Fluttershy took a deep, shuddering breath before exhaling, attempting to shake off the sense of uneasiness she felt deep in her chest.
Her left front hoof impatiently tapped against the crystal map table in front of her, even though she truly didn’t know why she was getting irritated in the first place.
“Fluttershy.” Twilight's voice caught the pegasus off guard, causing her to flinch before her gaze moved from the table in front of her to the Alicorn’s eyes, turning her head to look at the non-judgmental, but clearly disappointed face, knowing what she was going to say, even though she's yet to utter a single word.
“I could say that smoking causes shortness of breath, dizziness, heart disease, increases your chances of having a stroke, getting cancer, and a whole number of other negative health conditions.” Twilight paused to take a breath, noting the small, embarrassed sense of shame her old friend was giving her before she continued.
“But I won’t because you already know the rest-”
“And we’re here for you, darling.” Rarity’s soft, caring voice interrupted as Fluttershy turned her head to look at her, feeling even more ashamed of her habit. “I mean, I can’t say I was ever tempted to smoke, myself, but I can understand the appeal. That and I can only imagine what's been weighing on your mind, but we’re your friends, and we're here for you whenever you need us.”
“We’re going to help you get through this, Shy. We can’t exactly call ourselves friends if we're not gonna be there with you, every step of the way.” Rainbow Dash spoke, holding her head up high and giving her signature smirk, expecting her oldest friend to do the same, but Flutteshy didn’t even meet her eyes.
“Dashie is right, Fluttershy. We’ll help you kick this nasty, bits wasting habit. Though, to be honest, you are a grown adult. You’re twenty two, so you can do whatever you want, and don’t need our permission to-”
“I think what Pinkie is trying to say, Shy, is that even though we’ll never judge you, well, at least most of us won’t.” Spike interrupted, cutting the hyperactive mare off while giving a short glare at Twilight, Applejack, and Rainbow Dash, whose ears were lowered in guilt at how they acted.
“We're seriously proud of you for trying to cut back. How many have you had today?” He asked softly, making the Element of Kindness bite her bottom lip before looking back into the eyes of the teenage dragon, and answered loud enough for all of them to hear.
“Six.” She replied, hearing the sharp intake of breath from Twilight, Rainbow, and Applejack, who had yet to speak a word, not wanting to come off too harshly to a pony who was trying her best to better herself.
“See! Progress.” Spike giggled with a small smile as the shy mare began tapping her hoof against the table once again, already feeling the urge for another cigarette.
How long had it been since she had one? An hour? Two? Maybe more? She honestly didn’t know, and she had to stop herself from uncharacteristically snapping at them, berating them for their own flaws, such as their drinking habits, but, instead, she simply took another deep breath.
She reminded herself that her friends were simply trying to help her, and she knew that if she fought back like she was tempted to, it would only cause more tension between them. She didn’t want that, especially when they were just trying to be there for her, and listen to her woes.
“Honestly, I don’t see what the big deal is. So she wants to relax with a few rolls of tobacco, where's the harm in that? You did say she was a grown adult, after all, so let her be one.” Discord’s bored, lazy tone spoke from above, causing a few of the mare’s, and Spike's heads to raise and glare at the immortal being floating along the ceiling.
“The problem is that it’s addictive, costs a lot of money, is bad for her lungs, and increases her chances of dying before her time. None of us want that to happen to her, not even you, Discord.” Twilight spat angrily, causing the God of Chaos to get more serious at the thought of losing his friend.
“Do not underestimate me, mortal. I know full well the feeling of losing someone I care about.” Discord growled as the two narrowed their eyes and glared at one another.
“Discord.” Pinkie’s voice immediately made Discord’s anger melt away as he turned his eyes from the Alicorn to his mate, whose disapproving frown stopped him from doing anything more than sigh and look away, not speaking another word.
“We’re proud of you for coming to us, Fluttershy. All of us.” Rarity said, rather loudly, smiling at the depressed mare before glancing at Discord, who didn’t even bother to pay attention to her.
“Do your parents know? Your brother?” Rainbow questioned her friend, who shrunk down in her throne by a few inches in shame.
“I couldn’t face Zephyr, he always had a bit of a party streak, and he would be so angry if he knew that I was smoking with how much I lectured him. I don’t want to break my mom’s heart either, since she's always hated smoking, and how it caused her father's death. My dad might understand, though, as he gave it up for her after they met, long before I was born, since she told him she would never date a smoker. So, if it’s alright with all of you, I would like to keep this between us.” Fluttershy answered, her heart squeezing as she remembered how much pain her grandfather was in before he died.
Her friends nodded in unison, even Discord, making Fluttershy swallow the saliva in her throat, doing everything she could to keep the tears at bay, with how much love and support she was being given.
“Do you have any on you? Or in your house?” Twilight calmly asked, making Fluttershy wince and grit her teeth. A small part of her wanted to lie, but she knew, deep down, that it would do nothing more than make her friends suspicious. Not to mention that Applejack would know immediately if she did, not that she had a good poker face to begin with.
“I have a pack of twenty tucked away in my tail, one behind my ear, and about three cartons back at home.” She responded, causing Applejack to give a low whistle with a shake of her head, only to flinch as she saw Spike glaring at her.
“I’ll take that.” Discord spoke sharply, taking the nicotine that rested behind her right ear and turning it to ash before her eyes and, before she knew it, she had gotten up from her seat with a hoof outstretched in both shock and anger, pausing only when she saw the looks of disbelief in her friends' eyes. It felt like an eternity before she finally sat back down, gritting her teeth.
“Discord!” Pinkie snapped, glaring at her boyfriend, who did nothing more than fold his arms and look away in return.
“We’ll talk about this later.” Pinkie growled, making him frown even harder without an apology.
“May we have the pack, please?” Rarity asked in a calm and gentle tone, pleading to the pegasus who wanted nothing more than to get up from her seat, open her brand new pack and have a relaxing smoke, but simply held her ground and closed her eyes to breathe. She wondered, in the back of her mind, if she could really do this, with how she just reacted and all the thoughts that were going through her head.
It was completely silent in the castle. No one moved a single muscle, save for breathing and blinking as they waited for Fluttershy to do, or say anything other than close her eyes and take another deep breath.
“I can’t do this!” She shouted as she finally stood from her seat and turned to step off her throne, ignoring the voices clamoring for her to come back. She took no more than six steps towards the exit of the castle before absentmindedly reaching for the pack and the small box of matches tucked inside her tail before Rainbow Dash appeared in front of her, a serious expression on her face as she flapped in the air.
“Fluttershy, we can’t help you if you’re not willing to give us a chance. We’re your friends, Shy, and we'd rather not have to visit you in the hospital if you keep going down this road. What if you get cancer or-”
“You’re one to talk! Your liver's been working so much overtime that I’m surprised you don’t have alcohol poisoning! In fact, I’m surprised that you, Applejack, and Rarity aren't already in the hospital with how much you drink!” Fluttershy exploded in such a way that Pinkie, Spike and Discord’s jaw dropped in sheer shock.
“Now wait just a gosh darn minute-”
“It’s my bucking life! I don’t have to give up my habits if I don’t bucking want to! And the fact that any of you feel the need to judge me with all the shit you do is laughable!” She screamed, flapping her wings to get into Rainbow’s face, who had actually flown back from her tirade, the look on her face was one that Fluttershy had never seen before, and her eyes grew cold.
“You’re right, ok. We have just as many issues as you do. But you came to us, Shy. If you want to ignore us and slowly die on a hospital bed, then that’s on you, but I’ll be damned if you think I won’t have Discord send me to Tartarus to drag your ass back to us. Look, we can work on this, together. You won’t be alone, but you have to give us a chance, ok?” Rainbow coldly replied, surprised by how much of her backbone her friend was showing.
Fluttershy didn’t even feel herself drop to the ground as tears slowly ran down her face, ashamed of her words and actions.
“I’m so sorry.” She whispered as she felt Rainbow’s hooves wrap around her in a sincere and loving embrace, and, before she knew it, she felt all of her friends hugging her as she wept into Rainbow’s chest.
“We’ll get through this, Shy. We all will. After all, what are friends for, if not to be there for each other, no matter what?” Spike quietly asked as she slowly nodded her head, and after a few more seconds together, they slowly returned to their thrones, with Discord floating back into the air above them, but not before giving his love a peck on the lips, who hugged him tightly, and whisper sweet nothings into his ear as she cried.
Fluttershy looked at the crystal map in front of her once again before taking another deep breath, mustering her resolve before slowly removing the packet of cigarettes from her tail, placing them down on the crystal table, and sliding them to the center, looking each and every one of her friends in the eyes as she sat back down.
“So, where do we start?”
Author's Note
Special thanks to my old friend for editing this. It really means a lot. I went out today, 4/10/2020 and bought a pack of short cigarettes. I smoked three and threw the rest away. I basically threw seven bucks in a toilet.
I had a few smokes with my girlfriend's brother but that's only when I drink which is rare (I'm twenty seven, due to be twenty eight, June twenty one). I gave up smoking cold turkey in December for my girlfriend because her dad died when she was ten due to skin cancer, not the same sure but I didn't want to put her through that again.
That's why I wrote this. I felt guilt I never had before. And I personally love the idea of Fluttershy smoking, though it may seem out of character in regards to the show, for a more mature style I could see Shy doing such and no one seems to bat an eye when it comes to ponies drinking.
But that's just me. This is a very personal story, you can hate or like it it but I'm very proud of what I wrote even if it's short or maybe even out of character for them. Though not all the time I'll more then likely have Shy still smoke in other stories but this one is for me personally to remind myself not to go through that again.
I hope to hear your thoughts and if you struggle with habits such as I did. Fluttershy is my favorite of the Mane Six because I feel I could always relate to her. Enjoy my friends, until next time.
P.s: If you did not know I'm a huge fan of Discord/Pinkie Pie and will always ignore the canon ending for Pinkie, always. So even though I don't hate Fluttershy/Discord I personally will probably always write Discord/Pinkie together but that's just me.
