Pinkamena had debated a bit before deciding to go to Fluttershy first. True, the others could probably kick more flank--- even Rarity was more hardcore(1)--- but this sort of corruption wasn't the sort of thing you could fix by magicking it or bucking it in the face. Considering a baby's laughter had been the fix for Sugarcube Corner, Fluttershy's brand of sweetness and light would probably be far better for fighting the Gloom(2) than the usual tactics.

That same sweetness and light also made her a prime target for whatever enemy was wrecking Equestria.

But by sheer chance Pinkamena had found something on the way that might snap Fluttershy out of it. It had been lying in a ditch by the road; she'd picked it up in her towel(3) and carefully bundled it before laying it across her back.

Fluttershy's cottage was... bleak, there was no two ways about it. The thatch roof looked dingy and rotted. The windows were boarded up. The flower beds and garden were gone, all that was left was expanses of torn up mud and the occasional patch of withered, wilted grass. The pet houses were in disrepair and seemed almost all abandoned-- save for a few pairs of eyes that glimmered in the shadows.

Pinkamena trotted around to the back of the cottage. The tiny graveyard that Fluttershy kept there for her little friends was still there. It was three times its original size and filled with battered, half-toppled little gravestones.  The neatly trimmed grass and the lovingly laid-out flowers were gone; all that was left was scattered gravel and yet more mud.

There was a single candle glowing in an upstairs window. Faintly, Pinkamena could hear sobbing. "Let's hope this works," she said to the bundle lying across her back. She trotted back around to the front door and knocked. For a minute or so there was no answer. Then there was a faint scuffling, as if something unduly short was struggling to reach the door latch, and the door creaked open.

Pinkamena wiped her hooves and stepped inside. "Hey, Angel," she said. "I dunno if you remember me but-- YAGH!" she screeched. "What the heck are YOU?" Instead of the small white rabbit she'd been expecting, she found herself staring down at a fluffy, pink and yellow--- thing. It vaguely resembled Fluttershy, with a trailing pink mane and tail, tiny hooves, yellow wings, enormous blue-green eyes, even the same cutie mark. But it was barely the size of a rabbit, and seemed to be covered in downy yellow fluff.

It was also crying. "I Fwuffyshy," it said. "Pweeze hep. Pweeze hep!"

Pinkamena finally recognized it. It was one of those... fluffy-pony things... from a few realities over. There'd been some running around Equestria when the Trollfic had been loose. It would figure that Fluttershy would adopt one. It put its tiny forehooves on one of Pinkamena and looked up at her with beseeching eyes. "Hep Fwuffyshy, Fwuttashy aw sad, cwy an' cwy an' cwy alla time, nuffing Fwuffyshy do make better. Pweeze hep!"

It just really was too syrupy sweet. Why hadn't this overly-innocent thing pushed away the Gloom all by itself? Probably because it was too syrupy sweet, Pinkamena thought. It was like feeding a starving pony treacle-- too much all at once; it would just come right back up as glurge.

"What I'm here for, fuzzball," Pinkamena said. "Where is she?"

The weird little mutant clippity-clopped off through the cottage. "Uppa stairs, uppa stairs!" Pinkamena followed.

Fluttershy was alone in her bedroom, crying.  She sat in the middle of the floor, weeping, not even raising her head to see who was coming through the door. Pinkamena was relieved that she wasn't in bed. A pony that was so full of despair that they didn't get out of bed was scarily close to never waking up again. She lay down on the floor next to the weeping pegasus. And put a forelimb over her withers. "What's wrong?" she asked.

Fluttershy just shook her head and kept weeping. "So lonely," she whimpered. "So alone... Nobody wants me, nobody needs me...."

Pinkamena bit her lip. Living in the mirror realm, one tended to be privy to a lot of personal secrets. People tended to pour out their thoughts and feelings to their own reflections, to rehearse things they wanted to say, to chide themselves or encourage themselves with little speeches, because who could be more trustworthy than your own reflection? (4)

She knew that Fluttershy was terribly lonely. One could debate all day whether her loneliness made her shy, or her shyness was why she was so lonely.  But there it was. She was alone, and she was just as afraid of ending her loneliness as she was of being alone. It made Pinkamena want to tear her hair out, the way her friends seemed oblivious to it. Now the Gloom was feeding off it, sending Fluttershy into a downward spiral of self-loathing and misery.

Time for the ace in the hole.

Pinkamena took the bundle she'd carried in, set it on the bed in front of the weeping pegasus, and unfolded it. Inside was a wounded bird, its feathers askew. It cheeped at the two of them unhappily, flapping one wing feebly.

The transformation was as dramatic as it was instantaneous. "Oh the poor little thing!" Fluttershy exclaimed. In an instant she had her first aid kit out and was gently tending to it, straightening its rumpled primaries, checking it over tenderly for injuries.

It scarcely needed to be said, but Pinkamena said it anyway. "Looks like there's at least one thing that needs you," she said. As if on cue Fluffyshy was there, purring and leaning against Fluttershy's side as she worked; Angel was there too, patting Fluttershy's mane. Fluttershy smiled through her sniffles and wiped her eyes, but never took her attention off the little bird Pinkamena had just put in her care.

"Let's see what's wrong here.. oh, is that all it is? Just a little bit of kite string tangled around your leg and wing," she cooed, gently untangling the twine nested in the bird's feathers. "Goodness, how did you get into that? Never mind; I bet you feel better now that it isn't cutting your circulation... there there now..."

A minute later they were trotting out the front door, Fluttershy carrying the happily chirping bird on her back. The clouds above were breaking up just the slightest bit, letting streams of sunshine through to dance on the puddles. "You're right," she said firmly. "I'm not alone. I'm not unwanted or unneeded. I have my animal friends, and I have my pony friends like you." She gave Pinkamena a happy nuzzle... then blinked and pulled her head back. She'd jabbed her nose on the studs in Pinkamena's collar. "Oh, um, that's an... interesting new look, by the way..." taking in the studded collar and anklebands, the black shirt, and the piercings.

"Uhh, just doing something different," Pinkamena said with a lame smile.

"Oh. It's... nice." Fluttershy said uncertainly.

"Anyway, see? Things ain't so bad," Pinkamena said.

Fluttershy smiled and nodded. She took the bird in her hooves and tossed it in the air. It flew off, singing happily.

Right as the eighteen-wheeler went speeding by Fluttershy's house. It hit the windshield with a resounding THWACK and tumbled to the muddy road in the truck's wake.

The two ponies stood frozen on Fluttershy's front step, jaws agape in shock. A moment later Fluttershy's wail of anguish split the air. She ran out to the road, tears streaming down her cheeks. She stood there a hoof's length away from the still twitching corpse, a trembling hoof extended, weeping and whimpering.

Pinkamena couldn't believe it. "A TRUCK?" she yelled. "A motherloving DIESEL TRUCK? In EQUESTRIA?? This is the most smacktarded thing I've ever SEEN!! What kind of a double grade A brain damaged plotheaded lobotomized chimpanzee Crapfic writer puts a TRUCK in EQUESTRIA as a PLOT DEVICE?? I'm gonna terminate their writer's license with extreme prejudice!!"

She ran out into the road, pulled Fluttershy out of the road and into a hug. It was fortunate she did; the truck driver had braked to a halt and was slowly backing up to see what had happened. His left rear wheel rolled right over the still-twitching bird with a loud crunch.

If Fluttershy's wails had been loud before, her howl at seeing this was deafening. She buried her face in Pinkamena's neck. Angel hopped around her, thumping his back feet and gesturing furiously at the truck.

The trucker did himself no favors. He climbed down out of his cab and walked back to see two mares caterwauling at the bloody feathered mess under his back left tire and proceeded to demonstrate his complete range of empathy. "Aw geez, a bird? Is that all it was?" He groused. "Can't believe I stopped for DAT."

Pinkamena gave him a glare that could peel chrome. "The hell is the matter with you?" she said. The rabbit next to her glared at him as well. It was kind of unnerving.

He decided to ignore it. He shrugged and hawked a loogie into Fluttershy's shrubberies. "Hey look, you and your girlfriend oughta know better. You dumb chicks let your pets run around, dis is what you get--"

"You--! I'm gonna activate your dental plan--" The goth-looking one started heading his way, brandishing a cast-iron frying pan. The trucker let out a 'yeep' and backpedaled. He retreated hastily into his cab, rolling up the windows and locking the door. This did not deter the mare from expressing her ire on his vehicle.

"You cross country retard!" WHANG. His front fender now sported a skillet-sized dent. "Tearing through a small town like a fruitbat out of Tartarus--" SMASH. There went one of the headlights. "There are COLTS and FILLIES in this community--!" SMASH. There went another. "There are little old mares in walkers ! You could have hit one of them!" CLANG. "You reckless pill-popping beer-swilling testament to bad road hazards!" CLANG. "You half-assed walk-on bit-part bridge drop!" CLANG WHUNK BANG.

The trucker stuck his head out the cab window. "THIS is why nopony wants your type around, lady! All you bull dykes are violent and crazy--"

Pinkamena's eyes bugged, her jaw hanging loose. The grizzled trucker got one look at the expression on her face and finally realized that discretion was the better part of valor. He ducked back inside and floored it. He was a hundred yards away and pulling away fast when there was a final CLANG, then silence. He would get all the way to Fillydelphia before he finally pulled over at a rest stop and found the frying pan embedded in the trailer door where Pinkamena had discus-tossed it from over a football field away.

Fuming, Pinkamena went back to the weeping Fluttershy. Angel stood in the road, throwing wild and most likely obscene gestures at the fleeing truck before running after her. "Come on," she said, pulling the pegasus filly away from the road. "Don't look at it, it'll just make it worse..."

Fluttershy paused at the gate. "Wait," she said. "Where's Fluffyshy?" The two ponies looked around in growing alarm. The little fluff-pony had been right next to them when they released the bird...

With an awful premonition, Pinkamena looked back at the road. Fluffyshy was out there, sitting next to the crushed bird, crying softly and petting one wing with her hoof. "Poh buhdy," Pinkamena heard Fluffyshy sniffle. "Poh buhdy..."

Even as she heard the horn blat and the rumble of another diesel engine. "Oh come ON," she yelled angrily, racing back for the road, Angel right beside her.

They weren't fast enough. The truck was around the bend and bearing down on Fluffyshy before either of them were halfway.

Thank goodness Fluttershy was faster.

A blur of pink and yellow snatched the fluffypony out of the road, right out from under the oncoming truck's bumper. Fluttershy flew under the truck, dodging between the crushing wheels with inches to spare, and tumbled to the grass on the other side of the road with her precious cargo. The truck roared on, splashing muddy water into the air, the air horn bawl echoing in its wake.

Pinkamena and Angel raced to where Fluttershy lay curled up in the grass. She and Fluffyshy were unharmed, to Pinkamena's and Angel's relief. Fluttershy was curled up around Fluffyshy, hugging her close, her pupils pinpricks and her whole body shaking at the horror of what almost happened. "Mommy, can't bweef--!" Fluffyshy complained, squirming. Fluttershy loosened her grip a bit, to the fluffypony's relief.

Fluttershy looked up at Pinkamena. There was an unusual clarity in her eyes. "It's you, isn't it, Pinkamena," she said in a tiny voice.

Pinkamena sighed and nodded. "Yep."

Fluttershy's eyes darted around. "It's... another trollfic, isn't it," she said. "Why everypony feels so awful. Why all such horrible things are happening."

"Something like a trollfic, yeah. Maybe worse," Pinkamena said.

Fluttershy's eyes shimmered. Her breath started coming in short gasps. To Pinkamena's surprise, though, Fluttershy wasn't starting to cry, or get scared. Fluttershy was getting angry. "He-- they-- it tried to... have been making us... and... it.. tried to kill Fluffyshy..." Her pale blue eyes smoldered as she got to her feet, Fluffyshy cradled in the crook of one foreleg. "No. No! No you don't!" she shouted into the air.

"You're not doing this, you hear? You're not going to get her! You're not going to hurt her! I WON'T LET YOU!" Her shout of rage was deafening.

"You're not going to get my friends. You're not going to get Fluffyshy. AND YOU'RE NOT GETTING ME, EITHER!" she yelled at the sky. Angel hopped up on her head and flipped a double bird at the sky for emphasis. Lightning flashed and thunder rolled. It was rather dramatic.

Pinkamena grinned. "Glad to have you aboard, Flutters," she said. "Gonna tell his mother on him, are you?"

"Buck that noise," Fluttershy said, baring her teeth in a snarl. "I'm gonna kick his plot so hard he'll taste his own butt in the back of his mouth! Where do we start, Pinkamena?"

"First off, I need to borrow a frying pan from you. Mine's on the way to Fillydelphia," Pinkamena said. "Then we need to round up the others. We got a Toxic Nihilist to flush out!"

1)In case you have forgotten, little miss Rarity, back in the show premiere, kicked a manticore in the face.

2)Well, Pinkamena had to call it SOMETHING.

3)Cause you KNOW she's a hoopy frood.

4) Mirror-dwellers like herself had an oath of confidentiality that made a Catholic confessional look loose-lipped.