“Okay, um, I know I said I’d do this every year, Pinkie - telling you a story or a secret I’d never told you or anypony else - and it was kind of a promise. A Pinkie Promise, so… um, here goes.
“I never told you when I fell in love with you. You told me once, ‘Fluttershy, I’d never lie to you, silly!’ Actually you called me Flutter-Butters, remember? I don’t think I ever really noticed, but I’m pretty sure you never used the same nickname for me twice. That was very nice of you, Pinkie. You’ve always been so creative and sweet, and mostly in little tiny ways like that – ways that nopony ever noticed. But I noticed.
“Oh, where was I? I was rambling. I’m sorry for rambling! Unless you like rambling, then I – oh, okay. Sorry! You went on for hours about how you’d never lie to me, even if it would make me happier to hear the truth. And it would have, but it would have made me so very very sad to learn the truth later, and you knew that, and that was one of the ways you always took care of me. That wasn’t when I fell in love with you, though.
“It wasn’t when you said you’d catch me if I fell, either. I fell a lot. I still do. All my friends try to catch me, even if I’m not really falling. They think I am, so they try, and I appreciate it so very much. Pinkie, you were the only one who really knew when I needed catching. Sometimes you’d reach out and grab me because that’s how I needed catching. Sometimes you’d do it with a kiss, or with a hug, or a smile, or a party, because I needed lots of different kinds of catching. And you never threw me loud parties, either. I liked that.
“When I told you I was yours if you’d have me, you told me I wasn’t like a spatula. That was, um, kind of strange, I admit. Then you said it was because I wasn’t a thing that you could have or keep or own. I was a pony, you told me, and you said you’d much rather have a pony that walked beside you and held your hoof and woke up snuggled in your mane than a spatula. You even giggled when I got you a new spatula for a Hearth’s Warming present, and you winked at me because we both knew what it meant, and I felt oh so warm and fuzzy inside! But that wasn’t when I fell in love with you.
“Then when I told you I’d give anything to spend my life with you, you said you already had everything you needed and you started to walk away. I never felt so hollow and empty and alone as I did right then. And you turned around and licked my nose and told me I was all you ever wanted and all you ever needed and you called my your ‘fuzzy feathery squirrel-girl’ and my whole world came back together. Miss Squirrel was jealous for a little while but she felt much better after that acorn cupcake you brought her. That wasn’t it, either, though.
“I apologize for taking so long to tell you all this, I mean, we have plenty of time, but not really so much time, and I never think… Sorry again. You know, the longer it’s been, the more I’ve started to sound like you? I even caught myself hopping last week! I don’t bounce much. Maybe I don’t bounce as much as I should. I don’t know.
“I do know when I fell in love with you. Once when were fighting one of the really loud and really scary things Princess Celestia sends us to fight, I tried to talk to it and tell it not to be such a bully and it wouldn’t listen, and I tried to stare at it and it just laughed at me. It came for me and it was all teeth and claws and I was so terribly scared, and you danced. You danced right in front of it, and you made silly faces and sang a little song. I forgot what the song was. Please forgive me, I just… I don’t remember, I’m sorry. The monster stood there, watching, and so did I, and that gave our friends time to bring help.
“Afterwards I threw my hooves around you and told you that you shouldn’t be so brave for me. That you should never die just for me because I’m not worth it. I’m just – I’m just Fluttershy. And you told me I was right – that you’d never die for me. You said you’d rather live for me, and live with me, forever and ever. You told me dying was quitting and dying was giving up and you’d never give up on me and you’d never give up on us.
“Oh, that was the moment, Pinkie! That was when I fell in love with you. I thought I knew what I felt, until then. When you told me that, everything changed. All the scary moments fell away and nothing was loud anymore. I knew the world would be an okay place forever and ever because I knew I loved you, and I knew you loved me too.
“So… there it is. I never told you that, and I’m sorry. I wish I’d shared that sooner. I wish I’d told you so many of these stories sooner. I – I’m sorry, Pinkie, I – “
“That there’s plenty, sugarcube. You done enough for this year. Now come on, Shy, let’s go on home.”
“But Applejack, I can’t go, I never told her how amazing her cooking really was, or how that one time she helped my otters and she thought I didn’t know but they told me and I never thanked her, and… and there’s so much, I can’t…”
“Hush, sugar, hush. Y’all already buried Pinkie once, y’all don’t need to go buryin’ her again. So save them stories, Shy. Save ‘em for next year, and the next, and the next. Y’all got one last Pinkie Promise to keep, remember? Now let’s head out, okay, hon? Twi an’ RD an’ Rares are waitin’ for us.”