Fluttershy had never liked crowds, or loud music, or ponies brushing up against her, or really anything to do with parties. But, for Rainbow Dash’s birthday, she was willing to forgo that disinclination.
There were dozens of ponies filling her cottage to the brim. She could barely make it to the kitchen, let alone outside, without bumping into at least a few of them, apologizing profusely each time. Most didn’t even hear or notice her as she passed, more like a shy shadow than anything.
Finally reaching the back door, she slipped quietly outside and let out a sigh.
Despite her protests, Rainbow Dash had insisted that the birthday party be held at Fluttershy’s place, saying, “What, am I supposed to have it at Twilight’s library? What kinda egghead do ya think I am?”
“Why not Cloudsdale?” she had asked, hoping that she could dissuade the overeager pegasus from destroying her humble home.
“Not everyone’s got wings, Shy. They can’t all be as lucky as us.”
“Applejack’s farm?”
“I think her exact words were ‘When hell freezes over’.”
“Sugarcube Corner?”
“A candy shop, really? What am I, five years old?”
“Carousel Bout—”
“Pffffft, right... yeah. That’s totally where I’m gonna have my birthday party.”
“...Darn.”
So, without anything else to readily fall back on, Fluttershy had simply laid down and let Rainbow Dash get her way... like always.
She quietly cursed herself for being so easily bowled over, but admitted that she didn’t exactly mind having more time to spend with Rainbow Dash, even if that time was perforated with the faces of a dozen and half ponies she’d never even seen before.
Ever since they were kids, and Rainbow had defended her against the pair of bullies, they had been the best of friends. Despite Fluttershy’s year on Rainbow, she had always felt like the younger of the two, always being protected by the smaller, though braver, mare. She had even learned to fly thanks to Rainbow, something which she had never truly thanked her for, at least not adequately enough.
In many ways, that was why Fluttershy was so willing to let Rainbow strongarm her into always getting what she wanted. Rainbow had always been like a sister to her, so she was willing to let her have her way if it made her happy, and she certainly seemed happy tonight.
Fluttershy inhaled slowly, breathing in the cool night air. She could hear the muffled sounds of the party still raging behind her, but at the same time she could now hear the quiet symphony of crickets that echoed distantly, punctuated by hooting owls and buzzing cicadas. Her dim porchlight, a lamp hung from the rafters above her, barely illuminated the edge of the grass in front of her, casting a warm light out into the night that did little to fight back the darkness.
She smiled despite herself.
Even if the partygoers would likely end up making a rather distressing mess of her house, she found herself oddly happy for it. Living outside the town proper, just on the edge of the Everfree, she didn’t often have visitors. So, in her own way, she was secretly glad Rainbow had unceremoniously forced this party on her. It gave her a chance to catch up and feel like part of the community, rather than the shy outsider she saw herself as.
Of course, even if she wanted to feel like part of the community, there was only so much she could take before being overwhelmed, and so she had found herself in need of fresh air, weaving her way past gaggles of laughing and dancing ponies, making her way to the exit.
She glanced up at the stars, somewhat hidden behind the light cloud cover that dotted the sky, and decided she’d give herself five more minutes before diving back into the fray. After all, what was the point of having a party if she couldn’t enjoy it too?
Seconds crawled by, making minutes feel like hours as she stood on the porch, looking out over her garden. She relished these moments of solitude, short though they may be. But, as her self-imposed time limit creeped up, she found herself eager to get back inside and chat with her friends again.
Turning to head back inside, she caught movement out of the corner of her eye and quickly snapped her head towards the chicken coop. She could’ve sworn she saw something disappear into the woods, but it might’ve just been a trick of the moonlight she told herself. Still though, better to check and make sure.
“Umm, excuse me? Is anypony out there? The party’s inside. You can come out now, okay?”
Nothing, not even a shadow of movement save the gentle breeze that blew past and rocked the porchlight.
“Hello? Umm... please come inside, it’s chilly out here.”
The trees swayed in the wind, mocking her. Darn, she’d been sure she saw something. Oh well, it was probably better this way. She wasn’t exactly a fan of ponies hiding in the dark.
Giving up and writing the incident off as her mind playing tricks on her, she headed back inside.
As soon as she opened the door, she was greeted by a Rainbow Dash with cake smeared across her face who was all too pleased with herself and a slightly embarrassed-looking Twilight.
“Guess who just won the unofficial ‘Rainbow Dash’s Birthday Party Eating Contest’?” She jabbed a hoof into her chest. “This girl!” She wrapped her leg around Twilight’s head and pulled her into an armbar, using her other hoof to give Twilight a rather intense noogie. “S’all right, Twi. Don’t be embarrassed,” she said. “You never stood a chance anyway. I once ate my weight in cake, just to prove I could.”
Twilight’s expression quickly changed from embarrassment to annoyance as she struggled to free herself. Rainbow held on tightly however, forcing Twilight to ignite her horn and disappear in a flash of light, reappearing beside her an instant later.
Rainbow’s leg fill limp with nothing to noogie, and she groaned. “Aww, that’s cheating, Twilight. You can’t just ‘poof’ away like that.”
Twilight ran a hoof through her mane, trying to smooth it out as best she could. “Well I did, so too bad.”
Rainbow rolled her eyes. “Well anyway, where’ve you been, Fluttershy? We were lookin’ for ya before the contest started.”
“Oh, umm, I was just outside,” she said, indicating the door behind her. “I just needed some fresh air is all.”
“Well that’s cool I guess. Anyway, we were thinking that you and AJ should have your own eating contest, but, like, eating apples instead of cake,” she said enthusiastically. “Wouldn’t that be sweet?”
“Umm, I don’t know about that. Besides, I mean, I already ate a whole bunch of food, so I’m not really hungry.” Of course, she hadn’t eaten anything since lunch and she was lying through her teeth, but that wasn’t going to stop her from trying to weasel her way out of having any sort of competition with Applejack. As nice as she was normally, she was ruthless when it came to winning, and Fluttershy wasn’t exactly chomping at the bit to let AJ trample all over her for the sake of some silly contest.
Trying her best to politely refuse, Fluttershy was slowly getting sucked in by Rainbow’s insistence, but, just then, a knock came at the door, drawing everyone’s attention. She let out a sigh of relief.
Rarity, who was nearest to the door, opened it and waved in a lanky stallion with sharp eyes and a cocky grin. He spotted Rainbow Dash across the room and shouted: “Yo, Dash, I made it!”
Before Fluttershy knew what was happening, Rainbow had disappeared, slaloming through the crowd to reach the new comer. Her wings fluttered happily as she reached him, pulling her upwards so she could look down at him.
From his sides, a pair of wings exploded outwards and he raised into the air to meet Rainbow Dash.
“Heh, still always gotta try an’ outdo me, eh Rainbow?” he said, his voice just as young and self-sure as his smile. The two stared at each other, boring holes into the other’s eyes. Finally, after what began to feel like an uncomfortably long time, Rainbow blinked. He grinned. “Close, but I still got it.”
Rainbow laughed, throwing her arms around him and pulling him into a tight hug. “I thought I might’ve had you after all these years, but it looks like you haven’t changed a bit, Silver Streak.”
Everyone still had their attention on Rainbow when she turned to the crowd and said, “Everyone, I want you to meet Silver Streak. He’s an old buddy from Cloudsdale and he just got back from a trip to Seaddle.” She turned to Silver Streak. “Say hi,” she said out of the corner of her mouth, elbowing his ribs.
He winced. Rubbing his ribs with one hoof, he waved awkwardly at the crowd with the other. “Hey, guys.”
Fluttershy made her way across the room to where Rainbow and Silver Streak were wrapped around each other’s shoulders, laughing at some joke or other. All her other friends were working their way through the crowd as well, homing in like flies to honey.
One by one, they reached the pegasus pair and gave polite nods as Rainbow introduced them.
“All right, so this Twilight. Me and her go way back, well, like, not that far back because I only met her this year, but you know what I mean. Anyway, she’s super smart and junk. Like, this one time, she was complaining about not having enough time to read books, and I told her, ‘Why not just stop time?’. Of course, I was only joking, but she took me seriously and actually did it. Yeah, she invented a spell that could stop time.”
“Only for two and a half seconds,” Twilight sighed.
“Which is probably still some kinda record or something,” Rainbow replied. “Anyway, this here’s Applejack. She works at that farm on the far edge of town, you know the one. Legs like an ox, if you know what I mean. She actually bucked a tree so hard once, that the apples that grew there next year just fell off when they were ripe. Of course, even with those legs she's still no match for me in a straight up race. She may be strong, but I’m fast." Applejack gave Rainbow a pair of raised eyebrows as her response.
"You really wanna test that theory, sugarcube? Maybe you don't remember the last Running of the Leaves."
Rainbow waved her off with a dismissive hoof. "Yeah, yeah, whatever. Okay, anyway, this here's Rarity. Rarity makes dresses and whatever. It's all girly girly froo-froo stuff, so I don't really mess with it, but she's pretty good at it. I mean, she can even make a perfect replica of a Wonderbolt costume—” Rainbow caught herself. “Or so I’ve heard,” she said quickly, though not nearly as smoothly as she would’ve liked.
Rarity opened her mouth to elaborate, but Rainbow cut her off and turned to Pinkie.
"So then we got Pinkie Pie. I’m not really sure if what she says half the time is true or not, but she’s at least pretty funny, and we’ve pulled more than a few pranks together.” She snickered. “Actually, this one time, it was pretty great, we were waiting at the top of that big hill near the pond. You know the pond just west of the Everfree? Right, well anyway, we were camped out there waiting for Twilight to show up because we got Apple Bloom to tell her that
Pinkie just smiled happily, blissfully unaware that they were talking about her. She couldn't even stand still, bouncing in place like a kid waiting line at an amusement park.
"And finally," Rainbow said, turning to Fluttershy, "we've got the quiet one. The one whose house we're in now. Fluttershy."
Silver Streak held a hoof out in offering. He smiled kindly, with just a hint of smirk hiding behind his eyes. "Fluttershy, huh? Fitting name."
Fluttershy didn't shake his hoof immediately, but took a moment to study his face. His features were soft, but they held a hidden sharpness that was evident in his eyes. Electric blue and piercing, they were like hawk eyes, watching her squirm uncomfortably under his gaze like the little rabbit she was.
She shook his hoof.
His grip was firm and strong, like his gaze, but it was the length of time he held her hoof that threw Fluttershy off. It was just long enough that she began to feel awkward, and right before she made a move to let go, he released, smiling.
"So," he said with a puff of breath. "You're the one who ruined the surprise?"
Fluttershy was taken aback. She didn’t know what to say, but he just kept smiling.
“I, uhh, I–I’m sorry. I didn’t mean to... erm.”
He patted her on the back roughly, grinning that toothy grin. He said, “Nah, don’t worry about it.” He batted the air with his hoof. “No big deal.”
Rainbow Dash arched her eyebrow, shooting him a questioning glance. “Surprise?” she asked. “What surprise?”
He scratched the back of his neck with his hoof, feigning sheepishness. “Oh, nothing. I was just, heh, I was gonna sneak in the back and surprise you, but your friend spotted me.”
She hadn’t been wrong then. There had been someone in the garden just a few minutes ago, and it was this stallion. But that didn’t seem right. He was thin and lanky, but the figure she’d seen seemed bigger than that—wider, fatter even. Perhaps that had been a trick of the moonlight.
“Aww, man, you saw him, Fluttershy? And you didn’t even tell me?”
“I–I didn’t know it was him. I thought I was just imagining things.”
“You called out to me,” Silver Streak pointed out.
“But I didn’t think anyone would answer, and you didn’t,” she countered. Of course, she had thought someone was there, and she did think someone was going to answer, but she wasn’t about to let him know that.
“I didn’t want to ruin the surprise anymore than it had already been ruined.” He shrugged. “So, I snuck around front and came inside, and here we are now.” He glanced around at Rainbow’s friends. “I never thought Rainbow Dash would’ve met so many lovely mares,” he said, his lips curled into a perfectly charming smile, and his eyes softened. “You’ve got a heck of a party going on here. Now that I’ve been introduced, I’d like to get to know you ladies more.” He put a hoof around Rarity and Twilight’s shoulders, pulling them along with him as he disappeared into the throng of ponies. Twilight glanced back over her shoulder apologetically, mustering a tiny shrug that said, “What am I supposed to do?”.
“Shoot,” Rainbow muttered so quietly that Fluttershy could barely hear it. Her features were taut, and there was a slight twinge in her lip.
“Welp, I reckon it’s time we get back to having ourselves a good time, eh Dash?” Applejack said, nudging Rainbow’s side. “The night’s still young, and we’ve got plenty’a cider left! C’mon.”
Rainbow Dash looked around suddenly, as if she had forgotten something. “Uhh, where’d Pinkie go?”
Applejack shrugged. “Who knows? She probably up an’ vanished the instant that stallion quit talkin’ to her.”
“Heh, you’re probably right,” Rainbow chuckled mirthlessly. She looked over at Fluttershy. “Hey,” she said suddenly. “Wanna come throw some darts with me and AJ?”
“I have a dartboard?”
“You do now.”