Us.
“Y-You don’t think it’s too much, do you?”
“Aww, c’mon, Fluttershy! Pink and blue go great with your mane! All that green that was there before was so boooring!”
“Green is my favorite color though…”
“You both look wonderful, girls, though we shouldn’t bicker about who’s wearing what tonight. Anyway, we should get going. The Grand Galloping Gala isn’t going to have fun on its own!”
The doorknob to the accompanying door of Twilight Sparkle’s humble and roomy bedroom was carefully twisted by way of a simple spell. A certain purple aura enveloped the whole of the door as it creaked open, opening the way for a well-dressed lavender unicorn garbed in a stylish astronomy-themed frock complete with a tiara. She was followed by Pinkie Pie, who gaily sprang up and down as though her hooves had merged with pogo sticks, which they probably had considering how high she was going. The giddy mare was clad in the same dress she used for the Grand Galloping Gala two years before, nothing about it changed visually, save for the candy badges sewn into the sides of the garment. Now they were actually edible, having been replaced with real candy much to the enjoyment of the party pony herself.
One pony however wasn’t so enthralled about following her companions. As timid as a glass butterfly and gentle as a feather, Fluttershy remained in the library bedroom. She poked her head out through the doorway before somberly retreating, letting out a soft squeak under her breath that caught the attention of her departing relations.
“Huh?” Twilight started, stopping dead in her tracks and looking over her shoulder. She caught eye of the tip of Fluttershy’s muzzle shaking like a leaf back in her room, and a tinge of worry immediately took hold of her. “Flutter—oof!”
Twilight gasped having been suddenly knocked to the ground. She grunted as she felt a great, fluffy weight pressing down on her back and a pink mane drooping over her eyes.
“Woopsie!” exclaimed Pinkie Pie with a giggle having landed on her unicorn friend, holding her down. “Sorry, Twilight! I was just sooo excited for the Gala tonight that I just couldn’t stop bouncing and bouncing and bouncing and bouncing and bouncing and—“
“Alright, Pinkie!” Twilight interrupted, finding the good in her to put on a light hearted smile and a giggle of her own. Her cheeks were intensely red with blush. Such a strange position to land on somepony…perhaps it was intentional…she couldn’t bring herself to question why she hoped it was so. “Alright…” For what they were, strategic bounce hugs spelled out to be quite a kinky idea in her mind.
“G-G-Girls…” Fluttershy stuttered from within the bedroom. The pegasus poked her head out for a split second before retreating again with a soft yelp, shocked by the position she discovered that her friends in.
“Fluttershy?” asked Pinkie Pie, looking over her shoulder just after the pegasus retreated into the room once more.
“Err…Pinkie?” Twilight spoke up, perking her tail up in hopes that her hyperactive playmate would get the message.
“Oh!” exclaimed Pinkie Pie with a sheepish smile. “Sorry, Twi’.”
Pinkie Pie carefully rolled off Twilight’s back, bouncing to her hooves as Twilight wobbly rose to her own. Twilight then turned and motioned at Pinkie to follow her while cautiously approaching the doorway.
“Fluttershy?” Twilight peeked inside the dimly-lit room, scanning the shadowy walls until she caught sight of a pink tail quivering behind a hefty stack of books near the bed. She and Pinkie Pie exchanged confused glances at each other before treading in as warily as could be. They stopped as soon as they heard another squeak to which their marefriend’s tail fled into cover.
“What’s wrong, Shy’? Aren’t you excited for the Gala too?” asked Pinkie Pie.
“Yeah, Fluttershy! There’s nothing really to be afraid of.” Twilight muffled a silly giggle with a hoof over her lips, her smile returning to her. “We’ve been to the Gala plenty of times! Didn’t you say you got over your fear of crowds some time ago?”
“…y-yes…” Fluttershy finally spoke, though her voice was shaky and full of emotion. “But…th-that’s not why I’m…” She whimpered. “…afraid.”
“Afraid?” said Pinkie Pie, raising a confused, though not entirely unexpected eyebrow. “Pssh! C’mon, Shy’! Nothing’s out to get you, so what’s giving you the willies?”
“A-A lot of things actually…”
“Well…what’s got you so worked up?” Twilight responded.
“…us…”
The very utterance of the word struck an unpleasant cord in the hearts of both Twilight and Pinkie. They turned their heads and stared into each other’s eyes with deep concern. Both of them could see a faint twinkle sparkling on each other’s colorful irises, and they knew this glint well. That’s how they knew their love was being strained. How did they discover their feelings for one another again? Was it the pajama sleepover or the day at the fair when a certain pony took a peek into…well, that rather embarrassing moment in the mare’s bathroom didn’t matter so much anymore. They had faced tough times together. Adapting to the scorn and almost-daily insults from a few upstart and conservative couples was difficult enough, but all of that was in the past now.
“Fluttershy…” Twilight started with a sigh. “We’ve gone over this before. We don’t have to be ashamed of this. We shouldn’t be ashamed of this! This is who we are. This is who we’ve chosen to be…together.”
A moment of silence fell over the congregation. Then, suddenly, a gem-studded bracelet was tossed up into the air arching over the barrier of books. Twilight jolted with a gasp and acted fast, using her magic to quickly pull the bracelet away from certain doom just before it could impact the floor behind them. She and Pinkie breathed a sigh of relief, wiping their foreheads as it was levitated to safety.
As shocking as it seemed, as depicted by the look on each other’s faces, they had to agree that their darling dearest acted well within her means. Of course she would never intentionally defile their loving bond. She feared the future and the potential truths it may uncover about society and its willingness to accept, and there was no changing it.
Fluttershy sniffled in between stifled, painful whimpers. If one listened close enough, they could hear the minute pitter-patter of tears landing on the floor. “I’m sorry, girls...I’m so sorry...”
Twilight wanted to bare her teeth and grunt, but she knew good and well that Fluttershy would hear her, and nopony wants to hear the sound of another crack further splitting her heart in two.
She looked over and caught Pinkie Pie staring down meaningfully at her right foreleg. Usually this was just an indication that Pinkie had found a piece of candy or a dollop of cupcake icing stuck to the bottom of her hooves, but those days were a thing of the past, and this unicorn knew just what had caught her partner’s attention in a such an evocative way.
Fluttershy’s bracelet meant more to them than anypony could ever know. To cast it away was a deed most cruel, but, admittedly, her reason for doing so was somewhat justified. It was part of a commitment, and a lifelong promise for togetherness.
Their engagement.
It came to each of them as a sort of…surprise on the warm spring day the deal was struck. None of their families knew about it right now, and even the likes of Applejack, Rainbow Dash, and Rarity were kept out of the loop for quite a while before they were each informed of what was really going on, albeit separately and with varying degrees of emphasis. The cat had to come out of the bag at some point, and tying the knot now was what they decided upon.
Twilight sighed and shifted her gaze towards her own front right fore leg, and there it was.
It wasn’t a ring and it wasn’t a band, but a simple bejeweled bracelet set in her own coat colors, just like the ones owned by her two lovers. Removing it was almost a sin in itself, which is why she had such a hard time coping with what her winged beauty had just done.
Twilight needed to plan her next move carefully. Her lovers were deeply disheartened, disillusioned and uncertain of how this upbringing of the boldest step they had ever taken in their lives would be handled by ponies other than themselves, especially after all they went through to get here. Just as Pinkie Pie was experiencing it, memories of the past were starting to resurface, some sweet and some bitter. Perhaps tea and cupcakes at Sugar Cube Corner would…no. That was almost always the remedy they looked towards to heal their emotional wounds. Possibly tea at Fluttershy’s cottage? Maybe tea at Rarity’s? Or even tea at—
Stop it with the tea already! Twilight mentally scolded herself. Tea doesn’t solve everything, you know...
What did Fluttershy do to deserve this? She was the sweetest mare anypony could ever ask for. She wasn’t just the whole nine yards, she was the whole hoofball field, and her fears were well-respected. Twilight understood them very well, and so did Pinkie Pie. They knew because they felt the same way about their relationship not too long ago, but they got over it quickly, and the hope for lifelong togetherness was their remedy. They had kissed on it, and gave each other extra cuddles that night followed by recitals of sweet, adorable nothings into each others ears.
It was memory lane from there on out. Fluttershy wasn’t always involved, but that doesn’t mean she wasn’t a part of it. They loved her as much, if not more, than they loved each other. She was far from deserving such emotional cruelty. She desperately pined for help from her lovers through words alone, where every squeak was another smidgen of hope for rescue lost, but what is rescue to them without a personal touch? One cannot lift another’s spirit without lifting them up first.
Wait...a personal...touch.
Then, an idea went off like a firework in Twilight’s magnificent mind, but it wasn’t the most desirable one. It was a very, very long shot, but it just might work. She even remembered this one vividly on an account of Pinkie Pie asking her about it a short while ago, not even a month to be exact. At the time, Twilight thought she was out of her sugar-coated mind, and in too many ways to count. She practically had an entire checklist of each and every one of them and why they were so impractical prepped and ready in her head just before she heard Fluttershy speak up, breaking the long silence.
“...I can’t do it, girls...” Fluttershy sighed in punishing defeat, accompanied by a barely audible whimper. “I just can’t...I know they’re all laughing behind our backs...I know they...hate us...”
Twilight was shocked, and a little more worried than before. For Fluttershy to talk like that was not a good sign at all. Twilight opened her mouth to speak but was suddenly cut off by Pinkie Pie, who quickly stepped in with the burning need to resolve it. Pinkie darted around the book pile as quick as a flash. Fluttershy yelped and lept up before frighteningly scurrying backwards out of cover. She glanced over at Twilight with her mane behind pulled in front of one of her eyes, concealing her face in shame.
“Now wait just a minute, missy!” Pinkie Pie defiantly stepped out from behind the book pile and plodded up to Fluttershy’s face. She drastically changed her tone of voice as well to suit a more concerned tonality. “That doesn’t sound like the bravest pony in all of Equestria that I know and love!”
“B-Bravest?” Fluttershy swallowed hard, sighing again as she looked to the ground. “No...th-that can’t be me...”
“Sure it can! Who else could have went hoof to hoof with a dragon, or a manticore, or a cockatrice, or anything that big and scary? You walked right up to each one of those meany pants and showed em’ who’s boss!” She elbowed Fluttershy on the shoulder before suddenly reappearing at her other side in a blur.
Fluttershy leaned away to one side, concealing more and more of her face until only one quivering blue marble was visible. “You’re just saying that to make me feel better...” she murmured in a voice barely louder than a whisper.
“She’s right, Fluttershy...” Twilight finally stepped in, even though it was but one. It garnered the pegasus’ attention, but not enough to lift the veil from her beautiful face. “You know this to be true, so why can’t you trust us?”
“I-I trust both of you...with all my heart and soul, but I just can’t trust us.” Fluttershy closed her eyes and lowered her head, brushing the length of mane in front of her face aside. “Every time I fall asleep, all I ever dream of is their horrible ridicule. All I ever hear is their laughter...and their threats. I’m scared, girls...really scared...” The floodgates were released. She whimpered and sobbed as she shed gratuitous rivers of tears, catching her lovers by surprise. Pinkie Pie put a foreleg around Fluttershy’s shoulder, using her shoulder as a tear mat while holding the pegasus close.
A frail, tender heart cannot be soothed with loving words, but actions speak louder, and that glint in Pinkie’s eyes spoke clearly to Twilight. It had to be done. Pinkie Pie watched Twilight the whole time she was comforting her fiance, and she interpreted every gesture being made towards her. Head movements and hopeful facets dotted while hoof gestures dashed. She followed with her own brand of subtly, not one gesture catered to the part of her that demanded she act silly all the time. After all, what they were thinking of could change the course of their engagement forever. Would Fluttershy be comfortable with going through with it? Heck, would they be comfortable with it? This could either make or break them, and there was only one way to find out.
Their silent debacle last no more than a few moments. An agreement was reached, and a final nod mixed with worrisome sighs signaled them to begin.
“Fluttershy...” spoke Twilight, softly and sweetly. A sliver of teary eye glanced back at her as she approached and laid one hoof atop Fluttershy’s shoulder. The pegasus shuddered at her immediate touch, but then yelped when Twilight suddenly planted and drew out a long, warming kiss on the back of her neck.
Fluttershy quickly gave out, slinking away from Pinkie Pie’s shoulder with a few tears still in her eyes and falling backward into Twilight’s hold. Incredible shivers shot all the way up her spine; an experience she had never felt before. How was such an enthralling sensation possible? Surely this was by way of magic?
No, it couldn’t be. She knows Twilight’s particular magical tingle and this was not that. The level of euphoria was off the charts. Her enticing moans were just barely being contained by clenched teeth. She melted even further into the unicorn’s hug, her tender body giving way like a plush pillow just begging to be squeezed.
Soon enough, Pinkie joined in, closing her eyes as she leaned forward and nuzzled the recoveree’s supple cheek. It didn’t even come close to the loving affection Twilight was sharing with her, but Fluttershy loved it all the more. Her sadness and fears still lingered, but under the cover of passion where her body submitted to the will of her lover’s caresses, clouding her mind.
“Fluttershy...” Twilight murmured again upon freeing her lips, resting the tip of her muzzle behind one of Fluttershy’s ears. “We want to show you something special. It’s something that will reassure you that, no matter what may lie ahead, no matter what challenges we may face together, for our happiness, our lives, our friendship, and us, that we will always be with you, even if there’s nopony there.”
“You’ve been there for us lots of times, Shy.” Pinkie Pie spoke up, opening her eyes whilst failing to hold back a soft giggle that came with the package of a brand new smile. “And we’ll be there too...with all our friends, having lots and lots of fun...together as one.”
Slowly but surely, she smiled a short smile brimming with happiness and pride, finally realizing the true worth of the wonderful life she was honored to be gifted with. She shouldn’t feel ashamed for what others think of her. Who are they to judge her just as her life is truly about to begin, and theirs are left to fervor in the blandest of ways? Her heart was in her lover’s trustworthy hooves, carefully tended to, woes and misery gently eased away like a leaf in a summer breeze.
Twilight pecked her on the cheek from behind and aided Pinkie in slowly turning her around, directing her towards the bed with a trail of passionate kisses. The door took on a purplish glow and was slowly pulled shut, leaving them to reform Fluttershy, their livelihood, anew beneath the warm moonlight.