Chapter III: The Upcoming Dance

Fluttershy had just come back from lunch with Dashie. All she had was lettuce but she was ok with it. Her stomach protested otherwise but she didn't listen, she was happy and that was all that mattered to her. With her newfound crush, she walked more lively and happily than usual.

As she approached her locker, she noticed a poster on the wall: an advertisement, if you will, for the winter dance. She didn't usually pay attention to those things; she never had any friends to hang out with, let alone dates for dances. This time, she inspected the poster thoroughly. It had bright and colorful letters, which read:

Come to the '95 Winter Snowflake Dance! Grab a date and dance your flank off! Or just hang out with friends! It doesn't matter! Fluttershy didn't appreciate the excess exclamation points. It seemed a bit too intense for her but she couldn't, and therefore didn't, complain.

In the middle there were several graphics of ponies' silhouettes doing what Fluttershy imagined to be dancing. She wasn't sure, however, as the silhouettes were vague, poorly drawn, and covered in graffiti, mostly sticky notes of insults directing towards nopony in particular, as well as mustaches drawn in marker on the ponies' muzzles. These vandals were a "clever" group. Dancing was all she could assume they were doing, though, considering it was a poster to a dance. At the bottom it had the date of the dance: December 4th, 1995. 8:00-11:30. Fluttershy looked at her calender and saw she had about a week before the dance.

"Well," Fluttershy started to herself, taking a deep breath. "I'm gonna ask Rainbow Dash to the dance by the end of the week!" she concluded, filling herself with confidence.

**********

The next day in class, Fluttershy was once again mentally lost. Oh, Dashie! I love you so much. I love everything about you: your Rainbow mane, your sweet magenta eyes, your flight skills. Your such a sweet pony! I would literally kill to have a friend as good as you! She was drawing tons of pictures of who she hoped to be her fillyfriend soon. Drawings that did not go unnoticed by a certain somepony sitting next to her.

"Hey, who you drawin' their, Fluttercry? Your little marefriend?" The voice was all too familiar. Fluttershy didn't dare look, in case she just imagined this. "Come on, let me see!" Suddenly Fluttershy saw her notebook get swiped away by somepony's hoof. Oh, I hope I'm imagining this! She snuck a look and when she saw the owner of the voice and hoof, Fluttershy's heart sank.

"Hoops?!" she exclaimed in a tone, half-surprise, half-fear.

"Yeah, the one and only! I got switched to this dumb class and now I'm sitting next to your sorry flank! Now let me see those drawings!" He yelled as he opened Fluttershy's notebook and saw several drawings of, "Rainbow Dash? You mean that mare you're paying to pretend she's your friend?"

"I'm not paying her, Hoops! She just understands that making friends is better than making enemies. Maybe she could give you a few pointers on how to be a good friend." she countered, reciting what Rainbow told her.

"Just like she gave you pointers on how to stand up to me? Yeah, don't think I didn't hear that, Fluttercry! you really are pathetic if you need a bodyguard to protect you!"

Fluttershy once again felt tears forming in her eyes. Rainbow Dash wasn't a bodyguard; she was just a good friend who happened to also provide protection. How dare he insult her like that! "Just... just..." Was all she could muster while keeping her tears at bay. "Just leave me alone!" She yelled as she got up from get seat so fast it fell down and ran out of the class, who didn't notice them until this point.

Fluttershy ran back to her old retreating point: the biggest stall in the filly's bathroom. She sat there crying and crying. She couldn't believe Hoops was sitting next to her in first period now. Class was the only time during school hours that Fluttershy had to escape Hoops. And now that was gone too.

After days of not having to deal with Hoops, she had a surplus of tears. Her body was used to crying literally everyday so it stocked up on tears. And now Fluttershy gave them an escape route. This was the first time she's cried in days and she almost forgot what crying felt like. Almost. "Why does Hoops have to be so mean? He follows me everywhere and now he's gonna pick on Dashie!" she wailed. "And she's gonna hate me now for bringing this on her. I tried so hard and got so far!" she continued. "But in the end it doesn't even matter!"

Fluttershy sat there crying for at least ten minutes until the bell rang, indicating that first period was over. Her first instinct was to get up and go to second period but after some thought, she remembered that Hoops was probably her so she waited another five minutes for the tardy bell. It was worth being late to class if it meant not seeing Hoops.

The tardy bell rang and Fluttershy got up and walked to the office to get a late pass. Since nopony else was in the hallway with her, it was quiet. The silence allowed Fluttershy some time to clearly think. She thought about Rainbow Dash, but more specifically, she pondered the question: How would she ask Dashie to the dance? Remembering her crush helped to refill Fluttershy's confidence. Dashie is my friend! She'll say yes! I love her and she loves me! Oh, she's such a good friend! she thought. That's it! I'm gonna ask her out at lunch! I can She was determined to ask Rainbow Dash to the dance, not just to be Rainbow's fillyfriend, but also to show Hoops that this is a legitimate friendship.

Fluttershy got to second period and realized there were two things she could find relief in: the fact that Hoops isn't this class too, and that her tears were erased. Her sadness washed away and her confidence boosted tenfold.

She lifted her head high and casually strolled to give the teacher her pass, completely forgetting that she was upset, not ten minutes ago. She walked to her seat, took out her books and started taking notes, all remaining nonchalant.

**********

Second period went by uneventfully and so did third and fourth. It was when she got to lunch that it just got real. She confidently strolled to her usual spot next to Dashie, remembering her lunch this time, and noticed the cyan pegasus had a few friends with her today. One of them was Spitfire but Fluttershy didn't recognize the other one.

She had blonde hair, almost the same shade as Fluttershy's coat. This mare's coat color was medium grey, not too light, not too dark. She had the same manestyle as Rainbow Dash, almost as if she was a recolor of some sort. Her eyes are mostly what caught Fluttershy's attention: they were yellow-orange, leaning toward orange, and they were crossed, one facing one way, one facing the other. Fluttershy found this very odd, not laughable, but odd. She didn't know if she was doing it intentionally for comedic effect, or if they were just like that. She decided it was better not to ask, Fluttershy wouldn't want to make this mare feel as hated as herself, Celestia forbid she get a huge reputation for something as small and insignificant as her eyes. So she left it at that.

"Don't worry, Spitfire." Flittershy overheard Rainbow Dash say. "You can start that flying team if you believe in yourself! Who cares if you got kicked out of the school team? When you start your own flight team, you'll make the school sorry they kicked you out." Her words were touching and sincere, all the more driving Fluttershy to want to accomplish her mission: Ask Dashie to the Dance.

"Hi, Rainbow Dash!" Fluttershy finally said.

"Hi, Flutters!" Rainbow replied. "Hey Spitfire, Derpy, this is the mare I was telling you about!"

"Wow, you were right, Dash! She is adorable!" Spitfire commented. Fluttershy blushed at the compliment.

"She has such pretty eyes!" Derpy added.

"Hey Flutters, get over here!" Rainbow beckoned. Fluttershy complied and sat next to Rainbow. "Ok, so this is Spitfire." she introduced. "She's the second fastest flyer in the whole school, she's even gonna start her own flight team some day! What were you gonna call it again? Supercolts? Shadowbolts?"

"Superbolts. I'm still working on the name but for now, it's Superbolts." the spunky yellow pegasus answered.

"Superbolts, that's it! Anyway, this is Derpy! She's not a very good flyer but she's an awesome friend!"

"Hi, Flutters!" Derpy called with a noticeable, yet lovable speech impediment.

"Hi guys!" Fluttershy greeted. Although she looked confident on the outside, on the inside she was a nervous mess. Oh, how am I going to ask her out now? Her friends are here! I was nervous enough as it was when it was just her but she has friends here too! Oh, what am I gonna do?

"Anyway, thanks for the pep talk, Rainbow Dash! I'm tellin' ya: I was upset about being kicked off the flight team but after talking to you, I realized it doesn't matter." Spitfire chimed in.

"No problem, Spitfire. You keep workin' on that team, you'll get there some day! I'll talk to Fleetfoot tomorrow and see if he's interested." Rainbow responded.

"Thanks, Dash, you're the best!" Spitfire said as she gave Rainbow Dash a high-five with her wing. "Well anyway, I gotta bail. Got a lot of catchin' up to do on my grades if I wanna get to that dance! See ya!"

"Later!" with that, Spitfire flapped her wings powerfully and took the skies, her image becoming a small dot in the sky that eventually faded away.

"She seems nice!" Fluttershy commented, feeling relieved she had one less obstacle between her and her objective.

"Yeah, she's pretty cool! So what's up, Flutters?" Rainbow responded.

"Oh, um... nothing! Nothing at all!" Fluttershy retorted, not wanting to reveal her plan. She was getting more and more nervous by the second: her hooves shaking, the back of her neck sweating, her wings twitching, her tail feeling numb, her stutter slowly approaching. Her nervousness was probably visibly obvious but she still wanted to try and keep as much hidden as possible. After what seemed like eternity to Fluttershy but was most likely only a few short seconds in realtime, Derpy finally broke the silence.

"So, Fluttershy, you going to the Snowflake Dance?" Fluttershy had preferred the silence.

"Oh, um, I... I d-don't know! M-maybe... I... uh... I don't have a... a date?" Fluttershy responded. Her train-wreck of a response clued Rainbow Dash in on the fact that Fluttershy wanted a date but didn't have one.

"So, you got your eye on anypony?" Rainbow asked nonchalantly, having no idea she just painted a target on herself.

"Oh, u-um... I don't-"

"You do, don't you! You have a crush on somepony? Who is it? Who's the lucky mare?"

Fluttershy felt that if she going to ask Rainbow at all, it better be now. She had no idea if she could do it. She cleared her throat. Fluttershy opened her mouth, completely losing faith in her ability to ask this simple question. She had no idea what she was going to say next, but she started talking.

"Um, Rainbow Dash...?"

Author's Note

Well here's the third chapter! Sorry it took so long, I'm moving at my own pace so there won't be a steady pattern of time in between chapters. I prefer it this way so I don't feel like I'm posting too soon or too early. Also, I noticed a lot of people are confused and asking questions about Fluttershy's crush... good! I wanted this kind of response but don't worry, it'll be explained soon. There's no cameo in this chapter because nopony found my reference, this chapter's reference isn't a comedian this time (thank Celestia!) This time it's a song. There's a Linkin Park reference somewhere. Also, is it odd that I'm getting this pissed off at Hoops even though he's only doing what I'm making him do?