APPLICATIONS -- 2010; 001

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Fluttershy || MLP: FiM || 2/4 (Paragraph-break and numbering fixed)

[swordianmaster.livejournal.com]

History: A long time ago (maybe three or four months, in fact) in a galaxy far, far away (or at least on a premium cable channel), there existed a land by the name of Equestria. A world of ponies and magic, Equestria was ruled peacefully for years innumerable by the powerful Princess Celestia. Responsible for the sun rising and setting every day, one could argue that she ruled the land far more thoroughly than your normal monarch. Not all was as it seemed, though - a thousand years prior, there was another princess alongside Celestia who was in charge of the nighttime. However, she grew jealous of the ponies' love for the daytime and the fact that they slept through her beautiful night, and conspired to steal away the day from all of Equestria, leaving nothing but an endless darkness. She was stopped and sealed within the moon by Princess Celestia, who took the moon mare's duties over in her absence.

One thousand is a very powerful number, though, and one that is quite important in prophecies. It was foretold that on the longest day of the thousandth year of Nightmare Moon's imprisonment, the cosmos would be in proper alignment for her to be freed once more. However, one thousand years is much longer than the lifetime of any normal pony, so the prophetic warning faded into obscurity, waved off as a simple fairy tale by all but a single girl by the name of Twilight Sparkle, a young unicorn who just happened to be Princess Celestia's prized student. She tried her best to warn Princess Celestia of the oncoming troubles, but was met with a confounding reply - that she needed to get her nose out of those stuffy old books and spend some time making friends, instead. As a pretext to just that, Celestia sent Twilight to the town of Ponyville to make sure preparations for their one thousandth Sun Festival were properly underway.

At the same time, coaching a chorus of birds large and small to sing their little birdy hearts out for the Princess's arrival at the festival was a pegasus by the name of Fluttershy. That rehearsal was cut short, though, as Twilight Sparkle cantered into Fluttershy's life, spooking the heck out of the timid pegasus. She was a new pony. More importantly than that, she snuck up on her and now she was asking all these questions! Absolutely, positively terrified, Fluttershy wanted nothing more than to just go find a hole somewhere and hide in it... that is, until Twilight's companion, a dragon hatchling named Spike, poked his head up from behind Twilight's mane. Not only was he so adorable that she could squeal, but he also wasn't a pony that would think she was strange or anything! She opened up almost immediately to the dragonling, filling him in on all she was doing to help with the festival's proceedings.

On a normal year's Sun Festival, that would be that, and that would be the end of the story. But this wasn't a normal Sun Festival. The prophecy came true, and instead of setting the sun on the longest day of the year, Princess Celestia turned up missing. In her place was the dreadful Nightmare Moon, who set the sun... but vowed that it would be for good! Nobody knew what to do... except for Twilight Sparkle. Knowing the only way to stop Nightmare Moon was to gather the Elements of Harmony, Twilight set off for the Everfree Forest, an unnatural place where things like weather and plant growth just... happened, with no influence from ponies whatsoever. But she was not alone - five other ponies, all considering themselves friends of Twilight Sparkle, walked in the forest along with her, including the timid Fluttershy.

Though her skittish nature kept her from tackling most obstacles head-on, Fluttershy's own skills came into play more than once - with the help of another pegasus named Rainbow Dash, Fluttershy's flight saved Twilight from a terrible fall almost right away.