Fluttershy giggled.
It was a light, girlish trill that punctured the afternoon silence; she would normally have felt an acute sense of embarrassment pervading her body at making such a noise so openly – so much so that she'd wish for the clouds to descend and encompass her whole – but since there was nopony around for miles to judge her, Fluttershy instead revelled in the sound. In her new-found freedom. Each sinewy blade of green grass brushed teasingly against her sensitive hooves as she ascended the hill. Spring was just around the corner, but the cattle hadn't yet been allowed out to mow the fields down to size, so they were rather overgrown and wild-looking.
No wonder Rainbow Dash doesn't let anypony near her hooves, Fluttershy thought with a wry grin, those things can be darned ticklish at times.
Her thoughts drifted in the direction of her good friend and co-Element of Harmony; somewhere out there, she knew, the pegasi that comprised Ponyville's elite weather team had just finished clearing the skies of the last of those nasty, tempestuous storm clouds from the end of Winter Wrap-Up when one last big hurricane had been needed to keep everything moving along at the correct pace. Now the sky was dominated by an endless ocean of sparkling azure, giving her the opportunity to retrieve her white-framed sunglasses and straw hat – gifts from Rarity, naturally, as she'd never have spent so many bits on frivolous items for herself – from storage.
Of course, Fluttershy's first act had been to thoroughly dust them down and apologise for forgetting about them for so long; as ridiculous a feeling as it was, she couldn't help but feel bad when things had to go away in the closet for a long time. To her way of thinking, it was tantamount to abandoning a pair of old friends.
Smiling inwardly at how silly she knew other ponies probably thought she was, Fluttershy instead allowed herself to relax – something that she just didn't get enough time to do, what with being on-call for the animals all day, to say nothing of the various crises that affected Equestria, requiring her and the others to journey for days to solve them – and enjoy the invigorating feeling of warmth suffusing her back as the sun's rays played across it. Spreading her wings, being careful not to dislodge her saddlebags as she did so, to catch more of the heat, she sighed contentedly. There was just enough of a mild glow to be pleasant without feeling smothering. She inhaled deeply, her nostrils taking in the heady aroma of the verdant field.
Following the harsh winter, that same sensation of renewal and optimism that permeated Equestria thrilled through Fluttershy also. She might've been born a pegasus, but she felt a great empathy for earth ponies; the ground held nature's most wondrous creations, and she was proud to tend to them when needed. A few more steps brought her just shy of the edge of the peak. From here, the tiny village of Ponyville was but a distant memory with only the jutting crystal spires of the Castle of Friendship barely visible to the naked eye. “What do you think?” she asked of her little companion, dragging his tiny heels in her wake, turning to face him with an expectant smile on her face. As it so often did, tilting her head had the effect of allowing her mane to fall over her inquisitive beryl eyes. She brushed the stray locks aside languidly with a swift motion of her dainty hoof. “Does this seem like a good enough spot to you?”
Angel Bunny made a great spectacle of scrutinising the bluff thoroughly, even going so far as to pad at the ground with a paw-tip as if he was checking for dust or something. Joining Fluttershy by the edge of the cliff, he, too, found himself entranced by the sight of the awning chasm stretching away into the vast nothingness of the valley below. A balmy amber glow suffused it and they couldn't help wondering about what might be down there: doubtless, there was a village filled with beings – maybe ponies, maybe not – going about their lives, laughing and loving, and maybe even, once in a while learning important lessons about the magic of something or other. It didn't take long at all for the façade of haughty imperiousness to melt away from Angel's face. He offered his friend an effusive grin and a curt nod.
His way of saying, “Eh, it'll do.”
It was with a sense of great relief that Fluttershy was finally able to set down her bulging saddlebags on the ground underneath a tall oak tree that gave them some respite from the sun hanging overhead; despite Angel Bunny's show of impatience, it was the the work of but a few minutes for her to retrieve the necessary items from them and get their picnic assembled. As he sternly tapped his foot on the ground, Fluttershy, hiding her smile behind a hoof, said to the rabbit, “If you'd wanted to, you could've helped and this wouldn't have taken as long.”
Angel merely shrugged and made a show of checking an imaginary watch on his fluffy wrist. Fluttershy rolled her eyes and smiled at him again.
She was in the midst of unfurling and smoothing down a chequered blanket with medium-sized squares which matched her own yellow/pink colouring when an all-too-cheerful – and all-too-familiar – voice said, “Hey, what are you two up to?”
So startled was Fluttershy by this newcomer's voice that she found herself skittering backwards a couple of steps, knocking over a cylindrical metal container roughly the size of one of her forelegs in the process; given that her first reaction had been to either leap into the nearest tree or to take that very same container, unscrew the lid and throw the piping-hot blend of minty hot chocolate that Rainbow Dash had claimed to be the best drink in existence – barring Applejack's special reserve cider, that is – she actually congratulated herself on managing to show a modicum of restraint. Still, though, she was sure that her shocked yelp had been nice and undignified. To say nothing of how stupid she probably looked, all red, sweaty and nervous, wings unfurled in a fight-or-flight response.
And just to make things worse, I'd actually been expecting this to happen, too.
Pinkie Pie, for her part, settled simply for blinking a couple of times, surveying the scene of the half-assembled picnic in front of her. “Oh,” she said slowly, eyes widening as realisation dawned on her. “I've caught you at a bad time, haven't I?”
Fluttershy's own personal estimate was that an entire galactic year had passed before she'd recovered enough of her flailing, frantic wits to address Pinkie Pie. “He-he-he-”
“Um,” Pinkie Pie said, stroking her muzzle thoughtfully, “either you've just developed the weirdest laugh ever or you're trying to say Hello.”
Okay, so it's going to take a bit longer than I thought to actually speak to her. Fluttershy felt her heart still hammering in her chest after her fright, and she was fairly sure that it was going to break free and make a run for it at any moment; she couldn't entirely blame it either, given the sorts of abuse that she put it through on a daily basis. Taking a few deep, cleansing breaths to settle her nerves and quell the adrenaline coursing through her, Fluttershy tried speaking again: “Oh, hello, Pinkie Pie. What brings you all the way out there? To the middle of nowhere? So far away from Ponyville where nopony ever goes?” Hm. Maybe I'm overdoing it just a little.
“You're out here, silly,” said Pinkie Pie, smiling cheerfully, completely oblivious to Fluttershy's stress.
“Well, yes, I suppose I am,” replied Fluttershy. Angel Bunny, arms folded, scowled with all of his might at the interloping party pony. “But … why are you here?”
“Uh, duh, I was looking for you,” Pinkie Pie said as if it were obvious. “I kinda figured that you'd want to be alone today, so I went through all of the places I knew of that you'd go to in order to be alone, and this hill came in at nine-thousand-six-hundred-and-forty-three on the list, so naturally-”
“-Okay, okay!” Fluttershy waved a hoof back and forth quickly just short of Pinkie Pie's snout in order to get her to stop explaining. There were times when her mad babbling was funny, times when it was just plain adorable, but there were also times when it was … well, unwelcome. This was one of those times. A wave of irritation swept through Fluttershy, but it was soon replaced by fear. If Pinkie Pie was actively looking for me, does that mean …? “Why were you looking for me?” she asked, dabbing at the ground fretfully with a foreleg. “Is there trouble in Ponyville? Elsewhere? D'you need my help?” Oh, I do hope that there aren't any poor animals in trouble.
“No, no, it's nothing like that at all.” Tongue hanging out, Pinkie Pie fished through her bouffant mane in search of … something. Fluttershy was well-used to seeing this sort of behaviour from her, but it was still odd to see what kind of items she could produce from the tangled mess of her hair. Her tongue started waggling around like a dog's tail as, Fluttershy presumed, anyway, she got closer to whatever it was that she was looking for. “I just wanted to tell you something, Fluttershy, but more importantly-” she finally struck gold “-I also wanted to give you something.”
In her hooves, Pinkie Pie held a small box gift-wrapped in paper that was festooned with balloons and streamers.
“What is it?” asked Fluttershy, taking the box carefully. Things presented to you by Pinkie Pie often had a way of … exploding.
“Open it and find out!” Pinkie Pie's lively blue eyes were practically bulging out of her head with eagerness; she was dancing back and forth on her hind legs, her excitement every bit as tangible as Fluttershy's nervousness.
Fluttershy undid the wrapping, the tips of her hooves working patiently on the ribbon; even when she'd been a small child, she'd always opened her presents as neatly as possible. Others had chastised her for this, but there was a certain amount of joy to be had in savouring things rather than rushing through them as Rainbow Dash so often did. Hidden inside the paper, she discovered a handsome, dark blue velvet jewellery box with an inlaid gold filigree, and unbidden memories of being pressed up against windows whilst spying items with obnoxious amounts of zeroes on the price-tag came to the forefront of her mind. She'd never really needed fancy things in her life, but every so often something would catch her eye and she'd wish really hard for it.
“Pinkie Pie-”
“-Look inside.”
Flicking the box open with a delicate motion of her hoof, Fluttershy almost burst out crying when she discovered its contents. It was a small metal butterfly barrette that she recalled having seen a few months back and having made an offhand comment about. “This must've cost you-”
“-Shush.”
“Pinkie-”
“-I said shush,” Pinkie Pie said, repeating the word far more sternly. “When somepony buys you a gift, the absolute worst thing that you can do is make a big deal about how much it cost them.” She favoured her uneasy friend with a truly dazzling smile that almost seemed to be too wide for her actual head. “Besides, if it makes you feel any better, I did happen to get it at a substantial discount in exchange for catering the jewellery shop's next few big events.”
Fluttershy opened her mouth to argue some more, then promptly closed it, settling for exhaling a soft, happy sigh of contentment. She pulled Pinkie Pie in for a close, warm hug, tears streaming down her face. “Thank you. Celestia, that sounds of small, doesn't it?” She laughed bitterly. “I just don't know what else to say.”
“Well, I do,” replied Pinkie Pie firmly, placing her hooves on Fluttershy's withers and pushing her away slightly so that their eyes could meet. “Happy Birthday, best friend. I know that you came all the way out here to get away from everypony. Not because you're rude or anti-social, but because you don't think that you're worthy of having a big fuss made about you.”
Fluttershy looked away, her mouth opening to confirm Pinkie Pie's theory.
“And you're wrong about that,” said Pinkie Pie, continuing before Fluttershy could say anything that would cast a negative pall over their current closeness. “Parties and big celebrations are my way of showing my friends how much I value them, but valuing them also means that, once in a while-” she said this part with a small smirk playing across her muzzle “-I have to let them go. It's just that this was such a big day, I couldn't let it slip by without doing something. Without letting you know just how much I value you as a friend and pony.”
Once again, Fluttershy found herself unable to find the words to describe her feelings; after a few moments, she eventually managed to, between sobs, say, “I appreciate your understanding, Pinkie. I forget, sometimes, just how well you know each and every one of us.” With every last ounce of her meagre strength, she embraced her friend again, not wishing to let her go. “What did I ever do right in a previous life do deserve a friend like you, anyway?”
Pinkie Pie, her muzzle buried in Fluttershy's shoulder, smiled softly to herself, her own eyes glistening. “Without ever asking for anything for yourself, you offered not just me but everypony that you've ever encountered the greatest gift one could ever hope to receive.” Her own forelegs found Fluttershy's neck and entwined themselves around her of their own accord. “Kindness. Rain or shine, dragon or manticore, when we've needed you the most you've been there for us with tea and empathy.”
It took several moments before she was able to bring herself to do so – so enamoured was she with feeling Pinkie Pie's warm body against her own, inhaling the sugary-sweet scent of her voluminous mane – but Fluttershy finally extricated herself from her friend's grasp; she went to almost-forgotten picnic basket, and from it she retrieved a small, simple item and held it out to Pinkie Pie. “This … this is for you.”
A frown creasing her muzzle, Pinkie Pie examined the cupcake's decoration of bright yellow, lemon-scented frosting before taking it in her hooves. “How did you know that I'd even be here?” she asked, her puzzled voice laced with curiosity.
“Because I know you, too,” Fluttershy replied. Bashfully, she added, “I made it myself, so it's nowhere near as good as your own, but-”
“-Fluttershy, it's perfect,” said Pinkie Pie, shovelling the cupcake into her mouth and swallowing it in one big gulp.
