A Tender Moment

The moon had risen high in the night sky, a beautiful sight for all to see, with not a cloud to be seen. The stars twinkled in that way that poets loved to write about, and everything everywhere was calm and quiet. It was the kind of night that some lonesome young girl might find herself staring out of the window for great lengths of time, and that was indeed the case tonight. Fluttershy, a student of the local Canterlot High School, was kneeling on the top of her bed, gazing out of the window with a small smile on her face. Wearing nothing but a light-green nighties, she sighed in a contented manner over the warm feeling of just being in her own room on a night like tonight. I could sit here and look at that sky all night, she thought to herself. Her smile widened as she started to move away from the window brushing aside some of her long pink hair as she did so. And it was here that the peace of the moment was interrupted by the loud squeaking of her bedroom door. Looking up, Fluttershy saw that the one who now entered was her fellow student, Rainbow Dash, a girl that she had been friends with for as long as she could remember.

The athletic girl smiled as she looked upon her pink-haired friend, closing the door behind her a she entered.

"Thanks for inviting me over, Shy."

Fluttershy smiled and nodded at that.

"Oh, it's no problem, Rainbow. I mean...with all our other friends busy today, I thought it'd be a shame if we didn't get to have our weekly sleepover."

Rainbow nodded after hearing that. After the last visit by their other-worldly friend, Twilight Sparkle, them and their friends, collectively known as the "Rainbooms" these days, had made it a point to have a sleepover at one of their homes at least once a week. This week, however, fate had conspired to ensure that only these two girls were available for such a gathering. Although, from the look on Rainbow's face, it was not something that seemed to bother her that much.

"Don't worry about it. I mean, Heck, you and I used to do sleepovers all the time when we were kids."

Fluttershy's smile widened at that, a deep sense of nostalgia washing over her, as their happy childhood memories came to the forefront of her mind.

"Yeah...I used to love those days."

Rainbow gave a chuckle as she regarded her friend. She always looks so cute when she's like this, Rainbow thought to herself. However, a sense of nervousness soon emerged within her as she tried to shake that thought away, hoping that Fluttershy had not seen her when she was thinking it. Instead, she moved over to sit down next to her lifelong friend. Fluttershy looked to her as she did this, watching as she began to stretch her arms up in readiness for going to bed. Rainbow is so incredible, Fluttershy thought. She's been my best friend for so long. Even when Sunset was bad and tried to drive us and the other girls apart, Rainbow always stuck with me. The timid young girl looked down at her feet with a somewhat down look on her face. Why? Why did she always stick with me? I'm not cool or "awesome" like she is. She could do so much better. As the girl continued to think this, she failed to notice Rainbow turning her attention towards her, seeing the somewhat sad look on her face.

"Shy? You okay?"

Fluttershy's eye widened with realisation after hearing her, looking up and putting on a smile for Rainbow's benefit.

"Oh! I'm...I'm fine! Don't you worry, Rainbow. Let's just enjoy this sleepover."

Rainbow raised an eyebrow at that, knowing that Fluttershy was keeping something from her. Even so, she didn't want to press the matter. She was a guest in Fluttershy's home after all. Instead, she began to lean back, placing her hands behind her to keep herself propped up. However, when she did this, she felt not the cool fabric of the bed sheets, but something unmistakeably warm. Snapping her head down, she saw that her hand had landed right on top of Fluttershy's, catching the latter's attention also. For a moment, there was nothing but silence between the two girls. Time seemed to stop altogether as they stared into each other's eyes. Rainbow, as expected, was filling her mind with many frantic thoughts. Oh no! What have you done, Rainbow?! You know how sensitive about this kinda stuff she is! On the other side of things, Fluttershy was having similar problems. Oh dear! What do I do? Okay, calm down, Fluttershy! Whatever you do, don't do anything to make her think you're bothered by this!

Unfortunately, Fluttershy's nature would not comply with what her head wanted, and soon enough, the shy girl pulled her hand away from Rainbow's, and looked up at her with an incredibly apologetic look.

"I'm sorry! I just, I didn't move my hand fast enough and I thought, well, it wasn't as if I didn't like it, but...I mean, that's not to say I didn't like it, but it’s just..."

But she was stopped from continuing by a single raised hand from Rainbow. The pink-haired girl waited patiently for her friend to speak, but when it finally happened, it wasn't what she was expecting.

"Did...did you just say...you liked it?"

Fluttershy looked away from her friend, almost ashamed at having blurted that out. She didn't mean to let it slip like that, it just happened. And now she sat there, terrified of looking her friend in the eye. However, it wasn’t long before she felt a familiar feeling of a hand on her shoulder, prompting her to look to the side, right at Rainbow. To Fluttershy's surprise, her friend had a small smile on her face, and a look in her eyes that Fluttershy could have sworn was understanding. Eventually, Rainbow broke the silence.

"You know, Shy...I feel it too."

For a moment, Fluttershy didn't know what her friend was talking about. But then, as the moments passed, she began to notice what was unmistakeably a small blush on Rainbow's face. Fluttershy's eyes widened as she began to understand what Rainbow was trying to say to her, and the shock of it damn-near overwhelmed the poor girl. After a few false starts, she finally managed to get some words out.

"But...but...why?"

Rainbow tilted her head in confusion at that, leading to Fluttershy looking down in that same, somewhat ashamed manner as before.

"It's just...you're so incredible, Rainbow. You can do so much. So much more than I could ever do. I've been nothing but a burden to you, ever since we first met. You were always looking after me. I'm just not worth your..."

But Fluttershy was unable to finish those words. For Rainbow, in a move that was bold even by her standards, took a deep breath, placed her hand on the side of Fluttershy's face, looked right into her eyes, and then brought her own face forward, planting her lips upon hers. Once again, all of time seemed to stand still, as both girls stayed together. Fluttershy, as one might expect, was almost aghast at what was happening. This isn't real, she told herself. And yet, as she felt Rainbow's lips upon her own, she knew that real is exactly what it was. The feeling, both physical and emotional, was real. Closing her eyes, Fluttershy began to embrace this new feeling, reaching forward and holding onto Rainbow's hand as they continued kissing. Rainbow, likewise, began to interlock her fingers with Fluttershy's, and began to press just a little bit harder in the kiss. Through it all, both girls felt and thought the exact same thing about this whole thing; this...this is right. With this one kiss, all the doubts and fears that they had shared, silently or otherwise, was washed away.

They didn't know how long this kiss had lasted, and in truth, they didn't care. However, in time, they eventually parted, catching their breath a little before staring into each other's eyes. They smiled affectionately at one another, and Rainbow lifted her hand to gently brush aside a stray strand of pink hair from Fluttershy's face. The timid girl giggled a little at that, and Rainbow gave a brief chuckle before leaning forward, touching her forehead with Fluttershy's as she spoke in a hushed manner.

"You are worth it, Fluttershy. You were worth it then...you're worth it now...and you will always be worth it."

The shy girl knew her friend meant every word of it, and so couldn't help but feel tears well up in her eyes as she smiled warmly at her. As she brushed aside some of those tears, there was only one thing she could say to her oldest and dearest friend.

"In that case, Rainbow...yay."