Desires

by Skylight77

Chapter 11: Stamina Solution

3 days ago:

“Aaarrgh!”

Rainbow Dash struggled a flock of birds piled around her limbs. She was currently hovering in mid-air, in the fields near the cottage that belong to Fluttershy. These birds were trying to immobilize Rainbow Dash, but all they were managing were bringing her lower towards the ground.

“Haa!” Rainbow Dash flung her limbs around, causing some of the birds latched on to her to be tossed off. Some of their feathers scattered as they crashed towards the grass.

The birds had managed to bring Rainbow Dash close enough towards the ground, that the land critters were able to reach her. Squirrels, mice, ferrets, and other such rodents started clinging and climbing onto her when she came within reach.

“Nnngh!” Rainbow Dash strained herself attempting her continuous struggles. Her limbs were aching, yet she kept resisting. She threw one of her limbs towards the side, causing some of the creatures latched on to get thrown off, but more kept coming.

Fluttershy watched on the sidelines, keeping her eyes on Rainbow Dash. One of the animals, a squirrel, which Rainbow Dash had thrown off, flew and crashed close by to Fluttershy. The squirrel immediately picked itself back up and charged straight for Rainbow Dash.

Fluttershy kept her eyes on Rainbow Dash, but she was growing a little worried. This had been going on for a while, yet Rainbow Dash never requested in any way for this to stop. Once Rainbow Dash had started something, she would persist on it until she was satisfied. Fluttershy never doubted Rainbow Dash’s abilities, but that didn’t mean she couldn’t worry about her.

The animals persisted in pulling Rainbow Dash’s body towards the ground, clinging onto even her wings. Rainbow Dash pushed on them while the animals pushed back. The animals nearly surrounded her body.

“Grr! Raah!” Rainbow Dash put a burst of adrenaline through her body, putting more strength in her muscles. In the sudden surge of her struggles, she knocked off all of the animals that had covered her body as she managed to fly back into the air. The small critters were scattered all over the place, littering the field with their bodies.

“*Pant, pant*” Rainbow Dash panted as she checked her surroundings, looking for anything else that would try to pin her down.

*RAAAWWWRR!!!* The roaring sound of a larger animal had made itself present. Rainbow Dash looked off towards the direction it came from. A few distances next to Fluttershy, was a large bear pawing at the grass roughly. This bear was glaring directly towards Rainbow Dash. He started charging immediately.

Rainbow Dash stood her position in the air, focusing on the bear that charged towards her. Her muscles ached, her body strained, sweat drenched her forehead, yet she still kept at it. She was determined to take this one on.

*Crash* “Aaaahhrr!” The bear came into contact with Rainbow Dash. Rainbow Dash attempted to stop his charge with her forehooves, using her wings to push against his weight. The bear’s push had slowed down and eventually came to a halt due to the wing power of Rainbow Dash’s wings.

Rainbow Dash’s strength allowed her to push against the bear’s head, causing him to slide backwards across the fields. The bear let out another violent roar. He changed his position, allowing the force of Rainbow Dash’s push to get himself to stand on his hind legs, allowing his forepaws to grab onto Rainbow Dash.

Rainbow Dash grunted as she tried to get out of the bear’s grip. Her limbs and her wings were secured in his paws. Rainbow Dash wiggled her body, pressuring her limbs and wings to release herself from his grip. Her wiggling allowed herself to spread the bear’s paws apart, allowing Rainbow Dash to continue pushing against him.

The bear still had his grips on Rainbow Dash’s body, but left none of her limbs secure. Rainbow Dash was able to use her wings to maintain her power. She put in a lot of force in her hooves and wings to give a mighty push to the bear, causing him to slide through the fields a few distances backwards. It was like a titan being shoved by another titan as the bear’s sliding caused dirt to be shred off the ground as he slid along, only he was pushed by a pony quite smaller than him.

When the bear managed to halt his sliding, he stomped on the ground with his front paws, giving off a loud roar in the process. He charged for Rainbow Dash again. Rainbow Dash stood her ground, or in this case her air as she was still hovering. She braced herself for yet another impact.

But this time, before the bear came within range, he leapt off of the ground, aiming to land straight towards Rainbow Dash. Rainbow Dash changed her bracing position to catch the bear in the air, attempting to stop him from crushing her.

But when the bear came into contact, Rainbow Dash was unable to resist his weight. All the strain in Rainbow Dash’s body left herself strength less to keep herself in the air. The bear’s weight led both of them to crash towards the ground.

“Gaah!” Rainbow Dash tried to push the bear off of her. The bear glared directly at Rainbow Dash, bringing his head closer slowly, giving off a low audible growl. Rainbow Dash continued to try to escape her fate. The bear’s head just got closer and closer.

Suddenly, the bear brought out his tongue, licking Rainbow Dash’s face with it.

“…Mmmph…” Rainbow Dash’s struggles had finally halted when that large tongue came into contact. That bear smiled while he lathered his tongue along Rainbow Dash’s face. The bear’s licks traced through her cheeks to her closed eye lids, leaving saliva trails drenching her. Rainbow Dash found it hard to breathe as the ferocious bear tasted around her snout. Rainbow Dash’s tired body laid there, limbs and wings fallen flat on the grass, defeated as this bear licked her across her cheek, her head lying sideways on the grass.

“Oh dear,” Fluttershy said, placing a hoof over her mouth as she saw the situation. She flew over towards Rainbow Dash and the bear that was attacking her with his licks.

When Fluttershy arrived next to them, the bear had stopped his licks, picking himself off of Rainbow Dash in the process to allow Fluttershy to check on her.

“Rainbow Dash?” Fluttershy looked over Rainbow Dash’s form, making sure that she was okay.

“…Nnngh…” Rainbow Dash grunted before opening her eyes. Feeling that her face was covered in saliva, she used her hooves to wipe some of it off before picking herself up off the ground, into a sitting position. Fluttershy gave off a sigh of relief, seeing that Rainbow Dash was okay.

“Good boy,” Fluttershy said as she started petting the bear under his chin. The bear gave off a purr of delight, liking the stroking.

“Ahh, that was a great work out,” Rainbow Dash announced, dusting herself off. “Well, come on! Let’s get ready for round two!”

“Round two?” Fluttershy asked, surprised. The bear that was by her side started walking away. “Oh, but Rainbow Dash, I don’t think we can do a round two, look at them.” Fluttershy pointed towards the animals that were attacking Rainbow Dash. They were all panting and sweating in some form. Some of them were even lying flat on the ground. “I don’t think they can go another round today. You’ve been going at this for hours.”

Rainbow Dash sighed at this, letting her body drop back to sitting. There wasn’t anything she could do about that. The whole reason she was training herself like this was to get herself in better shape when it came to long tasks. Since she had time off of anything important, this was the perfect time to work on her stamina.

“Tch, tch, tch,” Fluttershy made an odd clicking sound with her mouth while she looked over towards some bushes. Rainbow Dash saw that the bushes released a large flock of butterflies heading towards her direction. Fluttershy must have called them over if that was the case.

The butterflies gathered around Rainbow Dash and surrounded her body, leaving the front of her open for air. Rainbow Dash gave a deep sigh as the butterflies relaxed her tired body. It was strange how these insects had the ability to soothe aching muscles like this.

Rainbow Dash stretched out her wings, allowing the butterflies to flutter towards many of her aching pressure points, easing all sorts of soreness and pain. She could feel the adrenaline rushing back to her wings and legs. The best part about being sore was that treatments like these always felt better.

Fluttershy was definitely the best animal caretaker that Rainbow Dash ever knew. There was always something awesome about her animals, and this moment was only proving it further. She recalled one time when she witnessed a flock of butterflies; she was bored out of her mind. But the butterflies Fluttershy owned herself certainly had some interesting traits. One even had the guts to snatch a favorite toy that belonged to a ferocious cat named Opalescence. Rainbow Dash learned that day that even some of the most boring or fragile creatures could end up being awesome.

In fact, the reason why these animals were being awesome today was because of their hopes for becoming somepony's pet in the future. Sure, Fluttershy was a great animal caretaker, but there was a difference that these animals saw between having a home at all, and being somepony's personal pet. Fluttershy could only make sure that their new owners would treat them right. And if these animals wanted to make themselves look great by pushing themselves like this against Rainbow Dash, Fluttershy didn't want to stop them if it meant they had a better chance of finding that somepony that would take them in as their pet.

“How do you feel, Rainbow Dash?” Fluttershy asked, watching the butterflies work their magical touch on Rainbow Dash.

“Mmm… better,” Rainbow Dash responded. “Thanks for helping me out with this, Fluttershy.” Fluttershy smiled proudly at the compliment.

Rainbow Dash picked herself off the ground and back on her hooves, letting out a prideful grunted sigh in the process. The butterflies that had surrounded her were now leaving her form.

“Say, Fluttershy, how has Tank been doing?” Rainbow Dash asked. “I haven’t seen him since I left him with you when I was busy setting up that huge storm a few days ago.”

“Tank? He’s been doing well,” Fluttershy responded. She pointed a hoof towards what appeared to be a small house made for animals. “He’s still in his little home over there.” Rainbow Dash and Fluttershy started walking towards the house after Fluttershy announced it. “I left Angel with him to wax his shell.”

“Angel huh?” Rainbow Dash said. “I hope his shell is spotless and shiny. That shell needs to be well maintained with all the flying he does.”

Fluttershy giggled at this remark. To think that a tortoise of all things would spend more time in the air than on the ground, Rainbow Dash’s influence really changed that tortoise’s life. It’s too bad that to this day, he still has trouble steering that rotor on his shell properly.

“Of course, Rainbow Dash,” Fluttershy stated as they reached the small home. “Angel has been a big help, and he’s really taking good care of Tank’s shell.” She opened the door that led inside of the little home. “See?”

Inside, both Rainbow Dash and Fluttershy could clearly see the white bunny known as Angel, and the green tortoise known as Tank. Angel was busy rubbing the top of Tank’s shell with a smooth white rag.

Angel proudly removed the rag from the shell, examining his work. The shell gave off a bright shine. He could practically see himself in the shell’s shining reflection. Angel was really proud of this work-

-Until a very small dust particle fell from the ceiling of the small house, landing slowly and softly, but directly on the shining spot of the shell.

As soon as that particle touched the shell, Angel’s mood went 180. He scrunched his face in a frowning malicious form, shivering his body in a pent up rage, crushing the rag in his grip in the process. He gave off a bunny yell, threw the rag away, and started beating on the shell with his paws. He stomped on it repeatedly even.

Tank had become aware of the beating and was not happy about it. He looked up at the bunny, crouched his legs, and then pushed against the floor, causing his shell to rise towards the ceiling. This caused Angel to hit his head on the ceiling as a result, causing him to halt his attack.

Angel rubbed his head in frustration. He stared down at the tortoise, giving off a deep growl in between his gritted teeth. He jumped off the shell, lunging down towards the tortoise’s head. Tank retracted his head back in his shell, causing Angel to miss and slam into the ground. He picked himself up immediately and darted straight inside the hole of the shell that contained his head, disappearing inside. A large audible beating could be heard inside, causing the shell to shake in the air.

Fluttershy gasped loudly seeing how quickly the situation changed. She immediately closed the house’s door, placing her back against it. She gave a nervous laugh looking back at Rainbow Dash trying to hide what was going on.

“Ahahaha… they’re just… uh… playing?” Fluttershy said nervously.

*Boom!* A loud explosion could be heard inside the small house which could even be seen from the house’s obnoxious shake when it occurred. Fluttershy wandered her eyes a little bit, but then looked back at Rainbow Dash, giving off that innocent, yet nervous smile.

Rainbow Dash gave a displeased frown at the gesture. She could even see a sweat gland sliding down Fluttershy’s forehead. But before Rainbow Dash had a chance to say anything, she heard the sound of hooves landing on the ground not too far by behind her. She took a glance at its direction.

“Oh, look! The Mail Pony’s here!” Fluttershy said frantically. She darted as fast as she could towards the cottage’s mail box, zipping past Rainbow Dash, causing the force of that sudden speed to make her spin in place. Rainbow Dash stopped herself soon after, but not before her eyes could stop spinning. Fluttershy slammed into the mail pony, causing him to be knocked away from the mail box, dropping a lot of mail contents as a result.

“Oh… let’s see… what do we have here?” Fluttershy said at an unusual panicked speed, frantically trying to check her mail box for anything to distract the situation.

Rainbow Dash grunted as she closed her eyes, placing a hoof to her head to regain her composure. No longer being dizzy, she turned back to the small house containing Tank and Angel. It was oddly quiet now despite what occurred earlier, or at least what she believed occurred earlier. She approached the door, ready to open it to take a look inside.

*Smack!* The door flung open, smacking Rainbow Dash so hard, it caused her to get flung away. Rainbow Dash was flung straight for the cottage doors, near Fluttershy’s mailbox. Her back was turned away from the door when she crashed, causing more of the mail to be flung in the air.

Meanwhile, Fluttershy was still frantically searching her mail box’s contents. She could hear some of Fluttershy’s words.

“Candy delivery… advertisement of tools… a tournament announcement… hospital stockings, oh my… um…” Fluttershy continued looking through for anything that was addressed or related to her subscriptions. None of these seemed to be her mail, but she continued looking for a distraction.

Rainbow Dash however groaned at one of the words Fluttershy used. “…Tournament? Oh, you’ve got to be-“ her silent speech was halted when one of the letters landed on her face. She picked it up in one of her hooves, thinking to just throw it aside, but halted when she noticed what it titled.

“What the?... Hey, Fluttershy, look at this,” Rainbow Dash said while picking herself up from the ground. Fluttershy halted her rummaging, dropping all of the letters on the ground before hovering over to where Rainbow Dash was to see what she found.

______________________________________________________________________________

Meanwhile, Tank and Angel were still fighting with each other, inside the shell. Angel was shot out of the shell, bumping into a beaver in order to halt his momentum. The beaver yelled at Angel, smacking his tail at Angel, causing him to be flung towards another direction, stopping on the grass.

Angel gritted his teeth and growled in anger. He picked up random sticks on the ground and threw them at the beaver. The beaver dodged the stick, but the stick managed to impact a currently unstable home that more beavers could be seen building. The weight of the stick caused it to collapse.

Seeing their unfinished home destroyed, all of the beavers gave a cry for battle. They each picked up a piece of lumber from their home, turning to the bunny that caused this.

Angel gave off a nervous smile and gulped at the situation. Before he knew it, he saw a barrage of objects being flung towards his direction. He ducked for cover, allowing the lumber to fly past him.

But their path of destruction came upon the same bear that Rainbow Dash was wrestling earlier. That bear currently had many other animals attached to his back. They all jumped out when those many pieces of lumber started hitting and sticking to the bear’s back. The bear turned around, looking towards the beavers, giving off a predatory growl. The other little critters that were attached to his back joined in as well. The beavers gulped nervously in response.

______________________________________________________________________________

Rainbow Dash and Fluttershy sat next to each other side by side, looking at the contents of the mail that Rainbow Dash held in her hoof.

“Dressing appointment canceled?” Rainbow Dash asked as she read the front cover.

“This letter is addressed to Rarity, and it was sent from Hoofington,” Fluttershy added.

“But, that doesn’t make any sense,” Rainbow Dash continued. “Rarity left for Hoofington yesterday, didn’t she? Why would they be telling her by mail?”

While Rainbow and Fluttershy were discussing with each other, the animals were practically turning the garden into a warzone. They were both unaware of the chaos going on behind them.

“Maybe they didn’t meet up yet?” Fluttershy theorized.

“It’s not just that though, Fluttershy,” Rainbow Dash continued. “Rarity was going on and on about how she’s been trying to get that appointment re-scheduled for a later date, but they never accepted it. So why now?”

Fluttershy put a hoof to her chin, contemplating on what could’ve happened. While she was thinking, there were animals behind her fighting frantically in mayhem. Their battle was shrouded in the smoke that they caused in their battle.

“Hmm, I’m gonna fly over there and check it out,” Rainbow Dash concluded. Fluttershy looked to Rainbow Dash in a surprised expression.

“Rainbow Dash, are you sure about that?” Fluttershy asked. Rainbow Dash was now hovering in the air.

“Of course Fluttershy,” Rainbow responded. “Hoofington’s not that far from Ponyville, so it’s not too much trouble.”

“B-but…” Fluttershy struggled to follow up. She was really more concerned about Rainbow Dash’s health than the travel. She had been working out for hours earlier, and it hasn’t been much time for her to rest.

“Don’t worry Fluttershy, I won’t be long. But if it makes you feel better, tell the others where I’ve gone.”

Rainbow Dash was about to leave, but halted when she remembered something. “Oh, before I forget-“ She dug into the back of her cyan coat, pulling out a few bits in her hoof. She immediately shoved the bits deep into Fluttershy’s pink mane, pushing it inside deeply and quickly, causing Fluttershy to flinch as she had no time to react. “-thirty bits, take care of Tank for a little longer, bye!” Before Fluttershy had a chance to respond, Rainbow Dash took flight, dashing out of the scene quickly, and blowing some mail around in her wake as she started flying towards Hoofington.

Fluttershy put a hoof to her mane, slightly startled by the sudden action. Whenever it came to some of the things Rainbow Dash offered or suggested, she would cause them to happen quickly. In this instance, she gave Fluttershy these bits before she had a chance deny it. Now she was practically forced to accept these bits.

In the end, Fluttershy didn’t mind though. She gave a deep sigh of relief as she reminisced in the events that had happened recently. She was worried that she was not being a good friend to Rainbow Dash after hearing about those nightmares again, and not being able to do anything about it. Even though she wasn’t any better at telling her friends about those nightmares, she was proud to be of help to Rainbow Dash for something.

Fluttershy turned her head around to take a look at her garden. Her face jumped in surprise at what she saw. She now noticed the chaos that was going around. All the animals were fighting with each other. And it wasn’t a verbal fight, it was physical. This was certainly not a good sight.

“Oh dear…” Fluttershy flew towards the center of the garden, making sure she was within earshot range for what she was about to do next. She took a deep breath, and yelled.

“STOOOP!!!” The sound of that yell caused all of the animals to halt their fighting. Some of them paused in midair for a split second before gravity brought them back to the ground.

“Phew…” Fluttershy sighed. It was very unnatural for her to yell like that, but it was something that HAD to be done. “What has gotten into all of you?” Fluttershy asked.

All of the animals were trying to speak at the same time, saying things along the lines of who started it or defending and such, at least the way Fluttershy understood it. But everything was being brought back to Angel, who was currently nowhere to be seen. For some unknown reason, Angel was always the hardest to control of all her animals, but at the same time, also her most helpful.

“We’ll discuss this another time,” Fluttershy concluded. She couldn’t bear hearing so much hate on Angel. “Let us all just take a deep breath, and-“

“These Animals Don’t Deserve Special Treatment!” Fluttershy yelped and fell to the ground when she heard the voice of another pony yelling at her. It was the mail pony that she bumped into earlier. The mail pony flew over towards the animals in a fit of rage. Some of them seemed to be holding his mail.

“Give Me Back Those Letters You Filthy Creatures!” The mail pony used his mouth to grab onto one of the letters a ferret was holding, yanking it away from the little critter. Due to the current grip, this caused the ferret to be flung away as a result.

The roars of the animal’s cry for battle came forth once again.

“Hold Still You Fowl Little Mail Snatchers!” The chaos that was the animal war suddenly turned into a goat chase among animals holding letters, the mail pony that chased them, and the bigger animals that were defending the smaller ones.

Fluttershy gave a depressing whine. Unlike animals, she couldn’t control ponies very well, especially those she didn’t know much about, if anything at all. And after moments ago she had just felt relieved about how Rainbow Dash thought of her, things around here were going downhill fast. She didn’t know what to do either.

If she was going to prove to Rainbow Dash she didn’t hate her, that she wasn’t what those nightmares described, she had to settle this chaos. She just had to figure out how.

If only Rainbow Dash had stuck around just a little bit longer…

______________________________________________________________________________

Current day:

“Yeah… if only…” Rainbow Dash repeated that phrase depressingly. If that had happened, things might have played out very differently.

Rainbow Dash looked straight into Fluttershy’s eyes, seeing the fear, yet trust in them. She didn’t blame Rainbow Dash for leaving like that, but Rainbow Dash still felt so guilty for doing so.

Rainbow Dash looked away to bring her attention back to Carousel.

“Let’s continue.”

Author's Note:

A deeper look into the friendship between Rainbow Dash and Fluttershy before the chaos starts to happen, or maybe it already happened, I don't know. It depends on how you look at it.

Otherwise, something I've always wondered about mail ponies. As far as we've seen, the mail ponies in the show have always been treated badly, usually by the mane six. We've even seen them get abused by Rainbow Dash one time, and even Fluttershy has abused them before. Why do they deserve such abuse? Well, there has to be a reason somewhere, and I doubt this is it, but I'm doing it.

After this, we'll be going back to Carousel and what she's going to do about that unicorn she keeps meeting.

Next Chapter: A Magician’s Tale