It was high noon in Ponyville and six mares sat chatting outside a restaurant. Well five mares and a foal in a pink mare's body who was currently bouncing around.
“Oh come on! It was funny and you know it!” Rainbow exclaimed.
“Maybe the first time but, studies show that jokes and pranks become less funny the more often their done and I would readily agree with that. The invisible ink joke has gotten old Rainbow. Now it’s only messing with my studies.” Twilight explained, exasperated.
“I must agree Rainbow, dear. Hiding my needles in the fridge is funny only so many times.” Rarity said, nodding her head in agreement.
“Psh! Whatever. I’ll think of new pranks that’ll leave you both in stitches.” Rainbow declared with a smug look on her face.
“That sounds quite painful. Why would you want to do something that causes us to need stitches?” Twilight inquired, causing face hooves from Rainbow Dash.
“Figure a’ speech, sugarcube.” Applejack stated simply.
“Oh.” Was all Twilight said, her faced glowed red in embarrassment as she tried to hide herself. ’Does Pinkie have any sort of holes hidden around I wonder. I feel like this could be considered a hole emergency.’ She thought before Rarity graciously brought up a subject change.
So Fluttershy, I’ve noticed you and Big Macintosh have been spending a lot of time together. She mentioned, causing Fluttershy to go red and Applejack to groan.
“C’mon Rare. Ah’d rather not hear about who my brother’s been courtin’. No offense Fluttershy” Applejack explained causing Fluttershy to go an even deeper shade of red and give a small squeak in response.
“Oh, fine. Spoilsport.” Rarity then turned her head to Twilight. “So how about yourself Twilight? Have you come across any Stallions that have caught your attention?”
Without a moment's hesitation Twilight responded. “Nope.”
Rarity was slightly taken aback by how quickly her friend had answered but pressed on. “Okay. Well what do you look for in a stallion? I may know some ponies that you might get along with quite well.”
Twilight gave a sigh. She watched as she stirred her drink. “I don’t understand why it’s always stallions. I’ve never seen anything like that about them. They’re all so rough and just, I dunno.” Shrugging her shoulders, she took a sip.
Rarity blinked as a comprehension came across her mind. “So would you say you have no interest in stallions then?” When she got a nod of agreement, she continued. “So would you rather something soft? Elegant?” Another nod. “Maybe a mare?” With a final nod, Twilight froze up a little.
The silence between all the mares was palpable. Causing twilight to start to feel very uncomfortable. Shifting in her seat, she didn't dare too look up. 'Why is everypony so quiet? Was it something I said? Is it because I'm homosexual? Because I’m gay?' Her eyes got wide at the thought. 'Is there some sort of stigma about being gay? That must be why the princess said not to mention it around Canterlot when I explained to her my confusion about not liking colts like the other fillies.' Her ears had long since found comfort being down close to her head.
'Are they angry? Disgusted? Disappointed?' Her breath started coming in short, ragged bursts. 'What if they don't want to be my friends anymore? I don't want to be alone again.' Twilight was at this point fighting back tears, her face hidden by the shadows cast by her mane as memories of the many moments of solitude from her past came to the front of her mind. She may have liked the solitude in the past but now she could only shudder at the thought of having no pony around her at all. 'What about spike? I never thought about mentioning it to him. Would if think the same? Would he leave me?'
'My parents! Oh Celestia, my parents. They always talked about finding some nice colt. What would they think? Would they disown me? Please, no. I don't want to be alone.' Twilight's entire body went tense and her heart felt as though it had stopped as Applejack spoke, finally breaking the silence.
"Aw, shoot."
Before Twilight could fall deeper into despair Rainbow Dash spoke in an excited voice, utterly confusing her. "Aw, yeah! Pay up fillies!" Twilight finally took a chance and looked up. What she found was not angry, disgust filled faces but, slightly-annoyed yet still smiling friends putting seemingly random amounts of bits on the table near Rainbow Dash. "Heh heh. Aw yeah. Never bet your cash against the Dash." Rainbow Dash announced as she took the bits and gave half to Fluttershy.
This action prompted Rarity to to raise both a brow and a question. "I thought that you were leaning the same as I was in this, darling?"
Fluttershy looked away, trying to hide herself, as she always tended to do when attention was called to her. "Oh, um. Well. Over the years I’ve learned to trust Dash on these kinds of things." She said, getting quieter as she went on.
At that moment, Rainbow Dash spoke up again. "Hey Rares, you only paid half!" she shouted.
Rarity merely nodded her head. "Of course dear. That was the deal was it not?"
Rainbow stuck her tongue out in thought for a moment. "Oh yeah. Huh. Whatever. Still got my bits." Finally Twilight could take no more confusion.
"Okay. What the hay is going on here? I say I’m gay then all of a sudden there's bits getting passed around like it was some sort of-" Twilight's' eyes widened. "Did you all bet on my orientation?" Twilight asked, not truly angry, they hadn’t yelled at her or left and that was a good thing, making her more surprised and slightly annoyed than anything.
Rarity was the first to speak. "Oh! We are so sorry darling. You must be ever so confused. I'm sure Rainbow Dash can clear it up for you. After all, it was her idea.” Rarity offered pointing her hoof towards Rainbow Dash.
Rubbing the back of her head with a hoof Rainbow gave a nervous chuckle. “Heh. Yeah. I kinda thought you mighta been gay and I was talking to the girls about it. I was so sure about it that I made the bet with them. I was right though! I made a bundle thanks to this, even if Rarity copped out a bit.” Rainbow shrunk a little bit under Twilight’s gaze, though it was at that point that she noticed how red her friends’ eyes were. While for Rainbow, her friends’ orientation was something she had felt sure about knowing for a while.
For Twilight however, she had just come out to all of her friends. Rainbow’s eyes widened a little bit at the thought of how she must have felt during the silence after she admitted it.
Rainbow grabbed Pinkie from her hopping and whispered into her ear. No pony at the table could hear what she said but with how large the party loving pony smiled, they could only guess what she had been told.
After a moment or two, she came back with a large cake featuring an image of the six of them hugging Twilight and underneath it said in purple lettering, “Congratulations on coming out of the closet!”
Twilight stared at the cake for a moment or two. The other mares at the table looked at it for a moment, then at Twilight’s eyes and came to the same conclusion that Rainbow had earlier.
As Twilight looked up from the cake, all she saw were the loving smiles of her friends. A few happy tears came from her eyes as she realized how silly she had been. ‘Everything is going to be just fine.’ She thought, as she quickly wiped them away and Rainbow came over to her side.
“Hey. How bout this? In celebration, me and Rares will take you to the bar downtown. Ya know, Filly Foolery. I’ll even use some of the bit I just won. How’s that sound?”
Twilight was surprised, not expecting an offer to go to a bar. “Well, that sounds- Wait. You and Rarity are-?” Twilight trailed off, not wanting to offend.
Rainbow just laughed. “How do you think I could tell you were so easily?”
Twilight turned her head towards Rarity, her question not needing repeating. “Darling, I can see beauty in everything. Gender has no hold on beauty. Both inside and out, there is-“
Rarity was cut off by Rainbow, causing her to huff as ladylike as she could manage.“Yeah, yeah. She’s bi, I’m gay. Now that that’s all cleared up how about it? Sound like good idea?”
“Well…I’ve never been to a bar and I don’t think-“
Rainbow, continuing her habit of cutting ponies off did so yet again as she whispered into Twilights ear so only she could hear.“I’m pretty sure I’ve seen Cheerilee there.”
Twilight’s face went scarlet. Coughing a couple times to calm her blood vessels down she spoke. “Well I suppose, I haven’t taken a chance to explore my sexuality before so this is probably a good opportunity.” As she answered Rainbow did a hoof pump for a new possible bar buddy that would actually buy something other than prissy drinks. Twilight thought for a moment or two about something that seemed amiss.
“Wait. Does Pinkie have a pinkie sense for sexuality? Is that why she didn’t bet?” The moment Twilight had finished voicing her question the very pony she was talking about popped up right next to her.
“Nopers! I do have one for when one of my friends might have a crush on somepony though. And, I always got it when you were around Chee-“ This time it was Twilight doing the interrupting by way of a hoof to Pinkies mouth.
“Right, then! So Fluttershy, have any new animals come by?”
Fluttershy’s face lit up in excitement. “Oh yes! Just the other day...“
And so the six friends sat and talked the day away. Their friendships nothing but stronger.
Author's Note
Right. Another little one shot I thought up.
Typed on a flip phone so kinda rough. Mighta missed some fixes at some points.
Aw well.
Twilight panicking is really fun to write.