//------------------------------// // Breaking News And Breaking Hearts // Story: Everypony Loves // by Kaii-Leiko //------------------------------// Rainbow Dash lay in the field sweaty and panting. She'd just given herself one hell of a work-out. Taking her mind off of things. She was supposed to meet her friends later, all of them. That means seeing Pinks... Rainbow Dash thought solemnly. There was nothing much she could do about it, though. Which brought her back to keeping it off her mind, hence the work out. She was so lost in her own head she never even heard Thunderlane land beside her, only noticing him when he cleared his throat. "Oh, hey, Thunderlane. You here to lose another race against me?" Rainbow Dash gave him a cocky grin, she'd never once lost a race. Not against Thunderlane anyway. The black stallion rolled his eyes as he responded "No, I was actually here to ask you if you were busy tonight." "Tonight? I'm meeting my friends in a bit but I don't think that'll be too long..." Rainbow Dash frowned, wondering what all of this was about. "Why? What's up?" Thunderlane seemed to turn shy then, kneading at the grass with one of his hoofs. it gave Rainbow Dash an idea of what was coming next. The stallion actually intended to ask her out; it happened quite a lot. With nopony knowing of her sexual preference she always had to come up with some excuse why she wasn't interested in whomever was asking her out. She actually had a few excuses saved up for times like this. "I was thinking maybe you'd wanna hang out tonight, y'know?" he asked. Rainbow Dash was ready to decline but something stopped her. This is the perfect cover... her mind told her, and it was hard to find an excuse to counter it. But using Thunderlane like that would be wrong...Wouldn't it...? She was arrogant and cocky but she didn't think she had it in her to actually purposely be mean to somepony. Just a little...Everyone will know you went out so nopony will suspect anything. No harm, no foul. "Yeah, sure. Why don't we meet up at Sugarcube corner later?" Dash tried her best to sound enthusiastic about all of this. "Yeah, great, wow! i'll see you then!" and with that Thunderlane took off, and when he left that's when Pinkie Pie came into view. She'd never looked so scary. Her features were contorted in rage, but her eyes were overflowing with moisture. Rainbow Dash was overwhelmed with guilt, as she knew she should be. Her marefriend (well, definitely not so anymore) looked completely deranged and it was all her fault. "Pinkie, I-." "FUCK YOU!" She screamed at the top of her lungs before turning around and running off. Rainbow Dash's eyes had never been so wide, nor had she ever been so surprised. Never in her life had she seen Pinkie Pie be mean, or swear at all. I think I fucked up... ** Fluttershy paced nervously, nothing new for sure, but this time she was more nervous than usual. Any minute her and Twilight would be leaving to meet up with their friends with the intention of letting them know that the two of them were now romantically involved. It was nerve-wracking, frightening and all of a sudden Fluttershy found herself no longer wanting to do it. Perhaps it wasn't all that sudden, truth be told she had been fine with it up until when she had woken up that morning. She'd had horrible nightmares about her friends reaction. They had laughed at her and teased her, called her hurtful names and even pushed her around. In her dream they'd spread the news all over Ponyville until it got so bad Fluttershy had to move away. She knew it was on the ridiculous side, but that was just how her mind worked; Fluttershy was her own worst enemy. It didn't take long for Twilight to notice her marefrirend's anguish, of course. In the short amount of time the two of them had been together Twilight had learned a lot about Fluttershy. There were certain qurks the unicorn had managed to pick up on. When Fluttershy was uncomfortable she always hid behind her mane and kept her eyes away. When there was something she wanted to say but was too afraid to, that was when she stuttered the most. One way that Twilight knew something was particularly wrong at the moment was that Fluttershy seemed to have started to hyperventilate, and that was new. With their coming out only a short ways away that really could be the only thing bothering her. "If you're not ready we don't have to do this, Fluttershy." the purple hoof rested comfortingly on Fluttershy's back. Twilight leaned in to nuzzle herself into Fluttershy's cheek. "I'll understand if you need more time." The pegasus' heart skipped a beat. Twilight was so good to her; she wanted more than anything to make her that happy and repay Twilight for being so kind and understanding with her. Perhaps letting their friends know was the way to do just that. After all couldn't her friends be trusted with anything? She looked back on Rainbow Dash and Pinkie Pie as an example and her nervousness returned in full force. That had essentially torn them apart and that is what worried her. How long until Twilight got sick of sneaking around and lost her temper, claiming she no longer wished to be dating the pegasus? In all fairness Rainbow Dash's attitude had not helped either, but still... "I don't want to pressure you." Twilight continued, her voice washing over her marefriend with a soothing tone. "What if they laugh at me?" Fluttershy voiced her concerns "Or think we're gross and don't want to be our friends anymore? What if-" silenced with a kiss. The kiss was long and soft. When Twilight finally pulled away the pegasus was pulled into a hug. "There's no way that would ever happen, but if you want to wait we will." Fluttershy pulled away and looked into Twilight's violet eyes. There was so much there that she felt she was being sucked into them, almost in a trance yet none of it was bad. There was no reason not do it, now or later the result would be the same and there was no point delaying it. "Let's do it." She exclaimed as her stomach backflipped in protest. ** Twilight and Fluttershy were the last to arrive to their little gathering. Rarity and Applejack seemed pleasant enough, they were chatting each other up. Pinkie Pie and Rainbow Dash on the other hand, well...It was obvious something there was not right. Dash was as far away from Pinkie Pie as she could get, and Twilight couldn't help but notice the dangerous glares Pinkie Pie kept shooting towards Rainbow Dash's direction. "Howdy, Twilight!" Applejack called out upon the two lovers' arrival. Everypony else joined in offering their own welcome to the last two to arrive. There was idle chit-chat and catching up over events that had transpired since last they had all been together. This is actually really nice... Twilight thought to herself. We really need to get together like this more often. Twilight cleared her throat rather loudly and everypony turned to her. Now it was her turn to become nervous. She began reciting a chant in her head They're your friends, they'll accept you. She kept repeating it over and over again, as though doing so would undoubtedly make it true, not that that particular outcome was impossible either. Twilight just wished she had some kind of guarantee, but it was too late to back out. "There's actually I reason I asked you here." Twilight started. "I - Well, Fluttershy and myself - have some news we'd like to share with you." At the mention of her name Fluttershy's face turned red, despite her embarrassment she made her way to side beside Twilight. She did her best to look confident but she ended up hiding her face behind her mane, having so much attention on her was too much. It was a good thing it wasn't up to her to do the talking. Four sets of eyes were on the two lovers, waiting to hear this news they had been gathered to hear. "I haven't been here that long, but in the short time I have I've come to love each and every one of you. You're all my best friends, without you I'd still have my muzzle buried in books all the time. Well, I still do most of the time, not that that's a bad thing mind you but friends are so much better than books. I wish there were some sort of book on friendship though...It would certainly make understanding all of this a lo-" "Ahem..." Rainbow Dash interrupted to bring Twilight back to focus, with her eyes on Twilight she didn't notice the death glare Pinkie shot her. "That was awfully rude, Rainbow Dash." her voice was laced with venom, not a very attractive trait on a pony that prided herself on always being happy. Applejack had to concede that Rainbow Dash's action had been rude, but perhaps necessary too. Besides, Rainbow's attitude was nothing new to them. It was Pinkie's tone that worried the orange mare more. Never had she heard her friend speak that way to anypony. Ever. Applejack was quite diplomatic though, her face didn't betray anything and she kept her mouth shut. It was not the time to be discussing this. Rarity on the other hand looked completely scandalized, Fluttershy frightened and Twilight thoughtful. Guess their talk didn't go so well... she thought to herself. "I'm sorry, I just needed to get Twilight to focus, y'know...?" It was not lost on anypony that Rainbow Dash didn't even bother to glance towards Pinkie Pie and the usual arrogant, cocky voice of their rainbow-maned friend was low and guilty. "You could of been nicer about it." Pinkie shot back the moment Dash had finished talking, and the cyan mare's face sank. Twilight was seriously reconsidering now and from the look on Fluttershy's face she could tell that her marefriend was thinking it might be best to postpone as well. Her friends weren't getting along and she didn't know how this news would affect everypony. Not to mention bringing that up might remind Rainbow Dash about why her and Pinkie had been fighting in the first place. If Rainbow Dash started getting nasty too things were going to end badly, for everypony. In her daydream Twilight had lost track of Rainbow Dash's and Pinkie Pie's (mostly Pinkie Pie's) bickering. Rarity and Applejack were caught in the middle not quite sure what to do. Eventually Applejack broke. "Now you two stop this silly bickerin' right now. The last time I seen you two 'yeh were glues together like two peas in a pod. Now one of you is lookin' like 'ya wanna kill the other'n the other looks guilty. I don't know what's gotten into the two of 'ya but gosh darnit right now is not the time for this. Twilight just finished tellin' us how much she cares about us all and that she has something' to tell us, and Rainbow Dash you're surprisingly off the hook for this one, but you Pinkie Pie. Well, ah must confess I'm surprised and disappointed in 'ya." Applejack finished with a huff and Pinkie's anger seemed to subside for a bit. Everypony was looking at each other, exchanging glances with whomever their eyes met of course Pinkie Pie and Rainbow Dash's eyes never met once. "You're right...I'm sorry." Pinkie apologized. "That wasn't nice of me at all." "Oh, it's, um, okay." much to everypony's surprise it was Fluttershy that spoke. Her eyes met Pinkie with a knowing gleam in them and Pinkie offered her a subtle nod in thanks. "Now perhaps if we're done with all this unpleasant business..." Rarity chimed in "Twilight, could you continue?" "Huh? Oh, right! Sorry..." Twilight swallowed. It was now or never. "The truth is I don't know how any of you are going to react to this..." She knew that was a lie but she didn't want to let on that she'd let anypony know before anypony else. "But Fluttershy and I have started....Seeing each other." Once again, at the mention of her name, Fluttershy's face became conveniently hidden behind her mane. It took a moment for everypony to register what Twilight had said, and to understand the actual meaning meant behind 'seeing each other' but when it did click Twilight and Fluttershy could not have expected a better response. They were swarmed (much to Fluttershy's dismay) but everypony was congratulating them, and offering them pats on the back and hugs all around. All except for one pony who had stayed behind in the initial rush to congratulate their friends. It wasn't because she was unhappy for them just shocked that they had told all of them just like that. Twilight had made it look easy, and Fluttershy might not have spoke but clearly she'd been okay with it or else Twilight wouldn't have told them. Pinkie's voice rose louder than the others. "Wow, it must be nice to finally get that off your chest, huh?" on the last word she turned towards Rainbow Dash. Nopony even noticed the rainbow mare leave until she was nothing more than a rainbow streak in the sky.