Tea Party for Two
by NorrisThePony
Fluttershy smiled as she watched the sun rise gently over Ponyville. Another beautiful day, spent with her wonderful animal friends. She couldn't wait.
Fluttershy thought about where her friends must be right now...they must have been insane to go to the dragon migration...to get so close to such fearsome and terrifying beasts. Did they not learn anything when they were all nearly eaten by the huge red one atop Ponyville Mountain? She had no doubt they would be safe, but she still found it crazy they would ever want to endeavor such a scary experience.
Not like her afternoon at all. No, she would be spending her afternoon with her other friends. A nice summer tea party on such a nice day seemed much more her speed. Fluttershy had spent all night baking the cookies and pie for the picnic, and had bought all kinds of different tea for the occasion...her animals were very specific about their favorite teas. With all the tea made, baked goods set out on her picnic bench, and animal friends seated nicely, Fluttershy poured herself some chamomile tea and sat down herself.
Almost immediately after she did, the gathered company of critters exploded in a violent panic, dashing all about, knocking over her meticulously made pastries and trampling her garden in their frenzy.
"I'm sorry, my friends!" She gasped. "Did I startle you? Oh, I'm sorry!"
Fluttershy ran frantically around, trying to get them to all calm down. She cursed herself for being so loud all the time, and continued chasing her friends around her garden. She had never seen them act like this...at least not so suddenly. Once she remembered them acting this way during a severe thunderstorm, but at least that made a little sense...it took more than a pegasus sitting at a table to make a full-grown grizzly bear run away.
And then Fluttershy heard the wingbeats.
"Oh my..." She whispered to herself, frozen in fear. She remembered that sound all to well. What was he doing here?
The wingbeats grew louder and louder as he approached, and Fluttershy remained locked in place, to frightened to run away. As he landed (crushing her tool-shed in the process) he spoke, his deafening and baritone voice echoing, if not in Fluttershy's own panicked mind.
"Hello, Yellow One." The Red Dragon said, folding his large reptilian wings inwards and moving his immense head downwards. Fluttershy always feared she would end up as dragon-food one day...she couldn't imagine it would actually happen. Finally, she gathered her thoughts enough to run frantically for the shelter of her cottage, knowing full well it would do nothing to protect her from her own tragic demise.
Fluttershy reached her door, opened it frantically, and took one last glance to see how closely the dragon was pursuing her.
He was looking down at her picnic table, analyzing her porcelain tea set which was miraculously still intact.
"Umm...excuse me...Mr. Dragon...I was wondering...if maybe you could...not eat me and attack Ponyville..." Fluttershy stammered, working all her courage into what she thought was an amazing act of retaliation. The dragon looked at her, with an expression she assumed was surprise, and continued to stare at her as she tiptoed gingerly back into her cottage.
Fluttershy dashed to the window as soon as she was in, staring at the dragon, still analyzing her picnic. He didn't seem to want to attack Ponyville...as a matter of fact, he looked like he...
"No..." Fluttershy told herself. "It's impossible. Dragons are fierce and mean...they would never sit down at a tea party!"
Still, it was rather hard to deny what the dragon wanted as he desperately tried to grasp the tiny tea kettle in his huge claws, only to crush it easily. And then Fluttershy saw something she never would have expected...at least not under the current circumstances. Tears welled in the dragons eyes.
"That does it!" Fluttershy asserted to absolutely no one. "Even the most fierce dragons are welcome at Fluttershy's Tea Party!" She opened the door and crossed her yard towards the crying dragon. He looked up with joy, and then guilt when he saw Fluttershy approaching.
"Umm...hi, Mr. Dragon... would you like some tea?" Fluttershy couldn't believe the ridiculousness of that sentence as she offered the dragon her cup of chamomile. He nodded sheepishly, and carefully raised the tiny cup to his gargantuan mouth, drinking the scalding liquid in one quick, easy gulp. When he finished, he looked down at Fluttershy, who was trying her hardest to not look terrified.
"Can you talk, Mr. Dragon? You seem very quiet..."
The dragon nodded, his fearsome maw contorting into a smile.
"Well, I'm Fluttershy. I guess we've met before...but I never thought we would again...What brings you here?"
"The dragon migration." He said simply, nodding off to some point in the distance. "I thought I should say goodbye..."
Fluttershy was shocked. "To...to me?"
The dragon nodded again, not speaking. In all her days, Fluttershy had not seen such a quiet creature. She couldn't believe how undragon-like this dragon was acting. After awhile, the silence started to get awkward, and Fluttershy decided she needed to say something.
"I'm sorry about the cookies...I had some ready, but my silly animals knocked them into the dirt. I can go bake some more if you like..."
The dragon looked towards Fluttershy's cottage and back to her, shaking his head.
"No thank you." He said, his voices booming volume contrasted by its timid demeanor. Fluttershy looked up into his eyes, and saw something she never would have expected to see in a dragon. Something she had seen in no other pony but herself.
"Do your dragon friends know you came into Ponyville?" Fluttershy asked, worried that perhaps some might follow, perhaps not as gentle as this one.
"Dragon...friends?" He asked simply, again looking back in the direction of the migration.
This question hit Fluttershy hard. She knew all to well about the difficulties in making friends. If it weren't for the incident with Nightmare Moon, she could almost guarantee that Rainbow Dash would be her only pony friend. She remembered back in Cloudsdale...how alone she'd felt, but too scared to actually approach anypony. And even if she could...what could she say? Cloudsdale revolved around flying, a filly who preferred to stay on her hoofs wasn't exactly well respected. Fluttershy shuddered when she remembered all the times she'd been reduced to tears by their harsh and unnecessary insults.
And here was a dragon, so sensitive and quiet, yet so fearsome looking, who shared her problems more closely than any pony in Equestria. Someone who understood how hard it was to be shy...how desperately she had tried to break out of her quiet shell but not been able to. Someone who understood how lonely life in Equestria could be.
"I understand." Fluttershy cooed softly. "I guess we can be friends though, but ponies around here might be scared of you..."
"Thank you very much, dear Fluttershy, but I cannot stay. The migration awaits."
Suddenly, Fluttershy felt very sad. She'd never even said goodbye to her friends when they left for the dragon migration. And now she was saying goodbye to a friend, most likely forever.
"Will you come to visit?" She asked sadly.
"After departing today, I shall travel East. Over the course of two hundred years, my kind shall circumnavigate the land, returning to our reaches to the West. We shall meet again...then." The dragon looked to the East for a long time, regret in his eyes.
Fluttershy nodded, too scared to tell him that she would be long gone by then. In short, she would never be seeing him again. She wondered if he knew that too. She decided he probably didn't.
"You should stay...here, in Equestria. I mean, you don't know any of the other dragons anyway, right?"
The dragon shook his head sadly. "I cannot stay. Perhaps I am not acquainted with the other dragons, but the loneliness...of knowing my kin are so far away..."
Fluttershy understood immediately, and apologized for being so selfish.
The dragon rose slowly, stretching his immense wings and looking down at the tiny yellow mare.
"Dearest Fluttershy...were you a dragon, I would like to think the two of us could be together, for millenniums. I could take you to the distant reaches of this beautiful world, and extinguish the loneliness in both of our hearts. Sadly...this is not so."
"Goodbye, Mr. Dragon. Thank you for joining my tea party." Fluttershy cried softly, her tears falling onto the wooden picnic table.
"Thank you for the tea, Mrs. Fluttershy." The dragon said simply, and flew off into the East.
