“I can’t believe she’s in charge of Equestria now,” Fluttershy whispered to Rainbow Dash as they headed towards her cottage. “It feels like only yesterday she was a unicorn in Ponyville…”
“Mmhmm,” Dash stared at the cottage door, before glancing back at Fluttershy’s wide cyan eyes, her ears flicking away the cold night wind. Her heart felt like dropping out of her own chest, what if Twilight hadn’t made that speech and gathered all of them? What if they had grabbed Fluttershy instead of Spike? What if-?
“Dashie, are you alright?” Fluttershy asked, bringing her head closer to Dash’s.
“Yeah, everything was just…” Dash shook her head. “You should go and sleep in, Fluttershy.”
“Not without you,” Fluttershy insisted. “I could...use somepony to keep me warm after everything that happened.”
“Of course,” Dash flew to the door and opened it for Fluttershy, following her inside and shutting the door. In the dark, Angel rushed over to Fluttershy, and the yellow pegasus kissed his fuzzy forehead.
“Remember when I sang that song for you?” Fluttershy asked.
“Everyday,” Dash nodded. “What would’ve Angel done if we hadn’t come home?”
Fluttershy glanced at her marefriend with wide eyes.
“Well, I’m just glad we made it home,” Fluttershy replied, scooping the small bunny into her front legs.
Dash kept silent as she stared at Fluttershy, reflecting on what has happened to them over the years. She couldn’t see herself in a relationship before all the times she spent having raspberry tea with Fluttershy, and even then, she felt her heart spiraling out of her control when she spoke to Rarity about an “anonymous” request. After Fluttershy reciprocated her feelings after the Ponytones concert, they had gone to her cottage and talked about where to go from there.
The relationship had gone from going on dates every few weeks, to every week, to kissing and spending nights at her cottage. They’d go over their teaching methods after School of Friendship hours, Dash would sometimes help her and Discord with the sanctuary. And for those three to try to rip that away from her?
Dash shuddered briefly, before flying to Fluttershy’s side and wrapping her hooves around her mane and shoulders. Pressing her muzzle into her marefriend’s silky pink mane, Rainbow Dash knew that something had to give.
She pulled away, and lifted Fluttershy and Angel into her hooves. Flying slowly with the weight she was holding, Rainbow Dash gently let Fluttershy and Angel fall onto the bed. Angel wriggled out of Fluttershy’s hold and jumped onto the nightstand. Dash lifted the blankets over Fluttershy and herself, placing her hooves around Fluttershy and resting her head over her marefriend’s shoulder. It was in that moment, that Rainbow Dash’s feelings and thoughts fell together.
Pressing her lips to Fluttershy’s cheek, Dash closed her eyes and went to sleep.
As the morning light flowed from the window and onto Fluttershy’s bed, Dash wiggled out of the covers and flew out of the room. Mixing pancake batter in a bowl, with blocks of butter and strips of hay bacon on the counter, Dash mentally counted the list of tasks that she had planned. See Rarity for this, see Pinkie for that, the plans had fallen together smoothly in time for the evening. But where would she take Fluttershy…?
Dash flipped the pancakes onto a plate, throwing two squares of butter onto them and three strips of hay bacon. Tossing the third one into her mouth, Rainbow Dash placed the plate onto the table next to two items before flying out the door.
Fluttershy stretched her legs and wings, a giggle escaping her lips as she felt a creature jumping over her. Waving her hoof in the direction behind her, Fluttershy’s eyes flickered open as she saw an empty space on the other half of her bed. Catching Angel scampering past the open door out of the corner of her eye, Fluttershy stood up and jumped off her bed.
Following Angel, she softly gasped and smiled when she saw a plate of pancakes and hay bacon beside a cup of steaming coffee and a yellow sticky note. Trotting over to her table, she pulled the chair out and sat down. Feeling her chair moving, Fluttershy glanced down at the stomping white rabbit on the floor.
“Oh my, Angel. I don’t think she-” Fluttershy trailed off as Angel ran off, pulling a bowl of carrots close to him. “Aw, she remembered.”
Fluttershy looked back at the note on the table:
Gone for the day, meet me at Sugarcube Corner at sunset!
-Dashie
Fluttershy felt the warmth fluttering in her chest as she sipped her coffee and took a bite out of one of the pancakes. The fluffy taste along with the savory taste of the hay bacon strips and butter made Fluttershy smile as she glanced at her window. The animals would wave or fly by before taking off into the forest. Finishing her food, Fluttershy got up from her chair and left the cottage. Discord was already at the sanctuary, waving his lion paw at her as soon as she walked in.
The day dragged on, especially since Discord had done most of her normal chores within a matter of minutes. As soon as the sun began to fall, Fluttershy left the sanctuary and trotted into Ponyville. She nearly flinched as she saw Discord flying beside her.
“Wait, my dear Fluttershy,” Discord told her. “Are you sure you want to go to Sugarcube Corner?”
“Why wouldn’t I go there?” Fluttershy asked.
“I don’t know, maybe Sugarcube Corner isn’t your type,” Discord commented. “And perhaps the chaotic dimension might be more to your liking?”
“Maybe another time, Discord. I have a marefriend to see,” Fluttershy grinned, walking past Discord and towards Sugarcube Corner. Discord stopped in his tracks, his ears flattening as he snapped his fingers and disappeared.
Fluttershy’s heart leaped when she saw her rainbow-maned marefriend waiting a short distance away, galloping towards Fluttershy.
“Hey, Shy,” Dash kissed Fluttershy’s forehead. “Come walk with me.”
“You feeling better since last night?” Fluttershy asked her marefriend as they walked through Ponyville.
“Loads better,” Dash smirked. “Truth was, the day that they nearly took over Equestria was gnawing at me. What if they did? What if, instead of grabbing Spike, they grabbed you?”
“What do you...oh,” Fluttershy’s eyes widened as she stopped following Rainbow Dash for several seconds. Snapping out of her thoughts, Fluttershy rushed over to Dash’s side. “Rainbow Dash, I’m so sorr-”
“It’s okay, Fluttershy,” Dash reassured her. “If anything, that day made me realize what decision I’ve been blind to all these years. Here we are.”
Fluttershy stopped, staring at the trees on the outskirts of Ponyville. Surrounded by balloons of many pastel colors, bows wrapped around the trees, rose petals all over the grassy floor, and all her animals standing before her, Fluttershy took everything in. She stared up at the full moon that hovered over both of them, before glancing back to Rainbow Dash.
“I don’t want another disaster to happen, leaving me wondering what I could’ve done before,” Dash explained, flying towards Fluttershy with her forehooves extending towards her.
Fluttershy slowly placed her hooves over Dash’s and extended her own wings. Feeling Dash quickly wrapping her forelegs around her marefriend, Fluttershy felt her body being embraced and lifted into the sky at near Sonic Rainboom speed. Her head spinning, Fluttershy felt Rainbow Dash let go of her, holding her marefriend’s hooves with her own once more.
“Fluttershy, for the longest time, I believed that the most fulfillment that would come from my life was becoming a Wonderbolt,” Dash told her. “But I was wrong. Seeing your smile, your gentle laugh, being the one that brought that out of you...well, that was more fulfilling than any accomplishment to my name.”
“Rainbow Dash…” Fluttershy whispered, her heart beating faster as Dash let go of her hooves and pulled a black box out of her mane. Opening up the box, Fluttershy felt her heart jump as her hooves covered her gasp.
“Fluttershy, will you marry me?” Dash asked.
“Yes!” Fluttershy gasped, lunging for her marefriend and nearly knocking the box out of her hoof. She could hear the faint growls and stomps from her animals below, only imagining Angel cheering with the littlest squeak he could muster. As Rainbow Dash slowly placed the ring over her hoof, Fluttershy glanced down as her friends and several other ponies came into view.
Looking back at Rainbow Dash, Fluttershy held the blue pegasus’ face in her hooves before pressing her lips to her marefriend’s lips. The cheering from ponies and animals alike was heard from both mares, and they flew down to join the growing crowd.
As Fluttershy gently landed with Rainbow Dash’s wing resting on her back, she thought of the gesture years ago when Twilight had told her about an anonymous pony that had fallen for her. That moment when she had stared into Rainbow Dash’s eyes in the crowd had sealed her fate, there would be no other pony that had quite captured her like Rainbow Dash had.
Leaning against Rainbow Dash, Fluttershy could only contemplate on what gesture would show her fiancee just how she felt. Her best friend, her fiancee, and the pony she’d spent the rest of her life with.
Her heart was truly soaring high.
