Rainbow Dash had sent a critical message to pegasus teams across Equestria: Find Fluttershy. She was always worried about her friend. Even back in school, she protected the easily-frightened pony. She would always be loyal to her friend and do anything necessary to protect her.
As she circled the skies around Ponyville, she spotted her three friends, and Fluttershy. Rainbow Dash quickly flew down, and grabbed Fluttershy by the shoulders. “WHERE THE HELL HAVE YOU BEEN!?”
Rarity rolled her eyes. “I already asked that exact question. Now look at this.” Fluttershy flinched at the expected hair pull, but it was only lifted up to show the hairpin off. Rainbow Dash’s anger faded, and was replaced with excitement. “I did that too.” Rarity sighed.
“So who is he!? Or she?”
“Oh...you wouldn’t know her. She’s um...no pony.”
“No one? Aww, I bet I would love anypony that got together with my best pal from school!”
“Dash, please...I don’t want to talk about this...I’m tired...” Fluttershy had a slight tremble in her voice.
“Ooo, I’ll tell her!” Pinkie exclaimed.
“No, don’t!” Fluttershy’s words went unheeded as the party pony started to ramble on.
“It was someone she used to know back in Cloudsdale but she wasn’t a pegasus which is really weird, I mean we walked around there with the help of magic but this was a unicorn with no magic ability and-”
“VIOLYRE!?” Rainbow Dash’s mood changed again, much angrier than she was when she first landed.
“Oh please, don’t be mad...”
“Mad!? MAD!? I’m not mad!”
“Oh good...because you sounded-”
“I’m FURIOUS!”
“Dashie, calm down!” Pinkie pulled the rainbow-maned pegasus back.
“I AM calm! Fluttershy, I’m not going to stand by and let you get hurt again!” Rainbow Dash snorted in her furor.
Fluttershy took a couple steps back, and turned away and broke into a full gallop, tears falling off behind her.
Miscommunication in the messages regarding rainwater collection managed to overflow the reservoirs in Cloudsdale. It was rare for something like that to happen, but quick thinking by the chiefs of the weather factory managed to control the issue. The only downside was that it meant rain inside of the city itself, as they couldn’t just push the weather onto other cities due to necessary timing for crops and harvests.
Cloudsdale Elementary decided this would be a great time to practice flying in adverse weather conditions. Everypony in the school was brought outside, including the only pony without wings.
Violyre stood next to her friend in line, holding up an umbrella over the two of them. “You’ll do fine, Fluttershy!”
“Oh, I don’t know...I’m such a bad flyer in normal weather. I wish you could come with me!”
“I wish I could too, but I’ll be waiting for you at the end! Good luck!” the red-maned unicorn hugged her friend as they reached the front of the line, and trotted towards the other side of the course.
Fluttershy took off as the whistle blew, the wind pushing hard against her. She had never flown in conditions like this, even for practice, and she knew she was taking much more time than the previous students. Winding her way through the obstacles, barely clearing the rings on the path, she started to feel a strain on her wings. She didn’t use them much because of her friend, so they weren’t very strong to begin with. The torrent of water coming from the clouds were starting to add unexpected weight as it seeped into her downy appendages. As she neared the final cloud hurdle, the pink-maned filly cringed as her wing tightened up. Her leg bent forward as it ran against the final obstacle. She flipped across it, and started to descend to the floor.
Violyre watched as her friend started to fall. She ran to the edge of the cloud, and looked up to see where Fluttershy was, and she realized that the area she would fall had started to separate, leaving a gap. If she didn’t manage to right herself, she would plummet out of Cloudsdale.
Trying to regain control, Fluttershy spread her wings out. She knew that would help distribute the extra weight, but her feathers were drenched and even spread out, she didn’t have the power to flap, and she wouldn’t be able to glide either. Looking down, she watched as the cloud floor was spreading apart under where she would land. She closed her eyes tightly as the gap grew closer. She was starting to accept her fate.
She was going to die.
Fluttershy knew miracles never happened. Even if she managed to survive, what would she find below? Were there really hundreds of dragons down there, just waiting to gobble up a useless pegasus? Was it really a terrible place where ponies struggled to survive? It was hard to tell how much of what she was told by her classmates was true, but it convinced her to never leave the safety of Cloudsdale. She felt herself being grabbed, and warm breath falling across her face, and decided that if she really was to have her life cut short, that she might as well see the beast doing it. As she opened her eyes, she looked straight into its magenta eyes, with a lock of red hair to the side.
“I promised that I would protect you, and I refuse to break that promise!”
“Violyre?” The sight of her friend holding her comforted her a bit, until she remembered the gravity of her situation, now shared by her flightless friend. “But…you…you’re risking your life! I would never, ever want you to do something like this for me!”
“I don’t care about myself…as long as you’re safe. You still have a lot to live for, and I know you’ll become something great. I’m…I’m just an earth pony with a horn living in Cloudsdale…I’ll never amount to anything.”
“Don’t say that!” It was hard to tell because of the rain, but tears started to roll down the yellow pegasus’s face.
“I’m sorry…This may be the last time we see each other…but I wanted to say that I…I…” Violyre closed her eyes tightly, and pushed Fluttershy away from her.
Fluttershy was confused by this action, until she felt something under her flank. She tumbled backwards a little, her back coming to rest against the cloud she was on. She immediately got up and ran to the side, and looked down, her eyes growing in fright as she saw her friend about to land on a cloud herself, but this wasn’t a normal cloud…
The blue pegasus stallion surveyed his handiwork. With the extra rainwater collected, the foreman of his department had been given an order to use up what they could, wherever they could. He touched the cloud, and pulled his hoof back quickly. Yes, this was probably his best work ever. Frostbite smiled, he knew that a promotion had to be incoming. He just needed to get the hail cloud back to cold storage before it defrosted. As he put his mitts on, a loud crashing sounded, and Frostbite dodged the chunks of ice that came off of his work. “What the? I swear if those jokers in the lightning division are trying to prank me again…” He flew to the top of the cloud to survey the full damage, and took a flap backwards at the purple unicorn filly, a shield mark on her flank, laying motionless on top. “Kid? Are you alright?” After watching the child’s labored breathing, he started to panic. “Someone call a paramedic!”