//------------------------------//
// Chapter 11 
// Story: An Expression Of Love 
// by Fluttershy20 
//------------------------------//

Fluttershy was still awake when the morning arrived on the island. It was a grey start, with the sun barely visible in the sky. The ocean was serenely calm, and behind her, the birds sang and chattered amongst themselves.

Usually, the sounds coming from the jungle behind her would lift Fluttershy’s spirits immensely, but today, nothing could do that. She was still reeling over the shock of what she had learnt last night. ‘Twilight… loves me,’ she thought incredulously.

She sat upright, and rubbed her forehead roughly with a hoof. ‘Twilight loves me,’ she thought again. No matter how many times she would think it, however, the words didn’t seem possible.  

Out of all the ponies Twilight could have fallen in love with, she went with her. Out of Pinkie Pie, Rainbow Dash, Applejack, Rarity, even Princess Celestia or Luna, she chose timid, weak, scared of her own shadow Fluttershy. The pegasus ruffled her mane and rubbed her temples, groaning with fatigue and shock. ‘This is all wrong. This was not supposed to happen,’ she thought.

Feeling dirty and very tired, she hastily galloped away from the campsite towards the pool, hoping it would help her clear her mind and ease the shock of what she had learnt last night. 

After closing her eyes last night, and just before she had drifted off to sleep, she had heard Twilight get up and walk away, trying to sound quiet but failing at it. Fluttershy brought her head up and watched her friend walk moodily into the jungle with her head down and her ears flat. Curious, and worried about what had gotten into Twilight, she took to the air and flew above the tree line. She quickly found Twilight crying against a tree, and felt the need to rush down and comfort her. She had thought that she was crying because of a hidden relationship gone wrong, but that quickly changed when Twilight started talking to herself. 

When the three words that she never expected to hear came out of Twilight’s mouth, it took nearly all of her energy to keep awake and stay in the air. She gaped at Twilight for a long time, her mind racing heavily with thoughts and her heart banging against her chest. She saw the unicorn turn around to head back to camp, and quickly flew as fast as she could back before the unicorn could see her. Luckily she made it, and positioned herself so that it looked as though she had never moved. Thankfully, Twilight barely noticed her, and went to sleep soon afterwards. For Fluttershy, sleep never came.

She cleared her mind of last night when she found herself running towards the pool, and dived straight into it. She felt her tiredness fade away instantly as the water flowed around her body, but she didn’t get the pleasurable feeling she had felt from yesterday. It was missing, barren of joy, and she knew the reason as to why. She sighed as she sank into the water. How could this have happened to her? Why did Twilight have to fall for her, when there were so many better mares to go out with, her friends especially?

She looked down at her reflection in the water, and studied herself. She wasn’t strong like Applejack; brave like Rainbow Dash; gorgeous like Rarity, or carefree like Pinkie. She was scaredy pony Fluttershy with a love for animals, and that was it. She was nothing like her friends, and though she wouldn’t want to be anypony else, she couldn’t understand how Twilight saw her as somepony to fall in love with.

Neither could she see a relationship with her. ‘I have to tell her, and tell her softly and gently that I just want to be her friend,’ she thought. She rose halfway out of the water, when another thought sent her back down on her stomach. ‘What if Twilight doesn’t want to be my friend after this?’ she wondered. ‘What if she hates me so much she never wants to speak to me again?’

The thought made tears well up in her eyes. She felt like she was stuck, with no way out, other than two ways which would lead to damnation. Tears began to fall gently down her cheeks. ‘What am I to do?’ she whimpered in thought.

‘I told you, I told you this would happen,’ her mind said. Fluttershy could practically feel a smirk coming her way. ‘I told you Twilight would fall in love with you, and now you’re in a predicament, especially now that you told her about your promise.’

‘Oh, be quiet, brain, you’re not helping,’ she thought. Yet her mind was right. ‘Twilight probably does hate me now, especially since it looks like I rejected her right in her face.’ Yet that wasn’t the worst part, no. The worst part was knowing that she had broken her friend’s heart without even knowing Twilight’s love. With that, her tears began to fall like a waterfall into the pool, feeling horrible for what she had done, and feeling stuck in the middle of a battle she knew she could not win.

A shrill cry of a cockatoo broke her out of her brooding, and made Fluttershy turn around and look up. “Oh, it’s you,” she said as she wiped her eyes. The cockatoo made some more squawks as he asked what was wrong. “Oh, mister, I’m stuck in a terrible position, and I don’t know how to get out. My friend Twilight loves me, and I don’t know what to say to her. On one hoof, I could give us a chance and try, but knowing my luck that will fail, and I will lose her friendship and her love. 

“On the other, though, I could say I don’t love her, but then she might not want to speak to me again, and I would lose her friendship, as well as some of my other friends.” That thought sent a terrible chill down her spine. What if the two never speaking to each other again split them all apart? More tears threatened to spill, but she was able to control herself and sniff them back. “See what’s wrong? Either way I will lose Twilight as a friend, I just know it.” She looked to the cockatoo with pleading eyes. “What should I do?”

The cockatoo flew down from the tree he had sat in, and hopped up to Fluttershy as though he was going to whisper what he was about to say. As soon as he was about an inch from her face, he began telling her in quiet squawks what to do, which Fluttershy saw as a lot of sense. She silently chastised herself as the bird spoke for not seeing the obvious. “You’re right,” Fluttershy said once the cockatoo stopped talking. “If Twilight hates me for not loving her, then she isn’t a true friend. And I know for a fact that Twilight is a great friend, someone who is loving, kind, caring, gentle, funny and just an amazing pony…” Her voice faded away as she realised what she was saying. 

‘Is rejecting her the right way forward?’ her mind wondered. ‘What if there is a major chance for us to be together, and be happy about it?’ As she thought about it, she realised she had felt differently about Twilight for a while now. She couldn’t deny that her thoughts on Twilight had grown and changed since their adventure began. With no other pony to talk to, they had to go with each other’s company, and because of it their friendship grew immensely. Fluttershy loved Twilight’s company throughout, from the time in Whitetail Woods to being stranded on this island. She wished she had spent more time with her back in Ponyville, and wished she could further.

‘Maybe I should give us a chance,’ she thought. She quickly shook her head of the idea. What if it all went wrong? What if their relationship backfired, and they turn against each other just as they did when Discord manipulated their minds? She didn’t want to risk or ruin their friendship, yet it seemed like she had already done that with her stupid promise. ‘Why did I have to be so narrow-minded and selfish?’ she wondered. ‘Why couldn’t I realise that Twilight has a heart like mine?’ 

The cockatoo broke her out of her thoughts by squawking some more, to which the pegasus nodded to every word. “You are right, mister cockatoo. I should go and talk to Twilight about this,” she said. “Maybe if we talked about this and settled it, then we might just stay friends.” She jumped out of the pool, and shook off any excess water, getting the cockatoo soaked in the process. 

“Oops, sorry, mister,” she said, looking at the bird apologetically. “And thank you for listening to me and helping me through this. I hope Twilight is a true friend, or that would make going back home very awkward.” With that, she spun around and trotted back towards the beach. 

The cockatoo squawked a cry of, “Good luck,” before shooting up into the air and heading deeper into the jungle.

“Okay, Fluttershy, you can do this,” she encouraged herself. “You’re just talking to Twilight, that’s all. You’re not talking to your idol, or to the Princess, or somepony that adores you – well, okay, she does adore you, but still. You are talking to the one pony who you could have a civil conversation with.” She stopped as she thought that over. “Okay, maybe not all of the time, but still, she is one pony who you can listen to, and will listen in return. I will talk to Twilight about why I made that promise, and hopefully she will understand why I want to remain friends with her, and that will be that.” 

She took a deep breath as she saw the beach just behind the trees, and the scattered remains of their little boat. “Be brave like Rainbow Dash, Fluttershy. Be brave.”

She emerged from the trees, just as Twilight began to rise. Fluttershy felt her heart quicken as she looked at her friend, and she couldn’t help but admire her body. ‘Twilight certainly has a nice body,’ Fluttershy thought, looking up and down at her as the unicorn rose onto her hooves. ‘And a beautiful mane and tail, too.’ Yet her looks wasn’t what Fluttershy liked most about the unicorn. It was Twilight’s heart she liked most, for it was bigger than any mountain in Equestria and full of love.

And right now, it was evident in Twilight’s eyes that it was broken.

“H-hi, T-Twilight,” Fluttershy said nervously, now feeling unsure on how to start this conversation.

Twilight gave her a small smile and dipped her head in greeting. “Hey, Fluttershy,” Twilight said dryly, sounding as though her spirit had been sucked out of her. 

Fluttershy grimaced at her friend’s harsh tone, and had to desperately fight back tears for bringing the unicorn to this state. “Um, how are you? Slept well?” she asked, giving Twilight a pleasant smile.

Twilight smiled back as she stretched her legs. “Not too bad, thanks. I do feel like I have more energy now than I did yesterday,” she replied. “What about you?” Twilight noticed for the first time the black bags under Fluttershy’s eyes. “Rough night?”

Fluttershy nodded as she wiped her tired eyes with a hoof. “Yes, not a very nice one, to be honest. I just couldn’t stop thinking about our friends back at home, and wondering if they know we are missing out here.”

Twilight smiled comfortingly, even though Fluttershy could see it strained. ‘Does she hate me?’ she thought, fighting back more tears. Before her mind could tell her to stop, she leapt forward and crushed Twilight in a hug.

Twilight was taken by surprise by the sudden flutterhug, as she called them. ‘Fluttershy is sure acting strangely,’ she thought. She counted two moments where Fluttershy looked to be on the verge of tears, and she could make out the tearstains on her friend’s cheeks. ‘Should I ask her about it?’ She mentally shook her head. ‘Fluttershy would probably deny everything.’

“What’s this about?” she asked, a smile on her face at having Fluttershy’s dazzling coat rub against hers, her scent breezing through her nose, and her breath tickling her neck.

Fluttershy pulled away and smiled lovingly at her. “Nothing,” she responded. “I just wanted to remind you of how much of a good friend you are to me, and how much I cherish our friendship.” ‘Please don’t hate me, Twilight. If I had known of your love for me earlier, I wouldn’t have made that promise.’

Twilight smiled at her. Even though her body was screaming at her to be mad at Fluttershy and hate her, her heart and mind kept her from falling down that path. ‘Fluttershy is too nice; a soul who never wants to hurt anypony,’ she said to herself sternly. ‘I’m certain she had her reasons for coming up with that promise.’ Yet whether or not she would like that reason would be down to herself.

“I know, and I am glad to count you as a friend,” Twilight said warmly.

Fluttershy smiled widely, knowing the sincerity of what Twilight just said. She opened her mouth to tell her that she knew about the love Twilight had for her, but before she could utter a word, Twilight spoke once more. “Right, I suggest we get started on building that ship; the sooner it is completed, the sooner we can get back home.”

Fluttershy instantly forgot about Twilight’s love for her, and her face lit up with delight at the thought of seeing home soon. “Oh yes, let’s!” she exclaimed. Without waiting for Twilight she spun around and galloped towards the remains of the village. 

Twilight sighed and shook her head with a small smile. “That girl can move when she wants to,” she said to herself. Chuckling, she broke into a trot after Fluttershy, who was a bright yellow dot in the distance.

As she walked and enjoyed the feel of sand beneath her hooves and the fresh sea air coming from the east, she began to ponder on how to tell Fluttershy her feelings. ‘Should I do that, though? Should I just say that when I know how it is going to end anyway?’ Her mind told her she should, just so she could get it off her chest. ‘It would give me closure, I suppose.’ She had held it back for so long it started to feel like a parasite was working into her chest and eating away at her heart. Once Fluttershy knew, she would be able to rid herself of that parasite and be able to get on with her life.

She nodded her head to herself firmly. ‘Today she will know,’ she decided. But the real question was: how was she going to tell Fluttershy? ‘Just say I love you, and then wait for the damning response of no. Have a little cry somewhere alone, and that will be that,’ she told herself. She just wanted Fluttershy to still be friends with her. 

Losing her friends was the greatest thing Twilight feared. Even if she lost one of them, she didn’t know how she could continue. The five of them had become a part of her life almost as much as studying and reading had. She could no longer imagine a world without Applejack’s honesty and companionship, Pinkie’s bumbling, random self, Rainbow’s loyalty and bravery, Rarity’s selflessness and prissiness, and Fluttershy’s kindness and beauty that she could not see in any of the others. ‘I hope Fluttershy knows that as well. I really, really hope she wants to stay my friend after this.’

When she arrived at the village, she couldn’t see Fluttershy anywhere, but did see a large hole being dug, with the squeaks of the mare making it coming from within. Twilight walked over to the edge, and peered down.

Fluttershy was digging like a dog into the dirt; kicking it away and throwing it behind her in a large heap that just fell back down and created more mess. The pegasus herself was barely recognisable. She was covered in dirt from head to tail, and Twilight could see sweat beading down the back of her neck. “Fluttershy?” Twilight called, prompting the pegasus to stop and turn around with largely rounded cyan eyes. “What exactly are you doing? We’re going to build a raft, not dig our way to Equestria.”

“I know,” Fluttershy replied, shaking her head rapidly to clear some of the dirt on her face. “I just wanted to bury that poor gorgon first before getting started; I wouldn’t like it if somepony started building a ship around my rotting corpse, so I thought I should be considerate and respectful to it, and give it a decent burial.” She breathed deeply as she looked around at the large hole she had dug. “But so far I can’t make it go any deeper than this.”

“That’s because you made the hole too big and you’re digging at the centre of the hole, so none of the dirt is going to get out to the open. Here, let me help.” She began picking up some of the loose dirt with her magic, and throwing it over her shoulder.

“Are you sure?” Fluttershy asked, tilting her head a little. “You don’t have to if you don’t want to, Twilight. I think I can manage on my own.” The look on Twilight’s face told the pegasus that the decision was final. “Okay. Thank you, Twilight.”

Twilight smiled at her. “There’s no need to thank me. And you’re right; we should at least give that gorgon a burial first before we build a boat.” With that, the two ponies set to digging a hole to lay the dead beast in.

Eventually, they dug a hole large enough for Twilight to pick up the gorgon with her magic, and gently laid it to rest in the hole. After they had a minute of silence as a mark of respect, Twilight picked up all the dirt with her magic, and dumped it on top, flattening it down with a log until it was a large dirt patch. 

“That’s better,” Fluttershy said. “Finally I can concentrate now that the gorgon has been laid to rest.” She turned around, and rubbed her hooves together as she prepared herself for more work. “Right, what should we do first?” She did a double take when she saw Twilight again. ‘How does she do that?’

The unicorn had a large leaf she had found on the ground clutched in her magic, and was using a sharpened stick as a quill to write out a checklist for what they needed. “Okay, so this is what we’ll need to survive a long and possible perilous voyage on a raft that will only be used once,” Twilight concluded, nodding satisfactorily to herself as she looked it over for mistakes.

“Okay, firstly we need the right amount of timber to create a raft big enough to support the both of us. Now, since we are using the timber from these huts, we should have a raft that would be able to support both our body weights, and have enough room to fit both of our requirements.” She looked back at Fluttershy for a moment with narrow eyes, and then began to jot down some notes. “I’m just calculating your body weight, Fluttershy,” she hastily explained, her eyes never leaving the paper.

Fluttershy tilted her head a little and smiled, falling back onto her rump as she waited for whatever it was Twilight wanted her to do. Although Twilight could work herself up in such a state, she liked that about the unicorn. It showed that she was passionate about what she did, and loved every minute of it. She admired Twilight greatly for that. ‘It’s Twilight being Twilight,’ she thought, sighing softly as she watched Twilight scrunch up her face in thought. ‘Twilight being her cute self.’

Her eyes widened. There it was again. She used the word ‘cute’ to describe Twilight. She recalled she had used that word before; firstly back at her cottage when Twilight blushed, and then several other times throughout the trip. ‘Why, though? Why can’t I just see her as a friend rather than a marefriend?’ She wiped her brow with a hoof, feeling hot all of a sudden. ‘I just want her to be my friend, is that too much to ask?’ she whimpered in thought.

‘Yes,’ her mind replied. ‘You can’t keep denying to yourself how you feel about Twilight, you know? If you do, you will look back at this day, and regret ever returning her feelings to her. You will both be forever alone, and that would sever any friendship you two had.’

Fluttershy shook her head. ‘No, I-I will find love, but it will not be from Twilight. She will be my friend, and be happy with somepony else, and I will find somepony else and be happy with her. We will all be happy.’

‘No, you or  her won’t. If you think that, then you are a stubborn fool who will never find love,’ her mind said vehemently. With that, her mind retracted back, and Fluttershy was able to think clearly again. 

“You okay, Fluttershy?” Fluttershy looked up to see Twilight gazing at her worriedly.

Fluttershy nodded while wiping her forehead with a hoof. “I’m okay, thanks. Just having a little argument with myself. Nothing to worry about,” she replied, giving a large, false grin.

Twilight didn’t seem convinced, and took a step forward. “Are you sure you don’t want to talk about–”

“I said it was nothing to worry about!” Fluttershy snapped, making Twilight flinch back in fright. Fluttershy instantly regretted lashing out like she did. “I’m sorry, Twilight, I didn’t mean to lash out at you like that,” she stammered. She looked away in shame. “I just feel so stressed.”

She felt a hoof rest under a chin, and then gently lifted her head up to face Twilight, who looked at her with a small, amiable smile. “It’s all right, I forgive you,” she said softly, like the gentlest breeze running through her ears.

Fluttershy shook her head and looked at the ground. “I don’t deserve your forgiveness, though.”

Twilight’s smile disappeared. “What makes you say such a thing?”

Fluttershy looked to the sea, her mind racing with possible words on what to say what was on her mind. “I…” Her words trailed away when she looked at the ocean closer, and saw something that didn’t look like a cloud, or a whale breaching the water.

It appeared to be the outline of a ship.

“Twilight, look over there!” Fluttershy shouted, pointing to the ship with wide, delighted eyes.

Twilight followed Fluttershy’s leg, until she could make out the faint outline of a ship heading west. Her eyes widened in delight. “Quick!” she ordered. “Help me burn one of these huts! The smoke from the fire should be enough to attract the ship this way!”

Fluttershy nodded, and with Twilight they began building a fire in one of the largest huts. After a minute or so, the fire began ripping the hut slowly apart, and the smoke began to rise high into the sky. “Let’s a put a bit more into it!” Twilight decided.

Fluttershy nodded in agreement, then spun around and began finding sticks, leaves, dried grass and anything else they could use to build a fire big enough to lure the ship in their direction. 

After a while, they threw the last of any flammable objects they could see into the hut, and watched as it burned and crackled in the bright flames. Although they were not too close to the fire, they could still feel its heat, and began to sweat bucket loads as they waited anxiously for the ship to make a move. “Come on,” Twilight muttered. “Come on, turn, turn…”

Her heart leapt for joy when she saw the ship grow larger and more recognisable as a ship. Twilight and Fluttershy danced and cheered around each other in joy, relieved in the knowledge that they could soon go home. “Hey!” Twilight called, waving her leg high in the air. “We’re over here!”

“Help us!” Fluttershy called out as well, a large grin on her face. ‘We’re going to be fine,’ she thought. ‘Everything is going to be just fine.’ 

She instantly regretted thinking that when she saw the thick plume of smoke rising from the single chimney of a very recognisable steamship. “Twilight!” Fluttershy cried as she began to slowly back away in fear. “It’s the Wave Breaker!”

Twilight shot her head around to look at Fluttershy for a moment, before looking back at the ship. “You’re right, it is the Wave Breaker.” She grinned. “Fantastic!” She trotted onto the beach, while Fluttershy waited anxiously, ready to run at a split second.

“Hey, Seahoof!” Twilight called, waving her leg again as she chuckled in joy. “I must say how glad I am to see you all!”

The ship began to turn right, and gently slowed down till it stopped, and was resting just before the shallow end of the sea. “Come on, Fluttershy!” Twilight called, gesturing with her hoof for the pegasus to join her. Fluttershy shook her head nimbly, causing the unicorn to frown. “Why not?”

“I don’t like it, Twilight,” Fluttershy answered, shivering in fear. “Something just feels off about this to me. I don’t know what, but it just does.”

Twilight was about to ask what, but a voice they didn’t expect to hear rang out. “Well, well, well,” Wave Kicker said as she stared at them from the side greedily. “Isn’t this a surprise? Two land lovers learnt to swim and found themselves an island. We thought you were both dead, my husband and me. But since you are not, I guess that means my plans for you two can go ahead.” She turned to the eight ponies beside her. “Get them. Tie them up and bring them on board.”

Twilight’s eyes widened in horror as the eight ponies, and Wave Kicker herself, jumped off the side of the ship and began to swim towards them with ropes in their mouths. “RUN!” Twilight screamed as she spun around and galloped to Fluttershy, who remained frozen in fear. 

“Come on, Fluttershy, run!” Twilight yelled, gently hitting her on the side with her tail. Fluttershy broke out of her daze, and spun around and galloped into the jungle with Twilight beside her, and the eight ponies not too far on their tails.

“Why are they wanting to catch us again?” Twilight demanded as they galloped through the jungle, not daring to look back incase they were right behind them. “They already know you were willing to give them some money!”

“I guess Wave Kicker didn’t believe me!” Fluttershy replied. She could easily understand that. The two picked up the pace when they heard the cries of their pursuers echoing throughout the jungle. “Oh, what are we going to do?”

“Don’t worry, I have an idea,” Twilight assured her. “We just need to keep running for a little while and get them as far from the ship as possible.”

“Are you all right with that?”

“Probably not, but I don’t want to be tied up today, so I have to try my hardest.”

Fluttershy smiled at her. “Even so, I would carry you to the end of this island if I had to. I’m not going to abandon you.” 

Twilight’s lips grew into a smile. “And I you.” The two raced past the pool they bathed in yesterday, and heard for the first time the sound of galloping hooves. “They’re getting closer!” Twilight stated. “Quickly, to the mountain!”

Fluttershy nodded, and began to pick up the pace a bit faster. Her breath began to sob as she tried to regain some air, but was moving too fast for her lungs to keep her supplied. She glanced behind her to see one of the ponies was at least a few feet away, with a lasso in his mouth, and began to run faster. ‘I will not be captured,’ she thought determinedly. 

She suddenly noticed Twilight was no longer beside her, and looked around. She quickly saw Twilight lagging behind, and the pony with the lasso was right behind her, getting ready to throw the lasso around her neck. “Twilight, look out!” Fluttershy cried. 

Twilight looked up and turned around to see the pony throwing the end of the rope in her direction, and braced herself for the strangling feeling the rope was about to give her. 

It never came. 

She peeped an eye open to see that the pony was being pestered by many of the exotic birds that called the island home, and several of them were pecking at the others far behind to give the two some time.

Twilight ran up to Fluttershy, who had stopped to watch the bird attack in shock. “Did you do something?”

The pegasus shook her head. “I never told them to do anything, I swear.” She looked away to break herself out of her daze, and tapped Twilight heavily on the shoulder. “But this gives us a chance to get to the mountain. Come on!”

Twilight nodded, and again the two cantered away from the scene, and headed towards the mountain once more. Behind them, they could hear the screeches of the birds fighting to keep them safe, and the curses of those ponies that were after them. It chilled the two with terror, for they couldn’t help but imagine what might happen to them if they fell into the pirates’ hooves. 

Eventually, after half an hour or so of more running, they emerged from the trees and found themselves in the shadow of the extinct volcano once more. “Start flying up there!” Twilight ordered. “I’ll meet you at the top!”

Fluttershy nodded reluctantly, spread her wings and flew up, following the mountainside until she arrived at the top. She set herself down on a flat piece of land, and waited for Twilight to appear. As she did so, she looked down at what was left of the volcano.

Whilst she stood on a small, flat area where the naturally created ramp followed, the rest of the volcano went down into a large crater, with bits of rock, dust and ash strewn about at the bottom, and with what appeared to be a nest of some sort hidden between the rocks. ‘Probably the nest of that gorgon we killed,’ she reckoned sadly. She knew it wasn’t their fault it was dead, but she couldn’t hide the feeling it was. 

She was startled when she heard a faint popping sound behind her, and turned around to see Twilight shaking her head to clear the dizziness. “Sorry about that,” she said, swishing her tail. “I just wanted to make sure they knew we were up here, so they could follow us up.”

Fluttershy’s eyes widened for a moment. “You led them up here?” she exclaimed. Her eyes quickly narrowed in anger. “What were you thinking? We could have just let them gallop past the mountain and get to the end! But now they know we’re up here we’re gonna get cap–” She stopped talking when she felt a hoof resting on her shoulder.

“Relax,” Twilight said, an assuring smile on her lips. “I know what I’m doing, but I need you to trust me on this. You do trust me, don’t you?”

Fluttershy hated seeing Twilight so unsure on something, so she quickly nuzzled her hoof. “Of course I do, and I’m sorry I shouted at you. I don’t know what came over me.”

Twilight patted her shoulder. “Don’t worry about it.” She looked back towards the slope when they heard voices getting louder. “Now remember, when I swish my tail, you latch onto me, okay?” Fluttershy nodded while her body shook in fright. “Okay, then let’s do this.” She turned around and watched as Wave Kicker and the eight ponies she sent after them stood in front of them.

Twilight looked back and saw Fluttershy start to shake with fright. She was frightened too, but she needed to stay strong, for Fluttershy’s sake rather than her own. She cleared her throat as she stepped forward to address them. “Wave Kicker,” she greeted the pegasus mildly. 

Wave Kicker gestured for her ponies to stop, and then smirked at the pair. “Twilight Sparkle. Fluttershy,” she greeted them, dipping her head at both of them. “First off, I want to know how you survived the kraken attack?”

“We got pretty lucky, that’s all,” Twilight replied, her tone stating she wasn’t going to say anymore. “What about you? What happened to the Wave Breaker?” 

“And what happened to Seahoof?” Fluttershy demanded, shaking in fright and anger.

“Oh, don’t worry about either of them, they’re fine,” Wave Kicker replied. “The Wave Breaker only suffered some slight damage during the attack, but it was all fixed in next to no time. After we managed to steer clear of the krakens, and the sea became flat and calm again, Seahoof wanted the ship to turn back and find you two, alive or dead, to bring back home. I realised quickly he wanted to keep your end of the bargain, Fluttershy, and mutinied against him.”

She paused to look at the ponies either side of her. “These ponies and a few others on board the ship stood at my side, and together we put the rest of the crew on the remaining lifeboat and sent them in the direction of the Iron Pony Islands. Oh, don’t worry, they should have enough food to last them the trip, providing the sea stays calm, that is,” she said upon seeing their horrified faces.

“But why?” Twilight asked, sickened by her actions. “Why just cast out your husband like that, and try to find us again even if the smallest chances of us being still alive were slim to nothing?”

“Because all I can see in front of me are prizes; two massive prizes worth an infinite amount of bits that would help me, and my sweet child here, dearly,” Wave Kicker replied, stroking her bulging belly.

“But I said I would give you the money,” Fluttershy said. “I have no need for the amount I have. You need it more than I do, and I swear on Celestia’s sun that I am not making this up.”

Wave Kicker shook her head. “Forgive me if I don’t believe you. So many ponies came to me promising wealth and fame, but those were just empty words with no money in them whatsoever. Now, instead of just waiting for somepony to offer me money, I’m going to take it the only way I know how: by force.” She strode menacingly towards them, forcing the two frightened mares to step back. “Now, are you both going to play nice and come along, or do we have to drag you both back in ropes?”

Twilight and Fluttershy looked at each other for a moment, then turned back to face Wave Kicker. “Leave Fluttershy out of this, Wave Kicker,” Twilight said, much to Fluttershy’s shock. “I will become your only hostage.”

“Twilight, no!” Fluttershy cried. 

Twilight held up a hoof to silence her. “Take Fluttershy back to the Iron Pony Islands and drop her off there. I will stay on board as a hostage for you. You have my word as a Sparkle,” Twilight said, surprising herself by meaning it. Even with her escape plan set she knew there was a large chance it could fail, and put Fluttershy in more danger than she is. ‘If I can see her to safety, then that would be good enough for me,’ she thought to herself.

Wave Kicker looked at her suspiciously. “How can we guarantee that you will follow with this, and your friend here doesn’t tell the authorities about your kidnapping?”

“Isn’t that what you want, though?” Twilight enquired, shifting herself about. “Don’t you want the Princess to know about me, and demand a ransom from her?”

Wave Kicker looked at her for a moment, before spinning around to ask her followers and consider Twilight’s terms. Twilight watched them with a smug smile on her face, while Fluttershy looked at Twilight in shock.

“Twilight, you don’t have to give yourself up for me,” Fluttershy whispered, though she couldn’t help but feel flattered that Twilight was willing to give up her freedom for her. 

Twilight looked back at her and smiled. “But I will,” she said. “I’m not going to let you succumb to months of misery on a ship. Remember what I said to you in the water?” Fluttershy shook her head lambently. “I said to you that I would do anything for you, for you are my friend, Fluttershy; the one friend I care about more than most.” 

Before she could continue, Wave Kicker spoke up. “We have decided to ignore your request to leave Fluttershy out of this, and take both of you.” Wave Kicker turned to the two ponies with a rope in their mouths. “Get them ready for storage.”

The ponies nodded, and then one started swinging his rope ready to tie around Twilight’s neck, while another walked around the unicorn with a rope to go around Fluttershy’s neck. Twilight backed away from the pony to stand directly in front of Fluttershy, but the pony menacingly closed in on them both, while the others started to circle them.

Suddenly, Twilight swished her tail high into the air. ‘Oh, that’s the signal!’ Fluttershy thought. Without further thought she jumped onto Twilight’s back, and before the ponies could stop her, Twilight powered up her horn and disappeared in a flash of blinding light.

The world went white once more for the both of them, with swirls of purple and magenta roaming around like fish as they travelled through reality itself – or, at least, that is what Twilight thought they did. ‘Those swirls are new,’ Twilight thought as she watched them dance around her and Fluttershy. ‘Maybe I levelled up my teleportation spell.’ She giggled at the thought. 

She looked at her back to see Fluttershy’s head buried in her mane, shaking with fright after seeing the swirling forms start to swarm around them. Twilight nuzzled the shaking pegasus as best she could. “It’s all right, Fluttershy,” she said gently. “We’re fine; it’s actually quite pretty.”

Fluttershy brought her head out of Twilight’s mane to have a quick peek. That quick peek turned much longer when she gawked at the dancing coloured swirls around them. “They’re beautiful,” she whispered. “But how comes we haven’t come back into the real world yet?”

“The longer the journey, the longer it takes to travel from one place to the other,” Twilight clarified. “In fact, we should be coming out of it right about… now.”

As soon as she said that, the swirls and white world disappeared, to be replaced by grass, huts, fire and smoke, trees, ocean and the Wave Breaker. It didn’t take long for Fluttershy to see they had teleported back to the ancient village they had come from.

“Excellent!” Twilight chirped. “Now hold on; we’re going on board the Wave Breaker!” she powered her horn up once more, and the two disappeared from the island again, only for a second later to appear on the Wave Breaker, with ten ponies around them.

Twilight looked around her at the different ponies, who began to advance towards them, and grinned. “Hey, you know that I said that I could cast you all into the water like throwing stones? Well, I sort of lied. But I can do this instead.” Her horn lit up once more, and before they had a chance to scream, all ten ponies vanished in a flash of light.

Fluttershy jumped off Twilight’s back, and looked around at where all the ponies should have been in shock. “What did you do to them?” she demanded.

Twilight grinned at her as she walked up to the tip of the bow. “I just teleported them onto the island, that’s all. Most should be at least an hour, but a few would be only a few minutes away. So quick, bring up that gangplank to make sure anypony can’t get back up here, and then get this ship turned around!”

Fluttershy nodded and started to move towards the gangplank, but stopped when she realised something. “Um, Twilight? How are the two of us going to crew this ship when it must take about ten at the most?” 

Twilight grinned at her. “Not to worry, I’ve got this one as well.” She closed her eyes, and concentrated her entire being into casting a spell she had used once, and shuddered as she remembered how wrong it went. But that was in the past, when she couldn’t control her magic completely. Now that she was a master of magic, such a spell was child’s play.

Suddenly, the ship began to glow with a magenta light, and Fluttershy and Twilight started to feel the ship rumble as the engines began to move, and the propellers began to spin. Twilight opened her eyes just as the magic glow faded away, and she could feel the ship was now mostly alive. “There, that should help us,” she said to herself. She turned to Fluttershy, who stood in awe as she felt the ship come alive. “Could you head up to the bridge and steer the ship away from the island?”

Fluttershy, although unsure, nodded. “Sure thing, Twilight.” She spread her wings and flew up to the balcony where the bridge was, and quickly entered. “Okay, now how to work this thing?” she asked herself. She quickly saw the large, brown wheel at the centre of the bridge, and walked up to it with a curious look, as though she had no idea what to do with it. “Um, I suppose I just hold it like this…” She reared up and took hold of the wheel. “… And, I guess, turn it like this…” She began to turn it left, so that the ship started to turn really slowly away from the island. She grinned and giggled with delight as the island left her sight, and the wide ocean beckoned her onwards.

She ran onto the balcony, and grinned at Twilight. “We’re leaving, Twilight!” she called excitedly. “We’re turning away!”

Twilight grinned with her. “Great! Just don’t forget to put the helm back to the centre, or else the ship will keep turning!”

Fluttershy looked confused. “Um, but I didn’t see anything that looked like a helmet. And why would somepony have a guard helmet on here anyway?”

Twilight had to fight the urge to slam a hoof onto her face and groan. “The helm is the big wheel thingy that you turned!” Twilight explained. “Now get it straight before we crash into the beach!”

Fluttershy nodded quickly and raced back inside to turn it back until the two could feel it straighten out again. Twilight sighed with relief as they left the island behind them, yet she couldn’t help but feel guilty for leaving the pirates stranded on the island. ‘They should be fine,’ she assured herself. ‘Like Fluttershy said, they should have enough food to last them years.’ She just hoped the birds would be nice to them. 

She galloped to the back of the ship, just in time to see the first pony turn up at the beach, watching in dismay as the Wave Breaker started to leave. Twilight waved a hoof at him. “Thank you for lending us your ship!” she shouted. “Tell Wave Kicker we’ll look after it, and we’ll send ponies to try and find you!”

Fluttershy fluttered next to her at that moment, watching with a hint of sadness as another pony appeared on the beach, forced to watch their ship leave them behind. “I hope they will be okay,” she whispered. “I don’t like the fact that we left them all behind like this; it feels wrong.”

Twilight looked at her and nodded in agreement. “It is wrong, I agree with you. But it is necessary. What would we have done with them all if they stayed? We couldn’t hold them, that’s for sure.” She patted the pegasus on the shoulder comfortingly. “Don’t worry, I’ll find a map of the ocean and mark the location of the island. Ponies could then go and find them; besides, they should have enough food on there to last them all years.”

Fluttershy nodded, though Twilight could see it didn’t sit well on her shoulders. “So now what?” she asked as she turned around to look at the ship. “What do we do now?”

Twilight bit her bottom lip as she thought it over. “Not entirely sure,” she replied. 

Fluttershy leaned her forward and waited anxiously for Twilight to continue, but she remained silent, looking lost in her own world, so Fluttershy kept quiet too. Both ponies looked up at each other for a short moment, and then looked away. It was clear to the both of them that they had something to say, yet neither couldn’t let it out. ‘Come on, Fluttershy,’ the pegasus thought. ‘Just say what you have to say and let that be the end of it.’ But she stayed quiet, afraid that what she wanted to say would have consequences that would live with her forever. 

“I’m,” Twilight oozed, unable to bear the silence between them any longer, “going to check on the engines below, see if there is a good amount of coal for this to keep going. See you in a bit.” She spun around and trotted off the stern and inside through the back door. 

Fluttershy watched her go with devastated eyes, wishing she would stay and encourage her to say what she wanted to say. ‘Just as I was about to say it as well,’ she thought as Twilight’s tail disappeared from view. As soon as she knew she was gone, she buried her face in her hooves and screamed out her frustration.

Meanwhile, Twilight walked down the corridor of the ship with a large frown and a heavy heart. She wanted to talk to Fluttershy, she really did, but her mind kept telling her that if she did then they would walk away from each other and she would never speak to her again. ‘By the look of things, Fluttershy’s catching on that something is wrong, yet is too scared to ask,’ Twilight thought to herself. 

She stopped for a moment and smiled in sudden realisation. Fluttershy’s kindness was the soul reason she fell in love with her in the first place, for she was kind to everypony and everything, and would help them in anyway that she could, and be a good friend throughout. ‘Why do I think Fluttershy doesn’t want to be my friend anymore?’ she mused. Fluttershy was a true friend; she would not let something like love get in the way of friendship, would she?

She stopped when she saw she was by the stairs, and proceeded straight down to the engine room, thinking all the while. With the ship under their possession, what could they do with it now that they had it? Either they could go home and find the right moment for Twilight to tell Fluttershy her feelings, or continue the search for the flower. ‘The pointless magical flower that I shouldn’t bother with if Fluttershy doesn’t feel the same way,’ she thought gloomily.

Yet the scientific part of her mind told to keep going to find it, if not for love then for science and history. The flower on its own would be the discovery of the century, for it would baffle scientists, botanists and everypony everywhere for knowing who should go with who. It would prove that love is a scientific thing rather than butterflies in the stomach, and Twilight Sparkle, the student of Princess Celestia, and Fluttershy Whisperwing, a bearer of an Element of Harmony, would be the ones to find it.

She found herself at the bottom of the stairs, and standing in front of a circular metal door on the ground, with a wheel on its face. Twilight opened it up with her magic, and looked down to see a thin staircase that spiralled downwards into the infernal mouth of the ship. Twilight could feel the heat of the engines latch onto her coat, and the sound of the pistons moving rattled her ears. Nevertheless, she headed down the stairs and into the boiler room. ‘Fluttershy would be better at this than I am. She’s the one with the freaky knowledge of steam engines and how they work.’

The boiler room was long and as wide as the ship, with two massive walls breaking up the bottom of the ship, and two large watertight doors at either end. In the middle of the room, facing each other, were four large boilers, round and fierce with their doors open and spewing out flames. Beside each of them were large amounts of coal, easing Twilight’s fears that they would run out. She quickly shut the boiler doors, and walked past the boilers and into the engine room.

Upon entering, she gaped and her eyes widened into saucers. “Wow,” she whispered. In the far left corners of the room rested the main engines, connected by pipes hissing with steam from the boilers, which drove the connecting rods in a quick and hasty fashion. Between them, wheels to control the flow of steam, pressure gauges, and others pipes and gizmos were positioned everywhere, making it difficult to get close, as Twilight wished, to inspect the machines.

Twilight’s eyes wandered across the engine room, every sense she owned taking in the pinnacle of pony engineering. She wanted to stay for longer and examined how such fascinating machinery worked, but she promised Fluttershy that she would only see if they had enough coal for the duration of their trip, and that had been completed.

Twilight sighed as her shoulders slumped and her head lowered and tilted towards the ground. ‘What am I going to say to her, though?’ she wondered, scraping the floor with a hoof. She slowly turned around and made herself ready to head back to the top deck. 

She suddenly raised her head and stopped slouching. “You know what? I’m just going to go up there and tell her, tell her straight and true how I feel about her. And if she hates it then she isn’t a real friend.” With that, she broke into a trot and made her way through the boiler room and headed back upstairs.

Meanwhile, Fluttershy paced up and down the deck, trying desperately to come up with an idea on what to say to Twilight when she emerged. “Okay, as soon as I see her, I am going to say to her, ‘I know how you feel about me, but I want us to stay friends… um, please?’ after I get her to calm down, somehow, then I will tell her why I made that promise. Afterwards, hopefully we can stay as friends.” She nodded to herself determinedly at the idea, yet it still filled her with worry. 

Her ears flicked up when she heard the door open, and spun around to see Twilight emerge with a confident look on her face. “I need to talk to you,” the two said simultaneously.

The two ponies stopped when they were standing about a foot away from each other, and gasped. “But I need to talk to you about something,” they both said again. They blinked at each other, and then said together, “What do you have to say to me, then?” The two stared at each other for a long time, before bursting into laughter.

After a while, the laughter died down into little giggles. “Oh my goodness, it is as though our minds are connected,” Fluttershy said, a hoof on her stomach and breathing heavily after laughing so hard. She gestured a hoof at the unicorn. “Do you want to go first?”

Twilight shook her head, unable to speak properly. “No, that’s okay,” she breathed. “You go first.”

Fluttershy nodded her thanks, even though she could feel her smile fade into a frown. “Okay, you can do this,” she whispered to herself, though it was loud enough for Twilight to hear.

‘What is she going to tell me?’ Twilight wondered, her heart starting to accelerate. She looked up to see Fluttershy now standing about an inch away from her. She could feel her coconut-smelling breath tickle her face, and her eyes bore into her own.

Fluttershy took a deep breath to calm her nerves, then leaned her head forward and whispered, “I know.”

Twilight tilted her head a little, confused for a moment to what the pegasus meant. “Know what?” As soon as she said that, she knew what the answer was, and her eyes widened in horror. ‘No, no she can’t know! How can she possibly know?’

“I know how you feel about me, Twilight,” Fluttershy elaborated, looking at the ground. “I know that you… love me.”

Twilight’s breathing became hoarse as she started to panic. “How? How did you find out?” she demanded.

Fluttershy cringed at Twilight’s tone, yet stood her ground. “I… I heard you wander off in the night. I was worried about you, so I followed you from the air. When I saw you crying against the tree I rushed down to comfort you, but then I heard you talk to yourself, and I froze in horror. I raced back as fast as I could, and managed to beat you.” Twilight’s breathing didn’t relax, making Fluttershy fear she was losing her.

Fluttershy reached a hoof out and stepped forward. “It’s all right, Twilight, can we talk about this…” Her voice faded away when Twilight stepped back, looking at her in horror and panic. ‘I lost her,’ Fluttershy thought, her eyes filling up with tears. ‘She hates me now.’

Fluttershy retracted her hoof and held it against her mouth, sniffing back tears. “No…” she whispered, shaking her head in disbelief. “Please, can we just talk about this and fix it…”

“What is there to talk about?” Twilight asked, looking at the deck. “I know what you are going to say to me. I know how this is going to end – in heartbreak. So why should we talk about it?”

The harshness of Twilight’s tone was too much for Fluttershy, and she burst into tears. She threw herself to the ground, buried her head in her hooves and cried. “I knew it, I knew it, you hate me now, you hate me!” she wailed. 

Twilight was stunned. She thought she would be the one on the floor crying, not Fluttershy, and to see the pegasus in the state she was in made her feel miserable for being the one to bring her to it in the first place. She walked a bit closer to her, and put a hoof on her shoulder. “There, there, I don’t hate you; I could never hate you,” she said comfortingly, yet it didn’t ease the cries of the pegasus. “I’m just a bit upset, that’s all.”

Fluttershy looked up at her with eyes shining with sorrow, even as tears ran down her face. “Well you should be,” she sobbed. “I made that promise to keep my friends, not break them or upset them, and I have just done that.”

Twilight tilted her head a little, and pulled her hoof back. “You mean you made that promise for us?”

“Yes!” Fluttershy shrieked, forcing Twilight to step back. Fluttershy sniffed back what tears were in her eyes, and sat up on her haunches. “After we saved Princess Luna from Nightmare Moon, we all became good friends, didn’t we?” Twilight nodded. “Well, after the party I pranced back to my cottage, happy for the first time in ages that I had a group of ponies to be with.” She smiled in remembrance. “I danced around my cottage that night, happy that I had you, Rainbow Dash, Rarity, Applejack and Pinkie Pie to go to, all of us in one group, all good friends.”

Her smiled faded. “That’s when I realised that you were all mares. A sudden thought came to me afterwards: what if I fell in love with one of you, yet it didn’t work out and we later hated each other?” Fluttershy shook her head. “I didn’t want love to get in the way of our friendships, so I made a promise to myself that I would never fall in love with any of my friends, so I can stay friends with them for always.” Her eyes started to leak tears once more. “But I never counted on you falling in love me, Twilight. I never… I was just so selfish to think about it. Please, please forgive me.”

Twilight stared at her with wide eyes and an open mouth. The pieces had fallen into place. “So, it’s not that you don’t want to love. It’s because you’re afraid to love,” Twilight concluded. 

Fluttershy glanced up at her and nodded meekly, sobbing. “You are the only ponies in this world that I care about – you all and my parents. The thought of losing just one of you… is too painful to think about.” She flung a hoof over her eyes and continued to cry relentlessly.

Twilight felt stupid for not thinking about it earlier. This was Fluttershy she was dealing with, a pony who was once afraid of her own shadow, so it wouldn’t seem highly unlikely that she would be afraid to love as well. For such short-slightness, Twilight felt terrible; terrible for all the things she thought and the things she thought were going to happen. ‘Fluttershy is a true friend, after all,’ she thought. ‘And right now she needs a comforting hug.’

Twilight reared up and wrapped her forehooves around Fluttershy, nuzzling her softly with her muzzle. Fluttershy stopped crying instantly, and looked surprised. “Twilight, I–” Twilight placed a hoof on her lips, sealing them shut.

“Fluttershy, do you know why it took so long for you to know my feelings for you?” Twilight asked. Fluttershy looked up, and shook her head. “I never told you till today, because I was afraid of losing you.”

Fluttershy broke out of her hold for a moment, staring at her in surprise. “Afraid?”

Twilight nodded. “Yes. Afraid. Afraid that you would hate me afterwards, and never want to speak to me again. Afraid that you would reject me harshly and curse my name or something like that. There was nothing more I feared, than losing you as a friend.”

Fluttershy shook her head slowly, and placed a hoof on Twilight’s cheek, almost at a loss for words. “You could never lose me as a friend, Twilight,” Fluttershy said. “I always want to be your friend. Always. I want nothing, not even love, to come between that.”

Twilight smiled, even as tears clouded her vision. “And I don’t ever want to lose you as a friend, Fluttershy. I love you too much for that. No matter what comes between us, I will always be your friend.”

Fluttershy grinned as she sniffed back some tears. “Forgive me?” she whispered.

Twilight wrapped her forelegs around the pegasus again. “There is nothing to forgive, Fluttershy,” she said, before pulling her into a hug. Fluttershy wrapped her hooves around Twilight as well, and the two stayed there for a long time, crying into each other’s shoulders.

“Thank you for staying to listen to me, Twilight,” Fluttershy whispered after a while. “I bet if we were in Ponyville one of us would have run off by now.”

Twilight snickered. “Yeah, but who would that leave you to talk to? The ship? I think the ship is a great listener, but not a great talker.” The two ponies giggled at that, then fell silent once more as they hugged each other dearly, proving to one another that their friendship was as strong as ever.

‘You see,’ Fluttershy’s mind said. ‘She wants to be friends with you, even if such a relationship goes wrong. You have a chance to prove if all those thoughts of her are indeed love.’ 

Fluttershy’s eyes wandered about as she thought. ‘Should I, or shouldn’t I? But, what if things happened between us later on in the future?’

‘That should not be important now,’ her mind replied. ‘Never worry about the future. Just focus on the present. And right now, a certain unicorn is expecting an answer.’ Fluttershy thought and thought about it. 

Suddenly, she decided.

“So,” Twilight sniffed as she pulled away, looking at Fluttershy with demanding eyes, “I know this is a stupid question, but where does this leave us now?” She knew exactly where this will lead. Fluttershy will put her down gently and say that she wants to remain friends. Despite the fact she would be happy to still have the pegasus as a friend, she would feel devastated nonetheless.

“I… I don’t know,” Fluttershy answered, much to Twilight’s surprise. Fluttershy pulled away from her and looked out at the ocean, feeling the Wave Breaker tear through the waves beneath her hooves. “I have a confession to make to you, Twilight. One that I have been denying to myself for some time now.” 

She looked at the ground in front of Twilight, and lowered her rump onto her haunches once more. Twilight could feel her heart starting to beat faster and faster, her mind racing with thoughts and ideas on what the pegasus had to say. “Recently, I have been thinking about you… differently,” Fluttershy began. “And I don’t mean differently in a bad way. No. I mean it in a good way. The best possible way imaginable.

“Being with you has made me feel better about myself. I feel stronger and braver when I am around you, I feel happier, and I feel more playful with you than I am around the others. And this trip has given me a completely different view on you. A view I wanted to hide because I was selfish.”

“Fluttershy, I don’t see that as being selfish,” Twilight said comfortingly, hating to see Fluttershy beat herself up over one little mistake.

Fluttershy looked up from her hooves, and nodded with a thin smile. “Thanks, Twilight, but I still see myself as being selfish.” She paused to let out a sigh. “Listen, Twilight, you are always so kind to me, so caring, so gentle when you hug me. It makes me feel like nothing in the world could hurt me when I’m in your embrace. You make me feel happy when I see you happy, and I could go on and on but that would make me feel all sappy, and this would get all cheesy.” The two ponies giggled.

“I don’t know whether this view on you is because of love, or because I think you’re an even greater friend than I thought you were,” Fluttershy continued, “but I don’t think I can let it slide without…” She bit her bottom lip as the words got caught in her throat. She swallowed and felt the words untie themselves, giving her the ability to finish. “Without giving us a chance… if you want us to have one, of course.”

Twilight could practically hear her heart pumping blood around her body. Her body tensed in shock, her eyes went wide; her jaw felt slack, and her mind went into a state of overload. “Fluttershy, I don’t want to force you into doing something you’re not comfortable with. I love you too much for that,” she said once her jaw unfroze.

“But you’re not forcing me, Twilight,” Fluttershy insisted, smiling assuredly. “I want us to have a chance together. I may not know so much about relationships as you do, but perhaps I can learn something on the way. I helped you learn the magic of friendship, so maybe I can learn the magic of love from you.”

Twilight felt her hind legs give away, and felt her rump hit the deck, incredulous to what she was hearing. “Are you saying that…?”

Fluttershy picked up Twilight’s forehooves with her own, and held them firmly in her grasp. “I want to be your marefriend, Twilight. If only you want to be mine,” Fluttershy answered, smiling at her.

Twilight’s mind went dead. After a moment of staring at Fluttershy with a gormless, almost dead look, her mind kick-started once more, and went into overdrive. Did what she had hoped and dreamed about for so long just come true? The smiling face of Fluttershy in front of her confirmed that belief. ‘If this is a dream, I will kill the person that wakes me up.’ 

She took a long, deep breath, and stammered, “I… I don’t know whether to kiss you, or just hop around the deck shouting yes repeatedly.”

Fluttershy blushed and shied away at the mention of kissing by covering half her face with her mane. “Um, well, you could kiss me on the cheek, if you want. I don’t know how I feel yet to kiss you on the lips.”

Twilight nodded, then rushed forward and kissed Fluttershy fiercely on her right cheek. When she pulled away, she shouted into the air, “YES!” and began hopping around the furiously blushing pegasus, chanting, “Yes, yes, yes, yes, yes, yes, yes, yes, yes…!”

Fluttershy giggled as she watched her friend bounce around the ship in delight. She quickly reminded herself that she wasn’t a friend anymore. She was more than a friend. She was her special somepony. ‘My marefriend,’ Fluttershy thought. ‘My first marefriend.’

After a while, Twilight stopped bouncing and tackled Fluttershy in a bone-crushing hug, making the pegasus grimace at her new marefriend’s strength. “Oh, thank you thank you thank you thank you thank you!” Twilight squealed delightfully. “I promise I will be the best marefriend you could ever possibly have and the only one you will ever, ever have!”

Fluttershy, despite the massive pressure she felt around her waist, managed to pat Twilight on the back. “I know, just don’t try too hard to be that, Twilight. I just want you to be yourself, that’s all,” she said once Twilight had let go and backed away. “I know you’ll be a good marefriend without trying.”

Twilight nodded excitedly, even though she was breathing heavily as though she had just raced the Running of the Leaves. “I… I think… I need to go and lie down… for a bit. Have a moment… to let this all… sink in.” She looked up at Fluttershy with worry. “Will you be… all right… for a moment?”

“Of course I will, now go and have a little rest, Twilight,” Fluttershy said assuredly, smiling gently at her new marefriend while gesturing with a hoof to go. “It won’t be any good if you become ill again.”

Twilight nodded, though she didn’t feel entirely happy to leave her love alone for a moment. ‘But then again, we have all the time in the world to spend on this ship together.’ She gave Fluttershy a little peck on the cheek, earning another blush from the pegasus. “Thank you, Fluttershy. Thank you so much for giving me this chance,” she said, grinning like a filly on Hearth’s Warming morning. With that, she pranced joyfully back into the ship, humming and singing with delight.

Fluttershy watched her go with a small smile and heated cheeks, feeling happy that she made Twilight happy with her decision; one that she knew would stay with her for life now, for better or worse. ‘I did it,’ she thought wildly. ‘I’m actually going out with one of my friends.’

She walked over to the side of the ship, and rested her forelegs on top of the railings; watching the world go slowly by with narrow eyes and feeling her mane blow fiercely in the wind’s direction. She let out a long deep sigh. This was something that she had tried to avoid for so long, for the sakes of her friendships. She never really thought that one of her friends would fall in love with her. ‘I was too narrow-minded to really think that. Too selfish,’ she chided herself, bowing her head in shame.

But that was all in the past now. Twilight had made her look past that, and their talk allowed her to give a relationship with the student of Princess Celestia a try. It was a feeling she had never truly felt before. A sense of weightlessness adorned her as she spilled out her most terrible promise, making her feel finally free from the shackles that held her down and pushed her back from looking for love.

Yet one small thing nagged her like she was being poked by somepony repeatedly. Now that she was in a relationship with somepony, what did she have to do? Was there some special thing she had to do with Twilight now, or would they just carry on like nothing between them happened? Fluttershy felt rather ashamed of herself for not knowing what to do. ‘How can I be a good marefriend if I have no clue on what to do?’ she wondered. Then she remembered she had Twilight to talk to, and she perked up instantly. ‘Twilight will tell me what to do, and then we’ll both be happy with each other,’ Fluttershy thought, grinning ecstatically.

She jumped back from the railing and trotted after Twilight, a small smile on her face as she mentally noticed something; a thing that should be cheering at her now, or yelling at her for taking so long. ‘My mind has finally gone silent,’ she realised. ‘We are now one.’





Twilight shut the cabin door behind her, and then began to dance recklessly, squealing with joy. “I did it, I did it, I did it,” she sang joyously. She began strutting up and down between the beds, singing, “We’re loving here tonight, oh yeah, we’re loving here tonight, oh yeah, we’re loving here tonight!” She didn’t care if Fluttershy heard her, for she wanted to let out her joy.

Despite the massive odds stacked against her thanks to Fluttershy’s stupid promise, the pegasus had looked past her friendship with her, and allowed herself to be in a relationship. Not in a relationship with any other pony, however, Fluttershy was now in a relationship with her. The two were now officially dating, or ‘going out’ as it were, and it made Twilight feel more happier than she had ever been in her eighteen years of life.

She jumped up on the bed and rolled onto her back, feeling exhausted and active at the same time. She ran a hoof through her mane, giggling quietly to herself while kicking out her free legs as she let out her joy. 

After a moment, she relaxed and let her legs fall onto the bed. Now that the joy had passed, another moment of worry came over her. ‘What do we do now?’ she thought. She was so fixed on telling Fluttershy how she felt about her, that she didn’t think about what would happen after it, save for the moments when everything went wrong, which it nearly did. Her mind quickly looked through her massive memory filing system she had made up, and tried to look for the times when she had looked through the books on relationships and what exactly do ponies do together.

After a while, Fluttershy came through the door, prompting Twilight to roll onto her stomach and look at Fluttershy the way she always wanted to show her; pure, absolute love. “Hello, Fluttershy,” Twilight said, a goofy grin spreading across her face.

Fluttershy smiled warmly at her. “Hello, Twilight,” the pegasus said. A part of her told her to go up and kiss her on the cheek quickly, yet the rest of her body willed her away from doing it. ‘I don’t want to go too fast,’ she told herself. She jumped up on her bed and sat down facing Twilight, glancing at her hooves. “Um, how are you feeling now?” she asked after a moment of awkward silence.

“I feel terrific, thanks to you,” Twilight replied, grinning like a little spoiled filly. Another moment of silence followed, which allowed both ponies to gather their thoughts. “Fluttershy, sweetheart – mind if I call you that? I don’t want to embarrass you or anything.”

“Oh, no, that’s okay, Twilight, I don’t mind if you call me sweetheart,” Fluttershy said, waving the doubts away with a hoof. “I would call you a pet name, at least that’s what I think they’re called, but I don’t know one yet.”

“It’s okay, you don’t have to call me anything,” Twilight assured her. “But listen, I cannot express how deeply grateful I am that you have given me this chance. Even after that promise you made, I’m really glad you looked past it for me.”

Fluttershy smiled sweetly. “What are friends for?”

“But that’s just the thing, now. We’re no longer friends; we’re more than that. We’re now a couple.”

At that, Fluttershy’s mind went back to the reason why she came down to see her in the first place. “Oh, yeah, about that. I was wondering if you could help me with something.”

Twilight shifted herself to sit on her rump. “You know I am always here to help you, sweetheart.” ‘I can’t believe I’m calling Fluttershy sweetheart!’ she thought. She giggled quietly to herself. “What is it you want to know?”

Fluttershy looked at her fidgeting hooves bashfully. “When I was upstairs, I was wondering about what is it that ponies in a relationship actually do. Could you answer that for me? If you can, of course.”

Twilight felt like she was now in trouble. She tapped her hooves together. “Well, I may not have any real experience in relationships, but most of what I know about them came from a few books I read, and a few ponies that I asked.”

Fluttershy shook her head, smiling at the unicorn. ‘Why doesn’t that surprise me?’ she thought.

“But anyway, from what I gathered about them, I know that relationships are friendships taken up a level or two,” Twilight explained. “Ponies who are friends tend to have limits, like quick hugs, or a lack of touching each other unless it’s sort of playful, whereas ponies who are in a relationship can hug for longer, touch each other without feeling awkward, and can kiss each other.”

Fluttershy blushed fiercely, and quickly threw her mane over her face at the mention of kissing. “Oh my,” she squeaked. “So, um, about k-kissing, where do ponies actually kiss?”

Twilight blushed, even though she felt surprised, and sad for Fluttershy for not knowing any of this. “Well, um, ponies in a relationship can kiss on the forehead.” She quickly pointed at her forehead with a hoof. “The cheeks as well, as you know, the tip of a pony’s muzzle, and most importantly, the lips.”

Fluttershy’s pink blush went suddenly red. “The lips?” she repeated. Twilight nodded. “Why do ponies kiss on the lips? If you don’t mind me asking, of course.”

Twilight rubbed the back of her neck. “I’m not sure, to be honest. I think it means that the two ponies are closer than ever before, but like I said, I’m not entirely sure. It might not mean anything; just a sense of passion and pleasure two ponies get from pressing lips together or putting their tongues in each other’s mouths.”

Fluttershy’s jaw dropped. “Oh my, ponies do that?” she exclaimed. Her face suddenly twisted in disgust. “That doesn’t sound very pleasurable. That sounds gross.”

Twilight nodded, the blush on her face going redder. “Yeah, I know but ponies do it. I’ve ran into my brother and Cadence snogging one too many times, and I’ve seen a few things I don’t want to see ever again.” She briefly shuddered at the memory. “We don’t have to do that, you know. I’m perfectly happy with whatever you want us to do.”

“Oh, don’t worry, Twilight, I’ll probably get around to be brave enough to do something like that. I want to try it all, as long as it makes you happy.”

Twilight reached a hoof out, prompting Fluttershy to take it in her own. “It doesn’t matter what we do, sweetheart. So long as I can call you my marefriend, then that’s all I need.”

Fluttershy’s lips curled into a smile, and she blushed at the statement. “Thanks,” she squeaked. “So, um, where else do ponies like being kissed?”

“Well, I know some ponies like being kissed around the neck, and I know some like it on the chest…” Twilight continued talking about where ponies liked being kissed, with each place making Fluttershy’s blushes go deeply redder and fiercer.

‘Stay awake, Fluttershy,’ Fluttershy told herself upon feeling faint. “Oh… my,” Fluttershy said once Twilight stopped talking. “So ponies like being kissed everywhere?”

Twilight nodded. “I think so. Seemed that way when I asked a few ponies.” Twilight quickly shook her head as if she was ridding herself of images. 

Fluttershy blinked as though she had heard something she didn’t want to know. “Okay, um, what else?” Her eyes widened when an idea came into her mind. “Oh, what about cuddles?”

Twilight tapped her forehooves together once more. “I think so. That relates back to touching and hugging each other without feeling awkward. Why do you ask?”

“Well,” Fluttershy replied, rubbing her forehooves together while looking at the bed, “I liked cuddling on the couch with my parents when I was very little, so I thought it would be nice to cuddle with my marefriend.” Her eyes flicked back up at her. “Could we do that?”

Twilight’s grin returned. “I would love that.” She let out a morbid sigh. “But we can’t do it here. The beds are too small.”

“Well, I imagine Wave Kicker and Seahoof had a double bed on board, since they are – or were – husband and wife,” Fluttershy said. “So, um, if they don’t mind it, we could get in their room, and then maybe sleep together there until we reach land.”

Twilight’s grin grew a little wider. “Perfect idea.” She jumped off the bed. “Let’s grab our things and move into there.”

Fluttershy nodded in agreement. Together, the two ponies grabbed their – thankfully untouched – saddlebags from the wardrobe, swung them onto their backs, and trotted out of the cabin and through the ship to where they knew Seahoof and Wave Kicker lived on the ship.

The two ponies were soon outside the front door of the bedroom, and had a quick inspection of the door. “Do you think it might be open?” Fluttershy asked, tilting her head a bit.

“Hmm, maybe,” Twilight said. She reared up and pushed against the door. Sure enough, the door opened wide, allowing the two to gain entry. When they walked inside, they were left in awe of the size of the bedroom. It was as big as Fluttershy’s living room, with a large double bed pressed against the furthest wall from them. A white door stood next to it, with a golden trim around the side. The walls were a dark red, with dark blue waves that carried across from wall to wall, reminding them of the sea. A large wardrobe sat nicely in the far left corner, while a long draw sat along the wall to the left of them with large models of ships of different types sitting on the top.

Though Fluttershy’s eyes were transfixed on the room around her, Twilight’s were set on the door. “I wonder what’s behind there,” she wondered. She opened the door with her magic, and her jaw dropped when she saw what was inside. “Fluttershy, come and have a look at these.”

Fluttershy spun her head around to have a look. Inside, the room was thinner than a corridor, while along the three walls were racks upon racks of different ceremonial swords and axes. Twilight stepped inside, her eyes shooting from weapon to weapon. “Griffon, minotaur, zebra, these ones here are from Equestria,” she said, pointing to the wall on the left. “Those ones are from Saddle Arabia.” She pointed to the wall on the right. “There’re so many!”

Fluttershy looked at them with worry. “Are they…” she paused to gulp, “d-d-d-dangerous?”

Twilight shook her head. “These are for display purposes only, sweetheart.” She picked one up with her magic, unsheathed it slightly from the scabbard, and felt the edge of the blade. “See, blunt as a spoon,” Twilight assured her. She slipped the sword fully back into the scabbard, and then placed it back on its rack. “You know, these don’t make me feel very sympathetic to Seahoof anymore.”

Fluttershy took a step closer, her eyes stating her agreement as she looked at the weapons. “If he had sold these, he would have made a fortune,” she said. “But he was just too stubborn to get rid of them.” She shook her head. “I hope now we never see him again, because if we do I probably won’t say some nice things.”

“Same here,” Twilight agreed. She stepped out of the small wardrobe, and shut the door behind her. “I have a good mind to throw all those in the sea.”

Fluttershy stepped closer to the unicorn, and leaned her neck forward to nuzzle her new marefriend. “Don’t worry about it, Twilight. I’ll doubt he’ll ever see them again.” She pulled away, and then jumped up on the big, soft bed. “Are you going to join me?” she asked as she lowered onto her stomach.

Twilight beamed. “You don’t have to ask me twice,” she said. She was about to leap up and join her, but something stopped her. “But first I think we should change the bed sheets. Who knows what those two did on there.” 

Fluttershy’s eyes widened in horror, and she quickly leapt off the bed and rubbed herself down with her hooves. “Good point,” she concurred. “Let’s get some out.” Together, the two quickly changed the sheets, and found a purple duvet with a pink and yellow margin around the edge, and large white pillows.

“There, that’s better, and cleaner,” Fluttershy said. She leapt onto the bed, turned to face Twilight and patted the sheets. “Now are you going to join me?”

Twilight’s beaming grin returned. “Gladly,” she replied She leapt up onto the bed and tackled Fluttershy in a hug, both ponies giggling like little fillies as they rolled about and then nestled next to each other, their stomachs touching and their legs wrapped around each other’s bodies. The two ponies grinned, even as they felt their faces flush pink. ‘I think I can get used to this,’ Twilight thought.

Fluttershy lowered her head and rested it against Twilight’s chest. “Oh my, you have such a lovely soft chest, Twilight,” Fluttershy remarked, nuzzling it gently and slowly. “It feels almost like a fluffy pillow.” She pulled back to look at the blushing unicorn questioningly. “Could you turn yourself into a pillow?”

Twilight giggled while stroking Fluttershy’s mane. “I could, but I don’t want to. I don’t think I would be able to turn back, and I bet you wouldn’t like that, would you?”

Fluttershy giggled as she ran a hoof down Twilight’s soft body. “Oh, I don’t know. You would make a nice pillow to sit on for tea time, I guess,” she teased.

Twilight laughed aloud. “I’ll remember that at your next birthday,” she said. “I’ll get you a nice purple pillow with my cutie mark on it, and make you think that I accidentally turned myself into a pillow as a prank.”

Fluttershy raised an eyebrow. “You? Prank somepony? That doesn’t sound like the Twilight I know. Where’s my Twilight Sparkle? I bet she’s in there somewhere!” She started tickling Twilight’s sides, making the unicorn giggle with delight as cuddling suddenly turned into a game of tickles.

Twilight managed to get a hoof on Fluttershy’s belly, and began tickling it fast and making the pegasus squeal with laughter, yet she didn’t stop. The two tickled each other relentlessly, giggling and squealing as they rubbed their hooves at the most ticklish places of their bodies.

“Give up?” Twilight asked, trying very hard not to laugh even as Fluttershy continued tickling her sides.

“No!” Fluttershy squeaked, snorting with laughter. “Do you?”

“Never!” Twilight declared. With that, the two ponies relentlessly continued tickling each other, bringing the ship to life with their laughter.

Eventually, the energy of the two ponies faded away, and they stopped at the same time, panting heavily and feeling tired all of a sudden. Yet the grins on their faces were wider than their own bodies. Quickly, they shifted themselves closer to each other so that their tummies were touching once more, and wrapped their legs around each other so that they were cuddling again.  

“Twilight?” Fluttershy said, rearing her head back to look her in the eye.

Twilight reared her head back as well and looked down, grinning at Fluttershy. “Yes, sweetheart?”

Slowly, Fluttershy brought her head in closer and closer, making Twilight’s eyes go wide. ‘Oh my goodness, is she going to kiss me?’ she thought. Her eyes frantically wandered about as Fluttershy’s muzzle drew nearer to her own. ‘What do I do? Why didn’t I read a book about kissing techniques before this could happen?’

She was surprised when Fluttershy pressed the tips of their muzzles together. “Boop,” she said as she pressed her nose against Twilight’s. She pulled back and giggled at the gormless look on Twilight’s face.

Twilight quickly recovered, and giggled as well. With a quick yet gentle movement, she bumped Fluttershy’s nose with her own. “Boop,” she said with the delicacy of a snowflake. Fluttershy blushed sweetly and buried her head back in Twilight’s chest, while the unicorn placed her head on Fluttershy’s head.

‘This feels so… nice,’ Fluttershy thought dreamily as she caressed Twilight’s neck with her muzzle, while the unicorn ran a hoof up and down her back. This was what she always wanted in a marefriend. For somepony to hold her close and keep her safe, and she truly felt safe in Twilight’s hold. 

Twilight felt like she was in a dream state. Nearly every night since realising that she loved Fluttershy, she dreamt of being in her embrace, and going to sleep next to her and waking up with Fluttershy’s loving smile greeting her every morning. Now it was real, and she knew when she woke up tomorrow she would have Fluttershy next to her, not as a friend, but as a marefriend. Getting Fluttershy as a lover was easy, Twilight figured, convincing her to stay as her lover would be harder.

‘Don’t think about that now, Twilight,’ she told herself. ‘Just think about the present, and enjoy it while it’s here.’ She couldn’t argue with that, so she shifted her leg till it rested on Fluttershy’s side. “Fluttershy? Sweetheart?” she whispered.

“Yes?” Fluttershy said demurely, opening her eyes and looking at her with a small smile. “What’s up?”

“I was just thinking about something earlier, once we took the ship off Wave Kicker’s hooves,” Twilight started.

“That sounds dangerous,” Fluttershy giggled.

Twilight giggled as well. “It was, trust me. Anyway, since we have the ship, I want to know what you wanted to do now. Right now we’re heading north towards the North Pole, so we can either head east and go back to Equestria, or go west and continue in trying to find this flower. I will go with whatever it is you want to go with, sweetheart, but I believe it is best we think of it now.”

Fluttershy’s smile faded away, and she buried her muzzle back into Twilight’s chest, listening to the steady breathing from her marefriend, and the gentle heartbeat she could feel pulsating through her nose. It was a tough choice she had been given, but she knew it was given with the best intentions, for Twilight knew if she made the decision, it wouldn’t be fair on Fluttershy. ‘Thank you, Twilight, for being so considerate,’ she said in thought.

As for the choice, it was a hard one. The two of them had nearly been killed at least four times by different creatures and ponies, and they still had no idea what to expect on the other side of the ocean; for all they know they could heading towards a country full of cannibalistic ponies. To turn back now would be the safest possible thing they could do, before one or both of them got killed.

If they turned back now and headed back to Equestria, they would be safe, be together as a couple – she hoped – and have their friends and families celebrate such a union. However, if they did go back, Fluttershy could see herself looking seventy years older, staring out at sea, and regretting the moment she decided to turn back, simply because she was afraid that if she continued she would never return. 

Her father and mother had once told her to never turn back on something she had set out to do, for that would be giving up and becoming the failure she had been taunted as so many times in her lifetime. Fluttershy knew she was not a failure; she had made mistakes, plenty of them, but she was not a failure. She knew that with Twilight and her love by her side, they could get through anything that came their way.

Fluttershy brought her muzzle out of Twilight’s chest, and then looked up with determined eyes. “Let us go and get that flower,” she announced, a grin crawling across her face. “Let us show the world what is on the other side of this ocean, and that we’re not failures.”

Twilight cocked an eyebrow. “You sure, Fluttershy?”

“Positive, love,” Fluttershy said, though she silently cursed herself for calling Twilight, ‘love’. ‘Seriously? Love?That’s the best you can come up with?’ she berated herself. “Let’s do this not as friends, but as a couple,” she added as she took one of Twilight’s hooves in her own.

Twilight grinned ecstatically. “Then allow me to turn this ship the right way,” she said. With that, she lifted her head up, and her horn powered up into its magenta colour. Soon the two ponies could feel the ship turn and make it’s way westward towards the unknown. “There,” she said as she set her head back down, resting her head in Fluttershy’s mane. “Now nothing to do until we reach land – whenever we find any.”

Fluttershy nodded in agreement, and then buried her head in Twilight’s chest once more. “Could you sing me a lullaby, Twilight?” she asked.

Twilight made a face. “Why would you like me to sing you a lullaby?”

“I love your singing voice,” Fluttershy remarked. “You have such an amazing voice. I wish mine was like it, honestly. I would just like to hear you sing.”

Twilight smiled sweetly; she could never say no after hearing Fluttershy say that. “Of course I will, sweetie.” Her mind began to look through the many songs she knew, and some she had even read in a book or two. Her face lit up as one came to light. She cleared her throat and began to sing so softly it made Fluttershy think angels were coming down from the heavens.

“My featherbed is deep and soft,
And there I’ll lay you down.
“I’ll dress you all in yellow silk,
And on your head a crown.
“For you shall be my lady love,
And I shall be your mare.
“I’ll always keep you warm and safe,
And guard you with my sword.

“And how she smiled and how she laughed,
The maiden of the tree.
“She spun away and said to her,
No featherbed for me.
“I’ll wear a gown of golden leaves,
And bind my hair with grass.
“But you can be my forest love,
And me you forest lass.”

Twilight took a deep breath when the song ended, and relaxed with a small smile on her face. She always liked that song, and would sometimes sing it to herself in the bath as she scrubbed her back. “What did you think of that, Fluttershy?” she asked softly. She glanced down; only to find her marefriend fast asleep, with the sweetest smile Twilight had ever laid eyes on.

Twilight gently kissed the adorable pegasus on the forehead. “Sleep well, my love,” she whispered, before resting her head in Fluttershy’s mane, and falling asleep as well.

She did not notice the smile on Fluttershy’s face grow a little wider.