After finishing her pastry (it was delicious), and reminding herself to use normal logic now that Pinkie Pie wasn't around, Fluttershy made her way to Twilight's library. She had finally gotten Twilight to make room in her schedules for "friendship coaching", although Fluttershy felt the term was pretty inaccurate. Twilight had agreed, but wanted something concise for her schedule.
Fluttershy was only a few feet from the door when an azure pony stormed out. "Trix-" Fluttershy decided against finishing her sentence upon seeing the look of rage of Trixie's face. She didn't seem to notice Fluttershy, and stomped purposefully in the direction that Fluttershy had just come from.
Twilight poked her head out the still open door. "Oh! Hello Fluttershy!" The two of them exchanged uneasy smiles. Twilight ushered her inside and set about preparing some tea. After a few moments, Fluttershy broke the uncomfortable silence.
"Um..." Smooth. If she wasn't careful, Canterlot would draft her as a diplomat.
"She was apparently upset that I'm giving her work. Which I really don't understand. She basically forced herself into my employ, and now she's complaining about it? I was under the impression that she wanted to earn some bits, but I'm not going to just throw it at her. She'd probably find that insulting, anyway. So I decided to just give her enough work to justify paying her a fair amount. She hasn't exactly asked for any free time aside from visiting you, either, so I'll admit that her sudden outburst her was a little unexpected. I have no idea how I'm supposed to actually get along with her, Fluttershy. I mean sure, working together to save Equestria from one disaster or another breeds a certain camaraderie, but I honestly think we can't coexist without going for each others' throats!"
Twilight slammed the finished pot of tea into the table, rattling the settings. Fluttershy ducked behind her chair. "Eeep!"
Twilight sighed. "Sorry, Fluttershy. I'm just getting pretty frustrated here. I haven't been avoiding her like before, but she still won't talk to me."
"W-Well, how much work exactly have you been giving her?"
"As much as I can. I pay her for each job, and she needs the bits, so I'm trying to give her as much as I reasonably can. Of course she can always ask for more free time. I'm surprised she hasn't."
"O-Oh... I, uh... maybe I was a little too convincing..."
"What do you mean?"
Fluttershy shrank a bit further. "W-Well, I've been talking to her, telling her to try harder to get along with you. Maybe she thought that refusing assignments or asking to be away from you would be bad? A-Also, this would explain why she hasn't talked to Berry Punch... or Pinkie Pie, I guess..."
"But that doesn't make sense! She should know she can ask for a reprieve! She made me hire her in the first place!"
"Did you... tell her that? Explicitly?"
Twilight blinked, then slapped a hoof to her forehead. "Ugh... why can't dealing with her be easy..." Twilight poured the two of them some tea. "What was that about Berry Punch?"
"Oh, right. She had some sort of misunderstanding with her, and i told her she should resolve that, but if she was busy I don't think she had the time to talk to her. I think that might be part of why she was upset. I, er, I don't think she'd want to inform you of the situation either."
Twilight looked a bit confused, but after a moment, realization dawned on her face, quickly followed by distaste. "I think I can imagine the source of the "misunderstanding". I had hoped Trixie would have handled the fallout from that with more responsibility. Not ignoring it completely seems to have been too much to expect from her."
"I don't really know if I can comment on that yet. If... if she comes back, you can tell her that she can stay with me tonight. I need to talk to her about this, and, well, not to imply that-"
"Just say it. We don't need to play this game every single time you need to criticize me."
"S-Sorry! Anyway, I don't think you two should interact very much until I talk to her, at least. If she decides to continue staying at the library, she'll probably be fine until tomorrow, though. I hope."
Twilight sighed. "Alright, if you say so."
-that evening-
Fluttershy listened intently as Rainbow Dash described the technical details of her latest trick. Of course, it would be more accurately to use the word "inattentive" instead of "intently", and "slouched in her chair" instead of "listened", but Rainbow Dash didn't notice, so it was basically the same thing.
"-and if I can get the twist just right at the right time- hey, do you hear something?" Rainbow Dash ceased her (attempt at) demonstration of what she meant with her hooves.
"Sounds dangerous..." Fluttershy just swirled her tea around. She had been drinking an awful lot of it lately. She wondered if it was weird that she automatically moved to make tea the minute a friend came over simply so she would have something to do other that standing around, being all awkward.
"Fluttershy!"
She jerked her head up. "Huh, what? What's wrong?"
Rainbow Dash sighed theatrically. "Do you hear that?"
Fluttershy concentrated and found that she actually could hear something. It was hard to make out, though. It was increasing in volume though, and a moment later both pegasi jumped at the sound of insistent knocking. "I-I'll get it..."
As she was about to open the door, she was finally able to place the sound as somepony crying or whining or something, presumably on the other side of the door. She opened the door and was greated by a very cheery Twilight Sparkle. Trixie was on the ground next to her, sobbing, evidently having been dragged here by Twilight.
"Hi Fluttershy! Sorry to bother you, but you offered to house Trixie for tonight, and, well, to be honest, I'm kinda hoping you could help with this..." She motioned to Trixie, who was currently attempting to crawl away.
"Oh, um..."
Twilight magically grabbed Trixie's tail and started dragging her inside. "NO! Nonononononononono noooooooooooooooooo!"
Twilight was undeterred. Rainbow Dash flew over and grabbed Trixie, dragging her into a chair. She tried to bolt, but Twilight and Rainbow Dash held her down. "No! Let me go!"
Rainbow Dash struggled to hold her in place. "Twilight, why are we doing this?" When it became clear she couldn't escape, Trixie chocked back a sob. A moment later, she slammed her forehead into the table once and screamed. All three ponies recoiled and flattened their ears.
"ARGH, TRIXIE, THIS IS IMPORTANT! STOP FREAKING OUT!" Fluttershy could barely hear Twilight over Trixie's screaming. She wasn't holding back on this.
"Why's she like this!"
"WHAT?"
Rainbow Dash rolled her eyes. "THIS IS STUPID!"
She pulled back and delivered a powerful thwack the the back of Trixie's head with the side of her hoof. "AAAAAAAA!-" Trixie leaned forward slightly, eyes unfocused, before slumping in her seat.
Fluttershy just stared at her with wide eyes. Rainbow caught her gaze, and then looked away. "I couldn't stand another minute of that. She'll be fine. She'll probably be better when she wakes up. Wow, I didn't know anypony could actually sound like that. What happened Twilight?"
Twilight forced a smile and started pacing nervously. "Well, she returned earlier, and, well, we talked, I guess. I mean, exchanging words is what happened, essentially, right? And, well, yeah. She... that... yeah..." Her voice cracked a bit, but she kept that imposter of a smile firmly on her face. "I really don't know. Honestly I'm not exactly in the best state myself. Emotions... happened. And hearing somepony scream like that, I mean... how often do you hear somepony scream with raw emotion like that? I can tell you, I heard it at least a two more times than you did. If you don't mind, I'm going to go curl up in bed and try to forget the sound." She made her way to the exit.
Rainbow Dash zipped in front of her. "Hold on! We still don't know what happened with you guys!"
Twilight just shook her head and teleported Rainbow out of the way. "I'm sorry, but I really can't tell you anything. Nothing concrete was really said between us, just... emotions happened, I guess. Fluttershy can ask Trixie about it. I don't feel like spilling anything she did say. Goodnight." She slammed the door closed.
Rainbow sighed and turned to Fluttershy. "You alright?"
Fluttershy blinked and looked away from Trixie. "Y-Yes, I'll be alright. That was just... pretty sudden."
"Yeah. Anyway, as I was saying, if I can get the twist just right..." Rainbow started pantomiming her move again.
"Y-You know, I think I should actually make sure Trixie doesn't have a concussion. It's getting a bit late, anyway."
Rainbow Dash glanced at Trixie again, still unconscious at the table. "Oh. Right."
"You should probably go make sure that Twilight gets home safely. She seemed pretty shaken."
"Yeah, alright. I'll make sure she doesn't randomly enchant the whole town again or something. See ya, Flutters."
"Bye, Dash." After dismissing her friend, she turned to Trixie again. Scratch that. After dismissing her one friend, she turned to her other friend again. She decided she might as well get her into bed. She wasn't going to be waking up any time soon. She hoped that Trixie would be willing to talk about what had happened.