"I don't know if you're here to cheer me up, or what. But I'm... fine," Rainbow Dash declared as she slammed the side of her head against the pillow.
The other five could only glance at each other with concern. Everypony seemed at a loss for what to do; it wasn't like her to be so depressed like this.
"Let me handle this," asserted Fluttershy as she approached Rainbow's bed. The other four looked on with curiosity; they knew that Rainbow and Fluttershy had been friends since they were fillies, so perhaps she had something in mind.
Fluttershy knew what she was doing; she had been through these kinds of emotions before, and knew what had to come next. But as she approached the bed, she felt a pang in her heart, knowing full well what the outcome would be; it wouldn't be pretty. It wouldn't be nice. But it was necessary at this point.
"Rainbow Dash," Fluttershy began, "your Winter is going to be," she hesitated for moment before continuing with the final blow, "...petless."
Rainbow's eyes shot open in surprise. She suddenly sat up, away from her pet tortoise, and glanced at her longtime friend for a moment. Before she could form any coherent thoughts, she started feeling an almost excruciating pain in her chest. Her eyes began to well up. The emotional walls she had built up since she was a filly had begun to crumble; she couldn't be the tough pony anymore. Not right now.
And soon enough, the floodgates were thoroughly decimated.
The other four could wear nothing but a combination of surprise and heartbreak for their friend--the pony who had once acted so tough and headstrong, was now crying hysterically with her beloved pet cradled in her arms.
Fluttershy put on an unmoving expression. Her instincts were begging her, screaming at her, to provide comfort to her best friend. She absolutely wanted to. But she knew what she was doing.
"Whatever did you do that for?" Rarity questioned with a hint of shock and surprise in her voice as she gazed over at the yellow mare in an attempt to read her expression. Fluttershy didn't flinch one bit, and looked over towards Rarity.
"Because she'll never get past this until she lets it all out," she revealed.
Rainbow's outpouring of emotions continued for what seemed like an eternity. Applejack had tried to reassure her with the fact that her pet tortoise would return in a few months, but it only seemed to make things worse.
"Nice goin', Fluttershy. How do we get her to stop?" AJ whispered. Fluttershy glanced down at Rainbow's vulnerable and exposed form. It had taken everything in her strength to let her have her space, but she knew she had to intervene at some point.
"She's gotta be about done now. Can't be too much left in there..." Fluttershy stated with a hint of uncertainty.
After a moment, Rainbow had begun to quiet down. Fluttershy's ears perked up for a moment in surprise, believing that the worst was over. She broke out of her purposefully stoic demeanor and slowly lowered her flank on the edge of the bed, giving a softer, more concerned expression towards her grieving friend.
"Feeling better?", she questioned with her trademark soft vocals.
Rainbow, barely able to see in front of herself from her watery eyes, could only let out a meek "U-uh huh...".
Another wave of emotion hit her rather brutally. She burst into a crying fit once again, causing Fluttershy to flinch in surprise. This had hit Rainbow harder than she was expecting, and now Fluttershy was beginning to feel waves of regret. The last thing she ever wanted was to hurt her best friend.
She couldn't help but tear up herself as she began kicking herself for coming up with this idea in the first place. She could barely take the pain in her chest anymore; she had to do something.
Fluttershy's instinct began to kick in.
"You poor... poor... thing," she managed to mutter before closing in on Rainbow's emotionally raw form.
She put a hoof on the side of Rainbow's head, pulling her close, feeling the warmth of their faces and bodies pressed together.
For a moment, everything else seemed to melt away as the two cried together. Fluttershy hadn't gotten this close to Rainbow before, and something about it felt... natural to her. And special somehow. She had wished the circumstances were happier, but she nonetheless felt closer to Rainbow in that moment than ever before. Closer, and yet... strange.
* * *
Rarity's eyes began to well up as she witnessed Fluttershy beginning to cry along with her longtime friend. She had felt that she was about to burst herself, and her instinct told her to comfort Fluttershy as well.
She wiped a few tears from her eyes, momentarily obstructing her vision. She had started to trot towards the bed to join the two, but then stopped in her tracks when she took a hoof away from her watery eyes.
For a moment she thought she was hallucinating. She shook her head and rubbed her eyes once again. Nope, she wasn't seeing things. Her eyes, wide open in surprise, locked onto the two.
* * *
Both of Fluttershy's hooves were behind Rainbow's head, securing it firmly against her own. Her tear-stained eyes were closed, her breathing slow and deep. A very soft moan escaped her muzzle as her lips, pressed firmly against Rainbow's, slipped and rotated around.
Rainbow had stopped sobbing at this point. Her eyes were barely open, but she could register on some level what was happening. Somehow, she didn't find it weird. It felt... really nice. Awesome, even.
Rainbow's hooves instinctively made their way around Fluttershy's back, pulling her into an intimate embrace.
* * *
"Uhh..." Rarity managed to utter. She looked toward the others in the room and noted their similarly surprised expressions.
"...awww!" Pinkie exclaimed.
"Oh! Um. Maybe we should..." Twilight started.
"...leave them two alone. Yeah. Good idea. Heheh!" Applejack continued awkwardly.
* * *
The sound of a door closing broke the two out of their intimate stupor, their lips parting ways.
Fluttershy and Rainbow could only stare at each other as a slow but inevitable realization dawned upon them.
"So," Rainbow began, "that was... something."
Fluttershy's eyes went wide for a second before shutting again, her quickly reddening face turning away.
"Oh dear! I'm... I'm sorry! I didn't mean to... I mean..." she stuttered, choking on her words before letting out a meek squeak.
"Hey! It's cool. Got caught in the moment. I get it!" Rainbow reassured, feeling her own cheeks warm up a bit.
Fluttershy hesitantly glanced towards Rainbow again.
"But... it felt... strange. But not in a bad way," Fluttershy revealed.
"Huh. Uhh, well, same here!" Rainbow chuckled, one of her hooves rubbing the back of her head.
"Maybe..." Rainbow hesitated, "maybe there's something more to it."
Fluttershy paused for a moment.
"Are... are you suggesting..." she started curiously.
"I mean... I don't want want to force anything on you! But... sure?" Rainbow replied.
"Um. Well. I've never had a special somepony before. I'm.. not even sure what special someponies do!"
"Neither do I, Fluttershy. But maybe we can find out, I guess. Together."
Fluttershy was at a loss for words. She couldn't find a reason to object. It should have felt sudden, but then she couldn't help but think of everything they had been through. It had felt like all the time they've spent together as friends had led up to this point. It wasn't really that strange, considering.
"Then... I guess... you're my special somepony," Fluttershy finally said with a smile.
Rainbow took in her delicate and sincere expression. This felt right to her, too. Why hadn't she ever considered this before?
After a moment of comfortable silence, their faces closed in on each other once again, sealing their newfound level of friendship.
Author's Note
Overall, this didn't turn out too badly. I feel iffy about the conversation at the end, though. I'm not good at writing that kind of exchange, it seems.
