May 10th, 993 Domina Solaria

A nervous rumble reverberates the back of Fluttershy’s throat as she flies over Sweet Apple Acres. Or sometimes she hovers when the breeze picks up. Her pace is slow, even for her, anxiety about the future hanging around her neck like a millstone. And not just the future future, although she finds that quite worrisome too, but the present future.

Tonight.

One fretful hoof scrapes against the other as Fluttershy scans for Applejack. She’s beginning to regret her slow pace, and yet dreads going faster all the same. It would just mean she’d get to the terrifying part even faster.

She wishes it was over already. She’d be in her cottage, all alone, her animals all sent away for the night. Well, almost alone. She’d be upstairs, laying in her nice, soft bed, her quilts and comforters wrapped snugly around her. Just like her… her st… her stall-

“Eeee!” Fluttershy shrieks as a particularly loud scrape startles her! She would bolt if her wings weren’t frozen in terror. Instead she finds herself falling, that cruel bane known as gravity conspiring to send her plummeting. Whether through good fortune or unconscious planning she hits the top of a recently bucked apple tree, sending a shower of green leaves and red apple blossoms cascading to the ground.

“Fluttershy?!” comes Applejack’s worried shout. Pounding hoofsteps echo among the orchard as Applejack gallops closer. The farmpony raises her head, looking each way and up, scowling as she spots the blossoms slowly fluttering to the ground. “Rainbow Dash, if’n you’re up there’n thinkin’ ya can scare me like ya just scared poor Fluttershy, ya got another thing comin’!”

Instead of a reassuring shout, something along the lines of, ‘I’m okay, Applejack,’ Fluttershy can only quiver in fear. Here is the one pony she dreaded seeing, who she had to force herself to come visit!

“Ah’m givin’ ya to the count of three,” Applejack says, stamping a hoof on the dirt path. “One.”

Oh, why did she have to pick this week? Maybe if she returned next week, she would be stronger, less anxious?

“Two.” Applejack peers up into the tree, but the thick growth, even with the fallen leaves, means she can’t see all the way through to spot that multicolored menace. “Don’t say Ah didn’t warn ya!”

Fluttershy hunkers down, stuffing her hoof in her muzzle to keep her teeth from chattering. It doesn’t really help.

“Three.” Applejack huffs to herself, turning around while keeping an eye on the tree. She lifts a single hind leg, one solid buck against the trunk.

The buck sends a shockwave through the tree, rattling Fluttershy’s head something fierce. The branches that used to support her bend and shift, and she tumbles down. Even if she was prepared to fly it wouldn’t have mattered, her vision and sense of balance all muddled, and she lands in a heap at the base of the tree.

“Fluttershy?!” Applejack exclaims, rushing to her friend’s side. “Are ya okay?”

Fluttershy groans weakly, trying to hide behind her mane, except Applejack’s hoof swipes it to the side to stare into her eyes.

“Ah’m sorry, ‘Shy! Ah thought you were Rainbow Dash, and…” Applejack blurts out. She sighs, looking back to the sky. “Why, if that little prankster thinks she can get one over me…”

“N-no, it wasn’t R-Rainbow Dash,” Fluttershy says, her head still spinning.

“Oh.” Applejack turns back to her feathered friend. “Then why’d ya come out here? Ah like seein’ ya an’ all, but Ah thought ya’d be, ya know, busy.”

Applejack’s soft smile is enough to get Fluttershy to weakly nod. “Oh, I am, it’s just…”

Any other words, if there were any, are lost to the gentle breeze.

Applejack lifts a hoof to try to clean out one of her ears. “Come again?”

Fluttershy raises a foreleg to cover her eyes as she sinks down, her mane covering her face.

Applejack sighs, but lets it happen this time. “So, ya wanna play a guessin’ game. That’s more Pinkie’s thing, but let’s see.” She taps a hoof against the ground, smirking to herself. It doesn’t take Amethyst Star to see what’s on the pegasus’ mind. “Ya ran out of hay, and need to pick up another bale.”

The mess of pink mane moves in a manner Applejack assumes is a no.

Applejack smirks. “There’s a kitty trapped in a tree, and you need help to get her down.”

Fluttershy’s wings flare out just slightly, waggling from side to side.

“Oh, right, right,” Applejack muses theatrically as she ponders the sky. “Hmmm.”

Fluttershy peeks out from her mane, the slight motion enough to draw Applejack’s attention.

Applejack nods as if she finally came to the right answer. “Ya were worried about askin’ me about joinin’ the herd?”

Fluttershy disappears under her mane so quickly Applejack knows she hit the mark.

“Aww, come on, ‘Shy,” Applejack comforts. She draws herself extra close to the mare and tenderly strokes a hoof across her yellow back. “It’s a big step.” She can’t help but roll her eyes at the glacial pace the pegasus seems to have insisted on, and Doug has been only too happy to oblige. “Ya only started holdin’ hooves, what, a week ago?”

Fluttershy nods, as if it truly is the most terrifying thing in the world.

Applejack sighs to herself. “Would it help if Ah gave Doug a hint? If, ya know, he asked you?”

“N-no,” Fluttershy stammers. “I-I just don’t know if I can…”

“Fluttershy,” Applejack sternly says. “You’re one of the bravest mares Ah know.”

“Really?” Fluttershy says, peeking out from her mane again.

“Honest Apple.” Applejack nods superfluously. “It ain’t that you ain’t scared, it’s that you act despite bein’ scared.”

“But…” Fluttershy ekes out, sinking down again.

“Ah know you got it in you,” Applejack says, firmly pressing a hoof into Fluttershy’s chest. “You helped a manticore in labor, even though she couldn’t stop thrashing her tail and claws around. You’ve stared down chimeras to rescue lost foals. You’re friends with bears.” She takes a deep breath at the last one, shuddering, even as Fluttershy’s smile grows. “Ah know you can hoof this.”

A warm smile spreads across Fluttershy’s muzzle. Her exclamation comes out as a whisper. “I can!” She stands up, taking a deep breath. “Applejack… with your permission, um, I would like to join Herd Apple, sire D… Doug.”

Fluttershy looks around wildly before Applejack can answer. “Actually, shouldn’t I ask the other members? And Doug?”

“Well,” Applejack says with a chuckle, “Ah know what Rainbow Dash would say, and there’s your majority right there. Ah can’t see Rarity or Doug vetoin’. But…”

Applejack draws next to Fluttershy, a mischievous grin on her muzzle. “Since Doug don’t know, it’ll be a surprise for him. You’ll have him spend the night, right?”

“R-right,” Fluttershy stammers, exactly what might happen that night coming unbidden to her mind, and the prospect is terrifying, even with the number of times she tells herself it’s something every mare goes through.

“Then get goin’ there, tiger,” Applejack says with a hearty wink. She flicks her tail across Fluttershy’s flank, spurring the mare into motion. She smiles to herself as she watches those plush yellow flanks fly off, more than a little envious of the attention they’ll see tonight.

The burst of confidence lasts until Fluttershy is about halfway home. Her wings lock up again, the terror of the unfamiliar too much, though this time she’s at least able to glide to the other side of the Ponyville River and trot the rest of the way home. Her animal friends are there to greet her, and it helps immensely, their cute little faces beaming up at her. A quick glance to the sky gives her about an hour before Doug should be done working with Rarity.

“Okay, friends,” she says to the squirrels and birds gathering around her. “I’m going to need some help getting everything ready for tonight! And then, and I know I don’t tell you this very often, or, um, ever, but you’ll need to find somewhere else to sleep.” A chattering erupts from the crowding creatures, many of them jumping up and clapping their tiny paws. “Yes, I know, it is exciting! But it’ll only be for tonight.”

A single chipmunk screeches something, and many of the other critters cock their heads as they look up at her.

“Oh, no,” Fluttershy says with a solemn shake of her head. “Not this year. I’m afraid that time already passed for me.”

A heavy sigh comes from every critter.

“I know,” Fluttershy says, staying positive. Her already quiet voice drops to a whisper. “But I don’t even know that he wants foals!”

The birds squawk in alarm as a flurry of motion erupts, the critters rioting at Fluttershy’s hooves.

“I-it’s okay!” she exclaims, rearing back and careful not to stomp on any of her animal friends. “I-I don’t even know if I-”

“Hey, ‘Shy!” Doug greets cheerfully from a ways away, holding a weather textbook open in one hand while the other waves. He yelps as a few of the birds zoom around his head, chirping angrily. His voice turns worried. “Something wrong?”

“No!” Fluttershy shouts back, sternly turning on the birds. Her mildly disappointed expression would match another pony’s unbridled rage. A single command rings out. “Behave!”

The animals instantly stop rioting. They hunker down and await further instructions while the birds return to nearby branches.

“Good.” Fluttershy turns first to the critters, then the birds. “Now, I could use some extra nuts - no acorns this time, more walnuts and pecans - and seeds.” She nods happily as they scamper off, leaving her alone with Doug.

“Dinner for tonight?” Doug says, closing the textbook and slipping it inside his backpack. He has to cram it with the other books inside.

“I-if you don’t mind,” Fluttershy says timidly, her head tilting towards her front door. She grimaces internally; she needs to be more assertive! She needs to be like the other mares in the herd! They don’t shy away from telling Doug what to do! She glances back to make sure he’s listening, sternly commanding, “If you’ll f-follow me?”

Well, it sounded a lot better in her head.

Doug raises an eyebrow, given that he was already doing what she asked him to do. “Sure,” he says.

A few of the more enterprising squirrels return with a few pawfuls of nuts. Fluttershy takes them with a wing, trotting inside to find her grinding mortar.

“Want any help?” Doug asks as he drops his backpack by the front door.

Fluttershy frowns as she looks at the small stone bowl. It is pretty awkward having to crack the nuts with a hoof, then pull out the seed from the crushed remains. She takes a deep breath, steeling herself. “No,” she says. “I’m okay.”

“Sure,” Doug says as he lays down on the couch, leaving an obvious spot for her to join him. He lets out a long sigh as he stretches, ending with his hands forming a pillow behind his head and one leg modestly raised.

Fluttershy smiles to herself, finding it funny how his discomfort with nudity pops up every now and then. It’s not like she stares, but sure doesn’t mind a glimpse - or more - every now and then. She finds the thought of that stallionhood entering her both titillating and scary. What if he doesn’t like her? Would he want her to practice with toys first?

“I thought you’d be working later,” she says, trying to get the conversation started and distract herself from the thoughts bubbling around. She heard it is difficult to get most stallions talking, but that rarely seems to be the case when Doug is involved. Actually, maybe that is the problem? She needs to be more assertive, and dominate the conversation!

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