Fluttershy was tired and grumpy. Not a common problem for a pony that liked early nights and seldom got angry at anything and the feeling was damn near smothering her.

It turned out to Fluttershy’s dismay that she didn't get to have her own room, although by her own admission that shouldn't have been too much of a surprise considering how much the universe currently seemed to hate her; and she could have lived with that except it turned out that Janet and Paul (mostly Janet) were the kind of weirdo’s who liked to have their dogs sleep in the same room as them. Even as an animal lover herself she wouldn't make any of her animal friends do that.

At the time Fluttershy had been too tired from the abundance of weirdness the day had thrown at her that she had simply lain down on the folded up duvet that was presented to her as a bed and tried to go to sleep.

Try being the operative word. After Paul and Janet had spent some time talking between themselves, Fluttershy had finally got the quiet she craved. It lasted about ten minutes, and ended when those two started making strange grunting and ahhing noises that she was purposely trying to not think about.

Because she knew damn well what those noises were and oh sweet Celestia she was thinking about it again!

Since the bedroom door had been shut preventing any means of escape she'd had no choice but to lie there with her hooves over her ears and hope it ended soon. It turns out Paul was a bit of a champ in the bedroom, not that Fluttershy wanted him to be.

After that, sleep had not been much of a feature in her life that night and morning had quickly come around, complete with coddling from Janet, a foul tasting breakfast courtesy of doggybix and nausea provided by the car she was currently in, heading to the vets.

Yay.

Arriving at the vets a very ill feeling Fluttershy was picked up and manhandled into the building; a process that had caused her to vomit into her mouth just to add to her woes. Luckily for Paul she had enough presence of mind to swallow it again rather than give him a coating of semi-digested dog food. Not that he wouldn't deserve it, the pervert.

After dumping her in front of the reception Paul was dismissed to purchase the items on a list that the couple had concocted over breakfast. Fluttershy hadn't been listening as they compiled the list, since she was too busy trying to figure out how to eat without tasting anything; so she had no idea what it contained but she suspected it was nothing she would appreciate getting.

Turning her attention to Janet she overheard the conversation going on between her and the receptionist.

"So you found her in the street? Just like that?

"Oh yes! The little darling just walked up to us like she had chosen us to be her mummy and daddy; absolutely adorable."

"I was asking for directions and you abducted me..."

"I see," said the receptionist, drawing the 'see' out as if unconvinced of something; most likely Janet’s' sanity if Fluttershy was asked. "Well it’s a good thing you brought her in; stray animals tend to catch all kinds of nasty things."

"Oh yes, that's quite true, you should *cough* just let me *cough* go before I *cough cough* infect you all!"

"Well that's why we brought her; I'd hate to think of the poor darling suffering from some terrible disease."

"It’s an awful condition called Janet'itis-paulemia. Symptoms may include bouts of un-controllable crying, feelings of frustration and anger and you may find your appetite diminished since everything you eat tastes like dog food. Especially dog food."

"Well before we can do that we'll need a few details about the animal. Name?"

"Flossy."

"It’s Fluttershy!"

"Gender?"

"We're pretty sure it’s a girl although we're not sure. When Paul tried to find out yesterday the poor dear must have thought he was attacking her and she kicked him in the face."

"You suddenly get felt up by a strange creature and see how much you like it."

"Kicked him," the receptionist said slowly "in the face..."

"I know, it was the strangest thing."

"Okaayy, we'll put female in for now and change it if the doc says otherwise." the receptionist said missing the frustrated sounding groan from fluttershy. "If you want to take a seat over there" she said gesturing to some chairs, half of which were occupied by other visitors; "I'm sure the doc will see you soon. We can finish filling out the forms when you know more about her."

Fluttershy followed Janet over to the waiting area and sat on the floor next to her, like a good little doggy she thought bitterly. As she sat there staring at the floor she slowly became aware of something. Or rather something that was no longer there. When she had come in the other animals were making the type of ruckus only animals can make when a group of different species are forced into close proximity. Normally she would have made a fuss of them but her focus was occupied with imagining the horrors that could soon be visited upon her.

Now, however the animals were all silent. Looking up Fluttershy soon learned why, the animals were all stood like statues, staring at her. Even the chameleon had managed to convince both eyes to stare in the same direction for once, specifically, at her.

"Um...hello...everyone...um..."

After what felt like an eternity of being stared at, but was in fact little more than half an hour, Janet and Fluttershy were summoned into the vets office, although Fluttershy had to be carried in since between the staring and her rampant imagination she had started hyperventilating and was now little more than a quivering, curled up ball of pony. She did risk a look at the vet though, who was female and young looking, if Fluttershy was any judge, with blonde hair done up in a ponytail. She doesn't look very scary. Maybe this won't be so bad thought Fluttershy, relaxing slightly.

"So," the vetinarian began "this must be Flossy, here for a check-up and her vaccinations?"

Vaccinations? No no no no! I don't need them! I hate needles! I take it back, you're a horrible vet!

"That's right," Janet said unaware that Fluttershy had managed to somehow curl up even tighter than before; "we found her wondering the street yesterday and since we've decided to keep her,"

"You pony-napped me!" Fluttershy shouted although it was somewhat muffled since she was still curled up.

"We will need to know if she's healthy and not carrying some icky disease." Janet said emphasizing the 'icky'. "We're also not sure if it’s a boy or girl and we have no idea at all what breed it is."

"Let’s start with the basics then, is this a boy or a girl?"

Inside her head Fluttershy was begging and pleading for this to not be happening as she felt the vet grab the base of her tail and lift it. She then stopped with a 'huh' as her tail was promptly dropped again two seconds later.

"This is without a doubt a girl." the vet said. "The lack of uh...male qualifications, makes that pretty obvious just by looking."

"I knew it!" Janet exclaimed while Fluttershy turned her head to look at the vet with a small frown on her face, slightly confused at the sheer anticlimax that turned out to be. "Wait until Paul hears this! I told him this was obviously a girl!"

"As for the breed she doesn't seem to have any one characteristic attaching her to any one breed. I mean the long hair around her head and tail would suggest an afghan hound but the short hair everywhere else suggests any number of other breeds so at best all I can say is she's a mixed breed."

"Well that doesn't matter does it poochy." Janet said before grabbing Fluttershys' cheeks and nuzzling the top of her head. "We'll love you all the same!"

"Oh goody, sounds wonderful."

After that the appointment had passed in a blur of various pokings, proddings, weightings and other activities of a medical nature. There was a brief moment of confusion when the vet checked Fluttershy’s teeth saying they were a bit flat for a dog, but the canines that she had developed during the bat incident convinced the vet her teeth were healthy enough.

The appointment then proceeded even quicker for Fluttershy after that because when the vet produced the syringes for her vaccinations she took one look at them and promptly fainted, slightly to her later annoyance since she had started thinking that she might actually learn something for when she got back home to her animal friends.

So far all she had learned was that she was never, never going to take an animal’s temperature using that method. She would have held the thermometer in her mouth, not that they even asked!

When she came around she guessed she hadn't been out very long since she was still lying on the vets table. She took a few moments to clear her head of the grogginess and wait for the ringing in her ears to stop.

"Fluttershy! Fluttershy can you hear me? It’s me, Twilight!"

Fluttershy rubbed her ear hoping the ringing would go soon, it kept sounding like someone was shouting her name but from really far away, and with a really bad echo.

"Fluttershy please! Can you hear me!"

Her flank also seemed to hurt. Guess that means the injections are over and done with, thank Celestia for small mercies.

"Ooh, I don't think she can hear me. We need a way to find a way to amplify the spells power."

Eventually the ringing trailed off and Fluttershy regained enough of her senses to listen in to the conversation between Janet and the vet.

"Well the good news is she appears to be completely healthy although she seems to be an unusual dog by all means."

"What if I told you something crazy like I'm not a dog? Would that help?"

"Anyway there are a couple of minor things you should look out for in case they get worse. Firstly, even though she's a healthy weight for her size if you put her hands on her sides you can really feel how bony her ribs are."

"They're called wings, as a veterinarian I'm pretty sure you should be able to recognise them since they're a common feature in a lot of animals."

Janet reached over and placed her hands on Fluttershy’s sides, over the top of her folded up wings. "Oh yes, I see what you mean. I guess someone's getting extra portions until they're nice and healthy."

Fluttershy sighed, "Joy..."

"The second issue is there's a small, curved ridge of swelling on her forehead that seems to be the result of something striking her repeatedly in the same place. Since I have no idea what might be causing it all I can say is to bring her back in if it gets worse."

"I can assure you it’s going to get worse." Fluttershy knew full well that the swelling was the end result of many a facehoof. "After all I've only been here two days."

The appointment had ended and right now Fluttershy was sat on the floor next to the reception desk where she had collapsed following the epic nosedive she achieved when jumping off the vets table. She had forced herself to recover quickly at the time since she was pretty sure she had spent enough time being poked and prodded in that room.

Since Janet was filling out the rest of those forms, Fluttershy was taking the time to recover. A process which involved cradling her increasingly sore nose, rubbing her sore flank and just cursing her luck in general.

"Why won't my wings work? It’s not like they're broken or anything."

This was getting too much and she was more and more feeling the need to break down and cry, and she probably would've if the animals in the waiting area weren't all staring at her again and especially since one of those animals was a scary looking Great Dane almost a foot taller than she was. Confronted with that even her tears seemed reluctant to show themselves.

Just because providence sometimes likes to shirk its duties for comedic effect, Fluttershy was totally unaware of Paul walking up behind her and when he nudged her in the flank with his foot she shrieked, leaping into the air just to smack her head on the underside of the desk.

By all accounts it made an impressively loud thud, not that its maker appreciated that.

"Heh," Paul said whilst grinning sheepishly and feeling increasingly small under Janets' frosty glare. "guess I must have scared her or something..." he trailed off nervously, totally unaware of the torrent of muffled curses Fluttershy was directing at him as she rolled around holding her head.

"Well," Janet said imperiously as Fluttershy slowly hauled herself into a sitting position; "since your here I can only assumed you've already bought everything we need for Flossy?"

Paul sighed. "Yes dear" he said before reaching into his pocket and bending down to reach Fluttershy, or more specifically, her neck.

It was a collar. It was pink and had silver studs going around it and it possessed a small bone shaped tag that said 'Flossy' on it. There was also a matching lead.

"A collar? A collar! Great! Now my life is complete! And look, there's a tag that says what my name isn't, so i can remember who I'm not!" Fluttershy was about ready to explode, a feeling made worse by its utter impotence. She settled for screaming as loud as she could, which admittedly wasn't very loud and it went unheard by all except the dogs in the waiting area, all of which started to howl in unison.

"Huh," Paul muttered, "that's weird."

"If you’re done gawking Paul could you take Flossy out to the car?"

"Yes dear."

"Oh great! Now the car again! That's just fantastic! Thank you, thank you very much!"

It had been some hours since Fluttershy’s return from the vets and even though she had calmed down some, things hadn't got a lot better, starting with her throwing up in the car again for which she was only slightly sorry.

When they got home, Janet, while Paul was cleaning the car yet again; had proceeded to show her the various toys, treats and other miscellaneous dog type items that had been purchased leading on to the piece de resistance, a giant pink fluffy dog basket.

Fluttershy had sat watching this with a growing sense of fascinated horror as she came to appreciate the meaning of the phrase 'killed by kindness.'

The irony that this was happening to her, the embodiment of kindness in the eyes of the elements of harmony themselves; was not lost on her.

The rest of the day had passed without much specific activity apart from the walk she had been forcibly dragged on. Even though everyone thought she was a dog being dragged along on a lead like one had been pretty humiliating.

Currently she was at sitting on the floor in the living room keeping a casual amount of distance between her and Paul who she had been left alone with since Janet had departed to some group meeting called a 'stitch and bitch', whatever that is. Before she had left Janet had insisted on taking pictures of her 'precious little darling' to show to her friends.

Normally she would've hated the idea of photos but right now they were little more than a drop in the ocean of despair that today had been, and she had just sat there with no interest at all as Janet clicked away.

Once Janet had left Paul started watching something he had called a 'tv'. It was like a projector film but in miniature and somehow worked without an actual projector. It was absolutely mystifying.

She was transfixed watching something called CSI Miami, not that she was really following the plot but since she had never seen anything like it, it was possibly the greatest thing she had ever seen.

Eventually a rhythmic tapping and a whistle managed to break through her concentration. Looking around she traced the sound to the sofa Paul was sat on. He was patting his hand on the cushion in the universally accepted gesture for 'climb aboard'. Although she was wary of Paul she was also pretty sick of being stuck on the floor, which wasn't exactly the most comfortable of places. Clambering up with no small amount of effort and a lot of ineffective wing flapping, she eventually made it up and made to sit on the opposite end to Paul, keeping as much distance as possible and watching him out the corner of her eye just in case he tried anything funny.

After a few minutes of looking between him and the tv she looked back at him to see him reaching over towards her. She froze. "Please don't touch me! Please no, please no, plea- ooooohhhhh..."

Instantly she was like putty as Paul's fingers magically found the one spot only a Pegasus could truly appreciate. He had found that one place that was almost impossible to reach.

He was scratching her between the wings, and it was heavenly.

After a few moments of scratching and embarrassing leg twitching he stopped, allowing her to sit up and compose herself. If she was cat and not a dog...pony, I'm a pony dammit; she would probably been purring right now.

After a minute she looked at him out of the corner of her eye just to see him doing the same. When he looked back to the tv she shuffled slightly closer to him until he looked at her again causing her stop.

Trying to play it cool she looked at the tv like it was suddenly the most interesting thing in the world, and kept staring at it until he looked away from her giving her another opportunity to shuffle even closer.

After a few minutes of repeating this little routine of red light, green light type movement she had managed to shuffle her way right over to him and was again pretending like she had never moved at all. When he looked at her she saw he was smiling slightly, which encouraged her slightly, causing a small smile to grace her own features. Eventually he relented and scratched her between the wings again and she lay there enjoying it in a state of unparalleled bliss. Paul had earned a lot of points back in his favour with this.

"Well played Paul, well played." she murmured happily.

Author's Note

Chapter three. Hurray! Felt a bit forced at times, probably because I'm going camping next week and I was trying to get it done fast as possible. If its as bad as I get the suspicion it might be feel free to point it out so I can try for a bit of a re-write.

Anyway, hopefully this will be the end of the 'make Fluttershy's life awful' style of things. From here on out things should be a good deal more light hearted; starting with chapter four: Ponydog vs. Devilcat