On The Wings of Love

Fluttershy and Rainbow Dash flew towards Fluttershy's cottage. Neither saying a word as they took furtive glances at each other and looked away the instant they caught the other looking at them. Within a few minutes, Fluttershy's cottage was in sight.

Landing at the door first, Dash waited as Fluttershy landed beside her and opened the door. "Go ahead... um... if you want that is."

Entering the cottage, Dash was greeted with the general warm, welcoming feeling of the lovely home. However, the sight of an orange blur sailing through the air towards Fluttershy caused her to reflexively extend her wing to block the incoming projectile. Dash winced as the offending vegetable made contact right at the wrist of her wing. It had hit a lot harder than she thought it would. She raised her gaze to glare at the white bunny who had thrown the carrot. This wasn't the first time she'd been here. Also wasn't the first time she'd been hit with a carrot by the annoying little creature.

Narrowing her eyes at him, Dash held eye-contact with the bunny for a while as Fluttershy came through the door.

"Oh, Hello Angel!" Fluttershy said kindly before seeing the flat expression he was directing at Dash.

Looking back and forth between Rainbow and Angel while neither of them broke their glares, Fluttershy cautiously asked.

"Is something wrong?"

"Nope... everything's fine." Dash said, a wry smile on her face as she extended her wing a few times to work it out. "Just fine."

Angel smirked at her cheekily, then shrugged his shoulders and hopped off to his hutch, the smirk still painting his face. His shenanigans were done for the night.

Spying the carrot on the floor, Fluttershy's eyes got wide as she started worrying and apologizing to Dash.

"Oh, did he throw a carrot at you again? I'm so sorry Dash, he gets that way sometimes and I-"

Dash placed a hoof over her mouth and smiled at her.

"Its ok Fluttershy. I know how he is." Rainbow said in a comforting tone as she rolled her eyes.

"Oh... I, uh... yes... he can be a bit... rambunctious at times." Fluttershy said as she backed away slightly from Dash's hoof.

If earlier was an effect of the alcohol, its worn off now... you can tell by that cute hesitation in how she talks.

"Shut it."

Ok... no reason to be testy.

This voice in her head wasn't helping...

"Sooo..." Rainbow said, awkwardly scratching the back of her head with a hoof. "About what you said earlier?"

"Oh... right..." Fluttershy said, a slight blush spreading to her cheeks.

She absent-mindedly scuffed at the floor with a hoof, hiding her eyes behind her mane as she said "I... I... that is to say... I meant what I said... back there..."

Dash gave her a curious look.

"Back at the party... I meant it when I said I... That I love you." Fluttershy peeked from behind her mane to gauge Dash's reaction.

Dash's breath caught in her chest a bit. She was still trying to wrap her head around all of this. She knew that Fluttershy loved her, she was questioning herself though... She hadn't really loved anybody since...

Are you really going to bring HIM up to compare to this?

"What else do I have to compare it to?"

How about Pinkie? Didn't you care about her?

"Yea, but I'm not sure that I LOVED her..."

So you're saying that Gilda and Pinkie both were just about the sex?

"NO!! I cared about both of them... I'm just... not sure if I TRULY love them. Not like that..."

Sounds like you need to figure out what true love is Dash... and the weird thing is, I can't tell you what it is... you have to discover that for yourself.

"Some help YOU are."

It happens... now you better respond before Fluttershy loses her nerve. She's looking pretty worried right now...

Jolted back into reality, Dash saw that the voice in her head was right... Fluttershy did look worried.

"Are you ok Fluttershy? You look kinda... worried."

"I just... do you love me back?"

"I... I don't know..." She admitted, hanging her head at her own words. She just didn't know.

Fluttershy had to choke back a sob. She had asked, knowing full well what the answer could be. Did Dash love her? She needed to know.

"I... I don't know..."

She clenched her eyes shut, trying to keep the tears held back.

The voices in her own head started tearing at her again... almost like they used to back when... back before she met Dash.

Yea, you know she's just trying to let you down easy.

She doesn't love you back.

She-

"STOP!!"

Fluttershy steeled her nerves to the pain she was feeling and looked up at Dash, forcing herself to not cry. What she saw almost broke her heart as well as her resolve. Dash was crying... tears streaming down her cyan cheeks and falling silently onto the floor.

"Dash?"

Dash shook her head and looked up at Fluttershy.

Dash's feelings had gone into overdrive, she was asking herself so many questions and finding no answers. Did she even know what TRUE love was? Could she feel true love any more? Was she even worthy of it? Did she even deserve Fluttershy?

Her head still hung as she closed her eyes and tears started to stream out of them. She just didn't know any more.

"Dash?"

Shaking her head, Dash looked up as tears continued to stream down her face.

"I... I don't know! Fluttershy, I WANT to love you! I DO! I'm just not sure I... I'm not sure I know how to love anymore..." Dash poured out, hanging her head as she finally blurted out how she really felt.

"Dash... what happened?"

Rainbow was shocked as she felt a pair of warm hooves wrap around her neck and hug her tightly.

"Fluttershy... I..." Dash turned her head away, she didn't want to go into her own past.

Fluttershy put a hoof on her cheek and brought her head around so they were face to face. Looking Dash right in the eyes, Fluttershy spoke again, a soft, caring lilt in her voice. "What made you say that Dash? What happened? You know you can talk to me about ANYTHING."

Trust her Dash.

"Alright..." Dash said, wiping her tears from her eyes. "This will probably take a while though."

Fluttershy smiled.

"We have as long as you need."

Dash let out a resigned sigh before looking back at Fluttershy.

"...I'm gonna warn you... this isn't a pretty story."

Fluttershy hugged Dash a bit tighter as she thought to herself

For the love of all that is GOOD in Equestria... please don't let her have gone through what I did!