To Magic, Or Not to Magic. . .

The next day, Fluttershy trots in the direction of the Ponyville Day Spa. Today marks another one of her weekly spa days with Rarity; Fluttershy, however, arrives earlier than expected, ready to put phase one of their plan into action. Before long, the yellow pegasus spies Matilda trotting towards the Day Spa, and Fluttershy beams in anticipation.

“Matilda!” Fluttershy says, “I’m so glad you could make it today.”

“Oh, it’s nothing dear,” Matilda greets the mare warmly, “Besides, I could certainly use some relaxation after the week I’ve had.”

“Oh? May I ask what the matter is?” Fluttershy asks, feigning confusion as they enter the building.

“Well, to be perfectly honest,” Matilda confesses, “Cranky and I haven’t exactly been getting along lately.”

“Oh, that sounds terrible,” Fluttershy responds with mock surprise, “But, I thought you two loved each other more than anything in Equestria.”

“If only it were that simple anymore,” Matilda says, “But Cranky just seems grumpy all the time nowadays. . .” The rest of their appointment lasts with Fluttershy listening as Matilda points out Cranky’s every little flaw and becoming more and more exasperated. As time goes on, Fluttershy begins to doubt the effectiveness of their plan.

“. . .and he just does whatever he wants, whenever he wants, rarely considering how I might feel about the situation!” Matilda finishes yet another one of her rants against her husband.

“My, that’s. . .interesting ” is the only response Fluttershy can muster.

“I mean, sometimes he treats me like I’m invisible,” Matilda continues, “Can you believe that! And another thing, he-he—h,” Matilda suddenly stammers, “I-I’m sorry, but – I have to go.”

“Wait, Matilda, please-” Fluttershy begins to say, but Matilda has already changed out of her robe.

“I’m sorry, dear, but,” Matilda says, and as she looks back, Fluttershy can see tears forming at the edges of her eyes, “I—I just remembered an errand I need to run,” and Matilda gallops away, leaving Fluttershy devastated. At that moment, Rarity enters the spa, notices Fluttershy, and canters over to her friend.

“Hello, darling,” Rarity greets, “Terribly sorry I’m late, my latest client wanted a rush delivery. Oh, good, you’re all ready to – hey, what’s the matter, darling?” she adds, seeing Fluttershy’s downcast look, “Is everything alright?”

“Not really,” Fluttershy answers honestly, “Have you heard about Cranky and Matilda?”

“Oh, certainly,” Rarity says, “Tragic, I know! But, I suppose it just wasn’t meant to be, right?”

Fluttershy nods, though not entirely confident in her friend’s assumption. There has to be more to it than just that, she thinks to herself, there just has to be.

Meanwhile, Emily has less luck with Cranky in the farmer’s market; she managed to catch him checking back on his order of lettuce. Like Fluttershy, she tried to convince him to remember all the good times he and Matilda shared together. All she received, however, was an hour-long tirade about how much better his life would be without his wife.

“. . .she just doesn’t get me anymore,” Cranky says to a tired-out Emily, “I try to explain my side of things, but she refuses to listen and only believes that what she says is right and what I say is wrong!”

“But Cranky,” Emily tries yet another direction, “you shouldn’t let all that nitpicking take away what you and Matilda had - I mean, have - together.”

“Nitpicking! You don’t believe me, do you?!” Cranky exclaims as the same pony from the other day packages Cranky’s order, “Well then, maybe you should just ask her about it yourself because I’m done!”

“Cranky, wait!” Emily calls out, but Cranky is already away; she sighs heavily, “Well, Fluttershy, I hope you had better luck than I did today.” They convene back at Fluttershy’s cottage and relay the events of their day to one another, leaving them more stumped than before.

“I just don’t get it,” Emily grumbles, “If we asked them a week ago the same questions we asked today, we’d certainly get vastly different answers. So what happened since then that now has them hating each other’s guts?”

“I don’t know, Em,” Fluttershy says, “but we do know one thing; our efforts today failed, which means we need to go to phase two.”

“Hold on, what’s phase two?” Emily asks.

“We couldn’t persuade them to fall back in love, so now we have to force them to get together," Fluttershy says, "Here’s what I’m thinking. . .”