“I dunno,” Rainbow said, her cheeks flushed with a healthy glow from her cider. “You’re dredging up ancient history there.”

“Yes, well, those who don’t learn from history are doomed to repeat it,” Rarity responded, waving her mug for emphasis.

“Yeah, my history teacher kept saying that. And boy, was she right. She was cool though.” Dash took another sip, letting out a quiet burp after she was done. “’Scuse me.”

“That’s not what I...” Rarity frowned, annoyed. “Nevermind. We just want to know how it all went south with you two. Surely that’s not so difficult?”

Rainbow didn’t reply. Instead she tried very hard to disappear into her mug.

“Darling...” Rarity reached out to touch Rainbow’s hoof. “We’re all friends here. I promise I won’t judge you.”

Rainbow pulled her hoof back. “Sorry, Rares... I just... I don’t really wanna talk about it.”

“And I dearly wish I could respect that. But we’re not asking out of idle curiosity. Fluttershy—”

“Ain’t ever been a time when you asked anythin’ outta ‘idle’ curiosity, Rares,” Applejack said with a smirk.

Rarity flashed an exasperated look at Applejack. “Oh, come now, try to tell me you’re not wondering yourself.”

Applejack shrugged. “Maybe a mite, but I ain’t about ta push Dash if she doesn’t wanna talk about it. Granny Smith's always sayin' 'the past's in the past.' That's good enough for this Apple.”

“Yes, says the pony who only moments ago was accusing Rainbow of infidelity!” Rarity snapped back.

“Well, that wouldn’t’ve been in the past now, would it?”

“The point stands. We’re concerned because it seems to be keeping Fluttershy from giving a new relationship a proper chance.” Rarity turned back to Rainbow. “You want her to be happy, don’t you?”

Dash looked away, twisting her hooves around each other. “Of course I do... it’s just... not something I like to talk about, y’know?”

“And I can certainly understand that—”

Pinkie, meanwhile, had been sneaking up behind Rainbow, and chose that moment to wrap her in a big hug.

“Gah!” Rainbow squirmed in the embrace. “Pinks, what the hay?”

“You looked like you needed a hug, silly! Your wings were all fluttery, and you had this look like ‘I wanna be anywhere but here.’” Pinkie booped Rainbow on the nose. “But Dashie, we’re your friends, and we only want to help Shy! Don’t you wanna help her, too?”

Sighing heavily, Rainbow settled down and let herself be hugged. "Pinks, it's not that I don't want to help, but…" Rainbow opened and closed her mouth a few times, searching for some way to explain. "I don't know. We were dumb kids, and we messed stuff up. But it was a long time ago. How does any of it matter now?"

“Well, darling, apparently it hurt Fluttershy so badly that she is afraid to even try dating anymore,” Rarity replied. Seeing Rainbow’s ears droop, she was quick to add: “Nopony here is blaming you, darling. We just want to understand. What went wrong, and how can we avoid making the same mistake?”

Rainbow laughed bitterly. “Unless you have a hot griffon girl after your flank and you happen to be a horny teenager, I think you’ll be fine.”

For a moment, all was silent, then a frustrated groan came from Rainbow’s lips. “I told you, I...I was just stupid. Are you happy now? Does that help?!”

“I don’t believe it,” Applejack said, matter-of-factly. “Not my Dash.”

“Yeah!” Pinkie exclaimed, hugging Dash all the tighter. “I bet mean old Gilda yelled at Shy and scared her off. It wasn’t your fault.”

“Indeed, if you feel that strongly, I understand, but please don’t obfuscate the truth with such obvious falsehoods.” Rarity leveled her eyes at Rainbow. “I won’t believe that you would do such a thing as betraying a lover.”

Rainbow only fidgeted quietly, not looking anypony in the eye.

“Rainbow?” Applejack asked, hesitantly. “Sugar, yer supposed to smile and tell us you were pulling our legs. C’mon now, joke’s over.”

“I’m not lying!” Rainbow said, trying not to break down in front of her friends. “I mean... Gil and me, we were drinking and... She can do things with her claws, and she has this rough tongue... I told her it was a mistake, but she just kept at me! It became a regular thing...” Dash trailed off, staring at the table. “Shy... I told her, and she said it was okay... And for a while, things were cool, but...” She looked up at Applejack, fearfully. “AJ, please don’t hate me?”

Applejack just looked at her, lip trembling slightly. “Past... is past, Sug. We’re okay, but you and Shy... I just don’t know. Sounds like she’s still hurtin’ somethin’ fierce.”

“I know that!” Rainbow said, a little more loudly than she intended. “I know, but she doesn’t like to talk about it. She just smiles that sad little smile and asks if I’m happy. And when I say I am, she hugs me and says she’s glad!”

Rarity’s mouth quirked up into a grimace. “I know I said I wouldn’t judge... and I am trying very hard not to. But... why? You had love...” She paused, taking a deep breath. “I need to know more than ever now. Help me understand?”

Rainbow nodded, her face a careful mask. “It’s cool. I get it. Some days I wish I could ask Twi to send me back just long enough to kick my own flank, but younger me wouldn’t even know why I was doing it.” She sighed heavily. “All I can tell you is... I was stupid. I didn’t get what I had, but I loved her, and... I let her down. Never again, I promised myself that.”

Applejack poured out another mug of cider, sliding it over to Dash. “C’mon, spill. I kinda wanna hear too, now.”

Rainbow's picked up the mug and downed the cider a single pull. Wiping her mouth with the back of her hoof, she slid the mug back to Applejack. "Are those different apples in there? It's really—"

Rarity cleared her throat.

"Okay, okay!" Rainbow stared down at her hooves. "I guess I'll start with Gil."

Rainbow lay in Shy’s hooves, basking in the afterglow, kissing Shy gently on her chest pelt. “That... was awesome,” she said, gasping heavily to catch her breath. Before Shy had showed her this new thing she learned, she’d thought flying was the most intense thing ever, and it was still close, but sex was an even bigger thrill. It even had some of the same things going for it. The rush as she approached the big bang, the agonizing buildup of forces... and then when she went over the threshold... It was like a mini-rainboom.

Shy snuggled her close, panting a little herself. “I’m glad. Do you think you can stay with me a while? Just like this? If you want...”

Rainbow got up, kissing Shy on the forehead, stretching languidly. “Sorry, Shy. I’m supposed to fly some laps with Gil. Afterwards?”

“O-okay.” Fluttershy replied, quietly.

Rainbow took off, making a beeline for the obstacle course, only to be met by the griffon in question a few hundred yards from Shy’s cloud. “Hey, Gil!"

“Hey Dash, I asked around when you didn’t show. One of the guys said you were headed this way—” She sniffed the air, looking at Dash suspiciously. “What the feather? You skip out on me to go make it rain on a cloud?” She sniffed again. “That’s sweat, and not all of it’s from you...” Her eyes darted past Dash, catching sight of a telltale pink tail. “Who’s that?”

“Gil, let’s just head out, maybe hit the showers first?” Rainbow said, quickly, darting past her. She was brought up short by a beak latching onto her tail. “Quit it!”

Gilda spat out her Dash’s tail, and as much as a beak was capable of showing expression she seemed to be smiling. “You were foolin’ around with the dweeb, weren’t you? What’s her name? Buttersqueak?”

“Fluttershy! And no, we were just kinda sitting on a cloud together—”

“Yeah, I can smell it. Dashie and Squeakie sitting on a cloud... Did you scream her name when she made you cum, Dash?” Gilda said, smacking a knee with her foreclaw. “Oh wow, I can just see it! ‘Oh, Buttersqueak, that feels so good!’ I bet she barely knows what she’s doing.”

“Shove it, Gil. And don’t go spreading that around. She’s got enough trouble with bullies as it is,” Dash said, glaring at her. “Now we going to race or what?”

“You’re not even denying it now...” Gilda said, amazed. “Huh. I mean, there wasn’t any point, anyway. I can smell her on you, and I can smell you, Dash. You smell good.”

“Quit being weird!” the speedster snapped back. “Unless you want me to tell Stormwind who nabbed his pet falcon.”

“Whoa, hey, just yanking yer chain, Dashie. If you wanna play around with Squeakie that’s cool.” Gilda held out a closed fist. “C’mon, bump it, unless you really want to stay mad for no reason.”

Dash hesitated, but eventually hoofbumped her, grinning sheepishly. “Sorry, Gil. I just don’t want her picked on.”

“No probs!” Gilda chuckled. She stopped hovering, beginning to fly towards the track and the showers. “I never figured you for the type, is all. You could have told me you were into hens. We could have fooled around too, yanno?”

“W-well, I didn’t know either!” Dash blurted out, blushing. “It was just like one second you’re sitting together and the next you got a tongue in your mouth. And... it was nice, you know?”

“Heh, Squeakie jumped your bones, did she?” Gilda asked, chortling.

“Sorta. It was kinda cool, though. It feels like flying, only you’re not going anywhere.”

The griffon rolled her eyes. “Only you would compare sex to flying, you dork. C’mon, get your shower out of the way. If I end up downwind of you I’d rather not smell you like this the whole time. Not unless I made you that way.”

Things were relatively normal for a time. Gilda teased Dash endlessly about her ‘thing with Squeakie’ but otherwise made no trouble for the pair. That changed one evening when Gilda showed Dash something she’d swiped from some of the older ponies.

“Ha! Beat you again, Gil!” Dash crowed triumphantly.

“Yeah yeah, you’re hot stuff. That’s why all the mares wanna jump ya,” Gilda replied, punching Dash’s shoulder. “Well, I got a treat for you today, speedy.”

“Oh?” Dash asked, curious.

“Yeah, c’mere,” Gilda whispered, flying over to a particular cloud just outside of the practice course. She looked around carefully to make sure they weren’t being watched, then clawed open the top of the cloud, revealing a flask inside. It was a quite a sight to behold, a swirling maelstrom of colors that glowed in its own peculiar light. “Check it out. I nicked it out of Dumbbell’s room.”

“What is it?” Dash asked, entranced by the colors.

“Distilled Rainbow,” Gilda said with a grin. “Goes down smooth, then kicks like a mule! Leaves you feeling like a mule kicked ya, too!”

“Ewww!” Rainbow’s mouth pursed up in disgust. “You don’t drink that stuff, Gil! It’s nasty.”

“Not when it’s like this, it’s not!” Gilda said, unstoppering the bottle. “C’mon. Don’t be a wuss.” She took a deep swig, grimacing as it burned her throat on the way down. “S-smooth!” she said with a pained grin.

Dash watched Gilda, curiosity getting the better of her. She’d been dared to try raw Rainbow before. It had burned her mouth and made her feel sick afterwards. But that didn’t seem to be happening to Gilda. She also worried that backing down from a challenge would mean losing, and she never lost. “Okay, give it here!”

Gilda held the bottle out to Dash, and she took it in both hooves. Slowly, she set the bottle to her lips, and tipped it upwards. A second later she was choking as the bottle was tipped up by a claw from Gilda. The liquid ran down her throat in a rush of sweet fire. She coughed loudly, thrusting the bottle back into Gilda’s waiting claws. “Gilda! The hay was that about?!”

“That was about you taking a little sissy sip instead of a real one,” Gilda said, cackling at Dash’s expression. “Now, how do you feel?”

“Not now! Can’t breathe!” Dash said, gasping for air. Oddly enough, once she’d swallowed it, it wasn’t so bad. There was a hint of the fire that she’d expected, but it was mellow, and had a sweet aftertaste. The fumes that had gone straight up her nose were making her feel a little lightheaded. “Eh, it’s not bad, I guess. Still kinda hot.”

“Cool,” Gilda said. She sat down on the edge of the cloud, laying the bottle down next to her, allowing her hind legs to dangle over the edge. “So, how’s things with Squeakie?”

“’Bout the same. You know how she is,” Dash replied, sitting down next to her. “Having a marefriend is kinda weird, but cool, you know?”

“Wouldn’t know, never had one. Well, unless I count you, I guess. You’re a mare, right?” Gilda said squinting at Dash. “Hard to tell with you.”

Dash gawked at her friend, punching her in the shoulder. “You know what I mean, featherbrain.”

“Yeah, I know,” The griffon replied, staring off into the distance. ”I just get a little jealous of you, sometimes. S’like... you got your dad, and Squeakie... I just got you.”

“Awww, you almost sound like you give a feather,” Dash said, chuckling. “You need a hug or something?”

Gilda picked up the bottle, taking another swig. “Just forget it. S’not important.”

Dash snuggled up against her side, nuzzling her. “What, aren’t I awesome enough?”

“Yer in my personal space, dork!” Gilda said trying to push her away halfheartedly, eventually giving up when Dash latched on, grinning like mad. She glared balefully down at Dash, taking another sip of the Rainbow and wiping her beak. “Might wanna watch that.”

“Hey, I asked if you needed a hug and you didn’t say no. Deal with it,” Dash replied, snickering. “Can I get another sip of that?”

“Heh, knock yourself out.” Gilda put the bottle into Dash’s mouth, this time tilting it gently so it didn’t choke her.

Dash took a sip, tilting the bottle back up with a hoof when she was done. She exhaled noisily as the fumes hit her nostrils again. “S-smooth.”

“You’re lucky you’re cute, dork, or I’d never hang with you,” Gilda said, shaking her head. “So, you need to go see Squeakie, or can you stick around a while?”

Rainbow squinted at the sun, trying to figure out what time it was. “Um... for a little while, I guess. I kinda promised her we’d hang out some after you and I got finished.”

“No prob,” Gilda said. “Gonna mess around a little?”

“Probably. It’s really cool. Like... we both... and then we just kinda snuggle afterwards. Feels nice.” Dash yawned, snuggling into Gilda’s wing.

Gilda’s wings stiffened, and she pushed Dash away from her side. “Hey! Watch that! Seriously, if you’re gonna get all huggy on me every time we drink, I’m cuttin’ you off. Go play with Squeakie or something.”

“Hmmm?” Dash shook her head. “Sorry, Gil. I got comfortable. You know, feathers all over, you’re nice and soft...” She shook her head harder. “Shy, right. Um... good hanging with you.”

Rarity raised a hoof, stopping Dash in the middle of her tale. “Darling, forgive me, but what does that have to do with how things went bad between you and Fluttershy?”

Rainbow smirked, taking another draught from her mug. “What, did you think we just went at it after sharing a couple sips of hard liquor? Nah, we were close, but not quite like that. What you gotta understand is... next to Shy, Gil was my best bud. We hung out all the time. We just... got a little closer, is all. Then one night, a whole lot closer.” She looked down into her mug. “I guess I could tell you about that. I mean... I don’t wanna get into everything, but like... well... ”

A couple months went by, and things slowly got even more weird than that night. She didn’t know what to call it back then, but thinking back she thought it was... sexual tension? Yeah, that sounded right. Gilda just kept ‘teasing’ her with little things, commenting on how she looked, and smelled. She didn’t get it back then, but Gilda was flirting hard.

They would usually have something to drink after they ran the course together. Not too much, just enough to get a little buzzed. It wasn’t exactly easy to lay hooves on booze, and Dumbbell got better at hiding his stuff.

Gilda didn’t push Dash away anymore when she got close, and she liked to get close. It wasn’t quite like with Shy... Gil was somehow softer and harder at the same time. It was a thrill to hold her, because she was dangerous. Dash was calling on the lightning to hit her, and yet it never did.

That night seemed no different than any other, but the lightning Dash had been toying with struck hard and fast, locking her beak with Dash’s open mouth as she was yawning. She didn’t even have time to register what was happening before Gilda’s tongue was wrapped around hers.

There were no words spoken. Dash remembered little beyond a haze of alcohol and bliss, and waking up the following morning in confusion, followed by guilt.

“So... that was it. I told Shy about it, and... we just kinda kept going. Me and Gil, me and Shy. I thought we were okay... I’m not trying to say it was right, but it wasn’t like we were trying to hurt Shy... I just didn’t think... I was dumb?”

“Just... answer me one question, please,” Rarity said, eyes focused on Rainbow to gauge her reaction. “Gilda... did you love her?”

Rainbow didn’t answer for a while, staring into her mug. “It’s weird to think about that. She was my bud, you know? I mean, yeah, we did some stuff together. We made each other feel good, but she wasn’t so much into the marefriend idea like Shy. She just... wanted to hang, and sometimes we’d mess around, too.”

“Oh dear... So it was far more than the physical infidelity, you were divided emotionally, as well. No wonder Fluttershy worries so. She’s been through this... with you.” Rarity bit her lip, worriedly, then straightened up as she reaffirmed her convictions. “Yes, I see the way of it.”

“Of course I was divided! But I never wanted to hurt anypony.” Dash replied bitterly. “It’s just... my best friends wanted to do stuff with me... and hang out, and I didn’t see much of a problem. I mean, I worried at first when it happened; that’s why I told Shy. But she said it was okay... then she got more clingy, like... like she was worried I was gonna leave her.”

“She was...” Rarity replied, sadly. “In her mind, she had one hold on you, and then somepony else came along who offered you the physical closeness and the other things you enjoyed. She couldn’t hope to compete.” At Rainbow’s stricken look, she was quick to add: “Rainbow, there’s no way you could have known. Fluttershy is horribly non-communicative about things like this.”

“I should have known, though!” Rainbow grunted in frustration. “I wouldn’t have left her... not if she hadn’t broken up with me. And I would have broke things off with Gilda if I’d known.”

“Could you have, though? Gilda seemed a bit smitten with you herself,” Rarity observed with a sad smile.

“Gil? She was just kinda lonely, it wasn’t like she wanted to be more than friends, you know?”

Rarity wisely said nothing. She suspected that the situation was not quite as Dash had supposed, but bringing it up would only make the poor dear feel worse.

“If’n you don’t mind, I’d kinda like to know how things ended with Gilda, Dash. That’s assuming they ended, of course.” Applejack said.

“Yeah... After Shy broke up with me I just... I left school. Gil took me off to the mountains for a while, but... I dunno. I was mad because Shy left, and I said some things... It went bad for a while. I flew off, just kinda wandered a few years. Then I got a job with the weather patrol here. Gil sent me a couple of letters and we made up, but it wasn’t gonna work between us. She’s kind of a jerk... and I’m an idiot,” Rainbow finished, hanging her head.

“Just leavin’ a trail of broken hearts behind ya, poor darlin’.” Applejack got up, crossing the room to sit down beside Dash and embrace her. “Quit heapin’ blame on yerself. You were a bunch of kids playin’ around with somethin’ too old for ’em. I just want you to learn from it, ‘cause I don’t wanna be another story, sugar.”

Rarity stood up, nodding to Pinkie to follow her. “Thank you, Rainbow. I know that must have been difficult, but perhaps you needed to get it off your chest as much as we needed to hear it. We’ll leave you two alone, for now.”

“Wait!” Rainbow called out as the pair were walking out of the barn.

“Yes?” Rarity asked.

“Tell Shy for me... I wish it could have worked, but I want her to be happy now. She needs to quit worrying about the past. Can you tell her?”

“We’ll tell her!” Pinkie said, smiling. “But maybe she should hear it from you, too.”

“I will, and maybe she’ll listen this time.”

“Oooo, I should have known it was her fault!” Pinkie exclaimed as they walked back to the Boutique from Sweet Apple Acres. “You should have seen Shy when mean old Gilda came by to visit! She was shaking every time anypony surprised her!” Pinkie stopped in midstep, pondering. “Actually, she does that all the time. Still, it was Gilda all along!”

Rarity turned around, giving Pinkie a warning look. “Now don’t you start! She may not be the friendliest of creatures, but what Dash told us wasn’t about some monster stealing her away from Fluttershy, it was about a lonely creature who sought solace in a friend! That’s something I can relate to.”

“But—”

“No buts! Remember, we didn’t go there to blame anypony. We went to find out what happened.” Rarity clucked her tongue in irritation.

Pinkie huffed in frustration. “Yeah, but you said we could yell if somepony deserved it, and I just know that meany deserves it!”

Rarity sat down in front of Pinkie, laying a hoof on her shoulder. “Darling, I need you to consider something.”

Pinkie opened her mouth to protest further, but after looking Rarity in the eye, slowly nodded. “Okay.”

“Gilda... was lonely. She found herself attracted to a close friend who was already spoken for. In a moment of weakness, she acted. Now, does that sound like somepony else we know?” Rarity waited, watching to see if the meaning of her words was registering with Pinkie.

Pinkie looked confused for a moment, until she realized what Rarity was talking about. “But that’s... She’s not like... It’s not the same!” Pinkie protested.

“No, it’s not. Because unlike Fluttershy, Gilda and Rainbow, we all care enough for each other that we can make it work.” Rarity traced the three sides in the air, as Pinkie had done when they first discussed the matter. “They had a different sort of triangle than ours, one which was inherently unstable because of the inequity of it. Somepony, or somegriffon, was going to be pushed out of it given enough time. Fluttershy decided it was going to be her.”

“But that’s... that’s just so sad!” Pinkie responded, her eyes beginning to tear up. “It shouldn’t have been that way!”

“Yes, it is. But the past is past, love. All we can do is try to be there for her now, and hope she’ll accept us.” Rarity smiled bravely, getting up once more. “Come on, darling. We have scheming to do.”

“Just a moment, Angel!”

Fluttershy set down the bag of birdseed, glancing around her home at the various creatures that needed tending to. Normally it wasn’t this difficult to stay focused, but she had a lot on her mind.

Like the two ponies that seemed determined to make her relive her worst nightmare for their own amusement.

That’s not fair. They’re only trying to help. Besides, they don’t even know what happened.

Which wasn’t their fault either, since she hadn’t told them what had happened. Perhaps if she had, they would have given up and left her alone a long time ago. After all, there was nothing in particular about her that was worth seeking out. She wasn’t glamorous like Rarity, or energetic and outgoing like Pinkie. She wasn’t even brave enough to do the right thing and leave instead of causing problems for her friends.

Angel stomped a foot, looking from her to his food-dish in a clear message. She couldn’t blame him, either. He’d been waiting patiently, and it was now several hours past when all of her friends should have been fed. Fluttershy had been busy burying herself in every blanket she owned, trying futilely to shut the world away. She’d still be there if Angel hadn’t wormed his way under the covers and persuaded her to come out; for her charges if nothing else.

“Sorry, Angel. It’s going to be just a few more minutes,” she promised as she filled the mouse feeding dish with vitamin-enriched pellets and filled their water bottle.

As long as she kept busy, she wouldn’t have to think. Thinking was not helping right now. She looked around the room, seeing all but Angel had at last been tended to. She hurried into her kitchen and pulled out the ingredients for his salad.

“Here you go, Angel,” she said, leaning down and kissing him on the forehead. “Thank you for being so patient.”

He waved a paw in denial, burying his face in fresh greens voraciously. She watched him eat for a while, a loud gurgle reminding her that she’d failed to feed herself in some time.

Lunch it was, then. And after that, she could retreat to her fortress of blanketude.

While making herself a sandwich and some nice tea, she idly considered anything she could be doing that would take her away from Ponyville for just a little while. Sadly, it was too early in the year to make the trek for the annual butterfly migration, but she supposed she could always go visit her parents in Canterlot...

She choked on a bit of sandwich, quickly washing it down with a swallow of tea. If visiting her parents was sounding appealing, she really needed to examine her life. Things weren’t so bad, were they? She had five very good friends, two of whom seemed to want to be much, much closer than friends. That was good, right?

Right. That was a good thing. She just had to stop worrying so much. It was going to be okay.

A loud tweeting broke the silence. It was Mr. Bluejay. He’d been asked to keep an eye out for Rarity and Pinkie. Which meant they were coming. But it was okay. It was all going to be okay.

Because Fluttershy was crawling out the back window of her home. She reasoned that she just needed some time to think, and it wasn’t anything to do with being scared of her two best friends. Maybe it was time to go visit her mom after all. It wouldn’t be so bad.

And so she bravely hid in a bush, waiting for her friends to realize she was gone so they would go away again.

“Whatcha doing?” Pinkie asked, from just to her right.

“I’m hiding,” Fluttershy replied, trying to see if she could spot Rarity coming down the path yet.

“Oh! Does that mean I’m supposed to be seeking? Awww, you should have told me! Okay, hold on.” There was some fumbling about, then Pinkie said: “Okay, I’ll give you to the count of one hundred. Go!”

Fluttershy’s head snapped to the right, finally seeing Pinkie, her eyes closed and head up against a nearby tree. “Pinkie?! What are you doing here?”

“Twenty-two, twenty-three... I’m counting, silly!” Pinkie replied with a smile. “You should be hiding. Do you need more time?”

“But... I’m already hiding,” Fluttershy responded. She could see Rarity, knocking at her door and looking annoyed that there was no answer.

“Silly filly! You can’t hide here; this is home base!”

Fluttershy looked around in panic, trying to find another hiding spot. Rarity had given up on the door and had circled around the cottage.

“Pinkie, where are you, darling? Fluttershy doesn’t seem to be answering!”

”I’m back here!” Pinkie announced, cheerfully. “But I’m ‘it’. You need to hide so I can come find you!”

“I see... are we playing a game, then?” Rarity replied, frowning in worry. “Well, I suppose...”

“Yeah! Only Fluttershy isn’t hiding very well. She’s right here. I think that means I win.”

Fluttershy sighed, stepping out from the bushes. “Yes... it means you win. H-how are you, girls?”

“Yay! We should play again!” Pinkie pumped her hoof in the air. “I’m the bestest at this game!”

Rarity regarded her poor, bedraggled friend. She used her magic to pick some loose leaves from the long, flowing mane. “Doing better than you, apparently. You looked stressed.”

“I… I’m trying not to be, sorry,” Fluttershy replied, looking down at the dirt in front of her. “I just... I want to be okay, but I keep worrying...”

“Shhh. Enough of that.” Rarity stepped forward, gently raising Fluttershy’s chin with a hoof. “We only wanted to invite you over for tea. And maybe a little conversation. Does that sound agreeable to you?”

“Tea?” Unbidden, images of what she’s seen the last time she was invited for tea sprang to mind.

“Oh, Celestia! Pinkie, that’s divine!”

Her wings rose stiffly before she quickly closed them again. “Tea sounds... nice.”

Rarity’s eyebrows rose at the reaction, but she made no comment. “Well then, I realize you’ll need some time to feed your nocturnal animals as they wake up. How about tonight around... eight or so?”

“O-okay,” Fluttershy squeaked out. Tea, just tea. Tea was something friends did. Tea didn’t usually mean seeing her friends making love. Tea was normal. Normal was good. She managed a small smile, which Rarity mirrored, and Pinkie trumped by several orders of magnitude.

Walking home from Fluttershy’s cottage, Rarity turned to Pinkie to mention something that had been bothering her for some time. “Tell me I was not the only one who noticed that.”

Pinkie obediently replied: “You weren’t the only one who noticed—”

Rarity rolled her eyes. “You have to have noticed. Fluttershy’s wings just now; she seemed startled or…” She thought back to a curious thing Applejack had mentioned during their talk on the way to the farmhouse.

“When you’re datin’ a pegasus, you gotta know a little bit about wings. Like... you ever seen Dash with her wings spread when she gets real excited?”

“You mean like... at all times?”

“Smart aleck... Fine, bad example. Usually though, them wings only pop when they’re excited or surprised or somesuch. But there’s all kinds of excited. Got it?”

“I’m afraid I haven’t ‘got it’.”

“Land’s sake, girlie! How the heck can you not get what I’m sayin’?”

“Excuse me if I wasn’t raised in the same way you were.”

“Well, I mean, this is like basic of the basic. S’like you never got ‘the talk’ or somethin’.”

“Erm... how about this: you can just tell me what you mean?”

“All right... say Dashie walks in on me all dolled up on the bed, ready to go. Up go the wings.”

At the time she’d quickly changed the subject. Discussing such things seemed a bit uncouth to her, even now. She’d managed to be a little more open about her sexuality, thanks to Pinkie, but thinking of Applejack and Rainbow in that context was more than a little uncomfortable. Yet strangely it had seemed easy with Fluttershy... perhaps because she was so used to confiding in her.

So it could be fear, or excitement, or... something far more base. But fear or excitement was a very curious reaction to have over tea, wasn’t it? So it had to be the other thing? She thought back to other instances of such a display, looking for any logic in Applejack’s reasoning.

Wait... she had the same reaction when she was watching Pinkie bounce away...

Her face flushed hotly. How had she not noticed previously? She mentally cursed her mother’s prudishness once more. If she’d known that the response was sexual in nature, she might have saved them all a lot of heartache.

So... the idea of tea... excited her.

“Pinkie?”

“Ya-huh?”

“Is there such a thing as a pony being... excited by hot liquid?”

Pinkie stopped mid-bounce, looking extremely disturbed. “Um... well, I did see this weird movie once. ‘April Showers?’ The title made me think it was sexytimes in the rain or something?”

Rarity was confused at first, but then realized she hasn’t been specific enough. “No love. I meant—”

“It... it wasn’t what I thought. I turned it off.” Pinkie’s face got distinctly green in hue.

Rarity had no response for that. She would have thought that Pinkie of all ponies would like watching something like that, but if she had turned it off... Rarity blanched, which was quite a feat for a pony with her complexion, and decided it would be best not to think about what the movie might have actually been about.

Unfortunately, trying not to think had the opposite effect. Her mind gleefully suggested several things that could have elicited such a reaction from Pinkie before she carefully repressed the mental images, vowing to carefully vouch for any and all choices of entertainment that Pinkie consumed in the future. “Yes... let’s never talk about that again. I meant tea. Is that one of those fetish things?”

Pinkie smiled again, apparently she was as glad to forget what she’d seen as Rarity was to have never seen it. “Well, you always seem really happy whenever I make tea for you so... maybe?”

Rarity blushed furiously. “That would be rather more due to your choice of outfit, darling. The tea itself has little to do with it.”

“Then I guess... no?”

“Hmmmm.” Rarity shook her head; she couldn’t imagine what the appeal would be. Yes, tea was nice to drink, but hardly something to be like that about...

They walked home, Rarity deep in thought, Pinkie wrapped up in a world full of music only she could hear. The fashionista supposed that as far as fetishes went, it was hardly stranger than her own case of exhibitionism. It just seemed odd. Maybe it wasn’t the tea? Something associated with tea? Sugar, perhaps?

Oh, it could be milk. Maybe she enjoys suckling?

Hardly odd, if it was that. Pinkie enjoyed lavishing attention on her own teats when they were making love.

They reached the Boutique at last, Rarity still deep in thought. At any other time, she might have just gone in, but thinking about Fluttershy made her eyes gravitate towards something she’d otherwise have missed; a yellow feather stuck in her bushes.

Feathers were, of course, commonplace in a town with so many pegasi. At any given moment you could find a veritable rainbow of their down blowing around Mane street. But this was clearly Fluttershy’s, and it was in front of her window.

She reached out with her magic, bringing it closer to her. It was a secondary covert, by the looks of it. Not a feather that would be casually shed.

“Whatcha got?” Pinkie asked as she poked her head back out of the door.

“One of Fluttershy’s feathers. I found it just now. It just struck me as odd; she tends to be very careful with her wing care.”

“Darling, I’m terribly sorry if Pinkie startled you. She’s been very affectionate of late. Do try to calm down, your wings are all akimbo!”

She was flustered, but it was more than that, she had several feathers out of alignment, and a few missing. As if she’d been doing some very hard flying recently...

“Hmmm. A mystery!” Pinkie said, smiling widely. She pulled a sleuth hat and magnifying lens from nowhere in particular, eyeing the feather. “Where was the clue found?”

“Over by the window.” Rarity gestured with a hoof. She watched in bemusement as Pinkie wandered over to examine the ‘crime scene’, marking off the area with yellow tape.

“Hmmmm, scuff marks on the ground. Somepony was agitated!” Pinkie announced to nopony in particular, taking notes in a notepad by scribbling with her mouth. “One... two... three hoof prints. No fourth. Very strange.”

“Why is three strange?” Rarity asked, playing along.

“Because it either means somepony with three legs was here, or they were doing something with the fourth,” Pinkie replied, looking carefully at the window. She breathed on it, crowing triumphantly. “Here’s number four!”

“What do you mean, here’s number four?”

“A hoofprint on the window pane! Fluttershy was looking inside!”

“Ah, so she was peering into the shop and lost a feather while doing so. Well, mystery solved then.”

“Yeppers! That means that combo I got while I was licking you meant Fluttershy was watching us!” Pinkie pulled out a bubble pipe, blowing a stream of bubbles into the air.

“Wait. What do you—” Rarity froze, piecing together something that had been bothering her for days.

“That’s, um, n-nice. I’m really, really sorry I missed tea with you yesterday. I did stop by, but the door was locked.”

“I-I thought about maybe checking the window...”

The last thought to cross her mind before she fainted was the word ‘tea’.

She came to moments later, a worried pink face composing her entire view of the world.

“Rarity, you fell down! What happened?”

“Fluttershy... she saw us...”

That caused the expression on Pinkie’s face to shift to confusion. “Yeah, I just told you. She watched us.”

“Oh, Celestia...” Rarity groaned as she strained to get up. If she was going to keep fainting she was going to need more padding on this chaise longue. “I think we traumatized her.”

“Oh!” Pinkie’s expression brightened. She poured a glass of water from a pitcher. “Well, that’s not so bad, right? We wanted her to see, didn’t we?”

“Well, yes, but not in a way that would scare her off!” Rarity said, grimacing. “The poor dear... Just now, even saying the word tea made her wings go up.”

“Wait... that’s why you were asking about that?” Pinkie asked, giving the glass to Rarity. “Why do you think it scared her?”

“Well, that’s a natural fear response. I imagine seeing us together in such a lewd fashion was horribly startling.” Rarity nodded in thanks, taking the water with her magic and drinking it down. “Ugh, wonderful. This only makes it harder for us.”

“Well... did she look scared when you said tea?”

“Well, no... more... embarrassed. As well she would be. Sort of like that poor attendant who walked in on us at the karaoke bar. I had to start paying them extra not to do that anymore.” Rarity’s face burned at the memory. That stallion’s face had been nearly as red as the huge—

“So... maybe she wasn’t scared? Maybe... it excited her? And she got embarrassed?”

“How could you possibly know that?”

“Well... While I was waiting for you to wake up, I looked over those hoofprints again...”

“See?” Pinkie said as she positioned herself on the hoofprints. “One, two, three.”

“Yes, so you said earlier, but then you pointed out the fourth...” Rarity replied, looking at Pinkie’s feet in consternation.

“Well, not exactly.” She got up on two hooves, leaning a third against the window. “The back hoofprints were deeper, and this fourth one is the same hoof that was on the ground. The whole time, she was on three hooves.”

“And that means?”

“That means the fourth one was busy.” Pinkie pressed her muzzle up near the glass, fogging it with her breath. “There’s a muzzle print here... So she was pressed up against the window, on three hooves, and the fourth—” she brought her fourth hoof down and rested it on her belly “—was busy.”

Rarity stared at Pinkie, unable to quite comprehend what was being implied, and then blushed furiously. “S-she was...”

“Busy,” Pinkie confirmed, wiggling her eyebrows suggestively. She dropped the smile the moment it looked like Rarity would faint again. Letting one of her friends hit the floor without anypony there to catch them wasn’t like her, and that counted double for her marefriend. “Rarity? Are you okay?”

Despite a rosy blush on her cheeks and a set of swooning eyes, Rarity was still very much conscious. “Oh, darling that is so... so...”

“Creepy? Weird? Not like Fluttershy?”

“So incredibly arousing!” The exclamation seemed to shock Rarity herself more than it did Pinkie, and she quickly glanced around to see if anypony had heard her. Thankfully, there was nopony in sight, which put her somewhat at ease.

“Can you believe it?” She continued in a whisper. “Fluttershy was here. She was watching us make love and... and she was... ohhhh.” A shiver, followed up by a saucy look told Pinkie everything she needed to know before Rarity even opened her mouth. “Inside. Now.”