Moving On Part 1

Intro- This is an alternate ending to “Fluttershy’s Sink” by Ragnarokia. It is recommended that you read that first to understand this story’s relationships and history. This is a continuation of a [GRIMDARK] clopfic story (First paragraph directly taken from “Fluttershy’s Sink”), this story falls under what I believe to be [LIGHT-GRIMDARK][SHIPPING]. Links and more located in the description below the story.

My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic and all affiliated characters are (c) Hasbro and Lauren Faust

An hour passed and Fluttershy slowly rose to her feet, she wiped the tears on her mane and then sat back down on her still sore flank. "Maybe, I can maybe try it." Fluttershy said to herself. She climbed back to her feet and walked out the cottage, it was time she tried to put the event behind her.

As Fluttershy approached the large oak Twilight gave her a reassuring smile. “I was beginning to think you wouldn’t come.” Twilight said waving Fluttershy to come over. “I wanted to talk to you about something important.”

Fluttershy obviously became nervous as she approached and sat near Twilight. “Umm... what is it Twilight?...” the timid pegasus asked quietly. “I’m worried about you.” Twilight said softly. “I’ve heard some rumors that Rainbow has been abusing you. I’ve put it off as dirty lies but...” Twilight’s throat became raspy as she began to choke on her words. The studious unicorn cleared her throat and continued, “Ever since you were sent to the hospital...I’m worried by the fact that you won’t say how you were hurt, and with the rumors I’ve heard I have to know if...” Twilight couldn’t finish the sentence as her voice closed her throat up much tighter this time.

Fluttershy was staring at the ground before Twilight with her characteristically sad eyes and an otherwise blank face. “Just tell me. Are the rumors true?”

Fluttershy looked down towards her own hooves and began to shake slightly, Twilight moved closer but the timid pony took a step back.

“I.. I don’t know if I should talk about this...” Fluttershy’s voice betrayed how uncomfortable she felt. “Please Flutter, what Rainbow has told others is bad enough on its own, but if she is the reason you were sent to the hospital... I have to know Flutter.” Twilight’s voice was shaking slightly but her face held a sincere look, “You are obviously hurt, more than just physically, and your friends are worried about you...” The unicorn stared at Fluttershy and noticed her beginning to shake much heavier now as she lowered herself to the ground. “Please, talk to me. I want to hear your side of the story and see if we can fix this. I want you to be happy, I need to know if Rainbow is the cause of this.” Fluttershy hid her face in her pink mane and began to tear up.

Twilight heard a small sound come from her shaking friend. “What was that?”

“Sh--s” The sound came again from the now fully shivering Fluttershy.

“I’m sorry I can’t-”

“She is responsible alright!” Fluttershy said as loudly as she could manage.

Fresh tears rolled down the pegasus’s face as she looked to Twilight and then back to the ground near her hooves.

Twilight, finally having received the information she wanted, couldn’t think of anything to say. The lavender mare leaned towards Fluttershy and placed a hoof on her chin gently raising her up to eye level. Fluttershy looked into Twilight's violet eyes and couldn’t hold back her tears.

A tear rolled down the lavender unicorn’s cheek as she pulled her into an embrace, letting her continue crying into her shoulder.

Twilight’s mind began to slowly work again as she tried to calm her friend. “What she did  was wrong, you deserve somepony better...” She knew that she wanted to be that somepony, but had yet to work up the nerve to ask. The pegasus's relationship with Rainbow had served to prevent her from trying as she believed them to both be happy, and she would never interfere with her friend’s happiness. Now that she knew that the rumors she and her friends had been hearing were true, and not just jealous ponies gossiping, a part of her felt glad that she had a chance.

Twilight began stroking the mare’s pink mane as she poured her eyes out into Twilight’s shoulder. “I... I.. “ Fluttershy took a deep breath and started again “Th-thank you Twilight... I think I’d like to try talking...”

After what felt like an hour Twilight released Fluttershy from the embrace in favor of holding her at foreleg length, “I’ll help you get through this Flutter, I promise.” Fluttershy smiled and wiped at her tears with her hooves. “Now I’d really feel better if you would come stay with me for the night, I don’t feel like you’re being safe by staying at your house all alone, would you please do this favor for me?” Fluttershy had finished wiping her wet cheeks and looked at Twilight’s genuine smile, “Y-yes, I think I’d like that.”

~~~~

LATER THAT EVENING

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Twilight’s horn glowed as she opened the door to the library and bowed her head in a mocking manner and said, “I hope you enjoy your stay at the ‘hôtel de livres’.” Twilight lightly chuckled at the ridiculous name she said as a doorpony would say at a fancy hotel. She had spent the bulk of their walk trying to cheer Fluttershy up and these jokes were succeeding for the time being. Fluttershy giggled and entered the library and said in her best Rarity impersonation “Why, umm,  thank you daah-ling, I believe this will do quite nicely for the time being.” she couldn’t help but giggle again as she finished.

The library seemed a bit messier than usual, books lay here and there, many open to various pages with a quill laying next to them, a pile of scrolls could be seen next to a desk in the corner and a soft snoring could be heard from upstairs.

“We better be quiet,” whispered Twilight, “sounds like Spike’s sleeping. Here, I’ll set the guest bed up just follow me.” Twilight began to tiphoof up the stairs, her horn glowed again as she opened up the closet door and pulled out an extra blanket and pillow and placed them on the guest bed.

“There.” Twilight said warmly. “Thank you, Twilight, but why are you going through this much trouble to help me?” said the yellow mare, ‘It isn’t like I’m worth the effort’ she thought, putting a damper on the light hearted mood she had fallen into with her walk with Twilight. The unicorn moved over to the mare and stared into her sad, cyan colored eyes and smiled “I offered to help because I care about you Flutter, I want you to be happy and Rainbow is not the pony to do that for you.” Twilight pulled the shy pegasus into a hug. As Fluttershy returned the hug fresh tears began to run down her cheeks.

~~~~

“You really think your friends care? Are you KIDDING me?!” Fluttershy began to tremble. She had forgotten to prepare a snack for Rainbow Dash to celebrate her day off and was being yelled at for both her idiocy for forgetting and the sheer nerve she had for saying she wanted to seek out some of their friends to calm herself down.

“If you go out bothering any of our ‘friends’,” Rainbow’s voice was full of contempt and sarcasm as she said the word, “I will show you what real pain is! Not to mention they WILL leave you since NOPONY wants to bother wasting time with such a CRYFILLY like YOU! I’m your only REAL friend! I’ve stuck by you since flight school, and yet you would rather throw all that away and seek out the advice of ponies who don’t even know or care about you.”

Fluttershy remembered crying before the fastest young flier in Equestria smacked her hard across the face causing her nose to bleed. “And STOP crying!” It was the first time Rainbow had ever hit her, and Fluttershy found herself wondering why she had failed Rainbow so much as to require a beating. She just couldn’t see that Rainbow was at fault for this, Dash had been such a nice pony when they were young, and she was right, she had watched out for her during flight school and protected her from bullies when they were young. She was Fluttershy’s oldest friend, and if she was yelling and felt the need to hit her then Fluttershy must have earned it.

~~~~

Fluttershy shook her head to clear the memories away and to reassure herself of what she had been telling herself the last few weeks, Rainbow *was* lying, and her friends *did* care about her....at least she hoped they did.

Twilight pulled the blankets down the length of the bed with her magic and motioned for Fluttershy to get into it, as Fluttershy complied and climbed into bed Twilight moved over to the side of the bed and pulled the blanket to cover Fluttershy by hoof. “You sleep tight, we’ll talk more in the morning and, truly,  thank you for coming over, I feel much better knowing you’re safe here.” Twilight said as she tucked in the blanket. Fluttershy took what she was saying to heart as best she could, and told herself, yet again, that Rainbow was wrong. Twilight *did* care. Fluttershy stirred as she confirmed this in her mind, accidentally pushing the hoof Twilight was balancing on as she finished pulling the blanket up to Fluttershy’s neck. Twilight and Fluttershy found themselves face to face, nearly touching noses. Both mares found their faces turning crimson and their eyes locked into the other’s gaze.

“Twilight...” Fluttershy said quieter than her usual moments of extreme shyness, only being heard because of the distance between them.

“Yes Flutter..?” Twilight whispered.

“I...” the yellow pegasus’s mind raced but found nothing to say. She simply froze with a blush on her face, focused intently on the eyes of the pony opposite her.

Twilight found herself similarly stumped, she had studied every subject she could think of, love came up more than a few times in her studies but most of her insight came from the ‘cheesy’ romances she borrowed from Rarity. As she lay there, hooves across the mare of her dreams, and muzzle to muzzle with her, she found nothing coming to her mentally. ‘Kiss her’ Twilight’s mind said quietly, this was all that came to her, so she acted on it without giving it any more deciphering. She leaned in closer and kissed the lips of the timid pony. Fluttershy’s eyes widened with shock for a moment before she closed her eyes and accepted the advance (quivering lips aside) and returned the kiss in full.

Thanks to Twilight’s inquisitive nature taking over, causing thoughts and questions to start spawning off in her head, and Fluttershy’s surprise, the kiss remained ‘simple’ and was short lived.

Twilight pulled back a bit stunned by her own actions. ”I... I.. I don’t know what came over me.” Twilight said, her voice raising slightly as she finished the sentence. “I have to go check on something, good night!” The lavender pony rushed towards the stairs and began her way down them, her mind racing and berating herself, ‘This isn’t the way to do it! I’m practically taking advantage of her situation... but’ she shook her head to clear it. ‘What if I ruined my chances? What if she begins to fear I’ll be like Rainbow?’ Twilight frowned at her thoughts as she reached the bottom of the stairs. ‘I suppose I’ll write my request to Celestia.’ Twilight thought, in truth she just needed something, anything to distract her mind for a minute or two.

Twilight needed Princess Celestia to know what she had discovered about Fluttershy, she needed Rainbow Dash brought into custody so they could have her tried for her crimes, and  she needed advice on how to guarantee Dash paid for what she had done to Fluttershy. Perhaps most of all Twilight wanted advice for her feelings for Fluttershy, she desperately wanted somepony to simply tell her it was the right or wrong time to come clean to the pegasus, though she expected the Princess to say something about her finding out on her own as she often did with such personal matters.

~~~~

Fluttershy sat silently, frozen in the position she fell in during those glorious seconds filled by the kiss. Tears slowly grew in the corners of her vision as she looked towards the stairway, ‘Did I do something wrong?... Was Rainbow right after all?’Fluttershy shivered at the thought and wiped her tears away. ‘No, no, no. Twilight must care about me. But why would she leave like that? Was that kiss a mistake? Does... does she care or not...’ Fluttershy’s head started to hurt from the constant barrage of questions she was posing to herself.

~~~~

“You do know I’m protecting you by being with you right?” Rainbow seemed sincere. “I know I might be a bit harsh at times but only because you deserve it. Don’t look at me that way, I hate to say it but it’s true Fluttershy.” Rainbow gave Fluttershy a cheesy smile. “If I were to stop being with you then everypony around here would be fighting to get with you, and let me tell you none of them are nice ponies. Even our ‘friends’, “ there was that same twinge of disgust in her voice as always when using that word, “ would hop all over you, they see you as nothing but an object to be used and thrown away.” the cyan pegasus made it a point to wave her hoof in a mocking way to show her ‘friends’ throwing her out after they got what they wanted. “I’m only here to protect you babe.”

~~~~

‘Maybe I should leave... if Dash is right then I don’t need somepony like Twilight who just want...’ Fluttershy cut herself off and turned towards the window to focus on the first part of her thought more than where it was heading. ‘If she does care then she’ll search for me, if she doesn’t then at least I’ve shown I care enough to leave when such a misunderstanding comes up...’

“I hope she cares...” Fluttershy whispered, and with that she edged out of the bed, lay the pillow under the blanket and quietly hovered over to the window, unlocking it and flying out closing it behind her.

~~~~

Signed Your Faithful Student,

Twilight Sparkle

Twilight sighed, she had never had to write with such an intent against a previous friend. She picked up the scroll and yawned, time had really gotten away from her. The unicorn climbed up the stairs, laid the scroll next to Spike’s bed as she normally did when she wrote something late into the night that she wanted sent in the morning. She glanced over to the newly made guest bed and felt thankful that Fluttershy was asleep. She was worried that she might have ruined her chances with Fluttershy, but knew she would find herself unable to explain herself if she had confronted her right then, she still wasn’t certain the pegasus would take Twilight’s love well after just being convinced to go against her lover. Even if she was going against Rainbow by talking with Twilight, she was still ‘with’ Rainbow, so could Twilight even hope to gain the mare’s love in return? Twilight climbed into her bed and tried to slow her mind, tried to focus on nothing in particular and yet all she could see her in head were images of the yellow pegasus she adored and the relationship she wished to have with her.

Sleep finally came. Next Chapter: Part Two Estimated time remaining: 1 Hour, 5 Minutes