Twilight barely remembered departing from Rarity's boutique, and was trudging along behind Sunset now on automatic, lost in her thoughts.

A thestral and a demon living in an Equestrian village, she wondered, and if I'm insinuating correctly, there are even more than just the two... Years, she said... All these monsters right under our noses the whole time... And she was so terrified of the thought of ever leaving... “Rrrgh!” Curse this stupid empathy nonsense! How do ponies live with this menace?

“You know, you were extremely rude back there.”

“Huh?” The purple unicorn looked to her companion and found herself walking directly into her. An untangling of a pony pile later, Sunset huffed as she dusted herself off.

“Ugh. Are you even awake right now, Twi?”

“Yes! Sorry, sorry!” The purple mare held her head low to the ground, fully prepared for her coming admonishment. Spike nearly slid down her back, but he managed to keep his balance.

“I honestly can't believe how you've acted today. With the thestral I excused it because she wasn't exactly a bastion of etiquette herself, and you know, it really looked like you two were hitting it off.”

“We weren't becoming friends--”

“But that... That was the other reason I hadn't told you about them! You would have approached this task with entirely the wrong mindset and ended up ruining everything we've been working so hard for!”

Twilight continued to wilt. The purple dragon on her back wisely chose to keep silent.

“I am amazed at how generous that pony was to you with how you disrespected her like that.” The elder unicorn's hoof met with her face as she sighed heavily. “We asked you to do one thing, Twilight. Make some friends! I know you're not the most social pony out there but it's not pulling teeth!” Sunset turned back around to face their eventual destination.

Twilight mentally chided herself for forgetting her manners so easily. The Twilights had raised her better than that! Even if these were exactly what had fascinated her the last few years and had been the focus of her research, and learning about their first-hoof experience would be incredible -- ooh it gets me all gooey inside just thinking about it! -- she had been exceedingly rude to both Rainbow Dash and Rarity. Inexcusably so.

“Now,” The false pony looked up at the sound of Sunset's voice, “I may end up regretting this, but the last item on our list of things to check is the musical arrangements. Spoiler alert: I know that the mare in charge of this is not a normal pony either, and I have to stress how extremely important it is you do not approach her at all like you have the other two. Can you find your manners before we go meet with her?”

Twilight nodded vigorously. “Yes ma'am! I swear I will be nothing but polite from here on!”

Sunset knew Twilight's word to be good, so she did not press the issue further. “Excellent. Now it shouldn't be too... far...” her ears twitched at the sound of birds singing... in key? “You hear that?”

“Yeah...” The three started swiveling their heads and ears in every direction to locate the source of the odd sound, but it seemed to bounce off of every building.

“I think...” Sunset looked toward a crowd of ponies huddled around a bush who seemed to be watching something on the other side. Obviously... “We are about to find the mare in question.”

Twilight couldn't fully contain her glee as she let out an elated squeak in anticipation. But she quickly stopped herself and put on her serious face. She made a promise. Contrary to what her prodding Rarity may have made others think, she respected those deeply, and she would not break this one. She started after the other mare, who had already begun worming her way through the cluster of ponies.

Deep breath, Twilight. You can handle a group of ponies. “Excuse me. Pardon me. Whoops! Uh, sorry. Could you step aside please, sir?”

“Eeyup.”

“Thank you.” The unicorn and youngling drake stepped past the oddly familiar red stallion (must have seen him earlier today somewhere...) to finally rejoin with Sunset, who was waiting patiently for her what had turned out to be a park. Her head turned back forward, and Twilight followed her gaze to the source of the unusual bird choir.

As it happens, it was an actual bird choir. Avian creatures of all shapes and sizes were sitting on a petrified tree, singing together in organized harmony, as opposed to the mildly annoying randomness she normally heard from their sort. And directing them was a pale yellow pegasus with a pink mane and a plain blue cloche hat.

“Is that her?” Twilight asked.

“Yep,” Sunset stretched her legs. “Can't recall her name, but I definitely remember her face from the color photos in my folder back home-- uh Twilight?”

The younger mare started toward the pegasus once she had noticed a lull in the singing. “I'll handle this.”

“Twi--”

“I won't screw this up; I promised. Hold this.” She levitated Spike off of her back – who giggled at the sparks of dark magic tickling his scales – And trotted confidently up to the tree.

“...well, if you think you might be sick, Mr. Bluejay, then, um, perhaps you should sit this out, maybe...” The lone bluejay chirped, “Oh no! I don't think you wouldn't be able to do it; you have a wonderful voice! I just don't want you to hurt yourself...”

The bird appeared to be ashamed, and it descended to the grass.

“Oh, thank you for thinking of your health, Mr. Bluejay~. I promise I'll make it up to you as best I can.” The pegasus raised her head back to the rest of the feathered chorus. “Alright everyone, from the top. Now, follow me please. A-one, a-two, a-one two three--”

“Hello!”

Every living thing in Twilight's vision jumped at her greeting, most especially the pony, who darted into a nearby bush. The birds all flew off as well.

Sunset and Spike both facehooved. “Well, at least she tried...”

Twilight inwardly panicked. This had already gone terribly and she hadn't even said two words! Oh, What are you supposed to do in this sort of situation??? Apologize? Is it apologize-- Yes! That's right!

“Oh my, I'm sorry! I didn't mean to frighten your birds!” The pegasus poked her head out of her protective foliage. “I-I'm just here to check up on the music, and it is sounding beautiful.”

The timid mare crawled out of the bush, but she failed to meet Twilight's too-wide grin, looking at the incredibly interesting ground instead. They stood there in awkward silence for longer than the unicorn felt was necessary.

Uh, Uhmm, what do I say? Twilight looked briefly back to Sunset, hoping if she thought hard enough she would come save her from this. Tell her your name! I mean, it's only polite! Gotta stay polite, Twilight!

“I'm Twilight Sparkle.” Silence.

Oooh, this is bad, really bad! If I don't fix this then the birds won't sing at the Celebration and it'll all be ruined and Celestia will banish me or throw me in a dungeon or throw me in a dungeon in the place she banished me to and the Dark Mare will return and everything will be chaos and suffering and it'll be all. My. Fault! “...What's your name?”

The pegasus began to cower as she realized she had to respond. “Um-- I'm Fluttershy...”

She answered! Yes! You can do this, girl! Twilight leaned in closer. “I'm sorry, what was that?”

“Um... my name is fluttershy...”

The unicorn leaned in even more. “Diiiiidn't quite catch that.”

All Twilight got from the mare this time was a high-pitched whimper as she hid her face.

Twilight's eyes flitted about as she struggled to pretend nothing was wrong. No, nothing at all was going to explode or become eternal night here! She caught sight of the tree's branches, where the birds were sitting once more. Oh, thank the heavens. “Well, um, it looks like your birds are back! So I guess everything's in order. Er, keep up the good work!”

The pegasus continued whimpering even as Twilight turned to leave. She returned to Sunset and Spike, who met her halfway. “Well, that was easy.”

“A baby dragon!”

Before she could make a 180 to inspect the source of the shout, Twilight found herself flung into the air from behind. She landed in a flowerbed, mercifully saving her from head trauma this time, but a quick inspection of her side revealed that her shell had fractured further. Perfect.

“Oh, I've never seen a baby dragon before!” The false unicorn looked to see that her assailant was in fact the pegasus, currently excitedly examining Spike from every angle. He's sooooo cute!”

“Well, well, well!” The drakeling had a smug look on his face as he looked back at Twilight, who had gotten up and returned to the group.

Sunset snorted. “A few minutes ago you didn't want to be cute.”

“That was different!”

“Psst! Sunset!” Twilight gestured to the cracks along her right side frantically.

Oh, horsefeathers. “C'mere and stand close to me. I'll block it from view.”

“Oh my, he talks~! I didn't know dragons could talk!” The hat-bearing mare ignored the unicorns. That's just so incredibly wonderful-- I just don't even know what to say!”

Sunset loudly cleared her throat. “Well, in that case, we'd better be going! You can have that back.” She levitated Spike back onto Twilight.

The pegasus mare flew in front of them. “Wait, wait! What's his name?”

The dragon, clearly enjoying the attention, responded for them. “I'm Spike!”

“Hi Spike! I'm Fluttershy.” Fluttershy touched down on Twilight's left to speak with the hatchling, a spring in her step and an infectious smile on her muzzle. Twilight could swear she heard a faint buzzing for some reason. “Oh wow, a talking dragon! What do dragons talk about?”

“Well, what do ya wanna know?”, Spike countered.

“Absolutely everything~.”

Sunset groaned.

“Well,” the scaly child began as the pegasus fell a step behind to more comfortably look at him, “I started out as a cute little purple egg...”

While Spike and Fluttershy spoke animatedly about the young drake's life Twilight and Sunset walked on with rapt attention and apparent boredom, respectively. The purple mare leaned over to whisper in the other unicorn's ear, her eyes looking back surreptitiously to the buttery-colored pegasus.

“Sunset, what is she?”

Though she was relieved that Twilight hadn't scared the pony off this time, Sunset couldn't help but feel the prospect of all the mythozoology they had encountered was going to derail her charge utterly. Nonetheless, she whispered back; “Apparently she's a changeling.”

Twilight's eyes began to glow brightly as a grin wide as an ocean cracked upon her face with a gasp.

“But she's been observed doing things that require higher thought processes that a normal changeling isn't supposed to have, so the princess thinks she might be some kind of changeling leader.”

Twilight's smile somehow became even wider as she gasped again in delight. “Does that mean--?”

“No, Ponyville is not secretly a changeling hive. We checked. So apparently she's alone; no comrades and no thralls of any sort. And her disguise isn't even anypony who had lived here before, either, so she must have replaced the pegasus elsewhere and never needed a new form.”

“Oooh-- we gotta let this go on; she might tell her story to Spike!”

“Honestly, at this point?” Sunset turned her head to Twilight in full. “We've done everything we need to for the preparations, and I'd like to just unwind for a bit at the library.”

Twilight instinctively began to protest before she remembered the library was by far her favorite place to be in this town as of yet, and after all, she still had work to do. She was torn. Help save Equestria from certain doom... Learn about a changeling in pony... She took a note from the filly from that morning and weaponized her puppy-dog eyes. “Can we walk there slowly?”

Sunset's will crumpled like a wadded up paper. “...Whatever, fine.”

“...and that's the story of my whole entire life! Well, up until today. Do you wanna hear about today?“

The leisurely stroll back to the tree library had taken until the beginning of sundown, and Spike's tale-spinning (which he smartly excluded certain sensitive information from) had lasted the entire way. Even Twilight's enthusiasm had waned utterly. Please say no...

Fluttershy, however, had listened to the dragon the whole time with eyes wide as dinner plates. “Oh yes, please!”

Sunset had had enough. They were at the door now, so this was where it ended. “Oh wow, how did we get here so fast!?”

Twilight also feigned surprise. “Oh! We are here! How about that? This is where we're staying while in Ponyville, and my poor baby dragon needs his sleep.”

Spike looked back at the unicorn, mildly annoyed at the notion. “No I don't-- whoa!” Suddenly he was on the ground, grumbling under his breath. “You wanna talk about rude...”

“Aww, wook at that. He's so sweepy he can't keep his widdle bawance!” Twilight looked up to the pegasus, praying she would buy it.

She did. In fact, she swooped down and took Spike in her forehooves and led the way inside. “Oh, you poor thing. We simply must get you to best right away.”

Sunset caught the changeling-pegasus in her magic before she could go too far in and separated the drake from her embrace. “And we will get right on that! Good night, Miss! We'll see you at dawn!” The yellow mare was levitated out the door and said door was slammed shut, leaving the trio in darkness.

“Finally!” Twilight breathed a sigh of relief. The day was finally over, and she hadn't made any dumb friends! Victory!

“Seriously, Spike,” Sunset fumbled around for the light switch on the wall with her magic. “We had spent long enough at the unicorn's place just watching her play dress-up with Twilight. I'm tired, I'm sure she's tired too, and we have to catch some early z's so we'll be awake for the ceremony.”

“And I need to get back to my research! We're running low on time, and I haven't even gotten started!” Twilight's glowing eyes started searching the wall for the switch as well. “Where is it...?”

As if in response, the lights came on, revealing that the three were not alone. The entire first floor of the library was full of ponies, each with a smile on their faces.

The silence was all too brief before they all shouted at the top of their lungs:

“SURPRIIIIISE!!”

Author's Notes:

Here I am saying I need more time to finish Fluttershy's introduction, and I end up basically copy-pasting the transcript of the show anyway... Honestly though, I couldn't find anything I really wanted to actually change about the scene, save for her talk with the bird.

Also, I haven't actualy mentioned this here, but I have been drawing the mane six as I publish these chapters. Fluttershy can be found here, and the rest should all be on the first page of the gallery. Only one left, and she's coming next week!

Spike will get his time to shine later, I promise.

-N