Fluttershy's Mixed-Up Pets

“Thank you ever so much for helping me with Harvey,” Fluttershy said. “Like I said, he is just a big softy once you get to know him, but it's ever so much easier to get him to take his medicine if he's distracted.”

Mix-up nodded slightly, remembering how tricky that had been.

“So, um… is there anything else to do?” he asked.

“I'm… I'm afraid there is,” Fluttershy told him. “I know we were going to do something else fun today, but we do need to make sure everything's been done first.”

Mix-up tried not to be too disappointed. It had been a few weeks since he'd been somewhat unceremoniously moved from Cloudsdale to near Ponyville by Discord, and they'd managed to find time for a play session every two or three days… neither he nor Fluttershy could really put the right word on what was going on, but by mutual agreement they'd decided they were not going to try to be 'special someponies'.

This was… something else, though 'friends' was a good way to describe it.

“So… what does need to be done?” he asked.

“Well… there's some cleaning to be done,” Fluttershy replied. “And… oh! I think Rarity said that that new costume should be done today!”

“Then I guess I'll be doing the cleaning,” Mix-up said, but Fluttershy shook her head. “Or… not?”

“I think you should pick up the costume,” Fluttershy told him. “It's for you anyway, and… well… you do live in Ponyville now as well.”

The stallion thought about that, then nodded. “I guess, yeah… okay, that makes sense.”

“Besides, I don't think Angel Bunny trusts you yet,” Fluttershy added. “He's ever such a silly bunny, but maybe he'll feel better about you in a few days.”

“That or he'll laugh at me,” Mix-up muttered. “All right, I'll do that… you already paid, right?”

“That's right, you should just need to show up and pick it up,” Fluttershy confirmed. “And, um… I hope it goes well!”

Once Mix-up was off out the door, flying to the Carousel Boutique – and probably going to get there faster than Fluttershy would have done – the Element of Kindness closed the door of her cottage, then let out a little sigh.

She had some cleaning to do, after all, and she got out the duster before fluttering around to clear off all the dust from her cabinets. It was relaxing work, but she'd been going for only a few minutes when there was a knocking at the door.

“Oh, I wonder who that might be...” she said, putting the duster down and going into her kitchen. “Angel, stop it! You're such a naughty bunny!”

Angel Bunny stuck his tongue out at her, and Fluttershy gave him a stern look. After a few seconds Angel huffed, and took the bucket of water down from where he'd been balancing it over the door.

“That's better,” Fluttershy told him, more approvingly now, and opened the door. “Hello, I – oh!”

“Yeah, yeah, whatever,” Gilda the Griffin said. “Can we just skip all that and get to why I'm here?”

“Well… that is… I don't know why you're here,” Fluttershy said. “And-”

She paused, then turned pale. “Oh, no...”

“What's wrong?” Gilda asked. “Look, if I'm not welcome-”

“No, it's not that,” Fluttershy replied. “I mean, that is… it's not you, but-”

“Then it should be fine,” Gilda said, moving forwards a little. “I've got something to say, but I'd rather not say it without having a drink, after flying so far...”

Fluttershy backed away a bit, reflexively, and looked over her shoulder. That let Gilda get further, and before long Fluttershy found herself standing in her kitchen with Gilda taking a seat across the table from her.

“Okay, so… look, this isn't exactly easy to say,” Gilda said, once she was in place. “You know about how Rainbow and Pinkie came to Griffinstone a while ago, right?”

Fluttershy nodded, a blush ever-so-slowly developing as she hoped that Gilda would say what she wanted to say, and then leave, without ever actually looking to her left.

“And… they helped me out,” Gilda explained. “And I chatted with them, and I got the idea that they'd forgiven me for all the… stuff,” she waved her talons about vaguely. “From last time I was in Ponyville. And that was nice to know, but I kind of realized that I hadn't said sorry to you.”

“I forgive you, don't worry,” Fluttershy said quickly.

“Yeah, but I still want to do this properly,” Gilda explained. “And it isn't easy, so… Fluttershy, I'm sorry for what I did. For scaring you, and… and...”

Her voice trailed off.

“Okay, what the buck is that!?”

Fluttershy squeaked and hid under the table.

Ignoring her, Gilda got up and tilted her head to look into the other room. “That looks like some kind of costume...”

“I-accept-your-apology-thank-you,” Fluttershy said, eyes closed, hoping that she could pretend this wasn't really happening if she paid it a small enough amount of attention.

Stalking closer, Gilda picked up the costume and moved it around. “So… this is definitely a costume, but it's big enough for a full-grown pony. And it's kind of a fox, and… wait, what the-”

Gilda started laughing. “Oh, wow! This has a diaper in it! Heh, I wouldn't have guessed you were into – wow, Dash is going to love hearing about this!”

“Au contraire,” Discord said, appearing out of Gilda's ear.

The griffin jumped. “W-whaa? Where did you – but – what?”

“Oh, it's been a while since I got that kind of reaction,” Discord announced smugly. “But, well, to get to the main issue here, Gilda… do you really want to go and tell Rainbow Dash about this?”

“W-well, um...” Gilda replied, sounding a lot less sure of herself.

“I thought you'd learned your lesson,” the chaotic entity said, lying down across the sofa with his hand flung in the air. “Friendship, harmony… not making fun of people you're trying to apologize to...”

“But… come on, you're supposed to be the god of chaos!” Gilda protested. “How come this isn't funny to you?”

“Oh, it is,” Discord replied. “But it's funny in a way which you don't seem to understand… it's funny because it's enjoyable, and sweet. And because it's such a rare ability to enjoy that sort of thing – and, by the way, Fluttershy isn't the one who wears it.”

“She's not?” Gilda blinked, then looked back at Fluttershy – blushing hard and still curled up under her table. “Yeah, I guess I can see that… it does look a bit small for her, now I really look at it.”

“It'd be perfectly sized for you, though,” Discord pointed out. “Well, you'd need a couple of gloves on so you don't rip it, but-”

“Excuse me?” Gilda countered, her wings flaring out and her talons flexing. “What makes you think I'd wear it?”

“Well, I don't think you'd be such a scaredy-griff as to dismiss something like this without even trying it,” Discord replied. “Or are you?”

“Don't be – of course I'm not scaredy!” Gilda replied. “But-”

“Then you will be wearing it? Splendid,” Discord smiled. “In fact, now I think of it, having an afternoon with her would be a perfect way to show Fluttershy how much you really are sorry for what happened before! Don't you think so?”

“Er...” Gilda said, now completely confused. “I, um… guess?”

Then she shook her head. “Wait, no, I...”

She paused, spotting Fluttershy again. The pegasus was still under the table, but now she looked… interested, even hopeful.

Gilda wavered.

“...look, can you guarantee nopony who isn't involved finds out about this?” she asked. “'cause this is going to be really embarrassing anyway, but I guess I deserve something...”

“I can do you one better than that, my fine hen,” Discord said, booping her on the beak. “Or will it be vixen? Either way, I can guarantee that you'll enjoy it… at least, while you're taking part.”

He shrugged. “But that's something to think about. For now, I think you have a costume to get ready for...”

The bell jangled in Carousel Boutique.

“Oh, welcome to Carousel Boutique!” Rarity said, beaming as she swept into the room. “Where everything is – oh, hello there!”

She gave Mix-up a knowing nod. “It's wonderful to see you again, darling! Though I notice Fluttershy isn't here?”

“No, she sent me to pick up the commission,” Mix-up explained, looking around him at the clothes on display – blushing ever so slightly at the sight of some of the frilliest ones, though Rarity didn't notice.

“She did, did she?” Rarity asked. “Well! I suppose that answers the question as to whether you're going to stick around. I know Pinkie Pie welcomed you to Ponyville last week, but she does that with everypony even if they're only in town for the afternoon.”

Mix-up nodded, remembering the party in question. It had been quite nice, though after a while he'd felt a bit overwhelmed with so many ponies around.

“So, you've sorted out your own house?” she asked, trotting into the back room to find the carefully packaged outfit. “Or are you staying somewhere?”

“Well, I'm just staying with Fluttershy,” the pegasus replied. “Why, is that a problem?”

“Oh, no, of course not, not a problem at all!” Rarity assured him. “It's good to see that Fluttershy has such a close friend who she can relax with – between you and me I was beginning to despair as to whether she'd ever find somepony.”

The white-coated unicorn sighed. “Though I suppose this does mean that she's actually the first of us to settle down...”

Not really following where Rarity was going with that, Mix-up waited until she brought out the new outfit before balancing it somewhat awkwardly – using the saddlebags as a basis for supporting it, though he couldn't fit it in either or both of them.

“Maybe I should have brought a cart,” he said, frowning a little.

“Perhaps,” Rarity agreed. “Hmm, I'll have to think about that in future – but do let me know if you have any future costume ideas, darling! Your hobby gives me so much to think about – and, of course, I'm completely discreet as well as chic and elite!”

“Is this stuff really necessary?” Gilda grumped. “I mean… really?”

“Oh, yes, I'm afraid so,” Fluttershy told her, checking the mittens were on right. “Normally they're, um, just if the pony likes it – but you have sharp claws, so I need to make sure the suit doesn't get damaged. Discord mentioned it, remember?”

“Yeah, of course I remember!” Gilda replied. “I just… this is really embarrassing...”

She looked back at the diaper she was wearing, already remembering how Fluttershy had earnestly explained that the suit was designed and made with diapers in mind so she'd need to wear one or it wouldn't fit.

“Kind of wish it wasn't even close to fitting,” she added in a mumble. “Then I could not do it.”

“You might enjoy it,” Fluttershy suggested softly. “Okay, that looks good...”

She trotted over to pick up the fox suit, and Discord caught Gilda's eye.

“Well?” he asked, turning his hand like a crank.

“Well what?” Gilda replied. “I don't think even you would laugh at me after basically strong-arming me into this.”

Discord kept turning his hand, and a bucket rose out of the floor. “Well,” he explained.

Lifting it to the table, he fished around inside for a moment before nodding to himself. “And that offer's still open, you know...”

Gilda's beak worked soundlessly for a moment, then she sighed. “All right, I guess I'm not going to get out of this easily…”

“Excellent!” Discord said, pulling a set of headphones from the bucket. “That's another one off your bucket list.”

“...I don't get that, but I know it was a pun and I don't like it,” Gilda informed him icily.

Discord shrugged, then put the headphones over Gilda's ears.

“How do they sound?” he asked.

“I… that's really odd, actually,” Gilda admitted, reaching up and feeling them as best she could with her mitten. “I can barely tell they're there, and I can hear the stuff you're saying, there's just this kind of hissing noise...”

Fluttershy brought the orange-and-white fox suit over, and began helping Gilda to get into it. Unlike the giraffe costume Discord had made for her weeks before, this one zipped up at the back, and it was much easier for Gilda to wear – she just had to step into each of the four snug legs, one at a time, and wait with a blush while Fluttershy tightened the cuffs slightly to hold her feet in place.

“Mm-hmm,” Fluttershy muttered to herself. “That's the feet… and the tail, um, hold still please...”

Getting Gilda's tail in her hooves, she threaded it into the big plushy fox tail – though the size difference made it pretty clear that it wasn't going to be doing much waving, unless Gilda was really trying or was bouncing around in some other way.

Putting Gilda's wings in the little sleeves for them took another minute or so – the suit had been made for Mix-up, but she was about the same size so it all fit nicely – and then there was just the head left to do.

“Um… ready?” Fluttershy checked.

Gilda nodded, seeming a lot more relaxed now. “Yep.”

“Oh, well, I'm glad you're a bit happier with this now,” Fluttershy murmured, and helped Gilda put the fox-head on. The griffin was still visible, sort of, but once Fluttershy had done the zip up the only real clue that showed up at first was the beak poking out through the fox muzzle – unlike the first suit, this one put the wearer's eyes where the eyes of the animal would be, and just about everything was fuzzy plushy orange or white paws and tail-tip instead of Gilda's natural colours.

“All right, so… I hope that's comfy,” Fluttershy said, checking everything over once again, then stepped back a little. “Oh, that looks so cute!”

Gilda tilted her head a little, looking back at herself as best she could do with the fox-head on, then reached up with a paw and patted the bits of herself she could reach. She huffed out a sigh, then wiggled herself back and forth a little before starting to really test out the full range of motion the suit was giving her.

The undoubted bulk at the back weighed her down a little, making it much easier to sit down than to get up again, and she crinkled a lot when she did sit down – then lay down, and rolled over. Fluttershy eeped as Gilda nearly knocked over a table, and flew over to get it out of the way as Gilda straightened up again and stretched.

“Are you sure it's okay?” Fluttershy asked. “You haven't said anything...”

“Yip!” Gilda replied, then her eyes widened. “I, uh… I meant yep, but… w-wow, that just slipped out...”

Her big plushy fox-tail twitched a little, left and then right. “I mean, I guess it's comfy, and… and, heh, easy to relax in...”

After a moment contemplating that, she tilted her head. “So, um… what kind of stuff do you normally do when – when whoever-it-is wears this?”

“Oh, just… relax, play a bit...” Fluttershy said, her eyes going down slightly as she fidgeted. “Maybe try a bottle… though I suppose with a fox we could try something like fetch? I know that's more dogs, but...”

“That sounds pretty fun,” Gilda replied. “Doing a fox thing, I mean… yip...”

She didn't seem to catch her involuntary yap that time, and Fluttershy decided to just get something to play with – rummaging around for a long moment in her supply cupboard, then bringing out a little cat-tail on a string.

The moment she saw it, Gilda's eyes lit up. She wiggled her rump a little, making her tail sway back and forth, then padded forwards and began pawing at it – acting perhaps a bit more like a cat than a fox, but Fluttershy giggled and pulled the toy up out of her reach before flicking it to the other side of the room.

In the kitchen, Discord took his binoculars away from the wall.

“Am I good or am I good?” he asked, rhetorically. “Well, I suppose they're different kinds of good, and I'm definitely the second.”

“Oh, hey!” Rainbow Dash said, dropping down to hover just in front of Mix-up. “You're that stallion who moved in with Fluttershy, right?”

“Yeah, that's me,” the pinto agreed, and halted in his flight as Dash began inspecting him – flying circles all around him, before poking at his saddlebags. The resultant squishy resistance seemed to confuse her, and she shrugged it off after a moment's thought – not catching Mix-up's quickly suppressed blush.

“Well, I guess you seem okay to me,” Rainbow judged. “But be warned, mister! We've had quite enough experience with secret villains who want to take over Ponyville, or Equestria, or the world! So the first time I catch you sneakily working your influence then I'll kick your flank hard enough they'll have to set up a trampoline next week to catch you when you land!”

Mix-up blinked.

“...okay?” he tried. “Sorry, I've got some shopping to get home...”

Dash stared him down for a long moment, then chuckled. “Okay, yeah, I get the idea. I don't want to have to learn another friendship lesson about not being a jerk.”

The stallion watched as she flew off.

“...that was unusual.”

“...how are you feeling?”

Gilda blinked a few times, tilting her head, then raised a paw to just over one eye. “I, huh… wow, whatever that Discord guy did is really kind of powerful...”

She sat down on her rump, wiggling a bit, and blushed at the sensations – not nearly as embarrassed as she'd been when she started. “It's kind of… well, when you're talking to me, I can concentrate just a bit and think about it pretty much normally. But when I'm not concentrating, it's just easier to… relax?”

She shrugged, which turned into a vulpine stretch – rising to all fours, then first stretching with her rump in the air before rising up on her forelegs and shaking her body out. “And, heh, kind of… think foxy? Or… hard to describe...”

Gilda frowned, thinking about how she should describe it, and the gentle nearly-inaudible hissing filled her ears. She raised a paw, batting at Fluttershy, and the pegasus giggled.

“Oh, wow… someone's playful!” she said, then leaned down a bit. “Um… are you thirsty?”

The griffin under all the plushy fox-suit-ness could have answered with words, with a simple 'yes'. But it seemed like it would be boring to do it that way, so she wagged her butt back and forth to make her tail wag before loping a step closer and licking Fluttershy's cheek.

The butterscotch mare flailed, giggling again, and Gilda licked a second time before nodding her agreement. “Yip!”

“Wow, that really does work fast,” Fluttershy said, her cheeks pinking slightly. “Okay, um… I'll be a minute or so doing that, so… do you think you can sit?”

Sit? That sounded like a fox thing to Gilda, so she promptly sat down with her hindpaws just in front of her diaper – the two pressing together with a plushy softness – and her forepaws in front of those.

Fluttershy smiled again, and went to go and get a bottle of milk.

While she was gone, Gilda idled a little, and sank further into that easy, vaguely-fuzzy foxy mindset.

It was still kind of an embarrassing thing, being dressed like a silly plushy fox with such a big diaper, but it was much easier to just relax and kind of push that off to the side for a bit. It was more relaxing than she'd done in a long time, actually, without the pressures of Griffinstone to prey on her mind, and even the embarrassment kind of added a little thrill to it. Maybe she'd have been too mortified to enjoy it, without that comforting buzz in her ears, but with it there…

Well, with it there her main concentration slipped away from anything else and onto important things. Like whether she should keep sitting the whole time that Fluttershy was gone, or try something a bit more… cunning.

As soon as she thought that word, Gilda rose out of her sitting posture. Moving as smoothly as possible, trying not to crinkle, she prowled behind the sofa to a position that was out of sight from a pony coming in from the kitchen door.

Then she crouched, rump wiggling almost silently.

“I'm done,” Fluttershy announced, trotting back in with the bottle held sideways in her mouth. “I – Gilda?”

She looked one way, then the other, and when she was looking away Gilda pounced with a happy yip! She landed on top of Fluttershy with a cushioned flumph, the suit so thick it absorbed a lot of the impact, and Fluttershy squeaked as she got pounce-flattened until she ended up halfway underneath Gilda's foxy plushy bulk.

“H-hey!” Fluttershy said, after her initial panic reaction had calmed down. “T-that's a very naughty fox, bad Gilda!”

Gilda didn't feel too bad about it, Fluttershy's tone of voice was laughing rather than angry, and that was the important thing. She licked Fluttershy again, making her giggle all the more, and after a long moment the pegasus managed to gasp something out.

“You'd better be a good fox if you want your bottle!”

That was a threat Gilda understood, and she sat back to let Fluttershy get up. The bottle had actually bounced most of the way across the room, and she could have reached it before Fluttershy did, but that might be a bit too tricky and naughty.

This time, anyway.

Flaring his wings, Mix-up came down to a slightly unsteady landing outside Fluttershy's house.

It was definitely Fluttershy's house, not his, even though he was staying in the spare room for now – that was something he was sure about, and he'd been giving some thought to making himself a cloud mansion of his own.

It would even let him show off his skill at doing design with clouds, which would be nice – but he was daydreaming a bit, so he shook his head with a chuckle.

“Oh, Mix-up, my fine feathered fellow!” Discord waved, sticking his head out the chimney and his arm out the postbox.

“Hi,” the pegasus replied, a little bit apprehensive, and trotted up to open the door. When he did, Discord pulled his neck back in, and as Mix-up entered the kitchen he blinked.

“Um… where did you go?” he asked.

“Don't mind me,” Discord buzzed, next to his ear. “I'm just a fly on the wall.”

“Oh, hello,” Fluttershy said. “I… hope you don't mind, but a visitor arrived. Not Discord, someone else… and, well, I'm not quite sure why, but...”

Mix-up did a double-take at the sight of a griffin poking her head around the doorframe – firstly because she was wearing a costume he recognized, as he'd been the one to wear it first, and secondly because her eyes were kind of unfocused.

“I didn't realize you had any other friends who were into this,” he said. “And, um, what's up with her eyes?”

“That… that's because of something Discord did, to make her more comfortable with it,” Fluttershy supplied. “It's… some headphones, I think? And they make it so – hey, stop it!”

The griffin sniffed her side, and Fluttershy flapped a wing to make her move back a little. “They, um, they make it so it's easy for her to relax and kind of… think fox? I think that's what she said about it...”

Mix-up swallowed.

“That… sounds pretty good, actually,” he said. “So… so do you have any more of those? B-because I've got the new costume with me, and...”

Fluttershy looked at the saddlebags, then at the fox-suited griffin, who sat down on her rump with a crinkly noise.

“I… I think you'd have to ask Discord,” she said. “But that does sound cute...”