Nopony had any idea, none. The two fillies had kept it secret for a few months now, a quick excuse to dart away for a quick moment alone.
They'd almost been caught a few times, but had always managed to explain it away or dart off just in time. If nothing else, Twilight had learned to use her teleportation spells a lot better now.
Who'd ever had thought? Not even Twilight had seen it coming, but then that day had come when she realised that Fluttershy was more than just a friend to her.
Far more.
~~
“W-would you like another c-cupcake?” Fluttershy asked softly, her cheeks turning a soft pink. She was still shy when it was just the two of them, although it really was endearing.
“I'd love one.” Twilight smiled brightly. She used her magic to float over another of Pinkie Pie's delicious cupcakes, taking a bite. “They are delicious.”
The yellow pegasus smiled and took a delicate nibble of her own cupcake, her body alongside Twilight's, their sides just touching. “She did a wonderful job of them.”
The purple unicorn nodded, their little picnic in her library-tree wasn't the most romantic place; but until they found somewhere else they could go, it would have to do. “Oh, Fluttershy, you have some icing...” Twilight leant over and gently kissed the little clump of bright pink icing from the yellow pony's nose.
Flutteryshy smiled shyly at the action, again blushing deeply, her cheeks almost matching her mane this time. They'd been secretly seeing each other for almost three months now, but Fluttershy still blushed like a schoolfilly. “Thankyou, Twilight.” In return, she nuzzled her lover with a little smile.
There came a knock at the door, the sound causing the two ponies to quickly stand apart and cover their little picnic. Fluttershy hovered up to the ceiling with a soft giggle as Twilight went to answer the door. Rainbow Dash hovered there, her magenta gaze darting around the room behind Twilight. “Hey, Twilight. Have you uh... seen Fluttershy?” Every time she moved, Twilight moved with her to block her view.
“Fluttershy?” Twilight shifted again to the right as Rainbow moved. “Nope. Not today. Sorry.”
Dash looked all sorts of confused. “Weird. I can't seem to find her anywhere.”
Then there came that ruined her lie. A sneeze. Cute and delicate.
“HAH! So you lied!” Rainbow exclaimed and crossed her front legs over her chest, a scrutinising look on her face.
Twilight couldn't hide the sheepish look that crossed her face. “O-Oh! You mean Fluttershy! I thought you meant... Flutter... pie.”
Rainbow Dash peered at the unicorn, then snorted a laugh. “Oh Twilight! You're so funny sometimes!”
“Hah? Oh... yes!” Twilight managed to fake some kind of... amused laugh. “She's just here helping me to...” The unicorn paused, lost for an idea.
“Clean.” Fluttershy said with a little smile as she landed, a feather duster in her mouth.
“Hey 'Shy! I need your help with some sky clearing! I mean, I could -totally- do it by myself in 10 seconds flat, buuuuut... There really is a lot of clouds today.” She snickered.
Fluttershy set the duster down and nodded, she could never turn down a friend in need. Even if it was... in the middle of her and Twilight's Picnic. “Alright, I can finish helping you clean later right?” She offered her lover an apologetic look.
“It's fine! The dust isn't going anywhere.” Twilight nodded, a smile on her face.
~~
Things continued like this for the next week, with somepony needing either Fluttershy or Twilight's help every time they were enjoying a private moment. Finally, they were lucky enough to have some time to spend with each other once again and did so quite happily. Everything was nice and quiet, no one needed anything from either of them.
Suddenly, the door to Twilight's library-tree burst open; Pinkie Pie burst in and seemingly paused in mid air as she saw the two of her friends frozen in a kiss that definitely was not a friendly kiss. The two ponies snapped out of the shock first and broke the kiss, both of them turning an impossible shade of red.
“Did I just see what I thought I saw?” Pinkie babbled. “I swear I just saw the two of you kissing like love kissing, not like friends or family kissing because that's not how you kiss someone who is just a friend or in your family!” She took a huge breath to compensate for her mile long sentence.
Fluttershy was hiding behind her mane, and Twilight had decided the floor was really really interesting right now. The pink pony bounded over to them, and stared at both in turn before she opened her mouth, took a deep breath...
Then let out a joyful squealing sound as she wrapped her arms around both ponies and pulled them against her in a rather tight hug. “So you are!” She squealed happily again before letting go and bounding around the room gleefully. “You two are in love! That's so special and sweet and AWESOME! I can't wait to till EVERYPONY about it! They'll be so super excited and so so super happy for you guys! I know I am!” She bounced faster. “Oh! OH! OH! I know! I know!” Without so much as another word, the earth pony dashed out the door in a flurry of happy giggles.
~~
Pinkie spent the next few days preparing a huge party for two of her best friends. It wasn't going to just be the six of them. No way! That's not the Pinkie Pie way! She had Rarity decorating the hall she was going to use for the party, and Applejack was helping to set up tables and chairs for the guests. Pinkie was baking piles and piles of cakes, and cookies, and everything else she could think of.
She sung to herself as she baked and decorated, a spring in her step. Two of her best friends! In love! It was so cute! She giggled delightfully as she put yet another batch of cupcakes into the oven. Rainbow Dash at first had seem a little put of of joint by Pinkie's news, but now she too was happy; and had been tasked with delivering the invitations and clearing the sky for the midday party.
Twilight Sparkle and Fluttershy both laid low, scared of what their friends would think about them. It wasn't really ever talked about, and they'd never seen any other ponies in the same situation as them.
“Twiiiiiiliiiiiiiiiight! Fluuuuuuuuuttershyyyyyyy!” Pinkie called as she knocked at the door. “I know you're in there! Come on! It's party time! Everypony is here just to celebrate!”
Twilight shot Fluttershy a worried glance. A party? Really? Fluttershy shrugged. “We should probably go, I'm s-sure Pinkie has worked so hard on it.”
The purple unicorn nodded. “True, and if everypony really is there just for us; we shouldn't let them down.”
It was agreed then, they would go to Pinkie's party and have a good time. The two of them opened the door, and were instantly dragged outside by the pink earth pony. “Come on! Come on! Everypony is waiting!”
They followed the bouncing, excited pony to the hall where the party was taking place. She wasn't wrong, all of Ponyville seemed to be here! As well as some ponies from... Was that Princess Celestia sitting up front?!
Pinkie dragged them up onto the temporary stage area and grabbed the microphone, beaming a huge smile at the crowd of ponies. “Hello everypony! Thanks for coming to my super-special and super dooper awesome party for two of my bestest friends in the whole world!” She cheered into the mic, the feedback causing everypony to wince and cover their ears. “Oh... sorry!” She giggled. “Anyway! Here are the ponies of the hour!” She moved aside from the mic, waving her nervous friends to take her place. “Speech! Speech!” She bounced.
Twilight gulped as Fluttershy hid behind her, peeking out from behind her mane, trembling. “Well...” The purple unicorn paused, really not prepared for this. “Thankyou everypony. It's really great to see so many ponies here are just as happy as...” She was cut off.
“You two ponies are disgusting!” A voice called from the crowd
“Yeah! Your love isn't real!” Another voice called. “You're both abominations!”
“Fillyfoolers!”
Soon the crowed broke into boo's and hisses. Hate filled words were yelled at the two ponies up on stage, shortly followed by a barrage of party food. The two ponies winced and dodged the best they could, food pummelling them. Fluttershy let out a cry of despair, unable to fly due to cake and ising weighing her wings down. Both her and Twilight turned together and fled the stage, chased off by the hate filled words and the flung foods. Tears streamed down their faces as they ran, the voices getting quieter as they fled into the Everfree Forest. It seemed the best place to hide right now.
“T-T-T-T-Twilight!” Fluttershy whimpered, her whole body shaking, her eyes red and puffy from tears. “Ww-w-why did t-t-t-t-hey do that? It was...”
“It was awful of them!” Twilight wiped her face with a hoof, shaking off some of the excess cake bits that were stuck to her coat.
The fillies clung to each other and wept, their tears soon ceasing. Their sorrow replaced with rage.
“I bet Pinkie set us up.” Fluttershy scowled, “she had to. I mean, she was the first to find out.”
Twilight snorted angrily, and pawed at the ground with a hoof. “I'll teach her a lesson then!” She stomped out of the forest, Fluttershy following; her face a mask of fury.
They met some of the angrier-than the angry crowd of ponies on their way back in and were instantly taunted once again. “You disgust me!” A red earth pony spat at them. “Parading your filthy perversion in front of Equestria?!”
Fluttershy showed no signs of her normal meekness as she flew forwards and grabbed the pony roughly. She flew up into the sky quickly and glared at him. “Say. That. Again?” She snarled through a clenched jaw.
The earth pony whinnied in terror, and flailed about. “Let me down! Let me go you freak!”
Fluttershy gave the earth pony a calm, calm grin. “Okay.”
With that, she dropped him.
The pony fell from the sky with a terrified scream, the sound only ending when gravity won; and his body lay bloody and broken on the ground in the centre of the angry mob. Blood and viscera exploded from the body on impact, spraying anypony nearby. They let out a collective scream and fled the scene as the yellow pegasus swooped down from above, scooping up a unicorn this time. She suffered the same fate, her body falling from the sky and slamming into the ground.
Twilight chased down one earth pony, watching as he tripped and fell to the ground. With a dark whinny, she slammed into him; piercing his chest with her horn. He flailed about in agony, then exploded as Twilight used her magic to finish him.
“I'm sorry! I'm sorry!” A green earth pony cried as she dodged Fluttershy's attempt to grab her. “Please I'm sorry!”
“You're not sorry!” Fluttershy hissed, making another attempt to grab the pony.
“I am!” The pony whinnied, then gasped as she was stopped dead, a glow surrounding her.
Fluttershy nodded to her blood-stained lover as she grabbed the pony, the magic fading. This pony, suffered the same end as the others, her body spread out over the ground. Twilight used her magic to tear several hate-filled ponies to bits, some slower than others. Any that tried to stop her, were thrown aside with a blast of magic. They slammed against walls, a couple were impaled atop white picket fences, their blood running down the wood.
By now, panic had seized Ponyville with ponies fleeing and hiding from the massacre. Ponies rained from the sky, earth ponies, unicorns and pegasi with snapped wings slammed into the ground, into buildings, onto other ponies.
The town was filled with screams of terror and screams of agony from those ponies not lucky enough to be granted a quick death, their broken bodies writhing in agony; left to die.
“Pinkie Pie!” Twilight screamed as she saw the pony earth pony fleeing for cover. She didn't make it very far at all as the rage-filled unicorn teleported in front of her.
“Oh, hi Twilight!” She tried to be cheery, but it was hard when one of your best friends was standing in front of covered in blood with murder in their eyes.
“You! You did this!” She snarled, shaking with rage, daggers in her eyes. “You set us up!”
“Set... you up?” Pinkie shook her head. “No no no no! Not at all! It was just meant to be a...”
She never got to finish her sentence, as Twilight's magic ripped her coat from her body, her skin soon following. The only thing left now, was a quivering mass of muscle and bone that once was Pinkie Pie. It crumpled to the ground, the muscles quivering like a blood soaked gelatin.
“Twilight Sparkle, please stop this!” Princess Celestia's voice rang out.
Twilight's head snapped around to look up at the Princess who hovered in the air, her face twisted in horror as she watched her faithful student slaughter one of her best friends.
“Are you in on this too?” Twilight snarled, snorting and pawing at the ground, ears flat against her head.
“Of course not!” The Princess gasped in despair as she flew a little lower. “Please. Twilight. You don't need to do this. These ponies meant no harm!”
“No harm?” Fluttershy let out a laugh. “If they meant no harm, why were they so hurtful?” She landed beside her blood-soaked lover. “Words can hurt more than anything we're doing!”
“You're killing them!” The Princess exclaimed, tears in her eyes. “If you don't stop, I'll have to stop you.”
Twilight and Fluttershy both snarled angrily, hooves pawing at the ground. “Then stop us.”
Celestia bowed her head sadly at the two, her eyes closed, tears shimmering from her long lashes. “If I must.”
As the two fillies charged, there was a blinding flash of magic from Celestia's horn. When the magic cleared, the two ponies were gone.
As the moon bathed Ponyville in its light, the town was still being cleaned up after the massacre. Rarity, Applejack and Rainbow Dash cried together, mourning the loss of three of their friends. The Elements of Harmony were gone, destroyed. Only three remained.
Celestia lifted her gaze to the night sky, exhaustion evident on her features as her gaze stopped at the moon. “I'm so sorry girls.” She whispered. “At least now, you can be together; away from all of this.”