"Thank you! Come again!" Pinkie was trying to keep a positive attitude for the customers. But the problem from before still lingered in the back of her mind. The bell on the door rang. "Hello! Welcome to - Spike! How ... nice to see you!"

Spike immediately knew that she was acting. "I take it you know what I'm here to ask you about?"

Pinkies face froze in shock. She promptly tried to go back to her normal self. Especially because of the other customers. "I have no idea what you could be talking about. Maybe if you could come back tomorrow -"

"Pinkie this isn't something to joke about. We need to talk about this."

"I don't know what it is, though. Maybe tomorrow, we could go to my room and you could tell me -"

"No! We need to clear some things up before -"

*PSHOOOOOOOOOOO* Pinkies mane and tail had deflated.

"... Uhhhh, -"

"My room. Now!" She turned tail and went upstairs.

Spike looked around the room. Some of the ponies there looked worried. Others, angry. Either way, they were all looking at Spike. Except Derpy, only because she needs to be mentioned. "Ho, man. I think I'm in trouble."

Spike opened the door to Pinkies room cautiously. "Uhhh, Pinkie?"

She was sitting in the middle of the room, looking the same way that she did downstairs. "Before you say anything, I know you're siding with Twilight on this, and I cant agree with you! She made Fluttershy cry, and I cant forgive her for that! So before I change my mind and hurt you, I suggest you leave!"

"No."

Pinkie glared at him over her shoulder. "What?"

Spike stepped in, closing the door behind him. "I can't just let you stay mad at her."

"Are you asking me to hurt you?"

"If that's what it takes for you to listen."

Pinkie turned to face him, and pushed her nose against his. "I don't need to listen to anything! I know the whole story!"

"Are you sure?"

"What do you want?"

Spike thought for a moment. "How about you tell me what you know." He had been reading a lot of mystery novels lately, and, if nothing else, knew that a small lie is all it takes to unravel a story. If he could find a problem, he could probably tear her story apart.

"... Humph. Well, Dashie said -"

"Well, it looks like I've found the problem already."

Pinkie raised an eyebrow. "What do you mean?"

Spike smiled. "You know the story through someone else. Someone who could alter the story to put you on their side."

Pinkie cringed. He had her on that. "W-well I, um, I know she was telling the truth."

"Like how you know it was Scootaloo stole your candy on Nightmare Night?"

Pinkie went silent. Rainbow had eventually confessed that she did it, despite her saying it was the previously mentioned filly the night of the incident.

"Or how Twilight replaced your bed with cupcakes on Fluttershy's birthday?"

Pinkie looked down. It was the crusaders, looking to get a prankster cutie mark.

"Or how Dash hid all of your balloons?"

Pinkie went from sad to shocked. "What? Who did then?"

Spike knew he was on a roll. "I will tell you at the library, after you hear Twilight's side of the story." He strutted out the door. "See you there."

As soon as he was gone, Pinkie let out a hushed growl. "That little..."

*Knock knock knock*

"Hm?" Rarity knew that Spike would have just come in, and hadn't expected anyone else. She opened the door. "Pinkie?"

"Rarity? What are you doing here?"

"I should ask you the same. And what happened to your mane?"

Pinkie rubbed her hoof against her leg anxiously. "T-that's not important. Where's Twilight? I just want to get this over with."

Rarity raised an eyebrow. "Hm? What do you mean by that, dear?" Pinkie just glared at her. "She's in her room."

Pinkie trotted unhappily past her, making Rarity question if Spike was paying someone to talk to her friends for him.

"Thank you, Applejack."

"Ya aren't taking care of yourself. I can't just let ya die on me."

Twilight looked away out of disappointment. "I wasn't sure of how to take care of myself with all of my friends either against me or isolated. You girls are my life now. How am I supposed to live without you."

That was when the door opened, much to Twilight and Applejack's surprise. "Pinkie?" Said mare cringed. "What are you doing here? I thought you hated me right now."

Pinkie was trying to look at anything but Twilight. "I-I'm not here for you. I j-just need to learn something, and I can't until I listen to you."

Twilight gave a weak smile. "The fact that you will listen is all I need to smile, smile, smile."

Pinkie stared blankly for a moment, then gave a little laugh. "Okay, that was good." She then trotted up to Twilight's side with a bit of a spring to her step.

Twilight started to tell her side of the story when they heard a loud, Rarity-esqe gasp. They heard three voices from downstairs, but couldn't make them out. Soon enough, they heard two sets of hoofs and one set of claws coming up to see them, followed by the door creaking open. There was a dragon and a mare that they expected. What they didn't expect was the golden mare with them.

"Fluttershy?"

The six of them settled in for the whole exposition. (Get out your popcorn!)

"I, well, how should I start? I guess it would be that I've had some feelings for Twilight for a while now. I haven't said anything because I wasn't sure how to approach it, with love being complicated enough, and me being me. So I decided enough is enough, and went to the one pony who I felt would give me the best advice: Rainbow Dash."

"I KNEW it!" All eyes went to Rarity.

"That doesn't prove Dash sabotaged it, ya know."

"BACK to the story!"

"Thank you, Twilight. Dash told me to think of it as if she already told me she loved me."

"WHAT?"

"That- I- no."

"Okay, maybe she did sabotage it."

"I was disappointed when Twilight turned me down. I decided that the best thing to do was let things settle down with her, but I have a feeling that didn't happen."

Twilight sighed. "If only you knew."

Twilight told the rest of the story to Fluttershy. When she finished, no one looked happy. Least of all, Fluttershy.

"I can't believe that the two of you would be so... cruel." Pinkie jerked back, as if she got hit by a spitwad. Applejack looked down out of shame.

Rarity took the opportunity to ask something. "If you weren't hiding, where were you?"

Fluttershy gave her a blank look. "You didn't get my message?" Rarity was visibly confused. "Sweetie Belle?"

"Oh. I wasn't there when she got home, and mom and dad were already there to pick her up."

Fluttershy let out a sigh. "A family of foxes fell into a chasm. I got them out and had to give them my full -"

Something moved inside her tail. As Spike was about to move some of it aside, a young fox popped its head out. It leaped down, then hopped onto the bed, staring at Twilight.

"... attention. So that's where you went you silly thing!" She patted it on the head with her hoof.

Twilight watched as the fox curled up in her lap. "So you weren't avoiding me?"

"Actually, I was going to come visit tomorrow, just to make sure we're still friends."

Twilight smiled as she pet the fox. "That's what I was worried about."

Everyone was happy. Especially Pinkie, who was back to full cheer. "Yay-we're-friends-again party!" Everypony was cheering.

"Not quite yet." Everypony calmed down and looked at Spike. "There's still one pony left, and only one of us can get her." He turned to the pony they needed.

"Fluttershy, I need you to go get Rainbow Dash."

"Tell me again, why am I blindfolded?"

Fluttershy giggled. "You'll see."

"But I can't."

"Oh, you know what I mean."

Dash chuckled a bit, but was starting to get worried. Fluttershy hadn't been seen for days, and suddenly wanted to give her a surprise while acting nervous and anxious? Something was up. Should she fly off? Should she try talking it out? Should she -

"NOW!"

A sudden shout threw her off just long enough for something to wrap around her wings. In an instant she took off! Or at least tried to before being painfully reminded of the fact her wings were bound to her sides. Even worse, she was so used to that option being perpetually available to her that by the time she considered her other options, they, too, were shut off. Then the blindfold was torn off, showing four angry mares.

One of whom had a fox on her head for no apparent reason.

"Uh... hi?"

"Rainbow." Hearing the gentle voice beside her made her turn her head toward her fellow Pegasus. "What were you thinking?"

Her ears drooped.

"You wanted me to humiliate myself in front of Twilight, didn't you?"

She closed her eyes and looked away.

"Why did you -"

"I'm stupid."

Everyone was shocked. Owlowlisious decided that he would never land on anything suspicious looking again, lest it also shock him.

"All of the nice colts liked Fluttershy so much more. It was always, "Look at Fluttershy," or, "Fluttershy looks so great." The only ones who gave me a second thought were jerks or dumb. For me, mixing love and Fluttershy is never a good thing. It makes me bitter." Her tears were growing more obvious, her voice completely broken. "Th-the very f-first indic-cation I ever h-had that she w-wanted anyone was T-Twilight. I-I was t-too j-jealous of her, f-for something that w-wasn't e-even h-her fault, t-to think o-of h-how, how she f-felt."

"Rainbow."

"Do any of you know what it's like? T-to want someone so badly? Only to have them w-want someone who isn't even trying?"

Rarity didn't miss a beat. "Yes. The same mare took him, actually."

Fluttershy blushed.

"I-I'm s-s-s-so s-s-sorry. I ruined it for you."

"No."

"Huh?"

"It wasn't her bluntness that ruined it. It was the fact that I'm not interested in mares like that. The big reason we brought you here is what you did afterwords."

Dash looked at Twilight blankly. "What are you talking about?"

Twilight face-hoofed. "Fluttershy left, Rarity walked up to me, then..."

"..."

"..."

"... Oh! That! Well, I felt like a jerk, and wanted to blame someone else."

"..."

"..."

"..."

"... What?"

"That's it? You isolated me because you didn't want the blame?"

"You're looking at the mare that just called herself stupid. What did you expect?"

Pinkie cleared her throat. "Now can we go back to being friends?"

Rarity untied Dash. The moment she was back on her hooves, she grabbed her friends in a huge hug.

"Yeah. I'm more than ready to put this behind us.

Author's Note

As am I, Dash, but I still can't! There's one more chapter I have in the works, and given how long it took to post this chapter, this will take a while. Thankfully, my life has been a good deal less hectic than it was over the past year.