What is love?
“What do you mean, you love me?”
Her voice sounded confused, even a little scared.
The awkward silence which followed the question was interrupted only by her wandering hooves. She struggled across her floor, bumbled over her carpets and looked out for a safe place. Only her couch was safe for her now.
She sat down and avoided the starring eyes of her guest.
I can't look into her eyes. It's so...No, not wrong, but how can she say such a thing. Love?
I'm not expecting feelings from her. It isn't right. Is it just a joke?
But she looked so determined and even blushed a little bit. Her trembling hooves snapped the mare out of her thoughts and she sighed. She avoided her look and was searching an other safe spot in her own home. But there was no such place for her now.
“You've heard me.
I love you.”
A blushed face and shivering wings answered the rushed statement. Her guest blushed a little more and drooped.
It was wrong, it was not the right time to say such a thing. The pegasus mare wrapped herself into her blanket and threw it over her head like a hood to block out the implications and clashing feelings.
This isn't right. She is looking at me. Certainly just a little prank of her.
But she looks so embarrassed and tries her best to sound self-confident.
How can she talk like this?
I'm not the one, who should be loved.
“I know, it sounds scary. And I'm trying to fight those feelings. But I...”
She snuffled? And her voice sounded so different. So hurt.
She peeked out of her comforting vault and spotted tears.
They were running down her face, overthrowing her.
Her usually confident eyes were full with tears.
She brushed off the tears with one wing, but more were forming in her eyes.
“Do you not...?”
She couldn't finish the question. She simply couldn't
A sob burst out of her mouth and she sniffled again. This could not happen.
I'm the weak. I'm usually the one who cries.
Why does she cry? I'm not. It feels strange.
Slowly the yellow body moved out from under the blanket and she stood up. She walked up to her friend and tried to avoid her eyes. She babbled, she mumbled.
Come on, take a deep breath and tell her the truth. That you...
She tried to do what she thought, but she wasn't able to talk.
A hoof, softly and gentle caressed her face. She jumped back and even shouted out.
“Don't!”
This was the breaking point. There were sobs and the other pegasus turned around.
“I suppose, this means you don't l...”
Her voiced flattered and she cried out loud. The multi coloured tail cut through the air in her cottage and slowly the blue body moved to the door.
“Please, don't leave.
I am scared, too.
How are you able to love me?”
The blue mare paused and looked back to her oldest friend. She drooped, blushed and even turned away from her. As always she was too timid, to look straight into her eyes.
“You're quite different from me, Fluttershy.
First I couldn't stand you.
You're so shy. So quiet.
And we don't have anything in common.”
With every word, the yellow pony was crouching lower and she drooped her head more and more.
The blue mare sighed, turned round again and took one step further. But her friend moved away.
“As you overcame your timid nature for the first time.
I hadn't expected this.
You were so brave and I was so...not.”
She sniffled and a shiver flew over her body,
but the blue mare shook it off and fluttered with her wings once.
“Then, slowly I witnessed your progress.
You are always scared about yourself.
Sometimes I have hurt your feelings,
and then you need so much encouragement.
But this soft spot of yours I adore most.”
The mare took one step further and now the yellow pegasus didn't flee from her.
“I'm scared of my feelings and felt lost in them.
You have to help me calm down.
As you helped me find a pet, you carried me in your hooves.
And I felt safe, even if I had to flutter myself.
My heart bounced, everything changed.
This shouldn't happen.
Please, don't push me away, Fluttershy.”
Rainbows voice trembled and fell silent as she lifted a hoof again.
Fluttershy felt tears filling her eyes and she shivered.
This is no joke. She loves me?
How could a friend love me?
A friend I share so many memories with?
“I'm not worthy.
You should search for a special somepony, who deserves you.”
A gentle hoof laid down on her flank and her wings began to shiver.
Rainbow shook her head and nuzzled her friend.
“No, I follow my heart.
You're always making yourself smaller than you are.
You're thinking bad of yourself.
Since flightschool, you're telling yourself,
that you were weak.
But you...
I love you.”
She whispered into once of Fluttershys ears, as she leaned towards it.
Her friend sounded worried and scared. But mostly timid.
“I don't know.
I don't know, if..
I don't know why...”
Rainbow put her trembling friend into a deep hug and folded her wings round her.
“Fluttershy.
Don't panic.
I know!”
Both felt the others heart bouncing against her chests.
Both shivered and trembled. Both closed their eyes.
“I don't want to let you down.
I'm scared.”
“Trust me.
I won't do anything bad to you, my little one.”
Fluttershy opened her eyes and lifted a shivering hoof.
First she laid it against Rainbow chest, pushed a little, but then she sighed.
She was so soft, so vulnerable. Her heart bounced against her hoof, she could feel the shivers.
She could see the fears in her face.
She didn't know, but if she insisted to deny it, she would hurt her.
Badly.
“I don't...
How could I know, what love is?
I have never felt it before.
I never had a special somepony.”
Rainbow took her hoof, as she felt a strain of tear in her coat and nearby her chest a warm soft thing pressed itself against her.
“I will show you.”
A kiss would be too much, so she lifted both hooves and snuggled gently with her oldest friend.
Warmth, warmth both were feeling so warmth.
Is this love?
It feels real, it feels right.
She cried in her arms and snuggled back.
If this was love, it wasn't simple.
It wasn't wrong, it wasn't right.
It was just love.