Rainbow Dash waited in the recovery room. Though her wounds had healed days ago, she was being kept under careful observation in case any residual magical effects remained from whatever had controlled her and her friends. Usually, she would have been frustrated about this, but after all she had done, she felt like she should be locked away forever. Not even her Daring Doo books could distract her from her misery even for a moment. She didn’t feel like she disserved to enjoy anything now.
Deserting her friends under the influence of Discord had been one thing. Harming them was another. She could forgive herself for not being loyal and just leaving her friends behind; but for causing one of her closest friends, the one that she had known the longest, harm as terrible as she had, she felt like she might never let herself fly again if she thought that it would help.
If she had been in Fluttershy’s place, she would never forgive the person who did it. But Fluttershy had forgiven her right away! And that just made it worse. Even more terrible, Rainbow Dash had been so into the trance that she had wanted to hurt her. She wanted to make her scream, to see the terror on her face, to make her pay for not going with her!
No. Rainbow couldn’t forgive herself. No matter what.
~
Fluttershy had nearly reached the hospital wing when screeching alarms went off. She shrieked for a moment before regaining her composure. She had to be tough and strong and brave and everything that Twilight or Applejack or Rainbow Dash would be. She was the only one who could be now.
She wondered whether the palace was under attack or what else it could be. Sometimes it meant that a storm was about to hit, sometimes that somepony was coming to the palace unannounced, and sometimes it meant that somepony in the hospital was in critical condition. From the lack of wind, it was one of the latter. “Oh no. I hope it’s not Rainbow!”
~
10 days ago…
Fluttershy flew as fast as she was able, Spike holding on to her mane as tight as he could while they sped on. She hadn’t known at first where to go, but she flew anyway. She was facing Canterlot. “Canterlot,” Fluttershy muttered. “If anywhere is safe it would be there.”
“Spike!” she yelled, as much as she could, over the wind to be heard.
“What? What is it?” he asked, eyes going wide and his teeth chattering in the cold. He was still very shaken up by seeing the group of friends being so vicious.
“Do you have a scroll and a quill?”
“No. Why?”
“Oh. I was hoping that we could send a letter to Princess Luna. I think we need her help.” The wind gained speed, its gust knocking Fluttershy rolling. “We at least need somepony’s help.”
Dejected, Fluttershy regained her orientation and decided to walk instead of fly. Less difficult for her. She continued onward. At least she still had Spike. They could take care of each other. In the mean time, Fluttershy knew that so long as she got to the palace, they would be fine. It was just a matter of getting there…
The winds were worse heading up the mountain to the royal city. Fluttershy lost her balance countless times, but luckily Spike was very good at holding on, lest he fall off of a ridge and onto the ragged cliffs. They weren’t gaining much ground, but Fluttershy tried to keep both her and Spike’s spirits up. “Almost there… Just over that next ridge…” she lied to herself. She had to make it. She just had to. If she didn’t, who knew what would happen? She had to get Spike to safety. After all, he is just a baby dragon, with his whole life in ahead of him. “One hoof in front of the other…”
She suddenly saw a dark blur fly overhead. The smudge vaguely resembled a pony with a nebulous mane. It took Fluttershy a minute to realize that it was Princess Luna, the very pony she was hoping to see. Fluttershy took a deep breath and prepared the loudest voice she could muster. “PRINCESS LUNA!” she screamed, though her voice cracked. Spike looked up and yelled as well, hoping that they could be heard over the wind.
Thankfully, the Princess of the Night doubled back, turning towards the voice. “WHO GOES THERE?” she said. Being heard over loud noises was probably the only thing the Royal Canterlot Voice was good for.
“OVER HERE! IT’S FLUTTERSHY! PLEASE, I NEED YOUR HELP!” Luna flew down to where she believed to have heard Fluttershy from. After a little searching, she located her.
“Fluttershy, what are you doing out here in this wind? I thought I told you and your friends to stay in Ponyville,” Luna said, both concerned and a little annoyed.
“Oh… um… well…”
“Princess Luna! It’s terrible!” Spike interrupted. He had already calmed down enough to form coherent phrases, thankfully. “We had to leave Ponyville. Everypony started chasing us. If Fluttershy hadn’t been so good at staying quiet, we would have been caught for sure!”
“Your friends chased you? Why?” Luna said, tilting her head in confusion.
“Well… I don’t really know. Applejack, Rainbow Dash, Pinkie Pie, and Rarity all just came back to the library after settling things at home and were acting all weird. They had these dark shadow things over their eyes and—” He was interrupted by a timid voice.
“G-g-g-g-guys? There’s a c-c-c-cloud coming at us. On its own. And it’s on f-f-f-i-i-ire! We need to r-r-r-r-RUN!” Fluttershy said, frightened.
Luna looked up just in time to put up a quick barrier. She huddled next to Fluttershy to offer comfort to the sobbing pegasus. Spike, for his part, was just staring in awe at the flames.
Once the fire dissipated, Luna lifted Fluttershy’s chin with her hoof. “Why don’t we get back to Canterlot and talk about it there.” She smiled comfortingly.
“Yes please. That is, um, if you don’t mind too much.”
The trio had flown to Canterlot under the protection of Luna’s shield. Luna listened to Fluttershy and Spike’s story and immediately called the guard captain, Shining Armor, to let him know of the threat, but to leave out the fact that Twilight was missing. Of course, he was far too perceptive to overlook the fact that Spike was there with only Fluttershy. “Fluttershy, right? Has something happened to Twiley?” he asked, beginning calm but sounding slightly panicked towards the end.
Fluttershy wasn’t sure how to respond to that. She would have gotten Spike to come up with an answer, but he had been sent to bed. He hadn’t slept for more than twenty-four hours, and he was just a baby dragon. She didn’t want to lie, but this was the start of her new found habit of avoiding the truth. “Well… um…” she began uncomfortably. “Oh… she is probably fine. She wasn’t behaving as weird as the rest of our friends…”
“But?”
“Well, oh… I don’t know where she is!” said Fluttershy, rushed and panicked at first. But then she managed to calm down. “But I’m sure she’s fine. She is an incredible pony and can take care of herself just fine. She wouldn’t fall for some kind of trick.” Fluttershy was happy with the way that she had answered that. She felt like she sounded confident in what she had said. It must have worked, since he didn’t press the issue, but he still looked pretty gloomy.
“Princess Luna?” he got her attention.
“What is it, Shining Armor?”
“I will use my shield spell. I am sure that it is needed.” He walked out of the room, seeming very depressed. At least he had Princess Cadance to go home to.
“I’m sorry…” Fluttershy said, wishing she could help him get through the pain of a missing sister.
After seeing him, she made her decision. “Princess Luna, I’m going to find my friends.”
“Fluttershy, it is too dangerous. Stay here, where it is safe.”
“No. I have to help them. For him. For me. For you. For Spike.”
“Please at least wait until I have a free moment to go with you.”
“No. I don’t know how long that will be. You are the sole person in charge of Equestria. You need to be fully aware of what’s going on. I’m leaving, and you can’t stop me.”
“On the contrary. I could stop you; I just have no desire to prevent what you feel is right.”
“Oh, thank you Princess! If I’m not back by tomorrow morning, then you can come and search for me… that is, um, if you want to.” Fluttershy had used up all of her determination and was back to being shy and scared. What have I gotten myself into?
“Dear Fluttershy, of course I would come and look for you. And please, just call me Luna. In this time of need, we both just need a friend.”
~
Now, Fluttershy limped into the facility, looking around for nurses or doctors rushing around like somepony was hurt. When she saw that this wasn’t the case, she slowed down and continued onward, hoping that neither the alarm nor her galloping had disturbed anypony. She was such a noisy pony sometimes, or at least she thought so, and so inconsiderate. Her eyes shifted around the room, looking to see that Rainbow Dash was in the same place and still in one piece.
There she was, lying in the bed, staring grumpily at the ceiling. No matter how angry she got at Rainbow when she wasn’t in the room, she couldn’t help but smile seeing the rainbow haired mare being so frustrated. She could never stay angry with her friends. Luna seemed to think that it was part of her being the Element of Kindness.
She trotted over to Rainbows bed and sat down. “Hello…”
“Hey,” said Rainbow, not looking at Fluttershy’s face.
“Um… how are you?”
“Fine.”
“Um… That’s, um, good.” Fluttershy twisted her hoof on the floor.
Rainbow looked farther away for a minute before turning suddenly to look her in the eye. “Why do you even come and visit me, Fluttershy?”
~
11 days ago
Rainbow Dash had addressed the weather team, telling them the extent of the danger that the storms could have according to Princess Luna, and had decided that the storm wasn’t too bad yet. She needed some stuff from home if she was going to be camped out at the library for any extent of time. She had already read all of the Daring Doo books after all. She wanted to get her Gamecolt for one thing, and she would decide what else to get when she go there.
She was flying absentminded towards her home when she had seen something that she had never expected. “Princess Celestia?” Rainbow landed a short distance away from the pure white mare with ethereal hair. “Are you alright? Princess Luna said that you were missing.”
There was something off about her eyes when she turned to face her; they weren’t the usual soothing and kind magenta eyes, at least at first. “Hello Rainbow Dash. I’m perfectly alright. I meant to send Luna a letter letting her know that I had just decided to come to Ponyville to see my faithful student and her friends. But I’m afraid that if I can’t see her soon, I will have to leave without doing so.” She sounded so normal. She smiled her usual smile, but she seemed to be looking Rainbow Dash over as though she was a coach picking out a star from the masses.
“Oh. Well, Twilight’s at the library of course. So are the rest of us. Well, at least, we were. All of us but Fluttershy had to leave for a little while. Things to take care of and all that.”
“Oh. One more thing. Could you do me a favor?”
“What?” Rainbow Dash said. “Anything for the Princess.” When the Princess’s smile turned sinister, she realized that she shouldn’t have said that.
“Anything, you say?” Suddenly everything got a lot darker, and Rainbow Dash’s thoughts got all muddled together. She seemed to be frozen in place. “Well, then. I need you to go and get your friends. All of them. And bring them to the Everfree Forest. From there you should know where to go.” Celestia then changed into a dark, grey mist. The thing that wasn’t Celestia then flew away into the distance as Rainbow Dash’s legs moved without her commanding them to do so. “Anything,” she said, her lips’ movements and her voice not her own.
She walked to Carousel Boutique first. She knew that Rarity would be there after checking on her family to grab some of her designs. Even s would eventually get bored with the girly sleepover stuff that Twilight had planned. Not that it was why Rainbow was going there anyway. She was just thinking of it as she walked, her thoughts entirely her own, but not her movements. She heard some commotion as she neared the boutique.
“I-de-a!” she heard Rarity sing, along with some bangs, likely signifying things being thrown around. “Oh, but this just won’t do. Everypony’s going to want these raincoats, but I’m not going to be here. This storm is just more trouble than it’s worth. Not that it’s worth anything… Oh well. Twilight would be disappointed in me if I went against Princess Luna’s suggestion, and I promised her that I would come back to the library no matter what happened.” Rainbow Dash walked in the door. “Oh, hello Rainbow dear… Rainbow Dash? What are you doing here? You were supposed to go straight back after you got everypony informed how dangerous it was out there! This is not the time for you to suddenly become interested in my work!”
“I just came to check on you, Rare. I was flying over and you were talking to yourself, and I knew that you had less to do than I did. You’re the one who should be back at the library.” Rainbow felt her mouth mold into a smile.
“Are you alright dear? You look very… tired? Yes, that’s it. Tired.”
“I’m fine.” No, I’m not. “Don’t worry about it. So are you coming back now?”
“Yes, yes, I’ll hurry up and come with you.”
“I saw Princess Celestia on the way here.”
“What? And that’s not the first thing you said? Where is she now?” Rarity sounded excited, but perplexed as to why Rainbow wouldn’t have told her right away.
“Oh, she said she was busy. She headed towards the Everfree Forest.”
“Oh! We have to tell Twilight and the others! Come on now, get a move on!” Rarity said, grabbing her bags and Opal, the annoyed cat.
“Can you do me one favor before we go?” No. Don’t say—
“Wha- well, of course dear. Anything you need.”
Now Rainbow Dash and Rarity walked side by side towards Sugarcube Corner. “I can’t wait to tell Pinkie that we found the Princess! She’ll be thrilled, and want to throw a ‘Welcome Back’ party or something.” Rarity said, her eyes now overshadowed.
“Oh, I’m sure she will be.” Rainbow smiled as they entered the bakery.
“Welcome to – oh, it’s you two. Pinkie’s still upstairs packing her things. You can go up there and wait on her if you want, dearies,” Mrs. Cake said, startled.
The pair went upstairs without another word. “Eye twitch, back itch, eye twitch, ankle ache. That one’s new. Oh, hiya guys! What are you doing here? Oh, I know! You wanted to help me throw the ‘It’s Storming’ party for the gang too! Too bad it won’t be a surprise for you two though.” Pinkie looked ponderingly towards them. “Are you girls alright? Your eyes look all shadowy!”
“Oh, we’re fine, Pinks. But yeah. We just came to pick you up. Didn’t want you to get caught in the storm alone or anything,” Rainbow said nonchalantly, though inside she was screaming. NO Pinkie! Don’t fall for it!
“Okie dokie lokie. Let’s go!”
“Oh, Pinkie Pie. Could you do me a tiny favor, dear?” Rarity said in a velvety voice.
“Oh, sure.” No. No no no nonononono! “ I’d do anything for one of my best friends!”
Their last stop- Sweet Apple Acres. After that they would no doubt head to the library and ‘pick up’ Twilight and Fluttershy to head to the Everfree Forest. Well, hopefully Applejack wouldn’t fall for this whole ‘Everything’s fine. I saw Princess Celestia’ garbage and could go and warn Twilight.
She was bucking a tree as they walked up. “Hey girls. Ah’ve just got his one tree left, then Ah was all set to go back. What’re y’all doin’ here?” she said, looking at them funny. “An’ what’s got y’all so gloomy lookin’? I ain’t seen those faces on you since Discord was aroun’.”
“Oh, nothing’s wrong. Are we not allowed to come and be sure our friend gets back safe?” said Rarity, with a smile.
“Oh. Well, I s’pose y’are. Well, just let me buck this last tree, then.”
“Hey, AJ! Can you do me a favor and get me some apples for me? I’m going to make an apple cake and I know you’re apples are the best!” Pinkie Pie said ecstatically.
“Oh. Well sure! I’m always ready to do something for a friend.” Yes! She didn’t say it! Come on AJ, just stay cool. “So, uh, you guys ready to go?”
“Do you need anything before we head back?” Rainbow’s voice asked AJ.
“Eh… nope! Not a thing.”
Yes! “Nothing at all?”
“Yep. Nothin’.”
Pinkie Pie snuck up behind Applejack. “Hey, do you suggest anything else for a cake?”
“Uhhhh… Nope. Pinkie, what r’ ya doin’?” What is she doing?
“Guess we aren’t going to get through to her girls.”
“Are y’all sure there ain’t anything wrong? Y’all are bein’ just plain creepy.” No. No. Just no.
Next stop: The library.
~
“You should hate me. You’re one of my best friends and… and I almost killed you!” She turned away. “How can you forgive me?” Rainbow started softly crying. “How can you forgive me?”
~
10 days ago
Fluttershy had left Spike in Canterlot as she headed out in search of her friends. “At least it isn’t storming as bad as it was earlier.” She was all that was left. Even Twilight had left her. But Luna was there for her in her time of need. She could never repay her for it, truly. All she could do was try to find Princess Celestia for her. Luna had to help the people get through this tragedy; otherwise she would help Fluttershy search. Fluttershy took comfort in that.
Fluttershy trotted gloomily down the mountain that earlier she had fought so hard to reach the summit of. She guessed that it wasn’t quite pointless, since she got Spike to safety. And Luna had cast a spell on her that might stop whatever was wrong with Applejack and the others from getting hold of her. Well, she just had to face her fears and go forward. One hoof in front of the other, Fluttershy trekked on.
She had to get her friends back. She just had to. Only she could.
She heard a noise overhead and looked up just in time to see a rainbow blur fly towards her. She was slammed into by a mass of cyan pegasus, thrown back into a rock. Dazed, she didn’t have time to react as she was hit by the full weight of the rainbow-maned pony slamming into her chest.
“Fluttershy, you have to come with me! Now!” Rainbow said, sounding like she was pleading. Fluttershy saw through the ruse.
“No. I’ll never go with you. Not ever! I have to save you and the others, and I can’t do that if I go crazy too!”
“Come on!” Rainbow said, slamming her hooves into her head this time. “I will knock you out if you don’t!” A powerful kick blew into her stomach this time.
“No…” Fluttershy said as hooves slammed onto her wings, ridding her of an escape plan.
“YES! YOU ARE COMING WITH ME!”
“No…” she said as she felt the bones in one of her legs splinter like a block of wood.
“YES YOU ARE!”
“No. No. NO I’M NOT COMING WITH YOU! THIS IS NOT THE RAINBOW DASH THAT I KNOW AND LOVE! THIS IS NOT THE RAINBOW WHO PROMISED ME THAT NOTHING WOULD EVER HURT ME!” she screamed at the top of her lungs as her ribs shattered. She lunged forward with a blow of her own into Rainbow’s chest, as hard as she could. She saw a strand of blood where her hoof cut. She hit again, through her pain, splitting Rainbow’s lip and knocking her jaw out of place. Fluttershy coughed up some blood before continuing. “I AM NOT LEAVING WITHOUT HER!” her voice weakened. She saw the shadow over Rainbow’s eyes lessen and finally fade, her expression changing to horror as she saw Fluttershy. The light faded out of her own eyes as she fainted away. “You… promised…”
And, Fluttershy dreamed. She dreamed of pleasant memories of times before; of Twilight’s birthday, of the Grand Galloping Gala, of after she helped make the tornado to transport water to Cloudsdale. The royal wedding, once everypony found out Twilight was right all along. Finally, she dreamt of when Rainbow and she were fillies, just after the pegasus race that resulted in their cutie marks. They had just introduced themselves to each other. “I’m so sorry, Fluttershy. I flew too close to you,” said Rainbow, looking meek and shy, a rare sight on the brave pony’s face.
“Oh, that’s okay.”
“No. It really isn’t.”
“Oh, it’s fine,” Fluttershy said, getting shier and hiding behind her hair.
“Well, in that case, alright. But listen, I did knock you off the cloud. You ended up alright, but you might not have.” She seemed to wait for a response that didn’t come. “Hello? Well, anyway… I’m gunna protect you from those bullies from now on. Nothing is going to hurt you, you got that?”
Fluttershy was startled. She had never had anypony be this nice to her. “You’d really do that… for somepony you just met?”
“Yep! And Rainbow Dash always keeps her promises!”
“… Thank you.”
“No problem. Friends?”
“Friends.”
~
Fluttershy couldn’t help but back up a few steps at her outburst. She had never seen Rainbow Dash cry. It was just so strange. She was always so calm, or else excited in a positive way. “Well… Um…” She didn’t like being put on the spot like that. How could she tell her that she was still afraid? She couldn’t. She just couldn’t make her even more upset. Maybe when all of their friends were back together, when they all had each other for support. Right now, she was Rainbow’s only support. “Um… we’ve just been friends for so long. You’ve always been there for me. Besides, I know that you wouldn’t do that. You weren’t in your right mind.”
“That’s the worst part. I wanted to hurt you, in any way possible. I’m just a terrible pony.”
“That’s okay. You weren’t yourself. You aren’t a bad pony.”
“You’re just saying that. It’s always, ‘That’s okay’ or ‘I forgive you.’ I don’t know how you could forgive me. I can’t forgive me. I would understand if you didn’t want to see me ever again. I would forgive you. You shouldn’t have to always be the one who forgives.”
Fluttershy was very careful not to let her face show that she had seriously considered doing just that within the past couple of weeks. “You’re one of my best friends, and you’re hurting. Of course I’m going to be here.” She hoped that the words didn’t sound as empty as they truly were. She hoped that she really felt somewhere inside that that was really the case.
Rainbow smiled slightly out of sight. “Thanks Fluttershy. I can’t thank you enough. It shouldn’t have come to me hurting you for me to go back to normal. I’m just glad that I did. But I can’t forgive myself. I never can.”
Fluttershy wasn’t sure what to say to that. “Well… you’re welcome.” She paused. “But please work on forgiving yourself. I don’t want you to be hurting like this forever. And you also saved me, remember?”
~
10 days ago
No. Fluttershy was bleeding really bad. Her breaths were getting shallower and less frequent. No. This can’t be happening. It’s just a really bad dream, Rainbow told herself. But her own wounds were bleeding. They didn’t hurt. But they bled. I have to get to Canterlot. It’s closer. Come on wings don’t fail me now!
She had finally made it. All the way up the mountain carrying a pony on her back. It was just a good thing that Fluttershy was such a light pegasus. Though it did have a downfall. It made her fragile.
The yellow pegasus’s breath sounded pained. She was still unconscious, though, at least it seemed. People were stopping to stare at the pegasi as Rainbow trekked forward. “Excuse me?” she said to a guard. “My friend’s really hurt. Is there anywhere I can take her to get help?”
The guard looked at them and jumped in a little victory buck. “Miss Rainbow Dash! Fluttershy found you!” said the unicorn. “But, what happened?” He looked very concerned. “Oh, right! This way to get help.” He led the way.
A royal guard, showing emotion? “So, you seem pretty excited. The Princess give you special orders or something?”
“Well, uh… yeah. Also, I’m off duty. And… Fluttershy’s my little sister.” The guard suddenly seemed as meek as Fluttershy usually was.
Uh oh. “Fluttershy has a brother?”
“Here, let me take her,” he said, being as chivalrous as a guard should be. “Well, not by blood. But we were together for awhile when we were kids, once she left Cloudsdale, so it feels like it.”
“Oh. Cool. Heheh.” Rainbow tried not to seem so nervous, but was failing. “Well, uh, she’s a good mare! And, uh, well we’re at the palace now… anyway!”
“Yes. The hospital is this way.” Once they were out of anypony’s line of sight, he broke into a gallop.
“Hey, wait up! My leg’s a little hurt.” She did her best to catch up.
“You can catch up later. She’s barely breathing!” He galloped faster. So did Rainbow. “Doctor! We have somepony in critical condition!” he yelled once they reached the Grand Hall.
The doctor and some nurses looked up, seeming bored and tired until they saw the pink-haired pegasus on his back. There was a commotion, followed by Fluttershy being taken onto a gurney and being rushed off. A nurse came up to Rainbow Dash. “Come on, dear. You’re hurt too.”
“What? But! Fluttershy!” She fought the nurse as she was drug away from Fluttershy’s brother, who was blocked from following the yellow pony.
~
“That doesn’t count. I’m the one who hurt you. You’re probably hurting more than me, and yet here you stand, just smiling and listening. I should be protecting you. But I can definitely understand that you don’t want to be around me right now.”
“That’s not…” Fluttershy paused. She was tired of lying about every single detail. “Okay, I’m a little afraid of you still… but you are my friend. Just, please understand… I’m not ready to talk about it.”
Rainbow looked sad. “Thank you for being honest about it. I’d rather know.”
“You’re welcome… and… I’m sorry…” Fluttershy whispered, unsure of what else she could say.
~