Fluttershy’s doom, it seemed, had no immediate intention of letting her go.

“Hey, Shy-shy! How was your spa trip?” Pinkie said, hugging her so tightly that it was actually starting to hurt. ”I’m so sorry I couldn’t go with you, but Mr. Cake really needed a break.”

She was holding Fluttershy close enough that the latter could easily smell the subtle scent on Pinkie’s pelt. A mixture of dough and... soap?

Fluttershy breathed deeply, trying to place the scent. She wanted to remember it, to savor it, since it might be the last time she would be able to enjoy it in person.

Pinkie went on, oblivious to the intent sniffing at her hair: “He’s been covering for me an awful lot lately whenever I go see Rarity and I wanted to make sure he got some time to spend with Mrs. Cake and the twins!”

Pinkie seemed quite content to remain in their current, cuddly position so long as Fluttershy didn’t protest.

She didn’t, of course.

In fact, Fluttershy found herself quite unable to move or speak at all. She wanted so badly to nuzzle Pinkie, or perhaps even... kiss her? No, no, that would be a complete breach of trust with both Pinkie and Rarity. But surely nopony could blame her for enjoying a simple hug from a friend, right? She just needed to make sure Pinkie didn’t start wondering why she wasn’t saying anything.

Just a little longer—

“Shy? You okay?”

Shoot.

“Y-yes!” she finally squeaked out, blushing furiously. ”Sorry. Hugs are... nice.”

“I know, right? Hugs are just the best thing ever. Well, except for kisses, and cupcakes, and—” Pinkie stopped herself and blinked, then giggled suggestively. “Well, I guess I don’t need to talk about that. Let’s just say some things I do with Rarity are better too!”

I just bet they are. Maybe you could show me? If that’s okay with you...

Fluttershy winced internally, glad nopony else could hear her thoughts. “That’s... nice.”

Pinkie finally released her. “So, what’s up?”

Fluttershy had to suppress a groan of disappointment upon being let go. Then she gathered every last shred of her (admittedly rather lacking) courage and took a deep breath.

“I...” This was it, the crucial moment. She had to tell Pinkie; she had promised she would. “I need to tell you something. But I’m afraid to...”

“Afraid?” Pinkie said, cocking her head to one side. “Why would you be afraid?”

“Because...” Fluttershy looked at that smiling, happy face, the eyes so curious and trusting. Would she still be smiling after Fluttershy had told her the truth? “I’m sorry, I’m so sorry,” she mumbled, already seeing the happiness leaving Pinkie’s face in her mind’s eye.

“Shy? Maybe we should go into my room? I don’t know what’s bothering you, but whatever it is, I wanna help you.” Pinkie dragged Fluttershy inside her bedroom, kicking the door closed with a hind-hoof before leading her friend over to the bed. “Now, you just sit down and tell your Auntie Pinkie all about it.”

Please stop saying that. Do you have any idea how weird it feels to get all hot and bothered by somepony who insists on calling herself my ‘auntie?’ Also, I’m still older than you.

Fluttershy sat down heavily, staring blankly at the wall of Pinkie’s room. She was going to miss that wall... She’d spent many a night loitering there, whenever she hadn’t been brave enough to dance during one of Pinkie’s parties. In other words, most of them.

That might actually be the worst part of this, she realized: She was going to lose both of her best friends in one fell swoop. No more spa trips, no more parties... Just her, her hoof, and her animal friends. Maybe she might see one the other girls occasionally, should they deign to come and visit her in her exile.

It wasn’t fair. But that was what was going to happen.

Did she really want to ruin everything, merely by telling Pinkie how she felt?

No! She couldn’t let that happen. She would just... go away. Far away. She wouldn’t be breaking her promise, not exactly… She just wouldn’t be here to ever get around to keeping it. Although, she could perhaps return at some later date... Maybe after the wedding. Or maybe showing up at their tenth anniversary would be better.

Heck, maybe if she stayed away long enough, she wouldn’t even feel the same.

That’s... that’s what happened with Rainbow, after all. Ponies can fall out of love.

“Shy-shy? You’re starting to scare me... And not in the fun way.”

“Pinkie, I promised somepony I’d tell you something,” Fluttershy said at last, “but it’s going to have to wait.” Fluttershy looked up, determined. ”I’m going to go away. Probably for a long time. If Rarity asks if I kept my promise, tell her that I will, just... not today.” She nodded grimly. This was how she would save her friends, she had decided; this was how she would spare them the misery that would be caused by her own selfish desires. “I-I’ll miss you all...”

“Wait, what do you—”

“I...” Fluttershy looked into the frightened eyes of her friend and had to stifle a sob. “I’m so sorry, Pinkie!” She threw her forelegs around the pink mare, squeezing tightly.

“Where are you going? And why?” Pinkie threw her own forelegs around Fluttershy in turn, seemingly worried that she would vanish into thin air the moment she let go. “I need to know where to throw you a welcome party! A-and I need time for a going-away party!” The suddenly-frantic mare smiled widely, but this was one of those extremely rare occasions where her heart clearly wasn’t in it. ”So you… you can’t go anywhere yet! Okay?”

Fluttershy shook her head, although she, too, found herself unable to let go. This might be the very last hug she got from any of her friends, after all, before they all found out the ugly truth. “I can’t tell you where, and I have to go now,” she said, swallowing hard. She wasn’t ready for it all to end... ”If I don’t, I’ll mess everything up.”

“Why?!” Pinkie burst out. “Why do you have to go?”

“Because,” Fluttershy said bitterly, ”if I keep my promise, it will hurt you—and Rarity. But if I leave, it will be okay.”

Pinkie looked up, her eyes wet and fearful. “Are you worried I’ll be mad? Or sad maybe? If I promise not to be, can you stay?” Keeping one foreleg wrapped around Shy, she began making the familiar motions with the other, not waiting for a response: “I promise I won’t get upset. Cross my heart and hope to fly, stick a cupcake in my eye.” In her anxious zeal to convince Fluttershy, Pinkie had poked herself extra hard this time, requiring her to blink a few times before she could continue. ”Please tell me everything so you don’t have to go?”

Fluttershy looked down into those gorgeous, tearful blue eyes, wanting to tell her it wasn’t possible, that there was no way she could fulfill such a request.

Pinkie seemed to notice her struggling though, and smiled encouragingly. “It will be okay, Shy-shy. I promise.”

Would it be okay? Could it ever be okay? Those eyes said yes; those sweetly smiling lips promised it.

For just an instant, she allowed herself love Pinkie, without reservation, and before she knew what had happened, she found her lips pressed firmly to those of the other mare.

Those true blue eyes first widened in confusion, but then fluttered closed as Pinkie leaned into the kiss.

For a brief moment, there was only Fluttershy kissing Pinkie Pie, and Pinkie kissing back.

Then reality came crashing in and Fluttershy pulled away as though burned by those smooth, warm lips, utterly shocked by her own inexcusable actions.

“Oh no! Oh no, I’m so sorry!” she sobbed, cringing away from Pinkie.

Her eyes half-lidded, making her look more than a little dazed, Pinkie watched her friend pull away in utter confusion. “Shy... What…?”

“I love you!” Fluttershy cried out in abject misery. “I’m so sorry, Pinkie. For everything.” She scrambled up from the bed, running for the door, pausing only to look back one last time at the mare who had so cruelly stolen her heart. “Please don’t tell Rarity. This never happened. I’m sorry!”

“Wait! Why can’t I—”

But Fluttershy ran out the door without waiting for a reply.

Pinkie lay on the bed, feeling dazed and confused. Had Fluttershy just kissed her? The slick, salty wetness of the other mare’s tears on her cheek, the lingering warmth on her lips… Yeah, it sure was beginning to look like it. She had even said she loved Pinkie, but then, for some reason, she had run away, crying.

Love was supposed to be a happy thing, so why was Shy being all sad? It puzzled Pinkie to no end; she kept mulling it over in her mind, trying to find the answer.

None of it seemed to make any sense! Her own experiences with being in love were, admittedly, limited to just Rarity, but when she’d told Rarity she loved her it had felt wonderful. It had been like a big stupid rock had been taken off of her back—a rock she’d never even known was there. Even though she had been sure at the time that there was no way Rarity loved her back, just getting it out of her system had totally helped!

She scrunched up her face, trying to decide what to do now. Shy had kissed her, that was a fact. When it had happened she had had no real idea how to react, so she had reciprocated. It had just... seemed right, like when she had kissed Rarity for the first time. But was that okay? She couldn’t decide. Her mom and dad had been two ponies. The Cakes were two. Applejack and Dashie were two. She and Rarity were two. But what about three? Was it okay to have three ponies?

Shy certainly didn’t seem to think so, but Pinkie herself wasn’t sure what to think. Three was not a number she had ever thought about; she’d only barely gotten used to being a two.

Which brought her to the next problem: Rarity. She wasn’t sure how her fiance—she giggled; that word sounded funny to her even in her head—would feel about somepony else kissing her.

Which was, she supposed, probably what had worried Shy more than Pinkie being mad. Huh.

“Pinkie?” The voice of Mr. Cake came up the stairs from the dining area.

She got up and opened the door, putting as much cheerfulness as she could muster into her voice. “Yes, Mr. Cake?”

“Is everything okay? Fluttershy just ran out the door without saying goodbye.”

She wanted to say ‘yes,’ just to be reassuring. But after a moment’s consideration she decided to tell him the whole truth: "No... But it will be! I promised her."

There was a pause. “Okay. Just checking. Be sure to let us know if we can help.”

“Okay!”

Well, this was quite a pickle... Normally she loved pickles, but this wasn’t the kind she was fond of at all. How was she going to make it all okay—for everypony?

A rubbery squeak, accompanied by a pull on her tail, announced the fact that her pet was saying hello.

She grabbed the tiny alligator with both hooves, swinging him around to face her. “Gummy! Did you see that?”

Her pet rolled his eyes in two different directions and blinked.

“Well then, pay more attention! Fluttershy came in and she was all ‘um... hi,’ and I then was all ‘hugs are great!’ But then she was talking about some secret and she totally kissed me!” She did her best to look Gummy in the eye—or one of them, at least. “What should I do? She said not to tell Rarity, but that feels really weird... Like keeping a bad secret, you know?”

Gummy blinked again; first one eye, then the other. Then, meaningfully, he leaned forward and tried to bite her on the nose.

“Well, of course I can tell you, silly! She only asked me to not tell Rarity. But I kinda wish she hadn’t... I’d really like to ask Rarity what to do. She’s pretty good with these romance-y sort of things.” She gasped as an idea struck her. “Hey, I know! Maybe I could ask Rarity without asking her!”

The alligator wiggled his feet, prompting her to put him down.

“Thanks, Gummy,” Pinkie said happily. ”You always give the best advice!”

The sound of Rarity’s sewing machine greeted Pinkie when she entered the Boutique. The bell chimed, and a moment later a voice from the inspiration room greeted her.

“Welcome to Carousel Boutique! I’ll be right with you!”

“Rarity, it’s Pinkie!”

A head popped out from the doorway, then ducked as a piece of fabric its owner had held in her magic whizzed past. “Oh, hello love! Back so soon?”

“Yeah,” Pinkie said, rubbing her head sheepishly. “Sorry if I’m getting in the way. I needed to talk to you. I could come back—”

There was a sudden, deafening silence. Every piece of machinery was abruptly turned off, and all the free-floating pieces of fabric and tools were neatly laid down, relinquished from Rarity’s magical grip. “Nonsense! I always have time for you,” Rarity said, trotting into the showroom. “Sit. I’ll make us some tea.”

“Uh, actually...”

“I know, love: Iced, heavy on the sugar, small slice of lemon for flavor.” Rarity winked, kissing Pinkie in passing as she made her way to the kitchen. “Have a seat! I’ll have it ready shortly.”

“Thanks!” Pinkie said, sagging back in relief. She wanted to like the regular hot tea Rarity tended to make, but to her it was like licking old leaves. Adding sugar helped, but then it was just like drinking hot, sweet water. She much preferred it nice and cold and sweet.

In due time, though, both mares each had their beverage of choice in hoof. Pinkie was happily slurping from a bendy straw, whereas Rarity was daintily sipping at a cup of what smelled unmistakably like Earl Grey.

“So,” Rarity began conversationally, replacing the ornate cup on its flying saucer, ”you wanted to talk?”

Pinkie nodded, setting her own drink down on the table. “I, um... Something happened.”

Rarity’s eyebrow rose as she took another sip. Then she made a funny face and took a moment to stir in a bit of cream from an orbiting decanter. “Ahem. Something, you say?”

“Yeah... I don’t know what to do about it.”

Rarity nodded, motioning for Pinkie to go on.

The trouble with that, though, was that Pinkie didn’t know what to say exactly…

“Okay. I have this problem,” Pinkie said, picking and choosing her words, ”but I’m kinda not supposed to tell you what happened.”

Blinking, the unicorn opposite her took another sip of her tea whilst she considered this.

“Darling, I’m afraid I’m going to need you to make a teensy bit more sense, if you wouldn’t mind.”

“But that’s the problem! I don’t think I can!” Pinkie shook her head, trying to rattle the ideas contained therein into something resembling sense for her marefriend. When that proved unproductive, she stood up and started pacing back and forth.

Rarity, puzzled as she was, watched Pinkie marching to and fro in silence, her tea momentarily forgotten.

Pinkie stopped suddenly. “Okay... So, something happened. On the one hoof—” She held up a hoof—“she asked me not to tell you. But on the other hoof—“ She got up on her hind legs so that she could hold up both forehooves—“I didn’t promise not to tell you. But on the other other hoof—” She was balancing on a single hind leg now—“I’m worried you might get mad. But on the other other other hoof—” She lifted up her fourth and final hoof—“I don’t know if it’s right not to tell you. But on the other other other other hoof—”

Pinkie looked down, trying to find a hoof she hadn’t used yet. It was roughly at this point that gravity demanded to know what on Equestria she thought she was doing, before making her fall down like normal ponies.

“Darling? Are you all right?”

“Owie...” Pinkie scrambled up, rubbing her rump. “No, I’m not. I’m all confused and I need your help but I can’t tell you why I need help!” Her hooves shot up to her head, now, which had apparently just started to hurt significantly more than her hindquarters.

Rarity bit her lip, trying not to laugh at her poor Pinkie’s pitiful plight. “Love, I want to help, really I do. But if you can’t be a tad more specific I fear this is going to be rather difficult.”

“I know...” Pinkie cast her eyes down, sighing. “Sorry. I guess you can’t help me after all...”

Rarity’s eyebrow arched again, before she remembered and promptly drained the rest of her tea. Then, slowly, she set the china down, regarding her marefriend sympathetically. “All right... I’m prepared to forget this little conversation, since it seems I cannot be of any help to you. But I do have one question: Is this secret of yours something that will hurt me, yourself, or my little sister?”

The pink pony looked up in alarm, shock etched on every facet of her face. “No! I mean, yeah, you might get a teensy bit angry, I guess, but nopony has been hurt. Well, unless you count hearts...” She gingerly lowered herself onto her backside, wincing audibly. ”Ow-ity-ow. Or bottoms...”

Rarity still seemed a bit concerned, but those reassurances helped to mollify her at least somewhat. “Well, I trust that you will handle this situation, whatever it is, with the utmost care. I shan’t pry further.” She stood, walking up to Pinkie and laying her hooves around the uncharacteristically fretful mare’s shoulders. “I have every faith in you, my love. But if I can help you in any way... Well, do be sure to let me know.”

Pinkie stayed in the Boutique for some time, lying on the couch with Rarity, being nuzzled and comforted. As nice as this was, it didn’t solve any of her problems. It did mean a lot to her that Rarity apparently trusted her enough not to try and pry any further into Pinkie’s mysterious secret-that-might-not-even-be-a-secret, although some part of her almost wished Rarity would pry a bit more.

She supposed she could try to talk to Shy some more, but then she would probably just try to run away again, so that wouldn’t be much help.

“Geez Louise, what am I supposed to do now?”

Rarity raised her head from its cozy little perch on Pinkie’s shoulder. “I’m sorry?”

“I just don’t know what to do! I really really wanted to ask you for help, but I can’t tell you anything and now my head is all jumbled.”

“I understand,” Rarity replied, nuzzling Pinkie a little more for good measure. “I wish I could be of more assistance as well, but I will not ask you to break confidence with somepony else.”

“Wait!” Pinkie put her hoof up to her chin and stroked it. Immediately realizing something was missing, she rummaged in her mane until she found her trusty Emergency Pondering Goatee.

After slapping it onto her muzzle Pinkie pulled out a mirror, admiring herself as she pondered and pondered—and occasionally paused to stroke it some more, of course. In the end, she extricated herself from her marefriend’s embrace to begin pacing back and forth.

“Aha!” she exclaimed after a while. ”That’s it! I just need to talk to one of my other friends!”

“Oh?” Rarity asked, a bit bemused.

“Yeah! I was only asked not to tell you, so that’d still be okay.”

Pinkie nodded to herself in the mirror, practicing smiles number four through twenty-seven before taking both it and the beard and shoving them back into her mane.

Rarity bit her lip; she was starting to like the sound of this secret less and less. She trusted Pinkie implicitly but, ironically, found the tantalizing revelation that the truth would probably upset her, if she ever found out, more than a little upsetting in and of itself.

“Then perhaps you should speak with... whoever it was that asked you to keep the secret in the first place.”

“No, I don’t think that would work. She was really sad and I can’t figure out why!”

Pinkie sat back on the couch, temporarily defeated as to what her next move should be.

“I see,” Rarity said, suppressing the instincts screaming out at her to find out more. She did know that the pony in question was a female now, and noted that, while Pinkie had not directly implied that this pony was one of her friends, neither had she denied it. “Then I suppose you require a neutral third party.”

“A party?” Pinkie perked up at the mention of that particular word. ”But wait, third party? We haven’t held the first or second one yet, silly!”

“No… I meant somepony else not directly related to the issue, love.” Rarity had to smile, never being quite sure if Pinkie was wilfully misinterpreting these things for comedic effect or genuinely didn’t understand them.

“Ohhhh.” Pinkie clapped her hooves together. ”Hey, yeah! I know just who to ask,” she said, beaming. ”Thanks, Rarity, you helped a lot!”

She got up, kissed Rarity goodbye, and ran for the library.

Rarity watched her leave, growing ever more concerned. One of her friends had done something and had specifically instructed Pinkie not to tell her about it, which could only mean that it concerned her in some way. Dozens of possibilities played out in her head, each one more ridiculous than the last.

After a while, Rarity simply dismissed all of them and got up to return to her designs. Whatever had happened, Pinkie would surely be able to deal with it, or at the very least have the sense to ask for help if she could not.

Soon, Rarity was once again absorbed in her work.

So long as she kept busy, she would have no time to worry.

“Go away, Angel,” she muttered from beneath the heavy covers.

But the paw prodded her through the blanket again.

Fluttershy hesitantly poked her head out, just in time to be poked in the nose by the insistent bunny. “Ouch!”

He winced with her, giving her a contrite look.

“I’m sorry, Angel. I know you all must be hungry. Just give me a moment.”

But Angel put a paw on her leg and shook his head. Gesturing to the open door, he pointed out the crowd of animals anxiously peering through it.

“Oh!” Fluttershy turned back to Angel, trying to put on a happy face. “You don’t need to be worried. I’m fine. I’ll actually be spending a lot more time with all of you now.”

There were some tentative noises of jubilation from her friends.

“All of the time, actually.”

Instantly, the entire menagerie began to sound concerned again.

“Don’t you worry, it’ll be okay! I’m still working out the details, like the problem of getting groceries, but we should have enough supplies to last for at least a few weeks... I’m sure I can talk somepony into delivering food to my doorstep by then.” She paused, considering how to accomplish that without actually leaving the house. “Oh, I know! Who wants to run a note to the Apple farm?”

Angel slapped his forehead in disgust.

“Now now, there’s no need to be rude, Angel,” Fluttershy gently reprimanded the face-palming bunny. ”I just want to make sure everyone is taken care of. I… I just can’t go outside anymore. I’m not even sure if I want to live here anymore...” She lowered her head, not wanting her friends to see her tearing up. “But like I said, it will all be okay,” she added quickly, realizing her musings were proving quite distressing to the gathered critters. And then, with a weak smile, she requested: ”I, um… I would like to be alone now, if that’s all right…”

After a short pause there was the sound of various feet retreating from her doorway, and Fluttershy could sigh in relief. Preparing to re-enter her blanket sanctuary, she realized there was one foot still stomping impatiently on the bed.

“Angel?”

The bunny was looking at her crossly, waiting for something.

“Y-yes?”

He stopped tapping his foot, sighing in exasperation. He even tried pantomime, but Fluttershy could already guess what he meant: He wanted to know what was wrong.

“Oh, everything is fine,” she explained, failing to meet his eyes. ”I just can’t go into town anymore.”

He arched an eyebrow at her, motioning for her to go on.

“S-something horrible happened. I… I did… I told…” With a sigh, she turned away from him, looking out the window instead. ”Sorry. I just can’t. It’s too horrible!”

Outside, the birds were singing a happy, warbling song. She found herself wishing she were a bird, or perhaps a bunny—anything other than herself.

She felt a soft, padded foot encircling her foreleg, swiftly followed by a second. Looking down, she saw Angel affectionately hugging her leg, looking up at her with a sad, disarming smile.

Sniffling heavily, she tried to fight back a sob. “Thank you, Angel.”

Fluttershy lay down on the bed, snuggling up with Angel bunny.

For once, he made no move to squirm away.

Pinkie trotted down the road to the library, finally feeling like she had a plan. Granted, it wasn’t much of a plan, but it was a start... Twilight was sure to have some decent advice to give. Maybe she’d even know if three was okay!

While she walked, Pinkie started thinking about the questions Twilight might ask. The first would probably be how she felt about Shy. Fortunately, she wasn’t a complicated mare when it came to her feelings about her friends. True, the way she felt about Rarity was slightly... different. But Shy was a great pony too!

She did idly wonder if she should be worried that kissing Shy hadn’t really bothered her, and what Twilight would think about it, and what she would say, and what she herself should then reply, but then she decided it was probably a little soon to be thinking that far ahead. Maybe it was better to just let Twilight think like Twilight; her own head was already starting to hurt.
.
All Pinkie really needed to do was figure out what the proper reaction to being kiss-pounced would be, and then find some way to break the news to Rarity. After that, the tricky question of two versus three could be addressed; surely Twilight’s awesome mathe-me-matical skills would be of use there!

Wow, summing it up like that sure made everything sound a lot easier!

She arrived at the library and knocked on the door with a hoof.

“The door is open! It is a library, sheesh...” Spike grumbled from his beanbag chair.

Pinkie opened the door, poking her head around it to peer inside. “Oh, hey Spike!”

The sound of turning pages stopped, and Spike raised his head from reading level. “Oh, hey Pinkie. What’s up?”

“Oh, lots of things! But that’s not important right now. I need to talk to Twilight.”

“Upstairs. Look for the pony with her nose buried in a dusty lawbook. Can’t miss her.” He picked up his comic and found his place again. Without looking, he added, “Maybe you can talk some sense into her. Fluttershy sure couldn’t…” He let out a sudden laugh as he got to a particular panel. “Huh. A lampshade? That’s funny.”

“Okay!” Pinkie bounded up the stairs, humming to herself. Her ingenious plan was working out great!

It took a few seconds before the bit-penny dropped.

“Wait!” Pinkie cried, wobbling to a halt. Then she bounded down the stairs in reverse until she was back in front of Spike. “Fluttershy was here?!”

Spike nodded, turning another page. “Yup. She looked nearly as frazzled as Twilight, and that’s saying something.” He flipped to the ad, groaning at the fact that the villain was somehow defeated by fruit pies again. Talk about anticlimactic! “Dumb fruit pies,” he muttered. And then, remembering Pinkie: ”Uh, she was kinda babbling on about needing to tell Twi something, only not really. Something about Rarity... I dunno. Sorry. It was kinda confusing.”

There was no reply.

Spike looked up from his comic for a moment: Pinkie was gone, having already scrambled up the stairs while he was still talking. He could still spot a sporadic trail of flickering pink after-images, slowly fading away.

“Oookay. Never mind then.”

With that, he went back to his reading.

“Twilight!”

The unfortunate mare who answered to that name leaped into the air, knocking over three stacks of books and an inkwell in the process. “Gah!” She ended up clinging to an overhead rafter for dear life, desperate to avoid falling down.

Pinkie Pie peered upwards in puzzlement. “What’re you doing on the ceiling, silly? You can’t read books from there.” She frowned at the mess of ink-spattered books and papers on the floor next, shaking her head and tut-tutting in an almost Rarity-like fashion. ”And wow your room sure is a mess! You should totally ask Spike to help you clean up!”

Twilight groaned, looking down to see that the toppled inkwell had spilled all over the checklist she had been making. Then she took a deep, calming breath and teleported back to the floor.

“Pinkie... What?”

“Gee, everypony seems to be asking me that question today... Oh, right! I needed your help!”

“You, too?” Twilight groaned again, pressing a hoof to her face and letting out a long drawn sigh. “Okay… What do you need help with?”

Pinkie drew in a giant breath. “Okay. So I was laying on my bed composing this great little song about the happy noises and squeals Rarity always makes when I heard somepony coming up to my door really slowly! So I went outside and it was Shy! I hugged her and she kinda just stood there all not-move-y which was great for me because sometimes ponies squirm away and go ‘Ack, no, Pinkie! Lemme go! I can’t breathe!’ when I just looove hugging.” She wrapped her forelegs around herself, smiling dreamily. “But anyway, then we went inside because she wanted to say something to me but she was afraid, and then she was all ‘I need to move away so I don’t hurt you.’ And I was like—”

“Wait, wait, wait,” Twilight sputtered. She was trying to wrap her head around all the stuff about Shy, but for some reason her brain stubbornly refused to parse anything past the part that weirded her out the most: “W-what was that about Rari—?”

Pinkie shoved a hoof into Twilight’s mouth. “Not done! So anyway, I was all ‘No! It’ll be okay, I promise, whatever it is!’ And then she kissed me!” Pinkie pursed her lips and made kissing motioned at the air. “She even said she loves me. Then she said ‘Please don’t tell Rarity’ and ran away!” After a moment to catch her breath, she concluded with: ”So, long story short, I need you to tell me if three is okay.”

“Mwhuh?!”

“Oh, right, haha!” Pinkie sheepishly removed her soggy hoof, then looked at Twilight expectantly.

There was a long pause wherein Twilight was mostly just readjusting her jaw and glaring a lot, but eventually her curiosity got the better of her and she repeated the inevitable question: “What?!”

Pinkie took another, even deeper breath. “Okay, so I was—”

“No! I mean—” Twilight shook her head, trying to make the world make sense again. “No, wait, nevermind that... What?!”

“I need help to decide if I should tell Rarity and I need to know if three is okay! I’m only just barely used to being a two. I mean, I like being a two, but three sure seems like it would be super-nice too! I just...” Pinkie paused, trying to summon up words that fit. “I heard that one voice, when Fluttershy said ‘I love you.’ I… I knew that voice. It sounded just like when I told Rarity about my feelings! And if Shy feels like that, I don’t want her to be sad!”

“Okay.” Twilight held up a hoof, taking a deep breath. “We’re going to ignore the Rarity thing for now because it makes my head hurt. So... Fluttershy kissed you?”

“Yahuh!”

“And you kissed her back?”

“Yeah! I mean, at first I was all ‘Wow, what’s going on?’ but then it felt really nice. Like when it’s super cold outside and you come into the kitchen and it’s all warm and toasty and hey, muffins!”

Pinkie blushed, unsure of how it was supposed to feel, talking like that about a pony other than Rarity. Guilt, as it turned out, wasn’t a very fun feeling, although she wasn’t quite sure why it felt like that.

“Muffins....” Twilight repeated with a deadpan expression. “Right.”

“Yeah! I mean, it totally felt like that first real kiss with Rarity.” She stopped, tapping her hoof to her chin. “Well, maybe not the first first one. Back then she was all ‘Pinkie what are you doing?’ and I was all like “I’m kissing you, silly. Do you want me to stop?’ and then she went ‘No... keep going.’ I mean the one from right after I told her I loved her and she said she loved me back! It just feels so right, you know? Kissing somepony who really loves you…” She trailed off, not sure where she was going with that line of thought. Obviously, she loved Rarity; that wasn’t even a question in her mind. But now her heart was all a-tumble again because of Fluttershy.

“Pinkie…” Twilight sighed. ”You need to tell Rarity.”

Pinkie nodded, having already decided that on her own. But it did help to hear somepony else say it. “I know, but I still don’t know... Is three okay, too, Twilight? I don’t want anypony to be sad. I really really like Shy. And I know how it is when you see somepony you love all the time and you just want to tell them and have them say it back, but—” Pinkie paused to swallow, her voice wavering, sounding suddenly very small and afraid—“but you’re sure they won’t ever, ever love you back. I don’t want that for Shy...”

Twilight held a hoof up to her forehead, desperately wishing she had a super-effective spell for migraines right about now. “Okay. So… Fluttershy loves you, and you think you might feel the same. But you also love Rarity, and you two are getting married. So you can’t just…” She trailed off, reconsidering. “No, nevermind, I can’t tell you whether it’s right or wrong. It’s not my place to judge. It’s really something the three of you need to decide for yourselves. But what I can tell you if it’s legal or not.”

She leaned over to a particularly dusty tome beside her, flipping over to the index. Swiftly finding the relevant part of the lawbook in question, she started reading, looking for any jurisprudence on cases similar to what Pinkie was suggesting.

Pinkie, meanwhile—for want of something better to do—started dusting off the edges of the massive book with her bushy tail.

After a while, Twilight finally found the section she was looking for: “Okay, based on existing Equestrian laws concerning the formation of herds, it is decidedly not illegal to form non-monogamous socio-sexual unions involving multiple ponies.”

“Oh, well that’s a relief!” Pinkie said, beaming and wiping a few imaginary beads of sweat of her brow. Below her breath, she muttered, “‘Cause I kinda really like ‘super-sexual unions...’”

”But Rarity does need to know about this, Pinkie,” Twilight sternly continued. ”And then you also need to talk to Fluttershy.” She slammed the heavy book shut for emphasis. ”If you don’t talk to her, she’ll never know how you really feel. Knowing her, she’ll probably be stressing out about that for the rest of her life, wondering what could have been…” She trailed off, her eyes widening. “I… I need to write a letter. Right now.”

“Okie-dokie?”

Twilight hardly heard her, scrambling for any scrap of paper that wasn’t completely covered in ink. When she finally found what she was looking for she began scribbling furiously, slowing down only after she had made the quill put the necessary flourishes on her signature. Then she put it down with a sigh of relief.

“Sorry, I just realized something and I needed to get it down before I lost it again.” She turned to Pinkie, smiling disarmingly. ”In short, I don’t know if three is okay, Pinkie, but you do need to tell her how you feel. She needs to know... If I don’t—If you don’t tell her, it will never be okay.”

She walked to Pinkie and threw her forelegs around her, pulling her into a crushing hug. “Good luck.”

Pinkie hugged her back, hope and worry swirling within her heart like a vortex. “You, too!”

Pinkie bounced her way back to the Rarity’s place, trying to decide how to tell her what had happened. The trip to the Carousel Boutique had never taken quite as long as it did today…

At least she felt a little better about this whole three thing now, but still that nasty ol’ guilty feeling kept on coming back. Was it okay to like somepony else, too? It was true that Pinkie hadn’t been the one to initiate the smooching, but she had kissed Fluttershy back. Should she have pushed her away? And how was Rarity going to feel about all of this? If she’d be even half as conflicted about this as Pinkie was, things could actually end up going really wrong really fast...

Maybe it would be better to talk to Shy first, then? But no, Pinkie dismissed that idea nearly as soon as she had thought of it. It had been wrong not to tell Rarity anything before, kind-of promise or no. Promises were important, but never more important than the ponies you loved.

Besides, before they could talk about three Rarity kinda needed to know why three was even being talked about.

For now, she put the ugly feeling of guilt away in a little box she kept in her head marked ‘Do not open until Hearth’s Warming Eve.’ They wouldn’t help her at the moment. Besides, she wasn’t even sure if they were the right feelings or just needless concerns. After that, the trip seemed much shorter; the Boutique didn’t look quite as foreboding and became a place of happiness again.

Pinkie stopped at the entrance, opening the door and grinning merrily as she made the bell go off.

“Just a moment!”

“I’m back!” Pinkie responded with forced cheer.

Maybe if she could put on a happy face for this it would go better. Most situations could be drastically improved with a smile, after all.

Rarity’s heart leapt when she heard Pinkie return. It hadn’t been terribly long since she had left, but to Rarity it had felt like an eternity. Every reason to worry her mind had come up with had been worse than the last, and if she didn’t find out what was supposed to be worrying her in the very near future, it would no doubt only go downhill from there.

But that wasn’t the only reason Rarity was frustrated: Try as she might, she hadn’t gotten a single thing done today. So much for drowning herself in her work... Still, maybe now that would all be over.

She rushed into the showroom, embracing her marefriend and smothering her in kisses. That done, she sat Pinkie down and fetched more drinks for the two of them. She was going to need something to occupy her mind while Pinkie talked, and tea sounded excellent right now.

Pinkie stared into her iced tea for a while before finally taking a big sip. Then she raised her eyes and put on a big smile.

To most ponies, this would have made her seem happy. But Rarity had become something of a connoisseur of Pinkie-smiles, and this one unmistakably told her: ‘I think I did something bad.’ Such a smile usually heralded Rarity getting very upset about something.

Not exactly an auspicious start for this conversation...

“Darling, whatever it is, I promise you it will be all right,” she said earnestly. ”You don’t have to put on a brave face for me.”

The smile faltered, then became slightly more genuine. “So, uh… I talked to Twilight about… Yeah. She said I really needed to tell you. I’m sorry I didn’t before, but I wasn’t sure if it was the right thing to do.”

Rarity waited patiently, bracing herself for whatever was to come. She told herself that this thing could not possibly be as bad as what she had feared.

“So… Fluttershy came to talk to me about something. She said she’d promised somepony that she’d tell me about it. But she was afraid to.”

Wait…

“She said she was going to go far away so she wouldn’t be breaking her promise. But I told her it would be okay.”

She can’t possibly mean… No, she was supposed to go to Twilight! I told her to go straight there! I even watched her go. So why in Equestria would she go to Pinkie instead?

“And then she kissed me.”

Rarity heard a shattering sound, followed by a splash of warmth on her hooves. “Wuh-wuh-what?”

“She… She kissed me. And I kissed her back. Then she told me she loved me and ran away.”

The silence in the room was deafening. All Rarity could think of at that moment were all the various causes of possible concern her feverish mind had dreamed up, and how this one actually managed to be far, far worse. In fact, this might even actually be the Worst Possible Thing. Where was her chaise longue when she needed it?

She glanced down.

Ah, I’m sitting on it. Right.

“Rarity, I don’t know what to do. I’m sorry I kissed her back... I love you. But she was just so sad. I just couldn’t not kiss her back.”

The table between them vibrated as Rarity gripped it tightly with trembling hooves. She picked up another cup in her aura and poured herself a much-needed replacement cup of tea, carefully counting the cubes of sugar one by one. Then she mixed cream into the tea, stirring very slowly. When she was done, she took a deep draught, feeling it warm up her insides—until it hit the cold pit her stomach had become. There it sat: a lump of leaden frost from which no heat could escape.

“Are you mad at me?”

Pinkie’s voice sounded small and afraid. Had she not been so shell-shocked at the time, it would have broken Rarity’s heart.

“I… I’m not angry.”

Not at you.

Never at her Pinkie. No, there was only one pony she needed to address this with, and, much as she dreaded it, she was certainly going to give that mare a piece of her mind. There were some liberties even a best friend was not allowed... “You have done nothing wrong.”

Pinkie visibly relaxed, reverting to a much more routine smile than the strained one she had been affecting for Rarity earlier. “Phew! I was really worried! I mean, I thought you might go all angry-scrunchy-face and start grinding your teeth, like you did that time you came by the bakery and we did all of that neat stuff together!”

And that, my love, is precisely why I cannot be angry with you, Rarity thought as she took another sip of tea.

Pinkie was never going to reject affection of any type; it just wasn’t how she was built. No, Rarity would have to tend to this herself, and it wasn’t going to be pretty. She couldn’t help but blame herself just a teensy little bit, however. She had demanded that Fluttershy spill the beans to the pony she had a crush on—even made her promise to do so—and this was the result. Of course, she had had no idea that the pony in question had been Pinkie.

But that doesn’t excuse kissing her! That was just going too far!

Pinkie reached forward, touching her hoof, and Rarity forced herself to remain still.

“You’re really quiet, Rarity. Are you sure you’re not mad?”

“Yes, my love. I’m not mad.” She tried to keep her voice from shaking as she made that reply.

I’m furious. Seething with rage, perhaps. Mad doesn’t even begin to cover what I am feeling.

“I’m just trying to decide what to say to her.”

Pinkie gave her a warm and encouraging smile. “I thought we’d both go over to her cottage—”

“No!” Rarity hadn’t intended to yell, and immediately softened her voice, affecting an air of calm smoothness: “No, love.”

It was a talent that generally served her well whenever she had to interact with ponies who tended to make her angry. Here, it helped to mask her true feelings. She had to remember who she was angry with; Pinkie did not deserve to be yelled at.

Rarity had to wince, however, when her marefriend’s ears clamped down anyway. The damage had already been done, it seemed.

“W-why not?”

“I think it best that she and I discuss the matter alone. She has been my closest friend for as long as we’ve known each other... Please, allow me to handle it.”

Pinkie’s ears were raised once more, and she put on a hesitant grin. “Are you sure? I mean, I’m the one she ended up kissing... Maybe we should all have a nice long talk together?”

Rarity felt her hoof tremble on the surface of the table once more, and took a moment to calm herself.

“There are some things that have to be done between friends. Don’t worry, I shall settle matters and tell you all about it when I get back.”

“Okay, if you’re sure...”

“Absolutely sure.”

The fashionista smiled coolly. What was to come was not going to be pleasant. But then, ending a friendship seldom was.