Rainbow Dash was aimlessly flying around Ponyville. She had calmed down from her rage at Fluttershy, but that didn’t change the opinion that Violyre should not have even been considered a friend of her old classmate after what she did. That unicorn didn’t even consider sending one message to tell Fluttershy.
Rainbow Dash sat down on her favorite cloud to think. She had known Fluttershy since elementary school. They must’ve met shortly after Violyre disappeared. She remembered the day, how easy it was to upset her friend, how hurt she was. She was there every year for ten years as Fluttershy visited the site that the unicorn had fallen. She always wanted to tell Fluttershy to give up. That her friend was dead. The Weather Factory’s expansion forced her to say something. How did the two even reunite?
She would need to have a talk with her upset friend later. Maybe they could work something out, but Rainbow Dash knew one thing: She was NOT going to let Fluttershy ruin her life because of somepony that’s not said anything to her in years, after supposedly being “best friends.”
As she lazily looked at the sights down in Ponyville, her ears perked up to a loud burst of magic nearby. Looking over the edge, she spotted Twilight Sparkle a distance away from Fluttershy’s cottage, with an unfamiliar pony. Twilight was collapsing to the ground, and the other pony was picking her up. Narrowing her eyes in an attempt to see, the older purple mare was a unicorn.
Rainbow Dash assessed the situation. “That sound I heard must have been that unicorn attacking Twilight. Why would she do th-” She froze as she realized what was happening.
Twilight was being foalnapped.
Rainbow Dash quickly jumped off of her cloud, putting her hoof forward as she aimed towards the foalnapper. She wouldn’t be able to pull off Sonic Rainboom speed with the short amount of space between her cloud and the target, but she knew that even a portion of that speed would seriously injure anypony.
Violyre hobbled down the pathway. The pain she felt from the unexpected jolt of magic was nearly unbearable, but she had to endure it. For Twilight and for Fluttershy, her soon-to-be family. If she couldn’t tolerate this pain, she didn’t feel she would be worthy of either of them.
As the front of the cottage appeared over the horizon, she heard a piercing whistle getting closer to her. Violyre hastened her speed, having never heard such a sound before. As she slowed down to check the filly on her back, something slammed into her side, knocking her away, Twilight falling to the side, as she slammed into a tree. Violyre cringed a bit as she started to stand back up, only to be pushed back to the tree by her assailant, a cyan-colored pegasus with a multi-colored mane.
“Lucky you, I’ve been having a pretty lousy day and kidnapping a filly that’s like a daughter to me, you’re going to wish you hadn’t stepped outside today.” Her magenta eyes narrowed as she pulled her hoof back, prepared to let her frustrations out.
“Look, I don’t know who you are, but I need to get her back to her mom! She’s hurt!”
“Liar! The only reason she’s hurt is because you attacked her! I saw you!”
“I don’t know what you saw, but I would never hurt anypony! If you actually saw me, you’d have seen me crying in fear!” Violyre struggled against Rainbow Dash’s hold, to no avail.
“You used magic on her!”
“I have just as much magic as you do!”
“...what? WHAT!? Do you think I’m stupid!? You’re a unicorn!”
“Do you think I don’t know that!? Do you think I don’t hate my life because I’m a unicorn with no magic!? This girl’s mom, Fluttershy, is the only good thing that’s happened in my life!”
Rainbow Dash’s nostrils flared as she started to put it all together. “...you’re Violyre...”
“Yes! Now let me go so I can get that girl some help!” Violyre’s request was answered with a strong hoof across her face.
“You stay away from Fluttershy! I’m not going to let you hurt her again!”
“What’s wrong with you?” Violyre shouted at her attacker. “I would never do anything bad to her!”
“You left Cloudsdale!”
“It wasn’t my choice!”
“You didn’t try to send her a letter or something!”
“I tried!”
“LIAR!” Rainbow Dash drew her hoof back again, and Violyre turned her head. A piercing whistle was heard coming closer to the pair, and Rainbow Dash glanced towards an oncoming object just as it hit her, causing her to release Violyre and slam into a tree.
“I WON’T LET YOU HURT HER!” Her wings flared out to her sides, standing protectively in front of her frightened partner, the yellow pegasus glared at her friend.
“Fluttershy, are you crazy? I’m trying to help you! She was trying to kidnap Twilight!”
“Violyre would never attack anypony! Especially not a child!”
“But I saw the magic fire off and she’s unconscious! How can you explain that other than her being a liar?” Rainbow Dash was frightened of her friend, having not seen her this angry since the day they first met.
“She can’t use magic! I’m out here only because I heard the sound of Twilight’s magic going off!”
“What are you talking about?” Rainbow Dash looked puzzled. “All magic sounds exactly the same!”
“I’m her mother, I think I know the sound of my own child’s magic!”
“I...I...but...what about...Fluttershy! Don’t do this! She’s just going to hurt you again, and I don’t want that to happen to you!”
A timid voice came from the trembling mare. “Fluttershy, if I did hurt you..I never meant to. I’m sorry...”
“Violyre, no. The only pony here that should be sorry...is me.” Fluttershy folded her wings inward as she started to tear up. “Nopony would ever tell me anything, whether you were dead or alive. It was my fault that you got hurt, Violyre. Your parents blamed me for it, and eventually they just told me that you were...gone.”
“I...I gave my parents my letters to give to you...at least, for the short time they still came to see me. I haven’t seen them in years. I had thought you didn’t want to be my friend anymore because of what I did!”
“What? That’s not right! How could anypony not like somepony that saved their life?” Fluttershy ran to Violyre and picked her up off the ground, pulling her into a tight hug. “Finding you again lifted a huge burden off of my heart! If Twilight hadn’t...” The pegasus’s eyes shrunk with the thought that just hit her..”Twilight!” Fluttershy stood up and ran to her daughter, looking her over, and breathing a sigh of relief. “Just a magic outburst, she’ll be fine once we can get her home and into bed. What caused it though?”
“I had just told her we were engaged...I hope that was alright...” Violyre scratched her hoof nervously on the ground. Fluttershy smiled and kissed her.
“Of course it was alright. You’ll be a parent to her soon, after all.”
“Fluttershy, why didn’t you tell me about this sooner?” Rainbow Dash called over. “I’ve been your best friend since elementary school, haven’t I? Past knowing the name and some of her flaws, I never guessed you still had any feelings for somepony after all that...”
“I never stopped feeling for her. She saved my life, Dash! You can’t just forget somepony that saved you at the risk of their own life! She saved me, and now I’m saving her. If you really want to make it up, carry her back to my cottage, I’m going to take Twilight to the hospital, just to make sure nothing weird happened with that magic burst.” She laid down, and hoisted the unicorn filly onto her back, and she started flying towards the Ponyville Hospital.
Rainbow Dash stood alone with Violyre. Violyre looked down, not sure where to start the conversation.
“Rainbow Dash, was it? I’m sorry...I don’t know all of her friend’s names yet. Fluttershy talked a lot about you. I wanted to thank you for protecting her when I couldn’t...I was just hoping that I would meet you in a...less painful manner.” Violyre shied back slightly as Rainbow Dash turned towards her.
“Look, I’m sorry I attacked you. I just couldn’t take the thought of my best friend hurting herself again. The first day I met her, she was still taking the loss of you hard. First impressions are lasting, you know? And she was the pony that gave me my first impression of you.”
“I understand, and I promise I won’t hurt her. If I ever do, I won’t stop you from doing what you need to do to me.”
Rainbow Dash smiled at her new companion. “That sounds good. Next time, I’m making sure to give myself enough space for a full-powered Sonic Rainboom.”
“Is that what you call what you hit me with? Definitely going to make sure that I don’t hurt her. Because that hurt me!” Violyre started to laugh.
“Well, it was, but I didn’t have enough space to get as fast as I needed to go.” Violyre promptly fainted at those words. Rainbow Dash sighed, and hoisted the unicorn onto her back, and started her trek to Fluttershy’s cottage.