Login

Loving Lovers of Love

by TheTwientist

Chapter 5: Talk (FlutterPie)

Previous Chapter

For the fifth time in twenty minutes, Pinkie Pie lost her grip and tumbled to the ground, hitting the rocks with a painful-sounding THUMP. But just like the past four times, she stood up without looking any worse for wear.

"You should stop," said Fluttershy, nursing her wing. "You're going to really hurt yourself sooner or later."

"I can't just give up!" said Pinkie, without turning to look at the pegasus. "You know that! Besides, I think I can make it this time!"

She stared up at the cliff, trying to track a plausible route up over the side of the canyon. "If I can just get over that smooth patch . . ." she murmured to herself.

"It won't work!" said Fluttershy loudly, more loudly than she expected. "You keep trying, but you can't make it out!"

Pinkie wheeled on Fluttershy, who gasped at the manic glint in her eyes. "But I have to! I'm gonna climb out, and get back to Ponyville, and get help, and then we'll get you out of here so we can fix your wing, and then you'll be okay and we'll be safe and everything will be fine . . ." Her voice petered out, and she slumped to the ground next to Fluttershy. "It's hopeless, isn't it?" she asked, her voice cracking.

"It's not hopeless," said Fluttershy, her voice reeking of insincerity, "It'll be okay. They'll find us."

"No, they won't," said Pinkie. Her hair was visibly straightening.

"Pinkie!" cried Fluttershy, looking Pinkie straight in the eyes. "You can't do this! You've got to hang on!" She paused, then added, softly, "For me." her face flushed, and she looked away.

They sat there for a little while, not saying anything, Fluttershy rubbing her broken wing. The silence was the worst part; when it was quiet, all you had were your thoughts, and they just seemed to keep circling around the fact that they were trapped in a canyon in the middle of nowhere.

"Talk to me," whispered Fluttershy.

"About what?" asked Pinkie.

"Anything," mumured Fluttershy. "Just not about . . . this."

Pinkie thought for a moment. "Did I ever tell you how I got my cutie mark?"

Fluttershy shook her head.

That was all the invitation Pinkie needed. "Well, when I was a little-bitty twinkie-Pinkie, I lived on a rock farm with my family. I have two sisters, you know, Blinkie and Inky. Blinkie's really fussy, but she can be funny, too, when she wants to be. Inky's really quiet, kinda like you, but she likes rocks instead of animals. Of course, we grew up with rocks! So, anyway, we didn't have any parties on the rock farm . . ."

A strange transformation went over the pink party pony. As she recounted the happy memories, she brightened up and became so cheery and bouncy that you might have thought she was at a party, not trapped in a canyon with no way out.

She went on for a long, long time, with many distractions, anecdotes, and conversational cul-de-sacs. It seemed to take Pinkie an hour to describe every last detail of her very first party. Despite this, Fluttershy listened and gazed at her attentively the entire time.

Just when Fluttershy thought that Pinkie's story was finished, Pinkie took a deep breath and began anew. Fluttershy didn't mind; she just kept listening.

This time Pinkie's story was about her journey to Ponyville. She talked about going to Sugarcube Corner, trying her first cupcake, and realizing that they "tasted like parties", decided she wanted to be a baker, even though she had never baked before. Still, she somehow managed to get a job and lodging at Sugarcube Corner.

Next, Pinkie told how she had met all of her friends. Most of the stories seemed to run the same way: Pinkie met one of her future PFFs, but they didn't really become friends because they were too different. It was only when Twilight Sparkle came along that the gang really "got together", as it were.

However, Pinkie respected and even admired the way her friends were different from herself. She enjoyed Rarity's class and creativity; Applejack's hardworking, honest demeanor; Rainbow's speed and skill. SHe spoke for a long time about how glad she was that Twilight had come along and made them all friends.

This was to say nothing of all the times that Pinkie had stepped out of her greater narrative arc to recount an adventure, an incident, or even just an interesting conversation that she had had with a pony (she was able to recount most of the latter word-for-word). She was essentially summarizing years and years of experiences in one very, very long recounting. All in all, her story must have stretched on for hours, but never once did Fluttershy take her eyes off her friend.

At last, Pinkie could think of no more to say. She looked at Fluttershy and asked, "Did you like my story?"

Fluttershy nodded fervently.

Pinkie smiled, but the trouble already starting to begin again. Without nothing to reminisce about, the gravity of their situation sank in, and her pessimism returned. She slumped to the ground, and her expression darkened. She glanced back up at the canyon walls and above, where the sun was barely visible over the top. "Sun's setting; no one will be able to find us in the dark. That is," she added bitterly, "if they're even looking for us." Her hair was already starting to uncurl again.

Fluttershy knew she had to stop this process before it ran out of control. "Wait- don't you have any other stories to tell me?"

Pinkie shrugged. "Not really."

Fluttershy desperately hunted for something Pinkie hadn't mentioned. "What about- no, you talked about that, um, maybe- no, you did that too, um-"

Pinkie sighed. "Thanks, Shy, but it's not gonna work."

"Nonono," insisted Fluttershy, "what about-" She paused. "What about the first time you met me? You didn't talk about that."

Pinkie looked Fluttershy in the eye, and there was something different in her expression, although Fluttershy had no idea what it was.

"No," she said mildly. "You know what happened already, and besides, you don't want to hear my side of it."

"Yes I do!" said Fluttershy, but Pinkie had already looked away.

Fluttershy forced herself to her hooves and trotted over to Pinkie's side. "I want to hear whatever you have to say," she said quietly, her mouth right next to Pinkie's ear.

Pinkie looked up at Fluttershy, who finally figured what the emotion on Pinkie's face was: fear.

"Are you sure you want to hear it?" said Pinkie.

"Of course," said Fluttershy. She had never seen Pinkie like this, but she had to know what scared her friend so much so that she could help her get over it.

"Well, I first saw you about a year before Twilight came." Pinkie spoke softly and hesitantly at first, but began to warm to her tale. "I heard there was a new pony in town, and I always have to meet every pony, you know, so I went to find you. I started in the town square, and I knew that I would be able to find the new pony right away. And I was right, but you didn't just stand out because you were new."

She slowed down again. "Because there was the most . . . beautiful pony I'd ever seen."

Fluttershy's mouth dropped. Surely she wasn't . . . ?

But Pinkie pressed on. "I had never seen a pony as pretty, or graceful, or elegant before in my entire life. And I went up to talk to her, and I could barely talk 'cause she was just so . . . amazing! So I just kinda babbled, like a foal. Jumping and screeching and dancing and spouting gibberish 'cause I didn't know what else to do."

A tear ran down her eye. "But I came on too strong, way too strong, and she was scared, and she ran away. I hardly ever saw her after that and I didn't try to talk to her because I scared her and I hated myself for scaring the most lovely pony I'd even seen . . ." She paused and took a deep breath. Fluttershy had said nothing this entire time.

"Then Twilight came, and made us all friends, and I got my second chance. But I didn't try to push, because I didn't want to risk driving her away again. Being friends with her was enough. I could see her every day, and I could make her happy."

Pinkie looked up to meet Fluttershy's eyes. "I love making you happy, Shy, 'cause as long as you're happy, I'm happy. I'm only sad when I think too hard about how I blew it and how I was never gonna be able to tell you that . . . I'm in love with you."

She dropped her eyes again. "And now we're gonna die and it's gonna be so awkward 'cause I admitted I'm in love with you and you probably think I'm weird and silly and scary. I told you didn't want to hear my side of the story, 'cause you don't want to talk to me anymore, so I'll just go over there and be quiet and try not to disturb you anymore." And with that she stood up and trotted to a corner, facing the wall.

Pinkie Pie collapsed to the ground. She wanted to cry, but she knew she had to be quiet, so she settled for a sniffle or two. That's how they'd find her, if they found her at all: hunched against the wall, dried tears on her nose.

She tried to find solace in thoughts of her friends, and that helped some: she thought of Dashie, and Twilight, and Applejack and Rarity and Spike and Pound Cake and Pumpkin Cake and Cranky and everypony else she knew and loved. She smiled a bit at that, and tried not to think about the hunger gnawing at her stomach.

Then somepony laid down next to her, and a quiet voice whispered in her ear, "I wish you'd just told me, Pinkie. I never knew, and I never suspected, and if you're sad it's really my fault. I thought about it, Pinkie, and you know, if it has to end like this, I think I'd rather it be you than anypony else in the world. So please don't cry."

Pinkie found the courage to turn her head to Fluttershy. "Do you . . . do you mean it?"

But the answer was clear on Fluttershy's face: her eyes sad but honest, her mouth drawn into a heartbreaking little smile. With the courage that only despair brought, she nuzzled Pinkie affectionately.

Pinkie couldn't bring herself to beam, but she managed a smile of her own, and, blinking the tears away, she pulled Fluttershy close. Whatever the future brought, or didn't bring, they would face it together.


Pink is a fairly noticeable color; it stands out pretty well against stone, especially when it's very bright, as Pinkie's coat was. Rainbow Dash knew almost instantly that she had found her friends, even though she was a quarter-mile in the air.

She swooped in closer, and the scenario played itself out in her mind: the artifact must have brought them to the canyon, and, since it teleported them at ground level, had left them in midair in this canyon, leaving them falling too quickly to react and no doubt injuring Fluttershy to the extent that she couldn't fly. Twilight had said "don't touch", but when had that ever meant anything to Pinkie Pie?

Sure enough, there they were, huddled against the wall. They might have still ben asleep. Dash would let them know that help was on its way, then fly back to alert the rest of the impromptu pegasus brigade she'd had scouring Equestria for days.

It seemed a little strange, though: it looked perhaps too intimate for huddling. Could they be hugging, or, Celestia forbid, cuddling?

But that insane suggestion was quickly explained away: it probably got cold in the canyon at night, and they needed all the warmth they could get.

It wasn't serious.

Author's Notes:

I seem to have a penchant for the melodramatic.

Return to Story Description

Login

Facebook
Login with
Facebook:
FiMFetch