably buried under a pot plant or something.” Spike finally reached Twilight’s side as they made their way to the top of the hill.

“Get the holiday book out of my saddlebag, Spike.” Twilight turned so the large purple satchel slung over her sides was next to Spike. “It’s in the left one.”

Spike stared at the saddlebag. The book was sticking out of the right-hand side. “It’s right, Twilight.”

“Yes, Spike, I know I’m right,” Twilight said patiently. “Now take the book.”

Sighing, Spike pulled the book free. “You know, sometimes I think Celestia skimped on some really basic lessons…” He rounded the top of the hill, looked down, and froze.

Twilight huffed at Spike. “Enough with the snark, Spike. We’ve got to give Fluttershy this book that she somehow left behind, and then find out what happened to my transmogrification book, and…” She rounded the hill too. “Spike…” she said in a very, very soft voice. “Spike, do you remember that very bad thing I did to Blossomforth, and how I promised to be very careful in future, and never do a bad thing again?”

Spike nodded slowly. “Y-yes, Twilight, I do…”

Below them was Fluttershy’s cottage. What was usually a quaint, rural retreat full of animals was now full of one animal. One very big animal. One very big animal that happened to be an enormous dragon, sleeping inside the cottage with its head and wings bursting out of the windows and doors. An enormous dragon that looked suspiciously pink and yellow.

Twilight gulped hard. “I think I’ve done another bad thing.”

***

“So, that’s Fluttershy?” Applejack narrowed her eyes, considering the massive form of the gigantic yellow and pink dragon that lay snoozing, wedged inside Fluttershy’s cottage. “Ah mean, it’s the right colour and in the right place, sure, but Fluttershy ain’t no dragon!”

“Yeah, she’s a pony!” Rainbow Dash added, somewhat needlessly.

Applejack, Rainbow Dash, Pinkie Pie and Rarity all stood outside Fluttershy’s cottage, albeit at a safe distance. Twilight had been her normal panicky self about something, and at first they had all thought that she had just burnt down Fluttershy’s cottage, or turned it into gingerbread again. But not this.

Applejack bit her lip, looking between the dragon and Twilight carefully. “So… how do you know it’s Fluttershy, Twilight? An’ how is it Fluttershy?”

“Oh, well…” Twilight flashed a fake grin, wiping the sweat from her head. “I just know, y’know? Years of studying dragons and magic, I’ve got some sort of sixth sense. I mean, sometimes a pony just randomly turns into a dragon for no reason at all, and it’s absolutely no-one’s fault.” She stressed this last point heavily. “A mystery for the ages.”

“Hey, Twilight!” Spike panted, pushing his head out of the window of Fluttershy’s cottage, trapped inside between the body of the sleeping beast and the wall. “I can’t find that book you were looking for!”

“Ah ha. Ha.” Twilight gave another fixed smile, turning to motion furiously at Spike to keep it down. “What book, Spike? I don’t know what you’re talking about.”

“The um, magic book!” Spike called back helpfully. “You know, the one you used to turn Fluttershy into a dragon? That book? And that’s why she’s now a dragon? You know?”

“Thank you, Spike,” Twilight hissed through gritted teeth, turning to face the full fury of her friends’ admonishments.

“Well!” Rarity sighed, flicking her mane in contempt. “That explains that little mystery, doesn’t it!”

“Twilight, how could you!” Rainbow Dash’s face was a mask of disappointment. “Fluttershy and I were going to go to the Cloudsdale arena today, and now she can’t because she’s a big scary dragon!”

“Whoa! Whoa! Stop right there!” Twilight pushed a hoof into Rainbow Dash’s mouth, cutting her off. “You can’t say that, Rainbow Dash! That’s racist! Racist against dragons! Fluttershy is still the friend we all know and love, just because she’s not a giant dragon doesn’t mean anything’s changed! Shame on you!” She straightened up, feeling accomplished at regaining the moral high ground. “Besides, it wasn’t really my fault. The book must have just gone off in her face. All I need to do is find the book so I can reverse the spell, and it’s all fine!”

Spike finally extracted himself from the house and trudged over to the ponies. “Yeah,” he grumbled. “She’s eaten it. Must have, it’s nowhere in there. And trust me, I looked everywhere.”

Pinkie Pie started to leap up and down happily. “Well, that’s not a problem at all then! Just magic the book out of her tummy, and we can go back to normal! I’ll throw a ‘Congratulations on being a pony again!’ party!” She froze, eyes bulging in panic. “B-but not in a racist way!”

Twilight shook her head. “No, sorry Pinkie. As every student of magic knows, the insides of a dragon are magic-proof. Otherwise they’d explode because of all the magical fire inside them. No, we’ll have to make her sick or something.” She turned to look back at the frankly enormous sleeping form of Fluttershy. As she snored, a gout of flames shot across the garden and set a bush on fire.

“On the other hand…” Twilight began, fishing around in her saddlebag, “I’m sure it will uh, ‘work its way out’ eventually.” She found what she was looking for and passed it to Spike.

Spike looked down in his claws. He was now the proud owner of a small shovel and a plastic carrier bag. “Oh. Great.”

“That’s the spirit!” Twilight patted Spike on the back, a little too hard. “Now girls, you know how terrified Fluttershy is of dragons. When she wakes up she’s going to be so scared and nervous, we need to make her comfortable until Spike can… recover the book. So treat this as a normal day!”

She smiled.

Her friends looked at each other with terrible uncertainty. “Normal day…” they chorused together.

***

The town hall bustled expectedly as all the fillies of the town got ready for their talent show. Scootaloo was whispering prayers over her photo of Rainbow Dash, Apple Bloom practiced her karate skills against a wall, and Sweetie Belle started to do breathing exercises that turned into hyperventilation.

“Quieten down! Quieten down!” Cheerilee trotted onto stage with Rarity, surveying the expectant crowd. “Now, it’s nearly time for the school talent show, but first, I want to thank Rarity and Fluttershy who agreed to help me with the judging. Only…” She swallowed hard. “Only, there’s a little hitch with that, and Rarity will explain it.”

Rarity stared down at the crowd. There was almost half of Ponyville present. “It is very important to remember,” she finally began, “that beauty is only skin deep. Unless you’re me. But we can’t all be me. Fluttershy isn’t me, because Fluttershy is currently a dragon.”

A gasp rippled through the audience. Someone screamed. Rarity waved a hoof urgently. “No no! Don’t do that! Deep down, she’s still sweet, lovely Fluttershy; we must learn not to let ourselves judge others by appearances and treat her as we treat ourselves!” At the far back, she could see Twilight frantically plagiarising her words into a letter to Princess Celestia. Rarity scowled. “So let’s show Fluttershy that Ponyville does not judge by appearances, and give her the warm welcome she deserves, despite her ‘condition’. Which isn’t a bad thing!” She quickly added the last part hastily, lest she appear racist.

The room built into a slow and nervous applause, which gradually got louder and louder, and more and more enthusiastic. This lasted until Spike gently coaxed Fluttershy into the room. The huge dragon pushed her head in, blinking at the scene, and then with a bellowing roar forced her way into the town hall, taking down half the wall with her.

“No, no, stop screaming!” Rarity yelled as she leapt up and down in an attempt to defuse the situation. Around her, some of the more fragile members of the audience had begun to run around in circles, yelping at the top of their lungs. They eventually calmed down at Rarity’s admonishing words, settling back in their places.

“Now, Fluttershy, you go here.” Rarity led Fluttershy to the judge’s podium. Fluttershy eyed the podium suspiciously, her great chest sending out rasping torrents of air, before finally deciding to sit on top of it. The podium shattered into tiny splinters.

“Well, uh, now the judges are here, we can begin!” Cheerilee looked nervously at Fluttershy as she towered over her. “Scootaloo, you’re up first. Good luck!”

Scootaloo didn’t seem to notice Fluttershy at all. She had been too busy trying to learn her song; brow caked in sweat, and all four limbs trembling like jelly. She shook her way to the front of the stage, cleared her throat, and began. “Oh, I’m a little pony who cannot fly…” she warbled.

Fluttershy lifted her head and began to howl in time with Scootaloo’s singing.

Scootaloo faltered, glancing up at Fluttershy for the first time, but then carried on. “I-If I could fly, I would not cry…”

Fluttershy’s gnarly dragon claws clapped to her ears. Her tail swished angrily, thumping against the wall and sending great cracks through it. Rarity barely had time to leap out of the way before she too was hit.

“B-but I’m Scootaloo, Scootaloo, best pony of all,” Scootaloo started to sing more confidently now, at the top of her voice. “I-if I could fly then I could walk tall!”

At the awful half-rhyme, Fluttershy roared, the blast of warm air from her mouth knocking Scootaloo off her hooves. The dragon unfurled her wings, starting to beat them in the confined space, and thrashed about as if in some unimaginable agony. Flames erupted from her nostrils, blackening the ceiling while below her the terrified citizens of Ponyville attempted to scarper.

“No, no, stop, stop!” Rarity raised her hoof again, but was knocked down by Fluttershy’s flailing tail. She stumbled back up, but a flaming beam fell from the roof, striking her directly on her immaculately coiffured mane.

Scootaloo looked at the panic and flames and screaming with confusion. “D-did I win?”

***

“Don’t worry Fluttershy, Ah’m sure Rarity will be just fine once she’s out of the hospital!” Applejack patted the side of her friend with warmth, albeit slight nervousness.

After calming Fluttershy down, Twilight had suggested that Applejack let Fluttershy help out with the apple harvest, as she had originally planned before the whole ‘dragon’ thing. Applejack had suggested where Twilight could stick that idea, but was eventually worn down via liberal application of guilt.

Fluttershy sat on her mighty haunches amongst the orchard, her snake-like eyes looking out over the tops of the trees, a deep growl rising from her throat.

“I-is this a good idea, Twilight?” Applejack leaned over to Twilight, Rainbow Dash and Pinkie Pie with a whisper. “Ah mean after that business at the town hall…”

“It’ll be fine, Applejack, trust me!” Twilight smiled reassuringly. Out of everyone present at the earlier ‘incident’, Twilight was the only pony who had managed to escape without a scratch on her. “But I’ll just sit way over there and work on my letter to the princess!” She pointed at the furthest hill possible. “You know, for inspiration.”

Applejack’s gaze darkened. “Ah know,” she mumbled, before turning to Fluttershy and the other, more regular, ponies. “Right then lil’ Miss! We’ve got to buck all these apples. Y’all follow mah lead!” She trotted to the nearest tree, twisted and thumped her hind legs into the trunk. The tree shook, and a dozen neat red apples tumbled to the ground. “There! Easy!”

Rainbow Dash punched the air. “Yeah, let’s do this!” She found her tree and started to kick it with faux-judo moves. Nothing fell. “Yeah, take that! And that! Can’t beat the Dash!” Out of the corner of her eye, she saw Pinkie Pie kick her tree and dislodge several apples with ease. She escalated her kicking.

Fluttershy watched the ponies kicking the apple trees below her. Coming to a decision, she straightened up, lifted her head, and gave an immense roar that shattered the perfect rural idyll of the orchard.

“ROAAAAR!” Fluttershy bunched her claws into fists, eyes bulging as steam leaked from her mouth.

“ROAAAAR!” Fluttershy reached out to rip out one of the trees by its roots, and started to beat another tree with it.

“ROAAAAR!” Fluttershy’s leathery wings flapped and she took to the air, flames billowing from her nostrils as below her the orchard erupted into a fireball. She threw the trees as hard as she could, which sailed over Applejack’s head and impacted with the roof off Applejack’s house.

“H-ha ha!” Applejack winced. “Y-yeah, not like that, Fluttershy! You scamp!” She cowered underneath a burning trunk. “Ah’m ruined!” she moaned. “Ruined!”

“Also on fire!” Pinkie Pie chirped happily.

Applejack yelped as she peered up, seeing that her precious hat was indeed aflame. She ran as fast as she could to the nearest lake before Fluttershy did something awful to that too.

“Don’t worry, Pinkie!” Rainbow Dash puffed her chest out smugly. “An afternoon with me at Cloudsdale arena will have Fluttershy right back to her old self!”

***

The screams of pegasi in various stages of panic filled the air as Cloudsdale burnt to the ground (itself an impressive feat, as clouds are made primarily out of water). Charred chunks of the stadium crashed far below; the rainbow factory sprayed its multi-coloured prismatic liquid everywhere, and above it all Fluttershy beat her wings, roaring in triumph, huge bouts of flames curling from her mouth.

“I’m sorry!” Rainbow Dash screamed out to anyone who would listen. “She’s never done anything like this before!”

***

The five friends stood outside Fluttershy’s house in a quandary. Fluttershy had settled down in front of the house to sleep, smoke curling from her nostrils in thick columns. It had been a long, hard day after all.

“You know…” Rainbow Dash said at last, nursing her bandaged wing. “I thought when Fluttershy turned into a dragon it would be really hilarious. Like, she’d be all terrified of her own shadow and she’d be more scared of everyone else than they were of her. You know, that sort of stuff. But instead she’s…”

“…Mean and scary,” Rarity finished for her, patting the less-than-stylish bandages that adorned her head.

“Yeah. She’s no fun anymore!” Pinkie Pie narrowed her eyes at the gigantic sleeping form of Fluttershy. “I was going to have a party and make her a dragon cake, and we would play party games and she was going to be so big she’d accidently knock it all over and we’d all be scared at first but then we’d learn to get along and that appearances don’t matter and that was going to be the moral! Twilight, what’s the moral now?”

Twilight shrugged. “I uh… guess the moral is ‘it turns out that Fluttershy is really really scary?” She shook her head. “No, think, Twilight! Think! This isn’t like Fluttershy at all! There must be something wrong. Something that…” An idea sprang into her head. It was such a good idea, such an amazing idea, so honed by years of reading fiction that it couldn’t possibly fail. “I’ve got it!” she snapped, marching forwards and to the horror of everyone present, slapped Fluttershy on the nose. “Fluttershy, wake up! Spike, get a ladder!”

Two slitted eyes flicked open, staring straight at Twilight. Fluttershy yawned, her mouth opening wide. To everyone’s double-horror, Twilight peered into the mouth.

“Just as I thought!” she exclaimed happily. “A bad tooth! It’s always the way! Don’t worry Fluttershy, I’ll soon fix this!”

***

“Nearly there!” Twilight balanced atop Fluttershy’s tongue, leaning into the darkness as she searched for the bad tooth. She edged closer, being careful not to slip down the gullet. “Closer… closer…” she called back.

Fluttershy had been coaxed to a standing position, the huge dragon’s mouth open in confusion as Twilight perched inside it. Her friends could do nothing but watch in a mixture of concern and abject horror.

“Twilight’s not a dentist!” Rainbow Dash whispered urgently. “She’s an awful dentist! Trust me, I thought I could save a bit of cash by having Twilight do my check-up.” She frowned at the memory. “That’s why I had to go to hospital.”

“Yes, Twilight dear,” Rarity cooed up. “Please be careful!”

“Don’t worry!” Twilight spotted the bad tooth, and carefully pressed her hooves against it, giving it an experimental wiggle. There was a moan all around her as Fluttershy reacted to the pain, but Twilight quickly made hushing noises to calm the beast. “No no, don’t worry! I’ll have it out in a jiffy!” She gritted her teeth hard, and started to try and wiggle the offending object loose, mentally drafting the frankly amazing letter she would soon be writing to Princess Celestia.

“Um, Twilight, what are you doing?”

Twilight rolled her eyes at the interruption and stuck her head out of the dragon’s mouth, looking down at the new arrival. “Not now, Fluttershy! I’m in the middle of removing Fluttershy’s bad tooth so she stops being a mean dragon!”

“Oh.” Fluttershy looked at her friends in concern, who had all stopped to stare at her, mouths agape. “But Twilight,” she added. “I’m not a dragon. I went on holiday to Fluffyland instead, it was so wonderful. But I did bring back your book! I’m sorry I didn’t use it.”

Everyone started to inch away from the dragon.

Twilight looked down at Fluttershy, clad in a Hawaiian shirt and large holiday shades and clutching a suitcase full of luggage. She looked back into the mouth of the dragon in which she was standing. She looked back at Fluttershy. A terrible, terrible sense of dread started to rise in her. “So… you’re not a dragon?”

Fluttershy shook her head. “Not last time I checked.”

“Ah.” Twilight gulped, waving a hoof back at the dragon. “And ah… this was all just some really weird coincidence?”

Fluttershy nodded. “Um, I guess so. Sorry?”

Twilight took a very, very, very deep breath, her eyes bulging slightly. “Well then.”

With a snort, the dragon flung back its head and swallowed Twilight down whole, finishing with a happy burp.

Spike shook his head gently. “I did think it was odd Fluttershy turned into a male dragon.” He was momentarily taken aback as the ponies stared daggers at him. “What? What? I don’t judge!”

***

“You okay in there Twilight?”

“Yeah,” came the mumbled reply from inside the dragon’s belly. “Turns out you can’t teleport through a dragon’s insides. How uh… how are you doing about getting me out?”

“Oh, we’re working on it!” Rainbow Dash called back, before staring at the cards in her hand and placing one down. “Go fish.”

The huge dragon had settled down to sleep again after eating Twilight, having evidently decided that Fluttershy’s garden was a lovely place to live. After running about and screaming for a while, everyone else had realised they weren’t about to get eaten, and decided to sit down and play a game of cards while nursing their injuries.

“You… you don’t blame me for all this, do you?” came the voice from the dragon’s stomach. “I mean, anyone could have made that mistake. Mistakes. All those mistakes.”

“No no, of course not!” Applejack continued to nurse her bandaged hat. “Why would you possibly think that?”

“Oh, Twilight!” Rarity sipped a glass of sparkling wine and hollered over to the dragon’s belly. “I think that dragon swallowed one of my earrings earlier. Be a dear and fish it out, will you?”

A sloshing, splashing noise came from inside the dragon. “Okay!” Twilight’s muffled voice said. “But it’s uh… really dark in here! I tried to climb up the throat, but it’s got its mouth shut; I don’t know what else to try! Are you sure you’re gonna get me out soon?”

“Yeah!” Rainbow Dash called with enthusiasm, before scratching her nose and yawning. “We’re getting right on it!” She settled down to sleep.

Spike bit his lip nervously. “Shouldn’t we do something?” he hissed to Rainbow Dash. “I mean, she’s been in there a while!”

Rainbow Dash shrugged, puffing a tuft of singed mane out of her eyes. “Oh, don’t worry,” she mumbled ruefully. “Give her some time. She’s in its stomach. I’m sure she’ll work her way out eventually.”