"Fluttershy?" asked the prince as he wandered across her front lawn, looking around for her as if she could be hiding under a rock or behind a fencepost. "Are you here?"

The door to her house opened. "Prince?" She emerged with a little smile. "Oh, your fur is back, wonderful. I'm... really sorry."

"You mentioned that." He rubbed one foreleg with the other. "But it's alright, really... I guess I should be more mad at Pinkie, but whatever... I'm alright now, mostly. Look." He pointed to his restored face. "When I imitated a pony, it all came back."

"How wonderful," gently agreed Fluttershy with a little smile. "Did it stop hurting?"

"Mostly." The prince approached Fluttershy, not directly, but in a curious weaving, more like a shy orbiting moon that was uncertain about the act. "Sorry for not helping for a little while."

"It's quite alright." She put a hoof right on his cheek where he had been stung so many times, gently inspecting the site. "I would want to take a break too after something like that. But you're better now." She pulled her hoof back suddenly when she spotted him wincing. "Mostly... Sorry."

"It's okay," he quickly blurted with an awkward smile. "Really. Flutter, this will sound kind of odd, but I really kind of like... being with you."

Fluttershy's ears flattened and she looked like she was caught in headlights. "Oh! I mean, oh. Um... I know humans sometimes... move a bit quickly... I'm, uh..."

"No!" It was his turn to darken in his grey cheeks. "Not, uh, romantic stuff. I mean..." He rubbed behind his head. "That would probably be amazing but I wasn't asking for that. I just want to hang out, with you, if that's alright?"

"Oh! Oh... That's... alright, sure." She nodded softly as she looked over what felt at times to be an awkward male reflection of some parts of herself. "I was going to take a walk to Harry's. We're due for a picnic."

"That's the bear, right?" He turned in place until he was facing the forest, the same that had been quite a pain last time. At least they weren't hunting any deadly red plants that day. "Will he mind one more guest?" He wasn't sure if animals would ignore him as ponies did.

"We usually have a lot of guests." Fluttershy tapped her chin lightly. "But they're usually other animals... Still, I don't think he'd mind so long as you were polite. I know... for a lot of ponies, animals are just... animals, but they're so much more, and Harry especially! He's such a caring and thoughtful soul."

"Animals just don't make it complicated for no reason." The prince smiled a little. "I'll be nice." Being not-nice to a bear seemed like an awful idea, social implications entirely ignored. "Silly question, but do you play games? I mean, with the animals."

Fluttershy's ears rose back to their normal state as she vanished inside a moment, grabbing a basket. "I could bring a checkerboard, he likes that game."

"I haven't played that in years." The prince laughed softly at himself. "I remember the rules, sure. Please."

"Certainly." She emerged with her basket, packed with things, with a checkerboard peeking out of one of the flaps. "It's this way."

They went off into the woods that day, for a bear was having a picnic.

"I have to fix it!" Pinkie flopped bonelessly over a rock.

Maud looked over her shoulder at her despondent sister. "Do you?" Her voice was calm and neutral, as it usually was.

"Of course I do, silly." She sat up and was soon perched on the rock instead of flopping over it. "We made some progress! He really likes Fluttershy, and now she can remember him."

"He has a friend. That's good." She picked up her little miner's pick in her mouth and tapped at the wall as if everything had been handled.

"But so many ponies don't remember him!" Pinkie hopped down from the rock. "He's still mister nopony that nopony knows!"

"You know him." She didn't pause in her tapping, working around the slowly emerging glittering stone that she had found.

"Well, yeah, I do, but I know everypony. That hardly even counts." She stuck out her tongue in a ripe raspberry of a noise.

"I know him."

Pinkie blinked softly. "Huh, you do? You never met him before."

"You told me about him." With a final tap, the gem fell free of the wall, landing right on her upturned hoof. "Oh. Just another of these." She tossed the gem onto a pile of others that looked similar. "I thought it was a rare one." She didn't sound disappointed, but she rarely sounded like an emotion.

Pinkie squinted softly. "I mean, sure, I told you about him, but I bet you couldn't pick him out of a crowd."

"Bet I could."

"Nuh uh!"

"Uh huh." She started tapping at the wall, working on the next project.

"How?!" Pinkie threw her arms wide, eyes wide in exasperation. "How?"

"You already told me. You can talk to him because you will talk to ponies who don't want to be talked to."

"Yeah huh... how does that help you?" She raised a brow in suspicion. "You're not, uh, a super party pony."

"No... I just don't read people." She looked over her shoulder at Pinkie, pausing her tapping. "I don't always know when they want to talk, or not. I don't know what to say sometimes. I bet I'd walk right up to him when he'd rather be alone and--"

Pinkie glomped her sister, cutting her off. "As if you could ever be unwanted! Stop being silly."

"Pinkie..." Maud smiled just faintly. "Thank you, but it is true. I am not the best at that." She reached for her dropped pick and got back to work. "I could probably see him."

Pinkie sat down on her haunches instead of hanging off her sister, even if Maud could support her and mine at the same time without issue. "That's a great idea!"

"What is?"

"You two should meet." She bounced in place with a big grin. "I bet you two would hit it right off."

"Would he mind if I brought Mud Briar with me?" She hadn't stopped tink tinking at the wall. "I get nervous around new ponies without someone I know there."

"Why not bring me?!" She pointed a hoof at herself with a big grin. "I already know him, and you, and you two could be--"

"--Pinkie," she cut in calmly.

"Yeah?"

"You're too high energy for this. I love you, but we both know this is true." She set her pick down and turned to face pinkie directly. "I will tell you everything that happened."

Pinkie could imagine the dispassioned review of the event that would emerge from Maud's sedate lips afterwards. "Uh, yeah. Alright, you and Mud Briar go say hello to him if you can." She quietly vowed to park herself somewhere nearby and watch. "He's a little shy."

"You told me." She turned back to the wall, resuming her casual mining. "Mud Briar's great at talking to ponies. It'll be fine."

Pinkie imagined Mud Briar and a mental storm of 'technically' raged through her. "Yeah, great..."

"Pinkie."

"Hm?"

"Do you trust me?" She wasn't facing Pinkie, mining placidly.

"Of course I do!" Pinkie half-turned. "Of course... Alright, alright. Yes. This is in your hooves."

"Thank you."

Pinkie walked away, trying to calm herself. "It'll be fine..."

"It'll be a disaster!" She flopped onto a cushion near Starlight's bed.

"One: Why are you in my room? Two: Why are you in my room?" Starlight had a hiked brow, watching Pinkie melt down. "Three: What's wrong?"

Pinkie sat up on her haunches facing Starlight. "Maud and her boyfriend are going to talk to the prince and Mud Briar will Mud Briar all over everything!"

"Prince? And Mud Briar isn't that bad, Pinkie. Really, he and Maud are a cute, weird, couple. They both get each other, and aren't gotten by most of the rest of the world, just as it was intended." She slowly swept a hoof across the sky in a profound statement of destiny. "I thought we've been through this."

"Ugh, Starlight!" Pinkie bounced in place, landing on all fours. "I'm not trying to split them, but there's no way this can work out well. If he starts going--" She quickly did up her mane into Mud Briar's manestyle and affecting his voice, "--technically--" Her mane puffed out to its usual bounciness. "--everything will be ruined!"

Starlight's horn glowed as she plucked up the perturbed pink pony. "Pinkie, Maud is perfectly capable of making her own decisions, and it even works out most of the time. As her friend, as your friend, and for the sake of the sanity of Ponyville..." She set Pinkie down just outside of her room. "Chill out." Her door slapped shut with the glow of her magic.

As it turned out, Harry was pretty good at checkers, but the prince wasn't awful either. They pushed their pieces back and forth at each other, seeming to have a good time. "This is a good day..." Harry looked up at him. "I mean, I'm playing checkers, with a bear. That's... pretty great."

Harry snarled in what could have been taken in many ways, but pushed a piece forward, clearly willing to continue play.

"Are you two having fun?" called Fluttershy. She was with some of the other animals, enjoying snacks and having a perfectly chill time, as Fluttershy seemed to prefer.

"Tons." It wasn't a video game, but he was playing checkers, with a bear. He hopped a piece forward, using his recently acquired hoof-hold technique to do it almost smoothly. "Yeah."

Harry grunted and looked thoughtful a moment before he grabbed a piece and hopped over one of prince's pieces, swiping it off the board in revenge. The game was underway!

A soft thump on his side made the prince look down to see Angel standing there, looking up at him with an expectant and unkind expression. "Uh... hi?"

Angel pointed at the board, then the prince, then himself.

The prince tried to put it together. "You... want to challenge me?"

Angel thrust a paw at the prince, then at Harry, then crossed his arms, then at himself.

"You... want to get a turn against Harry?"

Angel bobbed his head with a satisfied expression.

"Oh." Well, he had gotten in a few games, sharing the board was... probably a nice thing to do. "Sure. Harry?"

Harry shrugged softly and swept the board clear before starting to put the pieces back where they started. That game was over.

"All yours." The prince scooted back and gestured at the space he vacated.

Angel smiled, bowing as if a polite thing by habit, then took his spot. He pointed at Harry and slit his paw over his throat with a low laughing rabbit chuckle. Harry did not look intimidated. He gestured for Angel, and the rabbit took the first move.

The prince ambled over to join Fluttershy, sinking near her. "How are things over here?"

"Just delightful." She sipped softly from her teacup. "They were just telling me about a new den they found."

A few squirrels chittered in what could have been excitement. "They say it's just the right height off the ground, and nice and dry. It sounds lovely."

The prince perked his ears at the squirrels, listening and watching them emote and squeak in their funny ways. "Huh, I miss being able to hear what they were saying... Um, hi?"

The squirrels waved back at him, that much communication possible.

"Oh, they can understand me?"

Fluttershy reached out gently, patting the head of one of the squirrels. "Many animals understand a lot of what ponies say, but ignore it. Ponies don't want to talk to them, and usually get in their way."

"I like animals." He reached for one of the cashews in the picnic basket, holding it carefully with his somewhat able but still practicing hoof. "Here you go."

One of the squirrels darted up and back, snatching the nut along the way to share with its friends, or were they family?

At least animals had simple needs. He could grasp that.

Author's Notes:

Plans are cooked up. How will the prince and Maud get along, plus one Mud Briar?

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