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// Prompt #30: Comfort Zone 
// Story: Ponywatching 
// by ThunderTempest 
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They weren’t a couple. Fluttershy knew that. Both she and Rainbow Dash were just comfortable being friends. Fluttershy knew that Rainbow Dash wasn’t really fond of all the animals that lived around her cottage, and didn’t like to spend a lot of time there.

But sometimes, Fluttershy would get scared, and she knew that Rainbow Dash, as much as she projected the cool and awesome, would be there for her oldest friend as fast as she could. And during Ponyville’s last big lightning storm, Rainbow had stayed with Fluttershy. She’d said something about wanting to monitor the storm, but Rainbow had never really been able to lie to Fluttershy. But Fluttershy had just assented, and when Rainbow let her wing drape over Fluttershy after a big lightning bolt made her jump, Fluttershy didn’t say anything. She just snuggled under the wing, next to Rainbow’s warm body. She always felt safer with Rainbow.

And Fluttershy would always help Rainbow out with her practice. She’d be down in the feild below, cheering on. She knew that even despite her rather lacklustre volume, Rainbow still appreciated her coming along, and Fluttershy could always tell that whenever she was watching, when Rainbow knew she was down there, that Rainbow put in a little bit more effort than for other ponies. Not that she ever suggested that Rainbow slacked off, no. Not with her stunt training.

Fluttershy and Rainbow Dash weren’t a couple. Not even despite Rarity’s insitance, Applejack’s calm confidence, Pinkie Pie’s machinations or Twilight’s logic. Fluttershy had said so more times than she could count, and she’d apologised for it countless times, but she wasn’t in a relationship.

But sometimes, she would lay awake at night, after all of her animal friends had settled down to sleep, and wonder if it would really be so bad if she and Rainbow Dash were a couple. If it would really be so bad if they stepped out of the comfortable. But then Fluttershy would get afraid, and she would go to sleep, forever wondering and unwilling to change the status quo.