Chapter 1

“What’s wrong, Fluttershy?”

Fundraisers at the Pet Center always came bundled with all kinds of emotions for Fluttershy. She knew all her little animal friends needed homes, and she was thrilled to see them go with a loving family, but she couldn’t deny she was also quite sad to see them go.

Her eyes wandered over the crowd of ponies gathered outside her cottage, each one entranced by all animals running around and finding new owners. Fluttershy lingered on a little filly playing with a male tabby kitten; a kitten she had been nursing and taking care of since finding it lost in the Everfree Forest two months prior.

“Fluttershy?”

She watched as the kitten lifted its paws and put them on the filly’s chest, using the leverage to rub the tip of its head against the filly’s chin. A smile drew itself on Fluttershy’s lips at the sight of the giggling filly scooping up the kitten in her forelegs, but the smile wasn’t lacking sadness. It looked like she’d be putting the milk bowl up for good.

“Fluttershy? Are you listening?”

Somepony poking her cheek finally snapped Fluttershy from her reveries. “Huh?” she asked with a start, turning around to find Pinkie Pie staring at her with a concerned frown. She briefly glanced at the balloon animals floating over the pony, all four of them tied on the mare’s tail, before finally greeting, “Oh, Pinkie! H-How long have you been standing there?”

“Well,” Pinkie said at length, tapping her forehoof against her cheek, “ever since I saw you standing here and staring at everypony with a super sad face, of course!”

Fluttershy blinked. “Super sad face?” She wouldn’t deny she was a tad sad, but she’d been trying her best to look happy, hadn’t she?

“Well, yeah!” Pinkie continued, taking out a small helium dispenser from her mane and a red balloon from the satchel hanging around her neck before inflating it. “You were staring at everypony like this!” she exclaimed, demonstrating Fluttershy’s ‘sad face’ by very, very, very lightly frowning – so much that it didn’t even look like she was frowning at all.

Fluttershy giggled at the sight. “That doesn’t look very sad at all,” she remarked, admiring the puppy-shaped balloon Pinkie was currently tying onto her tail.

“Doesn’t look very sad?!” Pinkie exclaimed, aghast at Fluttershy’s apparently errant words. She rolled her eyes and shook her head before exclaiming, “It’s ‘your’ sad! Everypony has their own way of being sad!” Pinkie put the helium dispenser back in her mane, then continued, “Like when Twilight is sad, she just stares at her hooves and her ears are all droopy; or when Applejack is sad, she wears her hat the wrong way; or when Rarity is sad, she comes to Sugarcube Corner and buys aaaaall our ice cream.” She paused, looked around conspiratorially, and leaned in to whisper, “But don’t tell her I told you or else we’re gonna see her really angry face.”

Fluttershy gave another giggle as she remembered the time Rarity made her swear not to tell anypony about the bucket of ice cream she’d eaten after reading the last book of her favorite novel series.

A different giggle caught her attention, and she turned back towards the filly and the kitten to see the filly scratching the kitten’s tummy. Fluttershy could almost hear the purring even from all the way over there. “I am a bit sad,” she confessed, finally letting her guard down, her eyes still set on the giggling pair.

Pinkie stared for a minute, frowning deeply. “Come on!” she exclaimed, taking Fluttershy by the hoof and dragging her towards the kitten and filly. “Let’s give ‘em a balloon!”

The filly and feline barely noticed the arrival of the two mares up until Pinkie announced the two of them with a loud, “Hi!”

At the sound of her voice, the duo looked up. The tabby kitten quickly got up off the floor and approached Fluttershy, meowing several times as it rubbed its head and body against her forelegs. Fluttershy lifted her hoof to pet the kitty, delighting in its playful pawing at her hoof.

“He’s sooooo cute!” Pinkie exclaimed, lowering herself almost right down to the floor so she could look at the kitten up close.

“Yeah!” the filly agreed, nodding her head several times. She giggled when her voice caught the kitten’s attention, prompting it to run back to her. She finally looked up at Fluttershy and asked, “Does he have a name, Miss Fluttershy?”

Fluttershy hummed thoughtfully. She usually refrained from giving the animals names, especially when she knew they were likely to be adopted quickly. “Not yet, no,” she replied before smiling and adding, “Would you like to name him?”

The filly’s eyes grew wide. “Me?” she asked softly, looking down at the kitten currently demanding her attention via several mewls. When Fluttershy and Pinkie both nodded, the filly scrunched up her eyebrows. “Uhm… Maybe… Felini?”

Fluttershy bit down on her lip. That was a very cute name from a very cute filly fit for a very cute kitten. “Okay, then…” She leaned down, catching the kitten’s attention. She waited until he finished batting at her nose to ask, “Would you like to be called ‘Felini’?” When the kitten replied by meowing and going back to snuggling against the filly, Fluttershy drew herself up and nodded. “He loves it!”

“Really?!” the filly gasped, eyes shining as she scooped up the kitten and raised him into the air. “Hi, Felini! I’m Daisy Shower!”

Pinkie gasped theatrically. “Ooooh, Felini is such a good name! Even I want to be called Felini,” she said, plopping herself down on the floor and pouting. She batted at Fluttershy with her hoof and asked, “Fluttershy, why can’t I be called Felini?”

“Because then who’d be called Pinkie Pie?” Fluttershy asked.

“Oh, me! Or not me, I mean,” Pinkie said, hopping back up to a standing position. “Well, Felini is still a really good name! And it even rhymes with zucchini!” She frowned. “But you don’t want to be called zucchini.” Pinkie looked down at Daisy and said, “You know why?” When Daisy shook her head, Pinkie lowered herself down, leaned in very close, and loudly whispered, “’Cause it’s a vegetable!”

“Ewwwww!” Daisy said, bursting into a fit of giggles afterwards.

“I know!”

Daisy looked up at Fluttershy and asked, “Felini doesn’t eat zucchinis, does he?!”

Fluttershy shook her head. “No, he eats cat food that you can buy here or at the store, and he drinks a lot of water to be healthy,” she explained. She then patted Felini and added, “And he can drink a bit of lactose-free milk if he’s been especially good.”

The filly nodded effusively, obviously trying to pay close attention to Fluttershy’s instructions. After Fluttershy finished, Daisy put down Felini and asked, “Is it all right if I come visit him, Miss Fluttershy?”

And for a moment, the little sadness crawled its way back into Fluttershy’s heart, but just as it did, she shooshed it away and smiled. “Why don’t you take him with you? He would love to stay at your home.”

“I— Can I— Could I keep him, really?!” Daisy asked, taking the kitten back and squishing the poor thing against her chest. “I promise I’ll bring him to visit often!”

Fluttershy giggled, nodding. “I’d like that very much.”

The filly quickly stood up, setting the kitten on her back. “L-Lemme get my mom and ask her!” she exclaimed, making a move to rush off.

“Wait!” Pinkie called before Daisy could get too far, producing the helium from her mane and an orange balloon from her satchel. Minutes later, she presented the filly with her very own cat-shaped balloon. “Here you go!”

“Oh! Thank you!” she exclaimed, taking the balloon and showing it to Felini. “Look, it’s you!”

After the ecstatic filly ran off with her balloon and kitten, Fluttershy watched as Pinkie made another cat balloon and tied it around her tail. “Who are those for?”

“Somepony who’ll need them,” Pinkie explained. “I’m making two for every animal that gets adopted!”

Two? Odd, she hadn’t given Daisy two balloons.

“Oh, look!” Pinkie exclaimed, pointing towards a colt and filly playing with a puppy. “Let’s go see them!”

By the end of the day, the fundraiser had been once again a tremendous success; every available animal had been adopted into a loving family. Fluttershy took one look at her now-empty backyard and tried not to think too much of the rather lonely night she’d spend in the cottage.

Angel Bunny, ever her faithful companion, hopped onto her back and nuzzled her. “I’m all right, Angel,” Fluttershy reassured, picking up a few stray flyers from the ground and sighing. It wasn’t like she didn’t have more animal friends nearby, right?

She finally turned away from her garden and headed towards her cottage, opening the door with a heavy heart and stepping into… a house filled with balloon animals everywhere and a grinning mare right in the middle of it all.

“Hi, Fluttershy!” Pinkie greeted, batting away a puppy balloon that had floated right in front of her.

“Pinkie, what are all these balloons for?” Fluttershy asked, closing the door and looking around. “I thought they were for the ponies who adopted!”

Pinkie giggled. “One of them, yeah, but not the second one, silly! I told you these were for somepony who’ll need them! You!”

“Me?”

Pinkie nodded effusively, hopping towards Fluttershy and handing her a bunny-shaped balloon. “I… I know they’re not real animals, but I thought they could keep you company until you have new ones!” She grinned and hugged Fluttershy. “So no more sad face, ‘kay?”

Fluttershy wasn’t sure of what to say at first. “I…” She trailed off and finally returned the hug, the tightening in her chest not out of sadness but deep affection for her friend. “Okay,” she said, giggling and wiping away a tear with her hoof. “No more sad face.”