Fluttershy's Nature Show

Fluttershy smiles at the camera. On her left shoulder sits Peewee, preening his wing, while on her right sits Philomena. A feather from each is lovingly placed in her mane.

"There was a time when I knew nothing of phoenixes," she explains. "In my first experience with one, Philomena here," she indicates the bird on her shoulder, "decided that she was going to play a prank on me. Worse yet, she somehow convinced Princess Celestia to conspire with her, so I never really figured out what was going on. They had to outright tell me afterward, when I was broken down in tears, thinking I was going to be banished from Equestria and thrown in a dungeon in whatever place I was banished to. While it was horrifying for me, it was partially my fault.

"That said, phoenixes aren't just melodramatic pranksters." She turns to Peewee. "This little guy was given a stay of execution right before he was hatched. His nest was attacked by dragons, and all of his brothers and sisters flew off with their parents, unable to find his egg and assuming that he'd been slain. He was, as you can see, not dead, but rather just missing. He'd been taken by the dragons, but one of them stepped forward to say that he didn't deserve to die, taking him home and hatching him there. I'm leaving out a lot of details, but it's not unheard of to have long histories with phoenixes if you've spent any time with them. They live for a very, very long time, and have a wide range of personalities."

She raises her arm just in time for another phoenix to land on it, rather than letting it try to push Peewee off her shoulder. "To demonstrate my point, this is Paradiso." Paradiso spreads his wings, blocking the view of the other two. "He's a bit of a show-off, and can't stand not being the center of attention. He really likes to hog the spotlight, something that is actually pretty common among phoenixes because of their mating display. Well, really, this is true of a lot of birds, but phoenixes tend to take it all a step further by actually providing their own spotlight to bask in."

A phoenix wrangler comes into frame briefly to retrieve Paradiso and pull him out of the camera's line of focus. He screeches and flashes the wrangler with bright light, but refrains from going full blaze and biting. As he is taken off-camera, it is revealed that Philomena has flown off with his display.

"So, an interesting thing about birds in general is that they're monogamous. Now, this isn't wholly true, as there are a great many species who are not, but they only make up about a tenth of all species. It's no surprise then, that when a male such as Paradiso approaches a spoken-for female such as Philomena, she displays her disinterest by flying away. As Peewee is also in a relationship, he feels no need to display his own show to compete with Paradiso, and wouldn't, save for if some other male phoenix were making a move to steal his mate."

She reaches up to gently run her fingers along his back feathers, eliciting a soft cooing from him. He ruffles his feathers a bit, and turns to rub his beak against her temple. After a few minutes of this, she smiles and nods, and he flies off to a large branch where his mate is waiting. She then turns back to the wrangler and nods to him, and Paradiso takes his place atop her head.

"So, this is, again, Paradiso. He was introduced a bit earlier than intended, but now we actually want to talk about his mating display." In response, Paradiso opens his wings, revealing a glittering display of white, yellow and orange feathers on the underside. As they continue to his wingtips, they turn red, and then are tipped with blue ends. They shimmer and shine in the light that he emits, and he emits a lot of light, flashing at the camera.

"I can't really blame him for showing off, as he does have a beautiful mantle, and he really shines brightly. He's a spectacular specimen. So why hasn't he found a mate yet? Well, there are multiple reasons why a female might deny him, and there are a few females that are not yet spoken for, so he still has a chance, but let's go down the list of reasons that a male may be left alone.

"First, a male would be left alone if he is already spoken for. This is not the case for Paradiso, but it's worth mentioning. This usually is the reason a male would be alone after the end result of his female being unable to recover from an illness, and dying off completely. The male, being unable to find his mate, will often not put on a display, but it has been seen, very rarely, that a widow and widower can find comfort in each other without actually mating. They'll share a nest, but as I said, this is very rare behaviour.

"Next, a female may reject a male for being too small, too weak, or not being colourful enough. Paradiso is big and strong, and very brightly coloured. In contrast, Peewee is fairly small, and yet he has a mate. He is colourful, but not as colourful as Paradiso. So we know that's not the reason for him being alone.

"There's also a courtship ritual where the male brings gifts of food to the prospective female, and accepting his gift demonstrates an idea of reciprocity, where the male shows that, while he may not be the best, he is capable, and worth a shot. If a male does this for a female who is taken, she will reject it by tossing it out, but if she's single and rejects it, she'll just ignore it. This is how Peewee found his mate; not through a superior body, but through a superior will and dedication.

"This is the most likely reason, in my opinion, why Paradiso has yet to find a mate. He has not tried this method, though I have suggested it a good many times. While in display, he seems to be the pick of the litter, it's possible that his regal display has inflated his ego, to the point where his boastfulness is a turn-off. This can easily be fixed with a display of humility, which can be made up by closing his wings and bringing food."

At the suggestion that he lower himself, Paradiso closes his wings, leans forward, and pecks Fluttershy thrice in the middle of her forehead before flying off in a huff.

"He is not amenable to this change," she frowns, rubbing her forehead.