Ah, peace at last.
Closing the door to the library behind her, Twilight Sparkle lowered her head almost to the floor and let out a long, deep sigh. To say today had been stressful was putting it mildly. Between Spike charring a good portion of the Magical History section when Pinkie gave him her new concoction, "Peppered Ruby Surprise" - the surprise was more pepper - to try, Rarity insisting that she absolutely must allow herself to be measured once again for her gown (“I know I just took your measurements last week, but this gown simply must be perfect, and you know what they say - measure thrice, cut once!”), Applejack and Rainbow Dash arguing loudly in the center of the library over which Daring Do book featured the best villain, and Fluttershy... actually, come to think of it, she hadn’t seen Fluttershy that day.
Strange, she could have sworn she had said she was going to meet her today, that she had something very important to tell her...
No matter, she would just have to go visit her tomorrow. First, she intended to run herself a nice hot bath, pour herself a glass of her (adult) beverage of choice, and relax with her new book. If she had time, she might even get started on her letter to Celestia. It was nearly Tuesday after all.
Twilight trotted up the stairs to the bathroom, looking in briefly to her bedroom to make sure Spike was asleep - which we was, snoring like the adorable baby dragon he was - before collecting her book of the nightstand and carrying it to the bathroom in a violet-colored halo.
She was so looking forward to the relaxing hot bath that she almost didn’t hear the strange sounds coming from behind the closed door to the bathroom. But as she reached to open the latch to the heavy oak door, her ears perked up, and took in the sound of running water. Opening the door slowly, she saw that not only had the bath already been started, but was already almost filled to the brim with pink, sudsy bubbles. Furthermore, somepony had taken the time to light some candles, bathing the room in a soft amber glow.
Twilight smiled. “Oh, how thoughtful of Spike to start the bath for me. I don’t even remember telling him I wanted one. Oh well, I’ll have to thank him when he wakes up.” She sidled over to the bath, set her book down on a stool beside it, and poured herself a glass from the bottle that was waiting for her there.
Turning off the water, she tested the temperature with a hoof. Satisfied at its warmth, she slipped in. She ducked briefly under the suds to wet her mane and face, letting the water wash the grime of the day off. It felt good, suspended in the hot water, letting it soak into her muscles, relaxing them. She couldn’t stay under too long before her lungs were starting to pressure her to fill them again. So she came up for air, and, mane and water in her eyes, she fumbled blindly for a towel to dry them off. Finding it, she pulled it to her face, but as she did so a tiny voice inside of her asked:
Um, Twilight, honey... don’t you think it a bit odd your towel has feathers?
Now that she considered it, it was odd. And she didn’t remember her towels having quite that earthy smell to the them. The tip of her mind was about to tell her that something was not right, but she opened her now-dried eyes, and they quickly took over from her brain in screaming the answer.
“Fluttershy?!” Fluttershy made a loud squeak, and drew her wing back shrinking into herself as she did so.
“Fluttershy, what are you doing here? In my bathroom?” Twilight tried to find words to accurately describe her puzzlement, but failing to do so, she simply repeated herself. “Here?”
“Um, oh, well, see, I told you I wanted to stop by today. Or, at least, I think I did...” She trailed off, staring at the floor and begging Twilight to take up the train of conversation.
“Well, okay, I guess I assumed you would come visit me in the library, and not, well, here. In the bath.” Fluttershy’s lip trembled, but something seemed to awaken in her, and she stuck out her chest a bit and looked in the general direction of Twilight’s face.
“Yes, well, you see, I had something to tell you and, well, I just thought, maybe if I set the right mood...”
Before Twilight could ask what mood Fluttershy meant, the pegasus had extended her wings and lifted herself off the ground, settling herself gently into the bath opposite the unicorn.
Twilight just stared. “Um, care to join me, Fluttershy?” Her mind seemed to shrug and give up, and just go with the flow.
“Well, you see, I was reading this book, and, well, it gave me the idea, and Angel said that if I wanted to have something that I really really wanted, I should just stand up for myself and take it. And so I did! Take it, I mean. Or at least, set it up so I could take it. If I wanted to. Oh, which I do!” It was clear to Twilight that Fluttershy was rambling, but to what end, her poor mushy brain had no idea. There was this one small voice in the back of her head that seemed to be telling her it had something to do with the funny feeling in her belly, a warmth that the bathwater couldn’t quite be responsible for, but it was lost in the sludge that was currently Twilight’s faculties.
It took her a beat or two to realize that Fluttershy had stopped talking. And then another three beats to realize that she had just asked a question, and was waiting expectantly for the answer. But what the question was, Twilight had no idea. Biting her lip and picking an answer at random - though perhaps influenced by that voice in the back of her head, who seemed to be taking a preliminary victory yell? - she stated, “um, of course, Fluttershy. If that’s what you want.”
This seemed to be the right answer. Fluttershy’s eyes became as big as dinner saucers, and she lunged forward and hugged her. Twilight breathed out a sigh of relief at having seemingly defused a tense situation, but her relaxation was short-lived. In that moment, Fluttershy leaned back, closed her eyes, and planted a full-mouthed kiss on Twilight’s stunned lips.
Now it was Twilight’s turn to have extra-wide eyes, but the voice in the back of her head had waded through the mush of her brain and taken over. Closing her eyes and tilting her head slightly, she began to kiss Fluttershy back. Somehow, it felt right, like she had been wanting to do this for longer than she had realized. The kiss deepened and became more passionate. Slowly, the candles around them burned down and the bath turned cold.
The two ponies made their own light and wamth, and scarcely noticed.
