Author's Notes:

The Usual Disclaimer:

The following is a work of parody, and is protected as Fair Use under section 17 U.S. Code § 107 of US Copyright Law. My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic and all affiliated characters are property of Hasbro Inc.

I own nothing. All characters, settings and other belong to their respective owners. This is purely a fan-work with no intent towards profit, slander or harm towards the characters, settings or other, or their respective owners. If the respective owners feel that this fan-work in any way, shape or form threatens or besmirches their property, please let me know so that it be can be removed asap.

Please support the show.

So ... so many re-writes. Aggressive Fluttershy is surprisingly hard to write without her coming across as a complete Yandere or a creeper.

The next chapter should be up in five or six days, work has just been ... bleh. We got a new guy in, then we had to retrain him since the unionized section of the workplace decided to teach him all the wrong things since he wasn't part of their group, and thus they tried to make sure he was 'unsuitable' for the workplace.

Charming folks, this crew.

Only reason this chapter got out as quickly as it did (and no, that is not sarcasm) is because I managed to get a few days off due to the recent issue certain large chain-store markets in australia have had with unions and wages, and in-between Warcraft binges, frantic attempts to clean the house and the removal of a wild european bee-hive that had begun swarming and threatening to colonize inside the birds' aviary, I got a chance to sit down and polish this for a few hours in-between sleep-cycles.

CHAPTER 62

“I take it we’re not going to Ponyville?” Discord hissed nervously from inside Celestia’s pitcher of pineapple juice, the Aspect of Chaos having shrunk himself down to a size small enough to stand ontop of a floating chunk of fruit to witness the ‘insanity and inanity’ of Day Court from the ‘best seats in the house’.

“Most certainly not. I think poor Twilight and Luna will have enough to deal with with the demented duo harassing them, and having me hovering around will only make Cadence and Shining more determined to force Twilight to support their personal agenda against Queen Chrysalis.” Celestia whispered back as she levitated the pitcher to a glass held close to her chest, pouring herself a serving of chilled, blended fruit juices as the knot of Nobles before her squabbled and bickered over a motion to bar Twilight from being considered a ‘true’ Princess, several insisting that the Diarchy was enough social upheaval for one lifetime, while others instead pointed out a Triarchy would offer Celestia and Luna much-needed time to tend to affairs of state that had been sidelined by their cycling times on the thrones while Twilight could be coached into being a more modern-minded ruler … and the third and noticeably larger group of nobles very loudly pointed out that most nations of the modern world had long since moved on from their barbaric pasts, and perhaps Equestria should do likewise by discarding all forms of immortal leadership and embrace a mortal monarch … from the ranks of Canterlot’s own elite, of course.

“And you’re assuming that they won’t succeed?” Discord asked in his helium-pitched voice as Celestia mimed holding the pitcher close to her for a second top-up, the Solar Princess’s features flat and stern as she struggled to not scowl at the self-important fools bickering in-front of her and wasting her precious time.

“I believe that Cadence, however irrational, will do nothing to put her beloved sister-in-law’s Ascension at risk. And I know Shining Armor would sooner plunge head-first into the pits of Tartarus itself than risk hurting Twilight, even in that hilariously adorable panicked-big-brother-mode of his.” Celestia whispered back, raising an eyebrow as the verbal barbs being hurled around the room before her turned from merely stinging to venomous as Lord Buttercup of the Amber Swirl House shouted at his long-time rival, Lord Almond of the Golden Hooves.

“I bet you just want yet another princess’s skirts to hide behind like the snivelling little foal you are, but perhaps you can feed this one enough cake to her arse to swell up enough to obscure that yellow strip you inherited from your father’s best friend!”

And then it was on.

Before Princess Celestia could call for order, or the Royal Guards knew it was happening, Lord Almond flew across the room so fast that for several seconds Celestia was left flat-hooved that such an old, rotund Pony could conjure a flight spell that quickly, the two bitter old rivals flailing away at each other with their hooves like a pair of school-foals, and by the time Celestia had gotten over her surprise, the entire parliament was engaged in fisticuffs or, in the case of more cunning Lords in attendance, or perhaps just those completely lost to their fury, tearing up furniture that had been bolted to the floor to try and avoid precisely this kind of situation to use the expensive chairs and benches as either bludgeons or barricades as the pinnacle of Canterlot’s elite set to work on each other like drunken sailors brawling over the last barrel of grog.

“I thought you said Day-Court was supposed to be boring!” Discord chortled, then yelped as a stray piece of furniture flew past Celestia’s head and smashed the pitcher from her telekinetic grasp. Horn blazing with magic as she stood up from her throne, face set into a mask of anger as the Solar Princess prepared her magic for an assault of her own.

Thankfully the additional pieces of her Regalia helped magnify Celestia’s control of her power, meaning that the brawling Lords and Ladies of Canterlot were merely squished slightly as Celestia’s telekinetic magic surrounded and contained them all individually, rather than being smushed against the nearest hard surface and risking broken bones or bruised organs.

Still need to get used to the fact I have this much control now, there are so many more options available to me now that my power can be fine tuned to this extent. Celestia thought to herself with a mixed cocktail of concern and thrill surging through her as she lifted the Parliament of Equestria by the literal scruffs of their necks and turned them all to face her, the entitled gits glaring at each other and spluttering curses until they caught sight of Celestia’s expression, the whole room going silent in a matter of moments but for the slight patter of water on carpet as several members of parliament wet themselves.

“What in Tartarus is wrong with the lot of you?” Celestia grated loud enough that the closest members of parliament swayed backwards from the force of her words, and ponies in the halls outside of the parliament proper probably heard her, scowling at the Lords and Ladies as they withered or flinched at her gaze and the few Royal Guards in the room could barely repress their snickering. “You are supposed to be the elite, the pinnacle of refinement and gentlemane conduct, the beacon to which all of Equestria is supposed to look towards when things become troubled, but all I have seen and heard today is a pack of spoiled, inbred fools hurling insults and trying to score points instead of doing their jobs.”

The bulk of the dangling nobles began protesting their innocence, before Celestia shook them all in the inescapable grip of her magic until they went quiet again.

“We have the United States of Gryphonia threatening open warfare on our borders, a literal Fiend managed to sneak back into our world without tripping a single one of the many mystical counter-measures we and scores of other nations have spent millions of bits to have in place to avoid just such an incident, and need I remind anypony that we have the Changeling Queen offering complete surrender to Equestria because of an even greater threat that is waiting for us across the Badlands?” The Solar Princess raged, ignoring the squeaks of alarm and gasps that filled the room as flickers of yellow and orange light flashed through her mane and tail like streaks of fire. “Let alone the countless other threats and challenges that face our country, and our people? So for once, now if at no other time, bury your petty vendettas, put aside your personal agendas and show that you are, indeed, Noble!”

“I am cancelling Day-Court’s parliament session for the day, since it is painfully obvious none of you have your minds on your jobs today, but when we reconvene tomorrow, you will all act with the dignity, respect and gravity the title ‘noble’ implies, or so help me, I will invoke my Right of Crown, dismiss you all from Parliament and find those beings, pony or otherwise, who truly have the best interests of this nation in their hearts!” Celestia promised with a tone of grim finality, placing every member of parliament firmly on their hooves before releasing her telekinetic grip, the doors to the parliament hall swinging open as more of her magic pushed them open, a clear gesture that Celestia intended the Lords and Ladies to obey her and leave.

“But Princess Celestia, we still have the debate about the future of our government …” Lord Buttercup spluttered, one of the last of the Parliament to left in the room as the bulk of the Ponies fled, either in embarrassment or fear, from Princess Celestia.

“Contrary to what you might wish for, Lord Buttercup, none of the Alicorns are going to go away simply because our mere existence offends your sense of social order. We are Immortal, and unlike yourself, Alicorns wish the best for all life on this world, not just ponies, and especially not just Unicorns.” The Solar Princess focused the full wrath of her gaze on the aging Unicorn, who visibly quivered under her glare, his eyes going wide and his ears flattening against his head in a clear fear-response to her fury. “Our kingdom has always been a Diarchy, even when one of its Princesses was afflicted by a Nightmare Spirit. With the Ascension of Cadence, it became a Triarchy until the time Cadence became Princess of the Crystal Kingdom. With Twilight’s Ascension, it has become a Triarchy once again!”

And with that, the remaining members of Parliament fled from the hall without a care for their dignity, nearly bowling over the Royal Guards in the process.

“Well … that’s put the wind up them!” Discord sighed, squeezing out of the now-flattened pitcher and rapidly growing in size till he stood at his full height again, twisting his body around like a towel, in a way that set several Royal Guards to turning green or wincing at the cracking and popping noises the Chaos God’s body made during his futile attempt to wring the fruit-juice out of his fur and feathers. “Remind me again why you bother with this farce, Celestia? Seems to me your little ponies would be much better off if you just threw the lot of these nobles out on their well-padded flanks and ruling the old fashioned way. A few months without the Parliament’s lackeys filling the papers and radio-waves with their particular brand of poison, and most of your troubles should clear right up …right?”

“I try to be a beneficent ruler, Discord, because someday I hope to step down as Princess and allow Ponykind to rule on their own, with their own leaders, without needing to be shepherded every step along the road to true civilisation.” Celestia sagged on her throne, feeling the weight of her millenias more than ever as the echoes of the brawl, her shouting and the terrified nobles fleeing down her castle’s marble corridors slowly began to fade. “Instead, I find myself trapped by ancient promises and social customs that refuse to fade no matter how toxic and poisonous they have become over time, and any move I make to remove their influence is decried as tyranny or despotic.”

“Any attempt I make to leave the future of Equestria in the hooves of the current batch of would-be leaders would be doomed to failure the instant I was legally unable to step back in, the members of parliment would tear the country, and the people, apart to pursue their agendas once they were certain I could no longer legally stop them.” The words flowed from her, yet Celestia found herself powerless to stop. It had been so long since somebody had asked why the Solar Princess put up with so much from the ‘elite’ of Canterlot after all. “Yet every time I have tried to install a leader who can live up the ideals Ponykind needs to embrace if it is to survive my absence, the screeching from those self-same individuals riles up the entire country and forces me to abandon the plan to soothe everypony and remind them that I am the one who is trying to look after their interests, not these vain, self-centered idiots whose ambitions extend no further than their bank-accounts or egoes!”

“Have you ever thought about giving your plans a test-run?” Discord offered, walking forwards to pat Celestia on the shoulder as the Royal Guards set about ‘securing’ the room, which basically amounted to putting the broken furniture off to the side so they could take up their normal positions about the chamber. “Tell them they’re on their own, leave somepony you trust to not immediately set the world on fire in charge and just ... just wait in the wings for a few months and see how they do?”

“I have, but I also have to make sure that if the worst does happen, I can smoothly step back in without causing a legal nightmare … or start a civil war.”

“Have you considered you don’t have to do that? Think about it rationally, Cellie.” The Chaos God summoned a floating rainbow-hued pillow and plonked himself on it in-front of Celestia’s throne, putting his chin in his lion-paw and giving the Solar Princess a long, searching look. “Every time Ponykind teeters on the verge of some great calamity, you swoop in, save the day, preach at them about harmony and tolerance … and then the cycle repeats. Ponies never learn their lesson because you, for good reasons I will freely admit, always step in and take the brunt of the pain on their behalf.”

“But I am their Immortal, Discord …”

“No, you are not. Luna is, Cadence is, Twilight will be, but you are an Immortal of a much older race than ponykind, however related the two species might be. For all the effort you put into keeping ponykind from slipping back into barbarism, you are ultimately not their sole shining light, nor should you be breaking your own back trying to carry this burden alone.” Discord pointed out, laying his eagle-claw on Celestia’s shoulder as the Solar Monarch went pale-faced and tight-lipped. "Think of Equestria like a foal that keeps reaching for a candle-flame because it is entraced by the dancing light. Sooner or later, no matter how much the mother hovers over the child, she will have to leave it alone, and the foal will burn it’s hoof or nose and learn the very important lesson that all that is beautiful is not necessarily friendly.”

“And so you believe I should allow Equestria to crumble, to burn, to teach my little ponies a lesson, to make them less reliant upon myself?” Celestia’s voice was small and brittle, and Discord winced at the way she tried to withdraw from his touch.

“Definitely not anything so dire! Certainly, we hold the line while the current threats loom overhead, and while both Luna and Twilight are learning how to be Princesses, but perhaps ponykind is due for a lesson on not just how they fit into the grand scheme of things, but how lucky they have been to have you guiding and protecting them for all these millennia.” Hoping to explain himself better, Discord leaned in and gave what he hoped was a sympathetic look. “Then, when they understand just how much they have been protected and sheltered by you, you can have Luna and Twilight guide them back onto the right path and then, finally you can … well … what do you want to do?”

Celestia blinked at Discord, paused for a long, awkward moment and stared around the wrecked parliament hall, her eyes wandering over stained glass windows depicting ancient heroes protecting the weak and defenceless and the ruins of expensive furniture and whole trees worth of documents ruined in the brawl, before saying in a very quiet voice.

“After all these millennia, I don’t even know what I truly want anymore.” Celestia whispered softly enough that Discord almost believed he’d imagined it. “It has been so long since I did something purely because I, Celestia, wanted to do it, rather than the world needed from Princess Celestia.”

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

“So, Shining, always happy to see you, BBBFF, but uh … a little warning that Cadence had gone insane might have been helpful right now.” Spike hissed as Cadence, for lack of a better term, violated the upstairs portion of the Golden Oaks Library, while Spike ‘entertained’ his oldest sibling in the relative sanctuary of the kitchen and the Crusaders went into hiding around the library proper.

Separate hiding places. Spike may have liked cleaning, but there were limits to his patience, and his fetishes had taken enough of a pounding, and not the good kind either, over the past few days. At least Trixie, despite all of her … eccentricities, has the experience and control to keep the Crusaders in line and not ruining his life twenty-four-seven. Though Faust only knew what Shining Armor would make of Trixie living with Twilight ….

Scratch that, having Shining Armor and Cadence find out that four oversexed hermaphrodites were living under the same roof as Twilight and Luna, and that Luna was Twilight’s maybe-kinda-sorta-very-much-yes-but-we’re-shy girlfriend, would pretty much guarantee that Spike would have a miniature apocalypse on his claws. If Shining Armor didn’t immediately flatten every non-Sparkle within a fifty-meter radius around his sister and then try to hustle Twilight off to the Crystal Empire ‘for her own protection’ upon hearing there was a penis belonging to a non-family member sleeping under the same roof as Twilight, Spike would eat the hat Rarity had given him last hearthwarming.

Faust alone knew what Cadence would do …

“To be honest, Spike, given everything else that has happened, I’m just grateful I was able to convince Cadence to take the train to Ponyville and not fly here under her own power. With the suddenness of the Changelings surrendering and the months of stress of trying to convince an entire nation of traumatized, time-lost, ex-slave crystal ponies that seeking psychiatric help for the nightmares and phobias their previous king is responsible for is actually going to benefit them in the long-term, my wife and I have kind of been barely able to get a moment to ourselves, let alone keep up correspondence with our friends and family.”

“Uh, wow … I knew things were kinda harsh in the Empire, but that sounds … didn’t Mom send you any support?”

“Do you mean Twilight Velvet or the Princess?” Shining asked, raising an eyebrow.

“Mom as in Princess Celestia. I don’t think anything Velvet would send would be useful unless you wanted the Crystal Ponies to start breeding up their numbers … or scare them off sex for life.”

Shining gave a short snort of laughter and gave Spike an appraising look before speaking next. “Well, to be fair, Celestia sent nearly a hundred psychiatrists and a good five hundred Royal Guards, physicians and trade-ponies to help bring the Crystal Empire up to speed, but when you consider we have over fifty thousand crystal ponies who are all traumatized to the point that even the hint of black smoke in the air can send them screaming in terror … we’re lucky the Empire has held out for as long as it has.”

“But you left in a great screaming hurry to come deal with Queen Bug-Britches?” Spike asked in a light tone, but Shining’s face screwed up into a scowl all the same.

“She’s a threat to the world, Spike. She overpowered Celestia …”

“Only because Mom wasn’t wearing all of her Regalia and didn’t want to flash-fry a few hundred Ponies by accident.” The Drake pointed out before deciding that discretion was the better part of valor when Shining’s scowl twisted even further.

“… Overpowered Celestia and then proceeded to hold the entirety of Canterlot hostage, and showed amazing tactical fore-sight in putting over a hundred changelings in the room that directly connected to the vaults where the Elements were stored … after making the Bearers fight another hundred Changelings in a running brawl before that.” The white-coated Royal Consort finished, glaring down at the young Drake before sighing and shaking his head. “And Celestia let her back into the capital. What were you expecting, Cadence and I to just shrug and mind our own business? You know who, and what, Celestia is, do you really think we’re going to just let a being who has shown herself to be tactically and socially savvy enough to blind-side the entirety of Canterlot Command to get within range of the Princesses again, especially given her agenda seems to be enslaving ponykind as a source of food?”

“But enlisting my sister to help kick-start Celestia’s common sense is secondary to the reason I am here today.” Shining said, lowering his head until his muzzle almost touched Spike’s snout. “You can probably guess by the way Cadence and I are acting the real reason why we’re here.”

“Cadence is pregnant?”

“…”

“Flash Sentry is about to propose to Twilight?”

“…”

“Celestia is pregnant?”

“…”

“… You know that I can’t tell you who it is, right?”

“You know I will tell Twilight where you hide your porn if you don’t tell me who this ‘marefriend’ of hers is, right?”

“Oh please.” Spike scoffed and waved a talon dismissively at Shining Armor. “Twilight already busted my stash a couple of months ago. That threat holds nothing against the candle that is Twilight’s ‘pervy things are bad’ lecture.”

“How about for a crate’s worth of prime-grade Crystal Empire diamonds, emerald-cut and completely free of inclusions?”

“Shining, the last time you tried that offer, I got a ‘crate’ that was barely bigger than a shoe-box, nearly full of packing peanuts and only held about six of those diamonds … and Twilight claimed half of them for her transmutation experiments.”

“What if I said, this time, that it would be a crate the size of a draft-horse, full of your body-weight in stones?”

Spike paused for a moment to consider the offer. There was just … something about gems from the Crystal Empire that made them so damn tasty that even the finest grade of gems from Equestria's mines paled in comparison, but the protective measures Princess Celestia and Princess Cadence had put in place to protect the Empire from overzealous merchants or hungry dragons had driven the cost of gems from that part of the world through the roof …

Even if he saved up six months of his allowance, Spike would be lucky to be able to buy a handful of rubies or sapphires from the Crystal Empire’s mines, let alone the mind-numbingly delicious Crystal Empire diamonds. And here was Shining Armor, promising Spike’s own body-weight in those gems, of the highest possible grade, cut just the way he liked them.

And all he’d have to do was say one name …

“Not even for that, Shining. Twilight’s trust is too important to me.” Wiping a trickle of drool away from the corner of his mouth, Spike stepped away from Shining Armor, fighting down the surge of resentment that, once again, he was having to put up with this kind of mess because of his pony ‘family’. “And as her older brother, you should trust that Twilight can handle a relationship, especially with her friends supporting her.”

“But she’s naive! You know that! This could just be a ploy to turn her against the Kingdom, or to corrupt the elements, or even~!” Shining’s frustrated rant was cut short as a pink feather wafted into the room, followed by an increasing sense of pressure that drew both males’ eyes to the entrance to the kitchen, where a vigorously ruffled Princess Cadence stood, chest heaving, horn glowing with telekinetic power and her face set into a terrifying mask of excitement, with a horrified-looking Trixie floating in the air, wrapped in the Princess’s pink magic.

“Squeeeeeeeee…”

“Trixie is absolutely certain the terms of her parole do not include this! Spike, please fetch Mistress Twilight before the Pink Devil here does something that Trixie will regret!”

Shining’s mouth flopped open in shock, his head whipping from Cadence and Trixie and back to Spike so rapidly the young Drake hoped the bones in the stallion’s neck wouldn’t disintegrate under the stress, before Royal Consort Shining Armor, one of the bravest and most decorated officers in the Royal Guard, Husband to the Princess of Love and national hero in his own right, fainted dead away in his chair.

“… I am not paid nearly enough for this.” Spike muttered darkly as Cadence’s hooves found themselves on each side of his face and began squeezing his cheeks, while the pink-coated demon before him began to squee ever louder.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

“So, you two are a thing now, huh?” Rainbow Dash asked, eyeing Applejack and Fluttershy as the two flushed and shifted awkwardly on the blanket the farm-mare had put over the hay to keep the sharp edges from poking them in uncomfortable places.

Extremely raw and overly sensitive places at that. Rainbow was fairly certain she’d take a few days at the least to recover from her plowing lessons with Big Mac, and judging from how Fluttershy kept on edging closer to Applejack and then scooting away …

“That’s a big hell naw, an’ y’all are dumber than a post for even thinkin’ that, Dash. ‘Parently ah was so crazed from the drugs in the cake ah had mah way with poor Fluttershy an’ Zecora. Still tryin’ to figure out how ah’m gonna make it right.” The farm-mare sighed and pulled her much-abused Stetson down over her face, while Fluttershy squeaked, turned almost as pink as Pinkie and hid behind her wings.

“But you left me to get my … launching pad get completely renovated by Big Mac’s Little Mac?”

“Girl, there’s some things yah just don’t talk ‘bout in front o’ an Apple, an’ mah brother’s tool is one o’ those things!”

“Oh come on, you know that thing is impressive. And can I just say … boy’s got the skills to pay the bills.”

“Uhm … how … skilled?” Fluttershy stammered, steam blowing through her feathers, while Applejack just spluttered and buried her muzzle in her tankard of cider.

“Okay, you know how I have got a stable of partners? Well, keep that in mind and then consider I’d throw them all out on their asses if Big Mac agreed to go steady with me.” Rainbow gushed, guiltily enjoying the way Applejack’s eyes looked like they were ready to burn holes in the blue dare-devil flyer. “He hits every spot you can think of just right, he didn’t just ravage me like a Stallion does when they’re over the edge, even when we both had those damn drugs running through our systems. He’s so careful, but so thorough. I gave up counting my orgasms after the seventh one …”

“Dash, ah will kick your plot through that wall if’n y’all don’t find something else to discuss …”

“Uhm, maybe Rainbow could talk to me quietly … over there? And you can try to wake Pinkie up?” Fluttershy said in a, for her at least, unusually loud and firm tone, eyeballing Applejack as the butter-coloured mare shuffled over to Rainbow’s side and leaned in close. “I need to have a talk with Rainbow Dash, in private, so if you could ...”

Nodding mutely, and looking more than a little pale considering just a few moments before Applejack looked like she was about to spontaneously combust on the spot, the farm-mare edged away from the two pegasus and prepared herself to try and wake Pinkie up. The party-mare had made the mistake of believing that ‘hard’ cider wouldn’t be that difficult for her to handle, much like how Pinkie could easily polish off an entire keg of normal cider on her own. Instead, now she lay half-buried in hay after just a few tankards, giggling and mumbling in her sleep.

The girls had learned the hard way that Pinkie was a snuggle-fiend when drunk and asleep and, as several bruises around Rainbow and Applejack's necks could attest, loathe to give up her victims.

“Uh, you mean how long he lasts, or are we talking about …”

“I want length, width, size of the flare, how long he takes to reach orgasm and what his favourite positions are.” Rainbow flinched as she found herself on the receiving end of a full-powered Stare, the other pegasus somehow pulling out a pen and pad of note-paper out of her mane. “Also what is the volume of the semen he produces, and how many times he can come before the volume began to diminish.”

“Flutters … I’m really not that comfortable about erk!” Rainbow stuttered, before the end of the pen poked her in the nose, and Fluttershy leaned in uncomfortably close, close enough that Rainbow got a whiff of something both familiar and musky coming off the other mare.

Oh dear sweet filly-fooling Faust!

“You either think really hard about it, or we go back to my place and I get out my measuring equipment and we work our way up the list until you can tell me which one is closest in dimensions to Little Mac.” Fluttershy hissed, her Stare only increasing in power as Rainbow Dash felt her will to resist fading away like a sandcastle on the shore-line as the tide came in. “And Applejack will tell you I have more than enough tools to help you accurately remember everything you can about Little Mac if your memory starts to fade.”

Rainbow Dash’s reply was a muffled, terrified squeak.

“That’s better. Now, start at the beginning, and don’t skip anything.” Fluttershy said, settling herself right by Rainbow Dash’s side, her wings moving to hold the pen and notepad more naturally as Fluttershy turned her Stare down … slightly.