"Fluttershy has tail extensions!" And thus was revealed a secret that Fluttershy hoped would never come out.

There's nothing wrong with having a short tail. Looks aren't everything. Beauty is in the eye of the beholder. Fluttershy knows every cliché, every truth, every comfort statement; it doesn't help what she sees in the mirror when the extensions are removed.

So how to deal with the fact that ugliness – however cruel its judgement – is also in the eye of the beholder? An eye, more to the point, that has difficulty looking away, no matter what the beholder wants or needs to see?

Perhaps, in the end, it needs another set of eyes to do the beholding…