We Aren't Dating!

by YourUncleFuncle


New Revelations

It’s a beautiful day in Ponyville, and there were tons of different ponies out going about their days. Some were trotting down the main path, some were working in stands trying to sell their products, but one blue pegasus in comparison was anxiously rushing trying not to draw attention to herself, which was highly unusual of her.

Rainbow Dash was confused to say the least. It seemed like all the ponies had started to react oddly whenever they were around her.

It wasn’t that she hadn’t noticed before, because, even though she seemed scatterbrained to anypony on the outside, everypony close to her knew that she was surprisingly observant, so it definitely wasn’t that.

It wasn’t that there was some big news going around about her. Ever since she became a Wonderbolt and the initial wave of everypony wanting to shake her hoof or get her autograph, things seemed to calm down, and although the occasional colt or filly would still marvel at her from time to time, it didn’t seem possible for her newfound fame to be the cause.

It wasn’t that she had something on her face. She checked, so it wasn’t that either.

So what could it be?

Well, that was the exact question on the pegasus speedster’s lips as she trotted into Sugarcube Corner, trying to find the answer to her question. She figured that if anypony knew the reason for the odd behavior of the ponies around her, it was the pony who knew everypony in town. That just so happened to be one of her best friends who also worked at the sweets shop, Pinkie Pie.

As Rainbow Dash walked through the door, she gazed around at the surroundings in the establishment, she saw about half of the tables filled, with several ponies munching on their delicious pastries, cupcakes, or slices of cakes. Rainbow took note of how they seemed to be normal, and how none of them looked at her weirdly, and it didn’t surprise her.

The reason was that the looks weren’t the only thing Rainbow noticed, but she also noticed the timing of when she noticed them. When it was just her out in public alone, she would not see anypony looking at her weird or turning away to pretend like they didn’t notice her, but all of it happened when she was with one pony in particular, and only that pony.

Fluttershy.

Whenever the two pegasi were out together, Rainbow Dash noticed the looks, the head turns, and the smirks she got. At first she didn’t care all that much, but after a while it started to annoy her when everypony did it, and not just the random strangers in Ponyville that she barely talked to, but also her closest friends. Just the other day when they went out to lunch with their friends, whenever the two made each other laugh, she caught the rest of them giving each other knowing looks, and when Fluttershy gave her the rest of her hay fries toward the end because she was too full, Rarity and Pinkie seemed to almost explode with excitement. The blue pegasus was used to seeing her pink friend getting excited at the drop of a hat, but for Rarity to break out of her sophisticated mask in public was very rare, unless of course she found some big fashion news or something like that.

Then there were a bunch of the random ponies of Ponyville that did almost the same things. They would look at her funny whenever Fluttershy and her were out, and it made both of them uncomfortable.

The one moment that stood out from the rest was the time that she was practicing her tricks and she accidentally crashed into her number one fan. After they stood up together, they noticed that the crash had grabbed a number of ponies’ attention. The weird thing was that they didn’t go away immediately after they saw that the two were alright, in fact if anything they did the exact opposite. They all smiled at each other and at the two pegasi, and Rainbow could have sworn that she saw Cherry Berry wink at her. The sudden attention made Fluttershy nervous and try to cower behind her friend, but that made everything worse, as they all smiled bigger and a few of them even “awwed” at them.

That was the last straw for Rainbow Dash, and now here she was waiting at the counter of Sugarcube Corner wanting answers.

“Hey Pinkie,” Rainbow called out to her friend as she passed with her hooves full of pastries of some kind, fresh from the oven.

“Just give me one second, Dashie and I’ll be right with you lickity-split!”

At lightning speed, she ran to a few of the tables, delivering the goodies in the blink of an eye with a great big smile each time. When she was through with her deliveries, she went back behind the counter. “So whaddya need, Dashie?”

Rainbow Dash finally let the question that had been on her lips for a while now come out. “I was wondering if you knew why everypony has been looking at me weird for the past few weeks.”

“Looking at you weird?”

“Yeah, you, the girls, and almost everypony in town always look at me funny whenever I go somewhere with Fluttershy. It’s kinda freaking me out at this point.”

Pinkie’s facial expression of confusion morphed into one of her usual extreme happiness. “Does this mean what I think it means?”

Rainbow raised an eyebrow at the huge smile that now adorned Pinkie’s face. “What do you think it means?”

“Well, you don’t have to worry about hiding it from us anymore because we’ve all known for a while now! And now I can throw a great big party for it! There’ll be dancing, and games, and tons and tons of balloons!”

“Uh, Pinkie, a party for what?” Rainbow Dash’s voice seemed to snap Pinkie out of another one of her party dazes.

“Duh, about you finally opening up about your totally secret relationship with Fluttershy, silly.”

Wait, thought Rainbow, Me? Fluttershy?

IN A RELATIONSHIP?

“WHAT!!!?”

Everypony outside of the shop stopped as they heard the loud yell, but after not noticing an immediate rebuttal of some kind, they went on with the rest of their days, shrugging it off as another victim of Pinkie’s antics no doubt.

Inside the shop it was different. All of the ponies who had been minding their own business before had turned toward Rainbow Dash, mouth agape and staring at the party pony with saucers for eyes. Instead of being alarmed by the outburst, Pinkie just started giggling at her shocked expression.

“What the hay, Pinkie?” Rainbow cried after her minute of regaining composure, “You think I’m a fillyfooler? You think Fluttershy’s a fillyfooler? You think we’re in a relationship together?”

“Of course, silly filly,” Pinkie said as her laughter died down, “and it’s not just me. All of us have noticed how differently the two of you act around each other, and how cute the two of you look when you’re with each other. How you two are always walking together, flying together, and how you each support each other is super beautiful. When Applejack told us about how she saw you two watching the sunset together, we all connected the dots and decided to support you two no matter what. I wanted to throw a party right away, but Rarity told me that it wasn’t proper, or something, and made me pinkie promise not to say anything until you love birds decided to be open about it. But now that you finally are, I can finally throw that party I’ve been planning since this whole thing started.”

“But I’m not gay,” Rainbow insisted loudly, “I like stallions.”

“Well of course you do,” Pinkie said, ‘I know you’re really good friends with that one stallion on the Wonderbolts, Soarin.”

“Not that kind of like, Pinkie,” Rainbow deadpanned.

“Oh, so you’re saying that you liked him on Facehoof or something?”

“What?” Rainbow Dash asked, before shaking her head and gave up on trying to get through to Pinkie, instead opting to fly straight out of Sugarcube Corner and out into the open sky, mumbling the same phrase over and over again as she went along.

“Have to find Fluttershy! Have to find Fluttershy! Have to find Fluttershy!”

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Fluttershy and Rarity were at Ponyville Day Spa as they were every Sunday, relaxing and being pampered, which were two of the unicorn’s favorite things. Currently, they were sitting in a relaxing hot tub together and gossiping about the latest hot topics.

Okay, Rarity was the one gossiping while Fluttershy was just enjoying her friend’s company, but it was still fun for Fluttershy to listen to. The conversation had turned into one where Rarity was talking about some handsome stallion in Manehattan that she met.

“I’m so happy for you Rarity,” Fluttershy smiled, happy for her white and purple friend, “he sounds absolutely lovely.”

“Yes, well, I suppose he is a stud,” Rarity said as she found her opening to interrogate on the burning question she had been dying to ask for weeks, “although I’m sure he’s nothing compared to your very special somepony, darling.”

“Oh, but Rarity,” Fluttershy replied, confused, “I don’t have a very special somepony, although often I like to think about what he'll be like.”

Rarity simply sighed at the implication that she was referring to a stallion and moved closer across the hot tub. “Listen, darling, what you’re going through is perfectly normal. You don’t have to hide your feelings from me anymore. It’s just the two of us here, Fluttershy, and I’ll love you no matter what.”

Fluttershy got really confused and scooted against the edge of the hot tub. “I don’t know what you’re talking about, Rarity.” She was nervous of the advancing purple unicorn who had her hooves out, preparing for a hug.

“Oh Fluttershy, you really don’t have to keep your secret any longer. In fact, I think it’s rather adorable how you and Rainbow Dash are trying to keep your little relationship a secret.”

Fluttershy felt her cheeks heat up even more than they already were from being in the hot tub. Rarity noticed the red on her yellow muzzle and her comforting look turned into a plastered smirk.

“Well it appears as though you really do like Dash. And Twilight thought you two were just experimenting with each other.”

“B-but, Rarity, y-you don’t understand,” Fluttershy stammered. “Me and R-R-Rainbow aren’t in a relationship with each other. I mean, I like her as a friend and all, but...n-not like t-that.”

Rarity simply laughed a little and seemed to brush off the statement as another one of Fluttershy’s mini panic attacks, and she finally closed the distance between them, placing her shoulder under the other mare’s chin for support. “Darling, honestly, there is nothing wrong with loving mares in our time, thank Celestia for that. I have plenty of acquaintances in Canterlot that go that way, and I could introduce you to some of them if you like.”

Fluttershy pulled away from the fashionista just as confused as she had been before the offer. “Rarity, what gave you the idea that I loved Rainbow?”

“Well, first Applejack mentioned something about seeing you two together in a very romantic setting and we observed the two of you over the past several weeks before we came to the inevitable conclusion. I always did think that it was possible that Rainbow Dash liked mares, but I must say it was a surprise to me that you liked them as well.”

Before Fluttershy could respond, Aloe Vera trotted up to the hot tub. “You’re half an hour of soaking is finished,” she announced with a smile, “and now that your hooves are now good and soft, it is a perfect time to do a hooficure.”

Rarity practically jumped in excitement. “Oh goodie! Come on, darling, our pampering continues this way.”

Fluttershy watched as her friend rose out of the warm water and put on her pink bathrobe and followed the spa pony out. The pegasus hung back to think about the information her friend had just told her, before following and deciding to just be relieved that it was over.

However, one thing was certain about what she must do next.

She had to find Rainbow after this was done.

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Rainbow had immediately gone to Fluttershy’s cottage and knocked on her front door, but upon receiving no answer, she decided to go to Twilight’s castle and see if she happened to be hanging out with the alicorn.

A few seconds after she knocked the doors opened and revealed a purple baby dragon with a broom in claw.

“Hey Rainbow,” he said cheerfully, “Twilight’s in the library reading about something again. Feel free to let yourself in.”

“Thanks Spike,” she smiled. “Have fun with the cleaning.”

“I will,” Spike said in a way that Rainbow couldn’t tell if it was sarcastic or not.

She walked down the large crystal corridor, making a turn here, a turn there before eventually coming to a set of large wooden doors that Rainbow knew all too well, as she would come everytime she reread Daring Do. All thirteen times so far.

She walked in quietly and saw her friend with books of all different sizes and colors circling around her in a magical glow produced by her horn. Rainbow had always wondered how Twilight was able to research and study that way, but she never really asked.

“Hey, Twilight?”

Twilight jumped in surprise, jerking her head around to see the rainbow-maned pegasus standing in the doorway of her library. She took in a breath before addressing her.

“I would complain about you interrupting me while I was in the zone, but I’m just happy you decided not to bust through the window this time!”

Rainbow shrugged, “And you’re very welcome for that, but I came to ask if you know where Fluttershy is. I need to talk to her about some stuff.” Rainbow rolled her eyes when she see a little red appear on her friend's face and her inability to verbally respond, instead just shaking her head from side to side. “It’s not for the reason you think it is, egghead.”

“Oh, well either way I haven’t seen her,” Twilight said perhaps a little too quickly, before her face lit up with a big smile and a light gasp. “Does this mean what I think it means?”

Rainbow slapped a hoof to her head with a slight groan. “Nevermind! See you later.”

“Rainbow, wait-” before she could continue, the pegasus turned and hightailed it out of the castle library. She was moving so fast that she didn’t notice a light purple unicorn trotting down the hallway from the opposite direction unaware of the flying bolt of speed.

The collision knocked both of the ponies backward, and as soon as Starlight Glimmer regained composure, she looked to the cause of the accident holding a hoof to her hurting head. “Rainbow, what’s the rush?”

“Sorry Starlight,” she mumbled as she rose to her hooves, “I was just here to ask Twilight if she had seen Fluttershy around anywhere.”

“Well I haven’t seen her recently, although she did mention that her and Rarity were going to the Ponyville Day Spa today. Maybe they’re still there.”

Rainbow slapped a hoof to her forehead for what seemed like the thousandth time today. She had forgotten it was Sunday, which equaled spa day for both of them.

“I’m actually kinda surprised, Rainbow,” the mare opposite of her said, pulling Rainbow out of her thoughts, “I thought that maybe you of all ponies would know where she would be considering, uh, you know...you and her-”

“Oh, shut up!” Rainbow yelled as she dashed out of the window away from the stammering unicorn, relieved at the fact that at least now she could pinpoint her location.

Due to her speed it only took her a minute for her to get from Point A to Point B. She bursted through the door, surprising a few of the patrons of the spa, and flew right up to the counter, where Lotus Blossom was currently doing paperwork of some kind.

“Hello,” Rainbow Dash said, getting the attention of the mare, “I was kinda wondering if my friends Rarity and Fluttershy were here.”

“Ah yes, Miss Dash,” she said with a nod, “Miss Rarity left about five minutes ago with your little marefriend-”

“SHE’S NOT MY MAREFRIEND!”

Lotus and every other pony in the shop were startled by the yell and the sudden blue flash leaving the shop that followed it. Lotus seemed the most confused of the ponies, as she recollected herself and announced out loud, “I just believe what all the rumors tell me.”

Next Rainbow Dash went to Sweet Apple Acres, as she was now more curious as to the origin of the rumor than her desire to talk to Fluttershy about it for now. As she passed overhead she scanned the grassy apple orchard for Applejack, but the only pony she saw was her big brother, who saw her shadow, looked up, and offered a friendly wave. After waving back she doubled back and decided to try the barn instead, thinking that Applejack might have taken a break or something like that. Landing at the small dirt path, she walked up to the red barn and knocked on the door, waiting for an answer that would come in the form of an orange pony with a blonde mane.

“Howdy, Rainbow! What brings you around these parts?” Applejack said with a smile that disintegrated once she saw the stressed and somewhat annoyed expression her friend carried. “Rainbow, what’s wrong with you? You look more stressed than an apple that’s still on a tree past harvest season.”

“Listen AJ,” Rainbow began, “I don’t know what you saw, and I don’t know why you drew the connections, but Fluttershy and me are not dating. I don’t even like mares, and I’m pretty sure she doesn’t like them either.”

Instead of Applejack realizing some sort of mistake and then apologizing like Rainbow thought, she just chuckled and placed a hoof on her shoulder. “Oh Rainbow Dash,” Applejack sighed when her laughter ceased, “Ah know that a pony like you has a tough time expressing her feelings, and if anypony understands that, it’s me, but there’s only a certain point when you can’t push them down no more.”

“But what if there aren’t any feelings in the first place,” Rainbow deadpanned.

“Oh please, Rainbow, Ah saw it with mah own two eyes the way you and Fluttershy were sitting together out in the west field watching the sunset. The way you had your hoof wrapped around her and pulled her closer to sit together was so precious. Ah almost wanted to watch, but Ah knew you two probably wouldn’t want to be disturbed or nothing, so Ah decided to let you two be.”

“Wha-? Precious? Applejack, you got it all wrong-”

“Maybe you’re the one who’s wrong, Rainbow Dash,” Applejack interrupted, somewhat concerned. “We all have moments where we doubt ourselves and think that what we’re doing is bad, but know that what you’re feeling is natural, and we as your friends support you two to the ends of Equestria.”

“B-But I...I...Apple-”

“Now Ah want you to do something for me, you hear? Ah want you to go home, take a good long look at yourself in the mirror, and ask yourself ‘Am Ah gay?’ Trust me, you’ll thank me later when you learn that-”

“That’s it!” Applejack stumbled backwards in the doorway at the exclamation. “Just forget it, Applejack. I am not a fillyfooler and that’s that! I’m going to see Fluttershy so good day to you ma’am!”

Rainbow knew she should have chosen her words better, especially after she heard, “Have a nice day with your very special somepony,” coming from behind her after she took off.

Applejack stood at the doorway still and mumbled to herself going inside.

“That pony is really bad with emotions. What does Flutters see in her anyways?”