“Ahh… that was refreshing,” Fluttershy exclaimed after downing her cup with large gulps.

“Best cup of water in Equestria, don’t ya think?” Rainbow chuckled.

Fluttershy could only giggle as a response. After their training session, a cup of water was definitely what she needed, despite being drenched in rain water at the time. Her body had since dried itself. Now she and Rainbow Dash were just relaxing in the kitchen with a few helpings of water poured straight from the best prepared cumuluses in Ponyville.

“Wish I could stay longer, but the weather doesn’t prepare itself.” Rainbow Dash got up from her seat and took to hovering.

“But, Rainbow Dash… What about breakfast?” Fluttershy asked.

“Take from my fridge. I don’t mind. Later!”

“B-but…” Rainbow Dash flew out of the kitchen before Fluttershy could interject. She watched the kitchen entrance, thinking if she should try catching up. But that idea was gone when she noticed the lack of any noise. “Oh… she’s gone…”

Fluttershy turned her attention to the fridge. When she asked about breakfast, she wasn’t talking about herself. She noticed Rainbow Dash hadn’t had a chance to eat anything since waking up this morning.

“It’s not healthy to leave for work without breakfast… Hmm…” She put a hoof under her chin, thinking. She knew she could never catch up to Rainbow Dash, but… “I know!” She rushed to the fridge as an idea clicked. “I’ll cook her a tasty breakfast and deliver it to her there. It’s the least I could do after all she’s done for me.” She flung the fridge open in her excitement.

“This is my house!” Fluttershy yelped as she saw Rainbow’s face shouting at her from inside the fridge. “Only I get to make the offers here!” She slammed the fridge closed. “Understand!”

Fluttershy’s hooves trembled in the grip of the fridge’s handle. After shaking her head, she squinted one of her squeezing eyes open, pulling the handle of the fridge again. When it opened this time, Rainbow’s face was no longer there yelling at her.

Fluttershy sighed in relief as her aching heart settled. “It’s okay. I’m not gonna be in her house when I make the offer.” She proceeded to grab some items out of the fridge. “That’s okay, right, Rainbow Dash?” she said to the cold pony face cantine she held that looked a lot like Rainbow Dash’s.

Fluttershy walked across the halls with a bag in her mouth holding the breakfast she made. It took a bit more time to prepare than she thought it would. The supplies and tools Rainbow Dash had in her kitchen were easy to use, but hard to find.

It was odd. Most of the dishes and tools in Rainbow’s kitchen looked to be out of place. The cups and plates were on opposite sides of the room, the ladles and knives were mixed in with each other, and most of the cabinets were packed with excess clouds. On the outside, things looked neat in the kitchen, but the insides seemed quite randomly placed. Yet, with all that chaos in organization, Rainbow Dash seemed to know exactly where everything was.

“I hope I put everything back to where she wanted them to be,” Fluttershy said to herself. After all, it wasn’t her decision on how to organize things at her friend’s house.

As Fluttershy continued treading the halls, she noticed she was passing by Rainbow’s bedroom. She took a glance, noticing the door was still wide open, giving a clear view of its inside.

A heat wave rushed along Fluttershy’s features as she noticed the cloud sculpture of herself standing next to the bed, looking at it. Curiosity taking over, she entered the bedroom to examine it again. She debated on touching it, but decided against it in fear of ruining it. She turned her attention to the bed, noticing it was still neatly made, then turned back to the sculpture. Its wings looked like they could actually extend. From this side, it looked like its lips were curled up.

“Hmm…” Fluttershy looked to the bed again in deep thought as her stomach became heavy. She placed her bag on the drawer next to the bed before climbing on. She sat herself on the bed, relaxing herself. Her gaze moved across the room.

It was just as she thought. Rainbow’s room did pack some more portraits. The left side held posters of individual wonderbolt members including Spitfire in the middle. They even looked like they were signed. She took to lying down in a more comfortable position, snuggling her head on the pillow while she continued searching the room. She saw more posters on the right side that showed pegasi doing flight performances such as flying in a trio with smoke trailing behind them. She couldn’t see them all from here due to the pillars blocking her vision.

But on the front side, she could see another portrait that was quite different. It was a picture of a rainbow colored lightning bolt shooting behind a cloud in the foreground. The cloud had a checkerboard flag sticking on top of it.

Fluttershy smiled. That picture must’ve represented the time Rainbow got her Cutie Mark. She could tell because she had a picture at her cottage that represented a similar purpose. Hers was a rainbow shooting out of a cloud with pink butterflies in the foreground.

But when Fluttershy glanced to her left again, all the air around her became dense. From her lying position, the cloud sculpture of herself was looking directly at her. It was smiling brightly with eyes so wide, you could just stare into them…

Fluttershy felt like her soul was being sucked inside those eyes. The lines that separated the orbs in her eyes with her pupils and white space was exactly how she saw herself in the mirror. But the smile was one that she hadn't seen in a long time. The expression represented how Fluttershy felt at the start of a special day.

And then... her mind suddenly wanted to turn the color of those white eyes... into a magenta color.

Fluttershy snapped her own eyes shut and rolled off the bed. Once she grabbed her bag, she flew out through the window.

“Oh dear… mmm…” She clenched her head, trying to distract her mind towards other things. Although it wasn’t helping with the fact she was heading towards the weather factory. She was going there because that’s where Rainbow Dash would be getting her weather schedule.

“Just deliver her breakfast, Fluttershy. Just deliver her breakfast.”

A wave of relief ran through Fluttershy’s features when the weather factory came in her sight. Her vision was more clouded than her mind thanks to all these clouds. Just like her dream, everything she saw was just clouds. It was quite a lonely flight until she reached the factory. Actually, she still felt lonely even with all these pegasi flying about.

After descending to land, she entered the halls of the factory, trying to avoid bumping into anypony as she looked for the office. While walking past these pegasi, she looked around to see if she could see Rainbow Dash anywhere.

But Fluttershy found the office first. There was no sight of her friend from where she was. She moved to the office and slowly opened its door, hoping she wouldn’t bump somepony in the process. Noticing she didn’t, she peaked her head inside.

“Um… excuse me?” she called out.

“Hello, come on in,” the clerk announced in a gleeful tone after rummaging her supplies aside. She sounded nice. Fluttershy opened the door all the way, walking inside with Rainbow’s breakfast still in tow.

“H-hi… um… I was wondering if Rainbow Dash was still in?” Fluttershy asked, walking up to the clerk’s desk.

“Ooh… you just missed her ma’am.” The clerk pointed at the door. “She left to start her duties just a few minutes ago.”

Fluttershy’s ears dropped at the news. Rainbow must've gone the other way because she didn't see her. “Oh… Do you know which side of Ponyville she’s setting up?”

“Sorry, I’m not inclined to give that information.”

“B-but, I’m one of her best friends. Surely she’s talked about me?”

“Maybe, but friend or not, I can’t tell anypony outside of the work community.”

Fluttershy hung her head low, eyelids lowering into sadness. “O-okay… I understand…” Actually, she didn’t quite understand. But she was in no position to argue, nor did she want to. She just decided to move closer to the desk and set her bag down. “Could you let her know that I’ve delivered her breakfast?”

“Sure thing miss.” The clerk moved the bag to the side and searched her drawer. After rummaging it for a bit, she pulled out a clipboard and placed it in front of her. “What was your name?” she asked while pulling out a pen.

“F-Fluttershy.”

The clerk scribbled something in the clipboard. When she finished, she set the pen down. “Alright, we’ll let her know when we can.”

“Thank you.” Fluttershy turned away and left the office. After exiting the halls, she took flight, but could only frown as she flew. For some reason she was rather depressed that she couldn’t deliver the bag to Rainbow Dash herself. Maybe she could’ve tried looking for Rainbow Dash, but she had to get back to her animals.

Well, if she ran into Rainbow Dash on the way, she would be sure to tell her about the breakfast she left for her at least.

Unfortunately, Fluttershy didn’t run into Rainbow Dash before arriving at her cottage. Actually, she wasn’t quite at her cottage yet. She was standing on the outside fields, gazing at the garden from afar.

The critters were already out and about, playing happily in the garden she kept pure. It was heartwarming to see all those critters enjoying themselves, but at the same time, uncomforting. Some of the critters were playing rough, tackling each other to the ground. The sight of some of them playfully biting each other made her legs feel like ants were crawling up them.

Fluttershy scratched her fetlocks together as that tingle came back. She reached her back to grab her socks. Thankfully she remembered that she left them at Rainbow’s house before coming here. She set herself to sit down and slide those socks on one by one.

Maybe she couldn’t play with the critters herself, but giving them a great home and making sure they had other friends to play with, still brought joy in her work. These socks helped her to keep that going.

Still, as she trotted the path to her cottage, something was missing. Something was empty in her heart seeing those animals enjoying themselves without her. Yet, she continued walking, until she reached her mailbox.

Trying to get her mind off her problems, she grabbed all of her mail and went inside her cottage.

Fluttershy walked to her bedroom and placed the mail on her bed so that she could look at them. Most of them were advertisements, some of them weren’t even hers, and one of them made her feathers chill.

She squeezed her eyes and let out a frustrating breath. She wanted this problem of hers to go away faster. She wasn’t about speed, but this was one instance she wished a new problem she was suffering would just fly away.

The more she thought about it, the more she thought about Rainbow Dash. After all that Rainbow had done for her, she didn’t want to keep asking for her help. This wasn’t because she thought she was being a burden, but rather that she hadn’t done anything for her friend in return.

“T-that’s it, isn’t it?” Fluttershy said as a realization came to her. She got up from the bed and started pacing around. “This is why I haven’t been feeling so comfortable lately. Rainbow Dash has always been coming to me to hang out together, while I’ve always been busy with my animals to go to her for anything.”

Fluttershy looked back to her letters. “That must be why I’ve been comfortable around her lately. I’m the one coming to her this time.” She ran a hoof through her letters again, looking for a certain ad. “Well, I know just how I can repay her then. I’ll ask her to hang out in an area she likes. Not just do something that I like. Maybe I can help in her job for a change.”

Her heart warmed as the pieces came together. Any tingles in her hooves and legs, or itchiness across her feathers and features were easing away as she fantasized. “And I know just what to do. Tomorrow I will ask. What do you thin-”

Fluttershy halted her speech as something familiar caught her eye. She had lost track of the recent days that she momentarily forgot. Before her was a small empty bed for an animal’s size. Looking away, she rethought her plans.

"M-maybe I should just avoid Rainbow Dash at all costs." She winced and turned back to the letters. Saying that made it feel like something bit at her mind. "No! I've been away from her the past two days and its only gotten worse." She turned herself to the small bed. "But every time I leave, the feeling gets worse. It all started because of her after all." Her attention went back to the letters. "What am I saying? Being with her has felt so wonderful!" Back to the bed. "Maybe I should talk to somepony else about this?" Back to the mail. "But that would be breaking her promise, wouldn't it?"

Fluttershy silenced herself by squeezing her eyes shut and bracing her head between her hooves. That dreaded pain filling her head caused her to squeak out a whine. Peaking her eyes open, she brought her attention back to that letter that chilled her feathers earlier. It was the letter that came from the Ponyville Vet that had a familiar red ‘X’ on the top right corner.

“Oh, Angel… I wish you were having better luck than I am.”