//------------------------------//
// LP22: All the Time in the World [Sad] 
// Story: Half Hour Horses: Legacy Prompts 
// by HoofAndQuill 
//------------------------------//



The Prompt: Heartbreaks and hoofaches.



"Um, I... didn't come here just to rest my hooves, Twilight."  Fluttershy smiled, but it was such a paper-thin facade that Twilight Sparkle nearly flinched.  "It's... Hearts and Hooves Day, and I, I wanted to tell you that I..."  Fluttershy's wings rustled nervously on her back, and her voice dropped off with her failing resolve, until her last few words could hardly be heard.  "I um... like you.  Um, as... more than a friend."

With that, Twilight's world stopped moving.

Or rather, everypony's world stopped moving, and Twilight had a few moments to herself.

Princess Twilight Sparkle wasn't sure whether she should be thankful for the coincidence that she had recently been studying Starswirl's most advanced time spells, or if she should curse the coincidence.  Because while she now had time to think about how to respond to her friend, she also... had time to think about it.  She couldn't move while time was stopped, not without setting herself, Fluttershy, and probably her castle on fire.  All she could do was sit here and try to think, while being faced with that nervous, near-panic, and strangely hopeful look, frozen on Fluttershy's face.

Fluttershy liked her.  Fluttershy wanted her.  She wanted Twilight, as 'more than friends'.

Twilight did not want that sort of relationship, with Fluttershy.

It wasn't that anything was wrong with Fluttershy.  She was a kind, generous, loving, and beautiful pony.  For as long as Twilight had known her, Fluttershy had always had a sort of natural beauty to her, surpassing even Rarity's make-up and fashion.  Any stallion, or as Twilight now suspected, mare, should consider themselves very lucky to have a pony like Fluttershy interested in them.  In fact, Twilight Sparkle had her suspicions that several different ponies would like nothing better.  Though she couldn't be sure, she had her suspicions.  It was a little saddening that she wasn't one of them.

It wasn't even that Twilight Sparkle did not consider mares as romantic options.  Though it might be a bit strange to think about now, when she was younger she had always held... well, not exactly a crush, but something like that for her mentor.  Even after that had faded, there were different ponies in Ponyville, mares and stallions, that had occasionally caught her eye.  She had never really pursued them; it was too much trouble, and she certainly didn't have the first idea of how to actually do it.  The few first dates that Rarity had set up for her with varying ponies, quite some time ago, had been complete failures.  Rarity had actually stopped trying.

It certainly wasn't because Fluttershy was a pegasus; that had never mattered.  Though it would be difficult for any normal pony, that is to say any pony that wasn't an alicorn, to date Twilight.  There were all sorts of pitfalls and difficulties that could spring up.  But tribe of pony, or even race of non-pony, had never been a big concern for Twilight.  Even those strange creatures in the other world... one of them had held her interest for a while.  Not that she had told him, but she expected he knew.

It wasn't even that Fluttershy was one of her best friends; one of the five friends that had thrones in her new castle.  She had... considered some of them, in the past.  If this was one of those ponies, and not Fluttershy, things might have been different.  Or at least, less... not-different.

So, Twilight Sparkle couldn't place the blame on any one reason.  She couldn't say it was because Fluttershy was a mare, or that there was some personality conflict, or that she was a pegasus, or that she was afraid for their friendship.

She just didn't want that sort of relationship with Fluttershy.

Twilight looked into her friend's wide, soulful, hopeful eyes.  She still wore the same desperate, pleading expression, of course.  She would never have done this on her own.  The realization struck Twilight like a bolt of lightning.  This means that at least one other pony most certainly knew she was here.  Probably either Rarity or Rainbow Dash, now that Twilight thought about it.  Either could have pushed her to actually confess it.  They would know.  Fluttershy would have to tell them, and it would crush her all over again.  How long had Fluttershy felt this way?

The past, her entire friendship with Fluttershy, began to color in Twilight's mind.  Had Fluttershy been extra kind to her this entire time, because of a crush?  How many of their interactions were caused, or affected by it?  Had she been struck at first sight?  Was that why she had been so nervous to talk to Twilight the first time they spoke, but able to meet other ponies (and Spike) with so much less panic?  When she had shouted down the dragon, or when she stopped Cerberus, or any of the other grand, wonderful, impressive feats that the shy, delicate pony had done... was that all just because of this hope that Twilight now had to destroy?

Twilight sparked her horn again, prolonging the spell for just a few more... seconds?  She forced herself not to try to work out the wording.

But she had to tell Fluttershy that she couldn't do this.  She didn't want to, she couldn't, she loved Fluttershy immensely, but as a friend and always, only as a friend.  A friend who was still staring at her with all the hope and nervousness this moment had caused her, likely weeks or months at the least of fretting and worrying, and now... now Twilight was going to give her exactly what she had feared for so long.

Twilight Sparkle felt the spell fading, but she knew already that she'd never really have the right words.

Fluttershy's eyes sparkled, glistening with worry and the beginnings of panic as she waited for Twilight's response.

"Fluttershy, I... well, I..."

Something in Twilight's tone, or her posture, or something about her got through.  Twilight watched at that bit of hope and relief in finally confessing disappeared from Fluttershy's eyes, and she watched as Fluttershy lowered her gaze to the floor.  Twilight Sparkle winced as if the sight physically harmed her, even if she knew she had to do this.  She knew she had to be strong enough to say no.

She only hoped that their friendship was strong enough to survive the day.