The boom and crackle of fireworks could be heard coming from the distance, six ponies abandoning the light show and retreating to a large treehouse library. They had had enough of the show, and there were more important things to attend. A baby dragon shuffled as fast as his stout legs could carry him behind them, not knowing what in Equestria was going on. Twilight Sparkle opened the door to her wooden home, trotting inside and waiting for the others. They slowly poured inside, forming a circle in the centre of the room. Twilight attempted to shoo the baby dragon, Spike, away, mumbling something about "this meeting is private" or "we need to talk about personal things," but a shivering pegasus spoke up for him.

"Oh, that's okay, Twilight... he can stay if he, um, wants..."

"All right!"

Spike ran and plopped himself down next to Rarity, who leaned a small amount away from the eager little dragon.

"Ugh... fine," Twilight said.

The lavender unicorn sighed and sat in between Rainbow Dash and Pinkie Pie, both of whom scooched away from each other to make room. Everypony waited, and finally she spoke.

"Hello, everypony. I know me and Fluttershy called you here a bit abruptly, and I apologize. I hope you saw enough of the show."

She offered a grin which nopony returned. Coughing awkwardly, Twilight continued.

"Anyway, Fluttershy and I were talking before we all called you here, and it seemed some talking needed to be done. I you will please let her speak, I'm sure we can all work this ou-"

Twilight was cut short by a very anxious Pinkie Pie.

"What? What's going on? Did Fluttershy get in an accident? Do we need to help her?"

The excited pink pony, now standing and bouncing up and down, snapped her head to look at Fluttershy.

"Omigosh, Fluttershy! What in Equestria happened? Are you all right? What do we need to do? I promise we'll all do absolutely anything to help you get better and-"

Twilight, looking very agitated, mustered up a yell, knowing that was the only way she would have a chance at interrupting the blabbering Earth pony.

"PINKIE! Please! You'll find out soon enough what's wrong! Just let Fluttershy speak her mind!"

Rainbow Dash, seeing everypony else trying to contain their laughter as hard as she, burst into laughter. A chain reaction was enforced, and soon Rarity was giggling as lady-like as she could. Applejack followed with a hardy chuckle, and Twilight shot them all a death stare. Gritting her teeth, she tried as hard as they all had to contain their laughter not strangle one of them. This was an important matter to her.

"Everypony, please, this is serious..."

Applejack laughed again.

"C'mon, Twi. It ain't that bad, is it?"

The orange Earth pony looked at Fluttershy. She still had the feeling of joy from earlier locked in her heart, she just did not know if she could muster up the courage to confess it to every one of her friends. The pegasus coughed, filling in the long pause.

"Well... we could always maybe, I don't know, do this another time...? That's be... okay..."

Applejack's expression immediately went from cheerful to concerned.

"Oh... I guess it is pretty serious. Nonsense, sugarcube. It seems ta me you gotta get this off yer chest as soon as possible. We got all night for ya, right girls?"

As she spoke, Applejack looked around at the circle of ponies. Every one of them nodded.

"See? Like ah said, just take yer time."

She smiled, and Fluttershy had the floor. The pegasus seemed to shrink when everypony was watching her, but they all waited patiently. Stumbling with her words, Fluttershy began to explain.

"W-well... I guess since you guys want to hear it so bad... I might as well tell you. It's nothing to big, just, um, something I've been thinking about lately..."

Fluttershy's hind legs fidgeted around, and she nervously ran a hoof through her long pink mane. It drooped down on her shoulders with a natural grace, individual strands hanging off of it. Everypony around her smiled and nodded, Twilight gesturing for her to keep going.

"I don't know... just, some silly feelings of being left out..."

She paused, the deafening silence flooding the library's main room.

"Before Twilight came, and I didn't really know anypony else, Applejack was a good friend of mine... Probably the only one I had besides my animals."

Twilight's look twisted to make it look unsure, but Fluttershy's statement seemed to make Applejack puff out her chest and beam with pride.

"When Twilight came, that was a wonderful time, when we all came together... and I finally had really good friends I knew I could count on!"

Rainbow Dash matched Applejack, priding herself because her element had been hinted at. Applejack noticed, but she just rolled her eyes.

"I saw Twilight had taken a big liking to Applejack... which I didn't mind at all, don't worry! She just got... I don't know, a bit possessive of Applejack... always taking her aside to do things away from the group. It just made me sort of sad, because I had just made this really awesome group of friends, and I didn't want anypony to feel left out! And I didn't want to stop you two, because you seemed happy, and nopony seemed to notice but me... I guess I should've been worried about me feeling left out instead, huh?"

Fluttershy stopped and looked up from the ground, which she had been facing to watch her own hoof draw circles on the wooden floor. She offered an awkward laugh, but nopony obliged. Twilight looked guilty, her ears sagging. Applejack was blank, but a hue of regret was mixed in with her face's orange fur.

"Well, that went on for a while... and I was okay, I guess... and then things went back to normal. Everypony liked everypony else the same, and I liked it better that way. And, Twilight, I hate to seem like I'm picking on you, this is all just what I saw..."

The yellow pegasus glanced anxiously at Twilight, who swallowed hard and nodded. She could not believe her ears, but she was not mad at Fluttershy. More herself for making her friend feel this way.

"So, anyways... Twilight and Applejack "went their separate ways", so to speak, but then the same thing happened with Twilight and Rarity..."

Fluttershy was interrupted by a loud gasp, whom everypony discovered had come from Rarity. Her large blue eyes looked horrified, and her jaw was dropped a mile.

"Oh, Fluttershy, my dear, I'm so sorry! I didn't realize-"

She stopped as Rainbow Dash hushed her, putting a cyan-coloured hoof to her mouth. She nodded and motioned for Fluttershy to continue.

"And, of course, it was the same thing all over again... Well, while I was on that cloud outside, I started thinking... and I realized that I didn't have any reason to worry at all! I remembered that you all love me for who I am, and I shouldn't worry about silly things like that! And so I flew down to Twilight, and we had a short talk... and then we were here."

She had decided on the walk here that the letter to Princess Celestia would remain private. That was between her and the princess. Waiting, Fluttershy looked down and continued with her circles. Twilight was the first to speak.

"Wow... Fluttershy, I had no idea..."

Upon hearing her name, the pegasus looked up and smiled warmly at her obviously guilty friend.

"It's okay, Twilight. I learned tonight that there was no reason in the first place to feel bad about it, and that's all that matters, right?"

The worry melted from Twilight's face and she returned the smile.

"Okay, but from now on, tell us when you feel things like this, instead of just bottling it all up inside. It'll be better for all of us."

Fluttershy nodded.

"And I promise I'll try harder to be inclusive of everypony."

"I think that goes for all of us." Rarity chimed in.

Twilight nodded and laughed. Everypony smiled and apologized to Fluttershy, who insisted it was nothing. This went on for a while, when finally Fluttershy gave up, and admitted it was not okay for a little bit.

"For a while, I felt really bad... But let's leave our past behind and look forward to a happier, brighter future together... Please?"

Offering another questioning smile, Fluttershy observed all the ponies around her. Rainbow flapped her wings and took to the air, her arrogance returned.

"Yeah. I second that!"

"Me three!" Rarity agreed.

"I'm fine with that." Applejack said.

"Yes, yes, YES! That's exactly what we need to do!"

Pinkie was up and bouncing around again, and everypony giggled, no one stopping her. Twilight stopped laughing and sighed.

"I think that would be best."