Fluttershy sat with her legs curled up in front of her, twirling a strand of her hair around her finger as her eyes remained glued to the window and the snowy hills outside. She was alone in a private cabin, but she wasn’t sure if that made her feel better or worse.
She still had a lot of anxiety being outside her forest; her magic was severely weakened, and she was constantly surrounded by ponies who, if they knew what she was, would want to have her killed immediately.
Not exactly a situation conducive to relaxing.
She felt okay—not great, but okay—when she was with Twilight, but Twilight needed some time alone with her son, and Fluttershy wasn’t about to deny her that, so now Fluttershy was on her own, and every second felt like an hour passing by.
A gentle tap at the door of her cabin made Fluttershy nearly jump out of her skin, and she wasn’t honestly sure how to feel about Rainbow Dash’s voice coming from the other side.
“Hey, Fluttershy?” she said. “You in there? Mind if I come in?”
“Um, okay,” Fluttershy whimpered meekly. Rainbow hadn't been anything but polite to her so far during their limited interactions with each other, and Fluttershy figured Rainbow must have had something important in mind if she was coming to Fluttershy of all creatures.
Rainbow Dash awkwardly sidled into the cabin and pointed at the bench across from Fluttershy.
“This seat taken?” she said with a shaky grin. Fluttershy just shook her head.
Rainbow cleared her throat and sat down, and the two just… sat.
And sat.
In silence.
For what felt, to Fluttershy at least, for about thirty years.
Fluttershy finally mustered up the nerve to speak, but as soon as she did, Rainbow blurted out something as well and the two talked over each other, both awkwardly shutting down to let the other speak first, which only led to another awkward silence.
“I’m afraid of you,” Fluttershy blurted out, and Rainbow sputtered in response.
“Wait, what?” Rainbow blinked. “You’re afraid of me? That’s what I was gonna say, but like the other way around! How are you afrai—”
“I think it’s because ponies, and especially Slayers, seem to be dedicated to wiping out my entire species,” Fluttershy said flatly.
“Oh,” Rainbow replied, eyes darting toward the ground, biting down on her lip and to top it off her ears flattened against her head. “Yeah, okay. That makes sense. Sorry about that.”
“Hm,” Fluttershy nodded. She wasn’t really sure how to take ‘sorry for the attempted genocide’.
“Hey guys, I have cookies!” Spike cheered as he bounced into the cabin, nearly giving Fluttershy a heart attack.
“Yo dude, I love cookies!” Rainbow cooed.
“I-I’ll have—oh!” Fluttershy yelped as Rainbow pulled a cookie out of Spike’s bag and tossed it to her.
“So Fluttershy, here’s what I’m thinkin’,” Rainbow said, her mouth full of cookie, Spike sitting next to her and chowing down on his own bag of cookies. “We got the being scared of each other thing in common, right? And we got the being trans, and the being friends with Twilight thing in common, too.”
Fluttershy wasn’t sure she could consider herself a ‘friend’ of Twilight Sparkle, exactly; they didn’t know each other that well, but Fluttershy did feel that she wanted to be friends with Twilight, and she would be pleased if Twilight really felt that way.
“Maybe we should have the being friends with each other thing in common, too!” Rainbow said, pounding her fist against her palm. Fluttershy gasped, and she wasn’t sure if it was at the sound or at Rainbow’s words. “Cuz I don’t think anyone deserves to live their life in fear, and that obviously includes you, right?”
“I think—” Fluttershy hummed and held out her hand, Rainbow Dash putting a cookie into it which Fluttershy took a nibble of and purred with delight; these must have been Pinkie Pie’s cookies. “I think I’d like that, Rainbow Dash.”