First Love

It was Friday afternoon in Ponyville and like every Friday, Fluttershy was preparing for Rarity to come over for tea. Things were different this time though as she was working much harder on getting her cottage spotless. Her animals could tell that she was more frantic than normal and her birds began to chirp at her. They were asking her why she was so frantic in her cleaning. She replied, "Rarity is coming over this afternoon and I need to make sure everything is perfect."

Her animals knew how she usually was when Rarity would come over but she had never behaved like this before, she had never been so paranoid. A raccoon was asking her why she was so frantic. She replied, "Well, um, you see, this is special." Her animals were asking why it was so different. She replied, "Well I want Rarity to be impressed. I don't want her thinking that I am a bad housekeeper."

Before her animals could ask her anything else there was a knock on her door. Fluttershy opened the door and there was Rarity. Rarity greeted her like she always does, "Hello darling! How is your afternoon treating you?"

Fluttershy replied, "Well, it is going ok. Come in."

Rarity walked in and noticed that Fluttershy's cottage was MUCH cleaner than normal. She asked, "Fluttershy, I know you like to keep your house clean but I've never seen it this clean." She hugged Fluttershy and continued, "You don't have to clean it this much just for our afternoon tea."

When Rarity hugged her, Fluttershy's heart skipped a beat. For a long time she had been able to keep her secret feelings for the unicorn hidden, but here lately it had been becoming harder and harder for her to do so. Rarity felt her tense up a bit and asked, "Fluttershy darling, why are you so tense? Are you nervous about something?"

Fluttershy replied, "No. I just have a lot of tension in my shoulders."

Rarity began to massage her shoulders to relieve the tension. The thing that Rarity did not know though was that Fluttershy lied to her. She had no tension in her shoulders, she just wanted to feel Rarity's hooves massaging her. After a few minutes of massaging her friend, the two sat down for tea.

They began to talk about various, ordinary things such as how Twilight seemed to be studying more than normal and how Rainbow was being a bit arrogant leading up to a race in Cloudsdale. Fluttershy knew that the pegasus ponies had planned a thunderstorm for late that evening and overnight so she decided that maybe she could spend some extra time with the one she wants so badly. She asked, "Rarity, if you don't mind me asking, do you have any plans for tonight?"

Rarity replied, "All I'm going to do tonight is get into some silk pajamas and rest. With as busy as I have been lately I feel like I've earned it."

Fluttershy asked, "What about Sweetie Belle? Will she allow you to rest?"

Rarity smiled and replied, "Oh I don't have to worry about her. After school she is heading over to Sweet Apple Acres with her friends for the whole weekend, so I'll be alone." She stretched her hooves out and continued, "Oh it will be so nice! I can't wait."

Fluttershy's face dropped as she said, "Oh, ok. That sounds fun."

Rarity asked, "Fluttershy, you seem so sad, what is wrong?"

Fluttershy replied, "Oh, it's nothing important. You probably would have said no anyway."

Rarity asked, "Fluttershy, what is it? What would I have said no to anyway?"

Fluttershy truly thought that Rarity would say no but decided to ask anyway. "Rarity, um if it would be ok with you, do you think that I could come over and join you for supper."

This shocked Rarity as normally Fluttershy wouldn't even ask anything like that, that normally she would have to be dragged by her tail to something like this. Rarity happily replied, "Of course you can come! It will be nice to have somepony other than Sweetie Belle eating supper with me."

Fluttershy was ecstatic but she knew that she couldn't just go jumping around the room the way Pinkie would over any little thing. She smiled and asked, "So when do you want me to come over, five or six?"

Rarity replied, "Well since Sweetie Belle will be heading straight over to the farm after school you could just accompany me home now. After all, you are my best friend and I could never spend too much time with you."

Fluttershy had a huge grin on her face as she asked, "Really? You really think of me as your best friend?"

Rarity replied, "Of course I do darling. While I'm close with all of our friends, I feel like I can relate with you better. You're so graceful, you care about everypony and you're sweet." She lowered her voice and whispered into her ear, "Don't tell anypony though, I don't want them getting mad."

Fluttershy replied, "I want you to know, if that is ok with you, that you're the one I'm closest to as well. You're generous, you're elegant and you're so beauti........" Fluttershy caught herself realizing that she may have blown her cover. She lowered her voice and continued, "Don't worry, I won't tell anypony."

While Rarity found it odd that Fluttershy would stop in mid-sentence, she didn't really think much about it. After they finished their tea they headed towards The Carousel Boutique. While Rarity was expecting a nice supper and some quiet, relaxing conversation with her friend that night, Fluttershy was hoping for more. She was hoping that the nasty thunderstorm the pegasi had planned would force her to stay with Rarity and hoping that things would get romantic.