That Sunlit Glow

by Tiger|Pony

Chapter 7: The Sky Garden

It was the time when spring was blossoming into summer, the end of the rain-shower season, and Rainbow Dash had been looking forward to a relaxing week off for ages now. Having wrung the clouds dry for the last month, the weather pegasi traditionally took the last week of spring off, leaving what was left to do its worst. They would only return to their duties in case of emergencies, and even then, only to redirect them wherever was safest.

Despite her marefriend's desperation to spend some time with her, however, Fluttershy had been unusually reluctant for the past week. Whenever she'd been caught, she'd refused Rainbow Dash's offers of anything except the briefest of snuggles with unsubtle excuses. Most of the time she wasn't at her cottage, and Rainbow Dash was starting to get annoyed with how difficult she was to find. Even Angel was nowhere to be found, and most of her other pets and patients weren't as communicative.

She'd taken her other would-be pets out to stretch their wings, she'd given the flying squirrel some impromptu coaching, and she'd even sat by the pond and fed the ducks, but no matter how long she waited around, Fluttershy had only ever seemed to return when she left.

She'd searched from the skies, high and low, for some sign of what her love might be up to. And when that failed, she had gone from friend to friend, trying to find out what was wrong. Pinkie Pie seemed oblivious. Twilight was horn-deep in her studies. Rarity was looking after Sweetie Belle, and the two seemed almost to be getting along. And Applejack...

...strangely, Applejack was nowhere to be found either.

But Granny Smith said she'd gone to visit family, out somewhere near Trottingham, and she had no reason to disbelieve her. There were Apples all over the place, after all, and by blood and marriage the network of Apple cousins could probably claim about a quarter of the earth ponies in Equestria (indeed, by the time Granny Smith stopped talking and fell back to sleep, Dash figured she'd just heard the fifty-year-old gossip on about half of them).

So she sat atop the windswept crag and took what the weather had to throw at her, and she watched that sweet little cottage on the edge of the Everfree Forest, and daydreamed of the sweet little pegasus who lived there, and the happy days they had spent together.

-----

On Friday, returning from her midday nap to her cloud-house, she was followed. Subtly, quietly, by a pegasus who was used to not being noticed (and who had spent the week avoiding her), she was followed right up to her own front door. A few seconds after it closed, while she spent a simple moment standing still, a tentative knock right behind her sent her jumping out of her skin.

And yet all her annoyance - the week, the prank, everything - evaporated at the adorable sight of her marefriend wearing her best confident face, a bouquet of delicious-smelling tulips in her mouth and a bow tie around her neck. She blushed as the angry words she'd prepared shrank and died in her mouth. And as the obviousness of it struck her for the first time, she stood in her cloudy doorway, speechlessly regarding the mare she loved.

"Y... you didn't have to," she said, digging a small divot out of her doorstep with a front hoof.

Fluttershy said nothing, but smiled.

"You've got something planned..." she said, with a mix of amusement and suspicion.

Fluttershy nodded, and gestured something that she didn't understand. Dash frowned. "You okay there, 'shy?"

"Fowwuf," Fluttershy said quietly, out of the corner of her mouth. Dash giggled.

"Oh, right." She took them gently by the stalks, relishing the comforting brush of their cheeks. She turned to go inside, but felt a hoof tap her flank. Fluttershy shook her head, still wearing a small and cheeky smile.

"We're taking them with us."

They flew over Ponyville, to the edge of the Everfree Forest, and settled down upon a cloud near Fluttershy's own cottage. A small chequered blanket lay over it, its red-and-white pattern clashing horribly with everything, but soft under the bellies of the two affectionate pegasi. There were marigold sandwiches, carrot cake, strawberries and cream, Siisi honey-biscuits, and some of the finest apples from the Apple family's orchard - and Fluttershy had hidden a few bottles of delicious, sugary juice beneath a fold in the cloud, to keep them cool.

Rainbow Dash almost dropped the tulips when she saw it all.

"I've had the biscuits for a while now, since the camels visited Ponyville. But they're okay. They were last night," Fluttershy smiled impishly. "I might have tried a few."

"How did..." Dash began, before Fluttershy silenced her. Touching her nose with her own always had that effect, and it was an easier gesture for the timid pegasus than just kissing her all of a sudden. "Is this what you've been doing all week?"

Fluttershy shook her head, giving her marefriend a cryptic smile. If she wanted to know, then for now, she'd just have to wait.

-----

Basking in the afternoon sun, with full stomachs and warm-hearted smiles, the two lovers watched the thin clouds overhead and said nothing. They had disagreed recently, and they had argued. Threads had unwound from the ties that bound their hearts together. Each had wondered if they truly understood the other, and each, in their turn, had come to worry about even the most casual of misunderstandings. Their unspoken worry, common to every pony whose heart has ever danced to another's beat: how can two ponies love one another, when each fears they might never even understand the other?

In spite of all this, lying on that cloud, where anypony might see them, Rainbow Dash was happy.

In spite of all this, knowing what was coming, Fluttershy's heart beat a joyous tattoo against her ribs with the excitement of her big reveal.

The high wind gently drifted their picnic-cloud away from the Everfree Forest. On the edge of sleep, Rainbow Dash felt a kiss on her cheek, then the moisture of the cloud on her side as Fluttershy slipped out from beneath the blanket. She slipped off the cloud and hovered there, rummaging around in it. She produced a rope from somewhere within and looped it round herself, and to her marefriend's amusement and amazement, started to pull.

By the time they reached... wherever it was that Fluttershy wanted them to be, she was panting from the exertion of pulling a cloud and a lazing pegasus against the wind. Dash smirked and stroked her as she settled back down beneath the blanket.

"What was that about?" she asked, with amusement in her voice.

"You'll... see..." Fluttershy had flown them over their target - over it and past it, straight into the wind. It was the culmination of months of planning and growing, and a week's hard graft for herself and one of her best friends. It was the biggest idea she'd ever had, and the grandest gesture she could give to her lover. It was worth a little sweat now.

The wind picked up, and their cloud drifted a little quicker. Fluttershy spread a warm wing over her love's back, and gestured downwards, toward a clearing in the trees.

And watched her face light up with astonishment as the Sky Garden drifted slowly into view.

-----

The flight over Ponyville was over as soon as it had begun. An angry unicorn provides a good reason to sprint even with a favourable wind, but an angry Rarity was something to be given serious thought from a safe distance. They'd think about how to pacify her later, when they'd asked Lotus and Aloe what discounts they had available. For now, though, Rainbow Dash could barely contain her mischievous laughter as she fled the scene of the crime, best hoof forward.

Holding tight to her tail, flapping as hard as she could, Fluttershy cringed as she travelled faster than she'd ever been since her fall to earth all those years ago. Ponyville was so small from the air, and the grey sky above so very, very large.

They drifted to a stop on a cloud some way away over the fields, and they took a moment to breathe.

"Eww, you got spit in my tail," Rainbow Dash complained in mock irritation, wiping her tail on the fluffy white cloud-stuff.

Her tail. She looked at it as if she was seeing it for the first time, there in that cloud. The colour had come back to it. She felt rainbow again; she felt real again. While Fluttershy preened her wings, she dropped off the edge of the cloud and looped upside-down and back onto it, just for the fun of it. Simple, but joyful.

"I think we might not be such a secret anymore," Fluttershy said quietly.

"Guess we'll just have to be private instead."

"D... do you think you can do that?"

"Kinda," Dash replied, thoughtful. "I don't wanna have to keep quiet about us being a thing. It's not honest. It's not right to our friends."

"I understand," Fluttershy nodded. "I still want to have some of you that's... mine." She dug a hoof into the cloud, and fixed her gaze on it. Dash made a questioning noise. "I never thought I'd have anypony... special. A coltfriend or a marefriend, I mean. I was so shy at school, and I wasn't very good at flying, and who wants a silly little filly who can't even fly very well?

"'sokay, Flutters," Rainbow Dash smiled reassuringly, "I got enough fly for both of us."

"I don't think anypony really minded that I left flight school when I did. And then I was down here, on the ground, and I still knew you, and then I got to know all the others, but... they all seemed to think about different things. Twilight has her studies to keep her busy; Applejack has the farm; Rarity has her career, and..." she smiled an almost wistful smile, "I realised a while ago that Pinkie Pie would never be able to love anypony over everypony else. She just doesn't work like that.

"I don't think I like colts or mares like some ponies seem to. Rarity's always had crushes, and she talks about them all the time, but..." Fluttershy shrugged, "I just never felt like that. I guess... I just thought I'd be alone with my little family. And I was happy with that, sort of. I cared for them when they needed it, and they filled my life with beauty and wonder.

"And then Twilight Sparkle came to town, and there were the six of us, best friends. Suddenly, some of these ponies really liked me, even though I couldn't fly very well, and even though I was shy and very very quiet. Everything that made me a... a not-very-good pegasus made me a really great earth pony." Rainbow Dash balked at that comment, but Fluttershy held up a hoof. "Please, Dashie...

"All the time there was you. You were so fast, and agile, and you tried so hard that you just seemed so... real. And you were so confident. Nothing ever hurt that confidence. You knew you were going to be the best, and when you didn't make it, you just picked yourself up and tried again. I watched you practising all the time. You wanted so badly. I had never wanted anything the way that you seemed to want everything.

"And then I realised I wanted you to want me. That was the first time I'd ever wanted to let anypony into my life. You have to know that, Dashie," Fluttershy insisted. "You have to understand, you were the first. I just wanted something for the first time ever, so I guess... I wanted all of you. I wanted you just to myself.

"And when you made a big deal of defending... fillyfoolers... in Canterlot, and all those other times, it felt like if I was okay with you talking about us, then it wouldn't just be about you and me anymore. It would be about big, scary things like politics and what's right and wrong."

Rainbow Dash laid a hoof on her shoulder. "Why in Celestia's name did you wait till now to tell me all this?"

Fluttershy ducked back behind her mane, suddenly embarrassed. "I was afraid you wouldn't like it," she mumbled.

She had been, too. She had spent so long inspecting and assessing herself, especially after the Iron Will debacle, that she had lost sight of the things that had made her lovable in the first place. She had sketched her story from beginning to end, but the words didn't seem to bear the weight of feeling that had once squeezed lonely tears from adoring eyes, watching her then-friend soar high above: and knowing this, she had assumed she no longer felt that love. Clinging to what remained felt more important than renewing it, as if the whole structure might have tumbled if not constantly supported.

In reply, her adoring mare lifted her muzzle with the back of a gentle hoof, and kissed her on the nose. Neither knew that they'd just learned the importance of that renewal, but maybe, just maybe, they were a step closer. Certainly, they were close enough now; close enough for Fluttershy to feel her marefriend's soft, warm breath, as close as when they slept. "I don't like it as much as I like kissing," Rainbow Dash whispered, with just a hint of a smile.

And then she closed the gap.

-----

An hour later, beneath the thick cloud which still seemed to poison everything with enervating greyness, two brightly-coloured pegasi glided toward the Everfree Forest. They flew side-by-side for the most part, though the rainbow-maned pegasus occasionally dropped out of formation to dance simple tricks around the pale yellow mare. The grey did not affect them, for the only colours they saw were each other's; the Forest did not affect them, for they were brave in each other's company.

There were no clouds beneath the iron-grey sky here, so while one alighted in a tree, the other fetched a chunk of the ceiling and brought it down low. It did not move in the still air, but simply hung where it was. That would be their vantage.

The Sky Garden had become overgrown in the year since Fluttershy and Applejack had spent one of the most difficult weeks of their lives planting it in care, precision, and profound secrecy. Where once a careful symphony of flowers had portrayed a tricolour lightning bolt with three adoring butterflies dancing around it, now it resembled nothing so much as three large Parasprites molesting a rainbow-patterned snake.

The once-precise shape of the lightning bolt had blurred and softened with age. The close-growing forget-me-nots had burst their bounds, the star-faced yellow celandine had grown out in every direction, and the delicious red tulips, embracing their new-found freedom, had invaded the nearest patch of pink. Meanwhile, the once-carefully-sculpted butterflies, in delicate light-pink peonies, had filled in the gaps between their wings with vigour.

Not that it was easy to tell their colours, under that brooding sky, nor the weeds and runners that had invaded it from outside.

"Guess we fell behind," Rainbow Dash murmured.

"I wasn't sure if..." Fluttershy's eyes flickered downward, "I wasn't sure."

"How'd ya do this the first time, then?"

Fluttershy looked up, and there was real hope in her eyes. "I sat on a cloud just above the treetops, and I gave Applejack directions."

"You shouted all the way from up here?" Rainbow Dash exclaimed, "Ooh, that's so cool!"

"That's not the only reason. I tried to plot this out beforehoof, but it's really not possible to do from the ground. And if I'm up in the air, then I can see very well, but I can't really plant the flowers. So..."

"...it's a two-pony job!" Dash laughed, "That's awesome!"

"I never wanted to bother you with it before," Fluttershy said. "But would... would you mind helping me clear it up a little?"

"Well..." I guess I can spare the time. Rainbow Dash didn't finish the sentence out loud. She could be cheeky, or she could be reassuring. All the things she could say to remind her marefriend how much she cared flickered through her imagination; she could make promises and declarations, be sincere and serious, put on her best Twilight-face and call it a "priority action item" (whatever that meant).

But that's not what she loves.

"...I guess I can spare the time," Dash grinned cheekily, and jumped up to hover over the wide flower-bed.

Fluttershy smiled despite herself. That was the Rainbow Dash she'd missed so badly. And she set off to direct her marefriend's efforts from that small, torn piece of the hard sky above.

-----

It would be nice to say that they cleared the whole thing off in one afternoon. That they worked their flanks off picking and cutting and biting to give their private little grotto back its beautiful shape and joyful brightness, and to rescue it from the creeping encroachment of its surroundings. It would be nice to say that they collapsed on their backs on the low cloud once they were done, and held one another while the sky darkened.

It would be nice, but it wouldn't be true.

There was far too much for one day, and they realised early-on that they would need tools to do the majority of the work. The creepers had crept a little too far; the weeds were a little too pervasive. Still, it was a job to be done, and they would come back to do it together. Rainbow Dash might be going back to work on Monday, but they still had a whole weekend together, and maybe once a month or so, they could promise to come down to their own little clearing and enjoy it together...

"Heheheh... if we showed it to Rarity, we might even get out of apologising," Dash said with a grin.

"Rainbow," Fluttershy chided gently, "Can this be just for us?"

"What about when somepony asks what we're doing on Saturday sometime? I'm not gonna lie to 'em."

"Just tell them... you're going on a date."

Rainbow Dash's smile spread from ear to ear. Her heart was beating again, and she could feel every pulse. Her soul was full of energy, and it crackled like lightning. If Fluttershy had asked, she would have flown her to the Moon.

She felt like she could loop-the-loop and never get dizzy.

She felt like she could clear the sky in ten seconds flat.

"I love you, Flutters," was all she could say, but oh, how she meant it.

"I love you too, Dashie," Fluttershy said, and the two settled next to each other, to enjoy each other's warmth and the softness of feather and fur.

They lay there then, just breathing and feeling and glancing down occasionally at their creation. And as they lay, they thought; and as they thought, they nuzzled; and as they nuzzled, they remembered all the feelings that simple shyness and stubbornness had hidden away from them. They had followed their problems and their principles to the edge of a precipice above which not even pegasi could fly, and had found one another there again, frightened and cold.

Cold. That was a thought that shouldn't have been on either of their minds, and yet that seemed to be the one thing about the day which didn't seem to have gone right. Alright, so maybe they'd upset Rarity, and maybe Rainbow Dash had outed them to two of their closest friends, two of three Cutie Mark Crusaders and, ultimately, probably about half of Ponyville during their flight from the Carousel Boutique, and maybe they'd caused far more problems than they'd solved, but... somehow, right now and right here, lying snuggled up to one another, the cold and the grey seemed the biggest problems in their bright, young lives.

It was Fluttershy who first noticed what seemed really wrong about the Sky Garden.

And ten seconds later it was fixed, as a narrow beam of afternoon sunlight burst through a new-bucked hole in the thick grey overcast, and lit up the Garden like it was meant to be.

The celandine lit up with the raw power of the invincible sun. The forget-me-nots illuminated so bright and so striking that they would have their wish. The tulips burst into flame, glowing fiercely with the love that went into their planning and their planting. And the peonies, so pale and so delicate, spoke in the sudden sunlight to the kind heart of their loving mother and carer, whose flank they cast in facsimile.

And with real and pure joy in her heart, Rainbow Dash spiralled downward towards the Sky Garden, twirling in the golden sunbeam for the whole world to see the colours she had won back. And she glowed, and she glowed, and for the rest of her life, Fluttershy would never forget that sunlit glow.

Comments

[Rainbow87dash]

Fluttershy would never forget that sunlit glow.

I see what you did there