Custodian: Pegasus Nights

Three days later, Fluttershy finally emerged from her cottage. After seeing to her furry friends and flexing her wings under the sun, she strapped on a pair of spacious saddle bags and set off for the Palace of Friendship - the last vestiges of a long afterglow adding a spring to her step.

A short time later, she pushed past the ornate double doors and let herself in.

“Good moooorning!” She announced, her voice echoing down one of the many empty halls. “Twilight? Are you here?”

“Oh! Fluttershy!” A muffled voice replied from around a corner. “I’m in the library! Second hallway, third door on your left!”

Fluttershy’s hooves clacked on the immaculate floor. Glancing down at her fleeting reflection in the stone, she wondered if Spike truly was solely responsible for the pristine condition of the palace, or if magic had a hoof in it. She passed through another set of double doors into a large rectangular room with ceilings so high, the uppermost bookshelves could only be reached via rolling ladder or wings. Nearly every corner of the ample space was alive with shelving that teemed with Twilight’s love and pride - endless tomes covering every conceivable topic in both fiction and reality. Twilight, bereft of her regal finery, was shuffling paperwork on a low table.

“Here for a refresh?” The Princess of Friendship anticipated. “You know, with the pegasus night coming early this year, I almost didn’t have enough of them prepared.”

Fluttershy’s attention was divided in half between the conversation and the myriad book spines she scanned with her eyes. “Oh...yes please. Here you go.” Without ever looking away from the books, she stuck her muzzle in one of her bags and withdrew the faintly glowing, cylindrical, magical contraceptive device, which she cast upon the table so casually such that Twilight had to catch it in her magic lest it roll to the floor. With the nearly spent device floating in the raspberry hue of Twilight’s power, she levitated an identical tool that was glowing brightly and floated it into Fluttershy’s bag.

“There you go!” Twilight exclaimed. “All set!”

Expecting Fluttershy to meekly take her leave without touching or mentioning the items in question, Twilight was surprised to find the skittish pegasus staring intently at one of the taller bookshelves, her head tipped nearly as far back as it would go. Twilight stood there awkwardly for half a minute before finally inquiring.

“Is there...something else I can help you with?” She brightened, “Oh, do you want to check out a book maybe? Because I can recommend so many interesting titles I just got in! There’s this novel series about knights in ancient Equestria, or...oh! I even got one in about turkey grooming!”

A course, guffawing laugh rang out from above. In its wake, a familiar cyan-blue pegasus with a mane and tail in every color of the spectrum swept down to hover slightly above the other ponies, her hoof hooked around a feather duster and a violet kerchief keeping her bangs out of her eyes.

“Turkey grooming?” Rainbow Dash cackled. “Is that like grooming grooming? How do you even groom a turkey? Preen its wings? Or are we talking, like, groom at a wedding? Because that’s just weird.”

“I have no idea,” Twilight glanced upwards. “But if anypony knows, I’m sure Fluttershy does.” She turned, “Fluttershy? How do you groom a turkey?”

Fluttershy was hewn from granite.

“...Fluttershy?” Twilight tried again. Rainbow Dash flitted over and superimposed herself between Fluttershy and the books, waving a foreleg in her face.

“Earth to Fluttershy!” Dash’s lip turned up in a sly grin, “Oh byyyyy the way, nice show you put on the other night! Every pegasus this side of Cloudsdale is talking about it!”

“Show? What?” Twilight’s curiosity was piqued. “You mean at...your special night?”

“Uh huh! Fluttershy here stole the show!” Dash’s eyes were filled with determination to embarrass. She began dancing in place, pumping her legs in midair. “Just call her ‘miss get the party started’!”

Fluttershy felt the warmth of intimidation wash over her, but so resolute was she upon the decisions she had taken the past three days to make, all she did was fold her forelegs and grin right back. “Oh? I didn’t see you there, Rainbow Dash. Didn’t you show up?”

Derailed by the uncharacteristic response, Dash sputtered and floated away slightly. “What? Of course I was there!” She beat her wings and struck a heroic pose, “Duh, I’m a Wonderbolt now! I don’t have time to have all that clutter in the back of my brain for a whole year!”

“Reeeeally?” Fluttershy purred. “Because Soarin told me all the Wonderbolts were serving as custodians, just like every year.”

Dash balked. She turned sharply away just as she felt the color deepening in her cheeks. “...I...I don’t have time for all that stuff!” She muttered, “I just picked a cloud somewhere. You know, the one hour in-and-out. Fast. Like me!”

“Oh, yes, I know all about doing that,” Fluttershy’s words oozed from her lips. She turned entirely away from the conversation, leaving Dash to conjure up further excuses as she retrieved a paper from her bags and offered it to Twilight.

“Do you have these books available, please?”

Twilight took the list, scanned it, blinked hard, and did a double take. “Uhh...probably?” She peered overtop the paper at Fluttershy, whose smile had eroded into a sheepish again. “I’m not one to meddle, but what do you want with books like this?”

Before Twilight could do anything about it, Dash vaulted through the air, nabbed the list, and read aloud. “‘Tribe-Specific Breeding Nights: A History’? ‘The Manehattan Sex Manual for First-Timers’? ‘How to Run a Fetish Self-Help Group’? ‘V-Venus in Bridles’!?” Dash took her turn staring over the paper at Fluttershy too. “What in the heck do you want books like this for?”

Fluttershy took a breath and steeled herself. She had already decided. There was no going back now.

“I helped a lot of ponies to better express themselves the other night,” She announced. “And I want to learn how I can help more. Help everypony…not just pegasi. Maybe I can…teach them.”

Twilight and Dash stared at one other. Dash sought to break the silence.

“Come to think of it Twilight, you have wings now too. But nopony saw you there the other night.”

Twilight laughed lightly, “Oh, no, I wasn’t there. I’m kind of a unique case I guess, but I can’t sense the pegasus night any more now than I could before for some reason.” She shrugged, “I guess maybe it’s because I never actually was a pegasus? That’s actually part of my theory as to why the unicorn night still calls to me. So...I just keep going to that one! Eh heh heh...” Her awkward laughter faded when she turned and noticed Fluttershy’s serious expression. “You really want these?”

Fluttershy nodded. “I do.”

Twilight shrugged again. “Well Fluttershy, I’m proud of you. The Fluttershy I know might not have had the courage to come to me to ask for books like these, but you’ve really come a long way. I would never stand in the way of the quest for knowledge…any type of knowledge. So of course I’ll get these books for you.” She examined the paper again, “Something really special must have happened the other night.”

Fluttershy smiled brightly. “It did. It really did.”

As Twilight went off to fill the request, Dash floated quizzically around Fluttershy’s head. “So you wanna tell me why Soarin has a picture of you inside his locker now?”

Fluttershy blushed and simply smiled. “I’m sure I have no idea.”

Ten minutes of chatter later, Fluttershy found her hefty bags laden with thick tomes. She turned to leave.

“Thanks for returning the tool, Fluttershy,” Twilight nodded as an afterthought. “Sometimes ponies lose them and it’s a lot more complicated to make a new one than just recharge the old ones.” She chuckled, “You should see some of the ones I get back. I keep telling ponies that once you see the little red line you should stop using them because I can’t guarantee the potency at that point, but they still come back to me with lines so prominent you can tell they were being used too long.” She droned on with a disinfected tone, “I mean, I guess if it’s infrequent or just one partner or something you can probably get a few more uses out of them, but the spell gets a little weaker every time it comes in contact with semen. So I always advise couples who copulate a lot to have them changed out more often.”

Fluttershy froze halfway out the door. She didn’t turn around, and had to consciously resist sending one of her yellow hooves to probe at her tummy. “Wait...what?”

“I was just saying,” Twilight responded easily, “That it’s probably okay if you’re just gonna use it once or twice more, but the spell weakens a little bit every time a stallion does that thing they do. And even that is probably okay if the tool is still powerful, but it would be a bad idea to use it if you were gonna, I dunno,” She blew on her bangs and snorted, “Do some crazy group thing or something. But I guess that’s neither here or there.”

Fluttershy’s eyes widened, and she felt a thickness rising in her throat. “...r-right, neither here nor there...eh heh...a-anyway! See you all later!”

Fluttershy fled, two pairs of confused eyes trailing her escape.