Pinkie Pie was crying.
She didn’t usually cry, but today was a special occasion – and not because it was Hearts and Hooves day, even though Hearts and Hooves day was totally a super special day ‘cause it was all about love and friendship and happiness and making ponies smile, kinda like candy except it was a day. And who’d cry about candy? Fluttershy hated her. That was probably why ponies gave each other candy on Hearts and Hooves – ‘cause you weren’t supposed to cry on Hearts and Hooves, and if you had candy there was no way you’d ever want to cry, right? Almost no way, anyway. Unless you managed to mess up your love confession so much that you left the pony who was never in a million years gonna be your special somepony crying under a table begging you to go away, and nopony besides Pinkie Pie was dumb enough to do that, right?
It’d be okay though. No it wouldn’t. Fluttershy was a really kind pony, and she’d always forgiven Pinkie before, even if she wouldn’t this time even when Pinkie maybe didn’t really deserve to be forgiven like that time she’d let Gummy play with Fluttershy’s rabbits and they’d all been super duper scared even though Gummy didn’t even have teerh and was really an absolute sweetheart and -
A loud knocking pierced through the air, echoing like the roars of an empty stomach. Ohhh, that was a good one. But it wasn’t really a loud knocking. More like a medium knocking, or a so quiet it was barely audible knocking that she still heard anyway because listening for hungry ponies was her responsibility as a baker especially on Hearts and Hooves day because really what would Hearts and Hooves day be without bakers? There’d be no candy, no chocolate – none made to order and prepared with all the love you wanted to show your special Fluttershy. But not in a weird way. Bakers didn’t make a habit of falling in love with people they baked for unless the people they baked for were even sweeter than the candy way and even then Pinkie usually just fell in love with the candy.
The point was, even a baker who couldn’t stop crying was probably better than no baker at all, especially when she was as good at pretending she wasn’t crying as Pinkie. She fixed a grin on her face, all bitey and uncomfortable like it didn’t even want to be there and not at all like a normal smile – still, it looked good enough in the mirror to fool just about anypony, so she put the spring back in her step and bounced down the stairs.
She swung the door open, put on her biggest grin, and started her ‘Welcome to Sugarcube Corner! You don’t have to knock, silly, we’re open!’ speech before realising that something was horribly, horribly wrong. Or maybe really right. The clown wig suited Fluttershy, and the shiny red nose was like the cherry on top of the Fluttershy cake. It was super cute, and the itty bitty tophat only made it better. The look on ‘Shy’s face kinda killed it though. And made Pinkie wanna hug her – ruffle her hair and turn that frown upside down. She didn’t though – it seemed like a bad plan after how she’d messed up last time.
So instead she did her best to keep grinning – she could tell her smile’d dulled from ‘wide and welcoming’ to ‘small and kinda sad’, which wasn’t a very good start – and managed ‘Oh, hey Fluttershy.’
'Knock knock,' came the response, as intense as anything she'd ever heard from the Pegasus, and Pinkie tilted her head in confusion.
'I already opened the door, Flutters! You don't gotta knock anymore. I'm already right here! See?'
'What?' Fluttershy blinked, her eyes darting left and right before she fixed them on the ground. 'Oh. I… um… no. I… I know that. You're supposed to… you're supposed to say who's there.'
'Ooooh, are we telling jokes!? I know jokes! What's the best way to carve wood? What'd the toothless alligator say to his dentist? Applejack's hat! Rarity told me that last one and I don't really get it, but -' Babbling. She was babbling. She always did it when she was nervous and she had to stop and think and Fluttershy looked like she was gonna cry again.
She took a deep breath, then another. ‘Sorry about that, Flutters. I’m super duper excited to see you. You go ahead, okay?’
'Fluttershy,' said Fluttershy, before shaking her head and stammering 'W-wait, no, I… I got confused because you were talking and I told it wrong and -'
'It's okay! I'm not mad, I promise. I bet it was really super funny, and I just didn't get it and… wanna try again?'
'Knock knock.'
'Who's there?'
'Fluttershy.'
'I know that, silly, I meant – oh! Fluttershy who?’
Fluttershy took a deep breath, raised her beautiful eyes from the ground and set them firmly on Pinkie’s, and whispered ‘Fluttershy who’s in love with you.’
Pinkie felt her heart stop, and the smile fade from her face. It couldn’t be true. It… it had to be a joke. But what if it wasn’t? What if it was true!? She… she had to ask, but she couldn’t – all she could dow was stand and stare. She watched as Fluttershy shuffled nervously, waiting for an answer. She watched as Fluttershy took a step towards her, watched her face draw closer… and then, as Pinkie leaned in to kiss her, she felt all the doubts fade away. At least for a while.
When they broke apart, Fluttershy was smiling and Pinkie couldn’t help but grin. Then she was snickering, and hugging Fluttershy tight. ‘I love you too, Flutters. And that was the corniest punchline I ever heard.’