A Slice of Flutterdash

by UnlicensedBrony

1 - Confession (Dragonshy)

Rainbow paced outside the front door to Fluttershy's cottage, screwing up her face in concentration as she worked up the courage to knock. You'd think, after facing down a dragon the day before, something like this would be effortless by comparison. But that thought had only brought her this far.

Shaking her head, she decided to just go for it. “What's the worst that could happen?” she reasoned. With that, a flick of her mane and a puffing out of her chest, she knocked three times on Fluttershy's front door.

“Just a minute!” said Fluttershy, her soft voice drifting out from the upstairs window.

Rainbow's body stiffened upon hearing it. She quickly realised that she still had a chance to bolt – Fluttershy hadn't seen her yet. When she did though, it'd be too late to go back.

'Get it together, Dash,' she told herself. 'She has to hear this. You can't just keep pretending it's not there.'

Rainbow took a steadying breath and planted her hooves. She wasn't going anywhere.

A moment later, the door opened, and Fluttershy stood there with a smile on her face and a towel wrapped around her mane. “Oh, hello,” she said. “I-I'm sorry, I didn't know you were coming over, or I would've showered earlier. I--” She broke off, and the colour drained from her face. “--Oh, goodness! We didn't have plans this evening, did we? Did I forget? I was sure that my calendar was--”

“Relax, Fluttershy. You didn't forget anything,” said Rainbow, holding up a hoof to calm her. Somehow, Fluttershy's sheepishness seemed to kindle a confidence in her, and she felt suddenly much more at ease. “I just came by to apologise.”

Fluttershy blew out a relieved breath. Then she did a double-take and blinked rapidly. “P-pardon?”

Rainbow shrugged and gave a 'back there' gesture with her head. “About yesterday. You know, when I was acting like a jerk – telling Twilight that you were a fraidy-cat and not to bring you along?”

“O-oh,” said Fluttershy. “You don't need to apologise for that.”

“Sure I do,” said Rainbow. “It was way out of line, and it had to upset you. You can't be okay with that.”

Fluttershy found a smile, shook her head and stepped outside, closer to Rainbow. “I wasn't upset. Honestly, Rainbow, I wanted so badly for Twilight to let me stay behind. I know I didn't say anything, but I really appreciated you trying to help me.”

“Yeah, but I-- Uh.” Rainbow let her mouth hang open for a moment before raising a brow at Fluttershy. “Come again?”

Fluttershy let out a tinkling giggle. “I'm terrified of dragons, I thought you knew that. I would've done anything to get out of that adventure.” She paused for thought. “Though, in retrospect, it's probably good that I didn't. Even so, I thought you were just trying to help, and it was very thoughtful.”

“Really?” said Rainbow. Fluttershy nodded. “Oh. 'Cause that's, uh, that's not exactly what I was thinking at the time.”

Fluttershy shook her head again. “It doesn't matter. You don't need to apologise.”

“Oh. Cool.” Rainbow gulped on air, suddenly finding a flaw in her plan. Fluttershy didn't want an apology. What was she supposed to do now? It was suddenly very warm outside, and she felt like flapping her wings and taking to the sky. “Okay, well, in that case, I'm just gonna take off,” she said lamely.

Without waiting for a response, she turned in place and trotted a few steps towards the bridge over the river, unfurling her wings as she did.

“Rainbow Dash?”

Rainbow froze and cringed. She took a breath, then turned to give Fluttershy a questioning smile.

For her part, Fluttershy had her head tilted to one side and was wearing an unreadable expression. “If you weren't trying to talk Twilight out of it because that's what you thought I wanted... why did you do it?”

Rainbow let out the breath in a sigh. There it was. Fluttershy was smarter than ponies gave her credit for. There was no sense in backing out now – her plan might've failed, but Fluttershy had just given her a straight opening to be honest. She couldn't ignore it. So she turned around to face Fluttershy properly and averted her eyes, a little guilty. “Yeah, uh, that's kinda what I came to talk to you about, actually.”

Fluttershy blinked, but said nothing, waiting patiently for her to continue.

“Ever since this whole thing with Nightmare Moon,” Rainbow began, rolling her neck as she tried to forget the words she rehearsed over and over in her mind, “I've started... thinking about you.”

Fluttershy blanched. “O-oh?”

Rainbow nodded and took a couple of steps towards her, lowering her voice as she did. “A lot more than I should be. Going into the Everfree reminded me that there are actually things out there that can hurt you-- us. That can hurt us.” She closed her eyes, gulped, and forced herself to continue. “And I realised that I really don't want that to happen. Especially not to you.”

Fluttershy gulped too, and her voice quivered. “Why especially not to me?”

“Ah,” Rainbow grunted. She looked off to one side, which incidentally left her staring out towards the Everfree itself. All dark and gloomy and spooky, full of monsters and nasty stuff. She remembered their journey into there to find Nightmare Moon. She remembered how she felt when the Manticore grabbed Fluttershy.

She let out a sigh and looked Fluttershy in the eye. “Because--” Nope, it was no good. She looked downwards and kicked a hoof in shame. “Because I like you... and stuff.”

“...Oh.” Fluttershy stayed very still. Her voice gained a few levels of volume as she actually registered what Rainbow had said. “Oh!”

Rainbow shrugged and managed a look up at her from behind her fringe. “Yeah.”

Fluttershy held her eyes for the briefest moment, before lowering her head too, and though her mane was still tied up in the towel, the effect was the same. For an agonisingly long few moments, the awkward silence was disturbed only by the chirping of birds in the trees, and of Fluttershy shuffling her hooves against her welcome mat.

“Well, um,” said Fluttershy finally. “Sh-should we do something about that?”

Rainbow blinked up at her. “You want to?”

“W-well, thinking about it, I suppose that I like--” Fluttershy froze, shivered a little, then offered a weak smile. “I mean, that I'd like to. Yes.”

Rainbow's eyes widened, and her face lit up with a grin. She let out a whooping “Yes!”, jumped into the air and backflipped to land on all four hooves. Fluttershy watched the display with one eye and that same, tiny smile.

As Rainbow furled her wings, she cracked her neck and shifted back into her usual, cool demeanour. “So, Fluttershy – you wanna go on a date or something?”

Fluttershy nodded twice. That smile on her face was something that Rainbow wouldn't soon forget.

* * *

Author's Note:

Sometimes you just need to relax and write some simple, cute, prompt-based shipping. This is one of those times

In case you didn't notice already, this is completely inspired by bookplayer's "The Appledash Project", and it's something I've wanted to do ever since I first read that story. I'm trying to stay true to the 'dialogue-driven' style of the original, because... well, because it's just plain awesome, and works so well for this type of story.

Thanks for the inspiration, bookplayer, and for encouraging me to give it a go with another ship

As always, your comments are very welcome! Thanks for reading, take it easy and enjoy the rest of the story (when it's released).

Comments

[Zombificus]

A cute start, and I look forward to more. Only problem I found is that 'man up' seems a bit of an odd phrase for a pony to use, so maybe you could think of an alternative? It's nothing major, though, and it didn't really bother me, it was just something I noticed.

[Eddy13]

Never thought of Rainbow Dash and Fluttershy developing a relationship at this point. Many writers like to have it happen later on. Still, it would make sense why Rainbow was so adamant about Fluttershy helping with Tornado Duty. A few introspects I'm looking forward to are their adventure in "Trade Ya!" and "Keep Calm and Flutter On". Not to mention, I look forward to your take on that infamous scene from "A Canterlot Wedding". Oh, and can we expect something from their flashback in "The Cutie Mark Chronicles"? In any event, congratulations, Dude. You've got my attention. Just to let you know, I've written a few FlutterDash stories of my own. Also, I'm currently working on a very rare FlutterDash story: a wedding fic! I hope you'll decide to check out what I'm doing.

[Blue_Paladin42]

6089566
Well, in fairness...

The word is now canon.

[UnlicensedBrony]

6089566 Ah yeah, nice catch. I'll think up an alternative for it! Cheers

6089896 I liked the idea of starting it quite early, as I have some really cool scenes planned (the earliest of which was Fall Weather Friends, then Sonic Rainboom) and wanted some time to build up to them. I actually have a scene in mind for A Canterlot Wedding, too, and it's part of what made me finally decide to start this project - I REALLY want to share that scene For "The Cutie Mark Chronicles", I am thinking of having some kind of call-back to their school days, if not an actual flashback, it'll be them talking about how far they've come since then.

I think this'll shape up to be a very fun project. And you say you're working on a Flutterdash wedding fic? That is rare, I haven't seen one before. I'll definitely come and check out your stories - I haven't read a great deal of Flutterdash, so it'd be nice to see what some other authors make of it. Thanks for the comment!

6090036 That's true, man~ Ha, I loved that episode so much

[Eddy13]

6091580
Actually, with “Cutie Mark Chronicles”, I was referring to how their first meeting shaped the lives of them and their friends. Also, I do hope you make a reference to Rainbow Dash's jealous-like behavior in "Keep Calm and Flutter On". Many consider Fluttercord as big a FlutterDash rival as AppleDash. Glad you're going to check out my stories. Also, if you want to see a FlutterDash wedding fic before mine, there's one called "The Rainbow’s Surprise”. Mind you, there’s a pretty bleak backstory to it, not to mention it’s part of a dark fanfic series. Worry not, the story itself is a lighthearted piece.

[Sage of the Leaf]

I've been thinking about this prompt myself. Will be tracking it

[Alchemystudent]

You know, as a lover of this ship, I wonder how the blue blazes I missed this fic!!!

[Oddish]

I'm in the middle of class, and I audibly squealed.

[GemstonexCherry4life]

As much as I LOVE same sex shipping it can....uh get a little confusing reading them

[foreverLN]

ahhhhhhhhhhh sooooooooo cute