The Final Prompt: "All Good Things..."
"All good things must come to an end."
It is a truth commonly acknowledged that letters, as a rule, do not fall out of the sky of their own volition. Thus, it may be easy to understand why, when a letter did just that, Fluttershy was both startled and alarmed.
Thunk.
"Wh-wha?" Fluttershy said, rubbing her head. She looked down, and saw a piece of paper folded into a square lying on the ground below her. She glanced up--no, no pegasi in the sky--around--nopony who could've thrown anything that far--and then back down at the paper. At a loss, she picked up the square and unfolded it. As she did so, a large and relatively heavy rock fell out of the slip. Fluttershy rubbed her head again. Flattening out the paper, Fluttershy glanced over it.
Pinkie Pie has a crush on you.
Fluttershy blinked, and read the paper (the letter, she supposed. Or perhaps it was more of a note, considering it was only one sentence) again.
Pinkie Pie has a crush on you.
No, still didn't make any more sense.
+ + +
"...and it said, 'Pinkie Pie has a crush on you!'" Fluttershy finished.
"It said what?" Twilight asked.
"I was just as confused," Fluttershy said. "Especially since Pinkie and Rainbow have been, um, dating, well..."
"Almost as long as we have!" Twilight finished, looking up from the book she was reading.
"Um, yes," Fluttershy said. The two were in the Golden Oaks Library--Twilight sitting on a cushion reading a book, and Fluttershy standing a few paces back from her, having just arrived from the Ponyville market--where she had been before her trip was interrupted by the topic of conversation.
"What do you think we should do? Should we talk to Pinkie? Somepony might be spreading rumors about her! Oh, that would be just awful!" Fluttershy said.
Twilight's brow immediately furrowed, and she glanced back down at her book.
"Twilight?" Fluttershy said, looking at her marefriend.
"Oh--um, yes. I--I suppose we should talk to her. To Pinkie. About the note. Letter. Rumors. Is it hot in here?" Twilight said, using her book to fan herself hastily.
Fluttershy looked at her. "Twilight, did you write that note?"
Twilight stopped fanning herself, looking honestly bemused. "What? Oh, no, I--I just..."
Fluttershy looked at her again. "Just what?"
"Well, I, um... You see... I... I have a crush on Pinkie Pie." Twilight blurted out, the words smashing together as they left her mouth.
Fluttershy opened her mouth, and then closed it, and then opened it again, and then said, "I have a crush on Rarity." She said it very slowly, in such a way that it sounded almost dream-like. Then her pupils contracted in terror, and she immediately fell to the floor, hiding behind her hair.
Twilight went through an emotional traffic wreck, going immediately from embarrassment at her admission to confusion at Fluttershy's reaction to further confusion at her words, and then finally to caring, seeing the state of her marefriend before her.
"Oh, Fluttershy... Um, don't worry," Twilight said, getting up and taking a few steps towards the cowering mare. "I'm not angry or anything. It would be kind of silly for me to be angry, seeing as I just said, well."
Fluttershy poked an eye out from under the pink mass of her hair. "I--I guess you're right. That would be kind of silly, wouldn't it?"
Twilight smiled at her. "Yeah, it would. But I think we have something to talk about, don't you?" Her voice grew softer, gentler. Fluttershy nodded, and slowly rose to her hooves.
+ + +
Pinkie snapped to attention.
"Huh? Who's there?" she said, blurring the words. She looked around the room--the back kitchen of Sugarcube Corner, where she was playing with the Cake Twins--searching for the source of the noise that was the cause of her distraction.
"Pinkie Pie! You back there?"
Oh! Twilight! Pinkie thought. "Yeah! I'm in the kitchen!" she called.
A couple seconds passed, and she went back to flying Pound around like an airplane. Soon enough, Twilight and Fluttershy trotted into the room, their hooves clicking on the wooden flooring.
"Oh, Twilight, she's busy, we should just go and never come back--" Fluttershy said, shrinking away.
"What? Never come back! Why would you never come back?" Pinkie said. "And anyway, I can play with Pound and Pumpkin and talk to you girls, too! Whatcha wanna talk about?"
"Oh. Well, um." Fluttershy stammered.
"Well, Fluttershy got this, um, note," Twilight said, "And we just had a bit of a talk, and then we thought, 'oh, we should go talk to Pinkie Pie!' So now we're here!"
Pinkie stopped juggling alphabet blocks--or, more accurately, the alphabet blocks froze in midair--and said, "Ohh, I see." She then resumed juggling.
Twilight looked from Pinkie, to Pound, to Fluttershy, to Pumpkin, back to Pinkie, back to Fluttershy, and the finally at the rest of the room, before settling on her hooves.
"Do... Do you wanna see the note?" Twilight said.
"Sure!" Pinkie replied, upside down. Twilight pulled it out and levitated it over to her, dropping it on the floor beneath her head. Open.
Pinkie looked down at it, and fell over.
The Cake Twins giggled.
Pinkie did not move.
"Oh gosh, Pinkie, are you alright?" Fluttershy said, rushing over to her friend. It was immediately evident that Pinkie was totally fine; however, she avoided Fluttershy's eyes, a nervous grin on her face. "Pinkie?"
Pinkie just grinned, her eyes darting around.
Then, in a blur of pink, she was gone, with nothing but a "Gotta go bye!" left behind.
That, and a note on the front desk to Mr. Cake saying that she was really really sorry but she couldn't watch the Twins for the rest of the afternoon after all.
"...well that could've gone better," Twilight said, her heart rate slowing. Fluttershy only nodded, still staring at the place where Pinkie had been. "Do you think we should go talk to Rainbow Dash?" Fluttershy kept nodding. "Fluttershy?"
"Oh! Sorry. Yes, we... We should probably go talk to Rainbow."
+ + +
"Aww, Pinks, I'm sorry..." Dash said.
"But why did you tell her?" Pinkie said, hanging onto her words like a rope off a cliff.
"Well, I didn't, really, since I gave her a letter, but--"
"You told her," Pinkie said, smushing her face into Rainbow's.
"Yeah, alright, I told her. I just thought--it seemed like you really liked her, and Fluttershy's been one of my best friends for as long as I can remember--I dunno, it seemed like something might happen. I dunno what. I guess it was kind of a stupid idea, now that I'm thinking about it. But I really was just hoping to make you happier, Pinkie! I swear," Dash finished.
Pinkie harrumphed, doing a 180-turn. She harrumphed again, doing another 180-turn. On the third harrumph, and the third turn, Dash caught her by the shoulder and spun her back around. "Are you mad at me, Pinks?"
Pinkie smiled. "No! Not really. I know you were just trying to help. But I thought, since you broke your promise--even if it wasn't a Pinkie Promise--then I might as well at least pretend to be angry."
Dash smiled, letting out a sigh of relief.
"But now you have to help me talk to Fluttershy and Twilight! And you have to tell them about your crush on Applejack!" Pinkie said, giving Rainbow Dash a kiss on the cheek.
"My crush on-- How do you know about my crush on-- I-- Pinkie--" Dash stammered, blushing. Pinkie winked at her, and Dash gave up. "Alright, I'll tell th--"
"Rainbow Dash! We need to talk to you!" Twilight's voice sounded up to the top of the building upon which Dash and Pinkie were sitting. Dash grimaced. Pinkie smiled a big grin at her, walked over to the side of the roof, and hopped down to the ground.
Dash followed her, though she chose to use her wings rather than random outcroppings from the buildings beneath them.
"Hey, Twilight. Hey, Fluttershy. Whaddya want to talk about?" Dash said, landing in front of the two, as well as Pinkie--who, Dash realized, was looking incredibly nervous. And interestingly enough, looking across at Twilight, Rainbow saw the same nervousness playing across the unicorn's face as on Pinkie's--though much more well concealed. Twilight had opened her mouth to respond to the question, but Rainbow cut in before she could answer. "Whoa, no way! Twilight, you have a crush on Pinkie Pie?"
Twilight choked on the words she had been about to speak, and coughed loudly. Blushing, she said, "...maybe?"
Pinkie looked like she was about to fall over.
At that exact moment, Rarity and Applejack walked up to the group.
"Oh, hello, darlings!" Rarity said. "Are Applejack and I missing out on some lovely get together? Perhaps a double date? My, Applejack," Rarity said, nudging her partner, "we're being left behind! Simply dreadful behavior!"
"I'm... I'm not so sure that's it, Rare," Applejack said, assessing the situation before her. Dash staring at Pinkie, who was staring at Fluttershy, who was staring at Twilight, who was staring back at Pinkie... "May I ask what is?"
"I'm not honestly sure I know at this point, AJ," Twilight said.
Pinkie's leg twitched.
Then her eye.
Then her mane.
Then suddenly her entire body was in the air, every part of her going all over the place, moving crazily--almost impossibly. And then, with a pop, she stopped moving as suddenly as she had begun.
"A Doozy!" she cried. Everypony exchanged glances.
"...Twilight, how about you start," Rarity said.
"Aw, enough with the boring explanations," Rainbow said. She looked at Rarity. "Twilight has a crush on Pinkie Pie and Pinkie has a crush on Fluttershy." She turned to Applejack. "Say, AJ, do you have a crush on anypony?"
Applejack's lips formed a no, but her eyes flicked towards Twilight as the word left her mouth.
"Aw, please, I've heard that one before," Dash said, closing the distance between the two of them. She looked at Rarity again. "Oh, yeah, and I have a crush on Applejack." The last syllable left her mouth just in time for her lips to meet those in front of her.
Rainbow broke the kiss. Applejack looked vaguely stunned.
"Rainbow Dash, kiss my marefriend again!" Rarity cried, angrily.
The group went utterly silent.
"I-- Ha, ha-- I meant, ah..." Rarity looked around at the ponies surrounding her. "Oh, confound it. I may have... A... A bit of an infatuation with Rainbow Dash. Perhaps. Just a little?" Her voice squeaked.
Fluttershy fell over.
+ + +
"And that, little Sunlight, is how all of your mommies broke up and got back together on the same day!" Pinkie said, cradling the foal.
"Did we really break up?" Twilight mused.
"I didn't break up with anypony," Rainbow Dash said.
"Nor I," Rarity chimed in.
"I'd really rather we don't break up," Fluttershy said, walking in to the room.
"What's this now about breaking up? I married all of y'all, and the Apple family doesn't take kindly to divorce," Applejack said, following after her.
Sunlight just giggled.