Rainbow Dash squatted in the bush, binoculars brandished as she followed her target. “What’s she even up to?” she asks the dazzling silhouette expertly hidden beside her.
“Rainbow Dash, you know as well as I that I haven’t the faintest of ideas,” whispers Rarity in response.
“I just don’t get it, Rarity. She always invites me to this stuff and never goes out to festivals if she can help it. What gives?”
“Perhaps she’s meeting with the stallion of her dreams? Oh, how romantic that would be!”
The bush gives a violent shake as a quick whapping sound puts an end to Rarity’s brewing fantasy. Another violent shake and louder whacking noise results in Rainbow’s muzzle temporarily jutting itself into the open before reeling itself back in in contempt.
“Well, what did you expect when you hit a lady?”
“I’m a lady too!”
“Ha! Hardly.”
“Hey… shush, she’s coming!”
The shrubbery of secrecy grew unnaturally still and quiet as it hid the snooping pair from the approaching Fluttershy. Dressed in a simple yet alluring white summer dress and bonnet, the unsuspecting mare came to the booth adjacent to her friends lying in wait.
“Well hey there, Miss Fluttershy, what can I do ya for?” greets Green Jewel, the owner of the booth.
Not fidgeting even a little, Fluttershy offers a soft smile. “Oh, if it’s not too much to ask, I was hoping to see your jewelry.”
“Of course, of course! Why else would you be here?” Jewel motions for Fluttershy to come closer for a proper look at her selection. “Looking for something specific? For some pony in particular perhaps?” she asks as she leans over her counter with a grin and a wink.
Fluttershy blushes a bit at the suggestion, but nods in affirmation as she takes a look at the jewelry.
“Told you so!”
“That can’t be it!”
Green Jewel gives a hearty chuckle, “Let me guess. The same mare as always, right?” Sliding her hoof over to the display of brooches, she unlocks and opens it’s casing. “I already know you’re going to pick one of these, just let me know which one, dear.”
“A mare? How scandalous!”
“Wha-what… how come she never told me?”
“Somepony sounds jealous!”
“Wha-shu-shuddup, she’ll hear us.”
Fluttershy, too focused on choosing the perfect brooch for her mare to notice the squabblers, reaches into the display and holds out a beautiful silver brooch socketed with sparkling cerise colored gems. “This one, please. It’s perfect.”
“Wonderful choice, Miss Fluttershy. I’m sure she’ll love it!” Jewel takes the brooch and places it in a cozy gift box before sealing it neatly with bow and ribbon. “That’ll be twenty bits!” she states as she sticks out an empty hoof.
“Twenty bits? She doesn’t have twenty bits!”
“Oh, oh my, that must be some lady friend.”
“Will you stop that, something’s got to be up!”
Fluttershy reaches into her saddlebag, pulling out a sizeable coin purse and placing it in Green Jewel’s waiting hoof. “Here you go, Fluttershy,” Green Jewel takes the coin purse and hooves over the sought after brooch, “a pleasure doing business with you as always.”
Fluttershy shakes her head, but with an envigorated smile. “Oh no, thank you, Miss Jewel, for always having what I’m looking for.”
“Oh stop it already. I know you want to go over to Lily’s booth and pick out a bouquet. Get on with it, you cutie.”
And with that, the two give their goodbyes and Fluttershy heads across the lot towards Lily’s flower booth. Rarity begins clopping her hooves together with glee, “Rainbow, this is so exciting, our dear Fluttershy is smitten with love!”
“Yeah, except it’s not,” flatly came the response.
“Don’t be so cold, Rainbow Dash. Of all ponies, I would think you to be the happiest for her… unless, you really are jealous. Hmm?”
“I am not jeal-”
“Um, excuse me, talking bush over there? Yeah, could you stop that now?”
Green Jewel takes hold of a rod and pokes at the bush, landing glancing blows on the snooping duo.
“Yeow! We’ve been found out. Run!” Rainbow Dash takes off across the grounds in the general direction of Fluttershy’s next stop.
“Ow! You can’t just ditch, ow, me, like this! Ow!” Rarity chases after Rainbow Dash, rubbing at her newly acquired sore spots with some basic treatment magic.
Green Jewel drops the rod from her mouth. “Well, I’ll be! Two whole mares in there? Now just what...” Jewel’s face turns to a bright shade of red, “No, no, I’m sure they were just fans of Miss Shy, let’s not go there, Greeny.”
Rarity and Rainbow manage to slip into a large cardboard box by the booth next to Lily’s. Not quite close enough to hear Fluttershy’s exchange, Rarity uses her magic to cut out a set of peep holes and shifts to get a look at what she’s up to. From what she can tell, Fluttershy is chatting amiably with Lily, pointing out a variety of flowers for no apparent reason.
“What’s she doing?”
“Nothing aside from shopping it seems.”
“Can we get any closer?”
“Not without blowing our cover… hush, she’s buying the bouquet.”
Fluttershy, just like before, pulled out a sizeable coin purse, but this time turned it over to Lily in exchange for a now sealed box of flowers. This puzzled Rarity, that’s usually only done if…
“Hey, move over, let me see what’s going on.”
“Rainbow, please! There isn’t room to move around in here.”
“Well, maybe if your flank wasn’t taking up most of this box!”
TWACK
The cardboard box, now decorated with blue wings and rainbow tail, flew through the air like a cheaply made model pegasus. Rarity stood and watched as her crumpled hiding place and friend crashed in the middle of the fair grounds. As Rainbow slowly raised her head, attempting to recover from the bucking, Rarity began to tear up.
“You, you take that back, Rainbow Dash!”
“Take back what? What did I even say?”
“You know what you said!”
“Oh my goodness… Rarity, what did you do?” Fluttershy dropped her boxed bouquet of flowers and rushed to Rainbow Dash’s side. “Rainbow Dash, are you ok? Where does it hurt.”
“What did I do? Me!?” Rarity shouts in incredulity.
Rainbow gets up and out of the crumpled box. “I’m fine, Fluttershy. Look!” she assures while standing up on her own. “Heh, Rarity’s got nothing on Applejack when it comes to bucking.” Reaching out a hoof to move towards Rarity, Rainbow loses her balance, falling flat on her face.
“Oh no, Rainbow Dash!”
“OK, maybe half a nothing…”
Fluttershy knelt by Rainbow’s fallen figure, gently lifting her head and placing it in her lap. Stroking the back of Rainbows head, Fluttershy spoke softly, “It’s ok, Rainbow Dash, just rest here until you’re ready to move again,” before turning her gaze to Rarity. In a stern and unforgiving tone, “And how do you explain yourself, Rarity? Kicking poor Rainbow like that?”
“Ha, as if she’s the victim here! Not only has that ruffian hit me, abandoned me, and dragged me out here to spy on you,” Rarity’s face was now a steamy red, “she made unforgivable remarks about my rear!”
Shocked by this revelation, Fluttershy turned back to Rainbow Dash. “You… you two were spying on me?”
Rarity stamped her hooves. “That’s not important!” she shouted, and with the kind of whiny rant only she could pull off, “She said my butt was too big!”
“But why?” Fluttershy asks again.
“Because her behind was in the way and I couldn’t see what was going on. Don’t know why she’s so upset about it.”
“She was just jealous because you have a secret mare friend,” answered Rarity venomously, “I came out of concern of you missing our weekly spa visit, which is so unlike you and had me worried.”
Fluttershy gave Rarity another glare. “I told you last week that I was going to be away for the day!”
“What? But when?”
“Well, I tried to tell you, but you kept going on and on about how awful Applejack worked you during a farming lesson.”
“Ah, yes… worst fifteen minutes of my life. Let me tell y-,” Rarity paused, realizing what she was about to do, “excuse me, I’m so sorry, Fluttershy. Forgive me?” Rarity fluttered her lashes with a pleading look.
Fluttershy averted her eyes from Rarity’s puppy dog face. “No.”
“But, why?”
“Apologize for kicking Rainbow Dash first.”
“Never! Not unless she apologizes for what she said!”
“Ugh, fine… Rarity, I’m sorry I sorta implied you had a rumpus gigantanormus.” Both Rainbow Dash and Fluttershy fought to stifle their laughter at the apology; Rarity, however, was unamused. “If that’s how you choose to apologize then don’t you dare expect one from me.”
“C’mon, Rares, I’m just playing. I’m sorry I called you, uh, things. Ok?”
Rarity shrugged, giving in to Rainbow’s begging. “Alright, I suppose that’ll do. I too am sorry... for kicking your butt that is.” Rarity gave a smirk as she blew dust off her forehoof.
“Yeah, ok-”
“Now that we’re all friends again, Rainbow, why did you spy on me?”
“Oh, well, uh…”
“But Rainbow, it’s not like that’s never happened before. What about Pinkie?”
“Everyone else was busy. Well, except Rarity. She said that you must have been foalnapped or something. It was the only explanation for missing your spa date she could come up with.” Rarity rocked back and forth with the mention of her dramatics. “And well, she got me worried so I asked around and we found out you were at this festival.”
Fluttershy looked perplexed. “But if you knew where I was, then why spy on me?”
“That’s the thing, Fluttershy. You never go to these things without inviting me! We know you’re up to something.”
Fluttershy backpedaled, now that Rainbow Dash and Rarity both had regained their composure and approached her with questions.
“So yeah, what’s up with the brooch and the flowers? How come that one vendor says you come here and get the same thing every year? For the same mare?”
“You know, you really do sound jealous, darling.”
“Shuddup.”
Backed into a corner, Fluttershy caved to the questions. “I’m sorry I never told you, Rainbow Dash.”
“What about me?”
“Well, um, this actually doesn’t have much to do with you, Rarity. You see…” Fluttershy hid behind her mane as she fiddled with a wing. “If you look at the bouquet of flowers I got.”
With that cue, Rarity levitated the box of flowers over to the trio. Setting the box down, she opened it, revealing a beautiful arrangement of… flowers sorted to appear like a rainbow.
“Fluttershy, the gems in the brooch, the flower arrangement. What does it mean?”
“It’s a reminder… for my mother.”
“Your mom? Fluttershy, why would you get that jerk anything?”
“Rainbow, you don’t just call another pony’s mom a jerk!”
“No, Rarity, she’s right, she is a jerk. And that’s exactly why I send her these every year.”
It was now Rarity’s turn to be very confused. Rainbow Dash perked up, a mischievous grin on her face. “I get it now! You’re reminding her of me because of what happened then!” Fluttershy nods, acknowledging Rainbow’s claim.
“What? What happened then? Well somepony tell me, please?”
Fluttershy started to mutter something, but Rainbow Dash cut her off. “Don’t worry, Fluttershy, I got this. Rarity, remember how I moved to Ponyville on my birthday?”
“Yes?”
“Yeah, well, remember how Fluttershy moved not long after?”
“Yes, but what does that have to do with anything?”
“Well, you see, I moved because I got a job here. Fluttershy moved because I asked her to.”
“Like I’m supposed to believe that.”
“But it’s true,” Fluttershy interjects. “It’s alright Rainbow, I want to tell the rest.” Rainbow Dash concedes, letting Fluttershy continue. “Well, you see, my mother wasn’t a very nice pony. Well, not to me anyway. She, she said a lot of mean things and sent me away to flight camp. And then Rainbow Dash and I became friends and I got my cutie mark and so many good things started to happen. But my mother,” Fluttershy’s tears began to flow, “she hated my cutie mark and blamed my only friend for it.”
“Yeah, she stopped letting us hang out, said I was a bad influence.”
“Most parents would.”
“Anyway, like Rainbow said, she moved because of her job, and well, I kind of ran away to help her move and celebrate.”
“Oh wow, I never knew. Fluttershy, d-”
“But that’s not the end of it. Even though mother despised me, she wouldn’t think of letting me out of her sight. She came after me and, and…” Fluttershy’s sobbing took over and unable to finish on her own, Rainbow Dash continued.
“And she showed up and struck her.”
“No!”
“Yeah. And right in front of me no less.”
“Dreadful.”
“Yeah, for her. Let’s just say I told her off and we haven’t seen her since.”
Rarity embraced the crying Fluttershy. “There there, dear. It’s ok. You’re with friends now, it’s ok.” Continuing to comfort her, Rarity couldn’t help but ask anyway. “But then why send her anything at all?”
Tears subsiding, Fluttershy managed to give her response. “Because she’s still my mother… even though I won’t ever be her daughter again.”
Rainbow Dash brushes a wing along Fluttershy’s back. “Hey there, Flutters. Chin up. You did nothing wrong. This is…”
“Petty, I know…”
“No, this is epic!” Rainbow Dash grabs Fluttershy and takes the two of them into the air.
“Wha-what?”
“Yeah! Didn’t know you had it in you, Flutters! C’mon, what else do you think we could get to remind her of me?”
“Rainbow Dash, is that really what we should be doing?”
“Of course! We’re all here and it was making Fluttershy happy, right?”
“Perhaps, but I was hoping we could all maybe go to the spa.”
Rainbow Dash lowered Fluttershy and herself back to the ground. “But, but…”
“This is something I never wanted to involve you in. Even if it did make me happy, it’s not real happiness. Spending time with you girls means so much more.”
“Aw, come here, darling.” Rarity starts crying as she re-embraces Fluttershy.
“I think, I think I’m not going to send her anything anymore.”
“I’m sure that’s for the best.”
“Just, no more complaining about hoes, ok?”
“Done and done! Besides, I have scuffed hooves now.”
Rainbow Dash starts to walk back to Ponyville, motioning for her friends to follow. “C’mon, sniff, girls. Let’s, sniff, go to your dumb spa.”
“Oh no, Rainbow Dash, are you crying?”
“Sniff, of course not!”
“Fluttershy, one does not have time to cry when they’re so busy being jealous.”
“I’m not jealous!”
“She’s soooo jealous.”
"This is why we never hang out."
