The fight between two of Ponyville’s most well known ponies surprised everypony who heard about it. Not only for the strength of the argument but the speed with which it escalated , and the particular ponies involved. It started with harsh words exchanged at a Pinkie party, and grew to pranks the next day. On the third day the two were no longer able to address each other except through shouted insults and proxies. No pony at this point could even recall what the original argument had been about, and they weren’t surprised when after a week the two had begun resorting to petty vandalism.
The rumor mill was sure that the entire thing would be taken to a new level when one of the two drew on the long friendship between the two to spread one of the others darkest secrets. The victim of this shortly stopped coming to Ponyville at all to avoid the whispered comments and stares from the other ponies. The only ones in contact with her were her four other friends. The friends would bring their companion things she needed from Ponyville, and refused to answer any questions about what was going on in the ongoing conflict between friends.
Most shockingly to everypony, especially the gossiping ponies, was the lack of return fire from the newly hermitic pony. After the pony had heard that her friend had told everypony her secret she surely had plenty of secrets the other pony didn’t wish to be made known. Instead, she had just closed her eyes and left for her home. She’d made no effort to attack her friend in anyway after that.
Weeks passed and nopony heard anything from either of the two fighters. The one pony remained in her newfound hermitage and the other appeared to become increasingly aggravated as her opponent wouldn’t come out to fight with her properly. Passing the one month since the vile secret had been leaked to the grapevine the fight had been forgotten from everypony’s minds. Though mentioning of the one pony would still cause anypony ‘in the know’ to bring up the information that had driven her into seclusion.
Finally, one day the one decided to confront the other in her home.
One pony walked up to the hermit’s house, knocking gently. Around the house dozens of eyes glinted and glared at the intruder on the hiding pony’s territory.
The door cracked open and an aquamarine eye peeked out from behind a curtain of pink.
“Oh, hello. I wasn’t expecting… you,” Fluttershy said, shrinking the opening slightly.
“Shy… Can we talk?” Rainbow Dash asked.
Fluttershy said nothing but said nothing for a moment, but then stepped away from the door, leaving it ajar for the other pony to come in if she wanted, but not inviting her. The other pegasus entered and shut the door behind her, wincing slightly when it shut more loudly than she expected. A point that she was made more keenly aware of by how quiet Fluttershy’s cottage was. Usually the house was alive with the sound of small animals moving in and around it, today the only noise was of the two pegasi moving around. The only sign of small animals were from accusing glares that disappeared into hiding places as soon as they were noticed.
Fluttershy had disappeared into the kitchen where she removed a teapot from the stove a single second after it began whistling, nearly startling Rainbow Dash as badly as the sound from the door had. Fluttershy brought the pot into the sitting room with a tray holding cups and other necessities for tea on her wings. She nodded toward a chair as she put the things down and started making tea for them. Rainbow Dash sat dumbly while Fluttershy went about it. Her movements almost mechanical as though she had repeated this same ritual dozens of times, which Rainbow Dash supposed she might have.
Unable to continue watching Rainbow tore her eyes away and looked around the cottage again. The absence of animals wasn’t the only change, she noticed. Fluttershy’s table usually kept tidy now had a number of books from the Ponyville library in three stacks. One only one book high and the others different heights with the cover side up on one stack and cover side down on the other. Fluttershy’s kitchen seemed bare as most of the minor ingredients and containers were mostly empty, though the bowl of red fruit on her table overflowed and a box of baked goods sat next to the bowl.
A small cough drew Rainbow Dash’s attention back to where Fluttershy had finished her work and set a cup in front of Dash. Clumsily the pegasus lifted the china to sip at it and her eyes widened. She chuckled and looked into the cup.
“Just enough honey to make you taste the bitterness, “ she commented, swirling the cup between her hooves, “You remember how I like it.”
Fluttershy said nothing just sipping her tea and sitting quietly in the other chair. Rainbow stared at her for a moment before putting the tea down, perhaps a touch more hard than she should have.
“If you can remember all that why’d you just give up?” Rainbow Dash begged, “You’ve known me forever you could have just told somepony about the time I… I don’t the time I-“
Fluttershy held up a hoof and Rainbow stopped short before continuing again.
“I don’t even remember what the stupid fight was about,” she grumbled.
Fluttershy sighed and sipped her tea.
“Rainbow, when you told everypony that I was devastated. I couldn’t believe you’d do that. You’re the element of loyalty and you just… Oooh, I was so angry I could have just screamed. And I did think about doing the same thing right back to you,” Fluttershy said without any venom, while Rainbow cringed and looked ashamed.
“But I decided not to, because if you were willing to go so far as to destroy my reputation with everyone in Ponyville to win that stupid argument then I didn’t want to win anymore. I’d rather one of us be able to salvage what was left of our image in town then take us both down. And I didn’t want to make it alright for you to do that by doing it myself. So you won Rainbow Dash. I quit.”
“But… I didn’t know what else to do,” Rainbow protested, “You just wouldn’t… I’m sorry. How can I make this up to you. I want us to be able to at least go back to being friends. If not…”
Fluttershy ignored the unspoken end of that sentence and nodded, “I’m sorry, Rainbow Dash.”
Rainbow started to object but was again silenced with a raised hoof.
“I should have been able to be more Kind. I knew that nothing good would come of our fight but I just couldn’t let it go either. Not until you,” Fluttershy stopped and sighed deeply, “I’m not angry with you Rainbow, we both made mistakes and eventually everypony will forget this ever happened and things can go back to normal.”
Rainbow Dash looked hopeful at that and Fluttershy gave her a small smile.
“Though until then,” Fluttershy started.
“Until then, I’m going to make it up to you,” Rainbow Dash cut in, “Come on, give me something to do. Make me buy all your groceries and deliver them until this blows over. I deserve it.”
Fluttershy looked at Rainbow Dash and smiled gently again.
“Rainbow Dash…”
—-
“What’s goin’ on? I can’t see,” a southern tinged filly’s voice called from under Fluttershy’s front window.
“Yeah, what’s happening Sweetie? We have to go back and tell Rarity so she’ll help us get our gem finding cutie marks.” Scootaloo added, slightly higher in the stack.
“Awww, they’re kissing.”