The Dishonest Truth

by Arbiter Balemead

Seeking Advice Pt. 2

At her boutique Rarity was working hard to produce ten more cloned dresses for the client in Canterlot, who had just doubled his order. She was in her workroom starting on the seventh dress in a row, when she heard a tapping at the window. She walked over to the window next to her front door and opened it up, allowing a cyan pegasus to fly through it.

Rarity simply rolled her eyes at the sight of Rainbow Dash crashing into her wall. This was nothing new and it was simply getting annoying.

"Rainbow, dear, don't you think the door would be SOOO much more convenient?"

"Pfft! Doors are for chumps!" Rainbow answered as she stood back up, shaking her wings and ruffling feathers.

"Right...'chumps'... I hope you don't mind terribly if I ask why you came here?" Rarity asked, in a bored tone.

"Oh, right! Yeah I came to see you 'cause Twi had nothin' good for me to use."

"Twilight had nothing helpful to say? That's unusual..." Rarity said, quirking an eyebrow.

"Yeah she's not really the romantic type."

"OH! Romance! I can help you there!" Rarity squealed, clapping her hooves together.

"Great...."

"So...?"

"What?"

"Who is this lucky stallion that stole your heart, dear?"

"This isn't about me, this is about A-a friend." She stumbled over the words, having almost said Applejack's name.

"Hmm...okay? Do go on, please." Rarity said suspiciously.

"*sigh* I think I should just come clean this time, 'cause Twi was useless when she didn't know who I was talking about..." Rainbow thought aloud. At this Rarity simply tilted her head in peaking curiosity.

A moment of silence later, Rainbow explained everything she knew. Names included.

After her story was done, Rainbow sat back on her haunches and waited for Rarity's response. And it came.

"Well, firstly, I think you are very brash for telling me the whole story, but I think it is also very kind of you to want to help Applejack like this but....."

"But what?"

"I don't think there is anything I or you or anypony else can do. Fluttershy likes stallions and Applejack likes mares. Do you see the problem here?"

"Maybe Flutters swings both ways?"

"Rainbow..."Rarity said, facehoofing.

Over at the picnic, Fluttershy was sitting next to Braeburn in an awkward silence. He looked confused beyond belief while she just sat there with her face hidden behind her mane. She had just come to an inner revelation and was now trying to silently understand it.

Braeburn, however, was beyond confused at this point. Fluttershy had been elusive and confusing about what she was thinking. All he knew was that she has a crush, but it's not any of the stallions she can think of at the moment. Oh, and that all her friends are....mares. Oh duh.

"Consarn it, Ah'm slow." He said suddenly.

"Huh?"

"You have a crush, t'ain't any stallion you can remember, and all yer friends are mares. Obviously, yer crush has gotta be on somepony ya know and can remember. Ah think yer a...fil-*ahem*..." He stopped realizing the term "fillyfooler" was offensive. But luckily for him Fluttershy had caught on and was willing to fill in the blank, quietly, in her head.

"Y-yeah....I think so..." She said quietly, turning her head just a bit farther away from him, ashamed of this revelation.

"Come on, now, Fluttershy. There is nothin' to be ashamed of. This is jus' natural." He paused a moment, knowing that simple, hollow sounding words like these wouldn't help. When she started sniffing he realized that this was going to eat at her unless somepony (namely him) did something. He thought hard. The best anypony could do at this point is help her figure out who her crush was...right? Well it was worth a try.

"Hey..." He started weakly. She looked up at him. "D'ya think ya know who it is ya like." She stared at him a moment. This should've been easy, right? How could you have a crush and not know who it was? But she thought hard, focusing on the terms crush and special somepony, but came up with nothing. She shook her head after a long moment of silence.

"Alright then... Maybe we should have a sit down..." An idea had begun to form in his head. If he could talk her through her honest opinions of all her closest friends, maybe she'd realize who it was she had feelings for. Or, at least, that was the theory. "...and we talk about yer friends. Maybe you'll figure it out if you compare them...er somethin'."

"Uhm...O-okay."

"Rarity...I don't think we should just give up on them. Maybe we c-"

"Rainbow Dash. I don't know where you are drawing such heavy doses of optimism from, but I don't think you realize how hopeless this situation is. They just wont work out, Rainbow. I think Applejack should just move on."

"Right. Like I'm gonna go back to AJ and say, 'Oh I think your love life is screwed. Get over it! BYE!' Yeah that'll help her out she'll be all like, 'Heeyuck Thanka kindly, RD, Ah feel so much better now.' " Rainbow said, glaring at Rarity.

"You sounded a lot like her..."

"Call it a gift." Rainbow replied, rolling her eyes. "Now, whether I do good cowboy accents or not, I need some sort of 'Game-plan' from you Rarity. I am NOT gonna quit on Applejack." And in that moment it occurred to Rarity that if somepony as romantically challenged as Rainbow Dash would not give up on something so hopeless then maybe, just maybe, she shouldn't either.

"Alright, fine. I'll do it."

"Applejack? You okay sis'?" Big Mac asked as he walked over to the table that Applejack was still sitting at. He had found her with her arms crossed on the table, her head resting on them.

"Huh? Ah was just... resting my head." She said as she sat up. She muttered a silent "sorta" under her breath.

"No ya weren't. Not JUST restin' yer head. You was thinkin' hard on somethin', weren't ya?"

"Well-Ah uhh... Ah was jus' thinkin' 'bout my friends." She stammered.

"AJ. Ah ain't stupid." He said in a deadpan voice.

"Ah didn' say ya were." She said, surprised at his random outburst.

"No, but yer actin' like ya think Ah'm gullible. Ya weren't JUS' thinkin' 'bout yer friends. Now tell me what ya WERE thinkin' about."

"Ah don' really wanna talk about it..."

"No ya don' wanna talk about it with ME."

She just stared at him as he returned it with an indignant glare. His face simply said that he cared about her, but didn't care whether or not she wanted him to. Her shoulders slumped and her proud composure left her. She realized that, unless she told him the wholesome truth, he'd stay put. So she hung her head and said,

"Ah was thinkin' 'bout Fluttershy..."

"Miss Shy? What about her?"

Applejack decided that this was something her family would need to know. If anypony in her family needed to know that she liked mares, it was Big Mac. Granny Smith needed to know, but she just couldn't bring herself to want to tell her. And Applebloom...that would have to wait a while.

"Big Mac... Ah need to tell ya somethin'..." She began slowly.

"...and she tends to end stories with uhm..." She cleared her throat, getting ready to impersonate Pinkie Pie, " AND THAT'S HOW EQUESTRIA WAS MADE!"

It had been three hours since she had come to her inner revelation and confessed it to Braeburn. It seemed hard to even think of the word or even think of herself as a...fillyfooler. After years and years of her mother and father and teachers telling her that liking somepony of the same gender was BAD and believing it was true, that word seemed so disgusting.

But here she was realizing that she actually found all of her friends were at least moderately attractive to her. She and Braeburn had talked through her honest opinions of each of her friends. That sounds silly doesn't it? Braeburn thought it might help if he sat her down and asked a bunch of questions about each of her friends. So far they had gone through Twilight Sparkle, Rainbow Dash, and Pinkie Pie.

From what Braeburn could tell, she knew a lot about each of her friends, and that she was actually easily flustered if asked about her opinion of their appearance. From what Fluttershy could tell, she thought that Twilight's braininess was a bit more than admirable, Rainbow was just plain hot, and Pinkie was beyond adorable. Obviously, being as timid and shy as she was, she was very confused about thinking these things and not feeling any attraction to any of them. Not emotional at least.

"Ya do a good impersonation of Miss Pie ya know." Braeburn commented, causing Fluttershy to blush.

"It's a-uhm...gift. I can only do Pinkie Pie, though."

"So, who next..." He said, holding a hoof to his chin in thought. "Oh, yeah. Rarity. Alright lemme think...what's she like?"

But Fluttershy had gotten used to this and was ready to answer all his questions about Rarity at once. This was easy since he had asked the same questions about each of them. "She's a fashionista, she runs a dress shop, yes; I think she is pretty, " Que furious blush. " She's a very selfless pony, too. We meet once a week at the spa for a little spa treatment. She used to dream of meeting Prince Blueblood and marrying him, but when she met him, he turned out to be selfish snob. She cried on my shoulder for a week after that. And, lastly, she IS currently single and...uhm one second..." She thought hard for a moment. " I...don't think it's her..."

Braeburn looked disappointed. After a speech about Rarity like that from somepony as quiet as Fluttershy.... well, it had his hopes up. He really did want to help her, but...wait...that was four of her friends. That left just one! It had to be her! It had to be....

Applejack.

"So...uh that leaves my cuz, Applejack." Her face changed from almost blank to slightly upbeat. That was a good sign. She locked eyes with him, her face plainly saying "ask away."

He decided that, since he was sure it was Applejack, he would ask different questions. "Has she ever hurt you?" This new question took Fluttershy by surprise, but never the less, she rolled with it.

"Uhm...no."

"How long have ya known her?"

"Uhm....since Twilight came to town. I'd seen her around town, but I never really KNEW her until Twilight..."

"Does she ever impress you?"

"Oh, all the time. With those rodeo stunts and-I mean- she pretty much runs a farm on her own! That's-uhm...nice..."

"Does she ever strike ya as....purty?" He never actually thought of his cousin in such ways, so asking these questions was making him uneasy.

After a moment of thought Fluttershy nodded her head vigorously. "Oh, yes. Her pretty green eyes, and her cute little freckles and yellow mane, tied up like that...." She began to blush furiously again. "I'm ranting." She said from behind her mane.

"No no. It's fine. Okay, lemme think." He had begun to notice an enthusiasm would take her with each question then sputter out the moment she realized she had it. His next question would have to confirm whether or not it WAS Applejack that Fluttershy had this....what was the word? ELUSIVE! Durn dictionary was always too big for him. This elusive crush of hers.

Suddenly, it came to him. "Could ya live without her?"

She just stared at him blankly. After a moment her eyes slowly began to spread open. As she stared wide eyed, her mouth almost dropped open, but instead only opened an inch or two. She seemed to be shocked at what he had said and continued to stare at him until, suddenly, she spoke. Or, rather, quietly squeaked.

"No."

Comments

[fallen starr]

I just finished the whole story at once. I like how you're going about it, and the involvement of all the characters! I normally don't read stories where any of the mane 6 are together, but I really like this one. Good job! Can't wait for chapter 3.

[Gabriel LaVedier]

First of all, as a sort of generic notice/comment, you do yourself a disservice by leaving so many glaring errors in your story description. It makes you look sloppy and unconcerned. Fixing that alone might give the story a higher profile.