An excerpt from The Ultimate Expeditioner's Handbook:
It is a well-established fact amongst ponies who have ventured outside their homeland that there exists a problem with maintaining friendships through the tedium and pain inherent in the exploration of the unknown. However, this inextricable fact of expeditions can be circumvented by traveling only with those whom one would feel comfortable despising. Whether these ponies are the subjects of a preexisting contempt, or are more-or-less decent ponies whose friendships will serve as sacrificial offerings to the greater pursuits of science and exploration, should be decided upon on a case by case basis.
Perplexingly, there exist no documented cases of this advice ever having been used on an expedition, which has lead us to believe that the advice isn't widespread enough throughout the expeditioning community.
• • ❖ • •
The crackling fire pulsated and flickered, radiating off waves of heat onto Fluttershy. In front of her lay the notebook she had been using to log each and every animal species she'd encountered on the island so far.
Fluttershy's mane, as it turned out, functioned as an excellent means of protection in more than one way: First and foremost, it had the ability to shield her from the penetrating gazes of other ponies, (a usage Fluttershy was already well-acquainted with,) and currently, it was making an effective heat-shield from the hot, dry air coming from the fire. But even with her mane acting as an intermediary between the flames and the rest of her body, the dry air sucked the moisture from Fluttershy's eyes, causing her to blink much more often than normal. This was hardly a bother for Fluttershy though as she lazily flipped through the pages of her notebook, warming her front hooves by the heat of the fire.
They had stopped again, this time at Rarity's request, though Fluttershy similarly had been contemplating stopping for the night. It had come as no surprise to her when Rarity voiced her recommendation. Aching hooves and hunger had begun to take their tolls on everypony, making it an easy decision for Fluttershy when she chose in favour of stopping for the night. Even neglecting the twinges of soreness and hunger, the ponies couldn't have gone on too much longer before they would have had to stop anyway, because the night was fast approaching and they would need the last light of day to make camp.
To avoid the headache of waking in the middle of the night with wet hooves and sodden belongings as a result of a rising river, they traveled into the woods a distance until they found the first open area where they could safely make a fire. Through the gaps in the canopy, just barely visible, was their destination. Only the tips of the mountains peeked through the leaves, the rest hidden completely from view. It was abundantly evident, just from what could be seen, that the hours they had spent wending along the river had brought them much closer to their goal. Fluttershy had guessed that they were nearing three quarters of the way there by now, and that they would make it to the mountains in no time at all the following day.
Fluttershy flipped a page forward in her notebook. It wasn't quite dark yet. The sun had set all the way, but its most tenacious rays of light reached over the horizon and into the night sky, allowing Fluttershy just a little more time to read. It had only been a few minutes after they first stopped that the sun had began to burrow into the horizon, causing the bright sky to dim further and further. But the real darkness was still to come. Now, as Fluttershy read, the yellows and oranges of sunset that had briefly decorated the sky were gone, and in their place, a muted cerulean that was gradually shifting into the inky black of night.
Under the fiery hues of sunset was when Fluttershy had prepared dinner. The main substance and nutrition of the meal came mostly in the form of beans. Not a favourite of Fluttershy's, but the ease of carry and of preparation made them an obvious choice. She had tried scavenging for other delectable things to eat while the beans cooked, leaving Rarity to stir the pot as she looked, and she succeeded to a degree, but unfortunately it barely even amounted to a side dish after being divvied up amongst the three of them.
Fluttershy picked up her pencil in her mouth and fixed a small spelling error in her field-notes. She put the pencil back down and closed the notebook. Fluttershy easily could have read over the whole thing in one sitting, but she felt no urgency to do so, instead deciding to pick it up again at a later time.
To Fluttershy's left, a few feet away, was Rarity, lying on her back, looking up at the night's first stars as they flickered uncertainly into view in the darkening sky, the faint white specks barely visible on the grey-blue backdrop.
Rainbow Dash was absent. She'd offered to go to the river to wash out the pot and dishes, and hadn't yet returned. Rarity found it hard to believe. Not that Rainbow Dash hadn't returned, but that she had offered to help in the first place. She'd always thought that Rainbow Dash was the kind of pony that only ever granted help when asked, and would do so begrudgingly, she might add. Of course, the only thing that Rarity had ever needed from Rainbow Dash was for her to stand still for a dress on one or two occasions, so perhaps that had something to do with it.
“Did you get enough to eat?” Fluttershy asked.
“Hmm? Oh, yes. Plenty.” Rarity rolled onto her side to look at Fluttershy, propping her head up on one hoof. “The beans were... um...” Rarity twirled her hoof as she thought of something positive to say. “They were very filling, I suppose.”
“Did you not like them?”
“Well... No, not really,” Rarity admitted. “Not by any fault on your own, mind you. I just don't particularly care for beans, if I'm to be honest.”
“Oh, well, I don't like them much either,” Fluttershy admitted.
“Rather unfortunate since I suspect that there'll be more of them to come.” Fluttershy nodded, then Rarity rolled back onto her back, face up-turned to the sky. “You know, Fluttershy, while I have been spending an inordinate amount of time complaining today—which I would like to apologize for by the way—there is one thing I've come to like about this wretched, overgrown, nature-filled place. Aside from the one or two downright immaculate vistas we've stumbled upon.”
“You don't need to apologize, Rarity, I can understand why you don't like being around nature. I'm just glad you agreed to come with me. It was very generous of you to come at all. I know how busy your life can be,” Fluttershy tried to say assuringly, but Rarity was having none of it.
“Bosh. I absolutely do need to apologize. My complaining was even annoying me so I know it must have been annoying for you. And I know that it was annoying Rainbow Dash because she was quite vocal about how much it was, though I don't think her shouting at me to 'shut up' was entirely called for.”
Fluttershy tapped on her notebook, unsure of what to say. “Um... Apology accepted then?”
Rarity gave a diminutive laugh. “How gracious of you,” she said, only half-sarcastically, then tilted her head to the side in thought. “There was something else I was going to say, but I can't remember what it was.”
“You were saying there was something you liked about this place,” Fluttershy said as she picked up a large stick and laid it across the fire.
“Oh, yes, that's right!” Rarity turned to her side to continue her conversation face-to-face. “I was going to say how much I'm enjoying not being able to do anything, which, I'll admit, sounds like a strange thing to say, but recently I've been so caught up with... with everything, that I haven't had time to think. Every little thing, all competing for the forefront of my attention. It seems like every second of my time recently has been used to determine 'What can I be doing right now,' instead thinking about what I should be spending time on for that month, or this year, or for the rest of my life for pony's sake!”
Rarity thought for a moment. “And I don't mean that in the very hollow sense that most ponies do when they say things like 'I want to be a model', for instance, and end it there. I want a little more than that. My life goals shouldn't be something I can fit into one, short sentence.”
Rarity took the look on Fluttershy's face as a sign that she wasn't nearly as moved by her words as she herself was.
She continued, lying back to look at the sky once more. “Maybe it comes as second-nature for you to live your life with a deeper regard for the future, but for me... it's something I seem to have a knack for ignoring.”
“Oh, no, I wouldn't say it's second-nature to me at all. I can barely think about what my life might be like in a year without panicking, so mostly I just avoid it altogether,” Fluttershy admitted, pawing at the dirt. “I guess I'm just lucky that things have worked out so smoothly for me for so long. I didn't plan it out or anything, I just do what I enjoy, and so far, that's what's worked for me. If things changed... I wouldn't know what to do. I like them the way they are because the way they are works. I... I just can't take change.” Fluttershy was too ashamed to look at Rarity, but Rarity was too busy staring up at the sky to notice.
Rarity gave a little “Hmm,” in acknowledgment of Fluttershy's statement, but had nothing more to add to it herself.
More stars irresolutely wavered into existence. The sky was as nice as it was back home, but everything else left something to be desired in Rarity's mind. And then there was the nagging feeling that she hadn't seen the worst of the island just yet.
She was waiting for it to happen, whatever it was. She could feel it, like eyes staring into the back of her head. It was that same nagging feeling that, after a minute, turns into a yanking, tugging feeling that somepony, or something, is watching. She didn't think the feeling she felt actually was the feeling of being watched, but it was equally unnerving.
Rainbow Dash returned with the pot and other dishes in her saddlebags. “I'm back!” she announced. “Didn't miss anything while I was gone, did I?”
Fluttershy shook her head. “Not really,” she said. “But now that you're back, we should all get started on setting up our tents. And we had better make it quick. If we wait any longer, it'll be too dark to see what we're doing.”
“Sounds good to me.” Rainbow Dash said, as she trotted over to a pile containing her things. Things that were once in, or attached to her saddlebags but had been removed when she had needed the bags for carrying the dishes.
Likewise, Fluttershy went over to her bags and detached a smaller bag from them that contained the parts that would become her tent. Soon after, Rarity did the same, abandoning her ruminations and getting to work.
Fluttershy untied the knot at the end of the long cloth bag, then gently slid the pieces out the open end. She laid them out in front of herself in an organized fashion; rods, stakes, and ropes, all getting their own separate piles, and the single, large, canvas sheet a pile of its own. She found a suitable, flat location that would make the perfect spot for a tent, but before she could begin assembly, Rainbow Dash had something to say.
“Heh... so, uh...” she stammered out. She looked up from her pile of belongings and over to Fluttershy, rubbing a hoof over the back of her neck. “I may or may not have brought a tent with me.”
With a growing look of consternation about her, Fluttershy faced Rainbow Dash. “Hmm?” she hummed, a request for Rainbow Dash to elaborate. She knew exactly what Rainbow Dash was insinuating, but was a little shocked that nopony had noticed earlier.
Rainbow Dash batted a hoof at her pile of many things, none of which were a tent. “Well... I don't want to point hooves or anything, but it looks like somepony forgot to bring my tent.”
Rarity briefly broke away from setting up her tent to look over to Rainbow Dash with a raised eyebrow. “So you're without a tent then?”
“Uh, yeah. That's kind of what I've been saying.”
“Well before you even ask, the two of us are not going to be sharing a tent,” the white unicorn said placidly. “I need my beauty sleep—especially after an exhausting day like today—and I can't have anypony getting in the way of that.”
“That's okay, I wasn't planning on it. I'd actually like to get some sleep tonight, too, and there's no way that would happen if I was stuck beside you and that constant snoring,” Rainbow Dash smirked.
“For the last time, I do NOT—Erughh!” Rarity ground her teeth and held back her anger as best she could. She took a deep breath then started again. “I,” she began calmly, punctuating the word by bringing a hoof to her chest, “am a lady. I have class. And I do not snore.” She shifted her focus back to her tent supplies and, aghast, realized that at some point without knowing it, she had stabbed one of the poles into the dirt with her magic.
Her blue aura enveloped the pole as she withdrew it. Inch by inch it came out, leaving Rarity to gape at the eight inch deep hole that remained in the dry and compact soil of the ground. The pole still being intact after such a forceful impact was a miracle in its own right.
“Is that all you forgot to bring?” Fluttershy asked, mostly inattentive to Rarity's small fit of rage. “And how did you forget it in the first place? I wrote you a list of all the things you needed. I know I put 'tent' on there.”
Fluttershy's question was almost lost on Rainbow Dash whose chuckling at Rarity's distress had just started to die down. “I don't think I forgot anything else. Wait, no...” Rainbow Dash's face scrunched up into a pensive expression, her eyebrows furrowing. “Actually, yeah, I had it right,” she said, now certain of herself. “I know for a fact I got all the other things on the list except for the tent. I remember now that I was saving the tent for last because it's buried under all of my other junk that I never use, but I guess I forgot to go back to it afterward I finished the list. And I didn't double check the list either...” Rainbow Dash laughed nervously. “I mean, it would have been kind of a pain in the flank to dig it out from underneath all of my other junk, so... I guess you could call that a bright side.”
“Well,” Fluttershy sighed. “I guess there are worse things you could have forgotten. And... um... also, do you want to share a tent with me? Mine's made to fit two ponies anyway.” Through the frustration in Fluttershy's voice shone a glimmer of enthusiasm at the prospect of sharing sleeping arrangements with Rainbow Dash again.
Not for any untoward reasons, of course! It was just... nice. That was all. Particularly the cuddling.
“It's either that, or I'm sleeping on dirt tonight, and I can't really say that sounds to fun... Unless Rarity changed her mind. Hey Rare, you sure you don't—”
Rarity scoffed. “You're not coming anywhere near my tent tonight after insulting me like you did!”
“All I did was state a fact,” Rainbow Dash grinned. The smirk on her face was slow to fade as she turned her attention back to Fluttershy. “Your tent it is then. And to make up for forgetting my tent, I'll go ahead and set ours up for us.”
“Oh, you don't have to do that. I can do it if you don't want to...”
“It's fine. I want to,” Rainbow Dash said, shrugging off Fluttershy's protest.
“Well... if you're sure you want to...”
Rainbow Dash smiled. They had to go through this same charade any time she offered to help Fluttershy with anything. “I'm positive.”
Rainbow Dash went over to Fluttershy's neat piles of tent parts and began making them into un-neat piles of tent parts as she went to work setting up the tent.
• • ❖ • •
Rarity admired her work. Her tent stood proudly and neatly. The angles were exact, the poles vertical, and the roof devoid of any wrinkles whatsoever. She stepped back to take in the sight from another angle and found that she could admire it just as well, if not better, from a distance.
She turned around and saw Rainbow Dash fumbling with a pole mumbling under her breath something that she couldn't quite make out. By the look on Rainbow Dash's face, she assumed it was something the pole would have taken great offense to were it capable of such things.
Despite her frustration, Rainbow Dash had only just begun setting up her tent. It had taken Rarity just a minute to erect her own tent with the aid of magic, so now, with the free time she had on her hooves, she thought the time was apt to seek out a little... requital. Requital being the most lady-like word Rarity could think of for what was, quite simply, payback. She didn't have anything substantial in mind. Just a little something to get on Rainbow Dash's nerves like she had hers.
She trotted over to the fire and took a lying position next to it, a few feet behind Rainbow Dash whose back was turned to her. Rainbow Dash had in her grip a pole which was opposed, seemingly as a non-negotiable matter of principal, to staying up. No matter what she did, as soon as she took her hooves away for more than a few seconds, it would flop over like a tired cat, and pull down with it any progress Rainbow Dash had made. Again and again this happened. She would get it just right, let go, and it would, once again, fall over.
“Turn it around,” Rarity said.
Rainbow Dash swiveled her head around to look at Rarity. “What?”
“The pole, turn it around,” she repeated. “It needs to be the other way.”
“What does it matter? It's the same on both ends.”
“Just do it, would you?”
After a moment of reluctance, Rainbow Dash conceded, but not before a great deal of consideration in favour of flat-out ignoring her. “Fine.” She flipped the pole around and resumed trying to get it to stand correctly.
“No the other way,” Rarity said twirling her hoof in a circular motion.
“What other way?”
Rarity took the pole from Rainbow in her magic and flipped it back around. “Like this.”
“That's exactly how I had it in the first place!” Rainbow Dash shouted, gesticulating fervidly.
“Oh,” Rarity said innocently. “So it was. My mistake. Carry on then.”
Rainbow Dash huffed then took the pole from the hold of Rarity's magic and got back to work. “Yeah, thanks for the help.”
“I didn't realise I had helped at all,” Rarity said, in continuation of her act.
“You didn't.” Rainbow Dash deadpanned.
Rarity pretended to be interested in the fire, picking up a stick and poking at it. After a minute she pretended to grow tired of it. “Are you sure you have all of the parts?” she said, as she tapped her chin contemplatively.
“Yes,” Rainbow Dash seethed, her tone a rather delectable mixture of exasperation and annoyance to Rarity's ears.
“And you've doubled checked to make sure you're guy-lines are all running to their corresponding stakes?”
“What? 'Guy-lines'?”
“The ropes, dear.”
“Then why didn't you just call them ropes? Actually, y'know what? I don't care! Just stop talking so I can focus on getting up this stupid tent!”
Rainbow Dash jammed the pole into the ground to see if that would make it stay up any better than it had been. “I know what I'm doing. I've set up a tent before.” she let go of the pole. It stayed put for a deceptively long time before falling back down. She exhaled out a deep breath that bordered on being a groan, with it, she expelled much of the frustration that continued to grow within her, stoked by Rarity's attempts at 'help'.
Fluttershy, who had been quietly minding her own business reading a book (with difficulty) by the dim wavering light of the fire, looked up to see what all the fuss was about. As far as she could tell, it was just Rainbow Dash being Rainbow Dash.
“Do you want me to help, Rainbow Dash?” Fluttershy asked. “It would be easier if we did it together.”
“No it's fine. I'll have it up in a minute,” Rainbow Dash insisted. She had told Fluttershy she wasn't going to have to set up the tent, and by Celestia, that's what was going to happen.
Rarity let out the loudest “Hmmm....” she could get away with without it sounding fabricated. “How incredibly strange... Your stakes aren't coming out of the ground are they? They should be at forty-five degree angle relative to the ground, facing away from the tent, of course.”
“No! The stakes are fine! I just can't get this stupid thing to stay up!”
Rarity smirked. Rainbow Dash was acting unsurprisingly predictably, and Rarity thought her own acting was quite good as well. She could have helped if she wanted to, but she didn't. Irritating the cyan mare was much more enjoyable. But it wasn't really what she was after, though. It was part of what she was after, but her plan was much more sophisticated than that.
Houseflies are irritating, Rarity reasoned. A crying foal is irritating. Accidentally putting too much sugar in one's tea is irritating. Irritating is easy. Rarity though... she had something more cunning planned. Being a little irritating was just the first step. And now that she'd done that, there wasn't too much left for her to do, but it needed to be done soon, lest Rainbow Dash cool off. “I could help you set it up, if you'd like,” she offered.
“I don't need your help. I can do it on my own.” Rainbow Dash responded, with the exact stubbornness Rarity was counting on.
After what Rarity determined to be the perfect length for a pause she pitched her final question. “Are you sure? I've already finished setting up mine.”
“Yeah, I'm sure.” Rainbow Dash said sourly.
Rarity sat back for a time, smugly counting the minutes as they passed. She wagered she would only make it to another two, maybe three minutes. Yes, any minute now, she knew Rainbow Dash would give up. Any. Minute.
“I give up!” Rainbow Dash shouted, throwing her hooves in the air. Fluttershy jumped slightly at the outburst.
Holding her head low like a bull ready to charge, Rainbow Dash stomped away from the pile that was supposed to be a tent, then plopped down in front of the fire, making a point to face away from Rarity. She glared at the ground just in front of her nose with her head resting on her crossed front-hooves. Her deep, rancorous breathing stirred up small clouds of dust out of the dirt in front of each of her nostrils.
Fluttershy frowned. She had come to expect the occasional hissy fit from Rainbow Dash as a result of her temperamental nature, and she knew from years of experience that the best thing for her to do at this point was to not say anything to her. In the past, she used to try to cheer Rainbow Dash up when she would throw a tantrum, but the downright abusive things Rainbow Dash would say—then inevitably regret saying—when she got like this quickly taught Fluttershy that shutting up for a couple minutes was in everypony's best interest.
As Fluttershy forlornly watched Rainbow Dash, wishing she could say something to her without getting a cruel response, she noticed something unusual. Rarity looked a little too smug. It was a hunch, but she suspected she knew why.
Rarity's breathy giggling was interrupted when she noticed a glare aimed in her direction. She coughed to disguise that she had been laughing and swiftly flicked her head to look at a suddenly very interesting tree. Had that been there the whole time? It was so tall, and leafy as well. Truly marvelous in every capacity.
She glanced sideward, hoping to see that Fluttershy had found something else to glare at, but instead discovered her walking toward the heaping mess of poles and canvas that Rainbow Dash had just a minute ago abandoned.
Rarity got up and approached it as well. As Fluttershy inspected the tent, Rarity picked up the carrying-bag it had come in using her magic and peered inside it. Contrary to her suspicions, she didn't find any extra parts still in the bag, but she did find some lying under it: A single stake with a length of rope wrapped around it. She deftly unwound the rope from around the stake then levitated into place all the pieces of the tent at once, at the same time sticking the stake in the ground in front of the tent. She strung the rope between the pole and the stake with all the dexterity of a bowyer then stood back. All of this took her no more than a few seconds, and the end result was a tent standing as precisely as it should, with no signs of impending collapse.
Fluttershy eyed Rarity suspiciously. “Did you know that it was there the whole time?”
“The stake? No, I didn't know it was there, but it stood to reason that there was a stake missing.” Rarity thought she had sounded innocuous enough, but apparently she hadn't been, because Fluttershy's disapproving glare came back.
“You don't have to get back at her you know,” Fluttershy said, tersely. “I know she can get on your nerves sometimes, but I thought you were better than that.”
Rarity stood slack-jawed. Was... was Fluttershy calling her out? But this was supposed to be the part where she would proudly proclaim that the tent was up and it had only taken her a few seconds just so she could stomp all over Rainbow Dash's big, bloated ego. That's what this was all about: a sucker-punch to Rainbow Dash's ego. It was only fair! It was Rainbow Dash's behavior that had made her look like a barbarian at the train station! And she had made her agree to having mud put in her mane under the guise of it being a way of 'getting it over with'! Consent or no consent, the action had come from a place of ill-will, and that Rarity did not appreciate. Which isn't even to mention how it was an outright crime against fabulosity.
And she had said that she snored as well! Such a statement was nothing short of slander.
And she made her eat doughnuts from a run-down doughnut shop! In Canterlot, of all places!
And she hadn't been very gentle in carrying her down off the airship, which was rather... rude...
All of these things. They had all been very... moderately unpleasant at the time. The more Rarity thought about them the harder it was to remain angry about each one. Except for the incident at the train station, that really had pissed her off quite seriously...
But even so, she didn't desire payback anymore. She felt... petty. Really petty. She had known from the start that what she was doing was nothing but petty, but the accompanying hadn't made itself known until now. She felt dirty. And all it had taken was an outside set of eyes.
'Better than that'? She was better than that. It went without saying that she was better than that! To stoop so low as to seek revenge for her own enjoyment, the idea left her aghast! Nauseated even! It was... Well it was unthinkable! Just a moment ago that would have been exactly what she would have done, but now? Now it wasn't even a consideration. She was better than that! And nopony should dare suggest otherwise.
Although... she had already set up the tent, and rubbing it in would be so very, very easy...
No!
No. She would do the proper thing and not do what she so deeply wanted to do. The opportunity was right there, but she wasn't going to take it. If anything, it just went to show how commendable a mare she was, resisting temptation so well.
“Get back at her? Why, I was planning nothing of the sort,” Rarity lied. “She said so herself that she didn't need my help.”
Fluttershy sighed. She wasn't buying it. She walked over to the fire and started clearing up her books and the assortment of other items she'd left laying about, before untying her sleeping-bag from her saddlebags. Rarity watched Fluttershy as she passed by carrying her sleeping-bag in her mouth. Fluttershy didn't say anything as she passed, she didn't even look at her. She didn't see the point in talking if Rarity didn't want to meet her in the middle on a pony-to-pony level.
As Fluttershy passed by her, Rarity changed her stance from feeling dirty to feeling like nine piles of festering offal.
After Fluttershy had laid out her sleeping-bag inside, she went back to grab Rainbow Dash's. When she had finished laying that one out, she called out to Rainbow Dash, “The tents up, Rainbow. Everything's already set up, so just come in whenever you're ready. Oh, and um, whoever's out last, make sure you put out the fire.” She disappeared through the flaps leaving just Rarity and Rainbow Dash.
For a moment, Rainbow Dash didn't move, but after a time she got up and made her way over to the tent. She passed by Rarity who was still too busy feeling like a jerk to have moved yet, then passed through the flaps and into the tent.
Rarity, realizing she was the last one out now, magicked some dirt over the fire, then stumbled, downtrodden, through the dark over to her tent.
• • ❖ • •
The thick canvas flap whipped closed, Rainbow Dash stepping inside and onto the end of her purple sleeping-bag. The small tent could barely accommodate the full length of the bag, sparing only a few inches on either side. Adjacent to Rainbow Dash's sleeping-bag was Fluttershy's, atop it, Fluttershy herself, lying there staring at the angled ceiling. The two cotton-padded sacks combined nearly took up every square-inch of floorspace, scrunching up against each other where they met in the center. Rainbow Dash zipped closed the tent flaps, making it almost pitch-black inside the tent, then pirouetted and fell back-first onto her puffy bag. The cushioning proved to be less cushy than expected as she smacked against the hard ground, the padding doing little to soften the blow.
“Oof!” she grunted.
Fluttershy, having been snapped out of her reverie, worriedly turned toward Rainbow Dash whose face was scrunched up in a combination of surprise and pain. “Are you alright?” Fluttershy couldn't make out Rainbow Dash's face in the dark, but she had been able hear the thud of Rainbow Dash hitting the ground.
One eye clenched in pain, Rainbow Dash winced as she took in a breath of air that didn't feel like it was all that fond of being breathed. “Yep. Just... not quite as fluffy I thought it would be.” she wheezed.
“I can barely even see you it's so dark in here,” said Fluttershy, through the dark.
“Yeah, and I can barely even feel anything... except pain,” Rainbow Dash groaned. She had a smile on her face, but there was no way for Fluttershy to see it.
“Are you sure you're alright?” Fluttershy inquired a second time.
“I'm fine, I was just kidding,” Rainbow Dash grinned.
A time passed where neither spoke, simply steeping in the eerie sensory deprivation, taking in the silence that gently fell upon the small space like the first snow of winter. Fluttershy was pretty sure she could make out Rainbow Dash's outline against her surroundings, but it was a fleeting effort, because every time she moved her eyes, the lines blurred and she had to concentrate to focus them down to a crisp edge again.
Rainbow Dash broke the silence. “Are you tired?”
Fluttershy noticed the outline of Rainbow Dash's head move. Her best guess was that she had turned it to face her. She assumed it must have been out of habit, because there wasn't much for her to look at. “Kind of. My legs are a little sore from all the walking.” Fluttershy said, slowly massaging one foreleg with the other. “You?”
“Same.”
Silence fell again. It felt fragile, like a paper-thin sheet of ice, and lasted for only a short time before it was shattered. This time, by Fluttershy.
“Rainbow?”
“Hmm?”
“Last night... on the airship...” Fluttershy started.
“...Yeah?”
“Um... Oh, it's nothing,” she said, dismissively.
Rainbow Dash sighed, only partially from exasperation. Fluttershy going into her shell like this was usually at least the littlest bit annoying to her, but it wasn't all bad. Not always.
Having been Fluttershy's friend for so long, Rainbow Dash knew just how many problems Fluttershy's timidness could sometimes cause her, but this wasn't one of those times as far as she could tell. This wasn't a case of Fluttershy taking the blame for something she didn't do because she was too scared to speak up, or not getting help when she needed it for the same reason, it was... well Rainbow Dash didn't know what it was because Fluttershy hadn't told her yet, but whatever it was, Rainbow Dash doubted it was anything like that.
And besides, Fluttershy being shy was what made her... well... her. It made her different. Maybe it didn't help Fluttershy stand out amongst other ponies, but it made her stand out to Rainbow Dash.
“Come on Fluttershy, use your words.” Rainbow Dash clumsily reached a hoof forward into the dark and prodded Fluttershy's chest. “I know you've got them in there. And they aren't all about bunnies and squirrels.”
Fluttershy smiled briefly, but it evaporated when it came time for her to spill the beans. “I was just going to say that last night, on the airship, when you came up and slept in my bed with me... it was, um... I was just going to ask... if you wanted to do that again, maybe.” Fluttershy grew sheepish near the end. Being unable to see the reaction on Rainbow Dash's face as she spoke drove her crazy, and her lack of a verbal response helped in no way either. “Only if you want to, though.”
Eventually, Rainbow Dash did respond, after what was, in truth, just a few seconds.
“Okay.” she said, causing a smile to sweep across Fluttershy's hidden features. Excluding the night before, if that even counted, this would be the first time Fluttershy had gotten Rainbow Dash to cuddle with her in years.
“Well come on, get over here,” Rainbow Dash invited.
Fluttershy eagerly closed the gap, wriggling right up beside Rainbow Dash. She reached a hoof over the midsection of the other pegasus's body and laid her head up against the soft fur of her chest, nuzzling into to it slightly. At this distance, she could make out a lot more detail than before, and looking up at Rainbow Dash's face, she could see a small smile on it.
Rainbow Dash reciprocated the snuggle with a hoof under Fluttershy's neck, giving a gentle squeeze, and letting out a contented sigh. “So,” she began. “is this how it's gonna be every night?”
“It doesn't have to be if you don't want to,” Fluttershy said.
“I didn't say that,” Rainbow Dash said, giving another little squeeze.
For a change, Fluttershy was actually thankful for Rainbow Dash's inability to accomplish small tasks like remembering a tent. In fact, she wasn't even sure why she had told her to bring one in the first place. With the two of them sharing a tent, they wouldn't have as much weight to carry. Knowing now though that Rainbow Dash didn't have a tent, Fluttershy decided that she would be the one to carry it tomorrow.
Fluttershy's breathing slowed down to a leisurely stroll as she continued to nuzzle into the silky fur of Rainbow Dash's neck. She had always had the softest fur of any pony Fluttershy had ever known, much softer than what most ponies would have expected from the rough-and-tumble pony. It was her mane that gave them that idea more than anything else, but even Rainbow Dash's scratchy-looking mane wasn't unpleasant to the touch.
“This is nice,” Fluttershy hummed.
“Mhmm,” Rainbow Dash exhaled. “But y'know, most ponies sleep in sleeping-bags and not on them. Although I'm not sure either of these bags could fit two ponies at once.”
“This is better.” Fluttershy said, gripping more tightly onto Rainbow Dash as if to keep her from abandoning her for the warmth of a sleeping-bag.
Rainbow Dash yawned, laughing at the same time. “Can't argue with that.” She could have fallen asleep right then and there if not for Fluttershy yanking her back toward consciousness when she spoke again.
“I remember when we were little and would have sleep-overs at my house,” Fluttershy reminisced. It was hard for her to not think about her fillyhood with Rainbow Dash when she was around her. Meeting Rainbow Dash had been the first time in her life that things had started looking up for her. “I also remember that every time we went to sleep, you would be the one to suggest we cuddle.”
Rainbow Dash almost choked. “Whoa, whoa, whoa. Hold on there. Cuddle? Who said anything about cuddling?” Rainbow Dash did not cuddle. In fact, there was only one thing more lame than cuddling, and that was snuggling. And they certainty weren't doing that. “I never once suggested that we cuddle. And we're not cuddling right now, either.”
Fluttershy looked up at Rainbow Dash in confusion. “Then what do you call it?”
“This is... um.” It was a good question. What would she call it? “This is... close-sleeping...”
Fluttershy went along with Rainbow Dash's terminology despite it making her want to roll her eyes. She smiled. “Still, you were one who always wanted to 'close-sleep.'”
“Well... yeah,” Rainbow Dash admitted. “So what? There's nothing wrong with that!” she added defensively.
“Then why did we stop?”
Rainbow Dash didn't like where this was going. This wasn't the first time Fluttershy had brought this up, and it wasn't the first time Rainbow Dash had hoped it would be the last. Though it had been a long time since it had last come up.“What do you mean?”
“Why did we stop?” Fluttershy repeated. “One of the days when we had a sleep-over you just didn't want to cuddle anymore, and then a little while after that, you stopped coming over to my house altogether.” Fluttershy looked pleadingly into Rainbow Dash's eyes. “Why?”
Rainbow Dash's eyes had adjusted to the darkness by this point, and through it, she could see quite clearly the look she was receiving. “Well... um. There's a reason for that, but it's kind of... complicated.”
“What is it?” Fluttershy asked.
“Umm... Do you think it could wait til morning? I don't mean to blow you off or anything, but could we get some sleep first? It could take a while.”
Disheartened, Fluttershy looked down, and away from Rainbow Dash's face. The warmth emanating from Rainbow Dash's body suddenly didn't feel quite so warm.
“Hey, come on, I promise I'll tell you in the morning.”
Fluttershy didn't look up. “Pinkie promise?”
Rainbow Dash went through the motions, accidentally lightly bonking Fluttershy in the nose in the process. “Cross my heart, hope to fly, stick a cupcake in my eye.”
Fluttershy rubbed her nose. “Okay,” she conceded.
Rainbow Dash let her head roll back, her eyes closing. “First thing in the morning,” she yawned. “I promise.” She gave Fluttershy one last squeeze, then angled her head down so that she could nuzzle her cheek into Fluttershy's voluminous mane.
Fluttershy happily nuzzled back. Because first thing in the morning she would get the answer to her question. A question she'd wondered about for years but had been too afraid to ask. From the very beginning it had made her doubt their entire friendship and whether or not she and Rainbow Dash were actually as close as she thought they were, but that would all be put to rest. Because first thing in the morning she would get her answer and it would sort everything out... she hoped.
For the time being, she would just try to not think about it. Instead, she focused on the rhythmic breathing of the pony beside her, and the pleasant, comforting feeling that came with having somepony else be close to. She hoped they would do it again, make a habit out of it like before. But for now she would just enjoy it while it lasted.
Soon Fluttershy felt sleep fast-approaching, so she closed her eyes and did her best to meet it halfway.
• • ❖ • •
Slowly, quietly, Rainbow Dash slipped out of Fluttershy's tenuous hold, the yellow pegasus's hoof falling limply off her body. The dozing Fluttershy looked as peaceful as could be as she lay there with her eyes closed and mane strewn about, but that didn't stop her from being the sole source of a disorienting amount of anxiety for Rainbow Dash.
With great care, she unzipped the tent, then passed through the flaps. The outside world greeted her with a blast of chilly, morning air, and a raucous of far too many simultaneous birdsongs.
The singing had started as a small choir composing of only the earliest of risers, their gentle, repeating tunes a light nudge for Rainbow Dash to get up and start her day, but before long, more joined in, followed by more still until it had escalated into a whole symphony, with every member playing on a different page.
Somehow, through the tumultuous racket, Fluttershy continued to sleep. It was true that the animal caretaker's abode was home to a large number of birds, and that probably had something to do with it, but even with this knowledge, Rainbow Dash was still totally baffled by the yellow mare's sustained unconsciousness.
Even as the birds shouted over one another, Rainbow Dash's thoughts drifted away from the noise and toward her current problem: last night she had promised—Pinkie promised—to tell Fluttershy a secret that she'd kept from her since they were fillies. A secret that could change everything if Fluttershy ever found out about it.
But she didn't have a way out of it, as far as she could tell. Fluttershy had been dead-set on finding out the night before, and it was unlikely she'd had a change of heart in the short time since then, which realistically left Rainbow Dash with one choice:
She was going to have to lie.
And with the possibility of Fluttershy waking up any minute now looming, she would need to think of a convincing one and make it quick.
She walked out into the center of the campsite and sat down next to the burnt-out fire. As the minutes passed, she poked at the charred remains, trying to think of anything that both sounded reasonable, and didn't make her sound like a jerk or an idiot.
After a little while, poking the ashes got boring, so Rainbow Dash started pacing around the fire, as she tried to think. Over and over, she cast her line out into the ether, but the ideas just weren't biting.
It wasn't as if this was the first time Fluttershy had asked her about that particular time from their past, but normally when Fluttershy brought it up, Rainbow Dash just brushed it off without really giving her an answer. Then they would both forget about it for a while, and Rainbow Dash wouldn't have to think about it for another few months or, even better, years.
She never had to worry about Fluttershy pressing too hard for an answer either, because that went against rule one of being Fluttershy, which was to not be a bother.
Rainbow Dash couldn't help but think that maybe pushing Fluttershy toward being more assertive wasn't such a good thing after all.
“Ugh... I just had to go and ignore her...” she muttered, in regard to her fillyhood with Fluttershy. “And why now?” she asked aloud, then realized that it was a stupid question. It was because they had slept in a way that looked to the untrained eye like cuddling—but most certainly wasn't cuddling—the previous night.
“I should have just said 'no',” she remarked, rubbing a hoof between her eyes.
“No, that wouldn't have worked.” She sat down and planted her forehead in her hooves. “She still would have wanted to know why we don't cud—close-sleep anymore. Maybe even more than she does now.”
The morning sun's light gleamed in the damp morning air as it fractured through the gaps in the foliage, one shard catching Rainbow Dash's eye, a reminder to her that time was still ticking and she still didn't know what she was going to tell Fluttershy. She glanced about frantically. There had to be something! It was then that an idea struck her.
“Aha!” she nearly shouted but managed to catch herself. It was a bit of a last-ditch effort and she didn't really love the idea all that much... or at all, but maybe it was just crazy enough to work. She'd managed to keep her secret from Fluttershy for this long, and if this plan worked, she would keep it for a little longer still. With a grin like a madmare, she threw caution to the wind and trotted in the direction of Rarity's tent.
• • ❖ • •
Rainbow Dash barged into Rarity's tent as fast as a pony cold barge through an opening sealed by a zipper, and was surprised to see that Rarity was actually awake, sitting in the middle of her tent, applying eyeshadow. “Hey Rarity! Sleep well? Good.” She paused for a second. “Are you putting on eyeliner? Actually, never mind. That doesn't matter right now.” Rainbow Dash forced herself to slow down. She wasn't going to get anywhere if she was talking faster than her brain was working. She huffed a sigh and then began again. “Okay, listen, I've got a bit of a problem on my hooves, and basically what I need right now is for you to tell me what to do.”
Rarity looked askance at her new guest over the small mirror she was levitating in front of her face, mildly surprised to see her talking to her at all, but mostly just peeved that she had come in without any warning. “It's rude to enter a private room without first asking permission, Rainbow Dash” Rarity chided, then she muttered under her breath with far less conviction, “And you should also know the difference between eyeliner and eyeshadow by now.”
“I'll work on that.” Rainbow Dash said, paying little heed to the prissy unicorn's remark. “Anyway, last night, me and Fluttershy were talking and she asked me something, and I Pinkie promised to tell her in the morning, and now it's morning and I don't want to that thing... So what do I do? I lie right? Because I'm pretty sure that's what I should do.”
Rarity's facial features curled into a confused countenance at the cyan mare's jabberings. “Rainbow darling, I wasn't able to follow what you said in the slightest.”
Rainbow Dash irritably re-relayed the information as clearly as she could. This was wasting valuable time. “Last night Fluttershy asked me a question. I promised to give her an answer. I don't want to give her an answer. What do I do!?”
“You tell her the truth, anyway?” Rarity suggested, unsure still of exactly what Rainbow Dash was asking her. “You still haven't told me anything coherent, so forgive me if my answer is lacking.”
“I don't want to tell her the truth, that's the problem!”
“So you would rather break a promise you made to a friend? Also, I must say I'm a little surprised you're not still upset with me about last night.”
“What, you mean the thing with the tent? Forget about it, I'm over that now. But if you want to think of this as making it up to me, then go ahead. And let's try to stay focused on solving my problem for now.” Rainbow Dash pushed aside one of the flap doors to make sure that Fluttershy hadn't woken up yet. She hadn't. Rainbow Dash let go of the flap and it swished back into place.
“Very well.” Rarity said after a moment of contemplation, putting down her eyeshadow palette and mirror off to the side. “But before I can be of any use to you at all, I will need a little more context.”
Rainbow Dash sat down. It didn't look like this was going to be as much of an in-and-out visit as she would have liked it to be. “What more could you possibly need to know?”
“Well... everything that's relevant preferably, but why don't we just start with what exactly it is you don't want to tell Fluttershy.”
“Uh...” Rainbow Dash shifted uncomfortably. “I don't want to tell you either.”
“Okay...” Rarity deadpanned. “What was it that she asked you, then?”
Rainbow Dash bit her lip. “Ehhhhhhhhhhh...”
Rarity ran a hoof down her face. “Rainbow, how exactly do you expect me to help if you won't tell me anything?”
“Just... ask a different question. Those one's aren't important. Or just use your freaky unicorn powers to read my mind or something, I dunno.”
Rarity chuckled. “Even if I could read minds, I'm not sure I'd want to look into yours.”
“Questions, Rarity! Focus!”
“Fine, fine. Um... How about...” Rarity grasped for anything that might get the cyan pegasus to give her more information. If Rainbow Dash wasn't going to give Rarity what she wanted intentionally, then Rarity was just going to have to piece it together using what she would give her. She rested her chin on her hoof as she thought, then sprung up when a question occurred to her. “What lead up to Fluttershy asking you this oh-so-terrible question?”
Rainbow Dash sighed defeatedly. She wasn't loving this question either, but they weren't going to get anywhere if she didn't give Rarity something to work with. “Well... we were just talking, basically. Then Fluttershy wanted to know if we could sleep next to each other like we did the night before... and... um... then...” Each word Rainbow Dash spoke felt like taking a step in a minefield, and by the time she had finished, she was pretty sure she had stepped on a quite a few mines.
Rarity looked at Rainbow Dash with a raised brow. “Hold on, what do you mean by 'sleep next to each other'?” she said suspiciously. “And for that matter, what do you mean by 'the night before'? The night before we were on the airship and I distinctly remember you sleeping in your own bed.”
Rainbow Dash winced. She had definitely made a few missteps. She gave a pained laugh. “Ehehe... yeah... about that...” She looked at her hooves, but they didn't know what to say either. “I mean, I started the night in my bed...” Rainbow Dash trailed off, but Rarity was quick to pick up where she left off.
“And then ended it in Fluttershy's?”
“Pretty much.” Rainbow Dash admitted, and, to ward off any erroneous assumptions of Rarity's part, quickly added, “But, before you even ask, nothing happened. Fluttershy was having a nightmare, so I went up to her bunk.”
Rarity grinned a knowing grin that said everything she had to say before she said it. “Oh come on now, Rainbow Dash. If nothing happened, then why are you being so evasive with your answers? Do you really expect me to believe you when you won't give me a single straight answer?” Rarity's grin widened. “Do you want to know what I think?”
“Not really,” Rainbow Dash said, but Rarity continued unabated.
“I think there's something going on between you two that you aren't telling me about.”
“Well there's not!” Rainbow Dash shouted defensively.
“Then tell me exactly what happened, and don't you leave out a single detail!” Rarity demanded, even going so far as to stomp a hoof into her sleeping bag which negated any sound it might have made.
“Fine! We snuggled alright!? It's super lame, but that's what we did. Last night and the night before.” Rainbow Dash said, lowering her face in shame. “On the airship it was mostly just me snuggling Fluttershy because she was having a nightmare, and me being there seemed to make it go away. Then last night, Fluttershy asked if we could do it again. That time it was both of us sort of snuggling each other.” Rainbow Dash's delivery was so dramatic that Rarity half-suspected the pegasus of mocking her, the unicorn having her in dramatic streak.
Pushing aside that thought, Rarity took a second to let everything sink in, and when it did, she rolled her eyes. Though she disagreed with Rainbow Dash that everything needed to be rated on a scale of lame to awesome, right now she just wanted to get the facts out in the open. “And the question Fluttershy asked you...?”
Rainbow Dash slouched down in shame for having completely de-awesome-ified her name. “She wanted to know why we never snuggle anymore. We used to all the time, back when we were fillies. We would have sleep-overs, at 'Shy's house mostly, and snuggle when we did, but eventually we stopped having sleep-overs, and she wanted to know why. Actually I think she called it cuddling, but it's still lame no matter what you call it, which means that I'm lame!” She collapsed to the floor in self-pity, sticking out her bottom lip.
“Would you shut up about your perceived lameness!? Why? Why did you stop having sleep-overs? And why is it such a big deal?”
Rainbow Dash was uncharacteristically silent. She stared quietly off to the left.
“You're not shutting up on me now, Missy! Tell me why you stopped having sleep-overs!” Rarity ordered.
The air hardened as Rainbow Dash took in a tense breath. She closed her eyes, and then softly muttered. “Because... I used to have a crush on Fluttershy.”
• • ❖ • •
Fluttershy woke with a slight pain in her head. She rubbed her eyes then opened them. At first, she was confused to find that she hadn't woken up in her bed back in Ponyville, but it quickly wore off when she realized where she was. She turned onto her side to wish a good morning to Rainbow Dash but was disappointed when she found an empty spot in her place. She sat up and rubbed her eyes again. With nothing else to do inside the canvas shelter, Fluttershy got up and went outside.
Upon crossing through the threshold to the outside, Fluttershy was greeted by an utterly vacant campsite, neither Rarity nor Rainbow Dash were visible in the immediate vicinity. Fear began to creep up her neck and bat at the back of her mind, but it was short lived. She assured herself that everything was probably fine and that it was a little early to start panicking. Rarity was probably still sleeping, and maybe Rainbow Dash had gone off to get water to make a nice oatmeal breakfast.
Fluttershy began toward her supplies to see if the cooking-pot was where it had been left the night before, but stopped when she heard what sounded like talking coming from Rarity's tent, not regular everyday conversation either, but a heated exchange of words.
Curious, Fluttershy went to investigate.
• • ❖ • •
“You had a crush on Fluttershy, as in, you don't anymore,” Rarity said disbelievingly. Rainbow Dash sat just in front of her, staring down at her hooves.
“Mhmm.”
“So this resurgence of snuggling isn't because you like Fluttershy? Romantically, I mean.”
“Of course not!” Finding it impossible to remain sitting while being accused of something so outlandish, Rainbow Dash got to her hooves. “Friends snuggle all the time! It doesn't mean that they like each other!”
“I think you'll find that they don't.” Rarity said, incredulously, slightly caught off-guard by Rainbow Dash's rejuvenated defensiveness.
“Sure they do.”
Rarity couldn't tell if Rainbow Dash really believed what she was saying or not, but she knew just the way to prove her wrong. “Snuggle me then.”
“What!?” Rainbow Dash balked, taking a half step back.
“Is there a problem? We're friends aren't we? I think a little platonic snuggle session would do us well. Now get over here, you.”
“No.” Rainbow Dash said staunchly.
“Why not? You snuggled with Fluttershy.”
“Because me and 'Shy are like best friends. Me and you, we're just... regular friends. And we're kind of in the middle of something right now, so there's that too.”
“Oh, yes, how silly of me.” Rarity feigned. “That makes perfect sense.”
Rainbow Dash wasn't a stranger to sarcasm, but she played along anyway. “Yeah, it does.”
“I have just one question though: would you consider you and Applejack to be best friends also?”
Rainbow Dash groaned. She knew where this was going. “Well... yeah probably. But I already know what you're going to ask me next and the answer is no. There's no way me and Applejack would ever snuggle. We're just not that kind of friends.”
“Not what kind of friends? Not marefriends?”
“Ugh! I'm out of here! You're just... You're no help at all!” Rainbow Dash turned around and made for the exit. She continued her rant as she passed through the already unzipped flaps. “I came in here because I thought that maybe you could—” Rainbow Dash's words caught in her throat.
Directly in front of her was Fluttershy, standing with her head turned down and slightly to one side, the one pony she had meant to be keeping an eye out for, but had obviously forgotten about. The realization that she had heard everything that had just been said hit her like a tidal wave of brick walls. Fluttershy couldn't quite bring herself to look directly at Rainbow Dash, and her expression was that of unease covered in a growing red blush.
“You... heard that?” Rainbow Dash forced out through the block in her throat.
Fluttershy draped her mane in front of her face. All she could do to respond was nod slightly. Simply having Rainbow Dash talk to her made the blush on her face spread further and practically glow with intensity.
Rainbow Dash wanted to ask her how long she had been listening but couldn't get anything more to come out. Her brain had all but shut down upon seeing Fluttershy and knowing that she knew her secret. It was like living through the best young fliers competition all over again, and again, and again, all at the same time, the same nervousness and worry compounded a thousand times over.
After a few very, very long seconds, Fluttershy felt a gush of wind that caused her mane to blow into her face and the leaves at her hooves to dance around. When she looked up, Rainbow Dash was gone.