Haikuesque (When She Laughs)

by themoontonite

Rating: everyone
Tags: Twilight Sparkle, Slice of Life, Romance, My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic, Rarity, Fluttershy
Length: 1802

Twilight didn't know Fluttershy could play the piano.

Twilight and Rarity had been going steady for a while. She loved her! That much was fact, a scientifically verified claim that Twilight could fly proudly. Their love wasn't exclusive. They had talked about that. Rarity loving another didn't lessen the love she felt for Twilight and vice versa. So Twilight felt no guilt when she fell for Fluttershy.

She just didn't know what to do about it.

Written for a Quills and Sofa's speedwrite, where it took first place. Posted here with editing done by the delightfully bisexual wishcometrue herself.

Published 2020-07-15 00:00:01 UTC
Last updated 2020-07-15 00:00:01 UTC

The Piano In The Hall

Twilight steadied her breath as Rarity sat patiently, giving her ample time to sort out her tangled thoughts. Her mouth spoke before her brain could, the words tumbling unbidden from her lips. “I need your help with some poetry.”

“Poetry?” Rarity cocked an eyebrow and shot Twilight out of the clouds.

“Yes. Poetry.” Twilight yearned to cross the table, to shake the surprise off Rarity’s face. She settled for crossed hooves and a muted indignation.

“Why?” The cocked eyebrow dropped and Twilight breathed a sigh of relief.

Twilight pulled the teacup close to herself, folding her forehooves over each other as her gaze slid off of Rarity’s prying eyes. She studied instead the floor, the drapes, anywhere Rarity wasn’t. “You’d think I was silly if I told you.”

“Twilight my love, you know that’s not true.” Twilight almost let the tender hoof Rarity offered drag her soft features back into focus but she resisted. “You can trust me. Right?”

Twilight pulled in a shaky breath, letting her head drop and smack into the table. “Do you remember when we talked about us? About more than us?”

It was all Twilight could do to hope that Rarity picked up on what she was trying to put down. “You mean our exclusivity situation.”

Or lack thereof. “Yeah, that.”

“Do you…” Rarity tapped a hoof to her chin, her gaze on the middle distance as she thought. “Do you have a crush on somepony?”

“Yes.” Twilight wanted to bury herself, to seal away all her burning shame and embarrassment, all her messy feelings of love so that nopony had to deal with them but her.

“Twilight, darling, that’s fantastic!” Rarity grabbed Twilight's muzzle and pulled it close, forcing their eyes to meet. “Who’s the lucky mare?”

Twilight met Rarity’s sparkling eyes and let them rescue her from the crushing maw of uncertainty. “It’s Fluttershy.”

Rarity released Twilight, who wasted no time in straightening her posture and shaking out any ruffled feathers. “You’ve got excellent taste, sweetest. So you want to tell her through poetry?”

Twilight pushed her chair out, standing up to pace the room. “I don’t know what I want.”

“Other than Fluttershy’s lips on yours, of course.” Rarity collapsed in a fit of giggles as Twilight wheeled on her, countenance ablaze.

“That’s—that’s beside the point!” Twilight shook her head, trying to clear the blush from her cheeks. “I guess I do want to tell her through poetry. I don’t know what I want to tell her but I’m sure I’ll think of something.”

Rarity recovered from her laughing fit, carefully wiping away a tear of mirth. She pulled a notebook and pen from the bag that hung off the side of her chair, flipping to an empty page. “Let’s start with this. When did you first notice your feelings for her?”

The sound of piano drifting through the halls of an otherwise empty castle could pull anypony out of a book. Twilight drifted out of her reading nook, trying to follow the source of the sound. She didn’t remember inviting anypony over, much less anypony that could play piano. Approaching the epicenter of the noise she stopped to listen for just a moment. Whoever was playing was… really good. It would be pleasant if they weren’t a home invader.

“Who’s there?” Twilight didn’t have the courage to round the corner, to stare the stranger in the face.

The playing stopped and Twilight found her life just slightly more barren without it. “Oh, Twilight, is that you?”

“Fluttershy?” Twilight stepped out into the doorway to stare down Fluttershy, who had since stopped her playing to turn towards Twilight.

“I’m sorry, I was in the area and it had been so long since I’ve had a chance to play undisturbed. I can leave if you’d like.” Fluttershy scooted off the piano bench, having already accepted her eviction as fact. Twilight caught Fluttershy’s bag with a hoof, earning her attention.

“No, it’s fine, you don’t have to leave; I was just a little surprised! I don’t think I’ve ever heard anypony play that thing since I dragged it in here.” Twilight hopped onto the bench herself, dancing her wingtips over the keys clumsily. Her primaries caught a sharp and found good company in the gentle lilt of Fluttershy’s laugh.

Fluttershy sat next to her and her head almost collapsed as their feathers brushed. Fluttershy plunked out a cheerful little ditty, something Twilight remembered from her childhood. Fluttershy’s attention was on the keys, letting her feathers dance over them. “Where’d you get this from?”

Twilight folded her forelegs in and wrapped herself in her wings, trying to shut out the rush of feelings she was facing. “Parents gave it to me. They needed to make space back home and didn’t really use the grand that much.”

Fluttershy paused her playing, fixing her focus on Twilight and Twilight alone. She felt herself wilting, made small under the burning eye of fresh love. “I can give you some lessons, if you’d like. It’s been a while for me too so it’d be like we’re learning together!”

Twilight steadied her breath as she let her wings rest on the keys, trying her best to keep her heart from leaping through her teeth as she smiled. “I’d like that a lot.”

Twilight sat, unsure and untethered from the world around her. She met Rarity’s eyes, desperate for guidance. Rarity simply blinked, silent and awestruck. Twilight’s ears folded against her head. “Is something wrong?”

Rarity shook her head before responding. “No, no, nothing’s wrong. You’re just so romantic it hurts sometimes.” Silencing Twilight with a raised hoof, Rarity held up a little diagram she had drawn for Twilight’s benefit.

“A haiku?” Twilight pulled her chair around to Rarity’s side, craning her neck forward. The text on the page mingled with the deep vetiver of Rarity's perfume and Twilight found herself failing to parse either.

“Yes! You’re familiar, right?” Rarity turned to face Twilight and she was so close, so unbearably close that Twilight thought she might fall in love again if she wasn’t careful. Giving Rarity some space, she pulled the notepad over to her little section of the table.

“Of course! Of course. It’s been a while since I’ve really felt like I needed to read any poetry, and I’ve certainly never been good at writing any.” Twilight grimaced at the thought of old love letters, hours of effort wasted on mares and stallions alike.

Rarity pursed her lips, tapping the pencil against the tip of her chin. “I hardly think that’s the case. The reports you write take on an almost poetic structure at times. I just don’t think you give yourself enough credit.”

Twilight blinked the surprise out of her eyes. “You read my reports?”

Rarity paused, her face writ with surprise in a measure equal to Twilight’s. “Yes, of course! Not all of them, mind, just one’s I think might be interesting. Anyways!” Rarity waved her hoof in the air, just as much a gesture of determination as it was an attempt to clear the sickeningly saccharine air. “You have poetry to write, darling.”

Twilight nodded, her mind drifting as she stared at the blank page. She thought of Rarity, then Fluttershy, then kissing, then wing hugs, then back to Rarity, then hugging Rarity and Fluttershy together. Her brain ceased function when it landed on the two of them kissing her in tandem. It took Rarity clearing her throat to drag Twilight back to focus, still sitting in front of a blank notebook. “Right. Poetry.”

Twilight walled off her section of the table with her wings, trying her best to shield her work from Rarity’s eyes. Twilight loved Rarity with wild abandon but embarrassment was still hot on her heels, a looming shadow that threatened to grind her fledgling love to dust if she didn’t step carefully. She thought about Fluttershy and just Fluttershy in that brief moment they were alone. Just them and the piano.

Twilight heard her laugh, the sound of piano hammers striking taut string only to bounce and cascade off vaulted crystal ceilings. She heard music, she heard the spring, she heard honey and tea on a rainy day. She heard the noise down the hall and it pulled her, implored her to seek its source and perhaps sit by it for a little while, to live and love and learn for just a moment. She heard that music tangle… tangle? Blend, flow, swim in and amongst the real music of the grand pianos singing strings.

I hear her laughing

The piano in the hall

Plays a quiet note

Finally, Twilight’s secrecy relented and the barrier her wings formed faltered, collapsing against the cool oak of the table. Rarity pulled the notepad out from underneath Twilight, who resigned herself to the life of a mediocre poet. She would try out art college, carve her way through a few semesters before inevitably dropping out to live in a flat in Manehattan. She would have three roommates and they would never agree on the decor and Rarity was really rubbing off on her, wasn’t she?

“Twilight, dear…” Rarity nuzzled against Twilight’s cheek and the warm breath and sweet voice of her lover lifted her spirits just enough to save her mood. “This is beautiful.”

Twilight shifted her gaze to meet Rarity and the shine in her eyes were a lifeline, a way out and into a better life. “You think so?”

Rarity smiled and the world smiled with her. “I know so.”

Fluttershy didn’t get mail very often. No like, mail mail at least. Plenty of supplies for the sanctuary, but a wax-sealed envelope addressed in purple script? That was rare. She set it on the kitchen table, peeling it open with a butterknife she wiped clean on her toast. Her eyes scanned the first page and her heart caught in her chest.

I hear her laughing

The piano in the hall

Plays a quiet note

The gears in Fluttershy’s mind began to spin, finding purchase in any number of possible situations. A secret admirer? Pointless solicitation? A secret society? Fluttershy took a deep breath before proceeding, the perfume on the letter taxing her already overworked senses. It was familiar yet hard to place, like it had been a part of her life for years and years now. It was a beautiful little haiku to be sure, so she had to commend whomever penned it. But why? Was there something they wanted to say? Fluttershy set the poem off to the side, reading over the other letter. If she had been drinking coffee she would’ve choked on it.

Want to get lunch sometime?

As a date?

Hopefully yours,

Twilight Sparkle

Author's Note

listen to this