"Excuse me… Princess Twilight?"
Twilight looked up from her book and realized she dozed off in the park on her favorite bench that had the perfect amount of sunlight to shade ratio for reading. Opening her eyes Fluttershy took up most of her field of view, standing just a few inches from her nose.
"Fluttershy, how many times do I need to tell everypony, it's still Twilight."
"Oh, I'm terribly sorry your majesty. But, I…" Fluttershy rolled her eyes and her hear followed with it to look behind her and avoid Twilight's gaze. "I… was wondering if you any spell about minds….I've got a…. rest…" trailing off, Fluttershy making barely audible noises that nopony could ever hear.
Twilight Sparkle blinked twice, still waking up from her unexpected nap, but her mind was still sharp enough to process most of the request.
"You've got a restless…? A restless animal? Can't stop thinking about something?" Fluttershy bit her lip, standing completely stiff, nervously pawing the ground.
"What's got you so worked up?" Twilight asked, closing her book. Her full attention was on Fluttershy now, and whatever this was, it must've been important enough to Fluttershy for her to come and ask for help.
"I…" was all Fluttershy was able to say before her voice rose nearly twenty octaves, slamming both hooves down over her mouth.
"I'm so sorry." she squeaked as she moved away.
"Fluttershy, you know you don't need to be nervous about asking me for a favor."
"It's…well…um… not important, bye!" Fluttershy quickly said, bolting in the direction of home.
Twilight's expression dropped as she mentally thought 'I should've expected this'. With just a little bit of concentration, a purple aura surrounded Fluttershy and dragged her back through the park. Fluttershy dug in her hooves the whole way, clawing at the ground, trying to latch onto a bench, anything to keep Twilight from bringing her back, but it was futile as she let go and sullenly hung her head as she faced Twilight again.
"What's the problem?" Twilight asked, turning Fluttershy around.
Fluttershy twitched, nervously biting her lip before saying what needed to be said, "I need you to come over in an hour…" Her eyes were clenched shut, wincing before Twilight responded.
"Fluttershy, you need to calm down. I can tell when something is bothering you. I can also tell that if I were to give you that hour, then whatever that problem was, the 'problem' would mysteriously disappear to allow you more time." Fluttershy gasped,
"So, I'll come over right now and we'll nip this problem in the bud together. Alright?" Fluttershy shrank,
"Okay" she whispered, "Wait, no! You can't come over right now!"
Twilight Sparkle already packed her book away into the saddlebag and was on all fours. Fluttershy stood in her way, "My… house is dirty!" she exclaimed,
"Then I'll help you clean it." Twilight said, pressing foreward.
"Angel is sick, and I don't want you to get sick as well!"
"I'll be sure to be careful around Angel then." Twilight rolled her eyes as they reached the edge of the park, Fluttershy was becoming more desperate with her excuses.
"There's no reason you should come over right now." "I'm in the middle of something." followed with "It’s not that important anyway."
"Fluttershy, whatever this is, it's bothering you, you need to take a deep breath and admit that whatever is bothering you, it's only going to get worse if you just delay it."
Twilight said rolling her eyes. As they walked closer to Fluttershy's cabin, Fluttershy finally threw herself at Twilight's hooves.
"Please don’t go in there! You can't look!" Twilight dragged Fluttershy all the way to the door.
"Whatever this is, we are going to fix it." Twilight said, pushing the door open with her magic. Fluttershy wailed a small "no." in protest, but Twilight charged in.
"Rainbow Dash?" Twilight said, spotting the cyan pony awkwardly waving at her as they strolled in. Twilight suspiciously eyed Rainbow Dash and then Fluttershy who was back on her hooves and calm.
"Alright, Fluttershy, what's the problem?"
"Nothing." She said confidently,
"And this restless animal? And as for you, Rainbow Dash, what are you doing here?"
"I'm…ugh… picking up some animal food!" "Oh really, what animal do you own?"
"A turtle."
"What's it's name?"
"Tank."
"And what does it eat?"
"Lettuce."
"Then why not buy some at the market in town?" Twilight asked, assuring herself that whatever these two were trying to cover up, she would get to the bottom of it eventually.
"Oh, um, Tank prefers Fluttershy's home grown over store bought. Isn't that right Fluttershy?" She excitedly nodded, running into the kitchen to grab lettuce and some other greens.
"The farmers market?" Twilight asked accusingly as Fluttershy shoved a hoof full of vegetables into Rainbow Dash's hooves.
"Well, if that's it, you really should be going, alright, see you tomorrow." Fluttershy said, pushing Twilight towards the door." Twilght slammed the door shut,
"You didn’t correct Rainbow Dash. Tank is a tortoise!"
Fluttershy's cheeks turned red as she tried to think of something to say. Rainbow Dash quickly said "Alright, thankyou gottagobye!" and flew out of Fluttershy's house before Twilight could protest. Fluttershy heaved a sigh of relief, Twilight turned to face her.
"Whatever it is, it's only going to get worse if you keep delaying it like this." She said, going for the door.
"Sorry to take up your time!" She said, closing the door behind Twilight.
Rainbow Dash looped around and dove down the chimney, "That was close!" She yelled as she crashed into the fireplace,
"I thought you were going to get her to help!"
"I thought you were going to just come out and say it."
"And I thought we both agreed that this wasn't a great plan at all!" Rainbow Dash said,
"We just need a little bit more time until we announce it to everyone, this is going to be a big step." Fluttershy said.
Twilight watched from the window, listening in on their conversation. "What announcement?" she said to herself.
---
Walking back to the library, Rainbow Dash spotted the familiar lavender pony while soaring over town and stopped just above her friend.
"Hey, Twilight, what's up?" she said, hovering off the ground before touching down.
"What's the big announcement you and Fluttershy have?" Twilight asked, eyeing Rainbow Dash up and down. She stepped back, visibly surprised.
"You know about that?! But we've been working on it for… How did you know that?" She asked incredulously.
"It wasn't hard. Especially when you don't wait more than a few minutes to talk to Fluttershy in private."
"But we were in private! How much do you know?"
"Enough." Twilight said, despite not knowing any details at all.
Rainbow Dash moaned, "Agh! The surprise is ruined! Couldn't keep any details to herself could she?" Rainbow Dash took off towards Fluttershy's cabin, leaving Twilight to wonder what the big announcement was suppose to be.
Rainbow Dash started yelling for Fluttershy before she even reached her house "Fluttershy! Fluttershy!" She shouted, bursting through the front door. The frightened response Rainbow Dash expected was instead a blinding flash of light. As the spots cleared from her eyes, Pinky Pie was standing in the doorway.
"How do you like my exploding camera!" she excitedly shouted.
"Needs…work" Rainbow Dash said, rubbing her eyes. Fluttershy looked to Pinkie Pie and then to Rainbow Dash,
"Twilight found out about our secret!"
"Wait, the secret one or the other one?"
"The only one we've been spending months trying to hide! I can't believe she found out!"
"Rainbow, Twilight doesn't know."
"Wait, Huh?"
"False alarm." Fluttershy said, smiling.
"Sheesh! I nearly had a heart attack! I've been flying all over the place to get this thing ready."
"What thing?" Pinkie Pie asked,
"You know, the surprise we've all been working on for Twilight, the one that's going to knock her off her feet."
"You really think so?" Pinkie asked,
"I know so, she won't even know what to think! Oh, and Pinky, did you bring the actual camera?"
"Oh, you actually wanted it? I thought it would be a good time to see how my latest prank turned out."
"So…"
"Well my exploding camera…exploded." Rainbow Dash's wings dropped as she sighed.
"I guess we'll have to save it for later."
"Well, sorry for the false alarm, I thought it was the other thing Twilight found out about." Fluttershy suddenly clasped a hoof over her mouth.
"What thing?" Rainbow Dash asked, "Nothing!" She said, shoving Rainbow Dash outside as well.
Pinky Pie remained, "This isn't going to work" she said in her singsongy voice,
"Especially if you can't trust your friends with this."
"They wont understand."
"Yes they will! I know that Twilight will understand, Rarity will come around. AppleJack and Rainbow Dash will probably put up the most fight, but once they see how amazing you can be with any creature or pony, everypony will start to come around. I mean, you were able to convince Discord to be good, and he didn't even do it willingly!"
"You're right, Pinky Pie. But, tomorrow, I want to think about how I'm going to do this."
"Alright, Fluttershy, but we need to do this in the morning though, I'm not sure how much longer I can wait!"