Comfort Zone

by Emerald Flight

Rating: teen
Tags: Fluttershy, Pinkie Pie, Slice of Life, My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic, Romance
Length: 5706

PinkieShy - Fluttershy moves to Baltimare after a series of events that move her life forewards.

After what happened, none of the Elements are the same. When Fluttershy moves to Baltimare, Pinkie follows, for reasons she really can't clarify.

Shipping Challenge - based on the song by General Fuzz of the same name.

Published 2014-07-31 15:10:02 UTC
Last updated 2014-10-11 02:49:10 UTC

Chapter One

They'd all changed since it'd happened, honestly, some more than others. Perhaps her change was simply the most noticeable.

For starters, she moved out of the cottage in Ponyville, to an inner-city park in Baltimare, a long way away. Nopony followed her initially, then Rarity found a nice alternative area to set up her business in the area, and Pinkie followed right behind her, looking for work in the area, perhaps trying to move to bigger things.

Or that was just her justification for it. One way or another, she was on her way to a new start, separate from what she knew.

The sky was clear on the train ride over, and Pinkie was quiet. She had nopony to talk to and too much to think about, so she simply stared out the window, wondering.

I'll always feel like I left them behind. It won't be too big of a thought, though. It'll just always be there. I'll come back and visit a lot, and when we go off for Element stuff, we could make it into something nice.

She felt her breath growing longer and her eyes growing heavy. With a sigh, she shut them tightly and opened them again. It was only three in the afternoon - not at all time to sleep. Plus, they'd be there soon.

The song ended, and she heard the whirr of the tape loop. It started on a beat of silence, and she was never sure if she's accidentally stopped the tape until the song began. As the melody rushed into her head, she felt the little sense of nostalgia, or sentiment, or something. The first time she'd heard it was at the diner, that afternoon.

Maybe it was a good thing that it didn't work for them. No, stop.

It was such a common thought, but every time it snuck into her mind, she forced it out with as much willpower as she could muster. Of course it wasn't good that it didn't work out. But that wasn't the first thought she'd had when she got the news, was it? No.

Plan A... she began, but then a flurry of thoughts filled her head, dispersing over her conscious like ink in water, forcing her sentient thoughts to the background. In a minute she was asleep.

Baltimare was a beautiful city, certainly. Splashes of architecture from everywhere were everywhere, the Grand Port having opened the land up to all types of cultures. Street musicians spotted the main road, their crowds forming polka dots in the traffic, all their chords similar and forming a kind of chaotic harmony.

Her apartment? No paragraph for that.

She arrived, with the help of three stallions - Stevie, Wave, and Able, who spoke rather quickly. As such, it took no time at all for them to take a liking to one another. They reached the apartment quite soon, and she showed them (and her boxes) inside.

"That down there is the ferry, takes you to the little islands around the port, or the peninsula a few miles that direction, if you want," Wave was saying, the words spilling out of his mouth like, well, waves. "If you'd like, I could show you around town tomorrow." He glanced to his left and right at the annoyed faces of his comrades. "Uh, we can do that, I mean."

"Sounds great, guys! I got everything from here," she said cheerfully, and they dropped the boxes they were carrying gently on the old carpet, as she put Gummy down gently. "Thanks so much!"

"It's no problem," Able said, in his deep and scratchy and concise voice. He nodded, showed a shallow smile, and turned on his hoof to leave.

Wave and Stevie looked at each other. "Well, looks like we're out, Miss Pie," Stevie said, smiling brightly. "Perhaps we could drop by tomorrow?"

"That'd be great!"

They left shortly after, and Pinkie looked around at the boxes and the wallpaper and carpet behind them. And it really occurred to her then that this was her new life, her new location, her new story.

She looked down at her hooves. There wasn't a way to justify it. Not really.

She looked out at the street. Far less ponies were on it, be the apartments nearby, although some had signs life, seemed empty and false. She looked down at Gummy, who was clawing a bit at the carpet.

You know why you came here, her brain screamed.

She set out some food and water for Gummy, and left. She knew why she was there, and she wouldn't rest until she did what she needed to.

They stood in a small half-circle around the two bodies.

The air had become heavy and warm, like blood. The darkness in the alley had begun to encroach on the light, suffocating it. Rarity looked away, tears in her eyes, and Dash covered her muzzle. Pinkie remembered she was biting her lip, but didn't remember much more about how she was physically.

Otherwise, it was crushing. She didn't want to move forwards into the... nest below. Twilight was saying something indistinctly, her voice breaking. Then, in a bright pink light, the bodies were gone, their white eyes no longer staring into nothing, their open mouths no longer whispering silent anguish.

She remembered crying, but only a bit. It was something she wouldn't get out of her head, but she didn't have to affected by it. That's what she told herself. "You don't have to be affected by it."

It worked, kind of. Until they went into the nest.

The next few minutes were a blur. He was there, raving. More bodies, more corpses. Diagrams, drawings, instruments, blood. Insane. Magic, screaming, a solid kick to the head. And the next day, they were awarded their bright silver medals.

"For deeds of valor in the eyes of justice. For risks taken above and beyond the necessary. For doing what so many others could not. We award the Elements of Harmony the Constellation of Metra, the highest honor."

Nopony was happy about it. Rarity's leg would mend eventually, and whatever AJ caught would be gone in a week or so, but none of them would ever really recover. And the Princess knew that, so they did their best to help. But there was nothing to help.

She never wanted to remember it. But she always would. So she kept it small. And she kept the medal in the case, on the wall, so it would eventually become mundane. Perhaps.

She'd greeted Fluttershy loudly and with much more hugs than she'd intended. It'd been months since they'd seen each other, after all.

"Shy!" she'd practically screamed. "How's it been going in the city?"

"Hey, Pink -" Fluttershy tried to respond, but her voice was smothered in a tight hug. "So I heard you moved in, too," she continued as soon as Pinkie'd pulled away.

"Yeah! Now we can hang out more!" She paused. Save yourself save yourself "Well, I'm looking for a better job out here, maybe find a way to run a business," she added quickly.

"That's really awesome, Pinkie," Fluttershy replied, smiling widely. It'd been so long since she'd seen that smile. Or the rest of her. She was wearing a light green sweater with a small symbol on the front (probably where she worked), and everything else about her was... normal. Just like she remembered her. "Do you want to come in?" she asked, dragging Pinkie out of her thoughts.

"Oh, sure!"

They sat down on the small couch. "Wow, this is really a nice place, Shy. Like, wow! Look at the colors and stuff," Pinkie said, looking up and around. Greens and yellows and light browns, earthy and warm. "It's really, really nice. Nothing like your old place."

"Thanks," Fluttershy giggled, and trotted into the kitchen. "Would you like anything?"

"The finest Chardonnay," Pinkie replied with the cheesiest accent she could.

She heard a giggle and sat back into the couch, her mind running full-speed again, along with her heart. Plan A. Just do it. Plan B. Leave. That was not a good plan and she had no more time to fix it.

Fluttershy walked back out. "All I have is tea."

"That's fine, thank you," Pinkie replied cheerfully. Just do it.

"Why are you really leaving?"

She could tell right away that Fluttershy had no real answer. Already, she was avoiding - looking down, a soft 'no reason'. The bay window in her cottage showed the sun slowly becoming lower in the sky. She shouldn't have come by at that time, but tomorrow would be too late, and Fluttershy would have been gone.

"Shy -"

Pinkie had never before then seen Fluttershy actually cry.

She leaned forwards to hug her, and wrapped her tightly in her forelegs. "Shy, I'm sorry, I didn't mean to -"

"It's - it's okay," Fluttershy said softly, and pulled away, rubbing viciously at her eyes and sniffing. "I just - I'm sorry. I don't want to be here anymore."

"I understand - I do."

Fluttershy was silent for a moment. "I don't know that," she replied finally. "I'll see you later, Pinkie."

"Fluttershy, I didn't -"

"It's not your fault. I just need to be alone."

Silence.

"... See you later, Shy."

The window behind them showed the sun slowly beginning to touch the buildings across from them.

They'd been talking for at least two hours. About everything, really - what there was to see in the city, what there would be to do tomorrow, maybe, what was happening in Ponyville before Pinkie left. But the entire time, something was sitting in the back of Pinkie's mind, giving off something like an itch. She needed to just do it.

"I think the city isn't altogether too bad. It's got a lot of things to do, and I have a book club, and I'm writing now, actually, because of the leniency in my new job," Fluttershy was saying, finishing her second cup of tea.

"That's... cool," Pinkie replied, more quietly than normal.

"... I miss Applejack," Fluttershy said, at the same volume, staring into her cup. At the other end of the couch, she almost appeared to curl up, like burning paper.

That wasn't supposed to happen. It didn't work out. Well, it was probably non-romantic, right? Right. "I miss all of them, and I just saw them Monday," Pinkie interjected with a giggle.

"... I don't know whether I would want to start something again. But I'd have to move back there. And..." She trailed off. "For the last few weeks, since I've moved, it's really hit me how much - how much I want a family."

Pinkie looked up, aware how long she was staring. Fluttershy wasn't looking, so maybe she would get away with it. "You - you would make an amazing mother," she blurted, and let it float in the air as she silently went back to her own teacup.

Fluttershy smiled again. Pinkie caught it out of the corner of her eye. "Thanks, Pinkie. That means a lot."

"I just..." she trailed off. "You don't have to go anywhere - I mean, to start - I mean -" Just do it. The itch had grown almost painful. "That - I, um -" she stammered, setting her teacup on the coffee table and sitting up.

She reached a hoof out towards Fluttershy, who looked up at her, confused. After a second or two, she placed her cup gently on the floor and took the hoof, and Pinkie pulled her slightly closer. In a smooth motion, she put her hoof on the couch behind them and leaned forwards, stopping despite herself as she got close.

The scene in her mind pulled out, showing her sitting uncomfortably close to Fluttershy in the middle of her living room on the middle of her couch, their faces barely centimeters away and closing in.

Oh Celestia just do it

With a gentle sigh, she felt lips against her own. Her heart took off, that first track playing over and over again at twice the speed and twice the volume in her head. She reached a hoof up and touched Fluttershy's cheek gently, her eyes closing even tighter, her entire body getting warmer and warmer.

But she didn't do it. She didn't lean forwards. It wasn't her. And it wasn't her who, in a second, pulled away, leaving her with a chill and discomfort like there was a sudden breeze in the apartment. She opened her eyes to see nothing but Fluttershy's, light green-blue, dancing like the candle flames that illuminated them. "... Did..." she murmured.

"I... I don't know whether I can go through all this again," Fluttershy almost-whispered. "I don't know. I don't know whether we can do this again."

"Shy - I - why don't we just continue and you can figure out whether I'm good for you later?" Pinkie replied quickly.

"But..." Fluttershy looked down, rubbing at her eyes. "You remind me of everything."

Pinkie froze, her hoof moving gently over Fluttershy's. "Not -"

"Not that, not that," Fluttershy mumbled, a hoof on her head. She pulled away a bit, looking up at her. "Something made me realize that - that I wanted to be part of something bigger. Probably... that."

Pinkie simply looked down.

"That's why I'm trying to get to the position I am. The company, Rainbow Solutions, we're saving endangered species, and we're fixing the world. I'll miss all the nature I lived around, I'll miss Dash and Twilight and AJ, but - but I'm part of something now. And you..." She let the sentence hang for a good three seconds. "You're not part of that."

It was harsh. It sounded it, at least, but Pinkie registered it as exactly what it was. "... I could be, though."

She could see the gears turning in Fluttershy's head. Her eyes darted back and forth in small staccato motions between Pinkie's eyes, and her mouth was slightly open in thought.

Just do it. "You know what I think about you," she began, a smile growing on her face as she held Fluttershy's hoof to her chest. This was cheesy. This was lame. And nothing had ever meant more. "You know I love you."

With a blink, there were tears in Fluttershy's eyes. "Why did you have to follow me out here?"

"I want to -" She stopped, and inhaled. "I... I'm no good with words," she added with a grin, and leaned forwards for another kiss.

There was nothing like it. Only the third time she'd ever kissed Fluttershy, and each time was different from every other pony she'd ever kissed. She never wanted to stop.

And perhaps neither did Fluttershy. She never resisted, and seemed rather to be leaning into it, her hoof firmly on Pinkie's chest and the other on her neck, moving gently down. So, without losing motion, she leaned her back against the arm of the couch and kissed her again, only for a short second.

"Why did you have to follow me out here?" she asked again with a shuddering breath.

"Do you want to meet me somewhere for lunch tomorrow?" Pinkie whispered, giggling again into her ear and kissing her once more.

Fluttershy said nothing, but simply reached her forelegs around Pinkie and nuzzled her neck, a bit forcefully. "Just -" she cut herself off. "I love you."

The night wore on.

"I have to go," Pinkie heard, the words tearing her out of her dream. "I have work soon."

"Wh -" she mumbled, and looked up, half-consciously wiping at her eyes. "Shy?"

"Yeah. You should get home, I don't have much time to talk." She already looked ready to go - mane combed, sweater on, keys jingling in her saddlebag.

"Oh - uh - s-sorry, I was -"

"No, it's okay, I woke up a few minutes ago, too. I'll meet you at your apartment at noon and we can go out for lunch. Okay?"

"O-okay?"

"Lock the door when you leave. See you later."

"Shy - I, um," she began, entirely unsure of what to say.

"It's okay. You don't have to say anything," Fluttershy replied with a kind little smile, and leaned down to kiss her gently.

There's nothing like that. A kiss from somepony you've always loved. Nothing.

Pinkie was silent as she heard the door close, and put her head in her hooves when she was sure Fluttershy was gone. The world was hers now, now that there was a nice, solid chance that - just maybe - who she loved loved her in return.

Something had changed in Fluttershy. She'd become a different pony, with different goals and intentions. But there was nothing that Pinkie didn't love with her whole heart. What they had, what they'd proved, was precious, priceless, unmatchable. But she did regret one thing - she wasn't full. She already wanted her back.

She trotted home, set her little brass clock on the countertop, sat down with Gummy, and waited.

Author's Note

There is a really good chance that I'll write a second chapter, short to medium length, to close.

Chapter Two

Twilight suggested it, and rationalized it. We should go because we were the ones who found justice for their families, or something similarly oddly-phrased and clumsy. It's just politic, she said, and Pinkie couldn't remember what she meant by that.

None of them really found her speech to hold water, but they went along anyway, possibly because one of the six Elements showing at a funeral seemed improper. They all went along with Twilight, on an early spring afternoon, and they all sat in the back. None of them found the courage to speak, much or at all, and nopony seemed to mind. They paid their respects and left.

That was when Fluttershy and Applejack were still together. Pinkie remembered they left more quickly than anypony but she still passed them on the way back to Sugarcube Corner. They were talking softly by the side of the road, and nopony knew then how quietly they could argue.

It was less than a week before they ended it, calling it 'premature', 'unfounded', and all other kinds of words that just meant 'we ran out of things to talk about'.

It was a mix of emotions for Pinkie. She remembered one morning, just after waking up, thinking that maybe Fluttershy was unsatisfied, and she could use this opportunity for herself. But then she was disgusted, and told herself off the top of her head that she was still attached to Applejack and there was something there that they just couldn't sort out and there was nothing she could do.

She invented that excuse as a bandage, to cull her energetic thoughts. And worse, over time, she came to believe it was true.

Noon came and went.

Pinkie didn't really notice, honestly. It hadn't slipped her mind, but she decided to stop watching the teapot and got to work around the new space. In an hour or two she was done. All she needed now was some furniture. Considering where she was, she could probably pick it all up down the street for twenty bits. Import capital of the world.

Speaking of teapots, that was ready. She poured a cup and leaned against the counter, drinking it little by little and closing her eyes, the extent of just how tired she was hitting her like a... a boat. Import capital of the world.

Then it dawned on her that she didn't eat lunch. And that it was about dinner. And that -

"Oh."

The sound was dull and pale in the undecorated apartment. She turned and looked out the window, the back one, to the grimy, dark alleyway, and sighed. That familiar flurry of thoughts flowed through her - Maybe she couldn't make it here in time for her lunch break. Maybe she forgot. Maybe she... She stopped herself, and sighed, looking down into the teacup. Maybe she just didn't care like she said she did.

And then that venomous, hateful, false thought. Maybe she ruined it. Of course, she blew it off because it was all of the above things, but it planted what it wanted to and left quietly, letting the seed germinate.

"I'm so sorry, I missed the date." The script started, under her breath. "Oh, it's fine. Come on in. Thanks. I know you probably don't remember it, but I said I l..."

She stopped herself, her eyes never moving from the teacup. "... Ugh. It's fine. She's late. Caught up at w-"

There was a couple staccato knocks on the door.

She set her cup down and felt the urges of a smile pulling at the corners of her mouth, even though she knew she should likely be a bit angry by that point. Yeah, why wouldn't she come straight after work? That was rude, right? Well, it didn't matter in the grand scheme. She was there then.

Unless it's the guys who said they'd show me around tomorrow, she thought as she opened the door.

It wasn't. Guess-who was there, still in her bright green work sweater and the saddlebags she'd left with in the morning. A nervous silk of pink hair fell over her face, and she was looking away, her vision dragged suddenly back upwards as the door revealed her. "I'm really sorry I didn't -" she began.

Pinkie wouldn't let her. "Don't worry about it," she interrupted with a giggle. "I forgot too."

"I just - I couldn't make it back for lunch so I thought about this time would be fine, uh, if you weren't already out," she managed, moving her mane just a bit out of her eyes. "I can show you around to my favorite, um, restaurants. And we can just kind of go from there. If you want."

"That sounds cool," Pinkie said, leaning a bit closer for a kiss.

She felt a light pressure against her chest, holding her back. Fluttershy's lips were parted just a bit, and she'd looked away again. "... I also want to talk about that."

She felt her heartbeat against Fluttershy's hoof, and could swear she felt it slow down a bit. That smile returned, but wry, bitter, because she figured but ignored herself when it was important. "I guessed this would happen," she murmured, shaking her head and looking out to the street, the strollers who weren't in for supper the only things really moving in the rose-tinted landscape.

"Pinkie, don't take it the -"

"I'm - I'm not, okay?" she said, holding up a hoof and turning back. "I'm not taking it the wrong way. You thought about it and you're confused, right?"

Her gaze fell, and her eye disappeared behind her mane again. She didn't respond.

She sighed, the smile turning into guarded contempt. "It can't just be easy."

"Well," Fluttershy began quietly, her voice carrying a level of defensiveness, "I have to make sure this time."

Pinkie's resentment fell away, fraction by fraction. "... I know. Let's just - let's just go out and we can talk when we're, you know, better for it."

Fluttershy nodded slowly, her eyes still fixed on the porch below. "I'm sorry," she replied, in a near-whisper, and brought her hoof around to the back of her neck to pull her into a short, shallow hug.

She smiled regardless, realizing that she was still in love one way or another.

It didn't appear to want to stand out against the patchwork cityscape - grays, dim greens, watery blues, and clean white sans reading the alphonse bistro in constant art-nouveau lowercase. Its large windows were framed by unfinished concrete and it was only barely lit inside - at least, that's how it seemed.

"It's probably in my top ten places," Fluttershy had said as they approached it, "and I wanted to go here specifically because it's quiet. Private."

As they were seated, Pinkie could feel it was true. Each booth was divided from the surrounding booths by decorative screens and carved wood palettes, boxing them into a personal square. She looked around, but not for long - her attention was magnetized to Fluttershy.

"So what's new where you work?" she began, quieting her voice as she realized how easily sound carried in the circumstances.

"Oh," Fluttershy replied, clearly taken a bit aback by small talk. "Not - not too much. I can throw buzzwords at you all day, you know, industrialization and magically modified chemicals and such, but they don't mean too much." She paused, picking up a menu. "All we really are is a conservation effort."

"I noticed the weird plants in your apartment."

"Heh, yeah," she said, passing the menu over. The items were familiar, but usually followed by some loanword for a kind of sauce or something foreign. Like 'daisy sandwich dovernaun'. What's a dovernaun, and how do you pronounce that? She snapped to attention as Fluttershy began again: "What do you want to do?"

"I got an interview tomorrow downtown. It's kinda far away, but it's a bakery, so I think I'm pretty good for it." How about just a soup, that can't get too weird. "I mean, I want to make my own eventually, but that means licenses and taxes and stuff, and I need to take my time with it."

"That sounds really awesome, Pinkie."

"Thanks."

There wasn't too much conversation outside of that for a while, as their drinks came and as Pinkie attempted to order (with a lot of giggling from across the table). It was more of a back-and-forth as friends, best friends, then it was as a couple. But it got there eventually.

"I've wanted to ask," Pinkie started as there was a lull, "do you think... do you think you still love AJ?"

Fluttershy had pulled back a bit as the topic was found, and at this she stared solidly at her glass and inhaled with a bit of a shudder.

Perhaps it was too much at once. "You don't have to answer."

"I don't know," she replied quietly. "I don't know at all."

"... You know," Pinkie tried again, "I don't want to put you on the spot, or, um, make you uncomfortable, but you - you did say that to me." Another period of silence, disconcerting and strong. "Did it-" She lost her train of thought, her mouth moving for a moment as she searched for the words. "Did it count?"

Fluttershy's eyes, made into a gold by the bright red lighting from the lamps nearby and the cool white lighting from the windows in the front, darted back to her own, and she stared for a moment. A heat bubbled up inside Pinkie, from her tail to her ears, probably making her blush, just a little.

"I still don't really know," she said finally, hesitantly. "I'm sorry." She looked down again, putting her head in her hooves. "I think it may have been the moment."

"But - but it was a fun moment, wasn't it?" she asked, trying desperately not to let worry show in her voice. "We sort of just let go, and did what we wanted to. And... and we can do that again. Unless you really - don't - d-don't think that I'd be good to you. I would, you know," she added awkwardly, shifting in her seat.

"I think you would," Fluttershy admitted to the table. "I just..."

"Just what?"

"I just don't want to go through it again."

Pinkie swallowed, and tapped her glass once or twice unconsciously. That odd emotion returned, the one that felt like anger but wasn't, not at its core. It pushed against the back of her brain, and she clenched her teeth.

Ultimately, she couldn't stop it. "You know what? Fluttershy," she said, sharply, and Fluttershy picked up her head, confused and probably shocked. She scowled and closed her eyes, angry more at herself than anything. "You - you know what I think about you. I don't need to say it again. I'm not going to sit back and let you pretend that I would ever hurt you." She tapped a hoof on the table for emphasis, percussing each part of her sentence as she felt it rise from her stomach.

She sighed, and looked at the light above for a moment before staring back at Fluttershy. "If you don't feel the same about me, I c-can't change that, but don't think for a second that we can't be together because - because I would be bad for you."

Fluttershy glanced away to the left, blinking, and back to the right, and up, and back to Pinkie, and covered her face in her hooves again. She sounded like she was trying to respond, but couldn't.

Suddenly, Pinkie felt a backlash, like the passionate fire in her mind was extinguished. "I didn't... mean to get so intense. But," she said, inhaling deeply, "I stand by what I - what I said."

"It's not that simple."

"Why not?" Pinkie asked, as calmly as she could.

"I think... I still love Applejack," she began, and Pinkie's passionate fire was reduced to ashes and kicked away. "But I still love you, too," she said, almost in a whisper, and glanced up, before returning to her hooves.

She sat back against the cool cloth seat, feeling deflated. The stream of emotions that had overflowed a minute ago was reduced to a thin line of why and love and of course. There really wasn't anything she could do. There was a chance she had, and it was blocked by a huge brick wall.

"So," Fluttershy began, the word rippling the silence like a raindrop on a lake. She spoke delicately, and piece by piece. "Here's what we'll do. We'll go about this logically."

"But... but it's romance and stuff. How?"

"I'm going to tell you." She looked up at her, finally, full-on. "For the time being, we can... date, really. We can do the couples things. But," she added, clearing her throat, "if, perchance, there's a way that Applejack and I can start over, you have to be really open to it."

Her mouth was dry. "Uh..."

"I'll be taking a chance with you, and if I can, I want to give the same chance to her. You - you can't be upset, Pinkie. Please. I couldn't stand it." She'd looked away again, worry clear on her face.

Pinkie took a drink from her glass, and stared at her for a moment, wondering. Celestia, she was beautiful. Kind eyes, full of life. Applejack shouldn't have her came the thought, and she swatted it out of existence. "... I won't be upset."

She extended a hoof across the table, and after a moment, Fluttershy took it, no smile, no real emotion on her face outside of deep thought. Pinkie smiled, though, broadly and naturally, and shifted her hoof a bit, stroking hers softly. And then came a smile, a bit hidden behind her mane.

"I'm glad," she murmured.

They finished late. The stars were dull in the sky against the industrial light from below, and as they stepped into the thin night crowd, Pinkie couldn't take her eyes off Fluttershy, or take the smile off her face.

It was a short, nearly silent walk to Fluttershy's apartment. They reached the top of the steps and Fluttershy unlocked the door, motioning inside a little with her head.

Pinkie gave a small grin. "Thanks," she said, a question-mark inflection at the end of the word.

"Well, you don't have a bed yet, right?" she asked, shrugging.

"Yeah, but..."

Fluttershy guided her in with a hoof and followed closely, closing the door after her. In a moment, she'd brought her in with a hoof for a long, gentle kiss.

Yet again, Pinkie felt a fluttering sigh move through her. It was always as amazing as it was the first time. She was gentle, loose, caring, warm, close. They pulled apart, just for a moment, and went back to it, wordlessly.

It took a few seconds before Pinkie got a sentence out. "I'm not the best at this, am I?" she asked, followed by a little giggle.

Fluttershy giggled in reply. "Honestly? Not that bad," she whispered, and moved Pinkie along with her up the stairs nearby.

"Hm? What?"

"I was going to - I was going to make this joke earlier, but it seemed stupid."

Pinkie pulled away, following her up the stairs closely and laughing. "What was it?"

"I was going to say, if you don't have a bed, why... no, it's stupid."

"Why not share yours?" Pinkie asked, nuzzling her neck firmly and kissing her again.

"Basically," Fluttershy giggled, and pushed her into the room in front of her. "It's that one."

"Yup." Another kiss, and another. "Wow."

"What?"

"You're anxious."

Fluttershy stopped for a second, with an almost-laugh. Half a laugh. "I don't know what I'm doing. Sorry."

"No, it's awesome," Pinkie said quickly, and lifted her gently but firmly to her back legs against the bedpost, wrapping her hooves around her. "I told you it was fun."

"... It is," she agreed momentarily, grasping at Pinkie's back. "There's a reason I like you."

Pinkie giggled again. They were just happening one after another, over and over. It was better than the first time, by far. "See? It doesn't have to be complicated. Maybe you just have a thing for Earth ponies."

They laughed for a bit, but it didn't last long.

"I don't think I've been happier," Pinkie would breathe later into the night, as they were settling down, a sheet draped loosely over the both of them wrapped tightly together. Back to the cheese and showmanship.

Fluttershy held her tighter, as Pinkie rather expected. She didn't say anything, but Pinkie felt the response. There was love, there was a chance. And she fell asleep with thoughts of a flowery future drifting hazily in her mind.

Author's Note

You all thought I would forget about Squeecember.
Well guess what.