Thank You Cider!

Chapters

Chapter 1: Hug and Bedshy.
Chapter 3: Your Real Christmas Present and Morning.
Chapter 4: Flutterdash.
Chapter 2: Gotcha and Best Night Ever.

Chapter 1: Hug and Bedshy.

All was calm within the cosy cottage, shelter to the animals and home of their yellow Pegasus caretaker. This was to be expected though, the time could be considered morning but it was an early morning where only the earliest risers (or insomniacs) were awake, and in the house only the odd animal stirred in their nests and beds, not asleep but not up either. Furthermore the character of the most importance in this scene, the small pony known as Fluttershy, was currently nestled underneath her red butterfly blanket, sleeping soundly.

Her room was both quiet and spacious, despite the open window, left as such for the birds to fly out or in through, and the many bird houses that hung from the ceiling. Once again despite being a place infested with pets and wildlife, the wooden floor was immaculate, with exception to the blue bound book that had fallen from Fluttershy’s grasp when she succumbed to sleep.

The book was lent to her by a friend, after one of their weekly trips to the spa revealed a common interest in the romance genre of literature. The book’s subject of romance was of a slightly more mature nature than the timid mare was comfortable reading, however, while nestled in beneath a warm blanket she decided to give it a try. Unfortunately the day’s activity of caring and nursing took its toll on her mind and body, and the land of dreams beckoned the pony into finally sleeping.

Her romantic dreams inspired by her choice of late night reading were banished when the repeated sound of a hoof knocking at the cottage door travelled all the way up into the bedroom, waking Fluttershy. She sat up, her hooves pulling the covers with her, and let out a yawn.

“Who could that be? It’s still dark.” She murmured to herself, struggling to keep her teal eyes open.

Her words were spoken without much thought for her mind was trying to keep a grasp on the past, trying to keep the details of her most recent dream within her recollection. It was a peaceful one involving a vast green field, practically empty aside from a nearby tree and bush and of course the two ponies that lay in it. She remembered herself there, her eyes closed in peace but knowing full well that there was a chin rested on her back and knowing full well which of her friends was so close to her. She didn’t need to look back to see the fellow Pegasus serenely resting with her, nor know of the happiness that she was currently sharing with her, Fluttershy was simply blissful at her crush being there in her dreams in any form. She was content with the act of a cuddle, even though it seemed friendlier than the romantic one she wished to offer her.

The dream went a bit strange then, as a rustling sound came from the bushes behind the blue and yellow pair. Her relaxed companion did not bother to look or even seem to notice but Fluttershy was alerted and twisted her head to try and identify the source of the noise. An all too familiar pink pony popped up from the bushes, munching away at a bag of popcorn she had with her, and shouting out in annoyance, “Cuddling? Get into the action!”

That was about the time when Fluttershy awoke, and while she should have been thinking about the pony at the door her first thought was, “What did Pinkie mean by 'get into the action?'"

She did not have long to dwell on such a topic as much to the pony’s surprise, the closed window to her left suddenly burst open, and a speeding Pegasus flew into the room, crashing against the wall before her eyes. The sound at least brought Fluttershy’s concentration away from the dreamland and to the land of the awake. With a frown of concern spread onto her face, the pony sidled to the edge of her bed, her hoof’s firmly clasping her butterfly adorned duvet against her body.

Peering over to see the possibly injured intruder, she was taken aback, and literally leaned back in response, when a rainbow mane Pegasus flew up to her face and exclaimed “C’mon Fluttershy! Cider seasons about to start!”

The rapidly spoken words were lost on Fluttershy, and the rapid waving of her friend’s forelegs just confused the poor dear. Upon finishing her hurried speaking, Rainbow Dash the intruder forcedly grabbed a hold of the bed covers and tossed them aside. Having the bed cover that covered her removed with excessive speed just made the whole ordeal even more confusing than before, and Fluttershy looked down at her plainly visible, yellow coated body.

Usually the shy young mare would have thought nothing of her much bolder, much bluer friend, coming crashing into her bedroom at daybreak and pulling aside her bed covers, but her recent reading material and delightful dreams lead her thoughts down a different path. Fluttershy’s forelegs went to cover her body, as a strange giddiness caused her to blush, grin, and squeak.

“Oh...Oh my. Are we going to, to..?" Such thoughts caused Fluttershy to look up at her un-amused friend, and both her blush and her grin deepened in anticipation “...Snuggle?"

Rainbow Dash moved in towards the still pony curled up on the bed, whose bright red face matched her pounding heart beat. As Rainbow Dash drew nearer, her hoofs outstretched, Fluttershy’s mind could not help but utter a single, gleeful word, “Yay!"

The sun had only just began to rise, it’s beaming orange rays commencing its takeover of the territory the night stars had claimed for their own, giving the air a hazy purple colour overall. Few clouds were in the sky and with a lack of breeze they travelled as lazily as they could, as lazily as anyone (or anypony) else going about their day before the day had truly even begun.

There was of course the exception, even in the sky, as awake and alert Rainbow Dash zipped by, her close pony friend Fluttershy being pushed along for the ride.

“Up and at’ em! It’s cider time!” Rainbow Dash exclaimed with excitement as she pressed a hoof against Fluttershy’s flank, forcing the Pegasus to advance further on to the destination of Sweet Apple Acres.

Meanwhile Fluttershy’s face bore an expression of disappointment, as she imagined the scenario that crept into her mind when Rainbow Dash had pulled off the covers. She pictured Rainbow gripping the bed covers within her mouth and setting them aside in order to step forth onto the bare bed Fluttershy was sat upon, the cyan mare making her way to her with a caring and playful smile. She would softly nuzzle her muzzle in greeting and then they would embrace, tenderly and lovingly. Hugging one another, the two ponies would rest upon the bed, taking delight in the joys of harmonious sleep, snuggled up as close as could be.

This was not what happened though; instead Rainbow Dash had clutched Fluttershy, turned her round to face the window, and then rushed her out said window. Instead of quietly sitting down to sleep with her dear friends company, she screamed at the sudden speed she was flung forth by her dear friend. Instead of having their hoofs wrapped round one another within her dainty room, they were speeding through the sky with only the dim lights of disappearing stars and sluggishly given sunlight to be able to see.

As Rainbow Dash continued her cider talk, a cider talk Fluttershy had not been listening to (she made a mental note to apologise later for her rudeness), she couldn’t help but muse aloud, “Umm...This isn't quite what I imagined would happen when somepony pulled my blanket off in the middle of the night..."

Chapter 3: Your Real Christmas Present and Morning.

If you felt satisfied with the open-ended ending of chapter 2 then please feel free to not continue reading if you wish too. If however you were one of the many readers who wanted more of Thank You Cider, or are interested in reading on then please feel free to read on because this here is chapter 3.

I will make my author notes to the point, this is not the final chapter of Thank You Cider, I also have a fourth chapter planned out for reasons I have already explained on my profile blog. I would also like to say thanks to Ugugg93 and Jangledorf, whose comments on the last chapter inspired quite a bit of this chapter. With all that said I hope you enjoy the extended story of Thank You Cider.

Chapter 3: Your Real Christmas Present and Morning.

T’ was the night of Hearth’s Warm, when all through the house, not a creature was stirring, or there would not have been if this house wasn’t Sugar Cube Corner and Pinkie Pie hadn’t just recently been throwing a Hearth’s Warmth party. While the stockings had been emptied and the children had finally succumbed to sleep, those in their late teens and adult years had been everything but silent as they chatted and danced with winter mirth. As the night drew on though and the day to celebrate the founding of Equestria drew to a close, the party eventually began to dwindle, with many a pony withdrawing to sleep the rest of the night and wake the next with energy to spend cleaning up and organising the gifts recieved. Soon the place that had once held ten’s of ponies’ eager to play was empty except for two pegasus.

The owners of the house and business, Mr. and Mrs. Cake, had adjourned for the night already, feeling safe to nestle away together in their bed as Pinkie Pie promised to clean up the messy aftermath for them. Yet it was only two pegasus that remained in the blue floored room where on a working day customers would stroll on up to the till and order patisseries to satisfy their hungry bellies; the pink mare had disappeared, the blue and yellow mares had not.

“So Rainbow Dash,” Fluttershy murmured to her cyan friend beside her, “What did you think of your present?”

“Huh,” Rainbow Dash turned to face the timid pony, having previously been lost in thought as she stared out at the slowly falling snow via the window, “Oh, it was great. Great!”

Rainbow Dash wasn’t one to lie often, being a rather blunt pony most of the time and when she did lie it was almost as obvious as Applejack, but here she needed too. It wasn’t that Fluttershy’s present was bad, being a nicely crafted model of the current Wonderbolts, it was that the rainbow mane pegasus knew that the presents Fluttershy gave her previous years were so much better. Even as fillies, when Fluttershy would have to save up change for months to buy a proper present, her best friend would always go to great efforts to ensure it was a present she would love. This year’s model though was one that could have been purchased at any stall in Cloudsdale, and when Rainbow Dash had opened the present to see what she had got the worrying thought of having done something to upset her old friend passed in her head and she had been pondering on it for a good deal of the party.

“So...now that we are alone...you can have your real hearth’s warming present...”

Fluttershy’s words came out in a seductive tone that tickled the speedster’s ears, heated her face, and much to her surprise caused her wings to shoot out with great speed. The pegasus threw a softly spoken curse towards her usually faithful feathered appendages, whilst Fluttershy started to giggle sweetly.

Rainbow’s face flushed even more out of embarrassment and stuttered back, “Well Fluttershy this is, uh...not what you think-I didn’t mean...well with the way you said it I just presumed...sorry.”

“Don’t worry Rainbow Dash, its okay,” she continues to say in a hushed voice as her yellow wings also perked up, “you were right to assume that after all.”

“What?” Rainbow Dash managed to squeak at the confusion suddenly implanted into her mind, and then proceeded to raise her volume upon realising her friend was actually being serious, “What!”

Fluttershy had a sly smile, Rainbow Dash had an unsteady jaw, Fluttershy had hungering eyes, Rainbow Dash’s were spooked. Fluttershy took a step forward; Rainbow Dash took a step back. As the usually shy but tonight surprisingly bold mare slowly closed the distance the usually bold but for good reason shying away mare rapidly expanded the distance.

“H-Hey Fluttershy, this is a pretty good joke and all, didn’t think you were much of a joker but hey you proved me wrong. You’re very convincing by the way.” Rainbow Dash muttered to her friend as she continued to back away.

“Oh Rainbow Dash, I-I thought you’d like my present. You don’t like it, I’m sorry.” Fluttershy returned to her norm of character, looking away from Dash with a downcast look, but resumed eye contact almost immediately with a lingering expression, “B-but you’re still going to have it.”

“Well it’s not that I don’t like your present,” the multi-coloured mane pony stammered out various words to which she would have to mentally scold herself for later, “But you know, from your wings and my wings I think your present you have planned may be something that, I don’t know...is a pretty big commitment.”

Rainbow backed into something hard and solid which to her displeasure she found out to be the wall, well heated in contrast to the gentle chill outside. Not like that was anything the fretting tomcolt could think of at the moment, her mind was too busy trying to process the strange situation of her friend coming onto her, and what she should do about this. If she needed to escape flying away would be an easy option however her wings were shaking and quivering in an odd mixture of fear and excitement, and her brain was fried enough to the point that the pegasus looked to her shoulders for aid from her conscience.

From the panicking athlete’s perspective a puff of red smoke blew forth on one side of her, a small red skinned pegasus with black horns jutting out from her dimly coloured rainbow mane appeared. Twirling a fork with a single hoof, the demonic Rainbow Dash nudged the non-demonic and much larger Rainbow Dash with a knee and whispered in her ear, “Go for it! She’s hot stuff.”

Not liking the cut of her devil’s convincing jib, Dash swung her head round to her other side, her angel side. In a puff of pink smoke and confetti appeared a pink earth pony with a puffy mane and two pieces of cardboard attached onto her back. The diminutive figure of laughter said in as serious a tone as she could do, “I say go for it. I missed out on the action in both of Fluttershy’s dreams and I want action already, give me results Dashie.”

“Pinkie Pie!” Rainbow Dash exclaimed with surprise, looking over to her currently shrunken friend as she messed about with her shoddy fake wings, “Why are you here? How did you get so small? Where’s my angel?”

“Oh, right here,” Pinkie snickered as she pulled up a white garbed Rainbow Dash with a golden hovering halo, and the new attire additions of rope wrapped round its body and mouth, “It’s funny, I tied her up so I could be your angel instead but I think she enjoyed it. I didn’t know you liked it with rope, are you and Fluttershy going to play with rope because that will be most entertaining for me.”

Before Rainbow Dash could wipe off her stupefied expression from her face and argue with her friend who had just invaded her conscience she felt a muzzle tap against her. Turning to Fluttershy, who stood just before her with flickering eyes and a dreamy smile, Dash’s shoulder angels disappeared. Ignoring both pieces of advice she had recieved the pegasus tried to get away at the last moment but of course the last moment was a moment too late as two yellow hooves pinned two cyan wings against the wall.

“Oh Rainbow Dash, please don’t resist.” The two eyes met one pair unmoving and focused, the other pair darting round and round in un-concentrated directions, “You know you want too.”

Fluttershy leaned forth, her sunflower coloured face inching at first towards the cyan prisoner’s own but then diverting to the side. The mare breathed a warming breath against Rainbow’s neck causing her to flinch and for her wings to lock up even tighter. She could feel the breathing continue to make its way from the side of her head until it reached her ears, the feeling of air and sensation of a lip pressed just against it confirming the location of her friend’s mouth.

“You know you want too...snuggle.”

Rainbow Dash awoke with a racing heart and a pounding head, eyes snapping open suddenly to bare witness to the bright rays of Celestia’s sun, and just as quickly screwing them up tightly. The rosy eyed equine allowed her stinging eyes to take comfort in the darkness, a comfort her headache did not allow her to enjoy. She had awoken to the world with pain being her greeting, some to her vision and some to her skull, her skill to which felt dull and woozy yet not enough to grant her the solace of numbness unlike her body which laid there unfeeling.

As her body was in fact numb and strained, unwilling to feel nor move, the usually happy sleeper groaned to herself in frustration, “Why does my head hurt so badly?”

Before she could attempt to answer her own question, the athlete took notice of her own thundering heart, an irritation also accompanying her hangover, and began to think upon it “Why is my heart beating so fast? Was it that dream? What was even up with that anyway? I mean, Fluttershy’s my oldest friend and all but that went way past friendship...even if it did turn out that all she wanted to do was snuggle.”

Thinking is never an easy thing to do when you first wake up, and when your mind is jumbled up, aching like mad, and being distracted by a consistent heavy heart beat it makes it even harder. The twittering of morning birds and scrambling of furry critters throughout the building also did not help.

“Guh, I wish all these birds would shut up,” Rainbow Dash quietly groaned before alarm seeped into her eyes in realisation, “Wait, birds?”

To the ceiling she looked, and thanks to the no longer blinding sunlight (though harm to her frazzled head it did cause) she could make out bird houses a plenty. Small ones of blues and reds and yellows and colours not restricted to the primary ones flew in and out of their houses, many going out through the windows but a few chose to fly out the bedroom’s door. Such was normal for a morning, a morning in Fluttershy’s sweet cottage.

“I’m in Fluttershy’s house, her room, her bed, and...” Dash looked down to the yellow form laid softly against her side, a mane of pink stroking just against her chin, and a lone hoof dropped against her body in a hug.

“F-F-Fluttershy!” Rainbow Dash yelped far quieter than she expected, at least quiet enough for the noise to not disturb the sleep of the mare beside her, “Why is...Why am I-we in...What?”

Unwilling to budge with her friend practically on top of her, and being mostly unable due to the slow pace the feeling took to return to her body, her rosy pink ovals took to the task of skimming the room. On her right side she spotted the usually clean floor stained by leftover cider, Fluttershy exhaled a cooling breath of air, Rainbow’s heart beat faster. In front she couldn’t see much aside from the pink mane of Fluttershy, whom snuggled in closer, Rainbow’s heart beat faster. Then to her left was the direction of the sunbeams that must have been blocked currently by a drifting cloud for the rainbow mane pegasus could see without pain from the natural light, and what she saw was another cast away cider mug but this one was empty, Fluttershy’s loose foreleg tightened the affectionate embrace, Rainbow’s heart beat faster.

“Well we must have gotten drunk and then-and then we...” Rainbow Dash’s heart stopped for a moment at her next train of thought, a train she attempted to disembark quickly, “No, no, no. It only looks that way, I’ll get up and leave before Fluttershy wakes up and it will prevent any awkward presumptions about what we did-about what didn’t occur yesterday.”

The numbness of both brain and body had mostly seeped away, and from her regained ability to fidget on the spot she could tell movement was once again possible. Though she didn’t know where one of her hooves were, her left forehoof, and so tried to move it out from the soft and squishy pillow it was crushed beneath. Wiggling her foreleg, a strange sense of familiarity washed over her, as well as a hot flush upon her face when she heard her friend squeak.

To her friend her gaze turned but still trying to remove her leg, and watched as a flustered blush bloomed upon Fluttershy’s face and her wings quickly unfolded. Now flushing just as much as the napping figure beside her, she caught site of where her trapped leg lead to and then knew the cause of the plot. Her leg was underneath Fluttershy’s posterior.

“Okay, okay, this is awkward.” Rainbow Dash’s mind cried out, “C’mon Equestria’s faster flier this is, this is nothing new. This didn’t bother you when you had to push her towards the cider stand so why is it any different now?”

The answer was of course the current circumstance alongside the erotic dream of her friend she had just previously experienced but said answer eluded the troubled Miss Dash.

“You know what, stop thinking about it, and think about cider. That frothy and sweet beverage that sent cool waves down your throat and to which came in a mug small and soft and silky smooth-darn it!”

“I’m not going to worry though. This looks bad and all but it is more than likely we got tipsy and Fluttershy didn’t want me to be flying under the influence. We went over to her house and with only one bed just slept together in it. Simply an awkward wake up position, nothing else happened.”

A light thumping noise was somehow heard by the hung-over pegasus, who turned her face slowly to the direction of the racket. Standing in the doorway was a tiny figure of pure white. The rabbit grinned at the puzzled Dash and began to hop towards her while dragging a brown cardboard box equal in size to his body. Upon arriving to the bedside, the oddly much loved pet of Fluttershy tossed the box onto the bed, before proceeding with a large hop to gain footing on the covers as well.

Angel Bunny ignored Dash’s continuing stare, instead moving on over to the small box in order to open it. He first gave a grin to the contents, contents that Rainbow Dash could not see from her angle, and then looked over to the cuddling pegasus with an all-knowing smirk and a hint-hint raised brow. Keeping his suggesting look firmly locked on Rainbows, he whipped out two thing things; a match and a cigar, seemingly both from the box.

With a hop, skip, and a jump, Angel made his way to Rainbow’s muzzle, and then forced the brown wrapped cigarette into her mouth. Whether due to shock or simply being inactive in the mind that day, Rainbow Dash did not react with anything more than widening eyes of further bewilderment, which had alarm added into them when Angel Bunny struck the match alight. In seconds the cigarette was lit and smoke began to seep out, but as a pegasus used to the fresh and pure air of the high skies it didn’t take long for Rainbow Dash to find smoking to be a less than desirable choice of activity and so began to splutter and cough. Angel rolled his eyes, removed the cigarette, placed it in his own tiny mouth, and puffed out a small ring of smoke. Leaning forward he patted the cyan shoulder of the still coughing pony, and then slowly hopped away with the still lit cigarette, the matches, and the box.

“What the-“ Rainbow Dash tried to talk but had trouble due to still hacking away from the taste of smoke, “What the hay was that about?”

“R-Rainbow Dash.”

Rainbow perked up, the hairs on her vibrant mane standing on edge as she heard the sound of what she hoped was her still asleep companion simply mumbling away in her sleep. Turning her head in said direction of sleeping companion and seeing her glazed over, flickering teal eyes staring up at her proved her wrong. Eyes meeting, Fluttershy quickly came to blush and moved her chin off of the cyan body and diverted eye contact, though her hoof remained lightly wrapped round the pony.

Rainbow however continued to stare, her brain trying to work out something to think about despite how overheated the gears had become from the heated assumptions. “Okay, she’s awake now, your friend who has got her hoof wrapped round your body is awake now. This is the best time to ask what happened, so ask her already.”

“H-Hey Fluttershy?” In response to her name Fluttershy turned to face the worry struck Rainbow Dash with drowsy eyes and emitted a small yawn as she did so, quickly covered by her spare hoof, “Okay, I must admit that was pretty cute.”

Becoming aware of what track her train of thought had gotten itself onto, mental train conductor Dash shook her head and focused her mind, switching the lever that changed the tracks of the train.

“Fluttershy...how was last night?” Rainbow Dash asked vaguely “Well I can’t say that I don’t remember and that I was too drunk. Besides I’m sure nothing happened.”

Fluttershy hesitated for a moment before cuddling up to Rainbow Dash further and squeaking out with elation, “It was the best night ever!”

“Oh we so totally did it.”

Rainbows face had two things; a nervous grin and a blush as bright as the apples that made the cider that got her into this mess, whilst her body had one thing; Fluttershy nuzzling her face just under her chin and against her chest. In such close proximity the perplexed brain of the athletes, struggling with anxieties, fears, and feelings that didn’t make a lot of sense to her, decided to simply shut off leaving the pegasus to lie there, staring distantly at nothing. Meanwhile the animal caretaker, whose loving cuddle was made in a brief moment of sleepy bravery, began to feel a displeasing smell tickle her nostrils. Lifting herself away from her rainbow mane friend in order to look her face to face, Fluttershy gave a look of disbelief.

“R-Rainbow Dash, have you been smoking?” The most recent waking pony asked, still with disbelief but as she recieved no reply from the daydreaming pony her disbelief turned into a disapproving frown, “Rainbow Dash!”

“Wha-Fluttershy, w-what’s the matter?” Rainbow snapped out of her stupor, turning to face her friend, and mumbling over her quickly spoken words.

“Rainbow Dash, I smell smoke. Y-you don’t smoke do you?”

“No! Of course not!” The pegasus burst out, “You probably won’t believe me but when I woke up your crazy rabbit just jumped onto the bed, shoved a lit cigarette in my mouth and then hopped off.”

As expected, the animal loving pony simply blinked a couple of times with an un-amused expression, not believing the absurd story, “Oh no, not again.”

Not only was the response different from what Rainbow Dash was expecting, she also did not expect her friend to climb over her, spring off the bed, and make her way out the door calling out for her troublesome but beloved pet. Rainbow lay there as the hubbub of Fluttershy’s clumsy but speedy hoof steps got quieter and quieter. When they could be heard no longer, the scruffy haired pegasus silently got out from beneath the covers, got onto her four numb yet aching legs, and took a deep breath. Then another deep breath. Then several deep breaths.

“Oh my gosh, oh my gosh, oh my gosh, what do I do?” Rainbow Dash did not so much as shout these words but her voice was loud and the sounds were jumbled by fast paced panic, “This is...this is...what’s that thing Rarity is always saying? Oh yeah, this is the worst possible thing!”

Along with yelling out a line like her unicorn friend Rairty, the pegasus had also begun to pace round in a circle like her other unicorn friend Twilight. The sunlight continued to trickle into the room, its rays proving irritating to the panicked pony, but she was at least grateful that said irritation was trying to take her mind off the events.

“C’mon Rainbow Dash, calm down, things aren’t quite so bad. Fluttershy seemed happy with what we...what we...” The athletes attempts to her calm herself proved rather futile as further scenarios began to run through her head, “W-what if, what if she wasn’t drunk, and I said things to her, wooed her, and, and, and now she’s got the wrong idea. Thinks I...”

Rainbow Dash gulped “This is even worse than I originally thought. What will our friends say?”

Either a matter of her relapsing into a drunken state, her panicked thoughts beginning to cause hallucinations, or her imagination being very vivid, Rainbow Dash begun to see her friends appear one by one in the room. Along with appearing in the room, each one came with their voice and opinion.

“This is going to make a great letter to Princess Celestia.” Twilight said with a glee and appropriate grin.

“No, I don’t need anypony else knowing about this!”

The purple unicorn seemed to not take heed of Rainbow’s words as she had turned round and begun to call out for Spike, her words as distant as she was, the words becoming more distant as the purple unicorn faded away.

“Oh my, this sounds just like one of my romance novels.” Rarity said aloud as she gazed off into the distance, a dreamy look on her face.

“Yes Rarity, that’s why it’s a problem.”

The fashion pony pouted for a moment before opening her mouth to continue, only to be dispersed into a swarm of white and purple fireflies as the imagined/hallucination Pinkie Pie hopped through the hallucination/imagined Rarity.

“Ooh, can I join in?” A bouncing pink pony said with a wide, enthusiastic smile.

“Not helping Pinkie.”

The party pony motioned for the last remaining friend, distributor of the cider that created the problem in the first place, to talk next as she herself simply exploded out of existence.

“Well I for one think you need to take responsibility for this,” Applejack said in a stern voice, a hoof directed towards the rainbow mane pony, “Y' know what results after a hoo-ha right?”

“Wait, you don’t mean that she’s...”

Now even Applejack was beginning to fade away, but even with the last speck of her orange body disappearing the words continued to be spoken, “Just sayin, ya need to take responsibility for what ya darn done.”

Rainbow Dash’s brief moment of insanity passed, her mind still troubled and her eyes still stinging from the harsh (it was actually rather mellow but remember that the pegasus still has a hangover) luminescence. There were many questions unanswered and many answers she did not know if she wanted to be true but she had an objective.

The speedster sped out the room, or at least that is what she would tell ponies if they asked. Her body was still a tad shaky and her head wasn’t exactly in it so it was more of a crazy fast stumbling flop outside the room followed by tumbling head first into a wall. Her descent down the stairs was much more coordinated, zipping down with flighty hooves that didn’t even touch down on most of the steps.

Downstairs Fluttershy was still in the midst of attempting to scold her cigar smoking pet, “...and that is why you shouldn’t smoke my little Angel. Please promise me you won’t do it again, pretty please.”

The un-amused rabbit was quite lucky for the oncoming sound of heavy and rapid hoofsteps. Any more pressure from his owner and he’d be guiltily led into a promise, one he wouldn’t break. The distraction came through in the form of a flustered but determined cyan pegasus, who got heads to turn with her entrance.

“Oh, hello Rainbow Dash, I’m sorry I left quite like-Fluttershy did not get chance to finish as her friend came up to her in under a second and grasped her by both sides, an ‘eep’ ending what words she was going to say.

“Fluttershy!” Rainbow Dash yelled, with focused rosy eyes and sweat running down her face, “Marry me!”

Fluttershy first believed she had misheard but as she continued to look onto the serious face of Rainbow Dash she blushed, smiled, grinned, beamed...and then fainted happy.

Chapter 4: Flutterdash.

Chapter 4: Flutterdash

“...So you see I don’t actually remember anything about last night.”

The current location was Fluttershy’s cosy cottage and animal shelter, more specifically, her living room. Previously Fluttershy had fainted, her body going limp and falling into cyan hooves, but only a short time of a couple of hours had passed before consciousness was regained. Since then the two ponies had become preoccupied with asking one another questions and setting forth with clearing misunderstandings, unaware of many an animal’s annoyance at having to serve up breakfast for themselves or rely on Angel Bunny to dish it out for them (and the little rabbit was not nearly as generous or soft when it came to handing out food as their caretaker of norm). By this time the birds had flown off to enjoy the day, the rodents had scampered off to enjoy the day, and Angel Bunny had taken seat on the arm of the settee, watching as the daytime drama dissipated, and thinking to himself how he needed to get some hobbies outside of criminal activities.

“All I remember is waking up in the middle of the night with you c-cuddling up with me...I’m sorry I don’t remember anything else.” Fluttershy murmured, her blush seemingly a fixed addition to her face as it simply waned and grew through conversing, never fading.

“Oh no, that’s okay.” The surprisingly patient speedster waved off the apology, or rather the need to apologise, “So does that mean that we...didn’t do...that?”

“Do what?” The innocent mare asked, but as evident from the blush practically exploding on her face it seemed she realised what her sleeping companion meant and tried stammering out a reply, “I-I-I don’t, don’t think that...that we did anything like, maybe, no. I don’t think we did...that.”

Fluttershy expelled an uneasy vibe, Angel’s face fell in disappointment while Rainbow Dash sighed with relief, “That’s good...I guess this means that proposal was for nothing then.”

As their explanation had been proceeding for quite some time the proposal that caused Fluttershy to enter a coma of bliss had been pushed to the back of her mind. Now with the reminder of it, said event had run up to the front of her mind where it refused to be ignored. In combination with curiosity and the implications of Rainbow’s words Fluttershy’s face took on an expression of disappointment.

“If it’s okay with you I was meaning to ask...why did you propose to me?” The shy mare’s pink mane dropped over her face at the time, leaving the hopeful eyes obscured and the saddened tone muffled.

“Um...well, that is...you see,” Rainbow Dash’s nervousness was projected not just through her stutters but also with her fidgety hind legs and her twiddling fore-hooves, “Well I had thought that we had...done that thing...and you know there’s that song...and the thing you do ends up with one being...you’ know.”

Rainbow’s words became unintelligible and quiet as she struggled with how to word her thoughts. Angel Bunny over in the corner lifted both his ears to hear better, and Fluttershy peered with attentiveness, her focus completely on whatever her friend was about to say. The increased attention was soon noticed by the multi-colour mane pony who decided to just say it like she says everything else; loud and blunt.

“I thought I’d gotten you pregnant!”

Angel Bunny couldn’t laugh very clearly but it was obvious that he was in hysterics when he fell off the sofa, and began to roll along the floor. Fluttershy’s brain on the other hand was clearly playing tricks on her, as it tried to figure out what it was that her rainbow mane friend and crush actually said, because what she thought she said was just too absurd. No matter how the yellow pegasus thought about it the presumption didn’t make any sense unless...

“Are-Does that mean you’re a colt?”

The cyan pegasus looked back at her friend as if she was stupid and replied back in a slightly offended manner, “What! No! Why would you think I was a colt?”

“Well, you see, two mares can’t get each other pregnant so...”

“They can’t?”

Fluttershy nodded her head, leaving Rainbow Dash to mutter to herself “Huh, those Daring Doo fanfics lied to me then.”

The rodent squeaks of a hysteric bunny erupted once more, this time with such force than coughs became mingled with them. Normally the animal caretaker would rush to her pet’s aide, to whom he would try and brush off, but currently the animal caretaker was trying very hard to understand the situation. At several points today she had heard things which made her second guess whether they came out from her friend’s soft lipped mouth or from some witty part of her mind that wanted the world to be a comedy sitcom. The last one made her faint in ecstasy before she could confirm those words, this time she didn’t and could ask immediately.

“Y-you learnt about...that, from Daring Doo fanfiction?” Fluttershy unbelievably asked, and unbelievably got a nod as an answer. This lead the mare to stutter out her next query, “W-what about the sex education classes we took back in school?”

“I slept through every one!” Rainbow Dash declared proudly.

Angel had to be careful or he would soon burst a lung. Fluttershy had to be careful not to offend her friend by facehoofing, or at least questioning why her friend decided to sleep every class on what was currently a subject that would have been very helpful in this conversation. Instead the long time friend put it down as but a typical event and decided to re-route her focus on her original question.

“Oh, b-but that doesn’t explain why you-you, proposed.” The yellow coated pony couldn’t help but feel a sense of mirth when saying those last words, even if the greater half of her mind knew that there was some sort of misunderstanding that had lead to Rainbow Dash’s action.

“W-well, like I said, I thought you were pregnant and...A ponies supposed to stick with the mother of their child and then there’s that song and marriage comes before the foal in the carriage so I just thought that was...y’ know, how you were supposed to do things.” The explanation was fast, filled with stutters, and spoken quiet considering Rainbow Dash was the speaker, however Fluttershy’s raised ears recieved the jest, and then drooped.

“S-so, you proposed because, because you thought you had gotten me...pregnant, and wanted to support me and your...foal?” The idea was repeated with a sense of draining hope, a hope not so much for marriage but of being loved and cherished to the point where one could ask such a thing.

“Yeah!” The oblivious though sincere pony proclaimed, never noticing the down struck expression subtly crawling onto her friend’s face, “Sorry for the misunderstanding and all but it was really misleading. Waking up in bed with you, your bunny shoving a cigarette in my mouth, and you said that last night was the best night ever.”

Her hopes were dashed, the knowledge that the proposal came entirely from a source of decent morals than that of the heart displeased her, even if it did confirm how good of a friend she had. Still, even if the action was ridiculous a part of her would have been fine with proceeding so long as the words were said from love, and not as a matter of righteousness.

“Actually, if we didn’t do it then why did you say that last night was your best night ever?” The dasher of her hopes asked, still oblivious to the downtrodden mare’s mood.

“Oh, I well-it was and you asked so I answered with...’eep’.”

Rainbow said nothing, merely arched one brow up in puzzlement and waited for the fellow pegasus to compose herself.

“I...I’ve always wanted, wanted to snuggle up with you, just the two of us.” Fluttershy murmured at first but tried to speak up as she continued. Meanwhile Rainbow Dash listened, ignorant at first, but as Fluttershy forced out her words understanding and realisation started to come to her growlingly stunned face. “So when I woke-before you, in the middle of the night, and saw that we were together and with our hooves round one another and...I was happy. I was really happy to be snuggling with just you.”

The silence that followed from a finished Fluttershy and an unsure what to say next Rainbow Dash was awkward enough that each miniscule ticking of the clock seemingly echoed throughout the room. Angel Bunny’s hacked up laughter was now absent, the rabbit along with it as he knew either things would get either soppy or sappy in the coming scene and had decided to flee.

Working up her nerve, and having learnt from her previous misjudgements, Rainbow broke the silence, “So, by snuggle, you mean to snuggle up with me as...more than friends?”

Fluttershy nodded but didn’t speak, so Rainbow Dash quickly continued to utter words in order to avoid the quietude, “So I guess then, that you...that means you like me.”

“Love,” Fluttershy barely muttered under her breath before looking teal eyes directly to the rosy eyes opposite her, “M-more like...love you, I think.”

If the before silence was awkward, then the coming lack of sound would have to be given a completely new term to describe the mood. There was no talking and no eye contact, there was but the ticking of the clock and the thousands of thoughts each pony had jumping about privately in their head. The confessor had her head down and pink mane shielding her face, her look of troubled but highly doubted hope hidden. Not that it made any difference to the confessed, who had diverted her face out of reflex, her lips wavering between smile and a frown, her thoughts matching her mouths troubled state. That’s not to say that the frazzle minded, scruffy haired pegasus did not attempt to look at her friend with an honest expression, however each time she did she realised that she knew not what to say or what to feel.

“This...this isn’t as bad as before but it’s still...I don’t know what to think.”

Both wished for some form of noise, noise that wasn’t the continuing motion of the clock hands and it seemed Fluttershy fulfilled this wish by scuffling at the floor idly with her hoof. That just made things worse.

“C’mon Rainbow, think! Your oldest friend just confessed to you, what do you do? Tell her how you feel.” The trouble minded pegasus thought, only to encounter more trouble from her heart, “But I don’t know how I feel. I mean, she’s my oldest friend and all, I like being with her, I wouldn’t want anything to happen to her and she makes me happy but...isn’t that just friendship? We don’t have a lot in common which hasn’t stopped us from being friends but wouldn’t it stop us from being...well, more.”

Rainbow Dash was thankful that another form of noise came, meagre mumbling murmurs muttered from a pony’s mouth. They were near mute and incoherent, but Rainbow soon found her unthankful as picked up on the sombre, apologetic tones.

“Great, now Fluttershy probably thinks I don’t like her or that she’s offended me or something like that. I definitely like her; I’m just not sure how much. Friends, yeah, best friends; the others come close though I think I’d say it’s Fluttershy, but lovers? There was that dream, maybe that was a sign or something or...I wish there was some way to find out if I love her or not because I’m tired of all this thinking.”

“To hay with thinking!” Rainbow Dash yelled aloud while proceeding to do as she had proclaimed, leapt forth and pressed her lips against Fluttershys.

Along with putting a halt to all thought and locking lips with Fluttershy, the cyan mare had also screwed her eyes shut, unable to see the yellow mare’s teal eyes balloon in proportion. Fluttershy did not move back, shock had put a halt to her movement, and whilst Rainbow Dash could not see the stunned look she could feel the unresponsive trembling lips against her own. Time stood still for both ponies as they remained in their positions; one’s mouth pressed against a shaky other.

Then Fluttershy kissed back.

She did not break out of the first kiss the two were engaged in, but she stopped her shaking, closed her eyes, and pushed back against the softly touching mouth. She leaned forth with her upper body, her face edging as close to Rainbow’s as it could, and allowed the sweet feelings bursting from her chest put down any uncertainties in her mind.

The two remained, lips pushing tenderly against one another. Their minds were of the same, thoughtless, and their heart too, pounding. Feelings flooded them, of warmth, happiness and tranquillity, of warmth, happiness and excitement. They did not enact anything more; they simply stuck with the simple exchange, and would have remained blissful and vigorous if not for the need for air.

Reluctantly, and with as little haste as either could manage, the cyan and yellow pulled away. Eyes opened in a dream like manner, with dreamy looks to them, like pools of pink and teal water glistening under the moonlight. They looked back at one another as they inched away, the owners of such eyes entranced by one another even as they parted. The sunflower pelted pony closed her mouth, a trail of drool that connected it to the open mouthed Dash breaking apart upon the action. With that the moment passed, the heart beats regulated to decent paces, and the brain filled with thoughts to speak.

“Well...that was very, very...” Fluttershy begins quietly.

“Awesome.” Rainbow Dash softly finishes the sentence with volume matching that of Fluttershy’s.

“Yes.” The yellow coated pegasus speaks the word to match her dreamy gaze.

The two primary coloured ponies each became silent, each turned their heads away, and each pawed at the ground, but with blushes on their faces and faint smiles of a sweet happiness that refused to be hidden. The moment of splendour shared between them ran through their minds, and both realised that they had no idea what to do next. So they didn’t at first, the two ponies simply patted the wooden floorboards, contemplating.

“So...” Rainbow Dash began, her heart steady though her mind realised its own lack of knowledge in the area the pegasus wished to proceed, “You, uh...got anything planned for today?”

“No.” Fluttershy responded calmly.

“Well then, um, would you like a bite to eat? Some breakfast, y’ know...my treat.”

Fluttershy perked up and a look of joy overtook her yellow face, only to be held back by twinge of hesitance. Nervously biting her lip to prevent words from flying out, she pushed down her happiness and asked, “A-are you asking me this...because you think it’s what you should do?”

“No!” Rainbow said immediately, “I mean-I think it’s what ponies do when they...love somepony, but I want to. I’m asking you because I want to.”

No longer holding back a smile, one mare leaned forth, pecking the flying companion with a small kiss of the cheek and whispered with unbridled glee, “yes.”

The pony whose red face had formally been cyan grinned from ear to ear as she walked over to her friend, her best friend, her special friend, and placed a feather wing over her. The two smiling and blushing pegasus bumped muzzles before turning to the doorway, and trotting side by side.

As the two began to leave the room, exiting the door and stepping forth onto the porch, Rainbow asks, “I hope you don’t mind but do you reckon we could grab a mug of cider first?”

“Sure,” Fluttershy replies as she closes the door beside the pony closest to her in every possible way, “I have to give the cider my thanks after all.”

All good things come to an end...while really good things get demands for it to be continued like I did. Alas this here is the final chapter of Thank You Cider and I would just like to thank all those who have read this story. I would also like to personally thank Theengineerbrony, Wooberjig, Who149, Ugugg93, Jangledorf, Flutterdashguy, BorderPatrol, FlutterDashingPie, Maralagidyne, Baree, Brony707, Nyysjan, Minty_Twist, Brony_power, and Animeyasha66 for reviewing. Thank you all for the warm welcome and spectacular support.

This here experimentally written short story and my first MLP:FiM fanfic is complete and I hope you can all look forward to future works of mine on this here site. In fact, as I probably won't begin uploading any writing of mine to this site for a good 3-4 months I've decided to add a little preview of my next My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic fanfic, 'Magnetism' to the end of this here fanfic. I'm not sure if that is how people usually go about presenting previews but it is how I'm doing here so sorry if you thought this chapter was going to be longer than it actually is and I hope you enjoy what you see below. Cheerio!

Magnetism Preview

If the ponies of Ponyville were to look up to the sky they would have noticed a speeding blur of rainbow colours shooting across it. Then they would have known the source of the gust of wind that followed it, that the strong breeze came simply from a very, very fast pegasus.

Rainbow Dash had already beaten her wings ferociously in order to gain the height she needed to avoid colliding with anypony, and was now focused on flying in the general direction of forward. She had no destination in her mind; her flight plan was a simple one, fly as fast as she could and as far away as she could.

“Heh, I’m out of Ponyville already. Scratch ten seconds flat, I should be saying five seconds-urk” The well deserved, bragging thoughts of the rash pony were cut off, just like her incredibly speedy flight.

Her right hoof had frozen in the air, halting her entire body from moving with it.

“Oh no, not again!” Was all she could mumble as the dim white pearl embedded in the earthly coloured bracelet shone an almost pinkish crimson. The strange and mystical force of the artefact activated, and the racer found herself being pulled in reverse by her accessorised leg.

Before the wind was in her face and her wings cut through the air gently, now the wind was pressing against her mane, and crushing up against her back as her efforts to fly out of Ponyville were undone. Against both the strong winds and the mystic force that felt like it was trying to tear her right fore-leg of her body, she could neither see nor hear that her destination was not her starting point. The reason being that as Rainbow Dash was being pulled back to the library by her bracelet, Fluttershy was also being pulled up into the air by her own bracelet, with Twilight Sparkle along for the ride as her attempts to keep the yellow pegasus grounded against an ancient gravitational power by holding her down to the floor proved futile and foolish. These two screamed because they could see the painful collision about to occur and were quite aware of the inevitable falling of great heights they were about to suffer.

Chapter 2: Gotcha and Best Night Ever.

All was calm amongst the clouds; or at least, amongst the wild herd that moved away from the bustling noise emitted from the cities of the sky, shied away from the adoring looks cast by ponies below, and diverted away from the usual airways that the flocks of birds flew. It was amongst such cottony aerosols that two pegasus were able to lie down and relax, with no discomfort of noise pollution to disrupt their tranquillity, small talk, and brief naps.

Rainbow Dash was one of the ponies, a pony one would not usually expect to enjoy the comforts offered by an area of seclusion, but she appreciated where she was now. It was not a place she had been too before, but it was a type of place she had been too, trekking the surface of wild clouds yet to be reformed into architecture or weather duties. She would seek them out to take naps, finding herself at ease not only to touch hooves down against the clouds damp but always cushiony surface that she preferred over the solid dirt her other friends trotted, but also enjoying the wild curled appearance it all had, a messy look that cried out, "Freedom!"

Fluttershy, the other pony atop the clouds, was a flying creature that would much rather have her hooves set firmly on the ground and yet, at the moment, she did not want to be anywhere else more so than upon the savage mass of liquid droplets. In part it was the peace and quiet, which while she could also obtain at ground level said quiet would lack the slight trickle of snoring emitted from her nearby friend. In part, it was the memories of where they were at, and while she had plenty of memories in places on Equestria's dirtiest dirt, those memories were not her finally being able to fly confidently with the pegasus she admired to a destination that said pegasus had been longing to take her too. Most of all though it was the chance to be in the company of the bold and courageous flier who made her heart soar, and who to her was undoubtedly best pony (though she wouldn't say that aloud in case her other pony friends were disheartened at not being best pony as well).

So the two pegasus laid there, wings outstretched, breathing regulated, and looks of bliss on their faces. Fluttershy watched the snoozing Rainbow Dash, a soft smile on her face as she witnessed the energetic speedster dream away the day. So it surprised the sunflower yellow coated pony when the snorer snorted, and her eyes began to flicker open.

"Hey Fluttershy," The rosy eyed pony struggled to grumble out the words, fighting against the sweet dreams that wished to enrapture her; "Do you remember when we first flew out of Cloudsdale? To rest on the wild clouds like this one?"

Such a precious memory to her was one she always remembered, vividly so when they hung out together on said wild clouds, "Yes."

Rainbow paused for a second, at first mumbling something incoherently to herself, but as she sat up she began to speak clearly, "And you remember how we played tag right?"

"Yes."

"Well...you're it." Rainbow practically shouted with how much energy had sprung into her voice as she prodded the gentle pony gently and began to lightly trot away from her friend.

Fluttershy wasn't quick to react, in fact, the action of rising up and chasing after Rainbow Dash on the clouds was sluggish, and if Fluttershy could have seen herself she would have actually compared her response to the slugs she had cared for. The slowness of all this was possibly caused by her overwhelmed mind as it processed the immense levels of happiness and circulated it, evident from the grin that came to bare on the ponies face. Once up though, still grinning like Pinkie Pie, the animal caretaker gave chase to the weather mare.

Rainbow Dash had been skidding on the curly curves for quite some time, zipping and sagging, waiting for Fluttershy to begin chase. When the mare jogged up to her, she scooted out of the way, but with her wings kept tucked to her body. Thus they played like they did when they were fillies, running across the cushiony area they had discovered, without the advantage of a certain blue ponies greater flying ability. Even without it, the sport loving pegasus of blue rarely got caught in any game of tag, except when she would get cocky and thus proceed to not look where she was going, or when she allows herself too, in order to have the fun of being it.

"C'mon Fluttershy!" Rainbow Dash said as she nonchalantly hopped away from her friend at the last second, done on purpose though as a close call was more fun for the athlete, "It's not going to be fun if you're it for the entire game."

Remember how I talked about the cases where Rainbow Dash would get caught in a game of tag, when she got cocky and made a mistake and when she wanted to be caught. Well as she tripped on one of the many raised tufts of cloud and promptly fell flat on her face, it was the former. Seemingly forgetting the approaching Fluttershy, Rainbow Dash lifted her head out of the damp surface, coughing out wisps of the cottony area, before she felt her friend's hoof dab against her back.

"You're it!" Fluttershy tried to shout out but it came as more of a faint whisper that tickles the ears, and proceeded to turn round and run.

Fluttershy squealed with joy at playing the childish game, for its simplicity, it's good nature (nopony has ether got hurt in a game of tag, right?), the memories it brought back and for the pony she was playing it with. Her elation at the experience came forth as she skipped, being adorable and no one could stop her.

Except Rainbow Dash, "Gotcha!" She cried as she leapt forth and missed Fluttershy, leaping right over her head.

Coming to a stop in front of the currently ducking pegasus, Rainbow Dash spun round with a frown of annoyance and somewhat embarrassment from having missed, plastered on her face.

"Can't believe I missed," She grumbled before shouting out once again, "Gotcha!"

Before Fluttershy could turn round or back away the rainbow mane pony leapt into her, causing them to tumble together and sending the two rolling across the cloud. It only lasted for a while though, for as excited as Dash was she knew from prior experience how dangerous it was to lunge forth when playing on a cloud with your wings tucked, memories of only just managing to stabilise her descent before touching down on the ground being a pretty darn good reminder. When the tumbling did end Fluttershy found herself in a position she was not sure if she should be pleased or uncomfortable with.

Rainbow Dash stood over the fallen pony, fore hooves to either side of her, pressing Fluttershy's tucked wings against her body, and back hooves between Fluttershy's own. Their tummies hovered just above one another, their faces further away but still close enough that a simple nod of the head would be all that was needed for their lips to brush up against one another. Fluttershy felt a slight blush and a small smile emerge on her face as she looked up to the inexpressive Rainbow Dash, who stared back blankly.

"R-Rainbow Dash, I'm it now. You have to run so I can catch you." Fluttershy reminded her friend softly, hoping to snap her out the odd moment of daydreaming, "Also, you're umm, you're invading my personal space..."

As Fluttershy let out a soft squeak she could tell that something had changed on her friend's face. From the pink eyes that stared down at her she could tell that Rainbow Dash was now looking at her, actually looking at her rather than simply staring in the general direction, and with her own teal eyes witnessed a sneaky grin pop up on the speedster's face.

"Fluttershy, how about I show you how to be assertive?" The grin still present on her friend's face, Fluttershy watched it grow wider and wider, and be accompanied by a small blush matching the shy mare's own.

"I...I don't understand. What do you- Fluttershy cut herself off as she watched Rainbow Dash break the rules of their tag game, unfolding her wings and letting them shoot out with a barely audible 'pomf' sound, "Oh my...I, eep!"

Her thoughts were lost to her, and her attention was only focused on her very forward friend whose eyes appeared to be delighting in pleasures unseen by the caretaker. Fluttershy's body had frozen up, but she could still feel familiar blue limbs press harder against her sides, and the soft furred body dropping down slowly onto her own. Most of all she could see Rainbow Dash's face, a face of laughter, longing and lust, getting ever closer, bringing her smirk in for a kiss. Fluttershy was both happy and confused, making no action to prevent something she wished to happen (though much, much later in any relationship that was happening), but making no action to speed up the meeting of their lips.

As their mouths drew so close that they could feel each other's breaths, Fluttershy could feel the clouds rumble beneath her, and somehow managed to hear over her own thundering heartbeat an energetic and familiar voice yell out "Woo-hoo! There's the action!"

Normally the mare would have wondered on how Pinkie Pie had managed to get up there, but now such questions were barely in the back of her mind, her focus being on the lips edging closer to her own, about to touch.

Her lips met air. Though she had never kissed a pony on the lips before, Fluttershy at the very least knew that they must feel like something, not nothing. Regretfully, her senses told her she was lying back on something harder than a cloud, that her eyes were in fact closed, and that inevitably, as she opened her eyes to see, that she was not in the sky but in her bedroom instead.

Even in the midst of the night, or what the great amount of darkness about her lead her to assume, she could still make out the colourful bird houses hanging from her dull acorn brown ceiling. In order to discover the source of light, as well as to confirm it was indeed night time that she had awoken too, she brushed aside a lock of her pink mane, seeing now from the corner of her eye the world outside. The sky held a wide array of stars that were all visible from her window, but their light was nothing in comparison to the large pearl moon trickling the sightseeing matter through the window.

When she had lifted her hoof she felt resistance, her thick and warm bed cover laid neatly over her being the cause. The butterfly blanket of acorn red and pinkish purple weighed upon her, it's thickness due to meeting the demand of protection from autumn's growing chill, winter's definite chill, and springs waning chill.

Fluttershy had three things confirmed; she had been dreaming, it was night time, and she was in bed. As she tried to sit up in bed though she confirmed a fourth thing, a headache that made her vision waver.

"Wha-why does my head..?" The room had started to shake and quake, a slight throbbing in her head accompanying the rocking effect.

Fluttershy gently rested her head of pink hair back onto her large plush pillow, the soft texture rubbing the back of her head, as she rubbed her forehead with a once again raised hoof. The headache she suffered from wasn't too bad, it disorientated her and she couldn't think straight at the moment but it didn't hurt too much. As her mind was trapped within a hazy maze temporarily, the shy mare let her peeking peepers scan the darkness, trying to pick up anything to suggest where she had been. To the left she spotted a cider mug, and she could just make out on the other side of her room, another property of Sweet Apple Acres mug laid down on the floor, as if a pony had entered the room and tossed it aside carelessly.

The cast aside wooden mugs did the trick, memories seeping back into her head at Sonic Rainboom speeds, "I remember, today was the day of the contest between Sweet Apple Acres and those brothers. I'm glad everything worked out in the end."

Fluttershy lifted herself up again, the pain having dulled down to the point where she could ignore it with ease, unlike the thoughts that entered her mind, "I must have had a lot of cider, but I don't drink all that much so why..? Oh yes, everyone had a lot of cider after the competition and with all my friends drinking I couldn't possibly have refused."

The butterfly blanket covered pony with a cutie mark to match delved further back into her thoughts and feelings, remembering the happier occasion of celebration. Fluttershy may not be much of a drinker, with only a slight fondness for the apple family cider and its season, but she did not wish to break the cheery mood of her other five friends social drinking and so went along with the experience. In particular she remembered Rainbow Dash, who after longing for the sweet taste of the alcoholic apple beverage, finally got some...and promptly became drunk by her second mug. Everypony else handled it much better, Pinkie Pie drinking pint after pint with changes made only to her slurring speech and not to her behaviour, Twilight seemingly used to heavy drinking, Rarity guising the affects of alcohol quite well although she did start to giggle and grin at random, and Applejack refusing to have too much what with having to still tend to the customers. As for herself, Fluttershy wasn't much better than Rainbow Dash when it came to the foamed beverage, but she drunk slower, and while the others would be on their third or fourth (and in the case of a certain pink pony, seventh or eighth) mug, the slow paced mare would only be on her second. Still, with so much cider to go around she got around to drinking past her limit and the impending fog was still taking its toll, only slowly dispersing to reveal memories of what happened.

More of the fog lights activated and she remembered bits of conversation they shared, and actions such as pats on the backs and hugs and leaning on one another for support. At the same time her memory recalled the dream she just had, and these not only impeded the progress of the lights but also heated the ponies face until it flushed as red as a tomato.

"I...I can't believe I would dream of, of that. I only wanted to snuggle in bed with her the other day but that...to think I would dream of kissing her...on the lips." The yellow pegasus mused aloud, "But maybe one day..."

A few seconds passed before Fluttershy's mind caught up with her tongue, her blush growing even greater in colour. Steam practically shot out her twitching ears, and she felt they could. Fluttershy began to shake her head furiously as if she could throw such thoughts away, but soon halted as it had begun to aggrivate the dulling headache.

"No, no, no. I just want to cuddle up with her as good friends, really, really good and close friends who give each hugs and kisses on the cheeks and, and stuff." Fluttershy sighed; her ears drooping as she quietly whispered to herself, "I can even hear her snoring still."

"Hmm, cider."

A familiar voice mumbled amongst her snoring and Fluttershy, after letting off a quiet squeak of fright, turned round to see a sleeping Rainbow Dash. In her bed. Next to her, in her bed. Next to her, in her bed, with her also in the bed.

Fluttershy couldn't process a thing as she watched the faintly blushing pegasus smile beside her, as she saw how the blue athletic hooves pinched the covers closer, and took into account the insignificant distance of millimetres between them. Her line of sight ignored the addition of many more cider mugs on the other side of the room, its focus entirely on the friend of hers who was close to her in more ways than one at that moment. Fluttershy grinned, a small blush matching that of the content Rainbow Dash who continued to mumble about the taste of the beverage she finally got to savour.

"I-I can't believe it! Rainbow Dash, in bed, snuggling!" Her happy thoughts of accomplishment were soon pushed aside though as two worrying and distressing thoughts popped into the yellow mare, ruining her joy, "What am I going to tell Rainbow Dash when she wakes up? And why can't I remember cuddling up with her?"

These concerns were worth noting, even if noting them did nothing to improve her situation and simply caused alarm bells in her to ring. She thought of how, even if they had both been in stupor at the time, how Rainbow Dash might react. Also present were the worries that she had finally got what she wanted only to be intoxicated to the point of never being able to remember it.

Her time of thinking soon ended and her thoughts settled when a cyan foreleg came upon her and pushed her flat down onto the bed. Fluttershy was taken aback by this out of the blue action, and as she hit the pillow she turned to face Rainbow Dash, whose dreaming face simply smiled back at her as she tucked her other hoof against the conscious mare. Fluttershy couldn't help but meet a smile with a smile as Rainbow nudged closer, tightening her loving grip, and letting their muzzles bump into one another.

Pinned down by a hug, Fluttershy heard many mumbles emitted from the mouth of her friend, incoherent mumbles but one she swore carried her name upon. It didn't matter though, whether her dearest friend meant to or not, for she was currently snuggled up against her.

Fluttershy moved her own hooves, mirroring Rainbows, and snuggled up to her friend, all while whispering, "Thank you cider."

I have noticed that on this site author notes are rarely used in comparison to Fanfiction.net and thus I decided I too would try and avoid using author notes (my usual notes being better placed in my profile's blog) unless I had something important I needed to explain to the readers. This is important. This is intended to be the last chapter of 'Thank You Cider' (I did say in my summary it was a short story) however, even though I feel it wraps up rather nicely here, I may find further FlutterDash artwork to which I can interpret a third and most definitely final chapter. If you feel a third chapter is unnecessary and/or potentially harmful to the quality of this story please say. If you would like a third chapter to follow up this one then feel free to say so in your comments because I may do as such.

If this is not the final chapter of my first Friendship is Magic fanfic then I hope you can look forward to the third one. If it is though then I would like to thank you all here and now for this incredibly warm welcome to the site, I never expected for this little story to be placed on 80 authors track lists or to receive 12 comments on the first chapter alone (two of them were mine so I don't count those). I hope you will look forward to future works of mine on this site and if you are interested in knowing the progress of my fanfiction on this site or my views on recent episodes then feel free to check out my profile's blog (I update each week and it would be nice to discuss recent episodes with you all). Once again thank you all and cheerio!