Dragonshy

Lily trotted silently next to Fluttershy, occasionally stealing glances at the yellow pegasus as the two opted to stay behind everypony else. Trixie was practically joined at the hip with Shoeshine after the whole avalanche incident.

Lily grudgingly admitted Trixie looked nice without her cape on. Showed off more of her natural figure in Lily’s eyes.

“If I didn’t know Shoeshine was straight, I’d make a joke about them,” Lily muttered after taking a sip of water from a bottle she had brought with before hesitantly holding out the flower themed bottle to Fluttershy.

“Thank you,” Fluttershy brushed her light pink mane out of her eyes and took a small sip of the liquid before she hoofed it back and Lily tucked it into her saddlebags. “So uhm how are you?”

“Fine. You?”

“I’m doing okay. Lily, right?”

“Yeah.”

The two fell into an awkward silence as Fluttershy hovered a few feet above Lily, idly listening to Roseluck laugh loudly about something.

Lily didn’t really know what to say. Not many ponies talked to Fluttershy other than Rainbow Dash, Applejack, Rarity and Pinkie. Odd group but Lily had seen weirder groups of friends. The only times Lily saw Fluttershy was winter wrap up or whenever she needs to get stuff from the market.

“You don’t talk much, do you?” Fluttershy asked and Lily shot her an incredulous look.

“That’s a bit ironic coming from you, no offense.” Fluttershy giggled behind a hoof and shrugged as Lily watched her warily.

“I know I’m a bit shy. It’s in my name, after all. Fluttershy. I’m perfectly happy with who I am. And besides, shy is cute right?” Fluttershy flipped her mane and Lily chuckled with a smirk.

“I suppose so. I didn’t think you kept up with what happens outside,” Lily stretched out her hind leg.

“I get deliveries of Canterlot Match,” Fluttershy said simply and Lily raised an eyebrow curiously.

“Same. I like reading about the scandals from Canterlot and beyond. The shit ponies do is insane. Like how that one pony cheated on his wife with a maid. Crazy shit.”

“I read about that. I felt so bad for the poor mare.”

“Meh, apparently she was cheating on him and he did it as a revenge sorta thing. This is why I don’t date. Too much drama. Same with friends. I only one friend,” Lily commented and Fluttershy shot her a confused look.

“Why’s that?” Fluttershy asked curiously and Lily exhaled sharply. “If you don’t wanna answer-”

“No, it’s fine,” Lily cut her off with a grunt. “I have anger issues and stuff, you know? I’m pretty shy sometimes. I rub ponies the wrong way, you know what I mean? Ponies don’t like me. I’m just weird, I guess. I’m not meant to have friends I think. I’d be lying if I said it didn’t hurt. I will admit, I occasionally cry myself to sleep but I don’t really like admitting that. Holy shit, I normally need to be drunk to talk about this.”

“I’d be your friend,” Fluttershy offered and fluttered her wings briefly. “I’m shy too and I shockingly enough have friends. Most ponies don’t like me either. I’m too quiet I guess. And it’s okay to cry yourself to sleep. I used to do that as a filly.”

“You’d be my friend?” Lily whinnied and Fluttershy nodded. “You uh do know there’s a lot of baggage with that, right? I get angry occasionally.”

“There’s a lot of baggage with being Rainbow Dash’s friend too,” Fluttershy retorted with a small smile. “A lot of baggage, believe me. You can come over for tea but uhm I got a bunch of animals I take care of. A lot.”

Lily stared and forced herself to blink in surprise. She expected a lot of things to happen today, but definitely not one of the most shy ponies this side of Mount Everhoof.

“Yeah, sure. I got a lot of things to do after this. I kinda wanna come back up here and explzore properly. Might go camping more. Do new things.”

“I think that would be fun. As long as you do it safely, of course. The woods can be scary. Who knows what could be waiting for you in there,” Fluttershy shuddered and Lily had to admit, she had a point.

Everypony knew the Everfree wasn’t natural. There were things in there Lily didn’t even went to begin to imagine. But she did know there was dozens of other tamer forests nearby she could visit.

She, Roseluck and Daisy once spent a few nights at Whitetail Woods. That had been one of the best weeks of her life. She might bring it up to her sisters.

Lily watched Fluttershy stretch her legs out with a content sigh and continued to talk, missing a grinning Roseluck watching.

“And that is why I brought her along,” Roseluck told Sunset with a wide smile. “See? She’s happy and made a friend with Fluttershy. She could use a friend like Fluttershy.”

“You seem to have made the right call,” Sunset conceded after a moment. She was a big enough mare to admit when she was wrong about something. She occasionally liked Lily’s company. She did find her snarky, rude comments entertaining at times. As long as it wasn’t directed at her or her friends or overly rude, that is.

Sparkler stretched out on the couch and levitated a spoon full of cereal to her mouth, idly switching between reading a book and keeping an eye on the fillies and one colt in the dining room.

“So what exactly does this spell do?” Noi asked as she, Ruby, Dinky, Twist, Sweetie Belle and Rumble sat around a table.

“Don’t know,” Ruby answered and squinted at the book. “Oh, levitation.” Sparkler watched with a smile as Rumble propped his head up with a groan.

“I’m not so sure about this one guys,” Rumble commented and shot Sweetie Belle a look. “The last time Sweetie tried a spell, she turned all my toys into spaghetti noodles.”

“That was one time!” Sweetie Belle squeaked and glared back. “One time!”

“I’m still finding spaghetti noodles to this day,” Rumble flicked his tail and Sweetie Belle growled as he paled. “On second thought, all is forgiven.”

Noi and Twist both laughed at the colt as Sweetie sat back down on her chair.

“Good anther,” Twist pushed her glasses up with a hoof. “Theetie Belle is scary when mad.”

“Yeah yeah. Hey, you got any candy canes?” Ruby asked and licked her lips. “You make the best ones. Well, you and Miss Bon Bon. She supervises or whatever, right?”

“Yeah, she does. Bon Bon is a pretty nice mare all things considered. A bit thubborn though,” Twist admitted and Sparkler gave a half snort, half laugh at that. “What?”

“Nothing, nothing,” Sparkler coughed and slammed her hoof into her chest. “Just my book is all.”

“Okay,” Twist eyed her and Sparkler bit back another laugh, this time genuinely from her book. She glanced outside at the black smoke and chewed on her lip anxiously. She didn’t necessarily like the idea of her Mom going up there with a dragon. She didn’t necessarily have any control over that, but she did have a control of how Dinky felt.

Which is why she agreed to have Dinky’s friends come over to distract her. Can’t get worried about something when you’re busy doing something else so Sparkler loaned them an old spell book she had. Most of them were easy spells but she didn’t think they would learn any of them today. It had taken Sparkler a long time to even levitate things and that’s a spell every unicorn knew.

Even Lyra knew how to and she preferred using her hooves or mouth for everything. Lyra was always different like that compared to other ponies.

“Sparkler?” Sparkler glanced down at Dinky staring outside with the others.

“Yeah, Dinks?”

“Mom and the others are fine, right?” Dinky asked and Sparkler sucked a breath in before nodding.

“Don’t tell anypony I said this, but Mom is a badass. She’s invincible. She can handle anything Equestria throws at her,” Sparkler declared with a confident grin followed by a wink. “Don’t you all worry. She’s incredible on her own but with the Elements? Nothing can stop them. I have faith in them and you should too.”

Sparkler booped Dinky with a hoof on the noise and the filly went crossed with a snicker.

“She’s right,” Noi chimed and Rumble nodded in agreement as the yellow filly shifted on her chair. “Miss Derpy is cool. They will get this whole thing sorted out quick. Wish Liza was here. Stupid flu or whatever she has.”

Ruby gave a brief nod as her eyes flicked around the group before they fell on Sparkler.

“Are you sure?” Ruby asked hesitantly and crossed her forelegs together. “Momma said the same thing that they would be fine.”

“Yeah, Thunderlane said the same thing,” Rumble agreed and the gray colt yawned.

Sweetie Belle stayed silent as she listened. Rarity had said something similar herself about Derpy, Fluttershy and Shoeshine but nothing about the rest. A part of Sweetie suspected Rarity disliked Sunset. Sweetie Belle didn’t have any interactions to her knowledge with the unicorn but heard she was stern sometimes.

Sweetie thought the two would have gotten along with that similar trait between them. According to Apple Bloom, Applejack didn’t have any real opinion on Sunset yet. And according to Scootaloo, Rainbow Dash wasn’t too fond of her for how they met apparently. Something about the two arguing?

Sweetie continued to listen to the group as Sparkler levitated Dinky onto her lap and hugged her with a smile as the older mare nuzzled Dinky.

Sweetie Belle decided then she was gonna at least try to meet Sunset Shimmer.