Thank You Cider!

by Souldin


Chapter 4: Flutterdash.

Chapter 4: Flutterdash

“...So you see I don’t actually remember anything about last night.”

The current location was Fluttershy’s cosy cottage and animal shelter, more specifically, her living room. Previously Fluttershy had fainted, her body going limp and falling into cyan hooves, but only a short time of a couple of hours had passed before consciousness was regained. Since then the two ponies had become preoccupied with asking one another questions and setting forth with clearing misunderstandings, unaware of many an animal’s annoyance at having to serve up breakfast for themselves or rely on Angel Bunny to dish it out for them (and the little rabbit was not nearly as generous or soft when it came to handing out food as their caretaker of norm). By this time the birds had flown off to enjoy the day, the rodents had scampered off to enjoy the day, and Angel Bunny had taken seat on the arm of the settee, watching as the daytime drama dissipated, and thinking to himself how he needed to get some hobbies outside of criminal activities.

“All I remember is waking up in the middle of the night with you c-cuddling up with me...I’m sorry I don’t remember anything else.” Fluttershy murmured, her blush seemingly a fixed addition to her face as it simply waned and grew through conversing, never fading.

“Oh no, that’s okay.” The surprisingly patient speedster waved off the apology, or rather the need to apologise, “So does that mean that we...didn’t do...that?”

“Do what?” The innocent mare asked, but as evident from the blush practically exploding on her face it seemed she realised what her sleeping companion meant and tried stammering out a reply, “I-I-I don’t, don’t think that...that we did anything like, maybe, no. I don’t think we did...that.”

Fluttershy expelled an uneasy vibe, Angel’s face fell in disappointment while Rainbow Dash sighed with relief, “That’s good...I guess this means that proposal was for nothing then.”

As their explanation had been proceeding for quite some time the proposal that caused Fluttershy to enter a coma of bliss had been pushed to the back of her mind. Now with the reminder of it, said event had run up to the front of her mind where it refused to be ignored. In combination with curiosity and the implications of Rainbow’s words Fluttershy’s face took on an expression of disappointment.

“If it’s okay with you I was meaning to ask...why did you propose to me?” The shy mare’s pink mane dropped over her face at the time, leaving the hopeful eyes obscured and the saddened tone muffled.

“Um...well, that is...you see,” Rainbow Dash’s nervousness was projected not just through her stutters but also with her fidgety hind legs and her twiddling fore-hooves, “Well I had thought that we had...done that thing...and you know there’s that song...and the thing you do ends up with one being...you’ know.”

Rainbow’s words became unintelligible and quiet as she struggled with how to word her thoughts. Angel Bunny over in the corner lifted both his ears to hear better, and Fluttershy peered with attentiveness, her focus completely on whatever her friend was about to say. The increased attention was soon noticed by the multi-colour mane pony who decided to just say it like she says everything else; loud and blunt.

“I thought I’d gotten you pregnant!”

Angel Bunny couldn’t laugh very clearly but it was obvious that he was in hysterics when he fell off the sofa, and began to roll along the floor. Fluttershy’s brain on the other hand was clearly playing tricks on her, as it tried to figure out what it was that her rainbow mane friend and crush actually said, because what she thought she said was just too absurd. No matter how the yellow pegasus thought about it the presumption didn’t make any sense unless...

“Are-Does that mean you’re a colt?”

The cyan pegasus looked back at her friend as if she was stupid and replied back in a slightly offended manner, “What! No! Why would you think I was a colt?”

“Well, you see, two mares can’t get each other pregnant so...”

“They can’t?”

Fluttershy nodded her head, leaving Rainbow Dash to mutter to herself “Huh, those Daring Doo fanfics lied to me then.”

The rodent squeaks of a hysteric bunny erupted once more, this time with such force than coughs became mingled with them. Normally the animal caretaker would rush to her pet’s aide, to whom he would try and brush off, but currently the animal caretaker was trying very hard to understand the situation. At several points today she had heard things which made her second guess whether they came out from her friend’s soft lipped mouth or from some witty part of her mind that wanted the world to be a comedy sitcom. The last one made her faint in ecstasy before she could confirm those words, this time she didn’t and could ask immediately.

“Y-you learnt about...that, from Daring Doo fanfiction?” Fluttershy unbelievably asked, and unbelievably got a nod as an answer. This lead the mare to stutter out her next query, “W-what about the sex education classes we took back in school?”

“I slept through every one!” Rainbow Dash declared proudly.

Angel had to be careful or he would soon burst a lung. Fluttershy had to be careful not to offend her friend by facehoofing, or at least questioning why her friend decided to sleep every class on what was currently a subject that would have been very helpful in this conversation. Instead the long time friend put it down as but a typical event and decided to re-route her focus on her original question.

“Oh, b-but that doesn’t explain why you-you, proposed.” The yellow coated pony couldn’t help but feel a sense of mirth when saying those last words, even if the greater half of her mind knew that there was some sort of misunderstanding that had lead to Rainbow Dash’s action.

“W-well, like I said, I thought you were pregnant and...A ponies supposed to stick with the mother of their child and then there’s that song and marriage comes before the foal in the carriage so I just thought that was...y’ know, how you were supposed to do things.” The explanation was fast, filled with stutters, and spoken quiet considering Rainbow Dash was the speaker, however Fluttershy’s raised ears recieved the jest, and then drooped.

“S-so, you proposed because, because you thought you had gotten me...pregnant, and wanted to support me and your...foal?” The idea was repeated with a sense of draining hope, a hope not so much for marriage but of being loved and cherished to the point where one could ask such a thing.

“Yeah!” The oblivious though sincere pony proclaimed, never noticing the down struck expression subtly crawling onto her friend’s face, “Sorry for the misunderstanding and all but it was really misleading. Waking up in bed with you, your bunny shoving a cigarette in my mouth, and you said that last night was the best night ever.”

Her hopes were dashed, the knowledge that the proposal came entirely from a source of decent morals than that of the heart displeased her, even if it did confirm how good of a friend she had. Still, even if the action was ridiculous a part of her would have been fine with proceeding so long as the words were said from love, and not as a matter of righteousness.

“Actually, if we didn’t do it then why did you say that last night was your best night ever?” The dasher of her hopes asked, still oblivious to the downtrodden mare’s mood.

“Oh, I well-it was and you asked so I answered with...’eep’.”

Rainbow said nothing, merely arched one brow up in puzzlement and waited for the fellow pegasus to compose herself.

“I...I’ve always wanted, wanted to snuggle up with you, just the two of us.” Fluttershy murmured at first but tried to speak up as she continued. Meanwhile Rainbow Dash listened, ignorant at first, but as Fluttershy forced out her words understanding and realisation started to come to her growlingly stunned face. “So when I woke-before you, in the middle of the night, and saw that we were together and with our hooves round one another and...I was happy. I was really happy to be snuggling with just you.”

The silence that followed from a finished Fluttershy and an unsure what to say next Rainbow Dash was awkward enough that each miniscule ticking of the clock seemingly echoed throughout the room. Angel Bunny’s hacked up laughter was now absent, the rabbit along with it as he knew either things would get either soppy or sappy in the coming scene and had decided to flee.

Working up her nerve, and having learnt from her previous misjudgements, Rainbow broke the silence, “So, by snuggle, you mean to snuggle up with me as...more than friends?”

Fluttershy nodded but didn’t speak, so Rainbow Dash quickly continued to utter words in order to avoid the quietude, “So I guess then, that you...that means you like me.”

“Love,” Fluttershy barely muttered under her breath before looking teal eyes directly to the rosy eyes opposite her, “M-more like...love you, I think.”

If the before silence was awkward, then the coming lack of sound would have to be given a completely new term to describe the mood. There was no talking and no eye contact, there was but the ticking of the clock and the thousands of thoughts each pony had jumping about privately in their head. The confessor had her head down and pink mane shielding her face, her look of troubled but highly doubted hope hidden. Not that it made any difference to the confessed, who had diverted her face out of reflex, her lips wavering between smile and a frown, her thoughts matching her mouths troubled state. That’s not to say that the frazzle minded, scruffy haired pegasus did not attempt to look at her friend with an honest expression, however each time she did she realised that she knew not what to say or what to feel.

“This...this isn’t as bad as before but it’s still...I don’t know what to think.”

Both wished for some form of noise, noise that wasn’t the continuing motion of the clock hands and it seemed Fluttershy fulfilled this wish by scuffling at the floor idly with her hoof. That just made things worse.

“C’mon Rainbow, think! Your oldest friend just confessed to you, what do you do? Tell her how you feel.” The trouble minded pegasus thought, only to encounter more trouble from her heart, “But I don’t know how I feel. I mean, she’s my oldest friend and all, I like being with her, I wouldn’t want anything to happen to her and she makes me happy but...isn’t that just friendship? We don’t have a lot in common which hasn’t stopped us from being friends but wouldn’t it stop us from being...well, more.”

Rainbow Dash was thankful that another form of noise came, meagre mumbling murmurs muttered from a pony’s mouth. They were near mute and incoherent, but Rainbow soon found her unthankful as picked up on the sombre, apologetic tones.

“Great, now Fluttershy probably thinks I don’t like her or that she’s offended me or something like that. I definitely like her; I’m just not sure how much. Friends, yeah, best friends; the others come close though I think I’d say it’s Fluttershy, but lovers? There was that dream, maybe that was a sign or something or...I wish there was some way to find out if I love her or not because I’m tired of all this thinking.”

“To hay with thinking!” Rainbow Dash yelled aloud while proceeding to do as she had proclaimed, leapt forth and pressed her lips against Fluttershys.

Along with putting a halt to all thought and locking lips with Fluttershy, the cyan mare had also screwed her eyes shut, unable to see the yellow mare’s teal eyes balloon in proportion. Fluttershy did not move back, shock had put a halt to her movement, and whilst Rainbow Dash could not see the stunned look she could feel the unresponsive trembling lips against her own. Time stood still for both ponies as they remained in their positions; one’s mouth pressed against a shaky other.

Then Fluttershy kissed back.

She did not break out of the first kiss the two were engaged in, but she stopped her shaking, closed her eyes, and pushed back against the softly touching mouth. She leaned forth with her upper body, her face edging as close to Rainbow’s as it could, and allowed the sweet feelings bursting from her chest put down any uncertainties in her mind.

The two remained, lips pushing tenderly against one another. Their minds were of the same, thoughtless, and their heart too, pounding. Feelings flooded them, of warmth, happiness and tranquillity, of warmth, happiness and excitement. They did not enact anything more; they simply stuck with the simple exchange, and would have remained blissful and vigorous if not for the need for air.

Reluctantly, and with as little haste as either could manage, the cyan and yellow pulled away. Eyes opened in a dream like manner, with dreamy looks to them, like pools of pink and teal water glistening under the moonlight. They looked back at one another as they inched away, the owners of such eyes entranced by one another even as they parted. The sunflower pelted pony closed her mouth, a trail of drool that connected it to the open mouthed Dash breaking apart upon the action. With that the moment passed, the heart beats regulated to decent paces, and the brain filled with thoughts to speak.

“Well...that was very, very...” Fluttershy begins quietly.

“Awesome.” Rainbow Dash softly finishes the sentence with volume matching that of Fluttershy’s.

“Yes.” The yellow coated pegasus speaks the word to match her dreamy gaze.

The two primary coloured ponies each became silent, each turned their heads away, and each pawed at the ground, but with blushes on their faces and faint smiles of a sweet happiness that refused to be hidden. The moment of splendour shared between them ran through their minds, and both realised that they had no idea what to do next. So they didn’t at first, the two ponies simply patted the wooden floorboards, contemplating.

“So...” Rainbow Dash began, her heart steady though her mind realised its own lack of knowledge in the area the pegasus wished to proceed, “You, uh...got anything planned for today?”

“No.” Fluttershy responded calmly.

“Well then, um, would you like a bite to eat? Some breakfast, y’ know...my treat.”

Fluttershy perked up and a look of joy overtook her yellow face, only to be held back by twinge of hesitance. Nervously biting her lip to prevent words from flying out, she pushed down her happiness and asked, “A-are you asking me this...because you think it’s what you should do?”

“No!” Rainbow said immediately, “I mean-I think it’s what ponies do when they...love somepony, but I want to. I’m asking you because I want to.”

No longer holding back a smile, one mare leaned forth, pecking the flying companion with a small kiss of the cheek and whispered with unbridled glee, “yes.”

The pony whose red face had formally been cyan grinned from ear to ear as she walked over to her friend, her best friend, her special friend, and placed a feather wing over her. The two smiling and blushing pegasus bumped muzzles before turning to the doorway, and trotting side by side.

As the two began to leave the room, exiting the door and stepping forth onto the porch, Rainbow asks, “I hope you don’t mind but do you reckon we could grab a mug of cider first?”

“Sure,” Fluttershy replies as she closes the door beside the pony closest to her in every possible way, “I have to give the cider my thanks after all.”


All good things come to an end...while really good things get demands for it to be continued like I did. Alas this here is the final chapter of Thank You Cider and I would just like to thank all those who have read this story. I would also like to personally thank Theengineerbrony, Wooberjig, Who149, Ugugg93, Jangledorf, Flutterdashguy, BorderPatrol, FlutterDashingPie, Maralagidyne, Baree, Brony707, Nyysjan, Minty_Twist, Brony_power, and Animeyasha66 for reviewing. Thank you all for the warm welcome and spectacular support.

This here experimentally written short story and my first MLP:FiM fanfic is complete and I hope you can all look forward to future works of mine on this here site. In fact, as I probably won't begin uploading any writing of mine to this site for a good 3-4 months I've decided to add a little preview of my next My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic fanfic, 'Magnetism' to the end of this here fanfic. I'm not sure if that is how people usually go about presenting previews but it is how I'm doing here so sorry if you thought this chapter was going to be longer than it actually is and I hope you enjoy what you see below. Cheerio!


Magnetism Preview

If the ponies of Ponyville were to look up to the sky they would have noticed a speeding blur of rainbow colours shooting across it. Then they would have known the source of the gust of wind that followed it, that the strong breeze came simply from a very, very fast pegasus.

Rainbow Dash had already beaten her wings ferociously in order to gain the height she needed to avoid colliding with anypony, and was now focused on flying in the general direction of forward. She had no destination in her mind; her flight plan was a simple one, fly as fast as she could and as far away as she could.

“Heh, I’m out of Ponyville already. Scratch ten seconds flat, I should be saying five seconds-urk” The well deserved, bragging thoughts of the rash pony were cut off, just like her incredibly speedy flight.

Her right hoof had frozen in the air, halting her entire body from moving with it.

“Oh no, not again!” Was all she could mumble as the dim white pearl embedded in the earthly coloured bracelet shone an almost pinkish crimson. The strange and mystical force of the artefact activated, and the racer found herself being pulled in reverse by her accessorised leg.

Before the wind was in her face and her wings cut through the air gently, now the wind was pressing against her mane, and crushing up against her back as her efforts to fly out of Ponyville were undone. Against both the strong winds and the mystic force that felt like it was trying to tear her right fore-leg of her body, she could neither see nor hear that her destination was not her starting point. The reason being that as Rainbow Dash was being pulled back to the library by her bracelet, Fluttershy was also being pulled up into the air by her own bracelet, with Twilight Sparkle along for the ride as her attempts to keep the yellow pegasus grounded against an ancient gravitational power by holding her down to the floor proved futile and foolish. These two screamed because they could see the painful collision about to occur and were quite aware of the inevitable falling of great heights they were about to suffer.