Twilight and Fluttershy began searching for the missing pegasus wordlessly. The awkward aura between the two seemed thick enough to cut with a knife, and neither was willing to do anything about it. Twilight had delved deeper into her friends’ minds than she ever cared to, and Fluttershy couldn’t even begin to consider what Twilight thought of her romantic life. She felt her chest tighten and her eyes begin to water.
Oh, why did I have to hold on to such a stupid little crush? Rainbow Dash is my best friend, not my girlfriend… What are the chances that someone that strong would be interested in a weak little filly like me? What do I have? Nothing… that’s what they’ve always told me… there’s a reason I live with animals… I’m one of them, aren’t I?
Twilight glanced over at her companion, noticing the tears under her teal eyes. She looked away quickly, hoping Fluttershy hadn’t noticed. She closed her eyes for a moment, sending out a magical beacon to try to locate Rainbow Dash. Before the signal could bounce back to her, however, she heard an unfamiliar voice in the back of her head. Useless… even if… find her— The voice was faint, but Twilight recognized it as Fluttershy’s. She realized with a start that she was reading her friend’s thoughts. She began to try to push the presence out of her mind, but her curiosity got the best of her.
--my little animal friends will keep me company, though… even after Dashie tells me that it was never meant to be… and you know, maybe she’ll be right… she’s at home in the clouds… I’d just hold her back, wouldn’t I? She’d never be happy if she had to live on the ground… and I don’t even know if I could try to live up there… it’s so… scary up there. But… they always say that love conquers all boundaries… what if we did end up together? We could be happy, couldn’t we? She could protect me from all of the things I’m afraid of… and I would look after her, make sure she had someone to talk to, someone to keep her from being so alone… like she is right now… Together… together, we could do great things, couldn’t we? Great things…
As the image of Rainbow Dash and Fluttershy kissing entered Twilight’s head, she felt her face flush red and her ears burn. Fluttershy noticed the sudden change and hid her eyes behind her bangs.
Did Twilight see that? Can she… hear me? No, Fluttershy, that’s not possible. Right?
Twilight panicked, trying desperately to hide the fact that she could indeed hear her. Thinking quickly, Twilight tried her best to imitate her friend’s inner voice. No, of course not. And even if she could do something like that, she never would, right? Even as she thought it, she felt a heavy pang of guilt. I… am a terrible pony, she thought to herself. That was a bad idea on every level.
Twilight risked a glance at Fluttershy, seeing relief settle over her face for a second. Twilight sent out another ping, this time more careful to not pick up anypony’s stray thoughts. To her surprise, she felt a faint reply, coming from the general direction of Rainbow Dash’s house. Why would she still be there? Twilight thought. Well, maybe she’s not trying to hide. She looked over at Fluttershy. “I think I may have found her.”
“Really? That’s great news!”
Twilight shook her head. “Not really… she’s in her house, and there’s no way for me to get up there. You’re going to have to go in.”
Fluttershy pawed at the ground a little bit. “But can’t you just fly up there in your balloon, like you did when we went to Cloudsdale?”
“Nope… Pinkie’s borrowing it for Blossomforth’s birthday.”
“How about the spell that gives you wings? That would get you at least up to her window…”
“Fluttershy, that’s a really difficult spell, and I’m still exhausted from searching for the past week.”
“But, um… couldn’t you just—“
“Fluttershy, you’re going to have to go in.”
Fluttershy started to object, but accepted there weren’t any other options. She hung her head and took a deep breath. “I guess you’re right,” she said with a sigh. She looked up at the house of clouds, deathly afraid of the pony she’d have to face inside. For so long, she’d wanted to profess her love for Rainbow Dash, but she continually failed to really consider how she would react if the object of her affection rejected her. It’s true, she’d always felt it was doomed from the start, but part of her held on to the hope that Dash would embrace the idea of them being together. Now, after she’d been shot down, she had to face reality. She had to face Rainbow Dash. Without a word to Twilight, she began to fly to the front door of her friend’s house.
“Good luck, Fluttershy,” Twilight said as Fluttershy disappeared into the clouds. Now to actually find Rainbow…
***
Twilight realized after she read Fluttershy’s mind that the poor girl wouldn’t be any real help in the search for the missing pegasus. Yes, she was capable of searching the sky, but she’d never be able to catch up to Equestria’s fastest flyer. Even if she did, Twilight doubted she’d know what to say when she found her. Twilight was sure Fluttershy would just shut down in the face of her heart’s desire. For the time being, she was alone, but she was certain she would succeed.
It was true, she had felt a weak signal from the direction of Rainbow Dash’s house, but she knew the pony wasn’t there. She suspected Dash was in Cloudsdale; the city was in the same general direction, but the distance between Ponyville and the cloud-city better explained how weak the signal was. Twilight walked past Dash’s house and sent out another more powerful ping to test her theory. As Dash’s signal was returned, Twilight was hit with a flash of regret. The signal had actually come from Rainbow Dash’s house. She’d accidentally told the truth.
She started to call out after Fluttershy, but thought that this just might be what was meant to happen all along. After all, this was their conflict, and everything she’d tried to do hadn’t helped at all… in fact, she feared she may have made the situation worse. At this point, all she could do was hope that Rainbow Dash would let Fluttershy down easy. She couldn’t see this whole situation ending any differently. She tried to think of what she could do to help the poor filly afterwards, and headed off to Fluttershy’s house. If she couldn’t do anything to help them now, she could at least be there for Fluttershy to pick up the pieces after the whole ordeal was done.
Rainbow Dash… don’t hurt her too much…
***
Twilight was lying in Fluttershy’s living room, petting one of Fluttershy’s ferret friends. She had her eyes closed, but was too nervous to sleep. She’d been waiting for what felt like ages, but when she looked at the clock, only two hours had passed. She closed her eyes again and laid her head down, wondering why she was so worried. Fluttershy would be home soon, and when she arrived, Twilight would have her work cut out for her. She began to nod off a bit when she heard a voice approaching the cottage—no, two voices. She listened closely, trying to catch the conversation.
“I’m so so so so so so so so sorry, Rainbow Dash…” The voice was Fluttershy’s, but she seemed to be faring better than Twilight expected. “Oh, I hope it’s not broken…”
“It’s not, Fluttershy. I know a broken wing,” Dash said in reply. “This is just a sprain. Anyway, don’t be sorry, I told you to do it, didn’t I?”
“I guess… but still… I never thought I’d ever hurt anypony…”
The two were almost at the door now, and Twilight could tell one of them was walking with a slight limp. “Fluttershy, it’s fine. Yeah, I didn’t think you’d actually do it, but I’m glad you did.” They stopped for a moment outside the door. “Hey, before we go in… do you wanna—“
“Oh, um… sure… it might be awkward for my friends in there…” As soon as she said it, she was silenced. Twilight couldn’t be sure, but she suspected she knew what’d just happened. Fluttershy, you don’t know the half of it… She blushed again and tried her best to pretend she was asleep as the door to Fluttershy’s cottage opened.
“Twilight? What’re you doing here?”
“Quiet, Rainbow Dash… I think she’s asleep.”
Twilight pretended to stir a little bit before lifting her head up and opening her eyes in the groggiest fashion she could muster. “Oh… hey, you two. What’s up?”
“Pffft—Twilight, your face is bright red. What were you dreaming about?”
“Oh, nothing… just…” Twilight noticed that Rainbow Dash’s wing was outstretched over Fluttershy’s back. “What happened to you?”
“Um… yeah. About that…” Rainbow’s face flushed red for a second before Fluttershy took over and answered.
“That was my fault, Twilight… I think I sprained her wing…”
Twilight cocked her head to the side, still not sure what to make of the situation. “So… what happened up there?”
Neither said a word at first, but Fluttershy started to speak after a moment’s pause. “Well, when I went into her house…”
Rainbow Dash stopped her. “Don’t you think my part of the story should come first? I’m pretty sure Twilight’s wondering why I was gone for a week…”
“Oh, yeah… of course. Why don’t you go first, then?”
“Right…” Rainbow Dash shifted nervously, cringing as she twisted her wing uncomfortably. “Well, after I left your house that night…”
***
I went home to try to get some sleep. No matter what I did, I couldn’t seem to get comfortable. I thought it was just my bed or something at first, but after a while, I knew what I was feeling. I felt like the day wasn’t over, like I still had something to finish. I ran through a list of things I normally did, but I couldn’t really think of anything. I forced myself to go to sleep, but when I woke up in the morning, I felt even worse. I walked outside my door and looked up to the sky. It was surprisingly bright and clear, especially considering how horrible it was the night before. Then, I saw it off in the distance, like it was calling out to me… a bright white spot in the sky. I saw Cloudsdale, and I knew that’s where I had to go. I didn’t have a clue why I wanted to go back to that place, but hey… you want what you want, right?
I started to fly to the city, and I started to think of how things were. Before I talked to you about it, I’d kinda pushed Cloudsdale out of my mind… or at least to the back of it. Now that I was older… now that I knew what the rest of the world was like, now that I knew what Cloudsdale did to ponies, I knew I’d have to go there and see if it was the place I remembered. If spending my childhood there made me what I am today, something needed to change. And then I looked past me. What had Cloudsdale done to Fluttershy?
Fluttershy... what had Cloudsdale done to Fluttershy? I thought of who she was when I met her… the quiet, hopeful little filly who tried so hard to make it. I missed her. When I thought about who she was before, I realized that Cloudsdale had almost erased that side of her, that the ponies there had almost completely changed my oldest friend. I hated thinking about it like that, so I tried to push those thoughts out of my head, but the harder I tried, the more it hurt to think about. By the time I actually reached Cloudsdale, I was pretty mad. I stormed into the training grounds, ready to make some instructors pay. When I got there, though, I didn’t recognize any of them. I looked at the foals, trying to see the oppression hiding under their faces. As hard as I looked, all I saw were normal fillies and colts, working for no other reason than wanting to succeed.
I really didn’t know what to think about it. Did they see me coming? Were they putting up a front? I walked up to one of the instructors and sized him up. He looked honest enough.
“Hey. I used to come here as a filly… things seem to be different now. What’s up with that?”
“Oh, yes. Things are… quite a bit different nowadays,” he looked around over his shoulder and leaned in and started to whisper to me. “There was an incident about seven years ago. A little filly was so frustrated with living here that she snapped and broke a colt’s wing!”
“That’s… terrible…” I said slowly.
“And that’s not all. Turns out that little colt’s family had some connections with the Princess. They told her what was going on. Celestia was furious. She came to Cloudsdale herself and gave the instructors a piece of her mind. Six months later, almost everypony involved was fired and the whole school was restructured. It’s too bad, though… in all the confusion, the filly that started the whole thing was pretty much lost, along with another student she was friends with.”
I didn’t know what to say. I was the incident that changed the place, and I didn’t even know it. Part of me was glad, yeah, but another part of me couldn’t stop thinking about what could have been.
“You know what, though? Those fillies must have really had some connection to run off together like that.”
“Yeah… they must have…”
***
“I spent a few days after that in Cloudsdale. Yeah, it was a pretty little story, but I wanted to make sure it was true, you know? Turns out, things had actually changed…”
Rainbow Dash seemed to drift off for a bit at this. Twilight looked at her expectantly, but Fluttershy was the one who picked up the conversation.
“After that, she came home and found out she missed a lot of work. She’s been working overtime for a while… that’s why you haven’t seen her, Twilight.”
Rainbow looked at Twilight regretfully. “I really did mean to come check in with you, but things have just been so hectic lately…”
Twilight shook her head. “Don’t apologize, Dash. I know how things can be.” She drew her attention back to Rainbow’s injured wing. “So… what happened there?”
Fluttershy blushed. “That was my fault…”
Rainbow Dash shook her head. “You can’t take all the credit for that, Fluttershy. I asked for it, didn’t I?”
“That doesn’t keep me from feeling just terrible about it…” She looked at Twilight and saw the confused look on her face. “Do you mind if I tell her what happened, Dashie?”
Twilight braced herself for the coming fury. No one called Rainbow Dash ‘Dashie’ to her face and got away with it. Strangely, it didn’t come. “Go ahead, Fluttershy. I’m tired of talking anyway.”
“Well, Twilight… after you told me Dashie was in her house, I didn’t really know what to do… so I just flew up and walked in…”
***
I looked around for a little bit, trying to figure out how the house worked. It was just so big, so unfamiliar. I wanted to call out to Dash to find her, but I thought she was trying to hide from us, so I just walked around for a bit. Being a cloud house is… a little bit scary. I know I’m a pegasus, but I’m just so afraid that I’ll fall through the floor. Anyway, I found the stairs and climbed up to Rainbow’s bedroom. I was a bit surprised to see her sprawled out there.
“Rainbow Dash, you’re really bad at hiding…”
Dash jolted up and looked at me. “Fluttershy… what’re you doing here? Aren’t you… scared?”
I was still a little sore about the whole situation, so I ignored her. “Come on… Twilight’s looking for you…”
“Fluttershy… I’ve been thinking…”
I still wasn’t ready to hear anything she had to say. “Well, we know some things can change…”
Dash looked at me. I was expecting anger... but all I saw was regret. “Fluttershy, please… I went to Cloudsdale… I had some time to myself, ya know? I was thinking about what you said. I’m sorry I was so quick to brush you off back there.”
I didn’t want to show it, but she had my attention. “And…?”
“Maybe… maybe we should give it a chance. I mean, I don’t know the first thing about relationships, but maybe it’s not such a bad idea…” She stood up and walked closer to me.
“That… that doesn’t change the fact that you were so…” I tried to think of the best way to say it. “…so mean to me.” I’m not very good at being angry.
“I know, Fluttershy… I was a jerk. If you think it’ll make you feel better, I’ll let you take a free shot at me…” I didn’t say anything to her, so she took a step closer. “Come on, Fluttershy,” she turned to the side and flittered her wing a little bit. “Right here.”
“Rainbow…” I closed my eyes and gritted my teeth.
I heard her take another step forward. She must have been pretty close to me. “C’mon, Fluttershy… you know you want to…”
Right then, in my head, I realized she was right. I didn’t even think about it; I just turned and kicked with all the strength I could muster. I heard her fall against the plush floor and felt a flash of relief cross my mind. I realized what I’d just done and turned around to see her curled up on the floor. I ran over to her, trying to help her up.
She didn’t seem to be able to move at first, but after a second she looked up at me, smiling through the tears in her eyes. “…holy buck, Fluttershy… nice shot.”
I couldn’t help but smile back as I helped her up. “Oh, Rainbow… I’m so sorry…”
“It’s fine, Fluttershy. It just hurts… a lot. Do you feel any better?”
I didn’t want to tell the truth, but I knew she’d want to hear it. “Bunches...”
“Have you thought about what I said?”
“I don’t think anything would make me happier.” I looked at her wing. “But what are we going to do about that? Do you think you can fly?”
Dash tried to flex it a little bit and cringed. “Definitely not. Do you think I might, uh… be able to stay at your place until this heals up?”
“Sure thing, Dashie…” Right after I said it, I hid my head. “S-sorry, Rainbow Dash… I d-didn’t mean to say that…”
She looked a little annoyed for a second but couldn’t hide a little smile. “I might let you get away with saying it.”
I blushed a little and looked at the floor. “So, um… we should probably gather your things and get going…”
Dash cocked her head to the side. “You think I have ‘things’? C’mon, Fluttershy, get with the picture. Let’s get going.”
She started to walk out the door, but I just stood there for a second. Did that really just happen, or am I daydreaming again?
“Fluttershy, if you want this relationship to go anywhere, you’re gonna have to help me find a way to get to your place,” Dash called out teasingly.
I guess it actually happened.
***
“On the way back, she told me all about what happened at Cloudsdale. I was so happy I could hardly stop talking about it…”
Dash looked at Twilight with a hint of irritation. “She really couldn’t. You don’t even want to know what I had to do to get her to shut up…”
Twilight and Fluttershy simultaneously flushed red. Rainbow Dash looked at them both. “It wasn’t that bad. Jeez.”
Twilight picked herself up and stretched. “Well, now that this whole business is settled, I think I’m going to go home and study up a bit. Do you two mind if I write a letter to Princess Celestia about all this?”
Rainbow Dash shrugged and looked at Fluttershy expectantly. Fluttershy kicked a hoof and looked at the floor. “As long as it’s okay with you,” Fluttershy said quietly.
“Go ahead, Twilight. I guess everypony’s gonna find out eventually anyway.”
Twilight started to walk out the door. As she left, she turned around to see the two talking as Fluttershy bound Dash’s injured wing.
If this is really the end, why do I feel so anxious? Twilight walked back to her library slowly, trying to figure out how she would possibly explain the whole situation to the Princess.