Off the roads from Ponyville, on the outskirts of the Everfree forest to the southeast, there's a cottage. The enormous bush sprouting through its roof leaves the cottage itself seeming something of an afterthought, a hole carved into the shelter of the leaves. The facades are covered in birdhouses of wildly varying sizes, and so are all the nearby trees, but there's not a peep to be heard when Twilight and Spike arrive. There's no answer to the door, so they walk around the side to find an empty wooden pen enclosing the neighboring hilltop. A soft yellow pegasus sits in this field, facing away.

Seeing her, Twilight calls out, "Excuse me! Are you Fluttershy?" But this seems to startle the young mare, who spins her head around her shoulder and doesn't stop staring back until Twilight crosses about half the distance between them. Then she gets up, turns to face Twilight, and sits back down. Despite her cheery pink butterfly cutie mark, she looks to be in a terrible mood, though Twilight is never quite able to pin down what sort.

"Um, Miss? Are you okay?" Twilight takes a step back once her gaze meets the pegasus's; for all her experience in not being okay, what works for Twilight is not what works for other ponies. There are many ways to not be okay. Some problems she can fix, some she cannot; the fine line between them is daily the scene of Twilight's greatest battles.

"Um, I'm fine," the mare whispers. She stands up, and starts surveying the treeline. "I'm just... worried, because... the Summer Sun Celebration is... tomorrow... but my choir has flown away!" Manifestly, she doesn't have the power for complete sentences inside her.

Twilight releases her breath. Thank Celestia it's a problem out in the world, she thinks. When Twilight brushes up against an external obstacle, some ceiling or filter on what she needs to do, the sort of impasse she's left in is almost a respite. Just a puzzle to be solved. So often, her problems have no support in the world at large. Those are the bad days: when nothing's wrong except her. Half the time, she has more control over the cold facts of external reality than her own struggling mind.

"Oh, that's perfect!" says Twilight. Fluttershy frowns. "I'm Twilight Sparkle, sent from Canterlot to oversee festival preparations. That must mean you're Fluttershy?"

Fluttershy, upon finally noticing she's talking to somepony she doesn't know, has retreated her face into her billowing pink hair. "Um... yes..."

"Okay. And you're in charge of the music for the Celebration?"

"...yes..."

"...Okay. And your birds have all flown off?"

Fluttershy releases some squeak of assent. Twilight's feeling unexpected shades of empathy; the notion of comforting Fluttershy is spinning idly like a top in her head. After meeting Rarity, the day isn't quite so heavy, and maybe she has the strength to experiment a little.

"Uh... I'm sorry, Fluttershy. Is talking to me making you uncomfortable?"

She shakes her head, mouth slightly agape. "N-no! You're not making me uncomfortable at all! I'm just... shy."

"Doesn't being shy mean you're uncomfortable around strangers?" Fluttershy's brow creases fractionally. "Ah, what I mean is, it's okay if that's the case. I wouldn't be offended. I just want to say that I mean you no harm and that I'm not judging you for it." Say what you mean, just like in your reports.

"Uh... okay. That helps, I... guess. Thanks." But she doesn't look any more at ease, really. Twilight hasn't done anything except sweep away the logical grounding for her feelings; Fluttershy's physiology took no notice. Oh well, at least she's talking again. Time for exposure therapy. Twilight counts it as a win.

"So, Fluttershy, what's happened with your birds? Where've they all gone?"

"Um... A while ago, there was this awful, awful noise, like... like an entire marching band fell down an endless staircase. It scared away all the birds in my choir, and I haven't managed to coax them back out of their nests. I sat down to think about what to do. Did you hear anything unusual in the last hour or so?"

Twilight is hardwired not to respond to certain questions.

"That makes sense. It's my job to help you bring them back so you can get back to practicing. What have you tried already?" Twilight says.

"Well, I tried asking nicely, then when that didn't work I got a bit stern with them, but they were still too scared, so I started promising birdseed, but that only draws them out one at a time, and when they peek out to see the empty field—"

"Okay, that's fine. Let me think whether there's something I can do with my magic." There's always something to be done with magic.

Carrot, or stick? Should Twilight lure the birds to the field, or drive them out of their nests? Explore the first possibility before you start burning down trees, Twilight. Sex and food—in her primitive understanding of animal behavior, these are what stir creatures into action. If she weren't an abject failure at acoustic magic, she could just mimic mating calls, but she's going nowhere near acoustic magic without remedial study. That leaves food. Fluttershy already determined that birdseed works, it's just not enough to draw out all the birds at once.

"Fluttershy, how much birdseed do you have?"

"Plenty! Too much, to be quite honest.

"Perfect. Can you help me bring some bags of it to the tree you're using to practice?"

The two of them pull back to the side of the cottage, against which several pony-sized sacks of birdseed are leaning. Twilight heaves one above her head with her horn. Fluttershy, unable to lift the bag clean off the ground and maintain lateral motion at the same time, starts dragging one behind her as she flies back to the field, wings aflutter.

They deposit the sacks at the base of the leafless tree centered in the field, and Twilight rips open the tops so that a level layer of birdseed is exposed on each. She asks Fluttershy to stand back, and lets herself fall into her horn. Wind picks up in a rough circle around them, first aligning in one direction, but quickly molded into a crude whirl. The idea is that the wind will pick up abundant birdseed scent. She can't directly induce wind farther than a few meters out, but if she creates enough turbulence within her ambit, hopefully the surrounding currents will carry the scent the rest of the way to the birds' homes. She maintains the spell for a few moments, then slips back into reality.

She's enveloped in happy, satiated chirping. Spitting birdseed out of her mouth and shaking it out of her mane, Twilight opens her eyes to success. Dozens of birds are presently devouring the open sacks. Twilight realizes her lure was completely indiscriminate—Fluttershy's choir wouldn't be bigger than ten or so, but every single bird in the area was drawn. But t's not a miss, so it's a hit.

Twilight glances at Fluttershy, smiling at the knowledge that magic has saved the day once again, and she didn't even have to light any nests on fire. But by the look on Fluttershy's face, the pegasus doesn't seem to match her enthusiasm. "Does that... did that help, Fluttershy?"

"Of course! I just, um... I can't really practice with so many noisy birds right here... and I don't think they'd like trying me trying to move the bags. I guess I'll just wait for them to finish eating. Maybe I'll... pick up some of the birdseed everywhere." Fluttershy is gently scraping a hoof across the ground. "Thanks for the... help, Twilight."

"Um, no problem." As usual, there as probably a smarter way. Either way, there's not much she can do here, and the outlook for the Celebration music is looking better than it was. It's time for Twilight to cut her losses.

"Well, I wish you the best of luck with further practice. I think it's time for Spike and I to..." Where is Spike? "Fluttershy, have you seen a baby dragon anywhere around here?"

Fluttershy's eyes pop open and she stares directly at Twilight. "Baby dragon?! No! Why, I've never seen a baby dragon in my whole life! You came with one?" She's taking step after step toward Twilight, who is nervously glancing sidelong at the cottage.

"He's my assistant. He was here when we arrived... He's supposed to stay by my side..." Something's wrong. Something must be wrong. She turns heel and gallops to the cottage. "Spike? Spike?!" The fringes of Twilight's vision begin to fray. "Spike!!"

"Heya, Twi! I'm in the cottage! Look at who I found!" she hears as she rounds the corner and peers through the open door. She sees him running in circles with a tiny white rabbit, like nothing bad has ever happened. Unsure of how to respond, she just leans her side against the doorframe until Fluttershy catches up.

"Oh, Angel! Did you find a playmate?" The bunny thumps, expressing some unspecified emotion. Fluttershy's wide smile strikes Twilight as one of the purest things she's ever seen. She needs to leave.

"...There you are. I was worried, Spike. You know you're not supposed to leave my side."

"Sorry, Twilight. But when I saw this little guy go into the cottage, I had to follow him! He's the smartest rabbit I've ever seen, he opened the door all by himself!" Spike says.

"We're done here, so we should move on to the last task."

"Oh, Twilight! You hadn't mentioned you know a baby dragon! He's so smart and sweet! Spike, I can't wait to hear all about your life!" says Fluttershy, standing behind Twilight in the doorway, becoming impassable.

Spike knows his birth story quite well, almost having mythologized it. Telling it is one of his favorite ways of meeting strangers. "Well, it all started from a little purple egg. Hatching me was Twilight's entrance exam for the School for Gifted Unicorns, but she was having a really hard time doing it until a huge rainbow—"

"Spike, we really need to get going. There's only one thing left on our list, but who knows how long it'll take? The last pony could be completely incompetent!" It's true, she's worried about meeting Tinder Heart, but more than anything, she just needs to go. An inchoate fear is rising within her; if the monologue continues, she won't have anything to say, but she won't keep silent.

"Okay, okay, Twilight. I'll make sure we come back around, Fluttershy. Don't worry! Soon you'll hear all about the great Spike the dragon and his triumphs and travails!"

"That sounds wonderful, Spike. I'll look forward to it," says Fluttershy, empty of patronization. Twilight doesn't know how she does it.

"See you later, Fluttershy." says Twilight, turning to the doorway which Fluttershy is still awkwardly standing within.

She finally steps out of the way, into the cottage, to coddle her rabbit. "Bye, Twilight! It was so nice to meet you!"