Not in Public

There was a lot of anticipation rattling about the castle. Everypony sat in their respected seats, everpony except Rainbow Dash. "Well, it is not like I have work to be down or anything." Rarity scoffed. "Though the thought of Rainbow, out all ponies, summoning us all here did excite me a little. I wonder what she could possibly tell us?"

Fluttershy sat quietly, as she often does. Just like the rest of them their, she was asked to meet at the castle at 7 o'clock. The story was the same for all of them. Their is a soft knock at the door. Most of them missed it the first time, but it would always repeat itself. Rainbow would always be looking away, mostly down and to the right. When asked what was wrong, she would stammer 'Nothing, in fact, everything is great. I...just meet me at the castle later, seven. I need to tell you guys something.' When Fluttershy heard this, she was concerned. If everything was great, why did Rainbow seem so down. Looking back, she seemed scared. Of course, she wouldn't answer anymore questions. Only repeating the fact that she wanted everypony to know at the same time.

"Well, whatever it is she wanted to share aside, I want to know where she is." Twilight retorted to Rarity, noting that it was already 17 pass the agreed meeting time. "I do hope everything it ok. Was it me, or did she really seem off. I wouldn't say sad, or scared, or really anything. I really dont know what to make out of her emotions."

"Worried." Rainbow walked through the door, her head raised high. Her chest was puffed out as she strutted to the middle. "Worried that you guys might already know. Sad. Sad that I knew for so long, and realizing that is might not be fair to you girls. And yes, scared. Scared of what you might think of me after you figured it out."

Fluttershy knew that this bravado she put out was fake. She was putting on this visage to fool them. More accurately, fool herself. She saw it before during flight school. She was called up to the front of the class to recite some speech, and Rainbow forced herself to be brave. That is exactly what she was doing now.

"Come on sugar cube, it cant be that bad. No matter what, we will be friends. Besides, you said this was a good announcement." Everypony nodded in agreement at AJ's comment. "So go on, spit it out."

Rainbow Dash took a deep. "I-I have been fighting with myself for a while now. Everynight, before I would go to sleep, these... questions would go to through my head. 'Why do I think these things?', 'I know it is not normal, but do other ponies have these thoughts?' And the answer is no. I am not special, but these are not normal thoughts. I am scared, but it is not of these thoughts, for I have accepted them. I am scared of what happens after ponies know."

Fluttershy leaned forward. "Rainbow, we love you, please don't be afraid to tell us anything."

"Come on in..." Rainbow Dash spoke out loud.

As the pony slowly pushed herself into the throne room, Fluttershy could not help but to feel that she showed the same emotions that Rainbow had before. She was a lovely looking mare. She had long flowing purple hair that hung inches from the floor that accented her brilliant green eyes. A small bow from a red ribbon cutie mark stood proud against her darker blue coat.

"Uhh... Rainbow, who is thi-"

"HI ALMOND JOY! What are you doing here?!" Pinkie interrupted Twilight as she jumped to hug the new pony.

"Uh, yeah, this is Joy. Alright, here it goes." Rainbow Dash took another deep breath, after holding it in for a few seconds she exhaled. Joy put her hoof softly on Dash's shoulder and gave her a reassuring smile. "Girls, Almond Joy is my partner."

"Oh! Like a baking partner?!"

Rainbow looked at Pinkie curiously. "Not really, no."

"Cloud bucking partner? But that dont make a lick of sense, she ain't no pegasus. How in the hay would an earth pony buck clouds any how?"

"Study partner? I know you were have troubles with you Wonderbolts class."

"No guys, it is not like that!"

"You two are together, she is your special somepony?" Fluttershy muttered softly. The room was overcome by an awkward silence as every pony waited for Dash to say anything. Confirm or deny what Fluttershy had said.

"It is a long story. But Flutters is right."

A few seconds passed between everypony. AJ, always the one to speak her mind, decided it was about time for her to break this tension. "Well that is just wonderful. You know, I have always had a suspicion, but I never actually figured that. Anywho, I am just plum happy for ya sweetie."

"Come now darling, you think new like that would make us feel ill towards you? Please, tell us how you met."

"We met when I was buying wrapping paper for Tank's birthday gift. I guess I didn't think anything special was happening. I made my purchase, and I went home. For years, I always found myself thinking about girls. Never in... you know... those ways. But I never really understood why. I never really found myself really going after guys around here, but always pushed myself with girls. Then I thought about Joy, and wondered if I, uh, if I maybe didn't have those thoughts about guys because I couldn't. So I went back to Joy. I asked if she maybe wanted to grab some coffee or something. I dont know, seemed like a good idea at the time. A couple of days passed of us meeting for coffee. I was confused, and scared, but she was on my mind. I hadn't really came to terms with it all yet. That is when she asked me what was bothering me. I told her nothing was wrong. The next day, I decided that I was going to share these fears I had. Fears might not be the best words though. Anyways, she listened quietly until I was done, then she pecked my cheek. She knew, and I just figured it out."

This was not ok. For years, Fluttershy had kind of known. Rainbow had already shared these thoughts with her before. Fluttershy listened to them comforted her. But know, now that it has blossomed to this point, and seeing Joy by her side, it was more then she wanted to see. She got up from her chair and ran towards the door.

"What?! No! Please, I am sorry! I didn't want you to hate me!" Dash yelled as she ran from the castle.

She heaved her chest as fought to get her breath back. It was not fair. She pushed her back against the door and slid down. It was never suppose to be Dash and Joy, it was always suppose to be Dash and her. It was suppose to be Dash and Fluttershy.