Deeper Than Friendship

Chapters

A Night To Remember(New)
Best Birthday Ever(Old)
Discovery(Old)
Flashback
Danger
Danger(Part 2)
Lies Lead To More Lies
Wounds
Romance Brews
A Nice Day Out...
For The Best
Aftershock
Unfamiliar Feelings(New)
Desperate Times Call for Desperate Measures

A Night To Remember(New)

Chapter 1

The serenity of the forest, the peace of the animals, the quiet chirps of birds in nearby trees as they prepare to head off to a world of sleep; Fluttershy was enveloped with it all. She loved this part of the forest, her own little section, and enjoyed the beauty and fertility of it all. Being a shy and timid pony, she was rarely ever one for excitement among other things to help her relax, sometimes, what she needed was a getaway much like this one to feel at peace. The stars twinkling elegantly above in Luna’s night sky, blending in nearly perfectly with the large moon which casted light down upon her. She usually frequented this activity for herself when she didn't have to manage her animal friends or deal with any other pony; or when she needed to be alone because of problems or needed to see her animal friends for comfort. She wasn't too far into the forest, just inside a small clearing on the outskirts; close enough to her home to run away should danger come rearing its ugly head around the corner. It was elegant, pure relaxation and bliss, very suitable for a pony of her nature.

However, this time was different from the other times, where she relaxed in solitude. This time, the Shy Pegasus had brought along a friend to join her. Not just any friend, but instead her best friend, Rainbow Dash. Rainbow had been acting a tad weird and distant lately and it was very peculiar, especially for someone like her; a very out-going and aggressive sports pony. She was never one to shy away from danger, or rather, anypony else for that matter. But she had been doing just that, and it wasn't normal at all.

But, the reason for her Rainbow-Maned friend to be so distant from her or the other ponies wasn’t a mystery in the slightest. Fluttershy knew exactly why she had been acting this way.

***

About two weeks back, Fluttershy and Rainbow dash had been planning going up to Cloudsdale for a visit. The idea was Rainbow’s and she didn’t want to go alone; Besides, Fluttershy quite liked the idea as well. It would be nice to revisit their home town after so long, say hello to all of their old friends and pay tribute to some of their favorite filly-hood areas. What was odd however was that even though Twilight offered to use her cloud walking spell so they could all go, Rainbow Dash had seem hay-bent on making sure just her and Fluttershy went. Fluttershy couldn’t quite figure Rainbow’s reasoning behind this stubborn decision, not that it was abnormal for her to be that way, seeing as she was a very aggressive pony. But Rainbow usually would have jumped on the opportunity to have more ponies come along with her; she loved to have the company of all of her friends. Regardless of this, Fluttershy went along anyways, she figured it'd be nice, just the two of them, they wouldn't have to explain any of the areas or "show" anypony around, they both already grew up there.

They were to be staying in a nice house they had rented for the occasion for five days. Fluttershy had an amazing time; they went to all of their favorite diners, shops, and even to a Wonder Bolts show. She wasn’t a big fan of the show or the Wonder Bolts, fast sports racing wasn’t quite her thing. But it made her happy none the less to see how excited Rainbow had gotten over going when she had acquired the tickets. But all the while, Rainbow Dash seemed to be acting a bit... off. She would sometimes rush her speech or look like she had something on her mind, stumble around when walking or flying and mess up simple phrases. It seemed as if something had been bothering her the whole time, that she had something wrong with her. Fluttershy didn't want to be rude and intrude on her business, but she had to admit, she was beginning to become a bit worried about her blue-colored friend.

They were nearing the day of their departure when it had happened. Fluttershy was in her room packing here bags for the trip home the next day when Rainbow Dash came in.

“Hey F-Fluttershy, what’s up?” Rainbow asked in a nervous tone as she trotted into the room.

“Oh not much, I’m just getting everything ready for tomorrow, shouldn’t you be packing too?” Fluttershy replied, turning to face Rainbow Dash.

Rainbow seemed to stop in her tracks, looking extremely nervous and antsy. “Yeah, I was just about to start…but I needed to tell you something first,” She said with her voice cracking a tad. She began to look very worked-up, as if she was going to break down in tears at any moment.

The yellow-colored pony had never seen her friend so nervous; she usually had no trouble sharing her thoughts at all, no matter why they were. She was always the first in their group of friends to share her opinion on something, and she always made sure to have the last say in a conversation. Fluttershy was no fool to this; she could tell that something was definitely up.

“What is it? Is something the matter?” Fluttershy asked worriedly, stopping her packing to pay attention to the Pegasus in front of her.

Rainbow Dash hesitated for a moment, looking like she was about to leave the room entirely, wanting to escape from the situation she had just thrown herself into. She could have just dropped it, just waited for some other time when it'd be easier to or just forget it all together. But instead she foolishly got herself into something there was no backing out of, but now there was nowhere to go but forward. “There’s no easy way to say this… so I’ll just come out with it.” She paused for a moment, and then spoke once again “Fluttershy, you may not feel the same way back, but I’ve been...” She trailed off

“You’ve been?” Fluttershy inquired, leaning in to hear her friend better,

“I’ve been starting to…” Rainbow trailed off again, staring at her hooves and the ground instead of Fluttershy. Why was this so hard? She, one of the most fearless and courageous ponies in all of Equestria couldn't muster a simple confession? What was she, a grade-school filly?

“Yes?” Fluttershy leaned in closer, paying more attention than before, readying herself to hear whatever it is Rainbow Dash had to say and to help her through any problems she was having.

Rainbow began to back up, looking around nervously as if there were other ponies in the room, watching and judging her every move like she was on trial for murder. She closed her eyes, taking a deep breath and easing her mind. ‘It’s no harder than the time you accidentally ripped a page out of one of Twilight's books and had to tell her about it, you can do this Dash' She thought silently to herself as she exhaled slowly. She had already practiced it a good thousand times in her head, imagining all of the possible outcomes, but that made it no easier as she prepared herself to say what was on her mind. “Fall for you; I’ve been starting to fall for you. I have been trying to ignore this feeling for a long time. But it seems every time I’m with you, alone or not, I can’t control these feeling I get. This heart pounding love I feel for you, and even if you don’t feel it back I can’t keep it a secret anymore. It's just been eating me alive these past few weeks, and I don't know how it even came about! It's one of the most... odd things I've ever experienced and I don't even know if it's fully true. But, I... I may love you, Fluttershy; at least, I think I may. It's why I brought you on this trip in the first place, I didn't want to confess to you in Ponyville when you could be around everypony, I wanted to tell you somewhere special, or in a special way. But I've been chickening out all week, and I realized it was now or never.” Rainbow looked away and blushed vibrantly, already feeling ashamed of herself. She couldn't bring herself to look at the yellow pony in front of her. Fear stung her to the very core of what her reaction might be. She just wanted to hide in the corner like a frightened filly, and wait for it all to be over. It was stupid, stupid! She just wanted to kick herself in the gut for even being foolish enough to consider telling Fluttershy in the first place.

Fluttershy had no idea how to respond to this, or how she even felt on the subject. She never had any idea her friend felt this way about her! She began to very nervous being faced with this information so suddenly. She knew she enjoyed every moment she had spent with Rainbow Dash but she had never once thought of them as more then friends. Fluttershy was straight, she always had been. But when she heard about Rainbow Dash’s feelings for her, she could feel herself slipping into a deep bi curious confusion. Even she had at least once felt her heart pound unusually around the rainbow colored Pegasus, but what was she to do now? It wasn't like she could just jump into a relationship with Dash; she didn't feel comfortable dating anypony, male or female. It’s why she had never dated anypony beforehoof, she was too nervous to. But on the other hoof, Dash wasn’t just some pony; she was her best friend and had been so for over a year, nearly two! However, she didn’t feel right dating Dash, she just didn’t! It was one of the hardest decisions in her life, and she couldn’t help but feel that she could regret her choice either way. After what seemed like an eternity, Fluttershy could feel herself break out of shock, which led to her being increasingly shy while Dash stood in front of her, waiting on some sort of response.

The shy pony eventually found the words on how to express herself, even though they weren't the best, it was the most she could muster “I don’t quite know what to say, Dashie. I will admit I have felt something more than friendship towards you on a few occasions… But I don’t know. I don’t know if I even like you that way, or if I could even hold a relationship… I’m so sorry… This is so hard to do…” Fluttershy could feel her voice lowering on the last words as she backed into the corner until she bumped the wall; she then proceeded to cower on the floor. She hated hurting anypony, especially her closest friend, like that. She couldn't bring herself to imagine the world of pain Rainbow Dash must being going through right now, being rejected like that; she must have been so nervous during the whole vacation. Building herself up to lift a big load off of her chest for a hopefully positive response, only to be met with the cool sting of rejection from the one she sought out to love; it must be horrible, and it was all her fault. She could feel herself begin to shake more, in fear of what her techicolored friend must be feeling at the moment.

Rainbow looked to her friend and instantly realized how much she had stress she had put on her with what she had said. Guilt began to take over the initial pain of rejection as she looked upon the cowering pony. Why hadn't she taken this of all things into consideration at first?! Fluttershy was bound to blame herself for the pain she would receive should she be rejected, which she had been. Not only was her heart broken, but she may have hurt her friend more than she had herself, and in her opinion, that was one of the worst things she could do to a friend. 'I have to make this right' Dash thought to herself as she slowly approached her shaking friend, gently laying a hoof on the yellow pony's back and slowly rubbing it.

“Hey, hey now… calm down Fluttershy. I had no right to put you on the spot like that… You don’t have to make a decision now, you don't ever have to make one. If you’re unsure about us being more than friends, then I’d rather have you be happy than make a decision you’d regret. You don't need to worry about it, no hurt feelings, OK?" Rainbow Dash said soothingly as she pulled the pony into a reassuring hug. She had lied about the hurt feelings part, in all honesty, she could feel her heart breaking as she said the words, and a tear streamed down her cheek. But she wiped it away before Fluttershy could see, there would be plenty of time to cry and get over it later, there was no reason to drag Fluttershy down with her, it would just be down right despicable.

Fluttershy could feel herself stop shaking as a warm feeling of joy and relief overtook her. She returned the hug, letting Dash's body heat and gentle hooves calm her as she exhaled slowly. She was glad that she hadn't hurt Dash too badly... hopefully. But, if she had, for some reason Dash wasn't showing; was... was she hiding it? Hiding it so Fluttershy didn't have to bear the weight of her depression? If that was the case, Fluttershy had to admit she was a pretty admirable pony. Not even she could let her own pain go to soothe that of another's. She pulled out of the hug and pulled herself to her hooves, regaining her calm. She shyly looked to Rainbow Dash, who in turn gave a smile back. No tears, no anger, no frown, hate, depression, crying; maybe she hadn't been hurt… maybe.

Fluttershy leaned forward a bit and gave Rainbow a slight nuzzle under the neck. “Thank you...” She whispered quietly

Rainbow Dash blushed as she felt her heart skip a beat “It’s no problem, really,” She said with a soothing voice as she tried to contain her heart's beating, only to be met with little success. The kind pony stepped back and gave another nervous look to her friend.

"Friends?" Fluttershy asked nervously, fearing that all might not be fixed.

"Friends," Rainbow Dash replied with a reassuring smile. Fluttershy gave an audible sigh of relief as she turned back to her packing. The blue pony turned to leave, giving a quiet sigh of defeat. Even though she had been able to prevent her friend from being hurt, she herself still felt pain seeping its way into her heart. Tears began to form in her eyes and make their way down her cheek like raindrops streaming down a window on a rainy day. Maybe days would be rainy from then on, at least until she got over her rejection. She quickly made her way out of the room, so Fluttershy didn't have to see her the way she was, it would just further increase the problem. As she shut the door behind her, she said a thankful prayer to Celestia that she could hide her pain so well…

Fluttershy looked over when her door closed, quickly brushing it off as she got back to the task at hoof. But, for some odd and unknown reason to the pink-maned pony, she couldn't get herself to focus on what she was doing. When she reached for The Wonderbolts T-Shirt she had gotten at the show, she couldn't help but just sit there and stare at it for a good while. It was as if the shirt may somehow contain the answers to all of her problems, but just can't communicate them. Fluttershy sighed, setting the shirt down and going over to the other side of her room. She flicked off the light switch, instantaneously filling the whole room with the darkness of Luna's night. She moved over to her bed, clearing all of the possessions and her suitcase off the top of it; packing would have to wait until morning, right now she just needed to rest. She effortlessly eased herself into the bed, pulling the covers over herself and leaning back into the soft cloud pillow. She turned to her side, holding the pillow close to her body as she sighed once more. No matter how much she tried to think of other things, for some reason her mind kept drifting back to her friend. Something had defiantly happened just then, but she was unsure of what as she held her pillow closer to her like it was some sort of teddy bear.

“Maybe it wouldn't be such a bad thing at all,” Fluttershy wondered aloud as she turned to face the ceiling, hoping it would give her some sort of advice, some sort of response “I mean… maybe it’s worth a try…” she said lightly, her voice echoing slightly in the large, empty room. She closed her eyes, imagining what it would be like to be in a romantic relationship with Dash. She giggled lightly at her elementary visions, letting them take over her thought process until she drifted into a peaceful sleep.

Rainbow Dash went back to her room, despite her success with comforting her shy friend, her real goal was still a complete failure. Tears had soaked her face on the short walk to her room and they were still coming, relentlessly pouring out of her eyes as if they were sprinklers. She was also thoroughly embarrassed, to say the very least, having just made a complete fool of herself in front of the pony whose opinion she respected most. She sighed heavily, closing her eyes as pain swept over her heart in waves, making noticeable pounds in her chest, each one more vigorous than the last. After a brief moment, she opened her eyes once more, making her way to the open window; beyond it she could see the crystal clear night, stars twinkling in the sky, contrasting well with the bright moon.

“Well, I can only hope to Celestia that things don’t start going downhill from here…” She whispered to herself before turning off her light, hopefully tomorrow would be a better day... hopefully.

***

The next day the sun was out bright and the sky was practically clear, save for a few cumulus clouds that were strewn across the sky. The warmth of the sun beamed upon Rainbow Dash’s back as she sat outside, waiting for Fluttershy to gather her things. She had already finished packing, seeing as she hadn't brought much to begin with. But for some reason, it was taking her shy friend twice as long as it usually would have to get ready to leave. Besides, hadn't she already packed last night? What else could she be up to in there? Rainbow Dash sighed in frustration, impatiently tapping her hoof on the soft cloud-floor until a figure suddenly emerged from the house, bearing a black suitcase, traced with brown in her mouth.

“Jeeze, what took you so long?!” Rainbow asked in an annoyed tone as she got to her hooves. Fluttershy spat out the suitcase in her mouth, the object landing safely on the squishy cloud, before turning to face the sports pony

“I’m sorry Dashie; I had t-trouble gathering everything….” The yellow pony spoke shyly. She seemed to be acting shyer than she usually did, which was saying a lot for Fluttershy.

“Is something wrong Fluttershy?” Rainbow carefully asked, hoping not to make her feel threatened in any way.

“N-n-n-n-o…” Fluttershy voice dropped to a shy squeak. She didn't feel like speaking to Dash in fear that what had happened the night before would be brought up. She wasn't sure whether she had hurt Dash or not, and if so, she wasn't sure how much she had hurt her. If she was going to help the situation at all, one of the best ways would be to give her friend some time alone, to get over the initial rejection. But she didn't dare say this, in fear that it would only serve to increase Dash's pain.

“If you say so….” Rainbow sounded half hearted saying it. She was worried about what might become of her and her closest friend’s relationship after what happened. What if they started to drift apart, what if she accidentally messed something up again? Then not only would she have lost a potential love, she would have lost a life-long friend. She quickly shook the thought off though, she couldn't think about it just yet, “Well… How bout we go home now?” She asked lightly, intently waiting on a response from Fluttershy. Sadly ,all she received was a light nod which she took as a yes. Rainbow Dash flexed her wings, stretching before taking off towards Ponyville, Fluttershy following suite. Regardless of the short distance Cloudsdale was from Ponyville, it seemed to take hours upon hours just to arrive at the ground.

On the way into the town proper, there was plenty of awkward tension between the two Pegasi. Neither of them had any idea what to say or do, and they hadn't even decided whether or not to tell the rest of their friends about what had happened yet. In Fluttershy's opinion, she thought she'd keep it a secret; after all, it must have token a great deal of courage for Rainbow Dash to do what she did, and Fluttershy didn't want to ruin it or her more by spreading the word all around Ponyville. Needless to say, both of them knew things weren't going to be the same for the next few days...

***

A few days after their vacation, Fluttershy eventually eased back into wanting to visit and spend time with Rainbow Dash. She figured enough time had passed on for the blue Pegasus to get over any pain she could have been feeling. But her friend seemed to be steadily avoiding her. Whenever she wanted to talk to her, Rainbow would make up some excuse like ‘I got weather jobs to do’ or ‘I need to practice a new trick I made’. After the excuse was made, Dash wouldn't even wait for a response before bolting off in the opposite direction. Fluttershy sensed she was lying due to how off guard and nervous she sounded when she gave the excuses, and how she always seemed in a hurry to go away right after she had made them. Had what happened in Cloudsdale start to break down Rainbow’s self confidence around the sight of her? Or was Rainbow just so heart broken she never wanted to speak to the shy pony ever again? But through all of the questions, Fluttershy knew one thing was for sure, she needed to come up with some sort of solution to this problem, less she loose Dash as a friend forever. Fluttershy shuddered at the thought, she couldn't let that happen, she needed to do something, and fast. She paced around her house for a long while, attempting to think of some sort of plan, anything that would be able to save the friendship she oh so cherished with her friend. Just as Luna's moon began to rise of the peeks of the horizon, it hit her. She could take Dash to her clearing! It was the perfect idea, Dash could relax and unwind there, amongst the tranquility of the forest and animals. Almost as suddenly as the idea came to her head, a scene played out before her mind. She saw herself nuzzling and kissing Rainbow Dash as they held each other closely in the clearing, she could taste her tongue, and she could feel the warmth of her fur brushing against her own as cold sweat poured down it...

Fluttershy quickly shook her head, she couldn't afford to think that way, it's what put their friendship into jeopardy in the first place! She looked out the window again, night was beginning to form outside. She didn't have much time left, she hastily opened the door, stepping outside and making her way towards Ponyville in search of Rainbow Dash. But all the while, her mind kept drifting back to that thought.

***

“Come on Dashie, get up… Please…” Fluttershy said politely and quietly, her voice barely a whisper as she nudged the sleeping Pegasus. Rainbow Dash was busy sleeping upon a cloud when Fluttershy had found her, which had made things all the more easier for the yellow pony. But she felt as if she needed to be careful, she didn’t want to seem rude when awakening her friend, even if it was for a good cause. Eventually, the blue pony came to, rubbing her head in annoyance as she sat up on the cloud. When her eyes fell upon who awoken her, she grunted in frustration.

“What do you want Fluttershy? I’m busy, can’t you see?” Rainbow Dash said in complaint as she flopped back down on the cloud. It was times like these that Fluttershy would usually accept defeat and move on, but she couldn’t let that happen tonight, she needed to fix her relationship with Dash. Even if it meant having to step out of her comfort zone and do something she usually wouldn’t do, it was necessary. She took a deep breath and prepared herself, exhaling slowly before speaking.

“No! I will not take no for an answer this time, you are coming with me!” Fluttershy demanded as she shook her friend some more. Rainbow Dash was thoroughly impressed as she rose from her cloud, looking in shock at the mare; Fluttershy rarely demanded anything at all unless she was serious, otherwise she would just keep on politely asking. Rainbow shrugged, stretching out her body and wings before taking off into the sky; she figured she’d play along with her friend’s plan, only to see what the big deal was. Besides, she hadn’t spoken to Fluttershy in awhile, mainly due to the fear that she would mess something up again coupled with the aching pain she felt in her heart around the mare. It probably would be nice to start anew, so she wouldn’t lose her friend for good.

Fluttershy cheered in glee upon seeing that her friend would actually be joining her. She instantly grabbed the dare devil’s hoof, leading her off into the direction of the Everfree Forest. Rainbow Dash stoically followed along, not showing much care for where she was being taken.

***

“Why’d you bring me here Fluttershy?” Rainbow asked while exploring the area she had been brought to. It was a beautiful clearing, complete with all of the joys and serenities of nature. The land was flat and perfect, no ditches, high hills, or large rocks to get in the way of anypony who wanted to relax. The area reminded Dash of those clearings that ponies sometimes went camping in, the ones that were the ideal condition for sleeping outdoors. The place was amazing, especially considering how rare it was to come upon land this perfect in the Everfree Forest.

“You’ve been acting so distant and stressed lately… I thought you could use a bit of a refresher.” Fluttershy smiled lightly at her. Rainbow Dash felt her heart pounding again, she was here, with the pony she’s in love with, in a secluded forest, under the stars. Regardless of the fact that Fluttershy didn’t even feel the same way, Dash couldn’t help it as she felt her heart rate steadily increasing. She looked away and blushed, attempting to distract herself by focusing her attention on a nearby nest of sleeping birds. She couldn’t let herself try anything, not even in such a perfect setting. For the first time in weeks, things finally seemed to be looking up again in her friendship with Fluttershy, all it would take it one fatal move to mess it all up again.

Fluttershy could sense her friend edging away and feeling embarrassed. She began to panic, trying to think of some way to keep the situation under control before things became too awkward. The timing couldn’t have been worse when her mind drifted back to the vision she had once more. She couldn’t help it, no matter how much it frustrated her that was all she could think off as she looked upon her friend. Maybe… maybe she did feel some sort of ‘love’ towards Rainbow Dash. That was the only logical explanation for why she couldn’t stop picturing being together with her. The caretaker knew that she could only act in two ways right now, and she knew she’d have to make this decision before it was too late. Without a word being said, she gulped before slowly trotting towards the sky-blue Pegasus, burying her head into its neck.

Rainbow Dash nearly screamed out of sheer excitement and shock. Her already fast beating heart and started to go a mile a minute. Was this really happening? She closed her eyes and enjoyed the feel of Fluttershy’s warm head under her chin. It was blissful… but was it really happening?

Fluttershy continued to lightly nuzzle Rainbow over and over again. It had to be happening; nothing had ever felt this real in the blue pony’s life. ‘Maybe… maybe it’s just friendly’ she tried to convince herself as she continued to feel the heat of her friend’s head under her chin. No matter whether it was real or not, she was enjoying every second of it. Eventually, Fluttershy pulled back, smiling lightly as she looked a still surprised Dash, who was blushing redder than an apple.

Fluttershy lay down on the soft grass and gestured for Rainbow to follow. Rainbow, surprised at how her friend seemed to be running things on this night, carefully lay down close to the yellow pony. Rainbow couldn’t help herself as Fluttershy rubbed her cheek against hers. ‘This is too good to be real, I have to be dreaming’ she thought to herself as she felt the softness of the shy pony’s coat against hers. But she wasn’t, she turned to face Fluttershy who still retained a smile on her face. She could see how bad the yellow Pegasus was blushing too when the two locked gazes and looked into each others’ eyes. She felt herself moving in slowly towards the pink-maned pony, as if she were preparing for a kiss.

Rainbow couldn’t resist herself, she just couldn’t, this was all too much and it all felt too right. She hastily moved in, closing the remaining gap between her and Fluttershy as she kissed the yellow pony deeply, closing her eyes and not letting up. Fluttershy’s eyes popped wide open, she wasn’t expecting a kiss but she didn’t pull back. Instead, she leaned in to return it, slowly closing her eyes as well. No matter what bad could come from this, the moment was perfect. And Fluttershy did not dare end it. She didn’t know exactly why she was doing it, but, for some odd reason it felt right, like she was somehow destined for this exact moment in time. It was just like her vision; she could feel the heat of Rainbow’s breath, she could taste her tongue, it was a wonderful explosion of happiness that flooded her every thought. It was the first time she had ever kissed another pony, and she didn’t think she would forget the feeling anytime soon.

After a long while, both ponies pulled back, looking each other in the eye and blushing furiously. Fluttershy squeaked from embarrassment, once again burying her head in the Pegasus’s neck. Rainbow Dash guessed the kiss had embarrassed her friend some; but she didn’t complain about where the animal lover had chosen to hide her face. She hugged the pony close, lightly nuzzling her once more. It felt as if her heart was about ready to burst out of her chest, and she still couldn’t believe any of this was happening! She thought that Fluttershy hadn’t liked her back, that they would never be in this sort of situation. But it looked as if the world had proven her wrong as she felt the heat of her friend’s body against hers, but she didn’t argue.

Not another word was said that night as both ponies lay close to each other, gazing up upon the stars. No words needed to be said, they both knew what had just happened, and what it could very well mean for their future. Rainbow figured Fluttershy was staying silent for the same reason she was, the reason being that she too needed a moment to comprehend what had just happened and to think about what it could lead to. After several minutes, Fluttershy laid her head down upon the soft grass, closing her eyes and falling into a deep sleep. Dash followed suite, resting her chin upon the shy pony’s head and closing her eyes as she fell into the best sleep of her life.

END

Best Birthday Ever(Old)

A/N: This chapter his not yet been Revamped, so the quality may not be up to par with the rest of the fic. Chapters 1,2,3,4, and possibly 5 are planned to be revamped. If the title has (New) by it, it has been revamped

Chapter 3

Although the sun was slowly setting, it was bright inside of Sugar Cube Corner; “Equestria’s Premiere Sweet Shop”. Inside there were party decorations and games galore; Streamers, Balloons, Confetti, Pin the tail on the pony, and a big, yellow cake. Pinkie Pie was busy bouncing around and blowing her party whistle, Twilight was reading a book, and Rarity and Applejack were sitting at a table.

“Pinkie Pie; have you seen Fluttershy or Rainbow Dash yet?” Twilight asked curiously. At the sound of her name the pink pony stopped and spit out the whistle. She then put her hoof to her chin and tried to think back.

“Hmmmmmm can’t say that I have Twilight” Pinkie Pie responded with little care as she went back to bouncing around the room. Twilight sighed and facehooved at her friend’s random and uncaring behavior.

“Well we simply can’t start the party without at least Fluttershy here” Rarity insisted “Speaking of which, why isn’t she here Twilight? Didn’t you say you reminded her?” She continued.

“Yes, I did Rarity, why would-” Twilight was sounding annoyed before she got cutoff by a door slamming open. Even Pinkie Pie stopped her bouncing to see who had arrived.

“I’m here, sorry everypony, I was late and um…” Fluttershy tried to finish before being rudely interrupted by Pinkie Pie.

“HAPPY BIRTHDAY FLUTTERSHY! Do you want cupcakes? Because I made cupcakes and there’s enough for everypony! Oh, and you have presents from all of us and there’s streamers and Pin the Tail on the Pony and a yummy, yummy cake!” Pinkie Pie screamed ecstatically as she blew her whistle in Fluttershy’s face, it was clear that she already had eaten more than enough sugary foods for the night.

“Um, thanks Pinkie Pie but not right now, I don-”

“Oh and have you seen Rainbow Dash anywhere because we haven’t seen her and last Twilight told me you said that she had some weather chores and a party isn’t a party unless everypony invited is-” Pinkie tried to continue before Twilight put a hoof over her mouth.

“What she’s trying to say is Happy Birthday Fluttershy” Twilight said with a smile on her face. Fluttershy looked from pony to pony who all seemed to by smiling back at her; Everypony besides Rainbow Dash, who wasn’t anywhere to be seen.

“Um…Where’s Dashie?” Fluttershy asked without even thanking Twilight for stopping the cotton candy maned pony’s rant.

“Dashie? Why would you ever use a pet name like that for her?” Rarity snobbishly inquired. Oh no; did she just give something away. She had to say something quick, everypony was staring at her!

“Oh, um, I-I, um, I” Fluttershy tried to squeak out.

“Well it doesn’t matter, what matters is that you’re here” Applejack said nicely. ‘Thank Celestia she cut me off!’ Fluttershy thought to herself as she sighed in relief. But she also dipped her ears back, why wasn’t Dashie there? Had she forgotten about it?

“What’s wrong Fluttershy?” Twilight asked with concern. Fluttershy instantly perked up, she couldn’t give anything away tonight; even if Dashie’s absence made her sad.

“Oh, um, nothing, nothing at all” Fluttershy tried to sound happy as she said it, do to everypony’s, well everypony’s besides Pinkie Pie’s worried face it looked like it hadn’t worked.

“Well? What are we waiting for everypony? Let’s get this party started!” Pinkie enthusiastically shouted as she jumped over to the boom box and pressed the ‘Play’ button.

***

Rainbow Dash yawned as she felt the sun’s warm glow on her back; it was the perfect time and place for a nap. She sat upon a cloud and was looking around the whole city.

“Wow, Ponyville sure is beautiful this time of day” she spoke to herself as she saw the sun setting on every house and building in the town. They were all dark by this time; well, all except for Sugar Cube Corner. Which was odd, Sugar Cube Corner usually closed at 6 pm every night, and it was an hour past that.

Rainbow Dash brushed it off as she laid her head on the cloud and closed her eyes. ‘Pinkie Pie and the cakes must be doing one of their all night Saturday specials’ she thought. But…it was Wednesday, not Saturday…

Rainbow instantly bolted up as panic rushed to her head; it was Fluttershy’s birthday! She took off from the cloud and began flying to the lit up sweet shop.

“I hope I’m not too late!” she said worriedly before stopping in her tracks; she hadn’t gotten a gift either! How was she going to look showing up at the party being the only pony without a gift! Rainbow turned all around, every shop was closed by now, what was she going to do?

She continued to turn and turn as she rubbed her head. Then something caught her eye, a Rose! Fluttershy would love a rose! She soared down to it and was about to pick it before something else came to mind; how was it going to look when she gave Fluttershy a rose…? She tried to think of something else she could give Fluttershy as she looked to the sky. The sun was almost down and it was getting dark; what if she missed the party completely! She sighed reluctantly and picked the rose, it would have to do.

She began to fly off towards Sugar Cube Corner; hopefully she would make it in time.

***

Music blared loudly as everypony was having fun playing games, eating cake, and dancing. Everypony but Fluttershy, though she tried her best to seem happy, she couldn’t seem to keep it up with Dashie being gone. Why should it even matter that she was gone? Why did it make Fluttershy feel like something was missing?

Fluttershy was sitting at a table, lightly poking a piece of cake. She sighed and hoped that before the night was out that Dashie could make it. She rested her head on her hooves and continued to stare at the doorway. Applejack stopped dancing and came over to her table.

“What’s wrong sugar cube? You’ve been actin’ sad all night” she sounded worried for her friends well being.

“um… I don’t want to talk about it…” Fluttershy gave up the attempt to sound happy.

“Common, please tell us, we can’t bare to see you like this” Applejack persisted

“I…I can’t” Fluttershy barely whispered. Applejack sighed and sat down next to her. Pinkie Pie bounced on over, followed by Twilight and Rarity.

“Say something, anything, please” Twilight begged.

“We’re very worried dear” Rarity said softly.

“Yeah! Quit being a party pooper and say something!” Pinkie Pie yelled annoyed. The other three ponies gave her a quick dagger eye glance before turning their attention back to Fluttershy.

“Does it have to do with Rainbow Dash not bein’ here?” Applejack leaned in and asked.

“I-I-I-I don’t want to say” Fluttershy squeaked, averting her eyes from the other ponies.

“Well how are we goin’ to know what to do if you won’t tell us anything” Applejack didn’t let up. Fluttershy didn’t want to speak about Rainbow; she was afraid she’d give it away about what’s been happening between them.

“Please” all four ponies asked in unison while looking at their shy friend. Fluttershy’s heart was pounding as she lowered her face partially below the table. She was shaking now, it was too much pressure; she had to go, she couldn’t stay here.

“I-I-I have to leave, I’m sorry” Fluttershy managed to say; she didn’t wait for another response as she began to run away.

“Fluttershy wait!” Twilight shouted behind her. Fluttershy didn’t listen as she bolted for the door. She ran outside and continued running down the street as she could hear her friends calling her name from behind.

***

Rainbow Dash crashed into Sugar Cube Corner at an immense speed.

“Where’s Fluttershy? Am I late?” She hastily asked

“Oh, you’re late alright” Twilight said harshly. She looked at all of her friends, they were not happy in the slightest.

“Did I miss it?” Rainbow Dash asked with pain in her voice. They all nodded and gave her death stares

“Why weren’t you here? Fluttershy practically ran off when we asked her what was makin’ her so sad; and it turns out that somethin’ was you're absence” Applejack shot at her.

“Yea, you stupid big Meanie Pants!” Pinkie Pie shouted. Rainbow Dash felt awful, Fluttershy must be devastated. She started to back out.

“And where do you think you’re going?” Rarity spat.

“I have to make this right” Rainbow Dash said as she ran out the door and flew off in pursuit of Fluttershy.

“Should we follow em’?” Applejack turned to twilight and asked. Twilight thought for a moment and shook her head in disagreement.

“We’ll let them sort it out themselves” Twilight said lightly.

“Did anypony else find it suspicious how worried they seem to be about each other recently?” Rarity asked curiously. All the ponies stopped and thought for a bit; they saw it now too.

“Yeah, that is quite odd… Isn’t it” Twilight said thoughtfully.

***

Fluttershy was running down the street towards her cottage, tears flying from her eyes; she didn’t even want to face her friends tomorrow, she just wanted to be alone. Her clearing would be the perfect place to be right now; nopony would ever bother her there. She reached the clearing, tears still forming in her eyes as she sat down on the grass and cried. Tonight had been horrible; not only would her friends not let up, but the pony she cared most for didn’t even bother to make it. Why did she care so much about her cyan colored friend?

Rainbow Dash flew all over town, checking everywhere for where Fluttershy could be. She checked her cottage, her garden, the meadow, the park. She couldn’t find her anywhere! Rainbow flew down to the street and checked all directions; she then hung her head in shame. How could she be such a horrible pony as to forget her best friend’s birthday? She sighed and laid on the park bench; she looked to the stars and longed to be with the shy Pegasus.

“If only I could be I could be with her in that clearing again; that was such a magical night” she sighed to herself as she rested her head on the bench. She closed her eyes when it hit her, the clearing! Fluttershy had to be there! She wasted no time as she took off and started flying towards the forest.

***

Rainbow ran through the forest breaking twigs and scattering leaves; she was uncaring of whatever sounds her hooves made. Eventually she reached the small area, and sitting there on the grass in front of her was none other than Fluttershy. Her mane was a mess, and it was obvious she had been crying. Rainbow Dash carefully trotted up behind her.

“Fluttershy?” she spoke softly. At the sound of her name Fluttershy spun around and saw her friend standing a few inches from her. Joy swelled through her heart as she looked up to the worried Pegasus.

“D-D-Dashie?” Fluttershy spoke between tears. Rainbow Dash nodded as she helped Fluttershy up off the ground.

“I’m so sorry Fluttershy; you have no idea how bad I feel.” Rainbow spoke, tearing up herself. Fluttershy didn’t care, she was just happy to see her.

“I-I-I forgive you” Fluttershy said in a small voice. Rainbow Dash smiled and remembered the rose she had gotten for her.

“I… I got you something” She said as she pulled the rose out from her mane. Fluttershy felt her heart skip a beat looking upon the wonderful specimen. She blushed and smiled back at Dashie.

“I-it’s perfect… I love it” Fluttershy said breathlessly. Rainbow Dash walked over and placed the rose in her friend’s mane. Fluttershy then tackle hugged her to the ground and held on tight. Dashie blushed and returned the hug; she could feel her heart beating out of control now. Fluttershy could feel it too, along with hers as she retracted from the hug and looked into Rainbow’s eyes. Maybe it was love she felt; maybe she had fallen for her best friend.

Fluttershy moved forward and kissed Rainbow Dash deeply, closing her eyes. Rainbow nearly had a heart attack as she returned the kiss and held it for as long as she could. After awhile both of them pulled back, furiously blushing. Fluttershy laid her head upon Rainbow’s chest; Rainbow Dash could feel her heart explode as she wrapped her hooves around her shy friend’s back.

“Fluttershy?” Rainbow Dash asked as if she wanted to tell her something.

“Yes?”

“I…” Rainbow Dash seemed hesitant to say what was on her mind.

“Hmmm?” Fluttershy asked lightly

“I…Love you…” Rainbow Dash instantly regretted it; what if she got rejected again? Fluttershy was redder than an apple as she thought on her friend’s words. Did she love Dashie? She could only think the answer to be yes; there was no other way to explain what she was feeling towards the rainbow maned Pegasus.

“I-I-I lo” Fluttershy could barely speak; she was trying to say it back but the words wouldn’t leave her mouth.

“What was that?” Rainbow Dash started to listen closely

“I-I-I-I” Fluttershy’s voice started to drop

“I can’t hear you” Rainbow tried to be gentle with her. Fluttershy closed her eyes and took a deep breath.

“I love you too!” She blurted out as she felt the warm feeling surge through her again; but this time it was different, stronger, more so than it had ever been before. Rainbow Dash blushed as she looked into the yellow pony’s eyes; she smiled and laid back on the grass, looking to the sky. Fluttershy laid back down on Dashie too as she felt her wings spread out again; but this time she didn’t mind it, this time it made her happy.

All of the presents in the world couldn’t compare to this joy she felt right now, here with Rainbow. Nothing mattered right now, not even what everypony was thinking about her running off like she had. She closed her eyes and squeezed Dashie tighter; hoping this would never end.

She had never felt anything like this in her life; these rapid heart beats, the warm feeling, how being around the cyan colored pony made her feel stronger, like she could take on anything.

There was no question about it; this had been her best birthday ever.

Discovery(Old)

Chapter 4

Twilight Sparkle didn’t know if she should have been shocked or amazed as she looked upon the two sleeping ponies in front of her. She rubbed her mane in confusion and paced around the clearing. It was clear that the two Pegasi had been very close friends since they were fillies, but that didn’t explain this; it didn’t explain anything!

She had to think back on it, but first she had to think back on how she even got here to witness this event.

***

Earlier That Morning

It was early in the morning; Twilight had made sure she was the first pony up this day. After all, she did have quite a busy day ahead of her. She had made her schedule, and she had double checked and triple checked it, as always.

Spike was still sleeping in his bed; he was always a stubborn riser. But that didn’t matter today anyhow; Twilight didn’t need his help like she did so many other times. She sat down in her library, and began to focus. She was going to reshelf today, and it was a very delicate process that required intense focus. Twilight did have the biggest library in Ponyville, after all. She concentrated her magic until the books floated up behind her.

She started sorting them into various categories: Magical Anomalies and Discoveries, Pony History, Science, Math, and even some Fiction.

“Lets see, Pony Folk Tales and Mysteries belongs in… History”

“Simple Algebraic Equations for Young Fillies goes to… Math”

“Starswelled the Bearded goes in… Magic…or maybe History, I’ll set it aside for later”. The purple mare had gone through several books before one caught her eye.

“Clouds…how odd, that one should go… wait!” All of the books dropped to the floor except for the one that now floated in front of her. She had been conducting an experiment on clouds but never got the chance to ask Rainbow Dash for samples!

She jumped off the floor and began galloping towards the door.

“What’s going on…?” A very groggy voice asked behind her. Twilight turned around to face Spike and giggled a bit.

“Sorry Spike, I accidentally dropped a few books; would you mind reshelving them for me?” Twilight responded as Spike looked to the floor and saw the colossal mess that occupied it. He groaned and was about to complain before Twilight ran off. Great, now he had a job for the day…

***

Twilight ran around town and checked everywhere she could possible think of for the Rainbow Maned Pegasus to be; The Practice Field, outside of Cloudsdale, Fluttershy’s House and many more. Her search eventually led her to Sugar Cube Corner, the last place she could think of.

She rang the bell that sat on the counter and an excited pink pony responded almost instantaneously.

“Hi Twilight! How are you, I’m super excited today because I get to bake more cupcakes! Well, that’s pretty much like every other day; but this time it’s different! Because today the Cakes are gone and they left me in charge of the whole shop. Meaning lots of hungry ponies will want to eat my cupcakes! Isn’t that exciting Twilight?! Are you excited, because I’m excited. Well, not as excited as the time we beat Nightmare Moon, Or Discord. But really, what could top that. Speaking of which, do you think any important ponies will come by and try anything? Ooo, that’d be so cool!” Pinkie Pie ranted.

“Yeah, Yeah, that’s great, have you seen Rainbow Dash since the party last night?” Twilight had little care for her friend’s excitement, it wasn’t important at the moment.

“Hmmmm, Oh! They’re probably in the clearing” Pinkie Pie declared as if it was an obvious fact that Twilight should know.

“The what now? What clearing Pinkie Pie?” Twilight asked confused

“You don’t know? Well, after Rainbow Dash and you guys left I decided I’d follow her and watch how she’d fix things. She went into this super awesome amazing Clearing in the forest and found Fluttershy there! But I couldn’t stay to watch what happened next because I had to go home and clean up. You know, even when you have an amazing party you still have to clean it up? Doesn’t that bum you out too?”

“Yea thanks, bye Pinkie” Twilight sounded unamused as she galloped out of the shop and started towards the forest near Fluttershy’s house.

***

That’s when she saw it. She came upon the outskirts of the evergreen forest, and started walking through its thick brush and dense atmosphere.

“How am I ever going to find a clearing in this mess?” She asked herself aloud. She then heard the sounds of a snoring pony; one that snored a little too loudly, she might add. She followed the sounds until she found the most beautiful area she ever laid eyes upon. The trees were in a perfect circle around it, the ground was all grass and all smooth; it would have been the perfect place to study. As she was exploring her hoof hit something, something breathing. She looked down to see Rainbow Dash’s Figure, but she wasn’t alone. On top of her sleeping body laid Fluttershy, the two were in a very close embrace and the shy pony now wore a rose in her pink mane.

Twilight jumped back and nearly screamed; how was this happening? How had they got to this?

***

That’s the question the Purple Mare was asking herself now. It just didn’t make any sense. How her two best friends could be together like…like…like this. It was too uncanny, it wasn’t right at all. She forgot her experiment and started galloping away. She had to tell somepony what she had seen. Her mind darted to her friends, they had to be her first source to tell!

***

“Darling, whatever is the matter? You look simply awful” Rarity was right. Twilight’s mane was in a confused mess, hairs sticking out here and there. Sweat was beading down her forehead partially from being in such a hurry as well as from her shock. She hadn’t looked this worked up since she forgot to send her letter on friendship to the princess.

“Rarity, you won’t believe it! This is just the…the weirdest thing ever!” Twilight said in frenzy.

“Well dear, are you going to tell me about it?” Rarity asked impatiently. Twilight paused for a moment and explained her situation. After she was done, Rarity just stood there and giggled into her hoof.

“Why are you laughing?” Twilight asked angry and confused.

“Because dear, isn’t it obvious?”

“No?” Twilight blankly answered. Rarity shook her head and began to explain.

“They’re in love Twilight, and from my guess this has been going on for some time.” Rarity spoke as if Twilight was oblivious. Twilight took a step back and shook her head in confusion. Love? Rainbow Dash and Fluttershy…in love? It would explain how close they seemed to be to one another lately; not to mention the worry they’ve shared for each other.

But it wasn’t right in her mind.

“What’s bothering you Twilight?” Rarity asked with little concern in her voice.

“This isn’t right. I mean, Rainbow Dash and Fluttershy?” Twilight had no idea why her friend couldn’t understand it.

“Well, they deserve as much right to be in love as a colt and a mare do, don’t they?” Rarity said wisely. Twilight groaned heavily in frustration, how could Rarity not see the problem with this?! The fact that they’re the same sex was an issue, but a minor one. What if they broke up deep into their relationship? They could never be friends again and Twilight would be forced to pick a side! And then no matter what she did she’d be disappointing somepony!

She had to do something before it got too deep, before somepony got hurt.

Just than a certain cyan eyed mare flew in from above. She looked well rested, as if she had been lying on the cloud the previous night. Twilight snorted at the thought; she hadn’t been lying on a cloud, but she’d been lying under something alright.

“Rainbow dear! Oh, we were just talking about you. How are you doing?” Rarity asked delightfully. Rainbow Dash was obviously off in thought, instead of being focused on the white mare in front of her, she was looking to the clouds. Rainbow snapped out of it after a brief delay.

“Oh…um…Yea I’m fine, I came by because Fluttershy wanted me to check on preparations for the dress you’re making her” Rainbow said while scratching her mane and sounding only half tuned into everything.

“Oh, yes! Just let me check how it’s doing. I’ll be right back” The white mare spoke as she disappeared from the doorway and into the workshop. Twilight tried her best to avert her eyes from the Pegasus beside her.

Rainbow Dash’s gaze drifted back to the clouds again; she couldn’t stop thinking of Fluttershy. She longed to be with the shy mare even though she had just come back from doing exactly that. There was so much perfect about her; her adorable voice, her big blue eyes and warm smile, the way she always inserted politeness into her sentences, her beautiful pink ma-

“It’s nearly done Rainbow Dash! Tell Fluttershy her new dress will be more than acceptable!” Rarity squealed with excitement. Rainbow Dash suddenly snapped back to reality and shook her head.

“Is something wrong Dashie?” Rarity asked curiously

“Huh…What? Oh, um, no, thanks Rarity. You guys said you were talking about me?” Rainbow Dash sounded confused and incoherent with her response.

“Why we were dear! About you and-” Rarity was about to drop the fact that they knew like it was nothing! Twilight put her hoof over Rarity’s mouth and nervously laughed.

“No one, you and no one” Twilight tried to sound truthful but could feel the act quickly slipping. Rarity spat out her hoof and gave her an annoyed look.
“As I was saying, before being rudely interrupted, we were talking about you and Fluttershy” Rarity said carelessly. Twilight could feel herself wanting to punch the mare as she said it.

Rainbow Dash felt her heart sink; how could they know? She started backing up, hastily looking around until she hit something; or rather, somepony.

“Howdy ya’ll, what’s goin’ on?” A thick southern voice spoke behind her. Rainbow screamed and jumped back into another pony.

“Hey guys! Want some cupcakes?” An excited pink mare shouted behind her this time. Another scream, and this time she found herself in front of a shy voice.

“Um…Rainbow, I needed something and…” Rainbow Dash was about to try and fly off when she sighed and gave up, landing on the ground.

“So… you’re all here and you all know” She said bitterly.

“Know what now?” Applejack asked confused

“Yea, nopony told me anything!” Pinkie Pie said offended.

“Rainbow Dash and Fluttershy are together” Rarity replied. Applejack’s eyes widened and Pinkie Pie gasped, bringing her hoof to her mouth. Fluttershy squealed as she heard the words. She turned to Dashie, who looked back. From what she could tell, the rainbow maned Pegasus was just as shocked as she was at their friend’s discovery. They looked at each other for what seemed like ages; as if they were deciding what to do telepathically.

“Well? Are you two love birds gonna say somethin’ or just sit dere’ all day?” Applejack asked, breaking the tension. Both Fluttershy and Rainbow Dash jumped.

“Well, it’s a…um…it’s a long story” Rainbow Dash stammered out.

“We’ve got time. Besides I’d like to here about how this started” Twilight didn’t sound too happy with them. Rainbow considered herself lucky that Twilight was the only one displeased; or, as she could tell. She had yet to see how Applejack, Rarity, Or Pinkie Pie were feeling about it. They all carried unreadable expressions on their faces.

Rainbow Dash glanced at Fluttershy, who nodded her head in agreement. If they needed to tell them, now was as good of a time as any to do so.

Dashie took in a deep breath and began to explain everything. From her confession in Cloudsdale to the previous night’s events.

***

After she was finished she looked from pony to pony; their shock had eased a bit during the story. But this was still a surprise to them, none the less.

“So…Is this official or?” Applejack chimed in.

“We don’t know yet; but it sure seems like it, doesn’t it” Dashie said as she looked to Fluttershy with a smirk on her face. Fluttershy blushed and returned it. Rainbow got up and took her place next to the pink maned pony. Fluttershy responded by giving her a light nuzzle and smiling.

“Ugh! Would you please not do that here?” Twilight grunted annoyingly. Fluttershy squeaked and began to apologize until Rainbow put a hoof on her chest. She stopped and tried to keep her attention focused on Dash so she didn’t have to look to the rest of the ponies around her.

“Well I for one think its sweet” Rarity interjected politely. “Big old Rainbow Dash and sweet little Fluttershy falling for each other, how cute!” She continued on. Fluttershy and Rainbow Dash blushed immensely, trying to look away.

“Ha! Rainbo’ and ‘Shy together; I’d call hayseed on that if I didn’t hear it from the horse’s mouth!” Applejack said before starting to laugh hysterically. Rainbow Dash snorted at her bad pun as Fluttershy giggled beside her. Pinkie Pie gasped again and everypony looked to her.

“You know what this calls for? A Party!” she screamed, jumping up and down; Everypony bursted out in laughter at her randomness.

“No thanks Pinkie Pie,” Rainbow Dash managed to squeeze in between laughs. Telling the truth wasn’t as bad as it seemed; all of their friends seemed to be taking it better than expected. All besides one, Twilight stood in the circle with a frown on her face. This wasn’t amusing to her, not one bit.

“Common Twi’, Lighten up. What’s so bad about this?” Applejack asked as she bumped the purple mare with her shoulder.

“Don’t you guys see?! This can only end badly!” Twilight said urgently.

“What are you talking about Twilight?” Rainbow Dash asked in an annoyed tone. Twilight groaned in frustration and teleported away; she had to think of this some place else. Rainbow Dash and Fluttershy exchanged a worried look.

“Don’t worry girls, I’m certain she’ll come around once she’s thought about it” Rarity reassured them.

“I sure hope so” Rainbow replied.

***

Fluttershy walked into her house, accompanied by Rainbow Dash. The shy pony sat on the floor and was soon joined by her friend.

“Well that went better than I expected it could ever go” Rainbow Dash stated, relieved.

“Yea, I’m glad we could get it out there.” Fluttershy agreed as she buried her muzzle in Dash’s neck. Rainbow Dash smiled and wrapped her hoof around Fluttershy’s neck, pulling her ever so closer. “I just hope Twilight comes around”

“Yeah, me too” Rainbow responded as she kissed Fluttershy lightly. Fluttershy returned it and stayed close to the cyan mare.

***

Twilight paced around her room, every now and again picking up a book and pretending to read it. Spike had already been asleep when she arrived home, even though it was only noon. She didn’t blame him; restacking the shelves must’ve been ten times as hard without magic on his side.

She studied his restless body as he slowly inhaled and exhaled, squeezing his blanket tightly.

“If only I could just sit around and sleep all day like you do Spike, instead of having to deal with problems like this” Twilight muttered to herself as she looked outside her window. At least she knew now how the relationship between Rainbow Dash and Fluttershy started and why, even if she didn’t understand it. She did know one thing for sure though; somehow she was going to have to end it.

END

Flashback

A/N: This whole chapter is meant to be a flashback to explain why Twilight thinks the way she does in Chapter 4. The sentences in all bold are thoughts Twilight has. Enjoy!

Chapter 5

It was a nice day out in Canterlot, The capital of Equestria. The sun had risen and everypony was busy with their own agenda as many of them walked down the street with heads high, eyes closed, suits on, not caring to look to anypony else as they passed on by. They were looking as snobbish as ever.

Twilight Sparkle was sitting outside of a very fancy restaurant named “l'amour de la nourriture”. Twilight didn’t know what it meant in English, but it sure did sound high class and professional. Then again, didn’t French make anything sound that way? She made a note to look it up later in one of her books.

The restaurant resided in the less expensive district of Canterlot. As much as the purple mare would love to, she couldn’t afford to eat in a restaurant that charged over 20 bits for a small and unfilling appetizer.

A waiter dressed in a black suit with a white color came up to her what she would like to order. The question caught Twilight off guard since she hadn’t even looked at the menu yet. She turned her attention to the silky menu, everything spelt out in big, italic, letters.

“So many choices… I think I’ll, no… maybe I’ll, no, not that either” Twilight went on trying to decide as she pondered her options.

“Madam?” The waiter asked impatiently.

“Oh, um, I’ll take the Italian Salad please.” Twilight said not knowing if she really wanted it, but she also didn’t want to trouble the waiter any further

“It’ll be her soon Madam” The waiter responded as he trotted away from the purple mare.

“Lyra should be here by now” Twilight said aloud angrily. Her best friend was supposed to meet her here over 30 minutes ago. Lyra had been late to all of their usual gatherings recently. Their nights out, their study sessions; She even skipped out on their spa date! Twilight rarely agreed to do something like the spa when she could spend her time doing more important things like studying. But this time she had reluctantly agreed to meet the green mare there, where she had shown Twilight up.

Twilight groaned in frustration as she scanned around her whole area; there were plenty of savvy business ponies trotting around as if they owned Equestria, but no Lyra. Twilight dropped her head onto the table, allowing her mane to partially droop over her eyes. She perked up at the sound of cluttering glass on the table.

“Your food, madam” It was the same snooty waiter as before. He had dropped the food on her table and walked away, obviously not caring about the delivery.
Twilight looked down to the salad, it sure did look delicious. It was covered in a thin layer of Italian dressing and cheese with little croissants touching the edges of the plate. Twilight’s stomach growled and she decided she couldn’t wait for Lyra anymore as she began to eat.

Clop Clop Clop

Twilight looked up from her plate to see a certain green mare galloping towards her. Lyra had sweat beading down her brow and her fur was in truffles.

“Well it certainly took you long enough, didn’t it” Twilight spat bitterly

“I-I’m so sorry Twilight, I was with my colt friend again and-” Lyra tried to say out of breath. Twilight sighed frustrated and stared at her unfinished food.

“Just sit down”

“O-okay” Lyra nervously replied as she took a seat infront of her friend. The two sat in awkward silence for awhile, Twilight not even touching her meal. The first few times she was alright with it, infact she was a bit happy for Lyra too. Lyra had gotten herself a wonderful stallion that she had fallen in love with recently. But after awhile of her blowing Twilight off again and again the magical pony have enough of it.

“You need to stop doing this Lyra. I’m happy for you and all but…what about us?” Twilight asked with worry in her voice. She never wanted to loose her best friend, not after all they’ve been through and done together.

“I’m sorry Twilight I just lost track of time an-”

“You’ve seem to be doing that a lot lately.” A frown came upon Lyra’s face as she hung her head in shame. Twilight was right, though she was in love she still had to remember about her friends and keep her promises.

“I’m so sorry Twilight, I’ll try my best to make it to our next get together…whenever that is” Lyra was earnest but Twilight was still upset with the green unicorn.

“You don’t even know? Lyra, I’ve told you about it a thousand times” Twilight said crossly. Lyra stared blankly into her friend’s furious eyes as she tried to pull back in her mind what was so important.

“Really? Lyra it’s my bir-” Before Twilight could finish a colt marched up to their table. He was tall and muscular; he had a black and blue coat with a lovely black mane and deep blue eyes that could pierce into your soul. His horn was the same color as his mane stretching above his head. Though Twilight wasn’t personally connected with him; she had to admit, he was a good looker.

At the site of the unicorn Lyra instantly forgot about her friend sitting next to her and screamed in glee.

“Raven Night!” she squealed with excitement as she hugged the colt tightly.

“Hi Lyra” His voice was soft and caressing; like it could soothe even the most afraid foal or filly. Twilight sighed and rested her head on her hoof.

I guess this ‘get together’ is ruined now too

“What are you doing here?” Lyra asked curiously

“Yea, what are you doing here?” Twilight muttered. Lyra turned around and shot a look at Twilight that said ‘Be Nice’ before turning her attention back to the black colt.

“I forgot I was going to give you this earlier” He said as he pulled a gold necklace from his pouch. Lyra screamed out of joy as she took in the beautiful item being handed to her.

“Oh! Thank you thank you thank you thank you!” she kept rapidly repeating. Twilight wasn’t surprised; Raven was the son of a rich business colt after all. Lyra placed the jewelry upon her neck as she sat down again.

“Would you like to join us?” Lyra begged more than asked.

Please say no, please say no, please say-

“Sure, wouldn’t mind if I do” He said elegantly as he took a seat beside the green mare. Twilight shook her head in frustration as she only pushed her plate of food away and trotted off.

“Wait Twil-”Lyra tried to call after her friend but couldn’t. Her ears drooped down as she dropped her head.

***

Twilight stormed around her library in fury as Spike stood idle, leaning on and off the balls of his feet.

“I can’t believe her! She doesn’t even remember my birthday is coming up in a week! It’s one thing for her to be forgetful but to be to totally oblivious?” Twilight Roared. It had been like this every day. She’d set up a plan for Lyra and her to do something the green unicorn would enjoy, she’d show up, and Lyra would either not show at all or be so late they didn’t have enough time.

“Common Twi, she’s in love. I’m sure she’ll come around soon if you give her a chance.” Spike said kindly, trying to ease his friend’s frustration.

“Oh she’s had plenty of chances Spike! She does this every day! I don’t even get any time with her anymore!” Twilight continued to rant. Spike winced in fear that he was about to get launched through the window with a magic spell. He held out his claws and gently tried to persuade the purple mare.

“Look Twi, just talk to Raven Night and ask him to back off a bit. I’m sure he’ll agree.” Spike suggested. Twilight stopped pacing around to think for a moment.

“Not a bad idea Spike…”

***

Twilight was sure this could work. She would go to Raven, ask for a little more time with Lyra, and everypony would be happy. Twilight marched down the street in Canterlot in search of Raven Night. She knew from Lyra that when the black colt wasn’t with her he usually resided in his house. It wasn’t going to be hard to find it again; Lyra had practically dragged her there for a visit once.

Twilight eventually came upon the large white house. It was massive and had everything a rich pony would want. Classic art, fountain out in front, smooth stone walls, a balcony. Twilight could go on and on about it as she walked up to the door of the fine establishment. She lightly tapped on the large door with her hoof as she waited outside.

No response

Another knock, this time a little louder

Nothing

Twilight feared he might not be home as she trotted to the window and peered inside. Oh Celestia it was amazing. Everything was so clean and pristine; there was a shinning marble floor and priceless statues and works of arts and books. Oh, how she would love to take a look at one of the books Raven had. As she was admiring the inside of the elegant house she noticed an unfamiliar pony walking into the main room. She was a normal sized Pegasus with a luxurious brown coat and eyes, her mane however was a lovely black that cascaded down her face and touched the tip of her back.

Wow… she’s beautiful… What’s she doing in there?

As Twilight was lost in the beauty of the magnificent mare another figure appeared beside the Pegasus. A rather familiar black and blue coated one. Twilight was confused; what was Raven doing alone with such an amazing mare? Could it be…?

Twilight furiously shook her head in disbelief. Raven would never cheat on Lyra. As she looked up again into the house the two were gone, walking upstairs. Twilight backed up and looked for some way to get onto the balcony of the house. She had no wings, so it was going to be a challenge. She managed to use her magic to stack a way for her to climb up. As she stammered onto the balcony of the huge house she looked into the 2nd floor through the classy glass door. There was a curtain draped behind it but a small crack was left open which the purple mare took advantage of.

Raven was in there…with the Pegasus she had seen earlier. He was… getting into bed with her? Twilight stepped back in shock. Raven had been two timing her best friend after all! She continued to back up until she fell over the balcony and made a harsh contact with the concrete path below. As she struggled to get up on her hooves she could hear the glass door opening slowly. She had to escape before somepony found out she was there!

Twilight looked all around, searching for some suitable exit before her time ran out. She couldn’t find anything so she made do by hiding behind the fountain out front. A Blue and Black stallion came out and peered over the edge. There was nothing in sight; he could’ve sworn he heard a feminine scream just now. He took one last look around and brushed it off as he trotted back inside. The glass door slowly slid close with a barely audible *click*.

Twilight emerged from her hiding area, breathing heavily. She had to let Lyra know about this! The purple unicorn began to gallop away from the estate, in pursuit of her friend.

***

“You’re telling me, that Raven Night is cheating on me” Lyra’s reaction was a mixture of disbelief, offence, and laughter. Twilight had come to the local park where Lyra usually stayed before going home. It was obvious her friend hadn’t believed her at all but she had to tell her.

“Yes Lyra, I was going to his house to talk to him and I saw him with a lovely Pegasus in there with him.” Twilight said truthfully.

“Why were you going to talk to him in the first place?” Lyra said, raising an eyebrow in suspicion. Twilight instantly shook her head

“No no no no! I was going there to ask him about…backing off and giving you and I some time together” Twilight nervously finished as she winced. Lyra’s look changed from one of suspicion to one of outrage.

“I see what this is about…You’re trying to break him and me apart so you can have me all to yourself!” Lyra accused hotly. Twilight shook her head again and placed a hoof on the green pony’s soldier.

“Please Lyra, you have to believe me. He’s playing you.” Twilight begged. Lyra felt like she couldn’t even look her friend in the eye anymore. Here she was, accusing a perfect pony like Raven Night of cheating on her!
“Twilight I will not sit here and listen to you accuse my coltfriend of something as horrible as that!” Lyra spat viciously. She turned around and galloped off.

“Lyra wait!” Twilight screamed as she ran after her. She tackled the green mare to the ground and held her there. Lyra squirmed around and shot dagger eyes at her friend.

“Look Lyra, I can prove he’s cheating on you” Twilight reasoned gently. Lyra stopped squirming and pondered for a moment. Though the accusation was ridiculous, Twilight was her best friend.

“Fine, how?” Lyra asked impatiently.

“Follow me” Twilight got up and started galloping off towards Raven’s house, Lyra following suit.

***

The two mares eventually arrived back at the estate. It was as silent as Twilight had left it. The lights in the main room were off now though as the ones in the bedroom upstairs shined. Twilight carefully walked up the makeshift stairs she made before and gesture for Lyra to follow. Lyra reluctantly obeyed and was shortly up on the balcony with the Purple mare.

Twilight led her to the big glass door, the curtains still closed with a slight crack open.

“Look in there” Twilight pointed her hoof to the crack and Lyra looked through it into the bedroom. She couldn’t believe what she was seeing; there was the love of her life… snuggled up next to some tramp Pegasus as if it were an every night occurrence. Tears welled up in her eyes as she looked away, not being able to bear anymore. Twilight saw this and tried to comfort her friend. Who just rejected it.

“I’m so sorry you had to find out like this Lyra” Twilight said in a gentle voice. Lyra just shook her head as tears flowed freely out. This couldn’t be happening, not…not…not Raven…

Lyra didn’t hold back her sobs anymore; the sound of them filling the sky as she ran away. She needed to be someplace else right now; somewhere she could fix her broken heart.

“Lyra wait!” Twilight screamed out not caring if the 2 ponies inside could here her or not. But Twilight couldn’t catch her friend this time; she was already too far away. But the mare now faced a bigger problem. She heard trotting behind her and the slow opening of the sliding door. A shock went up her spine causing her to run, luckily the darkness hid her color and figure before anypony saw her.

Raven Night came to the balcony; he heard Lyra’s voice just now…she was…crying. Raven felt his heart come up in his throat. Did Lyra know his secret? He shook himself out and dismissed it. What did it matter to him anyways? Lyra was but one of the many mares he busied himself with on a day to day basis. Having all the money and prowess he did it was fun to be a Mare’s Colt. He walked back in to join his gorgeous Pegasus.

***

The next morning Twilight Sparkle was still searching for her friend. She had checked every corner of Canterlot but found nothing everywhere she went. She had tried Lyra’s house, but it was dark and nopony was there. Had…Lyra left to someplace else?

Twilight drooped her head and let a tear slide down her cheek. No…she couldn’t loose her best friend. Not like this. But she already had. Lyra was no where to be found. Twilight didn’t know a relationship could end this horribly. The pain of seeing her friend like that and the possibility that she might loose Lyra broke her heart.

Twilight walked with her head low the rest of the way home to her library. She entered slowly, closed the door slowly, and walked up to her room. She plopped on the bed and let tears slide out her eyes and stain her pillow.

Spike shortly came in, bearing a stack of books.

“Hey Twilight, I found so-” Spike looked to the purple mare who did not hide fact that she was crying. Her eyes were wet and so was the pillow and sheets below her. Spike dropped the books and his smile was replaced by a concerned frown. He walked over and laid his claw on her shoulder lightly

“What’s wrong Twi?” He asked worriedly. Twilight shook her head as to signal that she didn’t want to talk of it. Spike frowned and petted her mane lightly, wearing a look of deep worry.

“I hate it when you’re like this Twi… It’ll be alright though.” Spike spoke soothingly. Twilight let more tears fall as she shakily rose up.

“Spike…”

“Hmmm?”

“From this day forth I vow I will not let a relationship hurt or ruin a friend of mine…even if I have to intervene before it’s too late.” Twilight said determined. Spike knew it was a bad idea but he didn’t protest. He knew not to when Twilight spoke in this tone of voice. Twilight got off of her bed and looked out her window, tears still forming in her eyes.

“Hey, at least we still have the Summer’s Sun Celebration next week in Ponyville.” Spike tried to change the subject. A smiled appeared on the purple mare’s face as she wiped a tear from her eye.

“Yes, yes we do…”

END

Danger

A/N: Enjoy the new chapter everypony. In the future i'm going to be switching from '-----' to '***' for scene changes/Cut aways. On a side note. I AM BUCKING TIRED *facedesk and sleep*

Chapter 6

Twilight closed her eyes as a tear graced her cheek; she had not thought about her loss for a long time, she had tried to push it to the furthest corner of her mind. All the heartbreak and sorrow she had felt on that day wasn’t good for her to keep in her memory. But she knew now that there was a chance for the same thing to happen again, and she couldn’t let it happen. She couldn’t bear the thought of loosing Rainbow Dash and Fluttershy, or even worse, all of her friends to this relationship. If one of them were dating a colt or mare outside of their circle of friends Twilight would mind it. But if something happens too deep into the relationship, the heartbreak will directly affect everypony she holds dear.

Twilight paced around her dimly lit library deep in thought. She had to do something that would work, but what could work? She didn’t know any colt of mare that she could have come in and she knew neither Fluttershy nor Rainbow would cheat on one another. Neither would believe her if she said the other one didn’t love them anymore. And she certainly didn’t want to take things too far, she had to be subtle.

Twilight yelled in anger and threw her quill at the wall. She couldn’t think of anything! Every second she wasted was another second things could get worse. She opened her eyes and began to search for where her quill had landed. As she came upon the small writing utensil she discovered it had left a streak of black ink where she threw it.

“Great, another mess for me to clean up” Twilight murmured as her eyes traveled up the line of ink that was splattered on the wall. Her focus came upon a certain date on her calendar where the quill had dispersed the most ink. The purple mare carefully lifted the calendar up, letting the ink trickle off of the date and drip on the floor. It was smudged but she could make it out.

“Friday The 6th…that’s tomorrow, isn’t it” Twilight brushed it off as if it were nothing as she casually tossed the calendar in the waste basket. As she was walking away from it something hit her, every other Friday Rarity and Fluttershy got together at the spa! The pink maned Pegasus would be gone from noon until 2 in the afternoon; leaving her animals unmanaged.

Twilight rubbed her hooves together in glee at her new idea. She would strike tomorrow when Fluttershy left for her spa date with Rarity.

“When it is over there will be hurt feelings but much less so than if it continues for too long.” Twilight stated factually to herself. She didn’t like having to do it; but if it was better than loosing all of her friends in a similar manner of which she lost Lyra so long ago.

***

Fluttershy quietly flew from animal nest to animal nest, dispersing food at each one. The Badgers got fish, The Birds got worms, The Squirrels got birdseed, and The Bunnies got carrots. After awhile, Fluttershy finished her rounds and flew down to the stone walkway outside of her house, wiping sweat off her brow as she stretched out her muscles out. As she was about to open the door to her cottage she heard a gush of soaring wind above. When she looked up the oddly familiar sound was followed by a rainbow colored blur of a cyan colored Pegasus flying to the ground and landing gracefully, fluttering her wings to ease her speed and making soft contact with the concrete.

Fluttershy smiled and pushed her mane back lightly, ensuring it looked good when Rainbow saw her. Rainbow picked up on this and gave a light chuckle.

“You don’t have to try and pretty yourself for my ‘Shy, you’re already amazingly awesome with the way you look” Dashie said in a reassuring tone. Though she didn’t like using adjective deeper than ‘awesome’ she meant every word of what she said. Fluttershy blushed and smiled her big, gorgeous, smile. Dash was token aback by it as she felt herself staring into the yellow Pegasus’s deep, blue eyes that looked like sparkling diamonds floating through a vast ocean.

Fluttershy was equally amazed by Dash’s cyan colored eyes. They were like perfect round amethyst jewels that twinkled when you looked into them. Dash’s gaze was comforting and loving, like she was a mother caring for a young foal. Both of them quickly snapped out of it and found themselves blushing redder than AppleJack’s red apples during bucking season. Fluttershy averted her gaze to the ground until her eyes crept upon an impatient Angel Bunny.

The furry little creature was tapping his foot and giving both Fluttershy and Rainbow Dash a stare that said ‘Can you two stop gawking at each other and give me a carrot?’ Fluttershy shook her head and apologized as she flew into her home and quickly came back with a plump, orange carrot. Angel Bunny took it selfishly and began eating as he stayed on the ground near the two.

“You know you could be less rude” Rainbow chastised as she stared down the bunny with a disapproving look. The small creature gave it no mind as shrugged his soldiers and returned the stare with an uncaring, innocent look. Rainbow stared more viciously and was about to get into a full fledged argument with the small thing when Fluttershy walked up to her and nuzzled her lightly. Rainbow blushed and eased into it as she closed her eyes and returned it. She had to admit, she couldn’t be happier than she was right now. Everything was perfect; she had the mare of her dreams, their friends had token it well with little judgment and no names such as “Filly Foolers”. Well, all but one of their friends had taken the shocking news well. But other than that one detail, everything was looking in her favor for once.

Hopefully it could stay that way.

Fluttershy and Rainbow Dash retracted, smiling at each other once more. As Fluttershy was about to move in for a kiss she felt a distinct thumping on her flank. The pink maned mare blushed and turned to see an impatient Angel Bunny tapping a silver watch. She gasped and her peaceful smile turned into a worried look.

“What wrong ‘Shy?” Rainbow asked curiously as she watched the frantic Pegasus look around and freak out.

“I’m late for Rarity and I’s get together! Oh I hope she isn’t mad!” Fluttershy spoke with worry as she began to gallop towards the spa. But she stopped and ran back to a confused Rainbow Dash. Rainbow put her hoof on the shy Pegasus’s soldier and gave her a kind look that made her melt. Her wings involuntarily spread out again, something that hadn’t happen for a long time. Fluttershy eased down and closed her eyes to explain.

“I usually let the critters take care of themselves during these days but it always worries me so much when I leave them here alone. What if a bear came by and killed them, or they got trapped or hungry or… What I’m asking is Would…Would you mind watching it for me until I get back Dashie?” Fluttershy begged as she stared into her best friend’s eyes. Although Rainbow Dash didn’t want to sit around and watch a bunch of dumb animals for two hours that stare got the best of her. She couldn’t resist; she’d do anything for Fluttershy. She lightly nodded and Fluttershy sighed in massive relief.

“Oh thank you thank you thank you!” Fluttershy said relieved as she started for the spa again. But she quickly came back and gave Dashie a peck on the lips, thanking her before heading off. Dash stood there blushing as she watched the yellow pony fly away into the distance. She stayed still for a moment before she felt a sharp pain in the back of her head. That little furry bastard hit her with a carrot!

She angrily spun around to an innocent looking Angel Bunny who just shrugged.

“You little-” Dash said between gritted teeth as she began to chase the small thing around the outside of Fluttershy’s cottage.

***

Twilight Sparkle trotted down the streets of Ponyville towards Fluttershy’s cottage; ready to put her plan in motion, she knew exactly what to do. When she arrived at her friend’s house she would let loose the bunnies. They’d hop off into the Everfree Forest; Twilight would tell Fluttershy that Rainbow had purposely let them loose as a prank. Fluttershy will be hurt when looking for the bunnies and argue with Rainbow later. It was a full-proof, provided everything went according to plan of course. It wasn’t like Twilight to do this; but deep down inside she knew it was necessary. She couldn’t afford to let her friends to get hurt, it was her duty to protect them.

***

“Got yah!” Rainbow shouted triumphantly as she tightened her grip on the now struggling bunny. It had taken awhile, a long chase around the whole garden and house but Rainbow Dash had finally caught the small thing. She was sweating and she was certain her mane looked terrible; but it didn’t matter, she was victorious. Rainbow Dash beamed with pride as pushed her chest out, cocked her head up, and posed with her eyes closed. Angel rolled his eyes and gave a look to Dash that said ‘Congratulations, you caught a small, helpless bunny. You truly are Equestria’s top flyer’. Dash brushed it off and laughed with boastfulness.

“You’re just lucky your Fluttershy’s pet or you would be fox food” Dash threatened as she stared down the creature in her hooves with a smirk. The bunny squirmed around and hopped out, standing on the top of her hoof. He crossed his arms and starred back ‘I’m telling her you said that’. He hopped off and back into the house, slamming the door behind him.

“Hey!” Dash roared angrily as she knocked on the door “Open up!”

After a good ten minutes of knocking and shouting the cyan mare gave up and sighed. She figured if she wasn’t going to get into the house she might as well check up on the animals. As she zoomed by each nest all of the critters retracted and hid. They weren’t used to seeing somepony as fast as Rainbow Dash fly by. Rainbow groaned and tried to check on them by forcing her way into their nests and homes with little success. The only thing she seemed to accomplish was frightening the poor creatures more than she initially had.

“Come out you stupid animals! I’m not going to hurt you!” Rainbow pleaded rudely as she flew up to the squirrel’s home only to be greeted with another scared reaction. Rainbow continued to fly from nest to nest to nest. Always receiving the same result; after the fifth time it happened she gave in and flew off. She wasn’t cut out for this job like Fluttershy was.

Rainbow was about to test to see if Angel had unlocked the door yet when she heard light hoof steps behind her. She turned to see who it was that had come by and was thankful it was a friendly face.

“Hey Twilight, what brings you here?” Rainbow Dash asked, happy to get a break from the animals. Twilight’s eyes opened instantly in shock; she had not expected to find anypony else here while Fluttershy was gone. The shy mare usually let her animals govern themselves during the day but today was obviously different. Twilight’s mind went into critical thinking mode. Just like all great ponies in history, when her plan doesn’t go how she wants it to, she adapts.

“Oh nothing just came by for a visit. What are you doing here?” Twilight asked innocently. She had to think of a way to get rid of the rainbow maned Pegasus so she could exact her plan.
“You know she’s at the spa right now, right? She asked me to watch over her stupid animals until she got back” Rainbow replied as she scratched her mane and shook it out. Twilight thought this made sense. She couldn’t count her many times she’d seen her shy friend worry and fuss over her animal’s well beings.

“So do you not want to be here then?” Twilight asked curiously, hoping for a yes. She didn’t think she’d get a no considering how stressed out and frustrated the Pegasus looked.

“Yeah, but, If it’s for Fluttershy I can deal with it for awhile.” Rainbow replied earnestly. Twilight began to think; What if they weren’t going to leave each other or get into some big fight? She then quickly shook her head and dismissed it; she could never count out possibilities of things that could go wrong in experiments, so she wouldn’t count them out in real life either. It was better this way anyhow. The pain would be much less severe. She began to think when she got something; Rainbow always loved a good nap.

“Hey, I can take over for awhile if you want to take a break” Twilight suggested, keeping a fake smile planted on her face. Rainbow Dash didn’t want to let Fluttershy down but… A short nap would be nice to have. Maybe she could work in a bit of practice as well.

“Uh…You sure Twi? These animals are pretty hard to deal with” Rainbow responded worriedly. Twilight nodded and put a hoof to her chest.

“I’m sure I’m more than able to handle a few rambunctious animals for a bit. Go on, take a break” Twilight persisted as she once again hoped to hear a yes from the rainbow maned pony.

“Well…Thanks!” Rainbow didn’t wait around for Twilight to change her mind as she dashed off to a nearby cloud. She rested on it and closed her eyes. Clouds always made great napping places. They were as smooth and as soft as a Filly’s bottom. As Rainbow slowly drifted off to sleep she felt bad for anypony who couldn’t experience the joy of sleeping on one.

***

That was one obstacle out of Twilight’s way. Now all the purple mare had to do was find the area the bunnies were kept and let them loose. That part wasn’t hard by any means; Much to Twilight’s surprise and satisfaction the animal homes were well organized and she found it easy to tell which critter lived inside which home. With little difficulty she managed to find an area where five bunnies were encaged. Twilight figured Fluttershy had them there because they were more likely to run off. That was bad news for Fluttershy but good news for the purple unicorn. She lightly trotted over and used her magic to break the lock off and open the gate. The bunnies stood in confusion for a second before sniffing the air and hopping out, exploring the land around them.

The bunnies began to expand their exploration radius but at a painfully slow rate. Twilight decided to speed it up by quickly rushing inside and coming out with fresh carrot slices. She carefully made a trail, being precise with where she placed each slice of carrot. She made sure the trail leaded to the Everfree Forest and then whistled for the bunnies’ attention. The furry little creatures turned around and instantly caught the whiff of their favorite vegetable in the air. They slowly but surely bounded off in the direction of the forest, much to Twilight’s satisfaction.

Her plan was not complete yet though; she now had to go inform Fluttershy of what had happened, but she had to do it in the way she devised. Twilight took one last look at the furry creatures as the bounded off into the distance until they were no more than specs in her vision. She then turned around and galloped off towards the spa, making sure to use every minute of her time as if it were her last.

***

Fluttershy sighed a deep, relaxing sigh as she laid back into the hot tub and let the hot water engulf her. She cocked her head up as a smile slowly grew on her face. She loved the spa; it was the perfect place to unwind, relax, and think. Every time she went she came back feeling fresher than she could ever be when relaxing at her cottage. The water soothed every part of her aching body after the intense massages and manicures. Not to mention it was always a fantastic stress reliever.

Rarity was sitting across from her in the same rather large hot tub she was in. Rarity too loved the relaxation the spa always could provide. But she used her spa visits with her shy friend for more than just relaxing. Every time they went there was always at least one topic of gossip; although, it usually ended up being several by the time it was over. Being the over-obsessive fashionista she was, Rarity was always on top of all of the hot and juicy gossip stories in Equestria. Today was no different, other than the fact that the gossip topic of the day was Rainbow Dash and Fluttershy.

“So?” Rarity asked eagerly. Fluttershy’s eyes popped upon as she turned her attention to the white mare. The yellow pony did not have the slightest clue as to what her friend was talking about.

“So what?” Fluttershy asked in deep confusion. Rarity facehooved and groaned in frustration.

“Isn’t it obvious dearie?” Rarity sounded short and impatient.

“No?” A still confused Fluttershy responded curiously. Rarity sighed and leaned forward a bit.

“Tell me about you and Rainbow Dash” Rarity explained as if Fluttershy was clueless. Fluttershy squeaked and blushed, trying to hide her face behind mane as she sunk deeper into the water.

“I-I-I-I’d rather not” Fluttershy managed to stammer out as she continued to shrink, her eyes the only part of her body visible above the water now.

“Come on Fluttershy Dear, you know you can trust one of your best friends.” Rarity nagged persistently. Fluttershy did trust Rarity, but she didn’t trust Rarity’s gossip-like nature. Not only was she scared of having the reputation of being a Filly Fooler, but she was even more afraid of Dashie having that reputation. Dash always had a big ego and was always boasting to her Pegasi co-workers. She would be a laughing stock if the secret got out.

“Please no…” Fluttershy whispered out. This only caused Rarity to lean in closer.

“Pleeeeeease?” Rarity begged childishly. Fluttershy sighed and gave in; she figured with Rarity already knowing about Rainbow and her together in the first place was bad enough. More info on the subject wouldn’t really hurt anything.

“As long as you promise to tell nopony outside of our group…” Fluttershy said reluctantly

“Pinkie Pie Promise” Rarity confirmed reassuringly as she held up a hoof in honor and closed her eyes. Fluttershy closed her eyes and took a deep breath in, exhaling it out shortly after.

“Okay, what do you want to know?”

“Do you love her?”

“Of course”

“Have you two kissed?” Rarity continued. Fluttershy paused and pondered for awhile if she should lie or not about that detail.

“…Yes”

“Have you…done anything more?” Rarity dug for information. Fluttershy blushed and gasped. The thought of her and Dashie having… It hadn’t even crossed her mind yet.

“Oh no, no, no” Fluttershy replied hastily. Before Rarity could ask another question both mares heard a faint galloping in the distance. The peculiar sound was increasing in volume by every second until they were both sure someone was running into the spa. The stomping increased further in further until it reached the room they were in. They turned around to see who had bursted through to find a stressed and frenzied Twilight who was desperately trying to catch her breath. Her mane was in a mess and she was sweating profusely. Neither Rarity nor Fluttershy (Or any of their friends for that matter) had seen the purple unicorn like this since the day she forgot about her letter to Princess Celestia. The two exchanged a worried look before turning their focus back to the stressed mare.

“Twilight, what ever is the matter?” Rarity asked with a mixture of confusion and worry in her voice. Twilight was not looking stressed by accident. She had purposely made herself appear like this for the lie she was about to tell. The more believable she seemed, the better.

“I…Bunnies…Forest…Escaped” Though this made good for the lie, Twilight was actually out of breath from running so far to the spa.

“You’re not making any sense darling, here, have some water” Rarity stepped out of the hot tub and left the room. She came back shortly bearing a glass of water in her hoof which she held forward to the breathless mare. Twilight took it and chugged it down before taking a very deep breath.

“Now tell us what happened” Rarity said soothingly.

“I was going for a visit to Fluttershy’s house and…” Twilight paused for a moment as her heart lurched. She hated lying; she hated lying to anypony, no matter who they were. “And I saw Rainbow Dash-”

“Yea, I told her to watch over things until I was back” Fluttershy confirmed

“But what I saw her doing is why I came…” Another pause as Twilight considered if she should back out now or not. The purple mare took a deep breath and made her decision. This had to be done. “I saw her letting loose the Bunnies you had fenced in…And she baited them into the Everfree Forest with carrots. When I confronted her she said it was a prank” Twilight finished unconvincingly. She felt an immense amount of guilt fall upon her soldiers as she uttered the words. Then something she hadn’t considered crossed her mind; what if the others caught on? Twilight nearly facehooved at her own stupidity to have spaced such a massive flaw with her plan. The only thing she could do now however was follow through, even if it required more lying. She couldn’t back out now.

“W-What?” Fluttershy was in shock from the news. She knew Dashie loved to play pranks but she also thought that Dash knew about her sensitivity. The shy mare could feel tears forming in the corners of her eyes. Why would her friend do that to her…?

“Common, we have to go find them!” Twilight continued with the lie; she wished that in she would have come up with something better under her pressure the last day. She couldn’t even believe the fact that she forgot about a detail like that! Twilight shook her head and decided to deal with it later.

“You mean go through that icky forest to find a bunch of bunnies?” Rarity asked as if Twilight were requesting that she stomp her hooves in cow manure. Twilight rolled her eyes and looked to Fluttershy.
“You and I will take care of it then” Twilight said crossly. She beckoned Fluttershy to follow her as she ran back out the spa. The shy mare quickly dried herself off and flew after Twilight, leaving Rarity alone in the spa. The white mare shrugged and figured she might as well head back home and wait to be updated on what happens.

***

Twilight eventually arrived at Fluttershy’s house and was soon joined outside by the shy mare herself. She was sweating buckets and looked more tired than she had ever looked in her entire life. Fluttershy, however was fairing quite well since she didn’t have to gallop all the way there. Though the yellow colored pony wasn’t psychically tired it was clear to Twilight that she experiencing a fair amount of stress and worry. The purple mare earnestly laid a hoof on her shoulder and gave her a kind look.

“Don’t worry, we’ll find them. I’m sure of it” Twilight said soothingly. Though she was concerned deeply for her friend she could feel her heart sinking. She felt horrible lying like this, knowing that she was going to have to hurt her friends to save them. Twilight was sure that if she didn’t hide her facial expressions Fluttershy would sense something wrong with her as well; and she couldn’t risk that.

“T-Thank you Twilight…” Fluttershy didn’t sound too well herself; A mixture of heartbreak and worry in her voice. This only served to increase the remorseful mare’s guilt as she looked to her hurting friend. Fluttershy didn’t know what to think; she didn’t know if she should blame Dashie or not, she didn’t know if she should talk to her again after this either. She had to decide some other time, it wasn’t important right now.

The two mares reached the outskirts of the Everfree Forest, its dark and grim atmosphere radiating immensely. Fluttershy cringed in fear and gulped, she needed to be courageous, and she needed to find her bunnies before something awful happened.

Twilight turned to Fluttershy, a worried look on her face. “Fluttershy, I only saw them go into the forest; I didn’t see where they went. We need to split up so we can find them faster. Can you handle that?” Twilight’s words were genuine this time though she kept how they got into the forest a secret still. She was worried about her friend, after all. If she wasn’t she wouldn’t have even pulled this crazy stunt in the first place.

Fluttershy’s felt her heart skip a beat as she looked to the forest again. She could feel her legs wobbling like jelly as she cringed in fear, beginning to shake and jitter rapidly. She felt the cold and evil aura emitting from the forest and creating an unsettling feeling in her stomach.

“Fluttershy?”

The shy mare closed her eyes, breathing in deeply as she stood back up. No matter how much the forest petrified her she couldn’t let her animal friends down. They were probably cowering in fear somewhere in that terrifying forest right now, not knowing what to do or how to get home. They could have run into a big scary monster! Or they could’ve been eaten by a Manticore! Fluttershy could feel a slight shaking in her being as she took a step forward.

“I’m ready” Fluttershy said with distinct determination in her voice. Twilight nodded as she too took a step forward. In one sudden motion both mares bounded into the Forest’s boundaries, beginning their descent into its inner walls in separate directions.

***

Fluttershy slowly crept around the unsettling forest, its odd sounds and strange figures engulfing her in a deep and fearful paranoia. There were so many unknowns in this place; Creatures and animals she had never even heard before were chirping and fluttering all around her. Every now and again she could hear a small twig snap or a bush rustle. Maybe she’d recognize what she’d thought to be a bird soaring in the sky or a squirrel scattering about the ground, but nothing more. No bunnies, no rabbits, no animals that belonged to her at all.

Fluttershy gulped, closing her eyes tightly before reopening them again and continuing on forward. She hated to be in the Everfree forest, the only times she’d ever entered were when she had to chase after those crazy fillies and the time she had to fight Nightmare Moon. Other than that her only entrances were into her clearing at the baseline of the forest. But those didn’t quite count considering the clearing is very small, very safe, and very close to her home. She had even let some of her animals explore it once, knowing they wouldn’t get into too much trouble there. Thinking of her animals brought a crippling fear to her heart. What if her bunnies had actually been killed or eaten or murdered or stomped on or…

SNAP SNAP SNAP SNAP

Fluttershy cocked her head to the side, searching around in the limited distance she could view for what had caused the new and frightening noise; she couldn’t see anything but it sent an eerie chill down her spine as she began to shudder again. It wasn’t like the other twigs she heard break before; those ones were obviously stepped on by some small or curious animal stalking her. This one however, this was a massive cracking, earsplitting, jaw dropping snap that rattled in her ears. Based on her vast knowledge of animal and pony behaviors, Fluttershy decided it could be only one of two things.

A normal pony, perhaps Twilight. Or…

“M-M-M-Manitcore!” Fluttershy blurted out as she stumbled back hastily. The sound increased rapidly as a large lion like creature bounded through the trees and landed in the path the shy Pegasus had been walking on. The large monster stared the startled pony down and roared viciously. Spit stringing in-between its open jaw as its head pulled to the sky to let out the massive sound.

Fluttershy squeaked and cringed in a paralyzing fear as she looked up to the massive beast. It was easily ten times her size and twenty her strength. Fluttershy shake more and more as she unstably rose.

It’s okay Fluttershy, its okay. You’ve dealt with one of these before. Just show it some kindness and it will love you.

Fluttershy moved shakily towards the beast in front of her. Its expression of anger had not changed; becoming more and more enraged with every step the mare took. When Fluttershy was face to face with it, she leaned forward lightly. The Manticore kept a confused and angered look on its face as she drew closer and closer. She leaned in more and lightly nuzzled the beast, attempting speaking kind and gentle words to it.

The Manticore sat still for a second, feeling the warm head of the Pegasus brushing up against its neck. Fluttershy’s kindness had not worked how she wanted it to however; in fact, it only seemed to increase the rage that was brewing inside of the humongous monster. The shy mare slowly pulled back, expecting to see a look of joy and pleasure in the lion-like creature’s eyes. Only to be met with a stare of pure animosity from it. Fluttershy felt a cold terror run up her spine, chilling every bone of her body before alerting her brain. She was in trouble now.

***

Twilight calmly roamed her side of the woods. Her horn was alit, emitting a vast spread of lavender colored light that expanded around her where ever she walked. So far there were no rabbits or bunnies in sight, Twilight figured they’d be hiding behind a bush or in a burrow somewhere. Even though she wasn’t finding what she had set out to look for the purple mare was still having a fantastic time. She rarely ever visited the Everfree forest during the day, nature walks weren’t really her thing. But at this time of night, the forest was an astonishing and breath-taking place. Twilight could see all kinds of animals moving about; resting on tree branches and nests that they made THEMSELVES, in burrows, bushes, holes, they were everywhere. The purple mare had only ever read about some of these animals, the ones that took care of themselves and their families. She knew some of them belonged to groups called ‘Prides’ by her book; It was where there was a dominant male who ruled over a large area of land mated with all the females and brought forth the new generation of cubs. It was amazing how animals outside of Ponyville and any other pony occupied city behaved.

As Twilight was exploring she came across a peculiar gap in the trees. The purple mare curiously approached it, noticing how far apart the trees were compared to the rest; So much so that it almost looked as if another path had opened where the two trees split. The curious mare cautiously entered the gap and moved forward gradually.

The new path continued on for a long ways into a spacious clearing. Twilight cursed herself, believing she had just circled around and found her way into Fluttershy’s clearing by mistake. But upon second glance, the purple mare discovered something. This one was much larger than her friends. Not only that, but the grass was horribly untamed and weeds grew out of every corner and crack in the ground. Giant tree leaves were laid down in the center, creating some sort makeshift bed for what ever rested upon it. As Twilight moved towards the object placed upon the small bed of leaves, she noticed something else

It was breathing…

Twilight shrieked, jumping back and landing harshly on her rump. It was a Manticore! The purple mare continued to back up quickly, hoping to Celestia she had not just awoken the monster. Or rather, awoken the monster’s cub. Panic ensued in Twilight’s heart as she frantically looked around for the giant beast itself.

If a Manticore cub is here and not the Manticore that means… oh dear Luna and Celestia no…

Just as the thought crossed the unicorn’s mind an abrupt scream entered her ears and shocked her to the very core. The scream had come not far from her. The voice was familiar; no…not just familiar. She knew who it was…

And she was in danger.

END

Danger(Part 2)

Chapter 7

“Fluttershy? Fluttershy, can you hear me?”

Fluttershy’s eyes slowly opened as blood rapidly rushed to her head. She sheepishly rose, rubbing her eyes and shaking her mane out. The blurriness in her eyes prevented her from receiving and interrupting any clear vision what so ever. After a few blinks and another shake of her mane she managed to break the spell sleep casted on her eyesight. Upon receiving clear vision once more she was able to notice something peculiar.

She wasn’t in her house.

For that matter, she wasn’t in anypony’s house; or the forest, or the spa, or in her garden. She wasn’t even in Ponyville. Fluttershy rapidly moved her head from side to side, trying to gather where she was. The only things able to be seen for miles were white and fluffy clouds. No blue sky below them, no objects upon them, no cities, ponies, or buildings. Just…clouds. Fluttershy gradually picked herself up off of the cloud carpet, having trouble standing as she began to fall to her side. Before she made contact with the clouds (As if it would even hurt) a Pony-Like barrier stopped her. She could feel its gentle hooves slowly raising and supporting her, ensuring she wouldn’t loose her balance again.

Fluttershy slowly turned her head to what appeared to be the only other living thing for miles besides her. Her eyes were greeted with a lovely and strong looking figure. It’s frazzled, yet still somehow fashionable, mane falling behind its head and resting upon its sky-blue coat.

“Are you okay Fluttershy?” The figure asked worriedly. Fluttershy shook her head again in an attempt to bring focus back to her mind.

“Rainbow Dash!” Fluttershy screamed in pure joy as she nuzzled her head into the Pegasus’s neck. Her heart soared into the sky as her confused frown was slowly replaced by a humongous smile that even Celestia herself would be surprised to see. Even after what Twilight told her about Dash, she didn’t care. She knew it was a harmless prank on her part. She loved Dash, no matter what had happened. Her wings began to spread out again, going as wide as they were able to stretch without snapping off. Rainbow Dash contently smiled as she returned the gentle nuzzle with care, lovingly wrapping her foreleg around Fluttershy’s.

“Heya ‘shy” Rainbow Dash spoke in a light tone which softly signaled her joyfulness to the shy pony. Fluttershy stayed silent, the only noise she made was her soft breathing on Dash’s neck. She could feel the heat radiating off of Dash’s body, keeping her warm. Her heart continued to rapidly speed up with every nuzzle, how she could feel her friend’s fur rubbing against hers, she could feel every tuff of it gently caressing her body and engulfing her in complete ecstasy. She closed her eyes tightly and made a silent wish to Celestia and Luna that this moment would last forever.

Fluttershy slowly pulled her head out of her companion’s neck, longingly staring into her eyes. Rainbow stared back, her heart feeling like it was going to burst out of her chest as butterflies formed in her stomach. As they gazed into each others eyes the length between their muzzles closed inches at a time; neither one of them daring to brake the deep and peaceful silence that only served to emanate the love radiating from them. As their muzzles touched Fluttershy could feel a wave of warmth rushing through her, she could swear that if her wings kept stretching out like they were they would break off like little twigs. She tightly closed her eyes again, feeling Dash’s lips pressing against hers. Going slowly and gently at first, then sped up and full of passion. She could sense the heat of The Rainbow Maned Pegasus’s breath on her lips as Dash’s tongue licked the tip of her them, teasing them to open. Fluttershy complied and opened her mouth, allowing Dash’s tongue to enter and explore It. The feeling was exhilarating and amazing, every time she felt Dash’s tongue touch hers a wave of pure bliss through ran through her head, down her spine and ended in her hooves.

Fluttershy pulled pack, her eyes still closed as a heavy blush appeared on her face. Rainbow Dash smiled and she hugged the shy Pegasus closely, securing her in a tight embrace.

“D-Dashie… where are we?” Fluttershy asked with uncertainty plaguing her voice. She had been so caught up in seeing her Rainbow Maned friend (If she could even call Dash that anymore) that she forgot all about her surroundings. Fluttershy cringed at the sight of complete nothingness around her as she stayed as close to Dash as ponily possible. A thin blush appeared on Dash’s cheeks as she squeezed tighter, attempting to make her friend feel safe in her hooves.

“I…I honestly don’t know Fluttershy. There’s nothing here, nothing but clouds. I flew for miles and miles. I even did a Sonic Rainboom across this thing. There’s nothing, and the clouds are unbreakable, I kicked and kicked and kicked” Rainbow Dash stopped talking to kick a cloud; the cloud responded with a jello-like shockwave that rippled through it and energetically transferred to other clouds. “But I found you lying here. And then…you know the rest.” Rainbow Dash finished, squeezing Fluttershy tighter. Fluttershy’s nerves calmed down as she laid her head against Dash’s chest. She closed her eyes, letting each one of Dash’s heart beats calmly echo through her ears.

But the beating seemed to increase, and it was rippling through her ears now. Faster, and faster and faster it increased until Fluttershy couldn’t stand it anymore. She pulled her head out of Dash’s chest as she discovered the beating wasn’t coming from Dash’s heart…but from something worse.

The world around them was collapsing! Clouds were falling out of the sky and exploding into thin air, leaving a void of black nothingness where they used to be. Everything around them was falling apart!

“D-D-Dashie!” Fluttershy cried out as she hugged her companion deathly tight, imprinting hoof marks onto her back where she pushed and pulled. She pulled tighter and tighter, receiving no response at all from Rainbow Dash. She put her head against Dash’s chest, hoping that she would hear the calm heart beat she so longed to hear.

Nothing…

She heard nothing! Not a peep was coming from Dash’s chest. Fluttershy shook her head and tried again, the only noise being received the still exploding and falling clouds around them. She pulled back and frantically shaked Dash, who had a blank stare in her eyes.

“Dashie! Dashie wake up! Don’t go Dashie! Stop joking around! Dash!!” Fluttershy screamed in pure terror as her light shaking slowly turned violent, the lifeless Rainbow Dash swinging back and forth. Rainbows coat now turned from a gorgeous sky-blue to a dark and saddening grey. Her mane was fairing no better, the beautiful colors of the rainbow it was so famed for slowly dissipating. Fluttershy’s watery eyes began to leak several tears as she continued to shake Dash, hoping for something, anything! Complete and utter terror circled around her heart, encasing it in an aura of urgency. Fluttershy’s arms grew weak and tired as she let go of the lifeless and limp Dash. Clouds around them continued to explode, the pattern rapidly approaching their section. Fluttershy looked around in panic for an exit, a way out. But there was nothing; nothing but vast darkness as far as her eyes could see. And it only seemed to spread and spread with every second, showing no sign or letting up. The Dark void now taking over the once blue sky as the clouds continued to disappear. The clouds continued to vanish one by one, leaving only a small circle around Fluttershy and Rainbow Dash.

“Fluttershy…” Fluttershy turned her head to see Rainbow slowly coming to, color dimly returning to her coat and mane. Fluttershy’s ears instantly perked up as she rushed as close to Dash as she get. She buried her face in Dash’s coat, feeling her calm heartbeat once more.

“I’m so s-scared Dashie!” Fluttershy squealed out as she cried into Dash’s mane, soaking it in tears. Rainbow Dash wrapped her forelegs around Fluttershy’s back, squeezing tightly.

“I know you are Fluttershy…” Rainbow Dash quietly whispered in her ear “This is pretty freaky…” Dash stopped to look around at the scene unfolding in front of her. Fluttershy further buried her head in Dash’s neck, attempting to seek comfort in her. “But I need you to be strong Fluttershy…”

Fluttershy perked up and slowly pulled her head out of Dash’s neck so she could look her in the eye. “W-What…?” Fluttershy asked in confusion as the noises around her seemed to dim out, the only one coming forward at full volume being Rainbow’s voice.

“You heard me Fluttershy. Be strong” Rainbow Dash gave her a serious look “Be strong no matter what happens to us or you. And remember, no matter what does happen. I will always love you with all of my heart and soul. Even if there isn’t a world to love you in…” Rainbow stared Fluttershy in the eye. Fluttershy felt her breath escape her as the words bounced around in her mind, she never had any idea Dash loved her this much. The fiasco taking place around her seemed to dim down to a faint buzz now as she stared back into Dash’s eyes, her beautiful, crimson eyes. Fluttershy nodded lightly in acknowledgment of Dash’s words, keeping her eyes locked on the Rainbow Pegasus’s.

“I…I will Rainbow Dash. I will… I love you too” Fluttershy gazed into Dash’s beautiful eyes again before moving in for another kiss. Dash didn’t pull back, but instead pushed her muzzle against Fluttershy’s as much as possible. Fluttershy wrapped her forelegs around the Pegasus’s neck, holding the kiss for as long as she could. After both of them pulled back, Rainbow Dash released her grip on Fluttershy. The pattern of cloud destruction was only a mere few feet away from them at this point. Fluttershy squeaked and began to shake violently. A sudden rush of warmth ran through her when she felt the sky-blue pony’s hoof on her shoulder, she stopped shaking and looked up to see a kind smile on the pony’s face. Rainbow kept her hoof pressed tightly on Fluttershy’s soldier as she gave her another look in the eye.

“Now move!”

“What?!”

***

Rainbow Dash sat drearily upon her cloud, wishing for a blissful sleep to take her, one that sadly wasn’t coming any time soon. She had fallen asleep before, and was in the middle of an amazing dream about her acceptance into The Wonderbolts when she was rudely awoken by galloping on the ground below. She hadn’t seen who or what had caused the abrupt noise; regardless however she silently cursed at whatever or whoever it was. She hated being interrupted during her naps; naptime was when she got some of her best ideas! She came up with the idea to replace Twilight’s ink with invisible ink in a dream. Not only that, but she also had her dreams to thank for some of her greatest tricks. She had come up with The Speed Strut after dreaming about being a fast race horse; she was galloping as fast as she could until she took off into the air, soaring back down into a fast strut on land while her wings were still moving. ‘It was an odd dream’ she thought ‘but now I have an awesomely amazing trick to thank it for!’ Now as she was tossing and turning she couldn’t even seem to get one iota of sleep in. What if she missed out on an awesome idea for a trick! A trick that could even get her into The Wonderbolts none the less! Rainbow Dash angrily tossed on the cloud again, facing towards the sky as she blew her mane out of her eyes. Whoever was in such a rush down there could have ruined her chance to think of the best trick ever! Hay, maybe it could have even beat her famous Sonic Rainboom! But now she would never ever find out about it. Unless she actually spent time devising one…

Rainbow gave a small “Pfft” at the thought; why work so hard to make a stunning trick when it could just come to her in her sleep. Well… except for the obvious reason that is.

Rainbow Dash sighed and laid down on the cloud, resting the back of her head on her hooves. She closed her eyes and began to picture herself as a Wonderbolt. No, not just a Wonderbolt, the best Wonderbolt that ever lived! The air would flow through her mane as she flew at death defying altitudes; the cold touch of wind would press against her face as she plummeted to the earth, going faster and faster and faster until…

BOOM!

Rainbow Dash kicked her hooves up in the air to mock what the noise would sound like if she were to pull off a Sonic Rainboom, adding small sound effects to the kicks. She would be unstoppable! She would be the fastest, the coolest, and the most radical Pegasus on the team! In the whole history of Equestria! Ponies would line up for miles on end to receive her autograph on everything. Their faces, Their Books, Their Pictures, Their Shirts, anything they had! Mares would want to be her, Colts and Fillies would be falling all over her, all of them wanting a chance to date her.

Dash stopped mid-thought. Why would she even want other Colts and Fillies? She loved Fluttershy! Not some tramp Pegasus she could pull a one night stand with! Dash knocked herself on the head with her hoof, obviously disgusted with herself that the thought even found its way into her mind. She would never cheat on Fluttershy, ever. To break that pony’s heart would be like murdering a tiny foal and cooking it up for dinner. Besides, why would she want to leave Fluttershy anyways? Fluttershy was perfect in every way, shape, and form! The way she could be so sweet and lovely but at the same time strict and demanding, like a loving mother; how she could seem to calm down tiniest Foal or Filly, no matter what was scaring them. Dash especially liked how cute she was when she was shy, always adding in “Um’s” and polite inserts. God, she loved that pony… Rainbow giggled like a little school filly as more thoughts of Fluttershy popped into her mind, overwhelming all of her other ones.

In the midst of all of her mushy and uncharacteristic thoughts she was jolted out of focus by an earsplitting scream. Rainbow Dash jumped up in the air the, falling back on the cloud. She was thankful it didn’t burst and send her flying towards the ground as she got back up, peering off the edge of it. From her judgment, the noise seemed to have come from within the Everfree Forest.

“That’s odd…who would be in the Everfree Forest at this time of day…” Rainbow Dash let the thought linger in her head as she closed her eyes, attempting to picture what sane pony would even venture into the Everfree forest without a purpose. ‘Then Again…’ Rainbow thought ‘That voice sounded familiar…almost like…’ Rainbow stopped mid thought, looking at the dark forest with fear in her eyes.

“Fluttershy…” Dash’s voice was low and filled with worry. What if Fluttershy was scared, alone, hurt, or…what if something worst had happened! Rainbow Dash bolted off of the cloud, soaring off to the forest in search of her friend; hundreds of horrible scenarios playing in her mind. Fluttershy getting turned to stone by a Cockatrice, Fluttershy getting bitten by a venomous snake, Fluttershy being hurt by a gang of colts, Fluttershy running into a Manticore. Rainbow shook her head and turned her focus back to the quickly approaching forest below. She had to find Fluttershy, find her before it was too late.

Dear Luna and Celestia, please be okay Fluttershy

***

“Fluttershy! Move, NOW!” Twilight’s voice screamed with urgency besides Fluttershy, snapping the shy mare out of her dream. Fluttershy shook her head and turned to see Twilight rushing out of the thick brush and forest, several weeds and branches wedged in her frazzled mane, soiling its usually vibrant colors. She then turned her head to see the massive Manticore bearing over her, its sharp and pointed claw slowing raising its as if it was preparing to strike with all of its force. The gravity of the situation she had found herself in finally weighed heavily on Fluttershy’s shoulders. Time itself seemed to have slowed down as she found herself not being able to move a centimeter. She just sat there, shriveled up in fear as she shyly stared the humongous monster that stood before her in its rage filled eyes. Complete terror and shock filled her heart to the brim, causing her to remain motionless. Her brain was yelling at her, telling her to move, telling her to fly away and find some place much safer, to get away from the monster. But the shy mare remained still in fear, unable to move even the smallest of muscles in her body. Twilight was reaching closer, galloping as fast as she could as the Manticore’s claw began it’s descent towards her body. Fluttershy was certain all of this must have been happening dramatically fast to the outside eye; but to her, as weird as it was, she felt as if she could see all of it in slow motion. The beast’s claw slowly approaching her face as Twilight’s each hoofstep towards her made a loud and echoing ‘Clop’.

She turned to the monster again, observing the pure hatred it had in its eyes. Even in this drastic situation where all she should be thinking about is escaping, she could help but ask ‘Why?’ Why was this creature attempting to harm her, to kill her? She hadn’t done anything at all to it; she had tried to be kind, to be nice to it like she did with the Manticore she saw so long ago. Was she… was she loosing her touch with animals? Her ability to soothe and calm them? But… why would she be loosing that ability? She was the embodiment of the Element of Kindness after all. Things like this should have been right up her alley! It just didn’t make sense. Unless…

Was it her time being spent with Dashie that was affecting her? Could the animals sense that she was in love? And if so… were they jealous of the attention she was giving Dashie? But, that didn’t make sense either; what did her falling in love with another pony have to do with anything? She wasn’t even sure if animals could even sense emotions like true love or happiness, let alone be jealous of it.

Twilight continued running towards Fluttershy at a frantic pace; her lungs were burning and begging for her to stop. She had already sprinted a good half mile and was still miraculously able to find Fluttershy in time. But she could see it now, the Manticore was ready to strike, to hit yellow pony in front of it with all of its might. She had to do something, she had to protect Fluttershy! But how? What spell or method could possibly ward off a full grown Manticore and shield Fluttershy from its devastating attack? Shield… Now why did that word ring in her head…?

Wait! That was it! The Dome Spell! It was be perfect for what she needed. Twilight ran at breakneck speed, jumping high into the air and landing gracefully in front of the Manticore. The monster suddenly stopped its attack, questionably staring at the new figure in front of it. It resumed to growl, looking as if it were angrier than it had been a moment ago, if that was even possible. The Manticore raised its claw once more, ready to strike the mare that stood between it and its target.

Twilight’s horn emitted a bright purple glow as she began to cast her spell. The Manticore slowly lowered its claw, staring in awe at the magic being performed in front of it, it had no idea what it was, it rarely ever saw magic; it had absolutely no idea what cause or purpose it served. Twilight’s horn began to glow brighter, more purple light pulsing through the field of energy circling around it. She dug her hooves into the hard earth below, closing her eyes and desperately pulling all of her focus together, directing it towards her horn. The Manticore snapped out of its haze, shaking its head and gathering its wits. Its eyes narrowed into an annoyed stare as its growling reached its peak, scaring all of the small critters around it and causing them to huddle together in their burrows and bushes. They watched the scene play out before them with terrified eyes. The Manticore was dominant in these parts of the woods. It was king, and it word was law. They’ve seen ponies and animals challenge it, but all to no avail. It always won, and it always made sure everything new to the forest knew it did.

Twilight’s horn’s glowing grew to its peak now, many layers of magnetic purple light pulsing against each other, surrounding her horn in a vibrant field of energy. A wall of magenta light began to spread in each direction, gradually encasing Fluttershy and her in a circular barrier that reached just far enough to cover both of their bodies. The purple mare took a step back; her horn’s light dying out as she panted. The Dome Spell was no easy spell; it was very advanced magic that was only to be used in emergencies where one had enough time to cast it. She looked up to the Manticore again and noticed its claws hastily attacking the structure she had conjured. Each one of its strikes sent a shockwave onto the dome’s outer barrier, sending ripples all across its surface.

Twilight sighed and rested next to Fluttershy, turning her attention to the yellow mare that had eased out of her shell. Fluttershy stared at Twilight, a mixture of awe, terror, and worry filling her eyes.

What had she done? She had nearly killed her friend! Fluttershy was in near tears because of it, she thought she was going to die! She thought that she would never see Dash or any of her friends again!

All because I couldn’t accept that two of my friends dating would be alright. All because I was too stupid to rationalize with myself before acting.

Twilight sighed again and looked Fluttershy in the eyes, the Manticore’s onslaught being muffled by the barrier. Fluttershy could see the earnest concern in her friend’s worried eyes.

“I’m so sorry Fluttershy…” Twilight guiltily apologized, tears welling up in her eyes. Fluttershy tilted her head in confusion, wondering what the Unicorn had to be sorry for. She hadn’t done anything wrong. She had saved her! She would have died without her help!

“What ever do you have to be sorry for Twilight? In fact, I should be thanking you!” Fluttershy reassured her friend thankfully.

“Well… the thing is-” Twilight began to explain before something caught her attention. The dome’s wall was breaking! The purple mare quickly rushed to her hooves to access the damage. The Manticore was still clawing at it, but it had made a hole and was promptly trying to open up. Twilight panicked as her horn began to glow again, sealing up the hole and keeping the dome attached to her magic. She could feel the dome growing weaker as she stepped back, still attempting to hold it together with her magic. The ripples the dome experienced were catastrophically worse than they had been before; they were now turning into near rips in the barrier with each one of the monster’s swipes.

“Come on you stupid thing…hold together…” Twilight pleaded between gritted teeth as she continued to try and hold up the only thing standing between her and inevitable doom. The Manticore clawed the surface again, this time sending a large tear in the Dome. Twilight gasped and gradually tried to repair it, the hole slowly sowing up. The Manticore attacked again, undoing the repair she had just started. Fluttershy began to cower behind her, closing her eyes in an attempt to brace herself for what might be coming. Twilight’s horn glowed brighter and brighter, trying to repair each hole the Manticore ripped in the dome as it still made new ones. She could hold it together for much longer, the monster would break through soon and she’d be in for it then.

The Manticore clawed the dome more and more, even with Twilight’s horn going at full capacity she could still feel it wasn’t going to work. She began to feel nervousness and fear creep its way into her mind, clouding her rational judgment. She began to struggle, to mess up. She felt her hooves slipping; she felt the last sparks of her horn escaping like miniature shooting stars, floating off into the distance and evaporating in the air. Her hooves dug deeper into the earth’s crusty surface, the dirt ridding up on the bottom of her legs now. She kept readjusting her position, knowing it would be to no avail. She couldn’t hold her balance, not when most of her strength was being used up by her horn. Her legs began to wobble and they finally gave, her horn instantly dying out as she landed with a face plant on the ground. Her eyes reluctantly closed as she lay there, not being able to rise. The last thing she heard was an earthshaking ‘bang’ and the screaming of another pony as blackness filled her vision.

Lies Lead To More Lies

Chapter 8

“Twilight? Twilight, are you awake?”

Twilight’s ears rung violently from the aftershock of the explosion, barely able to understand the simplest of dialogue as she slowly attempted to rise. She lightly shook her head, little pieces of gravel and dirt falling out of her mane and rolling over her entire body. She tried to move forward, but quickly leaned back against the tree she found herself in front of. Her head felt like someone had token two symbols and bashed them against the sides, the loud sound reverberating throughout her ears, through her skull and down her entire being. Her eyes slightly fluttered as she examined herself. The damage wasn’t too bad, she had a few cuts and bruises scattered around her chest and stomach, one of her legs had a deep cut where a sharp branch had unfortunately scraped across it and was bleeding profusely; and from what she could tell, which wasn’t much considering the state of her blurry vision, she was bleeding somewhere on her cheek.

It’s okay Twilight, you can just go to the hospital, get some stitches, and heal up the rest with magic later.

Twilight attempted to rise again, this time met with some success as she was able to lean on her non-injured foreleg. She felt Celestia-Damned awful, as if she could puke up her guts and keel over at any minute. She rubbed her head with her other hoof, wincing in pain as blood leaked out of her leg.

Okay, maybe stitches won’t fix it…

Twilight slowly raised her throbbing head to examine her surroundings. She was still in the forest, though that probably wasn’t a good thing. There was a miniature crater where she assumed she had passed out at; dark singing circled the edge of it in a criss-cross pattern, dimming the grass’s natural bright-green color. A couple of trees had fallen down, their tops now leaning in on the creaking branches of other, less fortunate ones. The trees that had not fallen had several cracks in them, marring their usual chaotically perfect appearance. Many flowers and weeds had been yanked from the ground and tossed several feet from the crater. Is this what her spell had done? How could a so-called “protection spell” clear so much forest? She assumed that any surrounding critters she hadn’t killed weren’t too happy with her for destroying their habitat.

Note to self: Don’t ever use the dome spell again, unless I’m doing demolition work.

Twilight attempted to stand up on all four legs, she yelped as searing pain shot up from her foreleg. She raised the injured leg up, fresh new blood dripping from the end of it, overlapping the dried blood that had shed moments ago. Her breath was shuddering and she felt very light headed. She was almost certain that she wouldn’t be able to make it out of the forest by herself.

Wait… didn’t somepony just say her name? Twilight looked around the vast expense of forest, her eyes drifting from split tree to split tree until she landed on the figure, Rainbow Dash.

“Here Twilight, let me help you.” Rainbow Dash said earnestly, coming forward and heaving Twilight’s injured foreleg over her shoulder, acting like a makeshift crutch for the purple mare. Twilight glanced over at the rainbow maned pony and smiled lightly through her pain. Rainbow herself didn’t look too good as well; she had rocks and dirt in her coat and her mane was a frazzled mess. Beads of sweat were running down her forehead and she had bags under her eyes, as if she were very stressed about something.

“Thanks Rainbow Dash… You don’t look so good” Twilight said with deep concern in her voice. Rainbow Dash shook her frazzled mane again, little pieces of dirt flinging out and flying to the ground below. She took her free hoof and wiped the sweat off of her forehead before responding.

“Yeah… I came here in search of Fluttershy. I heard her scream from my cloud above her house. But… I haven’t been able to find a thing. And then I saw a massive column of smoke from this section in the forest and flew down. That’s when I saw you” Rainbow Dash worriedly replied “Have you seen her around here anywhere?”

“Yeah, she was just with me a moment ago before the explosion.”

“Wait… If there was an explosion and Fluttershy was with you…” Rainbow’s voice trailed in fear, her pupils growing small as she nervously looked around.

“Is everything alright, Rainbow Dash?” Twilight asked curiously. She didn’t even really know why she asked, she already knew what was on Dash’s mind. But she wanted to hear the words come from the Pegasus’s mouth. Rainbow Dash instantly tackled her to the ground, holding her down and fearfully looking her in the eye.

“Is she alright Twilight?! Did she get hurt?!” Rainbow asked urgently. Twilight felt pain shoot up from her foreleg again and winced slightly. Rainbow realized this and quickly apologized, helping her up. She shakily arose and took a deep breath before speaking again.

“I don’t know where she is right now Rainbow, nor do I know if she is doing okay or not. And believe me; it worries me just as much as it does you.” Twilight replied. She felt her heart sank as she spoke; everything that was happening right now was her fault, nopony else but her. If she hadn’t been such an incompetent foal and lured Fluttershy out into the forest with that blatant and not well thought-out plan of hers none of this would’ve been happening. But there was no way in Equestria she could let any of her friends know that just yet, especially Rainbow Dash. They would all hate her and never want to speak to her again. Worse, what if she was banished to the Everfree Forest!? Or what if she was encaged in a dungeon?! Or what if she was banished to the forest and encaged in a dungeon to the place she was banished to?! Several different scenarios ran across her mind, each having a more dreadful consequence than the last. Twilight gulped before turning her attention back to Rainbow Dash. She had to focus on this right now; she could worry about her big problem later. But it seemed like Rainbow Dash was already one step ahead of her, already flying around and looking in bushes and trees. Soon after, she turned around to Twilight with an irritated look on her face.

“Come on Twilight! Chop Chop! We need to find Fluttershy; she could be in danger, or worse!” Rainbow Dash pegged on with more urgency. Twilight stood there, lost in thought. Did Rainbow really care that much about her Fluttershy? Were they really in love? And could it really last? And if so, should she stay out of it? Rainbow Dash angrily turned around again “COME ON TWILIGHT! NOW!” She yelled impatiently. Twilight shook her head and broke out of her haze, beginning to limp around in search for the pink-maned pony.

After a good while of searching and no results, they both felt the depression of the situation. They needed to find Fluttershy, because if they didn’t… she could very well die if she hadn’t already. Rainbow Dash seemed to be taking that fact heavier than Twilight did, always flying around her and yelling out things like “Get back to searching!” or “Use a spell of some sort!” or “We have to find her!”. It wasn’t as if Twilight herself wasn’t scared; she too worried about Fluttershy’s safety. Moreover, she was worried about what could happen to her if that were to be jeopardized and her friends knew it was because of her.

Rainbow Dash herself was already concerned enough herself to notice Twilight stopping; this was too much to take in. Her best friend could be laying in a bush somewhere dead or slowly and painfully dying as she was screaming out for help! What if she was and they couldn’t hear it? What if she couldn’t scream at all?! She blamed herself most of all, if she wasn’t napping on the cloud like she had been then she would’ve known about it when Fluttershy ventured into the forest. She could’ve been there to help her! She could’ve been along to accompany her and Twilight! Rainbow Dash stopped dead for a moment, a thought spontaneously coming into her head.

Wait a minute… why did Fluttershy go into this forest in the first place? She’s terrified of this forest! She never even goes in here except into the clearing! And that’s not even that deep in the forest! And… why was she with Twilight? And what about the explosion, what could have possibly caused that?

Twilight had token a moment to slow down and catch her breath when Rainbow suddenly whirled around, giving her a suspicious stare. Twilight slowly cringed up, being taken aback by her friend’s sudden hostility towards her. She swore the stare she was being given could melt metal or turn ponies to stone. But after a quick mental check she verified that she had not been turned into molten Twilight or made into somepony’s garden statue, thankfully.

However, fear began to seep into Twilight’s mind, overriding her deep thinking. Had Rainbow found something out somehow? Oh no, what if she had?! It could all be over now in a heartbeat!

“Twilight… Why did you and Fluttershy even come out here in the first place” Rainbow Dash started with suspicion in her voice. 'Oh no' Twilight thought as she heard the words escape her friend’s mouth. She was already a terrible liar, even under even the smallest amount of guilt and pressure. If she couldn’t even handle lying about stealing cookies from the cookie jar as a filly then how in Equestria would she be able to lie about potentially killing Fluttershy!

Don’t jump to conclusions Twilight, she isn’t dead yet… I hope

“Ahem.” Rainbow said impatiently. Twilight shook her head and hastily tried to recover her senses. Rainbow’s impatience had told her that she had obviously been silent for too long; which was very bad considering the fact that it didn’t help her too much in seeming earnest to the Pegasus.

Twilight had to come up with some sort of excuse, and fast. Her mind quickly went to work on gathering every possible lie she could tell. After a bit of thinking and another prod from Rainbow Dash she looked up to meet her narrowed eyes and took a deep breath.

“Well… You see the thing is…” Twilight began nervously. Rainbow Dash further narrowed her eyes to the point where they nearly closed. Oh no, not off to a good start. Okay think Twilight, recover! “The bunnies escaped!” Yes! Good going, now keep it coming! “Right after you went up to take your nap I saw the bunny encampment open, the bunnies had already left towards the forest!” Twilight ended with a nervous laugh, unsuccessfully trying her best to sound believable. Rainbow Dash slowly nodded her head as if she hadn’t believed a word she said.

“Okay then, Twilight… Why was Fluttershy with you?” She prodded.

“What? I’m sorry” Twilight stumbled; she was busy recovering from her last lie when the question had been thrown at her. Her brain needed another excuse. This time, luckily, the lie followed in so well with the last one.

“I said-”

“Oh yes, sorry!” Twilight cut her off, still sounding very nervous. “As soon as I saw they left I went to gather Fluttershy and possibly Rarity as fast as I could. Rarity didn’t want to come with me and I felt as if I needed all the help I could get my hooves on. But there wasn’t any time to go search for Pinkie Pie or Applejack and I didn’t want to disturb you from your nap” Twilight finished, sounding much more believable that time. The lie wasn’t too difficult to tell, mainly because most of it wasn’t a lie, save for the last part. Rainbow slowly nodded her head again, still not fully beleving the story.

“Okay… And what about the explosion?” Rainbow Dash asked, conspicuously sounding suspicious still. Twilight didn’t need to pause and think for this one; the truth could suffice. She wouldn’t be harming anything if she told her about the attack.

“Well… there was a Manticore that found us and attacked us. I used a shield spell but after awhile it began to fade. So I kicked my magic into overdrive and then…” Twilight trailed off, not wanting to finish the sentence. Regardless of this however, both of them knew the word it would have ended in. Rainbow’s eyes went small again as she grabbed Twilight by the shoulders.

“We need to hurry” She said in urgency, beginning to dash further down the path. Twilight gave a sigh of relief under her breath and began to follow suite. She stopped for a moment, wincing in pain when her foreleg bared the weight of her body. She had been so caught up in the heat of lying that she had forgotten that it was horribly injured. Her run turned into a walk, which then turned into a limp, the foreleg dragging gradually in front of her with each step. She took a second to look down and rest, breathing in heavily. Her leg was on fire and she was sweating almost as much as she was bleeding. Not to mention the fact that she felt like giving the ground her whole lunch as fertilizer. Even though bile probably wasn’t the best way to make plants grow…

She needed to leave the forest, and fast. She’d pass out any minute now and then Rainbow Dash would have two bodies to take care of. She also had to stay conscious to keep up her lies. What if Rainbow were to find something that would make her suspicious again? Or what if she found Fluttershy and her whole lie was revealed before she could even wake up to argue against it? It would most likely be all to no avail but at least she would be able to try!

Twilight sighed and continued walking, keeping her eyes focused on the ground. She had a plethora of emotions running through her mind; Anger at herself, guilt, sorrow, worry, anxiety, fear. It was so much she couldn’t even pay attention to where she was walking when she bumped into Rainbow Dash’s rear and bounced back onto the earthy ground. She moaned in pain as she sat up, rubbing her flank and testing to make sure she hadn’t broken her tailbone. She then got back on her two feet, composing an apology in her mind as she faced Rainbow Dash who, by her guess, wouldn’t be too happy with her for the collision. But when her eyes fell upon her, the sky-blue Pegasus wasn’t even facing towards her. She was just standing there, locked in place as if she had locked eyes with a cockatrice. Twilight shuddered a bit, recalling her memory of her experience with the dreadful creature before shaking her head and walking up to the still Pegasus.

“Rainbow?” Twilight curiously waved a hoof in front of Rainbow’s face, not receiving a response. She frowned, this couldn’t be good. “Rainbow what’s the matt-” Twilight stopped when a plaintive and painful moan entered her ears, making her shudder out of disturbance. The owner of it was not her or Rainbow Dash; but instead, a shaking and twitching yellow Pegasus lying on the ground before them. Twilight gasped in shock and Rainbow’s face had lost all color. They stood there for awhile, not being able to move an inch. There, incapacitated in a mess of blood and bruises was one of their closest friends. It was an experience that would stay with them for as long as they lived.

“F-F-Fluttershy…” Rainbow quietly stammered out, tears filling her eyes and wetting her cheeks. “FLUTTERSHY!” She picked up a haste gallop, going at a speed that even famous race-ponies would marvel at. “FLUTTERSHY!” Rainbow continued her running, quickly closing the gap between her and the injured pony. Fluttershy shakily raised her head a mere few inches off the ground, searching for where the sound was coming for. When her eyes came upon the speedily approaching Rainbow Dash she mustered all of her strength, attempting to rise to her hooves. She began to violently shake, falling straight back to the ground after only a few seconds.

Rainbow reached the very week pony in front of her, looking down in pure fear and worry. Fluttershy was cut in several places along her body, blood streaming freely from all of the wounds. She had a rather large gash on her forehead, the blood coming from it dimming her usually bright and vibrant yellow coat to a darkly stained color. Her mane was in tuffs of varying size, some very large and others microscopic. Its pink color had been dimmed by a tremendous amount of dirt and small debris. It was an awful sight to witness, she just wouldn’t stop shaking or trying to get up. This brought Rainbow Dash to teary despair in no time as she gently put her hooves on Fluttershy’s back, forcing her to stay down.

“Stay down Fluttershy… We’ll get you help” Rainbow Dash quietly said as she lowered herself to the yellow pony’s level, staring worriedly into her eyes. Fluttershy did the best she could to look back, feeling defeated and weekend. She needed to be strong like Dream Rainbow Dash had told her, she needed to get up and survive. She tried to rise once more, barely being able to even lift herself inches off the ground before collapsing. Before she could try again she felt a hoof rest on her back gently. She looked up to be met with the beautiful magenta eyes of Rainbow Dash, looking lovingly into hers as if they were pleading for her to stop and wait for help. Fluttershy complied, resting back a little as she kept her eyes locked on Rainbow’s.

Twilight had stood there, not moving from her spot as she watched the scene unfold. It was so heartbreaking yet so sweet to see at the same time. Maybe… Maybe she was wrong…

Guilt crept its way into Twilight’s heart and filled it to the brim, blocking all other emotions. Fluttershy… in this much pain… all her fault. She felt a tear escape her eye and sliding down her cheek, leaving a warm touch behind. Twilight wanted to be put in that dungeon in a far away place where she’d be banished to for all eternity now; she deserved it. She deserved any punishment she was given for her actions. She took a deep breath and walked forward, she couldn’t tell them yet… but she would when the time came.

“Perhaps I could be of some help” She calmly stated, a mixture of worry and guilt in her voice. Rainbow looked over and stared for a moment, simply nodding in agreement. Twilight began a gradual limp towards Fluttershy, making no attempt to hurry. Eventually she reached the yellow Pegasus, and loomed over her body in examination. The smaller cuts and bruises weren’t too bad and could be mended with magic, but the bigger ones would definitely need medical attention and stitches that she could not give. Fluttershy was also very, very weak and had lost a considerable amount of blood… and blood couldn’t be magically replaced or generated. “This… doesn’t look good guys… But I can try my best” Twilight said, each word containing sorrow and worry. “Now… this may hurt a bit” She finished as her horn began to glow brightly. She closed her eyes, concentrating as she lowered her horn, touching it to Fluttershy’s body.

Fluttershy tensed up, closing her eyes and beginning to shudder. Rainbow Dash noticed this and tentatively put her free hoof onto the yellow pony’s face, gently brushing her mane to the side. A wave of warmth cascaded through Fluttershy, causing her to loose her tension and ease back. However, the warmth was quickly replaced by searing pain as Twilight’s spell began to take affect. Fluttershy’s eyes once again closed and small moans of pain began to escape her lips. Rainbow Dash kept her hoof firmly planted on Fluttershy’s cheek, the other one moving down to the ground to grab hold of her hoof. Fluttershy tried her best to keep her pain contained, having Dash there to make her calm down was a massive help; but she could still feel waves of intense pain running across her body and making it scream in agony. Fluttershy thought that at this rate her whole body would spontaneously burst out into flames before it healed. It was the worst pain she had ever felt in her entire life; and Twilight was just healing the small wounds! What would happen when she got to the bigger and deeper ones? Fluttershy moans soon grew louder, turning into miniature screams as more and more cuts were closed, wounds were mended, and blood was stopped.

After what seemed to be an eternity; Twilight’s magic stopped. Both Fluttershy and Rainbow Dash turned their heads in confusion to look at the mare. Sweat was beading down her forehead and she looked as if she had just sprinted a hundred miles. It was obvious she had done everything she had possibly could because no matter how hard she tried her horn would not light up. Fluttershy looked to her body; it looked nearly brand new. Apart from the large wounds that still occupied it, it was perfectly normal. She could also feel a bit of her strength returning as blood began to pump rapidly through her veins. She felt herself slowly but surely standing up on her hooves. Rainbow Dash carefully helped to guide her up until she was able to stand alone. Whatever Twilight had done it had worked, and Fluttershy was more than thankful for it.

Fluttershy turned her attention back to Rainbow Dash who was already looking back at her. When there eyes met Rainbow Dash blushed and turned away, looking off into the distance. Fluttershy giggled lightly, leaning up to give Dash a peck on the cheek which only caused the mare to jump and blush more. After a bit, there eyes met once more; but this time, neither of them turned away. Fluttershy smiled lovingly at Dash who happily returned it.

“I’m so relieved that you’re okay now Fluttershy” Rainbow said sincerely, pulling Fluttershy into a tight hug. Fluttershy didn’t complain as she laid her head on Dash’s chest, accidentally staining some of its blue color with a bit of blood. “Well… almost okay” she joked, laughing as she brushed Fluttershy’s mane ever so carefully. Fluttershy joined in the laughter; she may not be fully healed yet, and she still needed medical attention, but she didn’t care. So long as she could stay in an embrace with Dash for as long as possible the rest of her troubles could wait.

Twilight was heaving in and out, attempting to catch what breath she could. She had honestly never felt this exhausted in her entire life. She could feel buckets of sweat relentlessly pouring down her face and dropping off to the ground below. She lifted her head to watch the scene unfolding before her. If anything, she had to admit that they were cute together. How they seemed to be able to get lost in each other’s company so easily, how much they cared for each other. ‘They must be really happy together’ Twilight thought as she smiled. She had never seen any two ponies this happy since… since Lyra…

Twilight shook her head; what if this time was different though? What if this time, they wouldn’t break apart in pain? But… What if it wasn’t? What if they ended up just like Raven Night and Lyra? They may not cheat on each other but a number of different possibilities could take place that could throw them into the heat of a break-up. If anything, she would at least have to stand by and monitor it… so she could stop it if she saw it diving down that path.

Fluttershy looked over to Twilight and met her eyes, smiling. “Thank you Twilight for what you did do… I know you couldn’t heal me completely, but I’m thankful for the wounds you did heal. And thank you for protecting me from the Manticore… or at least trying to.” She finished with only kindness in her voice. Twilight could feel guilt filling her emotions and taunting her to tell the truth once more. In her opinion, she hadn’t protected Fluttershy. No, she had nearly killed her. But she kept silent; she still had to keep that a secret for as long as she could, even if that wasn’t going to be that long. Fluttershy then turned her attention to Dash; she had to let her know that she hadn’t minded the prank as long as they were still together. “Rainbow… I know you pulled a prank on me and let the bunnies loose but I want to let you know… I forgive you, so long as it doesn’t happen again” She said with a smile. Rainbow Dash stared at her marefriend blankly. Prank? What prank had she ever pulled on Fluttershy? Then a thought popped into her mind.

“Twilight…” Rainbow said, a hint of anger in her voice. Twilight tensed up, she had heard the whole thing and knew what it meant. She was done for, finished, and it scared her as much as almost loosing Fluttershy had. She began to back up as Rainbow Dash let go of Fluttershy, beginning to move forward. Fluttershy watched the two in confusion, having no clue what had just happened.

This was it… the end. She would loose all of her friends and be shunned from everyone in Ponyville for the rest of her days. Nopony would ever see her in the same light ever again, no matter what she said or did.

Twilight took a deep breath and closed her eyes, exhaling slowly before looking back at Rainbow. “Yes Rainbow?” Twilight asked innocently, trying to sound truthful.

“Don’t play dumb Twilight… tell me what happened…” Rainbow said, anger deeply rooted in her voice.

“I… I don’t know what you’re talking about?” Twilight asked nervously.

“Tell me why you led Fluttershy in here on purpose!”

END

Wounds

Chapter 9

“Oof!” Twilight grunted when the hoof angrily met her cheek, sending her to the ground below with a hard ‘thud’. Her face stung like a mother-bucker, a bright red mark on her right cheek from where she had been hit. Her head felt worse than it had when she had awoken from the explosion; and oh, was it painful. It felt as if someone had spent the whole day using her skull as a drum-set. She shakily rose to her hooves, turning her head to the side and spitting out blood before turning again to face Rainbow Dash. Rainbow’s face showed an expression of only pure hatred and anger. She usually was always loyal to her friends and attempted to keep it that way; never once having crossed the line before. But this wasn’t her fault; Twilight had brought this upon herself. This was her fault, and she was going to get it, big time.

Twilight wiped the blood from her lip, growling a bit at the rainbow-maned pony in front of her. Rainbow stared right back at her, growling lowly and readying herself to strike again. Another hoof quickly met Twilight’s face, sending her to the ground at break-neck speed. This time, she didn’t bother to stand back up as her head lay on the ground, sound painfully ringing through her ears. She pushed herself up off the earthy floor, sitting on her flank and looking up at Rainbow. Rainbow angrily growled lower and more anger filled this time than before. Her hoof once again made contact with Twilight’s face, relentlessly sending her to the ground below. Twilight spat out blood on the floor, one side of her face was red and bruised; the other didn’t fair much better, having been stained by dirt and mud for the third time now. It would most likely take hours of bathing to cleanse it, but Twilight didn’t care; this was necessary punishment. She had betrayed them, all of her friends, and she deserved her consequences. Thus, she would take them without protest.

Rainbow briskly walked up to Twilight’s body, forcefully picking her up off the ground and throwing her onto her back. Twilight winced as she slid backwards, the hard ground and rough rock grinding up against her back. Rainbow Dash quickly ran up to her, jumping in the air and cocking out her foreleg. When she landed her knee impacted on Twilight’s stomach, causing the mare to loose her breath with an agonizing grunt. Rainbow hastily rolled off the mare’s body and pulled herself to her hooves, preparing for another hit.

All the while, Fluttershy watched in fear as her lover mercilessly beat up one of her closest friends. She covered her eyes with her hooves, curiously giving herself a small window to view the carnage through as Rainbow’s hoof forcefully came down on Twilight’s face. Fluttershy squeaked at this and covered her eyes once more. She didn’t know if she should speak up or not. Yes, what Twilight did was awful and she did deserve punishment of some sort. But… what was senselessly beating her going to help?

Twilight rose as much as she could, sharply coughing before spitting out more blood. She was close to passing out as this point, having already been exhausted and wounded beforehoof. Twilight sat up once more, stoically looking up at an enraged Rainbow Dash who was preparing for yet another blow. Another hoof struck her cheek, and another, and Twilight didn’t lift a hoof to fight back. If this was the first step in regaining her friend’s trust, then so be it. She didn’t bother rising this time, all of her remaining strength having been depleted. She lay there, barely conscious on the ground, her face a bloody and bruised mess.

A mixture of emotions ran wild through Fluttershy’s mind. She didn’t know whether to feel angry herself, sad, betrayed, disturbed, or really anything else. She obviously had to do something, and the sooner the better. If Rainbow Dash kept beating down on Twilight like this she’d loose consciousness in no time. And Fluttershy had read enough medical books to know that ponies are never supposed to fall asleep when they have a concussion.

Twilight slowly lifted herself off of the ground, attempting to maintain her balance. She could not recall a single time in her life where she had felt worse than she did now. She was slowly fading in and out of consciousness, her face would probably look unrecognizable to anypony she knew, and she was pretty sure her lunch would unpleasantly be coming up at any moment now. At this rate, Rainbow Dash would send her to the hospital in a hoof-basket. When she was able to stand on her hooves again, she gave another straight look to the rainbow maned pony. She had to be strong for this, even though she was getting more beat up than she ever had in her life it was necessary… hopefully. Honestly, Twilight had absolutely no idea what she could do to regain her friend’s love and trust after Rainbow would surely spill her secret. Maybe she could do something in time before Rainbow could though… If she could work out some sort of arrangement or agreement with her and Fluttershy to keep this between them; maybe then… not all would be lost.

Twilight’s train of thought was rudely interrupted as she was harshly kicked in the gut, causing her to nearly keel over right then and there. She couldn’t hold it anymore, no matter how hard she tried. She reluctantly leaned towards the ground and opened her mouth. She barfed fresh chunks of barf mixed with blood over the grass below. This caused Rainbow Dash to finally stop her onslaught. She slowly backed up, still keeping a cruel stare fixed on the sick pony. Twilight continued to vomit, much to her discomfort. She had always hated this feeling, it felt like her whole stomach was churning and would burst at any minute if given the time to.

That was it; at this point Fluttershy had had enough. No matter what Twilight did, this was a punishment nopony deserved to go through. It sickened Fluttershy to she anypony be hurt so belligerently by another one. She stood up and ran forward, jumping in the air and spreading out her wings as she soared and gracefully landed in front of Rainbow. She put herself into a protective stance, her wings spread out as far as they could go as she stared the sky-blue Pegasus straight in the eye. Rainbow Dash flinched a bit, looking Fluttershy back in the eye and waiting for some sort of response.

“Stop this Dashie! You can’t just sit here and senselessly beat Twilight up; it’s doing no good to anypony, especially me!” Fluttershy yelled, leaning forward to meet eye to eye with Rainbow Dash.

“What?! You want me to stop?! Did you hear what I head Fluttershy, or am I going crazy? She led your only bunnies besides Angel out here into the cold and desolate forest and probably got them killed! She also let you wonder on your own and blamed it on me! How do you expect me to react?! By sitting back and doing nothing as I’m told my marefriend nearly died?!” Rainbow Dash retorted, anger rising in her voice as her wings spread out as well. Now Fluttershy was the one flinching; she never did any good in arguments or fights, given her timid nature. The level of assertiveness she had already shown was surprising enough. Regardless, she took a deep breath and readied herself to argue back.

“What is beating her going to do?! She’s already weak enough! Look, I understand your anger and I do agree that it’s well-placed but… You aren’t any better than her if you just sit here and hurt her like this!” Fluttershy’s voice was a mix of calm and anger as she pointed a hoof towards the mess on the ground that was their friend.

“Why are you even defending her Fluttershy?! She nearly killed you! You could have died! Are you understanding the severity of this at all?!” Rainbow argued, her anger continuing to build. She just couldn’t understand why Fluttershy didn’t share her feelings. She of all ponies should have been the maddest! Fluttershy sighed, closing her eyes and taking a deep breath before opening them and giving a pleading look at Rainbow. Rainbow didn’t know what it was, but those eyes seemed to pierce straight into her soul. With a tight and a nuzzle of her neck she sighed and held the shy pony close to her. Fluttershy did have a point; beating Twilight wasn’t going to do anything but make her look just as bad. It was moments like these that served to increase the already bulging love Rainbow felt for Fluttershy. Not only was she a perfect marefriend, but somehow, she knew how to keep Rainbow in check and reason with her like nopony else could. It was like having somepony who understood her but at the same time knew how to make her see the light of a situation. After a long hug, the two departed and looked back to the beaten and bruised Twilight, who was now lying on the floor, puke and blood stains not far from her head. Both Fluttershy and Rainbow Dash winced at the sight; she needed to be treated, soon. Her injuries weren’t bad enough to warrant medical attention, but she would definitely need some stitches.

“Come on… let’s get her home” Rainbow Dash said calmly, slowly walking over to Twilight. Twilight’s sight and hearing had been fading in and out; all she had managed to catch was that Fluttershy and Rainbow had some sort of argument and it had been resolved. But now she saw that same rainbow maned pony marching up to her again. ‘Oh no… not again…’ she thought as her mind began to go into overdrive to protect her. She sloppily rose to her hooves, beginning to back up in a wavy and criss-cross pattern resembling that of a pony that had had one too many bottles of Zasparilla. It only took a few more steps and a collision with a tree to send her to the ground again in searing pain. Fluttershy, noticing this, came up in front of Rainbow and held out her hoof, stopping the Pegasus in her tracks.

“Let me handle this…” Fluttershy said sweetly. Rainbow nodded in agreement as Fluttershy began a slow and gentle walk to Twilight, making herself seem as unthreatening as possible, something that came to her naturally. Rainbow understood why Fluttershy had wanted to take over. She imagined she must’ve scared Twilight stiff with the beating she had given her.

Pfft, still a well deserved lesson all the same

Rainbow Dash backed up and watched from the side as Fluttershy softly nudged Twilight. A still barely conscious Twilight lifted her head, looking at the pony approaching her with confused eyes. Was sweet and kind Fluttershy going to have a shot at her now; kick her until she’s nothing more than a pile of mush and gore? But no, Twilight was pleasantly surprised when Fluttershy helped her up and propped her up. Soon after, Rainbow came over and took her other foreleg. The two began to carry Twilight away from the blast zone and towards the exit of the forest. Twilight was confused as her head bobbed up and down from motion.

“But… But I thought you guys h-hated me after what I d-did…” Twilight stammered out in between sobs of physical and mental pain. Rainbow Dash stopped walking for a moment, causing Fluttershy to jerk to a stop with her as she casted a guilty stare towards the yellow mare. Fluttershy lightly nodded at her with understanding eyes; she took a deep breath and looked up as much as she could to Twilight.

“Twilight… I’m sorry for hurting you… I let my emotions take charge and it was uncalled for.” Rainbow said apologetically, Fluttershy silently gesturing for her to say more “And… I don’t hate you. I… I may not forgive you for what you’ve done just yet… but I don’t hate you.” Rainbow finished, sounding uncertain of her words. Twilight smiled lightly, resting more of her weight on the two ponies who took it without complaint. She closed her eyes as her last seconds of consciousness came in and out of reach until she had fallen peacefully asleep.

***

BANG!

“Aw horsefeathers!”

Twilight awoke upon a loud cluttering that echoed through the walls of the room she found herself in. When she rose up to rub her eyes she found herself in a strange environment. Not only was she not in the forest, but she had found herself somepony’s bedroom. There was a light bedcover clumsily draped over her and several pillows behind her head, meant to keep it elevated. There were several wooden beams that stood out against the lavender ceiling and not far to her left was an open window that allowed Luna’s bright moon to shine through into the bedroom, providing a mediocre light source. The floor, similar to the beams that ran across the ceiling, was also wooden, but of a grey shade, unlike the ceiling.

After awhile, her restless eyes adjusted to the dark environment. She had never seen the room before, but the color scheme certainly looked familiar. Suddenly, out of nowhere amidst the loud cluttering voices could be heard.

“Rainbow Dash! What in Equestria are you doing?” The first voice demanded

“I…um… I accidentally tipped over some plates.” The second voice, who Twilight assumed belonged to Rainbow Dash, responded innocently. Twilight then heard some banter she couldn’t interrupt, but payed it no mind as she slipped back into her covers, nuzzling herself into a comfortable position on the bed. At the least, she now knew who’s how she had found herself in and that was a relief. Although it came as no surprise to her; after all, Fluttershy’s house was the closest to the Everfree forest. It made sense to take her there to quickly treat her injuries with the surplus of medical supplies Fluttershy had stored. Twilight groaned lightly, recalling the events previous to her arrival in the shy pony’s home. Her whole body was still an aching mess, but at least she had been cleaned, treated, and had had her wounds properly dressed along with her gash sewn together neatly. She didn’t know how or why, but Fluttershy seemed to have as much of a freaky knowledge about medical things as she did sewing and dress-making.

Twilight attempted to rest back and let the aches of her body painfully and slowly fade away so she could fall asleep again. Regardless of what had just happened to her, she needed her rest before she could be of well mind to deal with it. But even that small feat seemed to be impossible, the noise of banter and ponies walking around becoming too much for her to bear. After awhile, she had had enough and pulled the covers off in one quick motion, afterwards jumping onto the floor. She winced a bit in pain upon the sudden shock jolting up through her, particularly her injured foreleg.

Slowly but surely, she made her way down the stairs; one hoof a time, step by step. Her legs were threatening to give out from under her however, making the medial trip seem like a nightmare to overcome. Eventually she reached the foot of the stares and swung the door open, walking through into the brightly lit room. Her eyes shut close and she instinctively raised a hoof in front of them in defense of the light the streamed into her vision.

Out of nowhere, a pair of hooves whisked her into a tight hug, throwing her already unbalanced senses off the charts. Her eyes adjusted to an elated Pinkie Pie looking her straight in the eye with a smile so large Twilight couldn’t help but give a light one back through the confusion.

“Twilight you’re okay! Oh my gosh, I was so worried when Fluttershy called and I rushed over here but you were in bed and wouldn’t respond so I got super-duper worried and when I’m super-duper worried I bake pastries and sweets so I went into the kitchen and baked you a big cake with Rainbow Dash! But then you were still asleep and the cake was getting cold so we ate it. Well, more me than anypony else really but there’s still some left for you to eat. But, you’re okay! And that’s all that matters!” Pinkie Pie blurted out, clearly not choosing her words before speaking. Twilight readjusted her hearing and shook her head feverishly, trying to comprehend what she had just been told. On the table off to the side of the room rested a nearly fully eaten cake, save for two slices. There were crumbs spread all about near the table and furniture where Pinkie had carelessly left them. Twilight ignored this and turned her attention back to the matter at hoof.

“What? Um… oh yeah, um… thanks Pinkie.” Twilight said drowsily, lightly pushing the over-excited pink pony out of her way as she slowly walked forward into the living room of Fluttershy’s home.

Fluttershy was resting on the throw pillow, holding Angel in her hooves and calmly brushing him as he slept. Rainbow Dash was sitting close beside her, the two nearly touching bodies. Applejack and Rarity were sitting on the couch near the window and Pinkie Pie was busy (literally) bouncing off of the walls. But the others, apart from Fluttershy (And Pinkie Pie who was too distracted to even pay attention) didn’t seem too happy to see her. Most of the ponies in the room wore a silent look of disgust and disappointment. Nopony, except Pinkie, had even greeted her yet. An awkward silence enveloped the room as she looked from pony to pony, each as displeased as the last. Seconds turned into minutes which seem to last hours and then days. Nopony made a noise; they all just stared at her. Fear entered Twilight’s heart once more, distracting her from everything else. As if getting her flank handed to her by a powerful Pegasus wasn’t bad enough, now she had to deal with the disappointment of her friends who must have surely heard of her actions by now. Meaning being thrown out of the group, put into exile, was still a viable option to them. Twilight’s heart was racing at a mile a minute, and she was barely standing as it was. She was so covered in bandages she swore she could’ve passed for a mummy if the room was dark enough.

“Twilight…” Applejack started with a tone in her voice that told the purple mare that they’d be in for a long and drawn out conversation “We wanna talk to you about what you went and did…”

‘Oh No’ Twilight thought as she heard the words. She wasn’t ready for this yet, she didn’t have time to prepare excuses or explanations. If she couldn’t even form a decent argument how could she keep her friends? Panic was at its boiling point in the mare and it only festered when Rarity began to speak.

“We knew you were worried Twilight. But really, I never expected you of all ponies to do such a… a… dastardly thing!” Rarity said, her voice filled with emotion. All four ponies sitting down, including Fluttershy, nodded their heads in agreement. Twilight was sweating now, and the sound of her beating chest blocked all else. Panic took over every other sense and emotion in her body as her horn began to glow brightly. Moments later, a loud bang erupted along with a flash of light and she was gone, only leaving behind a scorch mark where she had been standing.

Romance Brews

Chapter 10

“Aw, Hayfeathers!” Applejack shouted in frustration as she bolted up from her spot on the couch. Rarity following suit jumped from her spot as well, followed by Fluttershy, an annoyed Rainbow Dash, and Pinkie Pie, who stopped her bouncing to observe the spectacle that had just taken place. Twilight was no longer standing in the room; instead, in her wake she left a scorch mark on Fluttershy’s wooden floor.

“You’ve got to be bucking kidding me! She says she’s sorry and she can’t even own up to what she did and apologize in front of everypony?!” Rainbow Dash said, anger rising in her voice as she unintentionally flew up into the air. Fluttershy lightly flew up beside her, putting a hoof on her shoulder. The rainbow-maned pony turned in anger but quickly settled down after staring into her marefriend’s eyes. Rainbow Dash sighed in frustration before lowering herself back to ground level once more, being shortly followed by Fluttershy, who kept her hoof softly planted on the Pegasus’s shoulder.

“Wait, what happen-” Pinkie Pie began, but she stopped when the scorch mark on the floor below her caught her attention. She urgently rushed over to it, as if she was in mortal danger and the scorch mark could some how save her life “Ooooo! How did this thing get here?” Pinkie Pie asked with nothing but oblivious interest in her voice. The sound of the facehoof Rainbow Dash made abruptly caught everypony’s attention as she grunted in frustration. Before she could make a sarcastic or angry remark, Fluttershy slightly increased the pressure she had on the mare’s shoulder, kindly reminding her to behave. Rainbow Dash reluctantly complied, mumbling under her breath as she looked away.

“Our dear friend Twilight got too pressured when we confronted her, her instinct took action and she teleported out of here” Rarity stated, a noticeable hint of sympathy for Twilight in her tone. Regardless of her crime, she knew she would teleport away if she had the ability to under that kind of pressure. And it even further increased her sympathy due to Twilight’s usual nervous and misguided nature. “Perhaps we came on a bit too strongly…”

“Ah agree, we went an’ put her in an unfair situation” Applejack commented.

“It’s no fun making somepony feel so unhappy…” Pinkie Pie agreed, depression sinking into her voice as she comprehended the situation.

“Same” Fluttershy said softly. She turned to Rainbow Dash, who was still looking to the other side of the room. She gently prodded the blue Pegasus, who grunted in response, taking a small step to the right. Fluttershy prodded again, this time a little less gently. Rainbow Dash remained still, still ignoring her marefriend’s attempts to gather her attention. Fluttershy sighed in frustration, taking a step towards the Pegasus and giving a shove, throwing her off balance. In turn, Rainbow still looked away, growling lowly under her breath. Fluttershy sighed in defeat, nearly giving up right then and there. But then, a brilliant idea popped into her mind. Regardless of how angry Dash got at some times, there was always a method of cooling her down that never ceased to fail.

“Oh Dash” Fluttershy cooed softly and seductively. Rainbow Dash tilted her head in interest towards the mare. A small smile crept upon the yellow pony’s face as she continued, moving towards the blue Pegasus in a seductive matter. She buried her head in Rainbow’s neck, gently nuzzling up and down and up and down. Rainbow realized what was happening and grunted, turning her head to face the other way once more. But Fluttershy knew she was just playing hard to get, she could feel her heart-rate increasing. She softly put her hoof under Dash’s chin to take the place of her now absent head, which had moved to the Pegasus’s cheek. She began to gradually lick up the cheek, causing the mare to stir in response. ‘Almost there’ Fluttershy thought silently, it was obvious to her and everypony in the room that Rainbow Dash was beginning to feel nervous. Sweat was dripping down her forehead and she began to shake lightly. There was only one thing left to do, and Rainbow would be like putty in her hooves.

Fluttershy took her hoof that had been resting under Rainbow’s chin and moved it to her cheek, she gently applied some pressure and sure enough, Rainbow turned her head to face her. She gave the mare a deep look in the eyes which caused her to melt, and moved in to enact her final stage. She deeply kissed Rainbow Dash on the lips, holding a hoof behind her neck so she could not escape. But regardless of this, Rainbow Dash had no intent of escaping as she returned the kiss with just as much, if not more, love and passion. After a bit of time the two separated and Dash sighed lightly, turning back to face the group.

“Alright… maybe we were a bit too hard on her… she was just trying to make sure our group didn’t split up, after all. I mean, I think I speak for everypony when I say that Twilight kind of over reacts to situations… And, she did heal Fluttershy, and I owe her my gratitude” Rainbow Dash said with a remorseful tone in her voice. Fluttershy lightly smiled, she could make Dash see the light of a situation, and it’d be a useful tool to have in the future.

“Um…” Rarity awkwardly began, giving a slight cough in her throat and muttering something that sounded like ‘scandalous’. “That was… interesting, but yes, Twilight does have a habit of overreacting…”

“So… what’re we gonna to do bout’ this?” Applejack inquired. A brief silence enveloped the room as everypony starred at one another. It was situations like this that frustrated Rainbow Dash the most; she knew she was always loyal to her friends, but… Twilight had nearly killed somepony closer than a friend to her through her over reactive and misguided ways. Of course, she was no better considering how bad of a beating she had given the mare. All in all, the situation was too much to deal with right now, especially after the scare of nearly loosing the pony she cherishes most in Equestria.

“I say we give her a few days by herself, that way she doesn’t think we’re confronting her or chasing her down… Besides, it’s late and I’m sure everypony’s had a long day.” Dash said lightly, casually pointing a hoof to the dark and lifeless night that lay beyond Fluttershy’s window. A violent rainstorm had begun, accompanied with thunder sounds and lightning flashes. Wind whistled against the silent night as the raindrops hammered against the window, leaving little streaks as the slid down. At the sight of it Fluttershy shook lightly in disturbance, but soon after gulped and stood back up. She hated thunderstorms… She began to shudder and lightly took a step towards Dash, upon noticing this Dash put a hoof around her and hugged lightly. Applejack looked over at the couple, smiling knowingly at the two.

“Ah’ reckon we aught to head home and hit the hay, there ain’t enough space in this house for all of us to sleep over” Applejack suggested, giving an abrupt and fake-sounding yawn at the end of her sentence. She looked over to Pinkie Pie and nodded her head slightly, Pinkie Pie starred blankly in response for a moment before it hit her. She silently mouthed an understanding ‘oh’ and giggled lightly, turning to face the couple as well.

“Yeah, I’m so pooped I can sleep for days. Sugar crashes are always yucky” Pinkie Pie lied, sounding half-defeated towards the end of her sentence. Pinkie Pie and Applejack made their way towards the door casually, when they opened it the wind blew into the house, making the hairs on their coats stand on end. They quickly shook their coats, brushing it off as if it were nothing. Pinkie Pie took a step out the door as Applejack looked back to Rarity, gesturing for her to come along. Rarity melodramatically gasped, moving a hoof to her open mouth in surprise.

“You seriously cannot expect me to walk home in this horrid weather!” Rarity said, a very noticeable tone of offense in her voice. Applejack sighed in frustration; she thought that Rarity of all ponies would have caught what Pinkie and her were even hinting at in the first place.

“Common Rarity, I’m sure we shouldn’t impose” Applejack said conspicuously, lightly nodding her head towards Rainbow Dash and Fluttershy. Rarity had a reaction similar to Pinkie Pie’s as she stared blankly at the orange mare for a few moments. When it finally hit her she gave an abrupt ‘oh’, but then she looked at her neatly straightened and dry mane and her beautifully combed and stainless white coat and gave a pleading look to the mare. Applejack narrowly starred back and gestured for her to come along again. Rarity sighed in defeat, grasping her umbrella that had been leaning against the wall with a telekinetic grip and making her way towards the open door. It would take hours to get her mane and coat back in proper order just so she could sleep… but for Fluttershy and Rainbow Dash it was a necessary evil. Dash had removed her foreleg from Fluttershy now and was walking towards the door, obliviously ready to join the other ponies on a walk home.

“Hey guys, wait up” Rainbow Dash said as if nothing was different, after all, she always loved a good fly through the rain, even if it made her sick. Just as she was imaging all of the awesome and stupendous tricks she could pull off through the thunder clouds a hoof hit her chest, abruptly ending her train of thought.

“Sorry Rainbow, I think you should best stay here with Fluttershy” Applejack attempted to lie, sounding untruthful. Rainbow Dash starred in blank confusion for a moment before making a reply.

“Um… I think you should all stay here, if it’s alright with you. I mean, I can’t ask you to walk home in this weather, you could get sick” Fluttershy argued worriedly.

“Thank You!” Rarity said in annoyed relief, she made her way from the outside of the door, being shortly followed by Pinkie Pie.

“Sleep Over!” Pinkie Pie said excitedly, but before either of them could step through the door into the warm and comforting confines of Fluttershy’s home, they were stopped by Applejack pushing them away.

“Common guys, I’m sure Dash and Shy’ will be just dandy without us” Applejack said between gritted teeth as she pushed the two ponies away from the door.

“Wait, why can’t I come with?” The tone in Rainbow’s voice almost sounded pained, as if she felt she was being excluded from the three. Upon her question, Applejack stopped pushing Rarity and Pinkie and turned around, giving a sincere look to her friend. She usually hated hurting ponies and lying, but this was an exception.

“I’m sure Fluttershy would be scarred stiff having to be in her house alone during a thunderstorm. You should stay and give her company, seeing as you’re her mare friend and all” Applejack said in a conspicuous tone, giving a wink to the mare. Rainbow Dash just starred blankly back, she could tell Applejack was hinting at something, but not what she meant. But before she could ask any more questions or stop them, the orange mare hustled Rarity and Pinkie Pie away from the house, out of earshot over the booming and cackling thunder. Rainbow Dash stood in the door way, watching them walk away until they were nothing but specs in the distance. She shrugged, shutting the door and turning around to ask Fluttershy if she got any of that. But the yellow mare was huddling in the corner, shaking on the floor with her head buried into her chest as best as she could fit it.

Rainbow Dash frowned with concern and made her way over to the pony, calmly taking a seat next to her. Fluttershy jumped when she felt the rush of somepony else’s body heat touching her but calmed down when she saw who it was. She took a deep breath, later exhaling it slowly as she looked on forward. She didn’t want to seem weak in front of her love with such a poor excuse like thunder, she needed to stop being Scaredy-Shy and toughen up. But that didn’t last long as another wave of thunder sounded overhead, breaking the calm silence established in the room. Fluttershy squeaked, shaking in her huddled form on the floor below.

“Okay, that’s enough” Rainbow Dash said softly as she abruptly picked Fluttershy up, holding her close to her chest. Fluttershy squeaked again, but quickly settled down as Dash’s body heat seeped into her, warming her gently. She took a deep breath of relaxation and laid her head on the mare’s chest, listening to the calm echo of her heart-beat. Rainbow Dash smiled, brushing the yellow pony’s mane ever so softly and watching her breathing slow. She relaxed herself as well, leaning back against the cool and hard surface of the wall behind her. Thunder continued to sound overhead every once and awhile, rain beat harshly against the window, making a violent patter. Rainbow couldn’t help but feel bad for Applejack and the others, having to walk home in this awful weather. But that thought quickly escaped her mind as she felt Fluttershy’s head nuzzling into her neck like it was a nice, soft teddy bear to a small filly. She could feel her heart-rate rising and she was sure Fluttershy could as well, considering her heart-beat was very noticeable as well with her chest pressed against Rainbow Dash. A small smile crept upon the blue Pegasus’s face as she closed her eyes, tightening her grip on the pony.

“Hey Dashie?” Fluttershy asked in a soft voice, not changing her position as she asked it. She knew that she didn’t need to look up at the mare, for she was already paying close attention to her.

“Yeah?” Rainbow Dash replied softly.

“Thanks…”

“For what?” Rainbow’s voice was confused as her eyes popped open, looking down at the yellow pony she was holding. Fluttershy looked straight back, a warm and peaceful smile on her face.

“For… everything… you being here for me and loving me. We may have only been together for roughly a week but… this is the closest thing to real love I have ever felt. I always admired you, your loyalty and competitive spirit, even if it could be your downfall sometimes. You always seem to be looking out for me, and pushing me out of my barrier in a way nopony else could accomplish. Even when I’m scarred and lonely, I can count on the fact that you are at least thinking about me, and that alone is comfort enough. I guess what I’m trying to say is… I love you Rainbow Dash” Fluttershy finished sweetly, her heart beat rising in her chest. Tears had begun to form in her eyes, but she didn’t look away, she couldn’t take her eyes off of Rainbow’s. Rainbow shook her head; attempting to process the information she had just been given. This wasn’t like the other times she had heard those three words being uttered; the other times had been amazing and spectacular, earth-shaking even. But this, this gave her a different feeling all together. Something new and foreign had found its way into her soul, and she didn’t know what to think of it, other than the fact that it was such a good feeling. She felt a spark; something had ignited inside her, setting a flame below her heart. Rainbow couldn’t muster a response in words; words couldn’t describe half of what it was she was feeling. Besides, she had never been one to make sappy and heart-felt statements.

Instead, she did the second best thing that came to mind, she moved in towards the pony ever so slowly, planting her muzzle upon hers. Fluttershy’s eyes went wide as a large blush came across her face. She slowly closed her eyes, leaning back into the mare as her wings spread out. The two ponies sat there for awhile, embraced in a passionate and loving kiss. After awhile, they both pulled black, extreme blushes upon both of their faces. Fluttershy did the only thing she could think of, begin to laugh hysterically. Rainbow Dash smiled, and soon began to join with her. She didn’t understand what was so funny or why she was even laughing, but she could swear that she was about ready to loose her breath. It was such a happy moment, such a perfect distraction from all of the other problems going on. She breathed deeply, wiping a tear from her eye and giggling when she looked at her marefriend once more. After a moment, Rainbow Dash got up off the floor and jokingly offered a hoof to Fluttershy, as if she were some fancy suitor at a Canterlot party. Fluttershy blushed vibrantly, giggling into her hoof as she jokingly accepted her offer, giving a small curtsy when she was up. The two shared in a hearty laugh before Rainbow finally spoke.

“I think it’s about time we head off to bed.” Dash said, gasping for air in between her words.

“But, where will you sleep?” Fluttershy inquired curiously. Rainbow instantly blushed, scratching her mane and looking off to the side. She didn’t know whether or not she should proceed with the offer she was thinking of giving. Were they even that deep enough in their relationship yet? It’s not like they would be doing it, but still… “Do you want to sleep with me?” Fluttershy asked, blushing brighter than she had been a moment before. Rainbow Dash instantly jumped, she had not been expecting her marefriend to catch on so quickly.

“Well…um…Well… If it’s not… I mean, If you’re okay with it, or somethin’ else, I don’t know, it was a stupid idea anyhow” Rainbow’s voice nervously trailed off. She hadn’t felt this embarrassed since she had initially confessed her love to Fluttershy, and they both saw how well that turned out the first time around. Fluttershy didn’t know what to say, but after a bit of time a smile crept upon her face as she gave Dashie a kiss on the cheek, looking playfully into her eyes.

“Race ya’ upstairs” Fluttershy said, giggling lightly. Rainbow Dash looked back in shock, but quickly regained her composer as she starred right back at the pony.

“You’re on!”

***

Twilight grunted as she was thrown forward by her own magical force, sliding across the wooden floor. She moaned in pain as she slowly rose to her damaged legs, looking around at her surroundings. At least one good thing had come from that, she was now in the safe confines of her Tree-House, away from ponies who would only want to prosecute her. The purple mare sighed in relief, shaking her mane out and looking around once more. It was still dark outside and no candles had been lit in the library. ‘Spike must still be sleeping’ she thought to herself as she clumsily walked towards the stares. Needless to say she was thoroughly depressed and embarrassed, even if her friends hadn’t run off like Lyra had. She was still scared though; any number of things could go wrong with them, especially considering the nature of their relationship. They were both mares, mares. Even though Luna had recently been trying to get Celestia to agree to equal gay rights in Equestria the princess had yet to budge. And even if it did go through, nearly half of the ponies in their community were extremely prejudice against gays and lesbians, they’re very close minded and stubborn on the subject. If Fluttershy and Rainbow Dash openly expressed their love in public they’d get torn apart! And that alone could lead to them never wanting to see each other in a romantic sense again.

Twilight sighed, it wasn’t like she could just try and break them up again, otherwise, she would ruin any friendship she ever had with all of her friends. It was a brewing disaster just waiting to explode; all it would need is a bit more time to fester. She slowly walked up the stairs, wincing in pain with every step she took. Surely enough, resting sound asleep and curled up with his blanket, unphased by the sudden crash she had just made a moment ago, was her green dragon friend, Spike. Twilight decided not to wake him, even though she was killing to tell somepony about the horrible experience she had just gone through, and the horrible thing she had done. She wasn’t even sure that Spike knew about Fluttershy and Rainbow Dash dating in the first place; it was generally one of those things she kept from him. He was still a baby after all; he wouldn’t be able to understand something like love, especially when it’s found between two members of the same sex.

Twilight reached her bed, slowly crawling into its creaking structure and covering herself with the covers. Her whole body ached, and she was an emotional and mental train wreck. The only thing that could help her right now was getting some much needed sleep. She closed her eyes, listening to the soft patter of rain on her ceiling. Soon enough, sleep slowly took her within its embrace.

***

Fluttershy giggled, reaching the tip of the stairs just before Rainbow Dash had. She gracefully landed at the top, walking into her room and preparing to get into bed. Rainbow Dash reached just behind her, barrel rolling onto the floor. She got up, shaking her mane and looking to a giggling Fluttershy.

“Beginner’s luck” Rainbow Dash said playfully, giggling as well. It seemed as nothing could ruin her mood right now, it was perfect. She usually hated losing; she hated it more than anything else in Equestria. But, for some strange and outer-worldly reason, she hadn’t gotten mad over Fluttershy beating her to the top of the stairs.

“Common, Silly Filly, losers first” Fluttershy said teasingly, pointing a hoof to the bed with it’s covers now open, ready for a pony to crawl into them. Rainbow Dash grunted, making her way to the bed and looking back.

“Very funny” She said as she lay on the bed, sneaking her hooves under the covers and getting into a snug position. She glanced over a still giggling Fluttershy and smiled lightly, patting her hoof on the empty space next to her in the bed “Common, Silly Filly”

Fluttershy smiled and crawled in beside her, throwing the covers over both of their bodies. She grabbed onto Dash, snuggling her head into her neck and squeezing tightly. Dash smiled in joy as she wrapped her hooves around the mare’s back, holding her as closer than a protective mother would hold her foal. Fluttershy let out a sigh of content, as did Rainbow Dash as they both eased back into the bed. This was a moment of complete bliss, the world around them didn’t matter, nothing in it mattered besides the moment they shared right now, and both of them were more than aware of that. It felt as if Rainbow Dash had been waiting her whole entire life for a moment like this, holding somepony she truly felt for close to her, knowing that they are hers. That they are together, and share a deep and true love, and may share it forever. Rainbow Dash yawned, the soft pitter patter of the rain overhead creating a peaceful moment that she and Fluttershy were thrown into.

“Hey Dashie?” Fluttershy asked softly

“Yeah Shy’?” Rainbow replied

“Are… are we really together?” Fluttershy asked lightly. Rainbow Dash smiled gently, caressing the yellow mare’s mane and rubbing down her back gently.

“Of course we are, no reason for us not to be” Rainbow said reassuringly, tightening her grip on Fluttershy. Fluttershy smiled, readjusting her position to become more comfortable.

“I love you…” Fluttershy whispered softly.

“I love you too…” Rainbow Dash replied, closing her eyes and resting her head on the pillow. Several thoughts drifted through her mind, the most dominant one being about her and Fluttershy. It was… indescribable. There was no words in the Princess’s Equestrian language that could even come close to describing what she felt right now. She was… she was in love. In love, she repeated it to herself in her mind several times. It seemed like such an odd thing to happen. Rainbow Dash, fastest flyer in Equestria, Future Wonderbolt, Prank Master, and hard to the core, never one to stoop to any mushy emotions, had fallen head over hooves in love with a shy, weak and kind pony such as Fluttershy. They didn’t even share any of the same joys or activities. When she would want to fly, Fluttershy would only want to watch. When Fluttershy wanted to tend to animals, she would go off to do something else, so she wouldn’t have to deal with talking about ‘The proper way to feed a toucan’ for an hour. Rainbow Dash had remembered reading a term in one of Twilight’s big books called ‘Opposites Attract’. She was sure it had something to do with math, but for some odd reason, it seemed to fit her situation perfectly.

A light breathing broke her train of thought; Fluttershy had fallen asleep in her hooves already. Rainbow Dash had to admit, setting her tough nature aside, Fluttershy was freaking adorable. She giggled lightly to herself, closing her eyes once more as sleep slowly overcame her, sending her into a world of blissful dreaming while she held onto the pony she adored most, the pony she loved.

END

A Nice Day Out...

Chapter 11

The sun poured through the drawn drapes of the small, cottage bedroom, illuminating everything in its short radius with a dim light. The room was still somewhat dark, but if a pony needed to, they could easily make their way through it now. Rainbow Dash grunted, slowly rising up from the bed and rubbing her head. She licked her chapped lips and stretched out, her joints cracking in complaint. She shook out her mane and lay back on the bed, wishing for sleep to imprison her within its relentless grasp once more. Sadly, after a short period of time it was obvious that she was awake and it was going to stay that way until the sun set again. The blue pony rose once again, rubbing the sleep out of her eyes and observing her surroundings. The room she found herself in looked exactly the same as it had the previous night, and with it came back the pleasant memories as well. She smiled, checking the side of the bed adjacent to her, and when her eyes fell upon what it contained her smile only brightened. She soon found herself scooting a bit closer to the left, her hooves slowly wrapping the peacefully sleeping Fluttershy into a tight hug. As soon as the warmth of her companion’s body hit her, Rainbow Dash could feel her heart fast at work again. She was smiling so much she was almost afraid her face would stick in that position, but it didn’t matter; all she cared about right now was lying in the bed and holding onto a very special mare.

Thoughts began to carelessly drift in and out of her mind, none of them carrying much importance, most of them were just reminiscing the previous night anyhow. It was a pretty good night, probably up there with the time she won the best young flyer’s competition, or the first time Fluttershy and her had spent the night together. It was amazing, and she was sure she’d remember it for a long time to come. That night had been it, they weren’t friends anymore, they weren’t on the fence and they weren’t friends with benefits. They were together, in love together and in a romantic relationship. And as she held her marefriend close to her body, allowing the warmth to seep into her body, she couldn’t wish for anything more.

Fluttershy soon slowly rose, signaling her morning awakening at last. Dash had fallen back asleep and was snoring rather loudly, which is why she probably just woke up. A bright smile on her face, the yellow pony snaked her way out of the blue mare’s hooves and gave her a light kiss on the cheek, and proceeded to get out of bed and walk downstairs. When she reached the bottom of the stairs she began her morning routine as per usual. Make a quick breakfast (But leave some for Dashie this time), do some minor tiding around the house, go outside to greet and feed all the little critters, tend to her garden, and leave some time for a leisurely shower so she wouldn’t have to rush herself that day to do whatever it was she had planned. Of course on this day it didn’t even matter; she had the whole day to herself, no one to meet at the spa, no one to have lunch with, nowhere to go that she didn’t want to, it was blissful. She almost thought if inviting Dash to spend the day with, unless she was busy herself. How could she be? All she ever does is her weather chores, nap, and show up whenever somepony needs her to; from the long time Fluttershy has known her, the blue Pegasus has rarely ever planned something on her own.

The yellow mare let the thought go as she stepped into her shower, giving the faucet a slight touch, allowing the water to come down and pound on her back. She sighed in relaxation as the heated rain drops hit her back, sending waves of comfort over her. Her wings spread out, and she gasped lightly when the water began to pound upon them too, but she didn’t retract. Instead, she allowed her wings to soak in the pounding droplets, each one hitting them hard yet gentle, a rock being thrown by a curious foal with great force into the smooth lake of softness that was her wings and back. Her eyes peacefully closed and a smile spreading across her face. She could just sit here forev-

BANG

Fluttershy’s eyes popped wide open, and her wings instinctively retracted. She hastily turned off the faucet, grabbed a nearby towel, wrapped it around her body and trotted down stairs. When she reached the bottom there wasn’t a pony in sight, so she called out lightly, moving into her main room.

“I’m in here Fluttershy!” Dash’s voice called out from the kitchen. The yellow Pegasus made her way over to the kitchen door “Also…sorry,” Fluttershy stopped and stared blankly at the door, as if her marefriend was looking back at her through it.

“Sorry for what?” She asked in curiosity as she opened the door. Upon seeing what had occurred, she gave a frustrated facehoof.

“I said sorry,” Dash innocently repeated.

“Sorry doesn’t fix my broken flower pots,” Fluttershy replied as the flier nervously shuffled through the dirt and clay shards on the floor to find a broom. After sweeping up the mess she apologized once more, but was soon cut off by the frustrated pony.

“It’s alright Dash; I wanted to go do something today anyhow. I guess buying a new flower pot is something,” Fluttershy stated half-heartedly “Would you like to join me?” After she asked her question there was a short pause, she looked over to see Dash had turned deathly white, as if something had her petrified to the core “Are you okay?”

Rainbow Dash swallowed, nodding lightly “As a couple?” she asked with a twinge of nervousness in her tone. The caretaker gave her a confused look, and slowly answered yes. “In public?” another yes “together?” yes.

“Dash? Is something wrong? Do you… do you have a problem with being seen with me in public? If, if you do, you can stay here or leave, it…it’s okay,” Fluttershy’s voice strained as she talked, the pain in her voice clearly making no attempt to hide itself. Rainbow Dash cringed at this as she looked over, the timid pony gave her a smile back, but Dash could already see the tears welling up in her eyes. The thought of being seen as a lesbian in public made her want to fly to the nearest bush and hide until nightfall. But… this relationship had only really started just a night ago, and Celestia damn her if she was going to let it end so easily!

Fluttershy gasped as she felt a pair of strong, yet careful hooves whisking her into a tight and loving embrace. The yellow Pegasus sniffled, but buried her head into her companion’s neck none the less. Dash soothed her comfortably, petting her mane lightly for a brief moment before letting go to look at her. The flier took a deep breath, closing her eyes as if she were imagining all of the horrible possibilities and exploring each one like a curious filly looking through a chest of toys for the right stuffed animal. After a pause, she opened her eyes again.

“No Fluttershy, I don’t have a problem being seen with you in public; in fact, I’d love to go out with you,” the rainbow maned pony said with a reassuring smile. At the sound of her words, Fluttershy’s face brightened up, and she sniffled before looking up at the pony in front of her once more.

“Y-You sure?” She asked, her voice quivering a bit. Dash didn’t say anything in return, but walked forward, offering her foreleg to the pony. Fluttershy looked, smiling and blushing vibrantly at the same time. She quickly dried herself off with the bath towel, rushing to throw it in the nearby laundry basket before returning to take the leg. The blue pony let her forward, leg in leg as they walked out the front door and towards Ponyville proper.

***

“Oh that one’s perfect!” Fluttershy exclaimed as she rushed up to a nearby pottery stand, Dash following close behind. The sports pony stood closely behind as her marefriend inspected the pot, looking it all over as if she expected it to be somehow tampered with. “No, this won’t do,” setting the pot down, the pony ran over to the next stand that sold a plant, inspecting that one too as Dash struggled to keep up. ‘When did she get so fast’ she thought to herself through deep and exhausted breaths ‘And how freaking hard is it to find and buy a flower pot! It’s not like they put firecrackers in the things’. “Yes! This is it! How much?!” Dash took a breath of relief as she observed her companion staring up eagerly at the half-awake, half-asleep merchant. The gruff-looking stallion shook his head in tired frustration as he checked a few pieces of parchment below.

“10 bits,” he responded, his voice lacking even the smallest trace of care. Dash usually wasn’t one to examine small details, or care much about random ponies in the town, but she had to ask herself why that pony is running a flower shop instead of someone like Rose; he doesn’t seem in the right… spirit for it. Her thoughts were quickly interrupted as Fluttershy joined her side again, her pouch 1 pound heavier but 10 bits lighter. The blue coated pony smiled, that wasn’t as bad as she thought it was going to be; hay, she was willing to bet that nopony even thought that they were a couple, just two crazy Pegasi passing through. As she started the walk back to Fluttershy’s cottage, expecting the yellow mare to be right beside her, she heard a voice calling to her from behind.

“Uh…. Dashie?” Fluttershy asked nervously. Dash turned around, walking back up to the yellow coated Pegasus.

“Yea?”

“I know I only said we’d be coming out to get a flower pot…but…” she trailed off, seeming like she wanted to ask but at the same time didn’t.

“But…”

“Well… It’s very nice out… and I was just wondering, I mean if it didn’t embarrass you to,” Fluttershy’s voice cracked with pain when saying that word “Can we go out to lunch? On me,”

Well there goes the easy trip

“Is that a no..?” The yellow mare asked half out of curiosity and half out of possible disappointment. The flier shook her head, breaking out of her minor comatose.

“Uh…” As the blue mare began, the pony facing her looked up, her eyes bright and wide, containing depths of hope and the fear of the one answer she dreaded. Dash swallowed hard, trying to shove the fear she had herself down her throat; she had to pull through this, she couldn’t live with herself if she let Fluttershy get hurt, especially if it was over as something as dumb as this “What restaurant did you have in mind?”

“Well… how about the Leafy Salad?” Fluttershy suggested

“Isn’t that on the other side of town?” Dash replied, cocking her head in uncertainty a bit.

“Don’t we have all day?” The yellow mare retorted in a tone that more asked ‘Please go with me’ than how much time they had.

“Fine, let’s go,” Dash said, rolling her eyes as her marefriend’s squee of delight silently hummed in her ear like a sweet little butterfly, reminding her why she was going along with the possibility of being found out publicly in the first place. Before she had time to react, Fluttershy lightly tugged on her hoof, signaling for her to follow. Keeping a smile plastered over her worried and guilt-covered face Dash followed suite, grabbing her marefriend by the foreleg. Though it probably wasn’t of much importance, the blue mare could swear that she already saw a few ponies giving them odd looks, as if they were one step closer, one thin wall of narrow-sited prejudice away from figuring out the truth, and never letting her (or even worse Fluttershy) hear the end of it.

***

Dash panted, sweat beading down her forehead as she galloped forward at crippling speeds. Every time she had a chance to she took gulps of air, slowing down but never allowing herself to come to a stop. This was too important, too important to stop, too important to let it slip like a piece of paper out of her sweat drenched hooves. She continued her run, jumping over several gaps and hazards on the ground below, the smoky air around her nearly causing several misses. She jumped a chasm, using her wings to glide over safely to the other side. She then jumped another, then another, then another; until she just let her wings stay out instead of closing them at every landing. Eventually she found herself flapping her wings to stay afloat, soaring through the darkened sky with a dimmer rainbow trail than the usual one she leaves in her wake. The blue mare checked all around her, every single corner of the endless wall of smoke, all to no avail. Where was her friend? Where could she be?

Instantaneously she felt herself plummeting to the ground, an acute pain on the side of her stomach. Had somepony hit her? Thrown something at her? All of her thoughts were broken into glass shards as she hit the floor with devastating force, skidding forward several feet before coming to a rough stop. The mare groaned, pulling her bruised and battered body off of the crash zone. She shook her dusty mane out of her eyes, creaking the two shields open to reveal what lie before her. Her heart stopped, her breath slowed to a shuddering chill, and she began to shake violently all over. No, not again, not this again. Before her rested her yellow friend’s bloody and cut body, just like she had witnessed before. She felt a tight fear gripping her heat, and her every move, and she couldn’t move a muscle. Even when she could, her movements seemed as slow as molasses She wanted to break out, wanted to run forward and cradle the heaping mess of Fluttershy that lay so lifeless on the floor, as if it were hanging on to the last thread of dear life it could find in this sea of darkness. But sadly she couldn’t, she couldn’t move at all.

All around her blank faces started appearing, carrying colors of ponies she knew, ponies she respected and chatted with daily. But these weren’t those ponies, these weren’t even ponies, they were faceless heads floating all around, staring at it with their invisible disapproving gaze. She could here soft chuckles emerging from them, as if the lifeless masks were now mocking her, mocking the pain she fell for her fallen lover. Ridicule, one of the things she feared most beyond all else. Yet, instead of cringing like some frightened foal, she burned deep inside, a fire igniting in the cold walls of her chest. How dare they laugh! How dare they mock this! She loves that pony and for all she cares everybody else could die. Suddenly, as if an incantation had been broken, she could feel her muscles move into action once more, acting like they had minds of their own as they carried as quickly as they could to her motionless mate.

She galloped towards the lifeless body, scooping it up in her hooves and holding it close to her. She put her ear to the pony’s chest, listening for a pulse. Thankfully, she felt a weak beating coming from the chest, coupled with an even weaker breathing. Fluttershy was alive, but in horrible condition. And the fact that the faceless masks around her were still laughing made her want to hurt someone, hurt something, hurt them. The mare gently set her marefriend back on the ground, careful not to damage her any further than she already had been. She then turned, her direction towards the laughing abominations.

“You. Will. Not. LAUGH AT THIS!” Rainbow Dash Hollered, spreading out her wings and taking to the sky, flying headfirst at her enemy.

“Dash…” The daredevil stopped, whirling around to see what had called her. It…it was Fluttershy, and she was barely moving, barely croaking out her name in desperation. “Dash…” Her voice sounded again, softly but urgently. Rainbow wasted no time make the descent back to the yellow colored Pegasus, crouching down close to her body.

“Yes, Fluttershy, What is it?” She asked, her voice stained with worry

“Dash…”

“I’m here, I’m here,” Dash held Fluttershy close to her, as close as a pony could hold another one.

“Dash…” Fluttershy repeated relentlessly. The Rainbow Maned pony held her even closer, tears streaming out of her eyes as she rocked back and forth.

“I’m here Fluttershy, I’m here and nopony can hurt you anymore… I won’t let them, ever,” Upon finishing her sentence, the cream Pegasus quieted down, tugging to pull herself closer to the mare holding her. Dash cried, her grip tightening and tightening by the moment. She didn’t want to let go, and she wouldn’t.

“Dash…”

“DASH!”

***

“Dash!” Fluttershy called out in moderate frustration. Rainbow sprung to life, her eyes popping open wider than a gymnastics pony doing the splits. She pulled herself off of her metallic pillow, wiping her drool off with a nearby napkin. Throwing the napkin aside, she turned her focus back to the mare facing her, or rather, giving her a dirty look.

“Did, did I fall asleep?” She barely muttered, rubbing the crust out of her eyes.

“Yeah, we got to our table and you just dropped like a rock on it, I had to wake you up because our meal is here now,” Fluttershy stated. Dash stared down at her meal with little appetite, and pushed it to the side. What was with that dream? Those faces? She’s never had dreams like that before; nightmares, sure. But that, that was downright terrifying. She could tell that Fluttershy knew she was feeling uneasy, because when she looked up the mare was giving her a concerned stare, something she usually reserved for injure friends or animals, when she was really worried. “Are… Are you alright Dashie?”

“Yeah, just, just an odd dream,” The rainbow maned pony lied as she looked off to the side, observing the environment. Yep, they were definitely at the other side of town now, The Leafy Salad. Her hooves ached, and if it wasn’t for her wings she’d be scraping together what money she had on her to take a carriage home. Fluttershy gazed worriedly at her, getting up from her seat and moving to the sky blue pony. She quietly buried her head into her companion’s neck, nuzzling gently. Dash nearly jumped at the feeling, but settled down when she saw who it was, which caused her to become even more nervous. ‘please, not in public, not in public’ she thought in desperation, about ready to gently prod the shy pony off of her. But she stopped herself when the dream instantly hit her blank wall of memory with a splash of clear paint, and she allowed Fluttershy to go on. Ponies seemed to be too caught up with their business and gatherings to notice anyhow, so Dash sinked into the nuzzle, allowing the feeling of her marefriend’s warm head to rub against her neck. Her stress and disturbance drowned out in a pool of enjoyment and bliss as she closed her eyes, lightly pulling the mare closer to her. Fluttershy moved closer too, pulling herself up onto Dash’s lap, and resting snuggly against her body. The whole world around them seemed to melt, and every issue worried about previously faded out into the distance. Fluttershy shifted around, turning to face Dash and putting her hooves on the flier’s chest. Dash looked down to her, blushing lightly but doing nothing to stop it when the caretaker leaned up, pressing her lips against hers. The kiss was a passionate explosion of love, and the two remained locked in an embrace for what they hoped would be an eternity. ‘Is anypony even watching or curious’ the thought nagged at the back of the blue mare’s mind, and she quickly buried it there; it didn’t matter, all that mattered was right here and now. They moved closer, and closer, and closer, as close as two bodies could possibly be as they remained locked in their romantic prison, oblivious to anything and everything going on around them. The kiss was fantastic, it was one of the first times Dash actually felt something when she kissed another pony. She didn’t even know how to begin to describe it. It contained the surprise and adrenaline filled nature of pulling off a sonic rainboom, and speeding through the broken sound barrier; but at the same time, it carried a gentle nature with it, something that softly tugged on her heartstrings like a pony playing the lyre. It was so incredible, the two pulled back, romantically gazing into each other’s eyes. Smiling, it seemed apparent to both of them that they were going to go in for another kiss, until they’re bubble of bliss was instantly popped.

“Heya’ Guys!” Pinkie Pie shouted with delight as she bounced up to the two ponies now desperately trying to get out of their embrace. Hastily returning to her chair opposite of Rainbow Dash, Fluttershy quickly turned around to face her cotton candy maned friend nonchalantly, as did Dash. The pink mare reached their table, giggling like a little schoolfilly and looking at them strangely.

“H-Hey Pink, W-What’s up?” The flier asked, nervousness cracking in her voice. The pony only giggled more after she spoke, to the point where she had to force herself to stop so she could breathe. She calmed down, wiping a tear from her eye as the last few giggles escaped her mouth.

“W-W-W-What’s so funny, if you can tell me that is,” Fluttershy squeaked, lowering herself a bit under the table in the cute embarrassed way she acts sometimes. This only caused Pinkie Pie to laugh more, until nearly everypony and their foal was staring over with interest. Rainbow Dash began to sweat under so many eyes, and she can feel herself telling Pinkie Pie to calm down through gritted teeth.

“S-Sorry girls, it’s just so adorable how you try to make it look like you were sitting here across from each other the whole time,” Pinkie said, pausing to sigh out of laughter, she then moved up knowingly to Dash, as if she were going to whisper in her ear “When you were really not,”

“W-What are you talkin’ about Pinkie? We’ve been sitting here eating our food the entire time,” Dash lied, trying her best to hide her blushing face.

“Hehe, You don’t have to lie to Aunt Pinkie girls, I was on my way over here to buy some soap for Gummy at the general store, and on my path to the shop I happen to see two lovey-dovey love dove birds holding each other like there’s no tomorrow,” Pinkie said with a smile, making no attempt to keep the matter quiet. More ponies began to stare over, keeping their attention fixed on the scene. Rainbow Dash began to feel herself sweat even more, trying her best Fluttershy impersonation as she move closer to Pinkie.

“Pinkie Pie! Shhh! No one in public knows about it yet, so keep it that wa-”

“Nopony knows you two are together yet?!” Pinkie Pie nearly shouted, lifting herself and Dash back over the table “Wow, that’s such a surprise because you two are so cute with each other like that!”

“Pinkie!” Rainbow said urgently, her face growing hotter by the moment.

“Oooo! This gives me an idea!” The pink mare eagerly said as she rushed forward into the middle of the outside dining area, where many ponies at this point were staring at her. Dash quickly tapped her marefriend’s hoof, gesturing for her to follow.

“But I want to hear what Pinkie has in mind,” The yellow Pegasus said innocently.

“Fluttershy, we got to go, now!”

“But”

“Now!” Dash repeated in a hushed whisper, Fluttershy reluctantly got up from her seat, beginning to follow the hastily moving Rainbow Dash. But it was already too late; their escape was faulted when the pink mare’s voice sounded loudly behind them.

“Listen up everypony! My two good friends Rainbow Dash and Fluttershy,” she stopped to gesture a hoof to the two ponies, Dash standing still in fright but Fluttershy acting as normal as ever “Are together in a relationship!” upon her finishing the sentence there was a collection of surprised gasps and disgusted looks “I know right?! Nopony has even thrown a party for it yet! Which is just where my plan comes in! I plan to throw a party for these two love birds! To celebrate their newfound love!” Pinkie was excited and happy when she announced her plan, but her elated eagerness wasn’t met with the ponies enjoying their meals.

“Ewww! They’re both mares!” One mare said in disgust.

“Why are they together?! It’s wrong!” A deep-voiced stallion agreed in anger.

“Take your ‘love’ somewhere else!” A mare shouted, rushing her foals away from the area. Dash started to sweat bullets, quickly turning her head from side to side, looking for some escape route. Away from the hate, away from the pain and fear. She did a 180, and when she saw her marefriend her feeling of fear melted away. Fluttershy, in tears was crouching and shaking in a huddled position, her quiet sobs barely heard over the hateful slurs being thrown at them. The missing fear was soon replaced with a boiling and heated anger as Dash was instantly reminded of her dream, of those judgmental, lifeless, hateful faces. Dash instantly sprang into action, taking a defensive, furious stance, facing the hateful ponies”

“ALL OF YOU SHUT THE BUCK UP!” The mare shouted, anger rooted deeply within her voice. Several ponies gasped, giving even move disgusted looks. ‘First they’re homosexual, now they’re cursing’ they think, not taking time to consider anything but their own narrow views. “Leave her alone!” she shouted even louder. Fluttershy’s eyes popped wide open, the memories of a filly inside her reawakened with those three words. A small and stout rainbow maned filly protecting her from two mean and horrible colts, anger brewing in her tone as she stood alone for her and her alone; the seeds of protection, love, and friendship were planted then, and she was now looking towards the fully grown plant, blossoming in beauty at its full bloom. She could still see past her marefriend’s legs, to the angry and disturbed ponies. She was still scared; she still needed to get away from all of this. But the fact that a blue mare was standing in front of her, one that was petrified of something like this, to defend her from those hateful ponies, warmed her heart and softened the impact of each hurtful word. She could feel herself slowly standing, joining her companion against the wave of enemies. Apart they were weak, apart they couldn’t handle it, but together it was like they were protected by a shield of magic conjured up by the princesses themselves.

That all lasted, until the first stone was thrown. A teenage unicorn, lifting it up in an aura of magic, threw the object up and over, and it came to a clean hit on the yellow mare’s muzzle. She squeaked, feeling the warm blood beginning to ooze from her mouth. She whimpered, feeling tears in the corner of her eyes as she fought to hold her stance. Rainbow Dash felt herself growling deeply, that was the last straw. But, before she could act more stones came over and down; she, with her athletic skills and cat-like reflexes was able to dodge most of them. But when she looked over, Fluttershy was being pelted by the hard thrown objects, becoming bruised and bloody in many places. The mare began to cry, running away in the other direction and taking off to the sky.

“Fluttershy!” Dash shouted, beginning to run after her before she turned around, facing the hateful crowd one last time. Her eyes fell upon Pinkie Pie, who had a look of utter defeat and depression on her face, she had failed her friends, and she had just had a little bit of her innocence token briskly from her filly-like grasp. Dash silently mouthed forgiving words to her, before addressing the rest “I hope you all get a nice and cozy spot in hell!” She screamed, her voice full of pure hatred. She turned around, taking off to the sky in fast pursuit of her marefriend, hoping to everything that was still good in this world that she hadn’t gone too far.

The citizens below looked away, their faces bearing the pleasure of being rid of two filly fooling ponies. They went back to their activities that had been so rudely interrupted a moment ago. In the center of the plaza, defeated and distraught, stood a pink pony with a frown taking over her once happy face.

“Damn your loud mouth, Pinkie…” She whispered disappointedly to herself.

END

For The Best

Chapter 12

Twilight smiled widely, trotting happily down Ponyville’s main street. It was a perfect day for what she had to do. The sun was out and shining brightly, the birds were happily chirping in the air and there wasn’t a cloud in the sky. Perhaps it was Celestia’s way of letting her know that she supported her plan, and wanted her to have the best-looking day possible to execute it. She had healed some of her wounds that morning with magic and felt much better; and it was then, as she was bandaging her hoof again in the bathroom that she knew what she had to do. If she was ever going to gain her friend’s trust and respect again, she’d have to start by apologize for what she had done, and promise to make amends for it. After all, what good was going to come from her hiding in her house, fearing her friend’s opinions of her forever like she had done earlier that morning? No good at all, that was for sure; the only way she’d be able to make up for what she had done was to first apologize to the very ponies she had did it to. She had decided to start with Fluttershy, seeing as she had already somewhat forgiven her for the actions and would probably help her apologize to Dash as well. So, it was set in her mind, and she’d gladly make her way down to the shy pony’s cottage, in hopes of salvaging their damaged friendship.

The purple mare followed the road until she reached the dirt path leading out of town and towards the Everfree Forest and Fluttershy’s home. Following the trail happier than any other pony in her situation would be she almost felt just like her overly excited pink friend, who would rarely ever let something like this get her down without a fight in the first place. Speaking of, what was Pinkie even up to at this hour? Most likely buying supplies for a party of some random origin or busy baking cupcakes and all sorts of tasty treats in her oven, warm and happy within the smiling and welcoming confines of Sugar Cube Corner. Come to think of it, Twilight had never felt this happy or excited to so something in her life, not even as a filly. She had made a mistake, a huge mistake, and she was certain that like a bad spell gone wrong, there was always a way to undo the damage while leaving minimal bruising. It almost seemed a bit out of her normal behavior, but she had spent the better part of the morning considering it, convincing herself to take the chance and right her wrong, and that’s exactly what she planned to do now.

Before she knew it, the lavender unicorn had reached the outskirts of her shy friend’s house, and she was just a threshold of trees away from completing her first objective. But something quickly stopped her in her tracks; no, not something, somepony. Above in the sky a streak of rainbow sped away, but something was… off about it. Rainbow Dash usually came from and went to Fluttershy’s house during the day, as she had noticed in the past, but this departure seemed different from the rest, more rushed and messy, like the flier wanted to get out of there as quickly as her wings could muster. Twilight tried to look more closely, but she could barely see the rainbow maned mare from her standing position on the ground. Although, she could almost see a glistening object falling from her eyes, and more. The magical apprentice stared onwards with worried curiosity until the blue Pegasus with her streaking rainbow mane and tail was nothing more than a disappearing speck in the similarly colored cloudless sky.

***

“Common Fluttershy! Come out, please,” Rainbow Dash softly pleaded through the locked and bared door of her marefriend’s cottage “I know it was bad but you know as well as I do not everyone in Ponyville is like that!” She continued. There was no response from the other end of the wooden barrier, as she put her ear up to the door the only thing the flier could hear was a soft, squeaky sobbing. This only fueled the fast-growing fire in her heart, she was hurt herself, physically and mentally, angry beyond all belief, ready to snap some unlucky pony’s head right off their neck. They did this, those piece of crap citizens filled to the brim with unwavering prejudice, still stuck in their ways from the olden times and afraid to look upon new ideas and cultures that even differ in the slightest from their “norm”. It was because of them that she was afraid in the first place, it was because of them why her snout, like many other spots on her body right now was a bloody and bruised mess; but most of all, the thing that was almost driving her to the brink of homicide was what they did to her love, her marefriend, Fluttershy…

What if she was never the same? What if the shy, delicate yellow mare never left her house again? She could have been scarred for life by this experience, too deeply cut to even speak. Dash didn’t care about the hate that had been thrown at her in the slightest; she was used to stuff like it. Hay, it was because of her tom-boyish attitude and her brightly multi-colored chromatic mane that for the majority of her childhood and even today ponies were quick to judge her as a “Filly-Fooler” and mock her as such. But Fluttershy, she never dealt much with that level of hate before, sure she had been bullied like other foals, but she had seemed to take that rather well with the blue mare’s help. This however, this was different, that yellow pony had seen the once kind faces of Ponyville, some of those faces even belonging to her friends turn against her, showing the dark side of their personalities. Dash could emphasize, it probably felt like a stab in the back to the poor mare. But regardless of all of this, regardless of her festering and blistering anger, what was she supposed to do now? Taking a deep sigh, the mare leaned forward towards the door again, trying to string together the right combination of words in her head, the right thing to coax Fluttershy out.

“Fluttershy… I know what you must be feeling right now, and I don’t blame you,” Dash paused for a moment, contemplating her next words. Fluttershy leaned forward a bit from her lying position on the couch, listening in closer to the mare’s staggering voice through her tears “I know it must have been a recall to the old days as a foal, when you were always bullied, always harmed and I couldn’t be there every time it happened. And…” Dash began, her voice staggering “Now it’s my fault this happened. You were pelted with rocks and stones by your friends, the very ponies you’ve given nothing but love and kindness too, and it’s all my fault” she continued, her tone uneven and pained. There was a long pause following her last sentence, and Fluttershy became worried that the mare might of left already, something paining her too much to continue.

“Dash…?” The mare asked in a hushed voice that was barely audible through the thick door. Rainbow heard it though, her ear pressed lazily against the wooden barrier. There was another long pause, and the yellow mare was about ready to go check her door when the next set of words came through the house in invisible waves.

“Fluttershy… do you love me?” Dash asked, her voice half pained and half curious. Fluttershy, already up and halfway to the door stopped in her tracks, suddenly taken aback by the question. What kind of thing was that to ask? Of course she loved her!

“Of course Dashie! I mean, what reason would I have not to?” The shy mare asked with curiosity. Dash could feel a single tear coming down her cheek now, for she knew what she had to do. It was necessary though, necessary for her sake…

“Fluttershy…” Dash began, her voice heavy

“Y-yes Dashie?” Fluttershy could began to feel more nervous by the second, fear scratching at the walls of her heart over what was going to happen next.

“With… everything that’s happened after that first night, that confession I made and how you played along, with your birthday and how Twilight reacted to us… You could have died back there”

“But I didn’t” Fluttershy interrupted, making no attempt to hide the nervousness in her voice.

“But you could have” Dash shuddered, suddenly remembering her vivid dream “And how today went in general, before we were even pelted with rocks I saw them giving us dirty looks Shy’”

“C-cut to the point”

“I think” The blue mare grimaced, sobs already making their way through into her voice and tears already coming down in great rivers from her stung eyes “I think we need to…” Dash stopped, taking deep breaths. ‘I can’t do this’ she thought ‘but I need to…’. With a deep sigh and a few more tears, she finally let the final words leave her mouth, with it letting loose the tight grip she held on everything that had been dear to her that past month, all for the sake of the very one she loved.

“We… need to break up” she finished, already regretting the words. Jaw open, dead still and dead white Fluttershy stood only inches away from the door. Her hoof was nearly touching the doorknob, going on autopilot, ready to open the door to have a more face-to-face conversation with the mare on the other side before coming to dead halt. She couldn’t do anything; she couldn’t move a single muscle in her body as she stared at her hoof, and then the doorknob, and then her hoof again. She didn’t know what to say, what to do, she wasn’t even sure if she had heard right. Was that it then, had she heard wrong? Was it just a little joke to lighten the mood? The filly in her began to giggle innocently, that must be it. It was a joke and they were going to get through this together, hoof in hoof like they always would, right?

“You’re kidding, r-right Dash?” What came out of her mouth wasn’t the same innocent filly, instead the more shocked and mortified adult, hoping to everything good in the world that this wasn’t happening to her. Her more realistic side taking over, she could feel warm streams of liquid pouring down her face “Right?” her voice wavered heavily, as if the wrong answer was going to send everything in her world into an bottomless pit of no return.

Standing on the opposite side of the door, Dash could only imagine what the poor pony looked like on the other side; and the thought made her heart clench tightly. Fluttershy’s wavering voice of disbelief only made it worse, making more hot streaks of tears to come down in great waves from her eyes. She almost reconsidered at that point, wanting to play the whole thing off as a joke. Dash gulped, Fluttershy would pull through this, and the pain would be more bearable this way, for both of them…

“I’m sorry Shy’… It’s best this way,” Dash said lightly, her voice dark and firm. She could almost see Fluttershy vigorously shaking her head no through the door, tears coming from her eyes in disbelief.

“No, no, no, no, no! No it’s not best this way, Dash don’t go! Please!” Fluttershy exclaimed, sobs in her voice butchering the words more than normal.

“I’m so sorry! I love you!” Dash replied, sobs making their way through her voice as she turned around, running away with tears glistening in her eyes. Literally nearly throwing the door off its hatches, Fluttershy barreled through the front entrance of her house to the outside world just in time to see a blue flank departing in the distance. She began to gallop, spreading her own wings in preparation for a take-off, soon being halted by a searing pain in her right side. She slowed down, craning her head to examine the source, a rock had been thrown there, how she missed it at first the mare didn’t know, but it didn’t matter.

“Celestia Damn It!” She cursed, tears coming from her eyes in strands of physical and emotional pain. This wasn’t happening, this wasn’t happening, she could fix this! But no matter how hard she tried, it was obvious that there was no way she was going to fly, especially not as fast as Dash could, with her side hurting like it was. She collapsed on her flank, clouds of tears filling up her vision as she saw the blue streak turn into a spec, which then vanished into thin air.

“I love you too…” She whispered, closing her eyes tightly.

***

“Fluttershy! Are you okay?” Twilight gasped with concern as she hurried to her friend’s side. The cream colored Pegasus seemed to not hear her, or didn’t want to hear her as she continued to stare at the ground beneath her hooves. Twilight cocked her head in confusion, was something wrong? “Fluttershy?” she asked again in a soft tone, laying a hoof on the mare’s shoulder lightly. The yellow pony turned to her, opening her eyes to reveal several tears that had reddened her eyes and stained her coat. Twilight frowned, mouthing an understanding ‘Oh’. She pulled the crying pony into a tight hug, but she still seemed motionless. A moment later she felt two hooves squeezing her tightly accompanied with the sound of soft, but noticeable sobs. Patting the pony’s back, she looked down sincerely and asked in a soft voice “What’s wrong?”

Sniffling, Fluttershy took a deep breath, as if what she was about to say was going to be more of a surprise to herself than to Twilight.

“She…left me…” Her voice was barely a whisper, and as soon as she finished she began crying again into a stunned Twilight. They broke up…?

But I thought they were going to be together for a long time… Was this my fault?

“Fluttershy, I’m so sorry,” Twilight replied sincerely, holding the pony closer to her. If this truly was her fault, then she had messed up worse than any other time in her life. Letting go of the thought, Twilight forwarded another question to the still sobbing mare “Want to tell me what happened?”

Pulling back, Fluttershy wiped her eyes of hot tears, only to have them replaced by new ones. Mustering all of her remaining strength she took a deep breath, and began to explain.

END

Aftershock

Chapter 13

Rainbow Dash flew as quickly as her wings would let her through the thick summer air, her tears following behind her every inch and second of the way. She didn’t know where she was going, what direction it was, or when she would even get there; she just knew that she had to get away, fast. Running wasn’t her style, but how could she just stay there and watch Fluttershy cry and beg until she was crying herself. Well, crying more heavily than she already was, that is. If she had stayed behind any longer it would’ve have just been that much harder for the cream colored Pegasus (and herself) to let go. Her route unclear and her flying jaded, the tears fogged up her vision and made it nearly impossible to fly. This was for the best, for the best, for the best… She continued to repeat it to herself, to try and make it stick in her mind.

Somehow no matter how many times she said it, the words never stuck, her mind didn’t agree with them, no matter how hard she tried. In fear of asking herself a question she dreaded she turned her focus to her route. Surprisingly enough she had managed to fly to the outskirts of Ponyville, and wasn’t too far from her house. She still did have the day off, she could just sit home and maybe cry into her pillow for the rest of the day or until she had no more tears left to cry. Or…. She could go into Ponyville and kick some certain ponies’ flanks, hard. The mare sighed, stopping in the middle of the sky, the afternoon sun warming her back nicely, a bittersweet sensation at the current moment. What good would that do… she had already severed the bond connecting her and Fluttershy, she wouldn’t be surprised if the mare hated her right now and never wanted to see her again. Kicking some random homophobe’s butt would be self-satisfying, but would probably only worsen things in the long run. So then, was she just supposed to choose the former? Cry like a little filly until she couldn’t cry anymore and then curl up into a little ball for the rest of the night? The question caused her to sigh again, looking downward as tears fell from her cheeks, disappearing as they fell to the ground below. ‘It would be so easy’ the mare thought ‘to just disappear with them… Flying and flying until…’ she stopped, the sudden somber turn her thoughts had taken snapping her back to reality. What in Celestia’s name was she thinking?! Suicide should never be the way out, it’s for cowards!

Then why does it feel like the only way out…

“Shut up… Shut up!” Rainbow silently barked at the dark thoughts in her head. Deciding that she had to get home before anypony saw her like this, she flew towards the general direction of her cloud house with great speed. No suicide for this athlete… not going to happen. Besides, it was just a harmless break up; she could bounce back from this as soon as possible. Hay, when she’s famous in a year or two she can have all the mares and stallions she wanted, and if anypony threw stones at her then she wouldn’t have to hesitate before sending their flanks straight to the concrete floor.

But I love Fluttershy… No stallion or mare could even come close to he-

“Shut up! It’s for the best!” Dash shouted out at the empty sky around her as more tears fell from her face. Even though she was a few inches away from her house now the thoughts seemed to only grow stronger, clawing at the walls of her mind like a persistent foal. They didn’t even cease when she landed in a heap on the front step, or when she staggered inside and found the nearest area to fall upon for comfort. Clamping her hooves to her head, she began to let her mind wonder. But of course, much to her displeasure, her brain wanted to think of nothing but the one pony she had just left. All of the fond moments, that night she slept over and held her so close that seemed like such a long time ago, all those times in the past when they were still friends and she wanted to say those three words so bad, but never did, all of them now crippled by one most likely foolish decision.

“If I turn around, even if she takes me back things still won’t work. The town is too homophobic, we can’t do it all in secret, it won’t work,” She muttered silently to herself “It’s for her sake just as much as it is for mine,”
Suddenly her stomach grumbled loudly at her, causing her to call a ceasefire to the war taking place between the verbal and silent parts of her mind. She got up from her couch where she had fallen earlier, stumbling into the kitchen as best as she could manage in her dazed and depressed state. The shiny marble reflected her image, allowing her to see what she looked like now that she was home. And it was a mess…

Her mane was untamed and scattered, the fur around her eyes were blotched and stained from tears, and her eyes red from crying. She looked like some filly that had been beaten up and left on a stray cloud for half the day. The image caused her knees to buckle, what was happening to her? She had only left Fluttershy an hour ago and already she looked like she had just witnessed a horrible ordeal. ‘I can’t let this destroy me that quickly’ she thought in silent determination as she softly brushed a few of her loose hairs back into place with her hoof. She had to pull through this, if she couldn’t do that then, what would happen to her? She could spiral down and down into a deep pit of depression until she wasn’t recognizable to her friends or even herself, and that was the last thing that she wanted to have happen. Remembering her original goal, she began rummaging the cabinets for food of any kind to satisfy her impatient stomach. Finding nothing she returned to the couch, disappointed and hungry with a plethora of emotions still running rampant through her head. Sniffling, she felt a tear at the edge of her eye, which she hastily wiped away.

“Come on Dash, you’re a star athlete, you’re the best, you don’t cry, you remain strong” She quietly muttered to herself in a desperate attempt to quell the rivers now brewing in her eyes. It was going to be hard, and she was going to cry; but that didn’t stop the mare from convincing herself that she would pull through. And maybe… maybe she could have Fluttershy back one day…

She broke and her eyes began to water greatly with the last saddening thought. She brought her hooves up to her face, weeping softly into them.

***

“Oh my,” Twilight said, suddenly short of breath as Fluttershy finished her retelling of the recent events. She held the pony closer as the silence was drained with more sobbing. She didn’t know what to make of it, how to act, what to say, or what she could even do. It was horrible, just down right cruel and horrible; and she didn’t do anything to prevent it… She knew something like this would happen, she knew that a good majority of Ponyville wouldn’t quite accept a homosexual pair with open arms like that.

“If only we lived in Canterlot,” the purple mare complained under her breath. Though things like same-sex marriage were still illegal in the capital city, most of the unicorns and ponies living there (apart from the stuck up wealthy ones) were very acceptant and tolerant of ponies of all kinds. She thought Ponyville would be the same, she thought the rest of Equestria would be the same, but she was wrong. ’It could always be that section of the town, not the whole place…’ the mare tried to convince herself. Regardless, something needed to be done, and it needed to be done now.

“Fluttershy?” Twilight called out softly to the mare she was holding. Fluttershy, her eyes red and blotchy, looked up in return “We’re going to fix this, alright?” Twilight looked to the mare with a serious expression. Rising from the ground she offered a hoof to the cream colored Pegasus. Fluttershy stared at her for a moment, as if she were having some sort of memory. The shy pony shook her head, gently lowering the hoof.

“It’s over Twilight… We can’t fix it…” Fluttershy replied in melancholic depression as she slowly got off of the ground “No one will ever accept it… and Dash is already gone who knows where”

Twilight stared in utter disbelief at the mare; she thought the answer would be an instantaneous yes. Sighing, she chose her next words carefully “Don’t you see Fluttershy? You and Dash need each other! At first I thought you guys dating would rip our group apart, but it’s actually going to stop that from happening!”

“I’m confused Twilight,” Fluttershy said as she cocked her head in curiosity “How will it save our group? None of the other girls even know that we’ve broken up yet,”

“Because, if you two are apart, then we all are; you see, I was originally coming here to apologize for what I did, you guys love each other, and you’re happy together!” Twilight emphasized, as if it should be obvious. Fluttershy merely shook her head, staring to the ground as more tears escaped her eyes. Twilight, in realization that she had said something to upset the mare, moved forward in an attempt to comfort her. Fluttershy took a step back, looking at Twilight with teary eyes.

“Twilight… she left me, she said it was best that way… she won’t take me back” The shy pony said in between soft sobs. Twilight lowered her ears in disappointment, turning away and beginning to make an exit. Before stepping beyond the very same threshold of trees she had passed not a moment ago, she turned back to the mare and whispered ‘I’m sorry’.

***

“What?!” Applejack nearly yelled as she stared at her purple messenger in disbelief as the sun set behind them at The Leafy Salad “What do yah mean they broke up?”

Rarity also jumped forward, giving an even more shocked look at the purple mare. The third guest present, Pinkie Pie, just sat there, a sad look on her face as she stared at the table in front of her. Her mane was flat…

“After… After what happened here at this restaurant Rainbow followed Fluttershy home, and there she decided it would be best for both of them if they broke up. That’s when I got there, Fluttershy told me what happened but she didn’t seem to want to fix it, she seemed to have it set in her mind that there was nothing we could do,” Twilight explained with a somber tone of voice as she looked from pony to pony.

“Ah say we go and show those ponies what’s for!” Applejack exclaimed, fiery passion burning in her voice.

“Being a lady of fine elegance, such ruffian behavior is usually out of my derestriction. But… I. WILL. KILL. THEM,” Rarity finished, the anger in her tone making no attempt to hide itself as she pounded a hoof on the table in rage. All the while, Pinkie Pie just sat there, still staring at the table as if she were too deep in thought to notice anything but it.

“No, as much as I agree, oh and I agree, we need to go about this a different way. Fluttershy and Dash need each other; we all know that, we can take care of the other ponies later,” Twilight explained. Rarity and Applejack simultaneously gave the mare puzzled looks.

“And how are we supposed to get them back together with the way they are?” Rarity asked curiously. Both mares were leaning in so closely to Twilight now the unicorn could swear she could smell their breath. Twilight leaned back with a smile of determination creeping upon her face that thoroughly confused her two friends.
“I have a plan,”

***

Twilight cautiously approached the outside of the home resting on top of the massive cloud above her head; she turned around, making sure her slow-moving companion had caught up with her before she enacted the next part of her plan. She only had one shot with this, and if she played her cards right just maybe she could fix things after all. But of course, she had no idea how Dash was going to be; for all the purple mare knows Dash could be faking happiness, crying her eyes out, punching holes in her walls, or the flier may not even be home at the moment. Regardless, anything helpful at this point was worth a try…right?

Staring up at the massive structure, Twilight contemplated how she was going to herself and a melancholic, barely-moving Pinkie Pie up onto a cloud home without hurting anything. Her answer came the next moment when the mare they were looking for came out onto her front steps, and stared down below soullessly. When the flier’s eyes locked upon Twilight’s, she instantly shook her head, trying frantically to improve the mess that had become her face before greeting company.

“Dash,” Twilight called out in a semi-concerned tone. The blue Pegasus stared down, looking at her as if she had just notice her existence.

“Oh, h-hi Twilight and… Pinkie Pie, W-what’s up with you guys?” Rainbow asked in her usual care-free voice as if nothing was out of the ordinary. However, the visible sweat and tears coming down her face betrayed her non-chalant façade. This behavior only served to increase the unicorn’s worry for her friend. Pinkie Pie, still staring sadly at the ground had no reaction, no movement, nothing.

“Can you come down to talk?” Twilight asked as she looked up at her friend with sincere concern. Rainbow Dash, becoming more frantic as she rushed to make herself look as normal as she could be before leaning back over the edge and jumping off, coming to a slop-ish landing on the ground below.

“Uh, sure Twi, what do you need,” The blue mare said in between sniffles. Twilight, glancing over at a still unaltered Pinkie Pie took a step forward, and pulled the Dash into a tight hug. Being caught by surprise, Dash hugged back softly, almost wanting to ball her eyes out and confess everything to the mare. She held her tongue though, and waited for what was going to happen next. After a moment, the two ponies parted, and Dash was meant with a look of deep sympathy from Twilight as she began to speak.

“We know what happened… The break-up and all, and we want to help fix it,” Twilight said in earnest. Dash’s eyes widened in fear, her friends already knew, and what was worse was they wanted to try and undo it? What good what that do?! They’d just end up in the same scenario again, but worse!

“Dash…?” Twilight’s voice brought the Pegasus back to reality, and her mind quickly jumped into what to do next to avoid the subject and what could come from it at all costs. Looking straight into the unicorn’s eyes, she straightened out her look and took a deep breath.

“I’m sorry Twi’… but it’s over, there’s no fixing it and you shouldn’t waste your time trying,” The blue mare answered with a serious tone, not moving her gaze from the Twilight’s for a second. Twilight stared at her with the same amount of confusion she did at Fluttershy. Why not fix it?! They love each other!

“But Dash,”

“No buts Twilight, my mind’s made up,” Dash restated seriously, trying her best not to let the emotional part of her mind scream out a ‘yes’ for help “Now, I need to go back home, I’m busy right now,”

“Busy doing what?” Twilight asked in deep worry. Dash looked away towards her cloud home; her emotional escape just a burst of wing power and a few feet of flight away. As she was about to take off, she heard another voice, a more quiet and sad voice that almost resembled Fluttershy’s. She whirled around to see the owner of the voice, only to be met with a horrible-looking Pinkie Pie.

“Dash… This is all my fault, you have to let us help,” the pink mare pleaded with her watery eyes nearly bulging out of their sockets. In any other circumstance the answer would have been a resounding yes to the pink pony, but…

I have to let them help

“No I don’t!” Dash hissed to herself under her breath, earning her a weird stare from her two visitors.

“Please?” Pinkie’s sad and quiet voiced chimed into her ears again, making the flier more and more anxious by the second. Sweat beaded more ferociously down her brow as her eyes welled up with hot tears again. She had to get out of there; she had to go where they couldn’t see her cry, where they couldn’t see her break down. Her eyes darting from pony to pony in front of her, she began to back away.

“I’m sorry… I just can’t…” Dash stammered out before taking to the sky, flying as quickly as she could into her home and
slamming the door behind her.

“Rainbow!” Twilight frantically called out, already feeling disappointed with herself for failing. That was one pony failed, and
she was pretty sure the other one wouldn’t be a resounding success either. But they couldn’t just give up! Her ears down and failure weighing heavily on her shoulders, Twilight turned around solemnly and headed back towards town, Pinkie
following slowly behind.

***

The whole cottage was pitch black, and only a few lights remained on for necessary sight. Fluttershy had seen to it, she ran around one last time checking that every blind, drape, window, and possible peak hole was covered and locked. No one could see in, and she couldn’t see out; just what she needed. Now alone and hidden from the world apart from the animals fast asleep inside their homes, the mare quickly retreated to her couch, and without bothering to even properly sit on it, began to cry. Hot tears ran down her eyes as soon as she allowed them to, and within seconds the area around her became a soaking mess. She continued to cry, pounding on her couch with her hoof in distraught, disturbing some of the nearby animals from their slumber. Why did it have to happen to her? She lets her heart open to somepony close to her, and within less than a week it’s crushed and destroyed. The mare didn’t even know who to blame anymore; should she blame Rainbow Dash for leaving her so suddenly, should she blame the terrible, terrible ponies at the restaurant that scorned and shunned them, or was it her own fault, for even luring Dash for a day out in the first place? Regardless of all three options being viable, it wasn’t in her nature to hold a grudge on anypony, she just couldn’t bear to. And if there was no one to blame and no one to go to…

“What do I do?” Fluttershy questioned aloud. She had never felt love before, at least not love as pure as what she had felt; nothing could compare to it, not even the magic of friendship held a candle to the heart-racing, mind fogging, breath taking sensation that she shared with Dash. But she had also never experienced the soul shattering emptiness of losing that very feeling, and the pony she shared it with. Was crying her only solution now? Her only escape? The emotions that raced into her mind and heart the moment that sentence filled with so much pain came out of Dash’s mouth still hadn’t ceased, and were only growing stronger as time went on. Maybe she should just live out her days in almost absolute solitude; away from the ponies she thought acceptant who now judge her. She wouldn’t be surprised if the news that she was a “Filly Fooler” had spread over all of Equestria by now. In every newspaper, every headline: ‘Extra, Extra! The Element of Kindness likes Mares?!’. The very idea made the Pegasus shudder violently, what if that had already happened? Then she could never leave her house again! She began to cry more into the couch cushion, wishing for someone to help her, somepony to come along and tell her it’s alright. Sighing, the mare silently admitted to herself that only one pony could do that for her; and that pony had already flown away followed by a mess of tears and a bright rainbow streak.

A sudden knock on the door derailed her train of thought, and sent her mind into immediate panic. What if those cruel ponies had tracked her down and found where she lived?! Or, what if it was the press, wanting to squeeze every morsel of her once private sexuality out of her to release to the world? Slowly rising from her couch, the mare hastily rubbed the visible tears out of her eyes and took a deep breath, cautiously approaching the door. She had already covered the peep hole, rendering any way of finding out who was at the door useless. She coughed, and rubbed the last few tears out of her eyes before softly answering.

“Hello? W-who is it?” She spoke in a forced voice that barely contained her pain and emotions.

“It’s us Fluttershy, we mean no harm,” A kind and familiar voice answered. Fluttershy shakily raised a hoof to the latch and
unhitched it, opening the door just enough to peak through. Sure enough, her suspicions were correct; standing outside on her doorstep was Applejack and Rarity, both sharing the same expression of deep worry and anxiety. “Please let us in Sugarcube,” Her orange coated friend pleaded, gently resting a hoof on the door as to not push, but to gently prod the grasp Fluttershy held on it. Very cautiously, the Pegasus slowly opened the rest of the door, and took a step forward to face her two friends.

“Darling, we’re ever so sorry about the terrible fate that has befallen you and our Dash,” Rarity apologized sympathetically. At the mention of her ex-mate’s name, Fluttershy could feel her heart sting a little. Rarity took a step forward into the home, but Fluttershy counter stepped her, blocking the white unicorn’s path. She couldn’t let them in; they would only make things worse. She regretted ever even answering the door in the first place. But she had, and she was under pressure now to let them help as she was sure they’d offer to. She hated denying her friends, but the mare just couldn’t handle seeing or talking about Dash right now, not after what happened.

“Please let us help,” Applejack pleaded once more, causing Fluttershy to become more nervous and pressured than she already had been, her heart racing at a mile a minute. It was so tempting, just to break down and admit everything, admit that she still did want Dash back, that she wanted help. It was for the best though, and that alone was the only reason she held back. Dash may have been right, it was apparent that barely anypony would accept their love after what happened earlier. She welled up at the thought, and tears once again began to stream down her eyes. Applejack reached forward to comfort the mare, but Fluttershy took a step back swiftly.

“I’m sorry, I can’t,” She uttered softly in the middle of her tears. She backed away further, shutting the door quickly and collapsing against it.

“But Fluttershy!” Applejack called out, banging on the door desperately, only causing more tears to stream down the Pegasus’s face. Rarity gently laid a hoof on the farmpony’s shoulder, signaling for them to leave. Reluctant to accept such a quick defeat, Applejack tried again to knock, calling out louder for the mare. A moment passed and she sighed in defeat; she pulled herself away from the door, and turned around with Rarity in a dreadful stride away from the cottage, leaving a crying and broken Fluttershy leaning against the door.

***

Twilight nearly broke her door as she opened it in a fit of defeated anger and frustration towards so many things. She knew it would happen, she just knew it; but it was too late now, unless Applejack and Rarity had managed to get through to
Fluttershy nothing would change, and the whole group could very well collapse over the entire situation in due time. Her worst fear would be coming true and she couldn’t do anything to stop it!

Stomping around the library while a still distraught Pinkie Pie sat solemnly in a corner, the mare looked around for anything in her home that could help. Even something as simple as a cup of tea to calm her nerves would be substantial at the moment. Alas, nothing of use was found, there was nothing she could do! Sighing, she fell against bark wall of the tree and stared at the opposite side. Why in the name of Celestia did those dumb bigot ponies have to be so rude and mean!? They had no right treading on Fluttershy and Rainbow Dash like they had! It was none of their business and yet they had the gall to call names and throw stones like… like… like they were a couple of freaks! Twilight’s disappointment faded quickly, and was soon replaced by a boiling anger as more vicious thoughts clouded her mind. It was their fault, all of those ponies in Ponyville with nothing better to do than hate! She was so angry she just wanted to hit something, hard; punch a hole in the wall, kick a window out, rip a doll apart. Fluttershy and Rainbow had done nothing wrong! Yet, they were treated like they were from the bucking moon!

A sudden knock on the door took the mare’s attention away from her growing temper for a moment. Getting up, she hurried to the door and looked through the peep hole. She then ripped threw it open as if her life depended on it.

“How did it go?” Twilight question impatiently as Rarity and Applejack stood sadly in the door way. Her heart sank; she could tell what they were going to say even before their mouths moved. Sighing, the unicorn relaxed her grip on the door and half-heartedly invited them in. Once they were all gathered in the library, an intense and sad silence heavily weighed upon their shoulders. It failed, the two ponies though obviously still in loved seemed determined to stay apart for the better.

“This is your fault Twilight,” Rarity spat viciously, earning a surprised stare from the lavender unicorn.

“How is it my fault?!”

“You and your stupid want to rip them apart in the first place. But, you didn’t stop there. You ran away from apologizing, and by the time you feel your guilty conscious telling you what’s right it was too late. And your stupid plan! What was talking to them supposed to do! Now they’re even more sure than before about staying separated!” Rarity’s voice went from calm anger to boiling fury within a blink of an eye as the rest of the ponies watched in stunned silence.

“At least I was trying to do something about the situation!” Twilight retorted, anger brewing in her own tone.

“Oh and we weren’t?! In fact, if I remember correctly you barely gave us a chance to react before you sprang your flawed idea!” Rarity moved from her position by the fire, stepping closer to the mare. Twilight stepped forward in return, putting herself in closer proximity with her target.

“What else was there to do?!It wasn’t like we could’ve just forced them out of their homes and locked them in a room together until something happened!” Twilight screamed.

“Yes we could have! In fact, it would have been better than what you had us do!” Rarity raged back, now barely inches away from the purple mare’s muzzle.

“Girls!” Applejack broke in, splitting the two ponies apart forcefully “Arguing ain’t going to fix any of our problems,”
Twilight and Rarity backed down, letting go of their grudge match almost as quickly as it started with a ‘sorry’ from each. Now with the library calm again, another awkward silence enveloped all the inhabitants. All of them in deep thought over what to do next, but none coming up with a single coherent idea. A minute passed, and then an hour. Occasionally one would rise quietly to grab a glass of water or to use the rest room, but no one spoke. Finally, after what seemed to be an eternity Pinkie Pie broke the ice.

“What do we do? We can’t possibly let them stay like this,” The pink mare said sorrowfully “You saw how Dashie was acting, right Twi?”

The whole room’s attention turned to focus on Twilight, who was sitting against the bark wall of the house again and staring at the floor gloomily.

“What can we do Pinkie? They obviously don’t want our help,”

“Throw them a party?” The baker suggested hopefully. A shake of the head from Twilight quickly gave her the answer.

“We’ll just have to wait it out,” Applejack stated calmly, averting her eyes from anypony else in the room.

“But what if it never gets fixed?” Rarity dreadfully speculated “What if they don’t even become friends again? What shall we do then?”

“Don’t say that Rarity. That will never happen, we’re all going to be friends for life,” Twilight tried to sound reassuring, but a tear in the corner of her eye betrayed the act.

“Don’t worry Twilight, I’m sure within due time those two silly fillies will be kissing like nopony’s business,” Applejack said with a smile as she sniffled lightly.

“But… what about Spike? He won’t understand any of this, how do we tell him what’s going on?” Twilight questioned, her voice full of worry. All the ponies in the room turned their head to the upstairs area, where a still asleep Spike lay peacefully cuddled up in his blanket, oblivious to the situation.

“We don’t,” Rarity stated stoically.

“But…” Twilight started before being cut off again.

“Listen Twilight, Spike rarely spends much time around Fluttershy or Rainbow Dash; He’s mainly infatuated with me or around you. As long as we keep him away from the heat of it all, it’ll be alright,”

“What if he finds out though?”

“He won’t find out, don’t worry” Rarity reassured kindly. Twilight returned a smile, and gazed from pony to pony in the room. Even during the most horrid situation that could befall them, the majority of her friends had managed to stick together, and have yet to rip apart. Though uncertain whether they will or not, the fact makes Twilight happier about the current circumstances. Wiping the tears from her eyes, the mare looks to all her friends, mouthing a grateful ‘Thank You’

END

Unfamiliar Feelings(New)

Chapter 2

It was a peaceful and warm morning as the sun began to rise of the horizon, overthrowing Luna’s moon and bringing forth a new day. Critters began to creep out of their habitat, rubbing the sleep out of their tiny eyes before going about their regular routine. Birds started chirping in the trees, flying out to fetch breakfast for their fledglings; Squirrels crawled out of the trees as well, in search of food for the morning.

Rainbow Dash slowly awoke to all of these new noises, grunting lightly as she did. She slowly lifted her sleepy head and yawned, stretching out and moaning in frustration. She wasn’t a morning pony, never had been one. As such, it was quite weird for her to be awake that this time of morning, when she would usually take time to sleep in. But as soon as her eyes fell upon who she had woken up next to, all of those small little problems seemed to fade away. The blue Pegasus smiled lightly as she looked at her still sleeping friend, who was looking as peaceful as ever on the forest floor. The memories of the night before began to flood back into her mind as if somepony had just opened a valve, letting the contents out. But she didn’t panic; instead the memories only served to increase her smile as a blush soon joined it. Last night had been something alright, defiantly a night to remember in her book.

“She looks so perfect when she’s sleeping, like an angel,” Dash whispered to herself, bending down to lightly brush her friend’s mane. Her friend shook a little bit in disturbance, but quickly settled back into sleeping, a kind smile plastered upon her face. Rainbow Dash decided she wouldn’t wake the sleeping pony just yet; she instead got up, stretching out more before walking to a nearby tree, sitting down and leaning against it.

Wow, what a night; she still couldn’t believe it had happened; it would easily go down in history as the best moment of her life. She could still remember how the kiss felt; it was as if she had done a Sonic Rainboom and flew for miles, an exhilarating moment like no other. It had felt so… right. She would have given up a chance to get into the Wonderbolts if it meant she could relive that moment again. But she wasn’t sure that she’d be able to. What if Fluttershy woke up and started freaking out about what had happened, like she instantly regretted her choice? Dash sighed lightly to herself, maybe it was a bad decision to take things in the direction she had taken them last night. What if her friend was just trying to be nice and she took advantage of her? Her eyes trailed off to the nature around her as she felt a cool breeze brushing against her coat. She wasn’t really a nature freak like her animal loving friend was, but, she had to admit, this clearing was beautiful. It seemed like just the right condition for relaxation, and since it was within the outskirts of the forest, danger was rarely ever a problem. The mare couldn’t help but feel that she’d maybe come here for a nap or two in the future, should she ever feel like sleeping on the ground instead of a cloud again. Dash laughed at the thought as her eyes trailed back to the sleeping pony in front of her. A small smile found its way onto her face through all of the worry once more. Setting consequences aside, what more could she ask for? She had gotten to spend an amazing night with the mare of her dreams; kissing and hugging each other close under the twinkling stars, it was heaven. And in her opinion, it was a night she would cherish for the rest of her life.

Eventually, Fluttershy did awake, rising her tired figure and yawning softly. She slowly shook her mane and flexed her wings, stretching out her body. After she fully came to, she looked at the space around her, she was in her clearing. What was odd about that to the mare was that she never fell asleep in her clearing, even though she was in the presumed safe area of the forest, the element of danger was still real to her, and she never cared to spend the night in it, even if she was only in the outskirts. Another odd thing that she found was that the top of her head and nearly her whole back felt strangely warm, more so than usual; it felt as if somepony had been sleeping on...

Fluttershy shook her head when the memory came back to her, greeting her like an un-welcomed guest. She grunted, rubbing the crumbs sleep have dusted over her eyes with her hooves before hauling herself off the ground, stretching out her body in a mess of cracking. ‘Note to self, don’t fall asleep with somepony lying on top of your back again’ the mare thought to herself as she finished stretching. Contrary to her belief, she barely felt as regretful of the night before as she as she thought she would’ve been; in fact, she didn’t even feel regretful at all. Instead, she felt genuinely excited about the events of the night before. She got to experience such a wonderful night, one unlike anything she had ever felt before. The close holding, the kissing, it was all such a rush! And what’s more, for some reason she began to feel something a bit deeper than friendship towards the pony she shared it with. It was amazing, stupendous! It felt like something had awakened inside of her, some sort of odd, foreign feeling, and it was riveting throughout her entire body, echoing through every last part of it. She couldn’t help but wonder if Rainbow Dash felt the same way about it.

‘Speaking Of…’ The shy pony thought to herself as she looked around the area where she was laying. There was no pony next to her or anywhere near where she had awoken; had Dash decided to leave before she woke up? She began to frantically look around, eventually turning to be met with her answer. She giggled, blushing vibrantly like a little school filly as her eyes came across the very pony she was searching for.

“Hey Fluttershy,” the flier said with a sly smile. Fluttershy’s blush instantly increased as she looked off to the side. This caused Rainbow Dash to stifle a laugh as she leaned forward from the tree. The shy mare coughed abruptly and shook out her mane, doing her best to look at her friend without blushing heavily, being met with little success.

“S-s-s-sorry for looking frantic t-there,” Fluttershy apologized shyly, her voice trailing off towards the end of her sentence. Rainbow Dash laughed lightly, smiling as she got up. She calmly walked towards her friend, giving her a light nuzzle for reassurance.

“No need to worry about it, it was actually pretty cute,” Rainbow said softly, a light smile on her face. Fluttershy blushed even more, looking around for somewhere to hide her surely red face. She blushed even more when she remembered where she had hid it the night before. ‘It’s as good of a place as any, at least it’s warm...’ the mare convinced herself, she took a plunge towards the sky-blue Pegasus, burying her face in its neck. Dash smiled, not complaining what so ever about the sudden movement; after all, it gave her an excuse to have Fluttershy that much closer to her. She instead moved in, giving a light nuzzle on the shy Pegasus’s forehead. Fluttershy gasped quietly as she felt her friend’s warm muzzle brushing against her forehead. She sighed, breathing out in relaxation as she closed her eyes, enjoying the warm sensation. Easing out of her hiding spot, she moved her head up and looked nervously at Dash, who gave a kind smile back to her. A warm feeling immediately overtook her, she had never felt this way before about anything or anypony. It was new, and it only served to increase the one she felt before. They were like shockwaves were running over her entire body, she could feel herself start to tingle, and she enjoyed it. Was this the heart pounding feeling Rainbow Dash mentioned before? She seemed to be locked in a deep gaze with her best friend for what seemed like forever, unable to shift her eyes to any other area.

Rainbow’s eyes lowered into a peaceful gaze as she pressed her forehead against the pink-maned pony. Fluttershy could feel her heart rapidly beating, though her eyes were not as calmed and relaxed as her friend’s. In fact, they were bulging in surprise, everything felt right, but she knew it was wrong. It felt like her heart was going to burst out of her chest at the rate it was pounding. Her wings involuntarily spread out as she felt the warm feeling surge through her very core once again.

Dash leaned forward, pressing her muzzle against hers. The yellow mare’s eyes popped open in surprise, but quickly settle behind her closing eyelids and she returned it, wasting no time doing so. Animals all around stopped their activities to watch the two ponies, staring in amazement. None of them quite understood what it was they were doing, or what it was that they were feeling. But they could sense it was something magical, none the less. The kiss lasted for a long time before both Fluttershy and Rainbow Dash pulled back, both blushing deeply.

“I can’t wait to tell the other ponies about this,” The caretaker said in excitement “They’ll be so excited to hear!” As she heard the words, Rainbow Dash cringed up in fear of the thought of her friends finding out. If they did, they might not accept it, they might shun them for it. What’s worse, they could drive a wedge between them, before it could go any further! She couldn’t allow that, she wouldn’t allow that!

“No, no, no, no, no, no! They can’t know of this, Fluttershy!” Rainbow Dash could feel her voice rising a bit as she said the words in urgency.

“But, why not Dashie?” The shy mare asked in curiously. It had her confused, what could possibly go wrong with telling their friends about their possible new-found love?

“You know as well as I do they wont accept it, they won’t allow it, we can’t tell anyone about it, not even the rest of our friends!” Rainbow could feel herself yelling now, urgency crawling in her voice like a swarm of parasprites; each one adding more and more volume to the tone. Fluttershy cringed upon hearing the sudden rise in her friend’s voice. She didn’t understand her logic, why would their friends not accept it?! They were their friends; they would accept anything about them, no matter how ‘terrible’ it was.

“B-But they’re our friends Dashie, we have to tell them, they won’t judge us,” Fluttershy insisted, her voice squeaking a bit. She sighed heavily; arguing, her one kryptonite.

“Please Fluttershy, you don’t understand, we have to keep this between us,” Rainbow said, lowering her voice to a softer tone while looking at the shy mare with pleading eyes. Fluttershy sighed, lightly nodding, she didn’t want to keep it a secret from their friends, but she obliged. Dash did have a point after all; there was the chance that their friends wouldn’t accept, even if it was a very miniscule one.

“H-How will we hide it from them?” Fluttershy asked reluctantly, her voice hinting that she did not want to keep it a secret in the slightest.

“We’ll only do this when we’re alone, away from anypony’s prying eyes; I’m sorry, but this is how it has to be,” Rainbow replied carefully, the urgency in her tone lowering. Fluttershy nodded, telling her that she understood “But….on a lighter note…” Rainbow continued softly

“Y-yes Dashie?” Fluttershy inquired, looking up with a curious face.

“Waking up next to you was just about the best thing in Equestria this morning,” The blue pony said smiling. Fluttershy looked away blushing brighter than ever.

“You really mean it?” The mare mumbled shyly while pawing at the ground. Rainbow Dash moved in and rested her chin on Fluttershy’s head.

“Of course I do…” The rainbow maned Pegasus whispered lightly in her ear.

***

“La La La Laaa Laaaa La La La Laaa Laaaa,” Fluttershy’s beautiful humming echoed throughout her garden as she flew around from animal habitat to animal habitat, depositing food and water at each one. This was one of the favorite parts of her day, when she got to see all of her little animal friends and tend to their needs. And today, she seemed particularly happier than she usually was when she did it. Her hums’ were louder, her smile was brighter, and overall, she felt genuinely excited. Maybe her interactions with Dash the past night had some sort of effect on her? Fluttershy shrugged, brushing it off as she continued feeding her animals; even if it had, it probably wasn’t important to think about now, especially with how tired she was. After finishing her rounds she floated down to the stone pathway outside of her home. Walking into her house, she shut the door calmly behind her and took a sigh of relief. She was done with her chores for now; at least until she had to feed her critters again come night time.

Fluttershy yawned heavily, rubbing the sleep out of the corners of her eyes. She looked around her humble abode, searching for someplace comfortable to nap on. She figured she needed the rest, but she didn’t want to fall asleep somewhere too comfortable, lest she sleep for hours. Her eyes lazily drifted from spot to spot, the sunlight streaming in from her window illuminating each one making it seem as if she were a show contestant picking out her ‘grand prize’. Fluttershy giggled to herself at the thought, she was never one to compete in anything; even if she did the chances of her actually ‘winning’ something were probably less than imaginable in her opinion. Finally, her eyes rested upon a particular spot, her throw pillow. The pillow was lying neatly on her couch, the light showcasing its fancy embroidering and drawing attention to the shinning logo on front, an outline of a mare with a pink, flowing mane.

“Oh Rarity,” Fluttershy mumbled to herself jokingly “You’re always so obsessive with such the smallest things,” She continued quietly as she made her way to the throw pillow, lying herself down snuggly upon it. It was just the right size for her, and it was so soft and felt so nice to lie on. She could almost hear Rarity talking to her in her head: But darling, your couch was ever so rough, I simply couldn’t just let it stay that way! You simply needed some sort of Décor!

Fluttershy nearly bursted out into laughter at the imaginary Rarity in her head, her imagination had managed to craft a near carbon copy of her friend for the moment. She smiled, laying her head down on the pillow and closing her eyes before slowing drifting off to sleep.

***

Rainbow Dash moved from cloud to cloud, kicking each one in and grunting as she did so. She stopped for a moment, catching her breath as she leaned on a soft and squishy cumulus cloud and wiped the sweat off of her brow. After a few moments, she was back in action, the sun beaming against her coat as she opened more areas for it to spread its warm and glistening light through. She stopped at the last cloud, rearing up her hind legs and pushing back with all of her might. The cloud vanished into thin air with a light pop, leaving behind a bit of water vapor.

Dash stopped once more, breathing almost as heavily as she usually would after intense trick practice. She looked around at the area she was stationed in, admiring her handiwork. ‘Clear skies in ten seconds flat, as always’ the mare thought smugly to herself as a prideful smile crossed her face. Suddenly, out of nowhere an abrupt yawn escaped from her mouth as she instinctively put a hoof over it to cover the noise. She brought both hooves up to her face, gently rubbing the sleep out of her eyes. Looking over her shoulder the sun told her all she needed to know; it was going to be dark soon, and she would need to catch some shut eye. She yawned once more, examining the area lit by the setting sun with restless eyes. Something wasn’t right; she tapped her hoof to her chin, turning around as if she were looking for someone. A fellow weather Pegasus assigned to the same area as her flew by, searching for patches of ice to melt. The blue Pegasus pulled her tired self together, flying on over and cutting the weather Pegasus off. The Pegasus, wearing tan weather goggles, had a bright yellow coat that reminded her of Fluttershy’s, except brighter. When Dash stopped her, the weather Pegasus gave her a look of indignation, as if she had somehow interrupted something important.

“What do you want, RD? I’m kind of in the middle of something here,” the Pegasus asked impatiently, tapping her hind leg on the air below like it was some sort of solid surface to express her irritation upon. The rainbow maned pony jumped at her question, awkwardly scratching the back of her mane like she hadn’t been expecting it through her haze.

“Sorry, Raindrops, I just had a quick question,” Rainbow Dash replied, sounding apologetic. The Pegasus grunted, facehooving in frustration before turning her attention back to the mare.

“Make it fast,” the yellow coated mare said impatiently. Dash stared at her with narrowed eyes. Her stare was returned with one equally as angry.

“Look, Drops’,” Rainbow started, cutting herself off before sighing in tiredness “Just tell me if you’ve seen my napping cloud,”

“Oh, that thing? Yeah, some other Pegasus kicked it in already, sorry,” Raindrops answered in sarcastically. Afterwards, the mare flew past her, soaring down towards a nearby patch of ice. Rainbow Dash grunted in defeated frustration, where was she supposed to sleep now? She didn’t feel like going back to her house, having been working all day, and all of the clouds in a five mile radius were destroyed. She looked to the setting sun again, it had nearly dropped all the way behind the western horizon now; it was getting late, and she had relatively nowhere to sleep. ‘There may be one place…’ the mare thought to herself in realization. She gathered her self together, rubbing the sleep out of her eyes and shaking her mane out before heading off the direction opposite of her post.

***

Knock, knock, knock. Rainbow Dash grunted, still no response from the other side of the door. She stood outside Fluttershy’s cottage, the cool breeze of the near approaching night rustling against her coat and mane. She stomped her hoof on the stone ground in frustration, knocking three more times on the wooden door. After waiting awhile, she sighed in frustrated defeat. She put her ear up against the door, the cold wood making her shiver lightly as she listened intently. No sound coming from within, had she even disturbed Fluttershy’s slumber at all? For that matter, was Fluttershy even in the house? For all she knew her shy friend could be off doing Celestia-Knows-What and she might have just wasted the past fifteen minutes of her life, not including the ten minute fly over to the cottage!

Dash sighed, flying up into the air and moving around the cottage. All the windows were closed and had the drapes shut. The flier sighed once more, nearly giving up and searching for some stray cloud that didn’t get cleared by some miracle to sleep upon when something caught her attention. A window on the second floor of the cottage had been left open. She smiled; rubbing her hooves together in glee as she flew threw, easing herself through the window in an attempt not to make noise.
Once inside, she closed the window behind her and examined her surroundings. She had found herself within Fluttershy’s bedroom, but her yellow friend wasn’t on the bed. ‘Great, she wasn’t here’ Dash thought in frustration to herself. She looked out of the window behind her, staring at the darkened sky with anger. She couldn’t necessarily just go back outside and fly all the way back to her home, and there probably wasn’t a cloud for miles! She sighed, opening Fluttershy’s bedroom door and quietly trotting down the stairs, just in case.

When she reached the foot of the stairs, she was instantly met with her explanation as to why the door hadn’t been answered. Her yellow friend lay fast asleep upon a throw pillow on her couch, her light snoring audible all the way across the other side of the dead silent room. Rainbow Dash giggled lightly at the sight, covering her mouth with her hoof as she smiled. There was just something about the way her friend was sleeping so quietly, it just seemed so adorable. She shook her head vigorously, attempting to snap out of her ‘mushy’ thoughts. She yawned, glancing out the nearby window; it was pitch black outside now, and she was way too tired to bother and fly home. Besides, one of her ‘closest’ friends was here; she couldn’t let that opportunity go to waste. She walked over slowly with a mischievous smile on her face, so to not disturb her sleeping companion. She leveled herself up gradually, taking a seat on the couch adjacent to Fluttershy, making sure to keep her distance, for now.

“Ouch, this thing is way too rough, why does Fluttershy even keep it around?” She inquired in quiet irritation as she got up off the couch and looked around for some surface softer for her to lie on. She didn’t want to be picky like Rarity, but when it came to where she slept, she only used the softest areas. She had been too spoiled by sleeping on clouds to go to a rough area like that couch. She allowed her eyes to wonder around the room, searching for a suitable area. Sadly, the only thing that seemed comfier than the sandpaper feeling couch was the wooden floor. Well, that and one other thing…

Rainbow Dash did a double take at it; the throw pillow had just enough room left for her to squeeze her body onto it. She would be pretty close to Fluttershy, their bodies as close as two bodies could get. Her heart pounded at the idea as a small but noticeable blush came across her face. She slowly trotted over, feeling the soft, silky cover of the pillow with a hoof. She then retracted, as if it were some sort of forbidden fruit.

“I…I shouldn’t,” She muttered quietly, forcing herself to back away. She couldn’t stop herself for continuously looking back to the pillow, it was so soft… and its empty spot was right next to the very mare she felt for. She looked around nervously, fruitlessly attempting to distract herself from the tempting opportunity. She gulped, shaking out her mane and approaching the pillow once more with caution.

“I hope she doesn’t mind…” The mare whispered under her breath as she rested softly upon the pillow, attempting to keep as much space as possible between her and the mare next to her, which wasn’t very much at all. After slipping off several times and even falling onto the floor once it clearly became evident to the blue Pegasus; if she wanted to lay on a soft surface, she’d have to get a bit closer than she’d know a certain mare may like.

Sighing heavily, Dash lowered herself on the pillow once more, barely fitting upon the short space she had. She blushed instantly when she felt warm fur brushing against her side and looked over. Fluttershy was still fast asleep, thankfully, but had taken to unconsciously changing her position. Her hoof was now draped upon Dash’s neck, weakly squeezing it as if it were some sort of stuffed toy; her head was rested upon the flier’s hooves, every once and awhile unintentionally nuzzling them lightly when she got more comfortable. The Rainbow-Maned pony blushed more intensely, taking a deep breath and holding it, her heart-beat echoing throughout her ears. If it was hard to stay calm beforehoof now it was damn near impossible. She couldn’t help it, whenever she felt her friend’s warm coat brushing ever so softly against hers, whenever she felt a tickle on her hooves that signified Fluttershy had nuzzled them once more, or whenever she was unintentionally pulled closer by the mare, her heart rate rose exponentially. But she wasn’t complaining, in fact, she felt quite the opposite about her current ‘predicament’. She smiled, closing her eyes and exhaling slowly, wishing the moment would last for another thousand years.

Then it was all ruined…

Fluttershy yawned lightly, shifting her body into a more comfortable position. And in the process of doing so, knocking Dash off of the pillow. The unexpecting mare yelped in surprise, instantly flying up into the air like something had just attacked her, settling down shortly after. But it was too late; the damage had already been done as she looked upon her awakening friend. The yellow mare yawned, chapping her lips together and rubbing the dust out of her eyes. She looked around in confusion, searching for what had caused her disturbance. She flew up in surprise as soon as she found the source, a certain Blue-Coated pony attempting now to look the other way with a blush on her face.

“Dash! When did you get here?!” Fluttershy stammered out as she continued to stare at her friend, keeping her eyes fixed on the mare. Dash blushed heavily, still looking away as she struggled to come up with some sort of believable excuse. Sadly, there weren’t that many good excuses as to why she had snuck into her best friend’s house, purposefully laid down on the same pillow as she had, and didn’t stop or wake her when she unconsciously nuzzled her. The blue pony sighed, taking in a deep breath before turning to face the surprised pony in front of her.

“I…um…I couldn’t find any clouds to sleep on…and…um… Your house seemed to be nearby and I didn’t want to fly all the way to mine… so I kind of flew in threw the open window,” Her voice trailed off as she nervously giggled and avoided eye contact once more.

Fluttershy sighed, silently bringing a hoof to her forehead in minor frustration “That doesn’t explain why you were laying next to me, I mean, not to sound rude, but,” she cut herself off, taking a moment to gather herself.

“What’s wrong with a mare lying next to her best friend on a pillow?” The blushing pony said with a nervous laugh, obviously still trying to keep her usual sly nature in her embarrassment. Fluttershy gently fell to the ground, folding up her wings upon landing. Dash soon followed suite, still trying to avert the mare’s gaze, fearful of what emotions could be lurking behind it.

“Nothing, just,” Fluttershy started, trying not to sound angry with her friend “Next time give me some sort of warning…please?” she asked softly, giving a kind look to Dash. The pony nervously looked up, her ears rising as she saw the lack of disappointment in her friend’s eyes. She sighed in relief, happy that she had not just ruined everything she had established once again.

“Yeah, I’m sorry…” Dash apologized in earnest. Fluttershy smiled, walking over and giving her friend a reassuring hug. The blue pony smiled back lightly as the two moved to the pillow again, lying down upon it together. The caretaker sighed lightly, but it wasn’t a sigh of stress or displeasure; she felt happy to have her friend here, for some reason her presence made everything seem… easier. Even though she had broken into her house and lay next to her, it somehow didn’t sway her feelings. Was something happening to her…? She shook her head slightly, forcing the idea out of her mind; it was a thought for another time.

“You know what I love most about this?” Dash asked, a happy smile on her face as she gently spread her wing out, covering Fluttershy’s body. The yellow pony blushed, a surge of warmth rocketing through her spine as she looked back to her friend.

“W-what’s that?” The shy pony asked in a whisper, shifting her body a bit to get into a more comfortable position under her friend’s wing. Dash paused for a bit, taking a moment to allow the weak flier’s warmth seep into her body. She closed her eyes, taking a deep sigh of pleasure before opening them again.

“That you and I are here, together, spending time,” The dare devil said in earnest “I mean, I usually don’t get this mushy but…” She continued before being cut off by a swift and sudden feeling of pressure on her cheek. She instantly looked over, positive in the fact that her face looked redder than Big Macintosh’s coat. The pony responsible giggled slightly, the blush on her victim’s face making it easier to survive her own. “Oh, you’re going to play that way then, huh?” The blue mare said mischievously, leaning in forward with a smile on her face that matched the tone of her voice. Fluttershy cringed back a bit, giggling nervously. She wasn’t scared, but she decided to play along none the less. They were having fun, she was having fun, and she didn’t dare change that.

Dash moved in closer, slowly closing the gap between them. Fluttershy closed her eyes in anticipation as she felt a sudden force pressing against her muzzle. She opened her eyes to the sight she expected, Rainbow Dash delivering a playful, yet passionate kiss. The animal lover blushed, lightly apply pressure back as she too closed her eyes. She didn’t know how or why, but she liked these kisses. Ever since their first one under the stars, it seemed to have been growing on her. She quickly dropped the idea; it was silly anyhow, she wasn’t really falling for her friend already, was she? After a moment both ponies pulled back, blushing very brightly as they looked into each other’s eyes.

“How bout we get some shut eye, okay?” Dash asked, turning away to yawn loudly. Fluttershy said nothing, she still felt herself only able to look into the rainbow maned Pegasus’s eyes. Before another word could be said in response, the sports pony shrugged, laying her head on the pillow, beginning to snore shortly afterwards.

The yellow mare sat there for hours, lost in deep thought. It had only been a day since the night under the stars with Dash; but every minute their relationship seemed to be growing deeper and deeper. They had already kissed for the third time, and in Fluttershy’s experience, that wasn’t what friends did. Maybe, maybe they weren’t exactly friends anymore. She didn’t want to think that they had formed some sort of romantic relationship, but maybe they were closer than two friends usually get. Was there a term for that, or was she one of the first ponies to experience it? Fluttershy still couldn’t explain to herself the warm feeling that seemed to surge through her very core; the same one that she had felt just this morning. Why would anypony ever want to take this away from her? These feelings she felt, what could possibly be so bad about them for somepony to take them away from her? Feelings… she called them that, in fear of defying what they could be. She tried to deny it as she looked upon the sleeping pony; her beautiful rainbow mane, her stunning and vivid cutie mark, and the way she could be so aggressive, but if you got to spend some time alone with her, so sweet and caring.

Fluttershy violently shook her head; what in the world was she thinking? It was so wrong, yet so completely right at the same time.

“Oh, this is so confusing!” she said with frustration; she laid her head down and closed her eyes. If anything, a little sleep would help her.

***

Fluttershy was up bright and early the next morning, even before Rainbow Dash had risen. She yawned, stretching out her legs before getting up and beginning her usual morning routine. Walking out side, she began to fly around her garden, giving breakfast to all of her animals. She gave the birds worms, chopped up some carrots for Angel, and gave leftovers to the raccoons. She was in the middle of handing the Badgers under the dock a few fish when her thoughts got the best of her again. What was she going to do about the state of Dash’s and her relationship? She couldn’t end what was going on, she just couldn’t. She didn’t want to hurt her friend’s feelings after just getting her back from the grips of depression. Moreover, she kind of enjoyed everything they had herself, she didn’t want to start a full fledged relationship but she didn’t want what was happening to end. But it was all happening so fast too, what if she couldn’t keep up, what if she started to have sudden regrets, what if-

“Hey Fluttershy!” somepony said cheerfully behind her; the voice made Fluttershy jump back and yelp. She looked up, identifying the owner of the voice; a purple unicorn with a darker shade of purple for her mane and tail, she had a gleeful smile plastered on her face as she stared at the surprised pony.

“I’m sorry, did I startle you?” The unicorn asked with a hint of concern in her voice.

“N-no, it’s quite alright Twilight, I was just feeding my animal friends and I had something on my mind an-”

“What were you thinking about?” Twilight cut her off, looking at her with a mixture of worry and curiosity.

“Oh! Nothing, I mean, it wasn’t nothing, just nothing important. Well, I mean it was something important but…” Fluttershy sighed and gave up trying to finish the sentence; why did she have to be such a horrible liar?

“Well…okay… I just came by to see if you had seen Rainbow Dash anywhere, I need her for something.” Twilight continued, seeming relatively unphased from her sudden suspicious behavior. The yellow pony sighed, picking herself off and brushing the lake water off of her hind, was she really so shy that she hadn’t been picked up on?

“Um…well… what do you need her for? I mean, that is if you don’t mind telling me,” Fluttershy shyly responded, she still felt nervous about lying. Lying was her second most hated thing, next to dragons that was.

“Oh, well I need some clouds trapped in this bottle for an experiment I’m running” Twilight said normally, lifting a bottle out of her bag with a telekinetic grasp.

“Oh… I um…I can handle that for you if it’s not too much trouble,” The yellow pony offered nervously, she didn’t want Dash’s true place to be discovered. She could probably come up with an excuse, but she was still a horrible liar, and it showed.

“No…I’d rather have Rainbow Dash do it…Do you know where she is?” Twilight asked while eyeing Fluttershy. Fluttershy’s mind went wild; she had to think of something, something quick!

“Um…she…um…S-She’s off taking care of her weather jobs!” The pink maned mare said quickly, attempting to give an earnest-looking nod to the mare in front of her.

“Alright… Well, I’ll see you later on tonight, right?” Twilight asked in curiosity, preparing to make her exit.

“Um…yes! I mean, what’s tonight?” Fluttershy asked, a blank stare upon her face. Had she forgotten some sort of holiday or another random Pinkie Pie party?

“Your birthday party…” Twilight was sounding more and more impatient by the moment. Fluttershy’s eyes went small as she comprehended the information. How could she have forgotten her birthday!? She was supposed to show up at Sugar Cube Corner for her party this evening! What was she going to do; Rainbow was going to be there with her too! She’d be a nervous mess, what if she gave something away!?

“Hello…?” Twilight’s tone was short, signaling the yellow mare had waited a bit too long without a response.

“Oh, um, yes. I’ll see you tonight,” Fluttershy hastily spoke.

“Okay then, Bye,” Twilight turned around and walked away, still carrying a suspicious and jaded tone in her voice. Fluttershy took a deep breath and sighed in relief; that was close. She went back into her cottage and closed the door behind her. To her surprise, the previously occupied throw pillow was actually empty. Maybe Dash did actually need to go work on her weather chores.

Fluttershy took this to her advantage as she lay down on the pillow, sighing in a mixture of worry and frustration with herself. She had next to no time to prepare herself for the upcoming event tonight! She had to come up with some way to survive without looking like a total fool; But how…?

END

Desperate Times Call for Desperate Measures

Chapter 14 1 week later

Rainbow Dash stared solemnly into her mirror, her mane looking neat and tidy for the first time in days along with her fur. Her tail was straightened, her coat washed, and the knots untangled; she almost looked genuinely normal again. It was as if the past seven days of her life and all the emotion that had come with them were washed away like sand on a beach, hidden beneath the powerful ocean tide that was an hour in the bathroom, a bottle of mane conditioner, and lots of patience. She looked presentable, at least on the outside. But on the inside she was still an emotional train wreck. The past seven days of her life had been filled with almost non-stop crying, hollowing depression, an aching heart and plenty of tissues. She had never felt so broken down, so insecure, so empty… Losing the one thing that had completed her for so long was a hit that she took harder than she initially thought she would have. The tears not only rendered her useless as a weather pony, but completely wrecked her sense of security. She had barely eaten, didn’t practice, or didn’t even set a hoof outside her home since the breakup. Every day she’d question herself, what was happening to her, why was crashing down so soon? The morning was no different as she shot more demoralizing questions to her reflection while tiding up her appearance. Every once and awhile, part of her mind would drift back to the yellow mare she longed almost day and night for; to feel her sweet touch again, to hold her close and never, ever, ever, let anything come between them again. The thoughts would only later be swiftly dashed away by the more sensible side of her head; what’s done was done, and undoing it would not only be nearly impossible, but be the worst idea in pony history. They both needed to move on, for nopony would ever accept them the way they were.

Dash sighed heavily; she was never this philosophical with anypony, even herself. The picture of Fluttershy she still kept taped to the bathroom mirror was no help at all either. She had made several attempts before to force herself to tare the photo down for her own sake, but she could never bear to. It was as if the photo was the last link she had left to the yellow pony and the only comfort she could receive from her until such time as they were able to start anew. If such a time would ever come again. Dash began to feel warm tears leave her eyes, but quickly righted herself; she needed to keep her mind off that junk for today, at least for a few hours. She wouldn’t be able to make through the day unless she could remain focused.

As long as she kept her talking to a minimum and only spoke when required to, everything would be just fine. Sighing one last time, the mare tried her best to look convincing. She put her best smile on, grabbed her saddlebags and bits, and headed out the door. The morning air of Ponyville was the first thing that hit her, hard. It had been so long without flying or even feeling the touch of wind that she was almost new to it. Tomorrow was the beginning of the work week, her first work week since…

Shuddering, Rainbow Dash took out her scarf and threw it around her neck; she wasn’t outside to reflect on it. She was outside to get food and groceries for the coming week. With one last look at the morning sun shining brightly overhead, the flier took off, heading straight for town proper.

The first things she saw the same as per usual. The Pegasi who had work that day began clearing out the clouds in the sky, venders were opening up their produce stands, and the early bird ponies were roaming the streets like they always would. Nothing looked out of the ordinary, and what’s more she didn’t see any of her other friends. The mare smiled as she landed in the center of the crowded market place; maybe this would be easier than she initially thought. She wouldn’t have to tell anypony how she was doing, nopony would be urging her to do something she was anxious about, and she wouldn’t even really have to talk. She could just make the trip, buy the supplies, and lock herself in her home until work the next day. With this comforting thought in mind, she began a happy trot towards all of her destinations. Everything was going fine, and she was almost done shopping until her eyes fell upon the last thing she wanted to see.

“Why now?” The flier questioned under her breath in anxiety as her eyes darted from left to right in search of a hiding place. Spotting an unattended cart to her left, she quickly dashed behind it and out of plain site. Of all the possible times, why did it have to be right now? Cautiously raising her head up a little, Dash looked over the edge of the cart only to have her suspicions confirmed. Standing in line at the next stop she had to make was the very pony she had risked neck and skin to avoid the past week. Fluttershy still looked as normal as ever; pink mane and tail perfectly combed and stylized, yellow coat nicely washed and the same kind sparkle in her eye. Dash had to give it to her; if the yellow mare was trying to hide any pain or sorrow, she was doing way better than she was at the moment. Seeing the mare forced her heart beat to speed up for more reasons than one, and she could feel each thump in her throat with every passing moment she stared, her eyes fixated on the yellow pony. A single tear found its way forcefully out of the corner of her eye. The rainbow maned Pegasus wanted nothing more than to get up and bolt towards the pony, wrapping her into a close hug and never letting go again. Sadly, she knew she couldn’t, she had to stay strong and let it die, for both of them.

When she checked over the cart again, the yellow mare had disappeared, along with most of the line. Taking a sigh of relief, Dash picked herself up from her hiding place, brushing off dirt and pebbles from her coat. One last check around the area confirmed that Fluttershy was indeed nowhere to be seen. Without wasting a moment of her time, the mare rushed over to the stand, quickly purchasing her items in a way that earned her a confused stare from the vender. She threw the goods in her bag, and ran as far away from the stand as possible. After running for some time she stopped, panting heavily as she rested against a nearby wall. Fluttershy was still not around her area, and the mare thanked every celestial force in the world for it as she took deep, relaxing breaths and wiped the half-worry and half-physical induced sweat from her forehead. She still had many stops left to make before she could leave, and for all she knew, Fluttershy could have just as many, if not more stops to make.

Pushing herself off of the wall, Dash allowed her breathing to slow down again, though her heart rate didn’t die with it. How could she forget that Fluttershy shopped every other weekend?! The mare hit herself on the head in frustration as she pulled out her to do list and counted how many stops she had left. Sighing in relief, she timed in her head how quickly she could make the rest of the trip, provided she didn’t run into Fluttershy again. A moment passed, and she quickly threw the list back into her bag, taking off as fast as her hooves would let her through the crowded streets.

***

Twilight sighed, her purple mane blowing lightly in the morning wind as she slowly trudged down Ponyville’s main street. The buzzing noises of the market hit her left and right, shops with their doors open and stands for various items lined the street. The bits jingling in the pouch where her ink and parchment usually rested reminded the mare why she was making the trip in the first place; although, it didn’t do much to motivate her to be happy about it. The last weeks had seen no reports to be sent to the princess, so the mare hadn’t gone to resupply her stock for quite some time. There was nothing even to send to the princess! At least, nothing related to friendship. Sure, plenty of things deeper than friendship had been taking course, but the only thing of significance to report would be how said romance hadn’t managed to tear her group of friends apart, yet. Twilight would write more, but with the princess as busy as she usually was the purple unicorn thought the last thing she wanted to hear was about her troubles concerning love. But it didn’t matter, the lack of ink and parchment gave the mare an excuse to get out for a little bit, out of the stuffy tree house that she had barely left for almost a week now.

Taking a turn to the left, Twilight entered her usual writing supplies store and walked up to the front counter. A skinny, not so strong looking unicorn stallion sat there, his nose buried within a book as he kicked his hooves back on the top of the desk. Twilight waited a bit for the worker to notice her as she glanced around at the same scenery she had come to know and love. Books and quills and parchment and ink lined the walls, all of varying kinds and brands and the smell of dust hung in the air. A moment passed and the mare became inpatient as she gave a subtle cough, instantly catching the attention of the stallion on duty as he scrambled to close his book and look professional.

“Yes mam, how can I help you today?” The stallion spoke in a soft voice.

“Hello, I would like to purchase some…” Twilight began, drifting off as her eyes glanced out the nearby window. A spec of blue stood out in the crowded market place outside the shop; a spec of blue with rainbow dyed hair…

Twilight shook her head, it couldn’t be. The last time she had seen Rainbow Dash she was so emotionally distraught that it seemed like she’d never leave her house again. Why would she be out in the market? The mare shook the idea away, turning her attention back to the store clerk

“Sorry, as I was saying I would like to purchase…” Twilight drifted off again, her eyes drawn to the blue spec that was now quickly disappearing behind a corner, as if she was running from something…or somepony. Twilight’s eyes shot open with alert, her mind ignoring every other thought than her pressing suspicions. She rushed over to the window, intently staring out at the street packed with ponies of all shapes, colors, and sizes. The spec of bright blue had disappeared now with haste, turning the corner as if her life depended on it. But, something else caught her eye as she peered through the thick glass. Yellow coat, Pink bouncy mane, Butterfly cutie mark; Fluttershy was out too! Twilight’s mind instantly lit up with excited anticipation. If both Fluttershy and Rainbow Dash were mere yards away from each other in the market, what if she could bring them together! The unicorn happily clapped her hooves together as a plan started forming in her head almost instantly. The mare disregarded everything she had come out for in the first place as she bolted out of the shop, a very confused store clerk calling after her. She barged out into the fresh air, leaping onto the street and observing it in its full length, searching for the yellow and pink colors again. Just as she looked to the last section of the street, the colors appeared again, calmly walking around the corner. Twilight ran forward, but stopped; should she get the rest of the girls first and formulate a solid strategy? Or should she just go for it now, try the sudden approach? The purple mare began to sweat as she debated both options in her mind, running in one direction and then the other. She couldn’t decide; what if by the time she made a plan with all of her friends that both Fluttershy and Rainbow would be locked in their homes again, each refusing to come out? What if her only chance was now?

As she was running back and forth in circles, surely causing a scene, the mare bumped into an object of some sort, crashing and falling to the ground in a haze of confused and conflicted sweat. She instantly got up, looking for what she bumped into. Her eyes settled on a very elated and smiling pink pony.

“Wow Pinkie, you look much better since I last saw you,” Twilight complimented as she examined the pink mare from head to hoof.

“Yeah, don’t I look super-duper?! I mean, I was all sad and crying and depressed” the pink pony said with a sigh in remembrance “But then I decided that it wasn’t going to help anypony, so I changed my sadness into happiness and dedicated my efforts to finding a way to make all you guys smile again! Well… hopefully all of you,” Pinkie ended with a hint of hopelessness in her voice. Twilight smiled instantly, if anypony could get her friends together in time to make a plan that could possibly save Fluttershy and Dash, it was Pinkie! The mare thought for a moment before speaking again, if she was going to go through with this she needed to do it correctly.

“Pinkie, would you like to do me a favor?” Twilight asked excitedly as she gently grasped the pony’s shoulders. Pinkie Pie met Twilight’s excited behavior with more of her own as she playfully grasped her shoulders as well.

“What favor what that be Twilight? Ooo! Do you want me to make you some cupcakes, like ones with sprinkles all over them? Or! I can make a giant cake with chocolate sprinkles covered all over it! Ooo! What abou-” Twilight quickly put a hoof over the pink mare’s mouth before she became too off tack. In all honesty, it was good to see her happy again, but they needed to focus on the matter at hoof before time ran out!

“Those are all nice Pinkie, but I need you to do something extra important for me,” Twilight waited for the elated party pony to nod in understanding before continuing “Alright, here’s what you need to do. Get Rarity and Applejack as fast as you possibly can, and bring them back to the library ASAP, okay?” Twilight asked in urgency as she stared the mare in the eyes. Pinkie nodded happily, giving a half-joking, half-serious salute before running off in the opposite direction. Twilight clapped her hooves together in joy as she ran in the direction of her tree home, the plan already well on its way in her mind.

***

“Okay, so I assume you all know I brought you here for a reason,” Twilight began formally as she paced back and forth across the main floor of the library, her friends gathered in front of her as they waited patiently on her next words. Spike was gone, Twilight had seen to it so that the small dragon wouldn’t be around to hear a word of what was about to be spoken. He still didn’t have any knowledge of Rainbow Dash’s and Fluttershy’s recent endeavors, and he didn’t need to know. With him gone, that left herself, Rarity, Applejack, and Pinkie Pie packed into the library’s center room.

“I do hope it was important Twilight, I was in the middle of filling an important order,” Rarity said somewhat anxiously as she kept her eyes on the purple mare who was still pacing around the room.

“And I was busy buckin’ apples,” Applejack complained. Pinkie Pie waited patiently, a smile plastered on her face as she listened for the next words. Twilight still couldn’t put her hoof on how the pink mare had managed to get over her deep depression so quickly, but she brushed the thought aside as she thought of her next words.

“Oh it is important,” Twilight replied “It has to do with Dash and Fluttershy,”

“Not this again,” Rarity moaned in complaint.

“Listen Rarity, I got a plan this time, a good plan,” Twilight argued “Those two are both in the market place as we speak, and I have the perfect idea to help solve this whole problem!”

“And what in tarnation would that be?” Applejack harshly inquired.

“We’re getting them back together, whether they like it or not!” Twilight answered proudly, convinced that the idea was flawless despite the looks she received from her friends.

“Are you sure that’s a good idea Twilight?” Pinkie Pie questioned.

“Of course I am, why wouldn’t it be? That’s the answer to everything right there! If we get them back together, they’ll be able to counter act the hate and help each other. And they won’t be depressed anymore!”

“Well… what if the same thing happens again and history just repeats itself? What if they get so angry at us that everything falls to pieces?”

“I agree darling, you should really take a step back and consider it more thoroughly” Rarity commented in slight worry. Twilight brushed off the comment, sure of the fact that it couldn’t go wrong this time. She knew exactly what to do and how to do it, she just needed her friends’ help.

“That won’t happen guys. We all know they need each other, and if they’re going to survive hate and prejudice then its better if they do it hoof in hoof, am I right?”

“I don’t know Twi, they seem awfully dead set on stayin’ apart,” Applejack retorted worriedly. Twilight groaned in frustration, realizing that convincing the other ponies had already proved to be more of a challenge than she initially thought. They were running out of time, this was there last chance and it was now or never! Why couldn’t they see that! Twilight stopped, staring at the ground as she took a moment to think. She was instantly reminded of before, when she had felt the same exact way about her two friends being together in the first place. Her anger and frustration was one of the things that drove the relationship to an end, or put it closer to it. The purple mare shook her head, sighing deeply as she carefully chose her next words.

“Listen guys, I know you have doubt in this, I do too. But we can all agree that they still love each other. And the only reason they’re still apart is for each other’s own good,” Twilight paused for a moment as she received a few light nods from her friends “See! Don’t you guys agree that it’s for their own good if they stick together?” Twilight paused again, receiving more nods.

“I… I do agree Twilight, but what if it won’t work? What if we fail?” Rarity’s voice became full of worry as she stared patiently at her friend.

“It won’t guys, this time the plan isn’t just talking to them,”

“Then…what is it?” Applejack asked curiously. Twilight smiled brightly as she returned her friends’ worried gazes.

“We won’t be talking to them; they will be talking to each other,”

***

As the hours of the day passed, the rest of the group went to their collective homes and prepared for the plan that was to come soon. Albeit they had their doubts, if everything went according to plan then it might just work. Rarity went home to make sure Sweetie Belle was occupied with the other girls, Applejack to do the same with Applebloom; Pinkie went home to check on the babies, and Twilight stayed at her library, making sure to do everything she could to keep her small assistant busy. As always, the dragon had complaints about the mounds of work she was assigning him, especially the extra amount she was giving at this particular hour as he grudgingly went from place to place in the tree home, rearranging books, sweeping, and tiding the place up.

Twilight ran around, anxiously waiting on her friends to return with themselves readied as she struggled to come up with more trivial things for Spike to do.

“But Twilight, I already found you this book,” Spike moaned as he thrust a copy of ‘Magical Guides for the Advanced Student’ into the mare’s face and set it back down again.

“Umm, what about St-”
“-Arsweld the Bearded, a Tale of Early Equestrian Wizardry,” Spike interrupted in an annoyed tone of voice.

“And Al-”

“-Gebraic Equations for Young Fillies,”

“Ok… But have you found Th-”

“-E Beginner’s Guide to Embroidery,” Spike finished, more annoyed than before as he stared angrily at the purple unicorn. Twilight could feel sweat pouring down her head as she became more nervous, her eyes darting from Spike to the window and back, still no sign from the others. What if they couldn’t make it in time?! What if the whole plan fell to a bust and there was nothing more they could do to salvage it?! What if- “Can I go out and do something please?” Spike’s question interrupted the pressing thoughts in her mind as she snapped back to reality. She struggled to find something more for her assistant to do, anything that would keep him in doors and occupied for a few more hours when a sudden knock on the door pulled them both away from their conversation. Twilight sighed in relief, rushing to the door in a filly-like manner. She nearly squealed with joy as she saw who was at the door.

“Hello Twilight, are we ready to begin?” Rarity asked sweetly as she stood at the door way with the other two mares next to her. Twilight smiled as she turned around to Spike, walking towards him slightly.

“Sorry Spike, I gotta go for a bit,” She said mysteriously, obviously trying to hide her plans.

“Go do what?”

“I’m just… going to go buy more quills!”

“Didn’t you already do that?”

“Nope, totally forgot, the library still needs cleaning, bye!” Twilight quickly wrapped up the conversation, rushing the other three ponies off of the doorstep and slamming the door behind her. She then took off into a fast-paced gallop; the other mares following close behind her.

***

Fluttershy sighed, still rubbing sleep out of her tired eyes as she combed the streets of Ponyville, searching for the right stands to buy from. She checked her list again, which mostly consisted of food for the animals and a few things for herself, and moved forward. Her eyes still felt a touch teary, regardless of the countless hours she’d spent in the morning trying to calm herself down and look orderly for a change. Her whole cottage looked like it had been a victim of some sort of natural disaster at this point, tissues scattered everywhere mixed with pools of tears here and there. It was all the mare could do at this point to pull herself together and survive each day, she hadn’t even set a hoof outside her home until this morning, and she was determined to keep it that way for as long as she could. She was still nervous others in the town might recognize her, especially since regardless of how hard she looked, she couldn’t find her old disguise to dress up in. Was she still in every newspaper’s headline? Were there awful, hate filled ponies waiting for her behind every corner? What if she ran into one of her surely concerned friends?! Or worse, what if she ran into Rainbow Dash?

Fluttershy gulped, trying to imagine how every way the situation could play out. Asking to get back together, yelling at her for the break up, awkwardly avoiding her, running at the sight of her; the options were endless! As much as she tried to, the mare knew she couldn’t lie to herself about her true feelings that had still remained intact for the past week; she was still in love with Rainbow Dash, and as much as she hated to admit it to herself, not a day had yet passed by where she hadn’t wished to Celestia that they would get another chance. Melancholic thoughts in mind, the mare sighed heavily as she approached a carrot vender, dropping a few bits on the counter top and walking away with the produce in her bag. Maybe she should ask to get back together, or at least say something to Rainbow. What could she loose? As far as the mare was convinced, she had already hit rock bottom and there was nowhere but down to go, unless she did something to fix it. The mare shook her head, attempting desperately to shift her focus back to the reason she came out in the first place. But no matter how hard she tried, the temptation continued to linger in the back of her head, periodically bugging her. She continued to stumble around the market place, walking slower, slurring her speech, and every once and awhile skipping a stand without even realizing she had done so. She stopped for a moment, trying to stop her mind from fogging up with all the ridiculous thoughts. She needed to be resilient; she needed to abstain from even going anywhere near the rainbow maned Pegasus.

She leaned more against the wall, thoughts, memories, and images of her and Dash clogged her brain and it seemed the harder she tried to shove them away, the stronger they’d come back. Fluttershy cursed herself silently, knowing fully well that she should’ve stayed indoors today, that she was in no shape to be out in public yet. Tears began to clog up her vision as her hooves became weak; she was losing control! She had to regain her composure, and she had to do it now! If she didn’t do anything soon she’d start breaking down! She could already feel herself begin to crumble against the wall in a feat of self-depression and wallow; it wouldn’t be along until she started to cr-

“Hey Fluttershy! Oh… You don’t look so well,” an elated, yet concerned voice called out next to her. Fluttershy instantly snapped out of her quickly crumbling state, whipping her head around to see who the owner of the voice was. She found herself slightly relieved and slightly more stressed when her eyes fell upon a happy, pink mare staring right back at her with worried eyes.

“I’m fine Pinkie, d-don’t worry,” Fluttershy assured her friend with a cracking voice. Quickly coughing, she hastily wiped any tears she felt coming down from her eyes and repositioned herself to look normal “What, uh… what can I do for you?”

“Oh, nothing really, I just wanted to say hi…” Pinkie’s voice trailed off, her eyes appearing to shift focus rapidly to the sky. It didn’t made to sense to Fluttershy for Pinkie to trail off like that, seeing as the party pony had a seemingly never ending stream of topics to talk about. She followed the mare’s eyes, searching in the clear summer sky for what could have possibly derailed her attention like that.

What happened next was instantaneous; within seconds she looked back down, Pinkie Pie was already yards away on the long-stretched street, running as if her life depended on it. Fluttershy stared in silent shock at the pink pony running further and further down the road… with something bouncing on her back.

Odd, where did Pinkie find those saddle ba-

Fluttershy’s eyes instantly darted to her back, empty; her back was empty! A closer look as the pink mare rounded the corner showed exactly what she suspected; Pinkie stole her saddle bags! But… why would she? What would Pinkie possibly stand to gain by stealing saddle bags filled with vegetables, paper, and a few bits? It didn’t matter, she needed those bags, they were her only set! As quickly as she could the Pegasus took off in hot pursuit of her pink friend, quickly apologizing as she sidestepped other civilians and angry shoppers. She rounded a corner, sweat already beading down her forehead as she saw the pink mare turn quickly to glance at her, and then start running again.

“Pinkie, wait!” Fluttershy frantically called out, galloping as fast as her legs would allow her across the hard concrete surface, already growing weary as her extreme lack of exercise showed. Pinkie didn’t stop, and for as long as Fluttershy could she followed quickly behind. No idea what was happening or why it was even happening, the cream colored Pegasus continued to follow her pink friend around corners, down streets, through bends and hills, and everything in between. Exhausted and wheezing, Fluttershy rounded one more corner into a darkened alley way with a dead end visible in the distance. There was nowhere left for Pinkie to go now, and she slowly walked towards a dim silhouette in the distance. She called out the baker’s name, and received no response. Walking a bit closer she discovered the pile of junk that macerated Pinkie’s appearance so well when seen from a distance. She touched the cold wall carefully, it was
impossible, how could Pinkie have escaped?! There was nowhere to run!

A sudden noise from above drew Fluttershy away from her pending confusion as she turned her attention to the source. Above her, sticking her tongue out and making a very rude noise was the culprit, floating high into the sky, carried gently by a large cluster of balloons. Balloons! Where in Equestria did Pinkie get those balloons from?! Quickly shaking the thought, Fluttershy hastily contemplated her next actions. Sadly, she only had one option left. High-Speed and or High altitude flying wasn’t her talent, and she never felt like learning, especially since the sport-like activity reminded her of the one pony she was trying oh so hard to forget. Gulping once, the Pegasus took off in the sky, flapping her wings forcefully as she began to rise in altitude, slowly but surely catching up to Pinkie. She peaked above the tip of the roof, her eyes fixed on the .slowly floating pink mare. She tried to call out her name once more, but was stopped by her aching throat, flaring with pain from too much exercise and wind. She continued to rise, not allowing herself to stop no matter how much she sweat, no matter how hard it was to breathe, no matter how much her muscles were screaming at her to. She was rising higher and higher, and she nearly caught up with Pinkie when a second voice, distinct and familiar in tone, rang in her ears softly.

“Now Twilight, she’s here!” She heard the voice shout to another pony on the roof, she stopped mid-flight, and stared down at the rooftop she had passed several feet ago. Looking closely at the roof she saw the last two ponies she wanted to see that day looking right back at her, well, one of them was anyhow. Fluttershy locked eyes with Twilight for a brief moment, out of the corner of her eye she saw the other unicorn, bent over the side of the roof adjacent to Twilight’s distracted by something… something with multiple colors…

Before she had time to react or even make the connection of what was happening, she could feel some mystic force grasp her forcefully, and begin to guide her down towards the opposite street at a rapid pace. She glanced at her wings, both extended fully and flapping about dangerously; as they remained enveloped in an eerie purple glow. Gasping as soon as she was aware of what was happening to her wings; Fluttershy began to struggle feverishly, but was ultimately helpless against the magical grip. She could feel herself plummeting downwards a pace even she couldn’t reach if she tried. Panic set into her heart as her height from the ground turned from miles away to yards away to feet away. The yellow mare did everything she could, gritting her teeth together in pure terror as she used as much strength as she could muster to break free from the telekinetic grasp. It was no use though, she wasn’t strong enough to evade the magic and within moments she’d become part of the pavement below. She took one last deep breath, closing her eyes and bracing herself for the worse.

A few seconds passed, and then minutes; shouldn’t she have hit the ground by now? Raising her head in curiosity, she almost instantly brushed up against a soft surface, one that almost felt like fur…

No, it was fur, and she could also feel a pair of warm and protecting legs holding her in a shaky embrace. Accompanied with a soft breathing and a light heartbeat, the smell of clouds and sweat coupled with tears. Could it be…? Does she dare open her eyes to confirm? Does she dare move a muscle? Even if it was the mare she thought it was, what could she say or do? It’d been days since she felt an embrace this loving, this protective…

Forcing an eye open she squinted to the pony beside her. A strong muscular body with a sky blue coat, wings that looked as if they could carry someone twice her size, a cutie mark that seemed to shine against the sun like a lightning bolt shining against the night. Almost all the features matched her suspicion; there was only one thing left to check for. But Fluttershy couldn’t decide if she was too worried or too elated to see if it really was… Taking a short breath, the mare allowed her eyes to drift upwards, heart threatening to burst out of her chest at any moment as her sight slowly locked upon the rainbow colors of a messy but stylish mane…

It was her… Rainbow Dash, she had been saved by Rainbow Dash.

***

Fluttershy didn’t know what to make her first reaction when she saw the rainbow maned mare. So many emotions flooded her mind as she felt her warm hooves embrace her tightly, as if to ensure that nothing hurt her again. Her life… she owed her life to Dash now. Was that Twilight’s plan all along? A last ditch effort to save the crumbling relationship? It didn’t matter, even as they were receiving collective and worried gasps from the crowd concerning her safety it didn’t matter. All that mattered right now was the blue pony’s tight grasp around her, her soft heartbeat and shuttering breath. Instincts taking over, heart beating ferociously, Fluttershy eased herself into the mare’s grasp, clinging to her tightly as she snuggled in.

Rainbow Dash blushed lightly, her shuttering breath calming down as she was assured of Fluttershy’s safety. She squeezed tightly, never wanting to let go again. It was moments, literally moments when she reached the mare. Dash didn’t even have the time to register what was going on before she dived into action; only one thing mattered as she saw the yellow Pegasus plummeting to earth. And now, that same thing was the only thing that mattered. Guilt nagged in the back of her mind, fruitlessly attempting to remind her to restrain herself, to hold back from the enclosing feelings of the sudden romance. She didn’t listen; she never wanted to listen to it again. She felt the yellow pony’s head softly pressed against her chest, and felt her legs tightly wrapped her back. They both closed their eyes tightly, holding the embrace for longer than it should have lasted as the surrounding ponies seemed to fade around them.

Fluttershy drew back, hooves gently resting on Dash’s chest as she stared her in the eyes. Her heartbeat increased, and from the look she was receiving back she knew that Dash’s was just as rampant. She knew she shouldn’t give in, that it would only lead to trouble again; but even though every fiber of her being told her not to, she deliberately ignored the knowledge as she threw herself forward, passionately locking herself into a kiss with the blue mare. Dash gasped in surprise, almost immediately returning the gesture. The two ponies pulled each other closer, locked in a deep and seemingly impenetrable embrace. Neither of them knew where it was going, nor did they care as they held the kiss, refusing to let go. The world around them became nothing; even the shocked gasps of the ponies around them didn’t reach their ears that remained deaf to the world.

After a while, they awkwardly parted, both of them blushing too hard and feeling too confused to look the other in the eye. They still kept their hooves around each other, almost unconscious of the fact that they were.

Dash coughed, catching the yellow mare’s attention as she turned her eyes back to hers.

“So… uh, you okay Shy?” Dash asked with an awkward laugh. Fluttershy couldn’t help but giggle, it felt so good to laugh again, and to see Dash laughing again too. It still was a haze to her, seeing how fast it had happened. One moment she was flying towards the ground, unsure of how or why but ready to accept her death. The next she was in the loving arms of the pony she simultaneously dreaded and longed to see. Her giggle burst out into a hysterical laugh, only growing stronger as Dash joined her “So, I take that as a yes then…?”

Fluttershy silently nodded, smiling more than she had smiled in days as she locked eyes with the mare again. She blushed, feeling her heart beating through her chest as she tightened her grip around Dash, keeping her eyes focused on the blue Pegasus’s. Dash looked back, tightening her grip in response as she lightly nuzzled Fluttershy.

“I missed you… I missed you so much…” Fluttershy began her voice shaking lightly. Dash brushed her hair back, looking into the sea of blue that was her beautiful eyes.

“I know… I missed you too Shy,”

“What… what does this mean? I mean, it just happened so suddenly right now…” Fluttershy paused for a moment, the severity of what she had just done in a public area around all of the same ponies that pelted her with stones in the first place hitting her with full force. She became nervous, afraid of what was to come next, too afraid to even look at the figures around, most likely standing with an air of such disapproval you’d think somepony was just murdered. Dash paused for a moment, looking to the sky as she gave the idea some thought.

“I don’t know, what do you want it to mean?” She asked in a soft tone only meant for the yellow mare. Fluttershy blushed, the emotions in her head seeming to suddenly break out into a full out war. What if’s plagued her mind endlessly as she debated her options. Her mind told her no, to stray away from the temptation; but her heart screamed yes, to give in, to be happy again. After a while it seemed obvious which side had one, and the bloody war came to an end as she prepared to voice her decision.

“I… I think….”

“You think…”

“I….”

“Just say it,” Rainbow urged softly. Fluttershy cursed her shy nature once more, finding herself unable to utter the words she so desperately searched for. Instead, she chose an alternative as she pushed forward again, knocking back the blue Pegasus with another forceful and deep kiss. Dash wasted no time returning it, and held the mare closely as she possibly could. The words didn’t need to be said, they both knew exactly what the kiss meant right then and there. They held the kiss, sealing the deal that threw away the last few weeks of depression and brought forth the renewed feeling of love and happiness. They pulled away one last time, and only then became aware of the crowd that had gathered around them.

They both stood up instantly, slightly distancing themselves from each other as the silently blushed at the crowd watching in awe.

“I’m sorry, I’m so sorry everypony,” Fluttershy began, her voice quivering slightly.

“Nonsense, My Little Pony,” An omnipotent and kind voice called lightly from behind the crowd. A round of collective gasps was made audible from the circle as they parted slightly, all bowing down as the regal figure calmly walked through to the center.

“Princess… Princess Celes-” Dash started with a weak voice, quickly remembering to bow along with Fluttershy before standing up again to face the ruler.

“Yes Rainbow Dash, it is me,”

“But… How? Why? No offense, but why did you even come here? And why now?” Dash stammered out.

“Twilight wrote me about your current predicament, asking for help. And at first, hearing the situation I almost turned a blind eye to it. Love is not my territory as ruler of Equestria, especially not when it involves some of my most important subjects. Not to mention my disagreement with the type of love it is. But, I came anyhow, to see if there was anything I could do to help Twilight and her friends,” Celestia said, her voice not wavering from its usual tone once. Dash and Fluttershy whirled their heads around, seeing a proud looking Twilight standing at the forefront of the crowd, smiling brightly along with their three other friends standing next to her.

“When Celestia didn’t respond earlier today, I took matters into my own hooves. I knew you two loved each other, and I didn’t want a barrier like what is right and wrong separating it. I knew at first I believed it would destroy us entirely. But when you guys broke up I saw that it was not only the thing keeping us together, but bringing us closer,” Twilight spoke apologetically, stepping forward into the crows with the other mares.

“We all couldn’t stand to see how unhappy you both looked,” Applejack commented

“And we knew you two still had feelings for one another,” Rarity added with a smile

“So… we tried this last plan. Risky, but we thought if it could help you guys, it’d be worth everything,” Pinkie Pie finished happily.

“And help they did. I can see now the love you two share, and the power that surrounds it. A bond that grew from humble beginnings of friendship to a feeling more powerful than magic itself. I may not approve, but I know that it would be very unfair and wrong for me or any other pony to intervene and try to destroy it simply because it’s different.”

Dash and Fluttershy looked around the crowd, the hateful faces now looking to the floor with expressions of shame and regret. Even the princess, as against the love as she was, agreed of how it much affects them. Fluttershy felt a warm fluttering in her heart, seeing now the faces of hate turning into those of either acceptance of indifference. She was free, free from the fear of being hated simply for being different. Dash feeling the same way, turned in circles examining each pony’s face.

“I… I don’t know what to say…” Fluttershy spoke softly.

“Why don’t you start with the pony behind you?” Celestia hinted kindly. Fluttershy turned around, facing Dash and locking eyes with her.

“So…are we?” Dash began, shuffling closer to the pony in front of her. Fluttershy smiled, shuffling closer herself.

“I thought my kiss before confirmed it,” Fluttershy said with a sly smirk, giggling slightly before pausing for a moment, locking eyes with the pony in front of her “I… I love you…” Fluttershy managed to stammer out before looking away with a fierce blush. Dash pulled the mare forward, forcing her to make eye contact.

“I love you too…” Dash replied fondly, pulling herself closer to the pony as she was urged on by hooves applauding the moment. She moved closer to her lover, pressing her forehead against the shy Pegasus’s. They both stared endlessly into each other’s eyes, their hearts beating miraculously as one in the middle of the circle. Fluttershy grabbed Dash’s hoof, and held it tightly. Had the applauding faded? Or was she just too distracted to notice? She didn’t care as she moved in for one last kiss, closing her eyes as she felt a gentle push back.

END (For Realsies this time)

A/N:

Wow guys, it's done, this whole 8-month+ project of mine is finally complete! I don't know what else to say besides thank you, thank you all for liking, favoriting, watching, commenting, and reading this story.It's not the best, no where near close to it. But it's the first thing I've put this much effort into. I hope reading along was as much as a blast for you guys as it was for me to write it! Don't unfollow me or unwatch me yet though, I'm going to be putting out plenty of more content in the future and hope to surpass this story with the next long one I write. Please, Please leave a comment on this chapter if not any other, because really this chapter is by far my favorite out of all of them; especially since it's the finale.

Anyhow, thanks again for reading, and I love you all! :)