//------------------------------//
// Damn Good Times 
// Story: It Turns Out They're Windmills 
// by J Carp 
//------------------------------//

Fluttershy thought about flamingos.  

They gather in giant, colorful, chaotic mobs, filling up lagoons with their wild, loud chaos.  Each individual is so pretty and dainty, but at the same time, they squawk and flap around and are just... silly.  Beautiful, lithe ballerinas, squishing around in the mud.  

She thought about flamingos because... well...

"Just turn the sheet in, Twilight," Starlight said.  "We're destroying the other teams.  It's not even mathematically possible for them to win.  That one question won't make a difference."

"Trivia is very serious!" Twilight responded, legitimately offended.   "I know this, I'm just blanking on the donkey's name.  It's something like... Mailbox Head?  Moon Dancer, does that sound right?"

Moon Dancer just sipped her beer and smirked.  "Maybe, maybe not."

Starlight grunted, grabbing the paper and quill with a blob of magic.  "Oh, for... Just let Moon Dancer answer it, Twilight."  Despite the alicorn's protests, Starlight placed the paper in front of Moon Dancer, who wrote a name on the parchment, literally feigning a yawn as she did so.

Twilight glared.  Starlight rolled her eyes.  "Oh no, Moon Dancer knows fifty things, and you only know forty-nine things.  It's a catastrophe."  She picked up the parchment and toted it off to the triviamaster for scoring.

"I know the answer!" Twilight called after her.  "I just can't exactly remember the name!" Moon Dancer's smirk got bigger.  

Fluttershy reached over and put her hoof on top of Twilight's.  "I believe you, Twilight.  I know it's frustrating to not be able to remember something."

Twilight sighed.  Starlight returned to the table, and soon after, the fifth member of their team came back from chatting with an acquaintance near the bar.  "Oh, I'm terribly sorry to let myself get pulled away," Rarity greeted, politely and calmly.  "Are we still doing the little trivia thing?"

"We just turned in the sheet for the last round," Moon Dancer replied.  "I'm pretty sure we got all the answers right.  Thanks to... some of us, more than others."

Twilight huffed. 

Rarity nodded, almost certainly no longer listening.

Moon Dancer leaned closer.  "Twilight."

Twilight ignored her.

"Twilight."

"What."

"I have to tell you something."

Despite herself, Twilight looked dryly at her friend.

Moon Dancer grinned slyly.  "His name really was Mailbox Head."

"What??"  Laughing, Twilight pounced on Moon Dancer, poking her with her hooves.  "You made me think I didn't know it!"

"I had to seize the opportunity!"

As they playfully wrestled, the other three members of the team watched with vaguely amused tolerance.  Rarity glanced at the other two.  "I admit that I didn't think this could be so exciting for anypony."

Futtershy smiled to herself, noting that Rarity and Starlight were fully able to maintain eye contact with one another, again.  "Moon Dancer always gets this excited.  I thought you two wouldn't be so interested in trivia, but when Bon Bon and Lyra said they couldn't make it this week, I kind of needed to find some more ponies who didn't care much."

"Indeed, I can't get into the game, but it's so lovely to spend an evening with friends, no matter what," Rarity agreed, tipping her glass of wine slightly.   "And... please don't think your gesture has gone unnoticed.  Of inviting us to your trivia night, which was the regular outing with your..."  She coughed lightly.  "...Your friends who are of a particular orientation and lifestyle."

Fluttershy blinked innocently, tilting her head in confusion.  "I'm sorry?"

"Thanks for inviting us to your gay thing," Starlight answered brusquely, though she was blushing.  "And thanks for inviting Twilight too, so it wouldn't feel like a double date."  Rarity nodded at that enthusiastically.

Fluttershy smiled genuinely.  "Oh!  Of course, we just wanted to support you both."

Rarity took a deep breath, relaxing her body slightly.  "And we appreciate it, darling.  I'm trying to be less bashful about it, but it's difficult."

At that moment, the triviamaster spoke through his magical microphone again: "Okay, everypony, I've finished scoring the answers to the final round.  And the winners, once again with a perfect ten out of ten..."  He paused awkwardly as he had habitually done just before speaking their team's name all night.  "...'Four Queer Ponies And Twilight.'"

"Yes!!" Rarity shrieked, rearing up and stomping both of her front hooves onto their table.  "Take that, you heteronormative boors!"  

After a moment of aggressive panting, she opened her eyes and seemed to realize where she was.  She emitted a nervous titter, daintily stepped down from the table, and took a gentle sip from her wine glass.

"There you go," the triviamaster said dryly.  "It's not a hot night at the Pub Palomino until somepony calls somepony else a heteronormative boor.  Well, let's please give a round of applause to our winners, and remember to tip your waitstaff and bartenders generously.  I'll see you here next week."  He magicked down his microphone as ponies around the bar stomped dutifully for the victors.

Fluttershy smiled at Moon Dancer who, as always, was at the mercy of some kind of adrenaline high from expressing so much knowledge.  But before she could say anything, Rarity walked over and nudged Twilight.  "What about him, darling?"

Twilight blinked.  She glanced where Rarity was indicating, then looked back blankly.  "The trivia guy?  What about him?"  

"Do you think he's handsome?"

Twilight blushed.  "Are we really doing this?"

"You said you'd point out at least one pony who caught your eye, and the night's almost over!  We have to build up your confidence."  She grinned.  "I admit, if I wasn't currently more interested in... exploring other arenas, I might want to pursue him, myself."

Twilight looked at the trivia guy chatting with the bartender.  She considered his tight, button-up shirt, fashionable glasses, curly brown mane, and simultaneously carefully styled and bushy beard.  "I mean... I guess he has kind of a... Trenderhoofy appeal."  She shrugged.  "Okay.  Yes.  I think he's handsome. "  A very slight blush colored her cheeks.  "He's probably read a lot.  We'd be able to have good conversations."

"He reminds me of Moon Dancer!" Starlight chirped, which was perhaps the single worst thing she could possibly have said.

But Moon Dancer was able to be a bit graceful; she laughed and nodded.  "Yeah, kind of."

Twilight tilted her head at Rarity.  "How is that going for you?  The, um, other arenas."

A slight dusting of color tinged Rarity's cheeks.  "Truthfully, I'm mostly just disappointed in myself for not accepting things earlier," she admitted.  "Looking back, I can see opportunities I missed for no good reason.  It's a terrible waste."

"I get that too," Starlight added, leaning in.  "I was scared to even think about... anything, really.  So scared to think about it, I didn't even think about it enough to know I was scared!"  She grinned proudly.  "But I'll have you know, I talked to a cute mare when I just brought the sheet up to the trivia guy!"

"What was her name?" Fluttershy asked.

"No idea," Starlight answered, tittering nervously.  "Um, actually, 'talked' might have kind of been an exaggeration.  Do you have to actually open your mouth and speak to count as 'talking with somepony?'"

"Not if you think they're very pretty and you're still getting used to everything," Fluttershy replied.  Starlight softly blushed and nodded.

As if summoned, the triviamaster  strode directly over to their table.  "Congratulations!" he greeted, levitating a piece of paper down onto the table.  "Here's your fifty-bit gift certificate."

"Thank you!" Fluttershy replied cheerfully.  They almost always won, so this was a typical occurrence: congratulations, thanks, smile, and goodbye.  

But this time, he hesitated.  "Hey," he said.  "You're the team that... left the note for me a couple of weeks ago, right?  About never having questions about non-ponies?"

Moon Dancer nodded, but Fluttershy couldn't help but feel embarrassed about such a blunt thing.  "We're sorry if that was rude," she said.  

To her surprise, the triviamaster just laughed.  "No, no!  I looked back at my questions, and you're totally right!  I didn't even notice until you pointed it out."  He shook his head, grinning.  "I probably would have been really defensive about that kind of thing a few years ago, but I'm trying to be more chill, now.  Besides, the best thing about this job is, every week I have an excuse to do a bunch of new research.  This just gives me a whole new set of stuff to learn about."

Rarity had been looking back and forth between him and Twilight gleefully.  She leaned forward.  "You enjoy learning things?  Goodness, that's so much like you, Twilight!"  She grinned almost maniacally at her friend, then winked at the trivia guy.  "Twilight, if you'll recall from our team name, is not a queer pony."

Twilight's terrified grin appeared to be the only contribution she was able to make to the conversation.

The trivia guy, for his part, just nodded warmly.  "I remember when it first occurred to me that I would never run out of new things to learn.   But that can suck you in, you know?  So the other thing I love about this job, I always get to meet new ponies who love facts as much as I do.  Forces me to keep ponies other than myself in mind."

"My!" Rarity bellowed.  "So, it seems, if I may put it in my own words, that your two main interests are learning and friendship!"

He laughed.  "I guess you could say that."  He beamed at Twilight.  "You, too?  I live in Canterlot, but I make it down here to Ponyville a lot.  Would you want to meet up sometime to talk about it over a drink?"

Twilight's terrified grin was now accompanied by a huge blush.  "This is actually really working on me, Rarity!" she barked. "But please tell him it is far too early for me to feel comfortable going on any date with anypony!"

"Erm.  I think he can hear you, darling."

"Yes, I am speaking very loudly!  Will he be mad?  I hope he isn't mad!"

The triviamaster chuckled, blushing very slightly himself.  "No, of course I'm not mad.  I'll tell you what.  If you change your mind, or if you just want to hang out as friends, you know where I'll be.  Otherwise, I hope you'll come enjoy trivia night, okay?"

He flashed a charming grin and Twilight nodded.  He looked around at the rest of them and said, "I'll try to make the questions harder for you guys next week!" and then he walked on to another table to chat with the patrons there.

Twilight glared at Rarity as if suddenly realizing she was annoyed with her.  "Ack!  What was that?"

"What was what?"

"You totally put me on the spot, there!  I revert to some sort of filly-like state when dating is on the table, you know that!"

Rarity sipped her wine.  "But that's why I did it.  Experience is the only way for it to get easier.  He was very nice about you turning him down, right?"

"Yes, but..."  Twilight suddenly squinted at her friend.  "Hey, where was all your gratitude when I was making you go talk to that cello pony with the bowtie, huh?"

Rarity blushed (and Fluttershy felt her own cheeks warming slightly).  "Ahh.  Indeed.  We're all learning every day."

Fluttershy felt her foreleg being nudged.  She looked over at her special somepony, who was gaping at the triviamaster.  "Psst.  Hey.  Hey."

Fluttershy leaned closer.  "Um, yes?"

Moon Dancer kept poking her.  "Fluttershy.  Look.  At his.  Cutie mark."

Fluttershy looked.  It was normally blocked by his hip shirt, but standing the way he was, chatting with the ponies at the other table, it was visible.

His cutie mark was a tree.  It rose narrowly as a dark brown line and then spread out, dangling green tendrils, stark on his light beige coat.  It was unmistakable.  A weeping willow.

Fluttershy's mouth fell open; luckily the others were still talking and hadn't noticed.  She leaned even closer.  "Let's not tell Twilight, okay?"

Moon Dancer chuckled.  "Agreed."

They leaned against one another as all three of the others shared mutual congratulations at their flirtation bravery.

Moon Dancer spoke up.  "You guys are the best."

They looked at her, confused.  "Uh, what?" Starlight asked.

"I mean it," Moon Dancer emphasized.  "This stuff is really hard, and you're all just crushing it.  You're the best."

Twilight frowned.  "There can't be more than one 'best,' by definition."

"Um, maybe most of the time," Fluttershy said.  "But actually?  I think she's right.  You're all the best."

They blinked at her, looking confused but flattered.  "Well, okay," Starlight said.  "You're the best, too."

Fluttershy gave a full-face smile, her eyes squeezed shut, her teeth gleaming.  "Mm hmm."  And she felt Moon Dancer give her a kiss on the forehead.