Chapter 2

Later that evening, Fluttershy was all ready to go.  Her mane looked magnificent, her eyelashes were brushed up to an attractive height, she smelled just perfectly of perfume, not too much and not too little, and her entire coat was freshly showered and combed.  One might say she looked angelic; only, she didn’t seem to think so.  “Thank you Angel,” she smiled down at the bunny filing her hoof, “I think that’s enough.”  The little bunny shrugged and hopped on to go about his own business.  “Wish me luck,” she said quietly as she approached the door and breathed a heavy sigh.  Just as she was about to open the door she gasped.  She felt a wrapping sensation around her hoof, and looked down to see it was her pet snake, Cuddles.  “Aw,” she smiled down at the snake as it wrapped slowly, affectionately, around one foreleg, and then slithered over to do the same to the other, “thank you Mr. Cuddles,” she said as it finished its hug.  The aging reptile smiled up at her and poked its tongue out a few times, as if it was saying ‘good luck’, and then slithered slowly away.

She stepped out into the crisp night air and closed the door behind her.  She set off down the path, feeling nervous as ever.  “You’ll do fine darling,” she heard Rarity say in her head, “Just remember to keep your head and don’t let anypony run you over.  Just be yourself and have fun,” the mental unicorn said.

“Be yourself, have fun,” she whispered a few times.  How hard could it be?  Walk right in, get used to the atmosphere, maybe grab a few cups of cider, and then walk around to see if she could find anypony she knew.  She had it all planned out now, and all she had to do was keep telling herself that it was going to be a fun night in which she met many new ponies and had lots of fun.

An owl hooted and she nearly jumped out of her skin.  “Oh, you scared me Mr. Owl,” she said with a shaky voice and looked up at the bird.  It flapped its wings and flew away in response.  “Oh,” she said as she dropped her head and walked on, “I can’t be doing any of that tonight.  No jumping what-so-ever,” she ordered herself.  As she crossed the bridge leading into Ponyville she reached back with her muzzle and pulled a pamphlet for the party out from the recesses of her wing.  She figured it would be better than just walking and staring ahead in silence.

The more she looked the pamphlet over, the more she allowed her excitement to envelope her nervousness and anxiousness.  Eventually, a tiny smile crossed her face.  She glanced ahead to make sure she wasn’t about to run into anything and let her eyes dart back to the paper.  “Meet DJ-Pon3!” it advertised; she did like DJ-Pon3.  “Free admittance!  Free music!  Free beverages and an all-you-can-eat salad bar!” the big bold letters popped out; free was always a good thing.  “Dancing, games, a real good time!” it also advertised; Fluttershy loved a good time.  “So come down to the Ponyville Rave!  Everypony’ll be there!”  She gulped in slight nervousness, wishing she hadn’t read that final part, “Everypony’ll be there.”  She observed the pictures and read up on all the party had to offer for a few more minutes until she eventually satisfied her curiosity and closed the pamphlet.  She tucked it back inside of her wing and walked on.  She could already see the lights of Ponyville in the distance.

After a few more minutes of silent walking and wishful thinking, she eventually found herself in Ponyville; she wasn’t far now.  The closer she got, the more her excitement faltered.  To her, the fact that she could see the bright flashing lights and hear the loud music from where she stood, which was right on the outskirts of town, was scary.  This was especially true because each and every house that she passed was dark inside, so that either meant that the house’s inhabitants were asleep or were at the rave, she highly doubted that anypony would be able to sleep with music so loud that it was shaking the ground.

    Using the streetlamps to guide her towards her destination, she cut down a side street and then down another.  With each and every step she took, she could feel the ground pounding music shake the earth even more violently, and she could hear the loud tunes so clearly now that it almost hurt her ears.  Despite all of the negative things she was already getting from it, growing discomfort and a pounding head, she wasn’t ready to call it quits and go home before she even got to the party.  “You should never judge a book by its cover,” she thought, “so why should you judge a party by its sound?”

    With that, she cut the final corner and saw the most magnificent and most terrifying scene she had ever witnessed.  She had found the rave, but she wasn’t even close to the entrance and it was already scaring her.  Her eyes widened as she walked towards the gate and tried to process everything at once.  She jumped and gasped in fright as she felt something wrap around her neck.  “Hey Fluttershy!” Lyra said with a smile on her face, accompanied by Bon-Bon, “What are you doing here?  This doesn’t seem like the kind of place for you.”

    Fluttershy sighed in relief.  She wasn’t even inside the party yet, and she was already meeting ponies that she knew.  Maybe it wouldn’t be such a scary night after all.  “You…you’re telling me,” she replied, “I just thought I’d try to get out a little more.  Rarity and Twilight say all that shutting in isn’t good for me.”

    “Aw hon, I get it,” Lyra replied, “nice to have you here.  Why don’t you hang with us?”

    Before she could reply, Bon-Bon wrapped her foreleg around Fluttershy’s neck as well, “Yeah,” she said enthusiastically, “it’ll be fun!”

    “Thanks girls,” Fluttershy replied timidly with a tiny smile on her face, “that sounds like a great idea.”

    “Glad ya’ think so,” Lyra released herself from Fluttershy as they neared the entrance.

Fluttershy looked up as they crossed under the banner.  “Ponyville Rave” it read, in big multicolored letters.  She gulped as she crossed under it and they passed into the entrance of the party.  It was all rather ominous and taunting to a pony like her; it made her feel like she wasn’t normal.  “Something wrong Fluttershy?” Lyra asked, answering her sigh.  The group stopped.

    “Just a little nervous, that’s all.  It’s my first erm… ‘rave’,” she struggled to find the words even though the banner was just above her head.

    Bon-Bon patted her gently on the back and said, “It’s going to be fine Fluttershy.  Don’t stress about it.  Just stick with us and have some fun.  If you feel brave later try to dance or mingle with the crowd.  Who knows, you might even meet a nice stallion,” she giggled and winked at the blushing Fluttershy, “But serious, don’t stress,” they continued walking, “I’ll bet you’re not the only one new to the party scene.”

    Fluttershy thought a moment about what she had just been told.  “I guess you’re right Bon-Bon,” she smiled, her confidence begging to return, “thank you.”

    “No problem,” Bon-Bon replied somewhat hastily, too focused on her excitement as they line ahead of them proceeded on quickly.

Once inside, it was a completely different world to Fluttershy.  She wasn’t used to any of this!  The atmosphere was smoky, there were ponies crowding all around her, the music hurt her ears and head (though not as much as it had a few minutes before).  She felt herself begin to sweat and shake.  “Hey, Fluttershy,” Lyra clacked her hooves and poked her.

    Fluttershy snapped out of it and looked over at her.  “S…Sorry,” she said.  She looked at the ground, her confidence destroyed once more.  One moment she was fine, and the next she was frozen in fear at the continuously growing crowd around her.

“I know it seems scary hon,” Lyra said, leading them on, “but give it some time to sink in.  I promise you’ll have fun tonight.”

    Fluttershy gulped and only nodded her head politely.  A tight feeling had edged its way into her throat and had taken her ability to talk.  All she could do was stare.  Eyes wide, she looked at the atmosphere around her, everything from the speakers, to the lights, to the bonfire, it was all way different from what she knew.

    To ease into everything the group grabbed a few drinks first and merely sat at the makeshift bar and scaled up the crowd.  Lyra and Bon-Bon spotted a few cute stallions and made plans to introduce themselves later.  “What about you Fluttershy, you see any cute ones out there?” Lyra asked and took a sip of her cider.

Fluttershy gulped, too embarrassed to say that she had spotted a few stallions.  “Well…” her whisper of a voice cracked somewhat, and she eyed a dark brown stallion, “I did see him,” she pointed to the pony.  He seemed her type; he wasn’t partying hard, just walking around and making conversation with his friends.

    “Hm…” Lyra began her critique, “nope, nope, I don’t see it.  Opposites attract honey, remember that.”

    “Opposites attract?” she asked, quoting her.  A confused look crossed her face.  She had never been big in the dating game so she didn’t know much about it.  As a matter of fact, she had never dated before, but perhaps tonight was just a good a time as any to start.  “No, no,” she thought to herself, “maybe I shouldn’t.  I’m getting ahead of myself.”  Though that’s what she felt, she knew a little advice wouldn’t hurt.

    Lyra mixed her drink with her magic and replied, “Yeah, kinda like magnets, you know?”

    Fluttershy thought a moment and then shook her head, “…No, sorry,” she said.

    Lyra sighed and put her drink down.  The poor innocent mare was so naïve and clueless it was rather cute.  “Alright, so you’re a shy little introverted thing, right?” she asked.  Fluttershy nodded her head, intent on learning something new, “Well, maybe the shy stallion isn’t your type.  Think about what you really want.  Deep down you might like a stallion who gets out and about, a real fast lane pony.”

    “‘A fast lane pony’,” Fluttershy blushed at her own thoughts.  A fast living stallion did sound exciting to her.  “You really think so?” she asked with a small smile on her face.

    “Hey, if there’s one thing I know it’s stallions,” Lyra replied with a chuckle.  “Mhm,” she circled her glass around and quickly reminisced about a past memory before draining the last of the liquid and putting her glass down rather loudly.  “You girls wanna dance?” she asked with a smile on her face.

    “I’m up for it,” Bon-Bon replied, “What about you Fluttershy?”

Fluttershy gulped and hesitated a moment.  She thought she was a terrible dancer!  She only ever did it at the birthday parties to be polite, and even then she knew that nopony was focused on her dancing skill.  Here, it seemed like ponies judged you based on your skill to dance.  “I…I don’t know h-” she said, her voice grew tinier at the end.

    “What was that?” both mares asked in near unison.  She repeated herself once more but her voice still grew quiet from embarrassment.  Over the booming music and chatter of the partygoers, all they could see was her lips moving.  “One more time Fluttershy!  I can’t hear you!” Lyra leaned in close to Fluttershy.  The music reached a point in which it got progressively louder and louder, and then returned to normal volume only to be followed by a few eardrum pounding, earth shaking bass lines.

    “I…I said I don’t know how to!” Fluttershy said to her, a little more comfortable now that she didn’t have to broadcast it to the rest of the party.

    Lyra smiled and backed away.  She giggled and replied, “Well that’s nothing to be ashamed of!  There are probably a lot of ponies here that don’t know how to dance!  Come on, we’ll show you!”  Before Fluttershy could have the chance to reply, the mint green pony grabbed her hoof and dragged her onto the dance floor.  Bon-Bon took her place beside Lyra where the two of them began moving their rumps to the music.  “You’ve worked out before, right?” Lyra asked.

    Fluttershy nodded.  She began to sweat and blush with all of these ponies crowding around her.  “Um…yes,” she answered eventually.

    “Well, just pretend that you’re working out, except you’ve got some awesome tunes to listen to.  Just like exercise, ease into it, and when you’re comfortable give it all you’ve got,” Bon-Bon gave her advice.

Fluttershy stood still for a moment so that she could observe her friends movements.  After a few minutes of watching, slowly and timidly, Fluttershy began to move herself.  Just in time too, a new song was starting.  “Alright Fluttershy,” Lyra said, “Get ready.  Something tells me it’s about to get loud in here.”  A cocky smile crossed her face as she swayed along with the slow introduction.  Fluttershy copied her moves and calculated what her next steps should be.  It rather troubled her that she had to think deeply about what her next move should be when there were ponies all around her that were used to dancing.  But it didn’t matter, now was no time for self-pity.  Now was the time for her to have fun and be herself.

As music track after music track played on, Fluttershy eventually adapted to her surroundings like usual.  Whenever she visited another town such as Canterlot or whenever she visited someplace she usually didn’t, she was always nervous at first, but she would eventually be able to become comfortable with her surroundings to where it at least felt like she was in Ponyville, just around more ponies.  The group of three danced with each other, would leave to get a few drinks, and then returned to the dance floor.  It got to the point of where Fluttershy even thought it was after a while.

    But as it always seemed to, Fluttershy wasn’t allowed to get too comfortable before something knocked her down a peg.  The music stopped and Vinyl Scratch’s voice rang out over the party, “All right all you crazy ponies, it’s been one hay of a party so far but I think it’s time we toned it down a little,” a slow, rather arousing tune began to play, “Now find yourselves a partner and let the love fly.”

    After a second or two of applause for the introduction, the crowd around her shuffled and found partners.  Even Lyra and Bon-Bon had caught those two cute stallions they had pointed out.  Fluttershy sighed and shuffled slowly and unnoticed through the crowd and off the dance floor.  Before she could place her hooves on the soft green grass though, she bumped into another pony and knocked both of them to the floor.  “Oh, I… I’m sorry,” Fluttershy apologized and tried to stand.

“Aw hey, it’s fine!  Stuff happens!” she heard a male voice reply and looked up just in time to see a dark red pegasus hovering in midair in front of her holding out his hoof.  She took it and allowed him to help her up.  Upright, the two pegasi got their first good looks at each other.  As Fluttershy scaled the attractive stallion up, she blushed.  It was the first time she had ever gotten any appeal from a stallion.

    After a few seconds of just looking at each other, Fluttershy eventually snapped out of it.  She backed up a little and cleared her throat, “I…I’m sorry again.  I should really be more careful,” she said and tried to walk around him.

    “Don’t worry, its fine.  You’re cool,” he replied.  Fluttershy blushed.  “So… you wanna dance?” he asked.

    She looked into his big green eyes, “Me?” she asked, “You want to… to dance with me?” she stuttered her question out.

    “Sure,” he smiled, “why wouldn’t I?”

    Fluttershy looked down and kicked her hoof at the ground, “Because I’m clumsy.”

    “What?  Nah, I don’t think you’re clumsy.  As a matter of fact, I think you’re beautiful,” he placed his hoof under her chin and lifted her head up gently.

    A huge blush crossed her face and she whimpered nervously as she was forced to look into his eyes.  In a split second, she had made her decision.  She was going to do it; she was going to say yes!  She had only met him a few seconds ago, but for some strange, odd reason, she couldn’t seem to help but trust him.  “O…OK,” she said timidly and allowed him to take her hoof, “I… I’d love to dance with you.”