It was a strange feeling, almost like she had known her before then. It wasn’t the three days ago they had met when she had first stumbled into their world. Fluttershy wasn’t exactly sure if there was a pony world out there somewhere where the fields were green, critters great and small lived in harmony, and there was a benevolent god-being to watch over it all. What she was sure of, however, was that she believed it...
...much as she wanted to not believe it at the moment.
Fluttershy had known Twilight for years. She remembered her face, she remembered her soothing voice, her gentle hands and firm determination.
She remembered sitting alone on the swings by herself in the playground. She remembered the sun setting behind her as she swayed back and forth. She remembered the mean girls who used to pick on her for her awkwardness and height.
She remembered tears.
Then she remembered a pretty, purple skinned girl, throwing a book at their leader. She had fallen over into the dirt. She had scuffed her elbow, and drawn blood when she landed.
The other two girls had looked at their fallen leader, saw the tears in her eyes, watched the largest of the three of them run off crying, then over to the one who had thrown the big, heavy reference tome.
She had looked at them with fierce, determined purple eyes, another book already retrieved from her packed bookbag, just as big as the first.
She remembered them leaving.
And she forgot the words that came from her after that.
The rest of it all rushed by in a flurry.
There were sleepovers, picnics, plays. There were days, nights, weekends.
And most of all… there was friendship. It was a strange feeling. And it was wonderful, as long as it lasted.
It was like a glimpse of what she thought Paradise might feel like.
And then her family had moved to the suburbs in Canterlot.
She had met Pinkie there, and Rarity, and Rainbow Dash, and of course Applejack too. They were all wonderful. They had all been so nice and accepting of her love for nature and animals. Rarity had even taken inspiration many times from some of her pieces of artwork for some of her dress designs.
But always she remembered. She remembered that first friend she ever made.
And then, she understood that nagging familiarity that had haunted her, and why it had all come from this one girl - this one, mysterious pony princess from a faraway land, standing at the gate separating her from home. Separating her from Fluttershy, and never seeing her again...
“Girls,” Twilight spoke softly, turning to the group, “I hope you all know… that no matter what world I’m in, no matter where I go, I’ll always be grateful to know that I have you as friends here…”
One by one, starting with Rarity, the other girls stepped forward and embraced Twilight. Applejack followed next, and Rainbow and Pinkie weren’t patient enough to wait their own turns.
Everybody had smiles on their faces, solemn, but happy and grateful.
Except for her.
“Fluttershy?” she heard her name called softly.
She broke out of her reverie and looked up. Purple eyes met her blue, and she shrank slightly from all the others turning back to gaze at her.
She couldn’t catch her breath. Her lungs starved for the air she couldn’t provide.
“Fluttershy?” that familiar voice asked, stepping forward towards her, and reaching a hand to rest on her shoulder. “Are you okay?”
The feeling of her hand upon her was like sugar on an orange, and she trembled in the elation of the feeling again. She wasn’t sure when it happened, but she rushed forward, and hugged Twilight tightly. The tears had already started.
“No…” she whimpered pitiful, pressing into the other girl’s neck and squeezing her eyes shut. “It’s not fair…”
Rarity circled around behind her and softly placed her hands on Fluttershy’s back. She couldn’t see Twilight’s face, but she felt her arms hold her closely.
“Oh, darling, what isn’t fair?” Rarity asked sympathetically. “We’re all going to miss Twilight, but you wouldn’t want her to miss her friends too, would you?”
Fluttershy didn’t answer, and nuzzled her face more deeply into Twilight’s lithe and inviting neck. She felt like such a perfect fit. Twilight’s hands rested at just the perfect places to make her feel like she belonged to the other girl.
“I don’t want you to leave…” she sobbed. “I’ve missed you so much… why do you have to go now?”
Applejack, Pinkie and Rainbow Dash looked between themselves and shrugged.
“Wh-” Twilight paused. “Wh-what do you mean you missed me?” she asked softly. She could feel her look towards the statue to see how much time she had left.
“I finally got to see you again…” she blubbered. “I’ve thought about you every day…”
The pony princess’s chin rested atop her head, and she felt herself be rocked back and forth.
“Fluttershy, I don’t understand… I’ve been on this world for three days…” she whispered. “How have you known me before this?”
“No!” she weakly cried, pounding her little fists against Twilight’s shoulders. “You’re her! You’re the one who… who…” She lost composure, and she cried again.
Rarity placed a hand over her heart and covered her mouth, trying to bite back the tears. “Oh, the poor thing…”
Fluttershy again felt Twilight’s breath in her hair, and she loved it. And she hated it.
It was the hot breath of someone weakened by grief.
Twilight shushed her softly and continued to cradle her in those wonderful, comforting arms of hers that felt like a great wall around her. She was safe wherever she was with her. And she just wanted it to stay. She wanted that feeling to remain.
And she knew that it couldn’t.
“Please…” she squeaked through a tear-broken voice. “Please don’t go back.” She looked up, cheeks rosy and wet from emotion.
Gaping, Twilight’s beautiful purple eyes widened, then became solemn as if realization had struck her.
“Fluttershy…” she spoke softly, in that way that she knew meant ‘no’.
The crown atop Twilight’s head glimmered faintly with a subtle magic.
“There’s nothing wrong now!” she begged. “We have time! You could stay here, with us…”
“You know I can’t stay… no matter how badly I wanted to,” she whispered softly into her ear. “I don’t… I don’t belong in this world.”
“Then take me with you!” she pleaded. “I don’t want to go back to…” she sobbed, squeezing Twilight with the most powerful hug her weak arms could manage.
She wasn’t sure why - perhaps it was simple acceptance of inevitability - but then, in that moment, she could feel a calmness spreading through her, as if she had been brought to an understanding by a helping hand that she couldn’t see, feel, or touch. It was… mesmerizing, and it stole the sadness from her, and replaced it with something else.
“I think I understand…” Twilight said softly, her eyes aglitter with an ancient wisdom that neither Time nor Space could rightly contain. A comforting, almost all-knowing smile crossed her lips, and a warm, soft palm spread across her pale cheek. Fluttershy’s blue eyes blinked, the last of the tears drying away as the other girl caressed her hand to cup the left side of her face.
The kiss was soft and tender, but it occupied a moment in time where it meant everything - a friend’s kiss, a girlfriend’s… a lover’s.
And it was perfect. It was all Fluttershy ever could have hoped it could have been, and she wanted nothing more than to remain locked in the prison of that moment for all the rest of Eternity. Nothing else could compare.
Then it was over.
She didn’t see Rarity or the other’s widened eyes, or their expressions of shock, disbelief, disapproval, or whatever they may have been.
She only cared about what had happened then.
That had been enough for her. It was as though something greater than she could see had robbed her of her anxiety of separation from the glimmer of hope in her young life, and hand made her whole all over again. And she finally felt at peace.
“I’ll miss you, Fluttershy,” she whispered gently, pressing her lips softly against hers once more.
The portal began to quiver as the moon passed overhead, and Twilight looked frantically back to the gate waiting for her.
She gave Fluttershy one last look, a serene smile, apologetic, but reassuring. Then, like a horizontal pond, she ran into the quivering stone statue, and she was gone… forever.
It took every fiber of her being to not try and run after her.
Seconds passed, then many of them, and a soothing wind brushed over the clearing.
“What on earth was that all about?” Rarity finally exclaimed in shock.
“Wow… totally pegged you wrong, Flutters,” Rainbow said, her smirk quickly fading with a familiar punch on the shoulder from Applejack.
She didn’t care for their commentary. She didn’t even care what they thought.
All that mattered to her was that she had glimpsed a little piece of Paradise.
And it was perfect.