The Equestrian populace had been made to wait. It had been three weeks since the last episode of Friendship is Magic, over twice as long as the previous record since the show was resurrected. Three ponies were sitting together in a small, largely featureless room, with only a bed, a television on a stand, and a window near the ceiling too small to keep the room from feeling dark. One, a tired-looking white mare wearing a light brown sweater, was the pony of the moment, the other two being an interviewer with a microphone and a camerapony.

“So how exactly do you feel about the show being back?”

“Ahhhh.” Her forelegs jittered as she moved to hug the interviewer. “Ahhhahhahhh.”

Applejack answered the door.

“Let’s do this,” Pinkie Pie said.

“Not now, Ah’m havin’... apples.”

“Okay, I can wait a few minutes.”

“Can you wait... fifteen minutes? Outsahde?”

“Why?”

“Ah’m... really hungry. It’s that simple.”

“Why outside?”

“Because... you can’t hear... the thing. It’s a secret.”

“What secret conversations would you be having?”

“It’s a secret. Duh.”

“Okay... I guess I’ll wait.”

She went back up to her room. “Okay, Rainbow, we gotta make this quick. And you really need to be quiet.”

Rainbow had duct tape over her mouth. “Mm-mm.”

After the sex, they both came down and Applejack opened the door. “You can come in now.”

“Cool.” She came in. “Holy crap, why is Rainbow Dash crying? What happened?”

Rainbow had a single tear on her face. “Uh....”

“Oh, you know,” Applejack said. “We were just... talkin’ about our relationship. Friendship. And she got really soppy about it.”

“That’s not like her.”

“Ah know, raht? Crazy. So we were gonna make stuff?”

“What problems would you have?”

“It’s obviously a pretty prahvate thing. Like Ah said, it’s a secret.”

“Well, is everything okay now?”

“Yep, we worked it all out. Now come on.”

After making what they thought was the ultimate apple cake, each having a slice, and deciding that it was really good but not ultimate, they went back to the door. Rainbow Dash wasn’t present, being asleep in Applejack’s room.

“So what are you gonna do with Rainbow Dash?”

“We’re gonna have... apples.”

“But... what are you gonna do?”

“Just talk. Nothin’ much.”

“Okay... well, I had fun.”

“Me too. Now go before you ask any more uncomfortably ponial questions.”

“All right, see you soon.” She went through the door and turned around, then pouted slightly and smiled. “Sooner than you think.” She closed the door.

Fluttershy was in her living room, sitting on the floor, reading a book. Twilight was also doing this in Fluttershy’s living room. Someone knocked the door.

“I’ll get it,” Fluttershy said.

“You don’t have to.” She got up and teleported two metres to the door. When she opened it, it turned out to be Rarity. “See? Told you.”

“Hello—”

“Why are you here?”

“Sweetie Belle was... how do I put this... she wasn’t quite chuffed that I bought her the wrong cereal, and until she gets over it, Fluttershy is the only pony who likes me.”

“A foal drove you out of your own house? You’re fucking pathetic.”

“It isn’t like that, it was just a depressing atmosphere knowing—”

“Then kick her out for a few hours. You’re the adult, relatively speaking.”

“But I was lonely.”

“Big deal, none of us have all of our friends around 24/7. Like, when I want to f... fff....”

“Yes?”

“Do stuff with Rainbow Dash, as a random example, is she ever there for me? Sometimes. Not all the time, because she has a life outside of me.”

“What were you going to say?”

“I don’t even know. I was trying to think of a word. Now jump in a pool of hydrochloric acid.”

“Rarity?” Fluttershy said. “You can come in.”

“Twilight, could you please let me through?”

Twilight moved out of the way and didn’t close the door on her tail.

“We’re going to play a game in a few minutes,” Fluttershy said. “Are you interested?”

“What is it about?”

“Mostly puzzles. There are some physical things too, like throwing things into things.”

“I’ll give it a chance.”

A few minutes later, Fluttershy pulled out the attic ladder.

“You have a loft?” Twilight said.

“How many more rooms do you have that we haven’t heard about?” Rarity said.

“I don’t know, I haven’t explored the dungeon fully.”

And then they played the game. Twilight won in under ten minutes.

“Then you’re just left with orange and purple, which is... two red... and then the yellow and blue also cancel. The answer is two reds.”

“That’s right,” Rarity said.

“That was the easiest thing I’ve ever done.”

“Well, there isn’t any shame in losing this kind of game to you. But I can still beat Fluttershy.”

Fluttershy didn’t respond, deciding it would be best to let the result of the game speak for itself. And it did speak for itself when Rarity rolled a little metal ball along a little plastic beam all the way to the other side, completing her final task before her.

“It went past the mark,” Twilight said. “Rarity’s second.”

“I’ve never beaten anypony at this game in my life,” Fluttershy said.

After Rarity was done applauding herself, she leaned over and put a hoof on Fluttershy’s shoulder. “And I’m very grateful for that.”

“Well, you know who I am. I don’t really care about winning. Or coming second.”

“Well, time for Rarity to pack the game up,” Twilight said. “So what now?”

“Why do I have to do it?”

“You were the lowest-finishing unicorn.”

“Fine.” She got to work.

“So what now, Fluttershy?”

“I don’t know....”

Twilight got up, went a couple metres away, and pulled Fluttershy along the floor towards her, bringing her face right up to hers. “What. Now?!”

“I... give me some time....”

She dropped Fluttershy, who stayed down and looked up at her. “Do you think I came to a friend’s house to lie around and do nothing? Because I’d be cool with that, I just want to know if there’s anything you want to do.”

“Twilight, if you’re trying to do something... I don’t know, something mean to make a point about how good friends we are, I’m not enjoying it....”

“Oh... oh yeah. Sorry, Rainbow Dash is the only pony I talk to a lot, she likes that sort of thing.”

She got up. “Why do you talk to her a lot, and why does she like that sort of thing?”

“Because... I don’t know. She just comes over a lot. She’s homeless, you know. Has to sleep on clouds. I don’t know why she chooses me so often, I guess she likes me. And the reason she likes that is... I don’t know. There’s no way to explain it, it’s just fun. It’s certainly not anything sexual, if I’m making it sound like that.”

“You weren’t. I wonder why she likes you so much, she never comes over here....”

“We can just talk a lot to each other. I don’t know, there’s no feeling of anything special beyond what you already know we have.”

“I like her as much as she seems to like you, as you know, so I just wish she wanted to see me sometimes... I’ve felt like this a long time before just now, and I’m afraid we don’t have what we used to, but I don’t want to tell her she’s spending her time wrongly. I mean, I can’t tell her what friends to have....”

“I don’t want to say she prefers other things to you these days, but... it’s kind of the obvious thing to say. That doesn’t mean it’s right, of course.”

“I miss her all the time and we live in the same town. You must be right, she just has things she likes better than me.”

“There must be a good reason for this lack of visits compared to me and... well, just me, I can only know about myself.”

“It’s because she has better ways to spend her time. You know you’re right.”

“Well... she might have a reason, but whatever it is, I can’t see it being good for you.”

“She doesn’t like me enough. I’m not worth it. It couldn’t be something else.”

“Well, it’s all I can come up with. But it could be something.”

“She has a lot of free time. If she still cared about me, she’d have explained it to me already.”

“Next time she comes by me, I’ll make sure to ask her.”

“All right. I don’t see it happening, but I hope she has some sort of reason....”

“She doesn’t just not like you anymore. I’m sure it’ll make sense.”

Two days later, they were between sex sessions when Twilight asked the question.

“So why haven’t you ever been seeing Fluttershy?”

“I dunno. Between you, AJ, flying... I just don’t like her enough.”

The next day, Fluttershy was lying in the middle of the living room crying.

“I know it’s hard to hear.”

“She was... she’s supposed to be my spiritual sister.”

“I asked her about that too. It’s Scootaloo.”

“Why am I not good enough for her?”

“I don’t know.”

“Yes, you do. You know the secret. How do I get her to love me again?”

“There isn’t a secret, I just act natural. I never did anything to attract her.”

“But you must know why she likes you.”

“Not really, we just don’t bore each other. I mean, it’s far from opposites attract, not that it’s a romantic relationship, but on the surface, as in not taking into account we each have more than one poniality trait, we shouldn’t connect much. I mean, with App....”

“Applejack?”

“Yeah, she visits her fairly often too. So with her, at least they’re both unsophisticated, we don’t even have that in common. But that’s a different subject.”

“So you don’t know why she likes you so much?”

“Well, you’d have to change most of your poniality. I’m pretty sure you can’t just read a lot and she’ll drop by you.”

“So it is hopeless.”

“As far as I know.”

“You can go now. I’ll just... cry....”

“You won’t get any better alone in your house with nothing else to think about.”

“But what can I do?”

“Be with somepony else with nothing else to think about.” She sat down. “Come here.”

Fluttershy now had someone to hug as she cried. At least if her lifelong best friend didn’t really care about her anymore, a murderer who did it only out of bloodlust and the feeling of superiority it gave her did.

“I still have you, right?”

“As long as I’m not with Rainbow Dash.” Next Chapter: Chapter 59: Twilight Keeps Breaking Rainbow Dash Estimated time remaining: 13 Hours, 24 Minutes