Trusted Scales

There was a light rapping on her cottage door, and Fluttershy perked her ears up to the sound. She grabbed a nearby bookmark to keep her place in the book she was reading. A look from Angel confirmed that, yes, she did hear a knock on the door.

"Rainbow Dash must have come back to get some pastries," Fluttershy said with a calm smile, speaking softly to Angel. With a slight bounce in her step, she trotted towards the door and gave out a call of, "Just a second."

When the entity on the other side responded with a deep-voiced "Sure," Fluttershy immediately stopped trotting and began to ever-so-slightly panic in a way that might give Twilight a run for her money. Her knees began to shake, and she had the sudden urge to pretend that she wasn't home.

She flinched at the thought, knowing she had already called out, and was obviously heard. On top of that, Fluttershy promised Rainbow Dash that she'd be brave. Still, she couldn't help but feel a rising urge of futility in her heart.

Fluttershy knew that Spike would be coming. But she had no idea it'd be so soon. She had expected a little bit of a grace period - perhaps a little time to gather her thoughts and steel her nerves. "Mental preparation", as Twilight would put it. But now the very thing she was trying to face was facing her down without consideration for worry or consequence.

She could see no way out of it, so Fluttershy gently unlatched her cottage door and peeked from behind it. She was sort of hoping it might be a mailpony with a voice that just-so-happened to be exactly like Spike's. But lo and behold, there he was; Spike stood tall in her doorway, back turned towards her. His draconic tail swished slightly as he gazed up at the trees in Fluttershy's yard.

"H..Hello," Fluttershy said quietly. It seemed to surprise the dragon, as he turned around with a slightly confused expression on his face. After a moment, however, he smiled widely - but not enough to show his teeth, Fluttershy noticed - down at the pony.

"Hello, Fluttershy," Spike greeted her. Then his expression turned to something of worry when Fluttershy failed to respond within around twenty seconds of him speaking, and he asked, "Something wrong?"

Fluttershy snapped out of her daydreaming and started with an "O-oh! Yes, sorry. I just.. Have a lot on my mind." She blushed slightly, but then realized she was being a little inhospitable. "Sorry," she said sharply, opening her door and stepping back for Spike to enter.

"That's actually why I came to talk to you," Spike said, ducking into the doorway and closing the door behind him. "Rainbow Dash came and said you wanted to talk to me, and I came over right away," he confessed, rubbing his neck and giving a slight chuckle.

Fluttershy perked up at that, but remained rather cautious in her actions. "But you didn't have to come right away. It's getting late, after all," Fluttershy commented, tossing a glance to the windows of her home. The sky had already turned orange to alert her that she was correct. Her mind turned to romantic thoughts of a dinner shared with Spike, but as she began to blush she quickly shook her head to dismiss the thought.

The two walked over and into Fluttershy's living room, both of them taking seats on opposite sides of the table. Spike sat as best he could in a large chair whereas Fluttershy sat curtly on her sofa. The yellow mare's eyes darted everywhere but towards Spike's eyes, and the dragon couldn't help but feel a little wary.

"Yeah, but.." Spike began, but after a few moments' pause he gave a sigh and said, "Well I was worried, is all. When Rainbow told me you needed to talk, I was afraid that maybe it had something to uh.." At this point he looked rather nervous and rubbed the back of his neck again before continuing, "Something to do with you and I, I mean."

Fluttershy sank behind her mane and let out a soft squeak as she saw the scene unfolding before her. To her it sounded like a rejection before she had even gotten a chance to confess her feelings. It began to tear at her mind and she let out a small whimper.

"Hey.. Hey, are you alright? What's wrong?" Spike asked, sounding both confused and concerned. When he noticed the tears beginning to form in the mare's eyes, he carefully got up and sat next to Fluttershy, gently patting her back. "Come on. You can tell me," he whispered sincerely.

He half-expected a certain white rabbit to come flying out of some dark corner at his head, but such an event never came. Instead, Spike simply sat there, gently rubbing Fluttershy's back and trying to coax her into speaking. Eventually he heard her murmur something.

"She promised," Fluttershy said, her voice showing signs of her choking back tears. Spike had no clue what was going on, but he felt compelled to go on.

"You mean Rainbow? What did she promise?" Spike asked, trying to step a little further into the dangerous water that was this situation.

Fluttershy felt a little betrayed, but she also knew that logically, Rainbow would only have said something if she knew it'd help. But now it seemed like Spike had his mind set, and it was set to reject her. But if that were true, then why was Spike acting this way.

Her mind was rattled with so many questions that she hardly noticed that Spike had laid an arm around her. When she came to realize it fully, it only served to confuse her even further. But she also couldn't help but feel.. Warm. Reassured, in some ways.

She gave a sniff and went on to say in a slightly-less shaky voice, "She promised she wouldn't tell you." She waited for the inevitable apology, excuse, or reassurance but the first two never came and when the third one did, it wasn't nearly what was expected.

".. Tell me what?" Spike asked, totally oblivious to whatever Fluttershy was talking about. It was then that Fluttershy knew what actually had happened, and slowly looked over at Spike for a few moments.

Her face slowly heated up as she realized just how wrong she was at this point, and she let out out a small squeak as a response. When she took a moment to consider where she was - in the middle of a pseudo-cuddle session with the one creature in all of Equestria that she had feelings for - her face only heated up even further.

"Sh-she uh.. Well," Fluttershy stammered out. She thought back to her promise to Rainbow that she'd confess her feelings and was suddenly overcome with a sensation of panic. She realized she had no idea how to go about doing that, and stammered even more as she tried to.

"Take a deep breath," Spike said, his face calm and understanding. It came naturally to him, considering he'd had to deal with Twilight's random panic-attacks on an almost bi-daily basis. He had a wide but mellow smile, and his expression was that of a caring friend.

Fluttershy followed his advice by taking a deep breath and held it for a few seconds before slowly exhaling. When her nerves failed to calm down, she tried it once again but this time held the breath in for even longer. She thought about what Rainbow Dash had said, and then what Rainbow Dash would have done in this situation.

Letting her instincts take over, Fluttershy slammed her eyelids shut and let her mind take a rest while her body did the work. She felt herself lean forward - maybe a bit too quickly - and then felt pressure upon her lips. She had no idea if she hit her mark, but she knew on a basic level that she wasn't being pushed away.

When she pulled away and allowed her mind to catch up to what had just happened, her face heat up like the aftermath of Twilight's cooking. Slowly, she opened one eye to peek at the expression of the dragon she had just kissed. To her surprise, and delight, he was not angry. He didn't seem overjoyed or gushing with affection, but he wasn't angry.

The two simply sat very still, staring into each other's eyes for a very long while until Spike decided to break the silence.

"Wow," was all that was needed to say.

And then Fluttershy fainted.