Inner Strength

Princess Twilight Sparkle: Equestria's idol. She was a mare who had transcended the limits of a Unicorn and had been transformed into an Alicorn, earning the title of Princess of Equestria. Other than the addition of a beautiful pair of wings, Twilight was slightly taller than before.

Many looked up to her, some even calling her friend. She was also known by some beyond Equestria's borders; Gilda the Gryphon being one of them. Her lavender coat and dark purple mane and tail, with the pink highlights were as iconic to her as the style in which she kept them. A straight bold cut along the fringe and evened out nicely along the ends of her mane and tail. Not the most stylish princess, but certainly down to earth.

Princess Twilight was overseeing the grand opening of her new library. She'd taken a page from Canterlot Castle's book and had created a public library within her own palace. This required a Royal guard, of course, but she was happy to expand the job market for ponies. She preferred veterans to be among the higher ranked while having new recruits fresh out of the academy. It would make for an entertaining time, if her brother's early days as a royal guard were to be believed.

As everything seemed to be going smoothly, she felt prepared for anything, much like her guards. Neither she, nor her guards were prepared for a blur of pink and yellow to come shooting through the nearest entrance and slam into the princess. Twilight took a second to catch her breath before scolding her 'attacker'.

"Pinkie Pie, I told you not to do...." Twilight blinked for a few seconds before registering the grinning face of her friend, Fluttershy lying on top of her. "F-Fluttershy? What in the name of Celestia...?" Fluttershy jumped off of Twilight and bounced up and down in front of her like Pinkie was apt to do.

"Sorry, Twilight. I'm just so excited! I performed my own little experiment, and it worked. Now, I'm not scared of anything. Well, okay, that's not entirely true. I'm still scared of things, but nothing so ordinary as my own shadow or new ponies. I managed to cure myself of my phobias!" she said with as much glee as Rainbow Dash would give had she found out the Wonderbolts were coming to give her a private performance.

Twilight took a moment to register what she had said before trying to speak, only to stall. "I-...You-...Just-... What the huh?!" she asked. Fluttershy felt she had to explain it to Twilight, but she had a better idea in mind.

"I'll tell you all about it after you summon the girls. Come on!" she said, leading the way, using her wings to glide out of the library, leaving surprised staff and guests. Twilight just put herself on autopilot, following Fluttershy to the throne room as she tried to make sense of what had just happened.

Four mares made their way to the throne room. One was an Earth Pony mare named Applejack. Strong and beautiful, coated in a sunset orange with a mane and tail as gold as straw. She wore a light brown stetson hat on her head; a piece that had become iconic of the young farmer. Her cutie mark was a trilogy of small red apples.

Another Earth Pony, Pinkie Pie had a coat the same shade of pink as Fluttershy's mane, but an even hotter pink mane and tail that was so messed up with curls and split ends, that it would have taken years for anypony to brush it all out. Her cutie mark contained three small balloons. Each a pale shade of blue, yellow and red.

The one Unicorn to in the group was Rarity. A marble white mare with a royal blue mane and tail that held a shade of purple in them. Her cutie was three cut diamonds.

Finally, there was Rainbow Dash; easily the most noticeable pony in the group, with her chromatic mane and tail holding all the colours of the rainbow, canvassed by a coat of pale sky blue. Her Cutie Mark was a thunder cloud with a rainbow coloured lightning bolt shooting out from underneath.

These four mares were a part of Twilight's court of friendship. Along with Fluttershy, they were also known as the bearers of the Elements of Harmony; Equestria's most powerful defense against those who would seek to do harm, not just to ponies, but their friends and allies as well.

"Twilight, darling! It's so nice of you to call us all here. Is there something we can help you with?" Rarity asked, taking her seat among one of the seven thrones in the room, each with their respective owners' cutie marks engraved upon the backs.

"Yeah, I mean not that it's not great to see you and all, but weren't you busy with the new library and everything?" Rainbow Dash added.

Twilight cleared her throat and motioned for everypony to sit down. Fluttershy had already been waiting patiently, seemingly no different than usual to the girls. Even pinkie Pie, who had a sixth sense about new things seemed none the wiser. The once shy pegasus hid a smug smile behind her mane.

"Actually, I was. Which reminds me," Twilight activated the magic in her horn. A bright flash like that of a camera appeared and disappeared just as quickly. A book hovered in front of her, covered in a pinkish swirling aura. "Your signed copy of the latest Daring Do novel, unaltered edition." she finished, floating it over to the chromatic Pegasus who suppressed her excitement to a mere exclamation of 'yes!'.

"Soooo... What did you call us here for, Twilight?" asked Pinkie Pie, sounding confused, but still excited.

Twilight smiled and looked to Fluttershy who nodded for her to proceed. "Actually, I brought you all here on Fluttershy's behalf. She has something she'd like to announce." Twilight said, handing the floor over to Fluttershy. Before the pegasus could utter a word, Pinkie Pie raised her hoof as if she were in a school and started begging.

"Ooh! Let me guess, let me guess! Lemmeguesslemmeguesslemmeguesslemmeguesslemmeguess!" she pleaded. Fluttershy smiled warmly at Pinkie Pie and nodded, motioning for her to take a guess. Pinkie squee'd in delight before clearing her throat like Twilight had done earlier. "Angel found a special somebunny!" she guessed, to which Fluttershy smiled and shook her head. "You found a special somepony who loves animals as much as you do?!" Pinkie guessed again.

"No such pony exists, Pinkie Pie." Fluttershy replied with pride in her statement.

"Okay... lemme think... You've learned how to care for Timber Wolves?" Fluttershy shook her head. "You have a long lost sister!" another shake of the head. "Brother?" no. "Cousin?" no. "Ooh, then it has to be: you're in love with Discord!" Pinkie declared.

Again Fluttershy shook her head. "I'd be lying if I said I hadn't entertained the idea. But I think he should master friendship before we even consider taking that step." Fluttershy commented. This earned blank stares from everypony, Pinkie Pie included.

"Wow." Rainbow said, breaking the silence.

"Oh! You called us here to discuss giving Discord a throne in this room?" Pinkie said. Fluttershy entertained that idea. Discord had been learning quite a bit. And every mistake he'd made only served to teach him further. And it wasn't like the girls' records were clean when it came to learning about friendship themselves.

"I'll give you one more guess. Otherwise we'll be here all day." Fluttershy said. Pinkie was beginning to panic. She was rarely wrong about why ponies did anything. Fluttershy just leaned back in her seat, crossing one hind leg over the other as she sat like Lyra.

Sweat began to visibly manifest on Pinkie's face as she struggled for another reason as to why Fluttershy would summon everypony. Before she could even think about it, she blurted out the first thing that came to mind. "You're pregnant?" she asked, weakly.

Fluttershy just blinked at her, neither smiling nor grimacing. She took a deep breath and let it out. "Yeah-no! Anypony else wanna take a crack at guessing before I actually reveal why you're here?" she offered.

Rarity was on it like a fly on dung. "You're not pregnant, but you are in heat, and you need our help staying away from all the stallions... and Discord." she teased.

Another sigh escaped Fluttershy's lips. "No. Applejack?"

Applejack took a moment to consider the facts. "Ya ain't pregnant, ya ain't in heat, ya don't have no special somepony, but ya do seem to be glowin' like you're pregnant. My guess is: first ever one night stand and loss of virginity." she said, taking a shot in the dark.

Fluttershy scoffed. "Are all of you starved for sex or something? Nopony in Ponyville meets your standards so you're hoping to live vicariously through me?" she was beginning to grow irritated by their narrow-mindedness. Her only hope left was Rainbow Dash.

"Rainbow, you're my oldest friend, surely you can tell why I might have called you all here?" she asked. Rainbow visibly gulped as Fluttershy brought her attention to her. After watching her friends get chewed out by Fluttershy, the pegasus had taken it a step further and had put the value of their friendship on the line.

"W-well... uh. You certainly seem to be more... strong willed than usual. Did you go to another one of Iron Will's motivational seminars or something?" she asked. Fluttershy's disapproving frown turned into a content smile.

"What do you think, Twilight. Is she close enough to the truth?" the pegasus asked. Rainbow's eyes shot over to Twilight who now held her proverbial life in her hooves. Twilight smiled and nodded.

"I think so." she replied. Rainbow let out a breath of air she didn't know she'd been holding. The last thing she wanted to do was upset Fluttershy by being wrong. Especially since Rainbow was her oldest friend.

"The truth of the matter is, I've improved myself. I'm braver, louder and completely phobia free. I'm no more easily scared than any of you girls." she said. She took a few minutes to explain how she used her 'stare' ability to force this change in her.

"So basically, I've taken some of your traits, dimmed them down and added them to my own personality using the stare. I recognise my natural beauty, I can party like Pinkie Pie, think like Twilight, fly like... a regular pegasus," she smiled at Rainbow who nodded her head with an expression that simply said 'Damn straight!'. "And I have a similar work ethic to Applejack. But above all else, I'm still myself at heart. The kind mare who loves animals like nopony else. I might even have a better appreciation for some of Discord's more extreme jokes." she said.

The girls all took a few moments to let what their friend was saying sink in. No more, fraidy-filly, no more hiding behind the closest companion. No more treading water around her, no more having to be sensitive around particular subjects. And in Rainbow and Pinkie's case, no more having to hold back on the pranks.

"This is gonna be sweet!" Rainbow declared, breaking the tension that had formed. Fluttershy grinned at her friend, sitting forward on her throne.

"Which brings me to a few requests I'd like to make of you girls," she said, looking at Rainbow Dash first. "Rainbow, think you could give me a bit of training? I'd like to get some muscle into these wings of mine." she said, giving them a demonstrational flap.

Rainbow just pumped her hoof with a shit-eating grin on her face. "AW YEAH!" she replied, taking to the air to do some loops before landing back in her throne.

"Rarity, I'm thinking of getting a new look. Something similar to what Twilight had done when she tasked us with redecorating the castle." Fluttershy said, turning to her fashionista friend.

"Darling, I can design a dress to suit anypony's preferences and style manes and tails around those, but if you're going for a completely new style, I may need Aloe and Lotus' help. Should I book a spa appointment?" she asked. Fluttershy smiled and nodded, turning to Pinkie Pie.

"Pinkie, would you like to throw a one-of-a-kind 'congrats on changing your personality with the stare' party?" she asked, earning a deep gasp and a wide grin from the party pony.

"And Twilight; I don't want to be just beautiful and athletic, I also want to have some i.q points backing me up. Care to take on a history student?"

"I'll see what I can do. Would you like me to write you up a schedule for all this?" Twilight asked, teleporting a quill and notepad out of thin air.

"Knock yourself out." she replied. There wasn't really anything much that Applejack could assist her with, but Fluttershy thought that perhaps the farmer could assist Rainbow in the exercise part of the routine.

"Ah'll do my best, Sugarcube!" she declared. With their tasks set, Twilight disbanded the group, though they all wanted to leave with Fluttershy to get to know the new her. Fluttershy just took the attention with a kind smile. Though she'd begun to wonder what Discord might think of the changes she was going to go through.