//------------------------------//
// Black and Yellow 
// Story: I Am Awkward (Yellow) 
// by J Carp 
//------------------------------//

Twilight groaned in frustration.  "For the last time, Spike: because the ground has germs on it!"

"Yes, but food is delicious," Spike argued.  

"That's not the point."

"It is to me!" Spike said stubbornly.  "And I eat precious stones!  Those ARE the ground."

"Those are washed, and..."  The castle's magic doorbell chime interrupted Twilight.  She gave a consternated grunt.  "I'll get it.  Wait, but you do wash your gems before you eat them, right?"

"Um."

"Spike!"  The doorbell chimed again, somehow sounding slightly woeful.  Twilight gave the dragon a glare and disappeared in a puff of smoke.

She reappeared just inside the front door of the castle.  She realized for the first time that it was unusually late to have visitors, so she called out, "Hello?  Who's there?"

There was no response.  Beginning to get slightly nervous, Twilight tapped her horn against the door, causing a peephole to grow from the wood.  She peeked through and saw an enormous, yellow frown looming at her through the fish-eye.

"Moon Dancer?" Twilight pulled open the door and took in the full sight of her friend.  

Moon Dancer looked more miserable than anypony Twilight had ever seen.  She was not wearing her glasses, and her face was streaked with tears.  Her mane was a non-euclidean nightmare.  Her sweater was bundled up around her shoulders, because one of her legs stuck awkwardly through the bottom instead of through the sleeve, which dangled limply and appeared to be covered in dried snot.  

Twilight reached forward in concern.  "Are you all right?  What happened?"

Moon Dancer just sniffled disgustingly in response.

Twilight was used to Friend Crises, but this kind of anguish was new.  She reached out to touch her friend's shoulders and a puff of smoke surrounded them both.

When the smoke cleared, they were back in the pantry.  Spike looked up from an amethyst cookie in alarm.  "Twilight?  Hey, is Moon Dancer all right?"

"I don't know."  Twilight's magic grabbed hold of her friend's sweater and pulled it off, noting no resistance.  She gently floated the sweater over to Spike.  "Could you put this in the laundry, please?  I'm going to try to figure out what's going on."

She watched Spike run out the door, and then when she turned back, Moon Dancer had fallen over onto her side.  The pitiful unicorn simply lay there mounfully, staring at nothing.  She sniffled again.

Twilight cast a quick examination spell and determined there was nothing physically wrong.  She sat awkwardly, feeling powerless.

The two of them stayed in silence for a few moments, and then finally, creakingly, Moon Dancer spoke.  "I think Fluttershy dumped me."

"What?  Why?"

"She didn't come to my house tonight."  Moon Dancer slowly struggled to a seated position, tears beginning to flow down her face again.  "She knew it was important.  She said she'd come.  And she just... didn't."

"I can't imagine she'd do that, she..."  Suddenly, Twilight realized why this particular situation felt familiar.  "Oh.  Oh, Moon Dancer, I'm so sorry."

"She's very sweet," Moon Dancer said, heartbreak somehow dripping from her like sweat.  "She probably thought it'd be easier than telling me face-to-face."

Twilight blinked.  "Wait, are you sure she's okay?  She might be hurt, or..."

"No, she's fine.  I cast a locator spell a little while ago.  She's just at her house, moving around like normal.  She's fine."

"Still, it could be some kind of..."

"Twilight, please."  Moon Dancer stared up at her with anguished eyes.  "I can't."

Twilight looked around the room, completely unsure of what to do.  Moon Dancer was breaking again, she was going to spiral just like she did before.

Twilight dumbly realized that Spike had come back in at some point.  He stood in the doorway, looking like he felt as helpless as she did.  They shared a confused, lost moment.

"I'll talk to her," Moon Dancer rasped.

"What?"

"I learned a lesson from the princess of friendship, right?"  Moon Dancer emitted a hacking squawk that was probably an attempt at a laugh, but which was mostly swallowed up by phlegm and misery.  "I promise, I'll go talk to her in a bit.  Figure out what happened."  She looked at them plaintively.  "But will you just sit with me for a little while first?  I need... I need friends."

Twilight just nodded.  She walked over and wrapped her wing around Moon Dancer, feeling tears soak into the fur on her side.  Spike wordlessly came close and hugged one of Moon Dancer's front legs.

They just sat there for nearly fifteen minutes, silent except for the soft crying.






Moon Dancer approached the cottage, mind buzzing with a surprising lack of anxiety.  Crying so much had left her dry and numb, and her brain felt like it was made of hair, like herself-but-not-really.  She noticed dispassionately that the lights in some of the windows were on.  Twilight had been right: Fluttershy stayed up late.  There was always an opossum or a skunk to feed after the sun went down.

Moon Dancer parked herself before the front door.  She reached up to knock, then stopped, regarding her own hoof curiously.  Were these the last few minutes her right-front hoof would belong to Fluttershy's special somepony?  The thought struck her as terribly sad, in an abstract and distant way.  She looked at her other hoof, plaintively spending its last few moments as Fluttershy's special somepony's left-front hoof.  

It wasn't all lost... she still had her job and her friends.  But this brief, wonderful period of her life, the Fluttershy Epoch, was about to end. 

But.  She had to be respectful; she had to face her fears and communicate with ponies, even when it was awful.  She knew.  She would do it.  She had to be strong and dignified and fair.  She had to stand up for herself.  Sighing, shaking, heartbroken, she raised her hoof again.

Suddenly, an aye-aye jumped out of one of the windows of the cottage and landed on her face.

She had not cried so much that she was unable to feel very appropriate emotions in response to this turn of events.  She screamed.  The aye-aye held on to her hair, chittering madly, as she flung herself in a small circle.

A muffled voice: "Tsiory?  Where'd you go?" and the sound of a door opening.  Moon Dancer came out of her frenzy, dumbly looking at six upside-down, yellow legs.  She realized three things: The aye-aye was gone, she had somehow ended up lying on her back with her rear legs sprawled over her head, and Fluttershy was looking down at her in alarm.

"Goodness, I'm so sorry, Tsiory is so mischievous, he thought you were playing..." Fluttershy's cooing filled Moon Dancer's head as she found herself helped to her hooves, led inside, and supplied with a cup of tea and, for some reason, a shawl.  

She was three sips in before she had the wherewithal to even speak.  "Um.  What was that?"

Fluttershy rubbed her hooves together, embarrassed.  "That was Tsiory.  He's an aye-aye, and he's visiting his friends in the sanctuary tomorrow night, and... well, he's very playful.  I'm so sorry, I didn't think he would jump out a window like that!  Tsiory, you should say you're sorry."

Moon Dancer realized the aye-aye was sitting on top of Fluttershy's head.  It stared at her with giant, bulbous eyes.

Slowly, it reached out a hand towards her, extending a long, spidery finger.  Without really thinking, she reached her leg forward in response.  The finger poked her hoof, feeling clammy and bony.

Fluttershy looked very pleased.  "That's better!"  She reached up and set the aye-aye down on the floor.  "Now, please run outside.  I'll take you to see your friends later."  He scampered off, sounding like a beetle scraping along on the wood.  

"Um," Moon Dancer said, completely baffled.

Fluttershy's apologetic eyes filled her field of vision.  "I'm so sorry again," she said.  "I didn't realize you'd be out there!  Uh... of course I'm happy to see you... but why are you here so late?  Is everything okay?"

Moon Dancer blinked.  "Is everything okay?" she repeated dumbly.  "Really?"

"Yes?"  Fluttershy shrank back a step.  "What's wrong?"

"What's wrong?!"  Moon Dancer knew she sounded foolish, just echoing what Fluttershy said, but she did not have the mental energy to do anything else.  

"Yes?"  Fluttershy looked dumbfounded.  

Moon Dancer stomped her hoof.  "You didn't come!"

"...What?"

"I waited for you.  At my place." Moon Dancer surprised herself by feeling tears in her eyes again.  "I waited all night.  Did you forget?"

Fluttershy stared at her in horror.  "Moon Dancer," she said, "that's Saturday night."

Moon Dancer felt like she was either going to burst into laughter or go completely insane.  She drank another sip of tea. "Yes, and today is Saturday, Fluttershy."

"No, it isn't!  Today is Friday!"

"What are you talking about?"  Moon Dancer could feel herself filling up with rage, not at Fluttershy or herself, but at the entire world.  This whole thing had been a misunderstanding?  "I know today was Saturday.  I didn't have work!  I went to Twilight's salon, and that was scheduled for Saturday."

"But... but yesterday was Thursday, I know it!  Rarity came back from her Manehattan trip.  And... oh, wait here!"  Fluttershy disappeared into the kitchen and reappeared with a paper box.  She thrust it forward.  "Look at the sticker!  I bought these from Sugarcube Corner today, I promise!  See?  It says Friday!  And they're fresh."

Moon Dancer pressed a hoof against her head, a pain beginning to poke between her temples.  "Fluttershy... this..."  She took a deep breath.  "Look.  I know today was Saturday.  I know for sure."

"And I know today was Friday!"

"Fluttershy..."  Moon Dancer had almost run out of words; this entire night had been ludicrous.  "How could this be?  You're saying today was Friday for you and Saturday for me.  That doesn't make sense!"

Fluttershy froze.  The expression on her face slowly shifted from shock to something that looked completely unfamiliar on her.  "You're right," she said, "it doesn't make sense."  

Moon Dancer suddenly realized the look on Fluttershy's face was fury.  Fluttershy stomped across the room.  "Where are you?!" she barked at absolutely nothing.  "I know you can hear me!"  She stormed to her chimney and stuck her head in.  "Come out!"  She flew up and banged her hooves against the ceiling.  "I promise, if you don't come out, I will never forgive you!"

A shimmering light hesitantly began to flicker in the middle of the room.  It gradually formed into a draconequus that looked very uncharacteristically nervous.  "Why, goodness," he said with obviously feigned nonchalance.  "Who are you talking to?  It couldn't be me?"

Fluttershy hovered in front of his face, glaring.  She did not speak.

Discord took a step back.  "It couldn't be your old friend Discord?"

Fluttershy simply looked at him.  "Have you ever seen me this angry?" she asked.

"Errr. No."

"Do you ever want to see me this angry again?"

"No."

"That was the wrong answer, Discord."  Fluttershy alighted, face contorted into a grimace that used muscles she had never used before.  "Because if you don't tell me what you did right now, I will never, ever talk to you again.  You won't see me angry, happy, sad, or anything else.  You will be out. Of. My. Life.  Do you understand?"

Moon Dancer was almost too turned on to notice, but this threat had a clear effect on Discord.  He shrank to half his usual size and hung his head.  "I did it," he admitted.  "I mixed up your days."

Fluttershy nodded smartly.  "Thank you.  Now..."

"But I had to!"  Discord shot up in height, pointing a finger at Moon Dancer.  "You were going to be unhappy forever with Some Pony!  I did it for you!"

"Unhappy? Moon Dancer doesn't make me unhappy!"

"Ohh, that's what she said you'd say.  She said this liar pony will make you sad, and it'll be forever unless someone breaks you out of it.  That's what I was trying to do!"

Fluttershy sat down dumbly.  "'She...?'"

"I refuse to name my sources," Discord said, examining a fingernail smugly.  "Just suffice it to say, she knows the situation very well, because it's Rainbow Dash."

"Rainbow."  Fluttershy glowered at the floor.  "Oo, I am just going to..." She stomped her feet and flung herself up into the air, eyes busting with flames.  "I am so!"  She zipped out of the room and returned with a large plushie shaped like a minotaur.  She threw it on the ground and began kicking it softly.  "I am so! So! Mad!"

Moon Dancer and Discord watched this display, nonplussed.  Finally Fluttershy grabbed the plushie in her mouth, shook it back and forth, and tossed it into the corner.  She stood in the middle of the room, panting.

"Um," Discord said hesitantly, "...do you feel better?"

"I do feel better, thank you."  Fluttershy blinked, then glared.  "No, not thank you.  I'm still mad at you."

"Maybe he's right."  Moon Dancer had not even realized she had spoken until she saw Fluttershy turn and look at her in shock.  But she continued: "Maybe I'm wrecking everything."

"Moon Dancer..."

"Your friendship with Rainbow has been a huge deal your whole life.  I don't want to..." Moon Dancer had no more tears, but a wave of sadness washed over her.  "I don't want to break up, but maybe it'd be for the best?  I don't want an Equestria-saving friendship to end because of me."

Discord whistled, his eyes wide.  "Wow, she's good.  If I didn't know she was a liar, I'd believe everything she says."

Fluttershy whirled on him.  "She's not a liar, Discord!  Rainbow said those things because she was jealous.  She's been unfair and mean to Moon Dancer for weeks."  She turned and reached out to lay a hoof on her special somepony's cheek.  "I don't want to break up, either.  I think me and Rainbow will be okay, but... but if we're not, it's not because of you.  It's because she never knows how she feels, and I never know how to talk about things."

Moon Dancer nuzzled into Fluttershy's neck.  They stood for a second, feeling warm, before a nervous chuckle interrupted them.

Discord was actually blushing.  He pressed his index fingers together nervously.  "So," he said with feigned confidence, "if what you're saying is true, then... I just did something really bad, didn't I?"

"Yes, you did."

Discord looked like he was in physical pain.  "I'm.... sorry."

"For what?"

"Uh.  Trying to manipulate you."

"Instead of?"

"Instead of talking to you about it."

Fluttershy did not respond.  She tilted her head towards Moon Dancer.

"Grrph."  Discord clenched and unclenched his fists.  "I'm.  Sorry.  To you, too."

Fluttershy finally smiled.  "Thank you, I know that was hard."

"Does this mean you forgive me?"

"Yes.  But."  She looked at him with steely confidence.  "I'm still mad.  I don't think I want to spend time with you for a little while."

"What...?"

"It'll be okay, Discord."  Fluttershy rested her chin on Moon Dancer's back and closed her eyes.  "Just give me some time to cool down, all right?"

Discord just stood as they refrained from looking at him or reacting to him at all.  He tensed and grimaced, as if ready to shout and argue, but then he slowly deflated.  He gently faded out of sight.

Moon Dancer felt Fluttershy take a huge, relieved breath.  "Are you okay?" she asked.

"Sometimes I really hate that I learned how to be assertive."  Fluttershy pulled away and smiled softly.  "Now.  Rainbow."

Moon Dancer blinked.  "Now?  Tonight?"

"It should have been weeks ago.  Years ago."  She started to turn away, then looked back.  "Actually, wait."

"What?  You..."  Moon Dancer was interrupted by Fluttershy's lips pressed aggressively against her own.  Her mind went bleary, but she could feel her eyes closing and mouth doing what her mouth wanted to do at such times.  All the numbness that had been filling her up just evaporated away.

Fluttershy finally pulled back.  "I really, really like you."

"I like you too," Moon Dancer replied, completely on autopilot.

"I know."  Fluttershy yawned adorably.  "Okay, now we can deal with Rainbow.  Um, you don't have a wake-up spell you can cast on me, do you?"

"I know how to make coffee?"

"That works."