“Don’t be shy—fill me up like you mean it!” I had to push Fluttershy away multiple times before Twilight finally managed to restrain her with a spell.

“Fluttershy, we’d like it if you would be shy again, if that’s not too much trouble.” Twilight sighed.
Breathing heavily, the yellow pegasus surveyed her surroundings.

“Ooh, I like how you’ve got me held up like this, Twilight. I didn’t think you’d be into this type of play, and it’s a threesome, to boot.” she licked her lips, sending shivers down both of our spines.

“All right, I’ve had enough of this. We’ve got to get this potion out of her system,” I said.

“Agreed,” Twilight nodded, “The book didn’t say how long these relapses were supposed to last, so we’ll have to assume she’ll be going in and out of the effects indefinitely.”

“In and out? I like the sound of that,” Fluttershy said.

“Is there anything in there about stopping this?” I asked.

“Hmm, not on this page, but…” Twilight flipped through the book backwards and forwards multiple times, “Ah-ha! Here it is!” Twilight levitated the book over to me, as if I could read Equestrian.

“It’s been Equestrian law for hundreds of years that potion anthologies like this one include a cure-all or cleansing potion for cases just like this one.” Something dripped on the floor, a sound shortly accompanied by a soft moan—we didn’t have the heart to look.

“Okay, maybe not just like this one, but you get my point.” I looked at the pictures on the page Twilight showed me,

“So it looks like we’re going on an ingredient hunt,” I glanced over at Fluttershy, who promptly flared her wings and winked at me, “Should we lock Fluttershy in here while we go get everything?”

“We can’t risk her getting out and, uh, doing everypony, so she’s going to have to come with us.”

“Please don’t say come.”

“I want to cum with you guys, too!”

“Oh, man, I heard how she spelled it!” I slapped my forehead. Twilight undid her restraint spell, but before Fluttershy could make any more advances she was enclosed by a magic bubble, which she licked in an attempt to get at the purple princess.

“I forgot you could do that,” I said.

“I have to keep her contained somehow,” Twilight shrugged. The three of us set out, Fluttershy afloat in her anti-sex sphere, toward the town square where the first of our ingredients awaited us. While we expected ponies to look at us while we were out, seeing as we had a captive with us, we didn’t expect said captive to treat it like one of those cages you see at some of the darker clubs of Manehattan. Fluttershy shook around and rubbed her flank against the sides of the bubble for all to see, taunting just about everypony, mare or stallion, as we went. I’m pretty sure she was in violation of some sort of law. In a society where clothes aren’t the norm, a certain amount of decorum must be expected regarding such actions—an amount the Element of Kindness (or too much kindness) currently had a severe deficiency of.

We finally arrived at Berry Punch’s fruit stand after about the twenty-fourth “fifth-leg” joke.

“Hey, Princess. Hey, human guy. What up with the bubble?” Berry leaned on her counter, a mixed look of bemusement and confusion splayed across her face.

“Fluttershy’s… out of sorts because of a potion. We’re here to pick some things up for a cleanser,” I explained. Berry looked up at Fluttershy, the latter of whom stood on her hind legs, licked her hoof and pointed downward while biting her lip. The earth pony began laughing hysterically, pounding her hoof on the table.

“Hahaha! She looks worse than that time I downed a keg of the Apples’ aged cider! I knew booze could make some ponies loose, but if a potion did that to her? I’ve been drinking the wrong stuff when I want a quick one!” Twilight groaned,

“Look, Berry, we just need everything you have that’s full of anti-oxidants. Raspberries and cranberries would be preferable.”

“Just take what you need,” Berry wiped a tear, “Seeing shy lil’ Fluttershy act like that for a couple minutes is payment enough.” As we walked away we realized that our passenger had been quiet for a time now. Looking back, we saw that the blank expression had returned, and seconds later the real Fluttershy’s personality took hold,

“Wha-where am I? What happened?” She looked at Twilight and I for answers, but our tired faces said everything. “Oh, dear. Did I do weird things again? I’m sorry… Could you let me out of this bubble, though?”

“No can do, Flutters. There’s no telling when the potion will take hold of you again. That’s why you’re with us while we get what we need for your counter-potion.” I told her.

“Oh…” Fluttershy appeared dejected. She turned toward Berry Punch’s stall, who mimicked her earlier gesture, causing her to blush intensely. Berry resumed laughing. “What’s so funny?” Fluttershy asked.

“Nothing, Fluttershy,” Twilight interrupted Berry before she could ruin any of Fluttershy’s actual innocence, “Now let’s get to Sweet Apple Acres. Applejack has what we need next.”

“So that potion she made is makin’ her act hornier n’ a colt on his first day of puberty?” Applejack asked.

We stared at her for a second.

“Ah ain’t great at makin’ those up all the time. Anyways, what do y’all need from me?”

“Apple tree bark,” Twilight said plainly.

“Mah cousin? I know Fluttershy’s live n’ all, but A-Bark’s the kind o’ stallion that gets in trouble for hangin’ around schoolyards an—”

“No, not that one. I mean actual bark from an apple tree. The specific properties of the fibrous filaments in the bark of an apple tree are key in the cure-all potion we need for Fluttershy.”

“Right, ah knew that,” Applejack scrunched her face and shifted her eyes. “Follow me, we’ve been savin’ a bunch o’ bark fer kindlin’ in winter. Ah can give y’all some.”

“Um, it’s not gonna be like the time Pinkie’s rock cakes blocked twenty ponies up for a week and Nurse Redheart had to make them eat extra-fiber oats, is it? There’s still blood on some of the sheets at the hospital and I don’t want any part of that.” A bout of silence rolled through the barn.

“And this is why I don’t live in Ponyville,” I said.

“To answer your question, no. The bark will dissolve in the mixture, but the cleansing properties will remain.”

Applejack led us to the barn and Twilight and I each took a mouthful of the aromatic wood and placed it in our saddlebags. As we left Sweet Apple Acres, Applejack called to us,

“Good luck, y’all! Glad I could be of some assistance.”

“I’ve got something you can assist with, babe.” Oh, dear. Fluttershy had lapsed back into the potion’s effects.

“This can’t end soon enough,” Twilight sighed. I nodded my agreement. It seemed the worst of it was behind us as we had two of the three necessary ingredients for the counter-potion, but little did we know our crusade was about to get a lot… harder.

Author's Note

As I was going through this chapter I realized my OC Argent is totally unnecessary in this story. I can't totally take him out, though, as he has already been established in the first chapter, so his role has been downplayed to that of an active observer/support role for Twilight rather than a central character.