(Flutterdash) The Whole Story

The next morning, as the stall went up, she overheard some ponies talking about some lesbians being served at Le Doré Haystack. That fancy place.

“Can't believe what this town is coming to,” She muttered under her breath. “I'm gonna stand up, even if no one else will.” She grabbed an extra piece of cloth and painted on it. It said:

We Sell to the Straight

Applejack took a moment to admire her hoofiework, then strung the banner above the apples. It looked respectable.

Over the course of the day, several ponies reacted to her banner. Some came up and thanked her for taking a stand in the right direction, having heard of the Haystack fiasco. Others scowled and passed her by with rude remarks. Quite a few tried just to ignore it, seeming to not want to think about it at all.

Near mid-day a commotion began stirring far away from the market and the apple stand. A crowed gathered around the Haystack, as a staff representative hung a silk banner under the sign. It said:

Same-Sex Couples are Welcomed

With these two signs up, it became apparent that today a war was starting. The issue of queers, long hidden in the shadows, had finally emerged into the sunlight. And there would be a judgment, by hoof of the common if none else.

By the end of the day, the town was becoming almost segregated, and several other businesses had strung up their own policies over their doors.

“This is getting scary,” Fluttershy said, walking through town with Rarity next to her. “So many ponies are getting angry, not even Pinkie Pie can cheer them up.”

“Well,” Rarity said, “I suppose there is at least the potential for this to end happily. If we 'win' your freedom, in so many words.”

Fluttershy stared at the ground and hoped the spa wouldn't have any sort of banner, even an accepting one. “I don't want to fight, but you can feel the tension in the air. Oh Rarity, I don't want to fight.”

“It'll be alright, darling. Look, the spa is 'Proudly Accepting All.' Of course, I would expect so from aloe and lotus.”

“The town feels like a battle zone, and I hate conflict.”

“Fluttershy, listen, we came here to relax. So, we are going to relax. Besides, I know you don't want to fight, but I'm afraid you simply can't stand still on a moving train.”

Fluttershy nodded as Rarity paid for their stay, and Aloe smiled very specifically at her. “I know.” She rubbed her face with her hooves. “I can just feel something bad coming.”

“Relaxing, darling,” Rarity said as they entered the sauna, “That's what we’re here to do. I'm not paying for a lavish place to fret, dear. Now, see, this is nice.”

Fluttershy nodded.

“You know,” Rarity began, changing to a happier subject, “I and Fancy Pants are thinking of some sort of get-together soon. He's dying to see my new Red Inked Rose line, after I sent him the samples, and when he wears them this time I'm sure ponies will ask him about his fabulous clothes. And then they'll be directed to me and I swear I can feel a good season coming. Red is in this fall, much more than last year, last year it was all about yellow and brown. But of course....”

Rarity talked and Fluttershy listened, like always. But she couldn't fight a general sense of queasy guilt. Those banners, those angry ponies, they were all because of her, and it made her sick with herself. Until she realized that she was doing this, all of this being strong, for Rainbow Dash, and the thought that even for a moment she had regretted it made her feel bad all over again.

The rather tense patrons they saw occasionally didn't help at all. They would see her, recognize her, and sometimes back away as if they were afraid. It brought up dark shivers out of her memory, of the “New Flutteshy,” which just added more for her to hate about herself.

What a mess she was becoming, bad in the past, bad now to strangers, bad to the pony that loved her. And here she was, masquerading like the queen of the world, all she had wounded standing right beside her. It made her nauseous.

“...didn't like it. I mean, really, it seems like you just can't please her. First it must be black, then it needs to be blue, but wait it was always supposed to be black anyway! Uh. If she wasn't involved with Fancy Pants, and wasn't a paying customer, I swear I would say something. But a lady does not get mad, so I said—Fluttershy are you crying?”

Now she had even made her best friend upset. She really was a monster.

“Fluttershy, what's wrong?”

Rarity's hooves were around her, were gently shaking. She was saying something, but Fluttershy wasn’t hearing it.

The next thing she knew, she was on Rarity's bed. Whisper-voices leaked out of the door to Rarity's bedroom.

“...but she doesn’t have any fever, any kind of sign of sickness?”

“No, she seems fine all around. I swear, one minute she was kind of down and the next she's on the floor.”

“Kind of down,” oh, this one was Rainbow Dash, “like, sad or something? Do you know why she was?”

“No, dear, I've already told you. She was upset with all the commotion in town, but that's it. Maybe you should talk to her, since you are her special somepony.”

“Is it safe to wake her up, don't you think we should let her rest a little longer? I mean, we don't know what kind of trauma triggered this, she might faint again, or—“

“I'll just look in, Twilight. If she's really dead asleep then I'll let her sleep.”

“But how—“

TERRRAAAAAANT. Rainbow cringed. The door’s squealing sounded even louder with no kind of background noise underneath. “Oh,” she said, seeing Fluttershy sitting up and looking at her, “Hey girl.”

Rainbow flew up to the side of the bed and put her foreleg over Fluttershy's flank. “I heard you fainted while you and Rarity were at the spa. Do you want to talk about it?”

Fluttershy nodded, and scooted over so Rainbow could sit next to her.

Rarity watched them and tried to suppress a giggle that had no business being here after what happened to Fluttershy, and Twilight watched with a kind of blank, nervous stare.

“I'm sorry, Rainbow.” Fluttershy started. “I've just seen how much trouble we've caused, and I started to hate myself, but I remembered that I was doing this for us, and that just made it worse, and ponies won't sit near me because they're afraid, and oh—“ She started sobbing quietly into her hooves. Choking, “I love you R-Rainbow Dash, but I don't w-want to hurt anypony!”

“You're not hurting them, they're hurting themselves.”

“But they're doing that because of me!”

Rainbow frowned, “No, they’re not. Really, they’re just angry because they can’t grow up. It has nothing to do with you.”

“Don’t patronize m-me, Dash, I-I know it’s because of us that t-they’re so angry.”

Rainbow scowled. This was just too far. “You can't help it if they get a little bent out of shape because you love me! What are you supposed to do, break up with me?”

Fluttershy shook her head slowly, choking on her words. “No, Rainbow. But there has to be some way for us to fix this. If I’m the problem, th-then I can be part of the solution. We can. There has to be—“

“Be what? I mean, come on!” Rainbow shook her hooves in the air, “I know you don't want to hurt anyone, but does that really come at the price of loving me?”

“No, Rainbow, but should I really be so selfish as to anger the whole town just so I can be happy? I-it's barbaric!”

“US, Fluttershy! So that us can be happy!”

Twilight and Rarity shifted slightly. They knew this crossed the point into intrusion, but they were both too interested to walk away.

Fluttershy had never sounded more like an adult. “Rainbow I love you, but surely somehow—“

Dash didn't know why she was angry, “There is no other way, Fluttershy, because you're not doing anything wrong! You—I mean —” Her voice dropped in volume, and she slowly let herself sit back down. She tried to swallow her anger, “Don't I mean enough to... don't you love me enough that I come before strangers?”

“Rainbow, you can't say that!”

“But that's what you're doing!”

Twilight and Rarity both grew very uncomfortable at the sight of such an emotional Rainbow Dash.

“I just don't want to hurt anypony!” Fluttershy cried.

“Then should I leave? Will that make you happy? Let's break up so that you don't have to do anything outside of your comfort zone!”

“Rainbow you know that's not what I want to do! You know that's not—“ Now Fluttershy was angry, and that was a scary sight.

“Not what? Because I—I don't want to date you if I don't mean anything to you!”

“Rainbow you mean everything to me!” Her yell strangled through her tears, “But I can't keep hurting ponies like this!”

“Well then I'll just leave!”

“No!”

Fluttershy jumped up to catch her, but Rainbow was out the window in a flash. And suddenly Fluttershy was even more alone; even more of a monster. She stared at the window for a minute. Nothing happened. Suddenly more tears poured out and she sunk like lead into the mattress.

Rarity and Twilight watched in horror. Twilight whispered to Rarity, “I... what should we do?”

Rarity bit her lip. “We comfort, first.”

They rushed forward and Rarity pulled Fluttershy into a soft hug. Through her tears and the girls' comforting words, she bubbled out, “I'm sorry!”

“Fluttershy, you don't have to apologize,” Twilight said. “Right?” she whispered to Rarity.

Rarity nodded. “We can go chase Rainbow Dash down once you... we get you collected a bit.”

Rainbow sulked inside a dark cloud. “Stupid Fluttershy, stupid town, stupid Applejack...” Rain clouds were nice because when you were inside a rain could you couldn't tell if your face was wet from tears or the cloud. “Stupid, fucking stupid.” She pulled a tuft of cloud together in the gray and squeezed it angrily.

Stupid stupid, can't she see how much she means to me!? Don't I mean anything? UHHHHHGHNGGG! She took a wad of could in her mouth and bit down on it hard, to keep herself from screaming. Aren't I worth anything? Why does she worry about other ponies, why would she try to... to make them happy first? Doesn’t she like – love – me enough to fight for it? Or is she just going to crumble every time we run into any little problem?

For a minute, she wrestled with unhappy thoughts about Fluttershy until they fell onto another pony. Applejack. It's all her fault! If she wasn’t such a bitch none of this would have happened! In a blast of mist she shot out of her cloud and raced to give Applejack a good solid message.

“... perhaps just to keep an eye on her. I'm sure she needs more time to cool down, but Celestia forbid she does something stupid.” She whispered, leaning away from Fluttershy, who was close to falling asleep again, “And being Rainbow dash, of course, that’s highly likely.”

"Right," Twilight whispered back. "I’ll go catch her before something happens. The town is on edge enough as it is."

Rarity nodded wisely, a hoof on Fluttershy's withers.

"I'm going to go talk to Rainbow, okay Fluttershy? I'll be back."

Fluttershy nodded, only just moving.

Rainbow barreled through the sky at breakneck speed, angry tears falling into the wind like bullets failing to keep up. That stupid, hateful little—

“Rainbow!” Rainbow skidded through the air to a halt. She whipped around, and saw twilight hovering there, angrily flapping her clumsy wings. “Just where are you going?”

“I—Applejack!” She choked out, oversaturated with fury.

“Rainbow, Applejack is wrong, but do you really think attacking her will fix anything?”

“But—it’s her fault! All of it!”

“Rainbow, please!”

“None of this—” Rainbow gesticulated wildly, throwing her hooves everywhere and crying openly, “If she wasn’t such a jerk we’d still be friends! The town would still be friendly, Fluttershy wouldn’t be crying if wasn’t for her!”

Eventually, through four very long, tense minutes, Twilight talked Rainbow back down to the ground, where she hugged Twilight so fiercely she knew anger was being taken out on her.

“Are you okay?” Twilight asked tenderly.

“No.” Rainbow released her from her vice-like grip and locked eyes. “But I’m a little better.” She dropped her gaze and continued in a mumble, “I don’t want to see Fluttershy right now. I just... need some more time to cool off. Is it alright if I stay with you?”

“Um, yeah,” Twilight said, “I can keep you company for a while. You can stay the night, if you want, but I’m going to have to drop by Rarity’s first and tell her where I am.”

Rainbow nodded numbly. “I’ll see you at your place, then.”

“Alright.”

Twilight went off to Rarity’s house, and Rainbow stamped her way through the streets to the library. She didn’t feel like flying any more. Ponies in the street gave her diry looks, but they knew enough about her violent nature to not start anything. When she stepped into the cut-oak world of the library, a surprise greeter her immediately.

“Rainbow!” Spike ran up and tried awkwardly to find some way to greet her. He ended up just balling his claws into fists at his chest.

“Hey Spike,” Rainbow said gruffly.

“Rainbow,” He said urgently, “I know something weird has been going on, but Twilight won’t tell me what it is! I haven’t been allowed outside for days! You have to tell me what’s going on!”

Rainbow lowered her eyebrows, “Twilight’s been keeping you locked up?”

“Well, not really locked. But every time I try to get out she keeps me holed up. Gives me something new to do inside. What’s going on? How come the whole town seems so unhappy?”

“It’s, uh.” For a moment she paused and scowled at how Twilight had decided to keep him ignorant. “Me and Fluttershy are dating.”

“What?”

“That’s it, that’s the whole big thing. Spike, I’ll tell you more later but right now I’m just gonna take a shower okay?”

“Uh, alright. Upstairs, to your left.”

Rainbow was already on her way.

Spike thought about it. Who else did they want Fluttershy to date? Was it because they were both girls? But didn’t mares date other mares, like, all the time? Hmm.

Rainbow Dash leaned against the wall, letting the hot water pelt down on her. What a mess, she thought. What a damn stupid, stupid mess. Why can’t Fluttershy just... huuhhhhh. She sank down to her stomach and wearily rested her head on her forelegs. Awful. Awful, awful awful. She needs to apologize. And I... I shouldn’t have yelled. We can talk tomorrow. Fix this shit later.

Almost an hour after she had dragged herself up and started fiddling with the soap, she rummaged wetly through the medicine cabinet. Rainbow knew Twilight often had trouble sleeping. Not insomnia, but close to it sometimes. She knew what would knock her out. Vedquick for sleep was usually what she used, she and found it easily.

She swallowed the pill and skipped brushing her teeth (not that she had a tooth brush here anyway). Out of the bathroom, she could hear twilight talking to spike downstairs. But Rainbow dragged herself further upwards instead, and climbed into Twilight’s bed. They had slept in the same bed before, and if Twilight had a problem with it then she would just have to deal with it tonight.

Slowly, chemically, sleep seeped into her and she lost consciousness.

Twilight and spike talked about lesbians and gays for far too long. At first, Spike thought it was okay, then he thought it was weird, and now he fell somewhere where Twilight was. In between acceptance and uncertainty. When they finally decided to call it a night, twilight found Rainbow sleeping in her own bed. Half surprised and half repulsed, Twilight thought: What should I do? Climb in with her? What if she... enjoys it? What if... no, she’s my friend! I’ve slept next to her before, now shouldn’t be any different. But, she likes mares. If she can’t control herself....

Timidly, Twilight pressed herself under the covers and kept as far from Rainbow as she could, about a hoof’s length. Her hooves dangled off the side, and her back prickled with Rainbow’s distant existence. Just as she was starting to fall asleep, Rainbow stretched in her slumber and hit the base of Twilight’s tail with her back hoof.

Noooo, Twilight thought, squirming.