Chapter Six – What Happened at the Ice Rink
Fluttershy stood in front of the tall concrete walls of Horseton Stadium, Pinkie Pie at her side. Both mares had bellies full of complimentary breakfast foods. Snow billowed down around them.
Ponies came and went up or down the stairs to the stadium doors. Pinkie and Fluttershy had heavy saddlebags upon their flanks. They each wore a thick wool hat, a white stripped scarf, a winter jacket, and warm, furry boots, with Fluttershy’s garments being green and Pinkie’s blue to differentiate the two.
“Quite the showing, huh?” Pinkie asked, bouncing in place. “Are you as EXCITED as I am?”
“I’m” — Fluttershy gulped and hid behind her wings — “Something. Definitely something.”
Fluttershy wondered if she hadn’t made a gargantuan mistake in bringing up the skating competition in the first place. What did Fluttershy see in the competition? Her and Pinkie had never skated before as a pair. They’d probably lose in the first round.
Fluttershy shuffled in place for a moment before bracing herself to ascend the stairs, which she did so with a huff.
“Okay! Let’s go, Pinkie!”
Pinkie cheered, “WooHoo!” and bounced up after Fluttershy.
Once she was through the stadium doors, Fluttershy’s heart jumped up into her throat and she became speechless. Her jaw unhinged itself.
There were hundreds of ponies inside, mostly Vanhoovans (if their appearance was anything to go by) who had come to watch the competition, but also out-of-towners who were in line to sign up. The stadium lobby was a sea of furry equines dressed in winter attire. Fluttershy couldn’t even hear her own thoughts amid the flurry of noisy chatter. She hid behind her wings again.
“O-oh no… Pinkie, this is so much pressure I’m just… I could just… ohhhhhh!”
Pinkie giggled and slapped her friend on the shoulder.
“Hey! Don’t worry about it, Fluttershy! It’s just a huge crowd of potentially hundreds of ponies, all of whom are competing against us in the skating competition which we haven’t even practiced for!” Pinkie chortled. “That’s nothing to worry about!”
Fluttershy awkwardly forced a laugh and smile as a reply before turning back toward the crowd and contorting her face into an expression of pure terror.
The daring duo of Ponyville mares found what they assumed was the back of the line and trotted into place. The line moved quickly, so that after a few minutes they were standing in front of the desk to sign up. It was supposed to be a simple affair, though Fluttershy found herself shuffling in place with a red face, glancing between Pinkie and the mare working behind the desk.
Fluttershy ignored the stadium mare behind the desk and instead smiled in response to all questions as a hot streak overtook her cheeks. Pinkie beamed and looked through the inner lobby windows toward the centre of the stadium where the rink was.
Fluttershy followed Pinkie’s gaze. The stadium’s inner rink was much larger than anything she had ever laid eyes on before. Fluttershy’s tummy vibrated with nervousness. The staff member cleared her throat so that Fluttershy was brought back to the moment.
“Hello!? Are you listenin’, eh?” the stadium mare asked with clear annoyance. She was an older mare. Fluttershy’s cheeks lit up as the stadium mare continued. “Do ya consent to the agreement as I read it to yoose so we can process yoose and get tha line moving er what?”
Fluttershy made an “Mhm…” noise and shuffled in place. Pinkie was primed to burst from excitement, so that the grumpy stadium mare looked over with a deadpan expression.
“And how’s about you, Sunshine?” the employee said in a Vanhoover drone. “You agree, too?”
Pinkie nodded rapidly with a much more chipper ‘Mhm!” than Fluttershy. The employee frowned and wrote something down with her magically controlled feather pen. She grumbled, turned around, grabbed some bibs, and slid them across to the mares.
“Right. Put these here bibs on, go through the doors to the rink, and keep on goin’ ‘til you reach the waiting area. You won’t miss it, yeah?”
The girls had to politely shove past the mass of ponies in the lobby, but eventually they pushed the doors open and walked straight ahead, moving alongside the outside boards of the rink. Being inside the stadium proper, Fluttershy was glad her and Pinkie had dressed so warmly, because even with the winter wear, the ice rink was a chilly place.
The rink itself seemed to go on forever, in the sense that ponies skating at the other end furthest from Fluttershy seemed like little fillies and colts because they were so far away. Fluttershy looked up and around. The domed ceiling was supported by a series of grey support beams that criss-crossed in all directions. Looking further down and all around, Fluttershy saw rows upon rows of stands quickly filling with onlookers.
“Ooo, ooo, there’s the girls, Fluttershy!” Pinkie shouted with an excited pointing of her hoof. Fluttershy looked and saw the four of her friends in the distance, halfway up the stands, watching with smiling faces. Fluttershy nervously waved and smiled a wavy grin.
Pinkie squeezed Fluttershy in an excited hug and squealed.
“This is SO cool!”
Fluttershy giggled.
“Y-yeah, l-literally.”
She shivered and Pinkie giggled as well and nodded.
Fluttershy stared at Pinkie. Really stared hard. She studied Pinkie’s chubby cheeks of pink and her piercing ocean irises vibrating with joy. She took in the bounce of Pinkie’s curly mane. She realized that Pinkie’s beauty wasn’t the kind of beauty that Rarity had, the classic sort. And Pinkie didn’t have the kind of charm that Applejack carried, rustic and traditional.
But what Pinkie had was… well, Pinkie. She was unique. One of a kind. Fluttershy had never known anypony quite like her. Pinkie’s own brand of self was mesmerizing. From the day they had met, Fluttershy was always attracted to Pinkie’s confidence and craziness.
Fluttershy just never realized it would be that kind of attraction…
The two mares found the employee’s words were true after a minute or so of walking. They came across an open area to the right of the skating rink. It was carved into the stadium seating, so that the back of the waiting area was surrounded by tall, concrete walls.
Pinkie and Fluttershy found some free spots on the waiting benches and made themselves comfortable. The couples around them were all quite different, with some being lovey dovey with each other, some being very serious and discussing their routines, and others not saying much. It looked like, on the ice, some couples were practicing.
“Hey!” Pinkie asked, drawing Fluttershy’s gaze, “Why don’t we get some ice time in before the competition? Everypony else seems to be doing the same!”
Fluttershy thought she had a point and shuffled her saddlebags off.
“Okay,” she answered quietly. “It’s probably for the best. We don’t exactly have a plan, do we?”
Pinkie snickered and did the same with her own saddlebags. Both mares got into their skates.
“Nope!” Pinkie replied, “The only plan is to have fun, right?”
That drew Fluttershy’s neutral lips into a crescent of a smile, straight from the heart. She nodded in perfect agreement.
With their skates on, both mares wobbled over to the open rink door and tentatively stepped on the ice. Once their bearings were about them and they found their balance, they began treading the ice with more comfort.
Fluttershy watched Pinkie figure eight and perform spinning leaps into the air, humming all the while. Fluttershy wondered what she might do for practice beside just skating around. The rink was so vast, even with all the practicing couples, and there was more than enough space on the ice.
Fluttershy hung her head and stared at her skates. The lack of friction between her blades and the ice meant that even if she wanted to stand perfectly still, Fluttershy was always edging forward little by little.
I’m not as good as Pinkie at all of this stuff… jumping, spinning, figure eights. She frowned and screwed the end of her lips into a sort of scowl. Her brow tightened. But just skating — I’m not scared of that. Yeah!
Fluttershy looked back up. She gave herself a burst forward with her wings and kicked her hooves in perfect timing. She skated, faster than she normally would on Saddle Lake. There was just so much open space on the Horseton Stadium rink.
She truly felt like she was flying. Fluttershy was never a very strong flyer, but having solid ground under her hooves filled her with confidence. She glid across the ice, faster and faster with each passing second, and she neither fell nor collided with anypony.
It was so seamless. So natural. If she approached somepony, Fluttershy swerved past. If somepony skated into a direction that she was headed, Fluttershy anticipated it and altered her course. As she reached a speed that the normal Fluttershy would have cried at even thinking about, the new, daredevil Fluttershy grinned wildly and narrowed her eyes.
This is… wow!
The feeling of freedom was intoxicating! Fluttershy couldn’t believe it. She was really doing it! She was skating as fast as Rainbow Dash and Applejack did the other day. She cheered as she zoomed past the slower ponies.
“WOOHOO! THIS IS GREAT!”
She deftly passed an older stallion and jumped right over a mare even smaller than herself. She landed with a graceful clink of the ice below, slowing the fall with a flap of her wings, and maintaining her previous skating speed post-descent. Her smile never faltered for a minute. Pinkie’s surprised voice came from Fluttershy’s left.
“Holy moly, Fluttershy! Look at you go!” Pinkie was neck and neck with Fluttershy, and the pink party mare had an even larger open-mouth grin than Fluttershy in her euphoric state. Pinkie made a suggestion.
“Hey, I wanna try something! In like ten seconds, lean and jump towards me okay?! Jump high! And hold your hooves in front of and behind you, like you’re flying! Open your wings, too!”
Fluttershy, as confident as ever, nodded with determination. She didn’t question Pinkie’s suggestion for even a half second. She narrowed her eyes again and counted inside her mind, maintaining her insane speed. After reaching ten, Fluttershy swerved towards Pinkie and leapt into the air. She held out her hooves as if she were flying, and even unfurled her fluffy pegasus wings.
And then…
Fluttershy never went back down. Instead, she felt two strong hooves grip the sides of her midsection.
Pinkie.
In the heat of the moment, Fluttershy didn’t even blush or become self conscious. She just beamed and laughed.
“This is amazing, Pinkie! How’d you manage?!”
She heard her friend’s strained response.
“I… kicked my skates off… and just stood up! Pretty cool… h-huh? This should… be our t-trick!”
Fluttershy closed her eyes, relishing the feeling of flying without having to flap her wings. Pinkie must have been so strong to hold her up like that. The speed of Pinkie’s skating forced the air to rush through Fluttershy’s flowing pink mane and blow it behind her. As soon as the intimate skating display had occurred, though, it was over.
Fluttershy felt her body lower as Pinkie dropped her. Acting quick, Fluttershy braced for impact with her skated hooves and continued skating after falling. She looked back at Pinkie, who was flat out on her belly.
“Pinkie! Oh no, are you okay?”
That knocked Fluttershy out of it. She doubled back, head swimming with regret. She nudged Pinkie with her head. Pinkie didn’t move, her huge mane hiding her face. Fluttershy got onto her knees.
“PINKIE!” Fluttershy said, louder.
A giggle escaped from underneath the mane. Pinkie raised her head, biting her bottom lip.
“Gotcha.”
Fluttershy contorted her worried frown into an uneasy smile. She couldn’t help that it grew wider and wider as she noticed how pretty Pinkie’s “messy mane” look truly was. Clumps of cotton candy ‘fro stuck up at odd angles, and some of Pinkie’s hair hung in front of her face in blades of pink. It looked… wild. In a different way than Fluttershy had seen out of her friend before.
Both mares laughed as the other couples swerved around them on the ice.
“Not the best ending,” Fluttershy said, full of mirth, “Can we really do that for the competition? It probably won’t get us through the elimination round.”
Pinkie let Fluttershy help her up with a lift from the pegasus’s wing and she shrugged.
“Ehhh, maybe not. But it looks cool, it’s fun, annnnnd I think if nothing else, it’ll make ponies laugh! And isn’t that the best!?”
Fluttershy smiled with closed eyes and nodded. When she opened her eyes, Pinkie was looking confused and raising and lowering her front hooves off the ice as if they were in pain.
“C-cold…” she stuttered. “I gotta go find the skates I ditched!”
Pinkie and Fluttershy worked together to scour the rink for the missing skates. It didn’t take long, and avoiding the other skaters was some much-needed extra practice. Once Pinkie had her chilled hooves back inside her skates, the two heard a stadium horn blow and knew it was time for the elimination round to begin.
“We better get back to the waiting area!” Pinkie cried. Fluttershy nodded with a smile.
Once they were off the ice and had found some free spots among all the other couples waiting to go, the voice of a bored announcer resounded throughout the stadium.
“Right. Let’s get the show on the road, folks. First couple, bib number 1, please make your way onto the ice, eh.”
Pinkie was bouncing in place and gripping Fluttershy’s thigh as the two sat on the bench. Fluttershy’s heartbeat fast like a vibrating generator. She watched the first couple get up and nervously make their way onto the ice while the crowds in the stands clapped their hooves.
At first, Fluttershy was content to passively watch the skating couples as they came and went, not thinking too much about the situation. But eventually, as she realized the announcer was counting down closer and closer to her and Pinkie’s number 78, the realization that she was set to perform a not-even-practiced routine with her new crush in front of hundreds of ponies smashed into her like a freight train.
After that, the hyperventilating was a foregone conclusion.
“Fluttershy?” Pinkie asked, worried. Fluttershy’s eyes were wide with fear. Her wings vibrated while she shook her head.
“Oh dear, oh no…” Fluttershy said, out of breath, “Big mistake, this was a very big mistake, Pinkie. Very big. Oh no.” She wrapped her wings around her head and shivered. Pinkie nudged into her.
“Hey! It’ll be okay! We just gotta get on there and have fun, remember? Who cares if we win or lose!” Pinkie rubbed a hoof along Fluttershy’s back, and it helped the pegasus mare somewhat, but only until she heard the announcer call number 78.
The five or so minutes after that became a blur of sounds and moving colors. Fluttershy found that her shaking hooves were pulled up by a pink form that gingerly led her to the ice rink entrance. Soon enough, she saw the bluish-white of the ice rink under her skates. She felt her wings return to life.
Then, slowly, colors and shapes merged into coherent form. The noise of the stadium, filled with pony onlookers, returned. Fluttershy remembered that she was alive and breathing and felt her heart crash around in her ripcage as if it might burst out. She turned, frantic, to her smiling Pinkie Pie.
“I CAN’T DO THIS!” Fluttershy shouted in a panic.
But Pinkie just smiled and stared at her. It was those ocean blue eyes again. Wide and full of happiness and joy. Energy just seemed to pour out. Fluttershy felt as if Pinkie was filling her with confidence and can-do attitude.
“Yes, you can.”
Pinkie’s eyebrows tightened downward and she became determined.
“Who’s the pony that pulled all of that confidence out of nowhere when we were practicing before? That was you, Fluttershy! I’ve never seen you skate like that before — that was ALL you!” Fluttershy found it impossible to not smile, her tight, hot cheeks rosy and shiny. Pinkie continued, “Now, let’s show these Vanhoovans what a couple of Ponyville mares can do… what two best friends can do!”
Pinkie smiled wide again and nodded at Fluttershy. The shell around Fluttershy finally cracked completely. Pinkie turned to start skating.
“Come on! We got this! Just feel it out!”
Fluttershy forced a huge lump in her throat down and stared at the swirling mass of ice underneath her. Only, it wasn’t swirling; her head was. So many emotions and feelings played tug of war inside her nervous skull. She dared not look up where the noise of the crowd emanated. She closed her eyes and breathed out.
“Just… feel it out, Fluttershy. Just feel it out!”
Fluttershy ended on a loud note and her eyelids flew open. She gave herself a start with a gust of backwind from her wings, then skated around the edge of the ice rink in earnest.
Fluttershy fixed her gaze on the space just in front of her. She didn’t think of the crowd or the competition or the trip to Vanhoover or the animal critters back home waiting for her or about anything. She thought about skating, and she thought about flying up into Pinkie’s hooves like it was the perfect spot for her.
Like she didn’t want to be anywhere else.
And then, there she was. Fluttershy leapt into the air to her left. She didn’t look, she didn’t worry. She stretched out her hooves and opened her wings as if she would fly. And… she did.
Once again the strong, trustworthy grip held her tight around her midsection. Fluttershy’s mile-a-minute heartbeat threatened to break right out of her chest. She watched the ice in front of her and Pinkie stretch on and on as Pinkie swerved around and approached the middle of the icerink. The crowd lost it.
And Fluttershy, amazingly, felt a beam of pride and joy take over her face.
“This is amazing!” she roared with happiness. She closed her eyes and thrust her hooves higher up, letting her wings open just a bit more. She laughed with mirth and abandon.
Until she heard Pinkie’s strained groan.
“T-that’s great, Fluttershy…” Pinkie managed, “B-but can you dismount, please?”
Fluttershy blushed. Very quickly she flapped her wings and flew out of Pinkie’s grip. She landed delicately on the ice and did a flourish with her wings without even realizing it, making it look rehearsed. She turned and saw Pinkie stumble around on her two backhooves, her forehooves being skateless due to the trick. Then, Pinkie found her balance and threw her forehooves up toward the ceiling and smiled at the crowd. She spun around.
“Wow!” Fluttershy heard the once-bored announcer on the intercom, “That one didn’t totally suck, everypony! It was actually great, eh!?
Once Pinkie retrieved her skates from the rink, the two mares got off to some minor admiration from their fellow competitors. The couple from the day before, that Fluttershy had seen and been jealous of, approached her and Pinkie as they took their seats on the bench again.
“You two were great!” the mare said, eyes aglow with sparkles.
“Totally!” the stallion exclaimed. “It’s like way too obvious you’ve got a connection!”
Fluttershy turned towards Pinkie, who stared back with warm cheeks and an even warmer smile. Fluttershy was burning up. She quietly gave her response to the couple.
“Y-you really think so?”
The couple looked at eachother and then back to Fluttershy.
“Absolutely!” they cried in unison. Fluttershy’s mouth became a squiggly line of bashfulness – meanwhile, Pinkie wrapped her hoof around Fluttershy and smiled back at the couple.
“Of course it’s obvious, because Fluttershy and I are the best of chums!”
Pinkie giggled. Fluttershy’s and the couples’ smiles disappeared.
“Chums?” the stallion asked.
The awkward (to everyone but Pinkie) scenario was cut short once a voice over the loudspeaker clicked on.
“Hey there everypony, uhhh, I got the results of the knockout round to announce, yeah? So here goes, eh…”
Every couple that had competed held their collective breaths and listened for their number. Right at the end of the announcement, Fluttershy heard something that made her heart skip a beat.
“… and lastly, number 78. All called numbers, yoose couples move on to the last round. Other couples, yer done bud.”
Pinkie took in a sharp breathing of air and got onto her hind legs, kicking her front ones in a little pony flourish. Her face erupted into joy.
“FLUTTERSHY! DID YOU HEAR THAT?! WE MOVE ON TO THE LAST ROUND! WEEEEEEEE!!!”
She wrapped Fluttershy into another snuggly, laughter-filled hug as Fluttershy stared blankly ahead.
We… move on? Wait… we have to SKATE again?!
Fluttershy’s eyes became wet.
“Oh no… I-I-I don’t think I can muster up that sort of courage…” she paused, “again.”
The pony couple once again congratulated Pinkie and Fluttershy and left, not having moved on to the last round. Pinkie led Fluttershy back to their bench and patted her on the back.
“Don’t sweat it, Fluttershy! Same as last time: aim for fun, and everything else will just work out! Or not! But who cares as long as you have fun?”
Moments that lumbered by painfully slow turned into minutes that Fluttershy didn’t even feel. She spent all the time between rounds staring at her wing tips, which she turned around and around in front of her.
Hmm…
She turned her wing tips around again. She made circle motions with one of her wings. A realization hit her, and her ears popped up. She turned to Pinkie.
“P-Pinkie! I have an idea!”
Pinkie leaned in close as Fluttershy relayed the newest trick.
“It’s, umm, well, it goes like this…”
Ten minutes after telling Pinkie the trick, it was the yellow and pink twosome’s turn once more. It was the last round. Fluttershy once again closed her eyes and took a deep breath, standing before the rink’s entrance. Her senses did not go crazy like during round one. She was more poised, more ready. The new trick she had devised gave her confidence, if only because she really, really wanted to perform it with Pinkie.
Fluttershy kept Rarity’s advice alive in her mind.
Be bold.
Well, it was something like that. Fluttershy couldn’t recall exactly, but she knew it was no time for the timid, quiet Fluttershy. It was time for action!
“Let’s go, Pinkie!” Fluttershy said, and Pinkie nodded a determined reply before they both stepped onto the ice.
The routine began as the last had: Pinkie skated ahead first along the edge of the rink, with Fluttershy just behind. And as natural as the first winter’s snow in Ponyville, Fluttershy leapt into the air as before; only, Fluttershy also kicked off her front skates as well.
The crowd “ooo’d” and “aww’d” as Pinkie held Fluttershy aloft once more, as if an angel being carried by a titan. Then, the dismount occurred. And the crowd held their breath.
Fluttershy hung onto Pinkie’s hoof with her wing and spun around. The entire motion was not rehearsed, but rather, it occurred as if it were meant to. As if no matter what, Fluttershy could not fail. And she didn’t.
On the dismount, Fluttershy’s and Pinkie’s forehooves were intertwined. The crowd watched as Fluttershy and Pinkie spun around and around as their bodies, together, continued to turn around the corner of the edge of the rink, like some celestial body caught in an orbit. The hoof holding exercise that they had attempted back at Saddle Lake was happening before Fluttershy’s eyes.
The crowd went wild.
Finally, Pinkie looked up at her companion. Sea-blue eyes met with cyan ones – two souls met for the first time in a moment that ignored the whirlwind of noise and sensation surrounding it. Pinkie’s mouth became an O. Fluttershy’s cheeks became fire.
Then the moment ended as one of the mare’s backhooves gave out and the two collapsed into separate piles, becoming conjoined when their forms collided on the ice further down the rink. Heads spinning, both mares stumbled to their shaky hooves and remembered where they were. The crowd was insane with cheering.
Fluttershy and Pinkie looked at one another with the biggest smiles in Equestria. They laughed and waved up at the crowds as they slowly found their lost skates and left the rink. Once back outside the rink, their friends raced down the stands to meet them.
“T-T-That was amazing!” Twilight cheered, leaping into the air with a girlish squeal. Rainbow Dash did the same with a hoofbump and roared.
“Yeah! That’s how it’s done, guys!”
Rarity’s eyes swam with stars.
“Why, it was simply majestic! Awe-inspiring! The best skaters in Canterlot couldn’t have put on such a show!”
Applejack took off her stetson.
“I ain’t much for this sort of thing, but gals, that was impressive.”
Pinkie and Fluttershy, still catching their breaths, looked at one another and shared a closed-eye smile.
“Yeah, it was, wasn’t it?” Fluttershy asked rhetorically. Pinkie replied anyway.
“Sure was, partner!”
Everypony waited at the benches for the results to be announced. Fluttershy felt her insides stir and twirl and churn. Somehow, she was worried they wouldn’t even place among the top ten of the fifteen last competitors. After way too much time spent waiting, the announcer came back on over the loudspeaker again.
“Hey there everypony! So, wow, that was better than expected, eh? I mean, uhh, good job to all our competitors!”
The crowds of ponies, including the Mane Six, cheered.
“So uhh, results are in from our judges, yeah? At third place out of fifteen we have Pinkie Pie and Fluttershy, couple number 78, eh?”
Fluttershy barely comprehended the words. Her friends around her cheered and clapped their hooves. She looked around, wondering if it was all a dream like one of her “I have confidence” dreams where things turned out differently than they normally would. Rainbow Dash’s hoof landing on Fluttershy’s back and woke her from her trance.
“Racing Wonderbolts, Fluttershy! You guys came THIRD among, like, 80 different couples!? I didn’t know you could skate like that!”
Applejack chimed in.
“Yeah, if that was the case y’all shoulda joined Dash and I the other day fer our race!”
Fluttershy was in a sensational whirl of emotions. She stumbled out a response.
“I d-didn’t know I was that good either — wow.”
Pinkie was in a fit of giggles. She nudged Fluttershy.
“I did! I never doubted you for a second!”
The touch of Pinkie made Fluttershy feel tingly. She wanted more all of a sudden. She felt the excitement rise up, and soon Fluttershy became a clone of Pinkie in terms of emotions.
“I can’t believe it — I ACTUALLY CAN’T BELIEVE IT!” Fluttershy cheered. Every mare hooted and hollered, with onlookers torn between smiles of shared mirth or scornful, resentful sneers. Fluttershy’s face became heated and red, and she fanned herself with a wing.
“Oh umm, wow. I need some fresh air, girls. I’m getting… dizzy.”
Rarity led the group to a side exit. Pinkie and Fluttershy walked for the door, but Rarity held the others back.
“Uhh, girls,” Rarity started, in a purposefully louder-than-usual voice, and when Fluttershy turned back to look, Rarity winked. She continued, “Why don’t we let the winners have some time to themselves to relax! And we’ll, uhhh, wait outside out front!”
Fluttershy didn’t, at that time, understand what Rarity had done, but shrugged and continued outside with Pinkie.
The newest third place skaters of the Couples Skating Competition thrust open the side stadium doors, feeling the rush of the cold winter air surround them like a blanket. They leapt outside into the darkening Vanhoover evening. Snow was, of course, cascading all around them. A single, stark fire on a post illuminated the small steps just outside the side entrance. Pinkie broke the silence first.
“YIPPPEEEEE!” Pinkie cheered, the word exploding from her mouth. She was caught between her cheers and laughter. Fluttershy wore the biggest smile of her life. If it became any wider, she was afraid it would snap like a rubber band pulled too tight.
“WE WON!” Fluttershy cried, jumping around like Pinkie. “I MEAN, WE DIDN’T WIN, BUT THIRD PLACE! WE ACTUALLY CAME THIRD PLACE, PINKIE!” The two looked at each other, then got onto their back legs so they could hold their front hooves together while standing. They stared into each others twinkling eyes, chests heaving, faces so alive with joy that it was like Hearth’s Warming morning and they were a pair of fillies.
The mares separated and started bounding around on their own. Fluttershy figured that she was feeling what Angel Bunny always felt — like she could take on the whole world and dang the consequences for doing so! She looked up to see the early evening moon shining down at her against the backdrop of a sparsely clouded purple sky. The moon bathed her with fervor.
Her entire body throbbed. She was filled with vigor and purpose. She swerved around, watching Pinkie happily jitter to herself. Sweet Celestia, the mare was glowing with cuteness. She was so pretty.
Then…
It happened so fast. Fluttershy’s heart was pounding. It felt so natural. Too natural. It was what needed to happen.
Fluttershy bounded in front of Pinkie, waiting only a brief moment for Pinkie to stop jumping and pay attention. Pinkie blinked rapidly with a cocked head. Fluttershy’s trembling breath escaped shaky lips.
“Fluttersh—”
The yellow pegasus thrust her head forward and kissed Pinkie. She was hungry — desperate — for the kiss that had taunted her dreams. She couldn’t tell what Pinkie’s reaction was but in that moment all she wanted to do was savor the newfound flavor of raspberry and sugar and the warmth that naturally emanated from Pinkie’s lips. It was one single kiss.
When Fluttershy opened her eyes in shock, she realized what she had done.
O-oh no.