Rainbow Dash had dreams, and Fluttershy found that exciting about her. She was a pony who knew exactly what she wanted out of life and wasn’t afraid to take it.

Fluttershy watched with lovestruck eyes while Dash surveyed the stunt course they had built together. She had worked really hard this morning, just because it would make Dash happy. It would be worth it—it always was.

Rainbow smiled, excitement and determination written all over her face. She reared back on her hooves, then took off with such speed that she destroyed the platform she’d been perched on. She sped, she weaved, she turned and twirled, all with a sureness that Fluttershy couldn’t help but envy every time.

Yes, Dash knew precisely what she wanted... As she rounded the course, barreling back through the obstacles, her smile grew ever wider. Without warning, she knocked Fluttershy over, causing them both to topple end over end, until she landed on top of her in a tangled heap of limbs.

Fluttershy looked up in excitement, but also felt a twinge of fear.

“That. Was. So. Awesome!” Dash exclaimed, her breath still trying to catch up to her. “I mean, did you see when I—”

“Oh, I saw.”

“And when I did that—”

“It was very nice.”

“What about—”

“Are you going to kiss me now?”

“Huh? Oh, right.” Rainbow leaned down, making both of their tongues dance and weave inside Fluttershy’s muzzle.

There had been a time when Fluttershy wouldn’t have asked. When she wouldn’t have needed to ask. Back then, the rush of excitement from a race or simply from practicing a new trick would automatically lead to all the wonderful things she blushed to even think about. If anything, Fluttershy had needed to ask her to slow down a little to let her catch her breath.

She wasn’t quite sure what it meant, the fact that she had to specifically ask for it these days, but it was certainly beginning to worry her.

After a while of kissing and worrying, Rainbow Dash leaned back, albeit not before giving Fluttershy a fond little peck on the cheek. “Hey look, I gotta jet, Shy. But thanks. This was fun.”

“Oh... Okay.”

Fluttershy watched Dash fly off, pursing her lips sadly. This was all normal, she repeatedly told herself. But in truth, she couldn’t say for sure. Dash loved her, that much was clear, and she certainly loved Dash—so there should be no problem. But reality was proving more complicated than that...

It just felt wrong somehow, as though Dash was slipping away from her a little at a time.

Getting up, she dusted some stray bits of cloud from her mane and looked over the course they had just constructed. After taking a moment to brace herself, she took off with a rush of air. Fluttershy strained herself, forcing her oft-unwilling wings to carry her faster and faster, as if she were chasing the spectre of a rainbow contrail in front of her.

Always in front of her, racing ahead, the distance growing no matter how hard she tried.

She banked, she whirled, and rounded the cloud columns with ease and precision. Halfway through the course, however, she faltered, her wings simply refusing to keep up the pace any longer. But Fluttershy pushed on through the pain, gritting her teeth and forcing herself to finish.

Finally, she came to a stop on the selfsame cloud she had just left, utterly exhausted.

She just had to keep pushing. She had to catch up. Maybe then Dash would truly love her...

“Wow! That was amazing! You were all whoosh and zoom and zip! Do you think Dashie will like it?”

Fluttershy shook her head sadly. “She never knew. I was too afraid to show her. I was always too afraid...”

“Awwww, she would have liked it, I bet. But I still think you make a better Fluttershy than a Dashie.”

“I tried so hard to be everything she wanted, but in the end, I still lost her. I just couldn’t keep up.”

“Huh? I thought she wanted you? I mean, you you. ‘Cause it’d be kinda silly if Dashie wanted to, like, date herself.”

Fluttershy didn’t answer at first. She sat down at the edge of the cloud, kicking her feet as she watched the ground below. “Ponies always want me to be something else. Want me to be brave, be strong, be fast... As I am, I… I’m not good enough for anypony.”

Pink hooves wrapped around her, and she could feel a warm breath on her back. “I like you just the way you are. You can be any of those things, or none of them. I’d still like you.”

“How can you like me? After what I did to you...”

Pinkie just smiled and leaned forward, raising a hoof and knocking her on the forehead with it. “Knock knock, silly.”

“What do you mean—?”

A strident knock on her door woke her up with a start. She looked around, bleary-eyed.

The knock came again, louder this time.

“Fluttershy, would you kindly answer your door?”

Oh gosh, Rarity! “J-just a second!”

She scrambled up from the bed, but did take a moment to tuck Angel back in. A quick run down the stairs found her at the door, which she opened to find none other than Rarity, exactly as feared.

“S-sorry,” Fluttershy stammered nervously. ”You caught me during a nap.”

“Quite all right, darling. I suspect your day has been rather tiring.”

Rarity waited at the entrance to the cottage, looking at her expectantly.

“Yes, very.” Fluttershy was doing her best not to panic. Did Rarity know what she had done? It didn’t take long for the guilt-ridden mare to conclude that she had to know. After all, why else would she be here? “Um... Please come in.”

“Thank you, darling.”

They both settled down on Fluttershy’s couch, and for a few moments nothing more was said.

“So,” Rarity began, wearing an expression that all but screamed ‘I am breaking the awkward silence.’ “How did it go with Twilight?”

Fluttershy immediately relaxed. Rarity didn’t know; she was just stopping by to check on her. It didn’t make things okay, but it did mean that maybe they could keep being friends for a little while longer. That would be nice.

Of course, that was only until she eventually did find out—then Rarity would hate her, and she would have to move.

Maybe I should move now, before she finds out. Then at least my last memory of her can be a happy one.

“She... Well, she took it well.” That was true enough: Twilight had been very surprised, of course, but had gotten over the initial panic attack fairly quickly. “She just didn’t feel the same way.”

“Yes, well... I suppose that’s no real surprise. Not that there is anything wrong with you, dear, but when somepony is already in love they generally don’t choose to respond to the advances of others.” Rarity’s hoof, which had been relaxed on her knee, began to tremble. “You know, I got a bit of a surprise myself today.”

“Oh?”

“Yes. Pinkie stopped by. She wanted to talk. Said she needed my help with something.”

Fluttershy’s heart pounded loudly in her chest. She knows!

“But for some reason, she refused to tell me why, or with what—”

Fluttershy relaxed just a little, but couldn’t shake the feeling of impending doom in the air.

“—at first.”

Ah, there it is. Hello, doom.

She had always wondered what she would be feeling like, at the end of her life. Surprisingly, the answer was: strangely serene. Of course, full-on panic hadn’t had a chance to set in properly yet, and once it did arrive she expected it would be terrifying.

“Rarity, please... I can explain—”

Rarity nodded, not looking at her. “Yes, I expect you can. It really was terribly awkward for you, wasn’t it? A love triangle indeed, and I just had to go and push you...”

“I-I never wanted—”

“But that doesn’t excuse a kiss—the kiss—does it? That’s what has been weighing so heavily on my mind. I made you promise to confess, so I can forgive you for that. I might even have applauded it. But you kissed her.”

There it was, the other horseshoe had dropped. Rarity knew everything.

“I...” A feeble start at best, but, truth be told, Fluttershy couldn’t think of anything more she could say. There was nothing to say, nothing that could possibly excuse her impulsive actions.

“You know, this is the second time you’ve gone and hurt me when I was just trying to help you,” Rarity went on, not actually seeming to expect any further response. ”This is just becoming a trend now, isn’t it?” She grimaced. “Oh, sorry... I suppose it’s a bit petty of me, isn’t it, to hold a grudge from so long ago?”

Fluttershy hung her head, silently waiting for the screaming to begin.

Several moments later, however, she was still waiting for the expected outburst. When she dared to look up, she found Rarity silently weeping.

Fluttershy had anticipated drama, hysterics, insults, and even the odd thrown object or two, but nothing could have prepared her for the unadulterated misery she now witnessed in her friend.

She would have preferred the screaming.

“Um, Rarity?” Fluttershy hesitantly asked, hoping to prompt a reaction that wouldn’t tear her heart to pieces. ”Aren’t you mad at me?”

“Mad?” Rarity let out a small, half-crazed-sounding laugh. Off to the left, a vase full of innocent flowers actually burst into flame. “‘Mad’ seems to me a relatively calm term compared to what I’m feeling right now. My closest and dearest friend kissed my fiance! ‘Furious’ would be more appropriate, I think. And even that feels rather like an understatement.”

Rarity was looking directly into Fluttershy’s eyes, and the latter quickly discovered she could not hope to tear her gaze away.

“I actually snapped at Pinkie because of you, do you know that? I think that’s what I find most unforgivable.” Rarity lowered her eyes again, much to Fluttershy relief. “That’s why I wanted to see you suffer in some fashion. But now that I’m here, and you are before me, I find that all I can do is weep in frustration. How unfair is that? I want to yell, to scream at you... But one look at that insufferably kind face of yours, one glance at the mare I knew I could rely on for all these long years, whom I could trust with even my deepest, darkest secrets... And the only thing I can feel is regret.”

The hoof was trembling again. Rarity kept her eyes to the floor, refusing to make further eye contact. Across the room, the sound of glass breaking could be heard. Fluttershy looked toward it, noting how the vase full of incinerated flowers was now a freshly-imploded pile of glass shards, after being forcefully introduced to the wall.

“You kissed her, yet I had to keep a tight reign on myself to avoid getting angry at her,” Rarity told the floorboards, shaking her head in disgust. ”I can’t even begin to express how wrong that is...” She swallowed audibly. ”So, no, Fluttershy, I’m not mad,” she finished bitterly. “N-not mad at all.”

“I’m sorry—”

“Sorry?!” Rarity’s voice rang out shrilly throughout the cottage. For just a moment, cracks began to form in the thin veneer of gentility and some the pain and anger she was suppressing seeped through. But she visibly composed herself, taking several deep breaths while Fluttershy was still busy cringing away from her. “Yes, well, I suppose you are. But that doesn’t change what you’ve done.”

Fluttershy didn’t quite know how to react. She knew her friend was angry—so much so that it was honestly beginning to terrify her a little—but she was also aware of the fact that Rarity was hurting. Against her better judgement, this made Fluttershy want to comfort her. Hesitantly, she put a wing around her. “Rarity, I don’t underst—”

“You’ve confused her!” Rarity snapped, shrugging off the wing and glaring at Fluttershy. The anger was back, but below the smoldering fire in her friend’s eyes shone tears. “Don’t think I don’t know where this is going! You’re a very attractive mare, Fluttershy, and on top of that you’re sad because you love my fiance and cannot have her. Pinkie is not the type of friend who would let that happen... She’ll pity you. She’ll go to you. She would have to, in order to make you happy. A-and then, then I’ll be alone again...” Her shoulders slumped and she looked away once more, saying, “Do you understand what you’ve done now?” And then, more to herself than anything: ”She’s everything to me...”

Fluttershy anxiously rubbed her forehooves together. “I never meant to take her away—”

“It doesn’t matter what you meant to do; she’ll go all the same,” Rarity said, eyes still averted. But then, in the next instant they swiveled back, narrowed and full of intensity. “But you can’t have her, you hear me? She’s mine.”

There was a long, tension-filled silence, fraught with finality. Both mares kept staring at each other, either unable or unwilling to say any more.

In the end, it was Fluttershy who first looked away. “I’ll go away... I was already planning on leaving, so none of this would… would...” Fluttershy trailed off, realizing it was futile to dwell on the past. After a while though, she cried out miserably: ”I never wanted this!” And then, more quietly: “I’m so, so sorry...” In her mind, she was still silently pleading with her friend, still desperate for forgiveness, for understanding.

But her pleas fell on deaf ears: Rarity had already adopted an air of stone-faced civility again, throwing up an icy barrier between them which no feeble words of apology could hope to surmount.

She nodded primly. “That might be best for now. I’d better get back to Pinkie. She’ll be starting to worry about now.”

Fluttershy felt her weight leave the couch, and heard the door open and close.

And that was that.

Rarity maintained her composure for a good fifty steps from Fluttershy’s cottage, but as soon as she was out of sight the inevitable emotional collapse occurred. She cried openly, for any and all to see, as she made her way back to her own home. All things considered, the fact she made it out of sight was quite the accomplishment.

She had wanted so badly to tell her dear friend that, yes, of course she forgave her! That it was all just water under the bridge to her. It would have been the generous thing to do, to just let things progress naturally. And if, as she suspected, that would have resulted in the two of them getting together, she ought to have been happy for them. What was one measly broken heart compared to two happy and whole ones, after all?

But in the end, it turned out that, when it came to the ones she loved, even she was just a selfish, petty pony after all.

And so she plodded on, cursing herself for being so weak of will and downright horrible all around. She had been alone for the majority of her life; why should the thought of it bother her now?

Suddenly, she stopped.

“No,” she murmured to herself.

No, it was not selfish of her to want to hang on to the one thing that made her whole life worthwhile—even if that ended up making her best friend sad. There were limits even to the spirit of generosity.

And Celestia forgive her, she just couldn’t give her Pinkie away.

And Celestia grant that Pinkie can forgive me in turn.

“You did what?!”

Et tu, Celestia?

Rarity had gone straight up to Pinkie’s room, knowing she had to face the music sooner or later anyway—and opting for ‘later’ would only make it worse. But oh, how she found herself wishing that she could have postponed it. That it was her who was leaving town, rather than having to face those heartrendingly shocked, puppy-dog eyes.

Rarity raised her head, willing herself to be stronger. “I went over there, told her I knew everything and that she couldn’t have you. Then she said she was leaving town... To visit her parents for a while, I imagine.” Her voice quavered a bit when she uttered that obvious half-truth. To say that Fluttershy was visiting her parents sounded slightly better than ‘I drove my best friend out of town to Celestia-knows-where,’ at least.

Pinkie stared at her in wide-eyed disbelief. “Did you tell her not to? You did tell her that, right? I mean, I just got her to promise not to do something like that earlier!”

“Actually, I—” Rarity winced “—I told her I thought that might be best.”

Pinkie’s mouth hung open. “Wuh? Why would you do that?” She flumped down onto her haunches and brought her forelegs up, pressing her hooves to the sides of her head in bewilderment. ”I just don’t understand!”

The question tore at Rarity’s heart. She knew beforehoof that Pinkie would never be able to comprehend what had to be done; she had been prepared for that. But to be honest, she had been asking herself that very same question, over and over again, during the trip back from Fluttershy’s cottage.

“Pinkie, I... I love you too much to give you up. I’m sorry, but I had to defend what is mine.” There, she had said it—and to Tartarus with the consequences!

“‘Give me up?’ Why would you ever—”

Rarity shook her head, holding up a hoof to silence further protests. “I know you, Pinkamena Diane Pie. You simply cannot stand idly by when somepony else is sad. But you can’t help her with this.”

Pinkie opened her mouth to respond, but Rarity shushed her and sat down next to her, placing a sympathetic leg around her confused marefriend’s shoulder, still desperate to make her see.

”There is a very good reason why Fluttershy didn’t say anything regarding her feelings until I forced it out of her, darling. It’s not like she could just come by and say: ‘Oh, hey Rarity! I’m all out of marefriend, could I borrow a cup?’” Rarity resolutely crossed her forelegs, concluding with: ”Being somepony’s marefriend is an all-or-nothing deal. Either you are, or you aren’t!”

Pinkie waited for a moment to see if Rarity had anything more more to say, but once it became clear that she had said all she needed, Pinkie jumped up, spreading her forelegs wide. “But I would never leave you! I don’t know why you would ever think that!”

After making her way over to to bed and sitting down heavily, Rarity gave a nod of acknowledgement. She appreciated the sentiment, at least. “Oh, I know you wouldn’t mean to. It would begin innocently enough, just as it did with us. She’s already given you a kiss, so a few more wouldn’t hurt. There might be some snuggling while you visit, just to make her feel better. Then, one night, passion may take hold, and you end up making love. I know it sounds like romantic tripe, but these things get written into romance novels for a reason.” Rarity set her chin down on top of her forelegs, resting her head and sighing dramatically. ”If she stays, I will lose you... Slowly but surely.”

“No!” Pinkie stomped a hoof down, making the floor shake. “I would never leave you, no matter what.” She touched her earring, pointing to the diamonds and balloons carved into the gold. “Forever! That’s what these mean.”

Rarity reached up to her own, touching it gently with a hoof. It was such a small thing... She often forgot it was even there. But now she felt its solid, unchanging shape and was reassured of its existence, its permanence. “I… I know. I know you mean what you say. But you said it yourself, Pinkie dear... Fluttershy is just so sad right now, because of us. Because we are happy. And that’s not going to go away anytime soon. How will you deal with such a cruel dilemma? How will you feel, knowing she’s nearby and suffering in such a way?”

“Duh! I’d feel horrible, of course,” came the puzzlingly straightforward reply. ”And that’s why we should help her!”

Rarity raised her head and perked her ears, both her eyebrows shooting up at that suggestion. “C-come again?”

“That reminds me. I need to talk to you about a certain number...”

She couldn’t believe it. She had heard it explained in excruciating detail, and yet she still couldn’t believe Pinkie really thought it was all that simple.

And why were they even discussing this? She was the wronged party here! She was in dire need of a steady diet of comfort and kisses, but she was getting all these incomprehensible proposals toward sharing her beloved with the interloper instead.

“Darling, that’s just not how things are done. It doesn’t work like that!”

“It can too!” Pinkie started motioning in the air with a hoof. “I love you, and you love me,” she said, drawing an imaginary line in the air. “That’s elementary. And we both like Fluttershy. Factor in the fact that she likes you and totally loves me...” The hoof traced two more lines, completing a triangle shape. “And tada! We could make it work and nopony would have to move or be sad or anything!” Swiftly, Pinkie finished by writing the letters ‘Q,’ ‘E’ and ‘D’ beneath the mid-air triangle, before beaming at Rarity expectantly.

“Oh, I see,” Rarity muttered, trying to keep the bitterness out of her voice. ”And then we’ll all live happily ever after? So simple, so easy...” She hopped off the bed, her tail swishing agitatedly. “What about me, though? What if I don’t want to share you, did you ever stop to consider that? Would you leave me for her?”

“I just told you I would never—”

“Don’t say never, Pinkie. Please don’t make promises you can’t keep.”

“But I never break—”

Rarity stopped listening. Wandering off, she searched the room until she spotted the specific title she had been looking for on one of her shelves. “I... I need you to understand what you’re asking of me,” she said, bringing the book towards them in her magic and then holding it at eye level. “Here, look at this cover. A couple deliriously in love. Do you see a third pony with them?”

She pulled forth several more novels, all in the same vein. “Here... and here. Here as well. They all feature couples. Do you know what a third pony means, every single time, when it comes to love?”

Pinkie shook her head, watching the floating books in bemusement.

“They are the enemy! An obstacle to overcome, a test of the relationship... Even—” Rarity furiously wiped her eyes with a hoof, trying to clear the tears welling up in them “—Even if they were your best friend, a pony whom you would have trusted with anything… And who went behind your back and kissed your fiance and, and, how could she do that?” The books all fell to the floor as Rarity’s shoulders slumped down in sadness. “I just can’t believe she did that...”

“Shy didn’t mean to hurt anypony. She... she just didn’t know what to do!” Pinkie cried, hopping over the haphazard pile of pulp romance separating her from Rarity. ”That doesn’t make it okay to let her go away...”

“What else was I meant to do?” Rarity desperately demanded. “Do you think I wanted to lose my best friend? It felt as though I was cutting out my own heart! But you… You’re what’s truly important to me now, do you understand that? It was the only way I could hope to keep you, even though it also involved a very real risk of losing you over what I was compelled to do.”

There was a long silence as the two regarded each other. Both mares desperately wanted to be understood; both were equally terrified over what it could mean if they weren’t.

It was not long before Pinkie scrambled over to Rarity, getting down on her knees and holding the latter’s hooves in her own. “Rarity,” she said gently, trying to get her marefriend to look her in the eyes. When she had finally established eye contact, she put on her best ‘serious business’ face. “I know you’re scared, but I’ve noticed something about you. When you’re afraid of something, you say ‘it’s just not done.’”

She ticked off points with a hoof: “You said that when I kissed you. You said that when I helped you learn about yourself. But who says it’s not done? Who made up these silly rules that say Fluttershy has to be unhappy, when she has two ponies who love her? Why does she have to be the enemy?”

“Stop talking to me like it’s me who’s the villain of this story!” Rarity shouted back, making Pinkie clamp back her ears in surprise. “Of course I’m afraid. I’m terrified! Do you think this is what I want? You getting all upset with me and Fluttershy ending up heartbroken? But let me just humor you for a moment... Let’s say we try this little menage a trois of yours, and the two of you fall deeply and madly in love with each other—but I don’t. What then? Would you be able to just leave her?”

“I...” Pinkie’s eyes widened as she played that scenario out in her mind. Her hair went flat a moment later. “I...”

Oh, my poor sweet Pinkie Pie... I take it back. Please, I take it back!

“Pinkie? I didn’t mean I would ever be so heartless as to force you to abandon a friend. But do you see what I mean, now? I need you to understand that what you’re so casually suggesting is no small thing!”

Pinkie sat on the floor, and did not say anything for a long time—too long, as far as Rarity was concerned.

When she finally did reply, her voice was so very small and afraid: “I’m sorry. I never meant to make you worry so much...”

Rarity shook her head quickly. “I know you didn’t mean to, darling. And I’m sorry for being so harsh. But as I said before, I simply cannot risk losing you!”

“But...” Pinkie raised her eyes, unsure whether she should say more.

Rarity gave her a hesitant grin. “Go on... I’ll listen. I didn’t mean to yell.”

“I know.” Pinkie smiled back, her hair regaining most of it’s former bouncy glory. “I know why you did that, now. It’s super-scary to even think about losing you, and I figure it must be the same for you.”

Rarity nodded mutely, waiting for Pinkie to make her point.

“But... what if it did work out? What if you could love her? Wouldn’t that be, like, the best thing ever? You’d get to keep your best friend and your best fiance! You’re not gonna lose me, no matter what, but we might lose Shy if we let her go... Isn’t she important to you, too?”

“I...” Rarity paused, doing her best to ignore her misgivings and give the proposal some serious thought.

Fluttershy had always been her closest friend. They had shared so much of themselves during their frequent spa sessions, which was exactly why it had shocked and hurt her so to find that, when push came to shove, her friend had not been upfront with her. She had never really considered the possibility of falling for a mare until Pinkie came along and opened her eyes; but even before that surprising incident, her friendship with Fluttershy had been so close they might as well have been dating.

But she still felt so hurt when she thought of the two of them together—kissing. Something precious had been stolen from her, even if only for a moment.

Everything was supposed to have been perfect: She had made the proposal, the wedding day was fast approaching... This was happily-ever-after time. But now everything was in turmoil again, all because of a simple kiss. “She... she is important, yes. But not more than you.”

“Well, do you want to stop being her friend just because she messed up once?”

Rarity bristled at the question. “No, I... It’s not fair to ask me that! Of course I don’t want that! I never wanted that. I went over there to defend our relationship, not out of some misguided desire for revenge.”

“But you don’t have to! There’s no three without you and me. We’re always gonna be two. But we could be three if everypony wants it!” Pinkie clutched Rarity’s hooves tightly in her own. “We don’t have to be, but I really really really want all of us to be happy! Even if we can’t be... you know, a great big snuggle pile, she’s still our friend, and I don’t want her to go away.”

Rarity wasn’t sure what to think anymore. “Pinkie...”

Pinkie put her hooves on Rarity’s knees, looking up at her pleadingly. “Can we at least go talk to her? Together?”

Rarity let out a deep sigh. She knew one thing: confronting her best friend had been the single most horrible thing she had ever had to do in her entire life. On top of that, despite the hurt, she did not want to see her friend go either. But would Fluttershy even want to speak to her, after how she had acted?

“I’m not sure that would be a good idea... She might just want to run from me now. As for myself, I don’t know how I will cope with seeing her after… after...” Rarity ran a hoof through her mane distractedly. ”I just don’t know anymore.”

“Rarity, it’s okay to feel that way! I was all confuzzled and kinda tingly after she kissed me. But I’ll always love you—that’s not gonna change.” Pinkie pressed Rarity’s hoof up against her chest, allowing her to feel the gentle thumping therein. “I think... I think I love her, too. Not the same way, maybe, but it’s still love.” She looked up into Rarity’s eyes, her own full of trust and hope. “Do you think you can you love her? Can’t we all just be one big lovey-dovey pony pile?”

“She... she kissed you,” Rarity replied, unable to maintain eye contact with her marefriend. “I don’t know if she would... I don’t know if I can...”

“Sorry, I didn’t mean to push you. But think about it. Would it be okay if we go over to her and ask her not to go away, at least? It’d be kinda hard to go and see her if she moves back to Cloudsdale. I mean, Twilight put the balloon in storage and that wing spell really tires her out.” Pinkie put on her most soulful puppy-dog eyes. “Pleaaase?”

The look on Pinkie’s face was breaking Rarity’s heart. “Fine. We’ll go to her. Tomorrow. And we are just going to talk, understood? I’m not making any promises.”

Pinkie leaped up, a happy squeal erupting from her muzzle, before proceeding to squeeze the life out of her fiance. “I love you so much, Rarity! It’s gonna be great! Just you wait!”

The morning after her life had officially ended found Fluttershy packing her things. Tearfully, she took another blurry shape—most likely her gala dress—out of the closet. She folded it carefully and placed it in her luggage. The next blur seemed to be a small, white sweater. It was very fuzzy and, for some reason, kept squirming in her hooves.

“Oh! Sorry, Angel,” she muttered, setting the bunny back down.

There wasn’t all that much for her to pack, truth be told. She didn’t have many dresses or much bedding. She did have plenty of pots and pans and a lot of tableware, but she figured she could leave that behind for whoever bought her house. (Not that she expected it to sell very quickly... For some reason, most ponies didn’t seem to want to live right next to the dark scary woods full of things that wanted to eat them.)

What Fluttershy was far more concerned about was the fate of her animal friends. True, most of them had lived in the wild and could fend for themselves, but she feared even they might have gotten too used to being taken care of. The more domesticated animals could probably stay with Applejack; the chickens, for instance, would do perfectly fine on the farm. As for Angel, he would of course be coming with her, albeit not whilst unceremoniously stuffed inside a suitcase. She knew she had a special pet carrier for him somewhere—now if only she could stop crying long enough to find it...

There was a knock on her front door. She ignored it, hoping that whoever it was would simply go away.

But the knock came again, louder this time. “Knock-knock, Shy!”

Pinkie!

Her heart leapt; Pinkie had come to see her off! She wasn’t sure how Pinkie even knew she was packing in the first place, but she was nonetheless glad her friend had come. It would give her a chance to apologize before she left.

She opened the top portion of her door, smiling hesitantly as Pinkie came into view. It both hurt and healed Fluttershy’s troubled heart to see her again.

Her heart skipped a beat when a second pony came into view, and before she knew it, she had slammed the door shut.

There was a sound of two ponies arguing, but then she heard a hesitant voice calling out to her: “Darling, could you please open the door?”

Rarity’s here! Oh, she’s probably here to—

Fluttershy paused, trying to clear her head and not let pure panic overtake her. Why was Rarity here, she wondered. What more was there to be discussed?

More importantly, Pinkie was also here. And why would Pinkie ever come over here, smiling as usual, if anything bad was about to happen?

Unless they’re both here to yell at me...

Fluttershy pushed that pessimistic thought away as best as she could and attempted to stick solely to the facts: Rarity and Pinkie were both outside and nopony was screaming yet, nor had anything around her been set on fire or made to implode. So maybe... it would be okay?

She made her way to the door, narrowly avoiding stepping on three scurrying mice as well as Angel Bunny along the way.

“C-coming,” she called out to her (ex-)friends. She opened the door to find a very nervous Rarity standing next to a beaming Pinkie Pie.

Oh, that’s nice. I guess they’re not here to yell at me after all.

“Um... hello?”

Rarity did not say anything for what swiftly became a very, very long time. Until Pinkie gave her a nudge, that was, and she wavered in her motionless stance, seemingly about to fall down.

Wait... Rarity’s here, and she’s not screaming. Why isn’t she mad anymore?

Fluttershy frowned, trying to puzzle out what was going on.

This all feels so... unreal. Am I dreaming? Oh no, this isn’t the dream where my friends are all made of cardboard, is it? Did my tea go bad again?

Come to think of it, she didn’t recall having tea today. Or much of anything at all, really. She had been a bit too busy packing and crying all morning; the stuffed set of matching and soggy suitcases on the floor could attest to that. She had meant to grab a bite to eat at Sugarcube Corner the other day, but had been a little too busy running away to actually get around to ordering any, at the time.

Had she eaten the day before? Fluttershy wasn’t really sure anymore; all she knew was that she had spent a lot of time watching her friends make love and then coming home to do things to herself in the tub. And out of it, too, maybe—it was all kind of hazy. She didn’t really remember any eating occurring, in any case, either before, during, or after all quality time she’d spent with her hoof.

There was a good chance she was simply delirious with hunger, then. That would certainly explain a lot... She wondered if that might be why she had kissed Pinkie, and if the Temporary Hunger-Induced Insanity Defense might manage to sway Rarity.

The real Rarity, that was, of course; not this imaginary cardboard cut-out who looked like she could be blown over by a stiff breeze.

“Does cardboard drink tea?” Fluttershy wondered aloud.

Her (hopefully not actually two-dimensional and imaginary) friends gaped at her in confusion. Completely at a loss, Pinkie Pie looked to Rarity, who fumbled for a response for a little while before finally grasping at the one snippet of the preceding sentence that made some semblance of sense: “Um... tea would be lovely?”

Fluttershy’s heart sank: These clearly weren’t her friends, because her friends hated her now. “Oh, I’m sorry... I was hoping that seeing you again in my mind would be kind of nice, but it turns out it’s just really making me sad. I think I’ll go flying with Rainbow Dash instead. But, um... Thank you for not yelling at me.”

With that out of the way, she closed the door in their faces and then went and laid down on the couch for a bit. Any minute now, the room would turn all white and fluffy. She wondered if maybe Rainbow would mind just cuddling on a cloud for a while; she wasn’t quite feeling up to flying today.

The incessant knocking returned. Fluttershy’s ears snapped down onto her head, trying to block out the sound. “Go away! I think I just want to wake up now...”

“Why do you think you’re sleeping, silly?”

Fluttershy looked up to find a smiling Pinkie Pie standing right next to her. “Well, for one thing, you were just outside, and now you’re here. So, um... I think it’s pretty obvious.”

“Oh, sorry. Your window was open and I kinda crawled inside. I could go back outside and wait for you to become un-crazy there, if you like...”

“Is she all right, love?” Rarity’s voice called in from outside.

“Yeah, she’s just a little muddled up,” Pinkie called back. ”I get like that when I first wake up, too, sometimes.”

“Yes... You tend to talk in your sleep as well. It’s very disconcerting.”

“She’s been crying a lot, though,” Pinkie noted with a frown, seeing the lines of dark and dampened facial fur marring Fluttershy’s cheeks, not to mention the tear-soaked state of most of her luggage. ”I think I asked you this before, but, what did you say to her?”

An embarrassed cough was the only reply.

Fluttershy watched in bemusement as Pinkie turned back to her. To her, this was all getting more surreal by the moment: One figment of her imagination actually seemed mildly upset with another one! Well then, at the very least she could now take comfort in the knowledge that the ponies who worked at the mental institution would be having a field day with her.

“Hey, um, would it be okey-dokey if I let Rarity in?”

“Um... Sure, just... Please don’t be angry with her,” she replied, humoring whichever facet of her own psyche was currently being represented by Pinkie Pie.

Even in her dreams, she hated the idea of these two fighting—especially if it was because of her.

Dream-Pinkie shook her head. “I’m not mad... Just a little sad. It wasn’t supposed to be like this, you know? I promised everything would be okay.” Pinkie threw her forelegs around Fluttershy, squeezing her so hard the befuddled and dehydrated mare could almost swear it was real. “Don’t worry, I’m gonna make it okay.”

“Okay,” she replied softly. So she had been wrong… This was turning out to be a nightmare after all, her mind taunting her with cruel, tantalizing visions of all the things she could never have.

Pinkie promptly let go of her and went over to the door to let Rarity in. The latter still seemed to be cringing when she poked her head in and looked, gingerly, at Fluttershy, which confused the previously perplexed pegasus even more.

“Um... hello, darling. I suppose the best way to start would be with an apology...”

“I’m sorry,” Fluttershy replied.

“Wha—? Oh, no-no-no, I meant me.” Rarity squeaked out that last word, and subsequently needed a moment to clear her throat, still looking nervous. “Ahem. I am so, so sorry for what I said to you, darling. I... I was scared. I still am, truth be told. I couldn’t sleep a wink last night.” Rarity sat down next to her, looking her in the red and puffy eyes. “I don’t know if we can work this out, but... You’re important to us, to both of us... I... well, we wanted to discuss a... possibility...” Rarity trailed off. “Sorry. This is proving most difficult.”

Fluttershy shook her head. Not in disagreement with the apology, which was nice, but because it just felt so wrong to hear her friend apologizing for something that wasn’t her fault.

She was really starting to wonder where this particular dream was going, but since she couldn’t seem to wake up there was little else to do but humor her own subconscious mind and go with the flow.

“I, um, don’t think I really understand... What do you mean, ‘work this out’?”

Pinkie popped up next to them both, grinning maniacally. “You’re both being silly fillies! Here, let Auntie Pinkie show you!” With that, she pulled out a pair of sock puppets; one a demure yellow with the softest pink yarn for hair, the other, naturally, a pristine white complete with stylishly purple yarn-tresses. To fully complete the picture, they both had large, googly eyes which spun wildly whenever they moved.

“I’m sorry I was a meany-pants,” Puppity said, sounding oddly like she was talking surreptitiously out of the corner of her muzzle.

“It’s okay,” replied Flutterpuppet, her painted-on blush perfectly matching her bashful (but oddly similar-sounding) voice.

“Pinkie and I really want you to come be with us so we can kiss and snuggle and do naughty things to you!”

Fluttershy couldn’t help it; even though it was now abundantly clear that this was some bizarre dream cooked up by her, it would appear, increasingly depraved mind, she was blushing furiously.

“Now kisssss,” said Pinkie in a low voice, mashing the two unfortunate puppets together wildly.

Rarity swatted her off, though she did laugh for the first time since arriving at the cottage. “I’m sure we can handle that bit ourselves, love.” She turned her head back to Fluttershy. “My apologies—again. As you know, Pinkie can be a bit, erm, overenthusiastic... The right idea, but could use some work in the execution department. We are just here to talk, to be honest. I… I was very rash yesterday, particularly when I told you it might be best if you left.”

“O-okay.”

“Pinkie made a suggestion,“ Rarity continued, picking and choosing her words carefully, awkwardness dripping from every halting syllable. ”I don’t quite know how I feel about it myself, yet. It’s a bit... Well, suffice to say, I’m extremely out of my depth when it comes to things like this. There are so many facets that worry me… But basically, she suggested we could all—” she shot a nervous glance at the puppets and flushed slightly. “—be together. But I don’t... I mean to say, I know you love her, but I have no idea how it would work between you and I. Or if it would even a good idea to try. I just... I know I don’t want our friendship to end like this, and I wonder if she may be right, but frankly the notion scares me a little.”

Fluttershy thought she had gotten the gist of Rarity’s rambling monologue, and it greatly surprised her, because it strongly suggested that this might not be a nightmare after all. Was this all going where she thought it was going? And if so, was she going to need to change the sheets on her bed again?

In the end, she decided it would probably be worth it and played along: “Okay.”

“O-okay what?” a baffled Rarity asked, surprised by this calm and laconic response.

It was an awfully good thing that this was a dream, because otherwise what Fluttershy did next would have scared the willies out of her: She leaned forward and boldly kissed Rarity right on the lips.

Rarity’s eyes widened in shock, and she hastily pushed Fluttershy away from her. “What on earth are you doing?!”

“Um... I was kissing you.” Fluttershy blinked, surprised at having to explain the blatantly obvious. ”Wasn’t that what you wanted?”

“Well, yes, eventually,” Rarity huffed, touching her hoof to her lips and giving Fluttershy and Pinkie an accusatory look. “Goodness, you’re no better than Pinkie... Am I the only one who understands how these things are supposed to be handled? The kiss only comes after the courtship and the roses and... Well, long story short, just not out of the blue like that!”

“How was it?” Pinkie asked, seeming very amused by this recent development. Or perhaps ‘amused’ wasn’t the right word...

Rarity, still breathing raggedly from the shock, shook her head in confusion. “I... I don’t know. I was too busy being improperly assaulted to be paying much attention.”

Pinkie’s smile got even bigger. “Well, what are you going to do now?”

“Well, it hardly seems fair like this!” Rarity replied with a pout. ”That wasn’t how I would have wanted our first kiss to go at all! I didn’t even get any real impression of what it was like to kiss her…” Absentmindedly, Rarity licked her pursed and slightly parted lips. “To kiss Fluttershy...”

“Well, um...” Both mares turned to Fluttershy, who had thus far been watching the exchange in stunned silence, still trying to figure out what was happening. “We could try again… I mean, if that’s okay with you.”

Rarity shook her head, not so much to disagree as to clear it of any and all hazy (and vaguely erotic) thoughts. “I... Yes, all right. But let us do it properly this time.”

They touched lips once more, with Fluttershy letting Rarity take the lead this time. The kiss was timid initially, sweet and superficial, but soon deepened into something far more eager and arousing. Rarity was a hungry kisser, Fluttershy discovered, much like Dash had been. But where Dash had been clumsy and forceful, Rarity was much more subtle and deft in her advances. Fluttershy felt a sultry hoof snake around her head, pulling her closer still.

It was the shortage of breath that first started to make Fluttershy question whether she was actually dreaming or not, but once Rarity’s other hoof began running down her back in a fond caress, she finally realized that, somehow, this was all very real. She didn’t know how or why, but her friends were really here, and Rarity was kissing her.

She wrapped her forelegs around the friend she had thought she had lost forever, holding her desperately, numb with a bewildering mixture of confusion and relief and completely torn about whether to laugh or cry or just keep kissing her forever. Rarity didn’t hate her, Rarity was kissing her, and now, in a surge of happiness and love, now Fluttershy was kissing back with every bit of the passion Rarity herself was showing.

Pleasedon’tbeadreamPleasedon’tbeadreamPleasedon’tbeadream.

They finally broke the kiss, though neither mare made any move towards letting the other go.

“Well,” Rarity said, just a little breathless, “that was... quite good.”

Fluttershy only clutched her tighter. As long as she held on, this was real. She could feel Rarity against her, her pelt warm and smelling of lavender soap. Tears started welling up in her eyes as she continued to hold her friend. She didn’t understand anything anymore; she only knew that her friends were here. They were here, and that was all that mattered.

A third set of forelegs wrapped around them both, and a smiling pink face kissed them each on the cheek.

Rarity winced slightly, rubbing Fluttershy’s back, this time in an attempt to calm her. “Darling, I’m going to need you to ease off a bit. You’re starting to hurt my ribs.”

“Sorry,” Fluttershy murmured, letting her death grip slacken slightly. She did not let Rarity go, however. “I don’t understand... Why are you here? Why aren’t you yelling at me? I t-thought you hated me...” Her eyes were staring at the white-pelted chest that was closer than ever and somehow not a dream, afraid to meet the eyes that had been cold and hard as diamonds before, still intimidated by the mere memory of Rarity’s wrath.

But Rarity put a hoof under Fluttershy’s chin, a small frown on her face. “I hated the fact that my best friend didn’t see fit to trust me with something so incredibly important, I hated that you threatened my happiness with Pinkie, but I could never hate you, darling.” She smiled disarmingly. “In fact, I daresay you make that an impossible feat.”

“I told her she was a great big worrywort!” Pinkie chimed in. “And that I would never ever leave her. But that doesn’t mean we can’t be there for you, Shy-shy!”

Rarity nodded in agreement. “Quite. That is... How would you feel about...” She looked down, deciding on the spot that such an important question might need to be treated with a little more gravitas—say, when she wasn’t idly cuddling the mare she needed to pose it to. “Darling, I need you to let me go for a moment, please. I have something to ask of you.”

Fluttershy nodded quickly, finally releasing Rarity as well as squirming out of Pinkie’s hooves to put a little space between them. “Sorry.”

“Quite all right. So then, um...” Rarity paused, took a deep breath, and spoke in a rush: ”Pinkie is already completely for this, and Celestia help me, I think I want to try as well. That is to say... Would you like to... Ah, I’m just not sure how one goes about this. Well, out with it then: Would you like to date us?”

Fluttershy breathed a sigh of relief. She hadn’t lost her friends. She didn’t have to move. They even wanted... Oh no.

“Girls... I... I can’t.”

Rarity smiled triumphantly. “I rather thought you might agr—” Her face fell when, a few seconds too late, it finally registered that what she had expected to hear had not, in fact, happened. “I’m sorry,” she said, smiling politely and reasonably sure she must have heard wrong, ”but did you just say you can’t?”

“Please don’t get mad again! I… thank you so much for forgiving me, but I can’t do that. I almost ruined everything for you two already. Can we please just be friends again? That’s all I want.” Please, I don’t deserve anything else.

Rarity stammered helplessly. She looked back and forth from Fluttershy to Pinkie. “I don’t understand, darling. Do you love my Pinkie or not?”

“I do, and... that’s why I can’t. I’m sorry.”

“But you can’t just say no! Do you have any idea how much I’ve had to fight with myself just to come over here and talk to you about this? Do I need to gift wrap her or—” Rarity felt Pinkie’s hoof on her shoulder, prompting her to stop. Still sputtering a little, Rarity turned to see what she wanted.

“Rarity,” Pinkie whispered, leaning closer and cupping a white ear with her free hoof, ignoring the flick of mild irritation it gave. “I think she just be a little scared. I mean, we came over and she was all ‘I must be dreaming because my friends aren’t yelling at me.’ She’s all confuzzled right now.”

“Very well...” Rarity whispered back with a sigh.

Pinkie raised her voice again to address Fluttershy: “Shy, it’s okay... We’re gonna go home and give you a little time to think. Just remember, we’re your friends, and that’s not gonna change no matter what!”

Rarity cast one last concerned look at her friend and then put on her best encouraging smile, which was sadly wasted because Fluttershy was looking at anything but them.

“Quite. I didn’t mean to rush you, love. Just... let us know.”

Fluttershy nodded, still staring at the floor. “O-okay.”

Her friends were leaving again. At least they weren’t mad anymore. But she knew that all the time in the world wouldn’t be enough.

They just didn’t understand.

Rarity walked beside Pinkie in a daze. She had thrown caution to the wind, embraced the idea of being with not just one mare, but two... Somehow, with those significant hurdles already taken, she had assumed that everything else would work out. And now that that hopeful assumption had been dispelled, she was unsure how to feel.

There was something though: A vaguely familiar and unpleasant sensation, almost as if—

“Pinkie? Did we just get dumped?”

PInkie giggled, happily bouncing along beside Rarity. “No way!”

“Oh... that’s good.”

“We just got turned down, silly. ‘Dumped’ is only for when you’ve had a chance to date them first!”

Rarity’s face scrunched up in irritation. “I don’t think I like the sound of that any better.”

“Nah, this is actually loads better. It means we get to do that thing you always wanted!”

There was a long silence, during which Rarity fumbled around for words to describe exactly how she was feeling at the moment. She was equal parts aroused and nervous, and it was a while before she squeaked out a response: “Um... What thing would that be, exactly, and how does it relate to Fluttershy?”

“We get to, um... You know! Flowers and poems and candlelight dinners... What’s it called again?”

“Aaah, you wish to court her, I take it?”

Rarity couldn’t decide if she was disappointed by this revelation or not. On the one hoof, trying to win the love of Fluttershy through such classic means did appeal to her romantic side. But a far more base part of her was already lamenting the fact that this approach would not, in tragic fact, involve Pinkie making passionate love to her, being caught in the act by her best friend, before salaciously inviting her to join them.

Bother.

She was doing her level best not to be upset about being turned down initially; what they had proposed was, after all, a life changing decision and not to be taken lightly.

Rarity herself had made a similar decision over the course of a single afternoon, of course, but expecting a pony like Fluttershy to follow suit in that regard would be highly unrealistic at best.

Still, she tried to remain hopeful that things would work out in the end. The prospect of having Fluttershy not as a romantic rival but a romantic interest, perhaps paradoxically, gave her peace of mind but, at the same time, excited her to no end. She found herself wondering what it would be like to share a bed with the gorgeous pegasus, and how it might change things between them all.

Getting a bit ahead of ourselves, aren’t we? First we must win her heart!

That gave her pause: Was Fluttershy’s refusal perhaps due to a lack of attraction towards Rarity herself? If so, this entire scheme might not work after all. She had certainly seemed interested when Rarity had been kissing her... But how much of that had been actual interest, as opposed to simple joy at finding out she had not hurt her friends after all?

“What’cha thinkin’ about?”

Rarity stopped herself short just before running face-first into Pinkie.

“Oh, just jitters I suppose. I’d really like for this to work out—for everypony’s sake.”

“Well, sure it will! Shy’s just being all scaredy-waredy. And that’s just gonna make the party I’m gonna throw for all of us even better! I’ll have a huge banner that says ‘Congratulations Rarity, Fluttershy and Pinkie on your Lovey Dovey Three-Pony-Pile-Palooza!’” She tapped her chin slowly. "I need to find some way to put hugs on canvas..." Pinkie’s eyes widened when a troubling thought occurred to her: “Oh wow, I’m gonna need a really big banner for all of those letters... Maybe I should throw the party outdoors this time? Oh, and the cake will have to be ginormous!”

Despite herself, Rarity felt better after listening to her marefriend casually dismiss their problems. She watched in fascination as Pinkie bounced ahead of her, apparently planning out the supplies they would need for the party. Rarity followed suit, idly plotting out the basic design for the dress Pinkie would be wearing for their next date.

Hmmm, I think something in red for you, my sweet. Short, just a little naughty without making everypony blush as they see you. Yes...

Maybe everything would work out after all.