//------------------------------// // Chapter 1 // Story: Rainbow's Revelation // by Olpert //------------------------------// Rainbow Dash wasn't afraid. Twilight had heated up the library in preparation for their get-together, which surely was why she was sweating. It was the anticipation for telling her friends what she had wanted to tell them for a very long time that made her body shiver, definitely not fear, no, not at all. And the fact that she had tried to start talking twice, and both times could not get her mouth to open? Well, you see, that was because... uh... one of the cupcakes she had had for breakfast earlier had some really sticky frosting? Yeah, lets go with that. Yes, Rainbow Dash wasn't afraid at all about what she was about to tell her friends. She never wondered why it took her so long to attempt telling them. She didn't think about how hard it had been to basically lie to them for all that time, and not once did it cross her mind that she couldn't bear losing any of them over what she was about to say. She could start talking at any moment she wanted. It was just that the right moment hadn't quite come around yet. But it was approaching fast, she knew. In fact, it was just about to happen. Yes, quite clearly the right moment had arrived right... now! Okay, no, that wasn't actually the right moment. But it was definitely close. She just had to look for it and wait a little. Just wait a little longer for the moment, the perfect moment that- "Rainbow Dash?" Her thought process interrupted, Rainbow Dash responded to the question presented to her in a calm and collected manner. Surely, everypony would agree with her that jumping five feet into the air and screaming "YEAHHHGH" at the top of her lungs was the pinnacle of calmness. Fluttershy, the pony that had addressed her, jumped back a bit and said worriedly, "Oh, I'm so sorry, I didn't want to startle you." Having become even more collected than she was before, demonstrated by her not screaming and flapping her wings around like a madmare, Rainbow Dash answered. "Oh, you totally didn't. I just felt like, uh, stretching my legs a bit, heh. So, what did you want to say?" "Well, I hate to be bothering you, but, well, you invited all of us here to make an announcement, and we've been here for a while now, and I really don't mind, but the others seem to be getting a bit restless, and it would be really nice of you if you could maybe start making that announcement, if it isn't too much of a bother to you..." Fluttershy became quieter with every spoken word until Dash had to strain to hear the last part. Rainbow looked around the room to see what the others were doing. Applejack had left a pretty impressive dent in the wooden table on which she was impatiently tapping her hoof. Pinkie and Rarity had just finished a game of Tic-Tac-Toe, prompting Rarity to grumble and ask for a best-of-357. Twilight was already halfway into 'Things To Do While Waiting For An Important Announcement: An Oddly Specific Reference Guide', the book she had started to read while waiting for Dash to begin. Rainbow sighed. "You're right. I've been putting this off long enough. In fact, I've been putting it off for pretty much as long as I've known you guys. There's something you all should know about me." The others perked up, stopped what they were doing, and brought their full attention towards Rainbow. Well, this was it. The moment had come. Rainbow took a deep breath and closed her eyes. Somehow, it was easier with her eyes closed. And while Rainbow had no idea about how her friends would react to what she was about to say, she knew that there was one of them who would stay with her and support her no matter what, as she had always done. She knew that at least one pony would be with her even if the others were to turn on her after this. That knowledge, the fact that she was sure she could always rely on that pony, gave her the final push of courage. And then she said it. "I'm gay." As she still had her eyes closed and dared not open them, she of course could not see the reaction of her friends. She could, however, still hear them. What she heard was a few gasps, one sharp intake of breath, and one very high-pitched, unladylike shout of "I knew it!" Rainbow was just about to open her eyes and ask who had said that, when she was interrupted by the impact of a very fluffy, very pink, and very huggy pony-shaped missile at her current location. "Ohmigosh Rainbow! It's always great to hear that one of my friends is gay! You know, I was already pretty gay before, but now that I know you're also gay I'm more gay than ever! We should totally have a 'Yay, we're gay' party and invite everypony, and then we can make them gay too!" Rainbow opened her eyes and looked deeply into those of the beaming pink pony in front of her. Her expression one of complete and utter confusion, perfectly mirroring the way that everypony else in the room was feeling. Then she understood. Then she facehoofed. "Pinkie, I don't mean 'gay' as in happy, I mean 'gay' as in I'm into mares." "Oh. Oh... OH!" said Pinkie as she understood. Then, she added with a shrug "Well, duh! Of course you are!" "Uh... What? You knew? But how could you know?! I never told anypony, not even my parents!" "Well darling," Rarity interjected, having recovered from the Pinkie-induced shocked state she had been in, "it wasn't that hard to figure out if you know where to look. You never were very comfortable when the subject of coltfriends came up, and considering you never showed any interest in any of the stallions who tried talking to you when we went out, well, I did very much think that this might be the case." "So you were the one who yelled that she knew?" Looking slightly ashamed, Rarity responded, "Ah, yes. I'm quite sorry, but I was fairly excited about being correct in that guess." She paused, then added, "Oh, and of course about you having the courage to tell us all. Yes, mostly that." Rainbow just shook her head, still surprised that two of her friends had already known her biggest secret. She was just about to ask Pinkie how she had figured it out, but then she realized she would be asking Pinkie how she had figured something out, so she stopped herself. "Well, I didn't know at all," said Twilight. "I never even thought about that. But, considering the fact that about one in ten ponies in Equestria is gay, it's not that surprising that one of our group of friends would be. Let's see, we are six ponies, which would usually put the odds for at least one of us being gay at about 47%. However, considering that Rarity showed interest in Prince Blueblood, and of course the fact that I know about myself being into stallions, the two of us are already out of the equation, which means the propability for the others in the group instead is-" She then stopped, as she had noticed that by the way Rainbow was staring at her; she was definitely not quite as interested in the probabilistic analysis of the sexual orientation of her friends as Twilight was. She blushed and mumbled a small excuse about getting carried away. "Alright, I reckon this has been going on long enough. If nopony else is gonna say something 'bout all this, I will." As soon as Applejack had started talking, Rainbow tensed a little, as if bracing herself for what was to come. Applejack noticed that, and chuckled slightly. "What, you scared of what I'm gonna say? You think that just 'cuz I'm from a traditional family, I'm gonna be upset 'bout this? Now listen here, sugarcube. "At the first Apple family reunion I can remember, I met a lot of ponies I'd never seen before. One of those ponies was cousin Apple Fritter. She was a very nice filly and we got along great, playing and talking the whole day. However, when she introduced me to her parents, I didn't quite know what to say. She didn't have a mom and a dad, but two moms! The naive filly that I was, I later asked Granny Smith what was wrong with her family. She looked at me and asked, 'What do you see that would be wrong, little Applejack?' "I answered, 'Well, they're both mares! I thought that parents had to be a mare and a stallion!' "And then she told me something that has stuck with me to this day. 'Now listen to me, filly. When two ponies want to be together, the only thing that matters is that they love each other. Whether they're mares or stallions doesn't matter one bit.'" With that, she looked at Rainbow directly. "It doesn't matter who you're into. The only thing that matters is the pony that you are. And I'm proud to call that pony my friend." Applejack then added in a slightly accusatory tone, "And I'm sure the rest of our friends feel the same way, even if they were too busy with themselves to mention it." Twilight and Rarity did look slightly ashamed at that and were about to apologize, when Pinkie took a more hooves-on approach to redeem them: "GROUP HUG!" As she found herself surrounded by her best friends, Rainbow let out a sigh of relief that was bigger than she would ever have dared to admit. They weren't going to leave her. Her biggest secret was out, and it wouldn't change a thing about their friendship. She was still going to be going on pranking sprees with Pinkie. She was still going to be challenging Applejack to whatever her mind was set on that day. She was still going to be talking with Twilight about how awesome the latest Daring Do was. She was even going to be enjoying massages at the Ponyville Spa with Rarity - in secret, of course. And she was definitely going to be... Wait. Where's Fluttershy? As she was thinking about all her friends, she noticed that one of them was missing from the group hug. In fact, she hadn't even said anything at all after Rainbow's reveal. Still in the hug, Rainbow's eyes wandered around the room, looking for her pegasus friend, and found her standing near the door. What she saw, though, shocked her to the core. She didn't get the look of understanding and compassion she expected. Instead, she saw sadness. And tears. And anger. Especially anger. More anger than she had ever seen on her friend's face. Fluttershy? No... It can't be! When Fluttershy noticed Rainbow staring at her in disbelief, she quickly broke eye contact. Then, tears still streaming from her eyes, she quietly headed for the door, consciously avoiding alerting the others. And just like that, she was gone, leaving behind an utterly confused Rainbow Dash. “Uh, not fer nothin, but Ah think this hug has gone on about long enough.” That sentence snapped Rainbow out of her state of complete and utter shock. Since Fluttershy had left, Rainbow hadn’t been able to move a muscle, and that had been about thirty seconds ago. Not surprisingly, the other ponies were looking curiously at Rainbow, wondering why she wasn’t moving. Well, except one pony. “What are you talking about?” Pinkie interjected. “Hugs can’t ever go on too long! The longer you hug somepony, the happier they get! Especially after, like, three minutes, ponies get so happy that they say things like 'Well, this was nice, but I really need to get going' and 'I think I can't feel my legs anymore' and 'Pinkie, please stop hugging me'.” Pinkie paused and tapped her chin with a hoof. “Wait a sec, something’s not right with the last one…” While usually Pinkie’s rants were a source of annoyance to Rainbow, in this case she was glad she had gone on a tangent like that, because it gave Rainbow a bit of time to recover and think. It was clear that the other ponies hadn’t seen how Fluttershy left, and Dash didn’t at all feel like telling them about it before she could figure out what had happened herself. With that in mind, Rainbow wiggled herself out from the embrace of her friends. “Yeah, that’s nice Pinkie. Anyway, I just realized I still have some, uh, stuff to do, so, yeah, I’m gonna be going. Bye, guys!” And with that, she was out the door. Rainbow quickly made to the air and flew towards her cloud-home as fast as she could, only stopping once she was inside and had closed the door behind her. She sank to the floor and gave a relieved sigh. No matter what the problem with Fluttershy was, at least she had managed to fool the others into thinking that nothing was wrong. “Rainbow Dash isn’t fooling anypony. There’s clearly something wrong.” This notion was uttered by Rarity about five seconds after Dash had left the library so hurriedly, expressing perfectly what everypony else was thinking. Well, except for Pinkie, who was still pondering the implications of hugs having an upper time limit. “Y'all are right. And considering who else left without a whisper, it's clear as day who the reason for it is.” “You're right,” Twilight agreed. “Fluttershy's missing! I didn't notice it, but she wasn't in the hug as well, was she?” “Indeed she wasn't,” Rarity added. “But what does it mean? Fluttershy, of all ponies, is upset about Rainbow's revelation? Why ever would that be?” Pinkie, taking a short break from her deep internal struggles, decided to give her two bits to the situation. “Oh, don't worry about it. This is between the two of them anyway. They'll figure it out eventually.” Twilight was puzzled. “Figure it out? Figure what out?” But Pinkie was already back to more important matters. “Oh, now I get it! He wasn't saying 'Pinkie, please stop hugging me', I just misheard! What he was really saying was 'Pinkie, please drop bucking trees'!” She paused. “Wait, that doesn't make any sense. I don't even buck trees! Huh. What a silly pony, saying such random things!” Twilight rolled her eyes at that. “Never mind. Still, I think Pinkie's probably right. This seems to be something that's between Fluttershy and Rainbow Dash. We're just gonna have to hope that they'll be okay.” How were things ever going to be okay again? Rainbow, having had a bit of time to think about the situation, really wasn't sure what she was going to do next. She was still sitting on the floor of her cloud-home. She didn't even feel like flying right now. Whenever she had a problem she couldn't figure out by herself, she usually went to talk to Fluttershy about it. And that was kind of out of the question, since... Fluttershy hates me now. The thought hit her hard in the chest, harder than a hoof ever could. She had tried to avoid thinking it, but after a while, it had crept up on her, offering itself up as the only explanation for her best friend's actions. Fluttershy hates me now. Of course, she had been going into her coming out with hesitation and fear, imagining that her friends would somehow abandon and hate her for it. She had imagined Rarity telling her how same-sex relationships were destroying the foundation for traditional marriages. She had imagined Twilight giving her a detailed scientific report on how being gay was a choice, and the wrong one at that. She had imagined Applejack telling her that she was unnatural and an abomination. She had even imagined Pinkie not wanting to hug her anymore because 'it would feel weird'. She had imagined all of those ridiculous things, yet the thought of Fluttershy not accepting her had not even entered her mind. Fluttershy had always been there for her. Fluttershy was her oldest friend. She could tell Fluttershy everything, and Fluttershy would listen. Fluttershy was the one pony that she trusted more than anypony else. And... Fluttershy hates me now. This time, the thought hit her even harder than before, having it contrasted against all that Fluttershy was to her, and it was almost enough to break her. She felt the tears welling up in her, and she knew that once they started, they wouldn't stop for a long while. Fluttershy hates me... No. No! She wasn't going to accept this! Fluttershy hates me? Yeah, right! That didn't even begin to make sense! She didn't know what made Fluttershy react the way she did, but she wasn't gonna find out by sitting on the floor and crying! There was only one pony who could explain what had happened, and Rainbow knew exactly where to find her. It was time to go to Fluttershy's cottage.