Despite All Odds

Fluttershy frowned. It was a frown that had learned to form after years of jealously watching other ponies find a lover to complete their lives. Of course, she would always smile and wish them the best, but inside her heart, a black knot of envy formed. 'I'm just as pretty as any other pony...right? I should be able to easily find somepony to love me...'

That's where she stopped herself. She didn't want somepony; she knew who she wanted. The protege of the Princess of the Sun, Twilight Sparkle. Ever since she had come to Ponyville, she couldn't get the lavender unicorn out of her mind. She sighed for what seemed like the thousandth time that day as her friends Lyra and Bon Bon walked by, oblivious to the world around them. They were head over hooves for each other and it was just a fact that ponies had come to accept.

'But what if it's different with Twilight? I mean, we are sort of famous. Not to mention the fact that she's the personal student of Princess Celestia. I could ruin her reputation if I were to be selfish and express my love to her.' Fluttershy stared aimlessly at her surroundings, daydreaming about herself and her purple friend when a voice brought her back to reality.

"Hello Fluttershy." The pegasus gasped and quickly spun, only to end up muzzle to muzzle with the very unicorn who had often graced (or occasionally plagued) her dreams.

"Oh! H-hello Twilight." The timid pony replied, a faint blush already creeping onto her face as she took a step back.

"Sorry, I didn't scare you did I?" Fluttershy simply shook her head and instinctively hid part of her face behind her mane.

"What brings you here Twilight? I didn't peg you a fan of Bon Bon's candies."

Twilight chuckled and said, "Sometimes I want something that isn't overwhelmingly sweet. I mean, no offense to Pinkie, but lately her treats are just too...sugary for my tastes. Besides, Bon Bon is the only mare around who can make my favourite candy." Fluttershy followed her crush inside after being ushered to follow.

"Ahh, well hello Twilight. Here for the usual?" Bon Bon asked with a grin. Twilight giggled (which Fluttershy couldn't help but find cute) and nodded her head happily. "Well you're in luck. I just finished making a batch about an hour or so ago, so they should've finished cooling by now." Bon Bon disappeared and was replaced by Lyra, who grinned at the pair.

After a moment of the mint unicorn staring at the two, she finally said, "You know...you two would look really cute together." Twilight blushed crimson while Fluttershy nearly fainted at the statement. Lyra laughed at their speechlessness and was quickly shoved aside by the candy-maker.

"Honestly Lyra..." She mumbled with a shake of her head. "That'll be 5 bits please." Twilight quickly paid with a sheepish chuckle, then headed out of the store without a word. "Lyra! How could you do that to poor Fluttershy?"

Lyra simply smiled, avoiding a stray candy thrown at her and said, "Relax. I was just trying to help is all. Seriously Fluttershy, you need to mare up and ask her out, otherwise some jerky stallion will take her away." Fluttershy sighed in mild frustration.

"I know..."

"Don't listen to her. You'll tell her when you're good and ready. Not all romances can be rushed. And before you say anything-" She turned and faced her partner. "Our case was different." She looked back at the pegasus and finished, "Sometimes you just gotta go slow." She offered a consoling smile to the yellow pony, and after a moment, said good-bye as Fluttershy left the candy shop. Bon Bon wished the best for the pegasus before turning around to find Lyra grinning.

"Different huh?" The mint unicorn sauntered over and before the candy pony could say anything, Lyra pressed their lips together in a passionate kiss before closing the door with her magic.

As Fluttershy made her way back to her cottage, she heard Lyra's words replaying in her head. “I don't want a stallion to take her away...”

“Then ask her out for Celestia's sake!” The sudden voice made the timid yellow pony squeak in fear and dive into the nearest bush. “Relax Flutters, it's just me.” Fluttershy looked out from between the foliage and sighed, placing a hoof over her ribs, trying to stop her heart from breaking through.

“I didn't hear you Rainbow Dash. Sorry.”

The cyan pegasus waved the apology away as they continued toward Fluttershy's home and said, “Seriously though, just ask the egghead out already and get it done with.” Rainbow was the only other pony Fluttershy dared to tell about her crush on the magical pony.

“I want to...I really do...I've even practiced what I would say and everything. But...I always freeze up on the spot whenever I'm actually talking to her.” Dash knew this was bothering her fellow pegasus pretty badly; Fluttershy was usually very quiet, so for her to be speaking this much was an obvious sign.

“Just do what I did. Fly up to her, say “I love you” and kiss her. Worked great for me and Vinyl.” Fluttershy couldn't help but smile. She had introduced Dash to her friend Octavia, who had brought the DJ along to meet Fluttershy. The pegasus and unicorn quickly hit it off and before anypony knew it, they had become an item.

“How is she anyways? I haven't seen her around for quite some time.” Before Rainbow could answer, a carrot flew through the air and struck Fluttershy's forehead. “I'm sorry Angel. I ended up taking longer than usual.” He replied simply with his characteristic frown and thumping his foot in annoyance. “Mama will make it up to you tomorrow. I promise.” His answer was to turn and hop off to who knows where.

“You really need to quit babying him like that Fluttershy. He's just walking all over you.”

“I believe you were about to tell me how your marefriend was doing?” The canary coloured pegasus said, quickly switching back to the subject at hoof. Dash was silent for a moment, then began to talk of the DJ and their love for each other, as well as what they did when Dash was done with the weather and Vinyl finished entertaining. More than a few of the details made Fluttershy crimson beneath her coat as the more...intimate parts of the relationship were voiced. “It's amazing what she can do with a dismantled sub-woofer. Last week after work, she-” The colourful mare was cut off by a gentle hoof on her mouth.

Dash couldn't help but laugh as her friend blushed darker than a tomato. “Sorry 'Shy, but I can't help myself. I just get so carried away talking about her.” Fluttershy said nothing, instead gazing deeply into her friend's unfocused eyes and feeling that familiar knot of anger and envy build up within her. She saw pure love in Rainbow's eyes, not just lust for another playmate. 'Why can't that be me? It should be just as easy for me as it is for her!'

Finally, Dash sighed happily and said, “Well...” The word brought Fluttershy back from the depths of her brooding and looked at the prismatic pony before her as she lifted herself off the floor with her powerful wings and headed towards the door. “It was fun talkin' to ya, but I gotta go. Need my rest for the upcoming storm tomorrow afternoon.” Fluttershy simply nodded and stood in the doorway, waving as her friend disappeared on the horizon.

As Dash disappeared, Luna's moon began to peak over the reaches of Fluttershy's vision slowly, as if making sure it wouldn't offend anypony with it's arrival. The shy pony stared wistfully at the moon and sighed happily, feeling the envious anger drain from her system. Fluttershy always felt a wave of calming tranquility wash over her whenever the lunar alicorn's symbol hung in the sky.

“Maybe on the next full moon I could tell her how I feel...” She mumbled absent mindedly. With one last look outside, Fluttershy turned back into her home and shut the door with a light kick of her hind hoof. She went around, tending to anything that drew her attention, then settled in the chair that occupied the corner of her living room next to the bookshelves.

After she got comfy, she grabbed the book off the nearby nightstand and began to read. However, she didn't get 10 words in before Rainbow's words set in. “Storm?” She rushed over to the weather calender she got from the weather pony and found the date she needed. “Oh my...the last rain before winter.” Fluttershy cast a quick glance around her home and noticed that there weren't as many animals scurrying around as their usually was.

There were still plenty of animals, but the caretaker could always tell when there were a few missing. She made a mental note to get up early to gather supplies for the work that lay ahead for tomorrow before the storm. She had fallen a bit behind in helping the animals prepare their dens for the winter and know it had come back to bite her in the flank. With a sigh, she extinguished the candles lighting her home and made her way to bed, hoping that her inevitable dreams of her precious unicorn would be of the pleasant variety instead of the kind that would keep her up all night crying.

Twilight groaned as she slid away from her desk and stretched. She had been taking notes about old Equestrian history and as usual, completely lost track of time. She walked over to the window and saw Luna's moon high in the sky. “Wow...guess I really overdid it again.” She mused with a light chuckle. She turned back around and saw something she failed to notice before.

There, on her desk just inches away from where her she had been focusing was a sandwich, along with a note on the side. She furrowed her brow and wondered how she could've missed them when they were right beside the book she had been studying for the past six hours. She walked over, hearing her stomach growl at the prospect of having food and quickly devoured the sandwich. Then, she lifted the note with magic and quickly read it.

“Twilight, you missed dinner and was too zoned out in that old book to hear me so I left you a sandwich. From, Spike.”

She smiled and looked lovingly over at the snoozing dragon, whose blanket, she noticed, was haphazardly tossed onto the ground from his constant tossing and turning whilst in the thralls of sleep. She smiled at the cute scene before her before reaching down and grasping the blanket and draped it over him, gaining an instant sigh of happiness from the dragon.

She chuckled softly as he snuggled it closer to him, but stopped when she heard him mumble “--mom...” The unicorn simply stood there, shocked. Despite the fact that she had basically raised him from birth, he had never once called her mother or said that he loved her. She leaned down and tenderly kissed his cheek before retreating into her own room. She lifted the blanket, then lowered it, snuggling it against her much like the young dragon had done moments before. Her sleep was calm and peaceful as Luna's moon lowered and Celestia's sun took it's place.

When the warm rays passed over the student's eyes, she naturally tried to hide, but her mentor's gift was quite hard to avoid while she was in bed it seemed. So, with a yawn, she rolled out of bed and brushed her mane before heading down to the kitchen. There, she saw her 'son' on the counter, eating a topaz muffin and looking out the window. “Spike, we've gone over this quite a number of times; no dragons on the counter.” Twilight said, a small grin on her face as she lifted her dragon off the counter and onto a chair.

“Yea yea, but I want to watch the weather team work.” The lavender unicorn looked out the window and sure enough, there were pegasus ponies all over the place, gathering clouds and moving them to cover Ponyville.

“Is there a shower scheduled for today?” She asked aloud to herself. However, she got a muffled response that held a tone of unknowing.

A moment later, “Hey, do you mind if I head over to Rarity's for a bit? Sweetie Belle and the other Crusaders need my help for something.”

“That's fine, but be back before it starts to rain. We don't want the smell of wet dragon filling the library and driving ponies away.” The mare teased. Spike just rolled his eyes and mumbled something as he waddled out of the library with Twilight on his tail, but she walked in the opposite direction, heading right instead of left. She needed to stock up on quills, parchment, and ink before it got too cold out.

She had almost made it to the store that sold quills (and sofas for some odd reason she had yet to figure out) when somepony bumped into her, sending them both bowling over and the contents of the other pony's saddlebags to spill out onto the ground. “I'm really sorry about...Fluttershy? Wow, you don't look to good.” Twilight looked over her friend with a worried gaze.

The pegasus looked as if she had been running rampant since early morning; her usually beautiful and flowing mane was disheveled with strands sticking up in places, dark circles under her eyes, and to top it off, she was barely standing.

“I'm...fine...” The yellow mare said between deep breaths, lifting herself up off the ground after much struggling. She stood for a moment before her knees buckled, but Twilight managed to get beside her to allow Fluttershy to lean on her and rest a moment. “Thank you...” They both stood for a moment before the pegasus was able to stand on her own. Her legs threatened to give out again, but she stayed up. “Thanks again Twilight, but I really must be getting back. I still have so much that needs done.”

“Then let me help. No offense, but you look almost as bad as Applejack when she tried to buck all those trees by herself.” Normally Fluttershy would've politely declined, saying that she didn't want to interrupt whatever the other mare was doing, but right now she was too tired and too far behind in her work, so she just nodded. Then, to her surprise, the unfamiliar feeling of magic lightly enveloped her and lifted her onto Twilight's back, where she gave a small squeak of surprise.

However, when the magic dissipated, she blushed as she felt Twilight under her. “Ready?” Fluttershy didn't dare answer for fear of what kind of noise may come from her as her blush darkened. So, Twilight took the silence as a yes and began running towards Fluttershy's home. She tried not to bounce around too much so that Fluttershy wouldn't fall off or anything. She had contemplated just teleporting, but swiftly shoved the idea away. Pegasi were a tad uncomfortable being a part of anything magical as Rainbow Dash had told her countless times.

“It just isn't natural Twi. It's like...being wrapped in chains and locks until you can't move a single muscle. We pegasus ponies need that free mobility. I can't really explain it, but we just do.” Of course, this answer bothered Twilight to no end; there was no evidence, fact, or anything. It just was. She accepted it nonetheless, chalking it up to that small category of unexplainable things (the other being Pinkie Sense). After a good seven minutes, she made it to her friend's cottage.

Twilight opened the door and placed Fluttershy onto the couch that sat in the living room. “Okay, where should I start?” The pegasus caretaker was a little shocked. She knew Twilight liked animals like she did, but didn't know that she'd go this far just to help. She shook the shock away and began to explain how to make each animal's diet of mixed fruits, veggies, and nuts and how much to give and what to do if an animal began to act up.

When she figured that she'd rested long enough, Fluttershy got off the couch and began to help. At first, Twilight objected, saying that she could handle it. Fluttershy felt a sort of guilty pleasure surge through her at Twilight's concern over her.

“Don't worry, I feel much better now thanks to you.” She said, trying to keep a blush off her face. She saw the unicorn also trying to keep a blush off her face at the praise, so she quickly turned and continued working, inciting a laugh from the pegasus mare. With the both of them working together, all of the animals had been moved out and into their hibernation homes. Even Angel had decided to give it a try (thought it may have also been because of the lady bunny he had been spending so much time with) and with a sigh, they both plopped down onto the couch.

“Thank you so much Twilight. It would've taken much longer without your help."

“It was my pleasure Fluttershy. I want the little animals to be happy, just like you. Fluttershy nearly melted at the smile presented to her from the beautiful unicorn. “Well...I should probably be getting home. Those clouds look ready to burst and I'm sure Spike is worried. Fluttershy desperately wanted to stop her, to tell her that she could stay the night until the rain passed, but her shyness and uncertainty won out.

“Oh...yes. I guess I'll see you later.” Twilight gave her another smile, then disappeared in a flash of light. As Fluttershy regained her vision, she saw the first few drops of rain fall by her window. It was if it was waiting for the unicorn to leave before spreading tranquility across Equestria. Fluttershy let loose a deep, unhappy sigh. She was truly alone now: her secret love was gone and all her animals were going to be gone for the whole winter.

Despite this being the eighth or so year, she was still not used to the blanket of silence that always followed. It was always strange and a little unsettling for her. She got off the couch and slowly walked through her house and out the back door, coming to a halt on top of a nearby hill, letting herself get drenched in the rain. She took a few deep breaths, drawing the cool air into her lungs. She felt shivers as she slowly exhaled each breath.

As she stood there, she failed to noticed a small hole open in the clouds above her. Eventually, she sensed a presence and looked around, seeing a patch of moonlight. She followed the cone of light up and saw a silhouette looking down at her. She squeaked in fear and tried to move, but her legs were locked in place and refused to move. The shadow unfurled large wings and slowly drifted down to her.

When the pony landed, Fluttershy was shocked to see that it was the Princess of the Night herself. “Tell us...why doth thou stand in the pouring rain? Come.” The lunar princess lifted Fluttershy off the ground and carried her into her home. “Doth thou have...” She cleared her throat for a moment, then said, “Umm...do you have a towel I might be able to use?”

Fluttershy finally snapped out of her trance and quickly nodded, running to the bathroom. When she returned, she gave her biggest towel to Luna while she herself used a much smaller one. “Thank you...Fluttershy, correct?”

The yellow pegasus nodded and said, “Yes, um, your majesty.” Luna chuckled and Fluttershy felt relief pass through her. She knew that she could be at least a little casual around Equestria's royalty, but she still feared that she'd say or do something to offend them so she usually just did what everypony else did. But Luna had simply laughed at the proper greeting.

“You may just call me Luna. Now then, we- I mean...I wish to know: why were you just standing in the rain?” It took Fluttershy a moment and she was grateful for the Princess's patience with her.

“No particular reason. I just like the rain is all.”

“As do I young Fluttershy. Now, if you don't mind, may I ask another question?” Fluttershy simply nodded, somewhat a bit nervous. She always got real nervous whenever ponies asked her a lot of questions. “I don't mean to be rude and pry, but I simply hate to see a lover of the night such as yourself unhappy. I have seen you gazing at my moon with nothing but sadness in your eyes. Is there anything I can do to help?”

Fluttershy was caught completely off guard. Here was one of the two Princesses of Equestria, and she was asking if she could help with a normal pony's problems. “I...no...I appreciate the offer Princess, but it's something I have to do myself. Sorry.” The lunar pony looked down at the floor, obviously disappointed. The look in her eyes was almost enough to make Fluttershy cry.

“Yes...of course.” Fluttershy cringed.

She hadn't meant to upset the alicorn, so she quickly said, “I-it's not that I don't want your help...I just...I don't know how to ask, or how you could help. It's a...delicate situation.” She began to explain how she had fallen in love with the pupil of Luna's sister. When she finished, Fluttershy was pulled into a gentle hug by the Night Princess.

“We know all too well how you feel dear Fluttershy. Years before my...banishment, I could find nopony to love me, or my gift. I think that may be part of why I was so consumed by jealousy so long ago.” Fluttershy knew that this was a touchy subject for Luna, but despite that, she couldn't help the tears that pooled in her eyes. She was overwhelmed by emotion, so instead of trying to hold it in, she just let it go and cried into the soft coat of Luna.

The royal pony offered the occasional comforting word or reassuring pat on the back the whole time, not daring to move. To Luna, this experience was just as emotional. There were many ponies nowadays who appreciated and loved her night, but not like Fluttershy. This pegasus loved the night for what it was; a time to relax and be with somepony you loved. When Fluttershy's tears dried up, the rain had also relaxed into a pleasant drizzle.

“Umm...t-thank you Princess. I'm sorry I kept you so long, listening to me cry or talk about my problems or-” A light pressing of a hoof on her lips caused her to stop.

“You needn't worry dear. It was...nice to bond with one who enjoys the night such as you.” Luna offered a gentle a warm smile, which Fluttershy returned happily.

“So...you don't mind the fact that we're both mares?” This was Fluttershy's main problem. Ponyville was an old settler town and as such, still clung to many old traditions, traditions that were alive and well to this day. Despite Lyra and Bon Bon's claims otherwise, she had seen the two ridiculed and berated many times before most ponies learned to simply tolerate their relationship. She was answered with a laugh.

“Of course not. As the “Lady of the Night”, love is something that falls into my jurisdiction as it were. As such, to me, love is exactly what it is; an emotional and spiritual bond between two ponies who care deeply for each other whether it be a mare and a stallion, two stallions, or two mares. Love is blind as they say.” Fluttershy let out a breath that she wasn't even aware that she had been holding.

“That's a relief...even if it is just one pony out of all the ones I care about.”

“Why not ask your friends how they would feel about it? Gauge their reactions and then you can act accordingly.

Fluttershy nodded and said, “I want to...but I want Twilight with me in case something goes wrong. I don't think I'd take it well if things go bad...” Luna knew exactly what she meant.

'She wants her love to be there to comfort her in case one of their friends doesn't approve; to feel the consoling touch of reassurance and hear words of strength.' Luna thought for a few minutes, then grinned. “Twilight also likes to look at my artwork that is the night sky. Perhaps you could plan a night picnic and I could provide a meteor shower of sorts.”

Luna was grinning widely now. “It will be so romantic she won't be able to resist!” Then, before Fluttershy could say anything, The Night Princess was gone.

“Oh my...”

(Author's Note: Alright everypony, I finally started to begin posting my story (yay me). Anyways, this is my first and hopefully not last story on here so...yea...Anyways, criticism is welcome as long as it's constructive! Remember, if you don't have anything nice to say, don't say anything at all ^^ Hope you enjoy!)