Fluttershy and the Library Cat

Ball of yarn located. A jump at an angle of approximately 36.29 degrees is necessary for retrieval. One, two… “Three!” Twilight Sparkle quite simply loved her new life as a kitten, even with what she had to lick every time she gave herself a bath. Surprisingly, it wasn’t that bad to her. She had always wondered what cats were thinking whenever they did such a thing, which seemed rather disgusting at first glance, but in practice wasn’t that bad. Usually.

The infiltration phase of her plan to get Fluttershy to love her, named: ‘Get That Adorable Pegasus to Love Me by Being a Cute Little Kitty’, was already complete, though she was having doubts about actually getting anything else done. She was already on her third day, after all. Being a kitten was just far too fun for her to think of anything else. The massive amount of sleep she was getting was pretty nice as well, though it did interfere with her complicated resting schedule. She’d have to get rid of it and make a new one.

One thing was missing from her new life: a scratching post. As luck would have it, couches and beds don’t work out very well as scratching posts, mostly due to Fluttershy scolding her every time she’s caught. They were perfect otherwise. If I keep it up, she might just have somepony else take care of me for a while… That would ruin my entire plan!

And with that one thought, away went all of her urges to scratch furniture. The pleasure she felt whenever she tore into the fabric of the soft bed or comforting couch was not worth failing her mission. But, maybe just one last time…

She shook her head and rid herself of the desire, and decided to go looking for Fluttershy. Kitchen, no… Living room, no… Bedroom, yes! It’s three in the morning, of course she’s sleeping! And I’m sure she’d love it if I surprised her.

There was no need to jump on the bed first; her target was Fluttershy’s slim belly, the best possible place for her to land at this very moment. Only when she had already jumped did she rethink her plan. Oh dear.

Her friend and crush, Fluttershy, woke up with a shriek; her wings were extended as a sign of her fear. She gasped for air and frantically looked around the room, trying to locate whatever woke her up. Her eyes eventually rested on Twilight, who was smiling and rubbing against Fluttershy’s side, glad to be with the one she loved most.

Even if this plan doesn’t work, which it should, it’s statistically unlikely that it would fail, I’ll definitely be able to say I enjoyed myself. Though I may never talk to Fluttershy again… She froze at the realization; maybe her plan wasn’t as perfect as she thought it was. Even if Fluttershy was harboring feelings for her, would the two ever be able to hold a normal conversation again?

Either way, worth it.

Fluttershy, who was still just looking at Twilight, found it very difficult to be truly angry at the new arrival, even if she could be rather annoying at times. A cute, purring ball of fur wasn’t something you yelled at every day. Though, with how much the kitten had been destroying her furniture, perhaps relocation wouldn’t be such a bad idea. She considered letting Rainbow Dash take care of Twilight, or ‘Nightlight’ as she still believed, though immediately decided against it, since kittens can’t walk on clouds.

Applejack would’ve been a good choice, though her dog Winona probably wouldn’t have been such a good friend to a kitten. Twilight was apparently gone to Canterlot for unexplained reasons; something Spike had told her yesterday. Pinkie Pie was also far too energetic to concentrate on a kitten.

“Rarity!” Fluttershy exclaimed, but immediately placed a hoof over her mouth to quiet herself; shouting out the name of one of your friends at three in the morning isn’t exactly normal. Rarity already had a cat, and what could possibly be a better friend for a kitten than something of its own species?

Many things, actually.

Before long she had decided that if Nightlight caused her any more trouble, it was off to Carousel Boutique for her. Rarity had also previously mentioned that she did need a kitten to try out some of her dresses for her; Opalescence was far too big and grumpy to actually wear any of them. They’d either be torn apart before they had so much as touched the fur on that cat’s back, or just be stretched to the point where nothing could actually wear them and look good.

For now though, she’d keep this kitten with her.

Twilight had already fallen asleep by the time Fluttershy’s decision making process was finished, and had successfully destroyed any possibility of Fluttershy actually moving from her position on the bed, and so she decided to sleep as well.

One thing that was especially challenging for Twilight was resisting the smell of fresh pancakes in the morning. The fact that kittens weren’t supposed to eat pony food came as a shock to her, and what was even more terrifying was the first time she was presented with generic kitten food. Fluttershy’s previous feline companion was adopted several months ago, and so Fluttershy didn’t have any food – at least, good food – for her new kitten.

As she got rid of the thoughts of yesterday morning, she found herself sitting in front of another bowl of food, though it seemed a little different this time. She gave the bowl a curious sniff, and moments later noticed it was empty.

She smiled and walked away, the taste of tuna present in her mouth.

Good thing I allowed Fluttershy to leave the cottage yesterday.

The smile faded when she approached the kitchen, and the urge to jump on Fluttershy’s dining table and eat every last pancake grew with every second. Twilight was now faced with one of the most difficult decisions of her life: Fluttershy’s love, or pancakes?

Spike, who was now very bored but at the same time relaxed – Twilight being out of the library for a while always gave him an excuse for his laziness – decided that he might as well read something, an action which would either give Twilight a heart attack from the sheer feeling of surprise that she would have seeing him with a book, or would make her so happy with her little assistant finally embracing the joys of reading that he would never be able to get rid of her. He wasn’t sure which was worse.

What he was reading was not a simple novel or book on Equestrian history; instead it was the very same spell tome Twilight used to transform herself. He figured that he might as well learn of any side effects or precautions, along with any possible time limits Twilight may have forgotten to read in the short amount of time she spent actually looking at the book and not fantasizing about Fluttershy falling in love with her.

“The spell will wear off after approximately one week, if the caster is a higher level unicorn than it may last for a few more hours, but no longer…”

Spike smirked, imagining the trouble Twilight would get into if she had snuck into Fluttershy’s bed while still in kitten form, and woke up again as a unicorn. At the same time, he knew it would be best if he informed Twilight of this, but a little bit of him was very interested in what would happen if she didn’t know.

You win today, Fluttershy. No pancakes for this poor, tortured little kitty.

After making the incredibly painful decision of not terrorizing the pancakes until they went extinct, Twilight figured she might as well try to make friends with some of Fluttershy’s animal friends. For whatever reason, she hadn’t seen a single one of them, not even Angel, the one she expected to see the most. She didn’t want to meet him first, though. Having seen how he acted, she was not exactly pleased with his existence.

She glanced from side to side to observe the walls she had seen many times before, but was still amazed by the simplicity of them. Maybe I can move out of Golden Oaks Library, and just take all my books here… Nopony in Ponyville actually reads anything, except for Rainbow Dash of course. Even then, it’s only Daring Do for her.

As a kitten, she was sure that Fluttershy wouldn’t be as mad at her if she went snooping around the house than if she was still a unicorn. Exploration has always been a very exciting thing for her, though she hasn’t done a whole lot of it. Fluttershy’s cottage would suffice, for now at least.

She was a little disappointed that she didn’t find many sources of literature outside of a few bookshelves, which didn’t hold anything that she hadn’t read before. When I move in, Fluttershy’s gonna learn a lot about books.

She felt something press against her nose, or rather her nose pressing against something else. That something happened to be the back of Angel’s head. He did not appear to be happy to see something invading his household.

“Who are you?” he asked as he gave Twilight a curious sniff, and raised an eyebrow. Twilight was surprised, she had never actually heard him make any sort of noise before, and all she ever saw was his own form of sign language he used to boss Fluttershy around. “You smell familiar…”

If he finds out who I am… I’m in a lot of trouble.

“Nop- Um, I’m no one special.”

Angel stared at her for a while, deciding whether he should let the infiltrator roam about his domain freely, or lay down a set of rules for her. He decided to go with the former, deeming the kitten in front of him to be innocent enough to not overthrow him as self-proclaimed king of the cottage. He then proceeded to return to his resting spot.

For the fifteenth time that week, Twilight played in her mind the fantasy she believed was going to happen very soon: her transforming from kitten to pony in front of Fluttershy’s eyes, and declaring her love. Fluttershy will obviously say yes, and we will live a happy life forever with lots of books. Best. Plan. Ever.

It wasn’t long until she began attempting to calculate the probabilities of which residence Fluttershy would like best, along with how likely the world was to collapse at the very moment she asked Fluttershy to be her life partner. Chances for the apocalypse to happen ended up being rather low.

Since Fluttershy hadn’t gotten her a bed of her own to sleep in, Twilight spent most of her day sleeping in Fluttershy’s. The mattress seemed to be a little old and would definitely be replaced in the event that Twilight moved in.

Noticing a clock on the wall, Twilight decided to check what time it was.

Eleven in the morning, and it’s Saturday right now… That means… Her eyes widened and she stopped moving.

Today’s the day of the weekly meet-up we have in the park… And we’re supposed to bring our pets, or ‘critter friends’ as Fluttershy likes to call them. And she also likes to bring any new animals with her…

The sound of the front door opening caught her attention, and she moved from where she was to see what was happening. At the door was Applejack, and Fluttershy with an angry Angel bunny on her back.

“Sorry I’m so late Applejack, I accidentally slept in…” Fluttershy’s ears lowered and she looked up at Applejack, almost looking like she thought she had committed a serious crime. “Are the others waiting on me?”

Applejack nodded, “Yep. Twilight’s missing today, not sure why. Must be runnin’ late again.”

And she’ll be late. Very, very late.

Fluttershy almost stepped out the door when she saw Twilight in the corner of her eye, and smiled. She walked over to Twilight and lifted her up onto her back, a spot that Twilight would love if it wasn’t for the bunny she had to share it with, and returned to Applejack. “This is my new friend, Nightlight… Say ‘hello’, Nightlight.”

Twilight glanced at Applejack, and then to Fluttershy.

Great.