A house, a mare and... Flutterponies?!

by Bandana The Reaper

Chapters

Chapter two: Just what are you?
Chapter three: The riches I've been given
A Study On Flutterponies: first entry
Chapter one: What’s in the box?
Chapter four: The art of not being seen.

Chapter two: Just what are you?

“-gy-”

“uggh.”

“Biggy?”

“Uggggh.”

“Wake up Biggy, please wake up!”

'I'm not fat- wait, Sweet Tooth?' Shimmering though, opening her eyes- 'and she's really close to my face again!'

“You're awake!” Sweet Tooth cried out happily, “you were not-snorey-sleeping forever.”

Shimmering pulled her head back in reflex only to hit the back of her head against the floor, 'oww! son of a- why am I on the floor?' Shimmering wondered as she turned her gaze on the flutterpony in front of her to the clock on the wall.

'Only a few minutes since I came in her to get the box... THE BOX!' Shimmering was on her hooves in mere seconds, turning her head left and right, finally finding the box on the coffee table, bits spilling over.

Gold bits.

Shimmering's eye twitched, and her breath grew rapid and heavy.

“Biggy?” Sweet Tooth said with a bit of worry in her voice, “are you–”

Shimmering held up a hoof, “H-hold that thought” she said without looking at the flutterpony before bolting out into the hallway, seeing the broken mirror and the note on the flo- 'Note!' Shimmering snatched it up and quickly made her way back into the living room, 'other note, other no- There!' she picked that one up as well and compared them, looking if they written with the same penmareship.

'Exactly the same,' Shimmering thought, 'every letter is the same, like written on a typewriter.'

“Biggy?” Sweet Tooth tried again to get the unicorns attention.

“In a minute.” Shimmering's eye twitched a bit more, turning her gaze to the bits, 'are they...' she cast a spell that would cause them to start blackening if they weren't made of gold, she'd learned that spell working as a clerk in a pawn shop… and hightailed it out of there faster than you can say 'master race’ when she found out the shop owner held unicorn supremacy meetings in the back.

With the spell cast Shimmering watched for the bits to start blackening.

After casting the spell a few more times with not so much as a blemish, Shimmering had to face facts; the bits were real.

Which meant whoever sent them had more to spare.

Which meant they could very likely get away with a lot of things.

Which meant she'd be in deep manure if she screwed up this job.

Which considering her track record with jobs meant it was bound to happen sooner or later... if it hadn't already.

'No... no no no, this can't be happening!' Shimmering thought, her legs buckling under her, 'Dad kept saying I'd get into trouble doing things on my own, yet I did just that. Mom kept saying I should let her find me a good stallion instead of trying to make a career, yet I bounce from job to job just to prove I'm a independent mare, why must everything go wrong with my life?!'

“Biggy?” Sweet Tooth made her presence known to the unicorn again.

'And my current predicament calls me fat', Shimmering thought as she turned her head to the flutterpony, “What Sweet Tooth?”

Sweet Tooth fluttered in front of Shimmering, “Biggy, are you... okay?”

All the stress of the past month along with her current problem proved too much for Shimmering.

“No, no I'm not!” she broke down crying, “Nothing is okay, everything just keeps going wrong, my parent think I'm a screw-up, I was fired from a job again, I'm close to being broke and now I'm being watched for who knows what reasons and I- and I-” Shimmering felt something soft press against her cheek.

“Don't cry Biggy,” Shimmering heard Sweet Tooth say as the flutterpony hugged her, “I'm sorry that your pair-of-ants think you're a screw and that you were on fire again a-and that you almost broke something an-and that watching you makes you s-s-sad,” Sweet Tooth sounded close to tears herself as she nuzzled Shimmering's cheek, “I-I'll not-watch you if it makes you feel better, just please don't cry Biggy.”

'You don't have anything to do with this, do you Sweet Tooth? no, you're too innocent for that,' Shimmering thought as the flutterpony kept nuzzling her cheek, 'that or I'm the biggest sucker in Equestrian history,' she took a deep, shuddering breath to calm herself “I'm okay, I'm fine.”

“Y-you're sure?” Sweet Tooth asked, still hugging her.

“Yeah, I... I'm sure,” Shimmering answered, keeping her breathing calm.

“Sure, sure?”

“Yes Sweet Tooth, I'm sure.”

“...I'll not-watch you if you want.”

Shimmering chuckled a bit, “You can watch me Sweet Tooth,” 'as long as its not in a creepy way...' “but, if I tell you not to you'll listen, okay?”

“Okay,” Sweet Tooth let go and fluttered in front of Shimmering as she got up, “um... Biggy, are you... angry at me?” she asked, rubbing the tips of her hooves against each other.

Shimmering blinked at that, “No?” 'I was, but that was mostly do to lack of coffee,' “what made you think that?”

“'Cus I touched you a-and you said not to touch anything,” Sweet Tooth said while rubbing her hooves together, “b-but you were sad and I-”

“No Sweet Tooth, I'm not angry at you for touching me,” Shimmering said, shaking her head slightly “ponies aren't things.”

“Oh, okay,” Sweet Tooth tilted her head sideways, “...what's a 'ponies'?”

Shimmering rubbed herself between the eyes, 'I swear, if Sweet Tooth turns out to be the mastermind behind this I'll put together a 'Shimmering Sparks is a sucker' parade...' she thought before addressing the flutterpony, “I'm a pony.”

“You are?” Sweet Tooth said, looking confused.

“Yes, I'm a pony,” Shimmering said as she absentmindedly picked up some bits that had ended up on the floor with her magic, “what did you think I was?”

“I thought you were a big.”

“...a big?” Shimmering said after a while, “why a 'big'?”

“'Cus you're big Biggy, Biggy the big!” Sweet Tooth nodded, a proud smile adorning her face.

To Shimmering there wasn't any malice or hidden meaning to be seen in Sweet Tooth's eyes, 'she's just like a foal, she's not calling me 'Biggy' to be hurtful, it just made sense to her,' she thought rolling her eyes, “well I'm a pony and my name is Shimmering Sparks.”

“I thought you said it was Biggy?” Sweet Tooth said, scratching her head.

“No, you said Biggy, but its Shimmering.”

“Shi-ma?”

“Shimmering.”

“Shim-cha?”

“Shim-mer-ing.”

“...Chimichanga?”

Shimmering face-hoofed.

“...Biggy is easier to say anyway,” Sweet Tooth said while scratching her cheek.

“Okay fine, you can call me Biggy then,” Shimmering said, lowering her hoof from her face.

“Yay, thanks Biggy!” Sweet Tooth exclaimed before hugging Shimmering again.

Shimmering smiled a bit at the affection, 'she's really like a little filly with the way she acts,' she thought as Sweet Tooth once again nuzzled her cheek, 'I wonder how o-'

Her thoughts were interrupted by a loud growling.

“Um... Biggy?” Sweet Tooth said, letting go and fluttering in front of Shimmering again, “could I... maybe... sorta... kinda... have... a tastie?”

Shimmering couldn't believe her ears, “you're still hungry?!”

“I can't help it, I just am,” Sweet Tooth fluttered back a bit.

'Well, I guess I better feed her then,' Shimmering thought, 'unless I want to face whatever punishment these 'Watchers' will apply next,' she rolled her eyes as she began to walk towards the kitchen, “Well come along then, lets get you something more to eat.”

“R-really?” Sweet Tooth asked, slowly fluttering after Shimmering, “really really?”

“Yes Sweet Tooth, really,” Shimmering said, turning her head to look at the flutterpony, “what kind of host would I be if I let you starve?”

Sweet Tooth's eyes went bigger than Shimmering had so far seen them, “THANK YOU!” the flutterpony shouted as she rammed into Shimmering's face, tightly hugging the unicorn's snout while blurring out a couple more rapid ‘thank yous’, “you're the bestest pony in the whole wide everyplace!”

'T-this is... kinda nice,' Shimmering thought after a few seconds, the first genuine smile on her face in a long time, 'not being criticized and judged by everypony about everything and make somepony happy for such a little thing is... well, nice... maybe this won't be so bad.'

~ ~ ~

After giving Sweet Tooth a bowl of fruit to snack on, Shimmering quickly brought a bunch of her books from her living room to the kitchen in order to figure out just What Sweet Tooth was. Asking her had only gotten her 'I'm me', 'Sweet Tooth' and '...a not-big?'

'Lets see, 'History of the three tribes' no,' Shimmering put it in the discard pile along with 'Canterlot Etiquette' and 'Electricity and its uses'.

Some of the hopefully useful books were 'The Wide, Wide World' and 'Zebrican Legends'.

'A guide to fine art' no, that won't work' Shimmering thought as she put it in the discard pile, 'Aerodynamics' not likely... 'Underwater basket weaving: a foal's guide'…why do I even have this?!' they all ended up in the discard pile.

“What'cha doing Biggy?” Sweet Tooth asked between taking bites out of a pear.

“I'm looking to see if I can find anything about what you are,” Shimmering answered as she checked the index of 'The Wide, Wide World', it didn't cover anything about creatures.

“Ooh, okay,” Sweet Tooth went back to eating.

Shimmering closed the book and grabbed 'Zebrican Legends', “aren't you curious?”

“No, I'm Sweet Tooth.”

Shimmering rubbed herself between the eyes, “I mean don't you wonder what you are?”

“Nope, I know what I am,” Sweet Tooth said as she grabbed a celery stalk.

“Oh, and what might that be?”

“Sweet Tooth,” the flutterpony answered, looking up from the celery at the unicorn, “your really bad at remembering my name Biggy.”

'Says the pony who can't pronounce 'Shimmering', the tan unicorn rolled her eyes and looked over 'Zebrican Legends'.

Sweet Tooth nibbled on the celery.

After fifteen minutes of checking stories that might have fit in description Shimmering declared the book didn't have what she was looking for, 'well, that was a bust,' she thought, looking over at Sweet Tooth.

She was still nibbling on the celery stalk, in fact Sweet Tooth hadn't eaten more than an inch if it (and considering her eating habit so far had been to shove as much food she could into her mouth before chewing it said something).

“Sweet Tooth,” Shimmering said, drawing Sweet Tooth's attention.

“Mmh?” *nibble nibble*

“If you don't like it you don't have to eat it.”

“Mmhmh!” *nibble nibble nibble nibble*

Sweet Tooth's cheeks started to bulge a bit.

Shimmering gave her a deadpan look, “your full, aren't you,” 'please let it be yes.'

“...mh” … … …*nibble*

Shimmering sighed, “you don't need to force it down if your full Sweet Tooth,” she said, putting the book in the discard pile, “we can put it away for now.”

“B-but Biggy, what if the tastie gets eaten by not-me,” Sweet Tooth said as she hugged the celery stalk like it was her most precious possession.

'That... is probably the cutest thing I've ever seen,' Shimmering thought, resisting the urge to d'aw, “it won't,” she levitated a bowl and lid over to them, “just put in here and leave it for later, okay?”

Sweet Tooth looked at the bowl, then to Shimmering, then back to the bowl before slowly putting the celery stalk in it, letting Shimmering put the lid on... only to lift it the very next second to make sure it was still there. Then again just to be safe.

Shimmering just blinked before rolling her eyes, 'huh, maybe its her size, but when she does things like this she's ridiculously cute,' “You don't need to check in it Sweet Tooth, it will still be there,” she said, gathering up the books, “now come along, lets find something else for you to do,” 'and see if I missed any useful books'.

They made their way back to the living room where Shimmering began putting back the books while checking over the ones left there -she'd just grabbed a bunch of them on a whim- while Sweet Tooth zipped back to the kitchen to check on her 'tastie' one more time.

“Novel, novel, romance, adventure, giant sudoku book, romance-”Shimmering mumbled to herself as she looked over the remaining books she owned.

“Hi Biggy, how did you get in there?” Shimmering heard Sweet Tooth say from somewhere behind her, “Who's that, how did you get so not-big?” looking over her shoulder Shimmering saw Sweet Tooth talking to a picture of her and a pegasus mare, “Why are you being all not-move-y? ...Biggy?”

“What are you doing Sweet Tooth?”

Sweet Tooth spun around, looking at Shimmering, “Biggy, your big-big again!” she exclaimed before pointing to the picture, “You were in this thingy with another big and- hey, your in there again!” she was once again talking to the picture.

Shimmering shook her head slowly, 'I can't tell if shes like this because shes young, stupid or both,' she thought as she levitated the picture to her.

When Sweet Tooth saw the picture floating next to Shimmering the flutterpony got a confused look in her eyes.

'Well, that got her qui-'

“You barfed up new ones!” Sweet Tooth exclaimed happily.

“WHAT?!” Shimmering almost dropped the picture, “why is- how- I don't... what?!”

“You barfed up new once,” Sweet Tooth said again, pointing at the picture, “but they're all not-move-y and stuck in that thingy.”

“Its a picture of me and my friend,” Shimmering said, running a hoof over her eyes.

“Whats a pic-tur?”

“Its...” Shimmering stopped to think it over, 'how does one explain a picture?' she thought before continuing, “a picture is... like a memory that you can show others.”

“Ooh, okay,” Sweet Tooth was looking at the picture again, “whos the other big?”

“Thats Star Strike, she’s a friend of mine,” in the picture with Shimmering was a green eyed, blue coated pegasus with a yellow and red mane, both of them were grinning like crazy.

“You two look like you have fun,” Sweet Tooth pointed out.

“Yeah, we were having fun,” Shimmering said smiling a bit, they had had fun... then she winched, 'and then it got weird...'

Las Pegasus, five years ago

Shimmering groaned, her head hurt.

'Ugh, my head hurts... why do I get a deka veue... desha viue... deska v- feel like I thought that already?' Shimmering thought as she slowly opened her ey- 'Pain! Light is Pain!'

Rolling away from the light of doom Shimmering bumped into something,giving sight a second chance she slowly opened them– 'OHSWEETFAUSTCLOWNVERYCOLSETOFACE!' she jerked back in fright... and regretted it instantly.

Once Shimmering's head stopped spinning she got a better look at her surroundings... and wish she hadn't.

She was in a hotel room on a bed dressed as a bridesmaid, next to her was an unconscious Earth pony stallion with a juggling cutie mark, somepony had written something on it, ('Prupety of Shimri Spanks') he was dressed in a sad clown outfit, make-up and all.

He was also hoofcuffed to the bedpost.

The rest of the room wasn't much better, there were radishes tied to the ceiling-fan, somepony had written the lyrics to the Equestrian anthem (the dirty version) on the hotel room door, the room smelled like mustard, there was an unconscious griffin covered in bodypaint in the colors of the Trottingham Trotters with her head in the mini-fridge.

There were bottles everywhere, on the table, on the floor, on the nightstand, the bed, there was even a bottle shoved up the stallions b-

Aaand Shimmering really needed to pee.

Stumbling out of bed, slipping on bottles, tripping on the hem of the dress and stepping on the griffins hind leg (and getting a muffled squack and purr out of the fridge) Shimmering made it to the bathroom.

It wasn't much better in there.

The bathtub was filled with gravy, a bunch of dogs were playing poker around a small table, a goat with its back glued to the ceiling and somepony had painted a smiley face on the mirror with toothpaste.

Oh and there was a duck in the sink... in a gimp-suit.

Shimmering's eye twitched.

Present day

Shimmering's eye twitched, 'first and only time I ever drink something called Triple Tequila Hot Tub,' she thought, rubbing the side of her head, 'I can't believe it took me two days to find Star... and stuck in a birdfeeder of all places.'

*nibble nibble*

Looking up from the picture Shimmering saw Sweet Tooth fluttering in front of her, munching on the celery stalk again.

*nibble nibble* “...what?” Sweet Tooth stopped nibbling, “You got all quiet and twitchy eyed and I got bored.”

Shimmering just stared for a while before sighing, 'well I can't really blame her for getting bored,' she thought while putting the picture back on the wall.

“So, what are we gonna do now Biggy?” Sweet Tooth asked as she fluttered next to Shimmering.

“Well... I'd really like to get at least a little bit more sleep,” Shimmering said as she turned to leave the living room, “after that things mi- what are you doing?”

Sweet Tooth had wrapped her tail around the base of Shimmering's left ear with her tail and was now hanging with her back against the unicorn's face.

“I got tired of flying,” Sweet Tooth answered while nibbling a bit more on her food, “you smell nice.”

“Um, thanks?” Shimmering hadn't expected her to say that (not that Shimmering smelled bad, but she had just gotten out of bed).

Walking into the hallway Shimmering was reminded why Sweet Tooth was a problem, 'No, shes not,' she corrected herself, 'unless I'm proven otherwise Sweet Tooth is in this with me'.

The reminder was her now broken hallway mirror.

'Well this is annoying,' Shimmering thought while eying the multiple fractures all over its surface, 'looks like one good jolt and I'll have splitter all over the floor... how did that one spell go now again?' she began focusing magic into the desired spell.

“What'cha doing?” Sweet Tooth asked, almost causing Shimmering to lose concentration.

“Give me a moment you'll see,” Shimmering said with a irritated sounding grunt before letting the spell flow into the mirror.

As the magic beam made contact with the glass it flowed over its surface, coating it in a light teal veil, then the cracks began to melt together.

The spell, known as 'Glass Mend', was meant to softly melt glass together. Shimmering had learned it while working in a glassware shop, it had gone well... up until she got overconfident and tried to fix a crystal vase and ended up blowing up a third of the store, (crystal and glass mend spells apparently don't mix... good thing the store owner insisted on everypony to wear goggles whenever somepony used that spell).

She also forgot that when doing mirrors your suppose to do them while they lay down.

“Oh, crud,” Shimmering muttered, killing the spell.

“Hey, its not-broken again!” Sweet Tooth said happily before tilting her head, “it looks weirder.”

The reason you're suppose to let them them lay down is do to the wax-effect, meaning that the glass gets like melting wax and begins to run a bit, making the surface all wobbly and odd.

“Yeah, it does,” Shimmering answered, sighing, 'well, its not gonna fall apart now at least,' she thought, running a hoof through her mane, 'I'll just put it in the work room and I'll fix it later.'

As Shimmering began lifting it with her magic the frame broke at several points and fell apart, leaving the mirror in the magic grasp.

In an instant Sweet Tooth had let go of Shimmering's ear and fluttered a bit from her, “I didn't touch it!” she called out, hugging the celery stalk close to herself.

Shimmering pulled in a big breath, held it, then slowly exhaled, “I know Sweet Tooth, its not your fault,” she told the flutterpony, 'I forgot about the frame also being cracked'.

“I'm going to put this away and then I-” Shimmering began before her stomach gave of a grumble, “...I'm going to make breakfast.,” she sighed, moving towards the stairs before looking back at Sweet Tooth, “go wait in the kitchen, I'll be down in a minute.”

“Okay Biggy,” Sweet Tooth said before heading into the kitchen while Shimmering went up the stairs and opening the door opposite to her bedroom.

Shimmering's workroom was what most ponies -especially her parents- would call a disaster zone, all kinds of knick-knacks of all kinds of materials were clogging the table, shelves and corners, half-finished projects lie among the stuff, hoping to one day be completed... that is, if they would think, (which Shimmering really hoped they couldn't or she'd feel guilty about it).

She leaned the mirror against a wall before closing the door and heading back down into the kitchen, finding Sweet Tooth sitting on the table nibbling away on the celery stalk, of which there was perhaps an inch left to eat.

“Biggy!” Sweet Tooth shouted happily, zipping over and hugging the unicorns snout, “your back!”

“I wasn't gone for more than a minute,” Shimmering said with a light chuckle.

“But you were not-here.”

Shimmering rolled her eyes at that, “yeah and now I'm back,” she said as her stomach growled again, “and I really need to eat something.”

“You can have my tastie if you want,” Sweet Tooth said as she brought her tail into view, showing Shimmering the little piece of celery left with the end of the tail wrapped around it.

“Uh, thats okay Sweet Tooth, I'll just get me something else.”

“Oh, okay!” Sweet Tooth gave Shimmering a smile and fluttered around the room, nibbling away on her food.

Since there was no coffee to be had ('ugh') Shimmering settled for some flakes of corn serial... after finding out that there really wasn't that much else to eat.

'I need to buy groceries... and if Sweet Tooth eats that much every meal, lets see... three times a day... plus what I eat per day... times seven days... that's about as much as two ponies need!' Shimmering groaned inwardly, shoving another spoonful of flakes into her mouth (and idly watching Sweet Tooth sniff a flake that had fallen out of the bowl before eating it).

'Well thats just great, this is going to take a chunk out of my meager savings,' Shimmering thought, before remembering an important detail, 'oh wait, the pile of bits!' whoever these 'watchers' were they had provided her with founds.

'Okay, that solves the food bill,' Shimmering leaned back while she thought it over a bit more, '... you know, with that amount of bits I could also pay of some of those bills that have been piling up... I should probably count just how much I got, sum up what a months food bill would be... add the cost of the oldest bills...' she smiled a bit, 'hay, I might be able to pay all of them and still have bits over for other stuff… I should make a list-' her thoughts were interrupted by a wet sound.

*drip patter patter drip drip*

Turning her head towards the sound Shimmering saw Sweet Tooth... and what she had just done.

“D-did you just PEE on my floor?!” Shimmering asked the little flutterpony, eyes shifting between the offending spot and its maker.

“Yup!” Sweet Tooth answered, fluttering away from the mess she made.

Shimmering eye twitched a little, “why?”

Sweet Tooth landed on the table, “'Cus I needed to pee.”

“I have a bathroom!”

“…”

“…whats a bathroom?”

Shimmering face-desked, ‘why me?!’

First thing on the list: Teach Sweet Tooth what indoor plumbing was.

Author's Note

Well, this took longer than I wanted. (real life has been... difficult.)
Next chapter will hopefully not take as long since its more or less done, just got to let my co-writer and my editor to ~~point out I'm an idiot and rip my hard work a new one~~ go over it one more time.

Chapter three: The riches I've been given

After cleaning up after Sweet Tooth Shimmering had taken the flutterpony to the bathroom to teach her the finer art of 'using the can'.

“...and then you wipe yourself clean,” Shimmering said as she used a bit of toilet paper to pretend-wipe herself, “then you drop the paper in the toilet, got it?” she asked Sweet Tooth, who had been sitting on the bathroom counter.

“Uh-huh,” Sweet Tooth nodded “wipe and drop.”

“Good, and then we flush-” Shimmering continued as she did so, “after that we wash our hooves at the sink, got it?”

“Nuh-uh” Sweet Tooth shook her head as she fluttered backwards, eyes big and staring at the toilet.

Shimmering groaned inwardly, 'what now?' she thought as she raised an eyebrow at the still backing up flutterpony, “what didn't you understand Sweet Tooth?”

“I'm not going in there,” Sweet Tooth answered, keeping Shimmering between her and the toilet, “the waterfall will take me away!”

Shimmering looked at Sweet Tooth, then at the toilet, then back at the flutterpony, “Sweet Tooth, you don't flush while in the toilet, you don't even have to be IN it while you do your business, just go above it” 'I can deal with cleaning a little spill as long as its in here.'

Sweet Tooth shook her head again, “Nuh-uh, I'm not going where the waterfall is,” she gave Shimmering a pleading look, “please don't make me have to go there, waterfalls are bad.”

Shimmering scratched the side of her head, contemplating the dilemma, 'great, just great, I can't get her to use the toilet,' she thought as she looked from Sweet Tooth to the toilet, 'but then again, to a pony her size a 'waterfalls' would be something to watch out for, hay, for all I know something bad could have happen to Sweet Tooth to make her fearful of them... I'm not gonna force her to use it then.'

'But I can't have her just go anywhere, that's unsanitary,' Shimmering continued to ponder, tapping her hoof on the floor, 'how do we solve this?' she thought while looking around the room for ideas, '...that might work.' “okay Sweet Tooth, I have a compromise for you.”

Sweet Tooth tilted her head, “come-poo-mice?”

“Com-pro-mise, it means... nevermind, its not important,” Shimmering said, thinking it wasn't worth going into detail about its meaning, “the important thing is you don't have to use the toilet.”

“Yay, thanks Biggy!” Sweet Tooth shouted, zipping forward and hugging Shimmering's snout.

“However,” Shimmering continued, “I can't have you just go anywhere, so-” she tapped the sink, “-you'll go in here.”

Sweet Tooth looked over at the sink before fluttering over to take a closer look.

“As you can see Sweet Tooth, the hole at the bottom is too small for you to fit through,” Shimmering said as she pointed at the grill covering the outlet, “go on, try to fit your hoof in there.”

Sweet Tooth looked up at the unicorn, tilting her head again, “my what?”

“your hoof.”

“...”

“the things you stand on,” Shimmering deadpanned.

“...Oooh, okay!” Sweet Tooth nodded in understanding.

'Sweet Faust, please tell me she's just young and not this dense!' Shimmering thought while Sweet Tooth was trying to push her hoof through the grill.

“I can't get it through Biggy,” Sweet Tooth said after a while.

“That's good, then you won't have any problems using the sink instead of the toilet,” Shimmering said while levitating a toilet-roll over to the side of the sink, “Now then, you do your business in there, clean yourself off, then drop the paper in here-” she pointed at the trashcan while using her magic to close the lid on the toilet, “-instead of the toilet, then instead of flushing-” Shimmering lifted Sweet Tooth out of the sink, “-you turn this knob-” she turned the water on slowly, “to wash away the worst of it, then you wash your hooves and lastly dry them off on the towel, got it?”

“Uh-huh,” the flutterpony nodded.

“Good, please show me what you do when you need to go.”

Sweet Tooth fluttered down into the sink, “Do the stinky in the sink,” she fluttered up and ripped off a bit of paper, “wipe until you're dry, then drop it in the thingy,” she dropped it in the trashcan, “spin the noob to make the tiny not-waterfall come out to wash the stinky away,” she gave the knob a twist, running the water, “rub your hoof in the not-waterfall, then dry them on the fuzzy thingy!” Sweet Tooth finished of after using the towel.

“Very good, Sweet Tooth!” Shimmering said, applauding, “you're now house-broken.”

“I didn't break any stuff!”

“What? No, thats not what I-” Shimmering began before settling on rubbing herself between the eyes, “I meant you did good Sweet Tooth.”

“...oh, thanks Biggy!” Sweet Tooth said, looking proud.

'Well, thats out of the way,' Shimmering thought as she turned the water off and left the bathroom with Sweet Tooth in tow, 'now to make that grocery list... I should probably see what kind of budget I have as well now.'

“What are we gonna do now Biggy?” Sweet Tooth asked while they went down the stairs.

“I'm going to check how much money came with you,” Shimmering answered as she passed the remnants of the mirror frame- 'I forgot to bring that up as well... I'll do it next time.' - into the living room.

“Moony?”

“Those hard, shiny things.”

“...Oooh, okay.”

'Speaking of shiny things...' Shimmering thought as she looked upon the pile of bits. 'Gold, not copper, not silver, gold,' the unicorn gave the pile a frowny glare, 'so much money and it feels like a lead weight on my nerves,' she cast the blemish spell one more time.

The result was the same.

Shimmering sighed, 'Well, I guess I'll just see how big my 'pay' is then,' she thought, sitting down on her couch and sweeping the pile to one side, giving her a open area to work on.

“So what now?” Sweet Tooth asked as she landed on the table, using a hind leg to scratch her ear.

“Now I'm going to count these here bits-” Shimmering said, sweeping her arm over the pile and picking up some bits with her magic, “-to see how much it is.”

“Ooh, can I help?”

“Um, sure-”

“Yay, thanks Biggy!” Sweet Tooth interrupted before zipping over to the pile, quickly poking bits with a hoof, going 'thats a shiny, thats another shiny, thats a shiny more.'

“Woah, wait wait WAIT, Sweet Tooth STOP!” Shimmering cried out, getting the flutterpony's attention.

“What Biggy?” Sweet Tooth said, folding her ears back as she turned around, “why did you want me so stop?”

“Sweet Tooth, thats not how you count.” Shimmering said while rubbing her temples.

Sweet Tooth tilted her head, “since when?”

“Since...” Shimmering began, only to think of something, “Sweet Tooth, what's two plus two?”

“...”

“...whats a plus?... and a two?”

'So basic math is beyond her,' Shimmering thought as she continued to look over the bits she'd just picked up, “I'm sorry Sweet Tooth, but you can't really help me with this if you can't count.”

“B-but, I wanna help.”

“Sweet Tooth-” Shimmering began saying until she laid eyes on the little flutterpony.

Ears folded, antennas dropping, tail around her little hooves, big, sorrowful eyes and even a small pouting of the lower lip... Sweet Tooth was giving Shimmering the look that adults fear, the look every colt and filly knows by heart, it was the endgame look.

“Please Biggy, I wanna help too.”

Sweet Tooth was giving Shimmering the puppy-eyes look.

'...cruuud.'

She broke in mere seconds.

“Okay, okay you can help!” Shimmering said, doing her best to resist the urge to hug the little flutterpony and making silly noises while doing so, “ju-, just let me think of how you can help, okay?”

“Yay, thanks Biggy!” Sweet Tooth was once again hugging the unicorns snout, wings buzzing a bit in excitement.

'Okay, how to do this,' Shimmering thought while sorting through the bits she was holding, sorting them into coin pillars of tens, fives and ones, 'she can't count, so how am I suppose to let her he- wait...' Shimmering looked over what she was doing, 'That’s it!'

“Sweet Tooth, listen up.”

“This is how you can help me,” Shimmering continued when the flutterpony had let go and was hovering before her, “look at these please,” she showed Sweet Tooth three bits, “you see how these look?”

“Uh-huh.”

“Good, now if we turn them over-” doing so the bits showed different numbers, “-you see that they're different, right?”

“Right.”

“Thats good, now heres what you'll be doing,” one by one Shimmering put the bits down by a coin pillar, numbers up, “you will be taking bits from here-” she motioned to the pile, “-and build pillars like these-” motioning to the coin pillars, “-using bits like these-” Shimmering pointed to a one-bit, “-for this pile, bits like thi-”

“Shinnies like that one in another pillar and another pillar for the last shiny!” Sweet Tooth finished Shimmering's explanation, smiling broadly.

Shimmering blinked at this, 'huh, she's smarter than I first thought... that or this is so simple I'm making myself look dumb by explaining it,' “yes, very good Sweet Tooth, then when you've built a pillar of the same high as these you make another one until theres no more bits in the pile, okay?”

“Okay!”

“Right then, lets begin.”

Sweet Tooth began zipping back and forth between the pile and the pillars, slowly building said structures with greater speed as she went along. Shimmering did her own counting, occasionally adding Sweet Tooth's finished pillars to her own. (she stopped checking them after the seventh or so, seeing that they were all correct.)

'This is going well,' Shimmering thought, moving another pillar to the five-bit collection, 'good thing Equestria has a solid, easy to understand economy with no silly things like being able to pay with everyday gems dug straight out of the ground.'

Eventually they finished the pile off and Shimmering did one final counting.

She almost fainted again.

'T-three and a half million bits?!' Shimmering thought, her eye twitching once again, 'they gave me three and a half million bits! I-I think I need to sit down...I'm already sitting down...maybe I should stand up so I can sit down?'

Shimmering began massaging her temples in a vain attempt to calm herself, 'I'm panicking, what did my therapist say was a good way to deal with stress?... wait, I stopped going to her six years ago since she was a fraud...WHY IN TARTARUS AM I THINKING ABOUT HER OF ALL PONIES?!'

“Biggy?” Sweet Tooth poked Shimmering's nose to get her attention, “are you okay?”

'Sweet Tooth... got to calm down, don't want to scare her,' Shimmering took a deep breath and held it, trying to get her heart rate down, 'calm down Shim, calm down.'

“D-did I do something wrong Biggy?” the flutterpony asked, when Shimmering didn't answer she hugged her snout, “I tried to do as you said Biggy, please don't not-like me.”

'Say SOMETHING Shim!' Shimmering roared at herself, getting herself out of her stupor.

“NO!” she called out, making Sweet Tooth quickly let go and flutter back a bit, “I mean I don't not-like you- I mean I like you!”

'Smooth Shim, real smooth,' she thought while face-hoofing, “You didn't do anything wrong Sweet Tooth, in fact you did very well, I just had a little panic attack just now.”

“...Was it because I hugged you?” Sweet Tooth asked, folding her ears and looking guilty.

“What? Nononono Sweet Tooth, its not because you hugged me,” Shimmering said, waving a hoof in denial, “the hugs were in fact calming.”

“Really?” Sweet Tooth's ears perked up again.

“Yes Sweet Tooth, really.”

It didn't even take a second before the flutterpony had attached herself to the unicorns snout again.

“Then I'm gonna keep hugging to keep the panic from attacking you again!”

Shimmering couldn't help but snort, amused by Sweet Tooth, 'You're as sweet as your name, aren't you.'

'Well, now that I know what my current budget is I might as well make that grocery list,' Shimmering thought while getting up... and seeing a slight problem.

“Um, Sweet Tooth, you can let go now.”

“Nuh-uh, I'm not gonna let the panic attack again.”

“Thats nice, but-”

“No panic is getting past me while I'm hugging you.”

“Yes thats very nice Sweet Tooth, but-”

“So I'm gonna keep hugging you until forever.”

'...but I can't see where I'm going.'

Author's Note

Well... its out, chapter 3...
...
The reason this took so long is not because I wasn't writing, in fact this chapter has been up on Gdocs so that my co-writer and editor could go over it.
...
This is not the reason ether for the late chapter (Serverbrony and The Planyx were done less than a week after I put it up)
...
The reason for the delay is that my granma past away about a month ago... *sigh* ... my mom's been trying to get granma into a retirement home for years, but granma allways said no and considering her supricingly good health (she was just short of turning 97) and abillity to take care of herself mom would allways back off.

About five years ago granma started needing a little help, we got her signed up for house aid (some people would come once or twice a week to shop and clean for her) , this worked all that time and granma didn't need any more help.

Then about three months ago she started having short periods where she had small problem with breathing, which in turn caused her to get panic attacks and calling for an abulance, but once at the hospital she would be feeling better and by the next day or so she would be sent home.

This went on for almost two weeks before mom got the hospital to keep her longer as granma just kept having these panic attacks (took forever to get her on a light morpine pill treatment to keep her calmer instead of just giving her one while she was having an panic attack)

After all this time mom finally got granma to agree on the retirement home idea.

Me and mom visited the place a week before she was to be moved, to see the room and get an idea of what kind of furniture we could get there.

The place was beutiful, it was by a river, the house was an old hotel renovated under the supervison of the curent owners, a nurse and a doctor, to make it a great place for old and imparid people to enjoy there stay, everyone there were enjoying themself in one way or another, it was perfect.

I couldn't be there on the day granma was moved, don't remember what I was doing (probably something with the workers office, those guys are ruining my life bit by bit...) so mom was the one on site when the ambulance transport got there with granma.

Mom told me it was like granma got 10 years younger.

She was smiling, she talked with everyone she met, she enjoyed the view from her window (she saw a boat pass by) she asked mom if she could bring her knitting next time she visited (granma haven't knitted for almost 8 years)

Mom was euphoric when she got home, telling me about it all, this was the kind of place granma should have been at years ago, but at least she was there now.

We were all happy.

...then 12 hours later they called from the home.

Granma had passed away.

For a cupple of hours my granma was happier then she'd been for years and she got a good end.

I never got to see her like that.

The last time I saw her was at the hospital, she was misserable.

That is the last memory I have of my Granma, my kind, positive, strong and loving granma... is her lieing in a hospital bed... holding her hand... looking at me... and she accuses mom of not caring about her, that no one cared about the fact she was dieing...

The only thing I can take solanse in is that mom got to see her mother happy, one last time.

*sigh'

During all this time I've still been writing, about the only thing that keeps me from going into a deep depretion, so hopefully the next one will be sent to ServerBrony soon to be looked over before Palnyx goes over it for misstakes.

Till then, just... spend time with your family, tell them you love them, one day they'll not be there anymore... so make every day you can a happy one with them, okay?

A Study On Flutterponies: first entry

After silently lamenting over the absent of her beloved ambrosia for 10 minutes, (she managed to get the extra five minutes by giving Sweet Tooth another apple when the flutterpony asked why she was bumping her head on the table over and over again.) Shimmering decided she might as well give her house guest a proper tour of the house.

There was the kitchen (where all the tasties was), hallway, living room, bottom floor bathroom (another scary waterfall.) laundry room (explaining what 'laundry' meant was difficult since Sweet Tooth didn't know what sheets were.) stairs up to the floor above, upstairs bathroom, workroom, (off-limits to Sweet Tooth do to there being way too many things that could potentially hurt her.) office (once again something hard to explain since Sweet Tooth didn't know what 'paperwork' was... or paper for that matter.) and lastly...

“-and this is my bedroom,” Shimmering said to Sweet Tooth as they entered, doing a slight sweeping motion with her foreleg, “this is where I sleep.”

“Uh-huh,” Sweet Tooth nodded while rubbing her foreleg over her eyes.

Shimmering noticed how subdued the flutterpony had been since she'd started the tour.

“Sweet Tooth, its okay to say if you think this is boring, I won't take offense.”

“Nu-uh, not boring,” the little flutterpony shook her head, a yawn escaping her, “tired.”

“Oh,“ Shimmering looked over to her clock, it was a little over an hour til noon, “I guess its been a very eventful day.”

“Mm,” Sweet Tooth rubbed her eyes again, “didn't sleep in the not-let-go-y thingy, not comfy with shinies in it.”

'Shinies in a not-le- ooh, the box,' Shimmering nodded in realisation, “yeah, I guess that wouldn't be comfortable.”

“Nu-uh.”

“Just wait there and I'll make a place for you to sleep on,” Shimmering told the sleepy flutterpony as she made her way to her closet.

“'kay...”

'Alright, how do we do this?' Shimmering thought to herself as she opened the closet, 'shes too small to sleep in the bed-sofa, not to mention its a health hazard for ponies my size, so thats a big fat no,' she picked up a spare pillow along with a fresh pillow-case and began to put them together, 'besides, I prefer to keep her close in case these 'Watchers' do anything else.'

'How do we know she's not with them?' the more paranoid part of her mind asked, only to be shoved back into its dark corner by her resolve.

'She could sleep with me, wait, scratch that, I tend to toss and turn a lot, at least according to Star I do,' Shimmering continued to ponder, 'she did tend to complain about it when we had slumber-parties back when we were fillies... and early teens... and late teens...' she sighs, 'I really need to meet with Star more often, she always gets me to calm down...' Shimmering smiles a bit and then frowns, '...and get under my skin with her teasing and jokes... good times.'

She shakes off her nostalgia and gets back on track, 'anyways, thats probably not a good idea either, so where does she sleep then?' Shimmering finishes up with the pillow, 'heck, even the pillow is larger than her, she could use it as a- That's it! Sweet Tooth can use the pillow as a bed!' she goes to grab another pillow-case, 'and she can use this as covers!'

“Alright Sweet Tooth, I think I go-” Shimmering started to say as she turned around, only to find that Sweet Tooth was no longer fluttering in the air, but hanging by her tail from her coat-hanger, two pegs away from her pink morning robe, sound asleep.

'...huh, interesting way to fall asleep on,' Shimmering thought as she walked over to the sleeping flutterpony.

Sweet Tooth was hanging an inch or so from the wall, head and legs tucked close to her body, chest rising and falling in a calm, steady pace.

'Well, I guess I'll just pick her down then,' Shimmering wrapped Sweet Tooth in her magic to prevent her from falling as she began working on loosening her tail.

'Come on, let go now,' Shimmering thought, trying her best to coach Sweet Tooth's tail to let go without putting too much pressure on it, but ultimately failing, 'okay, so she's got an iron grip on it, I'll just make sure she got something soft to land on, just in case.'

Shimmering left the pillow beneath the sleeping flutterpony before leaving the room.

'So... what do I do know?' Shimmering pondered, 'I'm not completely sure what I can do about this whole situation... for now I'll just try to go about it as any other day.'

She set about it, cleaning what needed to be cleaned, fixing the mirror, taking out the trash and going over which bills she needed to pay.

'-and these ones can wait for now,' Shimmering thought as she put the last envelope with bill and bits to pay said bill along the rest of her soon-to-be-paid bill-envelopes, 'now all I have to do is give these to the mail-pony and I'll no longer have any last warning bills!'

Shimmering slumped back into her office-chair, her eyes drawn to the box of bits on her desk.

'Whoever these 'Watchers' are they at least gave me something to brighten up my day,' Shimmering continued to think as she grabbed the box and made her way to her workroom, putting the box back in her hiding spot, 'I've paid most of my bills and I'm still left with over three million!'

Shimmering closed the workroom door before poking her head into her bedroom to check on Sweet Tooth, who was still hanging where she left her, snoozing away.

'Still sleeping upside-down, it seems so weird,' Shimmering thought as she went back into her office, 'then again, that might be perfectly normal for Sweet Tooth... come to think of it, I don't really know anything about flutterponies in general, heck, I've just been calling her a flutterpony since neither of us know what her species is.'

She slumped down in her chair, deep in though, 'none of the books I have got anything useful information about this, nor do I know where I could find any, for all I know Sweet Tooth's race could be completely unheard of in Equestria.'

'Unheard of...' Shimmering sat a little straighter in her seat, 'that would mean I'm the first to make contact with a new sentient being, sweet Faust I've made first contact!'

'Technically those 'Watchers' did, since they delivered Sweet Tooth to me first.'

'Shut up logic, I'm on a tangent here... ye, I get really odd when I'm without coffee, don't I?'

'Only when I'm really stressed out as well.'

'FOCUS DAMMIT!'

Shimmering snapped out of her self-argument, shaking her head a bit before starting to get writing supplies out of her desk-drawers.

'Anyways, if I'm the first one to properly speak to a new sentient being I better write down my observations for later studies,' she thought with a giddy smile, 'oh this is going to be exciting, this might be what Jade Goodall felt like when she studied the Zebrican mountain gorillas!'

'Nerd.'

'Shut up.'

Shimmering placed everything she needed to write before her in neat piles and lines before picking up her pen to begin.

'WAIT!' the pen stopped just above the paper, 'they're watching you!'

Shimmering groaned on the inside, 'great, now my paranoia is being verbal.'

'Shut up and listen!' the part of her mind she tried to ignore most of the time spoke up, 'if these 'Watchers' keep tabs on what I'm doing they might look this over as well, I can't let them steal my work.'

'Okay, so what do I do instead? I mean I could have use for this, or somepony else could if they come across more flutterponies.'

'*sigh* sometimes I wonder if the coffee I drink is smarter than I... write it in the secret code I came up with Star.'

Shimmering sat still for a little while before face-hoofing, 'why didn't I think of that?'

'I just did, I'm just so caffeine-starved I don't realize I'm talking to myself.'

'...shut up logic.'

'Just get on with it already.'

Thinking over how to formulate her findings Shimmering began to write.

~ ~ ~

A Study on Flutterponies

By Shimmering Sparks

What I'm about to write is all based on my observations of one flutterpony named Sweet Tooth and is therefore not to be considered the norm for all flutterponies.

I've come to refer Sweet Tooth as a 'flutterpony' only do to not having any other name for what she is, Sweet Tooth herself does not seem to know herself.

For now I'll consider all information I have as the norm until proven otherwise, will very likely re-write this several times as I learn more.

First of all: what a flutterpony looks like.

Based on Sweet Tooth they're about a hoof and a half tall, with the same build as your average pegasus with a couple of differences.

The first difference is that they have two pairs of transparent dragon-fly wings about two hoofs long from tip to tip, when Sweet Tooth flies she beats them rapidly, just like that of a colibri, but with little to no sound to them, making her quite possibly very stealthy if needed to.

She got a pair of fuzzy antennas in the same color as her coat, unknown use.

Lastly her tail is like a griffins and Sweet Tooth have used it to grip things such as food, my ear and recently to attach herself to my coat-hanger in order to sleep, still unknown if sleeping upside-down in this manner is normal, but she have been for about an hour and a half now, so posible.

I've made a simple drawing of what Sweet Tooth looks like, see attached drawing.

Second: behavior.

Again, this is solely based on one flutterpony and therefor not the norm, but do to the lack of other flutterponies will be the only behavior study I've been able to do right now.

Sweet Tooth is qurius yet at the same time ignorant of a lot of things, main interest seems to be food, or 'tasties' as she calls them. She is very energetic and talks in a rapid way.
She is almost constantly happy, only at a few times has she had this emotion change and during most of those times its been short lived.

The times when this happened were first when she was worried when I had passed out on the floor (for reasons I will not be getting into), second was when I was showing her how the toilet worked, she was scared of the flushing (apparently reminds her of waterfalls, don't know reason behind fear), third was when I told her to stay at home while I was going out to buy food (she panicked, burrowing into my mane and refused to leave, kept going on about not wanting to be alone again, will have to find out more about that)

She speaks and understands Equestrian, though tends to use simple describing words for most things she doesn't know the word for or that seems too complex for her to remember (Sweet Tooth is unable to say my name correctly and uses a nickname instead, she down below.)

Some of the words she uses are:

'Tasties' for most types of foods, often with another simple describing word along with it (sweet, stingy, crunchy, etc.)
'Thingy' for most inanimate objects.
'Shinies' means bits or things that are shiny.
'Big-pony' or simply 'Big' referring to ponies in general, comes from her referring to me as 'Biggy' the first time she saw me, from her point of view it makes perfect sense considering everypony is bigger than her.

Third: Eating Habits.

Sweet Tooth eats the same things as ponies to, though seems to be able to eat things several times her own size without visible gain of weight and will do so with gusto, very likely has very fast metabolism in order to do so, will eventually get full, though will continue nibbling at food at a slow pace.

When I told Sweet Tooth she didn't need to eat a piece of food I thought she didn't like -do to her just nibbling on it for 10 minutes where as before she'd eaten things far bigger in half that time- she tried to stuff it all in her mouth at once, even though she was full, when I then told her she could leave it for later she kept checking on it, like it would disappear if she didn't.

A theory is that Sweet Tooth is used to food being scarce or that somepony else will take it from you left alone for too long.

If this is true then Sweet Tooth is a very caring being.

I had -for lack of a better term- a small breakdown when I came back home for reasons I prefer not going into right now, during this Sweet Tooth gave me a celery stalk I'd given her earlier to snack on, hoping it would make me feel better since -in her own words- 'tasties make everything better'.

While I write this I come to realise just how much Sweet Tooth trust me and seem to think highly of me, a couple of times referring to me as 'the besties big-pony everyplace'.

Kind of like how I always thought of my grandmother.

I miss her.

maybe I should have left that out, becoming a bit too personal.

I will continue this when I have more information.

Will most likely have to rewrite a lot of this anyway.

~ ~ ~

With a sigh Shimmering puts down her quill, running a fetlock over her eyes.

'Well... I guess this will do for now,' Shimmering thought as she put away her writing material and putting her notes in a folder, 'what time is it?'

Looking up at the clock she saw it was just a few minutes to being four-o-clock.

'Really, that much?' Shimmering shook her head as she got out of her chair, 'I better check on Sweet Tooth.'

Entering the bedroom she saw that Sweet Tooth was still sleeping where she'd left her.

'Still haven't fallen down, good,' Shimmering thought as she stepped closer to the flutterpony, 'for being in a completely new place with a stranger she just met Sweet Tooth sure sleeps okay.'

Sweet Tooth's nose twitched a little along with one of her antennas, she mumbled something.

'Hm?' Shimmering's ears poked up, 'did she say something?' she leaned closer to listen.

“Zzz... buzzing... gone... Zzz... no... don't leave... don't wanna be alone... Zzz... Biggy... don't go... no buzzing... don't leave me...” Sweet Tooth mumbled, reaching out with her forelegs in Shimmering's general direction.

'She sounds worried,' Shimmering thought as she leaned back a bit, watching as Sweet Tooth kept reaching out around her, her mumbling getting more worried, 'oh dear, she might be having a nightmare, what do I do?'

Looking around for something that might give her an idea Shimmering's eyes fell on her morning robe.

'Hmm, she reacted to my sent, so maybe...' Shimmering lit up her horn and grabbed the fuzzy robe's equally fuzzy belt and pulled it loose, 'okay, lets see if this works.'

She began bringing it closer to Sweet Tooth before suddenly stopping.

'… better make sure,' Shimmering brought it close to her instead, then rubbed her face against it and ran it over her mane as well, 'there, now it definitely smells like me.'

Once again she brought the end of the belt closer to Sweet Tooth, whose wings were now giving of a nervous flutter now and then.

Sweet Tooth's nose twitched again, her forelegs made contact with the belt and she gripped it, pulling it close.

Sweet Tooth sniffed it a couple of times before a small smile appeared on her lips as the flutterpony hugged the fuzzy belt tighter.

“Mmm... Biggy,” she mumbled, giving of a content sigh as she seemed to drift into a calmer sleep.

Shimmering couldn't help but smile at the flutterpony hugging her morning robe belt like a security blanket, 'sweet Faust she's cute when she does that.'

'Its just her size that makes it seem cute.'

'Shut up brain,’ She thought to herself as she tied the other end of the belt to the peg next to Sweet Tooth’s, ‘cute beats logic.'

Blinging in realisation of what she was thinking, Shimmering face-hoofed, '...aaand I'm arguing with myself again... I'm too tired for this.'

'Then go sleep.'

'Its four in the afternoon.'

'And?'

'And... uhh...'

'I'm unemployed and have a heap load of bits, I can sleep whenever I want.'

'...good point.'

This followed with another face-hoof, '...aaand now I'm congratulating myself,' Shimmering thought with a sigh as she walked to her bed, 'just go to sleep before I start referring to myself in third person.'

'Shimmering agrees.'

Shimmering did a double take on what she just thought before rolling her eyes, 'oh har-de-har har.' she thought as she slipped under her covers, getting comfortable.

'Well, this has been an eventful day,' Shimmering thought as she looked over at the sleeping flutterpony, 'never thought I'd be forced into being a host for an unknown species by some shadow organisation bent on... whatever they're trying to do with this.'

She frowned, 'well one thing is certain, I'm going to keep Sweet Tooth safe, no matter what.'

As Shimmering closed her eyes she started drifting into the land of sleep, thoughts wandered back through her day, the early awakening, Sweet Tooth naming her ‘Biggy’, the shock at the large amount of bits, the embarrassing trip to the market, the smelly drunk bum who she threw bits at to keep him silent… three bits… three gold bits.

She opened her eyes, staring dumbfounded at nothing in particular.

‘I think I threw at least 300 bits at a bum...’

Chapter one: What’s in the box?

A repeating knocking assaulted Shimmering Sparks' ears, drawing her from her slumber.

“Umgh...” she mumbled, her light teal eyes looked at the clock on her nightstand.

'3:24, who the hay is up at this hour?' Shimmering Sparks thought as she slid/fell out of bed, half stumbling and catching her reflection in the mirror, a tan coated unicorn mare with a two toned, slightly puffy yellow and light-brown mane (currently with a very severe case of bed-mane) stared back at her.

'Ugh, I look like somepony just dragged me out of bed,' Shimmering Sparks thought as she stood up properly, all the while the knocking had been going on uninterrupted, she gave off a annoyed snort, 'probably due to that somepony did '.

As Shimmering Sparks made her way down the stares the uninterrupted knocking began to really get on her nerves, “I'm coming, don't get yo- *yawn* your tail in a knot,” she said as she made a u-turn at the bottom of the stairs and making her way to the door, all the while the knocking continued.

'I swear if its another salespony I'm hitting him with the umbrella stand,' Shimmering thought as she lit up her horn, grabbing the handle with her magic and yanking the door open. “WHAT!” she shouted in at the... empty air? “...wha?”

What Shimmering Sparks had expected when she ripped open the door (apart from getting a hoof in the face) was somepony trying to sell her brooms, a new kind of soap, hoof-polish or -Faust forbid- kinky socks. What she found instead was nopony at all, 'left?' she looked left 'no, right?' she looked the other way 'nope, pegasus?' looking up gave the same result, then her sleepy mind got a brilliant idea.

She looked down.

On Shimmering's doorstep was a box with a note on, picking up the note in her magic Shimmering read it... or tried to, the text was kind of small and it was dark out.

After a few seconds Shimmering gave of a small grunt of frustration, 'oh buck this,' she thought as she picked up the box and went inside, giving the door a kick to close it.

Going into her living room Shimmering turned on the electric lights, (Shimmering was quite proud of installing the cables herself, she only got a jolt twice doing the whole house) put the box on the coffee table, ('mmm, coffee... I could use that about now') sat down in the couch and gave the note another look over.

Equine being Shimmering Sparks, you are to take care of being located in the carbon fiber storage unit, you are to follow the following rules, 1: you are to provide the being with its needs. 2: you are not to harm the being. 3: you are not to show the being to other equine beings, avian-feline hybrid beings, bovine beings, simian-bovine hybrid beings or reptilian beings. Inability to follow or direct breakage of said rules will be met with punishment from Us. We are aware that beings like yourself preform optimal when given given and/or is promised large amounts of the soft, heavy metal, therefore the storage unit the being resides in contains the following amount of said metal.
33.33333-(the three's took up a whole line on there own and considering the small size of the text that was a lot!)-3334%
Preform well and We shall provide more of said metal, break the rules We have written down on this unit of pressed plant matter and you will be punished.
Signed- The Watchers

Simmering blinked, read the note again and came up with the same thought as the first time she read it, which went something like this.

'What the buck did I just read?'

Shimmering put the note down next to the box while massaging the sides of her head, 'It’s too darn early in the morning for this,' she thought, looking at the box,wondering if this was some kind of weird joke or wrong deliverance- and was the lid on the box moving?

As Shimmering watched the lid bent slightly once, twice, three times under the assault of... whatever was in the box, but held firm by the twine around the box... that is until the assaulter pushed itself out by the corner.

“Hugghnn!” the being grunted as it pushed itself halfway out, revealing itself as a... pony?! “Almost, got, it, let, go, stupid, not-let-go-y, thingy!” it said before it slipped out of the box, revealing the rest of it.

It looked like a miniature pony, perhaps a hoof and a half tall, it got a pink coat and a white mane, from its head stuck a pair of fuzzy antennas in the same color as its coat, on its back two pairs of dragonfly wings beat the air and its tail... well, it looks like that of a griffin, ending with a white, teardrop shaped turf of hair.

It didn't have a cutie mark.

“Yay I'm out!” the being called out happily as it fluttered in the air next to the box before spinning around, revealing yellow eyes as it pointed a hoof at the box, “take that you not-let-go-y thingy.”

Then it looked up, seeing Shimmering Sparks.

The two ponies stared at each other, one slack-jawed, the other big eyed and hovering.

The silence lasted for almost a minute before the being spoke.

“Wow, your really big, you must eat a lot.”

This got Shimmering out of her stupor. 'D-did it just call me fat?' she thought as the being started talking.

“What is that pointy on your head- hey, where did the trees go? There was a lot of them arou- is this a cave? It doesn't look cave-y or smell cave-y or sound cave-y or- ooh, what’s that?” it said rapidly before fluttering of to a neigh-pon tea set on a shelf, sniffing it before starting to poke it.

“DON'T TOUCH THAT!” Shimmering shouted, causing the miniature pony to hide behind the teapot. She wrapped the tea set in her magic and quickly, but carefully, pulled them to her, giving the now cowering mini-pony a glare, “they belonged to my grandmother.”

The mini-pony was slowly backing away from the edge and out of the unicorns view.

Shimmering let out a breath, 'smooth Shim, good first impression,' she thought as she put the tea set down on the coffee table before turning back to the shelf, a pair of pink antennas where the only indication there was a living being up there, 'okay, lets try this again,' Shimmering thought, clearing her throat.

“Um hey,” Shimmering said, looking up at the shelf, “sorry about yelling, you just caught me a bit off-guard, that tea set is a bit fragile.”

For a while, silence ruled.

“...whats a 'fra-gill'?” the little being asked as it slowly poked its head over the edge, tilting its head a bit.

“Fragile means it breaks easily,” Shimmering said, giving it a tired smile, “would you like to come down?”

The dragonfly-pony lowered its head a bit, “are you gonna yell at me again, 'cus I don't like the yelly part.”

'Don't give me a reason to then,' Shimmering thought as she shook her head slightly, “I won't.”

The griffin-tail pony ('brain, pick one synonym and stick with it') was quiet for a little bit again “...is that 'I won't yell again' or 'I won't not yell again'?” it asked.

Shimmering face-hoofed.

'Its too early for this crud,' she thought at she lit up her horn and engulfed the mini-pony in her magic, picking it off the shelf.

“What's this sparkly stuff- Hey, I'm flying without flapping my wings! Oh, hey Biggy, your pointy is sparkly too!” it exclaimed, waving its hooves around as Shimmering put it down on the coffee table before picking up the tea set in her magic and carefully putting them back on the shelf.

Shimmering let out a little breath, “now then, lets-”

“Hey Biggy, are there any tasties in this not-cave cave?” the little being interuppted, starting to once again flutter around, “there weren't any up there, I didn't see any down here and those cold-hard-not-eat-y thingies in the not-let-go-y thingy weren't tasty at all.”

Shimmering was having a hard time getting her sleep deprived mind to understand what the little being meant.

“...tasties?” Shimmering asked, scratching her ear, “what do you mean by 'tasties'?”

“You know, tasties,” the mini-pony said, waving its hooves around, “crunchy tasties, sticky tasties, hard tasties, soft tasties, stingy tasties, sour tasties, sweet tasties- I like the sweet tasties~” its gaze went dreamy at the end, a bit of drool started forming in the corner of its mouth.

The gears in Shimmering's head managed to grind forth a reply, “...food, you mean things you eat.”

The little being shock itself out of its stupor and nodded, “yeah, tasties,” it started to flutter closer to Shimmering, “so do you have any tasties? I'm really, really, Really hungry.”

It was a mere inch from Shimmering's eye.

'Ever heard of personal space?' Shimmering thought as she leaned back a bit, “um, I might have something in the kitchen,” 'and coffee' her mind added, “if you'll just follow me,” Shimmering said as she began walking into the kitchen, making sure to keep an eye on the little being.

Upon entering the kitchen the little being began zipping around, “Where are the tasties?”

“I'm getting them, just sit down in a cha- um... on the table,” Shimmering said as she got two carrots out of a bag, 'this should be more than enough for somepony that size,' she thought as she looked back at her... house guest.

She (Shimmering thought it was a 'she') was currently sniffing the tablecloth before giving it a quick lick, 'okay, gross,' she thought as she put the food down on the table, “Here, have some carrots.”

“Thanks Biggy!” the little being said, grabbing one of the carrots and taking a surprising large bite out of it, “ooh, crunchy tastie” it (she?) exclaimed before going pirranah on the rest of it.

'Well, now that our guest is fed lets make some coffee,' Shimmering thought as she opened the cabinet where she keeped the coffee, but found no coffee, 'WHERES MY COFFEE?!' she thought in part rage, part despair that only the true addict understands, '... oh right, I forgot to buy more... horseapples,' she gave herself a half hearted smack between the eyes.

“Hey Biggy!” the little being called out again.

“What?!” Shimmering called out a bit sharper than she intended as she spun around to face the... slightly cowering mini-pony, “...uh, sorry.”

The little one gave her the stink-eye, “you said you weren't going to yell again Biggy, you big-Biggy-meany.”

Shimmering sighted, “I know and I'm sorry,” she said, keeping her voice calm and soft, “I was just... what was it you wanted?”

The little one's ears perked up again, “do you have any more tasties? I'm still hungry.”

If the mini-pony had been as big as Shimmering, then the carrots would have been as tall as she was long, unless her caffine-starved mind was wrong one carrot should have been enough, let alone two. But there the little one sat, big eyed and wings fluttering, not a trace of the carrots to be seen, not even the greens were present.

Shimmering's eye twitched a bit, (do to lack of caffine) “your... still hungry?”

The mini-pony nodded, its wings fluttering some more, “uh-huh, so do you have any more tasties?”

“Ugh, sure, let me just...” Shimmering said, levitating the bag of carrots over to herself before giving the fluttering pony('you know what brain, lets just refer to it as a Flutterpony for now, okay?) another carrot, “here, you can have one more.”

“Thanks Biggy!” the flutterpony exclaimed happily and started devouring the carrot.

“My name is Shimmering Sparks, not 'Biggy,'” Shimmering said, watching the flutterpony scarf down half of the carrot in only a few bites.

“I'm Sweet Tooth, nice to meet you Biggy!” the flutterpony -Sweet Tooth- said after downing the greens and giving off a loud burp, “do you have any more tasties Biggy?”

Shimmering's eye twitched again, (do to flutterpony... and lack of caffine) “y-you just ate three carrots, how can you still be hungry?!” she said with a bit more volume than intended.

Sweet Tooth folded her ears back and tilted her head slightly, “...'cus I still am?” she said as she leaned forward a bit, giving Shimmering a big eyed stare, “can I have some more?”

'Ugh, why does it have to look so... innocent when asking that,' Shimmering thought, rubbing a hoof between her eyes, “okay, fine, you can have one more,” she levitated one more carrot to the flutterpony, “but thats the last one, okay?”

“Thanks Biggy!” Sweet Tooth said happily as she (Shimmering decided it was a she until proven otherwise) made short work of her latest victim.

“My name is- oh forget it,” Shimmering said with a shake of her head, beginning to levitate the bag back towards the cabinet.

“Hey Big- wait, wheres the thingy with the tasties in it?” Sweet Tooth asked, looking around until she spotted Shimmering opening a cabinet, “Biggy, can I have more tasties?”

“No Sweet Tooth,” Shimmering said, growing annoyed, “I said that that was your last one.”

“B-but you didn't say it was the last last one!” Sweet Tooth pleaded, fluttering up from the table, “can I have one last more?”

“I said no,” Shimmering said with a bit of anger in her voice as she put the bag away, not looking at the flutterpony, “I'm not going to have some miniature pony eat me out of home.”

“But, but, tasties!” Sweet Tooth exclaimed, darting towards the 'tasties' at full speed, “Nooooo!” only to smack head first into the closed cabinet door, “...owie~” she rubbed her head before starting to scrape at the cabinet door, “tasties, please let me have the tasties Biggy.”

“ENOUGH!” Shimmering cried out, she had had enough of this, she grabbed Sweet Tooth with her magic, pulling the flutterpony to her, “listen here you... you, I'm woken up at this Faust forsaken hour by some unknown ponies, leaving a weird number of orders they seem to expect me to follow,” she took a breath, “and then there's you, who haven't shut up about 'tasties' since I gave you some-”

“B-but, Biggy-”

“MY. NAME. IS. SHIMMERING. SPARKS. NOT BIGGY!” Shimmering practically roared, “How hard is it to get that!?”

Sweet Tooth stared at the big pony in fear, ears flat on her head, legs, wings and tail close to her body, “b-but-”

“No. buts,” Shimmering said with a slight growl in her voice before taking a deep breath, “I'm too tired for this, I'm going to sleep for a few hours more, then I'll take you to the nearest guardstation ('or pound') and let them sort this out, either way you'll be out of my mane.”

One of Sweet Tooth's antennas twitched a bit and the flutterpony tilted her head slightly, “...is the sparkly stuff a mane?” she asked, “'cus your the one who put me in it.”

Shimmering's eye twitched again before putting the flutterpony down on the table again, “Just... just stay here until I get you,” Shimmering said as she made her way out of the kitchen before spinning around and pointing a hoof at Sweet Tooth, “and don't touch anything!” she warned her before walking out into the hallway.

'Yelling at a pony smaller than me, I wish could say that was a first,' Shimmering thought as she made her way towards the stairs, only to find a note stuck to her hallway mirror, 'what the-?' she grabbed it and looked it over.

Equine being Shimmering Sparks, you have broken the following rule; 1: you are to provide the being with its needs. You have denied the being sustenance, therefore. you are to be punished; the object known as a 'mirror' shall be broken.

Do not break Our rules.

Signed- The Watchers.

“B-Biggy, I-” Shimmering heard Sweet Tooth say before there was a ear-splitting crack, causing Shimmering to jump back in fright, looking at her mirror she saw it was covered in hundreds of small cracks, even the frame had cracks in it and next to it fluttered Sweet Tooth, who looked between her and the broken mirror, fear eminent in her eyes.

“I-I didn't touch it, honest.”

“OK, that tears it!” Shimmering screamed, stomping into her living room, 'I'm getting that thing out of my house this instance, now where is that box?!'

“B-Biggy, are you angry?” Sweet Tooth asked, fluttering after the fuming unicorn.

“Quiet,” Shimmering said, spotting the box on her coffee table, quickly picking it up with her magic, “now get in th-” 'wait, was this box really this heavy?' Shimmering stopped herself before opening the box and looking in it, her eyes went big.

Almost half of it was filled with bits, gold bits.

“...wha?” Shimmering half-said as she brought the box back to the table, tilting its contents out over it.

'T-thats a lot of bits,' Shimmering thought, dropping the box, her eye twitching rapidly.

“...Those cold-hard-not-eat-y thingies are shiny.” Sweet Tooth said, fluttering over the table.

*Thud*

“Biggy?”

Shimmering had fainted.

Chapter four: The art of not being seen.

After briefly wrestling Sweet Tooth off her face, and a quick bribe with some sugar to calm her down, Shimmering Spark started quick work on her list.

'Okay, groceries should be covered,' she thought as she looked the list over, 'what else might we need?'

“Hey Biggy, what'cha doing?” Sweet Tooth asked while buzzing around Shimmering’s head in a sugar induced high.

“I'm making a list over what we need,” Shimmering answered, going over the list again, 'hmm, I should probably stock up on coffee, I do not want to be without coffee again,' she looked up at the flutterpony, “is there anything you need other than food?”

“Um,” Sweet Tooth hovered in place, holding a hoof to her chin while thinking the question over, “...more tasties?”

'That's a no then,' Shimmering rolled up the list and went to grab her saddlebags, 'I might see something we'll need while I'm out.'

Shimmering walked into the living room -with flutterpony on tow- and began grabbing some bits, 'lets see, how much should I take?' she ended up taking the equivalent of 40 gold bits.

'I'm carrying 4,000 bits just to buy groceries... I need to get some of this changed,' Shimmering thought as she turned around to leave... only to stop dead.

'WAIT! I'm about to leave three and a half million bits, in my house, on my coffee table, where anypony who tried to peek in would see them.'

Shimmering started to frantically shove the bits back in the box they came with.

“Gottohidegottohidegottohide!” she muttered in panic, rushing past Sweet Tooth -causing the flutterpony to spin in place- with box in tow, 'Where do I hide it?! Where's the one place nopony but me can find it with ease?'

It took her brain 15 seconds -do to lack of coffee- to figure out a place.

'Workroom.'

Shimmering bolted up the stairs, flinging the workroom door open, rushing in -almost knocking over the mirror in her haste- and shoving the bit-box among a bunch of other boxes.

'Phew, there, now they're hidden,' she thought to herself, 'nopony knows I have a small fortune in my house, calm my fluttering heart, calm.'

“Biggy?” a voice said right next to her ear, causing the unicorn to jump out of her skin... figuratively speaking.

“GAH!” Shimmering yelped, spinning around to see a very confused flutterpony staring at her, “Sweet Tooth, don't sneak up on me like that!” she said while trying to get her heart to start beating again.

“I didn't sneak up, I flew up,” Sweet Tooth answered, tilting her head sideways, “why did you run off with the shinies in the not-let-go-y thingy?”

“The whatnow? ...oh right, the bits and the box,” Shimmering ran a hoof through her mane, “just, you know, putting them away, don't want them taking up the table,” she smiled awkwardly.

“Oh, okay!” Sweet Tooth smiled and fluttered out of the room.

'Well now, the bits are safe, Sweet Tooth's happy and I'm not having a stroke... I guess I'll go shopping then.'

“Hey Biggy,” Sweet Tooth asked while Shimmering made her way down the stairs, landing on the unicorns head, “what are we gonna do now?”

“Well I'm going out to buy some things,” Shimmering said while levitating her saddlebags on to her back, “You are going to stay here until I get back, okay?”

“W-wait, you're leaving me in the not-cave cave?” Sweet Tooth's ears folded back while her voice grew weary.

“Um, yes?”

“Alone?”

“Yes, but only for a whi-”

“I don't wanna be alone again!” Sweet Tooth shouted before burrowing into Shimmering's mane.

“What? Hey get out of there!”

“No, I'm not gonna be alone!”

“Sweet Tooth, you get out of my mane right this instance!” Shimmering said with her most authoritative voice, empificing it with a stomp of her hoof.

“No, alone is bad,” Sweet Tooth said from somewhere inside the unicorn's mane, her voice sounding sad, “...I don't wanna be alone again.”

“Sweet Tooth-”

“Please Biggy, don't make me stay in the not-cave cave alone.”

“I-” Shimmering began, going silent when she felt the little flutterpony pushing herself against her head, shivering.

'She's terrified,' she thought, feeling Sweet Tooth's heart beat against her skin, 'I don't know why she's so scared of being alone, but I can't put her through that, but I can't take her with me... or can I?'

Quickly bringing the note with the rules on to her Shimmering read the guidelines once again.

'Well it says I'm not allowed to show her to anypo- anyone, but there's nothing about bringing her with me, so...'

“Okay Sweet Tooth, you can come.” Shimmering said as she put the note away.

“H-huh?” Sweet Tooth shivering mostly ceased.

“I said you can come with me.”

“R-really? Really really?”

“Yes Sweet Tooth, really.”

Shimmering felt rapid moving on her mane before a very happy flutterpony wrapped herself around her horn.

“THANK YOU! Thankyouthankyouthankyou!, Biggy is the bestiest, kindiest, bigiest pony ever!”

“On one condition.” Shimmering continued.

“Con-di-what?”

“Condition, it means something you have to do to come along.”

“What do I have to do?”

“Well you got to stay out of sight and be quiet,” Shimmering explained, “as long as we're out of the house-”

“House?”

“...The not-cave cave.”

“Ohhh.”

“Right, as long as we're out of the house you have to hide and be quiet, can you do that?”

“I think so,” Sweet Tooth said while letting go of Shimmering's horn, “um, Biggy?”

“Yes Sweet Tooth?”

“...Can I hide up here?” Sweet Tooth asked, burrowing a little into the unicorn's mane again, “its fuzzy and smells nice.”

“Well-” 'I don't know if I'm comfortable with her there, but if she needs to ask me something I'll be able to hear it easier,' “-okay Sweet Tooth, you may.”

“Yay, thanks Biggy!” the little flutterpony said, burrowing deeper into the mane before making herself comfortable.

“You ready?”

“Uh-huh!”

'Well... here goes nothing' shimmering thought as she gripped the door handle with her magic.

She opened the door and stepped outside...

~ - - - ~

Canterhorn.

An old mining town halfway up canterhorn mountain which predates the building of Canterlot by at least 30 years. Anypony that says Canterhorn is trying to rip-off Canterlot with its similar name has always been met with the same answer.

“We were here first you know.”

When Canterlot started to be built do to princess Celestia taking up residence near its peak after the Nightmare Moon incident, Canterhorn started getting a lot of traffic through it, making it flourish and it did so for centuries, despite the mine shutting down around 400 years after the founding of Canterlot.

Canterhorn's golden age ended with intruduction of trains about 900 years after Canterlot's settlement.

With trains making transportation of goods faster and by length cheaper Canterhorn lost a lot of its customers, more so when prices for train tickets reached a point where most ponies could afford.

Now a days Canterhorn works as a place where trains coming from and going to Canterlot can meet without to much hassle as well as house a lot of warehouses and homes for ponies that work in Canterlot but can't necessarily afford the rent in Canterlot.

Its still a nice place to raise a family though.

~ - - - ~

… The early morning sun.

Shimmering took a few slow steps outside, waiting to see if anything would happen... nothing did.

'So far so good.'

After locking the door she began making her way out of the little cul-de-sac she lived in and into Canterhorn proper.

'Let's see... its a little past 8 on a Sunday, so the morning market should have started.'

As Shimmering trotted along she could feel Sweet Tooth snuggling into her mane, it felt... nice, having somepony with you that didn't always judge you, kind of like hanging with Star Strike, '...I miss her... I should probably write more often.'

The closer they got to the market the more ponies they saw... and the more the flutterpony stirred.

“Biggy, hey Biggy, there are more big's here!” Sweet Tooth whispered, turning back and forth, looking past the unicorn's mane at the passing ponies.

“Ponies Sweet Tooth, ponies,” Shimmering whispered back, her ears and eyes trying to detect if anypony noticed her passenger, “now hush!”

“Sorry Biggy...”

As they made it to the edge of the market they started seeing the multitude of stands, hearing the peddlers calling out their wares and smelling the food... and Shimmering felt her mane vibrate.

“T-t-tasties~” she heard Sweet Tooth say as well as feel her wings buzzing, as if she was about to-

'OH HORSEAPPLES!' Shimmering quickly ignited her horn and putting some pressure on her mane... which turned out to be needed since otherwise a pink and
white bolt with a hefty appetite would have hit the nearest food stand.

“Tasties! Tastiestastiestasties!” Sweet Tooth called out while pushing against the magic force being applied.

“Sweet Tooth, be quiet!” she hissed, putting a bit more force on the point the flutterpony was pushing at.

“Tasties Biggy, lots of tasties!” when going forward didn't work she began pushing sideways instead.

“Hey! You stay up there!”

“But Biggy-”

“You stay still up there or I'm going back home and putting you back in the box you came from!” Shimmering said loudly, causing the Flutterpony to freeze up.

“...But-”

“Ah-ah.”

“...I'll stay here...” Sweet Tooth said, burrowing back into the center of the mane.

“Good,” Shimmering said with a slight nod, “now we can go... get...”

There were some ponies around her... staring at her...

'Oh crud, did they see Sweet Tooth?!' she thought, eye starting to twitch a bit, 'no, she didn't get out of my mane. Hear her? Oh no, ohnoohnoohno-'

“Um, are you oka-” a voice behind her started asking.

“Gah!” Shimmering gave of a short shout, spinning around she saw a pegasus stallion -a slightly frighten pegasus stallion- stand with one hoof half raised, as if he was about to nudge her with it. “Oh um, yes?” she said, giving him a -hopefully- friendly looking smile.

“Er... I said are you okay miss?” he asked, looking a bit worried.

“Hm? Oh I'm fine, perfectly fine.”

“You were talking to yourself.”

“I wasn't talking to myself!” Shimmering said before her mind caught up with her, 'Wait! Wrong answer!' “I-I mean I was talking with myself!” 'that's worse!' “I mean I was talking to... my... mane?” '...thats it, you're on your own.' She just smiled awkwardly, blushing a bit while her brain applied for a transfer.

The stallion blinked, “you were talking to your... mane?”

“Ehehe... yeah, it was being a bit... unruly.”

The awkward silence was very awkward.

“WellanywayIgottogobuysomefoodnowthanksbye!” Shimmering blurred out before rushing off, leaving several confused ponies in her wake.

One of the slightly elderly mares who had heard Shimmering talk to herself looked around before making sure her mane was still straight on.

'Sweet merciful Faust,' Shimmering thought as she began to slow down, 'that got to be the most embarrassing conversation I've ever had!'

'…..This month.'

“Biggy, are you okay?” Sweet Tooth asked, sounding a bit worried.

Shimmering sighed, 'I should be angry with her, but considering how she seems to be with food...' she made sure nopony was too close before answering in a whisper, “yeah, I'm fine Sweet Tooth, but I really need you to be quiet and stay hidden, okay?”

“I'm sorry...” Sweet Tooth said, curling up a bit, “I just can't help it, there's soooo many tasties here.”

“I know, I know Sweet Tooth and I'll be buying enough to last us for quite a while, but I need you to behave or else I can't do that, okay?”

“Yes Biggy...”

'She sounds so sad, what do I say?' Shimmering thought, not wanting the flutterpony to feel down, 'it just feels wrong when she's like thi- I know!' she got a brilliant idea, one that was sure to get Sweet Tooth happy again.

'Your welcome,' her brain added smugly.

“Listen Sweet Tooth, if you behave I'll buy you something-” 'pause for dramatic effect, annnd' “-sweet~”

She could practically hear the flutterpony's ears perk up.

“Sweet? A-a sweet tastie?” Sweet Tooth asked, her body vibrating a bit, “really, really really?”

“Yes Sweet Tooth, really,” 'that should make her happy... wait... won't sh-'

“YAY! THANKS BIGGY!” Sweet Tooth cried out happily, causing a number of ponies to look in Shimmering's general direction.

'Act like nothing happened, Act like nothing happened, Act like nothing happened!'

“Oops, sorry Biggy” Sweet Tooth whispered as Shimmering walked away from the odd looks she was getting, “...do I still get the sweet tastie?”

'I should say no since she did what I told her not to do,' she thought as she made her way to the other end of the market, 'but then again I should have seen that coming, so...' “yes Sweet Tooth, you behave and I'll buy you a sweet.”

“YA-” Shimmering could have sworn she could hear Sweet Tooth shove both her hooves into her mouth to stop herself, “...sorry Biggy.”

She sighed, 'this is going to be one of those days...'

Shimmering began going between the stalls, buying fruits and vegetables along with one or other thing that she needed anyway, making sure to use the gold bits on the more expensive purchases to get some change, it was all going well.

...Except until Sweet Tooth started asking things like, 'what's that?' 'is that the sweet tastie?' 'can you eat that?' and 'why is that big staring at you?' To the flutterpony's defense she was whispering, but then again she kept asking a bit louder every time Shimmering didn't answer.

Time and again Shimmering had to come up with ways to draw ponies attention from Sweet Tooth, which mostly came out as random questions for the pony running the stall she was at, trying to discreetly shush Sweet Tooth, asking ponies where one thing or another was located and at one point softly singing the Equestrian anthem, all the while her eye-twitching got worse.

The results where not as stellar as she'd want them to be.

Shimmering could hear snippets of what the ponies around her were saying about her, none of it good.

“That mare's crazy,” somepony in a group of teens said.

“Hon, isn't that little miss Sparks?” an elderly stallion asked his wife, Shimmering recognized them as Mr. and Ms. Oak, her former employers form around 10 years ago.

“Is it? Poor dear, must have finally lost it.” Ms. Oak said, shaking her head, “was just a question of time with that one.”

Shimmering had never liked Ms. Oak anyway.

“Shame, she always seemed to try so hard at the chores I gave her,” Mr. Oak shook his head, “that and she was quite the eye candy.”

Aaand that's why she quit that job.

“Mommy, who is that lady talking to?” a little colt pointed while asking his mother.

“Shhh, not so loud sweetie.” the mare said in a hushed tone.

“But mommy, who is the lady talking to, mommy, who is the lady talking to? Mommy...” the colt kept asking while his mother pulled him away.

Well... can't blame him for asking now can you?

About halfway through the shopping round Shimmering had to duck into a quiet alley to get away from everypony... and to deal with a certain flutterpony.

Making sure the alley was empty Shimmering ducked behind a container full of trash to talk.

“Sweet Tooth, look, I can't have you talking or asking things while were out of the house,” she said, trying to sound calm and collected, “it draws too much attention to
us and I'd hate to think what would happen if somepony found out about you,” 'and considering I don't know who is watching us I can't be too careful.'

“Aww, but I'm bored... and hungry,” Sweet Tooth groaned, “and you said you were gonna get me a sweet tastie.”

“Yes, I did say that, if you were quiet while we were here.”

The alley grew quiet for a while, Shimmering could feel Sweet Tooth shuffle around a bit before feeling the flutterpony nuzzle her ear.

“I'm sorry Biggy, I didn't mean to not-listen, its just hard, there are so so so so many tasties and smells and tasties and sounds and tasties, it makes it hard to remember what to not-do.”

'Maybe I'm being too hard on her,' Shimmering thought as Sweet Tooth kept nuzzling her ear, 'I know next to nothing about Sweet Tooth and she doesn't seem to know much about anything in general'.

“It's, it's okay Sweet Tooth, this is all a bit new to you, isn't it?”

“Mm.”

“Tell you what, we'll take a little break here and you can snack on this,” Shimmering said as she levitated up a celery stalk to her mane, “just one though, then you'll have to be quiet until we get home again, okay?”

“Yay, thanks Biggy!” Sweet Tooth exclaimed as her head and forelegs popped out the top of Shimmering's mane to grab the offered treat, giving it a quick hug before taking a big bite out of it.

'Well that takes care of that,' Shimmering thought to herself while to Sweet Tooth munching away on her treat, 'I guess I'll just sit down and w-'

*Clink*

“Hm?” Shimmering's ear turned to her side, 'that sounded like a bottle falling over, maybe it's a ca-' her thoughts went to a screeching halt as she turned her head to the sound.

There was another pony sitting in the alley with them.

He was a brown and black spotted Earth pony with a messy brown mane and tail, what looked like a shovel in a pile of dirt as a cutie mark and deep green eyes.

The stallion was also filthy, surrounded by what looked like whisky bottles and his eyes were bloodshot, slightly unfocused and most of all filled with confusion.

He was also holding a bottle halfway to his mouth and staring Right. At. Them.

'Oh. Crap.'

For a while silence reigned.

“If you want a tastie you'll have to ask Biggy for one, 'cus this one is mine.” Sweet Tooth said, hugging her celery stalk and frowning a bit.

The stallion blinked a bit, looking between the bottle in his hoof and Shimmering.

“Uhh,” he began, his breath wafting over them, “did your mane just talk?”

'FAUST FLAMING TITS!' Shimmering thought, gagging a bit, 'That breath!'

“WOW, your breath is super stinky!” Sweet Tooth shouted, putting a fetlock over her nose.

'Fix this, fix it fast!' Shimmering's brain shouted at her in panic.

“You, shut up and hide!” she poked her mane, causing Sweet Tooth to quickly burrow down into it again.

“You didn't see anything,” she told the stallion, throwing some money at him before running out of the alley faster than that one time she broke that one ponies nose.

Shimmering quickly made her way through the streets, avoiding the busy roads as much as possible, all the while looking around, trying to spot... something, eyes in the shadows, stallions in black, ninjas...

Eventually Shimmering made her way back to her neighborhood, calming down more and more the closer to her door she came.

'Home, home is safe.'

As she stepped through the front door a note fell down from the ceiling, causing Shimmering to catch it in her magic while quickly looking around for whoever dropped it.

Upon not seeing anyone Shimmering closed her door before reading the note.

You have broken rule 3: you are not to show the being to other equine beings, avian-feline hybrid beings, bovine beings, simian-bovine hybrid beings or reptilian beings. The punishment is the incineration of the object known as a 'picture' located in the area known as the 'living room'.

Signed- The Watchers.

'Punishment, incineration, picture, living room' withthese key wordsstuck in her mind Shimmering bolted into her living room, scanning her pictures, 'they seem alrigh-'

*FWOSH*

In the blink of an eye the picture of her and Star burst into flame, causing Shimmering to jump back in fright.

“GAH! No, nonono!” Shimmering quickly yanked the burning picture of the wall with her magic, preventing the wallpaper from catching fire before rushing into the kitchen, hoping to put it out in the sink.

She barely made it into the kitchen before the picture was just a pile of ash.

She stood there for a while, looking at the ash in her magic grip before slowly walking over to a cabinet, pulling out a glass and pouring the fine powder into it.

“Biggy?” Sweet Tooth said in a small voice.

“...” Shimmering sat down, looking at the glass of ash, her mouth slightly open.

“Biggy, are you okay?” Sweet Tooth fluttered out of Shimmering's mane, carrying the celery stalk in her tail.

“...”

The little flutterpony brought her tail forward so she could grab her treat in her hooves, “h-here Biggy, you can have the tastie,” Sweet Tooth said as she slowly pushed the celery stalk into Shimmering's mouth, “tasties makes everything better.”

This got Shimmering out of her shocked state, her eyes moving from the ash-glass to Sweet Tooth fluttering next to her, the being that's very presence had put her in great potential danger.

“Biggy?” Sweet Tooth fluttered backwards a bit at the unicorn's glare.

Shimmering's jaw tighten, biting through the celery stalk as she continued to stare at the being that seemed to think everything was about food.

“D-did the tastie make it better?” Sweet Tooth asked, sounding worried as the bigger pony's horn lit up.

Shimmering surrounded the little flutterpony who made her look like a madpony in public in her magic...

“B-Biggy...”

...and brought Sweet Tooth to her barrel, wrapping her forelegs around her, hugging her, the words of her grandmother echoing in her mind.

'They who are big and strong should take care of they who are small and frail, if you're not then you should still do your best to make them feel like you are.'

'I'm sorry granma, I almost forgot what you taught me,' Shimmering thought, rocking back and forth a bit as she kept hugging Sweet Tooth, 'whoever these 'watchers' are there dangerous and like Tartarus am I going to let any harm come to such an innocent being.'

The reason Shimmering was so shaken up wasn't do to her favorite picture bursting into flame... well, it DID shake her up a bit, any sane pony would get scared by suddenly combusting pictures, but that wasn't the main reason.

“Biggy?”

Shimmering knew a thing or two about fire, she'd set quite a few things on fire in her days, and one thing she'd learned was what kind of heat you needed to turn things to ash.

'A picture is easy,' Shimmering thought, thinking over all the facts, 'barely any heat was needed, a wooden frame would need more heat, the more head the faster it would burn to ash, still doable.'

'But what about the glass covering?'

“Biggy.”

'Glass shatters first at high enough temperatures, it then melts, it doesn't turn into ash.'

'That doesn't mean it Can't turn to ash, perhaps with enough heat it will eventually do so, but that would have set my whole house on fire.'

From Shimmering’s experience with magic over the years, a protective field around a hot object can keep it from burning its surroundings, thus allow it to be heated up more.

“Um... Biggy...”

'In theory, the hotter the object the stronger the field has to be.' Shimmering continued to ponder, these thoughts alone were scarey, if the watchers had one or more unicorns powerful enough to not only set an object on fire with that kind of intensity along with a field around it to keep it from burning the house down, but to do it from an unknown distant AND obscured view, the thought alone would have made her faint...

...if it wasn’t for the fact there wasn’t any magic used.

The magnitude needed to do something like this would have sent shivers down Shimmering's horn, yet she hadn't sense anything.

'Who and what are these 'watchers'?'

“Biggy, can you let go please, 'cus you're kinda crushing my wings.” Sweet Tooth said, wiggling a bit in the unicorn's grasp.

This finally brought Shimmering out of her panic-analys mode, “huh, oh, sorry Sweet Tooth,” she said, floating the flutterpony over to the table, “I was a bit shaken up by what just happened.”

“Yeah, I felt it,” Sweet Tooth said while looking back at her wings, running the tip of her tail over them before testing to flutter them, “you were all 'GAH, nonononono!' and running and then still-shaking and then I gave you the tastie and you grabbed me and hugged me and-”

“Yes Sweet Tooth, I know, I was there.”

“...oh, right... Oh and there was that very very warm thingy,” Sweet Tooth said as she fluttered in front of Shimmering, “what was it?”

Shimmering's ears fell a bit, “that... was the picture I showed you before, it burned up.”

“The memory-thingy?” Sweet Tooth said, tilting her head, “the one with the other big-pony?”

“Yes Sweet Tooth, the one of me and Star Strike.”

The flutterpony hovered in place for a moment before zipping off into the living room, then returning as fast as she left.

“It's gone!” Sweet Tooth shouted, zipping right up to Shimmering's eyes, “your memory-thingy is gone!” she gasped, putting her hooves to her mouth, “if your memory-thingy is gone, t-then you don't remember your friend!”

“err, that's not how it-”

“What to do, what to do?” Sweet Tooth went on, oblivious of Shimmering, “I know! I'll tell you what she is and was doing!” she fluttered back a bit, gesticulating with her arms as she started describing, “she's a big-pony like you- wait, no, she's like you, but not you-you, 'cus you got a pointy and she got wings! But she like you not you-you 'cus she doesn't have wings like me but birdie wings! But she's not a birdie but a big-you-but-not-you-you-or-me-not-us-but-sorta-kinda-pony!”

As Sweet Tooth rambled on in her attempt to explain what Star Strike was Shimmering started to smile a bit, part do to Sweet Tooth ridiculous way of explaining and part do to the fact she was trying so hard for her sake.

“-she's pink... wait! It's white... uhh... not-white?... pink-white?”

'This... this is kinda funny,' Shimmering thought, watching Sweet Tooth ramble on, 'she is kind of like me when I was younger, getting all panicky over no big deal, no wonder Star found it hilarious.'

“-and her mane is this long! no, it was longer... shorter?... short-long, long-short... short-long-but-more-long-with-a-bit-of-short-”

*Snort* “S-sweet Tooth, c-calm down,” Shimmering said, trying very hard not to laugh at the silly display, “I still remember Star Strike.”

“You do?” Sweet Tooth said, tilting her head, “but your memory-thingy-”

“-Only shows it to anyone that looks at it,” Shimmering continued, cutting off the little flutterpony's worried rant, “I still have the memory, in here,” she said, poking the side of her head.

The flutterpony grew quiet, fluttering to Shimmering's side, “in there?” she said, poking a hoof at the same spot.

“Yes, in there.”

“... I can see it again!” Sweet Tooth exclaimed happily before zipping to Shimmering's ear and shoving her head in it.

“Gah! Swe-et T-hiii-Tooth, g-get o-pffhaha!-out off my-iih!-my ear!” Shimmering gasped out between giggling fits, the flutterpony’s antennas in her ear tickling like crazy.

“But I wanna see the memory again,” Sweet Tooth said as she was pulled out by the unicorn's magic.

“I-it doesn't work that w-way Sweet Tooth,” Shimmering said as she put her house guest down on the table, giggling fit subsiding.

“I just wanna make sure its the same as before,” the little flutterpony's antennas dip a bit.

“Don't worry, it is,” Shimmering reassures Sweet Tooth, carefully patting her head, “but thank you for- well, just... thanks.” 'you just couldn't come up with a good reason to thank her, could you.'

'Oh shut up brain.'

'says the mare who made a fool out of herself in front of other ponies.'

'I, you, I mean... shut up!'

'…'

'...what?'

'you do realize you're arguing with yourself, right?'

'...you started it...'

'oh for crying out l-' the mental argument went silent as Shimmering's eyes got through to her with something.

Sweet Tooth was hugging her hoof while nuzzling it.

It looked adorable.

A double 'Aww' sounded through the unicorns mind.

'…'

'...I really need coffee, don't I?'

'Faust yes, maybe then I'll stop being so overly... everything.'

'That or at least I'll stop having a conversation with myself in my own head.'

'Lets keep telling myself that while I drink my coffee.'

“Right then,” Shimmering said, lifting her hoof a bit and pulling Sweet Tooth along, “now that that's out of the way, lets get what we bought stored away.”

“Oh, okay!” Sweet Tooth said as she let go of Shimmering's hoof and fluttered up to her mane, “Biggy?”

“Yes Sweet Tooth?”

“Your sure you're okay?”

Shimmering chuckled a little as she began removing the contents of her saddlebags onto the table, “yes Sweet Tooth, I'm sure.”

“Good,” Sweet Tooth sat quiet for a while, “um... Biggy?”

“Yes?”

“...Do I get the sweet tastie you said I could have if I was quiet?”

At this Shimmering's ears fell a bit, “I was going to buy it once I was done with everything, but when that stallion-”

“Stallion?”

“The pony that saw you.”

“...oh,” Sweet Tooth said,her antennas dipping along with her ears, “and you had to go back here 'cus a pony saw me...”

“I'm sorry Sweet Tooth,” Shimmering said, looking up towards her mane, “you were doing very well, but I just couldn't risk staying.” 'and considering what happened here it could have been far worse.'

“Its okay Biggy, that other big-pony only saw me 'cus I wanted a tastie.”

'She's taking responsibility for it, even though it wasn't really her fault,' Shimmering thought as she picked the flutterpony out of her mane, “tell you what, next time I go out I'll buy you some sweets for you first, just because you didn't get any now.”

Sweet Tooth's whole body perked up, “really? Really really?!”

“Yes Sweet Tooth, really really.”

Shimmering barely finished the sentence before her snout was tackle-hugged by a small bundle of joy.

“BIGGY IS THE BESTIES BIG-PONY EVER!”

“Yes yes, so you've told me,” Shimmering chuckled, once again picking Sweet Tooth up in her magic and placing her on the table, “how about you pick something to eat while I put the rest away for later, but just one, okay?”

“Okay Biggy!” Sweet Tooth happily called out before grabbing an apple almost bigger than her, taking a big bite out of it.

'Well, that's one crisis out of the way,' Shimmering sighed as she started putting things away.

Out of the corner of her eye she saw the glass with the remains of the picture, her gaze harden.

'Whoever these 'watchers' are, but I'm not going to let them boss me around and I'm sure as Tartarus not gonna let them hurt Sweet Tooth or my name isn't Shimmering Amanda Sparks!'

Putting away the last of the food Shimmering turned to the saddlebags next to the table.

'Now then, now that I've braved the perils of this morning its time for my sweet rewa-why is my bags so light?' she thought, turning them upside down over the table.

Nothing fell out.

'Oh for Faust sake...' the bags hit the floor along with Shimmering's behind.

'I forgot to buy COFFEE!' Shimmering thought with a groan, her head hitting the table with a loud thud.