Fractured Love

Chapters

Chapter 1: It's All Fun And Games
Chapter 2: Until Someone Gets Hurt
Chapter 4: Solace
Chapter 5: Meanwhile...
Chapter 6: Epiphany
Chapter 7: Memories
Chapter 3: Nobody Actually Slumbers At Slumber Parties

Chapter 1: It's All Fun And Games

"Just between the two of us, it's mostly for Fluttershy!"

Simply saying her name made Discord's heart soar. He beamed cheekily at the centaur standing in front of him. "Although I'm sure your aware of the fact that she's not really my friend at all."

Tirek rolled his eyes at the lovesick draconequus. "She's your marefriend, right?"

"Correct-a-mundo!" he exclaimed.

The centaur laughed sarcastically. "And she lets you...what, turn a few trees upside down every now and again? Because she loves you?" He arched an eyebrow at him.

"No, not really," Discord admitted, folding his arms. "The trees part, I mean," he added, brows furrowing. "I know she loves me."

"Mmm-hmm." Tirek shook his head, unconvinced. "Well then maybe she doesn't love you as much as she says she does," he stated calmly and watched as Discord grew visibly sadder.

"B-but..."

He patted the draconequus on the back. "Oh, come now, I don't blame you for falling for her trickery! It's hardly surprising that she would tell you that so you would feel obligated to stay on her good side, keeping you from your true nature."

Discord sniffed. "I...I guess you're right."

Suddenly, his brow creased and his ears perked up. He stood bolt upright and saluted to an imaginary being. "No, ma'am, o'course I'm not actually falling for 'is manipulation!" In the next few seconds, Tirek heard a muffled voice coming from the draconequus' left ear.

"Sorry, Princess! Tell miss Flu'ershy that I'm a'ight, will you?" He paused. "Yes, yes, o'course I know all seven of you can hear me! Sorry, what was that? Eight? Sunset's there too?!" Discord suddenly looked very confused as his voice reverted back to its normal accent. "But I thought she went back to Canterlot High! Oh, right. Wow. Hey, Sunny, why don't I come over there and humiliate you -- see how you like it! Twilight, shush, I can use her nickname too if I want to. Okay, okay! I get it!"

"I don't," Tirek deadpanned. "What in Tartarus is going on?"

"Sorry, what?" Discord turned his attention back to Tirek. "Did you just say you wanted to know what's going on in Tartarus?"

"Ye -- wait, what?!"

"Your wish is granted, my liege!"

Discord snapped his fingers, returning Tirek to his rightful place in a cell in Tartarus. He blew a raspberry at the spot Tirek had once been in, then teleported himself back to Golden Oaks Library

"I'm here, I'm here!" he sang, causing the seven mares and one dragon to jump. The draconequus flashed over to his marefriend, who was playing 'Go Fish' with Applejack.

"Hey gorgeous," he whispered into Fluttershy's ear and nuzzled her. Applejack looked up a the two and Discord glared at her. "Not you, AJ."

"I beg to differ!" Rainbow called, then flew over to sit by her marefriend. "You're opinion is waaaay biased, Discord."

"Thank ya kindly," AJ laughed, gently kissing Dash.

"Oh, and yours isn't?" argued the draconequus.

"EVERYONE!" Rainbow hollered, not breaking her glaring eye contact with Discord. All eyes turned to the pegasus. "Is Applejack gorgeous, or what?"

Six indecipherable answers came from each of them and meshed in a cacophony of positive sound. Dash beamed triumphantly and nuzzled her marefriend while Discord sulked against the wall.

Fluttershy beamed at the pair. "I'm so happy for you two. I was so worried that you didn't like mares, AJ."

"Didn't want me going through the same thing you did, now did ya Flutters?" Rainbow ruffled the mare's mane as she hung her head and blushed.

"Well, at least then we knew that mare didn't -- and still doesn't -- like mares." The Element of Kindness smiled sadly as she collected up the deck of cards and shuffled them.

Discord was completely baffled by their cryptic conversation. "What are you talking about?"

Rainbow waved her hoof carelessly. "Oh, nothing. Fluttershy just used to have a crush on --" She was cut off by Applejack's hoof.

"Who did you have a crush on?!" Discord asked his marefriend eagerly.

"Somepony in this room," Dash blurted, managing to wrestle the orange hoof off her lips for a second.

"Really?" Discord looked around frantically as if he was expecting the pony to have a big red arrow pointing to them.

"I-I'll tell you later, sweetie."

"Awww, party pooper."

"WHO?!" demanded Pinkie Pie and, standing bolt upright, she scanned the room for likely suspects. When her eyes landed on Discord, Fluttershy, Rainbow and Applejack she found they were all pointing at one another for no reason other than the laughs they then proceeded to stifle.

"Which one of you was it?!" Pinkie glared at the four of them, approaching them as if planning to pounce. She raised an eyebrow at the Element of Honesty. "Got anything to say, AJ?"

"Discord called Fluttershy a party pooper, because she's refusing to tell him who she used to have a crush on," the farm mare laughed.

"Awww, so it's not a mystery I can solve." Ponyville's Party Planner's head lowered, perhaps more sadly than was needed.

"Missin' yer coltfriend?" AJ asked.

Pinkie 'mmm-hmm'ed in response. "I've got nothing to do with him gone."

"Seriously?"

"I can't be serious about something I'm not doing, Miss Silly Farm Pony."

Applejack frowned. "Ugh, will ya stop callin' me that!"

Pinkie giggled. "Nope. It's demanded of me that I give you that specific nickname."

Fluttershy intervened, seeing that AJ was starting to get annoyed. "Couldn't you catch a train and meet Cheese where he's going next or something?"

Pinkie cheerily broke out of her staring competition with Applejack. "Nah, my Pinkie Sense doesn't work like his Cheesy Sense. I have literally no idea where in Equestria he is. For all I know, he could be cheering up Gilda in Griffinstone or something."

"Yeah like that'd ever happen," said Rainbow bitterly.

"It could!" the earth mare insisted. "I have ninety-nine-point-nine-nine-recurring percent faith in Cheesy."

"An' where's the other zero-point-zero-recurring-one percent, then?"

"It's in the part of me that hasn't quite fallen in love with him yet." Pinkie nodded her head and trotted over to Sunset Shimmer.

"So," she began as she sat down next to the unicorn, reclaiming the rubber chicken that Cheese had given her, "taking over Equestria with cinnamon rolls: d'ya think it'd work?"

Sunset rolled her eyes. "We've been through this, Pinkie. You and I are the minority: it'd never work because over half the population despises cinnamon, for whatever crazy reason."

"Yeah, but I could use that to my advantage..."

"No!"

"Aw, darn it!"

"...And then you place that card next to the pile that represents its value," Fluttershy finished, demonstrating with the card she picked up.

She was teaching Discord how to play Clock Patience, with Rainbow cutting in every now and again. Each time the pegasus did this, Fluttershy wondered if she was being annoying on purpose or just being Dashie.

"Ahh. That makes sense." He paused. "Shoot, I said it again! Twilight, can you erase the meaning of sense from my memory please!"

"Nope! No idea how to!" Twilight replied. Discord folded his arms and pouted, but then Fluttershy whispered something into his ear and he grinned mischievously. Twilight rolled her eyes as the couple teleported away.

"Spike?"

The dragon opened blissful eyes from his position wrapped in his marefriend's hooves. He was not happy about being directly disturbed, but sat up nonetheless.

"Sorry, but could you possibly write a letter to Celestia to tell he that we've caught Tirek and sent him back to Tartarus?" When he nodded, she beamed.

"You do know you say 'Tartarus' wrong, don't you?" asked Sunset, raising her eyebrow at the alicorn as she lowered her forehooves to the ground as a forfeit to the standing-on-your-hind-legs competition she was having with Pinkie Pie.

Twilight looked at the unicorn as if she had just suggested something dastardly. Sunset continued, "You say it like you're about to say 'tartar sauce', with the emphasis on the second 'tar'. It's supposed to be on the first 'tar'."

The two ex-students of PCSGU stared at one another, saying nothing as the princess' cheeks involuntarily burst into flames. She looked at the ground awkwardly for a long, long time.

"Th-thanks, Sunset," she mumbled.

Sunset bit her lip, laughing awkwardly as she struggled to think of a way to change the topic. She absent-mindedly started tap her hoof on the ground, then slammed it down as she said, "I need to go."

For a moment, Twilight seemed to have no idea what the unicorn meant. But then she nodded in agreement. "Yes, yes...of course, Sunny." The attempt of a casual use of her nickname felt forced to both of them.

"Lets go then, Sparky."

The two said next to nothing on the train to the Crystal Empire. They exchanged glances every now and then, but for the most part they were looking out the window or at the ground.

Well, at least that was the case with Sunset. For Twilight however, her eyes flicked between the aforementioned two places but she kept finding them straying back to the beautiful, smart, impulsive unicorn sitting beside her.

Twilight drew a deep breath as she convinced her eyes to tear away. She then propped an elbow up on the windowsill and laid her head on it in a way that meant her eyes had to squeeze shut to remain protected.

"Tired?"

Twilight clenched her teeth to stop herself from smiling at Sunset's voice, catching her cheeks in the process. "Ow ow ow what the hayIjustbitmycheeks!"

Sunset laughed. "That's a symptom of being tired, Bookworm."

"It hurt." Twilight put on the most exaggerated, melancholy expression she could muster without bursting into fits of hysteria.

"Aww, poor Sparky," the unicorn played along, patting her on the head with an heavy sense of sarcasm. "And in 3...2...1...it's stopped hurting."

"No way, you're a miracle worker." Twilight didn't bother to hide the unenthused sarcasm. She then took one look at Sunset and let out bellows of laughter. The unicorn sniggered and rubbed her forehead.

It died down far, far too quickly. Silence took over them, and they reassumed the cycle of where they looked.

Sunset glanced at Twilight and caught her staring. The alicorn hastily looked away and blushed, much to her annoyance. Sunset thought she probably didn't know how clear the redness was, how clear her feelings were. It wasn't the first time she had caught her indigo eyes fixed onto herself, and it certainly wasn't the first time she had seen her blush.

Sighing, she contemplated for the umpteenth time whether it was worth saying something. But then she saw the Crystal Empire approaching

"We're here."

They got off the train and headed into the shining city. On the way to the castle, they bought some crystal berries because they hadn't eaten since that morning.

Princess Cadance met them at the entrance. "You've still got quite a few of hours before midnight," she said as they walked in. "You should go up to one of the balconies; Celestia is about to lower the sun."

The mares looked at each other and nonverbally agreed on taking up the offer.

Once they were outside again, Twilight decided to speak. "Hey, Sunset: the sun's doing an impression of you."

Rolling her eyes, the unicorn easily stifled the small laugh the joke caused. "Ha-ha," she said dryly. "I'm so famous that even celestial bodies are copying me but -- oh, would you look at that. Sunset is just, like, so last second and now everypony's decided that Twilight is all the rage right now."

"Ugh, tell me about it. Now I know how Fluttershy felt when she was a model."

Sunset giggled and grabbed Twilight's head, turning it towards to sky. "Look at the -- look at the stars. They're sparkling, for crying out loud."

The alicorn peered at them faux-seriously. "No, I'd say they're actually shimmering. Or maybe they're actually simmering, because I can't see that one anymore." She jabbed a hoof in the vague direction of a seemingly non-existent star.

"Which one?"

"That one."

Sunset pointed in the same general direction. "That one?"

"No, that one."

"That one? With a capital 't'?"

Twilight shook her head.

Sunset rolled her eyes and gestured to the alicorn's flank. "That one?"

"Which one?"

"Tha -- okay, now you're just being annoying."

"That was intentional."

Sunset smiled. "Hey, Twilight?" The princess looked up. "Before I forget, umm...I-I have something, to, err...give to you." She conjured up a small box and levitated it over, scratching the back of her neck.

Twilight opened it and found a clearly hoof-made rock candy necklace inside. "Sunset, it's...gorgeous."

"You like it?" She beamed and trotted over. "Pinkie Pie helped me find a way to mix the type of gem that can hold memories into the rock candy recipe, so, um..." She pointed to the one on the far left. "That's Fluttershy's 'Welcome Home!' party, and...that's when you made me and Discord have a chat about 'being the good guys now', and...there's the time we got lost on our trip to Baltimare, and, finally...that's the sleepover we had on Hearts And Hooves Day."

"Because we were the only ones without a special somepony."

"Exactly."

"This is umm..." Twilight searched for the word. "Amazing, and..." She shook her head, "y'know, I think it's so creative and generous that I, um, I kinda hate you for it."

Sunset giggled, taking the necklace so she could put it around Twilight's neck.

"I mean, how could you? You know I love rock candy."

"Yup. That's why I gave you a gift, made of rock candy."

"A-and then you just go, and put these precious memories in them and...I'll have to wear it every day, and not eat it. You're so cruel."

"I know I am."

They smiled at each other, then stood up and walked to the balcony railing. After a while, Twilight had a brilliant idea. Silly, but brilliant. She grinned and sang, "Between light and dark,"

Sunset said nothing, only turned away in light-hearted irritation.

"Come on, Sunny!" Twilight jostled her with her elbow. The unicorn turned around, making an exasperated noise of relent. She narrowed her eyes at the alicorn. Why did we make this a thing, why Celestia?

"Between light and dark,"

"From dark to light,"

"We are two elements of the night,"

"And despite the fact that
You're royalty,"

"You're sti-ill special to-o me."

Author's Note

Hopefully this is alright for a first chapter. I'm sorry to those of you who don't ship Sunlight/were expecting more Fluttercord but this just happened so I dunno at least I'm making a start on my WB sequel, right? :twilightsheepish:

Chapter 2: Until Someone Gets Hurt

Fluttershy opened her eyes as consciousness slammed down on her with an uncomfortable amount of force. Blinking a few times to clear her vision, she saw it was still dark.

All of a sudden, her stomach felt horrible, like she was famished at the same time as being too full. Its contents didn't threaten to lurch upwards, however, so she ignored it for the moment.

Breathing in deeply, she lowered her eyelids. There was no particular reason as to why she had woken up; she hadn't had a nightmare of any sorts. So, reasonably speaking, there was nothing standing between her and somnolence.

Except her growing awareness of the paw draped around her waist, that is.

It bothered her, but she didn't really know why. Discord had slept with her hundreds of times before. She wasn't even very close to him; his right arm was the only part of him touching her.

It just felt...off, somehow.

The pegasus lay there for five more minutes to ensure it wasn't just the cold or the light keeping her awake -- though deep down she already knew she would have to get up sooner or later. With a small sigh, she opted for the former.

Fluttershy slid out from beneath Discord's arm and silently placed her four hooves on the wooden floor. She held her breath as she gently placed one of them forward, then another. Discord was a heavy sleeper most of the time -- in the mornings she sometimes had to wake him up. However, at that moment not only did she not want to disturb his sleep but she also did not want his company.

Suddenly, her stomach twisted and she instinctually galloped to her bathroom, horribly aware of how much noise she had made while opening the door.

She stood over the toilet seat, breathing somewhat unsteadily as she waited for the rush of bile and undigested hay to fill her mouth. Time and time again, she came within a hair's breadth of vomiting -- but eventually her belly relaxed and she did too, to some extent.

Fluttershy curled up against the wall. After a while, she thought about what had happened earlier, about her unprecedented discomfort at being next to her boyfriend.

Boyfriend. Boyfriend, boyfriend, boyfriend. It felt wrong, and not just because Discord was as much a boy as tomatoes were a vegetable. She had had coltfriends before, albeit only a few, but they only put up with her for three months at the most and she and Discord had been a couple for nearly a year.

"Well then maybe she doesn't love you as much as she says she does."

She started at the sound of Tirek's voice, echoing in her brain. She didn't like it, not one bit. Just thinking about how he stripped ponies of their magic is just...dreadful.

The mare was horrified. However, she soon came to realise that it was not because of the sense of terror that accompanied the voice: it was as a result of what the voice was saying.

Truth be told, this was an issue that had been bothering her for months. But back then she had assumed it was just some odd form of paranoia, and now that someone had indirectly told her that she was right, convincing herself otherwise was beyond undoable.

Fluttershy threw her head into her hooves. She couldn't keep this from him. Any fool knows that withholding true thoughts and feelings can mess up any relationship, whether it be between friends, family or lovers. And while she was not by any means the Element of Honesty, she found it relatively difficult to lie, especially to a loved one.

Gradually, the solution crept up behind her but she slipped out of the way before it could pounce and tear out her heart.

The mare scrambled back to her bedroom -- mine and Discord's bedroom, she forced herself to think. To her relief, nothing that felt distinctly like discomfort bubbled forward.

With a content sigh, she climbed back into his arms and snuggled into his fur. Not even a minute had passed before he tightened his grip around her.

His mismatched arms felt warm, and relaxed in such a way that it caused Fluttershy to relax in turn. They were safe. Secure.

They were where she belonged, she decided -- realising that it had just been her paranoia all along.

Twilight's eye hurt.

She knew it did. But she didn't move her hoof from her cheek, because her vision was out of focus and she had trouble waking her brain up again.

In her other hoof was the necklace Sunset had given her. Originally, she had planned to examine it closely to see if she could figure out how Sunset and Pinkie had combined memory crystals and rock candy, but that day it seemed her mind was unwilling to concentrate.

The alicorn tried to smile. Yesterday, Sunset had barely gotten back through the portal in time. She and the unicorn had mucked about with each other for such a long time that Cadance had to send some of her guards to look for them.

"So, what, you just ate it?!" Sunset ridiculed.

Twilight gave a smile. "Yeah."

"Even though it could've contained meat?!"

The princess shrugged. "It's not the first time I've been dared to eat meat."

The unicorn shook her head. "You're crazy."

"I'm no --"

"Pardon me, ladies, but it's nearly midnight. Princess Cadance needs you to hurry up."

The two mares spun around to see a not-so-crystal crystal guard standing a few hooves away. He smiled with one cheek, then carried on walking.

Sunset narrowed her eyes at him. "That looks like...no, it can't be."

"What? What is it?"

"Nothi -- oh my gosh, you're blushing!" Sunset pointed at Twilight and squealed.

She touched her cheeks. "I am no --" she began defensively.

"You've got a cru-ush, you've got a cru-ush, you've got a cru-u --"

"I do not!" Twilight protested, strangely calm.

"You're blushing harder! Of course you do! Oh, I should've known that that's why you come here so much!"

The princess pursed her lips as a part of her screamed to bring her feelings into the argument -- and for a moment, she thought she was going to obey it.

"Sunset..."

"Yeah?"

Twilight opened her mouth, but she couldn't form the words. "I...nothing. Never mind."

Sighing, Twilight shook her head and blinked, bringing herself back to the real world.

She looked at the necklace, at the four crystal pendants hanging off it. She looked at each one individually, sentimental feelings invading her heart as she remembered each one.

Then she got to the last one and froze: it was moving. For a moment, she was amazed at the fact that the memory was animate -- how was Sunset able to pull that off? -- and then she remembered what the memory was.

Twilight was attempting to braid Sunset's mane. Her own was in a neat, loose Prench braid that the unicorn had expertly done a few minutes prior. But now it was Twilight's turn, and she was having no such luck.

The alicorn couldn't hear what the mares were saying, but she remembered lots of laughter and unintelligible words coming out of her own hair-filled mouth. Eventually, the past Twilight gave up and collapsed in hysterics. Past Sunset joined her.

A minute later, they stopped laughing and looked at one another with grins on their faces. Sunset placed a gentle hoof on Twilight's cheek and --

The princess Twilight of the present touched her cheek with her own hoof and found that it was wet. She squeezed her eyes shut for five seconds before she was sure that all the droplets of salty liquid trying to escape were put back in their cells.

She shouldn't be feeling this way. She and Susnet had talked it out, and agreed not to act further upon what they had done. It meant nothing. Nothing...but that only made it worse. Without even beginning to consider the romantic attraction she had towards Sunset, that had been her first ever kiss. Of course it meant something.

Twilight drew in a deep breath, and set the issue aside for the moment. Letting the oxygen mingle refreshingly in her lungs for a while before exhaling, she decided to go and have another look at the six-keyed box the Tree of Harmony had sprouted.

"Sweet Celestia!"

All six of the Elements of Harmony -- plus Spike, plus Discord -- held their jaws agape, as before them stood a magnificent, crystal castle. What was more, it looked like a treehouse -- a rather silly and unnecessarily extravagant treehouse, but a treehouse nonetheless.

The six mares were all panting, since the now unlocked box had filled them with a humungous amount of magic that they had no way to use. They were buzzing with an energy unknown to most, though Twilight found it to be similar to when she had transformed into an alicorn.

"Woah, what is that?!" Spike wondered aloud.

"It's...a castle," Twilight breathed, knowing it was obvious but too stunned to gather her thoughts into words.

"Yeah, no, I meant what is it doing here?"

Everyone looked at one another in search of an answer, but they were as in the dark as each other. "I'll write to Luna and ask what this means."

"Princess Luna? What about Princess Celestia? And since when did y'all start callin' her by her first name instead of her title?"

The princess shrugged. "It's like when you guys started trying to call me 'Princess Twilight'. I knew you too personally for it to feel right, and now that I'm so close to Luna...those formalities just don't feel right either."

AJ nodded. "Fair enough. Now, Ah'm off to Sweet Apple Acres. Ah dunno 'bout the rest of y'all, but opening that box has given me so much earth pony magic that Ah feel like Ah could buck the entire orchard. "Ah won't," she added, seeing that Twilight was arching an eyebrow at her, "but Ah need to get this energy out somehow."

"Can I join you?" Rainbow asked with a smirk, and didn't wait for an answer. She flipped Applejack onto her back and zoomed to Ponyville's orchard at a surprising speed, even for one of her athletic ability.

Fluttershy found herself zoning out on the spot where the couple had disappeared. She blinked herself vigilant and bit the inside of her cheek to stop herself from crying.

"Shall we go?" Discord asked. The pegasus sniffed and turned to look at him with the most convincing smile an anxious and honest pegasus like her could muster.

The next time she opened her eyes, they were in the living room. Discord pecked her on the lips then proceeded to roll round the room in the shape of a donut. Once he had done three loops he unravelled onto the floor with an unceremonious thump and a big, goofy grin on his face. Fluttershy looked at him, feeling guilty that she didn't enjoy his mirth as much as she'd like to claim she did.

"Is there anything chaotic that you're okay with? Like, really chaotic, so not just turning our house upside-down --"

Our house.

"-- or floating around in the pocket dimension I found. And preferably something we can do together, because --"

Together.

"-- I'm feeling super-duper-extra chaotic and in love with you today, how about you?!"

Fluttershy froze.

She said nothing. Discord's brow creased. "Okay, maybe that was a little bombarding, but I do want to do something. Maybe -- no, actually: maybe not. Well, not yet at least -- or are you actually okay with time travel? Because I know some points in history that you would really love, and --"

He was getting lost in his own ideas. Fluttershy took this as an opportunity to look down and wipe her eyes.

"-- your body is probably used to the feeling of chaos magic by now." He paused to take a look at her, and found she looked distracted. "Hey, what's up?" he asked softly.

Goodness, how can I not love him?! What is wrong with me?! Fluttershy gasped, and then she couldn't hold it back any longer. She flung her hooves around the neck of a stunned Discord and sobbed into his fur.

The draconequus was taken aback by his marefriend's sudden wave of sadness. Sure, she was emotional, but...surely she wasn't still appalled by the idea of chaos? They had been together for almost a year now. Still, he didn't hesitate to wrap his arms and wings around her for comfort -- but she wriggled them off, almost as if she...didn't want him to touch her.

"Fluttershy, what's wrong?" There was now distress in his voice. He pulled her back to where he could properly see her.

Her eyes glistened with more moisture than usual as she looked him in the eye. She sniffed, and gently took his paw. "Discord, I..." The words were beaten back down her throat, but she forced them up again. "I...we need to take a break. I need to take a break."

He turned away. "Th-this isn't permanent, I promise! I just need to work out my feelings for you. They're all over the place, and I don't know what's happened, but...I can't...it feels weird for someone to say we're a couple, and it feels off when I kiss you. Sleeping with you isn't as comforting as it was six months ago. I can't live with these discomforts while also organise and understand my emotions.

"I promise, I Pinkie Promise that this isn't goodbye. W-we will continue our relationship, just as soon as I've figured out what on earth is going on with me. P-please...please try to understand that this isn't something I can do while I feel this way. I'm..." She gulped. "I'm...sorry."

A perpetual second passed. Then Discord turned to ~~his marefriend~~ Fluttershy and smiled. "Sure," was all he said, and her face flooded with relief and contentment. Fluttershy hugged him tight, thanking him repeatedly as a weight slowly lifted off her. "I swear to Celestia, this isn't the end of us."

"I know," Discord said, perhaps a little too insistently, but Fluttershy didn't notice. She also probably didn't notice that she was accidentally breaking his heart by indirectly saying she didn't love him, but oh well.

Author's Note

I can't believe none of you lot called this title. I mean COME ON: you never heard the phrase 'Its all fun and games until someone gets hurt'? Ugh. Internet, I am disappoint(I'm not really but for the sake of an Author's Note I'm writing this for some reason)

Chapter 4: Solace

Applejack beamed as she and her fiancée were embraced by their friends. Her face felt a little squished, but that didn't affect her mood in the slightest.

In addition to the loving support of everyone else, Rainbow seemed to be happy about it. Granted, there really wasn't much that could make one unhappy when one was being hugged by all of one's friends, but even so it was wonderful to see her genuinely grin.

They pulled apart. Twilight was the first to speak, "So, when're you guys actually getting married?"

"Oh, we haven't even made plans yet," laughed Rainbow. "But at some point during...the next month?" She looked at Applejack, who nodded in approval. "Yeah, next month."

"Ooo, I'm going to throw you two the best engagement party ever!" Pinkie squealed. "Pity you'll have to wait 'till the day after you told us, since there's no way it'd be done today, but oh well!"

Discord's claw shot up. "I could help, oh Great Inexplicable Chaos-User And Master Of Parties!"

"Really?!" She blinked at him with a grin on her face.

"Of course!"

"Great, lets go!"

Not even a second had passed before they had teleported elsewhere. Fluttershy was mildly confused as to why Discord had been so eager to help somepony. The draconequus did seem to like Pinkie a lot, but she knew he liked Twilight more...and he he hadn't hesitated to ask her about her crush. The alicorn clearly hadn't been bothered by it, but Discord had definitely been aiming to irritate and embarrass her.

So why had he done it? Fluttershy had lost count of the times she had admittedly nagged him about being more selfless. There was no way he had suddenly decided to take her words to heart, especially since she had --

Fluttershy's heart stopped. Oh. Oh.

He was trying to impress her.

The pegasus shook it off, letting her excitement for her friends take its place. After all, Rarity had just brought up the important question of who was to be their best mare.

"A-Ah don't know...any ideas, Rainbow?" Applejack looked to her fiancée hopefully.

"I'd say it's pretty simple: all of you girls and Pinkie are the bridesmaids, Apple Bloom and Scootaloo are flower fillies, Spike is the ring bearer and Macintosh is your stallion of honour."

Applejack thought about it, the other mares staring at her patiently. "Ah kinda thought Twilight could be our best mare, since she's kinda the reason we're together in the first place."

Twilight scratched her head. "Yeah...it's more my fault than anything else, and I don't consider myself very trustwo --"

Dash interrupted the alicorn. "But then Pinkie could also be held responsible, since she's the one who decided to throw Flutters' 'Welcome Home!' party in the first place, to which you invited me as your date."

AJ grinned; she loved having arguments that were mutually light-hearted. "Ah would've asked ya out anyway, since Twilight had already exploited your feelin's for me."

Twilight half-raised her hoof. "I'm legally able to marry you two. Pinkie could be your best mare that way, too."

"But then that ain't fair to Fluttershy and Rarity!" Applejack protested, determined to keep the argument going.

"I don't mind!" the aforementioned mares said in unison.

"Well, I guess that settles it then," said Rainbow grinning triumphantly in her fiancée's face for a few seconds before kissing her on the nose.

"Everything's far from settled, darling. You still have to figure out guests, seating plans for the wedding party, and who's going to give Applejack away!" Rarity squealed, clutching herself she was so excited.

"Say what?" AJ arched an eyebrow.

"Well, you don't have a father -- apologies for putting it so bluntly. You need to decide on who's going to walk you down the aisle -- oh, goodness, just thinking about it makes me giddy with joy!" The unicorn embraced the couple, one of whom was looking far from delighted.

"I have a father, Rarity," Rainbow reminded her, already knowing what Rarity was implying.

Her brow creased in confusion. "Yes, but you're not going to be walking down the aisle, are you? Oh, and that reminds me -- I've already made your dress, Applejack! As for you, Rainbow," she turned to the pegasus, "I'll have to take your measurements sometime this week, otherwise I'll never be able to make your suit in time!"

"Rarity!" Spike yelled, surprising the unicorn profusely as he had been quietly sitting in a corner for quite some time. Unbeknownst to everyone but himself, he had been getting more and more frustrated by what his beloved was saying. "Just stop and think about what you're saying for a second, will you?!"

Rarity cocked her head at him in bafflement. "Whatever do you mean?"

Spike stormed over to where Applejack and Rainbow were stood. He gestured to the former. "Look, Rarity: this here, this is a mare," he said, trying his best not to sound spiteful but ending up with a patronising edge to his voice. He went on the point at Rainbow. "This, this is also a mare -- see, they're both mares."

Rarity remained immensely befuddled while Twilight and Fluttershy edged out the room. She contemplated it for a long while before it finally made sense. To some extent. "Spikey, darling, I am fully aware that they're both of the same gender. You see, sweetie, there are just some roles in relationships that each person takes: there are the stallion's roles and the mare's roles.

"Now, as they are both mares, one of them must take the roles of the stallion and one must take the roles of the --"

"SHUT UP!" Rainbow screeched. "JUST SHUT UP AND LISTEN TO YOURSELF, YOU RUDE, INVASIVE JERK!"

Rarity flinched. "I don't know what you me --"

"Rarity," Spike said, calmly but firmly, "what I was trying to say was..." he searched for the words, "Rainbow and AJ are both female. Their relationship consists of femininity, and femininity alone. What you're doing is suggesting that this is not, in fact, true because you believe that every relationship requires a balance of femininity and masculinity to be considered an actual relationship."

"Lets go, sugarcube," AJ whispered to Rainbow, who glared at the whimpering unicorn as she left the room.

The unicorn's pupils contracted. "I-I'm so sorry," Rarity tried to say, but Dash ignored her.

The full force of what she had done hit Rarity, and it hit her hard. Rainbow heard her breaking down into a volcano of tears as her fiancée rushed her out the castle door.

Once outside, Rainbow tore her hoof away and started towards Sweet Apple Acres. Applejack tried to stop her. "Rainbow, please don't --"

Dash abruptly stopped and growled, "Don't -- don't say anything, AJ. I really don't wanna lose my temper on you."

"Fine, good -- that's great, sugar, just -- please talk to me, don't go stormin' off. Ah was wrong, Ah know, you had better judgement than Ah did. Ah'm sorry."

Rainbow sighed and looked away, too angry to say anything for fear that it would be hurtful and/or idiotic. Freudian slips were her biggest enemy when she got like this.

"Should we go somewhere else?" This drew Rainbow's eyes back to AJ's. The pegasus looked at her expectantly. "Perhaps...Caballus Lake?"

Dash smiled gratefully and began walking slowly, with her fiancée, towards the lake in question; she didn't feel like flying. Caballus Lake was immensely important to both of them. Not only was it next to one of the best woods for moderately risky dares in Ponyville, but it was where they had shared their first 'I love you's.

They stayed silent for the entire journey, but it did not feel like a void as most silences did. Rainbow focused on taking deep, prolonged, refreshing breaths while Applejack focused on listening to her.

When they came to the edge of the lake, AJ looked around and saw that it was deserted, probably due to the grey clouds hanging in the sky; these did not matter to either mare, however.

Dash grinned and did not hesitate to leap into the air and spiral upwards, eventually sealing her wings to her sides to be as streamlined as she could as she shot downwards in a perfect dive. Entering the water sent a fountain of droplets upwards, refracting the little sunlight there was into millions of faint, beautiful rainbows.

Applejack's heart quickened at the sheer sight of it. She reclined at the edge and stared at herself in the water. She spotted ripples appearing in the lake in her peripheral vision; it was raining. But it wasn't cold, so the farm mare stayed there and waited for her fiancée to resurface.

Or, that was what she intended to do. But fate -- or a certain cyan mare -- had other plans.

No less than ten seconds after the rain started to fall, Rainbow sprung up from beneath the water's surface, grabbed hold of AJ's neck and pulled her under with her.

Despite the grey sky making the water seem murky and unclean, it was perfectly alright to swim and open your eyes in it. Rainbow latched her eyes onto her fiancée's -- fiancée. She still couldn't quite get over the fact that she was engaged to somepony this awesome.

Applejack smiled at Rainbow, who was floating a bit above her. She was bathed in what little light there was, with her mane, forelock and tail circling around her in the perfectly imperfect way it usually was. She had a somewhat cheeky grin on her face, one that lifted the contours of her face marvellously.

Applejack unconsciously propelled herself upwards, taking her fiancée with her. She barely wasted a second to take a breath before she pulled Rainbow's lips to hers, feeling Dash's wing beats keep them afloat.

It was a cold day for Ponyville. Most were snuggled in bed, at home, enjoying a warm mug of milk or sleeping in front of a fireplace. But nopony, nopony at all was or could ever be as warm and happy as Rainbow and Applejack were then.

"Fluttershy?"

The pegasus' head jerked up to Twilight's, trying to no avail to be nonchalant. The alicorn sat down next to her.

"You seem tense. What's the matter?"

Fluttershy wrapped the blanket she had tighter round her shoulders. "I-I did it. I...broke up with Discord."

"Oh," was all she could say, but she snuck her hood round the pegasus' frame -- mostly to comfort her, of course, but partially to steal some of the blanket. "Does it feel any better?" she asked.

Tears fell from Fluttershy's eyes. "N-no! It does not feel better!"

Twilight tightened her embrace. "Y-you know what this means, right? It's not just you being paranoid."

"I know," she replied in a small voice, letting out a sob shortly afterwards.

"Hey, it's alright." Twilight looked her in the eye. "Everything's fine. I can fix this, I promise you."

"Pinkie Promise?" asked Fluttershy, more out of habit than anything else.

"Cross my -- hold on." Twilight got up and galloped out of the room and returned a minutes later with a cupcake in her magic's grasp. "Cross my heart and hope to fly, stick a cupcake in my eye." Her eyes squeezed shut as she slammed the cupcake into them. She licked her face. "Mmmm, chocolate."

Fluttershy giggled. Twilight sat reclaimed her spot next to the pegasus. "Seriously: all I need to do is run a few scans of your brain -- which is nowhere near as horrid as it sounds --, trace everything unnatural I find back to its origin and from that figure out the best way to extract it!"

"That...that sounds so simple," Fluttershy said quietly, mildly surprised.

"Because it is!" Twilight ran a hood through Fluttershy's mane to clear it out of her face and plant a kiss on her forehead. "It'll be over before you know it."

"I know, Twilight." Fluttershy hugged her and closed her eyes, finally feeling comfortable. "I trust you."

Author's Note

Caballus Lake -- the Latin name for 'horse' is Equus ferus caballus. Also 'caballo' is Spanish for horse(well duh it's a Latin-based language)
There you go, Missy, now you know part of why. Happy now? Lol probably not because it's only half of why. MWAHAHAHAHA IM SO EVIL XD
Love y'all, constructive criticism is welcome, yadda yadda yadda...you know the rest.

Chapter 5: Meanwhile...

Sunset wasn't looking forward to going back to school. Nonetheless, she had gotten up and left her temporary apartment rather early as she wanted to get there before anyone else.

She saw a few people out running while she walked down the streets, and silently prayed that none of them would recognise her. So far, none of them had.

She kept flexing her fingers and clasping her hands together. It felt so good to have hands and feet again. The wondrous feeling of being able to move the bones at the ends of her four main appendages was something she had missed immensely while in Equestria, though she had had...distractions and the substitute of magic.

She mentally debated over whether having a horn or a pair of hands was better to pass the time. You can feel it when you pick something up...but magic isn't tangible so it can't be hurt. You can't get arthritis in your horn.

Still undecided as to which was more useful, she approached Canterlot High. All of a sudden, the fact that she was back in the human world was all that more realistic.

Anxiety and frantic thoughts exploded within every part of her, making her heart thump wildly. She could no longer feel her legs; she only knew she was walking as a result of her school looming ever closer.

At some point, she subconsciously decided to sprint the rest of the way. She kept her head down; familiarity had long since taken over the steering wheel.

The run had been longer than expected, so she slowed as she came to the CHS statue. Breathe in...breathe out... She made a mental note to start doing more exercise as she walked round the base of the statue and --

She froze; Fluttershy was there.

No. No, no, no. No, no, no no no no no nonononononononononono.

Memories flooded her mind, bombarding her with every push, every shove, every snarky and spiteful remark she had made at this girl in the past four years. Sunset felt faint from the guilt. She had been preparing herself for facing every student she had picked on, but it was no use: the shame was excruciating.

Fluttershy looked at her, terrified. "S-S-Sunset?" she stammered.

The flame-haired girl took two steps forward, hand poised over her mouth in horror at her past iniquity. Tears formed in her eyes as she dropped her bag to the floor and croaked, "I-I'm so sorry."

Her hand reached out, as if about to pull Fluttershy into a hug, but Sunset retracted it quickly, picking up her stuff and bolting elsewhere. She didn't dare go inside the building for fear that some other harsh reminders of how terrible of a person she had been a year ago would be lurking there, so she went round to the back; nobody'll be on the astroturf at this time, for sure.

But, alas: this was not the case. A dreadfully familiar rainbow-haired teen was standing there, leading the few members of the soccer team who showed up for before-school practice in what appeared to be an intense warmup.

Sunset nearly slapped herself. How could she have forgotten about this? Stupid, stupid, stupid...

A brief image of Rainbow Dash the pegasus flashed in her mind, standing next to Applejack. This world's Rainbow wasn't even friends with this world's Applejack, and Sunset remembered that she was the cause of this. She also recalled seeing Rainbow crying after their friendship had ended, and that she had gone over and teased her for doing so.

"Hey, Rainbow," she had began sweetly, "I'm so glad you're feeling a bit tougher today."

"Shove off," Dash croaked. "It's none of your business."

"Oh, what isn't, sweetie? Come on, you can tell your best fwend."

"You're not my friend," she growled, "and I said shove off."

"Oooo, look at that, you're not such a weakling anymore. You're able to stand up for yourself, oh well done."

"GO AWAY! And stop trying to act like you have friends!"

Sunset cackled. "What, like you do? Yeah, I have great friends, gooooood friends, friends friends friends, friends who I secretly have a crush on, oh yes, friends..."

"SHUT UP!" Rainbow leapt at Sunset, who sidestepped out of the way. Dash landed painfully on the ground and Sunset crouched down beside her.

"Stop fawning over her, you dense idiot. You're only hurting yourself."

Sunset cut the memory off before it tortured her even further. What she did not realise, however, was that she subconsciously applied last thing she remembered saying to her current best friend.

"Stop fawning over her, you dense idiot. You're only hurting yourself."

Sunset couldn't take it. She found a somewhat hidden spot, curled into a ball and sobbed.

"Is she alright?"

"I don't know, darling, I haven't seen her in a year. Sunset bullied you before then, though, didn't she? Why on earth are you concerned?"

"Shhh!" Fluttershy exclaimed quietly. "She'll hear us!"

"Oh, pish posh," Rarity waved dismissively. "You didn't answer my question, darling."

Fluttershy took a bite of her sandwich. "Hmm? Oh, yes. She apologised earlier. Like, really apologised. She was crying and everything."

"Really? Uh...okay then. I guess I'll take your word for it."

Sunset sat at the lunch table opposite to Rarity and Fluttershy's. No one was sitting next to or even on the same table as her, unsurprisingly.

"What're y'all lookin' at?" Applejack craned her neck over their pink and purple heads and spotted Sunset with her head buried in her bag.

Fluttershy bit her lip. "I'm going to sit with her."

She got up, but Rarity grabbed her arm. "No! Darling, she may have apologised, but I don't think you should talk to her. Remember what she did to me when I ran against her for the Spring Fling?"

Fluttershy nodded, pausing for thought. "You don't have to come with me." She walked over and set her food tray opposite Sunset. The girl lifted her head in surprise, then started putting her bag back on.

"You want me to leave...?"

"Oh, not at all," Fluttershy smiled. "I came to sit with you. You seemed lonely."

"How did you guess," Sunset muttered, eyeing the empty seats.

"Are you not hungry?" asked Fluttershy. "You don't seem to have anything to eat."

"No, I'm fine. I feel terrible, anyway. If I eat anything I think I'll throw up."

"Oh." Fluttershy picked at her own food, wondering what to say. Out of the corner of her eye she saw Rarity and Applejack leave the cafeteria. "Mind me asking where you've been the past year? You seemed to have changed, a lot...in a good way, I-I mean." The girl kept her eyes down.

Sunset sighed. She really needed to let her feelings out, and it seemed as though this was the only chance she might get. "I've been...travelling," she decided, nodding as casually as she could.

"Travelling?"

"Yeah. Well, for a while at least. I didn't mean to leave for long, but then I met this girl. Beautiful, smart, downright adorable, and kinda socially awkward. If you remember, you gave me that flyer; that was from her. I don't know why, really, but something about her made me go back.

"She's been helping me, far more than I deserve. She's shaped me into such a better person, as you said." Sunset breathed in deeply. "I kinda fell in love with her, and she with me. But, it seemed she only did so much; I sorta broke her heart."

"O-oh." Fluttershy ducked her head shyly. "A-are you alright?"

Sunset clasped her hands together tightly, sucking her lips in as tears formed in her eyes. "No," she whispered. "She was wonderful to me and I treated her like dirt. I didn't deserve to meet her."

Fluttershy wiped her eyes. "I-is there anything I can do?"

Sunset sniffed. "You know Rainbow Dash, right?" Fluttershy nodded slowly. "I wanna apologise for...well," she laughed harshly; now she had to confess everything she had done secretly to Fluttershy and her friends, "Let me start off by saying that...I screwed up, alright? I screwed you and your friends up. I messed with your texts, so that's why you and Pinkie had that misunderstanding --"

"She's still not talking to me," she murmured.

"-- A-and I'm the one who sent Rarity all those e-mails, telling her that Pinkie didn't need volunteers for her various parties. Worst of all, I was the one who told Rainbow Dash that Applejack's bake sale had been moved to another day. If you could tell them all this, and that I'm incredibly sorry, then that'd be wonderful."

Fluttershy thought for a bit. "There's still twenty minutes left of lunch. How about you tell them yourself?"

"-- But I can understand if you all hate me. I know I was a disgustingly mean and vulgar person then, and you can only take my word for it that I'm better now."

The room fell into silence. Fluttershy sat very tensely, unsure of how her friends felt at that moment, and worried that they would put her on the spot by asking for her to side with them.

After one minute passed, Sunset decided to just leave. There was one other person she had to make amends with, anyway. Luckily for her, she still remembered his locker number; she had kept them safely in the back of her mind, just in case.

Flash did not know if her particularly wanted to talk with his ex-girlfriend after school. He thought he had no more business with her, that they were truly done.

The note in his locker, which was now crumpled in his coat pocket, proved otherwise.

When the last bell rang and he made his way out of the school, he thought, hoped that she wouldn't actually be there. But she was, sitting on the edge of the CHS statue, hugging herself.

Flash walked over unsurely. He cleared his throat. "Hey."

"Hi," she mumbled, swinging her legs as a small distraction to her racing heart.

Flash scratched his neck. "...Haven't seen you around in, like, a year."

"Yeah, well, I've been travelling, and changing, and screwing up people's lives," Sunset said bluntly, looking away.

"How d'ya mean?"

She put her head in her hands. "...Flash, can I ask you something?"

"...Sure, yeah: what is it?"

She inhaled and exhaled sharply. "Did I...was I the one who screwed up our relationship? Please answer honestly. I don't need false hope right now."

False hope? "Um...I guess I'm partially to blame, but...yeah. I'd say it was, it was mostly you." He pulled himself up to sit beside her. "Why?"

Sunset looked down. "I met this person. They're in love with me, and...I'm in love with them. But I can't make any moves because I know I'll screw us up too, and I don't wanna do that to them."

Flash looked a her funny. "You're deliberately avoiding using specific pronouns, aren't you? Are 'they' a girl, then?" he laughed, nudging her playfully.

Sunset smiled and waved her hands in surrender. "Ah, you caught me. Sorry. Guys tend to think its weird if their girlfriend has been with other girls."

He smiled. "Yeah, well, you're not my girlfriend, so you have nothing to fear."

Sunset giggled. The two of them sat in thought-heavy silence for a while. Flash put his arm around her, feeling she needed comfort of some sort. "This girl, she did you good. You seem a lot nicer now than you were before."

Sunset smiled weakly. "Yeah, she's kinda amazing. I just wish she wasn't in love with me. It would be simpler then. Y'know, the reason I came here was to get away from her. Sweet goddesses, she makes it so obvious and she doesn't even know it. I don't think I would've been able to hold on for much longer, y'know? I mean, I told her I needed to come here to fix the colossal mess I made, and that's true, but hopefully here I'll be able to move on, and she'll do the same."

Quiet.

"Sorry, I'm rambling. I'm just --"

"No, no, it's alright," assured Flash. "Really, it's fine. You're going through a hard time right now. I'm happy to listen to whatever you have to say, and no that is not a come-on."

The two of them laughed. Sunset continued to talk, and Flash continued to listen, and as the girl walked home that day, she felt she had ended on a good note.

Author's Note

Just a shortish chapter. Sorry if you don't ship Sunlight :derpytongue2:

Chapter 6: Epiphany

"To Applejack and Rainbow Dash!"

Most of Ponyville raised their various drinks with a cheer for the newly engaged couple, then drank and hesitantly carried on doing whatever they had been doing before Pinkie and Discord had made the toast.

The two fiancées beamed at each other and hugged. "Look me in the eye and tell me this don't make you feel amazin'," Applejack said, caressing Dash's cheek.

"This doesn't make me feel amazing," the pegasus grinned cheekily, "but then again I could be lying; honesty's your thing." She pecked her on the lips.

"Aww!" Pinkie cooed. "Hey, you guys! Enjoying the party?"

"Eeyup."

Rainbow embraced Pinkie briefly. Before she pulled away, she whispered, "Guess what? You're gonna be AJ's best mare."

Pinkie cocked her head at the two. It took her what seemed like an age to figure out what Rainbow had said, much to the cyan mare's badly hidden irritation. "Ohhhhhhh. So you're gonna be the bride!" She pointed at Rainbow.

Dash pursed her lips. Even Applejack had to stop herself from face-hoofing right then and there.

Luckily for them, Discord cut in, "What Pinkie meant was that you will be the one walking down the aisle, correct?" The couple nodded simultaneously, though at significantly different speeds. "Now, Miss Pinkster: I spy an argument going on!"

"What?" Pinkie surveyed the room in a split second. "There's no --"

"Oh, sure there is." Discord snapped his tail feathers, and Raindrop and Thunderlane immediately started snapping at each other.

"Oh! So there is! Silly me," she snorted, bounding over. "Hey! No fighting you guys, please!"

A cunning smile crept onto Discord's face. "Hey, dude, what was that?!" Rainbow demanded.

The draconequus stared at her, debating over how he should reply. "I just saved your flank from causing another friendship of yours to crack. You're welcome."

Applejack arched an eyebrow. "Do I even need to ask how ya know about that?"

"You kidding? I've been feeling like I've overdosed on caffeine for almost the entire day, thanks to Rarity and Spike. It feels great." He grinned.

Rainbow's brow creased. "They were fighting for that long?"

The draconequus nodded. "Why else would only Spike be here? The guy loves her to pieces; he knows she wouldn't dare come to a public place and risk upsetting herself and her friends!" Discord's smile gradually became unsettling.

Dash blinked. "That made waaay too much sense. I'm not going insane, am I?" She turned to her fiancée. "That did make sense in your head too, didn't it?"

Applejack nodded. "Yeah. Discord, why aren't ya messin' with us like ya normally are?"

Discord craned his neck to look over their heads, his faux-joyful expression slipping. "Oh, would you look at that: guys, Fluttershy wants to talk to you but she doesn't want to interrupt because she's too polite oh how sweet of her bye!" A flash of light later and he was gone.

The buttercream pegasus glanced guiltily at the ground before approaching the two mares with a smile she found surprisingly easy to fake. "I love you guys, y'know that? I'm so happy for you." She embraced them both. She could feel relief mingling with the mirth in her heart; she had just talked to Twilight, and it seemed that everything was going to be alright, and soon, too.

Then she could get to work with rebuilding her relationship with Discord. She wasn't sure how much more she could take.

But, for now, she had her musical contribution to her friends' wedding to attend to.

"Fifty-eight layers?! Pinkie, are you crazy?!"

"A little bit!" the mare snorted. "But I think I can manage. I'm gonna get every single flavour apple and every single flavour berry into that wedding cake, you hear me?!" Pinkie giggled. "You're welcome to help, if you want!"

Twilight smiled and shook her head. "I can't, but if you wanna come by Golden Oaks later I can lend you some books on berries and apples."

"Okie-dokie-loki!"

There was a knock on the door.

Pinkie set her drink down. "I'll be right back!"

It was Muffin at the door. "Hiya Pinkie! I've got a letter for ya!"

Pinkie's heart stopped.

"Oh, look! It's from your coltfriend!"

Pinkie snatched it greedily from her hooves. She instantly recognised the mouthwriting. Yes, yes, yes! It is from Cheese! The mare hugged it to her chest and squealed. When she opened her eyes, she saw that Muffin was looking slightly longingly into the room behind her.

"Um, Pinkie, I'm sorry to ask, but...can I...?"

"Come in? Sure!" She opened the door wider and stepped aside. "Drinks and snacks and stuff are over there, and our beloved betrothed babies are over there, if you wanna congratulate them."

The pegasus smiled. "Thanks!"

The moment she had entered, Pinkie slammed the door shut and raced to her bedroom. She simultaneously ripped open the envelope and bounced onto her bed, hastily unfolding the paper inside as she expertly found her centre of balance on the soft mattress.

Dear Pinkie,

How are ya, girl? I miss you. Badly. I wish you had come with me, but I get that you wanted to stay with your buddies in Ponyville.

You need to tell me everything that's been happening with you while I've been gone. Romping around Equestria and throwing parties everywhere is awesome, but I kinda feel like something's missing. You might know of her: pink, beautiful, reliable, enthusiastic...

Hint hint: it's you.

So much has happened these past few months! I can't wait to tell you all about it. Well, I can wait: I'll have to wait until the 28th. Meet me at Ponyville train station at sundown then, will you?

I lov I love you, Pinkie

Bubbles and snorts of giddy laughter erupted from the massive grin on Pinkie's lips as she skipped around the room.

Eventually, she collapsed onto her balloon-embroidered quilt with a sigh consisting of the purest of joy. And, as she lay there, she reached the epiphany she had been anxiously awaiting for a very, very long time.

This realisation brought her even more happiness, though that seemed impossible. She could tell him. She could tell him and mean it. She was in love with Cheese Sandwich. She could tell him and have not a seed of doubt in her mind that it was false or mislead.

She no longer felt the need to abstain from her hopes for her future -- their future. For the rest of the evening, she lay there and indulged herself with every dream she knew one day would come true.

Author's Note

Just a short chapter this time.

Chapter 7: Memories

Twilight zoomed through the sky, neatly avoiding clouds in her path and expertly changing the position of her wings according to her direction. If Rainbow Dash were there, Twilight was certain that the pegasus would be impressed by her speed. Usually, the alicorn didn't go so fast -- but today she had a purpose.

"Okay! Okay! I take it back!" Sunset yelled over the wind, giggling uncontrollably. Twilight smirked and came to a slow stop, gradually lowering herself and Sunset to the ground.

Sunset dismounted, took one look at Twilight and collapsed to the grass in a fit of hysteria. "Your mane! Your ma -- oh sweet Celestia --" she got up and stifled her laughter. "It looks brilliant, Twilight: absolutely brilliant."

The princess gave her an unamused look that sent Sunset back to the ground. She stopped laughing, however, when she saw that Twilight wasn't joining her. She gave a mocking grin. "Aww, come on, Sparky, don't be moody."

Twilight raised an eyebrow.

Sunset jokingly narrowed her eyes at her, then pounced and pinned Twilight to the ground. "Lie there," she ordered, "and I promise I'll make you laugh."

A small smile tugged at the alicorn's lips. "Don't you dare tickle me," she warned playfully. "Because if you do I will kill you."

"Sure you will."

Twilight opened her mouth to speak. Before she could say anything, however, Sunset had crossed the alicorn's forehooves on either side of her chest. Then, the unicorn placed her own forehooves on top and started pushing her, over and over again.

She didn't do it particularly hard, so it didn't really hurt -- but it felt weird in a bad-but-kinda-good way. The most surprising thing about it was that it actually worked -- for whatever reason, Twilight started laughing, and she couldn't stop for toffee because Sunset just kept on going.

"Stop!" she begged between giggles. Sunset stopped. Twilight began to sit up, but was pushed back down again as Sunset flopped across her stomach.

As the unicorn casually placed her hooves behind her head, Twilight found she had a clear view of the sensitive fur covering Sunset's stomach.

She couldn't help it. Slowly as she could, she unfurled one of her wings and ever so gently traced the tip down the centre of the yellow mare's tummy. Sunset leapt up in surprise, giggling from the ticklish sensation, then jumped at Twilight. Momentum sent them tumbling over each other in a messy fit of laughter.

Twilight ended up lying on top of Sunset, which made her blush. A wave of guilt and shame came over the unicorn, but she chose not to show it as she asked, "Hey, you okay?"

Twilight looked up into the mare's eyes. She glanced down at Sunset's lips for a second. Sunset understood, though the alicorn tried to hide it.

She sat up. "You know it didn't mean anything," she began softly, "I was just having fun."

Twilight looked away. "Didn't feel like fun to me," she mumbled.

Sunset's heart sank. "Look, I'm sorry. I was caught up in the Hearts and Hooves Day atmosphere. It meant nothing."

She felt evil saying that; completely and utterly evil. Who in Equestria was she to have the ability to mess with the lavender alicorn's emotions? It wasn't fair for her. Truth be told, Sunset hadn't known that Twilight felt for her so strongly when she kissed her.

She couldn't deny that she had been hoping Twilight felt the same, and before they went to bed it seemed as though they had started a beautiful relationship. But as Sunset had lain awake, she had realised that it wouldn't work, and that by continuing whatever they had begun would only hurt the alicorn.

An idea came to her. She knew it would work. "Well," Sunset began in a voice of ridicule, "do you want to kiss me again?" She got up, trying with all her might not to let her conscience get to her. "I mean, really."

"No!" She didn't even falter. "I mean, you're gorgeous and all, but you're just not my type, okay?" We're both putting it on. "No hard feelings?" Her voice is gentler this time.

"'Course not," Sunset beams. "That's why I asked." In a last attempt to make her feel better, the unicorn added, "Can't have my bestie harbouring secret feeling for me. I do love you, though."

Twilight smiled. "The feeling is mutual, Sunny," she replied, because, at this point, that was all she could really hope for.

Fluttershy rubbed her eyes and blinked her vision clear as a miniature, magenta, magical cloud lifted from her head. It made her feel slightly dizzy. That's just the spell, she reminded herself. It's fine, Twilight said that blood would rush to my head.

"You okay?" asked the alicorn as she carried the cloud over to her book. The pegasus nodded, shook her legs out, and stood up.

"What's it say?"

"Well, it seems to be giving mixed signals," Twilight answered. "One moment it's dark magic, the next it's necromancy, then it's rage, and now it's..." Twilight blushed. "A-anyway. It does, actually, seem a lot like chaos magic, so well done for recognising that even though you're a pegasus."

"Thanks," Fluttershy said, more as a dismissive statement than gratitude.

"The thing is," the princess continued, "there are traces of what strongly resemble your element's magic."

"The magic of kindness."

"Exactly." Twilight furrowed her brow and further studied the pages of her book. "Which leaves us with two possibilities: either your suspicions were, sadly, correct and Discord has cast some sort of spell on you, or it's something to do with you turning to stone."

Fluttershy frowned. "Why would there be kindness magic mixed with the chaos magic if Discord," she gulped, barely able to say it aloud, "cast a spell on me? Is the magic in me trying to fight it or something?"

"No, no," Twilight grinned, "quite the opposite. The two magic types are bonded, which actually makes sense." She giggled. "It's like a magical compound bonded through chemistry!" Twilight flashed a smile at the pegasus in the vague hope that she would be entertained by the joke, but the grin lingered for no more than a second.

Fluttershy walked over to Twilight and sat down next to her. "How so?"

"It's kinda linked to the second possibility, actually. So..." she paused to think of a good way to describe it. "The Elements of Harmony are built to seclude enemies of peace in a secure prison. So when we used them against Discord, a chaos entity, he was wrapped in something light-coloured and...reliable, I guess.

"But when The Elements were used against you and Discord, something happened. You can't use kindness magic to defeat kindness magic. As a result, the excess kindness magic mixed with Discord's chaos magic, and then the rest of The Elements imprisoned him — and you — like before.

"When the magics mixed," she grinned, "that does not sound grammatically correct. Yeah, some of your magic got permanently inside him and vice versa. Either that or he's using your love for him as a power gain and that's why his magic is a little mixed with yours."

Fluttershy stared at her in surprise, tears forming in her eyes. "Do you even comprehend what you just said to me?!"

Twilight blinked, then it dawned upon her. "Oh, oh, Fluttershy, I'm so sorry! I..." She cleared her throat. "There's no excuse for that. I'm sorry, Fluttershy, and I --"

"How can we fix it?" Fluttershy demanded, sniffing grotesquely. "Is there a way we can know for sure?"

"Ummm...yes, but you're not going to like it." Fluttershy's eyes remained eager as ever. "If he's using you, using your love, then you...you'll need to cut him off in...that area." She took a breath to compose herself. "You'll need to break up with him."

Fluttershy was motionless. She wanted to reply, she wanted to cry out, she wanted to channel some of the heart-wrenching emotions that were inwardly destroying her into words, noises, tears, anything.

But she couldn't. And a bang! of teleportation from downstairs didn't make it any easier. "Speak of the devil," Twilight muttered bitterly. She got up to greet the draconequus, but stopped as Fluttershy called out.

"Wait!"

The alicorn turned to the shaken, broken pegasus.

"I...I'll do it. I'll do it. I'll break up with him."

"Bye-bye, lovelies!" Pinkie waved to the group of Ponyvillians exiting Sugar Cube Corner. "Oh, and Lyra, Bon-Bon!"

The two turned, each with looks of annoyance on their face.

"When're you two getting married?!"

They sighed in exasperation and stormed away. Applejack tapped Pinkie on the shoulder to get her attention. "Sugarcube, they ain't datin'. Not even sure they like mares, let alone each other."

"Really though, Applejack?" Pinkie arched an eyebrow, unconvinced. "With the tender touching, the loving way they say they're besties and the held gazes, one would think even you could tell that they're madly in love with each other!"

"Pinkie, they're –" AJ sighed. "Fine, go get Twilight to cast her who-do-ya-love? spell on 'em, then."

"Shall we leave?" Rainbow suggested, with just a hint of spite in her voice.

"Definitely," agreed her fiancée. "Mine or yours?"

"Mine."

"'Kay," Applejack smirked. "Hey, Discord! Can ya cast that walkin'-on-clouds spell on me please?" she yelled to the draconequus, who had rejoined the party after some hesitation, on the other side of the room.

Discord snapped his claws instantly. Unwilling to believe that he had actually done anything, Rainbow picked her fiancée up. She was indeed lighter, light enough to walk on clouds.

"Hey, chaos-boy!" Dash hollered. "You forgot to turn her mane into syrup!" The draconequus didn't seem to hear her, so she instead turned back to Applejack and simply stated, "He's gonna screw us over later."

She nodded with a laugh as Rainbow took off and zoomed out.

Fluttershy had been lingering behind a coat rack while the crowd dissipated, and now she knew she had to leave. She didn't want to interact with anyone still in the room; she just wanted to go back to Twilight's and sleep.

She slipped outside and braced herself for the cold. For once, she was grateful for the tall shadows casted by surrounding houses; her incessant fear of the dark was no match for the wrenching anxiety of unwanted company in her heart.

She did not want to see Discord. She couldn't face him now. He may not know of what drove her to end things between them, but she knew, and it was a tear in their trust that she knew would take a long, long time to patch.

Fluttershy blinked away the expected tears welling in her eyes and carried on, her pace unconsciously quickening. She could see the tree now. It was close, so wondrously close...

"Fluttershy!"

The pegasus froze. She felt faint. There was no escape.

She let out a sob and collapsed to the ground. Soon enough she felt mismatched arms encasing her, rocking her soothingly. For whom the soothing was, she did not know. Maybe both of them.

"Discord..." Fluttershy mewled. He let go.

Without thinking twice she leapt to the air and flew faster than she ever knew she could. Something stopped her once she was ten metres up, however. Maybe she knew, even before she looked behind her, that the mess of an equine slumped below would trigger realisation of how utterly selfish it would be to keep flying away.

Fluttershy was on the ground before she knew it and was hugging him, hugging him with almost aggressive affection. "It's okay," she said. "It's okay, baby, it's okay." She felt him stiffen at the pet name. Drawing herself out of the hug, she stared deep into his eyes.

She had distanced herself so much through the fear that he might be using her, to an extent that she had not realised until now; and now was the time where she desperately scrabbled at the memories of who he was, who he is, that she had so painfully repressed when she had first realised the most likely source of the magic affecting her.

It wasn't enough. The memories were there; she knew who he was in theory, but they felt so alien that they may as well have been conjured up by her imagination.

She needed to go.

In what she wished she could call a reluctant act, she turned around and didn't look back.

That is, until he cried, "Do you have any idea of how much you mean to me?!"

Fluttershy's heart contorted in the same agony she felt when having to put down one of her many pets. Only it was more, and she knew it. Sighing, she sank to the ground and perked he ears up to show that she was listening.

"I love you." He sounded angry, almost, but she hear the sadness through his shaky voice. "I had never loved anyone before you."

Fluttershy bit her lip. He was closer now: she could hear him behind her, longing for her to turn around.

She didn't.

He took off and was gone in a heartbeat. The pegasus stood up and forced herselfto walk towards Golden Oaks, tears dripping down her face that she had not felt forming. She wanted to be able to fly after him and tell him sincerely that she loved him, but it just wouldn't be true.

Things would be cleared up tomorrow, though. So long as everything went smoothly, her head would be cleared of chaos magic by the afternoon and she would be able to get to work with rebuilding her relationship with The Lord of Chaos.

It would be a lot of work, and she knew it, but a distant voice in her head told her that it would be worth it in the end.

Author's Note

Sorry, guys. I really haven't felt any inspiration to write recently, especially with the sad like-to-dislike ratio on this; I just haven't been bothered.

Chapter 3: Nobody Actually Slumbers At Slumber Parties

Applejack took off her hat as she wiped her forehead. The soft breeze felt heavenly on her heavily perspiring body as she made her way back to her house. There was a light ache in her mud-caked hind hooves from all the bucking, but it didn't bother her.

It had certainly been worth using her extra strength on the orchard. The surge of earth magic was mostly gone now, but she had cleared a decent section of the trees and ploughed a field in record time, even with Rainbow pestering her.

Whoosh. AJ shielded her eyes from the sun and looked up to see a predominantly blue rainbow shooting towards her. Speak of the devil.

Thump. "Hey baby."

Applejack felt a strong yet soft wing wrap around her, and smiled: they were both sweaty. "Hiya sugar. What's the time?"

Rainbow paused, crossing her eyes in thought. "Like, five thirty or something. Why?"

AJ's brow furrowed. "Twilight's hostin' a slumber party tonight, remember?"

Dash narrowed her eyes, grinning. "Oh yeah! Kinda thought it was cancelled, what with her new castle and all."

"Nah, she came by about ten minutes ago. Apparently Discord's helpin' her out with games and stuff."

Rainbow snorted. "As if."

The earth pony shrugged. "It could happen. Them two are pretty darn close, not to mention Discord would probably give up his magic if Flutters told him to."

"Fair enough."

They got to the main house, went inside and took a shower together.

"To save water!" Dash had said with a wink. Applejack rolled her eyes.

Once they were dry, Rainbow insisted that AJ wore her mane down.

"It's just a slumber party!"

"So? You look so much prettier with your mane down! And besides: you complain about losing your mane ties all the dang time. Are you not more likely to lose them by taking them out at a slumber party?!"

"Ah do not complain!"

"Yeah you do!"

"Do not!"

"Do too!"

"Do not!"

"Do too!"

"Fine! Ah'll wear mah goshdarn mane down!"

"Ye --!"

"But you have to wear your necklace!"

Rainbow narrowed her eyes. "My necklace, as in The Necklace?"

"Yeah, yeah, whatever. Please wear it! Ya look so much prettier with your necklace on!" Applejack did a mocking impression of her marefriend, who glared at her teasingly for a second before going to find the accessory in question.

When she returned with it on, Applejack smiled. She had "accidentally misplaced mah mane ties" in the time that Dash had been gone.

The pegasus kissed her tenderly, running a hoof through the loose golden locks. Then she kissed her again, pushing her back onto the bed. After a few seconds, however, Rainbow got up and dashed towards the jewellery box sitting on AJ's bedside table. From it, she pulled out two rings: one encrusted with a ruby, a citrine and a sapphire and the other adorned with emeralds.

"Five minutes?" she asked, somewhat sheepish. Applejack seemed hesitant. "Please, AJ! Just five minutes as fiancées?"

"You're still engaged to me even when Ah'm not wearin' that, you know," deadpanned Applejack. She let Rainbow slip the ring onto her hoof, regardless. Rainbow climbed back into bed and snuggled in to her.

A minute passed. "If you were plannin' on keepin' our engagement secret, then why did you propose in the first place?"

"AJ..."

"Ah'm serious! Ah hate keepin' secrets, and you know it! It ain't fair, Dash! Ah wanna tell 'em!"

Rainbow shuffled a hoof or so away from her and looked away in annoyance. Sighing, she admitted, "I do too, AJ. But you know how they'd react. They already view us as 'the cutest couple' in our friendship group purely because we're of the same gender. I hate feeling like we're this rarity in the romance world, like we're somehow special because we're both mares."

AJ paused. "You make a good point, sugar. Perhaps...perhaps we could ask 'em not to...?"

Rainbow shrugged, unconvinced. "Eh, maybe." She gave it some more thought. "Actually...yeah, okay. Let's do that."

AJ kissed her on the cheek. "Thanks, sugar."

"No probs, babe."

Fluttershy silently scolded herself for not bringing a scarf as she walked at a slightly hurried pace towards Twilight's new castle. She quickly rubbed her leg to knock some sort of warmth into it, but it lasted for only half a minute. She sighed, watching her breath swirling up into the sky.

Her cottage and the castle were on complete opposite sides of the town. She briefly wondered if flying would do her any good, but then remembered that her weak wings did not respond well to cold.

She wished Discord was there. That way, she would be over to the warm inside of Twilight's castle in an instant. But alas: Discord was with Twilight, supposedly helping her but probably irritating her more than usual.

The draconequus had responded ridiculously well to Fluttershy breaking up with him. So well, in fact, that it looked as though he was faking it. In hindsight there was nothing wrong, but the insistent demeanour of his words were unsettling and caused her to wonder if he was hurting badly, and if she should even be going to see him after such a short --

"Hey Fluttershy!"

The mare flinched at the squeaky, cheerful, and slightly muffled sound of Pinkie Pie calling her name. The party pony bounded over to where the frozen pegasus could see her; she was wearing a extraordinarily long baby blue scarf that covered the lower half of her face and her entire neck.

"You cold?" she asked but didn't need an answer. The soft cotton was soon wrapped around both mares' necks, binding them together as they walked. Fluttershy didn't say anything for a while, and surprisingly neither did Pinkie, for there was something on her mind.

"Fluttershy?" she asked, serious and less excited than usual

The pegasus looked at her briefly to show she was listening, but then went back to concentrating on the path ahead.

"How do you know when you're in love with someone? I mean, I know for sure when I love someone, platonically or romantically, but...how do you tell that your affection has reached its peak?"

Fluttershy bit her lip. She felt like crying, but didn't know why. "I-I don't know, Pinkie. You just feel it."

"But how do you know you feel it? 'Cuz there are moments where I know I love you guys, and I feel it with every fibre of my being, but at other times...and I know this is mean, but...I-I wonder why I'm even best friends with you. How do you know whether it's just one of those sorts of moments or not?"

"P-Pinkie, I just...I can't..." She took a deep breath. "I'm trying to work that out myself, really. I've been contemplating my feelings for Discord for a while now, and...w-well, I broke up with him about an hour ago."

"WHAT?!" Pinkie shrieked.

"Don't tell!" Fluttershy begged. She wondered, however, whether Discord had chosen to be secretive about it as well or blurted it out, all passive-aggressive, to the first pony willing to listen.

"Sorry, I just...I don't get it!"

"Neither do I," Fluttershy whispered as the castle came into view.

"...Was he...upset?" Pinkie asked, choosing her words carefully as Fluttershy seemed on the verge of tears.

"H-he didn't, um..." Fluttershy looked to the pinky-orange sky, widening her eyes so the collected moisture on her waterline would spread out. She sighed. "He was alright with it, I think. I...hope." The last two words came out as a whisper.

"That's...good." Pinkie wrapped her hooves around the pegasus -- and surprisingly she did it in a way that didn't make her victim strangled for air. "'Cuz, otherwise, tonight's sleepover would be reeeeally awkward." She let go and started back on their path towards the castle. "Discord's so passive aggressive, no offence."

"Oh, none taken," Fluttershy smiled sweetly. She saw the tops of Pinkie's cheeks rise.

"So, what games do you think we're gonna play?!" she exclaimed, cheered up a bunch.

Fluttershy decided to set her feelings aside and enjoy the aura of joy Pinkie had, since the party pony had done the same and now seemed as carefree as she usually was. "Oh, I don't know. I'm betting they'll be some truth or dare at some point, though, since Rainbow and Applejack are gonna be there."

"Yeah. Ooo, if I dare on of them to propose to the other, do you think they'd do it?! 'Cuz I think I've got a ring in here somewhere..." She stopped to rummage around in her mane, and -- "Aha!" she pulled a plain gold ring out triumphantly. "It would be sooooo cute to see that happen, especially between them!"

Fluttershy beamed, pushing at the castle's door. "That would be fantastic, but you know Rainbow: she doesn't really like to be affectionate in front of other ponies, even us."

"It could happen!" the party pony insisted, evoking a giggle from the pegasus as they squeezed awkwardly inside. They were relieved to finally be able to take the scarf off and walk freely again.

"TWILIGHT! WE'RE HERE!" Pinkie sang. Moments later the alicorn appeared in a flash of magenta.

"Hey guys! Everyone's upstairs. And by everyone, I do just mean Spike, Rarity and Discord; AJ and Rainbow haven't arrived yet."

"Okay, cool!" Pinkie bounced up the stairs. Fluttershy followed her, smiling as she noticed that the party pony had somehow stashed the impossibly long scarf into her mane in just twenty seconds or so.

"Helloooooo, everyone!" Pinkie greeted, joining the square they had formed; Twilight had teleported back upstairs. Fluttershy kept her head down and seated herself half-behind Pinkie. The deliberate distance did not go unnoticed by Rarity, but she chose not to say anything. Instead, she suggested to Spike that he made them all hot cocoa.

"So, Twilight: how's the new castle?" Pinkie asked, saving everyone from what would've otherwise been an awkward silence.

The alicorn screwed up her face as she ran through ways to describe it. Finally, she decided on the perfect one, "...Disappointing."

"Really?"

"Yeah. I had hoped that this would give me some insight as to what my role as a princess is, but I guess not. Also, it's kinda cold. And huge."

"You don't say," Rarity said, idly eyeing the walls as she took a sip from the mug of cocoa that Spike had brought her. "Thanks, darling."

The dragon went to each mare, eliciting a "thanks" or "thank you" from each of them. Finally, he offered one to Discord.

The draconequus' expression was unreadable. No one had noticed it until now, but he was staring at the wall -- brow furrowed, fists clenched and lips pursed --, obviously lost in his own thoughts.

"Uh...Discord?"

In an instant, he snapped out of it, took the mug and downed it in one like he hadn't drank in days.

"Thanks, little guy." Spike grumbled as he took his own mug and reclaimed his spot next to Rarity.

Discord slapped his hands together. "So: games."

Twilight blinked herself out of her thoughts. "Oh, uh...right, yes." She pulled out a crumpled sheet of paper from under the pillow she was seated on. "Number one: 'Truth or Dare'. As soon as Ponyville's Most Daring Couple arrive, we can get this one out of the way."

"Awww, Twilight, don't be like that!" Pinkie exclaimed. "'Truth or Dare' is loads of fun!"

"I know. I'm just not looking forward to it, thanks to a certain someone." She shot a glare at Discord, who put a paw to his chest innocently. Twilight cleared her throat. "Number two: Pillow Wars."

"Pillow fights?" Rarity arched an eyebrow.

"Nope: Pillow Wars. Sort of like indoor paintball with pillows."

"That sounds fun!" Pinkie exclaimed, nodding at everyone to make them agree. The mood was far from cheerful, and she was determined to change that. However, she didn't have to as moments later a ruckus of laughter erupted from the floor below.

"Ah won!"

"No you didn't, I clearly got in before you!"

Some galloping hoofsteps and more laughter later, AJ -- now visible a the top of the stairs -- declared, "No, Ah won!"

A second passed before Rainbow tackled the farm mare and sent them rolling about the room. When the momentum ran out, Dash found herself on the ground beneath her marefriend's hooves. "Pinned ya." She leaned down to nuzzle her.

Once released, the pegasus trotted over to the group and said, "Hey guys. So: what's first?"

"Do it, do it, do it!" chanted everyone who wasn't Rarity as the unicorn moved her head away from the glass of orange juice she held between her hooves. Perhaps if I just drop it...?

"And don't ya dare think of backin' out," said Applejack with an evil grin on her face. "You've come this far."

She hesitantly took a sip -- then recoiled in disgust. "Ugh, why Applejack?! Why?!" With a big effort, she unceremoniously drank the whole thing. "There!" She triumphantly tossed the empty glass to the earth pony. "Twilight, promise me you'll never buy that extra-minty toothpaste again!"

The princess only giggled.

"Right, now who do I get to dare?"

"Anyone!" said Twilight with the kind of laugh one could only pull off if one was in an incredibly silly mood. "The rules kinda went out the window in the very first round."

"Yeah, well that's because you let Discord go first." Rainbow stifled a laugh.

"Applejack, I dare you to cover half of your face with zap apple jam and cover the other with peanut butter, then not lick your lips or anywhere round your mouth for the rest of the evening!"

The farm mare glared at her. "What kind of peanut butter?"

Rarity grinned maliciously. "Smooth."

"You evil little monster."

Discord conjured up the two items and gleefully handed them to the infuriated earth pony. She dipped her hoof in the peanut butter, deciding to get that one over with first, and cringed. Rolling her eyes, Rarity reached forward and slathered it all over AJ's right cheek and around her right eye, laying it on as thick as she could. She then proceeded to do the same with the jam, only on the left of her face.

By the time she was done, Applejack's jaw was clenched and her brow was furrowed in a glare that made Rarity giggle with sadistic glee. "Now," she said through her teeth, "Ah'm not gonna dare ya back. Instead, Ah'm gonna ask you, Rainbow," the pegasus turned to her, "a truth."

Dash froze as she waited for AJ to ask her...whatever she was going to ask. They had a silent conversation, and when Rainbow figured out what AJ was going to ask, her eyes pleaded with her in a desperate attempt to get her to not say it. However, AJ did not obey.

"What did ya do on the evening of the first Saturday of last month?" Applejack said, lengthening every word.

Rainbow bit her lip. Need a good lie, need a good lie need a good...

"C'mon, Dashie, hurry up!"

...lie.

She scratched the back of her neck in faux-awkwardness. "I...was at Pinkie's." AJ's face fell. "I'm sorry, I just don't really like Braeburn. He irritates me so much."

AJ looked down. "Fair enough, sugarcube."

Rainbow could see that Pinkie was about to object and ruin her trick, she she spoke fast: "Okay, now I dare Discord to be a pony for the rest of the afternoon." It wasn't one of her best, but his frustrated reaction was sufficient.

The draconequus-turned-pony grinned when he realised it was his turn now. He had been waiting patiently for a while because the moment his first turn had finished he had thought of a better way to use it.

He turned to Twilight with a sly grin on his face. "Sparky, who do you have a crush on? And might I remind you that I can tell when you're lying."

Twilight took a deep breath, considering the question that she had known he would ask. She had mulled over it for quite some time, and really...what was the worst that could happen? Everyone in the room liked Sunset and if she answered smoothly Discord wouldn't have the satisfaction of seeing her be embarrassed.

"Sunset."

"REALLY?!" every other Element of Harmony exclaimed in unison.

"Mmm-hmmm." In her peripheral vision, she could see Discord folding his arms.

"I knew it!" Spike declared. Twilight wondered how he had figured it out, but the answer came to her a second later and she prayed that he wouldn't tell. Fortunately, no one asked, and no one noticed when she blew a sigh of relief.

"Right, I think that's a good way to bring this to a close. Next: Pillow Wars!"

When everyone had been sufficiently worn out from being struck by pillows, smothered by collapsing cushion forts and sick of stuffing marshmallows into their mouths, they dropped off to sleep: some next to each other, some snuggled in the ruins of a beanbag-based castle.

Applejack, while blessed by the warmth of her marefriend, could not stay asleep. She had no trouble pinpointing the reason, and eventually she rolled over and woke Rainbow with a little shake.

The farm mare led her by the hoof into a room at the other end of the castle, shutting the door firmly behind them. By this time, Dash had figured out why her sleep had been disturbed and avoided eye contact.

"What was that?!" she demanded, keeping her voice low even though no one sleeping would hear her. "What was that?!"

"You know darn well what it was," Dash snapped. "I don't want them to know."

"You promised me you'd tell 'em!"

"I made no such promise. I just --"

"Dash, Ah mean it! Why did ya do that?"

"Because it's not just them that's the problem! Have you not seen ponies clapping whenever I hold your hoof in public or cheer when we enter a restaurant?"

Applejack sighed. "'Course Ah've noticed, Dash."

"Then it shouldn't be that hard for you to figure out why I'm so hesitant to tell equines we're engaged!"

AJ rolled her eyes. "Their reactions shouldn't matter! It ain't hard to figure out that those things will only occur more often, Ah'll give ya that. But they're not gonna change that awkward, avid supportiveness, whether we marry or not!" She calmed herself. "Look, if you're that worried then Ah can just break up with ya, 'cuz this is just stupid."

Rainbow's heart plummeted. "W-what?! No!"

"No? Well can ya please decide whether ya care about them or me more!"

There were tears in Rainbow's eyes now. "It's you, AJ! It's always been you! I love you! Please, don't do this!"

"If ya love me then can ya please just set this issue aside?"

"Okay! Okay, I promise!" she sobbed, sinking to her haunches. Applejack wrapped her hooves round the pegasus, who clung back desperately. Five minutes later, she whispered, "Don't scare me like that, ever again."

"Ah won't. But should we go and get some sleep now? Pinkie'll get everyone up at six and right now it's past midnight."

"Yeah, 'kay."

Author's Note

In case ya haven't figured it out already, I'm calling AJ/RD marefriends whenever their friends are around(well, until they know at least) even though they're engaged.

Right, now I've set up the three main plotlines of this story, the real stuff can begin!