Shipping Grab Bag

by Jondor

A Kiss (FlutterDash)

Inside the Carousel Boutique was a somber scene of misery and woe. Rarity and Fluttershy sat, cuddled in a heap in the middle of the floor, the former levitating over tissue after tissue and doing her best to comfort her friend, while the latter let out wailing sobs, occasionally wiping her eyes or nose on the tissues and discarding them to an ever mounting pile around the two ponies. Fluttershy had come banging in over a half hour previous, her eyes already puffed, swollen, and red, and in that time, Rarity had been able to glean precious few details from her distraught friend.

When Fluttershy’s sobs finally started to quiet down, Rarity made another attempt to get a grasp on the situation. “Shhh..” she soothed, still holding the pegasus and stroking her mane softly, “tell me again what’s wrong, darling. All I’ve been able to hear so far is ‘Rainbow Dash’ and ‘Lightning Dust’.”

A fresh wave of sobs erupted at the mention of those two names, but Fluttershy finally managed to answer coherently. “D-Dashie and L-Lightning Dust were kissing in some c-cafe in C-Cloudsdale.” She moaned between sobs. “I r-read it in the Equestrian S-Star.”

Rarity crinkled her snout in distaste. “Hardly a reliable source of information, dear.”

“But there were p-p-pictures!” Rarity floated over a fresh supply of tissues to stem the renewed wave of tears gushing forth.

While she waited for Fluttershy to calm down once again, Rarity reached out with her magic, with some considerable strain at that distance, to retrieve her mail which included a copy of the magazine in question. Still comforting Fluttershy, she flicked through the blurry pictures, all of them shot from several tables away and depicting Lightning Dust kissing a rather annoyed looking Rainbow Dash on the cheek.

If she was any judge of Dash’s character, the situation was not as hopeless as Fluttershy was making it out to be. Rarity set the magazine aside and turned her full attention back to her distressed friend. “Has Rainbow Dash been home since you saw this?”

“Y-Yes.” Came the choked reply.

“And what did she have to say?”

When the door of the cottage banged open, Fluttershy was already in tears, holding the offending magazine in her hooves.

“Oh jeez, Fluttershy, I can explain.” Rainbow Dash started, a note of desperation in her voice.

Fluttershy could only stare down at the magazine, tears dripping onto it with soft, wet plops.

“Look, Lightning Dust just kind of grabbed me and when I saw the guy leaving with a camera, I tried to stop him, but she just pulled on my tail and then Spitfire called us all in for drills...”

Rainbow had been slowly walking toward Fluttershy as she tried to explain, but her words trailed off when Fluttershy let out a wailing sob, dropping the magazine and galloping past her, out the door and into town.

Dash ran after her as far as the door of the cottage. She could have caught up easily, but she didn’t know what to say if she did. Hovering back over to the magazine Fluttershy dropped, she picked it up and flew toward Sweet Apple Acres.

A streak of red and brown whizzed through the air as a bruised, but still rather solid apple connected with a splat and thunk with the rainbow maned back of a stubborn pegasus head.

“OW! Jeez, AJ! What was that for?!” Dash rubbed the back of her head, wiping mushy apple out of her mane.

“Seein’ how thick yer skull is. My words don’t seem ta be gettin’ through to ya.” Applejack bounced another apple on her hoof and seemed pleased when Dash cringed and sank to her haunches.

“But AJ, it wasn’t my fault, I swear.” Rainbow’s voice was almost a whimper.

“An’ if you’d listen, I told ya that don’t matter one bit.” Applejack’s hooves thudded against the hard dirt path as she walked over and sat in front of Dash. “First things first, you apologize.”

Orange hoof met cyan lips to stop the protest that was about to form. “Shush, you. It don’t matter if ya did somethin’ wrong or not. Your fillyfriend is hurting, first ya patch things up, then y’all can clear yer name.”

“But-” Dash’s protest was silenced by a bop on the head, not hard or vicious, but a warning a bit more intense than a silencing hoof.

“Let me give ya a piece of advice from Granny Smith, an if ya ain’t got it figured out by then, well, yer on yer own.”

Dash gulped at the fierce glint in her friend’s green eyes, and nodded silently.

“‘Anypony who thinks they’ve won a family argument has actually lost it.’ An’ let me tell you, I may ferget from time ta time, but that advice has got me out of trouble plenty of times.” Applejack nodded sagely.

The fire in Dash’s eyes seemed to go out momentarily, but it rekindled almost at once. “Thanks, AJ. I.. I gotta go fix this.” She spread her wings and took off in a flash of rainbow color.

Applejack smiled before turning back to her trees.

Rarity could hear the bell tinkle while she prepared some tea in the kitchen. She silently slunk over to peek out the kitchen door and make sure Fluttershy hadn’t left. The sight of Rainbow Dash in the doorway gave her pause, and she was about to burst back into the showroom when she took in the large box of chocolates she was holding. She suppressed a bit of very unladylike drool and went back to her tea, holding the door open ever so slightly with her magic to listen in.

Fluttershy could hear Rarity’s last words, before she went to make tea, ringing in her ears as Dash came in through the door.

“I’m sure she was telling the truth, darling. She didn’t think to apologize because she hadn’t done anything wrong. She probably just wanted to explain. That’s very like her.”

Fluttershy sniffed back the last of her tears and sat up, trying to straighten her mane a bit before speaking, but Dash got there first.

“Flutters, I’m...” she paused for a moment, trying to sort out the right words. “I’m really sorry. I didn’t mean to hurt you. I love you, only you. I w-” The rest of her words were cut off by a pair of butter yellow lips pressed to her own.

“I know, Dashie. I’m sorry too.” Fluttershy breathed when their lips finally parted. “You just wanted to explain, I should have known that. I love you too.” Fluttershy leaned in for another kiss.

Rarity, not wanting to ruin the moment, was stuck in her kitchen for quite some time.