Edited Details

by ILurvTrixie

Chapter 3 - Indigenous Ponies

Angel landed with a surprised oof on a little pillow, finding Fluttershy carefully nuzzling him. "Are you okay, Angel?" Daring Do stood on less protocol, offering the bucket. Angel enthusiastically slam dunked the artifact into the container, crossing his arms with a sour grape huff.

Miss Do chuckled. "We were trying to warn you." Angel grumbled, but was quickly mollified when Fluttershy hit him with two large worried eyes. He gestured dismissively at her, before giving her a small hug on the nose. He bounced off, leaving the two bemused mares behind.

"Well, we've figured out a few things. The artifact seems to react to anything alive that touches it, and you seem to return to wherever you were, doing whatever you were doing. So he reappeared back where I had been holding the bucket before, falling, for whatever reason." Daring Do scratched at her chin with a hoof. "I suppose it could use some additional testing... but for now I think I'm going to take you up on that offer of cleaning myself off."

Fluttershy nodded, leading the way into her cottage. Daring carefully placing the bucket of artifact on the kitchen counter. The shy pegasus led the way upstairs to the bathroom, nodding to the tub. The adventurer smiled, doffing her outfit and helmet in one fluid moment. Fluttershy eeped before once again reminding herself that most ponies were naked anyway. She still blushed as the other mare started letting water into the tub. "I'll umm.. be downstairs if you need anything, Miss Do."

"Alright, and thanks again Miss-?" Daring perked. "I'm sorry, I don't think we've exchanged names. Daring Do, nice to meet you."

Fluttershy smiled lopsidedly. "I recognized you after that.. telethingy. You really don't recall me?"

Daring shrugged, checking the water in the tub, frowning as it started to turn brown from even that slight contact. She supposed it had been a while since her last bath. "Sadly I tend to be underway a lot, and there's always the chance I ran into something that gave the old noggin a bit of a jar. So if you don't mind humoring me, I'd appreciate knowing how you know me."

"Oh. Umm. Well, you were looking for those rings, and then Rainbow Dash wanted us all to help, and.. well, you said you didn't need it, but it all worked out in the end." Fluttershy smiled happily, eyes closed at the happy memory of the joy on Rainbow Dash's face when she received her advanced copy of the novel.

"The rings... of Scorcherro?" Daring pondered, tapping the hot water valve a bit. "I remember I got some help there, although mostly I remember Hue Spectra helping out. That rainbow colored pegasus. Nice kid, a little over the top at times."

"Hue Spectra?" Fluttershy blinked. "That sounds like Rainbow Dash, I mean, the description; but the name..."

"Huh." Daring puzzled the matter for a moment, before shrugging. "What say you try to set up a meeting with this 'Dash' pony and we see about clearing up the matter." She clambered into the tub, looking around for a moment. Fluttershy smiled, offering the soap and scrub brush from their spot near the side. Daring took them with an appreciative grin. "Thank you again. Better we get this thing worked out before any enemy agents show up. But the teleport should buy us some time."

Fluttershy smiled again at Daring, blushing slightly, and nodded, not really hearing what the pegasus was saying as she lathered and scrubbed herself. She was a few miles away with her thoughts.

~*~

"Come on 'Shy, you're the one who wanted to talk to me about something." Dash peeked out of the communal flight school showers for the third time. "This is about the only time we've got between classes, and I know you don't want to wait until after school because all the bullies will group up and wait for us." She returned to the warm liquid embrace a moment later. She didn't have a lot of time to waste.

Fluttershy shuffled her hooves, taking another deep breath. It really wasn't helping things that Dash was in the shower. She needed to work up enough nerve to say her piece over the sound of running water, and that was hard enough at the best of times! She took another deep breath and let it out. One more. Deep breath. Let it out.

"I like mares."

Dash peeked out of the shower with a quirked eyebrow. "So?"

Fluttershy blinked, not sure if Rainbow had heard her right. "W-well, I mean I like mares." She blushed intensely at the admission.

Dash's expression didn't change, still incredulous at the admission. "Yeah, so why's that a big deal? So you don't like stallions-"

"Umm... actually..." Fluttershy faltered as her blush deepened, which raised both of Dash's eyebrows and earned a hearty laugh.

"Oh geez! And with you already this shy, this has to make things twice as hard for you, huh?"

Fluttershy nodded, feeling as though her blush was going to burn itself into place permanently. She kicked at the cloud-ground, looking down at it, trying not to make eye contact with Dash. Her ears flicked as the shower turned off, and the familiar rainbow pegasus exited with a towel being applied liberally.

"Okay, so aside from this really not changing anything, why's this a problem?" Dash waited a few moments for a response, finally removing the towel covering her face and mane. "'Shy?"

Fluttershy was staring, with an intense blush, eyes huge and sparkling, right up close to Dash's. Dash blinked, connecting the dots slowly. "You've got a crush on me." Fluttershy nodded, whimpering slightly, her lower lip quivering. Dash sighed, rolling her eyes, looking back into the huge eyes full of faith and love.

Unable to completely resist the sheer levels of d'aww, she gathered the shy pegasus up into a hug. "'Shy, you're my best friend, and nothing is going to change that. But." The shy pegasus eeped, her forehooves returning the hug with an almost desperate grip. "But I don't feel the same way about you. Pretty sure I'm into stallions instead of mares, but hey, we've got time to grow up and figure it out. Until then, or even beyond that, you're still my best friend. I know you've got my back, and I hope you know I'll always have yours." Dash gave Fluttershy a squeeze, which was returned.

As they returned to standing apart, Dash couldn't help but grin at Fluttershy. "So you like the athletic types, or is it more the tomcolt thing?" Dash's grin widened as Fluttershy blushed deeply. The school bell rang. "Aww geez, we're gonna be late! Come on 'Shy!" The two pegasi took off through the school, nothing having changed, but Fluttershy happily feeling a bit less conflicted.

~*~

Fluttershy realized she was getting the same sort of warm fuzzies she had gotten watching Dash way back when. It made sense really. Daring Do really resembled Dash, and had a lot of similar tendencies. "-Fluttershy-" They both hung onto their thoughts and loyalties with a sort of strength that other ponies envied, and were always true to their own goals. It was just that they'd always try to be out front and handling problems themselves instead of letting others handle it."-Fluttershy?" Of course it would be remarkably rude to bring up something like that out of the blue. She really couldn't even think about mentioning "Fluttershy!"

Fluttershy squeaked and dashed into a hiding spot in the cabinet under the sink, earning a puzzled blink from Daring Do. "Do you space out like that often?"

Fluttershy slowly opened the cabinet, peeking out; her eyes wide with fear. "Mm hmm."

Daring rolled her eyes. "I was asking if you needed to get going right away with your manticore. I could use a spare set of hooves to scrub some of this dirt off my back." It was a bit of an extension of trust, but if Daring thought Fluttershy was an assassin... well, she was pretty sure Fluttershy wasn't a very good assassin if she was. The offered scrub brush was accepted by a nervous Fluttershy as she left her hiding spot. She covered her mouth in shock as she got close to the tub.

The water had been reduced to a thin mud, brown and black all over the place, with Daring Do obviously a few shades lighter brown than she started. Scars and scratches covered the adventurer all over her body, and while she was obviously fit, there was an undertone of starvation under the muscles. Whipcord thin seemed the appropriate descriptor. She certainly didn't recall Daring Do looking this... worn before.

Her eyes narrowed as her kindness resolved itself to a goal of caring and support. She started adding more water to the tub, draining the muck while keeping the pleasant envelope of liquid warmth surrounding the mare. Daring raised an eyebrow at what was going on. Fluttershy gestured for her to turn around as the water started becoming partway clear once again. Daring simply shook her head with an exaggerated eye-roll before turning around, bracing herself against the tub as she enjoyed this bit of relaxation in the middle of an adventure. She really couldn't recall the last time an adventure had had this much downtime in it. She tensed at a contact with her back, then relaxed with a happy sigh as Fluttershy began massaging her back with the scrub brush and the soap; previously thought lost under the watery muck. Fluttershy made a few soothing noises. "It's been a long time since you've relaxed, hasn't it?"

"Mmm, never really have the time. There's a lot of things that need to be done. Work work work." Daring wasn't about to admit it, but this was something she could probably get used to. She tensed again as the feeling of the scrub brush was joined with the more solid touch of a hoof. Fluttershy nudged at some muscle groupings around the wings, earning a grunt from Daring.

"Oh my, you really need a professional... Don't worry. I know a good way to relieve stress until we can visit the spa."

"Wait, a spa? Are you kid-" Daring's eyes went wide as she felt Fluttershy's hooves taking grips along her sides.

"This will only hurt for a second." Muscles flexed. Snapping and cracking was heard. Daring shouted in surprise. Fluttershy's hooves gripped her head and neck from behind. Daring's eyes shrank to pinpricks.

Crack

Comments

[PaulAsaran]

Okay, so there are a few similarities I'm seeing between my story and yours. An entirely different delivery, though, and I've yet to discover the big theme that dominated mine.

I'm very interested to see where this is going.

[ForSpite]

Daring, you're thinking about it wrong. If Fluttershy's an assassin and looks that harmless, she's very good. It's a better bet she's not one, though.