Binding Bracelets.

From the host of the Assist Worthy Contest and creator of contest winning fanifc, An Eternity To Remember,

Comes his third My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic fanfic and his tenth fanfic overall,

Review King Souldin presents...Magnetism

Chapter 1: Binding Bracelets!

“I wonder when my feelings of friendship became something more?”

Fluttershy asked herself this question as she laid in her bed, her body taking comfort in the plush butterfly blanket over her while her mind remained ill at ease.

“I’m sure it couldn’t have been immediately. I remember feeling grateful, and admiring her and us becoming friends but...”

Fluttershy’s thoughts continued to roam at the forefront of her mind, troubling her, as the more she thought of her initial question the less likely she felt in finding an answer.

“I don’t know when I started wishing we were something more, but I started too, and the thought of it was nice.”

The yellow mare tugged on the blanket adorned with her cutie mark, though in shades of red and purple rather than her own pink ones, pulling the coverage closer round her.

“But then, before I could act, we went our separate ways.”

The blankets began to move away from her but she did not notice as she stared blankly in the direction of the ceiling, overshadowed by pitch black darkness.

“But then we managed to meet again, only a couple of years later, but something had changed.”

She raised her right hoof that contrasted with the palette of the night to her forehead, only just now noticing her coverless body.

“I didn’t feel quite the same with her as I did back then, the more intense feelings I had...had faded.”

If one could have been in the room, gone about unnoticed, and pierced through the darkness they would have seen a look of certainty that was rarely seen on the shy mare’s face.

“I was sure then; that back then my feelings was but a crush and one that had disappeared forever.”

Fluttershy turned over in the bed, and what she saw to the left of her made her look of certainty be replaced by its exact opposite.

“So why..?”

Fluttershy couldn’t help but watch the fellow pegasus beside her, whose coat complimented the night’s hues much better than her own, and whose mind was so at ease she was able to whistle a cheery tune in her sleep.

“Why are me and Rainbow Dash in bed together?”

By the time Fluttershy was able to walk through the streets of Ponyville the day was well on its way, with the sun high in the sky and less than a couple of hours were left till the fillies and colts could make their way from the school and back to their homes. As for what the mid-day was like, it was a typical spring day in Ponyville and the yellow pony made sure to admire it as she trekked towards her friend’s house. The pony had her admiration of the day set on the clear sky when a rainbow streaked past, only to change direction and head towards her. Said rainbow zoomed to the ground, stopping once its origin, a rainbow mane pegasus, touched down on the ground, a small cloud of dirt and dust only just reaching the onlooker’s yellow hooves.

“Oh, hello Rainbow Dash.” Fluttershy called out to her friend with her quiet, whisper like voice, as she made up the small distance between them via walking.

Somehow the speedster was able to hear her meek friend and greeted her with eye contact, “Hey Fluttershy, what’s up?”

“I was on my way to see Twilight. I haven’t seen her yet this week and I thought it would be nice to drop by.” The quiet pony said with her naturally hushed voice.

“Huh, funny that, I was heading to Twilight’s as well.” Rainbow Dash replied, tapping a hoof to her chin, “I haven’t actually seen her all week either. You think she’s got her head stuck in some book again?”

“Um...I don’t know.” The mare murmured nervously, unsure if she was supposed to know this piece of information.

“Well, we’ll see soon enough,” Rainbow Dash replied as she began to trot towards the library and residence of their friend, “C’mon Fluttershy.”

“Oh, coming.” Fluttershy answered as she followed on after her closest friend.

Even when on the ground Rainbow Dash never failed to make her entrance into the Ponyville library loud, thus the reason for her swinging the wooden door till it banged against the wall.

“Hey Twi, just came t”- The pegasus pony’s words were silenced upon having a magically enchanted book tossed into her face.

Fluttershy squeaked in fright and lowered herself to the ground, casting a worried look back to her downed friend in case she needed medical attention. Meanwhile, a pony already within the residence yelled out in panic, “I’m awake! Awake!”

A wearied unicorn with a frazzled purple mane stood up at her table, her horn still ignited with a soft lavender glow from her little spurt of magic. Though her mind had suddenly snapped awake, her eyes were not yet with it, and they took their time scanning the room and its contents, and then sending the visual messages to the horned equines brain. Upon taking in the information of a familiar yellow coated friend of hers sitting beside and checking on a familiar blue coated friend of hers who was sitting up, rubbing her head, and a book near to them that had previously been in front of her, the magical pony began to access the situation and quickly came to a conclusion.

“Rainbow Dash, Fluttershy, I didn’t...hit you with that book just now, did I?” The resident librarian asked what she predicted was true and got her answer in the form of a scowling Rainbow Dash.

“What gave you that idea Twilight?” Rainbow Dash grunted as she stood back up on all fours, picked up the formerly accidental projectile, and tossed it lightly towards the centre table of the room, “Here’s your book back.”

The moment the book went in the direction of the table Twilight Sparkle emitted an expression of panic, soon accompanied by a glow from her horn that encompassed the book. Twilight sighed at her prevention of the object falling onto the stacked table and interestingly enough for the book loving unicorn, set the article of literature to the side.

“So...” Twilight began to address her friends, though her focus was on inspecting the objects on the table, ensuring all of them were there and none had been damaged, “What are you two here for?”

“Oh, just checking up on you, you’ know, the fact that nopony has seen you this entire week.” Rainbow meant to state this fact in a scolding tone but her attention was being drawn to the mystery stuff laid out on the table and as such the words came out absent of focus or direction.

“That’s not true, Spike’s seen me-oh wait, nopony.” The unicorn blurted out her response before she picked up on the use of phrase that excluded her assistant, and when the words fully registered in her brain she halted her tongue and blushed.

“Oh yes, but you’ve been sending Spike out of the house a lot lately, I’ve seen him often visiting the Carousel Boutique and when I asked him about you not even he knew what was going on,” Fluttershy added, before taking note of Twilight’s rugged appearance and voicing her concerns, “Are you okay? You don’t look so good.”

“...And what’s all this stuff on the table?” Rainbow had walked on closer to the objects of note, a curious gaze eyeing each weird and ancient looking piece sprawled out in an organised fashion.

Only a second or two after asking about the items of interest did it take for Rainbow Dash to allow curiosity to take a hold of her actions and reach out for one of them; the closest being what looked like a spear combined with a spoon. It didn’t even take a second for Twilight’s surprisingly fast reaction, the unicorn swiping her friends cyan hoof away from the ‘spearoon’. After glaring at the curious athlete till she backed off, Twilight allowed her expression to soften, and motioned for the two pegasus to come towards the table.

“You remember how back on Nightmare night I helped Princess Luna become friends with everypony,” Twilight didn’t per say ask but mentioned, regardless an answer was received by two pegasus nodding their heads, “Well, afterwards we got around to chatting about things we liked and we eventually ended up discussing history. Now, I mostly filled the princess in on important historical events that have happened while she was trapped in the moon, but she told me stuff about the periods in which she was around, times of which today few records remain. It was during this conversation that she mentioned something particularly interesting...”

Twilight let her words stop there, drawing out the silence as she attempted to create an atmosphere of anticipation. Considering one rainbow mane pony was already scratching absent mind-idly at the floor with impatience, she felt the anticipation had already been generated.

“She talked of an intelligent, non-pony race that used to dwell within the Everfree forest.” The scholar enthusiastically revealed, garnering slight looks of shock from her two friends.

“Wait, a group used to live in the Everfree forest? That’s insane.”

“Twilight, this had to at least have been a thousand years ago. I’m sure the Everfree forest was a much nicer place back then.”

“Not according to Luna, the Everfree forest was larger back then and even considered to be a country independant of Equestria, but otherwise is pretty much the same now as it was back then.” Twilight Sparkle explained before going back to her original subject of the objects, “Anyway, me and the princess discussed this race for a bit, but it turns out that a lot of the historical records were lost in whatever incident caused the race to...die out. But it also turns out that quite a few of their tools and tablets were preserved by Luna herself, gifts she had received from a friend she had among them...and here they are.”

With a simple flourish of a raised hoof, Twilight presented that which she had been studying, which was kind of pointless as they had been in plain sight since the two pegasus got to library. The only difference now is that the winged equines had a little background about the artefacts on display in the middle of the library. The artefacts ranged vastly in what they appeared to be, some resembled weapons, others resembled tools for construction and farming, a few were garments and a couple were tablets with a long dead language inscribed upon them. Of course all of the objects had their similarities too, they were mostly plain and placed function over appearance, they had all taken on an earthly brown or rustic red colour from age, and all of them were designed by creatures with digits.

“As for why I’ve been so busy studying them well...” Twilight began to speak once more, drawing the attention of her two friends back to her, “I thought if I pulled an all-nighter I could learn quite a bit about these artefacts but then when I learnt next to nothing I tried to pull another one...and then another, and another after that...and okay I haven’t slept in the past three days.”

Fluttershy immediately flew on over to her wearied, sleep deprived friend and with a worried and caring tone advised, “Twilight, you really should get some sleep. It’s not good for you.”

“I know, I know. But seeing how little progress I was making with my studies on this subject was frustrating, and every time I attempt to sleep I just keep thinking about the time I’m wasting sleeping that I could be doing studying.” Twilight explained to the yellow mare, the cyan mare meanwhile looked round at each of the artefacts with mild interest.

“But it’s unhealthy for you and besides, wouldn’t getting some rest allow you to think better.”

“You’re probably right...although my continuing studies haven’t been without some merit,”

“Hey Twi, this bracelet here fits my hoof.” Rainbow called attention to herself as she waved to her friends, an earthly coloured brass bracelet attached to her waving leg.

“Rainbow Dash, you should ask permission before touching any of this stuff, some of it might be dangerous.” Fluttershy’s attempt at a scolding tone soon turned to one of concern, her eyes flitting across the table at the odd and unusual items.

“Well that bracelet and its counterpart are perfectly safe, I’ve already tested them out, and they do nothing.” The studier of the artefacts explained with a disapproving frown on her face, though willing to allow her friend to acquaint herself with the accessory she disapproved touching any of the mystery items, “Which is strange. All of the other objects seem to serve a purpose, like that spear you were trying to touch earlier. That was used to pry off a dragon’s scales in order to stab through the skin.”

Looks of disgust shot up on the two pegasus faces, as they gave the scale plucking weapon from earlier a glance, shivering at what it was capable of. Pushing aside her thoughts on that which she had almost touched earlier, Rainbow looked back to the thick, circular bracelet that managed to loop onto her hoof as if it were made for her, and admired the plain no-nonsense design.

Fluttershy soon also joined in admiring the foreign equipment, and picked up the second bracelet of the pair. She looked at it from all angles at first, taking note of its surprisingly soft feel yet metallic aesthetic, and realised it was the only item with a form of jewellery, a small white dull pearl embedded on one side.

“Um...Rainbow, do you mind if I try on the other one?” Fluttershy asked her friend, who was currently checking how comfortable her leg was with the additional weight.

“Oh yeah, sure, go ahead.” A disinterested Rainbow replied.

So, with both friends permission, Fluttershy slipped on the harmless and normal pearl embedded ancient accessory of a long passed race surrounded in mystery. It fit on her left hoof snugly, just as it did Rainbow’s right, and felt smooth and light, nothing out of the ordinary...until five seconds later when the pearls from both bracelets shone a blinding pinkish-crimson colour.

A startled scream, and a mix of surprised and questioning ‘what’s’ and ‘what the’ phrases sounded across the room as the light blossomed from the formerly plain pearls, blinding the ponies eyes. The force of magic made neither sound nor wind, and could not be felt by the rooms inhabitant’s sense of touch, its presence was made known only by sight, or in the current case, a lack of sight. The light soon began to dull down, or at least that’s what the trio of friends thought was happening, when in actuality it was just retracting into a smaller area. This took a while though and so Rainbow Dash and Fluttershy had their vision recover in time to see some of the light still present, now in the form of a red, magical string that shot out from Fluttershy’s bracelet, and connected up with the pearl on the counterpart bracelet attached to Rainbow Dash. The teal eyes of one pony and the pink eyes of the other pony watched, though it still stung their eyes a little in order to do so, as the glowing string slowly faded away, and the pearls returned to their normal, white colour.

Fluttershy and Rainbow Dash eyed the bracelets first, Twilight had her eyes skim the room, and then all three checked out themselves and one another in case any harm or change had happen to either of them.

“Well...I’m glad to see that nothing bad happened.” Twilight said aloud with relief.

The pearls shone once more.

Rainbow was about to say something, probably something witty or snarky, but halted when her body froze. Her muscles went rigid and her body became numb, and from the look on Fluttershy’s face across from her, the same thing was happening to her. The contraption round their hooves urged them forward, at first with a gentle tug, a slight nudge, and then they were pulled off the ground and flung into one another. The collision sounded with a small thud and caused the two to fall down in a two pony heap, small chirping birds and whizzing clouds spinning round their heads.

“Girls! What happened? Why did you just leap into one another?” Twilight exclaimed, rushing on over to her two dazed friends who lay against one another.

Rainbow was the first to steady her head, a long history of crashing helping with her fast recovery, and began to pull herself and Fluttershy up, the two using one another as leverage. Fluttershy stood a little shaky and unbalanced while Rainbow trotted a slight distance towards Twilight and retorted, “Leaped into one another? We didn’t leap into one another; we were thrown into one another by some crazy magic thing.”

The athlete looked down to her bracelet, and then lifted it up to Twilight’s face, “I thought you said these things were safe.”

“They are, or were. I checked and they were completely dry of”-Twilight did not finish her sentence because her listener was just then lifted off the ground and propelled into another pony, a dazed pony lacking her bearings who had in turn been propelled into Twilight’s listener.

Now the two pegasus lay on the floor once more, one too dazed to register the pain her face was in from colliding with the back of a rainbow mane covered head, and the latter quick to spring back up, rubbing the back of her rainbow mane covered head.

“Ow,” She uttered before turning her attention to her downed friend, “Fluttershy, you okay? That didn’t hurt too much did it?”

While being pulled up Fluttershy merely mumbled, “I’m okay, Rainbow Dash.”

Twilight Sparkle looked on at the scenes that had been occurring before her, and said, “Well, I’m not entirely sure what’s going on right now but I’m pretty sure you did not mean to collide into one another just now.”

“What gave you that idea?” Rainbow’s sarcasm came with a half-lid expression, “These weird bracelets keep glowing and then ‘bam’ having me and Fluttershy smack into one another.”

“I’d like to believe that I did not make a mistake when studying those bracelets but considering the light and all...anything else?”

“Well when the pearls glowed my body froze. Did that happen to you too?” Fluttershy asked the pony whom she was using to support her unsteady legs, and upon receiving a nod, began talking about the sensation, “I couldn’t move at all, and then I felt my body levitating a little and then I was thrown into Rainbow Dash.”

“Yeah, it’s like when you stop me with your magic, except creepier. Makes you go all cold and feeling-less.”

Twilight thought for a moment of what she had seen and what she had been told, and then observed the current situation.

“Well it seems to have stopped now...” Twilight murmured to herself, though apparently loud enough for Fluttershy and Rainbow Dash to hear as they nodded in response.

“Hey Fluttershy, you steady now?” Rainbow asked her supported friend with a cheery grin.

“Oh, sorry...” The shy mare said as she let go of her cyan friend and backed away a few steps, “I’m a little bit dizzy still but I’m fine.”

Twilight Sparkle looked to her smiling friends, smiling along with them...and then the pearls glowed once again. Shocked faces that expressed a clear dislike of whatever sensation, or lack of, coursed through their bodies showed up on the two pegasus faces, and if you were to look carefully enough you would see that without a flap of either ponies wings, none of the eight hooves total touched the wooden floor. Knowing roughly what was coming, the unicorn present intervened with her magic, telepathically grabbing a hold of her seeming telepathically grabbed friends. At least she would have if whatever was forcing her friends still and up wasn’t blocking her, and the mage’s attempts were as futile as trying to place something where something already is without destroying or moving the original something. So inevitably her two friends crashed into one another, this time facing each other so if you looked at in a certain light, it looked like they were so desperate to hug each other that they shot themselves out of cannons.

For the third time that day the two winged ponies of yellow and cyan fell downwards, slumping to the floor with their brightly coloured bodies pressed against one another, and their heads dulled from pain and shock. Both rubbed their heads in union, both helped each other to their hooves, and both were about to separate when Twilight quickly yelled out, “Don’t stop touching each other!”

They stopped, and an awkward silence followed. Said silence was broken quickly by Rainbow Dash, the only non-blushing pony in the room, “Uh, why?”

Twilight coughed once, ridding her face of its blush before addressing her two friends, “You see, the bracelets, their magic activated the moment you two stopped touch-um, discontinued contact with one another. I think those bracelets draw the wearer to whoever has the other bracelet; in this case, Fluttershy.”

“Oh.” Rainbow mumbled as next to her, a still blushing Fluttershy went about pulling the earthen mystical garment off her hoof.

“Um, Twilight, Rainbow, I can’t get it off.”

Rainbow Dash and Twilight both turned to Fluttershy, and upon seeing her struggling to pull off the bracelet, Rainbow beside her tried to remove her own matching accessory. Her hoof slid across to the bracelet and pushed against it but it did not budge. So naturally Rainbow pushed harder and harder till her hoof slipped away from the smooth edged, and then became aggravated. The pegasus flipped onto her back, pulled up her back legs till they pulling on the bracelet attached to her fore-leg, and attempted once more with all her might to remove it. A few minutes later, Rainbow Dash got up onto all four legs, panting in frustration and exhaustion, with the earthen wear still round her right hoof.

“Me...neither...” Rainbow Dash muttered with irritation, Fluttershy placing her own garmented hoof next to her.

Twilight meanwhile was thinking back on what she had seen while studying the bracelets from afar, “It’s odd, when together I can sense absolutely no magic from them. But once you are apart for just a few moments it suddenly explodes with magic and pulls you towards one another.”

“Hey, maybe we can break the spell by going really far apart. So far we’ve only limited ourselves to this room, but if I fly out at top speed I will surely fly out of the reach of this crazy magic thingy.” Rainbow Dash proclaimed her plan with the utmost confidence.

Hearing the plan in the midst of thought Twilight quickly objected, “Wait, no, that’s a terrible”-but she wasn’t quick enough for Rainbow Dash had already taken off, flying out the door and into the sky as fast as she could.

If the ponies of Ponyville were to look up to the sky they would have noticed a speeding blur of rainbow colours shooting across it. Then they would have known the source of the gust of wind that followed it, that the strong breeze came simply from a very, very fast pegasus.

Rainbow Dash had already beaten her wings ferociously in order to gain the height she needed to avoid colliding with anypony, and was now focused on flying in the general direction of forward. She had no destination in her mind; her flight plan was a simple one, fly as fast as she could and as far away as she could.

“Heh, I’m out of Ponyville already. Scratch ten seconds flat, I should be saying five seconds-urk” The well-deserved, bragging thoughts of the rash pony were cut off, just like her incredibly speedy flight.

Her right hoof had frozen in the air, halting her entire body from moving with it.

“Oh no, not again.” Was all she could mumble as the dim white pearl embedded in the earthly coloured bracelet shone an almost pinkish crimson. The strange and mystical force of the artefact activated, and the racer found herself being pulled in reverse by her accessorised leg.

Before the wind was in her face and her wings cut through the air gently, now the wind was pressing against her mane, and crushing up against her back as her efforts to fly out of Ponyville were undone. Against both the strong winds and the mystic force that felt like it was trying to tear her right fore-leg off her body, she could neither see nor hear that her destination was not her starting point. The reason being that as Rainbow Dash was being pulled back to the library by her bracelet, Fluttershy was also being pulled up into the air by her own bracelet, with Twilight Sparkle along for the ride as her attempts to keep the yellow pegasus grounded against an ancient gravitational power by holding her down to the floor proved futile and foolish. These two screamed because they could see the painful collision about to occur and were quite aware of the inevitable falling of great heights they were about to suffer.

“Once again Spike I must thank you for coming to help me on such short notice, I honestly thought I would fall behind schedule when my order of fabrics did not turn up on time...or even late.” The white coated unicorn, Rarity, spoke these words as she walked alongside the purple bodied and green scaled baby dragon that was Spike, and out of her shop.

“No problem at all, milady.” Spike replied with a curt bow that in turn hid his satisfied smile.

“Well, at least one good thing came out of this whole mess, I now know not to purchase my fabrics from that company ever again.” Rarity added with a giggle, accompanied shortly afterwards by her dragon companions own short spurt of laughter.

It was around this point, that on the fine, sunny, and clear skied day, that the peaceful hums of distance birds and numerous but pleasantly toned chattering of ponies in the nearby market, were overlaid by panicked screams. Everypony who could hear the noise turned their heads from side to side, trying to spot two screaming ponies. Luckily Spike was not a pony and so looked up instead.

“What the...Twilight and Fluttershy?” Spike mumbled in confusion as he spotted Fluttershy flying in an unusually fast and strange manner with Twilight clinging onto her.

Rarity had by now, followed the dragon’s gaze and looked up to the two screaming ponies, just as they knocked into a reversing Rainbow Dash. Seeing the three friends propel into one another, and proceed to tumble down towards the ground at alarming speeds, Rarity let out a quick scream of horror before springing into action.

Her horn lit up with a white magical aura, and with her magical energy she grasped an object from the boutique, and somehow pulled out the fairly large object out through the smaller entrance. The falling jumble of ponies was only a few feet from the ground when a red cushioned piece of furniture slid under their crash landing spot. They fell onto the red chaise longue, bounced off its soft surface, and lightly fell onto the harder, earthier floor.

Immediately Spike ran up to the dizzied and groaning Twilight and yelped out with great worry, “Twilight, are you okay?”

“Yes mommy, I would like syrup with my pancakes.” A spinning eyed unicorn mumbled out as she tried to lift herself off the ground, only to fall back down immediately.

“Why girls, whatever just happened?” Rarity questioned her friends as she began to help the one she was closest too, Fluttershy, up to her legs.

When none of the girls responded she wasn’t surprised, they had just taken quite a fall. Twilight tried to answer though most of the words spewing from her mouth were scientific in nature, or about random events from her past, but seemed to be getting more coherent as Spike helped get her balance steady. Along with her fellow unicorn and her spa buddy, Rarity also cast her eyes to check on Rainbow’s condition, and said pegasus was already up on her hooves, atop the sofa that she happened to be the only one to remain on upon landing. Rainbow Dash was with it much sooner than the rest and Rarity noticed a simple and old but remarkably made attire wrapped round one of her hooves, an attired hoof that Rainbow chose to give the strangest of stares before looking over to her and Fluttershy. When Rainbow Dash tackled Fluttershy to the ground she was surprised, Rainbow Dash did just suddenly tackle Fluttershy.

“R-Rainbow Dash! What in Equestria are you doing?”

“I need to keep touching Fluttershy!” Rainbow Dash proclaimed with such volume that many ponies out of the visual range were able to hear.

The designer was taken aback by such a proclamation that she halted all manner of reprimand, and instead stopped thinking all together. After looking flabbergasted at the two ponies, one yellow and getting up, the other cyan and insisting on touching the other, she decided to continue on with the reprimand but in a different fashion, “Not in public! Stop doing...such a thing here.”

“Rarity, wait! Don’t stop Rainbow from touching Fluttershy!” Twilight ‘incoherently’ blurted out.

Once again Rarity has trouble talking but soon managed to stammer out a response, “N-now dear, while I know Fluttershy here is...that way, which is perfectly fine I might add, I hardly think she appreciates such affection...in public.”

“Oh Rarity, it’s not what you think,” A formerly yellow faced but currently red faced mare stammered out as she was got up beside Rainbow, “You see, it’s because of these,” Fluttershy continued to say as she held up her bracelet attached hoof, “that me and Rainbow have to be...touching...”

“Go on,” Spike murmured before receiving a light reprimanding slap to the back of his head from the very pony he had helped to stand.

“We’re not sure on all the details but I’ll explain what we know so far,” Twilight said but paused shortly after beginning her explanation, as if she had just come up with an idea better than the one she had previously, “Fluttershy, Rainbow Dash, now that I think about it, it would be much easier if you two demonstrated what the bracelets do rather than having me try to explain it.”

“Are you kidding? No way, I reckon these bracelets have given both me and Fluttershy plenty of bruises.” The cyan flier retorted.

“I assure you three; I do not need a demonstration...especially not in public.”

“It’s, it’s really nothing like that.” Fluttershy once again stammered out with a flushed face.

“I guess I’ll start at the beginning.” Twilight Sparkle said, beginning her lengthy explanation of events, going into more detail than what was needed and more complicated than what her audience of three could completely comprehend.

A fairly long 15 minutes later Spike summed it up, “So those bracelets have turned Fluttershy and Rainbow Dash into magnets?”

“Well that’s simplifying things a bit, but pretty much.”

A bored but now relieved Rainbow raised a hoof in the air and asked aloud, “Quick question, if me and Fluttershy are magnets, am I top and she bottom or does Fluttershy top me?”

A really awkward silence ensued.

“Uh, Rainbow darling, is there anything you plan on saying today that can’t be perceived as an awkward innuendo?”

The athlete turned to look at the designer with a frown, “I’m not sure what an innuendo is but I have a feeling I shouldn’t like what you’re implying about me.”

“Ugh, Rainbow Dash, just because the bracelets act like magnets doesn’t make them magnetic, they don’t have a north or south pole.”

“Oh, okay.”

“Now, here’s what I’ve gathered so far,” Twilight Sparkle began, her dark bagged eyes giving each pony a look, vying for their attention, “The pair of bracelets only activated once Rainbow Dash and Fluttershy put them on, before that I had studied them and found no traces of magic, meaning the artefacts draw their magic from a host body. Second, and an important detail you two should note, is that the bracelets don’t require being in contact, but it is the host bodies that need to be kept in contact.”

The looks of confusion were of a lesser tone than before; the audience of mostly ponies and one dragon understanding the jest but personally would prefer an example. Twilight saw these looks and so followed up with, “For example, Rainbow Dash and Fluttershy need to be in contact with one another in some form, be it a hoof touching the other, a wing, any part of one pony’s body touching any part of the other pony’s body. You don’t have to keep the bracelets pressed together or anything like that and thus, it isn’t so much that the bracelets are...’magnetic’ but that they have made Rainbow Dash and Fluttershy ‘magnetic’.”

This was where the unicorn stopped for a moment, yawning briefly and mumbling gibberish to herself, before adding in another point of importance, “Third and unfortunately, the only other thing I can say I’ve accessed so far, you two are only allowed to go out of contact with one another for roughly over five seconds.”

“Five seconds!” Rainbow Dash blurted out as she stepped forth, “that’s barely any time at all and-“Rainbow and Fluttershy quickly noted the small distance between them and the absent of contact between them, quickly moving next to another to prevent another magically forced contact.

“Yes it isn’t much time but don’t worry, I will solve this problem immediately.” The proud and intellectually gifted student of Princess Celestia announced...before she fell to the ground in exhaustion.

Rarity gasped at this sudden and what was to her, unexpected action, and along with Fluttershy zipped to Twilight’s aid. Rainbow Dash and Spike simply walked the minor distance to the snoring unicorn, Rainbow Dash being sure to place a hoof onto Fluttershy when she got close enough.

“I’m guessing she lied about all those times she said to me that she went to bed after I did and woke up before I woke up?” Spike asked the question with an obvious answer with a deadpanned expression that made clear that this was not the first time Twilight had collapsed from exhaustion.

“I’m sorry; she told us she hadn’t slept in the last three days.” Fluttershy answered, looking up from inspecting the wellbeing of her now asleep friend, “She can’t possibly help us in this state; she really needs to rest up first.”

“Ugh, I was hoping to get these cursed things off as soon as possible but you’re right.” Rainbow said with various tones of reluctance, annoyance, sympathy, and light humour, “After all, I don’t even want to imagine the sort of things that could go wrong if a sleep deprived Twilight tries to help us.”

The thoughts of what could happen were worrying, but despite the problematic situation the mood was pleasant and jolly, so they saw the imagined scenario, a mad scientist Twilight diagnosing that the best solution was to amputate both pegasus’s forelegs, in a comical manner, and giggled at its absurdity. Spike was still lightly guffawing to himself as he went to lift Twilight up, struggling with her larger body, and trying in vain to carry his sleeping employer home.

“Oh, do you need a hoof Spike? Not to be rude to her but Twilight may be a little heavy for you.”

“N-no, I can handle it.” Spike strained out as he managed to take a step forward with Twilight resting on his upright back.

“Now, now Spike, you’ve done plenty of lifting today, allow me to carry Twilight.” Rarity said, as she telepathically pulled out from her shop a roll of fabric. With a small bit of application from her magic and dressmaking skills, Rarity looped her fellow unicorn under what was now a makeshift canopy bed, and pulled the sleeping mare off the ground with ease, “With this it should be no problem getting our dear Twilight home.”

Rarity then turned to address the magically bound pegasus friends of hers, “Apologies that you’re stuck in this predicament but it shouldn’t be too much of a hassle. A day or two of rest and Twilight will be sure to get those bracelets off in a snap.”

With that Rarity and Spike walked off, Twilight resting in a floating canopy alongside them.

“So…if we have to always be in contact, whose house are we going to? I can’t go to mine and you to yours because of these dumb things.” Rainbow asked, holding up her bracelet.

“Oh, I-I have to take care of my animal friends so if you wouldn’t mind I’d really prefer it if we could”-A hoof placed over the shy pony’s mouth stopped the flow of whispering words.

Rainbow nodded, “I get it, I get it. It’s no problem, your place it is.”

Okay then, as per usual I will try and keep these author notes short so I'll get right on with what I want to say here. First, thank you for reading the first chapter of my long planned fanfic, Magnetism, a first chapter to which I truly hope you enjoyed. Second, for those who are interested in this story and are wondering when the next chapter will come out, I plan to have a chapter of this fanfic uploaded once every two weeks so in the case of chapter two of Magnetism you should expect it to see it on the 22nd of September (give or take a day or two). However I cannot guarantee that each and every chapter will be uploaded according to plan as I do not know what changes of circumstance, if any, may occur, but anything which effects the chapter upload schedule I shall be sure to inform you readers via my Fimfiction.net profile blog. Speaking of which, the third thing I would like to say is that if any of you wish to learn more about Magnetism, its progress both past and current as well as trivia and sneak peeks then be sure to check out my profile blog to which I have already discussed this story several times.

Just to be sure I will say it once again but thanks for reading everyone. I'm open to any and all constructive criticism so feel free to comment, and I hope you enjoyed this chapter and shall continue to enjoy the chapters that follow in this fanfic. Cheerio!

Bunny Block.

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Important information: First off, I apologise for the slight delay in uploading this chapter, when re-reading through it I found I was not satisfied with some of it and decided to revise a few of the scenes and lines. Second, this fanfic takes place after Season 2's 4th episode, Luna Eclipsed, but before Season 2's 7th episode, May The Best Pet Win. Finally, this fanfic has not been proof-read by anyone other than myself much like the first chapter however the third chapter and all chapters afterwards, will be proof-read by a second person.

Chapter 2: Bunny Block!

By the time the Fluttershy was able to walk across the small bridge that lead on to her earthly toned home, the daytime had passed and the afternoon was well on its way, with it having been a little more than a couple of hours since the fillies and colts had left school and made their ways to their homes, or instead chosen to hang out with their friends. As for what the mid-afternoon was like, it was a typical spring afternoon in Ponyville but the yellow pony was having difficulty admiring it as she normally would.

For Fluttershy was constantly minding where she was placing her hooves as she walked side by side, literally side by side, with Rainbow Dash who in turn was constantly minding her pace. Due to the ancient and mystical bracelets currently attached to the two pegasus hooves, Fluttershy and Rainbow Dash were forced to be as close as can be even while moving. Fluttershy kept on bumping her left legs into Rainbow’s right, causing them to trip and stumble. Rainbow had a different problem though, she was far too coordinated to place her legs in front of her friend’s, rather she struggled with matching her jog-like stride of a pace with Fluttershy’s leisurely walk. On top of their individual problems, both of them would make the mistake of walking into one another when turning corners, and by the time the feathered duo had reached the homely earth toned cottage, the bracelets had activated more than a couple of times.

As the two mares neared the home, just now ascending the slight hill, Rainbow Dash looked too and fro and decided to use her spotting of various animals in the garden as a subject of conversation, “Geez Fluttershy, where do you keep all of these guys? Your house is way too small for this many animals.”

“Oh, well, only a few of the animals live with me,” Fluttershy explained as she waved to some of the animals, “Many of them come from other areas of Ponyville or the Everfree forest to hang out here.”

Rainbow nodded her head but did not speak again until the two had arrived just outside the front door, “Some of them come from the Everfree forest huh? Are you sure that’s safe? I mean, I know your special talent is with animals and all but…”

“Don’t worry, a lot of the animals seem to come here just to relax and play,” Fluttershy replied as she pushed open her door, the two pegasus now making their way into the house, “I assure you that there is not a single animal here who will try and harm you.”

Then a carrot hit Rainbow Dash’s head.

Rainbow Dash winced from the impact, raising a hoof to her face as Fluttershy immediately asked, “Oh my, are you okay?”

Rainbow was quick to brush away the aiding hoof, “Fluttershy, it was a carrot. Of course I’m okay but...” she turned her head round to a small rabbit who was bouncing up towards them, “Why’d you throw that at me, you little brat?”

Fluttershy also turned her attention to her frowning bunny rabbit, “Now Angel Bunny, you know you shouldn’t throw things at our friends, or anypony for that matter.”

The animal of white let this comment pass with no attention paid to it; instead he held up a pocket watch and tapped one of the hours. The two ponies expressions were quizzical in nature and it took a few seconds of Angel tapping the same time on the watch with rising rage till Fluttershy both realised what her pet meant and also remembered a forgotten detail.

“I’m sorry Angel, I said I would be back sooner than this and oh, I didn’t realise I was out for so long,” Fluttershy apologised with the sweetest tone she could muster, her body bent down for her face to be level with Angel’s, “You must have been worried.”

Angel turned his head away, his scowl still present. His arms crossed body language would have suggested he was not worried but in fact he was, but as a manly creature such as himself he could not let such insecurities be known. So he kept facing away from Fluttershy, his ears receiving each apologetic word that came from his owner.

“…An then I bumped into Rainbow Dash and we went to Twilight’s and um…” Upon mentioning one name though Angel did react, react in how he had only now just realised that there was in fact another pony by Fluttershy’s side.

Angel turned round to see the show-off pony beside Fluttershy, which was by itself nothing unusual, but something was off. When he realised what was ‘off’ about the pony, he scowled even more, pointed to the two mares, cupped his paws together and then separated them.

Fluttershy noticed Angel’s charades, his primary form of communication. “You want me and Rainbow Dash to get you a cup of water?”

Angel raised a brow to this but did not question it entirely; he could see where the idea of a cup came from. So he repeated his actions but placing his paws flat against one another.

“Uh...you want us to close the door and walk away from it?” Fluttershy asked, her rainbow mane friend proceeding with the action of closing the door before the white mammal could confirm this as incorrect with a shake of his head.

“Oh, oh, you want to play tag don’t you?” Rainbow Dash joined in the game of charades with childlike enthusiasm though Angel’s response of a paw palm was a clear sign she wasn’t much better at the game than Fluttershy.

Words not being an option the rabbit could take and charades being constantly misinterpreted by the two ponies, he chose action, his favourite option anyway. The short and diminutive creature hopped up, placed his paws onto both ponies and with surprising strength, pried the two apart.

“Oh, you were saying me and Rainbow Dash were too close together and you wanted us to separate.” Fluttershy’s answer was met with a cheerful nod from a bunny who continued to keep the two pegasus apart.

Rainbow Dash was a little dumbfounded at the unexpected might of the bunny rabbit, but soon her brain ticked again and she remembered a rather crucial fact, “Wait, don’t separate us!”

Angel furrowed his brow into a glare, demanding an answer he did not receive. What he did receive was a trip into the air as Rainbow utilised her cyan wing closest to the rabbit to fling him into the air. While Angel flipped in the air Rainbow Dash hugged Fluttershy, eliciting a startled flush from the mare at the unintentional display of affection; it also prevented the bracelets magnetic powers from activating milliseconds before they were going to.

Angel fell back down shortly afterwards, bouncing against Fluttershy’s back. Angel was to fall off of said back from the landing impact but a canary yellow wing shot out, catching him mid-tumble. “Are you okay Angel Bunny?”

The shaky bunny was placed atop Fluttershy’s back, where he regained his balance and nodded as soon as he could. Then he turned his head slowly, in a horror movie kind of way, towards Rainbow Dash.

“Wha-hey! Stop looking at me like that, punk.” Rainbow Dash snapped back.

“Oh yes, please stop Angel, she didn’t mean to hurt you when she tossed you into the air. I can explain if you want me to.” Fluttershy tried to meet eye to eye with her disgruntled pet, but could only do so once he had hopped off her back, and landed in front of her, “You see, our friend Twilight was studying a lot of objects and one of them were a pair of bracelets,” at the mention of bracelets Fluttershy held up her garmented hoof for the rabbit to see that which she spoke of, “Rainbow Dash tried one of them on and everything was fine but when I tried on the other bracelet they turned out to be magical. Now me and Rainbow Dash are inseparable.”

Angel’s raised eye was either a sign of disbelief or a lack of understanding, possibly both.

“These do-hickeys have turned me and Fluttershy into magnets.” Rainbow Dash said with a sigh.

Angel Bunny was not the familiar to a sorcerer and as such his understanding of magic was little; only that it was best to avoid it. It was due to this minute understanding of magic that he thought first of non-magical explanations, and in this case he jumped to the conclusion that his trusting owner had been tricked. Yes, it was beginning to make sense, at least more sense than two ponies becoming magnetic, something he would have to see in order to believe. The cyan pegasus, he could not be bothered to remember her name, attached those bracelets to herself and his owner and then conjured a tale about them becoming magnets. When asked for an explanation, she said magic; it seemed to be the be all and end all to any explanation. This was of course all part of her devious plot to get free meals, plenty of naps, and to boss his owner around. All of those things being his things, his reward for getting the shy pegasus to stand up for herself and what not, all things that this ‘friend’ had fiendishly ensured she was getting for free. Well Angel was not going to let this stand, there was only one head pet in the household, and that was him.

“Now Angel Bunny,” Fluttershy said just as she grabbed a hold of the former projectile and passed it over to its owner as a delectable vegetable, “Rainbow Dash will be staying here for the next couple of days so I expect you to be on your best behaviour, okay?”

Angel Bunny did not like this and his scowl deepened as he grabbed his lunch/weapon. Instead of leaving to eat his lunch, the small companion hopped over beside Fluttershy, and looked to her for attention.

“Angel Bunny, do you want to hang out with me and Rainbow Dash?” The carrot chewing creature nodded a yes, and was then held up in a hug by two yellow hooves, “Okay then, that’s okay with you Dash, please be okay with it?”

If Angel Bunny’s current look directed at Rainbow Dash were translated into words, they would say ‘I’m going to smother you in your sleep’, “Y-yeah…sure.”

“Oh my, I just thought of something.” Fluttershy blurted out as she placed Angel Bunny back onto the floor, “If you’re going to be staying here I’ll have to introduce you to all the animals. Some of them get very nervous around other ponies.”

“I guess that will be something to do.” Rainbow Dash murmured without a drop of enthusiasm in her voice.

“Great!” Fluttershy exclaimed with an enthusiasm that came only when animals were involved, “I’ll introduce you to the animals outside first as they leave when it gets dark, and then I can show toy the animals I keep in the house first, I’m sure they’ll get on fine with you, and then...”

“Fluttershy, I don’t suppose you’ve, I don’t know, enchanted your garden or something.” Rainbow murmured such words as her rosy pink eyes took in the sights of the harmonious area of green grass, an area filled with playful and relaxed creatures of all shapes and sizes.

“I-I don’t think I have,” Fluttershy answered with uncertainty created by the lack of understanding where such a question would come from, “oh, and these are the badgers. Now badgers, you remember my friend Rainbow Dash right, well she’ll be staying with me for a while. Are you okay with that?”

“…Because I’m pretty sure snakes try to eat rats, not play noughts and crosses with one another.” The pegasus explained as she watched the rodent and reptile in question playing the commonplace game on a patch of dry dirt.

The back garden and animal sanctuary of Fluttershy’s cottage is indeed a beauty to behold, a place of serene gentleness in the latest of nights and earliest of mornings which transforms into a world of wonders when the animals wake. Seeing the creatures of all shapes and sizes gathered together is for most ponies, breath-taking, but Fluttershy was preoccupied with introducing her friend to its inhabitants while said friend was too busy noticing the absurdity of it all, for either pony to delight in what is for them, a frequently seen but always remarkable place.

“I’m also sure that your turtle’s stalking me. Then there are the bats, the bats are really cool by the way but don’t they sleep during the day and come out at night.”

“Oh well, when its night I’m usually asleep and they don’t like to wake me so the bats usually come to see in the day.” Fluttershy replied as some of the fruit bats in questions flew down to their caretaker, offering a small, spare peach to her, which was gratefully accepted. “Also, the little guy over there is a tortoise, not a turtle.”

Said peach coloured peach was then passed onto the athlete, Fluttershy excusing herself as not being hungry, but also not wanting to turn down her animal friends gifts. So Rainbow Dash snapped up the fruit from her friends hooves, and swallowed it in seconds, only briefly enjoying its sweet flavour.

“I guess that makes sense.” Rainbow said, with a warmly smiling Fluttershy nodding with appreciation.

The two school buddies moved on to try and spot more animals that had yet to be introduced to the cyan speedster, or made aware of her currently forced presence. For once, both their paces were pretty slow, however this did not prevent them bumping into each other. As they looked to and fro, their heads turning this way and that way, skulls inevitably collided as so lost in their task of spotting the animals were they, that they would forget one another beside each other, their heads but mere centimetres apart. But the yellow mare of the property spotted the next character to be introduced to Rainbow Dash; a seal.

Said aquatic animal beamed a jolly grin and clapped his flippers gleefully with typical seal sounds being emitted from its throat. Rainbow Dash turned to Fluttershy and asked, “Is that a seal?”

“Yes.”

“A seal...don’t they only live in seas or oceans and such?”

“Yes.”

“So where did this seal come from? I don’t know of any salt-water areas being near Ponyville or the Everfree forest.”

Fluttershy did not say a word at first; she simply scratched at the ground with her hoof, and covered her face with her mane. When she did speak it was with a half-hearted mutter, “I-I don’t actually know…you seem to know a lot more about animals that I expected.”

“Well, you did go on and on about them back in school,” Rainbow Dash replied with a roll of her eyes, a smirk, and her thoughts looming to the past, “Side’s, when I left flight school I went to travel the world a little, ‘member. I learnt a few things about what animals were here and there.”

“Y-yes, I do.” Fluttershy continued to mutter and mumbled her next few incoherant words beneath her mane.

Angel, who had been lying cosily against Fluttershy’s mane, proceeded to lightly tap against his free ride. Snapping out of her low volume mutterings and sombre secret thoughts, Fluttershy looked to her rabbit, who looked at with her an ever so slight expression of concern in his face. So she shot him a smile, a reassurance that she was okay and that the rabbit could once again relax.

“C’mon, there are still plenty of animals to show you.” Fluttershy perked as she continued her tour of the garden.

Once more did the two the colourful coated pegasus wander the garden, one half-sleeping bunny enjoying his free ride while the pony eyes scoured the garden. Rainbow knew her friend had many animals but it had been a while since she had spent time at her shy friend’s house and could tell that both the amount and variety had expanded. Before her line of sight she could behold wasps, and goats, and archaeopteryxes, and cats, and sn-“Hold on a second!”

The two ponies stopped abruptly as Rainbow Dash sceptically shot many looks round where she thought she spotted an ancient bird long since extinct, but found no sign of it. After a rough minute Rainbow Dash halted her search, believing to have mistakenly seen such a thing, and chose to forget about it.

“An over here we have my squirrel friends. How are you today?” Fluttershy asked as said rodents scampered up to her and proceeded to answer her question with a few short gestures. “You want me to teach you some new dance steps? I’m sorry, but now’s really not a good time.”

The squirrels became downcast at this but were not the only ones whose mood soured. Angel Bunny became irritated from how easy the dance obsessed critters could convey their message, and be understood, while he had to suffer through nonsensical interpretation after nonsensical interpretation.

Fluttershy continued to watch the saddened squirrels as they departed, heads held low and dragging their little feet. The animal lover watched till her heart couldn’t take it any longer, which was all of five seconds, “Wait. We-we could go over some basics for today.”

The squirrels turned round grinning from ear to ear, leaping with joy from the news. Rainbow Dash, who had been silent through all this chose now to speak up, “uh…Fluttershy, you and I are still stuck together. How are you…?”

Fluttershy turned to Rainbow Dash, grasped both fore hooves with her own, and looked to her friend with the largest, most begging puppy eyes imaginable, “Please, Rainbow Dash. Please dance with me?”

It would take being some form of heartless abomination, or blind, to resist such adorable pleading when literally face to face with it, and so Dash crumbled under the look as most would, “Sure.”

Fluttershy smiled with glee, clapping her hooves together in delight as cheers roused from the gang of furry animals. Angel was not one to cheer but rather grumble as he hopped off from Fluttershy’s back, chewing at his carrot bitterly. Fluttershy coughed for attention, the squirrels slowly quieting down, their gazes focused onto Fluttershy placing one of her hooves round Rainbow’s shoulder.

“Wait, we’re dancing together as in…hooves wrapped round each other together?” Rainbow Dash asked with a tint of uncertainty in her voice.

Fluttershy caught herself in the midst of her actions, and with a rosy red face explained, “S-sorry, it’s just with us having to be in contact all the time I figured that this would be the best way to do it-dance.”

“Fair enough, though I’ve never danced with another pony like this before.”

“You haven’t? Should I lead then?”

“Yeah, I guess.” Rainbow Dash added and with that Fluttershy urged Rainbow to take one of her own hooves and place it onto Fluttershy’s shoulder.

With the two ponies set up they began to dance. The dance was slow, the two ponies merely trotting round in circles while close together, urging each other back and forth in a rhythmic pattern. This Rainbow picked up quickly, a seeming knack for all forms of physical activity, though her unfamiliarity with a partner as softer touching as Fluttershy lead to one or two movements with too much strength and speed. Yet the two managed, basic movements they were but the basics were of course worth remembering, and the pleasant mood warmed Fluttershy’s very soul. Even Rainbow Dash enjoyed it for a while, the slight and steady but consistent movements occupying her thoughts and the attention of the wildlife around her pleasing any need for attention she might have had. After a while though Rainbow Dash felt too comfortable with the pattern and as such decided to make good on her ability to improvise.

Rainbow Dash grinned as she swayed back gently and then pulled herself up with greater force than usual. This returning force caught Fluttershy off guard, the mare losing her balance as she began to fall back. Never did she hit the floor though, the sensation of falling was put to a stop as Rainbow Dash’s foreleg remained wrapped Fluttershy’s body, holding the mare up as Rainbow’s own body began to support her entire weight on her hind-legs.

Rainbow was now leaning over Fluttershy with a grin, their muzzles but a few inches apart. The athlete was amused at the shocked face of her friend. Said friend though was thinking less on the surprise but of the closeness the two ponies currently had, and blushed at this fact. Angel Bunny was not amused by this, in fact, something about the closeness of the two concerned him, like that of a carrot rolling away from him and into the paws of another rabbit. So when Rainbow went to lift Fluttershy back up so they could resume their dance, both pairs of hind-hooves firmly on the ground, Angel decided to roll his carrot towards them.

Dash went to place her tip-toeing (standing with just the front portion of her hooves for the toeless equine) hind-leg back onto the grassy surface, she found her hoof not touching fresh greens but something else, something that rolled out from beneath her hooves when stepped on. Her balanced disrupted, Rainbow Dash found herself falling backwards and out of Fluttershy’s feebler grip, and landing with all four hooves in the air.

The moment Fluttershy’s front legs touched down upon the ground she called out, “Rainbow Dash! Are you okay?”

“Yeah, I’m fine.” The down pony grumbled, briefly placing a hoof on Fluttershy in order to prevent the bracelets activating.

“But…” Rainbow began, flipping off the ground and her back, and suspending herself in the air with her proud wings, shooting daggers at the rabbit who was currently wiping dust and dirt off his carrot. With a flap of her wings she flew right on over to the rascally rabbit, “You, you tripped me up on purpose!”

“Rainbow Dash! Angel would never do such a thing,” Fluttershy began to say as she trotted on over to where her pony friend and animal friends were, and resumed contact with Dash via her hoof placed on a cyan shoulder, “right, Angel?”

Angel Bunny looked innocent; a hurt expression on his face as he waddled up to his owner with arms stretched open, and received a loving and precious hug. “You must have dropped your carrot and it rolled beneath Rainbow’s feet, I understand Angel.”

In the midst of the loving embrace, while the animal caretakers pink mane fell and obscured some of her face, Angel looked on over to Rainbow Dash and smiled smugly. Rainbow was about to call him out on this when Fluttershy spoke again, “I’m not mad at you Angel Bunny and Rainbow Dash isn’t either, right Rainbow Dash?”

Again, Rainbow was about to speak up in anger but in a rare moment her brain out-sped her actions, and the realisation that Fluttershy wouldn’t believe her when it came to her most precious pet made her stop. With great pain, Rainbow Dash coughed out, “Yeah, sure, I’m not mad.”

Fluttershy continued hugging her Angel, said devilish rabbit continued his smug smile, and the cyan equine continued her angered gaze at the troublemaking rabbit.

Inside the cottage, Rainbow was being shown the few sick animals that were currently residing there, and once or twice had some of the healthy rodents who called the place their abode pointed out to her. Most of the poorly birds, rodents, and even reptiles, were not in the mood for company or chatting, and would either ignore the duo or weekly smile back as a response.

Of the injured animals, or to be precise, injured bird, was a single blue jay with a bandaged wing, who was active enough to hop away when the two far larger beings approached.

“Now, now, there’s no need to worry. This is my friend Rainbow Dash and I assure you she will not harm you. She just wants to say hello.” The animal lover cooed softly to the retreating bird, lightly tapping her close friend afterwards.

“Oh, right, uh, hi there.” Rainbow uttered with a wide grin and a weak wave of a hoof.

The bird did not move any closer, nor did it retreat, but it did sit down, and appeared to breathe a sigh of relief.

“Little Blue here was resting in an apple tree when Applejack accidentally bucked him out of it,” Fluttershy whispered to Rainbow Dash, “He broke his wing when he fell and Applejack brought him here for me to treat him.”

“Right, is that all of them?”

“Oh yes, I keep all of the sick and injured animals downstairs if I can and so far this year there haven’t been many. The ones I do treat tend to be well enough to head home on the very day they come to see me.” Fluttershy finished her explanation with a smile upon her face, the thought of the animals going without injuries warming her heart.

Fluttershy was enjoying the act of presenting her animals to her fast paced friend, who had as of late, not been in her company for long enough periods to show around. Finding herself comfortable with the current activity’s subject, Fluttershy planned to discuss her animals some more, perhaps see if Rainbow Dash wanted one, but a sudden growl interrupted her thoughts. A nervous snicker that was accompanied with another growl tipped the yellow pony off to the fact that the now lightly tinted Rainbow Dash was hungry.

“I don’t suppose you would mind if we had a quick snack?” Rainbow asked, her eyes focusing on the kitchen area.

“Well…” Fluttershy began, tapping her chin with her hoof as she thought things through, “it is getting late, how about we start preparing for dinner. We can cook it together.”

The brightly feathered pegasus proposed this idea with enthusiasm, and urged the equally brightly coated pegasus to follow her into the kitchen. This enthusiasm did not appear to be shared though, as Rainbow remained on the spot, fidgeting. If it weren’t for their current predicament she would have backed off from her friend, and looked to her with confusion, embarrassment, and horror.

Finally, she asked, “You want me to cook?”

“Yes, it will be nice and as we are stuck together it will make it easier too, that is, if you want to.” Fluttershy said, her voice growing quieter as she noticed the uncertainty in her friends face remaining.

“Fluttershy,” Rainbow Dash took hold of her friend, and faced her with look of utmost seriousness, “You do remember that I’m not a very good cook.”

Fluttershy stared blankly back, before replying, “B-but that was back in flight school, and it wasn’t bad…just different.”

“Fluttershy, the school staff were off for weeks, and I was never allowed into the schools kitchen ever again. As far as cooking goes, the best I can do is make a sandwich.”

“Why don’t we go into a kitchen and you can show me some of your cooking, I can give you some pointers then.” Fluttershy pleaded, urging her friend to follow, to which she did eventually and worryingly, “And I’m sure it’s better than you give yourself credit for.”

If the bubbling mixture could speak its first few words would be, “Please kill me.”

The grey steaming goo could not speak though; it just remained in its bowl as it was observed by two sets of pony eyes.

“Well…” Fluttershy racked her brain for plausible compliments to bestow upon the ‘thing’, “it’s different.”

“It’s supposed to be toast.” Rainbow Dash replied, un-amused at her friend’s attempt at praise.

“It’s not that bad, it could be worse.” Fluttershy added as the toast groaned.

“Please, I doubt there is anypony who can cook as bad as I can.” Rainbow Dash was unaware of this but at the exact time those words left her mouth, a white unicorn filly elsewhere in Ponyville suddenly sneezed.

Fluttershy’s gaze flittered back to Rainbow’s concoction and then to her fried toaster, which had seen better days. The idea that there was another pony out there who could cook such a dish filled her with dread. The idea of having to eat said dish was also beginning to be unappealing.

“Let’s see, today has been such a hectic day and cooking can take a lot out of a pony so how about we make ourselves a nice simple salad instead.”

Rainbow rolled her eyes and remarked, “You know, you can just say my cooking’s bad. I won’t be offended.”

Fluttershy’s eyes bulged in shock at the possibility of offending her friend and her own sense of wellbeing left as began to stutter out a suicidal suggestion, “Oh no. No, no, no. Your cooking is lovely; I’m sure…t-to prove to you, I will even try some of it myself.”

Angel sprang into action faster than he’d ever done in his life; then again, this was a life or death situation. He ran, leaped and even barrel-rolled his way through the kitchen and scrambled onto the kitchen counter. He darted towards the bowl of death, scooping up the fine china with still surprising strength, and with one smooth motion, flung it and it’s contents out the nearest window. The sound of evil spirits wailing as they were released upon the world proved that his heroic feat had been accomplished.

“…I really liked that bowl.”

Rainbow Dash let out a sigh, relieved that she had avoided murdering her childhood friend. This warm feeling was replaced by a cold shiver soon after, as one rabbit sent evils and curses her way. To be fair, from the perspective of the pet he had just seen the pegasus craft a weapon of ultimate destruction and attempt to unleash it against his owner.

“Okay then, let’s put this all behind us and get started on a scrumptious salad shall we?” Fluttershy suggested, aware of the antagonism within the room. “Angel, would you mind helping us?”

The ironically named animal stood to attention and gave a salute. Rainbow, free from the malicious stare wishing things that cannot be repeated upon her, just became puzzled.

“Wait, the rabbit is going to help us?”

“Why yes,” Fluttersy began to say as she popped up a chef’s hat onto Rainbow’s head. She then went about popping one onto her own head, and then fetched another; much smaller one designed for Angel, and placed it onto his head. “Angel’s an amazing chef, and his salads are always wonderful. In fact, I’m sure he can give you some pointers…if you want too…and if wants too.”

Rainbow looked to smugly grinning bunny rabbit, flexing his paws with sinister intent, “Yeah, I think I’ll pass on that.”

“Okay,” Fluttershy said with a nod, “Are there any vegetables you don’t like?”

“Meh, not really. Food’s food, some just aren’t as tasty as others.” Rainbow Dash replied shrugging.

Fluttershy nodded turning first to Angel and then Rainbow Dash, “Angel, could you fetch the veggies from the fridge and hoof them over to Rainbow Dash while I get out the colander.”

Angel hopped on over to the pony sized fridge, prying it apart with relative ease, and looking to the vast storage of produce. He cast an eye over his shoulder to see an already bored with waiting Rainbow Dash, and his owner shifting through the cupboards. Grabbing the first item of dinner and juggling it in his paws, a fun activity popped into his head, fun for him at least.

The unprepared Rainbow Dash only managed to catch the slowly falling head of cabbage before it hit the floor, or her, and considering she was a pony with hooves this was not done easily.

“Hey, give me a heads up before”- Rainbow Dash had turned to reprimand the rabbit only to see a colourful shower of greens, reds, oranges, and yellows heading her way. Her fore hooves parted and she stood back onto her hind hooves, even though doing so cut off the connection with Fluttershy, bracing herself for the onslaught. With reflexive skill Rainbow Dash managed to catch each and every cabbage, cucumber, tomato, lettuce, Brussels, carrot, and pepper thrown her way. The result was that nothing had fallen to the ground but the result was also that Rainbow Dash was weighed down by a ton of vegetables, barely remaining up on her hind legs.

Fluttershy finished placing all the kitchen instruments they were going to be using onto the counter and turned to see a walking stacking of vegetables, “Angel, Dash, we don’t need quite that many, there’s only three of us.”

“I know that.” Dash grumbled, but behind the heap of food in her hooves the words emitted did not reach Fluttershy’s ears.

So Fluttershy resumed contact with Dash momentarily before taking what she needed from her overloaded assistant and set them aside, ready to be washed. With the lightened load Rainbow was able to move once more, going towards the fridge and returning the unneeded produce. Of course she passed Angel along the way, and the two stuck their tongues out at one other.

Returning to the counter and resuming physical contact with Fluttershy, the next orders were given out, “Let’s see, it will be easy if I wash everything first and then hoof it all to you and Angel to have it all chopped up.”

“Me and the rabbit, working together, with knives?” Rainbow queried, each word uttered slowly.

Fluttershy nodded, oblivious to the poor relationship between her friend and her pet, and continued to say, “Once you two are done cutting everything up, just place it into the salad bowl. When we’re finished we can grate some carrots and sprinkles some herbs to lay on top the salad and it will be done. A nice simple salad.”

So Fluttershy got to work, rinsing a cucumber under the tap before handing it over to Rainbow Dash. Angel Bunny, now atop the counter and standing beside the chopping board, held his paws out to be handed the cucumber. Said cucumber was then dropped onto his head.

Angel pushed aside the greenery, looked up to a pony with an expression on her face that told him ‘don’t mess with me’. Angel was never one to be bossed around though and so stared back; sparks flying between the two. They did not know it but the both of them shared the same thought, ”It, is, on!”

“Sitting so close with another mare, side by side, and eating dinner together, it’s almost romantic,” Fluttershy thought to herself, “Not that I want it to be that way or anything.”

Within the small colourful room of wooden walls, flooring, and ceiling, dimly lit by the last orange lights of a declining sun, two ponies and one rabbit sat together to enjoy a meal together. A refreshed Fluttershy enjoyed her meal, eating to the sounds of a gentle breeze and various birds consistent but easy on the ears tweets. Rainbow Dash and Angel Bunny, bruised and battered by various vegetable related injuries, attempted to enjoy their meal while getting in each other’s way.

“Hey, I was just about to have that cucumber!” Rainbow Dash yelled out in protest as the agile bunny darted forth, grabbed a slice of the green vegetable, and returned to his seated position, that being between Fluttershy and Rainbow Dash. He had actually meant to position himself directly between the two pegasus to stop their constant hoof holding but after being pushed away several times because his owner feared he would be hurt by ‘supposed’ magic, he settled for being close by and keeping an eye out on the rainbow one.

Rainbow muttered curses towards a certain pet as she reached for another serving of salad. This time her sights were set on some chunks of carrot, more as a means to spite the spiteful rabbit than her enjoyment of the orange vegetable. Her hoof inched closer, ready to scoop up the veggie of her choosing when once again, a white speeding blur snatched up the product. Dash glared daggers at the full mouthed rabbit, who was still in the process of chewing up the last of his cucumber.

“Now Angel Bunny, you were still eating your food. You shouldn’t have taken that carrot until you finished off what you had.” Fluttershy gently scolded her cunning little pet, who proceeded to look up at his owner with crocodile tears, and offer up the chunk of carrot. “Oh, did you grab the carrot for me?”

Recieving one solemn nod led to a smiling and apologetic Fluttershy saying, “I’m sorry for scolding you, I shouldn’t have scolded you like that.”

Rainbow Dash could only frown with irritation as Angel looked to her with a cheeky grin, smirking as if victorious.

As the night approached with much speed, the simple but large meal was finished off and the cleaning of all the utensils went underway without a hitch. One problem that was going to arise was washing up as the sink was too small for both ponies to be before it but this was settled when Rainbow Dash volunteered to do this herself, wanting to get the chore out of the way as fast as possible.

It was now that the animals began to either leave or return in order to sleep, with some strolling back into the Everfree forest, others bouncing down into their burrows, or birds coming through the open window with their sights set on the hanging bird houses. Angel also decided to book in for the night, slumped his little body onto the settee and dropped off to sleep in seconds. As each animal returned to their beds Fluttershy greeted her returning companions with glee, and after introducing Rainbow Dash and their current predicament, got to work checking that each of them were okay.

“Hey Shy, mind if I use your bathroom?” A fidgeting Dash asked as she looked to the second floor of the house where her desired location was.

“Oh sure, it’s just up the stairs, first door to your left.” Fluttershy replied with only one eye turned to her friend, the other still on the beaked creatures she was conversing with.

Rainbow nodded before quickly zooming up the stairs to answer the call of nature. Meanwhile Fluttershy answered to a different call of nature, that of the animals before her.

“Yes, she is very fast. Oh, I know you’re fast too but I don’t think you’d be able to keep up with Rainbow Dash, and it’s possible you would hurt yourself if you tried too so please don’t.” The caretaker’s current conversation with a rather cocky bird was interrupted by another, different animal, tapping at her hoof, “Yes Mr Mouse?”

Said male mouse tapped on Fluttershy’s newly acquitted garment with a look of urgency, to which Fluttershy interpreted as a question of ‘what is it?’ “Why this is a magical bracelet I accidentally put on today. I can’t take it off and it makes me and whoever else is wearing the other bracelet unable to part…for more…than…”

“Oh dear.” She squeaked as her entire body froze, every muscle going still under the mystical force as she was then levitated gently off the ground and flung backwards roughly. Fluttershy didn’t even have a chance to begin screaming before her back collided against Rainbow Dash, nor did she get a chance afterwards as the magic stopped working and the two fell down against the very top of the stairs in which they proceeded to roll down noisily.

The sound of crashing awoke the lightly napping rabbit and he quickly opened his eyes…and saw that rainbow mane pony pinning his owner to the floor. Quick as a lightning bolt the rabbit leaped on over to ‘defend’ his owner from her ‘assailant’ and so kicked the attacker in the head.

“OW! You stupid rabbit.” Rainbow shot up and took a swipe at the swift Angel, who ducked away and put up paw-cuffs.

Rainbow was going to follow this up by lunging for her prey, her patience with the brat finally running out, but halted when she remembered her much desired activity and crossed her hind legs.

“R-Rainbow Dash,” Fluttershy mumbled as she sat up.

Fluttershy’s head ached from the tumble and her mind was unfocused which only added to her confusion when Rainbow Dash grabbed her by both sides and blurted out, “Fluttershy, come with me to the bathroom quick. I really, really need to pee.”

Fluttershy was taken off guard by this statement, but caught onto why such a thing was said rather quickly, “Because of the bracelets? You need me to touch you while you…”

“Yes, now let’s hurry already.” The desperate pony yelled out as she ignored the irritated rabbit behind her and proceeded to drag her magically chained friend up to the bathroom with her.

As Fluttershy was being pulled along to her bathroom, a single thought relieved the pony, “At least nothing from now on will be more awkward than this.”

Then Fluttershy and Rainbow Dash were in bed together.

“I don’t see why you find this to be a problem; we’ve slept in the same bed before.” Rainbow Dash stated as she turned to face Fluttershy, resulting in their muzzles being mere millimetres apart.

“Y-yeah, but we were fillies back then,” Fluttershy noted as both her forelegs and hind legs brushed up against her counterparts beneath the covers, “and your bed was a lot larger.”

“What difference does that make?”

“I’ve since gone through puberty, found that I’m attracted to mares and know that you have a nicely toned sexy body,” Fluttershy thought, “oh, um…it just does I guess.”

Rainbow raised one eye, a sign of body language that stated that the other pony was considered ‘weird’ by the beholder of the expression, but never uttered the phrase. Instead the pony settled on the task of shifting her body into a more comfortable position, rustling the covers, and moving her legs in ways that would not inconvenience the other occupier of the bed. She turned her head away from her friend, tugging on the covers, and then rolled round to face her friend once more as she struggled to decide which side to lie on.

A question arose in the prismatic mane ponies head, and so she looked up to her friend, her magenta eyes looking directly into a pair of teal ones. The question halted on her still tongue as Rainbow Dash stared curiously at the shying face, whose head tried to pull back but seemed unable too, as if entranced to stay still and stare back with the softest of expressions. Neither knew why, perhaps the relaxed atmosphere and warming covers reminded them of their previous sleepovers as fillies, but a sincere smile grew on both ponies’ faces.

Then a bunny dropped down onto the pillow the two equines heads were resting, startling the both of them.

“Oh, Angel Bunny, you scared me.” Fluttershy addressed her pony as she poked her head out from underneath the covers, “Do you want to sleep with me tonight…and Rainbow Dash?”

Angel did not answer with any form of nod for confirmation, he only put his small arms round Fluttershy as best he could, and snuggled up to his owner. Fluttershy released a small ‘daw’ sound at this show of affection returning the snuggle with a gentle fussing. While receiving such affection though the rabbit made sure to turn round for a moment so he was facing the other mare in the bed, glance at her, place a paw to his eyes and then point said paw threateningly at Dash. By this, Angel meant to say ‘I’ve got my eye on you’.

“Good night Angel Bunny, good night Rainbow Dash.” Fluttershy said with a rarely heard chirpiness in her voice, as she snuggled up to both her bunny and the mattress.

“Y-yeah, good night.” Rainbow Dash replied, unsure of what to make of the rabbit’s threat.

That night Fluttershy slept peacefully, while Rainbow Dash remained awake as a guardian angel of sorts stared at her the entire night, ensuring his owner's saftey.

Two Passengers, One Pilot.

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With many thanks to Ugugg93 for proof-reading this chapter, I present to you chapter 3 of Magnetism!

Chapter 3: Two Passengers, One Pilot!

It was with the crack of dawn that the ground preferring pegasus began to stir, her mind wrestling with the tides of sleep that tried to pull her back under. In her lightly conscious state, she felt blissful, her brain more open to her sense of touch than usual and with it, the warm comforting feeling that was wrapped around her. It was not just the warmth, a feeling akin to nestling up to a gently blazing campfire, that she found pleasure in, but also the odd feeling of safety. Something firm but soft, strong but gentle, held against her body, a familiar and enticing feeling that allowed her to open her eyes without fear for what may be before her. She opened them to the sleeping face of her friend… the very close friend whom was hugging her, whose soft breaths brushed against her open eyes and into her slightly gaping mouth.

A hot blush as warm as her general body within Rainbow’s embrace consumed her face, burning brighter with every tingling, cooling breath that tickled against her face. Fluttershy knew not what to think about the present situation, so instead did her best to not think about their present proximity, their position, and how much her wings wanted to flap out in excitement. After having the image of Rainbow’s blissful sleeping face before her, a tender image from a tough pony that the mare couldn’t help but think was cute, she tried to escape. She tried to wiggle her way out and slip away from Rainbow Dash, allowing her friend to resume her sleep in peace, but the moment Fluttershy began to slide her body free, the sleeping pony merely embraced tighter. Fluttershy felt the grip grow stronger, and she was tugged closer against the cyan body. Cyan and yellow legs pressed against each other smoothly, while the chromatic mare's two forelegs had looped around the bed-haired coat of the other, bringing the space between their bellies to a close. This, in turn, left their muzzles just barely apart, each motion of breathing causing the bottom of the athlete's muzzle to bump against the top of the animal caretaker's. Fluttershy quivered, her wings only prevented from taking off by the forelegs that trapped them. This made them want to unfurl even more.

The stimulated shudders of the yellow mare were suddenly accompanied by the shivers of the other as an expression of unease and disturbance fell across Rainbow’s face. With the ever lessening smile and an ever growing frown on her face, the sleeping pony began to mumble, sleep talk, though her first words were completely incoherent. Fluttershy worried about her friend who had been so peaceful and whose touch had become just a little colder upon the coming of whatever nightmare now beset the racer’s dreams.

“N-no…mum, no.” The nightmare facing pegasus mumbled coherently, Fluttershy’s confused concern becoming more confused and more concerned.

“R-Rainbow never spoke much about her parents, and they were rarely at the house when I came over. I wonder... did something happen between them? Something horrible? Maybe that’s why she…” the worried pony pondered on her friend as mumbles continued to come out of her.

“M-mum, no, don’t…I…I…” Rainbow Dash stammered over and over again, and as anticipation for what she was about to say increased, Fluttershy wondered if it was okay to hear the, most likely, private, and possibly scarring, event from an asleep Dash’s lips. “...I don’t want to dress in style.”

“Wha?” Was about all Fluttershy could usher out of her lips at the anti-climactic revelation.

“Huh..? Is it morning already?” The cyan pegasus in bed garbled these words in her semi-conscious state, letting loose a large, long yawn afterwards.

Startled, and realising the possible implications of their comfortable and close position, Fluttershy did as she often tried to do: distance herself. This involved a split reaction push, the momentum sending her off her end of the bed as well as accidentally knocking Rainbow Dash off the bed on the other side.

“F-Fluttershy! What the hay!?” Rainbow snapped as she pulled her groggy body up, more so from the sudden wakeup call than the fall.

“Eh! Oh, I…I, you see I…sorry, I’m sorry,” Fluttershy whispered back with her naturally shy tone, hiding her eyes from Dash’s agitated glare on the other side of the bed.

Seeing her friend frightened at her outburst, Rainbow’s glare softened, though her irritation was still apparent in her voice as she sighed, “Let me guess: you got spooked in your sleep and pushed us both off by accident.”

Fluttershy nodded; even though this was not true, but explaining her own wake-up call was not what she wanted to do.

“Heh, well Fluttershy, the next time you dream you should have no fear. Just dream up an awesome me, and pow! They'll be nothing to fear.” Rainbow boasted with a grand grin, a contagious show of happiness that Fluttershy could not help but smile along with.

Then the five second limit was reached, and the bracelets activated.

Now, you might be wondering where Angel Bunny has been during all this. He hasn’t gone anywhere, and in fact is still cosily sleeping on the pillow. Even with the two ponies tossing and turning in their mutual slumber, the snow-white rabbit managed to enjoy a wonderful period of sleep. Unfortunately today happened to be a day of bad wake-up calls, and he soon found himself inconveniently awoken when two ponies decided to crash land onto the bed and shoot him up into the ceiling.

“Fluttershy, I don’t need my mane brushed,” the rainbow mane pony complained as the brush flowed smoothly across the six coloured strands of hair.

She had to first remove the wooden brush from her mouth, but the brusher responded anyway, “B-but you have such a nice mane, if you don’t care for it, it will get damaged.” Fluttershy once more gripped the unpainted brush with her teeth, and moved it along her Dash’s mane, humming something along the lines of ‘brushie, brushie’.

“Yeah, well, I’ve never put much care into it and my mane has remained fine, so I guess mine just doesn’t get damaged or tangled or whatever you’re worried about happening to it.”

Once again, Fluttershy had to first remove the brush from her mouth before suggesting, “You should probably not tell Rarity that.”

Rainbow smirked at this, “You think she’d try to steal my mane or something?”

“That or start styling your mane.”

That last suggestion made Rainbow Dash shudder.

This attempt at grooming her friend was being enacted during the predawn morning, a time that both the weather patrol pony and the animal caretaker were used to waking up at, and one that both considered breakfast time. Speaking of breakfast, the two ponies had managed to assemble it without any hassle, although that could be because it was but a simple daisy sandwich, upon Rainbow’s request. This at first bothered Fluttershy, who is used to bountiful and well-made nutritious breakfasts, but the memory of Rainbow’s cooking yesterday crushed any and all desires for the two of them to sit down to a warmer meal. Still, the desire for a larger meal to prepare them for the activities of the day was still present.

“Are you really sure you don’t want a little more?” Fluttershy queried her friend, who was currently gulping down the flower filled bread happily. “And... um... you should probably eat slower.”

Rainbow had practically consumed the entirety of her breakfast by this point, and was going to reply straight away before she realised that seeing a full-mouthed pony speaking up close would be somewhat off-putting to the task of consuming their own meal. Allowing herself a few seconds to make sure to swallow down the barely chewed chunk in her mouth, she replied, “No need to worry, Fluttershy, this is plenty enough for breakfast. After all, as a weather patrol pony, I have to be up an flying as early as…as can…oh snap.”

“What’s wrong?”

“What’s wrong!?” Rainbow repeated as she grabbed the questioner by her shoulders and lightly began to shake her, “What’s wrong is that I’ve still got to do my weather duties! I didn’t book any time off for it and now we’re stuck together like this!”

“T-that’s o-okay, R-rainbow D-D-Dash,” Fluttershy shakily replied. “I-I can help.”

“Help!? How can you-” the shaking stopped as the flustered pegasus held the dazed mare in her hooves, and looked at her with realisation on her face. “Oh yeah, you’re also a pegasus. We can just do it together and... you don’t mind doing my job with me?” Fluttershy shook her head in reply, which caused Rainbow to beam back a large smile, “Alright then, let’s get a move on; we’ll get this done in a jiffy.”

Fluttershy nodded as Dash let go of her, and together, the two began making their way out the door. The early morning sun greeted them in full force, though only halfway over the horizon, it shone as bright as it always did. Though glorious to behold at first, it only made the two ponies wince, the fine day being obscured to the both of them. The air was calm, some birds were waking to begin their morning songs, and others were just coming to the ends of theirs. After repeated blinking the cloudless sky came into view, the azure sky that should currently be marred ever so slightly by a light shower.

“It feels like I’ve been on the ground forever. Let's fly, Fluttershy!” Rainbow shouted out with bravado as she opened her wings out… and smacked Fluttershy across the face.

Fluttershy staggered backwards, a hoof held up her winded cheek, as Rainbow cursed to herself, “Oh horse-apples. Fluttershy, I’m really sorry about that. You okay?”

“Y-yeah.” The yellow pony caressed her cheek with delicate care, a slight whip like bruise likely to soon form, “Your... um... wings are a bit too long... not that that’s a bad thing or anything like that, it is just…”

Rolling her eyes Rainbow decided to speak up before her apologetic friend continued to mumble forever, “Yeah, my bad, we’ll have to be careful about that when flying, don’t want to be whacking our wings against each other. I don’t want to imagine how that would affect our flying.”

The imagined scenario of a slight bump on the tip of the wing mid-flight causing Fluttershy to spin out of control flashed into the fearful pegasus’ mind but she kindly asked it to go away and focused on happier thoughts, “We could hold our hooves out and distance ourselves with our hooves.”

Rainbow tapped her chin thrice before agreeing to his with a murmured response, “Yeah that should work.”

Stepping just off the doorstep, the two pegasus lined up side-by-side, and placed the bottom of their garmented hooves flat against one another. The duo then stepped as far away from one another as they could, while continuing to keep their hooves connected. It was a little shaky, but they were able to raise and retain one of their forelegs suspended in mid-air.

“Oh, and could you try and not unfold your wing quite so fast this time, you know, just in case.” Fluttershy quickly added as she slowly began to unfold both her wings.

“I know, I know. I’m not going to make the same mistake twice… at least I hope I don’t,” Rainbow restlessly replied, unfolding both her wings with a cautious pace.

Things were going smoothly at first, their hooves remaining together and their wings going on up, but midway a clear problem emerged for the winged duo. Fluttershy’s and Rainbow Dash’s wings made contact, slightly at first but as they tried to pull them up above their bodies, their flying appendages pushed against one another, interlocking their feathers, and pushing the contacting hooves apart. Now they were stuck together by not just the mystical force, but in the physical form of their wings.

“I think maybe our wings-” Fluttershy had begun to say until Rainbow fidgeted her wing, trying to wiggle her feathers through the slight gaps that separated each of Fluttershy’s, the embarrassingly exciting feeling arising from this quickly causing her to squeak and blush.

Rainbow felt a similar urge to squeak herself at the strange sensation that trying to worm her wings pass Fluttershy’s caused her; however, she suppressed the strange and effeminate urge, “Darn it, our wings are longer than our legs.”

Eventually the pegasus managed to untangle their sore wings, Rainbow quickly folding hers back to her body as Fluttershy took to her brushing her own feathers' out. The still blushing pony coughed to clear her throat as she did this, then sighed, “E-even if we did get our wings to pass between one another, whenever we’d flap them they would just hit the other's back.”

“Wait!” Rainbow Dash proclaimed as she opened up only the wing opposite to Fluttershy and displayed it proudly in the air, “I have another idea.”

The weak flier awaited Rainbow to tell said idea, only for Rainbow to start it with actions rather than any sort of explanation. She lightly grabbed hold of Fluttershy’s extended wing, and with knowledge of how the pegasus body works, and what to do and not do with your wings, gently pushed it back into a folded position.

Before Fluttershy could half-heartedly complain at this complete disregard of personal space, Rainbow gave her first command, “Now Fluttershy, open up just your other wing.”

Puzzled but obedient, Fluttershy unfurled the wing furthest from Dash to its full wing span. As she did this, she had a hoof curl around her body and pressed her up close to the side of the hugger.

“Wh-wha..?” The baffled pony blubbered as the now very close Rainbow grinned.

“It’s easy, Fluttershy; you’ll be my left wing and I’ll be your right wing, we don’t need to use our other wings so long as we’ve got each other,” Rainbow explained with another grin, this one even more positive and enthusiastic than before, and the sheer trust that came from the athlete's words made the happiness infectious, A small smile popping up on Fluttershy’s own face, Rainbow continued, “Now you ready?” With a nod for confirmation the two ponies took a deep breath and then leaped into the air, ready to gracefully soar into the sky.

It went horribly wrong.

Fluttershy and Rainbow Dash had flapped their wings at the same time and with the same pace, but not the same power in their legs at lift-off. They had both exerted the same amount of strength in their jump they would usually use for take-off, but that was of course the problem. Their natural lift-off strength was different from one another, with the high flying speedster, keen to reach the sky as quickly as possible, used to launching herself at the sky, while the unsure and cautious earth loving flier preferred a simple graceful hop, beginning her airborne journey but a few centimetres off the ground. The cyan side of the two hugging pegasus rose above the yellow side, which obviously tilted closer to the ground. Realising the odd angle and with the grey concrete path in front of her vision skewed, Fluttershy frantically flapped to match Rainbow’s strength. While she would have succeeded at this correction, the problem was that Fluttershy’s frantic flying interfered with Rainbow’s well-rehearsed and practised flight pattern, and thus came with the very result the pegasus were trying to avoid.

The two of them careened out of the short flight and bumped against the ground, beginning a rolling tumble. As they tumbled down the small cliff edge before the cosy cottage and animal shelter, Rainbow managed to painstakingly complain each time her body fell against the ground, “That. Should. Have. Worked!”

The tumbling ponies only came to a stop after they fell off the small cliff area and into the rather shallow, but still inhabited, stream just before the cottage. Rolling into the river got all sides of their bodies wet, and if any spot had not come into contact with liquid then the light splash from their fall would have made up for it.

The two ponies remained sprawled beside one another in the river, their heads above the water. In fact, with how shallow the stream was, their backs and wings were pretty much the only parts of their bodies submerged in water. The two were not sure why but they chose for that moment to remain still, to simply lie in the water breathing breaths mustered out of the slights of excitement, adrenaline, and especially pain. Fluttershy looked up into the sky, but was not truly aware it was there, her mind distant as she thought about nothing in particular, but she daydreamed all the same. Rainbow, on the otherhoof, saw the taunting sky, the mocking sky, the sky she longed to reach and for once, the sky in which she wished to do her job in. As Rainbow longed for the freedom of that which remained above, another idea popped into her head, the strange analogy of her being the heroine on a quest and the sky being the road she would travel on, one that would ultimately end when she would rescue the prince or princess. Silently, she thanked her uncharacteristically strong desire of doing her job as the inspiration to it all.

“New idea!” Rainbow yelled out with frustration, springing to all fours and causing yet another small splash.

Fluttershy’s wordless thought bubble burst from the sudden spray of water, and had only managed to sit up before Rainbow enacted her plan and scooped up Fluttershy with her forelegs. If Fluttershy could not think before, now her brain had completely shut off as it tried hard not to register the soft hooves that carried her body, her dripping body pulled tight to the chest of the similarly soaked body of Rainbow Dash, and of the serious look that a certain multicolour mane pony gave, a look she could see up close.

“I can fly while carrying you, so while I do the flying, you can reach out and move the clouds.” Rainbow explained with a deep tone and various exhales of hot breath, warming up Fluttershy’s still intensifying blush, “You okay with that?”

Fluttershy barely managed a nod as the cyan pegasus pulled her up into the sky with a mighty stroke of her powerful blue wings, and proceeded to carry the kind maiden bridal style.

The trees were begging to be bucked. At least, that was what Applejack was hearing as she looked on to the orchard, and the many ripe apples that hung from their branches. They stood there, barking out to her, wishing for their apples to leave their grips through the typical method of a swift kick. But the trees were not being bucked and the apples were not being harvested at the early morning time that they expected to be. Instead, their bucker and harvester just sat down by the house, watching expectantly to them, the ground, and the all-important sky.

“Consarn it, where is Rainbow Dash with 'em clouds? I thought we were supposed to be havin' a light shower this mornin’,” Applejack grumbled to nopony but herself, unless she was talking to the apple trees, which was quite likely considering her attachment to them.

The reason the farmer simply sat to watch the trees, instead of collecting the apples as per her usual routine, was that she was expecting a light shower this very morning. Marked down on the weather report was a light shower early in the morning due to 'an excess production and distribution of clouds resulting in a need for them to be utilised.' Applejack had no desire to be working in the rain, especially when it would only be a short spot of weather that would only last a few minutes, and so she decided to wait until the shower was over before beginning her apple bucking. The shower was not over; in fact, it had not even begun. The reason the trees simply sat waiting to be bucked was because they were trees and of course could do nothing other than wait.

“Ah want to get on with mah day,” Applejack thought as she let out a soft sigh, laying her eyes on the ground, and began counting the blades of grass. “Ah'm sure there mus' be some more house chores to do. Ah'm sure Granny Smith an' Apple Bloom won' mind a hoof.”

Of course it was just as the cowpony had lifted her body off the floor and set her aims onto other objectives that small murky clouds began to appear above the trees. Applejack looked to these harbingers of rain with a grin, and rather than being miffed at the immense delay, she was simply pleased to see them here. While her eyes were dead-set on the stacking up row of clouds, she noticed the lack of a certain weather patrol pegasus, or any pegasus for that matter.

“Mus' be behin’ 'em clouds; can' see her from this angle...” As Applejack mused to herself out loud, her ears began to pick up voices from above, “Voices?”

The earth pony began a softly stepping trot round the clouds and the trees, vying for a better look at those who were tending to the clouds. Before she was able to see the source of the voice though, she began to make out various words.

“Are-are you sure I’m doing this right? I don’t want to get you in any trouble if they're wrong.”

This worried the earth pony, “Wha' if Rainbow Dash is sick, an' they’ve got some untrained pegasus on the job?”

“It’s fine, it’s fine. These clouds aren’t packed with a huge amount of water anyway. Besides, a light drizzle can’t do much harm, even when done wrong, which you’re not.”

“Oh, okay… are you sure? I’ve never done this before and I...“

This further worried Applejack as she trotted further into view of the two pegasi, though she could swear their voices were familiar, muffled ever so slightly by the distance and slight wind in the air.

“Look, I’m holding you up at the moment, so I can’t move and craft these with my own two hooves right now, so that’s why you're doing it. Don’t worry so much. The clouds aren’t going to explode or anything from having a non-weather patrol pegasus touch them.”

This just served to puzzle Applejack further, but she knew such puzzlement would vanish as she now could make out the two airborne ponies managing the current spot of weather. A familiar pair of cyan wings and a head of rainbow hair put her at ease, albeit she was a little embarrassed that she didn't recognise her friend’s voice earlier. What caused her to retain a little of her earlier confusion was the fact that an equally familiar yellow body and a head of pink hair were also in view, as along with Rainbow Dash flying up by the clouds was Fluttershy. This alone would have only been interesting, the possibility of Rainbow taking along her only flying friend to hang out and enjoy the calmest activity the sports-loving speedster partook in was interesting enough, but what caused puzzlement was the way the two pony friends were present. For rather than flying alongside one another, as the two pegasus normally would, Fluttershy was being carried in the flying Rainbow Dash’s forelegs like a newlywed couple. As Rainbow Dash held their position in the air, a nervous Fluttershy would reach out slowly and manipulate the clouds; Rainbow chatting away about tips and advice relating to their undergoing task the entire time.

Giving a quick critical inspection, Rainbow nodded and declared, “That looks good enough. Now, we buck.”

“The clouds!” Fluttershy almost uncharacteristically shouted.

“Yeah, not like we are going to be bucking the trees. That’s Applejack's job,” Rainbow remarked, a look of amusement on her face. “Now let's hit those clouds and let the rain start.”

So Fluttershy did, raising one of her hooves above her head, poised to strike, and then launching it will full force. It gently plopped against the mass of rain clouds, causing a light trickle of rain.

“Wow, Rainbow Dash, you were right. There wasn’t much rain in these clouds,” Fluttershy noted with a widening smile, a feeling of accomplishment whelming her.

“That’s because you didn’t hit it hard enough,” A deadpanned voice emitted from the weather patrol pony. “Here, let me do this.”

With that, Rainbow Dash chucked Fluttershy into the air, spun around, and bucked at the cloud with her two hind legs, the soft shower of rain starting off at a steady pace immediately. Spinning round again, she did so in time to catch a shocked canary yellow pegasus, who had yet to be given chance to scream in flight.

“Ya’ know, you can fly, Fluttershy.” Dash said with a smirk as she looked down at the startled pegasus, the yellow mare gripping her with a tight grip.

“Th-That was too sudden for me to... to... don't do that again... please?” Fluttershy stuttered out as she loosened her grip from Rainbow’s firm neck and shifted her body a little away from right up against the cyan bodied equine.

“Sure, sure. Well, that’s the last of the clouds. Let’s head back now.” In response, Fluttershy nodded to this, and Rainbow flew off once more while carrying her friend in her forelegs.

Applejack watched her friends go without calling out to them once. She remained standing on the spot as she paid no attention to the light shower of rain above her apple trees that she had been longing for all morning. Instead, her entire focus was to the unspecified distance that her friends had flown off towards, the two colourful specks slowly disappearing into the blue expanse. Thoughts bounced about her head, about what she had seen, what she had heard, but most importantly, the one small detail she had noted: they were wearing matching bracelets.

A small chortle burst out from the farmers lungs, a laugh directed to herself as silly thoughts entered her head. “Sure, they're wearin' them bracelets, an' sure Rainbow was carryin' Fluttershy like a stallion would his marefriend, an' maybe they seemed a bit flirty, but there’s no way, no way that they are… are...”

Applejack allowed these thoughts to continue to occupy her mind, an uncertain and troubled smile adorning her face. The slightest sounds of rain continued, the sun continued to ascend above the trees, and she continued to look out to the distance.

The rain fell softly and the clouds were in such short supply that the sky retained its morning brightness. Still the two pegasus were grateful for the umbrella held above their heads by a rabbit, who was comfortable seated on Fluttershy’s back. Rainbow Dash felt this was the only good thing that Angel had so far done for her, even though she knew that if the rabbit had his way he would have kicked her out from underneath the umbrella long ago.

“Are you really sure we should be seeing her so early? She seemed pretty tired yesterday,” Fluttershy spoke as she walked alongside Rainbow Dash. “Maybe we should wait a day or two first or at least until this afternoon?”

“Nah. Twilight’s done marathons of studying before, so I’m sure she’s already up and at 'em,” Rainbow confidently remarked. “'Sides, I want these bracelets off as soon as possible.”

Fluttershy took this remark in a different manner than that which the rainbow mane pegasus conveyed, and immediately took on a look and tone of depression, “O-oh, I’m sorry for being such a bother.”

Rainbow soon noticed this sudden downcast turn, and for once actually realised why it occurred without any misunderstanding, “I didn't mean it like that. You're great to hang out with. I mean, sure, you're really slow, and maybe too cautious or so afraid that you might hurt somepony that you won’t even do anything like pranks, and maybe you're…”

Realizing she was actually making things worse with the way Fluttershy's head lowered further with each example, Rainbow quickly diverted to the point she trying to explain in the first place, “What I'm trying to say is wanting these bracelets off has nothing to do with you, it’s just because they're inconvenient. I could be attached with anypony, and I'd still be unable to perform proper flight stunts, or worse,” Rainbow nudged Fluttershy with her side, “I'd be forced into helping cook, and I think we can both agree nopony wants that.”

Fluttershy outwardly seemed to brighten up at this, though her smile was clearly forced. Rainbow looked to and fro, noticing that as a result of the morning shower there were only a few ponies out and about, furthermore none were looking in their general direction. Thus she decided it was safe to show some affection, and embraced Fluttershy in a hug. The sweet gesture changed the fake smile on Fluttershy’s face to a genuine one that spread across her muzzle more naturally, and even though the sign of affection was a hesitated act on Dash’s part, she came to enjoy act.

At least until Rainbow was kicked in the head.

Dash backed off slightly, her hoof still around Fluttershy’s shoulders as her attention was directed over to the rabbit atop the animal caretakers head. Said rabbit scowled back at the pegasus, and pointed to the cyan hoof that laid upon his owners body with various motions that said ‘paws off’. Of course, Rainbow did not understand the charades of Angel, even if she did she did not have paws anyway, and so kept her hoof there even as her attention went back to Fluttershy.

“Did we really have to bring your rabbit along?” The disgruntled pony asked, covertly giving the small pet an evil glare, an action he more than willingly returned.

“Oh my yes; Angel seemed really enthusiastic to join me today,” Fluttershy said with cheer evident in her voice and step, a slight spring in it that allowed her to outpace Dash for but a second.

For a moment, Angel Bunny’s scowl faded and a look of sincerity popped onto his face, which he soon noticed and was quick to get rid of. By now the two close buddies, closer physically than what the rabbit wished for them to be, had reached Golden Oaks Library. With Fluttershy literally by her side, Dash did not have the time nor space to barge into the room. Furthermore, it was Fluttershy who opened the door, so so instead of the normal slamming action Rainbow treated it with, the door instead slowly creaked open. Sofly, Fluttershy muttered, “Excuse me? Is anypony there? I'm sorry to bother you.”

Silence and emptiness greeted them in the main room, but nimble steps and noisy chomps came from the nearby kitchen, indicating that the part residence part business had somepony awake and alert. Well, not exactly somepony, the nimble steps were ones so delicate and precise that a being with hooves would struggle greatly with such a task, while the noisy chomps indicated a hungry and ill-mannered approach to eating, let alone it sounded like the ‘pony’ was gnashing bricks with their teeth. So with all that said, as Fluttershy, Rainbow Dash, and Angel Bunny entered the main room of the library from outside, Spike also entered the room from the kitchen, the dragon carrying a small bowl of gems in one of his claws.

“Hey girls,” Spike muttered good naturedly despite his full mouthed, though upon seeing Angel atop Fluttershy’s back his tone became more forced, “Angel,” but then returned to his before, jollier tone. “You here to see Twilight already?”

Rainbow nodded, “Yeah, she awake yet?”

“And if she isn’t we can leave and come back later; it would be rude of us to wake her up.” Fluttershy added, trying to cushion Rainbow's rather blunt question.

Spike scratched his scaled chin with his spare claw, and replied, “No, not since I last checked, however I doubt she’ll be of any use to you girls at the moment; when she woke up after collapsing in the street yesterday, she tried to instantly work out a way to remove those bracelets. She looked like she was about to collapse again, so I convinced her to get back to bed.”

“Oh, that’s very good of you, Spike.” Fluttershy praised the little dragon, who seemed pretty chuffed with it all.

Rainbow, meanwhile, merely sighed, a hoof rubbing at the area around her bracelet, “Yeah. I guess that's probably for the best; she should be fine by tomorrow though, right?”

“Yeah, probably…” The dragon mumbled quickly before pouring the rest of the gems into his mouth, gobbling them up with speed and ease.

The two pegasus were not under any further deadlines for the day, with the sole exception of a lunch appointment with Rarity on Fluttershy’s part, but there was ample time between now and then, so the two decided to stay and chat with Spike. It was just small talk though, and for the most part the purple librarian assistant asked questions about the current predicament, and in turn a lot of recounting ensued, with some of the more embarrassing details left out. Said conversation lasted for roughly fifteen minutes before it started to die down, and at twenty minutes past the beginning of their talk, the conversation was drawn to a close.

It was of course then that, as Fluttershy and Rainbow Dash were about to leave, their goodbyes to Spike ready on their lips, a voice called from above, “Fluttershy! Rainbow Dash! You're here already!”

Every pony, dragon and rabbit looked up, with obvious exception to the unicorn who was on the floor above. The bed mane Twilight Sparkle looked down to her friends with bleary eyes and greeted then with a forced nervous grin, a slight twitch noticeable in her eye even from this distance.

Rainbow took a small step back, “W-well yeah, but you were sleeping and so-”

“No I wasn’t!” Twilight’s frazzled voice prevented the chromatic mare from saying more, the scholar making her way down the wooden steps.

Her hooves moved in an almost erratic fashion, their steps only just ensuring their place on the stairway, and many a time it looked like she would skip more than a couple of steps or clumsily trip over her own legs and fall down the entire flight. Somehow, though, she able to make it to the bottom, her body shaking and twitching the entire time for unknown reasons as she delivered an even broader grin to her friends. Even Angel was a little unnerved by this, the bunny trying not to make eye contact with the pony.

“A-are you okay Twilight? You look…really tired,” Fluttershy took a step back to join her cyan friend.

“Yeah Twi, just head on back to bed and-” Spike began to say, only to find a magically created zipper literally zipping up his mouth, and Twilight, her terrifying twitch in her eye even more pronounced, turned to the two pegasi in the room.

“Bed? Ha! I was not sleeping. Oh no, no, no! I would never do that instead of helping my good friends. I’m not a bad friend; I wouldn’t sleep while you two are stuck like this.”

Even more disconcerting was that Twilight’s purple mane was randomly springing locks with each word she said, the eye twitches and head sways consistent throughout her fast paced speech. As Spike struggled with the restraint on his mouth, Fluttershy and Rainbow Dash exchanged brief ‘she’s crazy’ looks.

“You know, it’s okay if you want to take a nap, I take them all the time,” Dash attempted to helpfully suggest, yet from the look on the student’s face this proposition seemed less like help, and more akin to heresy.

“Whaaaaat!? Noooooo! I can’t! You neeeeeeed me…” Twilight droned, her words extending longer than what could be considered grammatically correct if they were to be transcribed onto paper.

Unsure what to say next, the two ponies stood silently as Twilight started to attempt to straighten herself out, trying ordering her completely chaotic form with at least a small level of organisation.

It was mostly a failure.

“S-so… what have you managed to find out about the bracelets so far?” Fluttershy uncertainly asked. As far as the shy pony could tell, Twilight had actually slept a little bit, but the fact that she had slept rather than research was making the spell caster feel guilty, and so in turn was trying to cover this up. Forming a plan in her head, Fluttershy believed that if she got Twilight to admit the truth, she could then convince Twilight it was okay to put her own health before their, hopefully, non-life-threatening situation.

“Why I have… have…” Twilight gritted her teeth as her mind searched back to yesterday, attempting to dig up anything she already knew but had yet to tell the others, “...I haven't got anything new… but I’ve made progress! I swear I have!”

“And we believe you, so… uh... go take a nap or something! Yeah! You’ve made progress haven’t you? Think of it as a reward!” Rainbow replied with a forced grin, Twilight’s distraught state worrying the cyan pegasus more and more with each passing second.

“Yeah, you know I could... but no! I need to help you guys as quick as possible. Being stuck together must be really inconWait!” A bolt lightning struck Twilight’s head, and she dashed off to the kitchen without a single word of explanation.

The sound of several drawers, fridge and cabinet doors, and biscuit tins being opened all at once via magic could be heard coming from the kitchen, followed by the noise of reckless rummaging. It stopped shortly, unicorn magic making finding and holding items a much easier task than for any other pony, and with a sudden “Ahha!”, Twilight soon rushed back into the room…

Brandishing a large Chopping Knife.

“I’ve come up with the best idea ever! All I have to do is chop off the legs that have the bracelets attached to them, and your bodies, in theory, should no longer be magnetic! It will only be your dismembered legs. Then, I’ll look for a spell book to restore your legs instead! Yay for us!”

Twilight’s happiness was not exactly shared among her current peers: surprisingly their previously joked about scenario was actually quite terrifying when happening in reality. Rainbow tried to hide said fear with a cheery ‘you are joking right’ expression, Fluttershy was unable to do anything as her pupils dilated to fill each her eyeballs, while Angel looked ready to lunge out at the maniacal pony and engage her in close quarter combat to the death. On Spike’s end, he had finally managed to unzip his mouth.

Twilight approached with terrifyingly misplaced good intentions while the pegasi backed off for good reason, their brains working in overdrive to think of something to say. Finally, it was Rainbow who spat out an excuse, “Twi! Don’t you think you should, I don’t know, read up on the spell to grow back out legs before you… ya’ know, chop them off!?”

Rainbow’s suggestion made the crazed Twilight pause, her eyes briefly turning skyward, her neck cracking with each motion it made. Slowly, the crazed unicorn pondered, “Yes, that would be the sensible thing to do... I’ll go do that right now! Now you two,” Twilight used her magic to point the blade at the two pegasi, “you two wait right there while I help you.”

Twilight skipped along to her vast array of library books, absentmindedly dropping the knife she had been wielding. With the dull thud of the object, Spike turned to his two unnerved friends and ushered them to leave, which they were more than happy to comply.

The greeting bells of the Carousel Boutique chimed delightfully, welcoming the three entrants warmly while alerting the owner of the establishment to their presence. The ponies trotted in, ironically at the exact moment the rain clouds used up the last of their water. As if to spite them the birds all seemed to begin singing a 12AM chorus, and the flowers appeared to smile along with them, as the sunlight embraced and warmed all those who were now outside.

“Hey Rarity, we’re here.” Rainbow called out before Fluttershy could do so in a more polite fashion.

Expecting the designer to be in the midst of her work, the ponies, and one pet, were surprised to see no sign of Rarity. Taking further steps into the expansive room allowed them to hear something, not something within the room itself but somewhere further in the building. From one of the doorways came a dull sound but rhythmically repeated, and under the assumption that Rarity was within the room ahead, called out once more, “Rarity, we’re here.”

The noise came to halt, replaced at first by silence and then by approaching hoofsteps. Then Rarity popped into the room…

Brandishing a large Chopping Knife.

“Gah!” The two pegasus screamed as they backed off from the unicorn, Rarity's appearance threatening to send the ponies into a minor case of post-traumatic stress, “Don’t chop off our legs!”

Rarity frowned with shock and concern, and queried, “Girls, whatever is the matter? Why would you even think I was going to, of all things, chop off your legs?”

Rainbow Dash and Fluttershy stopped backing away, the former breaking out of the quivering hold she had established onto her yellow counterpart upon noticing their shared embrace. Rainbow took an extra breath to calm her thumping heart before beginning, “Let’s just say that visiting Twilight in the morning was a very... interesting experience.”

Rarity continued to look questionably at the cyan and yellow equines, who only returned good humoured and somewhat flushed smiles, but soon realised she was not going to get anything more from the two… for now. Fluttershy, however, had a question that she decided to pursue, “Rarity, about that knife…?

“Oh, this! I was just preparing our lunch.” Rarity explained, tightening her telekinetic grip on the knife to stop it from swaying as ‘threateningly’ as it was before, “I do apologise but I was a little late in starting the preparations, so many ponies walked in asking if they could borrow umbrella’s and raincoats.”

“You know Rarity, we’d be happy to-”

“To wait! Yeah! Fluttershy and I will be happy to wait,” Rainbow Dash interrupted, knowing full well that Fluttershy had been ready to offer their assistance in the task.

“Very well, I’ll be done in a jiffy,” Rarity replied, unaware of the assistance that was nearly offered as she made her way to the kitchen.

Rainbow let out a sigh as she watched the pure white unicorn left the room, relief flooding through her. The mares, and one male rabbit, soon found themselves with nothing to do while waiting, and while Angel was content with just laying down on Fluttershy's back resting his paws, Fluttershy and Rainbow were stuck with merely padding the floor. After a few awkward seconds of silence, Rainbow finally mentioned, “Uh, do you know if Rarity has a game of Battleclouds anywhere?”

“I-I think she does,” Fluttershy murmured her reply with doubt, but perked up her volume to call out to Rarity. “Rarity, do you have Battleclouds? Rainbow Dash and I would like to play it, if you don’t mind.”

No response came from the kitchen at first, and it would not have been surprising for Fluttershy’s gentle question to have gone unheard, although if one strained their ears they’d pick up the slight muttered pondering of a unicorn searching through her memory banks. Eventually a reply came through the door, “I think I do. All the board games are in the closet to the back… you should know where, dear.”

Fluttershy nodded, even though the pony setting up their lunch would not be able to see it, and directed herself and Dash to where they needed to go. Upon finding and opening the closet door, the two tried to sort through and pick out the board game they desired to play, all while being conscious of a certain unicorn’s desire for cleanliness. This slowed their search considerably, for Rainbow’s normal method of just throwing everything out until she found what she wanted definitely made finding the thing she wanted easier. However, the task of putting everything away is one that the messy sorter never really considers. However, the ponies soon found the game, shut the door, and with nothing forcibly crammed into the small space, and the box of Dash’s favourite game, Battleclouds, which is in no way shape of form based off an already existing product from another dimension, the pair made their way to the centre of the room.

Setting up the game was a breeze, both ponies avid players of the game, though most pegasi were. Rainbow Dash enjoyed the board game as one of the only activities that could entertain her on a rainy day, while Fluttershy enjoyed it for being one of the only activities that she could do with Dash that was perfectly safe, except for that one time that will neither would ever talk about again. Still, the two began the game, one hoof each outstretched next to the board and in contact, but neither one able to look over to the other’s zone. Rainbow Dash started, and the game went underway, along with the background noise of food being prepared and cutlery being set with care and precision.

It was not long into the game that, during Fluttershy’s turn, the cautious mare found herself pausing in order to better listen out for the new sounds that were coming their way, noises coming from outside the shop and coming closer.

“Ah know what Ah saw, but Ah'm sure there mus' be another explanation,” a thick southern voice mused aloud from outside the boutique.

“What’s wrong with the first one? Sounds absolutely, positively terrific to me!” a high pitched bubbly voice filled with energy asked the owner of the first voice, she too outside and approaching the boutique.

“'Cause it’s wrong,” the first voice said, There was a slight pause, but then the voice continued on to say with trace amounts of guilt and embarrassment, “Err... of me to jump to tha' there conclusion. Not... you know. Anyways, they’d tell us, wouldn' they? So it's gotta be somethin’ else.”

“Either way it sounds like cause for a celebration!” the second pony shouted out with enthusiasm as she opened the door to the Carousel Boutique, giggling at the harmonic chimes that came with such an action.

“Hey Applejack. Hey Pinkie Pie,” Rainbow was quick to greet her two earth pony friends with her spare hoof, the other still holding firm onto Fluttershy’s extended hoof.

“Oh, hi girls. We were just talking about you,” Pinkie spoke, earning a troubled glare from Applejack.

“You were?” Fluttershy asked, many worrying thoughts about what the two ponies could have possibly gossiped about running through her head.

“Yeah,” Applejack interrupted Pinkie before she could start a conversation the cowpony was uncomfortable discussing at the moment. “'Bout how, um, Rainbow was late with the rain. Ah mean, we’ve got it now, but you worried me for a secon’.”

“That? Yeah, there was a little bit of trouble with that. But hey, Fluttershy and I did it,” Rainbow boasted, abandoning her game for the moment to usher her modest friend forward.

“You and Fluttershy did it? Ooh, how was it?” Pinkie good naturedly pestered her rainbow friend who seemed more lax than usual today.

“We sure did! Fluttershy was really slow at first, acting like she was going to mess something up, but after a couple of practise runs we got a good pace going and really got to it.” Rainbow answered with a smile.

Rainbow and Pinkie’s conversation was but a normal recounting of recent events, but alas, others in the room were interpreting things differently. Applejack, for instance, looked at Fluttershy completely aghast at what she was hearing. Fluttershy was at first innocent, knowing what actually occurred in each situation, but upon seeing her friend’s troubled and flustered face, her own face flushed bright red and her ears began picking up on messages that did not exist.

“Oh my gosh, a lot of ponies were talking about it in really hush-hush tones but I could still hear them and it’s true, you’ve got matching bracelets!”

“Sure do, there really annoying though, it’s like being on a leash.”

“Ooh, ooh, if that’s true, then, then, is it true you and Fluttershy were stuck together like glue yesterday.”

“Heh, I guess that’s one way of putting it.”

“And you stayed at Fluttershy’s house.”

Rainbow nodded in agreement as Pinkie blathered on.

“And that you slept together and it was good!”

“Except for the fact that Fluttershy pushes surprisingly hard, it was pretty good. Sleeping together on a cloud is better, but the bed was nice enough.”

Two blushing faces continued to look towards one another. Applejack’s was filled with many expressions: confusion, worry, nausea, disbelief, and shock to name a few. Fluttershy’s was only of embarrassment and pleading as she tried to form the words of truth that would dispel the innumerable misinterpretations from Applejack’s mind. Amidst Pinkie and Rainbow’s continuing conversation though, this proved futile, further insinuations coming out before any words could roll off the mare’s tongue.

Eventually, unsure if she should or even could say anything, the cowpony began to back off, reversing to the entranceway. Still, she kept her sights on Fluttershy, and still her face was mixed in emotions and beliefs.

“Applejack, you’re going already?” Rainbow Dash called out to Applejack, who flashed back a forced grin.

“Yeah, I’m going too… uh... pick some more apples,” Applejack replied slowly and unsurely as she retreated out of the building, briefly waving her three friends goodbye.

The ponies of the room looked to the spot where their friend had been standing as if she was still there. Only one of the ponies knew the true reason why Applejack had left so quickly, and in her mind she hoped she’d have a chance to explain things soon. Very, very soon.

“Everypony, lunch is finished!” Rarity called about as she came in from the kitchen, whipping her mane from her eyes. “Hello Pinkie Pie. Hmm, now I know I heard Applejack come in as well, but where has that mare gone? I even prepared her some luncheon.”

“She just left. Can I have her portion?” Pinkie grinned at her friend as she already began bouncing her way into the kitchen.

“Very well,” Rarity said to herself before looking over to her one invited guest as well as her guest by circumstance, “Come along you two.”

Rainbow grumbled about not getting to finish the game, but followed alongside Fluttershy, who, with a face still red from lingering embarrassment, began whispering suggestions of finishing the game after lunch.

It was a small lunch, most befitting of Rarity’s and Fluttershy’s lighter diets, but not efficient enough for Rainbow’s athletically regimented one, and most certainly not enough for Pinkie’s 'eat whatever she like’s' one. Still, it was a nice meal with two ponies eating with fine manners and two others finding it hard to eat without cheer or excitement. Not to say that Rarity and Fluttershy did not try to contribute to the conversation, the former had the socialite art of small talk down to an art-form, and the meal was consistent with its exchange of conversation.

The matter of Fluttershy and Rainbow Dash’s predicament was the first thing that came up, but unlike with Applejack, Rarity was now well aware of the binding bracelets that held the two pegasi together and was perceptive enough to ascertain that Rainbow Dash and Pinkie Pie were both ignorant of certain risqué matters that they unfortunately expressed often in their talks… well Rainbow was at least; it’s hard to tell with Pinkie.

But the discussion did not rest solely on the two pegasi, Twilight’s current sleep deprived condition was brought up, bringing with it clarity to Rarity about the two ponies' outburst from before. Rarity and Pinkie were also of interest as well, with the two of them telling how they’ve been as well and matters such as late orders and the sudden popularity of raincoats being told alongside matters of the production of party-alerting devices and the sound of millions of voices suddenly crying out in terror to the boarders of the Everfree forest.

It was twenty minutes later, as the meal was drawing to a close that a new topic worth informing in lines of dialogue came up. “So Rainbow Dash, you still up for tomorrow’s day of pranking? Pinkie asked as she licked the crumbs off her plate.

“Of course! Why would you think I wouldn’t be?” Rainbow replied with a mischievous grin as she plotted away new pranks for that very day.

In response Pinkie raised a hoof, motioning for Rainbow lift her own, which the two mares did in turn, their forelegs corresponding to Pinkie’s. It was then that Rainbow found hers to be different in not only colour to Pinkie's, but in how there was a mystical bracelet attached to it. Rainbow then looked over to Fluttershy who had raised her own bracelet attached foreleg, and though their colours differed as well, the accessories matched.

Slowly, a face of realization formed on the prismatic mane mare, “Huh, funny how I keep forgetting about these things.” A nervous moment passed between the two, slight smiles rising up on the two ponies faces before Rainbow asked, “Fluttershy, do you mind going pranking with me and Pinkie tomorrow?”

“Well no, but…” Fluttershy began to say but then looked over to Rarity.

Said unicorn was more than willing to finish off what the mare needed saying, “Fluttershy and I have our weekly spa appointment tomorrow and… oh wait.”

Rarity looked on over to Rainbow Dash, eyeing both the bracelet and the worried pony in question before saying with a chuckle, “Rainbow Dash, I don’t suppose you wouldn’t mind accompanying me and Fluttershy to the spa tomorrow would you?”

“T-the spa! No way, why would I…” Rainbow Dash stopped herself as she looked towards Fluttershy, her wing gently outstretched to meet the ponies body and ensue the actions of the wordless contract, “... I don’t have much choice, do I? Can it wait another day? Pinkie and I have plans tomorrow.”

Rainbow waved a hoof towards her pink friend who was now deep in thought… a fact that immediately unnerved all within the room. Not that they ever thought Pinkie was incapable of thought, but rather they were used to the eccentric pony being spontaneous, either acting without thinking or being able to think really bloomin’ quick. Instead Pinkie sat, her eyes closed as if in deep meditation and a hoof rubbing constantly against her chin.

“Umm… Pinkie dear, would you be so kind as to please let go of my hoof?” Rarity asked, having somehow only just noticed that Pinkie had grabbed her hoof and used it to scratch the pony's pink chin.

Pinkie nonchalantly let go of Rarity’s hoof, as if such an act was a normal thing to do, opened her eyes, and said, “I’m okay with postponing Dashie’s and my prank day for the day after tomorrow on one condition…” Pinkie paused not because she needed too, but for dramatic effect, gauging her friend’s curiosity and her deal, “... that I get to go with you to the spa tomorrow so we can all have a spa party!”

Pinkie’s wide eyes and smile soon spread to Rarity, who rubbed her snow white hooves together at the thought. Fluttershy also shared the positive vibe but, with a more subtle smile. Rainbow, on the other hoof, was completely devastated, her lips plummeting at the sides and her brow furrowed glumly.

“Why Pinkie!? Why?!” Rainbow pleaded in a dramatic fashion more suited to the diamond marked unicorn in the room.

“Because it’ll be fun and I’ve never had a spa party before, and as a party lover there should be no party I’ve never partied to before.” Pinkie explained, her upbeat grin remaining.

“Who knows, you might even like it,” Fluttershy tried, earning her a grunt from the pony seated next to her.

“Very well then. Tomorrow, the four of us will be going to the spa together.” Rarity stated with enthusiasm, not bothering to wait for Rainbow to come around to the idea.

“And we're going to have lots of fun!” Pinkie beamed.

“Indeed we are, darling.”

“And we're going to talk about lots of silly gossip!”

“Indeed we are, darling.”

“And Rarity will pay for all us.”

“Indeed, we aWhat!?”

Important Information: I regret to inform you but the next chapter of Magnetism will not be uploaded two weeks from now on the previously scheduled date of the 20th/21st October. Instead you can expect the fourth chapter of Magnetism three weeks from now either on the 27th or 28th October. If you wish to know the reason for this chapter's delay then feel free to check out my latest blog post (which shall be uploaded within the next 24 hours) where I shall be sure to comment on it.

Double Date at the Spa.

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First I would like to thank Techfur for his advice regarding spa procedures in this chapter. I would also like to thank Ugugg93 for proof-reading this chapter, I’m glad to have him round. Without further delay though I now present to you chapter 4 of Magnetism!

Chapter 4: Double Date at the Spa!

“Fluttershy…”

The name's owner heard her voice ushered into her ears, its echo stirring her from her slumber.

“Fluttershy…”

Her eyes began to stir, but her eyelids remained closed. A brief internal argument arose within her, with one side asking nicely to remain sleeping and the other side asking nicely to wake up.

“Wake up Fluttershy…”

The side of her which wished to wake up managed to come across as politer than the side which wished to remain asleep and so Fluttershy began to open her eyes. As her eyelids fluttered open to her hazy room, her mind got to work thinking about the familiar voice that came in tones sweeter than she could even imagine. Sitting up in bed, Fluttershy began to see lots of things in all their grainy, low -quality glory, with only one image clear before her.

“Fluttershy, I'm glad to see you’re awake,” Rainbow Dash cooed softly, her cyan coat shining so brightly that the rest of the room seemed invisible.

“R-Rainbow Dash!” Fluttershy yelped in surprise as Dash approached with swaying hips, “W-What is —”

“Shh,” Dash whispered as her rainbow mane rose majestically, swaying in a gentle breeze. “Just stay in bed.”

Fluttershy remained wrapped within the covers, a question on her lips that came out in nothing more than a gasp. The stunning mare before her leaped onto the bed, her step as light as a baby bird's feathers, and smiled just a little wider.

Dash continued to approach her, knowing winks and seductive tones a constant. “Just stay there, Fluttershy. I’ve got something very special planned for you.”

Immediately the yellow-coated pony became crimson, her temperature rising as she put two and two together and figured what Dash was indicating. She wished to voice her protest, that she wasn’t interested in Rainbow like she once was, even though she still found her to be an attractive mare, but all that came out was mumbles. These mumbles became even more incoherent when Rainbow Dash bumped muzzles with her, pink eyes longingly gazing into her soul.

“That’s right, Fluttershy,” Rainbow Dash cooed into the paralysed Fluttershy’s ears, the mare held captive by the seductress. “I made you breakfast in bed.”

Fluttershy awoke screaming.

“I told you once and I’ll tell you again, if you ever have a nightmare, just dream of me and you’ll have nothing to fear,” Rainbow Dash grunted out as she walked alongside Fluttershy.

It was a spring day, and unlike yesterday, when soft silvery showers cast a marring mask over the morning, this time the breeze flowed gently and the sun shone without anything in its way. Out on this typical spring day, the two pegasus enjoyed seeing it all without drips of rain blocking their vision. Angel, meanwhile, appreciated how he did not have to hold up an umbrella the entire time; his paw strength was for informing others of their place, not for holding rain-protection gear.

In reply to her friend's statement, Fluttershy in turn flashed back an insincere smile. “I can’t tell her that it was thinking of her that caused the nightmare.”

It was with this phrasing of thoughts, in particular the words ‘thinking of her’, that caused her to blush. Along with this blush came a troubled mind as she began to think upon the dream she just had and the events that took place in it.

“Why would I dream of something like that? My dreams are always of animals or being a tree or my parents but…” Fluttershy brooded on these thoughts while continuing her trot towards the trio’s destination, “… it’s not like I’ve never had such dreams about mares before, but Rainbow Dash…”

Fluttershy continued her thoughts unabated until snapped out of it by a strong tug and Dash’s voice, “Whoa girl, the spa’s this way.” The yellow mare turned towards Dash, who returned her look with a slight frown of concern, followed by disbelief, followed by a face-hoof. “I cannot believe I just said that!”

“M-maybe you actually want to go to the spa,” Fluttershy added coyly.

“Ha!” The rough and tumble tomcolt burst out with the shortest burst of laughter before replying, “It was just a reflex, nothing more.”

Fluttershy smiled softly back to her friend as they continued to make their way to the spa. Angel smiled mischievously at his opposition as he pondered how he could use this to his advantage, blackmail perhaps. Finally, Rainbow Dash looked glum as she began to see their destination up ahead.

The spa-enjoying pegasus, however, had returned to her deep thinking, and so did not notice the much loved place up ahead. “I mean, I used to have dreams kind of like that with Dash, but that was long ago, and back then I… I...” Fluttershy shook her head, this action somehow going unnoticed by both the pony beside her and the rabbit seated on her back. “I no longer feel that way, I’m sure of that. It must be because we’re sleeping in the same bed together, I never got that far with any mare before and come to think of it I don’t think I’ve gotten to the dating stage with any— ”

“We’re here!” Dash hollered out, shaking Fluttershy out of her thoughts and bringing her attention to the spa just a few inches away.

While Fluttershy noticed the large building ahead, she also noticed the two ponies chatting just outside of it. The unicorn looked exasperated as she tried her hardest to win a debate with the party-fixated pink pony she was conversing with. Both ponies, though, stopped talking when they noticed Fluttershy, Rainbow Dash and, Angel Bunny approaching.

Pinkie began to literally sing, “Well ahoy, well ahoy, well ahoy my friends...”

Dash in turn greeted them normally with, “Hi Pinkie, Hi Rair—”

However, Pinkie had not finished and so continued singing, “Hope your journey here didn’t give you the bends.”

All the ponies and animals present continued to hear Pinkie singing, but Dash, wanting to get this experience over with, turned her attention to Rarity instead. “So, how long ' til we go in and begin my torture?”

“Oh hush now, Dash, give it a chance and you’ll enjoy it,” Rarity added as Pinkie began to sing about a villain being annoying and her sidekick blowing up. “As for when we will enter the spa, I assume as soon as Pinkie stops singing.”

“So, how long have you and Pinkie been waiting for us? I hope it wasn’t too long,” Fluttershy asked as she tried her hardest to listen to both her two friends talking and one friend singing.

“Not too long, dear. Pinkie came to my house this morning dressed, for some bizarre reason, in a suit and carrying a bouquet of flowers. I informed her she was overdressed for our trip to the spa, and so after she got out of those clothes, we made our way here together,” Rarity explained with a wave of her hoof and a flick of her mane.

It was only a few more seconds of idle gossip and context-less singing before the four ponies were ready to go on in. Well, almost ready. “Fluttershy, dear, you cannot take your rabbit into the spa.”

Both Fluttershy and Angel perked up at this, with the former asking quickly, “Oh why not? He really wants to come with me today.”

“Because the spa does not allow animals inside,” Rarity explained without realising Equestria’s great irony. “He will unfortunately have to wait out here until we’re done.”

Angel huffed, puffed, and scowled at this. Obviously not because he wanted to go to the spa with his owner, but he felt uncomfortable leaving his owner alone with the attention-hogging, fiendish-minded pegasus. In fact, countless scenarios of what could possibly happen to his gullible and timid owner at the hooves of that freakish pegasus were running through his mind. These thoughts had Angel instantly protesting at the prospect of being left outside.

“Angel doesn’t seem to like that idea, and what if he gets lonely?” Fluttershy added with concern.

“I’ll stay out here with him!” Rainbow Dash immediately voiced.

Rarity shot an accusing look to the un-groomed pony and asked, “Just how desperate are you to get out of this?”

“Give me Twilight's chopping knife, and I’ll show you.”

Pinkie, having finished her nameless song, was stuck between two emotions. The first was concern for her worried friend, the other was impatience. A spa party wasn’t going to throw itself after all! Therefore, whatever mysterious mechanisms that powering Pinkie’s brain worked at full throttle to think of a solution, mechanisms that would best be left to the unknown.

“I know! Angel can wait out here with Gummy!” Pinkie announced, pulling her pet alligator out from her mane, the alligator merely blinking once within her hooves.

“That’s a great idea Pinkie.” Fluttershy smiled back to her friend as Gummy was placed onto the grass facing Angel. “Now Angel, you wait here and have fun with your friend, okay?”

“Oh @*&% no!” was Angel’s immediate thought as the four ponies went into the spa leaving him alone with… with...

Him.

While Angel continued to curse like a bunny sailor outside the spa, inside the spa Rarity immediately made her way to the receptionist desk with Fluttershy and Rainbow Dash while, Pinkie climbed her way to the ceiling. All the regular spa attendants knew that this was Rarity’s and Fluttershy’s regular spa day, and as such, knew to never get in the way of the white unicorn, so, with exception to the staff, not many ponies were in the spa at the present moment. As for said spa staff, they were all rather surprised to see Pinkie hanging up a banner stating ‘ Happy Spa Party!!!’ in comic sans type, then giving everypony party hats. Of course, their biggest shocker was when they saw Rainbow Dash in the spa.

Rarity, having finished discussing the situation with the receptionist, as well as various matters concerning the situation, addressed the bouncing bubbly pony in the room, “Pinkie, the staff here are willing to let you have the festivities here, so long as it doesn’t disturb the guests.”

Pinkie stopped in mid-bounce and turned to face Rarity. “How in Equestria could a party disturb somepony?”

“What they mean is no surprises or messes. Ponies come here to relax and freshen up, and they don’t want a party popper going off in their faces and making them jump out of their coats,” Rarity explained as she watched Pinkie’s hooves finally touch down on the ground.

“Aww,” Pinkie Pie moaned sadly, but her smile blossomed once more as she pulled out an ice-cream cake the size of her head. “Ooh, Ooh! We can still eat cake right?”

“Sure, but how about we save that until after our spa routine,” Rarity suggested.

“Why not during our routine, I mean, what could possibly happen?”

“Mr Ice Cream Cake! No!” Pinkie cried for the dearly melted dessert of hers that slowly dripped from her hooves. “You had so much to live for! Like being eaten!”

Rarity watched the scene in amusement, an ‘I told you so’ dancing on her lips. The unicorn was however distracted from the cake related drama though by the constant concerned voice of a friend, repeating the same question only to receive the same stubborn answer.

“Are you sure this isn’t too hot for you? Not that I’m implying you can’t handle the heat, but this is your first time in the sauna, and I figured…” Fluttershy murmured, her concern for her friend preventing her from being relaxed.

“Fluttershy, I said I’m fine, so stop asking,” the sweltering Dash replied as she tried her best to hide her gasps and pants for fresh air.

The four friends sat now within the sauna room; typically the first step to Rarity and Fluttershy’s spa routine, and entering the hot steamy room first was an unchanged plan even with Pinkie and Rainbow along. The addition of Pinkie Pie and Rainbow Dash though was causing problems to the routine and Rarity, the only pony actually relaxing at the present moment, took in the situation around her. Pinkie was making a mess of the place both with overly dramatic tears and the cake that was spilling over the floor, though how the mare had managed to sneak it into the sauna room in the first place was a mystery to Rarity. Fluttershy was too busy attending to her dehydrating companion for her to relax. As for said companion, Rainbow was too busy trying to persevere through the heat as if it were some kind of challenge, obviously not realising that the whole point of it all was to relax. Sadly, Rarity was forced to conclude that she was going to have cut the first step of her and Fluttershy’s routine short.

“Now girls…” Rarity began, but stopped for but a moment to think of the best way to phrase this. “I believe we should move onto the next session of the day so the cleaners can come in and… clean the little cake mess that is now all over the floor.”

Pinkie sobbed a little at this, saluting the life loss before it’s time.

“Really, I could go on for hours,” Rainbow Dash droned as she weakly waved a hoof into the air.

“Now that the rabbit is gone I have you all to myself,” Rainbow Dash sneered as she pinned Fluttershy to the wall.

“Oh no, Angel! Help me!” Fluttershy screamed in fright.

These were Angel’s thoughts, a picture of what could be happening in the spa without his presence. It was not a case of believing his owner could not stand up for herself, he had seen first-paw how assertive his owner could be, but she always needed to be kicked into gear, and he was the kick. Without him, his owner was at the mercy of that thick-headed brute, who at this point was probably demanding sandwiches and such, and as such he needed to get into the spa and start kicking.

He also did not want to be left alone with Gummy; all the alligator does is stare into your soul.

Going through the front door would be too obvious; he’d be spotted immediately by the receptionist and thrown out. He had to be careful and sneaky, like finding a window and getting in that way. Angel pressed his body and ear against the wall of the building, trying to hear the noises of The Jerk, The Nut, or The Drama Queen. It took a while, but eureka, he heard them. Looking upwards, he spotted an open window positioned right where he needed it. Now he just needed a ladder.

Where Angel got a ladder from is unknown, but it is assumed that somepony was stuck on a roof they had been repairing for quite some time as a result. Still, Angel obtained a ladder. Propping it against the wall, he began to ascend step by step, and as he did he began to hear the conversation inside clearer and clearer.

“Rainbow Dash, please stop eating the cucumbers!” The Drama Queen scolded from within the spa.

“But they taste so nice,” The Jerk retorted between munches.

“You must resist temptation, Dashie. Fight it! Fight it!” The Nut proclaimed in one of her strange voices, and then got to making licking sounds. “Mmmm! Tangy!”

“Um, Pinkie, you’re not supposed to be eating the exfoliation gel,” Angel’s owner said to the mare whom was apparently licking up the spa’s products.

“If I’m not supposed to eat it, then it shouldn’t have sugar in it,” This time The Nut was the one retorting.

“Oh Fluttershy, I told you not to inform Pinkie about the gel’s ingredients,” The Drama Queen spoke up again.

“I’m sorry, but she sensed sugar and begged me to tell her where it was coming from,” Angel’s owner replied.

Within the spa, as Fluttershy, Rarity, and Pinkie chatted away about the reasons for and against eating spa products, Rainbow began looking around. This she could do as, unlike the others, her vision wasn’t obscured by tasty sliced vegetables and she could take in all the wonders of a really plain room. The furniture she on was cold, the mud on her face felt uncomfortable, and she was so bored she swore she could see Fluttershy’s brat of a pet trying to sneak in through the window.

The bored pegasus blinked thrice and the rabbit remained; he was trying to get into the spa. Rainbow Dash still doubted her chances of enjoying the day but if there were any, the presence of Angel was not going to help. Luckily for Dash, the bucket of cucumber slices was close by, and she decided that now would be a brilliant time to give the little guy a snack.

As Angel touched down on the windowsill he could taste victory. It tasted like cucumbers and had such an overwhelming flavour it knocked him off his feet. It was indeed the taste of victory… or a cucumber bring thrown into his face and knocking him down to the ground outside the spa. As he laid on the grassy floor, a bruise forming on his head and an alligator by his side… watching him, he assumed the later.

“Am I being a good sofa, master-super-awesome-flier-champion Rainbow Dash?” Flutter sofa inquired as Rainbow Dash wiggled herself into a comfier position atop Fluttershy’s back.

“Of course you are.” Dash chuckled to herself as she tossed a slice of cucumber into her mouth. “And don’t you worry about any rabbit coming along and getting you to stand up for yourself. You just continue being my sofa like you should be.”

“Yes, master-super-awesome-flier-champion Rainbow Dash.”

Angel rose up with righteous fury; only he was allowed to sit atop Fluttershy’s back! A new plan began to form in his mind. A ludicrous plan, but it would have to do. He was just about to dart off and locate what he would need for this scheme, but it was then that he heard a beeping sound. Such a sound he recognised as a delivery by pegasus-pulled container, a delivery that was heading to the spa. He put his ludicrous plan on hold, for sneaking in via a delivery was much simpler, and equally effective.

Shortly after Angel noticed the container, it touched down on the ground and a pegasus came out carting a wooden crate. It was then he realised he would need a distraction in order to sneak into the crate. Looking to and fro, he quickly began looking for anything that he could use to distract the winged pony.

His eyes fell on Gummy, the alligator's eyes slowly blinking out of sync.

Soon the delivery pegasus was screaming, though to be fair, if you had an alligator thrown into your face, had said alligator clamp onto you with its mouth, even if the alligator lacked teeth, you would probably be screaming too. This was when Angel made his way to the crate, and with a great exertion of strength, managed to pry open the lid just enough for him to slip in.

He did not know how long he would have to wait amongst bottles of shampoo and lotion, but he really didn't have a choice in the matter. He waited as the screaming subsided. He waited as the package was moved into the building. He even waited as the crate was pried open, and continued to wait until the pony lifting the shampoo and lotion out of the crate turned around for his chance to escape.

The moment he had leaped from the box, he made his way to the room’s exit, carefully in order to avoid the unpacking pony’s detection. He managed to get by without being spotted, and took his chance in peeping through the room’s push doors. Clearly, rabbits did have two lucky feet, as the very moment he peeked out into the hallway; he spotted a staff member pushing a cart of towels. As it went by the push doors, Angel leaped forth and landed onto the towels. He was not seen, he was not heard, and from what he could hear and see the cart he was in was heading towards his owner.

“ Are you sure this is a massage?” Dash asked as a spa attendant rubbed hooves against her back and wings.

“For the last time, yes Rainbow Dash. I thought you said you’ve had massages before,” Rarity questioned her friend from the other side of the room.

“I have, Fluttershy was always willing to give me one after a long flight.”

Rarity hummed to herself both in relaxation and in amusement. “Hmm… always willing to give massages? I’m sure she was.”

“Rarity!” Fluttershy perked up at her friend’s suggestive words, her voice only slightly louder than an average pony which, comparatively speaking, was very loud for Fluttershy.

“But this is different. When Fluttershy gave me massages, I would always hear a snapping sound in my neck, and then I'd fall asleep,” Rainbow Dash recalled as her wings were spread out and brushed gently.

Rarity looked towards Fluttershy with a “hint-hint wink-wink” raise of her brow. A flustered Fluttershy shook her head in response to any further suggestions from her ship-happy friend.

“Thiiiis maaaakes myyyy vooooice souuuund silllllyyyy!” Pinkie giggled with a vibrating voice as her massager patted her back with rapid but gentle chops.

The sound of rickety wheels caught Rainbow Dash’s attention, and from the corner of her eye she saw a cart-pushing stallion came in from the hallway wheeling in a cart of beautifully white towels. Said stallion decided to trot on over to Rainbow’s masseuse, and the two ponies began chatting away as good friends. As the stallion chatted away, he rested his towel cart right next to Rainbow Dash.

Naturally, Dash looked to the cart, for it had been placed next to her so her eyes leaned towards the newly introduced object. It was also at this moment that both Dash noticed a familiar rabbit as Angel got ready to jump out of the cart.

“Trying to sneak in are we?” Dash smirked, grabbing the rabbit’s attention as he looked up to the pegasus with a horrified expression.

Rainbow Dash shot a look behind her to see that the two spa workers were occupied with their conversation, and then to the side to see Fluttershy, Pinkie, and Rarity also busy with their conversation as well. Dash then returned her focus to the adorable menace who had raised his paws up as if to plead for her to not do anything.

“Payback time,” Rainbow Dash whispered as she used her nearest hoof to knock the cart of towels and Angel Bunny away, sending both racing out of the room. Barely able to stifle a laugh, she yelled, “Oh no, your cart!”

Upon hearing both the knocking sound and Dash’s faked urgent call; the stallion turned around and gasped. He immediately began to chase after the careening cart as it sped down the hallways, crashed through the doors, and bumped against the walls.

Angel had apparently used up all his luck when he was evading detection prior to his encounter with Rainbow Dash, for the cart holding Angel had somehow managed to twist and turn its way through all five of the bends in the hallway, jump over a helpless mare, hold the door for a stallion with hooves full of laundry, make its way outside, and upon falling to the ground, dropped Angel off outside. When the panicked stallion finally came to retrieve his cart of now dirtied towels, he did not pick up the fallen rabbit, and as such, returned to the spa rabbitless.

Rainbow Dash pushed the grotesque object towards Fluttershy's quivering mouth, and commanded, “Put it in your mouth.”

Fluttershy obeyed, albeit slowly, grabbing the slightly bent cylinder with her hooves, and slipped it into her mouth, the offending object already wet with moisture.

“Now… drink that juice box; slowly,” Dash commanded once more. Fluttershy remained seated while she nursed a small carton of apple juice within both hooves, drinking up the juice via the straw.

Dash watched this action contently and cheered to herself, “Yes. Yes!”

If Angel was any madder he would have turned green and bulked up to twice his size. Out of options, he would have to go for his ludicrous plan; ludicrous in that it would exert a lot of effort and was unlikely to succeed.

The rabbit ran around the spa, looking for any spot of soft dirt. When he finally managed to find a suitable spot, he got to work doing what his species was not most well-known for: digging.

He scratched at the earth, clawed at it, even coughed out several curses in bunny language as he made his way into the earth. He dug downwards first until he got to what he would consider a reasonable depth, and then went about estimating how long and how far he would have to dig horizontally to be directly beneath the spa. Burrowing was usually a time-intensive process, but that was one thing he did not have. He needed to get to his owner now, and hopefully give the stupid prism-headed mare a piece of his mind. He hoped that all this digging wouldn’t end up damaging his pimp paw; he was going to need that soon.

He had dug down, he had dug forward, and all that was left was to dig up. Not an easy task, but he did it with such vigour that the distance passed in seconds, his pent up rage being dished out against the undeserving dirt. The dirt ended though, and above his was now concrete, finding out the material through a smash against his head. After much head banging, he even succeeded in that task, and managed to crack open the concrete.

“Fluttershy, look over there. I think I saw a phoenix fly by,” a distinctive voice hollered in the building above.

“Really!?” Angel could his owner for once loud and clear, a clear enthusiasm in her voice.

Angel popped his head through the floor of the spa… and found his enemy, the blue freak, staring down at him. His owner was next to her, but was currently too wrapped in her love of animals and trying to spot the non-existent phoenix, she did not hear nor see her pet head banging through solid concrete . Rainbow Dash had noticed though, she had seen the rabbit sized cracks in the floor, and made sure to distract her friend beforehoof.

In Dash’s hooves was a hot stone, a souvenir of the massage from before when Rarity insisted they try out the spa’s new practise of using the hot stone technique. Having smooth hot stones placed on her didn’t seem like a very relaxing method of, well, relaxing, but now it was paying off. Now, Dash had an effective weapon, and she made sure to drop the stone right where Angel’s head was popping out of the floor.

Before the stone slammed into his head, Angel only had the time to do one: he freed a single paw from underneath the floor, and flipped Dash the bird.

Now there was no Angel Bunny, or at least Rainbow Dash could not spot the rabbit trying to work his way into the building. This fact, one that was thought to be one of joy, was instead a bringer of boredom for the mare. In Dash’s pursuits of getting back at Angel, she had been able to focus on an enjoyable and more or less sporty competition between her and her opponent. Without him in sight and her victory currently assured, she now had nothing to distract her from the girly gossip of the three mares. Even Pinkie, whom she thought she could rely on to provide a conversation she could enjoy, engaged in the feminine talk with the others.

“Now Rainbow Dash, we know you and thinking aren’t exactly acquaintances,” Rarity directed her words to Dash, attempting to snap Dash out of her isolated thoughts, “but you and talking go hoof in hoof, so try and join in our conversation.”

Dash spoke slowly, each word enunciated for a second longer than they were supposed to be, “You’re talking about manes.”

“Well I’m sure you could add something to the conversation, like how hard is your mane to brush in the morning? Styling mine each morning takes forever, but the time spent is worth it,” Rarity replied with a whip of her currently wet mane that proceeded to drape down her neck and a round her upper body.

Pinkie popped into the conversation just as she popped out of the water. “Rarity tried to comb my mane once, but after a couple of hours she began breaking down in tears.”

Rainbow had already begun suppressing a giggle when Rarity decided to add to Pinkie’s comment, “Well, I may have been a little dramatic, but her mane was an absolute nightmare. I managed to get it nicely combed several times, but then she would think about throwing a ‘my mane has been styled’ party and her hair would pop back into its usual puffy state.” Now turned towards Pinkie, Rarity added, “You’re lucky that you can pull off such a messy mane style so well.”

Rainbow Dash, her earlier giggles having brightening her bored mood, light-heartedly boasted, “Well I’ve got nothing to say on that, my mane’s all natural. Don’t do anything with it.”

Rarity’s face was of disbelief, but when no words passed her lips Fluttershy spoke, “But Rainbow Dash, your mane was always so scruffy when we were fillies… you know, in a good way.”

“Yeah, but I made it that way on purpose.” Rainbow grinned, though Rarity was aghast at this information.

“Why in Equestria would you scruff up such a luxurious mane?”

“Eh, it didn’t look cool enough naturally but the scruffy look gave me more attitude, told everypony I wasn’t a pony you should mess with.”

“Well, now that we’ve got this ride going and Rainbow here has decided to board the carriage with us,” Rarity fancily began to say, “why don’t we let her chose our next destination. What would you like to discuss?”

“Well…” Rainbow Dash began, many ideas more than likely Wonderbolt related bubbling in her head, when Fluttershy meekly pulled on Rainbow’s leg. “What’s wrong, Fluttershy?”

The meek mare shivered slightly as she tugged on Rainbow’s leg once more and whispered a garbled mutter. Rainbow could only express confusion at this as Fluttershy slowly turned a faint shade or red, repeating her answer quietly, but coherently this time.

“Oh? Oh! Yeah, let’s go then,” Dash announced as both she and Fluttershy climbed on out of the pool.

“Wait, wait, wait, where are you two going?” Pinkie was quick to say, concerned at the notion of early leaving party guests.

“Uh… we uh, need to use the restroom,” Rainbow Dash replied with uncertainty.

“Both of you?” Rarity queried with raised brows, an answer being given in the form of a nod from Fluttershy. Rarity was going to say more, but looking at the two mares, one calm and steady, the other with wobbling legs, and both with bracelets attached to them, realisation struck. “Oh my… you mean those bracelets; they don’t stop to allow you your… privacy.”

“You know, for some reason I don’t think the bracelets care about what we want,” was the deadpanned reply given.

Pinkie made no attempt to hold back her laughter, her giggling body rippling the water in erratic fashion. “You even have to go potty together?”

Dash stared back un-amused and Fluttershy merely nodded once more, not wanting to into details about the inconveniences the bracelets were causing them.

“Oh dear, so you’ve not only been living together, but have been sharing the same bed, holding hooves as you eat, and even having baths together.” Rarity voiced each of these notions slowly, looking mostly towards Fluttershy as she spoke.

Another snort of laughter came, this time from Rainbow Dash. “Yeah, and Fluttershy acts really squeamish each time, like last night—”

“Oh, um, Rarity and Pinkie really don’t need to know about this…” Fluttershy began to politely interrupt her friend, but sadly, Rainbow's story had already begun, and Fluttershy couldn't help but to imagine her side of the story as the tale was told.

Fluttershy’s shower attachment was broken, her bath was quite small, and Rainbow Dash did not have the patience for the two of them to take turns in the tub. Thus the situation was this: Rainbow Dash and Fluttershy were having a bath together. It was to the latter’s dismay that no amount of convincing could get her out of this situation, and to further displease Fluttershy, she felt like she was enjoying it.

It was an uncomfortable feeling; Rainbow’s hind hooves against her own as they sat facing each other in the bathtub, but with it came a certain fact that pleased Fluttershy: she was having a bath with another mare. Maybe it was her failures in the dating department, having never managed a successful date with another mare and constantly attracting only stallions that allowed her to see this situation as an accomplishment. At the same time, a part of her had always wished that this occasion could be shared with a marefriend.

The water was warm, and though neither could lie down or spread out their wings much, they were able to sit comfortably. Dash did not lean back at first, the taps and faucet painfully pressed against her back, but improvisation and a towel sorted that out, and she now leaned back, idly amusing herself with a rubber ducky. Soon, the comfort of their bodies spread to Fluttershy’s mind, and relaxation for both was attained.

Of course such a state of peace could never last.

“Heads up Fluttershy. Grabbing the soap,” Rainbow Dash announced as she leaned her body up to Fluttershy’s, manoeuvring her hoof round the stunned pegasus to retrieve the bar of soap behind her. Now, Dash could have simply asked for Fluttershy to pass the soap, but such a foresight never came to her, and so Fluttershy found herself with the entirety of Dash’s body but millimetres from her own, her eyes unable to pull away from each droplet of water that rolled down the cyan coat before her.

Rainbow Dash soon pulled back, returning to their previous position but now with a bar of soap in hoof. Fluttershy’s mind likewise returned to the previous channel of thought, not the before mind-set of relaxation or the before before mind-set of pleasure, but the one before of those of discomfort. It was ironic that as Dash cleaned herself with the bubbling soap, Fluttershy was doing her best to push back dirty thoughts.

“ No, no, no, stop thinking like that!” Fluttershy internally screamed to herself, her mind once again a mess of blushing ideas. It was only with great willpower that Fluttershy’s wings had not unfolded , excitement urging them to flare wide, but as before the discomforting feeling of arousal started to die down.

Of course, Rainbow Dash had to unintentionally mess things up again.

“Blasted soap!” Rainbow yelled as it slipped out of her hooves and dropped down into the water, right by Fluttershy’s lap.

“Flying Feather!” the innocent yellow mare uncharacteristically swore in her mind as Rainbow reflexively dove for the soap.

When reaching for the soap, Rainbow naturally pressed down on it. Of course, pressing down on a small slippery object is never a good idea, so she slipped right into Fluttershy, the two mares falling and Fluttershy in turn pressed below the surface. Instinct rang out, and Fluttershy pulled her head out from the water as soon as she could, bumping muzzles against the pony who now lay atop of her.

The two mares froze. Completely soaked with all but her head submerged in water was Fluttershy, while also soaked but laying atop of Fluttershy was Rainbow Dash. Neither moved, which was confusing for Rainbow Dash, as she was unused to a situation where she wasn’t sure to move or not to. Neither talked, for if either of them did decide to speak, their lips would surely brush against one another. Minds blank, the two remained within the awkward position uncertain about anything.

Then a rubber duck bit Dash.

“Youch!” Dash yelped as she shot upright, flailing her bitten hoof, putting an end to the two pegasi's frozen position. Fluttershy began to sit up, still blank in thoughts while Dash looked to and fro for the teeth baring toy.

Outside the bath tub, a well-disguised Angel smirked.

“You know, if this were happening to anypony else I’d probably be laughing at it,” Rainbow Dash admitted as she finished retelling the tale.

Pinkie Pie was of the same wavelength as Dash, for she was currently laughing, “D-don’t worry Dashie. When this is all over, I'm sure you'll look back at it and laugh!”

Dash smirked at this. As she began a zestful conversation with Pinkie, Rarity looked over to Fluttershy with a knowing look. In the knowing look passed between them, they both relayed their understanding of the situation. Rarity was quite familiar with her frequent spa buddy’s sexuality, and could picture the heart racing worry that each unintentionally intimate moment caused Fluttershy. Fluttershy’s look in return was one of thanks; thanks for understanding her problem, even if there was nothing she could do to help.

A sensation through the canary yellow mare’s body reminded her of why she and Dash had gotten out of the pool in the first place, and so reminded her connected companion, “Rainbow Dash, I still need to use the restroom.”

“Right, right, be back in a sec,” Dash called back to Pinkie and Rarity as she and Fluttershy made their way out the room.

Making their way to the toilets took very little time, Fluttershy’s familiarity with the building allowing her to locate their destination quickly. As they went down the hallways, leaving soggy hoofprints on the floor the entire way, they encountered nopony. It was a little strange, but it allowed them to enter the restroom and make their way into the same cubicle together without any weird looks being shot their way.

Seconds after Fluttershy and Rainbow Dash went into the toilets, another pony began trotting down the hallway with the same destination in mind.

“Applejack, ya have got to stop drinkin’ tha’ apple juice before ya come into town,” the Stetson-hatted earth pony said to herself as she made her way through the empty spa hall.

Applejack was certainly no regular visitor of the spa, having little to no interest in visiting the place unless it was with friends, but in this case she was not there for the sake of any relaxing treatment or beauty tips. She was here to answer the call of nature, and the spa happened to be the nearest public building with toilets when the urges to answer the call of nature came to Applejack.

“ Hmm, mah legs have been feelin’ a lil' sore as of late. Ah could see ‘bout havin’ a massage while Ah’m here,” Applejack mused aloud before rejecting the idea. “Nah, goin’ to tha spa on your own is jus’ plain borin'.”

Applejack had now started to hum a little nameless tune as she pushed open the mare’s room door. The sound of a toilet flushing greeted her orange ears and as she entered the bright tiled room the sight of cubicle door opening greeted her vision.

“…weird this would be if anypony saw us come out of the same…” Rainbow’s sentence, half of which was unheard of due to the sound of a flushing toilet, died on her lips as she and Fluttershy stepped out of the same cubicle together, and directly into Applejack’s line of sight.

An unbearable silence came about. The atmosphere felt more like a chilly winter day than a spring one, all of the ponies' blood running ice cold and actions becoming frozen. One would have presumed that questions such as ‘What are you doing in the spa?’ and ‘Why in ta hay did ya'll come out ta same cubicle?’ would be shouted at the other, but no. Nopony spoke. Nopony moved. Everypony just looked at each other in confusion, with nervous grins and shocked eye twitches being the most amount of motion.

Even Rainbow Dash, unfamiliar with any sexual implications of the situation, was at least aware that going toilet together was most bizarre, and so even she was tongue tied. Yet, she was the first to speak up.

“Applejack! Hi, we were… me and Fluttershy… you see, the thing that we were doing is…” A rare stuttering Rainbow Dash tried to explain, holding her garmented hoof up and gesturing to Fluttershy’s, but even she was too preoccupied with the embarrassment of this moment, “Bye.”

With that said Rainbow Dash pulled Fluttershy along, a mare whose pink mane was trying its best to hide her away from the world, or at the least Applejack, and the two exited the room. This left Applejack alone in the tiled lavatories, now alone with the returning silence, and now alone with her thoughts. Applejack stood still, but eventually made but one comment on what she had just seen.

“...They forgot to wash their hooves.”

“Geez, what was with you two? All you did was zone out during the entire party,” Pinkie Pie said with concern, though anypony who did not know the bouncing and singing pony would not know that what she had just said had her own unique tone of concern to it.

“You mean we were zoned out until you threw cake into our faces,” Rainbow Dash grumbled, but could not hide her own playful smirk.

Pinkie bounced ahead of the three ponies exiting the spa, faced them, but continued to bounce backwards. “Well I had to think of some way to get you two to eat Mr Ice Cream Cake Jr. That ice cream cake lost its older brother to the harsh heat of the sauna savannah, and the least we could do for the younger one is to let him go out like a real cake: eaten.”

The group of ponies laughed together at this, the Pinkie brand humour carolling them into a fit of giggles. The exiting of air from their lungs caused them to stop moving, though the loudest laugher continued to bounce on the spot.

Rarity soon began to control herself, reigning in her own laughter and adding, “Yes, well, it’s a good thing that Aloe and Lotus were okay with mess you made. It was nice of them to simply lecture us into not holding a party in their spa during working hours.”

“I just don’t understand that. How are you supposed to have a spa party if you’re not allowed to hold one in a spa?” the party planner asked as she finally stopped her bouncing in order to maintain eye contact with her friends.

“Spa parties are not exactly a common occurrence dear. Perhaps spas are not the best of places to throw a party,” Rarity suggested.

Pinkie thought on this for a moment, her mind busy on working out ways to throw a party that would be permitted in a spa, a place where spilling punch and throwing streamers everywhere are not advised. Fluttershy had, by then, began to look around, trying to spot her animal friend left outside with Gummy.

“Oh my, where’s Angel gone?” Fluttershy asked, signs of worry creeping into her voice.

“He probably just walked off somewhere, he’ll be fine,” Rainbow Dash said as reassurance, while in her head she grinned. “Probably nursing his boo-boos somewhere, heh heh.”

“He and Gummy are probably having a great time hanging out together, so while they continue to play, let’s get scheming!” Pinkie Pie cheerily said before letting loose a mischievous sneer.

“Ah, I see, well I’ve got some ideas in mind for tomorrow,” Rainbow Dash said with her own mischievous sneer, and then cast a sideways glance to Fluttershy, “though for what I’ve got in mind, we will need a little bit of help from Fluttershy here.”

“W-what, you need my help? But I don’t know anything about pranks, and I can’t just go prank another pony. What if it bothers them or gets in their way and then they get sad and angry and…” Fluttershy protested to the two ponies that now flanked both sides of her.

“Don’t you worry about that! We can assure you that you’ll be a lot of help,” Rainbow Dash and Pinkie simultaneously said as they began to urge Fluttershy away towards Sugarcube Corner. “See ya later, Rarity.”

As Rarity watched her best friend be dragged off by her other two close friends, she couldn’t help but see the situation as two demons urging an innocent mare down a path of misdeeds. Sighing to herself, Rarity truly worried about the events of the next day, and hoped that at the least they would not affect the boutique.

Meanwhile, Angel had finally returned to the spa with a plan to break in, unaware that the very reason he was trying to break into the establishment had since left. Also it would do the term ‘plan’ a dishonour to call what Angel had concocted that. Rather, he had brought a weapon to break into the salon, a sledgehammer to be precise. Hoisting the weapon twice his size and several times his weight above his head, Angel obtained a balanced posture and swung the weapon with full force.

Success! He struck the backside of the spa. He demolished its wall, crumbled its structure… and obliterated a piping hot water pipe.

“I can’t believe Pinkie did that!” Rainbow Dash hollered along with laughter.

The afternoon sun was now beginning to set with all its red and orange glory, and the two ponies were making their way home. Well, to the currently shared home of the two. Dash continued to chuckle to herself, leaning against the grimaced Fluttershy for support. With a hoof round her shoulder and a buddy-buddy mood to the cyan pegasus, Dash continued to stride alongside Fluttershy with matched pace only slightly disrupted by her own laughter.

Mistaking Fluttershy’s lack of laughter for a lack of humour, Rainbow asked, “C’mon Fluttershy, didn't you find that funny? Pinkie thinking a date is simply when two ponies leave from the same place and hang out together, so she ended up telling everypony she was going on one with Rarity.”

“Y-yeah, that was pretty funny.” Fluttershy said with a light bit of laughter, however her thoughts lay elsewhere. “If Pinkie has been telling everypony that she was going on a date with Rarity, then everypony will be thinking that me and Dash were too, and that we were going on a double date at the spa.”

As Fluttershy bemoaned the spread of rumours and unwanted attention she would be getting in the coming days, Dash popped open the cottage door which they had just reached.

Greeting them was a ball of fluff.

Rainbow Dash, unsympathetically, fell onto the floor roaring with laughter at the sight of the bunny rabbit. Drenched by water, the rabbit had apparently returned to his home, dried himself off, and now each hair on his body stood up on end. In fact, the only noticeable feature to define him as a rabbit being his perky ears. Fluttershy of course rushed to her pet’s aid, immediately trying to sort him and his fluffed up body.

“Oh Angel, how did you get like this?” Fluttershy fussed her pet, tones of worry overshadowing her urge to coo at how cute she thought he looked.

Angel was not having any fusses today though, he pushed and pried his away from his owner’s affectionate hug and hopped on into the kitchen. When he came back to the room he waddled in slowly with two freshly cooked bowls of vegetable soup.

“Angel, how thoughtful of you,” Fluttershy praised her pet as he managed to get both bowls to the dining table without a single spill. “I see you must have gotten wet while cooking.”

This was obviously not what happened, but Angel decided to go with it anyway, nodding in response. Rainbow looked on unimpressed, once again bemoaning the fact that a bunny could cook better that herself. After Angel dashed back and forth into the kitchen, setting out the table with various utensils, he gestured for Fluttershy to sit by one bowl of soup and for Dash to sit by the other.

Naturally though, when Fluttershy and Dash reached their assigned places and assigned soups they scooted next to each other in order to prevent the bracelet’s effects. Angel did not scowl even once, but instead continued to smile at the two.

The enticing smell of the soup wafted through her nostrils, and it was only a sudden thought that stopped Dash from digging into her dinner. “Wait a minute, this is way too nice of the rabbit.”

Dash looked down on her soup, eyeing it suspiciously as Fluttershy blew on hers own meal to cool it down. “Assigned seats, assigned soups. What if the rabbit poisoned mine? That jerk…”

“Hey Fluttershy, I know this may be a bit strange, but would you mind swapping bowls with me?” Dash asked her friend, who was just about to taste the first of her soup.

Fluttershy blinked at first, but in her good nature agreed, “Sure, here you go.”

“Thanks,” was all Dash said as she was passed the bowl, her attention less so on Fluttershy or her own meal, but on the rabbit.

“Now, Angel maybe a jerk, but he at least cares for Fluttershy.” Rainbow Dash’s eyes now flickered back and forth between an unmoving Angel and a ready to eat Fluttershy. “If he’s done something to my soup, which Fluttershy now has, he’ll stop her from having any of it.”

Fluttershy lifted her small spoon up with a wing, dipped it into what was now her soup, and raised it up to her lips. Dash watched Angel, and Angel watched them both. Fluttershy drank the soup. Dash continued to look between the two, and seeing Fluttershy continue to merrily enjoy her meal, and for the rabbit to continue looking pleased was enough to relieve Rainbow Dash.

“Guess he just wanted to please Fluttershy. Might as well take advantage of it,” Dash thought with a sigh as she began to gulp down her soup.

Angel had now decided to walk off into the kitchen, a smile ever present on his face. He made his way to a small store cupboard, one Fluttershy had built for his own personal use, and he opened it up. He took out but one thing, a small empty box of laxatives, and grinned.

“It worked.”

“It didn’t work.”

This was Angel’s primary thought as he sat outside the bathroom, looking down with disappointment and frustration at the empty box still within his paws.

“It should have worked.”

Moans were emitted from the bathroom, along with various unpleasant sounds and unpleasant smells.

“It was planned so well, even counting on the fact that the nuisance would know I was up to something and switch the bowls with my owner.”

“It feels like my insides are coming out my butt!” A pained yell came from the bathroom, but Angel paid no heed to it.

“The plan was simple, but brilliant, put laxatives in the rainbow dolt’s food, and she’d rush off to go toilet and once separated from my owner, she would find out that the bracelets were a scam, but…”

“I-I’m sure it’s not that bad and um, it shouldn’t last too much longer.” Fluttershy’s sweet voice flowed out from the bathroom alongside Dash’s exerted groans.

“My owner went into the bathroom with her.”

Angel got up and walked away from the bathroom, the smells and sounds a distraction to his bothered mind. His thoughts were irritation and confusion. Frustration and disappointment. Jealousy and sorrow. His owner was so attached to that pegasus that she even watched her do her business. Clearly, this was a time for drastic measures.

Angel made his way both down the stairs and out of the cottage, still deep in thought as he arrived at his smaller, outdoor house. He entered his house for one thing, a key, and then he got to work on a patch of dirt beside his little house. He burrowed and shovelled and cleared aside that which lay between him and what he was after, and with all the soil away he could see it; his box. The furry mammal retrieved his buried splendour, brushed away at it until he could make out the key hole, and unlocked it.

The lid came off with a creak, and even though it was night-time, Luna’s full moon shone bright enough for him to read the first piece of paper within the box, ‘How to kill your enemy.’

“Maybe a little too excessive,” Angel thought to himself as he looked at the folded A3 sheet.

Putting the somewhat twisted plans, aside he looked to other schemes that where in his storage box, and read the next fold of paper, ‘How to get rid of your enemy’.

“Perfect,” was Angel’s lone thought as he hoisted the plan out of the box, read through the scheme and drawings, and grinned.

Fun with Magnetic Ponies.

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Today marks the start of season 3 of My Little Pony Friendship is Magic, and as an additional treat I give you chapter 5 of Magnetism... everyone's going to be too busy watching the season premiere to read this chapter today aren't they.

As per usual I would like to thank Ugugg93 for proof-reading this chapter. I would also like to thank Sidewayz2013 for helping with prank ideas for this chapter and as thanks he would like it very much if you would check out his pony art boards with the link ,though I have no idea what a longboard actually is.

Chapter 5: Fun with Magnetic Ponies!

A yawn was emitted from the unicorn’s mouth, and the pony muttered the last few words of her explanation, “…and that is why you have nothing to fear.”

The location was the Golden Oaks Library—the residence of Twilight Sparkle and Spike—and the time was around seven in the morning. Currently, there were three ponies in the main room of the building, the baby dragon resident presently absent. The atmosphere was somewhat tense with Fluttershy fearful, Rainbow Dash protective, and Twilight, while not tired, was exasperated.

“Yeeeeah... sure,” Rainbow Dash replied as she kept her wing extended out, shielding Fluttershy from her friend. “It’s a little hard to trust you when you were chasing and screaming at us just a few seconds ago.”

“All I did was say hello and you two started to run away from me!” the still weary but less crazy Twilight Sparkle said. “Then, no matter how many times I asked you to stop, you kept on running away from me!”

“We’re sorry Twilight; we shouldn’t have overreacted like that.” Fluttershy’s statement allowed Twilight to bear a small smile. “Umm... just to be careful though... you don’t have any knives with you right now... right?”

Twilight’s smile disappeared, but she continued on undeterred, ignoring the pegasus' question, “Anyway, now that you two are here, and I’m a little more composed than I was the other day, I feel we should take advantage of this situation and experiment the effects of the bracelets.”

“You already know what they do. They send me and Fluttershy flying into one another if we aren't touching.”

“I know that, but we do not know the full extent of the bracelets' effects. There could be circumstances that prevent you from touching. What then?” Twilight’s question remained unanswered as she levitated a board of chipboard slightly larger than each pony in the room. “That is what we will be finding out today.”

Rainbow Dash finally withdrew her wing, allowing Fluttershy to come into the scholar’s view, as well as allowing Fluttershy to step up beside Rainbow Dash. “Can we make it quick though? The two of us have to meet up with Pinkie Pie to dish out some pranks,” Dash asked, a question that caused Twilight to second guess what she had heard.

“You and Pinkie Pie are going to be pulling pranks… with Fluttershy?”

Fluttershy blushed and hung her head, though it was unknown if this was out of embarrassment or guilt for what she would be doing. “Oh yes. You see, Rainbow Dash had to go to the spa with me and Rarity yesterday so —”

“Rainbow Dash went to the spa?!” Twilight yelled out in horror.

“Yeah I did,” Rainbow Dash grumbled. However, after a few seconds, the moody expression softened slightly. “It was okay I guess; probably really boring if you go on your own though.”

To this piece of news, Fluttershy danced and hollered with joy; in her head of course.

“Speaking of yesterday, did either of you encounter Spike?” Twilight received nothing but shakes of heads from her two friends, but carried on anyway, “He came home looking very depressed and mumbling to himself, and when I went to check up on him later he was painting his scales pink.”

Rainbow Dash suppressed a giggle, a good feeling that a certain party pony’s misguided belief that going from one place to another with a certain unicorn counted as a date was the cause behind it. However, instead of voicing this, she said, “Nope, not a clue.”

“Huh. Very well then, let’s begin this experiment,” Twilight announced as a clap of thunder was heard from outside; more than likely the handiwork of a certain wall-eyed pegasus. “All you need to do is walk away from one another and I will place this chipboard between you, thus stopping either of you from coming into contact with one another.”

Her test subjects/friends obeyed, taking a few nervous steps away from one another. Twilight lifted the piece of wood between them and locked it in place with her telekinetic magic. The two pegasi were now a few small steps away from each other. Eventually, five seconds passed and the bracelets activated. As per the norm, Fluttershy and Rainbow Dash went rigid, their ill at ease faces showing how discomforting the sudden freezing of every muscle in their body was. The two were then surrounded and lifted off the ground by a faint magical force from the bracelets. Then, the force flung them in each other’s direction at instantaneously fast speeds, only for them to collide with the pre-set chipboard instead.

“It’s a success!” Twilight cheered with glee, clopping her hooves together in elation.

“If it’s a success,” Rainbow said through gritted teeth, “why are we still frozen?”

Twilight looked to her experiment once more to see Rainbow Dash and Fluttershy not touching as she wanted. The chipboard was blocking their contact from one another like she wanted, but instead of showing her smiles, they showed grimaces. Fluttershy and Rainbow Dash remained afloat, the mystical force still trying to force them against one another, pressing their bodies and faces firmly and harshly against the wood.

“I… um... ow... think we’re being pushed harder,” Fluttershy squeaked out, though some of the words spilled from her mouth unclearly due to her flattened cheek pressed against the wood.

The chipboard strained against the two ponies, and Twilight’s now unearthed worry grew upon hearing a crack. With a swiftness that came only from acting without thinking, Twilight used her magic to teleport the chipboard away, allowing the bracelets' natural process of slamming two ponies against each other very hard to finally proceed.

“I'm so sorry; I really thought that would work,” Twilight apologised as she scampered on up to her winded friends.

Twilight inspected her friends, trying to see the potential damage they may have suffered, but other than being more baffled from the head-to-head impact, they seemed to be alright. Twilight began to analyse her little experiment in her horned head as she waited for her flight able friends to recover, a hoof outstretched in advance to pull them up. This offer went untaken though, as when the aching in the two pegasus heads dulled down, they decided to remain sitting where they were.

“That was certainly a bust,” Dash complained as she rubbed her sore head.

“Well, we at least learned what happens when something gets between you two and the force of the bracelets,” Twilight added with a nervous laugh.

Rainbow Dash seemed to find Twilight’s optimistic approach ill worded, for she chose to briefly glare at her friend as she continued to press her cyan hoof to her rainbow-mane head. “Yeah, that’s enough from me today. C’mon Fluttershy, it’s time we get to pranking.”

Fluttershy and Rainbow Dash clumsily made their way to the exit as Twilight called out to them, “But we have many more experiments to conduct!”

“Those can wait ‘til tomorrow,” Rainbow Dash disinterestedly replied without looking back.

Twilight Sparkle wasn’t having any arguing today though; she was still tired, still irritable, and still concerned for her friends. They were going to have her help them whether they wanted to or not. Twilight magically lifted a long reel of rope from a storage cupboard within the library, and sent it towards the pegasi. In seconds the two were on the floor with their legs and wings tied up.

Rainbow Dash was going to begin yelling obscenities to her magically gifted friend, but found herself saying something completely different. “Fluttershy, why are you smiling?”

“Don’t tell her you like being tied up, don’t tell her you like being tied up,” Fluttershy thought to herself as she looked to the pony she was tied together with and broadened her smile.

“I love being tied up.”

Silence descended on the room. Twilight stopped trotting towards her friends, Rainbow Dash did not say anything more, and Fluttershy stopped even breathing. Twilight had learnt of one of Fluttershy’s fetishes, Rainbow Dash had learnt of Fluttershy’s strange hobby, and Fluttershy was internally screaming at her slip of the tongue.

Twilight decided to untie her two friends, and with no explanation for it, announced, “I think I’ll let you two go now... we’ll... we'll save the other tests for tomorrow.”

Ponyville, despite boasting a fair number of unicorns and pegasi, was predominantly an earth pony town, and as such, was an earth pony town by design. As the town was designed for Earth ponies, the availability of the pegasus-preferred cloud-built structures were few in number, and all were positioned just on the outskirts of the town. It was one of these few cloud homes that a pair of pegasi, one carrying the other, and an earth pony pedalling a flying bicycle were heading towards.

“But... but surely they’ll be awake by now,” Fluttershy complained, focusing intently on trying to avoid what the trio of friends were about to do, it being her only distraction from the accursed thoughts of the perfectly toned blue-coated body she was pressed against.

“Don’t worry Fluttershy, these two always sleep in on the weekends,” Pinkie Pie whispered as she pedalled by the side of the two pegasi.

“How do you know that?”

“’Cause Cloudchaser is always rocking out to some song ‘til midnight,” Rainbow Dash piped in, “and Flitter can’t sleep because of the music each night.”

The porch of the airborne home ahead, Rainbow Dash landed as quietly as a pegasus laden another pegasus could. Dash let Fluttershy down to the cloudy surface and the two walked on side-by-side. While Pinkie remained on her vehicle, they travelled around to the backdoor of the house to check to see if it was open. Obviously, said backdoor was locked, and Fluttershy brightened at the thought that they would not be able to prank the two ponies inside.

Fluttershy feigned disappointment as she proclaimed, “Oh no, it’s locked. I guess we will have to go home now.”

It was then that the backdoor opened, and Pinkie Pie greeted her two friends from inside the house, “Hi!”

“Pinkie? But…” Fluttershy turned to where Pinkie Pie was previously to find the party pony’s copter-bike still afloat with wheels still turning and pedals still going, but no Pinkie Pie upon it, “H-how did you…?”

“It’s Pinkie Pie,” Rainbow Dash whispered to her confused friend as they both ventured into the house after the silently hopping pink pony.

The trio made their way through the structure, it having plenty in space, but lacking in furniture. This was surprisingly common for cloud houses. It was not because the furniture would just crash to the ground, cloud “walking” enchantments on pegasi furniture commonplace, but more so from the stigma of sheer weight often being a problem in the past. While such an issue wasn’t nearly as common, furniture made to be much lighter nowadays, many pegasi still feared overloading their house until it crashed into the ground. Then again, with clouds all around them in the sky, many also saw no real reason in having solid pieces of furniture anyway. Despite its spaciousness, it was also a small building and so it did not take long for the three to find the residents of the house bedrooms, conveniently on opposite sides of the same hallway.

“Okay Fluttershy, can you get out the comb and scissors for me?”

Fluttershy visibly perked up at Dash’s request, and retrieved the barber tools from the satchel she had been designated to carry. “Yes I did. I’m so happy you’re allowing me to play with your mane, but are you sure you wanted me to bring scissors? I don’t think I could cut a strand of your lovely mane. ”

Fluttershy’s smile faded upon seeing her two friends both grinning, the mare just now understanding what the tools had been brought for.

Rainbow Dash placed a leg around her buddy’s shoulders as she said, “Good Fluttershy, your pranking debut begins now. Who knows, you may even enjoy it.”

“Then you will become one of us,” Pinkie softly began to chant, “One of us, one of us, one of us…”

Flitter, after the usual restless weekend night of trying to sleep through the sounds of pounding rock music, finally groggily awoke, the sounds of chattering birds filling her ears. As per usual she had a headache, as per usual she yawned drowsily, and as per usual she got out of her bed to make her way to the bathroom in order to freshen up. Pushing open her door and making her way into her house’s hallway, she came face to face with her sister’s bedroom door, scowled at it, and then headed off to the bathroom further down the hallway.

Also accompanying her Saturday and Sunday morning routine were her usual complaints. “Darn it, sis, every time, no matter how many times I tell you to quieten it down…”

She soon transitioned from the spongy cloud floor of the hallway to the cold and smooth enchanted tile of the bathroom. The pale grey pegasus trotted on each tile with the sound of birds in her head, and went to look at herself in the mirror, fully intent on beginning her usual morning routine of sorting out her bed-mane. She was exceptionally bad at getting one after a terrible night's sleep, and much to her misfortune, bad-night sleeps were frequent for her. Thus, she looked to the room’s large hanging mirror, dreading the work she would have to put in to sort her mane this morning.

Flitter screamed.

A few seconds later, the closed door of the bathroom flew open as Flitter’s suddenly awoken sister, Cloudchaser, barged in. “Flitter! What’s the... oh…”

Cloudchaser noticed the reason for her twin’s screams instantly; Flitter’s mane. Now Cloudchaser was used to seeing her sister’s mane in a bad state, so common was it that the rock-loving pegasus had also gotten used to waiting for nearly an hour as her sister managed her mane in the morning. However, today was different. For starters, Flitter’s light opal mane looked like a bird’s nest, literally—it was bowl shaped, twigs were sticking out of it and it also had birds nesting in it to boot.

A horrified Flitter turned to her sister for comfort, only to intensify he screams instead.

“What, what!?” Cloudchaser shouted out in panic, and then looked to her own mane.

Like her sister, Cloudchaser’s cerulean spiked mane had been shaped into a bird’s nest, which was also being happily occupied. One bird from her nest-mane saw one of the birds from Flitter’s mane-nest, and the two decided to wave hello to one another.

As panicked shouts and avian squawks blasted out of the cloud home of the pegasi twins, two ponies a short distance away erupted with laughter. The third pony crushed any desire to laugh, and instead concentrated on holding onto the whooping and hollering pegasus she was being carried by.

“The only drawback to pranking these two in their house is that we can’t see their reactions.” Rainbow Dash chuckled, each chuckle causing her carried friend to bob up and down.

“Yup! We have to make sure we can see the results next time.” Pinkie Pie giggled as thoughts of X-ray vision, drills, and parties involving both devices filled her head.

“Shouldn’t we stop now? I mean, we’ve already caused these two ponies so much trouble.”

“Minor inconvenience. We caused them a minor inconvenience and it was fun,” Dash commented as a toothy grin overtook the entirety of her face. “Besides, with your command of animals, just think of all the mayhem we can cause.”

With this said, the two pranksters bellows of joy turned to cackles of evil. Their smiles of happiness turned to sneers of intent, and thoughts of all the pranks they could do with animal assistance arose in their heads. Fluttershy could only whimper at what was to come.

Tick-tock. Tick-tock. These were the sounds all of the clocks were making as their pendulums swung in the clock store. The hourglass cutie-marked stallion at the counter was used to the noise; the normal clock sounds reminded him that nothing was wrong with them and he was doing his job right. They also reminded him that with nothing wrong with any of the clocks he had nothing to do, and as such, they reminded him of boredom.

“I have too much time on my hooves,” Time Turner murmured to himself as he rested his head on his store’s counter.

Soon, Time Turner found himself lost in thought and sleep fast approaching. What stopped him from falling asleep was various sounds skittering sounds that no clock in his store made. This meant there was a problem with one of the clocks; this meant he had something to. Ponyville’s resident clock maker and manager of all things timey-wimey rose up, and turned to the source of the noise, finding something on his desk as he did so.

An apple.

Time Turner let out a debatably appropriate response to the suddenly appearing fruit; he screamed. He also tried to move away from the small red fruit, but tripped over his own hooves, finding himself falling over. When the stallion had sorted himself out and regained his balance, he looked to the fruit, and approached it. Closer and closer to the apple he got, and as he did a young southern voice rang in his head.

“Care ta buy some apples?”

He flinched, cringed even at the bothersome memory. Regardless of his embarrassing fear of apples, Time Turner reasoned that suddenly appearing apples should naturally be regarded with suspicion. From this suspicion, the wisest thing to do, ignoring personal circumstances would naturally be to throw the fruit away. With that thought, he hesitantly picked up the apple and tossed it in the waste bin behind his counter.

Then, he heard the skittering sound once more. Confused, Time Turner looked to the front of his store where the sound came from and saw a small object rolling by the front door. Following the course of curiosity he made his way to the object to find out what it was.

Gasping with shock he found it to be another apple. “What in Equestria…”

The clockmaker looked to this fruit with even greater worry than he did the last, though you would be too if a fruit you happen to have a fear of kept on appearing out of nowhere. He did not let this bother him for long, for while this was strange, he was no stranger to strange things, and all he had to do was pick up the apple and throw it into the waste bin as well. This is what he went to do as picked up the apple and turned towards his desk, only to have the apple fall from his teethed grip, for on his desk was another apple.

“Heh heh heh,” Time Turner laughed to himself, attempting to giggle away his fears.

Then, more apples rolled into the room. From every doorway, from small mouse holes and even from the Cuckoo Clocks, there were apples. Time Turner was surrounded by spontaneous apples.

“Buy some apples, buy some apples, buy some apples…”

“No! No! Nooooooooo!” Screamed the stallion as he ran as best he could from the apples that began to fill the room.

As several of the apples began to roll out after their victim, one did not. A small dormouse popped out from behind the remaining apple, looked to the window and gave a teeny “A” for victory with his paws to the three ponies watching from outside.

“Bwahahaha!” Rainbow Dash and Pinkie Pie roared with laughter, collapsing to the grassy ground in hysterics.

Fluttershy could only watch and feel mortified as she suppressed the desire to laugh from deep down in her. “T-that was wrong; making him scared like that.”

“No need to worry, nothing bad happened at all… though you did lose five points of karma.”

“What!?”

“Ha, soon you’ll have two little horns sprouting from your head.”

Just like before, Fluttershy could only whimper.

Throughout the day, Rainbow Dash and Pinkie Pie put forth their various schemed pranks, and took full advantage of Fluttershy and her entourage of animals. Mayor Mare found crickets leaping out of ink pots and attempting to sign official documents. Berry Punch’s attempt to quit alcohol came to an end when she found a snake and a rat playing noughts and crosses with one another. The flower girl trio—Daily, Lily, and Roseluck—were always easy to scare, and so a bear jumping out of a fruit stand not only got them going wild, but nearly caused three fatal cases of cardiac arrest. After those few pranks, the day was well into mid-afternoon, and so with time running low, they began to plan the final planned prank for the day.

The setting was the park. On such a fine Sunday there were ponies galore taking in the peace and beauty of the nature all around them. One such pony was seated in an unusually non-pony like manner besides her pony-like seated marefriend.

As for said pony-seated pony, she was noticing the many foals free from school bouncing about the park with joy and decided to comment on this, “Lyra, don’t they look adorable.”

Lyra, the unusually seated unicorn replied apprehensively to the earth pony, Bon Bon, “…Yeah?”

“Well, I’d like to have a f—”

“Sandwiches!” Lyra yelled out to derail Bon Bon’s train of thought.

“Huh?”

“Sandwiches are… uh... really hard to hold with hooves…” Bon Bon was silent at first to her lover’s outburst and chose to simply nod.

“Uh huh. Well, as I was saying, I think we should adop—”

“With hands! Sandwiches would be easier to hold with hands!” Lyra once again interrupted.

An irritated Bon Bon waited for but a few seconds before trying to speak once more, only for Lyra to blurt out, “Do you think it would be easier to hold rolls or buns with hands?”

Bon Bon looked un-amused at her sitting companion, who in turn grinned broadly in a horrible attempt to look innocent. Fearing that the love of her life was going to talk about ‘foals’ and ‘adoption’ once more, Lyra began mentally praying to her goddess Bonnie Zacherle and her messenger Megan that a distraction would soon come. As distant voices approached, and recognising the two voices, Lyra knew her prayers had been answered.

“Hey look, there’s Rainbow Dash and Fluttershy!” yelled the musician as the two chatting ponies walked side-by-side in their direction. “There are tons of rumours about them and you love confirming rumours so... uh... let’s go confirm rumours!”

Bon Bon’s attention was drawn to the approaching duo as Lyra eagerly got down on all fours and dragged Bon Bon towards them. As the confirmed couple made their way towards the rumoured couple, they could pick up on bits and pieces of the pegasi’s conversation, as if it were directed towards them.

“I wasn’t just imagining things, you saw it too right?”

“Y-yeah, I did see it… by the lake, yes?” Fluttershy stuttered, but upon noticing the two approaching ponies she turned to them with a forced grin. “Hello! Lyra. Bon Bon.”

Bon Bon wasted no time in greeting the two. Seeing the two of them so close together in what was clearly a lovey-dovey sort of way got her mind churning out questions and scenarios at Sonic Rainboom speeds. “Well, well! Congratulations, Fluttershy. Looks like you finally caught one.”

Fluttershy’s transition from yellow to red was immediate, and before she even had a chance to protest, Lyra had gone up to Rainbow Dash and said, “Yeah, welcome to the club Rainbow Dash, I kind of figured you swung that way though considering your mane and all.”

“Wha?”

Bon Bon then eyed up the mystic bracelets both pegasus shared, “Oooh, tying the knot already? That’s the way to do it, Fluttershy, ensure there’s no escape .”

“You poor unfortunate soul.” Lyra’s comment towards Rainbow Dash earned her a jab in the ribs from Bon Bon, the comments serving only to make Fluttershy blush more and Rainbow Dash even more confused.

Dash stopped trying to work out what the conversation was about, putting it down as Lyra being a bit of a weirdo, and decided to carry on as planned, “Ooookay, so you two, did you see that thing in Ponyville’s lake?”

Lyra and Bon Bon shook their heads, and a suddenly eager Fluttershy added, “Oh yes, I had never seen anything like it. It looked like it was half-fish, half-pony.”

“Seapony!” Lyra shouted in excitement. She grabbed Fluttershy by the shoulders and asked, “Was it a seapony? Was it!?”

Rainbow Dash moved between the two, forcing Lyra to back away from Fluttershy and added, “Could be, could be.”

“C’mon Bon Bon, we’ve got to see this!” Lyra continued to shout with enthusiasm as she ran off in the direction of the lake, dragging her wife along for the ride.

As the two began to disappear from view Fluttershy let out a sigh of relief, no longer having to bare a conversation of misunderstandings. Of course Bon Bon had to call back, “Be sure to invite us to the wedding !”

“Wedding? What in Equestria is that mare on about?” The puzzled pegasus pondered aloud, unaware of her frantic flustered friend who was noticing the well-populated park pouring with ponies in earshot of Bon Bon’s last comment.

Ultimately, Rainbow Dash decided that their comment couldn’t have been too important, and even if it was she’d figure it out later. What was important was making sure she witnessed this prank. In order to beat the excited mare to their destination, the racing pegasus scooped Fluttershy off her hooves and took to the sky. As they made their way to the lake, Fluttershy worried about what had occurred as well as Rainbow Dash sweeping her up bridal-style in front of several park attending ponies. Such troubling thoughts continued to pester the canary yellow pegasus even as Rainbow Dash landed amongst the bushes and placed her down in view of anypony arriving at the lake.

It did not take long for the two ponies they had been expecting to arrive at the lake. To their good fortune, the bushes obscured them from sight as Lyra frantically looked a round the body of water for a sight of the seapony and Bon Bon waited patiently.

Rainbow Dash felt uncomfortable with the silence between them, and so decided to try and bring up a topic, any topic. “Fluttershy. Lyra and Bon Bon are really close friends aren’t they? There always hanging out together and such.”

Fluttershy did not respond immediately as she pondered what to say. Eventually, however, the words came to her. “Well… they aren’t really friends but lovers… a couple.”

“Oh,” Dash murmured, her brows arching slightly. “I didn’t know mares could… y’know… love other mares. Is that common?”

“It’s not exactly encouraged but there are plenty of mares who like mares… like that.”

“Hmmm…”

The silence before was a natural one; now it felt uncomfortable. Dash had wanted a topic to talk about but this one felt heavier, more serious than she was expecting, and she had no idea what to say next. This was not exactly the sort she was used to thinking about.

“I like mares too.”

Dash’s eyes widened in surprise and she turned to her withdrawing friend. Fluttershy seemed to regret her sudden confession, but continued on talking as the best she could do is explain herself, “I-I... as in I... l-love mares, and well... um… eep.”

Awkward looks between them, Rainbow Dash was again unsure what to say what with lacking an opinion on the topic, and so settled for saying what she thought was good enough. “Well, nothing wrong with that, good for you .”

Fluttershy smiled to this, and Rainbow Dash felt that her response had been the correct response. Rainbow Dash tried to think of something else to say, to continue the conversation, but the activities of Lyra and Bon Bon in the clearing before her distracted her, and her focus soon turned towards the developing scene.

“Where’s the seapony?” Lyra wailed, and the two pegasus looked to the clearing to see that the unicorn had fallen to the ground in defeat.

“I’m pretty sure Fluttershy and Rainbow Dash must have been seeing things,” Bon Bon explained, as she idled herself with a longing to go back to Fluttershy and Rainbow Dash to discuss the couple’s relationship some more.

The mythology enthusiast lowered her head and slowly began to trot back to her marefriend.

“Shoo be doo shoo shoo be doo! ”

The musical voice from the lake brushed against the unicorn’s ears, a thrilling tingle running up her spine. She spun around to the lake and saw a figure off in the distance. It was something—somepony—in the water singing. It was a pink mare with her wet mane drooped across her face, splashing the water with her sleek-bodied tail.

“Seapony!” Lyra rang her battle cry as she leaped into the lake.

Lyra swam on up to the seapony as quick as she could, but by the time she got close, the aquatic pony of myth had dived back under the water. It did not remain under the water for long as the seapony popped back out from under the water a good distance away from Lyra, and waved to her. Of course, Lyra again swam towards the mystical creature, who in turn dove back under the water, and again, popped out far away again, and waved.

“Come back here seapony! We’re going to be best friends forever and ever!”

In the bushes watching this cycle repeat itself were Rainbow Dash and Fluttershy, the former unable to contain her laughter any longer, “Bwahahaha!”

“Heehee.” Rainbow Dash stopped her chuckling despite how funny the chase before her was, and instead turned to a Fluttershy with both hooves clamped over the pony’s mouth.

Rainbow smirked. “Did... did you just laugh, Fluttershy?”

“N-no.” Fluttershy squeaked while her hooves remained clamped to her mouth which, along with the rhythmic rising of her chest, seemed to say otherwise.

“Now Fluttershy, it’s not good to suppress your feelings,” the prankster warned her friend as she pounced on top of her, pinning her against the foliage. “Let me help you release those feelings .”

“Wha-what do you—”

“Tickle attack!”

Amidst the bushes, Rainbow Dash had her way with Fluttershy , tickling the pony to her heart's content. There was no way for the yellow pony to suppress her laughter anymore, and along with pleas to stop came laughter. This was accompanied by Dash’s own show of joy and the two soon laughed merrily together.

The giggles eventually died down and when it slowly came to an end Fluttershy realised their current position. Fluttershy had her back flat against the grass while Rainbow Dash leaned over her, sincere pink eyes gazing into her own and a sweet smile reflected towards her. A sweet smile formed by sweet lips.

Rainbow Dash looked on innocently as Fluttershy slowly lifted her head up. ..

“No body.”

...lips pursed together as she approached Rainbow’s soft lips...

“Stop.”

...and Fluttershy’s nuzzle bumped into Dash’s, who had yet to move or notice anything strange about this. Fluttershy leaned in closer, her lips just millimetres from Rainbow’s...

“Body stop now!”

“Hi guys, am I interrupting something? ”

Fluttershy stopped herself, pushed her head back to the ground and turned, to Pinkie Pie and the seal. Likewise Rainbow Dash blinked twice before shaking her head and looking over to the pony and animal who has entered into the bushy hiding place.

“Nah, I was just having a bit of fun with Fluttershy here.” Dash’s announcement seemed to cause both Pinkie Pie and Fluttershy’s seal to grin broadly. “We finally got her to laugh Pinkie! She laughed at the prank!”

Pinkie’s grin turned into a larger toothy smile as she peppily said, “Really, the fun of pranks has swayed you to our side now, Fluttershy, and you will never be able to escape it. Never!”

Fluttershy did not reply to this as she slid out from underneath Rainbow Dash and, as if to distract her from admitting her laugh at misdeeds, went on over to her seal to praised him. “You did a marvellous job, thank you for helping.”

The seal seemed pretty content as his caretaker hugged him, and with some quick goodbyes he left the trio and made his way home. The trio in turn decided to sneak away from their hiding spot, giving one last look back to the lake where a unicorn was still frantically looking for the seapony.

“Looks like Lyra’s gotten Bon Bon searching now.” Rainbow giggled as the two, possibly even three, pranksters walked away from the fun.

“W-well I’m glad that it’s all over now, no more pranking anymore.”

“Uh uh! I just thought of one last prank to pull.”

Fluttershy looked to Pinkie Pie sombrely. “We do?”

“Yep, and you’re sure to like it because...“ Pinkie Pie then leaned over to Fluttershy and whispered the rest in her ear.

Fluttershy perked up, waddled backwards with a blush, and protested, “N-no, I can’t that, we can’t do that.”

“Oh, but it will be fun. You want to do one more prank for the day don’t you Dashie?” Pinkie Pie asked her fellow prankster.

Said prankster went to answer, but Fluttershy continued her protests, this time directed towards Rainbow, “Oh please, please say no. I don’t want to do this prank, even more than the others.”

Rainbow Dash looked to Fluttershy, then to Pinkie Pie, and back and forth between the two, until she reached a decision.

Applejack weaved in and out of the apple trees at a snail's pace, careful observing the orchard as she walked. A pony had to be slow and steady when inspecting the apple trees as to ensure no problems were present with the apples, leaves, bark, or exposed roots. However, the pace Applejack was going was even slower than what was necessary for such a task, not to mention this was her second time inspecting them so far today. All her chores had been done, and only the late night tasks remained ahead. Of course, considering it was still a few hours until nightfall, she found herself left with nothing to do.

Well... that was not entirely true, for she desperately wanted to visit a particular friend in town. Recent events though meant she could only visit her friend—and also enter Ponyville—under the blanket of night. As of late, Applejack had been seeing and hearing things about many of her closest friends, and she was desperately in need of information to bring clarity to the situation.

One of these was the ludicrous notion that Rarity and Pinkie Pie were dating, while the other was the equally ludicrous notion that Rainbow Dash and Fluttershy were dating. For the first, Applejack had only a few things of “hear-say” accounts from her siblings to go on, and their sources were questionable at best. For the latter, she had witnessed plenty to prove her point, but she needed to confirm all this with a friend; Twilight Sparkle. However, because of the intimate nature of the two rumours, confirming the authenticity of the gossip required quite a bit of trepidation, for such life changing revelations were something the cowpony expected to have been notified of well before each pair actually committed, especially concerning her pegasi friends.

All she had to do was get to town, and hopefully nopony would delay her. Once all the ponies went to their beds to rest though, it would be safe, and Applejack could visit her knowledgeable friend, Twilight, and finally confirm the things she had heard and seen. Sadly, there was still plenty of light left in the day, so she wandered the fields until the time came when she could see her friend. Therefore, she did her best to busy herself with repeating already accomplished chores.

Then the apple pony heard giggling.

“A-are you sure we should be doing this, here?” Applejack wasn’t going to make a mistake like she did last time; she knew this voice belonged to Fluttershy.

“Of course. It’s far away from other ponies eyes and ears, so nopony will see us doing our own little… ‘bucking’.” It sounded a little off, but Applejack knew this was Rainbow Dash and she couldn’t believe what she was hearing. The cowpony decided to trot in the direction of the voices, heading towards a ring of apple trees that worked well to hide away anypony they needed to, or two ponies in this case.

“ Okay then, but can I be on top this time? You're always on top.” Applejack couldn’t believe what she was hearing Fluttershy saying.

“Fine, fine, but try and be a little rougher, I promise I can handle it.”

Applejack turned as red as the apples on her trees from everything she was hearing. With more things said and several sounds of giggles, rolls, and even moans, the earth pony felt herself stop outside the ring of trees. She couldn’t see the two ponies inside, and with all that was just said she wasn't sure that she wanted to know what they were doing. Well, she knew what they were doing, but she was definitely sure she didn't want to see what they were doing. Applejack turned round; ready to walk off, when the conversation changed.

“Oh my, but what if Apple Bloom sees us?”

“Heh... don’t worry; she can watch.”

Applejack leaped into the ring bellowing, “Wha’areyousayin’whywouldyousaytha’Ahoughta...”

She trailed off for a moment, before yelling again. “Pinkie Pie!”

Pinkie Pie grinned at her fellow earth pony before exploding into chortles, and then hacking and coughing. “Golly is Dashie’s voice hard to do. Fluttershy’s is easy-peasy, like we have the same voice easy, but Dashie’s... wow! My throat's sore,” Pinkie blurted out after her rough spout of coughing.

Applejack currently looked dumbfounded as she tried to process the situation, soon muttering her question, “W-where is Rainbow Dash? An’ Fluttershy?”

“Oh my, right here,” Fluttershy voice said, though it was from Pinkie Pie’s lips that the words came, “And I’m not even going to try and do Rainbow’s voice again, but that was me too.”

“W-why…?”

“'Cause it’s a brilliant prank but Fluttershy didn’t want to do it and Rainbow Dash said that she wasn’t going to do it if it made Fluttershy so uncomfortable and so I had to do it myself and boy from the look on your face it was well worth it.”

Pinkie Pie resumed her stream of laughter, rolling on the ground with delight while Applejack continued to absorb the information of what had occurred. In doing so, her thoughts went to Fluttershy and Rainbow Dash, and the question that she had been preparing for her more studious friend came to the forefront of her mind.

“Ah guess Ah could ask Pinkie; she was spendin’ yesterday with the two an' Rare on a date.” Applejack briefly mulled over this option before nodding her head.

“Pinkie.” Pinkie Pie turned to her friend who asked hesitantly, “Ah was wonderin’. Are Rainbow and Fluttershy, are they... uh... fillyfoolers?”

Pinkie stopped her giggles, and in thinking of what she had been asked, frowned, “Fillyfoolers? Is there something wrong with Fluttershy and Rainbow Dash being lovey-dovey?”

“N-no there ain't… well... Ah guess there is one or two things, like how Ah wasn’ told or how… open, they are bein’ in public, and Ah just... Ah dunno... but it makes me feel uncomfortable.”

“Uncomfortable? How can two ponies loving each other make you feel uncomfortable?” The pink pony tilted her head as if she was trying to look at things from another angle, but her confused expression remained upon her face.

Applejack seemed to be stumped on this as she struggled to work out how she would convey her words. “It... it kinda jus’ does, for me at least. Ah guess Ah’ve always felt comfortable with ponies gettin’ together to have families and fouls, but when it’s two mares or two stallions there’s... y’know... no foals.”

“Ooh, because stallions have those worm thingies which they stick into —”

“Ah know Pinkie, no need to explain it.”

After this interruption, Applejack continued to ponder her wording before continuing her explanation, “Ah think tha’s why Ah find it strange—ponies lovin’ each other, but never havin’ a little one—but Ah really can’t say it’s all true. It jus’ comes down to findin' it weird.”

Pinkie Pie's eyes began spinning round in circles from the confusion. This was accompanied by silence from the usually talkative pony, and Applejack realised she needed a better, more comparative way to explain things.

“It’s like how ya don’t like ponies puttin’ sprinkles on vanilla, chocolate, or strawberry ice cream.”

Pinkie perked up immediately. “Nopony must put sprinkles on the holy trinity of ice cream!”

“Yeah, like that. You understand what Ah’m sayin’?”

Pinkie tapped her chinny-chin-chin before replying, “I think you’re a silly pony but yup, I get it. Wait! D-does that mean you don’t like Fluttershy and Rainbow Dash being all lovey-dovey?”

“No. Ah mean yes! Ah mean no, but yes. Ah’m ‘kay with them bein’ a couple an all—love’s love—Ah just don’t need to be reminded of them bein’ fil... Ah mean lesbimares all tha’ time. Ah mean, Ah saw ‘em come out the toilets havin’ been lovemakin’ with each other.”

“Really? I thought they went to the toilets together because Fluttershy needed to go to the bathroom but can’t go on her own because she and Rainbow Dash have been forced together by ancient bracelets that don’t allow the wearers to separate for more than five seconds and must constantly be in physical contact with each other… but woo-hoo! I can finally throw a happy couple party!” Pinkie Pie’s rapid no stopping, no breath taken speech left her gasping for air and Applejack stunned.

“Wait one second; ya mean to say tha' those two ain't a couple, but tha' some fancy magic thing has stuck them together.”

“Of course, though Fluttershy clearly has the hots for Dashie, but Dashie is totally clueless. It’s really, really funny,” answered the grinning mare as she snickered at all the hilariously obvious moments between the two.

Applejack sat down, exhausted at all the information she was taking in, and removed her Stetson. “Ya know a lot more ‘bout this kind of thin’ than Ah expect ya would. Ah always though’ you were more innocent.”

“Please, I haven’t been innocent since I walked in on Mr and Mrs Cake playing twister… but it wasn’t twister!” Pinkie explained followed by a short second of silence. “Which reminds me of that traumatising event.”

With all that said Pinkie Pie suddenly collapsed to the ground, curled up into a ball, and started sobbing to herself. Applejack was unsure what to do. At first, she was unsure whether Pinkie was playing along with what she had just said or was actually traumatised by the experience, and in either case she was unsure what to say. Eventually she decided to try and comfort her friend.

“Look, Pinkie, Ah’m sure it—”

“It was the size of my head!” Pinkie wailed and all words that were about leave Applejack’s mouth came to a halt.

“Pinkie Pie!” a voice in the distance called out. Pinkie stopped her wailing and Applejack stopped her blushing as both ponies turned to the setting sun, and spotted a pony charging towards them.

“Hi Rarity! Did you like my little prank? I told everypony we were going on a date and everypony believed—”

Pinkie Pie’s words came to a halt as Rarity tackled her.

Angel wiped a few beads of sweat off his forehead, grabbed a hold of a cigarette, and lit one up to celebrate. As he relaxed with a smoke break, he looked at what he had sorted out—a simple means to get rid of the attention-hogging dolt, but it’d suffice. As he puffed a few clouds of smoke, he thought back on how much easier it used to be, for what had taken him almost a day used to only take him a few hours at most.

Despite the smell of smoke now produced in the air, Angel managed to smell out his owner and his victim nearby, and so immediately took off to find them. It did not take long, Rainbow Dash and Fluttershy were walking the path back home; together of course. The duo noticed the approaching rabbit, and for once both ponies had matching looks of disappointment.

“Angel Bunny! I’ve told you before that you’re not allowed to smoke!” Fluttershy had begun to scold her beloved pet, but was oddly enough handed the cigarette without protest.

Angel’s attention was more on Rainbow Dash as he tapped one of her legs, bringing her attention to him. Angel started some motions, running on the spot and mouthing a few words with a cocky grin, and then ran off. For once his actions were understood immediately by the athlete, who could tell exactly what Angel had just told her.

‘You’re too slow.’

“We’ll see about that!” Dash yelled as she unfolded her wings and ran on after the speedy little critter.

Fluttershy grabbed hold of Dash’s multi-coloured tail, not only to keep in contact with Rainbow Dash, but also to try and stop her from chasing after her pet. Alas, it didn’t work. It did not take long for Rainbow Dash to catch up to Angel Bunny, who now stood waiting for the speedy pegasus.

Dash slowed to a walk, but the sudden speedy pursuit caused Fluttershy to be left far behind Rainbow Dash, who continued to approach the rabbit.

“ You think I'm too slow? Well, I’m going to give you a piece of my—” Rainbow Dash did not finish her sentence. Rather, her sentence became a scream as she was launched flying into the air at great speeds over the Everfree forest by a well camouflaged catapult.

Fluttershy witnessed this in horror, and slowly walked over to her smug bunny rabbit. “No! Angel Bunny, what did you do!?”

Angel smiled and pumped a paw. “Win, of course.”

“Oh dear oh dear oh dear. Angel Bunny, now the bracelets are going to—” Fluttershy’s nervous worries were confirmed by what she had been dreading. Fluttershy’s body froze, and with her wings folded to her side, she levitated off the ground and was then catapulted by magical means in the direction of the catapulted Rainbow Dash.

As Angel witnessed his owner being flung through the skies sideways, smashing into a reversing Rainbow Dash, and crashing down into the Everfree forest, Angel had only one thought. “Well £*&%!”

Important Information: While I hope to get the next chapter of Magnetism uploaded within two weeks’ time, on either the 24th or 25th, I also do not want to rush the chapter and risk damaging its quality. As such, if you find that chapter 6 has not been uploaded on the 24th or 25th then expects to see it from anytime between then and 2nd of December, I will be sure to not take any longer than that. For more information be sure to check out my profile blog which updates each weekend.

Honeymoon in the Everfree Forest.

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Now I would be thanking Ugugg93 for proof-reading but he wasn’t available for this chapter so the thanks meant for him shall be going towards NintendoGal55 instead. Thanks for proof-reading this chapter NintendoGal55.

Now I just need to cover two quick things regarding Magnetism. First, something you may already know, but this story now has a TV Tropes page made by Zyr1987, so if you wish to add anything or help improve it feel free to do so (I think he’d like the help).

Finally, there’s this, a live reading of the first chapter of Magnetism… okay, you readers are starting to get a little creepy now.

Chapter 6: Honeymoon in the Everfree Forest!

“Let’s see, you uh, lost an apple?”

Angel stopped his charades and looked up questioningly at The Apple Bucker, scolding her for such a stupid answer with his glare. He resumed his communications, trying desperately to relay the message ‘Fluttershy and that other pony have crash landed in the forest.’

“Um, Pipsqueak fell down a well and can’t get out?”

Angel could only face-paw as he realised that getting help was going to take a while.

He woke up within a house, wrapped tightly by a blanket and overall feeling warm, cosy, and safe. He tried to move, to push away the blankets and explore the bright room, but in doing so, a pain came to his chest and he began to cough. The noise of his coughs got the attention of the house’s resident, and the animal helping pony ran up to him with a platter of water. Along with this drink, he received the most delicious carrots he had ever tasted, and as he drank and ate, the pony watched.

“Thank you.” She finally said with her stupidly quiet voice “You’ve been protecting me all this time.”

Her talk of protection made the injured patient remember all that had happened, and he frantically asked where he was. Of course, she was a pony and he was a rabbit, and so his only form of communication was charades. Several wrong answers were given but she eventually got it.

“Don’t worry, I gave him a good scolding and he won’t be bothering you, or me, or any of the other animals ever again.”

He stared back at the taller being in disbelief; he could not believe what she had just said. As if this cowardly and teensy mare could scare off a giant monster, and yet she did not seem the type to boast or lie and as such he could not help but believe her. She flashed a sickly sweet smile and began patting the rabbit’s head.

“You were like… like my guardian angel,” Her smile grew bigger and sweeter as she asked, “C-can I call you that, Angel I mean?”

It was a feminine name lacking the sheer awesomeness or bravado a warrior such as himself deserved in a name but he liked the meaning, the implication. He answered his owner with a nod. He was henceforth known as Angel.

“You’re trying out for the shot-put?”

Angel had considered doing this once but they did not allow rabbits to compete; also that wasn’t what he was trying to convey to The Drama Queen. He repeated his actions slower and with emphasis on each one.

“You were making something? No… you want to reach for the stars? No… honestly dear I have no idea what you are trying to say.”

Frustrated, Angel began stomping the grass outside the boutique.

“Aww, what a darling little fox you are. Yes you are, yes you are.” Fluttershy cooed and fussed the attentive canine, who took all the love with glee.

Angel watched this scene and sighed, once again another animal had arrived and once again his owner was giving it all of her attention. This was a common occurrence, and it was also common for a bitter feeling to well up inside the rabbit as he watched his owner shower the newcomer with love, love that he had been showered with. What irritated him the most about all this were how the animals would walk in, get praised, get treated, and snap up all the food they could and what did they do in return for his owner? Nothing. He helped his owner before she was his owner, he has continued to help his owner, he deserved the affection of his owner.

“Ooh, ooh, you want to throw something!”

Angel felt like he might actually get somewhere with The Nut. As he enacted his charades like a well-rehearsed dance, he wondered why he felt he had a better chance with getting this pony to understand. Most likely it was due to this pony being a party fanatic, charades was a party game, surely she must have played charades many a time and that experience would help her understand that his owner was in danger… the other pony too.

“You want to throw a party!” Pinkie Pie yelled out ecstatically and her mouth motoring on with suggestions, “How about a hat fashion party, or a pyjama party, or even a mixed-up painting party? A new cake party, a dance and sing party, an outdoor play party, or how about a party party?”

Angel turned round and marched off, leaving Sugarcube Corner and heading towards the one place he really did not want to venture to for help.

“Oh, I’m sorry, I did not know you wanted to go in front of me, it’s okay.” Fluttershy murmured, retreating backwards a bit to give the stallion that pushed his away ahead of her more space in the cue.

This was wrong, especially wrong in the mind of Angel. Some random chump shouldn’t be pushing his owner around like this, the guy needed to learn his place. So as per usual it was up to him to motivate his owner into setting things straight, and he took to stomping and aggressive pointing to convey his message to his owner. Of course, even when his owner finally got the message, she refused, saying how she doesn’t want to be a bother and that she was sure the other guy must be in a hurry. As Angel argued with his owner to stand up for herself, another pony pushed their way into the line.

Angel rested his head in his paws. This was going to be a long day.

Angel pretended to be Rainbow Dash, pretended to be catapulted, pretended to be Fluttershy, pretended to also be catapulted, pretended to fall and then pretended to be a tree. This was his current way of saying that the jerk and his owner have crash landed in the Everfree forest and he did all this whilst ready to flee at a moment’s notice. After all he would need to if The Mad Mare before him tried to dissect him all of a sudden.

The Mad Mare tapped her chin, and Angel worried for a moment that she was contemplating which organ she would remove from him first, “I know, I’ve got a book on charades somewhere in the library. Now you wait right here while I go locate it.”

As Twilight trotted back into the well-lit library, Angel sat down in the contrasting darkness, with only the teensiest ray of sunlight about now. It seems he could not get his message across to any of his owner’s friends and that would mean he would have to brave the forest alone in his search for her. It had been a long while since he navigated his former home but it looked like there was no other choice for him.

“What are you doing here?” Angel looked to the owner of this voice and scowled.

Angel did not like The Mad Mare’s assistant, Spike. Spike in turn did not like Angel. The funny thing was that neither knew why they did not like the other, but the moment they heard each other’s name they started to dislike one another. For one of the few times in his life though, Angel put aside personal things like his dislike of the dragon and focused on the much more important issues facing someone else, and so he started his charades.

Angel picked himself off the ground, only briefly rubbing his face and dusting himself off, before turning to his owner and helping her up. Then he turned his attention to the clearly blind hot head that had bumped into the two of them, and knocked them to the ground.

This pony had by now gotten to her hooves and started to bark out, “Hey, you should watch where you’re-Fluttershy!”

Angel raised an eye, apparently this dolt knew his owner. Speaking of which, he turned back to Fluttershy and saw a look of surprise on her face that matched the dolt’s.

“R-Rainbow Dash.”

Angel looked to and fro between his owner and the other pony, casting concerned looks to the former and weary threatening glances to the latter.

“Uh… hi… it’s been a while.” The pegasus said whilst scratching the back of her head.

“Y-yeah, it has.” His owner replied as shy as ever, only one eye poking out of her mane to see her ‘old acquaintance’.

A silence then passed between the two and Angel felt this was odd for two reuniting ponies. It was like each pony had thousands of thoughts filling up the very air, each thought requiring air to breathe but no thought getting enough air to talk.

“Soooo, how have you been?”

“I-I’ve been good… and you?”

“Great, just great. I uh, just got a house in fact, and a job… here, in Ponyville… here.”

Angel wasn’t quite sure what emotion it was that came across his owner but she perked up as if she had a boost of energy. She did not speak though, merely nodding to the other pony.

“Yes, working as a weather pony for the moment, y’know, until I can join the Wonderbolts…” The rainbow topped pegasus replied fast and awkwardly, seemingly unsure about what to say, “Soooo I need to go now but how about we catch up later?”

“Sure, I’d lov-like too.”

“’Kay, bye Fluttershy.” The pegasus said as she spread her wings and took off to the skies. Angel was sure that the sudden flight was done to avoid crashing into another pony so it amused him when she flew right into the funny wall-eyed pegasus.

He turned to his owner, smiling, but frowned when he saw her. He had expected her to be fretting over her fallen friend but instead she was lost in thought, with vacant and distant eyes. Angel did not like these types of eyes, eyes that looked back on times when he was not a part of her life and as such, could in no way help her. He could not be sure but in those teal eyes he could make out things, hints of sadness, pain, and loneliness. Angel looked back towards the direction the other pegasus flew off, and considering the emotions her sudden appearance evoked in his owner he decided on something. He decided that he did not like this ‘Rainbow Dash’.

Ironically, the one pony who understood the rabbit was one he did not like and was also not a pony, but a dragon. Spike speedily got the message to Twilight, Pinkie Pie, Rarity, and Applejack, and they had soon all gathered outside the main entrance to the Everfree Forest. Each pony had brought with them a lantern, illuminating each of their concerned faces in what was now the dark time of night.

“Now, with Rainbow Dash crashin’ it’s safe to assume that her wing is broken and as such we… Twi, ya’ll okay?” Applejack had quickly taken charge upon arriving to the scene but stopped her explanation of what the group would do upon noticing the worrying state of their usual leader, Twilight.

“Oh I’m fine, fine. Fluttershy and Rainbow Dash have only crash landed in the Everfree Forest because they were wearing a pair of magical bracelets. Bracelets I let them wear and bracelets I neglected trying to remove because I chose sleep over my friends.” A teary eyed Twilight said as her ears began twitching.

“Great, Twilight’s going crazy… again.” Spike deadpan remarked as Pinkie went up to the frantic unicorn to give her a hug.

As Pinkie comforted Twilight physically, Rarity attempted to sooth her friend with comforting words, “Worry not Twilight, it’s not all bad. I’m sure Fluttershy is quite pleased being alone with Rainbow Dash in an isolated area where nopony can see or hear their passionate-“

Applejack stuck her hoof over Rarity’s mouth and looked at her irritably.

“Anyways, Twi, you’ve done nothin’ wrong but if you feel like you’ve been lettin’ Fluttershy an Rainbow down let’s make it up to them now by helping to find ‘em and get ‘em out of this forest promptly.” The current leader said softly.

Twilight nodded, prying Pinkie Pie away from her with gentle hooves and a whispered thank you. Applejack in turn shifted her Stetson on her head and declared, “All righty then, let’s split up into groups of two and start lookin’ for ‘em.”

So Applejack and Rarity marched off into the Everfree forest, then Twilight and Pinkie but in a different direction, and finally this left Spike and Angel to go off into the forest together, fighting with each other every step of the way. From out of some nearby bushes, where the group of friends had previously been gathered, popped out the heads of three grinning fillies.

Owls hooted to the night and manticores growled by the rocks, rabbits retreated into their dens and timberwolves prowled by the trees, bats journeyed out of their caves and cockatrices slid within the bushes. This was the Everfree Forest at night, creatures both gentle and fearsome either settling down or roaming about. The place was known for appearing to be shadowed by darkness even in the daytime, with trees stretching up and stretching out to try their best in hiding the very ground from sunlight; but at night, at night darkness truly descended. The moon and even the stars tried their best to illuminate the area for pony eyes but ultimately it was a place for its inhabitants and its inhabitants alone to see.

It was to this truly pitch black darkness that Rainbow Dash awoke too. Her eyes flickered open and saw little difference to when they were closed, only a single spot of light shot through the leaves of the tree’s and the difference it made was minute. At best, as Dash raised her hoof up to her face, she could make out the outline of it.

“Wha-what in the hay…?” Disoriented and confused, regaining consciousness and seeing only darkness brought no clarity to the pegasus’ situation. It was in fact her ability to hear and the noises of the forest that made her aware of where she was.

Creatures small and large, prey and predator, echoed pass the many unseen trees and to Dash’s ears, “Wait, am I in… the Everfree Forest!”

Rainbow Dash tried to stand up, not at her usual swift pace but groggily, as is to be expected from somepony who had just crash-landed, but stopped as she found her numb wing weighed down by something. On top of her wing, as was to be expected, was an unconscious Fluttershy.

“Oh, right, bracelets, why do I keep forgetting about them?” Dash asked herself.

The pegasus, knowing now that Fluttershy had been pulled along with her for the catapulted induced crash landing, checked on her friend. It was now that she was thankful for the small spot of light which allowed her to make out her friend, and the small rhythmic rising of her friend’s chest. Fluttershy was breathing at least, and nothing seemed wrong. Not being able to rely entirely on her sense of sight to ensure Fluttershy was okay though, Dash decided to rely on her sense of touch and so began running her hooves gently across every inch of the canary yellow body beside her. For some reason, as Dash rubbed her hooves up and down her friend’s body, Fluttershy’s face became tinted and a smile perked up on it.

Rainbow Dash smirked, and she was glad to find that aside from some minor cuts, scratches, and possible bruises that her friend was okay.

“Geez Fluttershy, it’s nice to know you’re no longer skin and bones but you’re starting to get a little flabby,” Dash joked as she poked her friend’s butterfly marked posterior, “especially your butt; squishy, squishy.”

Knowing Fluttershy was okay; the snickering Dash got to removing her wing from underneath her friend, and once it obtained its freedom, flapped it. The athlete winced and halted her flapping immediately, and with her hooves brought her wing before her for inspection. As gently as she handled Fluttershy, the cyan pegasus stroked each feather and studied every part of her avian appendage for damage.

“Hmmm, stop.” Slurred murmurs took Rainbow’s attention away from her damaged wing and to the stirring Fluttershy.

Fluttershy’s smile was crooked, her face seemed to emit heat, and she restlessly mumbled, “Rainbow, please… stop.”

In the cover of darkness, Rainbow could not discern her friend’s pleased smile apart from a fearful frown and with the echoing noises of the forest about could not discern her friend’s pleased moan apart from a pained gasp.

“Oh Celestia, is Fluttershy dreaming about me... hurting her?”

“Rainbow Dash, you’re, you’re…” Fluttershy uttered repeatedly, causing the pony mentioned to fret more and more.

“Why in Equestria would Fluttershy be having a dream where I’m hurting her? M-maybe it’s something else, but she’s clearly unsettled, maybe she’s dreaming about an evil doppelganger of me doing bad stuff to her, that’s it.”

Rainbow’s troubled thoughts continued as the unconscious mare struggled to mutter her next words. ‘You’re’ was said over and over again, and Dash worried each time, now having her head hover over her friend, and her ears straining to hear the next few damming words.

“You’re just too adorable.”

“I’m what!”

Fluttershy snapped her eyes open at the sound of anger, the sound of somepony yelling. Dazed, confused, and groggy, Fluttershy turned to face Rainbow Dash who bore a deep frown and blazing eyes. As she sat up, thoughts jumbled about in her head, and she slowly worked out where she was and remembered how she got there.

“I-I must been out cold, and Dash,” Fluttershy looked to her piping friend who looked ready to blow, “Oh dear, what if I said something while I was out of it, something mean and now she’s mad at me.”

“R-Rainbow Dash I-“

“Fluttershy!” Rainbow Dash yelled out once more, bringing Fluttershy’s attention towards her and halting any words the quiet mare were about to say. Dash did not go on to say anything at first but then her face turned a crimson shade, she turned her head to the side with a pout, and protested, “I’m not adorable, I’m cool.”

“I’m sorry Dash but it doesn’t help your argument when you act so adorable while saying it.” Fluttershy could not help but think as she looked on at her pouting friend. A sense of relief passed on over Fluttershy as she realised that what she said unconsciously wasn’t anything to worry about, “You’re right Rainbow Dash, you are cool.”

Stroking the athlete’s ego immediately got her happy, and bragging, “Yes I am, and awesome, and radical, and-ow!”

In the midst of her bragging, the pegasus decided to flaunt her glorious wings, spreading them out as far as they could go. Of course she forgot that one of her wings was injured and soon retracted it back to her body.

“Oh my, Rainbow Dash your wing, it’s not broken is it?”

“Wha-No, it’s just sprained,” Dash said with annoyance slathered in her voice, “Why does everypony keep assuming that after every crash my wing is broken?”

Rainbow Dash grumbled and Fluttershy couldn’t help but chuckle. The quiet laughter was contagious as Rainbow began to chuckle alongside her friend and soon their fit of laughter contrasted greatly with the doom and gloom the forest tried to emit.

Eventually the laughter began to die down and with their thinking caps on, a question came from both their lips, “What do we do now?”

The pegasus duo looked to one another, Fluttershy burying her head in her mane as if to avoid the question she did not have an answer too, and Rainbow Dash simply shrugged her shoulders. An answer needed to be voiced though and so the flight loving pony looked to her wings, looked to her friends wings, and then to the little bit of night sky she could see.

“Hey, I don’t suppose you could carry and fly me out of the forest, like I’ve been doing for you?”

Peeking out from her mane, the sheepish pony replied with disappointment, “I don’t think I’m strong enough to fly that high or that far while carrying you.”

Rainbow sighed, bonking her own head in frustration as she worked her brain into coming up with a plan; an idea of what to next. Seeing Rainbow’s annoyance of course led Fluttershy to murmur, “I’m sorry.”

“Don’t be Fluttershy, it’s okay… we’ll just have to hoof it.”

Dash assisted Fluttershy in getting up, rather dragged her sitting friend up, and was about to pull said friend on the way in a random direction when, “I think we should stay where we are.”

Rainbow Dash looked to Fluttershy in bewilderment, the steadier headed pegasus continuing, “Um, I mean until our eyes get used to the dark… I still can’t see very well.”

The pink eyed speedster wouldn’t admit it but she could barely see as well, and a fact unknown to the two of them was that Fluttershy’s eyes had begun to adjust to the low lighting quicker than Dash’s, thanks to her better eyesight.

“Fine, we’ll wait.”

In what felt like fifteen years to Rainbow Dash but was in actuality only fifteen minutes, the two pegasus were both able to see and ready to make their way through the forest. Of course then the other problem arose, they could not tell where they had crashed in the forest as this was further into the foreboding place than either of the two pegasus had ever been. They did not even have much in the way of a direction to go and only moved from their crash landing zone on Dash’s assistance, the patience-lacking pegasus assuring Fluttershy that finding a tall hill or stumbling upon a familiar landmark would be better than doing nothing.

So the two went about stumbling, tripping over thick roots, wading into boulders, and only by a combination of sheer luck, good hearing, and one caretaker’s talent with animals, avoiding a slithering cockatrice. Even if Fluttershy had been able to handle one of the petrifying beasts before, being partially turned to stone was not something she wanted to experience and her will-bending stare was not something she could just turn on and off whenever she wanted.

Over time, their eyes further adjusted to the darkness, and it was this fact combined with the sheer size of the familiar landmark that peeked above the trees and into view that the two lost souls found somewhere to go.

“Rainbow Dash, I think that’s the castle up ahead, the one the elements of Harmony were in.”

Rainbow Dash squinted in the direction Fluttershy pointed to, and was also able to make out the old spiralling rooftops of the castle of the royal pony sisters, “Yeah, it does. Good going Fluttershy, once we make our way there, getting out of here will be easy as pie, we’ll just retrace our steps from when we went to the castle the first time.”

Dash eagerly made her way to the castle with Fluttershy although by the time the two reached the castle, Rainbow Dash was bored out of her mind and Fluttershy was exhausted. The ancient structure had turned out to be further away than either expected, Fluttershy’s insistence on taking things nice and slow at certain points made the journey incredibly dull to the speedy athlete, and Dash’s insistence on getting to the landmark as fast as possible when nothing was in the way had left the un-athletic Fluttershy gasping for air.

“So now all we need to is keep on going straight that away and we’ll back in Ponyville in no time.” Rainbow Dash declared, marching off towards the town if it were not for a tired pony beside her weighing her down.

“Could… we please stop… for a moment?” Fluttershy wheezed as she continued to hold onto her friend for support.

Rainbow Dash was clearly not in the best of moods but consented to her friend’s request, albeit irritably, “Grr, fine, five minutes!”

So the two ponies sat down near a familiar structure, by a familiar bridge, and on a soft patch of grass. Fluttershy took this opportunity to regulate her breathing, all while hoping that the two of them could trot on home rather than fluctuate from mad sprints and weary tip-hoofing. Rainbow Dash meanwhile boiled with anger, anger that she wished to direct at a certain rabbit, and anger that flared up as she moved her twisted wing and felt a jab of pain from it.

“Your rabbit is gonna get it when we get back.” Dash remarked quietly as she tried to console her aching wing.

Fluttershy was able to hear this though and disapproved, “Now I know Angel launched you into the air with a catapult and caused the two of us to collide together and crash land in a dark spooky forest filled with dangerous animals, plants, and death-traps but-“

“No buts Fluttershy, that rabbit of yours needs a good kick in the hind,” Dash snapped, cutting off any further words Fluttershy was about to say.

Fluttershy knew trying to say any more would just get Dash madder, possibly even mad at her, but when it came to her animals, and especially Angel she felt she had to speak up, to defend them, “I-I don’t think he understood… about the bracelets, he’s really protective of me so if he knew he wouldn’t have-“

“So it would have been okay for him to catapult me into the air if we didn’t have these bracelets on, huh!” The pegasus retorted, eyes a blazing as she glared back at Fluttershy. The shy mare merely hid behind her mane, becoming mute once more. Dash in turn, having no hatred towards Fluttershy but rather her pet, faced away from her friend grumbling to yourself, “You should just get rid of that stupid rabbit.”

“I would never do that!”

Rainbow Dash jumped to her hooves, startled by the sudden yell and most of all, the fact that Fluttershy had just yelled at her.

“I would never get rid of Angel Bunny.”

Rainbow Dash scoffed, “Why not? He’s a temperamental hothead.”

“I-I know Angel has slight anger issues-“

“He attacks me and I’m sure other ponies.”

“Angel does like to play rough-“

“And he’s been constantly tricking me, why do you even bother keeping that brat around!”

“Because he reminds me of you!”

Dash was stunned into silence by Fluttershy’s last outburst, both ponies now standing to their full heights. The atmosphere was antagonistic, and if it were not for the bracelets both ponies would have distanced themselves to feel less of this off-putting mood, but they could not. Still they bore with it, Fluttershy arguing back against Rainbow Dash.

“I am nothing like your rabbit!”

“Really, hot temper, likes to play rough, pranks, it sounds a lot like you.”

“That’s why you like your rabbit; those aren’t the only things that define me. I stand up for ponies; I stand up and protect you all the time.”

“And so does Angel, he protects me all the time though you wouldn’t know that because you le-“

“Stop fighting!”

The yell of three young ponies, fillies that had yet to receive their cutie marks, caused the bickering duo to stop and turn their attention towards the newcomers to the scene. It was with disbelief that three fillies, guided by a hoof-drawn map and the sounds of familiar voices, stumbled upon this rare sight. Rainbow Dash arguing with somepony was not rare, Rainbow Dash arguing with Fluttershy, or even Fluttershy arguing with anypony, was rare. It was the first time that the caped trio had ever witnessed these two ponies yelling at one another, and they did not like it or the atmosphere. So the Cutie Mark Crusaders, consisting of Apple Bloom, Sweetie Belle, and Scootaloo, yelled out to put an end to the argument.

“Oh… um, hello girls.” Fluttershy responded first, embarrassed both at her own actions and at the three children for seeing her acting as such.

“Why in Equestria are ya’ll fighting like tha’? Shouldn’t ya be trying to get out of ‘ere?” Apple Bloom piped up, asking these questions in the same thick southern accent shared with her sister.

“Please stop fighting.” Sweetie Belle whimpered with teary puppy dog eyes.

Rainbow Dash and Fluttershy looked to the upset crusaders with pangs of guilt already shooting through them. They looked to one another, with fresh memories of their angry words shot out to one another, turned back to the crusaders, and hung their heads in shame.

“We’re sorry.”

“Yeah, sorry you had to see that…” Rainbow’s apology was followed by a pause for thought as realisation kicked in, “Hold on a minute, what are you three doing in the Everfree Forest?”

The three crusaders simply grinned as Scootaloo started off by saying, “Well we heard what happened Rainbow Dash and so we decided to try out for our cartography cutie marks.”

“Cutie Mark Crusaders Cartographers!”

As per usual the three ecstatic fillies looked to their flanks only to find them blank.

“Aww, but mah map is perfect and everythin’” Apple Bloom whined as she and her two club members pouted.

Fluttershy raised an eye as she quizzed the trio, “But why would you be trying to get your cutie marks in cartography… and in the Everfree forest? It’s not safe here.”

Scootaloo grimaced a little as a certain recent memory began to rise up in her mind, “Well earlier this day we came to the forest to try out for out lumberjack cutie marks buuut Sweetie Belle went a little coo-coo.”

Rainbow Dash and Fluttershy knew crazy well, if not for the fact that they hung out with Pinkie Pie then for Twilight’s recent psychotic breakdowns and so the two asked, “How coo-coo…?”

Sweetie Belle, with axe in mouth swung fiercely at the tree. Her friends cheered her on as she hacked away at the thick bark, each dull sounding blow of the bladed tool earning her praise and encouragement. Soon the tree began to stagger, its foundation lacking as more and more of it was killed off by the axe wielding filly and soon after it leaned to one side and collapsed to the ground.

“Timber!” Scootaloo shouted as she and Apple Bloom ran on up to the unicorn filly.

“That was awesome Sweetie Belle, you’re sure to get a cutie mark for that,” The bow wearing filly exclaimed as she patted her weapon wielding friend on the back, but after receiving no response asked with concern, “Sweetie Belle?”

Sweetie Belle continued to clench the wooden handled axe firmly with her teeth, her vacant eyes staring down at the downed tree. Her look continuing to be vacant, a laugh muffled by her wielded weapon arose from her and she soon waddled on up to the next tree and began hacking away at it with joy. With each swing, with each timber, Sweetie Belle laughed more and more.

“I like chopping things!”

“T-That’s nice Sweetie.” Fluttershy replied with great amounts of concern as the younger sister of Rarity stared vacantly into the past, remembering the fun experience of wielding an axe.

Rainbow Dash dug the ground a little with her hoof and asked the group, “So then, are we going to get out of this forest or are we going to wait until something tries to eat us? I’d like to get my wing checked out soon.”

“Oh gosh, your wings broken ain’t it.”

“My wing isn’t broken, just sprained!”

“Hey Rainbow Dash, Rainbow Dash.” Scootaloo called for her idol’s attention while jumping on the spot, only stopping her action once she had grabbed Dash’s attention, “Where’d you get that wicked bracelet?”

“This?” The garmented pegasus of cyan coat clarified the question, “It’s some old artefact thingy that Twilight got from princess Luna. Me and Fluttershy tried them on, can’t get them off, and they now force me and Fluttershy to stay together.”

Scootaloo and Sweetie Belle had differing expressions to this news, the former looked aghast while the second had a face full of excitement and curiosity. In union, Scootaloo began asking with dread and Sweetie Belle began asking eagerly, “So does that mean you and Fluttershy have been sleep-“

“Say, doesn’t tha’ there writin’ look familiar to ya’ll.”

All eyes turned to Apple Bloom, who had her head tilted as she looked at the bracelets worn by both Rainbow Dash and Fluttershy.

“What writing? These bracelets don’t have any…” Rainbow Dash had held up her bracelets only to see that true to the farm filly’s words there was some form of inscription on the bracelets, “…huh, that wasn’t there before.”

Fluttershy looked to her own and saw the same inscription upon her garment, an inscription that was foreign both to the ponies language and to the ponies memory, “I don’t remember any of this on the bracelets before.”

“Now that you mention it, those funny symbols look like those other funny symbols we saw.” Scootaloo added, the garmented pegasus turning their attention once again to the crusaders.

“Girls, you’ve seen these symbols before.”

“Yeah!” Sweetie Belle perked up, waving her hoof beyond the castle, “We saw them in this treeless spot of the Everfree forest when we were mapmaking… after they took away my axe.”

“We’ve even got it marked on our map, see.” Apple Bloom displayed the map to the adults, while Scootaloo pointed the spot on the map where they had seen the ancient scribbles.

Fluttershy and Rainbow Dash looked to each other, matching thoughts invading their heads, “Hey, you reckon you could take us to this place? Maybe we’ll get a clue to getting these bracelets off, or find something that’ll help Twilight get these bracelets off.”

“Sure!” The crusaders yelled out with excitement as they began leading their older friends deeper into the woods.

As the five ponies trotted past the ancient castle, heading towards an equally ancient place, something saw them. This something began to follow.

Once more did our protagonists venture through the forest, though this time the chance for silence was zero. The three excited cutie mark crusaders led the way, pointing out landmarks here and there, and informing the pegasus of each one they had named. If they were not busy showing off their navigation skills, which aside from getting the terms north, east, south and west muddled up, were actually pretty good, then they were hailing the two mares with a barrage of questions.

“Are those bracelets uncomfortable?”

“Not at all, there actually very light and smooth on the skin.”

“Rainbow Dash, can you give me some flying pointers this week? I’m sure my cutie mark must have something to do with flying.”

“Y-yeah, sure but… I can’t with these bracelets on. Why don’t you try bowling, I’m sure you could get an awesome cutie mark in bowling.”

“Do you like to chop things?”

“…”

To some, this would have been a blessing, the chirpy cheery chatter of fillies buzzing in their ears and fending off any foreboding silence. To others of course they’d prefer to be banished to the deepest pit of Tartarus and find such an act merciful. It was currently the former, although Rainbow Dash and Fluttershy were beginning to feel themselves falling into the second example as the crusaders continued on and on. So it was a good thing that the memory would be remembered as a decent one, for it was then that the crusaders halted their questions and chose to start stating things.

“Here it is!”

The crusaders shouted with glee as they ran on over to a wall of trees and slipped through the small gaps between them. Fluttershy and Rainbow Dash tagged behind them at a slower rate, having a harder time squeezing through the trees and into the clearing.

Perhaps the pegasi were expecting something a little grander, for no look of wonder or awe came onto their faces as they witnessed the clearing in all its… emptiness. It was a large clearing, surrounded by a ring of trees that seemingly cut it off from the rest of the forest, a barricade from anything that might harm the clearing and its… rock. In the centre of the hard, dirt patched floor where grass refused to grow was a poorly constructed slab. A jagged, hard boulder with ancient words frustratingly carved into it. Otherwise the landscape was bare and barren, looking as rustic as the bracelets attached to the blue and yellow ponies now within the clearing.

Apple Bloom, Sweetie Belle, and Scootaloo had surrounded the rock, running around it in a desperate attempt to find something interesting about it. Fluttershy and Rainbow Dash were also able to inspect it, and then compare it to the writing that had appeared on the bracelets.

“Well, it looks to be the same language.” Dash remarked as she looked too and fro between the rock and her cursed attachment.

“… Twilight did say that the bracelets were made by a race that lived in the forest… maybe they carved these words into this rock.”

“They did a pretty cruddy job of it.”

Scootaloo was the first to have grown bored with studying the rock, and took to looking for something else. With nothing else in sight though she took to wandering around, her head down in boredom. Lazy eyed she watched the ground as she moved, the dusty dirt and each of its… intricate… holes?

Placing her hoof to the murky outline she traced it and then shouted, “Hey, everypony, the grounds been written on too.”

Catching the attention of all who were there, the remaining four ponies trotted on up to Scootaloo and looked down to see what she saw. Though hard to make out and requiring brushing some of the dirt and dust aside, the others confirmed that Scootaloo was right.

“Why would anypony be writin’ in the dirt?” Apple Bloom wondered aloud, tapping at the ground.

“Yeah, it’s not even the same language as what’s on the rock… I think.” Sweetie Belle tried to follow each of the many lines, trying to decode the many, many foreign languages.

“You’re right, that,” Rainbow pointed to one of the many written symbols on the ground, “that is Minotaur for… something. I don’t know what it means but I’ve seen it in the land of the Minotaur’s.”

“If, if there’s Taurian here then maybe, maybe there’s Equestrian here too.” Fluttershy suggested, and with something to do the group got to work.

Scooting back and forth, constantly looking to the ground and reading word after word that made no sense to any of them, it’s no small wonder that they ended up crashing into one another, and even obtaining headaches from the mental work they were putting themselves through.

“Hey, if any of you spot it in Griffon, I can read that too.” Dash remarked as she scouted the ground for both the languages she was fluent in.

“Ah’m surprised that ya know how to speak that there fancy language, never gonna ‘ere me speakin’ those funny words.” The bow tied earth pony replied, but chose to follow Rainbow’s words all the same in spotting the other language.

“No need, I found Equestrian!” Sweetie Belle hollered, all others rushing to her and dishing out praise.

“Now let’s see, what does it say?” Fluttershy asked as she and the others brushed aside the remaining dirt that obscured the message.

Once it was clear, Rainbow Dash having the loudest and clearest voice began to read it out.

“In every tongue so all may learn, the words written that shall be remembered. For every tree that grows in these parts, there once was a faun that lived and thrived. Let this ground be sacred and undisturbed, here lies the last of the fauns.”

Silence was the only appropriate response to this information, the riddance of good cheer a melancholic form of respect for what they now knew to be a graveyard of sorts. The five ponies looked glumly from the scribed ground and equally glumly to the memorial in the centre. With a dip of their heads, a curt bow was given.

They continued to move without a word between them, and it was only once they had made their way out of the circle of the eternally resting fauns that any of them felt like attempting to banish the sombre atmosphere.

“Well that was a downer.” Scootaloo was the first to say anything, a hint of irritation at the loss of her earlier cheeriness.

The other crusaders nodded with their friend, while Rainbow Dash decided to steer the topic away from the purpose of the place and towards their original objective, “Would have been nice to have found out something to get these bracelets off.”

“But we did… didn’t we?” Fluttershy said with some traces of uncertainty.

“…I don’t remember finding out anything useful, we already knew that these things were made by an extinct race and that place didn’t say anything about these bracelets.”

“But Rainbow Dash,” Fluttershy urged her friend to stop, along with the crusaders, “The words on that memorial were written in their language, and the words we read were those exact words re-written in Equestrian.”

“…Which means we’ve just found a rough guide on how to translate their language into Equestrian! You’re right!” Rainbow Dash exclaimed, shooting her hooves up into the air with glee, “This is actually turning out all right.”

“Yeah!” Sweetie Belle decided to say, “To think we’ve been walking through the most dangerous place in Equestria and absolutely nothing went wrong at all.”

The trees closest to the group were then ripped out of the ground and flung through the air.

“Sweetie Belle,” Apple Bloom began to say as the five ponies watched the emerging monster rise up into full view, “Ah think ya jinxed us.”

The monster was like nothing that any of them had seen or heard of before. It had now reached its full height and peeked above the haunted trees of the nightmarish forest. Its body consisted of plants and vegetation, all stuck together by a grey bubbling slime. It bubbled, and made what looked like a giant gaping mouth in the direction of the group. Three of them looked to it petrified with fear and disgust, two of them looked at it with bewilderment.

Eventually, Rainbow Dash and Sweetie Belle said in union, “It sort of looks like toast.”

“How in the hay does that look like toast!”

The upper half of the slug-like creature appeared to face the group, it being somewhat hard to tell due to said creature’s lack of a face, and appeared to acknowledge the presence of the group. Its upper-half bobbed a little, both up and down as well as side to side.

“M-maybe it’s friendly.” Fluttershy thought aloud, only for Rainbow Dash to pull her and the crusaders out of the way of the creature’s body slam.

“Ah think not.” The obvious notation was made as the ponies pulled themselves up onto their hooves.

The creature once again appeared to face the group, turning towards them and in particular, focusing its attention on one rainbow mane pegasus. As a direct result its focus was also on the magically connected Fluttershy. The creature gurgled, trying to speak, yell, roar, despite its lack of mouth, and started to slide towards the ponies.

“Now we run.” Dash put it simply but it was a wise order and one that she and her friends were keen on following, so run they did.

Within the vision faltering darkness the group of ponies made their way based on a their memorise path, retracing their steps and heading back towards the castle. Nothing disturbed their path and with a straight path you would have thought they would be able to generate some distance between them and grey goo but no, it continued to charge and lunge at them with ever increasing speed. The distance between them remained the same, which for the ponies, wasn’t large enough.

Soon the clear path ended, and the routes they could take to escape involved rocks, bumps, trees and cliffs. This proved to be no problem for Scootaloo, leaping over, under and around everything with grace and balance, and the other two crusaders also found it easy to move their way through narrow areas swiftly; the problem was Fluttershy and Rainbow Dash.

Neither could separate, if they went apart and were frozen, then flung into one another, they would have no chance to escape the bubbling abomination. So Rainbow Dash and Fluttershy had to squeeze and climb over all obstacles, close calls aplenty as the monster tore apart and trampled the obstacles that got in its way.

The crusaders continued leading the way, though their shorter legs were starting to grow heavy and their smaller lungs meant their breathing had become ragged. Fluttershy and Rainbow Dash ran on behind them, able to see the fleeting strength from the younger ones.

“Oh, if only we could hide somewhere.”

“Hide? We can’t do that unless we get out of sight of this thing first.” Dash shot down Fluttershy’s suggestion, turning her head round to see the approaching monster, “Nothing seems to be stopping it.”

The monster continued to approach, blockades like trees and rocks being nothing before it, usually flung out of the way. When things became tight it would squeeze it slime based body through the gaps, only being slowed down occasionally when the shrubbery attached to its body became entangled.

“If only we had some bottomless pit that we could dump this guy into!”

Something clicked in Fluttershy’s brain. Her eyes darted around the area, taking in as much of the habitats layout as she could in the midst of fleeing and comparing it with various memories of the place. It was when she found a match between part of the place and the place within her past that her brain went into overdrive.

“Girls, turn left now!” Fluttershy screamed out to the crusaders in front, who followed her order immediately.

“Fluttershy, what are you-“

“I’m sorry Dash, I’ll explain later.” Fluttershy interrupted as they both turned to follow in the direction of the crusaders.

Despite the terrain remaining rough, both adult pegasi urged their legs to work faster and manoeuvred with enough agility to catch up with the three fillies.

“G-girls, when I say jump I want you to jump as far as you can, okay?”

The forest was crushed beneath the still raging beast that continued its pursuit, gurgling more and more in its attempted roars. As to be expected the ponies, who were beginning to tire, found themselves with increased adrenaline as the beast began to speed up, and forced their ragged bodies to move faster. It was as they approached a small clearing, only a little wider than the chasing sludge, that Fluttershy gave order.

“Jump!”

Jump they did, or rather leap, flinging their bodies both high into the air and as far forward as momentum would take them. Their landing was rough, tumbling over one another as they hit the ground, and none of them made it onto their hooves. Fluttershy and Rainbow Dash in their tumble had rolled around in such a way, that as they lay on the ground they could see the monster fast approaching. Either on their backs or flat on their bellies, the group were unable to do a thing as the slime creature finally reached them.

It disappeared.

That was what it looked like at first, but as Rainbow Dash found out when she scrambled to her hooves the monster had in fact fallen down a hole, a previously disguised trap hole that the ponies had leaped over to avoid. The gurgles of the monster echoed from the hole, going on and on, quieter and quieter.

After a while a stupefied Dash asked “Is, Is that hole bottomless?

“I-I don’t think so” Fluttershy murmured through ragged breaths, her willpower to keep on moving finally exhausted.

The sound of the creature finally hitting the bottom; a resounding splat, was heard, followed by an end to the echoing gurgles.

“We can’t stay here!” Dash shouted out with alarm, “What if it climbs out!”

Just then, a load of rocks, held up in a sack above the trap hole, came down upon the trap hole and began to fill it up. Muffled whimpers were the last thing that was heard from the monster as it was buried beneath rubble.

“…I feel sorry for the poor thing, maybe I shouldn’t have used the trap on it.”

The other crusaders were pulling themselves together, in similar states of shock, awe, and confusion that Rainbow Dash was in, whom proceeded to ask, “Two things Fluttershy, the first being no, getting the thing trapped and saving our lives is a good thing. Second, why do you have a pit hole?”

Fluttershy tapped at the floor and murmured back, “It-It’s not mine, Angel Bunny made it.”

Fluttershy expected her friend to say something, make a disbelieving remark or ask a question, but the question was only expressed in Dash’s face and it was only when Fluttershy noticed this face that she continued, “There was once this big bully in the forest who would pick on all the animals… and me. Angel Bunny rigged this area full of traps, and led the guy here, in order to get rid of him.”

Rainbow Dash made a mental note that if she were to confront this rabbit she would have to watch where she stepped afterwards. The Cutie Mark Crusaders had by now recovered and wandered up the pit hole to inspect, cheery smiles on their faces.

“I’m glad that’s over, now nothing can possibly go wrong.”

The bushes nearby moved, causing the trio to jump in fright.

“Ya jinxed us again.” Apple Bloom yelped as she and her friends huddled in fear, Rainbow Dash already in front of them, ready to protect them from the emerging… bunny?

“Angel Bunny.” Fluttershy wondered aloud as the usually discreetly affectionate pet ran on up to his owner and leaped forth with a hug.

Also from the bushes emerged a ragged baby dragon who had to run way beyond his point of exhaustion just to keep up with the rabbit that had caught the scent of his owner, “H-Hi… girls.”

“Hi Spike.” Sweetie Belle chirped with a sing song voice, and skipped on over to the dragon that was often visiting her sister’s boutique, “What cha’ doing here?”

“Hello… Sweetie Belle?” Spike looked up to the unicorn filly, and then to her usual pegasus and earth pony companions, “Scootaloo, Apple Bloom?”

As Angel continued to shower his owner with love and Fluttershy returned it with pampering, Rainbow Dash looked away from all that and focused her attention on Spike, “Yeah Spike, you look shattered.”

“Yeah, well, me and the others have been out looking for you… and I got paired with the brat… and then he started sprinting here…” Spike managed to get out between wheezes and pants “Are you all okay? Your wing isn’t broken is it?”

“No, just sprained.” The injured pegasus sighed and continued to complain, “Seriously, I’ve about as much chance breaking my wing as I do enjoying a book, it just isn’t going to happen.”

“Aww, Angel Bunny.” Fluttershy continued to coo at the sweet and open gesture her cuddling rabbit was providing her but when she thought of further pampering her bossy but beloved pet she stopped. She put on her best serious-scolding-but-not-too-mean-scolding-face and pried off the hugging rabbit, placing him back down on the ground before her. “Now Angel Bunny, you’ve caused a lot of trouble mister.”

Angel hung his head downwards in shame at first before looking up to his owner with tearful eyes brimming with guilt.

“Oh Angel, I know you would never hurt me, and I forgive you for not knowing what the bracelets did. I should have explained it clearer in the beginning.”

Hearing the words of forgiveness, Angel merrily skipped on over, willing to embrace another hug, but found a yellow hoof in the way telling him to stop. “But I’m not the one you should be apologising to.”

The mentioned yellow hoof then turned the rabbit round to face a now grinning cyan pegasus, whose pink eyes gleamed with triumph, “I want you to apologise to Rainbow Dash.”

Angel looked to Rainbow Dash with a frown, then back to his owner with an expression that begged ‘do I have to?’ Fluttershy in turn deepened her own frown, and replied, “Yes Angel, tell Rainbow Dash that you’re sorry.”

This time Angel looked to Rainbow Dash with confusion and kept this expression when he turned to Fluttershy. Fluttershy at first thought her pet was refusing to apologise, but when her rabbit motioned to his mouth she realised, “Oh, yeah, sorry.”

The animal caring pony looked skywards, pondering a way for her pet to apologise in a way that Rainbow Dash would understand, “I know, you can say you’re sorry by giving Rainbow Dash a nice, big hug.”

Angel protested to this suggestion, shaking his head refusal. Rainbow Dash also protested to this by blurting out, “Look, I really don’t need a hug from your rabbit. Can’t you have him grovel for me instead?”

At the suggestion of grovelling to his enemy, Angel decided that he preferred the first, less humiliating option and lunged toward Rainbow Dash with a hug. Dash was not amused to be on the receiving end of a hug from her enemy. Angel was also not amused to be hugging Rainbow Dash and the two took this opportunity to glare at one another, sparks flying between the two bitter rivals.

Their glares communicated much to the other and while the majority of their exchange consisted of varied insults and death threats, the one message they both shared for the other was, ”Let us never speak of this again.”

“Aww, you two get along so well.” One had to wonder the extent of obliviousness Fluttershy had towards the relationship of her best pet and best friend.

As Angel and Rainbow Dash hugged, Fluttershy continued to look to this scene with delight. Scootaloo on the other-hoof chose to look away, not wanting to see her role model forced into doing something so cutesy-wootsey, with Apple Bloom chuckling away at her friend's reaction. While Spike and Sweetie Belle weren’t paying attention to this, the former being too tired to care about much of anything while the latter was merrily chatting away to the reptilian. There were two in the clearing that would have argued this point, but in general a joyous and peaceful atmosphere was felt by all.

It was then that the bushes to both the left and the right of the group began to simultaneously rustle.

“I didn’t say anything this time!” Sweetie yelled out in alarm as out from the bushes came… Applejack and Rarity from one, while Pinkie Pie and Twilight Sparkle from the other bush.

“Fluttershy, Rainbow Dash, thank the stars we found-Sweetie Belle!” Rarity screamed out in surprise at the sight of her sister and friends.

“Apple Bloom what in tarnation are ya’ll doin’ ‘ere?” Applejack did not ask this question, but rather demanded an answer.

Apple Bloom and Sweetie Belle nervously grinned to their older sisters, while Scootaloo coughed in the direction of Rainbow Dash. Rainbow Dash, still being embraced unwillingly by an unwillingly hugging Angel, looked over to Scootaloo and after being on the receiving end of a few winks took note.

“Scootaloo, yeah, you shouldn’t… I’m actually okay with this.”

As Applejack and Rarity were quizzing their younger relatives on why they were in the Everfree forest and lecturing them on being in the Everfree forest, Pinkie Pie and Twilight had their attentions turned to Fluttershy.

“See Twilight, Fluttershy and Rainbow Dash are A-Okay.” Pinkie Pie said with good cheer that hid her disappointment. Not that she was disappointed to see her friends fine and well, but seeing the crusaders with them she knew the chances of her two friends having had secret fun-fun alone time were slim.

“Oh Fluttershy I’m so sorry, this sort of thing wouldn’t have happened if I was more diligent with my research. I-I promise I’ll get these bracelets off as fast as I-

“Twilight, it’s okay, we’re okay.” Fluttershy eased her panicked friend, and thought of ways to please her concerned friend, “In fact, we found something relating to the bracelets thanks to the girls here.”

Curiosity beating away her frantic nerves, Twilight asked, “You found something? In the forest?”

“Yes, a message, written in the same language as those on the artefacts, and it’s been translated into Equestrian.”

Twilight took in this information at light speeds and apparently tried to talk at the same pace as she jumbled over her next couple of words, only making sense once she composed herself, “R-really! That’s wonderful, I’ll be able to get those bracelets off in no time with a translation, or at least I hope I will.”

Twilight Sparkle’s grin drooped a little after the initial excitement as she then reverted back to apologising, “But really, I’m so sorry for all this Fluttershy,” her attention then turned to Rainbow Dash and her damaged wing, “and Rainbow Dash, I’m so sorry about your broken-“

“My! Wing! Isn’t! Broken!”

What We Once Were.

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Chapter 7: What We Once Were!

Fluttershy awoke with hooves wrapped around her, her body weighed down by another laying on top of her, and able to see little else but the dreamy face of her friend, a friend whose muzzle lightly brushed against the side of her face. This was normal now.

Fluttershy waking up to find Rainbow Dash had ensnared her into an awkward position—in this case the cyan pegasus was hugging her, hooves wrapped around her body, and the athlete’s toned body sprawled on top of hers—was normal. Before, such an awkward wake up would have caused Fluttershy to blush, fluster, and start trying to worm her way out from underneath her bed mate. Now, she only blushed, the warmth of another mare’s gently pressed body being the cause for it, and chose to slowly usher Rainbow Dash out of slumber.

“R-Rainbow Dash… Rainbow Dash, could you please wake up?” Fluttershy said softly.

Such a voice would usually be too quiet to hear, but in their current position —wake up position number three Fluttershy had decided to term it—their heads were next to one another, and so her words trickled into the rainbow mane pony’s ear.

“Wuh-wha…?” Rainbow mumbled. She raised her head slowly from beside Fluttershy’s, and with half-asleep eyes, looked to her friend.

“R-Rainbow Dash.” Fluttershy stuttered out. Though the frequently blushing pegasus had managed to compose herself in waking up to her sleeping friend, having the same mare—whom she could not help but find attractive—looking to and holding her when awake always got her heart thumping. “Y-You’re on… top of me… a-again. Could you please…?”

Fluttershy would have said more—mustered the rest of the words from her brain that was distracted by other, more bodily thoughts—but Rainbow Dash had already complied. Rainbow rolled off of Fluttershy… and off the bed.

“…Ow.”

“I’m pretty sure we shouldn’t be doing this.” Rainbow Dash stated with a clear voice, a deceitful voice that hid her nervousness unlike the beads of sweat running down her forehead.

Since Fluttershy and Rainbow Dash’s adventure in the Everfree Forest, one week had passed.

Fluttershy slid her hooves gently against Rainbow Dash’s as she whispered into Dash’s ear, “It’s okay, we can do this. Together.”

Within that week the two pegasus had enjoyed many a relaxing day, having grown used to the magical bracelets that had disrupted their former day-to-day activities, and even now had a routine for the day.

“I assure you, you’ll be fine,” Fluttershy continued to encourage her friend, her hoof remaining entangled with Rainbow’s, “You will feel really proud of yourself once you’ve finished.”

Also within that time, Fluttershy and Rainbow Dash’s friendship had continued to prosper, and as of the moment they were engaging in their regular morning activity.

“Okay, I’m doing it.” Dash declared as she finally went along with Fluttershy’s suggestion, and did something she never thought she would be doing.

Rainbow Dash poured the milk into the bowl of cereal. Astonishingly, this time it did not catch on fire.

As if retrieving a useful tool from a treasure chest, Rainbow raised the bowl containing her breakfast meal above her head and proclaimed to the world, “I have made cereal!”

“Yay.”

Enjoying their time together, games were played as Rainbow Dash and Fluttershy competed in Battleclouds, chatted with friends, and went about enjoying their fellow connected ponies hobbies as best they could. This of course was much easier for Fluttershy’s interests than Rainbow’s, and as such, spending time with the animals was a more frequent activity than flying about at top speeds.

In turn with spending time with the animals, Fluttershy continued to fulfil her role as an animal caretaker, with Rainbow Dash stuck as her assistant. Luckily for her, she had been given a leave of absence from her weather duties—granted to her when Twilight visited the mayor to explain the duo’s situation and Mayor Mare began screaming hysterically, “Please don’t make me fall in love with a doll again, I’ll do anything!”

Twilight still regrets not asking for more funds to her library.

Like the majority of things the two did though, Rainbow Dash got used to working with the animals, and even enjoyed tending to the birds and flying insects. Other jobs would also arise though, and due to one such recent incident, Rainbow Dash and Fluttershy were up on the tree house’s roof fixing a hole.

“I can’t believe—nail,” Rainbow Dash asked for another nail, requiring one to fix the wooden board down with the hammer beside her, “that there was another one of those toast monsters.”

Fluttershy positioned a nail right where Dash needed it, and grasping a hammer in her mouth the mare began hammering said nail in.

“I-It was pretty scary, and to think it was right outside Rarity’s boutique. I’m so glad she and Sweetie Belle were at the Sisterhooves Social that day. I don’t want to imagine what it could have done to them,” Fluttershy voiced her concerns amidst Rainbow’s hammer time. “…I’m pretty sure it wasn’t toast though.”

Rainbow Dash spit out the hammer in order to reply, “I know it doesn’t look like toast, but it just reminds me of it, the way it wobbled and all.”

Fluttershy smiled back, quite assured that the two monsters that had been encountered recently were in no way related to toast. What they were was not a huge concern for her though, she was simply glad that they were able to deal with both of them, luring the second one to another, albeit hastily dug, trap-hole.

Speaking of trap-holes, an expert maker of such trickery was at that moment climbing up to the roof with a tray of tea and salad sandwiches balanced on his head.

Dash snickered gleefully, “Oh, is it grub time already?”

Fluttershy beamed at her favourite pet as she relocated the tray with delectable treats off of his head, and then gently onto a flat part of the roof. “Thank you very much, Angel Bunny.”

Angel’s ears picked up on these words of gratitude and he beamed a smug grin in response. Humbly taking the praise, he wasted no further time in handing to his owner a saucer and a tea cup, the latter filled with the calming green tea his owner liked. He then turned to Rainbow Dash, still with a smile on his face. It was with this continued smile that the rabbit went on to serve Rainbow Dash.

“Thank you Angel,” Rainbow replied warmly as she accepted her tea cup of cola.

Since Angel had learnt of the bracelets, understanding that it was not some sinister scheme of Rainbow Dash’s to steal his owner away from him, a vast improvement had been found in the relationship between the two of them.

The moment Fluttershy looks away I'm going to kick you off this roof.

“The moment my owner looks away I’m going to murder you.”

Perhaps it was not quite vast, but an improvement in how they got along was still true. So long as Fluttershy was there though—pleased to see that they were getting along—they were willing to postpone their fight. However, even if at that point they had begun trading blows they would have soon been interrupted by an attention grabbing shout.

“Rainbow Dash! Fluttershy! Down here!” was yelled up to the pegasi, who, along with the white furred pet, looked down from the roof to see Spike by the bridge.

“Hey Spike!” Rainbow Dash yelled back down to the smiling assistant. “How’s it going?”

The smile on the dragon’s face turned to a grin. “Great! In fact, I’ve got some good news from Twilight to tell you about.”

The pegasi’s attention had already been gained, but now their interests had been well—both of them leaning a little further over the edge, “Really, what news?”

“Twilight…” Spike began to say, but paused for dramatic effect, “… has figured out how to remove the bracelets.”

Rainbow’s gasp of excitement was so loud that Fluttershy’s response went unheard. Ecstatically, she then flew down to Spike in order to confirm, “Really, Twilight’s really, really?”

“Really, really.”

“Yes!” The thrilled pony yelled out, hooves shooting out to the air.

Spike watched Rainbow start an airborne dance of glee. He also looked on behind Rainbow Dash to see a dazed Fluttershy, whom had apparently been knocked to the side and stunned when Rainbow took off towards him as quick as she did.

Then Spike put two and two together. “Um, Rainbow, haven’t five seconds—”

Spike received the answer to his half-asked question when the bracelets magic activated, froze both the pegasus, and threw them into one another.

The dragon was unsure whether he should sigh with irony, babble on with concern, or start chuckling in amusement. So he did none of these things, just walked on up to the collapsed pile of ponies.

“Well, I’m not going to be missing this.” Rainbow groaned as she rolled her even more dazed friend off of her, stood up, and addressed her friend, “C’mon Fluttershy, no time to be lazing about, we have to get to Twilight’s.”

“O-okay.” Fluttershy mumbled as she was helped to her hooves.

“Yeah, about that, Twilight says she won’t be removing them today.”

Rainbow Dash did a mental flip at this piece of news, and after stuttering over her own fast paced words, blurted out, “Why not?”

“I dunno.” Spike shrugged, “She said she needed to double-check things, something about it being too simple. The point is she wants to see you tomorrow, once she’s finished checking things over.”

“Awww.”

“Okay then, though, if it’s not too much trouble, would it be okay if we visit first thing in the morning?” Fluttershy queried, having finally got her head steady.

“Should be okay,” Spike answered. Then, with a short bow, he then bid adieu. “Seeya tomorrow.”

“You too Spike!” Rainbow Dash called back to the dragon as he parted back to Ponyville.

As Spike left, voices became mute. That is not to say that sound was lacking—Fluttershy’s various pets made sure of that, birds tweeting and chipmunks munching. Angel was also in the process of hopping down from the roof, with his little bounces rustling the branches and stirred the leaves out of their place. This was also not an awkward form of silence; there were no words that either pony feared to say, only emotions stirring inside.

Rainbow Dash, of course, was the first to let loose her emotions, “Woo-hoo! No more bracelets, no more being stuck together! Isn’t this amazing Fluttershy?”

“O-oh, yes.” Fluttershy replied with a weak smile, her happiness being pushed down by… some other kind of emotion—something which bothered her.

“I don’t see why I should feel… disappointed at this news but… I’m just being silly.” The troubled mare set her mind to pushing away the oddly sombre feelings and focused on the general cheer oozing from Rainbow Dash.

“Yeah, we can finally do things we want to do!”

“R-Rainbow Dash is happy, so I should also be happy. I’m happy.”

“Now we don’t have to continue spending every second of our lives like some blissful lovey-dovey married couple!”

“…I feel sad now.”

The rest of the day was a blur for the two protagonists, albeit for different reasons. Rainbow Dash was filled with excitement, her mind—and in turn, her mouth—buzzed with ideas of what she would be doing once the bracelets were removed. As the two tended to the pets, she talked about how she would be performing every flight trick she knew. As the two went shopping for groceries, she talked about how she would scour the skies for the best clouds and make the cushiest bed in all of Equestria. As the two sorted out the groceries for Angel to cook up dinner, she talked about how she would clean her house—something she had never even done before having the bracelets on.

Fluttershy, on the other hoof, was troubled with conflicting emotions, and ultimately knew not whether she should be happy or sad—relieved or regretful. As the two ate their dinners, she mulled over her jumbled thoughts. As the two cleaned their teeth, she pondered why she was feeling anything negative at all in regards to what should be nothing but joyous news. As the two settled down into bed—accompanied by her pet rabbit—she remained awake with a heavy heart.

Rainbow and Angel slept silently, leaving Fluttershy only with her thoughts to keep her company. It was these thoughts that kept her awake, and within the silence the thoughts echoed, bounding from Fluttershy’s head before fading into the darkness of the night.

"I wonder when my feelings of friendship became something more?"

Fluttershy asked herself this question as she laid in her bed, her body taking comfort in the plush butterfly blanket over her while her mind remained ill at ease.

"I'm sure it couldn't have been immediately. I remember feeling grateful, and admiring her and us becoming friends but..."

Fluttershy's thoughts continued to roam at the forefront of her mind, troubling her, as the more she thought of her initial question the less likely she felt in finding an answer.

"I don't know when I started wishing we were something more, but I started too, and the thought of it was nice."

The yellow mare tugged on the blanket adorned with her cutie mark, though in shades of red and purple rather than her own pink ones, pulling the coverage closer round her.

"But then, before I could act, we went our separate ways."

The blankets began to move away from her but she did not notice as she stared blankly in the direction of the ceiling, overshadowed by pitch black darkness.

"But then we managed to meet again, only a couple of years later, but something had changed."

She raised her right hoof that contrasted with the palette of the night to her forehead, only just now noticing her coverless body.

"I didn't feel quite the same with her as I did back then, the more intense feelings I had...had faded."

If one could have been in the room, gone about unnoticed, and pierced through the darkness they would have seen a look of certainty that was rarely seen on the shy mare's face.

"I was sure then; that back then my feelings was but a crush and one that had disappeared forever."

Fluttershy turned over in the bed, and what she saw to the left of her made her look of certainty be replaced by its exact opposite.

"So why..?"

Fluttershy couldn't help but watch the fellow pegasus beside her, whose coat complimented the night's hues much better than her own, and whose mind was so at ease she was able to whistle a cheery tune in her sleep.

"Why are Rainbow Dash and I in bed together?"

Fluttershy eyes welled up with tears as memories emerged in her head and pain jolted from her racing heart.

“Why now? When I no longer love her, why is all this happening? Why…”

Fluttershy closed her teary eyes and forced her mind and body with every bit of will to succumb to sleep, to allow her an escape from herself.

“...Why am I falling in love with her again?”

This was Fluttershy’s last thought before her wish for sleep was achieved; however, while she was escaping from her thoughts, she was not escaping from her troubles. Fluttershy drifted to sleep, and found herself lost within the memories of her past.

The memories of her, and the best friend she loved.

I remember, treasure that day. That day long ago, when the two of us first became friends. It was when I was just a filly; I had decided to go to flight camp over the summer break. It was there that I had met Rainbow Dash, who appeared before me to defend me from those bullies. It was also the time that both of us got our cutie marks, and when the race was over and I was safely delivered back to flight camp, we got around to talking with one another.

“…and that is all one hundred reasons why I’m awesome.” Okay, it was mostly Rainbow Dash talking. “So, what about you?”

“Oh, uh, me?” I was quite content with listening to my friend talk—content with being able to apply the term ‘friend’ to another pony once again.

“Yes you. So far, all I know is your name and your ability to command a legion of demons.”

“T-there not demons.”

“You know, we could probably take over all of Equestria with your demon army.”

“T-take over Equestria!? ”

I was rather naïve then, and I only realised she was joking when she cheekily grinned and put her hoof a round my shoulder, saying with merriment, “I’m just kidding, we’re the good guys after all.”

I did not know how to respond to any of this. If it was with anypony else I would have assumed I was being picked on, but the comfort of her hoof on my body and the glow of her smile all served to calm me It made me know that she meant no harm and it was all said with a good nature.

“So Fluttershy, tell me more about you. I kind of need to know more about my friend than just her name.” Just her mentioning me as her friend brought a wide smile onto my face, one I could not stop. It felt good to be called someponies friend again.

“I-I’m… shy.”

“I would never have guessed.”

It was so strange how we became friends. We had so little in common and acted nothing like one another. Yet from then on, we were always together. The first thing we would do when we woke up each morning was find each other, talk about random subjects, and spend each day with one another. Rainbow Dash would spend most of it performing flight tricks and giving me pointers. I would spend most of it talking about different animals and trying to convince Rainbow Dash they are not an army of cutthroat demons preparing to lay waste to Equestria upon my command. Regardless of what we did and despite neither of us enjoying the other's hobbies, we enjoyed it simply because we were there together as friends.

Of course a problem was fast approaching, one that threatened our friendship. We had become friends at summer flight camp, and summer did not last forever.

“Say Fluttershy, what school do you go to?” It was only a couple of days until we would part, never to see each other again, and so this question was expected.

“Cloudsdale Public School.” Cloudsdale was well known for having several well-built, well-staffed, and well educated schools. Cloudsdale Public was not one of them. “And you, Rainbow Dash?”

“O-Oh I, uh… go to a different school.” With Rainbow’s stuttering words we both felt a sense of defeat, the chance for us to remain friends quite possibly gone forever. It was the first moment of uneasy silence between us and my thoughts at the time strayed into what it will be like to return once again to friendlessness. Rainbow Dash had by then been fidgeting, her hoof nervously pulling up clumps of cloud out of the current spot, before working up the courage to utter, “B-but I could always transfer there, after the summer break.”

I had looked up to her with moist eyes and asked despondently, “How?”

“I’ll… ask my parents, beg them if I have to,” Rainbow had started off by saying and then rose up to state some of the happiest words I would hear in my life, “You and me, we’re best friends for life! There isn’t anything that’s going to be separating us! So believe me, I’ll talk to my parents and come school time, we’ll be going together.”

I smiled, grinned even, and let out the loudest cheer I could. Rainbow Dash was right next to me, and she couldn’t even hear it.

I remember exiting the carriage not feeling sad. For the first time in a long while, pessimistic thoughts were banished from my mind, to which I had the knowledge of knowing that I would be able to see Rainbow Dash again when school started up to thank. As of that moment though, the only thing on my mind was running home and telling my parents all about my very best friend. Dad always worked late, but I could tell mum all about it, and stay up until dad got back.

I made my way along the bumpy path and arrived to a lone cloud house, lower down than most of the other houses and starting to dilapidate. This was my home. Despite my excitement, I made sure to push open and close the door gently—for fear of breaking it—and only then bounded as fast I could to see mum.

Due to poor fitness though, I was out of breath by the time I had reached her but she waited until I caught my breath.

“Oh mum, I’ve made a friend, I’ve made a friend!” I’m sure I spoke too fast for my mum to hear but she didn’t complain.

“Her-Her-Her name’s Rainbow Dash and she’s cool and heroic and, and…” I droned on and on about my best friend and my mum listened patiently to every word I had to say.

It must have been over an hour, just telling my mum about Rainbow Dash and all the things we had done together at summer flight camp. I made sure to leave out any mention of the bullies though; I did not want to worry her. Besides, with Rainbow Dash around, I never would have to fear bullies ever again.

I only stopped talking in fact when my tummy began to rumble and I realised how hungry I was, “I-I think I should go cook dinner, I’ll be back to tell you more about her mum.”

Then I went off to prepare dinner for myself, as well as for when dad would arrive home later. My mum smiled to this and watched me go without saying a word. It would have been a little scary if she had.

After all, photos don’t talk back.

Days passed, and I returned to Cloudsdale Public School for another new year. I arrived as early in the morning as I could so I could see everypony that arrived. Then I waited—in a corner where nopony could see me of course—until I could re-encounter my best friend.

It was not hard to spot a rainbow mane pegasus within the crowd of students, and I began to approach her. Slowly of course, running and calling out her name risked bringing attention to me, something I dislike even to this day. Unfortunately this was Rainbow Dash I was going to meet, and the moment she spotted me heading towards her, she did the exact thing I had been avoiding: running up and yelling.

“Fluttershy!”

As Dash sped on up to greet me, calling out my name, I froze. I could just feel it, everyponies' eyes briefly flickering towards me. But this was brief—they decided they were not interested in me or my friend—and went back to their own business.

“Hey Fluttershy, you’re zoning out.” Rainbow snapped me out of my worried thoughts, and brought my attention back towards her.

“I-I’m sorry, Rainbow Dash I—”

“Don’t worry about it.” Rainbow cut me off—as per usual—when I tried to apologise, grabbed me by the shoulder and began ruffling my mane.

After being freed from her grip with a now messy mane, Rainbow went on to ask me all the usual questions, and of course, talking about all the flying and racing she’s been doing. I was much happier when she talked about the latter; I preferred to listen than talk about myself. Our conversation was cut short by the ring of the school bell, and Rainbow began leading the way to the door.

“C’mon Fluttershy, I’m new here. You’ve got to show me around the place,” Dash told me while taking the lead to the school.

Her actions weren’t quite matching her words, though when she did reach the doors she did stop and wait for me. Then when I got there she continued to wait. For another few seconds, she continued to watch the doors impatiently, and began to stomp the ground with her hooves.

“Um… Rainbow Dash, we can go in now.” I was starting to worry about how the other ponies, who were just getting to the doors, would react if we were blocking the way.

Rainbow looked at me, clearly confused, and asked, “Are these door’s broken? They aren’t opening.”

I went up and pushed the doors open.

“O-oh, they aren’t… never mind, I knew that,” Rainbow Dash said as she walked with me into the building.

This was the first tip I had that Rainbow Dash went to a very different school before, and the first tip that she was from a quite different area of Cloudsdale than I was. She had never spoken much about her school, her home, or even her family back at flight camp. Instead, conversations were usually about her hobbies, her skills, and what she wanted to do in the future. At the time, I didn’t think much of it—I did not want to think my closest friend was hiding something from me—but as the day went on this became more apparent.

Dashing. Rainbow Prismatic Dashing. I remember distinctly how Rainbow cringed as soon as her full name left the teacher's mouth. When walking through the school corridors Rainbow would comment on the lack of paintings and portraits on the walls. She also found it surprising that the school lacked a swimming pool. The biggest giveaway must have been when Rainbow Dash brought in 30 bits to pay for a school lunch; it only cost her 3 bits here, and lacked hors d’oeuvres.

It became apparent that Rainbow Dash was hiding something, but I kept quiet about this. I was sure she had her reasons. She wasn’t very good at keeping it a secret though, and I eventually found out about it on her birthday when I had to fly over an electrified fence, sneak past security guards, swim across an outdoor swimming pool, and befriend guard falcons just to deliver her a birthday present. On my birthday Rainbow Dash did not have anywhere near as much as I had in delivering a birthday present to me.

As we spent more and more time with each other, we learnt even more about each other, about things we were afraid at first to tell the other like our backgrounds and families. It was truly miraculous how we managed to get along with such contrasting backgrounds, statuses, personalities, hobbies. We had so very little in common, yet we were always together—like magnets.

With Rainbow Dash around, I never would have to worry about bullies for too long. Even if we had been attending different classes, Dash would always—hee-hee—dash to where I was, and protect me. When she would get injured from the fights—scuffles she would always win—I would always help tend to her injuries. We would play games we both enjoyed like Battleclouds and hide and go seek, or ones we knew the other liked and enjoyed only for the company we were in, like bird watching and stunt flights. We really would go everywhere together and I have many fond memories of us together in Cloudsdale, like the time we found a small cloud tunnel where birds would hide in to rest, or when Rainbow Dash took me to a Starsong concert.

With our ups in life came downs, and as to be expected of our opposing personalities we would sometimes argue. Okay, Rainbow Dash would sometimes argue but it was usually my fault. Rainbow Dash would always endure my hobbies, and even if she made no attempt to hide her boredom or displeasure she would always stick with me through it all. When it came to some of her more active or dangerous activities I would be too scared to try, worried about the possibilities of things going wrong. We would always make up in the end, always remain friends, and it was one of these down moments that made me realise that maybe… maybe I did not want Rainbow Dash as a friend.

Rainbow Dash had been trying to get me to do a stunt with her. It was a risky stunt requiring two pegasi, and I knew there was no way I could do it, and so refused. Rainbow Dash got mad as I insisted I couldn’t do it and began to yell. Eventually she turned away from me, fuming, and I remained curled up, trying to stop my sobbing. Minutes passed, and as I would usually think in those times I began to think of how much Rainbow Dash must hate me. I was always so selfish, always holding her back, and I knew that one day even she wouldn’t be able to put with me. As these thoughts grew within the silent moment between us it became harder and harder to mask my sobs.

“Fluttershy,” Rainbow Dash said quietly, and I looked up to her with teary eyes, her back facing me. “You should take up some sports… and become a Wonderbolt.”

“W-Why?”

“Because,” Rainbow Dash turned around, and pulled me into a hug, "then you'd be my three favourite things combined."

"Three favourite things?"

Rainbow pulled away from me, and after looking into those eyes—those clear, rosy eyes—she smiled. "An athlete, a Wonderbolt," Rainbow lifted a forehoof, and gently placed it upon my chest—upon my heart, "and you."

This compliment made me smile. It made me feel happy, safe, and… warm? Along with my smile and all sorts of happy feelings that arose in me I felt my heart racing. I felt funny, but in a good way, in a way I wanted to be.

Maybe I did not want Rainbow Dash as a friend. Maybe I wanted her as something more.

Over time, I realised that I liked mares… a lot. I would often overhear the mares at school talking about the stallions—their looks mostly—and hear the mares discussing the stallions' looks, their manes, their voices… and mostly their bodies. All I could think about where the sound of the mares' voices, admire their looks, and… think things… about their bodies. When I saw a mare and stallion hanging out together I thought nothing of it. When I saw a stallion and a stallion together I still thought nothing of it. However, a mare and a mare together? Every small touch, every sweet gesture, I misconstrued what were more than likely just friendships, but the thought of two mares together, romantically sharing hugs and kisses and… very special moments made me happy and envious at once. I wished that I could be one of them, to have a special somepony, and for some reason I wished for that special somepony to be a mare.

Over time I realised I liked Rainbow Dash… a lot. Slowly I wanted to hear every word she spoke, not out of courtesy, but simply to hear her voice. I looked at her face to face whenever I could, so that I could gaze into her pearly pink eyes, take in the sight of her firm jaw, and long for her daring smile. I even caught myself studying her body, my eyes would flitter up and down to inspect every curve, and then my heart and wings would both begin fluttering. I wished for a special somepony, I wished for a special somepony that was a mare. I wished for a special somepony that was Rainbow Dash.

I decided I wouldn’t act. What we both had—her and I—as best friends forever, I was comfortable with it and she was comfortable with it. I wanted her as my special somepony, but I didn’t want to be greedy, nor did I want to risk harming our friendship, so I stayed quiet about my feelings and stuck to enjoying our friendship. After all, it had always been just me and Rainbow Dash. Sure she was athletic and well known around school, but as for friends, she told me herself that I was the only one she considered a friend, and this had been true for several years now, so it always was going to be true. It’s not like Rainbow Dash would become really close friends with somepony else… and she didn’t become friends with somepony else

Gilda was a griffon.

When Gilda was introduced to the class, all of the ponies backed away. All except Rainbow Dash, who approached her excitedly. Rainbow saw Gilda—a big, strong griffon—as cool and interesting, and wasted no time in trying to get to know her. As for Gilda, I’m sure this made her really happy. They soon became friends, and as was natural to occur, Rainbow Dash introduced me to Gilda.

“And this is Fluttershy,” Rainbow announced to her feathered friend as she pushed my quivering, shaking body towards said feathered friend.

“H-h-hello Gilda,” I managed to mumble as I continually begged inside for her to not eat me.

Gilda just took one look at me with eagle eyes and huffed. She raised a lion paw towards me, and with loathing shook my unsteady hoof.

“Charmed,” I remember her forcing out of her beak.

Gilda scared me, though really, all ponies scared me a little. I guess I was being a little silly; Gilda had never done anything bad to me. She would sometimes glare at me when I got too close to Rainbow Dash, and sometimes push me out of the way when there wasn’t room for us to both walk alongside Rainbow Dash, but that wasn’t as bad as what the bullies would do. She just liked Rainbow Dash and didn’t like me; simple.

In some ways I was really glad that Rainbow Dash had a friend who was like her. Now she had someone to race against, and talk about sports, and preform stunts together.

Other times… other times I realised what it meant for Rainbow Dash to have a friend who could and would do all the things she wanted to.

“Hey Fluttershy, I don’t suppose you would mind if I hung out with Gilda today.”

I looked to Rainbow, aghast at her suggestion. This was the first time—outside of an argument—she had ever suggested not hanging out together.

“O-oh, are you two going to be racing? I could watch.” I didn’t want to be left out and we had done this many a time before, Rainbow racing and me watching.

“Y-yeah, about that,” my friend started to say sheepishly. “It’s going to be a long race I’m afraid, and there’s just no where for you to be able to sit to see it all. Besides, Gilda brought up a good point, you don’t like racing, and it must be really boring just sitting there and watching me all the time.”

“W-what? But I like watching you race.” This was a half-lie, it was true that I would get bored of it sometimes but I would like it if Rainbow liked it.

“Yeah, Gilda mentioned that you would say that. That is so like you, you’re such a kind friend, Fluttershy,” Dash replied as she ruffled my mane, “Seeya later Fluttershy.”

This was just the beginning. This happened again and again—more and more—the days in which Rainbow Dash would hang out with Gilda become more frequent and the time she spent with Gilda was becoming longer. Even more troubling was how Gilda was starting to influence Rainbow Dash. Now Gilda wasn’t a bad... griffon, and in a lot of ways she was like Dash, just more extreme in those ways.

When insults were thrown at them, while Rainbow Dash would ignore them, Gilda would argue back. When Rainbow Dash planned a prank, while she made sure not to go too far, Gilda had no limit. When Rainbow Dash got angry, while she would take it out on a wall, Gilda would look for a fight. When Dash dealt with a bully, they would come back to school the next day with a black eye, but when Gilda dealt with them, they would be in the hospital for days.

I was beginning to worry, how different would Rainbow Dash be when we finally got married… then I would end up daydreaming about our future together. Rainbow would become a Wonderbolt and I would travel with her, bringing along with me a few pets, maybe even help train birds to perform alongside Rainbow Dash in Wonderbolt shows. Then when Rainbow Dash retires, I would raise lots and lots of pets, all the kinds we couldn’t when travelling for Wonderbolt performances. We would adopt a few foals and when alone Rainbow would gently lay me on the bed and… I was in puberty back then! It was natural to have a few dirty thoughts.

I knew I was losing Rainbow Dash, and I had to do something. I sat by the table closest to the door in class and immediately ran to her class when the bell would ring. I would make my way to where her family’s chauffeur would drop her off for school each and every morning. I even made her lunch when dad had brought in enough money to afford it.

This was going really well until one day, when Rainbow Dash was off from school sick. It was the first time—outside of an injury—that Rainbow Dash had been off of school on sick leave. I later learned that she had caught conjunctivitis, and she was off the entire week. As such she missed out on the school’s week long period of sex education lessons.

Thinking about it now, that actually explains a lot.

“Look what we have here, Klutzershy without her deluded hero to protect her,” Hoops sneered as he and his larger friend approached me.

“What do we have here, a book. Can we have a look?” Dumbbell joined in the sneering, looking to the small book I held to my chest.

“I-I’m sorry but… I don’t want to show anypony… this.” I was sure I would die of embarrassment if anypony read what I had written.

“C’mon, we want to see it!” is what Hoops said as he pushed me over.

Both of them looked ready to pounce, to lunge atop of me and pry my story off of me… but they stopped at the sound of an eagle. Gilda descended before them, and roared, “Back off, dweebs!”

They did. Really, really fast.

“T-thank you Gil—” I stopped talking and merely “eeped” when Gilda’s paw shot out and snatched my book off of me.

She looked at the cover, studying the illustration and reading the title aloud, “The Rainbow Knight and the Shy Princess.”

I needed more subtle titles.

She turned towards me, eyes a blazing with anger. M-maybe she was upset that I hadn’t thanked her yet, so I tried to thank her again, “T-thank you Gil—”

“Look here you spineless puny pony!” Gilda snapped as she grabbed me by the back of my neck, and pulled me right up to her face, “You need to stop hanging out with Rainbow Dash.”

“What!?”

“You heard me, you need to stop hanging out with Rainbow Dash,” Gilda continued to threaten me. “You’re nothing but a weight to her—a shackle—you’re dragging her down.”

I had to admit, these were things I had thought of myself before.

“Actually, as much as I hate to say it, for some bizarre reason Dash likes hanging around you. So maybe you shouldn’t stop hanging around with her.” I shouldn’t have smiled at this because she then yelled out some more, “But as for flicking your little lovey-dovey eyes at her, the next time you swoon at her I’m going to tear your throat out!”

Every day from then on, every day I talked or played with Rainbow Dash, I made sure I was ready to lift my hooves up to my throat very quick.

Days went by, then weeks, then months. I was still able to hang out with Rainbow Dash because Rainbow Dash wanted to be with me, but every time Gilda was watching me. Even a hint of flirtation—not something I would purposely try to do—or affection beyond the realms of friendship, and she would send a glare towards me, or mime how she would gouge my throat.

It was difficult, and I was constantly afraid of the day Gilda would set forth with her threats, but I at least got to be around Rainbow Dash, so it could have been worse. Over time it did get worse, for Gilda was having it so Rainbow Dash was spending even less time with me. Then after that, Rainbow began to act oddly around me. She would try and say something to me, start a subject, but then stop and tell me that it didn’t matter. I was clueless for a couple of weeks until one day, as I quietly walked down the hallway; I heard Rainbow Dash and Gilda talking to one another from around the corner.

“Look Dash, this is a really bad idea.”

“Gilda sorry, but this is something I just have to do.”

It was very rude of me but I stopped just at the end of the corner, and began to listen in on their conversation.

“Dash, Dash, there’s no need. Just forget about it okay, you don’t need to say anything to Fluttershy.”

“I do!”

What, oh what is it that Dash needs to tell me?

“I can’t hold it in any longer; if I do I’m going to explode. Fluttershy means a lot to me, and I won’t be able to forgive myself if I don’t tell her everything. I need to do this.”

W-w-w-Wait! It couldn’t be! Could it?

“Don’t even try it Dash. Anything else would be fine but this; I know you’re going to chicken out of this.”

My heart had started to beat like a hummingbird's wings, every word spoken convincing me more and more that an impossible unrealistic dream was coming true.

“I have to do this Gilda. Tonight I’m going to Fluttershy’s house; I’ll sneak in through her window and tell her everything. Everything and nothing you say is going to stop me from doing this.”

Maybe I was jumping to conclusions, but at this point I was walking on sunshine. The world seemed so happy, so joyous, and life was worth living. I remained within this happy daze throughout the rest of the school day, and every time I saw Rainbow Dash that day, every time she asked me if I was okay, I would just giggle back at her puzzled face. Rainbow Dash was in love with me. She was going to tell me how she felt tonight!

I was able to greet my dad when he got home. He was surprised and pleased, though worried that I was still awake a little after eleven. Of course, that night I couldn’t sleep knowing what was going to happen. Rainbow Dash, crashing through my window, pouring her heart out to me, taking me in her hooves, tonight. I would have to appear natural, pretend I had not overhead her conversation with Gilda, and remain ignorant. Rainbow loved surprising ponies, and especially in this case I’m sure she would be disappointed if she couldn’t surprise me with this.

I was able to enjoy a short conversation with my dad though as he ate. As always, he was exhausted, so he soon went to bed, but being able to converse with him outside of a holiday was really enjoyable. It would probably sadden him but I was sure that what was going to occur was going to be the more enjoyable experience for me.

I sat in my room—on my bed—with my covers wrapped around me, too excited to sleep. My eyes would flicker over to the window, the window she would barge through noisily as always. I waited and waited as the hours ticked away, fully awake every moment of it and my ears keenly listening for any sign of her arrival.

I heard hoof steps outside my house. Soft and delicately pressing against the clouds outside as the pony sneaked around to the back of the house. Sneaked round by my window. I could hear the slow hesitant steps approaching my window, each one slower than the last, and each one making my heart beat harder and harder. It was the longest moment of my life and I could hear everything, including the breathing of the pegasus outside. I remained still, even at the slight rattle of a hoof grasping my window. My mind begged for Rainbow, the usually brash and speedy athlete, to hurry up with her entrance.

The sounds stopped though. The steps, the rattling, even the breathing. It stopped for a long while.

Then I heard them again, a hoof letting go of the window, a pony turning round, and a pegasus shooting off into the sky. I clambered from my position on the bed, pulled myself up to my window and saw her far into the distance. I saw Rainbow Dash flying off into the distance

Without ever saying a word.

I was disappointed but still happy. As I entered school and sat down for the first classes of the day I carried with me a reassuring thought.

“Rainbow Dash may not have confessed to me last night but I know that she loves me. I can be patient, I’ll wait.”

This thought carried me throughout the school day. I was lost in this joyous thought. I was so lost in fact that I did not the notice the lack of Gilda… or the lack of Rainbow Dash. They were absent the next day as well, and the one after that, and the one that followed, and every single day of the school year.

I eventually learnt from Rainbow's parents —questioning if I knew anything as they searched for their lost child—that Rainbow Dash and Gilda had both ran away from home. They had left to go travelling around the world. They—but more importantly, Rainbow Dash—had left me.

Abandoned me.

Without a word of goodbye.

That day, that night, as I tried to sleep away my woes, I stated to myself some of the saddest words I would say in my life "Me and her, we’re best friends for life. There isn’t anything that’s going to be separating us… so what did?

Inseparable

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Chapter 8: Inseparable!

“Pinkie Pie. Rarity,” Applejack addressed her two friends emotionlessly. “Ya'll can’ be serious.”

“Why, whatever do you mean, dear?”

“Yeah, I’m always super-duper serious about what I do.”

“Heh-heh, well,” Applejack began as she turned to her two friends with a forced smile. “Ah’m talkin’ about tha' there banner of yours.”

Designed by Rarity and carried by Pinkie Pie was a large metal rod with a banner tied to the top. Upon this banner were the sewed patchwork faces of Rainbow Dash and Fluttershy within a heart symbol. Sewn just below that picture were the words, ‘FlutterDash Forever’.

“Now Applejack, we are simply showing our support.”

“You’re bein’ too blatant about it!”

Applejack’s outburst disturbed nopony, or at least appeared to disturb nopony. There were not many ponies out and about yet, and those who had been out were just arriving to prepare for another day of sales in the market. Since the number of shopkeepers was still few right now, the trio of friends were for the most part alone as they made their way to Twilight’s.

In response to Applejack’s outburst, Rarity merely huffed. However, after a moment’s thought, she started up her magic and began to fold up the banner.

“Rarity, what are you doing? We need to support the shipping cause!” Pinkie protested.

“I know, I know, but Applejack is right. We are being a bit ‘blatant’; we can come up with some more discreet ways to help things along for those two.”

The earth pony rolled her green eyes, and added with her southern accent, “Ya'll don’ need to do that either.”

The two shippers looked to Applejack aghast in disbelief for suggesting that they do not interfere with their friends' relationships, as good friends always do. Pinkie continued to look at her fellow earth pony with an expression of shock while Rarity’s turned into a frown, a serious glint in her eyes.

“Applejack, you’re not suggesting that we do not interfere simply because you disapprove of them both being… mares, are you?”

Rarity’s accusation caused Applejack to frown slightly, and choose her next words carefully. “If they both decide to be fillyfoolin’ with one another, Ah’m not gonna object, but Ah’d rather ya’ll not kick their hinnies down that path.”

“Oh Applejack’s being a silly pony again.” Pinkie Pie giggled as she hopped on over to sling a hoof round AJ’s shoulder, “The two of them being mare’s shouldn’t be a problem for you. I mean, what if Big Mac or Apple Bloom were ga—”

Pinkie didn’t finish her sentence as Applejack lightly spun Pinkie Pie around and pressed her against the nearby tree. Lightly keeping a hold of the party pony, Applejack looked to Pinkie’s face with fear and horror, and stuttered, “D-D-Don’t even j-joke about that, Pinkie. Do you know how many grandkids Granny Smith wants? Ten, Pinkie! Ten! Ah like big families an all, but Ah Ah’m not popping out ten of ‘em.”

“What are you two doing?” Twilight asked quietly from her library door.

Twilight Sparkle had heard noises from outside her house, and having already been up to greet her two bound friends, was quick to check outside for the source of the noise. Upon stepping outside, she witnessed Applejack face to face with Pinkie Pie, the former pinning the latter against her tree house. Twilight refused to jump to conclusions, but one immediate possibility made her quite quiet and cautious in speaking.

“Why, we were just coming over to see you. We heard from Spike that you plan to remove those bracelets off of Fluttershy and Rainbow Dash, and we all decided we should come over and see if you needed any help,” Rarity chose to say as Applejack released Pinkie from her light hold.

“Actually, if I’m right about my translations, I won’t need any assistance at all, but you’re more than welcome to come in. Spike’s making tea right this moment,” Twilight replied, a large smile being her way of showing how thankful she was for the offered yet unneeded aid. She then ventured back into her abode and called out, “Spike, could you make that tea for seven?”

Rarity, Applejack and Pinkie followed their friend inside of course, and were quite surprised to what they saw. The ground floor of the library looked like… the ground floor of a library. Where the ponies expected to see complicated apparatuses and mystical magic algorithms they saw a table, seven chairs set around it, and everything else in their normal places.

“Uh, gee Twilight, Ah was expectin’ some equipment or fancy symbols, not… nothin’”

Twilight turned around and gave her friends a slightly uncertain smile, “Yes, I was expecting the removal of the bracelets to require some form of spell as well, but as I said earlier, if my translations are correct, I won’t need any assistance, equipment, or even spells.”

By now, the four ponies had taken seats, and by then Spike had emerged with five of the seven cups of tea, the other two whom would be served the warm beverages having yet to arrive, as well as a bowl containing sugar cubes. As the ponies continued their conversation, Spike started to set the warm beverages upon the table.

“Here you go Rarity.”

“Why thank you Spike.”

“No spells? How in the hay do they come off then?”

“Let me guess Pinkie, sugar with yours.”

“You know me too well, Spike! Lots and lots of sugar.”

“Please darling, don’t tell us that all we needed was some butter or cream to pull those garments off of them.”

“Here ya go Applejack.”

“Thank ya kindly Spike.”

“I thought it would be a magic must defeat magic thingy too.”

“Tea, Twilight.”

“Thank you Spike,” Twilight said as she levitated her cup up to her, took a sip, and addressed all of her friends, “Well, I’ll be explaining all of that soon enough. Let’s wait for Fluttershy and Rainbow first. They're the ones who need to hear it the most after all.”

Each of the friends at the table—Spike included now—nodded their heads in agreement. They all then went to take a sip of their teas, with only one pony stopping before she sipped.

“Hey Spike, Ah don’t suppose Ah could have some sugar cubes with this? Ya know how much Ah like sugar cubes, right?” Applejack asked, Pinkie Pie next to her immediately looking guilty.

“Sure,” Spike grumbled as he stopped drinking himself and waddled on back into the kitchen.

Applejack turned to a sheepishly grinning Pinkie and pondered aloud, “Pinkie, there were at least two cubes for each of us in there; Fluttershy and Rainbow Dash included.”

More would have been said regarding Pinkie’s possible sugar addiction. However it was at this point that the two most anticipated ponies arrived. A giddy with glee Rainbow Dash and a nervous with worry Fluttershy came into the library.

“Hey everypony!” Rainbow Dash shouted out, unable to hide her joy as she looked to each of her friends and in turn the rather bare room, “Shouldn’t there be some fancy doo da or something?”

Twilight couldn’t help but smile at the consistent train of thought amongst her friends and commented, “There will be no need for anything like that.”

Fluttershy and Rainbow Dash chose to look at each other in confusion, now all of the friends smiling at the expected reaction. Twilight then continued to say, “Well, why don’t you all have some tea first.”

They had conversed, they had drunk tea, and much to Rainbow’s impatient delight they were now ready to remove the bracelets.

“But first, let me read out what I’ve translated.”

“Aw c’mon!”

Rainbow’s frustrated cry and followed up head bang was quite amusing to each of her friends, though this act did not stop Twilight from continuing with her explanation, “It turns out that the inscribed tablets I received were not in fact the writing material of those that lived in the Everfree Forest, but boxes.”

In the midst of this explanation Twilight had telekinetically brought over one of the rustic tablets and set it onto the table. Those amongst the group who had yet to see any of the artefacts outside of the matching bracelets rose up in their seats, and gazed upon it. Rainbow watched disinterested, Fluttershy watched patiently, and Spike went on over to the tablet styled box, and pried it open with his claws.

“I’m not sure how Princess Luna ever managed to open this up. Without digits it seems impossible,” Twilight commented as she withdrew from the box an old but carefully preserved reel of paper. “But inside the box I found this letter which niftily discusses and explains the use of each and every artefact.”

Rainbow immediately perked up, “So this letter tells us how to get these bracelets off.”

“Y-yes, does it?”

Twilight turned to her two friends and nodded, adding, “It was in all the old language of whom I’ve come to know as the fauns, but thanks to you two and the crusaders finding that site in the Everfree Forest, translating this was as simple as a basic set of algebraic equations.” Four ponies in the room shuddered at the thought of algebra.

Pinkie just smiled.

“So let me just read it out to you, and all will be explained,” Twilight began, sitting up as straight as she could and clearing her throat, “Dear Generous Luna—”

“Um, Twilight,” Fluttershy interrupted, raising her hoof as if she were in class, “I’m sorry to interrupt but isn’t it rude to be reading the princesses letters like this.”

The unicorn cringed at this statement, and with a face full of nervous fears and concerns replied, “I know it’s… intrusive, but I felt it was necessary in order to learn about the bracelets and… I’m sure she’ll understand.”

Everypony decided to nod their heads to this; in case saying no caused Twilight to revert back into psycho mode.

“As I was saying,” Twilight said, coughing once before continuing to read the letter. “Dear Generous Luna, Tis been a long while since I last beseeched you in the form of a letter, too long in fact. I fear, though I tried to let it not, that recent affairs amidst our circle of friends may have damaged our friendship, and subconsciously directed me towards the action of avoiding both you and your sister. So I shall feel it proper, prior to informing you of recent circumstances of the Everfree country, that I offer you my apologies for—”

“Twilight, quick question.” Rainbow interrupted .

“Yes Rainbow Dash.”

“How long is this letter?”

Twilight eyed up the letter, the various faun words carrying several pony sentences within their small characters, “It’s… pretty long.”

“Can we just skip to the bracelets then?”

Twilight pouted a little with disappointed, but complied, “Fine, fine, bracelets, bracelets… here we go.”

For what she hoped would be an uninterrupted last time, Twilight cleared her throat once more before reading aloud once more. “Now onto the issue of you and your sister, and what you claim to be a declining relationship between the two of you. I do believe you have managed to outline the problems that are surfacing between the two of you already, now you only need a way for the two of you to have time together in order to talk these problems out. Considering your royal duties, your sister’s love of socialising with her subjects, and your more collected, class-bound nature, I would advise the use of mystical means in order to force the two of you in spending time together. Along with this suggestion, I provide the means to do so, as along with the various gifts of my people, are two rather special bracelets.”

Undisturbed as her friends waited patiently, Twilight chose to stop this time. Seemingly expecting this, Spike made his way to the kitchen and shortly afterwards emerged with a cup of water.

Once Twilight had nourished her throat with the cool, clear liquid, she continued. “I shall confess, these bracelets are in fact a recent invention of my people, and have admittedly been designed for the use of married couples.”

A mixture of facial expressions emerged at that point, though Twilight was too busy to notice. Applejack’s became slightly bothered as if she had an itchy spot on the back of her neck. Pinkie Pie grinned to the garmented couple. Rarity winked at them. Rainbow looked back with a face that plainly showed her lack of knowing in regards to the meaning behind her friends' expressions. Fluttershy merely blushed.

“They should, however, work just as well for friends or family as they were invented on the principles of friendship. To think your sister once claimed I could not apply the teachings of friendship to scientific formula; these bracelets are proof that she is wrong and I am right. As I was saying though, the intent of the bracelets were to be used by married couples whose relationships are declining. The bracelets recognise the lack or loss of a relationship that had once been there and draw upon the essence of friendship to magnetically connect the two bracelet wearers together. It is then, according to my research so far, an impossibility to separate the wearers until they settle their problems, repair their relationship to the status that it once was, and make out.”

With that, every single pony in the room reacted in their own sudden way. Applejack fell off her chair in a fit of shock. Pinkie Pie squealed and looked to Fluttershy and Rainbow Dash expectantly. Rarity was barely able to suppress her own squeal, but still looked expectantly towards Fluttershy and Rainbow Dash. Fluttershy was aghast with inner turmoil over what had just been said. All the while, Rainbow was just thinking.

“Make out, make out… make-oh, oh!” Rainbow stopped tapping her chin, and with both raised eyes and a rosy tint to her face, asked, “Y-You mean Fluttershy and I have to kiss?”

Everypony, bar Twilight, looked to Rainbow Dash in stark silence, shock dawning their faces. No words were uttered from them nor sound, and Rainbow was the only one still having some form of motion to her. Applejack, Rarity, Pinkie Pie, and Fluttershy then shared a thought among them without any communicating between them.

“Dear Celestia… she understood that!?”

“Wait…” Twilight began to say as her thoughts did a quick double take, “At what point did I say anything about kissing?”

Everypony now looked towards Twilight with vacant expressions, thoughts brewing in their heads.

“Y-y-you mean… we have to do more than… than... k-k-kiss?” Fluttershy stuttered.

Twilight sputtered, and began to mumble incoherently.

“Wait, what do you mean by more than kiss? Isn’t that something to do with birds and bees and writing a letter to a stork for a foal?” Dash commented, glancing to Fluttershy for an answer.

The two ship happy friends of the group could only look towards the two pegasi and think to themselves, “This is going to be good.”

“No!” Twilight shouted out, then shifted through her memory banks to remember what she had previously said and figure out what she had said wrong, “I-I meant make up, not make out! Make up!”

“Whew. Thank tha stars,” Applejack mumbled as Rarity and Pinkie did their best to hide their disappointment.

At the same time Fluttershy breathed a sigh of relief, and Rainbow reconfirmed, “So all we have to do to get these bracelets off is ‘settle our problems, repair our relationship to the status that it once was, and make up.’”

An exasperated Twilight decided to just nod now, tired from all the talking.

“Okay then,” Rainbow said before all became silent.

This silence was certainly an odd one, for no pony present—nor dragon—knew the reason as to why they had become silent. Some were possibly expecting others to talk, and some were possibly trying to think of what to say. The point is that for a couple of minutes all the friends chose not to speak and thus there was silence.

“Soooo, how do we do that?”

They all now looked to Rainbow Dash. First they looked to her with faces that questioned their friend’s intelligence at what clearly had an obvious answer but then stopped to actually ponder the answer to this question.

“I mean, Fluttershy and I were friends, we still are friends, and if that’s how they come off shouldn’t the bracelets have come off by now,” Rainbow further added, giving reason for the others to pause longer in their thoughts.

“Hey, what if you were a little closer before and have now returned to being that little bit closer, and you could have taken the bracelets off days ago but never tried,” Spike this time added with a wide smile, hoping he was right and thus everypony would praise him for his intelligence.

“Then this universe hates us,” Rainbow added as both she and Fluttershy place their hooves onto the bracelets and tugged.

They did not come off.

“Well then, that can only mean that ya’ll aren’t as friendly as ya you use to be, and ya need to find out why.”

“Well then, I have no idea what to do,” Rainbow admitted in defeat. “Fluttershy and I are just as good friends as we used to be and there's no problem between us.”

“Umm, actually…” Fluttershy spoke up, drawing each of her friend’s attention to her, yet she spoke up clearer, louder, and undeterred. “Rainbow Dash, we aren’t as close as friends as we used to be… and there is a problem between us.”

Rainbow turned to her friend, unsure of what she had heard, and their friends too looked towards Fluttershy in wonderment. “Ooookay… this is news to me. I mean… what’s wrong?”

Rainbow’s concerned words matched her actions, placing a hoof across her friend’s shoulder. Much to her surprise this display of assurance was cast off as Fluttershy pushed away the friendly gesture. Still the teal eyed mare cast her eyes to the ground, her gaze remaining on the floor as she sorted her thoughts. This time only gave Rainbow more time to worry, and her mind flustered with all her recent memories at something she could have done to upset her connected buddy.

When Fluttershy was ready, she looked to Rainbow, face to face, eye to eye, with sincerity and determination.

“Rainbow Dash,” Fluttershy said with determination that matched her look, “We need to talk.”

By now Spike had managed to both leave the room and then returned to the room, handing out popcorn to those who wanted it.

“Well uh, okay, I guess. What do we need to talk about Fluttershy?”

Fluttershy took a deep breath, the words having been formed in her head already. “Rainbow Dash, before these bracelets, when was the last we hung out?”

Rainbow merely raised an eye to this as she questioned Fluttershy’s own question. “Fluttershy, we hang out all the time.”

“No,” Fluttershy replied with a shake of her head. “I mean… just the two of us. When was the time we hung out… as friends, without the others?”

“It… it was…” Rainbow lost herself in thought, her tongue clicking as she tried to think of her answer. “Pinkie’s surprise party! We hung out then.”

“Doesn't count. That was only to help set up Pinkie’s party,” Fluttershy shot down Rainbow’s answer immediately. Never looking away, she carried on to ask, “The time before that, when did we hang out?”

“… I asked you to cheer for me… for the young flyers competition.”

“Doesn't count. That was just to do you a favour.” Fluttershy couldn’t help but sigh with sadness then. “Then what about the time before that… when was the last time he hung out together as friends? Just to chat or play a game with one another—just us.”

The rash pegasus did not try to speak this time, choosing to think first and then talk. As she looked through her most recent memories though, even those spanning an entire years’ worth, she couldn’t think of an answer. Minutes passed and before long she could only reply with a slight shrug as an emotion resembling guilt stirred up in her.

Meanwhile, though the two garmented friends were easily in earshot of the words, Applejack whisper, “Hey, girls should we uh, should we be watchin’ this. Maybe we should give ‘em some privacy.”

“Don’t worry, if we just keep quiet it will seem like we’re not here at all,” Rarity added.

The sounds of Pinkie Pie and Spike munching away at popcorn begged to differ. Nevertheless, it did seem like they were not even there according to Fluttershy and Rainbow Dash, as their conversation continued undeterred.

“Rainbow Dash we… we used to spend all of our time together, almost every day, but now, now we can’t even remember the last time we enjoyed each other’s company.”

“Yeah but, that makes sense right?” Rainbow was surprised to see Fluttershy frown at this comment, and witness her friend displaying anger towards her, “I mean, it was just us then. Now if I want to do sports I don’t have to drag you into it, I just play with Applejack.”

Rainbow had pointed to this sport’s partner at this moment, the first time either of the pegasus chose to recognise the presence of their friends since starting their conversation. With each friend mentioned by Rainbow, she continued to point at them. “If I want to pull pranks on ponies, I hang out with Pinkie Pie. If I need serious advice on something, I head on to see Twilight. For Wonderbolt and celebrity gossip, Rarity, and as for Spike… if I, uh, need someone that is really easy to prank.”

“Hey!”

“Thing is, we only had each other back then and we were always forcing each other into doing things we didn’t enjoy,” Dash softly remarked. “It's better this way.”

“It is not!”

Nopony had expected Fluttershy to yell at Rainbow Dash with anger resonating from her voice. The sheer prospect of Fluttershy being angry in of itself was unlikely at best, and unlike in a recent case within the Everfree Forest, Rainbow Dash knew not why her friend was even angry. This left her confused and even more uncertain of what to say than she was before. Her friends on the other hoof saw this as the right time to stop eating snacks and leave.

Just as they were standing, Fluttershy—never removing her vicious glare from Rainbow—jabbed a forehoof towards them. “Sit down!”

When Fluttershy ordered something, ponies and dragons alike obeyed. Her friends sat back down to watch.

“Well why the hay is it—”

“It is not!” Fluttershy repeated once more, “Even when we did things together, no matter what it was, we always had fun, because we were doing it together. Now? You're always with Applejack or Pinkie Pie and we… we never spend any time together, not like we used to.”

“Now hold on a sec! ” Rainbow retorted, having had enough of being yelled at already. “How are you any different!? Huh? I’ve never seen you come up to me and ask to spend time with me! You’re always with your animals or off to the spa with Rarity or any of the others! This isn’t my fault alone here!”

“Then how did we get this way?”

“How did we go from being the best of friends to friends by association?”

“How Rainbow Dash!?”

“I don’t know!” Rainbow yelled out as she threw her hooves up into the air, “Sometimes friends just drift apart, we went our separate ways and just so happened to end up in the same town! What more is there to it than that!?”

Both ponies resumed an earlier silence, though it was a silence now thick with tension. Both ponies panted from their yelling, and yet it felt like neither could breathe. They both longed, in this heated moment, to be enacting all this from a distance but as circumstance currently has they had to right up close to one another. Close enough to see each muscle pulsing on their body, their lungs working away, and the emotions flashing up on their faces. There could be no lies between them right now; everything they saw between them was being unleashed in its purest forms.

Rainbow had to watch Fluttershy’s face of wrath shift slowly into one of depression and sadness. She had to watch as the scowl softened and the blazing eyes be drenched with wet tears. Then she saw before she heard, the anger spouting lips quiver and tremble.

“We went our separate ways… but I didn’t want to, I never wanted to,” Fluttershy forced out of a throat that wished only to weep at her heart breaking memories. “I felt lonely, miserable, confused… abandoned.”

Rainbow first watched her friend break down into tears without any thought, perhaps confusion at what was going on. Then that feeling from before, that guilty sensation but was something more, arose in her once again. Then she realised what it was. Guilt, but also apprehension, like something she had always regretted the actions of but managed to get away with and so chose to bury, to forget it, to never have to fearfully face it’s darker consequences, finally being brought up once again.

Something that she would now have to face.

“R-Rainbow Dash… why? You left home and school, to go travelling around with Gilda… and you left me.” Fluttershy’s tears freely flowed from her face as she mustered up the questions she had longed to ask along with their bitter emotions. “Why did you leave? And... and… w-why did you not tell me?”

Fluttershy wept, her sobs the dominant sound in the room as she waited for an answer, any answer. Rainbow was now completely unsure what to do; memories of that time, and the current image of her distraught friend conflicting with one another. Rainbow looked towards her friends; a plea for help apparent shooting towards them. Pinkie instinctively sat up, only to urged back down by Twilight’s telekinetic magic. Rainbow saw this as well as the gesture Twilight proceeded to make; gestures that told her to ‘go on, say something’.

Twilight and the others could do something, they could go over to comfort Fluttershy or guide Rainbow to the words she needed to say, but they also could not. This was a problem between the two of them, a problem that had occurred long before the group of friends had formed, and it was a problem that could only be resolved by either Fluttershy or Rainbow Dash. Rainbow needed to say something.

“I hated it.”

Fluttershy looked up at the start of Rainbow’s confession. Knowing that her friend was going to explain all she had wanted to know, all that had hurt her long ago; she wiped her damp face and stifled her sobs.

“I was just… fed up of my family and school, trying to make me somepony else. I hated all of it.”

“I knew what I wanted to do in life, I wanted to race, do sports, maybe go exploring, and join the Wonderbolts! But… at school they insisted I do all these things that weren’t relevant to my goals, and wouldn’t allow me to work at the things I would need to reach my goals if I couldn’t do all these other minor things. As for my parents, they didn’t care about what I wanted to be, who I was, they wanted their daughter to be prim and proper and prissy.

“I hated it, so I left.”

Rainbow looked firmly at Fluttershy, and Fluttershy looked firmly back at Rainbow. Neither needed to talk, their eyes spoke enough for the both of them. Rainbow’s continued to hold secrets, and Fluttershy’s continued to hold pain.

“Gilda found out about my plans to leave and insisted she go with me. So we began travelling Equestria, then to Gilda’s homeland and then just about everywhere we could. We travelled the world… and it was awesome!

“There were so many cool things, radical things, things so undeniably awesome that you just have to see them. I saw all kinds of ponies and griffons and really weird creatures. There were bizarre places and doodads and animals and I learnt a lot.”

Rainbow Dash decided to chuckle for a while at this point, looking to the irony of her travels, “Back at school they said I could barely write proper Equestrian. By travelling I became fluent in the Griffon’s language, and can speak the basics of five other languages. I learnt about animals and history and flight techniques and it was… I don't regret any of it.”

Fluttershy felt pain and anger boil in her at those last words. She was miserable while Rainbow had the time of her life and Rainbow Dash… Rainbow Dash didn’t regret a thing. She didn’t let it show, she didn’t speak up, Rainbow was still talking, still explaining, and a hopeful part of her refused to jump to any conclusions until she heard everything out.

“We travelled for a good, I don’t know, three years before we stopped. Gilda had been starting to act rather funny. I mean, she had been getting weirder and weirder, getting more temperamental and constantly looking at me. She would suggest we preen each other pretty much every day…”

Fluttershy, as the only feathered being in the room that understood the intimacy of preening, was the only one to begin blushing, despite her resolve to remain stone faced.

“…and that we share our body heat, sometimes on summer days. She’d also pinch my butt for absolutely no reason and try to touch me in other places that I know nopony, or griffon, is supposed to go near, definitely wrong.”

Now the others joined Fluttershy in the blushing, with exception to a humoured party pony and a designer unicorn used to reading far raunchier tales than what she was hearing.

“So I confronted her about it one day and you know what she told me. She told me how she longed to lay down on me and give me the pounding of my life. So of course I bucked her.”

Pinkie’s innocent nature couldn’t even shield her from blushing at this last comment.

“We then laid into one another and began ploughing each other. Giving each other a real smack down. We wrestled and tumbled and by the end of it we were wet all over and bruised all over and darn, we went at each other so hard that there was quite a bit of blood by how hard we got at each other. I clearly gave her the better bucking though.”

Even Rarity was bright red as the imagery ran through each of the ponies heads.

“Wow, that fight must have been brutal,” Spike nonchalantly remarked .

“It was, I’m telling you now Spike you don’t ever want to be punched by a griffin,” Rainbow replied to the dragon, both unaware at the flushed, fuming states of their friends.

Fluttershy's blush quickly faded. “I should have known… it was just a fight.”

“Anyway, Gilda got even weirder by babbling about how she didn’t mean a fight but that’s ridiculous. As if laying me down and pounding me could mean anything else, how was she not expecting me to hit her after threatening me like that. So we had our argument and we both agreed that we needed to part for a while, we’d definitely been travelling with each other for too long and certainly needed a break from one another, we parted saying we’d make up when we see each other again… well, you all know how well that went.”

It was not long after the time when Twilight had arrived in Ponyville that Gilda also had. Whereas Twilight warmed up to everypony, Gilda didn’t, and Fluttershy remembered how unpleasant her reencounter with the griffon had gone.

“At least she didn’t recognise me; it could have been a lot worse otherwise.”

“Well Gilda and I went our separate ways and I decided to settle down somewhere. Find a nice quiet place where I could train to be a Wonderbolt without bumping into any other pegasi. Ponyville seemed like just the place I was looking for, I moved here and… that’s it.” Rainbow finished.

After this long period of conversation, where information was churned out in great amounts, one would have thought now was a time that contemplating would be had. Such a time was not had though, for while those witnessing had nothing to say, or even could think to say, Fluttershy still had one question left unanswered.

“Rainbow Dash… why didn’t you tell me you were leaving?” Fluttershy asked as calm as she could, her emotions restrained as best she could.

“Oh I… uh, just didn’t I gue—”

“I heard you!”

Rainbow’s stuttered response was shattered by Fluttershy’s interruption and any words that were to be followed were crushed by Fluttershy’s following words.

“I heard you and Gilda. On the day you left I heard how you were going to tell me something. You came to my house, I stayed up all night waiting for your visit and I heard you come around to the back, I heard you grab the window… I heard you stop and I heard you leave. What I never heard was what you were going to say and now I know. You were going to tell me you were leaving but you didn’t!

“Why didn’t you tell me?”

“I-I was but then, and yeah… you see I-

“Tell me already!”

“Because I—” Rainbow began to shout back at Fluttershy but stopped, her voice proceeding to become quieter afterwards. “I wanted to leave. I wanted to travel. I’d made my decision and… there was no reason to stay.”

Her pink eyed focus shifted from the memories to her puffy eyed friend in front of her, “Except you.”

Fluttershy blinked away any stray tears that had clung to her eyelashes and looked back to her foal hood friend stupefied, “Wha…?”

Blushing from embarrassment in knowing the things she were about to say, and currently wishing her friends were not right there listening to everything that was about to leave her lips that day, Rainbow pushed onwards. “This was something I wanted to do—had to do—and yet, I also wanted to tell you as well.”

Sheepishly grinning to herself, Rainbow tried to laugh off her embarrassment as she continued, “But Gilda knew—hay I knew—that I couldn’t do both.”

This served only to confuse Fluttershy, but before she was able to state that Rainbow Dash could have easily done both, Dash talked on, “I knew you wouldn’t want me to go. I mean, you could have asked to come with me, but there was no way I would allow that. Even if he was never there, your father loved you, and your grades were amazing, and you knew what you were going to do, and… you were able to make something of yourself by being there. So I knew that you would definitely ask me to not go... and then I wouldn’t be able to.”

The cyan mare became red as she thought of what she was about to say, what she was about to confess to. She shut her eyes in some vain attempt to block out the others, and spoke out loudly so she wouldn’t have to repeat herself.

“Because if you had asked me to choose between you and getting to do all those things that I had wanted to do in life… I would have chosen you!”

Fluttershy felt her heart beat joyously, and a smile trying to work its way onto her face.

“I had a hard enough time convincing myself that leaving… even if it meant leaving you behind… was the best choice, and in everything but that it was.”

Rainbow spread her hooves out, pointing to the friends on the side lines, “Look at all I’ve got now. I’ve got a job, great friends, I’m on the track to doing what I want and if I had never left, I probably wouldn’t have had any of this.”

“But I know that all of this… getting here came at a terrible price.” Rainbow had first looked to the ground but then looked back to the slowly smiling Fluttershy. “I had to leave my very best friend behind, just to get where I am today and I… I’m sorry.”

With each rapid beat, Fluttershy’s heart began to heal.

“I’m sorry I never apologised for not telling you and I… when we met up again in Ponyville I wanted to. But I couldn’t and you never brought it up and so I just brushed it under the carpet. Sure we never became as close as were before because of it but we were still friends and that was better… better than what I feared. I feared that if I brought it up again, made us remember you would… you’d hate me.”

Fluttershy burst out into hysterics, her laughter drowning out her thundering heart beats, “R-R-Rainbow Dash!” Fluttershy managed to splutter out between laughs, laughs accompanied by slight sobs, and tears of relief and joy, “I-I was afraid that-that you hated me, and didn’t tell me, b-because-“

Rainbow began to laugh alongside her hysterical pal, “Hate you? Please! You were my best friend!”

Rainbow resumed control of herself sooner than Fluttershy, and in finishing her spout of laughter, proceeded to say, “And you still are my best friend. I’m sorry we haven’t been hanging out as much as we used to, but if you really want to go back to listening to me blabber on about sports stars and watch my awesome flying moves, then I’m cool with that.”

Fluttershy shook off her laughter, shook off her tears, and positively beamed back at her best friend, “O-only if you can suffer through slow and tedious bird watching, knitting, games, and constant conversations about animals.”

“Yeah I guess I’d be down with that if it means hanging with you,” Rainbow replied with a chuckle.

The two friends looked to each other with clear eyes that held only truth and happiness, guilt was gone from one set, and heart break from the other. True and genuine happiness was shared between the two friends, and they smiled at one another like the fillies they used to be. Such a reminiscent feeling thus led to some reminiscent talking.

“Fluttershy,” Rainbow Dash said quietly, looking to Fluttershy’s shining eyes. “You should take up some sports… and become a Wonderbolt.”

The yellow smiling pegasus seemed to begin smiling more than what was physically possible as she asked, “Why?”

“Because,” Rainbow Dash pulled her best friend into a powerful hug—a hug meant to make up for all the lost hugs over the course of so many lost years, “Then you’d be my three favourite things combined; an athlete, a wonderbolt, and you.”

As the two embraced, there was something’s that just could not be held back any longer.

“Daaaaaaaaaaaaw,” Rarity and Pinkie gushed over the charmingly cute display of affection.

Applejack could only chuckle at her two friend’s reactions, shaking her head in amusement. Twilight and Spike continued to look to the glowering friendship before them with smiles; happy to see unknown unresolved issues between friends put to rest.

“Really Fluttershy, you just have to fall in love with the same mare twice.”

In the midst of the hug, in the midst of her thoughts, Fluttershy was unaware of a pair of small pinkish glows.

“But at least this means you fell in love with the best pony you could ask for twice.”

The small pinkish gleams then faded, and the source of the glows dulled down once again.

All kinds of magnificent feelings bubbled within Fluttershy but what blossomed most all inside the pony was one thing she often lacked; courage.

“Rainbow Dash,” Fluttershy said as she pulled herself out of the hug, walked back from her crush, and looked to her with resolve, “There’s something I need to tell you.”

Rainbow nodded her head, ready to hear her friend out; sure that what was to come would be one of Fluttershy’s usual apologies. Rarity and Pinkie Pie appeared to have different ideas as to what was about to be said as they leaned on their seats with anticipating grins. Applejack stuck with the smile she had on her face from seeing her happy friend’s face, her disapproval for what was about to happen hidden away beneath it all. Twilight had no idea what Fluttershy was about to say, but she was sure it would be something worth writing in a friendship report to Princess Celestia. Spike really didn't care one way or another.

“Rainbow Dash I… I lov—”

“The bracelet came off!” Rainbow Dash cheered over Fluttershy’s confession attempt, proceeding to show off the now removed ancient artefact, “It came off!”

“O-oh, that’s nice and all but could you let me—”

“I bet yours will come off too!” Rainbow continued to cheer over her friend as she gently tugged the rustic garment off of the caretaker’s yellow hoof. “See, isn’t it awesome !”

Rainbow Dash continued to holler out with joy as she flew up into the air even further. “This is awesome! We’re free; we’re free at long last!” To her, it was like she was in a sports stadium with thousands of fans cheering her. Thinking of things like this made both her following words, and unfortunately the action that goes in conjunction with her following words; make sense, “Try!”

Rainbow then spiked the bracelets.

As the bracelets left the pegasus' hooves and twelve sets of eyes grew with horror at what she had just done, time seemed to stop. However, time stopping would be quite a ludicrous notion; so instead, several things happened one right after another.

First, upon the bracelets hitting the ground, they shattered into a bazillion gazillion teeny-tiny itty-bitty little pieces that proceeded to scatter across the floor.

Second, Twilight screamed.

Finally, Twilight’s scream shattered the stratosphere into bazillion gazillion teeny-tiny itty-bitty little pieces.

The student of Celestia, the pony that one Princess Luna had entrusted with both the research and safekeeping of several priceless gifts from both an ancient civilisation and a friend no doubt long since passed, fell to the floor. She flung herself to where the majority of the bracelet’s fragments lay, unaware of the many apologies spouting from the rainbow maned vandal. Amongst the fragments, a single pearl from one of the two bracelets remained unharmed, and seeing this gave Twilight hope. She picked it up with her magic.

The pearl split in two.

“Fluttershy,” Rainbow began as an aura—not of magic, but simply a pure black aura—resonated from the fallen Twilight, “you know how we pretty much promised to spend more time with each other and do things with one another again.”

“Yes Rainbow.”

“You up for jogging?”

“I-I think I would much rather take up sprinting right about now.”

“I can agree to that.”

With that said, Fluttershy and Rainbow Dash turned towards the door. They then sprinted out of the building.

Twilight lifted herself off the ground, and looking to the doorway, giggled, “It will be fine... it will all be fine.”

Twilight then slowly dragged herself out of her house, a familiar psychotic grin upon her face. Unlike before though, accompanying her recently well practised maniacal look and laugh, was a mane of fire. In this case it was literal as Twilight’s mane was actually on fire.

“Rainbow Dash! Oh Rainbow Dash!” Twilight called out to her friend in a sing song voice as she left the sights of the other friends remaining in the room.

Spike repressed the urge to cry at all the recent emotional drama that had unfolded, and as the man he was, simply stated, “What a beautiful friendship.”

Rarity repressed a giggle as she patted the dragon on the head, “Sure Spike, ‘friendship’.”

“I bet you twenty bits they’ll be snogging by tonight.”

“Ah’m gonna have to be pokin’ through mah haystacks tonigh’, ain't Ah?”

Pinkie and Rarity could only nod and all friends continued to think of the wondrous relationship of Fluttershy and Rainbow Dash. All to the sounds of screams and cries along the lines of, “run for your life!” and “why are the chopping knives on fire!?”

The door to Rainbow Dash’s bedroom opened, and for the first time in almost two weeks, Rainbow Dash entered her own room of her own house.

“It’s good to be back,” she sighed, lugging her wearied body across the room.

Rainbow did not bother to look at or inspect much—she was both too tired from recently running for her life and too glad to just be back in her room to bother inspecting everything right there and then. Her eyes briefly glanced towards her dusty trophies, her dusty weights, her dusty posters, and pretty much everything was dusty. Still, it didn’t matter to her as of the moment, it was late and she was tired so only one thing mattered to her.

“I love you bed.” Rainbow Dash said as she belly flopped onto her bed and with her chin against her cloud patterned pillows,

That would be sleep.

Smiling contently to herself, she shifted herself slightly from her belly flop, and with a large sigh, drifted off to sleep.

…

She was still awake.

This was a new experience to Rainbow Dash, a pony who could sleep whenever and wherever. She was an expert in napping; if her talent wasn’t flying then it could very well have been sleeping. Yet here she was, tired, on a bed, and not asleep.

Rainbow Dash immediately rolled over onto her back, her back felt a little more comfortable, but she couldn't sleep. She tried her side next, a generally awkward position for the winged pony she was, but she couldn't sleep. Rainbow Dash fluffed her pillows, but she couldn’t sleep. Rainbow Dash tucked herself under the covers, but she couldn’t sleep. She began to toss and turn and twist herself into all manner of positions, but she couldn’t sleep.

No matter what she did, the phrase “but she couldn't sleep” kept coming to mind.

Eventually all of this moving around in bed caused her to smack her head against the wall.

“Ow, darn it you rab—” Rainbow cut herself off as she realised that of course, there was no Angel here, “...bit.”

Next Rainbow looked to the side of her, and saw nopony beside her. Dash fell back down onto her bed, and looking left and right, up and down, realised how large her bed was.

Also how incredibly lonely it was.

Angel was bored.

Fluttershy had returned home, giddy with glee and exhausted of energy. She had greeted Angel with a smile, and then the smile got smaller. She tended to her animals, and then the smile got smaller. She cooked up dinner alongside her beloved pet, and then the smile got smaller.

Now the two glum companions sat down and ate dinner together. Fluttershy would reach out to dish up more salad for herself, out of the bowl in the middle, and note how there was one less pony she was sharing it with. Angel would look up to the bowl, waiting to steal the food before a cyan hoof reached it, but there was no rainbow-headed jerk for him to annoy. Despite being with each other, owner and pet, they found themselves surprisingly lonely.

Dinner was eaten, utensils were washed up, and the animals were sent to bed.

Fluttershy let out a large yawn and looked to her pet, “Angel Bunny, you wouldn’t mind sleeping with me tonight, would you?”

Angel nodded with a small smile, an understanding smile, and he hopped his way up the stairs ahead of his owner. Fluttershy followed, noticing how much easier they were to ascend without a pegasus beside her. Fluttershy sighed, a sigh she could now hear, whereas before it would have fought to be heard over the sounds of a loud and enthusiastic pony.

So Fluttershy made her way to her room, finding a bewildered Angel in the doorway.

“What’s wrong Ange—” Halfway through the window, and with a smile that was both nervous and cheeky, was Rainbow Dash.

“Uh… hi Fluttershy… hi.”

Fluttershy blinked. Angel blinked. Owner and pet respectively just stared at the house breaking pegasus.

Rubbing the back of her neck and remaining half way through the window, the prismatic headed pony did her best to explain. “So Fluttershy, I was wondering… I know this is going to sound weird and all but… uhh... back home it was really lonely and well... uhh... can I sleep with you tonight?”

Angel hopped on over to Rainbow Dash, a death glare piercing the pony’s soul. He leaped up onto the window sill and kicked her as hard as he could.

Into the room.

Rainbow looked up to the cross pawed and frowning rabbit, who huffed at her as he jumped onto the bed. Dash then looked across the bed, and noticed Fluttershy on the opposite side of the bed, pulling up the covers. Rainbow motioned her head to the bed, and all Fluttershy replied with was a smile as she manoeuvred herself onto the mattress. Rainbow Dash followed suit and they pulled the covers over them. Then Angel wedged himself between the two.

“Good night Angel Bunny,” Fluttershy said as she kissed her pet on the head, “and good night Rainbow Dash.”

“Good night Fluttershy,” Rainbow murmured as she closed her eyes.

Fluttershy giggled to herself and then she and Angel Bunny let sleep take hold of them, just as it did Rainbow Dash.

Several minutes later, Rainbow Dash opened her eyes.

She inspected the pony and rabbit before her with both eyes and ears, ensuring they were asleep. When she was sure of this fact, she used her free wing to inch Angel away from between her and Fluttershy’s heads, and managed to place him on top of Fluttershy’s head without waking him. With nothing in the way, Rainbow Dash inched closer to Fluttershy until their muzzles were mere inches apart. She was laying on her side so it was with her free leg that she wrapped around Fluttershy’s body, and pulled the mare’s body closer to her. Within the hug, Rainbow Dash smiled at the sight of her peacefully sleeping friend, and with the pleasing sight before her, finally drifted off to sleep.

Extra!

View Online

Now how should I start this off? I guess I should start this off with a general thank you to everyone who has been reading and supporting Magnetism. This here is the bonus extra chapter, made mostly as a treat for all those who have been supporting this story, but also as a chapter to note down trivia and a few other things. To those of you who were expecting an epilogue or a continuation from the last chapter, I’m sorry; I probably should have worded my previous author notes about there being one more chapter better. Still, I hope you will be able to enjoy this bonus chapter and its four sections all the same.

Thank You!

To start off the thank you section I would just like to point out the various statistics of this eighth chaptered story and nine chaptered fanfic. As I post this chapter, Magnetism has 1177 favourites, 676 likes, only 30 dislikes, and 590 comments, and if I were to add onto this the favourites and reviews from its postage on Fanfiction.net, that would be an additional 35 favourites and 48 reviews leaving this story with; 1212 favourites, 676 likes, 30 dislikes, and 638 reviews. None of this of course could have been possible without the support of you readers and so a big thanks to you all.

Some of you though went the extra mile, went further than reading or adding this story into your favourite list. Some of you commented, gave me advice, produced fan-work (interestingly enough this story has quite a bit of fan-made material for it and yet no fan-art), or proof-read this story. So then with this section, not counting the anonymous reviews into this total sum, I am to now individually thank all 242 people. I’ve tried to write out as many individual and unique thank you messages as I could but obviously with 242 people this would have taken forever, but I’ve at least noted each of the chapters that you have commented on.

Just one last thing before I thank you all individually; to all my guest readers, being unable to call out each of you individually all I can do is thank you as a collective whole. Thank you for reading Magnetism and thank you for commenting on Magnetism.

AbsoluteLunacy: Thanks for commenting on chapter 8.

Acriaos: Thanks for commenting on chapter 8.

aDoof2: Thanks for commenting on chapter 8.

Aridifolia: Through Private Messages I thank you for commenting on chapter 2, chapter 4, and chapter 5.

Aegis Shield: Thanks for commenting on chapter 1.

A Fox in Equestria: Thanks for commenting on chapter 1.

Agarwaen: Thanks for commenting on chapter 1.

AgonistAgent: Your comment on chapter 2 is what inspired me to have the thing attacking Rainbow Dash in chapter 6 as in fact, her own cooking so thank you very much for that bit of inspiration.

Alexstrazsa: Thanks for approving Magnetism.

Andmos: Always quick to comment, I thank you for your comments on chapter 1, chapter 2, chapter 4, chapter 5, chapter 7, and chapter 8. I’m glad you enjoyed this tale and the schemes of the adorably evil Angel Bunny.

Animeyasha66: Thanks for commenting on chapter 2, chapter 6, and chapter 7.

[Fanfiction.net] AnneBuckleyn: Thanks for commenting on chapter 8, may your time with further Fanfiction continue to be as enjoyable as you found mine to be.

Antiquatedannomaly: Thanks for commenting on chapter 1, chapter 4, and chapter 6.

Apollus of the Flame: Thanks for commenting on chapter 2, chapter 4, and chapter 7.

Asylum1388: Thanks for commenting on chapter 1.

Aurora Dimmet: In memory of Aurora Dimmet, who died reading chapter 5. He now lives as a ghost in the text, flitting from little author-universe to author-universe, reading nothing but fanfics… may mercy be have on his soul and many thanks be given to him for commenting on chapter 5, chapter 7, and chapter 8.

Avid Reader: Commence thanks. Thank you for commenting on chapter 3, chapter 5, chapter 6, chapter 7, and chapter 8.

AzureKaRyu: Thanks for commenting on chapter 2, chapter 3 and chapter 4.

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Captain Bloom: Thanks for commenting on chapter 7.

Chalice Longshot: Thanks for commenting on chapter 2.

Celestial Protégé: Thanks for your two silly but still story related comments on chapter 4 and chapter 8, I hope your little pokes of fun meant that you had a good time reading this story.

CharmingChaos: Thanks for commenting on chapter 1.

Chavis54: Thanks for commenting on chapter 8.

[Fanfiction] Chibinekogirl101: Thanks for commenting on chapter 3.

Cicatrix: Thanks for two decent length, funny comments on chapter 4 and chapter 5 with small but helpful drops of error spotting.

Cleopatra: Thanks for commenting on chapter 2.

CloudTwister: You arrived halfway into the story with a comment on chapter 5 which mentioned parts of previous chapters and from there commented on the remaining chapters; chapter 6, chapter 7, and chapter 8. For each of these comments I thank you very much and appreciate each of them.

CodeCyan: I hope you had as much of an enjoyable time reading chapter 2, chapter 3, and chapter 8 with Dashie as I did receiving your comments on said chapters, thank you very much for them.

Cog Archival: Thanks for commenting on chapter 5.

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DaBomb619: Thanks for commenting on chapter 3.

[Fanfiction.net] Darkness on the Rise: Quoting my own words from my first MLP fanfic, 'All good things come to an end...while really good things get demands for it to be continued' so thanks for demanding sequels to this story with your comments on chapter 7 and chapter 8, it allows me to see how great this story really is in the eyes of my readers.

[Fanfiction.net] DarkLordK: Thanks for commenting on chapter 6 and chapter 7.

DarkSamus288: Thanks for commenting on chapter 1.

DashForever: Thanks for posting such amazing, lengthy and well explained comments on chapter 6 and chapter 7. Also, while PinkieDash may be a decent pairing, FlutterDash totally tops it; join the FlutterDash side, you know you want to.

DerpedRainbow: Thanks for commenting on chapter 3 and chapter 4.

DerpinYou: Thanks for commenting on chapter 5.

Derpyhooves15: Thanks for commenting on chapter 6 and chapter 7.

Der_Fur_Shur: A small world isn’t it. I remember loving your FlutterDash supporting comments on Equestria Daily and I hope you had the same feeling of joy when you read this story and commented on chapter 2, chapter 7, and chapter 8, to which I thank you for.

Desol: Thanks for commenting on chapter 1.

Destructorspace: Thanks for providing really enjoyable comments on chapter 3, chapter 5 and chapter 6.

Discorded Q: Thanks for commenting on chapter 2 and chapter 6.

Dimondium: Thanks for commenting on chapter 1.

Divine Path: You were always awaiting further releases and I was always awaiting further comments to which I received and am thankful for on chapter 2, chapter 3, chapter 4, chapter 5, and chapter 8.

DJ GarV the Expert: Thanks for commenting on chapter 1.

Djthomp: Thanks for commenting on chapter 1 and chapter 7.

DolphinBuster: Sorry to say but at some point the bracelets had to come off and as such at some point this story had to come to a close. You’ve had a good time reading though, I had a good time writing this story, and I thank you for your comments on chapter 1, chapter 3, chapter 6, chapter 7, and chapter 8.

Dracon_Pyrothayan: Thanks for commenting on chapter 5.

Drankito: Thanks for the appreciative and understanding comment on chapter 8 as well as for the comment for that chapter’s Fanfiction progression post.

DreadWolf: Thank you for the well worded PM and understanding regarding my choice of ending.

Dream Volt: Thanks for commenting on chapter 5 and chapter 6.

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Ender Roarke: Thanks for commenting on chapter 5 and chapter 6.

Endrax: Thanks for commenting on chapter 8.

Everhopeful: Thanks for your comment on chapter 1 which pointed out what Magnetism was able to accomplish with its first chapter, being one of the very first FlutterDash fanfics to reach the feature box.

Elzipper7: Thanks for commenting on chapter 2 and chapter 3.

FaizGuy: Thanks for commenting on chapter 2 and chapter 3.

[Fanfiction.net] FantasyReader: Thanks for commenting on chapter 1 and chapter 7.

Fatboi1000: Thanks for commenting on chapter 4 and chapter 6.

Federhengst: Probably the only one with a level-headed view on Gilda, you’ve commented on chapter 4, chapter 6, chapter 7, and chapter 8 and I’m grateful for each and every word you’ve written, be it what you enjoyed or pointing out my mistakes.

Fernesh: Thanks for the understanding, delightful and well worded comment on chapter 8, I wouldn’t have known English wasn’t your first language if you hadn’t mentioned it.

FireFlash13231: Thanks for commenting on chapter 1.

FirestormPrancer: Thanks for commenting on chapter 2.

Fireseeker: I loved the Gif you posted on chapter 1 and I thank you for your proceeding comments on chapter 2, chapter 3 and chapter 4.

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Fire Soul: Thanks for commenting on chapter 1.

[Fanfiction.net] FishSlayer: Thanks for commenting on chapter 1.

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Flutterdashforever: Thanks for commenting on chapter 7.

Fluttershywriter: Thanks for commenting on chapter 2, chapter 5 and chapter 6.

Forefront1: Thanks for commenting on chapter 4.

For The Plot: Thank you very much for your comments on chapter 4, chapter 5, and chapter 8, they were all appreciated and I hope you’ve enjoyed your time with Magnetism.

Foxface: Thanks for commenting on chapter 1.

Frostwyrm: Thanks for commenting on chapter 1.

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Garbo802: Thanks for commenting on chapter 1.

Gareth_Jason: Thanks for commenting on chapter 1. Thanks for commenting on chapter 2. Thanks for commenting on chapter 3. Thanks for commenting on chapter 4. Thanks for commenting on chapter 5. Thanks for commenting on chapter 6. Thanks for commenting on chapter 7. Thanks for commenting on chapter 8. Thank you very much for commenting on every single chapter of Magnetism! You are epic, everyone give Gareth_Jason a round of applause because he is epic, an epic commenter that deserves it. Thank you for reading Magnetism.

Georg: Thanks for commenting on chapter 6.

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GruntBrony: Thanks for commenting on chapter 4.

GuitarPlayer96: Thanks for commenting on chapter 3.

Hawkeye: Thanks for commenting on chapter 1.

HikariToYami: Thank you for commenting on chapter 1, chapter 4, and chapter 6, especially your meme usage in your chapter 4 comment which inspired the ‘stop, body, stop now’ scene in chapter 5.

IDoAllMyOwnStunts: Thanks for commenting on chapter 2.

Ihatecommunists: Thanks for commenting on chapter 1.

[Fanfiction.net] IloveDragons8: Thanks for commenting on chapter 8.

InsanityCorps: As you are glad to have taken the time to read this story I’m glad you took the time to comment on chapter 6, chapter 7, and chapter 8. As for when Rainbow Dash will notice the painfully obvious, unfortunately Rainbow Dash is the painfully oblivious so it might take a while.

Iryelb: So close, so very, very close. You almost commented on every chapter, you commented on chapter 1, chapter 2, chapter 3, chapter 5, chapter 6, chapter 7, and chapter 8. You may have missed just one chapter but you know what; you’re still awesome and you still deserve a round of applause for being awesome. I’m thankful and grateful for each of your comments… except that gif you posted in chapter 6, which just scarred me for life.

Jake Roberts: Bravissimo to you too Jake Roberts and to all your comments on chapter 5, chapter 6, chapter 7, and chapter 8. I still miss your error made comment on chapter 7 wherein you accidentally typed “If that's so, when is Flutttershy going to convert Dash to the colt?”, it had me in stitches from laughter.

Jangledorf: Hailing from the comment section of my first pony story, Thank You Cider, it’s nice to see you again Jangledorf and just like I did before with Thank You Cider this here is my thanks to you for commenting on this story for your chapter 1 and chapter 8 comments. Thank you.

Jay Cruiz: Thanks for commenting on chapter 1.

Jewel_Eater_Dragon: Thanks for commenting on chapter 1.

Jileel: Thanks for commenting on chapter 8.

[Fanfiction.net] Joe Bob: Thanks for commenting on chapter 5.

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Kail: Thanks for commenting on chapter 1.

Kaldanor: Thanks for commenting on chapter 1.

Kapuchu: You were drawn to this story and it resulted in comments on chapter 4, chapter 5, chapter 6 and chapter 8, all of which I thank you for.

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Kiwiman40: Thanks for commenting on chapter 1 and chapter 7.

Knight of Cerebus: Thanks for commenting on chapter 6.

Knight Wing: Thanks for commenting on chapter 4 and chapter 5.

KnoFear: I received a lot of comments from you, starting with a humorous comparison of the bracelets to those finger tie things so here are thanks for commenting on chapter 1, chapter 2, chapter 3, chapter 5, chapter 6, and chapter 7. You also enjoyed chapter 5’s delivery of fetish Fluttershy and traumatized Pinkie Pie, and while I don’t have anything to add to Pinkie’s trauma but on fetish Fluttershy I will say that my head-canon has Fluttershy being a big fan of bunny costumes.

Kooarbiter: Thanks for commenting on chapter 1.

[Fanfiction.net] Kryzeth: I’m always happy to hear from someone who loves my fanfic and I thank you for commenting on chapter 1, chapter 2, chapter 3, chapter 7, and chapter 8.

Lambda462: Thanks for commenting on chapter 7.

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[Fanfiction.net] Ley: Thanks for commenting on chapter 1, chapter 2, chapter 3, and chapter 4

Listener: Thanks for commenting on chapter 2, chapter 4, and chapter 5.

Loki: I never did receive a comment from you on chapter 5 but I know you were looking forward to my explanation of Applejack’s discomfort with Fluttershy and Rainbow Dash’s suggestive interactions and I hope you found how I have presented Applejack to be acceptable. I also thank you for your comment on chapter 3.

Lordalexander74: Thanks for commenting on chapter 5.

Lunarstallion: Thanks for commenting on chapter 6 and chapter 8.

LunaUsesCaps: We may have our differences in opinion, and I’m sorry you did not enjoy this story, but thank you for expressing your opinion with your comment on chapter 1. Also thanks for the honest words and civil reply; I shall accept your offered e-hug.

LyraizHoppingPotato: Thanks for commenting on chapter 7.

MadHatters7120: Thanks for the complimentary PM, glad you’ve been enjoying the story.

MadMan: Thanks for commenting on chapter 1 and chapter 8.

Mama Jynnx: Thanks for pointing out to so many readers in your comment on chapter 1 that I am in fact British and as such, artefact is spelt correctly.

Mane 6: Thanks for commenting on chapter 8.

MasterZero: Thanks for commenting on chapter 1.

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Niklashg: Thanks for commenting on chapter 4.

Ninjalink07: Thanks for commenting on chapter 2 and chapter 5.

NintendoGal55: You are a star. I could always expect a friendly comment on each chapter, I could always expect that comment to be brimming with your opinions and praise on beloved moments, I could always expect you to follow it up with a comment on my blog post for each chapter. Furthermore, when I needed a substitute proof-reader you did not hesitate to volunteer, and though your editorial notes on commas started to drive me a little crazy, you were truly helpful for proof-reading chapter 6. So everyone give Nintendo Gal a round of applause for not only proof-reading chapter 6 of this here story but also for commenting on chapter 1, chapter 2, chapter 3, chapter 4, chapter 5, chapter 6, chapter 7, and chapter 8.

Noble Colors: Thanks for commenting on chapter 6.

Noyoki1: Thank you very much for the comments on chapter 4, chapter 5, and chapter 8, as well as for being the only one to point out one of my favourite jokes, Applejack’s remark as Fluttershy and Rainbow Dash leave the restroom in chapter 4.

Nyysjan: Thank you for commenting on chapter 1, chapter 2 and chapter 3.

Oberon: Thanks for commenting on chapter 7 and chapter 8.

Oblivion2k: Thanks for commenting on chapter 1.

OldTalesChangeStyle: Thanks for commenting on chapter 1 and posting the largest amount of grammatical errors in need of fixing, I did indeed ask for constructive criticism and was joyous with what you had to offer.

Paganbrony666: Thanks for commenting on chapter 1.

Paper Crease: Thanks for commenting on chapter 2.

Paradox949: Thanks for commenting on chapter 5.

Pe4ceKeep3r: Thanks for commenting on chapter 3.

Peruvianamerican101: Thanks for commenting on chapter 8.

PhazonExposure: Thanks for commenting on chapter 6.

PoniSiitoin: Thanks for commenting on chapter 1 and chapter 7.

Pononymous: Thanks for commenting on chapter 1, chapter 2, chapter 3, and chapter 4.

Princess Cadence: Thanks for commenting on chapter 6, chapter 7, and chapter 8. Your comments were primarily focused on other readers’ comments but they still provided some insight into my story and were enjoyable to read.

Purepower212: Thanks for commenting on chapter 1.

Qwertyo76: Thanks for commenting on chapter 3 and chapter 5.

Rabbitude101: Thank you for your numerous short yet sweet comments on chapter 1, chapter 2, chapter 5, chapter 6, chapter 7, and chapter 8, they always bring a smile to my face.

Rainbow_Dashtruction: Thanks for commenting on chapter 1.

Rapthorn2ndform: Thanks for commenting on chapter 7.

RaptorCalloftheShadows: Thanks for commenting on chapter 3.

Rated PonyStar: I was pleased to see how much you enjoyed Pinkie’s line about her ice cream cake and I’m sure you were pleased to see that I did not rip-off your story by having Fluttershy and Rainbow Dash attacked by a manticore in the Everfree forest, although they were going to be at one point in planning. Overall though I was mostly pleased in knowing you were reading through your comments on chapter 1, chapter 2, chapter 4, chapter 5, chapter 6, chapter 7, and chapter 8. Also, to all my readers, I suggest you keep a good eye on this guy’s work, not just because it’s amazing but because I’m sure that fans of my work will have something to look forward to from Rated PonyStar this year.

Ray10k: Thanks for commenting on chapter 1.

Razzian: Thanks for commenting on chapter 1.

R Chase Dorothy: Thanks for commenting on chapter 2.

Redspy217: Thanks for commenting on chapter 1 and chapter 2.

Restless Wolf: Thanks for commenting on chapter 2.

Rocfang50: Thanks for commenting on chapter 8.

RTbrony: Thanks for commenting on chapter 8.

Runeplay2: Thanks for commenting on chapter 1.

Saint coulomb: Thanks for commenting on chapter 2.

ScriptScrolls: So, you wanted Fluttershy and Rainbow Dash to plunge off the edge of the romantic cliff and kiss, well too bad for even with me being thankful for your comments on chapter 2, chapter 5, chapter 7, and chapter 8 it appears that more will have to occur for that to occur. Seriously though, thanks for all your comments and I’m glad the snuggles at the end calmed your rage a little.

Secondaryspine: Thanks for commenting on chapter 2.

Serene Breeze: Thanks for commenting on chapter 3.

Serenity Grace: A secret reader who I can now thank for the complimentary Private Message.

Shadowflash: Thanks for commenting on chapter 1.

ShadowSaber1: Thanks for commenting on chapter 7.

[Fanfiction.net] Shado Room of Souls: You were a little late to the party but thank you very much for your comments on chapter 6, chapter 7, and chapter 8, you will be pleased to know that I will most definitely be writing more.

[Fanfiction.net] Shadow Hooves: I’m glad to see you’ve enjoyed this comment so much as to have commented on chapters 5, chapter 6, and chapter 8 and I’m grateful that you’re recommending this to all your pony friends.

Shiron: Thanks for commenting on chapter 6.

Shynight: Thanks for commenting on chapter 4 and chapter 6.

sidewayz2013: Thank you very much for assisting me with chapter 5 by suggesting ideas for pranks. Your ideas were neat and having someone to talk about ideas with helped in so many ways so thanks.

SigmatheAwesome: Thanks for commenting on chapter 7.

Silver wing: Thanks for commenting on chapter 2.

Sirisma: Thanks for commenting on chapter 1 and chapter 2.

Solid Snake: Thanks for commenting on chapter 7.

Some Kinda Brony: Thanks for commenting on chapter 1, chapter 2 and chapter 3.

[Fanfiction.net] Southhoof: I’m glad you enjoyed this story’s funny and deep tones, and don’t worry about only commenting when you had something to say, I’m thankful for your comments on chapter 3 and chapter 8 as they are.

Spectrumancer: Thanks for your short yet sweet comments on chapter 2, chapter 4 and chapter 6.

StormyVenture: Thanks for commenting on chapter 1, chapter 3, chapter 4, and chapter 5.

[Fanfiction.net] Suzume no Uta: Thanks for commenting on chapter 6.

Swiftest Shadow: Thanks for commenting on chapter 1.

Sylocat: Thanks for commenting on chapter 6 and chapter 7.

Taco234: Thanks for being the very first commenter of Magnetism with your comment on chapter 1.

Talon and Thorn: Thanks for commenting on chapter 2.

TastetheRainbowDash: Each of your delightful comments came with pictures and for your neat amounts of commentary on chapter 2, chapter 6, chapter 7, and chapter 8 I thank you. With your last two comments including FlutterDash kissing artwork I can assume you were really wanting that FlutterDash kiss weren’t you.

Techfur: Thank you for helping out with chapter 4’s spa scene ideas, it was a huge help that helped the structuring of chapter 4 immensely.

THEBLACKJACK94: Thanks for commenting on chapter 1.

TheCakeOfLies: Thanks for commenting on chapter 8.

The Danish Adonis: Thanks for commenting on chapter 1.

Thegameboykid: Thanks for commenting on chapter 1.

Thegodhand: Some of your comments provided critique, some with entertainment, all in all though I’m thankful for both varieties of comments you made on chapter 3, chapter 4, chapter 5, chapter 6, and chapter 7.

TheLivingLibrary: Thank you so very much, not so much for your comment on chapter 7 but for your out of the blue, 100% fan-made live-reading of chapter 1 of Magnetism. Further thanks goes to your group for your decision to do a pre-recorded reading of the entire story of Magnetism, and even asking to conduct an interview with me. Truly it is an honour.

TheStolenBattenberg: Thanks for commenting on chapter 3.

The Spectre: Thanks for commenting on chapter 2.

The Walker: Thanks for commenting on chapter 7.

The Writer of Fate: Thanks for commenting on chapter 1.

Thunder Blast: Thanks for commenting on chapter 1.

Tilkau: Thanks for commenting on chapter 1 and chapter 4.

Timefly: Thanks for commenting on chapter 1.

TitleTrack: Thanks for commenting on chapter 1.

[Fanfiction.net]TomColt15: My first Fanfiction.net reviewer for Magnetism, I thank you for your comments on chapter 1, chapter 2, chapter 3, chapter 5, and chapter 8, and I hope this story has lived up to the potential you saw in it from the first chapter.

Tony1685: Thanks for commenting on chapter 5.

Toonbat: Thanks for commenting on chapter 3.

Toxicitzi: Thank you so very much for your comments on chapter 6, chapter 7, and chapter 8, the last of which always has me grinning the numerous times I’ve read it.

Twilight at Dusk: Thanks for commenting on chapter 8.

Twitch: Thanks for commenting on chapter 6.

Ugugg93: A dear friend of mine, who not only commented on each and every chapter of this story but when I put out the call for a proof-reader he responded immediately. His editorial help has been invaluable (and hilarious as you will soon find out), and his extra effort in interacting with other readers within the comment section is truly something. So I thank him first for commenting on chapter 1, chapter 2, chapter 3, chapter 4, chapter 5, chapter 6, chapter 7, and chapter8, then for proof-reading chapter 3, chapter 4, chapter 5, chapter 7, and chapter 8, and last but not least for being a loyal friend.

Ultra8: Thanks for commenting on chapter 1.

V-invidia: I was always pleased to see comments approving of Angel’s involvement, involvement which added tons and tons of humour to this story, as I was always pleased to see your comments. They were those of a reader who was having a good time but not afraid to criticise when they felt they should and this is apparent in your comments on chapter 1, chapter 2, chapter 4, and chapter 5, comments to which I thank you for.

Wallace: Thanks for commenting on chapter 6.

Webby: Thanks for commenting on chapter 1.

Werewolf435: Thanks for commenting on chapter 1.

WeThePony: Thanks for commenting on chapter 3.

Wolfmaster1337: With your comments on chapter 2, chapter 3, chapter 4, and chapter 5, you did the two things I like to see the most in comments; pointing out things you liked and pointing out errors. Thanks for the comments.

Xuncu: Thanks for your comments on chapter 2 and chapter 8 of, as you’ve complimented, this beautiful story.

xXSilverLiningXx: Thanks for commenting on chapter 2 and chapter 6.

[Fanfiction.net]xXThe mirror tells me LIESXx: Thanks for commenting on chapter 2.

Zyr1987: I hit my head on the ceiling, having jumped for joy at being informed that this story, Magnetism, had acquired a TV Tropes page. So of course I’m grateful to the very reader who went out of his way, used up his spare time, and with nothing contributed on my part, created and began updating a TV Tropes page for Magnetism. So thanks for bestowing upon my story such a great honour, as well as for your comments on chapter 3, chapter 5, chapter 6, chapter 7, and chapter 8. By the way, all you readers should go check out the mentioned TV Tropes page; it is brilliant I tell you.

Ten Favourite Editor Lines

Due to the comments from chapter 1, after constantly being told how I should get a proof-reader for this story, I got myself a proof-reader. This was something I was weary about admittedly, trust is not something I have a lot of, but it turns out that allowing the likes of Ugugg93 and NintendoGal55 to proof-read Magnetism was a good thing; an excellent thing. The quality of the writing in this fanfic has most definitely gone up, and is easy to notice when the comparing the first two chapters to the rest of this story (something I should probably sort out someday). Anyway, this not only turned out good for the overall writing but it also provided me with a lot of laughs as my stories came back with not just helpful tips and pointers but also jokes. Now I shall share with you my ten favourite editor lines in no particular order and other than what chapter they are from, without context… although I will state that the very last editor line is my favourite of them.

* Chapter 6) Do you “somepony” or “something”?

* Chapter 7) Lay her on the bird? That's not just puberty, that's KINKY!!!

* Chapter 8) Two things:
1) This is a TERRIBLE invention! What if there is no way to repair what was lost. Say... if the dad murdered their son. No failsafe!? Really!?
2) I like.

* Chapter 4) So they kinda have their legs around the other's waist and Rainbow pressed up really close to Fluttershy. That would mean her naughty bits are... oh dear...

* Chapter 4) ROUND!?!?!? ROUND!?!?!? I WILL KILL YOUR SOUL!!!

* Chapter 7) Just thought of this: They would rock at 6 legged race by now.

* Chapter 5) And we almost went the entire story without a penis joke. *sigh*

* Chapter 4) That's called a fatality Rainbow.

* Chapter 3) The alliteration was killing my soul.

* Chapter 4) Rubber ducks: Cock blocks of the bathing world.

Trivia

Now for the last two sections, the last two sections being announced here because the second to last section roles into the last section quite smoothly so an introduction for the last section would disrupt the flow. Anyway, every time I uploaded a chapter of Magnetism I would include an extensive commentary on its development within my weekly updating blog posts (which in order to shamelessly promote myself I will state that it updates every weekend and I have been doing episode reviews since The Super Speedy Cider Squeezy 6000, go check it out) along with bits of trivia. Of course I can’t help but miss out on some bits of trivia now and again, and I also know that not all you readers of this story read my blog thus the reason for this section. Here is a list of trivia regarding Magnetism, the story as a whole and all its chapters. I hope you enjoy this, as well as the last part of this treat.

* Fun With Magnetic Ponies was the original title for this fanfic.

* I then changed the title of the fanfic from Fun With Magnetic Ponies to Inseparable.

* I then changed the title of the fanfic from Inseparable to Magnetism.

* This fanfic is titled Magnetism.

* Chapter 5 was titled Fun With Magnetic Ponies and Chapter 8 was titled Inseparable as tribute to the original names for this fanfic.

* At one point there was only going to be seven chapters, with the events of chapter eight and seven combined.

* I’ve been talking about this fanfic in my profile blog since my very first blog post on the 15th January 2012.

* Magnetism is the third MLP fanfic idea I had, the first having been dropped and the second being put up for later due to my gained interest in FlutterDash (the second fanfic was a Cutie Mark Crusaders crossover fanfic with Pokémon Mystery Dungeons, something I’m still interested in doing someday).

* As such I have been planning and writing Magnetism since before both Thank You Cider and Open to Interpretation, despite how those two MLP fanfics were written and uploaded before Magnetism.

* Originally the bracelets did not exist. Originally Fluttershy and Rainbow Dash were going to be stuck together by one of Twilight’s spells gone wrong but I changed this due to several reasons; the biggest being how common Twilight messing up spells is in fanfics.

* After changing the title of the fanfic twice I had originally decided to name chapter 1 after my original fanfic title, Fun With Magnetic Ponies, but felt that such a title would be better suited to the prank themed chapter I had planned later on.

* My portrayal of Rainbow Dash as both sexually and romantically oblivious was first inspired by a comment on an Rainbow Dash artwork a long time ago, which went along the lines of saying “What if everypony thought Rainbow Dash was flirting with them but actually did not know what her exact words and mannerisms meant and was just trying to be friendly?”

* I received further encouragement for an oblivious Dash by seeing hints of this in other fanfics such as The Oak Leaf by Silvershine, Too Shy For A Rainbow by JakeHeritagu and The Birds and the Bees by Theworstwriter.

* Since the very first episode of My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic, I’ve always thought Fluttershy was a lesbimare, with The Cutie Mark Chronicles strengthening my head-canon.

* Chapter 2 required a lot of edits before I felt it could be uploaded.

* Angel was originally going to have a much smaller part in the fanfic, however in writing chapter 2 I realised how much I enjoyed writing about my third favourite MLP character and his antics and so he was included in chapters 3, 4 and 6.

* Rainbow Dash was at one point in chapter 2 going to be depicted as vegan, as a reference to The Fastest Vegan in All of Equestria! by Macon Mixx.

* Rainbow Dash’s previous school cooking was also going to reference BlazBlue in the form of Rainbow’s dish sounding similar to the Kagasutchi Puffer fish. The only reason this was not included was because, knowing that meat and fish dishes would be extremely rare for ponies to prepare, not knowing an alternative dish that would still allow me to reference the series.

* The joke in chapter 2 involving Rainbow Dash spotting archaeopteryxes was inspired by a Garfield comic.

* Originally the animal mentioned at end of the line; ‘Before her line of sight she could behold wasps, and goats, and archaeopteryxes, and cats, and sn-‘ was going to be snakes but due to TastetheRainbowDash’s comment, it is now a Snipe.

* Fluttershy has a Snipe in her garden.

* Chapter Three’s opening awkward wakeup scene was inspired by a combination of my first published MLP fanfic, Thank You Cider and a scene in Uguug93’s fanfic, World of Chaos

* The chapter three scene wherein Applejack spots Rainbow Dash carrying Fluttershy bridal style is one of my favourite scenes in all of Magnetism, and as such was the scene I provided my blog followers as a sneak-peak to Magnetism.

* Chapter three has not one but two G3 references. Rainbow Dash sleep-talking “I don’t want to dress in style” and Pinkie Pie using G3 Pinkie Pie’s line “absolutely, positively”.

* Originally the conversation between Applejack and Pinkie Pie that Fluttershy began to overhear as she and Rainbow Dash played BattleClouds was not to be about them but about a secret Applejack had let Pinkie Pie in. This secret was to be Applejack’s truck.

* Pinkie Pie was not originally going to go to the spa with Rarity, and she was only included because of my constantly growing fondness for RariPie friendshipping and romanceshipping.

* Chapter 4’s opening scene was originally chapter 5’s opening scene and vice-versa.

* Half of chapter 4 was going to be devoted to Twilight experimenting with Fluttershy, Rainbow Dash, and the bracelets effects, with the other half being devoted to Rarity and the spa.

* I was originally going to include a reference game in chapter 4 where I asked if you could spot all three references; one from a cartoon, one from a TV series, and one from a MLP fanfic.

* The only one of these references to be included was Pinkie Pie greeting Fluttershy and Rainbow Dash, which was a reference to the outrageous Aquaman from Batman: The Brave and the Bold.

* The fanfic I wanted to reference in chapter 4 was later referenced in chapter 6.

* The final reference was going to be in the hot tub conversation scene. In this scene Rainbow Dash was originally going to have a choice of subject and in wanting ideas of what to dress for next year’s Nightmare Night she asked what everpony’s favourite monster. Rarity was to say Medusa, Fluttershy was to say Gruffalo, and Pinkie Pie was to say Jefferson Star ship (Pinkie's being the TV series reference, to which you are awesome if you get the reference).

* The part where Rainbow Dash and Fluttershy discovered Pinkie Pie had been telling everypony that she and Rarity had been on a date along with Fluttershy and Rainbow Dash was to be included via a scene after the spa where they are discussing prank ideas at Sugarcube Corners and Mrs Cake asks how Pinkie’s date went.

* Chapter Four was going to have a scene where Fluttershy and Rainbow Dash commented on their school days, with Pinkie Pie commenting how close they were and Fluttershy muttering the word ‘were’.

* Chapter Four was also going to have a scene where Applejack entered the spa and was pestered by Aloe and Lotus for gossip on Rainbow Dash and Fluttershy (given AJ’s inability to successfully lie).

* Half of Chapter 5 was to be devoted to Pinkie Pie and her pranks, while the other half was to be devoted to Applejack with Fluttershy and Rainbow Dash discovering Applejack’s truck.

* Fluttershy loves being tied up… though if we are to go by how frequently the characters are tied up in the show, all the characters like being tied up.

* Fluttershy’s other fetish is ponies in bunny outfits, both the cute kind and the, ahem, raunchier kind.

* The seapony prank was the first prank I had thought of, and was the only prank I was sure of implementing into the chapter before discussing prank ideas with sidewayz2013.

* The pranks were supposed to be executed in a quick, one page per prank manner, but writing things short has never been a strong point of mine.

* I wanted to include a prank involving Flitter because she is my favourite background/minor pony character, and also my favourite mare design.

* I’m neutral to the pairing LyraBon; I neither like it nor hate it.

* I wanted Lyra’s obsession to be broader than just humans so I expanded it into having her obsessed with all things past generation of My Little Pony, humans and seaponies being a part of the G1 series.

* Bonnie Zacherle is the creator of My Little Pony and Megan was the main character of the G1 My Little Pony cartoon series.

* There was originally going to be a small part where Fluttershy told Rainbow Dash about her not so successful dating experience.

* Among these experiences includes how Fluttershy first met Rarity, wherein due to a misunderstanding, Fluttershy thought Rarity had asked out her on a date.

* In my head-canon Applejack is heterosexual, Rarity is heterosexual but has experimented with dating mares in the past, Fluttershy is homosexual, Pinkie Pie is bisexual, Twilight Sparkle is bi-curious and Rainbow Dash is asexual.

* There was also going to be a small part where Rainbow Dash, trying to think of ways to continue the conversation with Fluttershy, asks if Fluttershy finds her attractive.

* Applejack’s discomfort concerning homosexuals was originally going to be played for laughs, having her as a homophobic but reacting more in the manner of an arachnophobia or claustrophobic; passing out, shrieking with terror or breaking out into shivers.

* I went with a more serious and sympathetic approach in regards to Applejack due to the slightly common occurrence of Applejack being depicted as outright hatefully homophobic.

* Pinkie’s twister joke about walking in on Mr and Mrs Cakes lovemaking is based off of a comic where Pinkie Pie sees them doing it, gets upset, and runs off crying “They were playing twister without me.”

* Angel smoking is a recurring character trait in my fanfics, being present in both this story as well as Thank You Cider.

* In chapter 6, the original reason Rainbow Dash did not just fly out of the Everfree Forest with Fluttershy was going to be due to her taking a quick drink from a pool of mystery water that intoxicates her. I got rid of this idea because it made Rainbow Dash seem stupid (outside of her oblivious nature, which is the only factor I downplay her intelligence).

* This came to the annoyance of a few fans due to my interpretation of drunk Rainbow Dash being cutesy, constantly hugging the nearest pony and telling ponies how much she ‘wuvs’ them… it was funny imagining Fluttershy having to deal with Rainbow Dash acting like this towards her.

* Angel and Spike not getting along after hearing the other’s name is a reference to Buffy the Vampire Slayer/Angel.

* One of Angel’s flashbacks was to feature somepony bullying Fluttershy, Angel luring said pony down an alley, and then the screams of “please stop breaking my legs” echoing from said pony.

* Chapter 6 also has a G3 reference; Pinkie Pie’s suggested parties are all the names of G3 My Little Pony episodes.

* Fluttershy’s defence of Angel, “because he reminds me of you”, is based off of an adorable FlutterDash comic I once saw.

* The Cutie Mark Crusaders trying to get both lumberjack and cartography cutie marks is a reference to The Cutie Mark Conspiracy by Cold in Gardez, a fanfic I was previously going to reference in chapter 4.

* Sweetie Belle’s lumberjack scene was going to have a World of Warcraft reference (funny considering I’m the only one out of four brothers who doesn’t play World of Warcraft) wherein Sweetie Belle states in an eerie manner “I’m growing a beard” based off a line said by the creepy panda kids that my little brother keeps on laughing his head off over.

* Chapter 6 had two foreshadowing references to The Cutie Pox, the first being when Rainbow Dash suggests trying out for bowling cutie marks, and the second when Apple Bloom states how she’ll never speak the griffon’s fancy language.

* There was not originally going to be a monster. Then there was a monster chase scene involving a manitcore but I scrapped that idea because I did not want to rip off Rated Ponystar’s How We Met. Then they were going to be chased by a gargoyle, set up to protect the Faun memorial. Then the gargoyle became a toast monster.

* Originally the trap Angel had set up was going to be more lethal, involving pikes and explosives.

* Originally Angel’s apology was not going to be shown, only mentioned at the start of chapter 7, but I decided it was an important point that needed to be written.

* “Seriously, I’ve about as much chance breaking my wing as I do enjoying a book, it just isn’t going to happen.” Is foreshadowing to Read it and Weep, one of only four episodes of Friendship is Magic that I dislike.

* This fanfic was supposed to have hints towards SpArity, though as its set before Secret of my Excess this was rather tricky. Instead of hints towards my second favourite MLP pairing I instead included hints towards my third favourite MLP pairing, SweetieSpike, as can be seen somewhat in chapter 6.

* Originally chapter 6 was going to end with Rainbow Dash commenting on how deadly Angel’s trap was, with Fluttershy saying under her breath at how she probably shouldn’t tell them that the trap only made the bully chasing her angry.

* Chapter 7 was going to be the last chapter, with the events of chapter 8 being a part of chapter 7 and as such chapter 7 used to be titled Inseparable.

* I did not want to come across as forcing my head-canon upon my readers with chapter 7’s flashback which is why you never see any of Fluttershy or Rainbow Dash’s family members. I give you ideas what they may be like but I leave most of it up to you.

* Fluttershy’s family is poor; her mother passed away when she was young, and her father works long hours to keep a roof above their heads and food in their house.

* Rainbow Dash’s family is rich, often attend social events, and Rainbow Dash was mostly raised by her parents’ house-staff.

* Fluttershy is Rainbow Dash’s first true friend, as most of the other pony’s Rainbow Dash had met where at rich and upper-class social events and Rainbow Dash did not get along well with them.

* Rainbow Dash is not Fluttershy’s first friend. Fluttershy used to have friends, despite being shy and quiet, but after her mother passed away Fluttershy became reserved and practically mute, leading to her first few friends no longer bothering with her.

* Fluttershy’s father is a fan of wrestling, but when caught watching it by Fluttershy, informed her that they were simply giving each other massages (a detail I had to leave out due to not wanting to force head-canon).

* Rainbow Dash’s mother shares most of her personality traits with G3 Rainbow Dash.

* One piece of information not included was the eventual passing away of Fluttershy’s father due to overworking. As this is no longer included in the fanfic at all, his status is now unknown and as such is up to reader discretion.

* Further motivation for Rainbow Dash leaving home was to be her parents having another child, and as such Rainbow Dash felt she could leave now that she effectively had a replacement. This was removed due to how badly most OC relatives of main characters both turn out and how poorly they are received (although my idea for Rainbow’s little brother in terms of personality is mostly Rarity personality but with slight spices of Rainbow Dash’s and Spike’s personalities), so like with Fluttershy’s father passing away, this status is up to reader discretion.

* Rainbow Dash taking Fluttershy to a Starsong concert is another reference to G3 My Little Pony, to which Starsong is my favourite G3 pony.

* Rainbow Dash taking Fluttershy to a Starsong concert was going to be mentioned as something one of Rainbow’s maids advised her to do when she asked the maid where she should take the pony who means the most to her in the whole wide world (imagine filly Rainbow Dash asking this and you will die from cuteness). It was to also be suggested by Fluttershy, that looking back on it, a lot of the things she and Rainbow Dash seemed to do together (due to the advice Rainbow kept on getting from her maid) seemed like dates.

* Originally chapter eight was going to be just the conversation scene between Fluttershy and Rainbow Dash, starting with all the characters in Twilight’s library at the start of the chapter, and ending with Applejack’s comment about having to poke through the haystacks.

* Originally in chapter eight, Fluttershy was going to ask to have the conversation with Rainbow Dash before the spell/bracelets were removed.

* The means to remove the bracelets was made so Fluttershy had a legitimate reason for starting the conversation with Rainbow Dash before the bracelets were removed.

* Burning mane, psycho Twilight was a new addition to chapter eight.

* Before the introduction of burning mane, psycho Twilight, the following line; “What a beautiful friendship.” Was going to be said by Twilight, not Spike.

* Twilight Sparkle (and of course Rainbow Dash), is the only Mane 6 oblivious to Fluttershy’s feelings for Rainbow Dash, believing it to simply be a wonderfully strong friendship.

* The last two scenes of chapter 8 were added for two reasons; first as a peace offering so my readers wouldn’t butcher me for not having Rainbow Dash and Fluttershy get together, and secondly to sort of explain why Fluttershy keeps waking up into such awkward positions each morning.

* This fanfic takes place between Luna Eclipsed and May The Best Pet Win, with the events of Sisterhooves Social and The Cutie Pox occurring in the week that passed between chapter 6 and 7.

* The reason this fanfic takes place before May The Best Pet Win is because that episode was the first showcasing of Fluttershy and Rainbow Dash’s strong friendship/obvious romance.

* Magnetism has a TV Tropes page.

* Magnetism also has a live-reading of the first chapter, Binding Bracelets, on YouTube.

* This fanfic has never been about how Fluttershy and Rainbow Dash get together (hence the lack of ‘love’ or ‘couples’ or ‘will they get together’ in the summary) but about Fluttershy’s re-emerging feelings. The story reached its goal when Fluttershy accepted her re-emerging feelings and she and Rainbow Dash’s friendship was repaired to the status it was once; a friendship that now has the chance to be developed into romance.

* If Fluttershy had confessed her feelings it would have confused Rainbow Dash and risked misbalancing their revived friendship, thus causing the bracelets to be unable to be removed. At least a short amount of time needs to pass for both ponies to get used to their renewed friendship before further evolving it into romance.

* This fanfic still fits the terms of a romance category, as love is one of the main issues, and even if it is one-sided, still is about Fluttershy being in love with Rainbow Dash, thus it is also a form of FlutterDash.

* I never write a fanfic without some idea as to how I would go about utilising it in future; be it a sequel, a prequel, or simply setting it’s events in the same universe as another fanfic so I may reference it in other works.

* I also love providing foreshadowing hints to how I could further utilise the story I have told, which reminds me of several things in chapter 6;

"There was once this big bully in the forest who would pick on all the animals… and me. Angel Bunny rigged this area full of traps, and led the guy here, in order to get rid of him."

"And so does Angel, he protects me all the time though you wouldn't know that because you le-"

"Don't worry, I gave him a good scolding and he won't be bothering you, or me, or any of the other animals ever again."

...

The Shy Knight and the Rainbow Princess!

Dear Flutturshi,

I hav com back fore my revenge and capturd ur colorful luvur. If u onet him back, ull hav 2 get 2 my cassel and fight me fore im. All u hav 2 doo iz follow de fairee and shell take u 2 me. R u a bad enuff dude 2 resque ur luvur?

Sincerely, ur Arch-Nemesis.

P.EZ. Pleeze dont tell ur princessis, dey scare me.