Chapter V: The Letter

"...And then she asked me what kind of cookies I wanted and I said Oatmeal. And she looked at me and said 'Oatmeal? Are you-' Oh, hi Derpy! Hi Spitfire!" Surprise said, she was apparently just about to finish a story but then noticed Derpy, Spitfire and a third mare she didn't recognize. The latter looked upset, which almost broke Surprise's heart.

"Hi, Surprise." Derpy said. "Can you help us with something?"

"Of course, what do you need?"

"This is our friend, Fluttershy." Spitfire started. "She asked Rainbow Dash out to the Winter Dance yesterday and now she's not here today. We don't know where she is and Fluttershy is certain it has something to do with her. You think you could cheer her up?"

"Sure, I love making ponies smile! That's probably why me and my Half-Sister, Pinkie Pie, get along so well!" Surprise exclaimed with much enthusiasm. "Let's see what I can do!" she concluded as she leaned closer to Fluttershy's sad eyes. Surprise thought she'd try a simple joke first. "Ok, so this foal is tryong to sell fish at the docks but can't get anypony to buy so he starts calling them 'dam fish'.

"'Get your dam fish here, anypony wanna buy some dam fish?' he said just as a wealthy stallion walked over and noticed. 'Young foal,' he said 'Do you have to use such language?' he said in shock. 'No, I call them dam fish because I caught them over by the dam.' the foal explained. 'Oh well in that case, I'll take a few.' he said as he bought them and took them home for his wife to cook.

"'Honey, Princess Celestia is visiting for dinner, is that dam fish done yet?' his wife gasped and said, "We shouldn't use that language around royalty!' 'No, I've already explained to the kids that they were caught at a dam and that's why they're called that.'" Surprise stopped to take a breath, then continued with the punchline.

"'Mom, is that dam fish done yet?' their son asked and Princess Celestia said 'That's the spirit, kid, now pass me the buckin' potatoes!'" Everypony fell down and laughed. Everypony except Fluttershy. "What's wrong, Fluttershy? Do you not like the joke?" Surprise asked.

No, I liked it, it was really funny but I'm just too upset to laugh right now." Fluttershy explained as a tear fell from her eye.

That was the best joke Surprise knew and it didn't work. It was time to pull out the big guns. An old move Pinkie Pie once taught her: tickling. Surprise wondered if she remembered how to do it, but she tried anyway.

She extended her front hooves and her wings and closed in on Fluttershy. Surprise used Tickle. It's not very effective. Fluttershy just squirmed and didn't even smile, let alone laugh. "Well, I'm out of ideas!" she said with a frown.

"Well, thanks anyway. We'll let you two get back to each other." Spitfire said, feeling really concerned for her friend.

"Wait!" Cerulean Voice yelled, right before the trio was about to turn and walk away. Spitfire turned around and listened with a curious look on her face. "I know what happened to Rainbow Dash. I just didn't wanna say anything for fear of making you upset but it's obvious that that's making you even more upset." he swallowed, then produced a wrinkled up paper from his backpack. "She told me to give you this." Fluttershy took the paper with a shaking hoof and read it:

"Fluttershy, I've been thinking a lot about your question yesterday and I've finally decided that I have to say no. I'm so sorry and I hate to do this to you. I'm sure you're certain that you have a crush on me..."

Fluttershy took minute to wipe her tears, then continued reading.

"...I'm sure you're certain you have a crush on me but I think you're just misinterpreting your first friendship. And I realize how heartbroken you probably are and how much worse it would be for you to see me again and, I know this is painful but for your sake, I've decided to drop out of Flight School so that you-

Fluttershy's heart stopped, along with her reading, but her tears were flowing freely as she dropped the paper and rushed home, not bothering to give an explanation to the ponies she had left behind.

Spitfire picked up the paper and quickly skimmed. "Oh, dear Celestia!" she exclaimed, trying to fight back a tear of her own.

Author's Note

sorry this chapter took so long, ive been a bit distracted by hanging out with my fillyfriend <3 i love her so much, anyway, the other reason is that a friend of mine got a gameboy advance emmulator on my phone and so ive been playing a lot of pokemon, sue me! but thats also the reason i have a very blunt pokemon reference in here and the dual reference is still up for grabs, somepony found the tf2 reference (i forgot his name but you know who you are) but the austin powers reference from the last chapter is still hiding somewhere so go find it! :D