The pungent aroma of greasy, deep-fried food hung heavy in the air, and Rainbow Dash felt her mouth water in anticipation of the meal; her feathery wings fluttered excitedly when she saw Fluttershy emerge from the kitchen, the odour of fried food coming into sharper focus as her cerise eyes lovingly scanned the bounty of hayburgers and hayfries. Those wonderful smells were soon joined by others: the sickly-sweet scent of chocolate milkshakes, and still-cooling pecan pies. “Okay,” she said, narrowing her eyes at her girlfriend, “what have I done?” The most intoxicating scent of all remained the earthy, lavender fragrance of Fluttershy herself.

        “Huh?” asked Fluttershy quickly, narrowing her eyes in confusion as she felt her muzzle tighten into a frown. She placed the overburdened trays on the table in front of the couch, then blew on her hooves to cool them. The table creaked precariously under the weight it was being asked to bear, but it soon settled. “What do you mean?”

        “You only cook meals this loaded in calories-” she gestured to the plates of food, every single item a favourite of hers “-for us when I've done something wrong and you, uh, want me to be receptive to your nagging?”

        Fluttershy made a face, feeling her eyelids blink several times in quick succession of their own accord. “I … nag?”

        Rainbow Dash opened her mouth to reply, then quickly thought better of it. “Never mind Let's eat.”

        They ate in companionable silence for a few moments; Fluttershy was not one to volunteer information about her day, and Rainbow Dash was too busy stuffing her face with fries to do much talking. Eventually, however, she caught sight of the way that Fluttershy was eating. Or rather: wasn't. Every so often, she would listlessly aim something at her mouth, then drop it back on to the plate. “What's up?” asked Rainbow Dash around a morsel of hayburger, several particles of it flying off in every direction as she spoke.

        A heartfelt sigh filled the quiet living room. “There's something that I need to tell you, Rainbow Dash,” Fluttershy said, feeling a lump form in her throat as she tried to get the words out. “Um, I was waiting for the right moment, but … there isn't one for something like this, is there?”

        After putting her plate back on its tray, Rainbow Dash replied in a concerned tone, “What is it? You know that you can tell me anything, right?”

        “Maybe not. Not something like this.” Tears formed in her beryl eyes, and she turned away as Rainbow Dash tried to place a comforting hoof on her shoulder. A soft whimper escaped her muzzle. “Don't touch me, please.”

        “Fluttershy?” Rainbow Dash asked, a completely unexpected note of dread entering her voice. In all the years that she'd known her, she'd never once known her to spurn her approach. “You're scaring me a little. What happened? What's wrong?” She tried to look into her girlfriend's eyes, but her pink mane had fallen over her face.

        “I'm so sorry,” said Fluttershy, so quietly that Rainbow Dash had to prick her ears up to their fullest in order to hear her. “What I did ...”

        Rainbow Dash allowed herself a moment to believe that it was nothing; she'd known Fluttershy for a long time, ever since they were fillies at Flight Camp, and she did have a tendency to overreact to minor problems. To take responsibility for things that weren't her fault. This, however, was different: the tears, the tiny trembles that continued to shudder through her … she was holding something back. Something big. Something bad. Rainbow Dash tried to brush her mane aside, to look into her eyes, but was once again rebuffed. “D'you want me to go?” she asked, trying to keep the exasperation she felt at Fluttershy's evasiveness at bay. It would do neither of them any good if she got frustrated now. “We can talk in the morning when you feel more up to it, yeah?”

        She got up to go, but a restraining hoof stopped her. “Stay,” said Fluttershy, her voice low yet commanding. “I need to tell you this now, then … you can decide if you still want to be here in the morning.”

        Heart racing, wondering what could possibly have so affected Fluttershy, Rainbow Dash sat back down. “Okay,” she said slowly. “I'm listening.”

        Taking several deep, cleaning breaths and releasing them slowly, Fluttershy tried to clear her mind. “You remember how you were away at the Wonderbolts' training camp for a month?”

        “Yeah,” replied Rainbow Dash, her voice laden with confusion. It had been a good month, too; a chance to show Spitfire and the others what she could really do, though the lonely nights had weighed on her mind somewhat. “In fact,” she added with a smile, “getting back was when I knew that I never wanted to be away from you for that long again.”

        Those words hit Fluttershy like a manticore's claw and she squeezed her eyes tightly shut until they hurt as she continued. “One day, I was kinda … depressed – well, not depressed so much as mopey … more so than normal, anyway, that is – and the girls insisted that I go out with them to try and take my mind off of things-”

        “-Fluttershy, you're allowed to have fun without me,” Rainbow Dash said, almost laughing with relief. “Is that really what had you so upset?”

        “I wasn't finished yet,” Fluttershy replied unhappily, wishing that she could just leave it there. “To cut a long story short … I met somepony in the bar, we got to talking, we had a few drinks, and we … ended up sleeping together.” When silence greeted her, she dared to peek through her mane for just a second to see Rainbow Dash's reaction.

        Finally, she said, “I'm sorry. I don't think I heard that last part properly. Would you mind repeating it for me?”

        “Rainbow-”

        “Who was it?” Rainbow Dash asked, an eerie calm that frightened Fluttershy had gripped her voice.

        “It was … nopony that you know. We just met for the first time in the bar,” replied Fluttershy, sensing deep down that it didn't really matter whether Rainbow Dash knew who it was or not. “It was a stupid mistake.”

        “Doesn't matter,” said Rainbow Dash. “I want their name.”

        “Will it help if I tell you?”

        “Answer the question, damn it!”

        The vitriol with which Rainbow Dash had spoken shocked Fluttershy and shrunk back against the couch. “Aura Spark. They were from out of town. Canterlot, I think.”

        “You think?” Rainbow Dash said caustically. Her expression brightened all of a sudden as she observed Fluttershy's retreat. “Well, I guess I can't ask too much of you. I mean, it was probably taxing enough to even get their name, right?”

        Fluttershy said nothing.

        Rainbow Dash stood up and walked toward the door; she was just about to open it, when she suddenly whirled around and directed an accusatory glare at Fluttershy. “Why did you do it? Of all the ponies in Equestria-” she shook her head “-you … you don't do stuff like this. You're supposed to be the good one.”

        “This isn't an excuse, Rainbow Dash, but-” she tried to pull herself upright, but all of her energy had been sapped “-I'd had a lot to drink. I was lonely-”

        “-Yeah, you're right, it isn't an excuse,” replied Rainbow Dash, her stare intensifying. All of a sudden, the look on her face softened and she said quietly, “Unless … you know, you were impaired in some way.” She looked meaningfully at Fluttershy. “Did they spike your drink? Did they force you to go with them?”

        “No,” Fluttershy said. “They didn't.”

        “Are you sure?” Rainbow Dash asked insistently, her nose practically pressing up against Fluttershy's now, her eyes filled with tears. “I mean, this is really out of character behaviour for you, isn't it? Maybe you really were out of it.”

        Fluttershy's heart filled with a warmth that she neither wanted nor deserved; Rainbow Dash was trying to give her a way out, a way to make this not her fault. A way to save their relationship with no harm done. If she said the magic words, if she blamed Aura Spark for everything, if she said that she was coerced or drugged, then Rainbow would forgive her. They would continue on with their lives.

        But no, that's not what would happen in the real world.

        Guilt and shame would gnaw away at her. Doubt and uncertainty would plague Rainbow Dash until their dying days. It would eat away at their souls, chipping away at them forever. As much as she loved Rainbow Dash, as much as she wanted to be with her, this was not something that she could allow to happen. For both of their sakes. “Rainbow Dash,” Fluttershy said firmly, her eyes meeting her girlfriend's for the first time that night, “I went with him willingly. I went to bed with him willingly. I … had sex with him willingly. Yes, I was drunk, but not so much that I didn't know what I was doing. Not so much that I couldn't give consent.”

        It was the most heartbreaking thing that Fluttershy had ever seen, watching the hope drain from Rainbow Dash's face.

        “I'm sorry,” continued Fluttershy, no longer able to bear that defeated gaze. “I wish I could say otherwise, for you. I wish I could make this go away, for both of us, but I can't. It wouldn't be fair to you.”

        “Why didn't they stop you?” asked Rainbow Dash.

        “Who?”

        “Our friends.” She practically spat the word out as if it were the most vile curse that she could think of. “Why weren't they there to stop you?”

        Fluttershy swallowed. This was her mistake, not theirs, and she silently resented the way that Rainbow Dash was trying to drag them into it. “Pinkie Pie insisted on doing some karaoke, and she dragged the others out onto the stage with her. I happened to be in the toilet at the time, and when I got back, I decided to sit in the bar rather than watch them, um, embarrass themselves.”

        “You call them embarrassing?” Rainbow Dash laughed bitterly. “I can't even look at you right now. Was it good?”

        “Was what good?”

        “The sex, of course,” said Rainbow Dash. “Was it good?”

        “ How is that relevant?”

        “It just is.”

        “Dashie, please-”

        “- Don't you dare call me that ever again.”

        Tears poured from Fluttershy's eyes. She didn't try to stop them. “Rainbow Dash ...”

        “ Answer me!” Rainbow Dash said hoarsely, her voice cracking more than it had ever done before.

        “It was, you know, it was what it was,” replied Fluttershy, pensively rubbing the hooves of her forelegs together.

        Rainbow Dash placed a hoof against her forehead and she sighed loudly. “Okay, I want a straight answer, if you'd be so kind.”

        “It was fine,” Fluttershy said helplessly, wishing that she could be on the other side of Equestria right now. It was doing neither of them any good to go through it like this. Rainbow Dash, it seemed, wanted to wring as much misery out of the process as possible.

        “Was it better than between us?”

        “No, of course not!”

        Rainbow Dash's eyes locked with those of Fluttershy. “Did you use protection?”

        Fluttershy closed her eyes.

        “Not even that, huh?” Rainbow Dash said, surprise evident in her voice. Curiously, she felt more tired and drained than angry. What good would anger do her right now, anyway? She still loved Fluttershy, and that made it even worse; she wanted, needed, an excuse to forgive her, no matter how feeble it was. She still wanted to be with her, still wanted to be close to her, but now … she was tainted. What she'd done was the antithesis of everything that Rainbow Dash had always held dear. It was … the opposite of loyalty. Stupid mistakes could be forgiven, breaches of sacred trusts could not.

        “Rainbow-”

        “-I'm gonna go now,” Rainbow Dash said, turning away, head hanging limply. “I need time to think. Time alone. Uh, it might be best if we don't see each other for a while, yeah?”

        “Yeah,” replied Fluttershy, not getting up from the couch. “I'm-”

        “-Don't say you're sorry again,” replied Rainbow Dash, cutting her off angrily. More quietly, she continued, “I know that you're sorry. I know that you mean it, too. But this isn't something that I can just forgive easily, if I can at all, and move on from, okay? Just … stay away from me until I've made my decision.”

        Fluttershy nodded her understanding, feeling her fragile heart sink to the bottom of her hooves at the note of pleading contained in Rainbow Dash's voice. “Take as much time as you need. Goodbye, Rainbow Dash. I … I love you.”

        “Goodbye, Fluttershy.”

        As soon as the door closed, Fluttershy knew that there was no coming back from this; Rainbow Dash had prized one thing above all else, and she had just proven herself spectacularly unworthy of that.