The Day of Love

by Rose Quill

Star of Night: Sunset Shimmer and Fluttershy

"I don't want to,” she said from behind the locked door.

I sighed and leaned against it, my ears folding down against my head. “Shy, come on.”

“I said no, Sunset,” she said. “I don’t want them to see.”

I knew that at any point I could open the door with my magic. Or teleport inside. She knew it too. But she also knew that I wouldn’t. If she locked a door I didn’t have a key to, she didn’t want me on the other side.

“Fluttershy,” I started again. “It’s one night. And we’re going to the castle anyway. Nopony there cares about the transformation.”

I heard her take a hesitant step before falling silent again. I knew her fears. Tonight was a full moon, and the second Luna raised it she’d fall under her curse again. I didn’t mind, actually. I kind of liked the more exotic allure it gave her. Mentally she wasn’t much different and ever since I had proposed the changes were extremely mild, mostly physical in nature. But I knew she hated them.

“Tell you what,” I said. “We’ll go and if you want to leave before moonrise, we’ll leave.”

“Pinkie Promise?”

“Cross my heart and hope to fly,” I said with a smile. “Stick a cupcake in my eye.”

The door unlocked, and Fluttershy looked up at me with a tiny smile.

“For you,” she said before leaning up to rub noses.

---

“You really went all out, Pinkie,” I said as she hopped over to me with a grin. “I like it.”

And I did. She had done up the main hall with red, white, and pink streamers and heart shaped balloons. A banner over the main stairwell wished all in attendance a “Happy Hearts and Hooves Day!” with cheery letters only Pinkie could print.

“Thanks, Sunset!” she chirped as she fell in alongside Fluttershy and I. “So, how are you two lovebirds?”

I smiled and glanced at the Pegasus at my side, giving her a wink. She smiled in return.

“We’re doing just fine,” Fluttershy said in her calm voice as I felt a wingtip brush my ribs.

“Great!” the party pony exclaimed. “Wait here, I got something for you two!” And she dashed off.

I glanced at Shy and she caught my eyes. We shrugged in unison and sat down. We knew better than to go against Pinkie’s advice sometimes. Twilight had told me about Pinkie sense in my early weeks back.

She soon bounced back into the room with a pair of ribbons over her back. She looped one over both of our necks and smiled.

“There!” she proclaimed. “Now everypony will know you two are with each other!”

“Um, Pinkie,” Fluttershy begain softly. “Doesn’t everypony here already know that?”

“Yes,” she said, still smiling. “But this way it’s more fun!”

I glanced down at my ribbon, seeing Fluttershy’s cutie mark stamped on it next to mine. “Uh, Pinkie,” I began. “How many are at this dinner? I thought it was just the seven of us unless Starlight is back early.”

“Oh, that’s right!” the pink pony chuckled. “I forgot to tell you, Princess Luna is here to spend time with Twilight, and Moondancer finished her speaking thing in Canterlot early and came down too!” She turned and hopped her way towards the banquet hall. “I think Rarity might even have asked somepony over as well!”

I could feel the panic wafting off Fluttershy with every word our friend said.

“I’d like to go home now,” she whispered, wings sliding forward to cover her eyes as she crouched down.

“But you just got here, silly!” Pinkie blinked, then gasped. “Is tonight one of the nights?”

I nodded and took hold of one of her wings in my magic, moving around to kneel in front of her.

“Now, now,” I admonished with a small smile. “You made me Pinkie Promise to take you home before moonrise. The sun hasn’t even set yet, and you don’t want to let Pinkie down.”

Pinkie was giving us the biggest puppy eyes I’d ever seen in a pony.

“But, Princess Luna and Moondancer are here,” she stuttered. “And Rarity might have a date too, and I don’t know them! And Moondancer might know, but how would Luna react?”

I leaned forward and put my nose against hers and started humming a tune that we both knew. I saw her smile slightly and stand again.

“Maybe for a little while,” she hedged.

“I can deal with that,” I said, nuzzling her. “Besides, tonight, I’ll be looking at you.”

She blushed. “Like the moon through the tree?”

“You betcha.”

And we walked into the banquet hall together.

---

“I told you so,” I whispered to her later that night.

She folded her forelegs and turned away from me slightly. “I’m still not happy.”

I tilted my head and sighed. “We left before anything started. And tonight it’s really mild anyway.”

She looked at me, not quite meeting my eyes. “You know I’m not going to forget this, right?”

“I should hope not,” I smiled, lowering the apple in my magic and drifting it over to her, pulling it away again in a tease before letting her have it.

As she finished it, she looked away and then back at me as I began to gather the dishes.

“Sunset?” came her voice soft and delicate.

“Hm?”

“Would you mind singing it again? Just once?”

I looked at her and smiled. “Of course not. As many times as you want.”

I only knew a few of the words, but that was all that was needed. Something soft and light and flowing, so much like the mare across the table from me. Those were all the words she really needed to hear.

I see the moon, the moon sees me
shining through the leaves of the apple tree
Oh, let the light that shines on me
shine on the one I love.

I hear the lark, the lark hears me
singing from the leaves of the old oak tree
Oh, let the lark that sings to me
sing to the one I love,

Over the mountains, over the sea
back where my heart is longing to be
Oh, let the lark that sings to me
sing to the one I love.

She looked at me while I hummed the words I didn’t know, bits and pieces of Fluttershy peeking out from her curse, a tear in her eye. She mouthed a few words to me, and I smiled.

“I love you too, my little lark.”

Comments

[ScisetShimmerEvan]

Must be hard dating Fluttershy while dealing with that curse she has. On the bright side Sunset still loves Fluttershy. Whether she's normal or not.