A Toast to Friendship

Rarity set the mouthwritten manuscript down on the end table slowly. She drew a careful breath, and released it. She took another, and hesitated a second before releasing this one. She felt queasy, as though she had eaten something uncooked that was meant to be well-done. Bringing a hoof to her face, Rarity discovered she had tears forming in the corners of her eyes, and beads of cold sweat rested on her brow.

She cleared her throat. “Fluttershy?” There was no reply from the next room. Rarity tried again a bit louder. “Fluttershy, darling, what is this?”

“Hm?” A yellow head peeked around the corner. Fluttershy's eyes grew wide as they fell upon the ink-stained parchment and she let out a horrified shriek. “Oh, no! You weren't supposed to see that!” The pegasus swooped across the living room of her small cottage and scooped up the manuscript in her hooves. “H-how much of it did you read?”

“All of it, I'm sorry to say.” Rarity was too numb with shock to be embarrassed about being caught snooping. And reading something on a friend's coffee table while she prepared tea could hardly be called snooping, at that. Rarity chewed her lip. “Darling... why do you have a story in your living room wherein I... wherein I do quite unspeakable things to you?”

Fluttershy pawed at the loosely bound pages nervously and began stammering. “I-it's an assignment from my therapist, Dr. Ink Blot,” she explained. “Sh-she wants me to try writing stories about things I'm afraid of, s-so I can read them and see how silly they are.” She cast her eyes downwards. “But I don't think I did it right, because it isn't very silly.”

“Oh, Fluttershy!” Rarity stepped forward to wrap her friend in a hug. She felt her coat dampen as Fluttershy quaked with sobs. Rarity stroked her hoof along the pegasus' yellow back. “It's okay,” she whispered. “Dear, you don't really believe I'm capable of those kinds of things, do you?”

Fluttershy pulled back, sniffling, and shook her head. “No!” she said earnestly. “No, of course I don't! You're such a nice pony, Rarity, and I know you would never hurt anypony!” She wiped a tear from her cheek. “It's just... just because I know it can't happen doesn't stop me from being afraid of it.” Her lips quivered and Rarity drew her back into her embrace. “I don't want anything to hurt me, but especially not one of my friends. That would be twice as bad, because then they're hurting themselves, too!”

Rarity hugged her friend tighter and peered down at the last page of the manuscript. There was still some blank space left at the end. “Darling,” she said, “May I borrow a pen?”

Fluttershy blinked in confusion. “What for?” She walked over and retrieved a pen from her desk regardless.

“Thank you,” Rarity said, taking hold of the instrument in her telekinetic grasp. “I am going to give this story a proper ending.”

“Oh no,” said Fluttershy. “Dr. Ink Blot won't like that!”

“She can take it up with me,” Rarity said firmly, scribing a few lines onto the end of the manuscript.

Fluttershy awoke to find herself comfortable and safe in her own bed. She realized it had all been nothing more than an awful, awful dream. The Rarity she knew could never harm her. Her bunny, Angel, snuggled up close against her chest and Fluttershy knew that everything was all right. Yawning, she settled back under her covers and closed her eyes. The rest of her night would be filled with peace and dreams of soft, cuddly things. The End.