The cottage was warm and comforting, it smelled surprisingly nice considering the number of critters that lived there.
Just as Fluttershy had said, the tea party was all set up, complete with cucumber sandwiches and cups already in position. “I’ll go get the water boiling.” Fluttershy said and excused herself from the living room.
Lonely sat down in front of one of the teacups, waiting patiently for the mare to return. She flicked her ear as she tried to ignore the sound of Angel practically devouring an apple.
She took the moment to tame her pink mane, it'd gotten to be a bit of a mess after having taken care of the twins and moved all those apples. She understood now why Applejack always had her hair tied back, though she continued to not understand Pinkie Pie’s hair. Though she doubted anypony understood Pinkie’s hair. Did Pinkie even understand Pinkie's hair? She shook her head to rid herself of the thought for it could easily turn into a rabbit hole of conspiracy.
Just as she was adjusting her scarf, Fluttershy trotted back into the room, humming to herself and a few birds that flew around her.
"So," She spoke, taking a seat across from Lonely, "How has your day been?"
Lonely supposed this was normal tea party talk, she also supposed that anything she said would be significantly less interesting than anything Discord would say. "Well," She could lie, as you probably are supposed to do when you're asked the question. She could just say that it was good and then turn the question back onto the pegasus, who would reply with something similar and then they'd carry on with the conversation. If she were to lie, she wouldn't need to get into the morning's embarrassing situation and the dire circumstances that will come when she sees Twilight again.
"Bad?" Fluttershy asked weakly.
Lonely hardly noticed that she'd zoned out, she blinked to refocus herself, "No.. Yes, well, bad is a strong word. More like one.. bad thing and," She paused, thinking of to describe the other events of her day, "A hoof full of busywork?"
"I guess you're trying to keep your mind off of the 'bad thing?'"
"Yes." Lonely sighed and looked down to stare at her hooves. Her eyebrows furrowed after a short moment of pondering, "I'm not sure if busywork is the right word. It's distracting and I am glad to be distracted but.. I don't know." She turned her attention back to the yellow mare, "Starlight tried to teach me a spell, then I helped Pinkie Pie with the twins, and then I helped Applejack with a broken cart, and now I'm here."
"Oh my, that is a lot of busywork." Fluttershy said.
"It is." she confirmed, "And yet I didn't initiate any of it."
"I don't think it's that uncommon though." Fluttershy replied, "Twilight normally teaches you but I'm not surprised that Starlight would take over a for a bit."
"I guess."
"And Pinkie does have to take care of the twins quite often, in my opinion, she doesn't ask for help often enough." She continued.
"I.. Yeah.." Lonely rubbed the back of her neck, feeling sheepish that she was looking so deep into what was probably nothing.
"Though," Fluttershy giggled, "I fully agree that it's unusual for Applejack to ask for help. Maybe she's just really busy today?"
"Maybe, she was acting weird, maybe she'd just stressed over work." Lonely nodded, "I'm sorry, I guess I just haven't been thinking right since the.."
"Bad thing?"
"Yes." She laughed awkwardly. She took a sip of tea, then allowed herself to get distracted by two squirrels playfully chasing each other through the living room.
"Well, I'm sorry to say but, I'm a bit curious over what the bad thing is." Fluttershy said, "Though you don't have to tell me if it's too personal." She smiled sweetly.
"I guess it is," Lonely spoke. She watched as a ferret joined the two squirrels in their play. "But, basically, I.." She took a long sip of her tea, her eyes still trailing on the critters. It hurt so much to think about, or even consider saying out loud. She felt so stupid. "Told Twilight I liked her." It came out as little more than a whisper but Fluttershy heard.
And Lonely knew Fluttershy heard when she turned to see the pegasus' wings stiff and shaking as a hoof covered her mouth. She was choking on her drink.
"Are you okay?" Lonely's embarrassment quickly turned to concern for her friend.
"I-I'm fine." She cleared her throat after a bit of coughing and wiped a tear that formed in her eye from swallowing the drink wrong, "Just surprised. I uh, didn't know you liked her like that."
"Yeah." Lonely's ears folded back, "And I thought she liked me, I've always been able to tell that sort of thing."
"I assume it's something like my stare," Fluttershy commented on the unicorn's ability, they'd touched on it before but Twilight was the only one who had asked scientific questions on it, the other's just accepted it and moved on. Fluttershy had a thoughtful frown as she thought of her own strange power, "It doesn't always work as planned."
Lonely nodded, "I guess there's always room for error for these types of things."
Fluttershy pressed her lips together, "So she turned you down?"
"I think so, it was a bit spontaneous, she didn't give me an actual response but I can take a hint." Lonely laughed at her failure.
"Maybe she was just surprised," Fluttershy offered, "I know I was just now."
"Ah, it's okay," She shrugged away the thought, she knew her friend was only saying it to be nice, "I'll move on quick enough, I always do."
Fluttershy looked a bit sad at that, maybe she was a hopeless romantic just like Lonely, or maybe she just really doesn't understand the number of times Lonely had said the phrase 'I like you.' "I wouldn't give up so soon." Fluttershy tried to cheer Lonely up.
"She apologized and left without saying anything else." Her ears drooped a bit at the memory, "She just doesn't like me like that and that's fine. I'll find somepony else to crush on and the cycle will continue." What started a sigh turned into a morbid giggle as a thought occurred to her, "If she wasn't an alicorn, I'd have probably used some dark love magic on her, but I doubt would've worked anyway." It was true, she even thought about doing so a few times, but she didn't want to mess with an alicorn's resistance to spells again and she doubted Twilight would be as kind with her punishment as she was last time.
Lonely was drawn away from her thoughts when she saw the poorly hidden discomfort on Fluttershy's face, "Oh." Was all the tea party's host said.
"I-I was joking!" Lonely lied quickly, it seemed to make Fluttershy relax, "I've already been arrested once, I've learned my lesson." She laughed.
She hadn't learned her lesson. She learned a lesson, and that lesson was that one should not do dark magic in the public area nearby a princess' castle. It certainly wasn't the lesson she was intended to learn from the experience.
But Fluttershy seemed to believe her as she giggled, "Sorry, I got worried for a moment." She took a sip, making sure not to choke on this one, "Now, you know Twilight." She started, "She starts, well, 'Twilighting' sometimes, often over the smallest of stresses, and I'd say a pony confessing their love to her would give her a bit to stress over."
Lonely nodded, "I suppose."
"And maybe she-"
A sudden, uppity pattern of a knock interrupted her and Lonely wasn't sure whether she should praise or curse the knocker for doing so.
"I'll go get that." Fluttershy stood and trotted to the door.
It opened to reveal a pale unicorn, "Oh, Fluttershy, Dearest, I've run into a bit of a problem." Rarity said before they'd even greeted each other properly.
Lonely swallowed the last of her tea and then got up to talk Rarity as well, "Hi." She spoke from behind Fluttershy.
"Lonely! I expected Discord, honestly, but this is lovely surprise!" She said as Fluttershy gesture her in. She stepped through the doorway. "If it were Discord then it'd be quite a bit harder to convince him to let me borrow Fluttershy."