“It was a horde of nightmares,” Fluttershy said, pacing back and forth before her assembled audience. The animals watched her with bated breath, hanging on every word. “I’d never seen something so frightening before in my life. We made first contact about an hour past midday, when—”

“Um.” A timid voice interrupted Fluttershy. She glanced over in irritation.

“Uh,” Fake Fluttershy wilted as Fluttershy glared at her.

“What?”

“Well, I was just thinking—um, are you telling what happened in order? If so, you skipped a teensy tiny part.”

“What part?” Fluttershy was getting annoyed. The memory of the pink was getting to her. She shook her head to clear the images of blood and gore away. “Chrysalis died, I recovered, we started building our army, I dealt with you and the changelings and chased off the Ursa Major. Then Pinkie Pie cloned herself and nearly destroyed all of Ponyville.”

“Yes, but ah, before that, there was um, Sombra. You know, the Crystal Empire, and all the ponies…”

“Oh. Right.” Fluttershy grimaced. “That.”

“I didn’t want to interrupt, but I thought it was sort of important, and—”

“Yes, yes.” Fluttershy waved a hoof. “Shut up now.”

Angel kicked Fluttershy in the hoof. That sort of hurt. She glared down at him, but he glared up at her. Fluttershy had forgotten what it was like to have a friend who pushed back.

“Sorry,” she said. “I guess I missed a bit. Yes, Sombra. Well, I’m not sure how to explain this one. It all started when Twilight was summoned by Princess Celestia …”

----

Fluttershy trotted towards Ponyville with Fake Fluttershy by her side. The dirt road was clear of any ponies – her animals made sure of that.

“Brief me,” Fluttershy said. “Where am I going and why?”

“Well,” Fake Fluttershy had to scurry to keep up with Fluttershy’s long stride. “Twilight had to take some kind of test, and she’s going to the Crystal Empire.”

“The what?”

“It’s a civilization that disappeared for a thousand years. Shining Armor and Cadence are already there, but there’s something dangerous there that—”

“Shining Armor and Cadence? Celestia sent those two idiots?”

“W-well, they’re not idiots. Shining Armor’s the captain of the Royal Guard and Cadence is—”

“—An incompetent who couldn’t even stop Chrysalis from impersonating her? Very impressive.”

“W-well, they might be useful. Do you want me to go with the others or…?”

“I’ll go.” Fluttershy picked up her pace. “There’s nothing pressing at the moment, and this could be dangerous.”

“Okay. What do you want me to do when you’re gone? I could ask Longfoot of course, but he doesn’t like me that much and uh…”

“What?” Fluttershy stopped dead in her tracks and looked at Fake Fluttershy. “You can talk to animals?”

“Um, yes?”

“Why? How?”

“Well, changelings can copy the abilities of the pony they impersonate, so I, uh, picked it up. I’m still not that good at it but—”

“That’s useful.” Fluttershy was surprised to hear herself say it. “Fine. In that case, remain in Ponyville. Longfoot will be in charge in case anything happens. You order the other changelings if he needs it, and interpret for him.”

“Don’t you want some of us to come with you?” Fake Fluttershy ventured. “If it’s dangerous…”

“We’re taking a train into a freezing wasteland,” Fluttershy snapped. “The animals aren’t full trained yet, and they’re only capable if we’ve got overwhelming numbers, which we won’t.”

“And the changelings? I, we—”

“You lot freeze to death in cold temperatures, just like you die in the heat. You should know that.” Fluttershy turned and resuming walking briskly towards Ponyville. “I’ll have to count on my friends for this one.”

“But you’re going to fight?” Fake Fluttershy scrambled after Fluttershy. “Or, I mean, if you’re with everypony else—”

“If I get a chance, I’ll deal with whatever monster is threatening the Crystal Empire.” Fluttershy lifted one wing, and showed Fake Fluttershy the knife concealed by the feathers. “But if I can’t do it, it’ll just be the Elements of Harmony to the rescue. Again.”

“Well, uh, good luck.”

“Luck is for idiots without strategy.” Fluttershy growled, stomping faster to get to the train on time. “Since I’m working with Shining Armor and Cadence, I suppose I’ll need a lot of it.”

----

“And so, we left for the Crystal Empire.” Fluttershy coughed. Her throat was sort of dry. “It was a boring trip. But the Crystal Empire was something else. For one thing, we met Sombra. He was a shadow, half-real but exceptionally dangerous. And when we made it into the Crystal Empire, we found that ponies there were extremely unhelpful…”

----

The Crystal Empire was an amazing sight. Pure crystal made up the buildings, furniture, even the ground. That was the good part.

The bad part was the ponies.

“I wish I could help you. Really.” The crystal pony tried to walk past Rainbow Dash.

“Come on! You gotta know something!” Rainbow Dash moved to block the pony.

“But I don’t have any information.” The tired-looking pony walked past Rainbow Dash.

Rainbow Dash glared at the pony’s back and then flew off in disgust. Fluttershy sighed. Wonderful. They needed to find out about Sombra and what threat he posed, but no pony was even willing to talk.

“Oh, um, excuse me—” Fluttershy tried to attract the attention of the slumping crystal ponies. They completely ignored her, walking past without a glimmer of interest in their eyes.

This was stupid. Fluttershy ground her teeth and tried to look innocent and patient, just as she supposed the timid Fluttershy she was supposed to be would. These crystal ponies were walking doorknobs.

“Oh, hello, I was just wondering—” She tried to mimic Fake Fluttershy’s timid language.

The pony she was talking to walked on without even looking at her.

That was it. Fluttershy’s patience left her in an instant. She marched over to a table where two ponies were chatting. They ignored her. Fluttershy raised her hoof and prepared to smack both of their stupid little heads until they talked—

No. Fluttershy lowered her hoof reluctantly. Control yourself.

“Oh, that’s okay. You all look really busy…”

She slunk away, trying to resist the urge to grab the nearest pony and shout. Maintaining this act was harder than she remembered. Or rather, she was so much different than she had been. Maybe she should have left this to Fake Fluttershy after all…

No. Fluttershy shook her head. Sombra was too dangerous to trust this to that fake. Time to meet up with the others. They had to work together to solve this one. Especially because Fluttershy still hadn’t figured out how she was going to stab a giant evil cloud to death with a knife.

----

Angel tapped Fluttershy on the hoof and she looked down and listened for a moment.

“That’s right. I had no idea how to harm something so magical as Sombra,” Fluttershy admitted. She sighed and cleared her throat again. A trio of mice rushed forwards, a cup of hot tea balanced between them.

“Thank you.” Fluttershy lifted the cup up and sipped gratefully. “Yes, it was a mess. I didn’t have a plan other than aiding Twilight at the time, but thankfully that worked out well. We found the library of the Crystal Empire, and found that the way to combat Sombra’s hold on the crystal ponies was to raise their spirits with a fair. It was a good plan, although some odd things happened as well…”

----

Twilight had just finished explaining how the tradition of the Crystal Fair was important to bring together the crystal ponies to Shining Armor and Cadence. She walked back into the room where the other five Elements of Harmony were standing.

Fluttershy inwardly grimaced as she caught a glimpse of Shining Armor and Cadence sitting together in the throne room. Well, there were two useless ponies. Cadence could barely keep the barrier spell running, and Shining Armor, who was supposed to be the best at barriers was now useless. Oh wonderful.

But Twilight had a plan. The Crystal Fair might actually be useful in Fluttershy’s opinion – motivating the crystal ponies was good, and the power of love wasn’t inconceivable. Even Cadence might be able to use it if they generated enough good feelings with every pony.

Twilight looked at her friends gravely. Fluttershy waited for her generic words of encouragement, or perhaps a request that they all help. But then Twilight opened her mouth and began to sing.

“Princess Cadence needs our help

Her magic will not last forever

I think we can do it

But we need to work together

We have to get this right

Yes, we have to make them see

We can save the Crystal Ponies with their history,”

Wait. What? Fluttershy tried not to gape. Twilight levitated the book on the Crystal Empire onto the table and flipped it open. What was she doing? But then the page landed on two ponies covered in armor charging at each other. Rainbow Dash started singing—

“It says that they liked jousting,”

Pages flipped. Rarity cut in.

“They flew a flag of many hues,”

Applejack started singing. Well, it looked like they were doing this. Fluttershy desperately sought for a good line.

“Made sweets of crystal berries,”

Oh. Her turn. Fluttershy looked at the page desperately.

“They had a petting zoo with tiny ewes!”

Actually, those looked like rams, but it got the job done. Now all the others were singing. Fluttershy desperately tried to mimic them.

“Oh, we have to get this right

Yes, we have to make them see

We can save the Crystal Ponies with their history!”

Pinkie Pie pulled out a gigantic twisted horn out of nowhere.

“There was a crystal flugelhorn

That every pony liked to play,”

Twilight cut in with what Fluttershy desperately hoped was the last verse.

“And the Crystal Kingdom anthem

Can you learn it in a day?”

No such luck. At least Fluttershy knew the refrain now.

“Oh, we have to get this right

Yes, we have to make them see

We can save the Crystal Ponies with their history!”

The song ended. The others rushed off to make preparations for the Crystal Fair. Fluttershy stayed where she was for a moment, and just stared at nothing.

“…What just happened?”

----

“And of course, we had to try to raise everypony’s spirits even while Sombra was knocking on the front door.” Fluttershy grimaced and rubbed her back with one hoof just at the memory. “That wasn’t fun.”

----

The sky was blue and clear; the ponies were happy. It was a wonderful illusion. Fluttershy had to resist glancing up at the sky to see the telltale flickering as Cadence’s spell slowly failed. It amazed her that the crystal ponies were buying the charade of the Crystal Fair. It amazed her even more that she was going alone with it.

Every instinct in Fluttershy cried out to search for the Crystal Heart herself, to bring the fight to Sombra. But she’d caught a glimpse of his form when they’d been heading to the Crystal Empire – she had a realistic idea of how that would go.

But why, of all the possible things she could be doing to help defeat Sombra was Fluttershy jousting?

The crystal empire ponies were in the stands, cheering and munching on snacks. The narrow jousting lane had been set up with colorful pendants and flags. Across from Fluttershy, the opponent waved at the crowd and adjusted her lance.

Rainbow Dash. Fluttershy closed her eyes and tried not to think about slapping her friend across her helmeted head. Of the many qualities she was sure her friend possessed, restraint wasn’t one of them. She could already tell what her role in this event was going to be.

Pinkie Pie blew the flugelhorn and both pegusi charged.

Fluttershy whimpered and tried to act as clumsy as possible. The lance was heavy, but she carried it much more easily than her friends would have guessed. She could see Rainbow Dash speeding towards her, lance aimed dead-center at Fluttershy’s chest.

It was very hard to resist the urge to side-step at the last moment and clothesline Rainbow Dash with her lance. But Fluttershy mastered her impulses and instead flinched just at the fight moment.

Wham. Rainbow Dash’s lance struck Fluttershy dead-on.

Fluttershy and her lance went flying. Miraculously she didn’t break her bones falling, but landed in a conveniently placed haystack. Even still—

That hurt. Rainbow Dash trotted over and Fluttershy resisted the urge to smack her in the face with her lance.

“Isn’t there…somepony else who can take over the jousting demonstration with you?” Fluttershy gasped.

Rainbow Dash scoffed.

“The fate on an entire empire rests on us showing these ponies a good time! But y’know, if that isn’t important to you…”

Fluttershy pretended to whimper into her hooves. Internally, she wondered why Rainbow Dash hadn’t chosen Pinkie Pie or Applejack to joust with. Probably because they might actually win.

“Okay, okay, I’ll take it easy on you next time. But not too easy – I’ve got a reputation to maintain!”

Fluttershy groaned and got to her hooves as Rainbow Dash trotted off. How many more jousts was she going to have to do? It wasn’t as if the lances were padded. Moreover, Fluttershy could sense Cadence’s magic growing weaker by the moment.

Twilight had better get the Crystal Heart soon, or things would get really bad.

----

Every animal in the cottage held their breath as Fluttershy described Spike falling from the top of the castle, the Crystal Heart shining as Sombra raced towards it. Fluttershy tried to convey the scale of the scene, the drama of the moment. She of course remembered the events a bit differently…

----

The pure light of the Crystal Heart engulfed the kingdom in magical energy, shattering King Sombra’s dark crystals. High above the kingdom Fluttershy saw the shape of Sombra screaming as the light struck him and his body fractured – and then broke.

The remains of what had been Sombra were blown out of the Crystal Kingdom as the magical light transformed every pony into shining crystal versions of themselves. Above the awestruck crowd, an aurora of lights burst into the sky, creating a magical sight visible for miles.

From her perch on a tower balcony, Fluttershy remained frozen, still ready to dive out and strike at Sombra before he could capture the Crystal Heart. She was still struggling to deal with the image of Shining Armor tossing Cadence at the Crystal Heart, let alone the sudden reversal of the seemingly hopeless situation.

As the ponies below began to cheer and whoop in celebration, Fluttershy finally managed to come back from her state of shock. She glanced at the concealed knife she had kept under her wing the entire time. In disgust she tossed it over one shoulder.

“Stupid magic barriers saving everypony at the last moment. What in Tartarus was that power earlier? Princess of Love? More like Princess of Magical Explosions. Who even puts all the entire defense of a kingdom in an easily-hidden crystal heart anyways? Ever heard of soldiers? And how in Equestria did these idiots think trusting a unicorn with a red horn was a good idea? Who makes a kingdom out crystal anyways?”

She kicked a pebble down the street as the Crystal Empire ponies cheered and celebrated, still muttering.

“And why not send Celestia or Luna, or both? The fate of an entire empire rests on a single unicorn and her friends? Send some royal guards, or at least a few body doubles to get eaten by that damn cloud…”

It was a few hours before Fluttershy had composed herself enough to smile and chat happily with her friends on the way back to Canterlot.

----

“And that was that.” Fluttershy let the animals cheer in celebration for a moment before clearing her throat. “Twilight passed her test, Shining Armor and Cadence moved to the Crystal Empire to rule the ponies, and everypony was happy. There was even a song.”

Angel’s ears perked up and the other animals chattered in interest. A song?

“Yes. Don’t ask why. Ponies just start breaking into songs now and then.” Fluttershy grimaced. “I have no idea why.”

----

Fluttershy and the other Elements of Harmony sans Twilight Sparkle waited outside of the throne room for Twilight to return. Spike was nervous, fretting about Twilight’s so-called test, but Fluttershy was calm and impatient.

She knew Twilight had passed. Rarity, Pinkie Pie, Rainbow Dash, and Applejack knew Twilight had passed. Rocks and dust bunnies knew Twilight had passed. Even Cadence and Shining Armor had probably picked up on that fact. Who cared if Spike was the one to deliver the Crystal Heart? Defeating a tyrannical unicorn king and saving a nation was a passing grade in any pony’s book.

The doors swung open and Twilight trotted out, a huge smile on her face.

“I passed!”

Fluttershy smiled and pretended to look surprised as the others cheered. She prepared some happy comments but to her surprise Rarity stepped forwards. The instant she started singing Fluttershy knew what was coming.

“You were prepared to do your best

Had what it takes to pass the test

All those doubts you can dismiss

Turns out you were”

Twilight and Rarity began walking forwards. Fluttershy sensed the others moving behind them and realized she was going to have to ad-lib like crazy. Good thing the lyrics were easy to predict.

“Prepared for this!”

Applejack trotted next to Twilight and put a hoof on her shoulder.

“You clearly have just what it takes”

Pinkie Pie teetered by on two gigantic stilts. Where had they come from?

“To pass a test with such high stakes”

Fluttershy flew by, a smile on her face. Huh. The words were coming to her. This was easier than she’d thought.

“We knew for sure you would prevail”

A voice floated down from the heavens. Rainbow Dash lying on a cloud.

“Since when does Twilight Sparkle ever fail?”

Fluttershy found herself marching out of the castle, Twilight following them as they kept singing.

“All those doubts that you can dismiss

Trust yourself and you cannot miss”

As if by magic Applejack, Rarity, and Pinkie Pie turned and sang in together,

“Turns out you were”

Twilight smiled and sang back,

“Turns out I was”

Fluttershy found herself flying next to Rainbow Dash in the air? What? But Spike was singing too,

“Turns out you were”

Twilight sang back,

“Turns out I was,”

Fluttershy found herself repeating the song with the other ponies. They went through three more repetitions while they boarded the train to Ponyville. Only after they were traveling into the tunnel did Rarity rest her hoof on Twilight’s and sing softly,

“Turns out you were”

Fluttershy join everypony but Twilight in relief for the last line of the song.

“Prepared for this!”

Then the Elements of Harmony began laughing and chatting again, as if nothing had happened. Fluttershy sat back in her seat on the train, released from whatever strange magic had compelled to sing.

“Huh.” Fluttershy blinked a few times. “That was random.”

----

“You clearly had what it takes…” Fluttershy hummed to herself before she realized all the animals were staring at her. Hastily, she cleared her throat.

“Anyways, it was a silly adventure.” Fluttershy coughed into one hoof and took another sip of tea. “It could have ended much worse of course, but nopony was hurt, and we got to exile – I mean send Shining Armor and Cadence to the Crystal Empire.”

The animals sat back and nodded, happy. They were all smiling, the old animals, that was. Fluttershy could see smiles on the faces of the new animals, but they were twisted by sadness. And horror. They remembered what came next.

And the others caught the mood, for the smiles on the faces of the old animals faded quickly enough. Fluttershy caught Harry glancing anxiously at Matilda who shook her head and pointed discretely to Fluttershy. She waited until all was silent again before she continued, more heavily now that the peaceful interlude was over.

“Sombra might have been dangerous, but he never managed to kill anyone. The same can’t be said of Pinkie Pie’s clones. We lost…a lot of good animals that day.”

Fluttershy’s head bowed at the memory, and the others were silent.

“But it could have been so much worse. And the funny thing was,” she smiled with terrible wryness, “Twilight and everypony else were nearly swamped by only forty Pinkies. Hah. If you want to see true terror, try two hundred Pinkie Pies.”