Home Is Where the Hearts Are

by Violet CLM


A Talk with Pinkie

Fluttershy was a better kisser than Pinkie Pie, though a far less aggressive one. If kissing Pinkie tasted like cherries and sweets, kissing Fluttershy tasted like sunshine and flower petals and water from the clearest of springs. If kissing Pinkie felt like doing a somersault into a river of lemonade, kissing Fluttershy felt like sleeping in a treetop where all the leaves were made from softest cotton. If kissing Pinkie brought forth the promise of new adventures to come and secrets to discover, kissing Fluttershy brought back the memories of times and places gone by. Their legs wrapped around one another, the white-tailed fawn all but forgotten, Rainbow Dash watched as visions of the past swam before her lidded eyes. She had laughed at the idea of Twilight’s folders, but she had just as detailed a collection of memories of each of her friends too, except hers was in her head.

A gangly, terrified yellow pegasus filly being backed over the edge of a cloud by two bullies, prompting her to fly down and offer to defend the filly’s honor before even learning her name…

That same filly returning to flight camp a few days later, not curious about the outcome of the race but wanting to fly better, fly harder, fly faster…

Fluttershy, Fluttershy, Fluttershy can hardly fly!

Working late into the night, several nights a week, striving to help Fluttershy learn to fly, striving as hard as any of the camp counselors but without a bit in payment…

Fluttershy’s awkward but sympathetic embrace and weird earth pony lullabies, anytime that she messed up or was made fun of or otherwise felt her bravado crack…

Who’s gotta dash? Gonna make kissy? Rainbow Crash and the Pegasissy!

Refusing to take Gilda’s advice to drop Fluttershy’s friendship, the only thing she’d ever disagreed with her griffon friend on…

Being told by Fluttershy one night that she was going to quit flight school, even before she had realized it herself…

“Rainbow Dash, I’m moving to Ponyville!”

Hearing Fluttershy’s avian chorus for the first time, and realizing that maybe the earth world wasn’t completely bogus…

Finishing construction on her cloud house, and listening smugly to Fluttershy’s praise of it, all the while knowing for a fact that Fluttershy would never visit her there…

Late nights drafting rainfall patterns at Fluttershy’s house, until the day she realized that Fluttershy had no interest in rainfall and was only helping because she knew it was important to her best friend…

Their very first Winter Wrap Up together, and learning that Fluttershy had declined to join the weather team and had started her own team instead, because that was what Fluttershy did, she found alternate solutions…

Gradually, over the years, nudging other ponies to help Fluttershy coax the animals out of hibernation, until a full team had emerged and Fluttershy had never known she’d been responsible for it, probably…

All their many adventures together with Twilight Sparkle and the rest of the gang, from that first, perfect moment when Fluttershy had helped her save Twilight from certain death, proving her strength and her wingpower long before any old tornado duty had come along...

After which there'd been Spitfire’s praise, and how she hadn’t hesitated at all to tell the Wonderbolt that the true hero of the day was Fluttershy, her number one flier, her number one fan, her number one friend, as she was reminded again and again, dozens more times, until one day…

“Rainbow Dash, Pinkie and I are together!” and the way that nearly every victory since then had felt empty, every joy muted, every party glum, every train missed, every invitation misplaced, until finally even Pinkie had noticed how unhappy they were together, and now this, their date, their apologies and fits of conversation and sudden romance, all in an attempt to rediscover or re-envision… what?

What exactly had they both allowed – maybe even intended – to be destroyed? Love? Did Applejack deserve those ten bits after all, or had Rarity been right to laugh the idea away like it was nothing?

When Fluttershy, wracked with guilt for having torn Rainbow Dash from the sky and brought her to live in Ponyville, had done her utmost to make her friend the best flier she could possibly be, was that love?

When Rainbow Dash, day after day, had learned that it was her oldest and shyest friend that she could count on to support her in anything she did, either with her wings or with her heart, was that love?

When they had both lain together in the park, trading compliments and tentative flirtations, saying things that felt nothing like anything they had ever said to each other before, was that love?

“No!”

They had both said it. They had both pulled away. And while the fawn ran terrified from the park, and while young ponies retreated slowly, embarrassed or even ashamed, from the bushes around them, Rainbow Dash knew for a fact that she was happy. She didn’t know what this conclusion would do to their relationships with Pinkie Pie, but she knew the importance of her friendship with Fluttershy, and she knew that Fluttershy knew it too.


Pinkie Pie, through some obscure combination of her superstition and her natural predilection for things that made no sense, had an elaborate ritual built around going to sleep. First a special signal from her Pinkie Sense would inform her that she was tired. Next she would make her bed, alternating most every night which side the pillows went on. Then she would drape blankets over anything in the room that could be construed as having a face, Gummy included. As a final step before climbing into bed and closing her eyes – right eye, wait six seconds, then left eye – she would brush her teeth thoroughly, as is necessary for one who lives on pastries and candy. It was in this last stage, her mouth full of foam, that she was interrupted by the frantic arrival of the mares she loved.

“We tried, Pinks, honest we tried, but we just can’t—“

“She needs me, Pinkie, more than I’d realized, and we don’t feel that way about each other—“

“We had this dinner, see, but it wasn’t really too romantic—“

“Although, um, I do see what you mean now, um, about kissing her—“

“I was talking with Twilight, and she said I should just be a friend, and she’s right—“

“Rarity gave me all these tips about being seductive and flirtatious, but I felt so wrong using them—“

“I’m sorry!”

“We’re sorry!”

Pinkie, whom Rainbow Dash had expected to be worried or disappointed or something, just looked confused. The pink mare spit the foam from her mouth, rinsed, and stood up to look at them brightly. “There!” she said, teeth shining from her wide grin. “Now I can talk again! That was a pretty silly conversation, you two shouting all sorts of things at the same time and me not able to say a single word. It was pretty cool to hear you shouting, though, Flutters! So what are you girls here about again?”

They looked at each other. “Well,” Fluttershy began, “last night you said that you were worried that we were unhappy together. And Pinkie, you were right. We were just miserable.”

“Yeah!” said Rainbow Dash. “But then you suggested that we should fall in love with each other. So I asked Fluttershy on a date, and she said yes, because who wouldn’t want to go on a date with the Dash?”

“That’s, um,” said Fluttershy, “that’s not exactly how it went.”

“Close enough. Anyhow, we had the date and we talked about emotions and stuff, and we’re doing better now. Then we made out, and it was nice but mostly really really weird.”

“We did try, Pinkie. But I don’t think we can just fall in love with each other, no matter how much simpler that would make things. That’s just not how we work. I’m sorry.”

Pinkie still looked confused. “But girls, why are you apologizing for a silly little thing like that? Why would I want you to fall in love?”

“…” Rainbow Dash fumbled for words. “Because you told us to! You said everything would work out if we fell in love with each other!”

Pinkie burst out laughing and enveloped them both in a big, toothpaste-scented hug. “Oh, you silly fillies. I only hoped you could fall in love because I thought maybe you did love each other, and you were just afraid to admit it to me or something! But if you don’t feel that way, then duh, obviously I don’t want you to try to do something you can’t! That would be like a squirrel wanting to tap dance with a muffin on its head!”

“Actually,” said Fluttershy, “I do know some very talented squirrels, and…”

Pinkie shushed her with a kiss, and then kissed Rainbow Dash too for good measure. “I just want everypony to be happy!” she said. “Especially you two. That’s way way way way way way more important than whether or not the reason you’re happy is because you’re kissing each other, isn’t it?”

Rainbow Dash just stared at her, leaving Fluttershy to answer the question. “Yes, Pinkie, it is,” she said. “We were just so worried we were making you unhappy, and we wanted to do anything we could to make you feel better about us. Even if it meant trying to be something we’re not.” Everything sounded so simple now, especially when she described it like that. Rainbow Dash was beginning to understand why Pinkie Pie had found their entire report so silly.

Pinkie gave them another hug. “You should never do that! That would be ridiculous.” She gasped. “Oh no, this is my fault, isn’t it? I said something I shouldn’t have, and you two went on a date you didn’t want to and had to get all huggy and flirty and kissy even though you were totally hating it! Oh, girls, I’m sorry!”

Rainbow Dash looked at Fluttershy through the mass of Pinkie’s mane that was partially obscuring part of her vision. They shared a smile. “It’s okay, Pinkie,” she said. “I mean, yeah, it was definitely pretty weird, but I think it’s good that we did it. We work together a lot better now than we did yesterday.”

Fluttershy nodded into Pinkie’s coat. “We had to learn what we weren’t before we could learn what we were. And aside from that one kiss – which, um, wasn’t actually all that bad, um, just as a kiss, I mean – all we really did was talk.”

“Yeah!” said Rainbow Dash. “I gotta say, if there’s one thing I’ve learned lately, it’s how important it is have talks with your friends. Especially your friends that you’re in crazy awesome complicated relationships with!”

“Which, um, is really all relationships,” said Fluttershy.

Pinkie giggled. “Gosh, that sounds a lot like one of those silly old friendship reports! But I’ve got an idea: what if we all got into bed, where it’s nice and comfy and warm, and then we can have all the talks we need to and make sure we all agree about exactly what we all want?”

Rainbow Dash looked anxiously at the outside door. “Uh, is that going to be all right with the Cakes? I mean, with the kids wandering around…”

Pinkie gave her a playful hit. “You have such a dirty mind, Dashie! There’s nothing wrong with us all lying there together and just talking. It’s not like I’d do anything romancey with either of you while the other was right there, that’d be super rude. Well, okay, I’d kiss you, but nothing else. Maybe two kisses. Or hmm, no, maybe three, or…”

“Pinkie,” said Fluttershy, “that sounds nice. I think we could all do with a warm bed and a good talk, so in the morning we can all have a fresh start and I can give Rainbow Dash a scarf that I think she’d like.”

As it was, though, by some unspoken agreement, the good talk had to be postponed until the next day. After all the anxiety of the last twenty-four or so hours, to say nothing of the months before that, Rainbow Dash was happy to lie beneath some big warm fluffy covers and not worry about anything for a night. Fluttershy, she guessed, felt the same way, and Pinkie seemed completely content to lie there with her hooves around her two favorite mares in the world. Rainbow Dash could hardly blame her. Eyes threatening to close, she gazed fondly at the two faces beside her: the mare she loved, and the mare who would never ever let her down. It had taken her a long time, but now she was sure she really had found her home.

“Pinkie Pie?” she asked. Lying there, looking at the girl who deserved her girlfriend every bit as much as she did and whom she could never again resent for that, because she was the most amazing friend in Equestria, she had remembered one other thing that she was supposed to say.

“Mmhmm?”

“Way back in Appleloosa, you sang this song to try to get everypony to get along with each other, and it didn’t really work. We all made fun of you for it, and that was really uncool of us, and… I’m sorry. Because you were right all along.

“You’ve gotta share. But you’ve also gotta care.”