Slipping

     Twilight, Applejack, Rarity, Rainbow Dash, and the happily wedded couple of Pinkie Pie and Flutters were now back in Ponyville. The carriage ride back for the couple was a nice silent one with words of love and kisses spread throughout, while the others simply had random conversations and laughed until they reached their town of residence. All six met in front of Twilight's residence, which is, was, and will most likely always be the Ponyville library. The six formed a little circle just outside Twilight's door, and with all of them gathered there, Flutters decided to be the one to say it. "We would like to thank you girls for coming to our wedding. It means so much to us that you were there."

         "And fer the hundredth time, yer welcome sugarcube." Applejack let a warm bemused smile play across her face.

        "Yeah, it really wasn't that hard of a decision..." Twilight added. The two silent friends and Applejack nodded in

        "Yeah... its just that... considering some of your reactions at first, and some of what you still probably think..." Flutters began to sink into herself a little and her friends all wore awkward expressions. "I just had my doubts," she quickly finished her thought.

         At this point, everypony present was practically swimming in a thick air of awkwardness. All their gazes shifted between Pinkie and each other. Each had their own version of "Will somepony please break the silence?" running through their minds. Eventually, it was Pinkie who decided to break the wretched silence.    "Hey! You four also never even told us about that! You Pinkie Promised!" That's not what I expected, this thought occurred simultaneously in each of the four friends and Flutters. Everypony other than Pinkie and her wife shuddered when the potential for breaking a Pinkie Promise arose and what their ancient promises were. All four friends indicated with a lean of their heads that they wanted to tell this story inside. Pinkie and Flutters nodded in recognition and followed their friends inside the library. Once inside and surrounded by her friends, Twilight came to a realization. "Wow, we never brought this up for almost a year." Everypony froze for a moment, as if time itself had stopped, to absorb the actual stupidity of that fact.        "Well, anyways," Rainbow Dash began, desperate not to linger in the silence,"You two start off and we'll fill in the blanks, alright?" The couple nodded their heads and began the story...

._____________________________._____________________________.

        Pinkie Pie and Fluttershy had been seeing each other for over two weeks now. Everypony was quite oblivious to the fact and both were relatively glad. Fluttershy was especially so. The thought of her friends finding out about her dating Pinkie was one that would literally make her cringe in fear. Even from day one, these different scenarios of how her friends would take the news played out in her mind... and a great portion had very negative outcomes. Same goes for Pinkie, but with a greater sense of hope for a happy ending.        The pink mare was finishing up her work at the bakery by cleaning the main area when one more customer came in. This was a mare of relatively normal build with wings stretching out for a moment. Her coat was the color of a setting sun and her mane and tail were short, being a green-ish red color. Her eyes were the color of rubies. "Um... are you still open? The sign outside says you are."        "Yes indeedy," Pinkie said with her usual beaming attitude. Although, she inwardly cursed this mare for prolonging how long she would inevitably remain where her shy marefriend was not. "What'cha need Ms..."        "Ruby Skies, but you can just call me Sky."        "Ooh, that's a nice name! So what do need Sky?" Pinkie said, disappearing for a moment before rising behind the counter, still giving her huge Pinkie grin.        Not wanting to question why this happened, Ruby just rolled her eyes and said,"Well, the first anniversary of me and my coltfriend's relationship is in two weeks so I wanna order a simple cake."        Mr. Cake peered out from the kitchen and loudly asked,"Could you please specify 'simple'? We only want the best for our customers, so you’ll need to give us more details!" This earned a confused look from the mare... until the obvious dawned on her.        "I had no idea I had to get into the specifics of a simple cake, uuummmm..." The pegasus scratched her chin with a hoof, thinking of the best way to specify her order. Would you mind HURRYING UP!? I wanna go and be with Fluttershy, like, RIGHT NOW!Pinkie thought to herself, wanting to get out of there more every second the pegasus stood there contemplating. After a couple more moments, which seemed like an hour to Pinkie, said pony was about ready to smack Ruby right upside her...         "I guess I would like a one layer chocolate cake with nice creamy frosting that says, 'Happy anniversary Violet Clouds'." Thank the gods!Wait... her coltfriend’s name is Violet? Pinkie looked at Ruby in confusion, wondering what kind of parent named their colt Violet. There was a moment of hesitation before the pegasus responded sheepishly, "Hey, I didn't name him. If I did, it'd be something MUCH more stallion-like. Kind of like... um..."NOT THIS AGAIN! Pinkie raged in her mind. Seeing the twitching of Pinkie’s left eye, the shrinking of her pupils, the strange movement of her hair - almost like a balloon was slowly losing its air - she decided to end that thought. “Hehe, I’m not good with names so I’ll just stop before I eat up any more of your time.” More nervous chuckles escaped as Pinkie cooled off a little.         With the concept of Ruby sitting there, keeping her in Sugarcube Corner gone from mind and reality, Pinkie grabbed a nearby quill from the counter in her hoof, dipped it in the ink a few times, and quickly jotted down the order. "Will there be anything else you need from us?" Pinkie beamed. Ruby shook her head and thanked Pinkie for her time before leaving Sugarcube Corner faster than intended. Pinkie sighed, picked up the small parchment, and pinned it to the wall of the kitchen as she normally did.         After doing her remaining duties fast enough to get it over with but slow enough to get them done right, she said her goodbyes to the Cakes and headed off towards Fluttershy's cottage. Her boundless energy, mixed with her intense desire to see Fluttershy again, got Pinkie there faster than Applejack could have on a dead sprint. She slowed down and calmly knocked on the door... with her face. On the inside, a certain yellow pegasus was being roused from a nap by the knocking. Her eyes fluttered open and she let out a yawn before going to open the door, inevitably knowing who was on the other side.         As she opened it, she merely awaited the pink mane and fur to come into her vision. Once the pink mare of her affection was fully presented, she leaned forward and nuzzled up to her. "Hi Pinkie Pie," Fluttershy said in a tired voice.         "Hi Fluttershy. Were you sleeping?" Her voice was still upbeat but with a bit of a hush to it, as to not disturb the state Fluttershy was in or the animals she noticed that were snoozing away in the cottage.         "Um, yes, I was taking a quick nap on the couch. I love my animal friends, but sometimes helping them can really take it out of me." Pinkie merely giggled in response and showed herself in. Wow... I just noticed how cute Fluttershy is when she's tired, which is a lot! In fact, when isn't this perfect little mare being cute? Pinkie thought to herself. "Ya mind if I joined you? I'm pretty spent from... well, being me. Work was pretty hard too. Just an onslaught of ponies coming in and leaving by the BUSHEL!" Pinkie noticed how loud that last word came out and quickly apologized to any animals she disturbed. “And then for a while, I was being held up by pony after pony after pony after pony... and I was afraid that they would never stop, and I wouldn’t be able to see you today!”     “How are we gonna tell our f-f-f-friends ab-bout our realtionsh-ship? How Pinkie?” The mare of infinite answers, even though most were straight up nonsensical, literally had nothing. Not a single thing in her mind. “I... I don’t know. I want to tell them, I know that, but I don’t know how!”     Pinkie then brought a hoof to her head with such a great velocity that it knocked her straight to the ground. Fluttershy saw out of the corner of her eye, and was immediately snapped out of her haze. “OH GODS! Pinkie are you alright!?” The earth pony then sprung up with a huge smile on her face. “I know EXACTLY what to do now!”     Fluttershy was now thoroughly confused. “What... just happened?”    Pinkie looked at Fluttershy like she was disregarding the obvious and, with a roll of her eyes, said, ”I was forcing the answer into my head. Duh!” Fluttershy wisely abandoned that thought and instead insisted that her marefriend not abuse herself, at least in front of her. Pinkie agreed.     “Now, anyways,” Fluttershy began, ”what did you have in mind for telling our friends?” There was still hints of fear and anxiety in her voice.     Fluttershy’s marefriend took that into account and said, “I think that if we tell them one by one, starting with our closest of close friends, it would be a lot easier for the both of us. Like I would start with Rainbow Dash, since we always go pull super-duper-extra funny pranks on everypony, and you would start with Rarity! With all the spa trips you two go on, I’m sure she’d be shocked if she didn't hear of our relationship first.” Fluttershy couldn't believe it, but her marefriend wasactually making sense.     “That’s... actually brilliant Pinkie!” Fluttershy was so astounded by how ingenious this simple idea was that she pulled Pinkie into passionate kiss. This lasted for a few long moments before Pinkie gently pushed away, a gentle smile on her lips. The same could be said for Fluttershy, as she had gained quite a bit of confidence from both the information and the kiss. She had no idea how those two things had given her courage, but she decided that wasn’t important...

     “Hey, why did that make her more confidant IC?”Pinkie, you need to stay in the story now. If you come out... bad things will happen. Besides, I was just about to get to it.     “When?”Right now! Now don’t interrupt me again, alright? Its hard enough to write this without the characters popping out to chat.    “Okay Mr. IC, I’ll be a good little pony!”Hehe, thanks Pinkie.

     Fluttershy was completely confused at this point. No turning back. “Pinkie...” the timid mare began cautiously, ”who are you talking to?”     “The author!”     Fluttershy was a little concerned about Pinkie Pie sometimes, what with her random outbursts about a ‘fourth wall,’ that she would always attempt to break. She would even start talking to ponies who weren’t there and claimed them to be authors or animators or even musicians! Her worry was quelled the instant she remembered who Pinkie was, as well as the timeless phrase, ‘it’s Pinkie Pie... don’t question it’.    Fluttershy shook her head a bit and laughed under her breath. Best to forget about it Fluttershy...     “Hey, Fluttershy?” The pegasus’ attention was now focused back onto her marefriend, ”I thought you would be really super-duper-extra worried... even after what I said had come out of my mouth.”     She pondered her answer for a moment before responding with, ”I guess its because I can handle telling them one at a time... rather than being judged by a... group... eep.” That thought alone made Fluttershy sink into herself. She took a moment to calm herself and got back into the normal standing position. “It just feels better to talk to them one by one.”     “Thats what I thought! Wouldn't wanna stress you out too much Shy.” Pinkie grinned her trademark grin and hugged the pegasus.     “Um, Pinkie?” Fluttershy asked quietly.     “Yeah Fluttershy?”     “Shouldn’t we, um, go tell them now? I should be leaving for my spa date with Rarity in a few minutes, and aren’t you actually going pranking with Rainbow Dash today?”     Pinkie Pie gasped in her usual overly dramatic way and exclaimed, “I AM going pranking with her today! This. Is just.PERFECT!” She enveloped Fluttershy in a tight hug, which the pegasus just melted into.     Much to either pony’s chagrin, the embrace needed to end so that both could get ready for their day. Pinkie gave Fluttershy one last peck on the lips as well as some parting words before setting off towards her room in Sugarcube Corner to gather her usual pranking supplies. Fluttershy just headed off to the spa where Rarity would be waiting... and she felt strangely good at the moment so she decided to fly there, and rather fast by her standards.     They were now both on a mission, and phase one was now underway, with hope being their one true ally!