A New Horizon

    All was well in Ponyville, birds were singing, flowers were blooming, it was the perfect day for Fluttershy to run out of feed for her animals.

    She made her way through the crowded marketplace politely turning down offers for all sorts of trinkets she didn’t need until coming to the specific store that sold the feed.

    The store was typically ran by a nice stallion by the name of Hayseed but his son Kibble, a young colt probably about the age of eleven, was running the store.

    Fluttershy didn’t see Mr. Hayseed anywhere and walked up to Kibble to ask him.

    “Umm, good morning Kibble, where’s Mr.Hayseed?” she politely asked him.  “I need some feed for my precious animals otherwise they’ll starve.”

    Kibble gave Fluttershy a little shrug.  “Pops isn’t feeling well, so he told me to handle the store.  I assume you’re here for some feed.  How many bags?”

    The yellow pegasus shifted uncomfortably, “Oh well since Mr. Hayseed isn’t here, I’ll settle for one bag and come back later when he feels better.”

    “One bag, that’ll be 10 bits Miss Fluttershy.”  The colt jumped down from his seat and picked up the bag with a grunt, carrying the bag over to Fluttershy with strenuous effort.

    “Oh don’t hurt yourself Kibble,” she said out of general concern for the little guy who was carrying a bag about his size when he stood on hind legs.

    He plopped the bag down in front of Fluttershy and wiped the sweat from his brow.  He was a strong earth pony just like his dad and even looked like him spare the cutiemark which was a register compared to his dad’s of a pile of feed bags.

    Fluttershy grabbed a corner of the bag with her mouth and half dragged it out of the store back to her cottage.  It was a long walk and she had to keep taking breaks.  Now if Mr. Hayseed had been there he would have loaded a cart and taken the feed to her cottage for her, however Fluttershy needed the feed for that day’s lunch and poor kibble, bless his heart, wasn’t strong enough to carry all the bags she needed.

    About halfway to her cottage she stopped for a break and sat down on the warm, itchy, grass and watched the pegasi above do their cloudbusting.

    She spotted a blue blur in the sky and tried her best to keep an eye on the pony who was flying thinking it was her friend Rainbow Dash considering how fast they flew and sliced through the clouds with precision cuts that broke the clouds apart.

    However, Fluttershy came to realize this pony wasn’t Rainbow Dash, they were bigger, bulkier, and had a different shade of fur compared to her friend’s sky blue coat.

    The pony flew around the final cloud with tight circles the shrunk the cloud down to the size of a normal one and with one final punch ended the cloud.

    Fluttershy couldn’t tell who the pony was and called out, “Rainbow Dash?  Is that you?”

The pony looked down at her with a tilted head.  “Sorry ma’am, you’ve got the wrong pegasus, though I can see how you could get us confused speed and color wise.  Name’s Lightning Bolt, pleased to be of service,” he said flying down and landed a few feet from Fluttershy.

Fluttershy had heard that name before and the voice was familiar to somepony she once knew.  “Lightning Bolt?”

“Yep that’s me.”

“I-I-I’m Fluttershy.  Do you r-remember me?”

“FLuttershy?  Wait...from Flight Camp?  The one who flew slowly and got bullied?”

Fluttershy nodded and blushed.  She didn’t just know this stallion, she knew him. The blue stallion with a green blue mane and tail, green eyes, and a cutiemark of a bolt of lightning to match his name, she once had a crush on him.

“Sorry I didn’t step in to help you that day, I planned to but your friend beat me to it.  So I beat those bullies up later that day.  COuldn’t let them hurt you and get away easy.”

Fluttershy’s blush deepened from a rose pink to a noticeable red.  “Oh thank you, but that wasn’t necessary.”

“What do you mean wasn’t necessary?  You were the nicest pony there, you didn’t deserve that treatment.

“Oh, well, thank you,”  Fluttershy said turning away so he couldn’t notice her blush.

She felt a hoof on her cheek turning her to face him.

Her cheeks were nearly on fire and her back legs were trembling.

“Has anypony told you that you pretty eyes?” he asked and FLuttershy noticed that he was blushing too.

“N-n-no,” she stammered mentally punching herself for letting him intimidate her even though she had nothing to fear.

Fluttershy didn’t catch what else he had said, she was too entranced looking into his green eyes.  She felt an old passion brewing inside of her and she was leaning closer and closer until their muzzles touched and she was kissing him!

It took her a moment to process what she had just done.  Her eyes snapped open and her pupils dilated to tiny pinpricks.

She quickly pulled back ending the short and sweet kiss and ran past him saying “Sorry, sorry, sorry, oh I’m sorry.” over and over.

“Hey, wait!  Your feed!”  Lightning hefted the bag on his back and half ran after her until her reached her cottage.

He knocked on the door and it opened slightly indicating that Fluttershy hadn’t shut it all the way.

He stepped inside uninvited into the dark house and set the feed bag down, calling out for her.

"Fluttershy?  Fluttershy?!  You left your feed back there…” he traile doff as he heard sobbing coming from the couch in which Fluttershy was curled up with a blanket over her head.

“Umm Fluttershy?”

She looked up from her hiding spot and wiped her tears.  “Oh I’m sorry, I shouldn’t have done that...I just..don’t know….why I….did…”

She was cut off as Lightning filled the gap between them and returned her kiss with one of his drawing a gasp from the pegasus as their muzzles met once again to complete their unfinished business.

Time slowed down as the two kissed.  It seemed it was just them for the longest time even though it had only been a whole minute and reality came crashing back as Lightning drew back having been satisfied knowing a girl had kissed and he had kissed back.

“Oh Lightning….”  Fluttershy didn’t finish her statement and an awkward silence elapsed between them before Lightning did something.

He sat next to her on the couch and draped his wing around her pulling her closer.

She fell against him and snuggled into his soft fur rubbing her head against his chest until her ear found his heart and she listened to the strong hammering of his heart beat like a drum rallying soldiers for war.

Lightning, though surprised at first, accepted this cuddling and pulled her close to him to where his chin rest gently on her head holding her there.

“I love you Lightning,” came Fluttershy’s sweet voice, “and I want to be your special somepony, if that’s alright with you.”

“Funny you should say that,” he replied, “I was wondering the same thing.”

Fluttershy felt at ease.  She had made her first love confession and the stallion she confessed to loved her back!  It was like Heart’s Warming Eve, only earlier.

Fluttershy lifted her head to meet his neck and she gave it a soft kiss.

Lightning kissed her forehead and pulled her in for a hug.

It had been a perfect day, birds were singing, flowers were blooming, and Fluttershy had met her coltfriend.  What could be better

The End?