//------------------------------//
// Lost at Pinkie's Party 
// Story: Aria Ignite 
// by Third Brony 
//------------------------------//

To be honest I expected Fluttershy to live in some kind of hollowed out tree at the edge of a forest. I surprised when Sunset and I walked up the driveway to a neat suburban house. Granted it had an amazing garden and thin creepers running up the side, it was just as ordinary as the house next door. Not exactly the master headquarters of Canterlot High's nature warrior. 
Even before Sunset knocked at the door, I head Fluttershy whisper-shout at Pinkie to leave something alone. Applejack opened the door though she turned back to yell at Pinkie. 
"Dammit Pinkie!" she yelled. "Leave Fluttershy alone!" 
She turned to us. "Hey Sunset. Lost. What brings you two here?"
Sunset raised the plate. "Pinkie forgot to pick up her cupcakes," she explained.
Applejack shook her head and thanked Sunset. She took the plate and invited the two inside. The inside of Fluttershy's house was pretty normal as well, save for the toothless alligator lying mid-combat with with a tortoise. Rainbow was lounging on a purple couch facing a TV turned to the sports channel, Rarity could be heard upstairs rifling through Fluttershy's belongings choosing what stayed and what had to be thrown out, Pinkie was gripping a photo album as she ran away from Fluttershy who was giving chase. Applejack put the cupcakes on the coffee table in front of Dash and bid Pinkie to look in her direction. Distracted by the cupcakes, she dropped the album and skipped to the table.
"Hi Lost," Fluttershy greeted me as she took up her album.
I gave a small wave.
"Lost's here?" I heard Rainbow. She raised her hand and waved. "Hey Lost."
"Hey Dash," I returned.
A small brown dog ran between my legs followed by a rather irritable looking white rabbit. So this was a Pinkie Pie party. I had to say, I wasn't impressed. 
Sunset seemed to have been reading my mind. She leaned over and whispered, "Wait till she has her sugar fix."
"Sugar fix?"
But Sunset had already left to join Rarity upstairs.
"ALRIGHT PARTY PONIES! PINKIE IS READY TO GET STARTED!" the pink girl's shriek was so loud that I almost didn't hear it.
Then, I kid you not, music began playing from nowhere. A disco ball lowered from Fluttershy's ceiling and began spinning. Despite the fact that disco's been dead since before I was born, it was rather tasteful. Fluttershy and Applejack brought out bowls of chips and dip and strobe lights fired off in all directions.
"What the-?" I could only gape at all the things that seemed to happen with no human help.
"Pretty cool, huh?" Sunset had somehow appeared beside me again and was wriggling herself in what I think she imagined dancing was like. 
"Unbelievably," I admitted. 
While the girls went to dancing, the small dog and the rabbit were showing them up with dance moves that really shouldn't have been possible for them. The tortoise appeared to be trying but it was moving to slowly to seem like anything but raising and lowering its foreleg. The alligator, with the help of a cloud-white cat, was staging a search and retrieve mission for a bowl of graham crackers.
"You gonna dance or stand there and lame up the party?" Rainbow asked from across the room.
I grinned. Given no other option, I began to dance.



It didn't take long for me to get bored of dancing, especially after I noticed Dash sneaking outside.
I followed intending to strike up conversation but I held back when I heard her on the phone.
"Silver! Where the hell are you? I've called you like six times already! Call me back!" she pocketed the phone and leaned against the fence that separated Fluttershy's garden from the street.
A chill ran down my spine as I heard her sigh. That damned Silver was probably with Aria this whole time. Barring the fact that she was amazing and I'd probably spend the whole day with her again if I could, he had a duty to Rainbow Dash. Even if he found it completely necessary to cheat on her, the least he could do was still answer her calls.
A crash sounded in the house, followed by several voices screaming at Pinkie. Dash turned around and saw me.
She immediately straightened up and wiped her face. It was only then that I realized that she was crying. 
Before Common Sense could yell at me, "It's about Silver, isn't it?"
Rainbow's face stalled. It was as if she was wondering whether to be mad at me for suggesting that a mere boy could get her to cry, get mad at me for eavesdropping or get mad at me for realizing that she was sad. In the end, she chose neither and nodded. 
Tell her! 
No!
"Hasn't it only been a couple hours?" I queried. 
"Yeah," she admitted. "But he never misses my calls. Ever."
"Maybe he's really busy."
Yeah, busy tongue wrestling with Aria.
"He would have told me," she said. "He always tells me when he's busy. For the past five years."
Those two had been together all of five years? No wonder she was so attached. Still...
"I think you're overreacting."
Dumbass! Never tell a girl she's overreacting! That's what makes them overreact! 
And it did. Rainbow scowled and snapped, "You wouldn't understand. You've never been in love!"
"Haven't I?" I asked her.
"Aria doesn't count," she followed up. "You don't really love her."
I myself wasn't too clear on what I felt for Aria beyond the initial attraction, especially after her fling with Silver, but I still felt a bit offended.
"How can you say that?" I asked.
"If you did, you'd want to be with her right now and not let her be off with some guy she met at the Competition," when I stared at her with surprised eyes, she added, "Sunset mentioned it."
"Then... does that mean that Silver doesn't love you?" the words just spilled out of my mouth.
Rainbow didn't answer. It was clear that she knew that Silver was in a position to answer his phone but refused to, but it didn't seem like the possibility of Silver's feelings for her waning crossed her mind. And I was the asshole who brought it up.
"I... I'm sorry Dash, I didn't mean it," I apologized.
This was even more reason not to tell her about Aria. Revealing that her boyfriend would rather be with a mythical monster than so much as call her back would be too much for anyone.
Just then, Dash's phone rang and she answered it. Her face immediately began glowing bright cyan as she grinned.
"It's Silver," she mouthed and then walked away to talk to him.
I was semi-relieved. On the bright side, Rainbow was happy again and all doubts that probably the only person she's ever loved didn't love her back were gone. On the other hand, that was exactly what was happening and she was being played like a banjo. I realized that this was a fault line and the longer it took for Dash to find out, the more it would grow. Eventually, it would all come crashing down and Dash would be right underneath it. 
I had to make it so that she found out on her own and soon. But before that, I needed to figure out Aria's part in all this. Was she just an innocent girl as caught up in Silver's charm as Dash or was she just as much to blame as Silver? It was time to play detective.
"Lost!" I heard Sunset call from inside the house. "Pinkie's gonna finish off the cupcakes! Come now if you want any!"
...
Tomorrow I'd play detective.