Flapping her still-not-yellow wings, Fluttershy closed her eyes and tried not to think, tried to just let the sweet mid-day breeze wash over her face.
Because standing in the bathroom earlier, following the directions on the bottle to wash off the dye, scrubbing and scrubbing and scrubbing while her fetlocks kept not changing back to their proper color, that had been more than a little bit scary. Worse had been standing nose to nose with Rainbow, peering close into her eyes while Rainbow peered into hers, and not finding any trace of the contact lenses. Rainbow's mane and tail extensions had apparently become permanent, too: Fluttershy had dug through them for what had felt like five minutes without finding anything except naturally silky pink hair.
A better you than you ever were, a ghost of a voice whispered, but Fluttershy shook it away.
Worse than that had been the reaction of her animal friends. They'd flocked toward Rainbow as soon as the two of them had entered Fluttershy's cottage, but then they'd stopped and blinked and sniffed—and started backing away. Fluttershy had still been able to understand them as they'd whimpered in confusion, but she hadn't been able to tell them who she was. "It'll be all right," she'd finally been able to say, and when Rainbow had started saying it, too, most of their raised hackles had begun smoothing.
They'd all kept their distance, though, even Angel sticking close to the far wall with his ears flat against his head.
But the worst thing of all? When they'd locked themselves alone in Fluttershy's bedroom and whispered, Fluttershy still hadn't been able to say anything that would've identified her as herself. Rainbow had kept trying and trying and trying till they'd both ended up huddled together on the floor in front of Fluttershy's dresser, neither of them crying but Fluttershy wrung-out and painfully aware that they didn't have time to try dyeing themselves again. They really had to be on their way to Cloudsdale.
"Stupid magic," Rainbow had murmured after a few minutes. "We'll...just have to see this through."
So they'd filled up Fluttershy's saddlebags with sweaters—she tended to find Cloudsdale a little chilly—and had taken to the sky.
"Hello?" Rainbow's weird, whispery voice called, startling Fluttershy from her thoughts. "You, ummm, you might want to, ummm..."
Opening her eyes, Fluttershy had to blink for a moment, not quite sure what she was seeing. Because the sky seemed to be below her, the ground above, and Rainbow was flying upside-down between her and the ground with sweaters draped all over her.
"You, ummm, closed your eyes," Rainbow was saying, "and started doing these slow barrel rolls. But the buckles on the saddlebags, they weren't quite fastened all the way, so every time you went upside-down, more sweaters fell out. I...I think I caught them all, though...." She shrugged underneath the sweaters.
Fluttershy stared. "Upside-down?" Flicking her wings, she rolled over, the cloudy blue and the grassy brown sliding back to where they were supposed to be. "I...I was flying upside-down?"
Rainbow's lips pursed. "And with your eyes closed. You could've run into a flock of birds or a swarm of bees or me or another pegasus or—"
"I—" And while she couldn't get the words 'have never flown upside-down before in my whole entire life!' to emerge from her lips, the very idea of it shook her from the blue tips of her ears to the multi-colored strands of her tail; without another thought, she flipped over onto her back again—
And no tornado engulfed her. No downdraft slammed her face first into the rolling hills. Her wings somehow managed to shift themselves so she kept heading upward, and none of the terrible things Rainbow had mentioned happened at all! For the first time in as long as she could remember, Fluttershy just flew, just let the wind stroke through her feathers, and just...just—
"Whoo-hoo!" Digging into the air, she shot forward and spun into a loop. She wobbled a bit at the top, wondering why she was right side up and heading back toward Ponyville, but of course she'd started upside-down and heading toward Cloudsdale, hadn't she? Which meant that if she folded her wings—
So she did. She tucked her wings to her sides and let herself drop, let gravity have its way, let her stomach yaw all around inside her, let her mane stream up from her neck in a wild flurry of hair. "Eep!" she heard somepony squeak below her, but as simply as if she were reaching for her gardening trowel, she stretched her wings out, caught the air, let it buoy her into a hover right in front of Rainbow Dash, peering wide-eyed from behind a couple sweater sleeves.
Fluttershy blinked, flashed a sheepish grin, then reached around to flip open the flaps of her saddlebags. "We should probably get those loaded back in here, huh?"
Rainbow's eyes narrowed the slightest bit, but all she said was a gentle "If that'd be okay..."
A few minutes got everything stowed properly, but Fluttershy couldn't keep herself from doing a few more moves, slipping and sashaying up, down, and to various sides while one of the towering cloud formations ahead began to take on a more sculpted look. Walls, colonnades, literal flying buttresses—that had been one of her father's favorite jokes when Fluttershy was growing up—and of course the weather factory puffing away right in the middle of it all: she'd always found it odd how coming back here usually got her both smiling and shaking. At least the Commodores of Cloudsdale were steering the city on a course right now that had it passing pretty close to Ponyville. All this flying was just so tiring.
Except...she wasn't tired, was she? She'd flown straight to Cloudsdale, had carried a saddlebag full of sweaters, too, had even done a few stunts, and now, settling to a perfect four-point landing on the broad western edge of the east-bound town, she felt like she could jump up and do another couple circuits around the place if she had to. A pleasant little breeze rustled her mane, and she—
"Brrr..." Rainbow shivered, alighting lightly beside Fluttershy. "Do you think maybe the Commodores have the city flying too high? It seems awfully cold..."
That raised a chill along Fluttershy's neck, but she found she couldn't say anything. All she could do was open her saddlebags and pull out her favorite green sweater.
Those turquoise eyes went wide in Rainbow's yellow face, but she just said, "Thank you," took the sweater with her wings, and began pulling it on.
Motion made Fluttershy glance to the right, but nothing was there: two big fluffy moisture warehouses sat along this side of the city with a flyway between them, the roofs and spires of downtown visible at the other end of the narrow corridor. Shaking herself, Fluttershy took a breath. "We need to find that friendship problem."
"We do." Rainbow stepped forward, her wings flexing through the slits in the sweater's sides. "Let's head downtown and see what everypony's talking about."
"Talking about?" a voice exclaimed behind Fluttershy. "I'll tell you what everypony's talking about!"
With a squeak, Rainbow leaped into a hover, and Fluttershy spun around to see a tan stallion wearing a fedora and a grin Pinkie Pie would've been proud of. A little card bearing the word "Press" stuck up from the fedora's hatband, and the stallion had one wing wrapped around a notepad, the other around a pencil. "Everypony's talking about Rainbow Dash, the newest, hottest, youngest member of the Wonderbolts, coming back to visit her old stomping grounds again!" The stallion stepped toward Fluttershy. "Etaoin Shrdlu, Ms. Dash, Cloudsdale Daily Sentinel. I saw your trademark rainbow streak on approach and wanted to see if I could get a comment from you about the big wedding now that it's likely it won't be happening?"
Fighting her surge of panic—this was a reporter, not some sort of pony-eating monster!—Dash pricked her ears and forced herself to land. "Wedding?" she asked.
Fluttershy, her tail snapping like a banner behind her, leaned forward. "Won't happen?"
The reporter's attention stayed on Fluttershy. "It was supposed to be the social event of the season! That's why you and your friend—" He shot a glance in Dash's direction. "Shutterfly, right? Y'oughtta be a photog with a moniker like that!" Then he focused back on Fluttershy. "Why you came up here from Ponyville, isn't it?"
"Ummm..." Dash thought she might be able to tell him she wasn't Shutterfly—
But then he'll ask you who you are, and you won't be able to tell him. You'll be standing here gasping and choking and a crowd will gather and they'll take you to the hospital and—
"Fluttershy!" Dash forced the word out, more of a sneeze than anything else. "The name's Fluttershy!"
Fluttershy stared at her, those violet eyes wide and her blue forehead wrinkled, but the reporter just gave half a shrug. "Doesn't change my question, folks: are you on the bride's side, the groom's side, or the side of those who were against the whole thing from the beginning?"
Dash had no idea what to say, but Fluttershy tossed her head. "It might be easier for us to answer if we knew what you were talking about."
That got the reporter blinking. "The wedding, of course! Misty Morning marrying as far below her station as the daughter of two Cloudsdale Commodores possibly can!"
"Misty?" Fluttershy's ears perked, but even though her mouth opened, no words came out. She shook her head, then turned to Dash. "You knew Misty Morning when you were kids, didn't you, Eff? She'd be at your house sometimes when I'd stop by to visit."
It took a heartbeat or two for Dash to figure out what Fluttershy was talking about, but then she remembered the bubbly little filly who'd always seemed almost as out-of-place in the quiet of Fluttershy's parents' house as Dash herself. "Of course!" Dash tried to put her memories in order. "She lived up the street from—" Dash couldn't say 'you,' so she switched quickly to follow Fluttershy's lead. "—from me!" She turned to the reporter. "Who's she marrying, Mr.—?" Stopping, she couldn't help breathing out a little laugh. "I'm sorry: I've forgotten your name."
"Etaoin Shrdlu, Miss Fluttershy, from the Sentinel." He waved his wings. "But that's why her family's been flapping around like moon moths! He's a complete and total nopony, just some joker on the hailstone assembly line at the weather factory named Hoops."
"Hoops!" Dash shouted it in unison with Fluttershy, and they both leaped into the air this time. But since the sweater she was wearing made her feel heavier than usual, Dash quickly landed.
Fluttershy, though, kept going, her wings beating faster and faster. "How could somepony like Misty Morning get involved with that...that—?"
"Big bully?" Dash suggested.
"Yeah!" Fluttershy's rough voice kept getting rougher, too: Dash found herself wishing she had a lozenge to offer her.
Mr. Shrdlu flipped the pencil from his wing, caught it in his teeth, jotted a few notes on his pad, then spat the pencil back to where he could snag it in his feathers again. "A common question, Miss Dash." He waggled his eyebrows. "I'll just put you down along with all the others who take Misty Morning's side in the argument?"
"Of course!" Fluttershy settled back onto the cloud. "I always stick by my friends!"
As much as Dash wanted to correct Fluttershy about who it was that always stuck by her friends, she knew this weird magic wouldn't let her. So instead she asked, "What argument exactly, Mr. Shrdlu?"
He barked a laugh. "Might be easier to tell you what they haven't been arguing about. 'Cause the only thing I've heard the happy couple agree on lately is that things get wet when it hails. And even then, it was part of an argument about what color awnings they should have outside the Commodores' Club to keep the onlookers dry during the traditional burst of hail as they're leaving the reception." He shook his head. "Their wedding date's still on the Club calendar, my sources tell me, but at this point, the smart money's on the thing not happening at all."
Fluttershy's nod was short and sharp. "Good."
"Ummm..." Dash jumped up to hover alongside Fluttershy. "Thank you for the information, Mr. Shrdlu, and we're glad we could help with your story." She leaned over, whispered, "Come on," into Fluttershy's ear, and began flapping toward the flyway that led downtown.
Fluttershy snorted—something Dash had never thought she would ever hear—but she fell in beside Dash. "I'm just glad Misty wised up before it was too late," Fluttershy muttered, the words barely coming out through her clenched teeth. "I mean, can you imagine her marrying Hoops?"
"I—" Dash began, but the stupid voice in her head started whispering, if you push this point, it'll be the biggest mistake you've ever made, and you've made some doozies! Taking a breath, she went on anyway: "I can't help wondering if this might be the friendship problem we're here to solve."
"What?" Fluttershy's wings stopped, and she dropped about a taillength toward the cloudy floor of the flyway before catching the air again and flipping herself up to hover nose to nose with Dash. "In the first place, this is a wedding we're talking about! What does getting married have to do with friendship?"
"Ummm," Dash said again, images filling her mind: her parents laughing together, Mr. and Mrs. Cake always helping each other out at Sugarcube Corner, Cranky and Matilda—
But Fluttershy was waving a hoof. "Okay, that's maybe not the best question. The best question is: why would we help Hoops? He made both our lives miserable when we were fillies! And not just then, either! I don't have to remind you about the Best Young Flier competition, do I?"
The memories hit Dash hard, then, the fear and the shame and the anger that had flooded her as she'd cowered backstage before the contest. But she swallowed against them. "You can't be like that, Rainbow Dash," she heard herself say in her Fluttershy voice. "You have to be better than that."
The snort Fluttershy gave this time wasn't nearly as loud as her first. And when she said, "Whatever," that was pretty quiet, too.
"Okay, then." Her heart pounding, Dash flew around Fluttershy and started toward the towers of downtown Cloudsdale again. "I guess the Commodore Club'll be our first stop."
Trailing after Rainbow, Fluttershy could barely keep her inner grumbling from getting loose. In fact, she wasn't sure she wanted to keep it from getting loose. Because, yes, maybe Rainbow had a point—if they were here to help Misty and Hoops, then of course they should help Misty and Hoops. But at the same time—
Misty? And Hoops? And sure, Misty had never really been a friend when they were fillies: it was more that she would turn up at the house two or three times a week after escaping from her nanny and settle in chattering while helping Fluttershy and her mother with the flowerbeds. Her nanny had always come around to collect her before suppertime, and thinking about it, Fluttershy couldn't recall speaking six words to Misty during all those years. She'd found her to be a little too exuberant, but then, Fluttershy had to admit that she found most ponies to be a little too exuberant...
But didn't Misty know who Hoops was? How much he seemed to enjoy making other ponies miserable? Hadn't she ever—?
"Dad!" a young-sounding voice rang out. "Look! It's Rainbow Dash!"
Startled, Fluttershy blinked to see that she and Rainbow had apparently come out of the flyway while she'd been brooding, the glistening towers of downtown Cloudsdale rising above the smaller buildings ahead of them. Below at one of the terraced food stands carved into the cloud face sat a stallion and colt—father and son, she thought, from their coloration—and the colt was pointing, a big smile on his face.
Surprised when Rainbow didn't give a shout and wave back to the colt, Fluttershy looked over and saw Rainbow looking back. "One of your fans, Rainbow Dash," she said, emphasizing the name and shaking her long pink hair.
Fluttershy gave another blink. "Oh. Yeah. Right." Putting on a smile she didn't even remotely feel, she waved to the father and son. "See you at the next show!" she called, surprised at how loud it sounded.
"Oh, boy!" The colt sprang into a hover. "You bet!"
Other ponies were pointing now, too, and Rainbow gave a quiet laugh beside her. "You should've worn a disguise."
Unable to say, 'I am,' Fluttershy kept smiling and waving. "As long as they don't ask for autographs, right?"
"Ummm..." Rainbow's eyes went wide. "Maybe we'd better hurry to the Club before somepony does ask."
The cloud buildings around them grew taller and fancier, but at least Rainbow was with her: Fluttershy hadn't spent a lot of time in downtown Cloudsdale and didn't think she knew exactly where the Commodores' Club was. And as long as she was thinking about things she didn't exactly know... "So what's the plan, then? We go into the Club, and if Misty and Hoops are there, you talk to Hoops and I talk to Misty?"
"Ummm," Rainbow said again. "Didn't you say that I knew Misty?"
Fluttershy couldn't keep from clenching her teeth. 'You're not really me!' she wanted to shout. 'And I don't say 'Ummm' that much, either!' But since she couldn't say those things— "All I know is that this was your idea! So you should be the one who has to talk to the guy we both know is a jerk!"
"Okay." With a little sigh, Rainbow pulled partway back into her mane. "If...if that's what you think is right."
Her jaw tightening, Fluttershy focused forward. "And don't do that."
For several wingbeats, she didn't hear anything but the rush of wind through feathers. Then that all-too-familiar wavering little voice asked, "Don't do what?"
"Don't play all 'passive-aggressive.'" She shot a glare at the yellow pegasus beside her. "You can't be like that, Fluttershy. You hafta be better'n that." Her face getting warm, she looked quickly away and saw a large, low building sculpted from a cloudy promenade, Commodores' Club carved in fancy letters along the fascia. Putting on a burst of speed, she did a couple quick loops and landed with a flourish on the big platform in front of the double doors.
Two stallions were standing there, but it took Fluttershy a few blinks before she was sure they were ponies instead of statues.
"Oh, dear," Rainbow said, settling onto the platform. "In all the...excitement, I...I forgot that only members and their invited guests are allowed in. Maybe...you could get word to Spitfire and ask her to—"
"Nah." Completely unsure what was going to happen, Fluttershy sauntered up the steps to the two stallions. "Afternoon, gents." She touched a wing to her forehead. "Rainbow Dash and Fluttershy here to see Misty Morning and Hoops." And she gave them a big, easy, Rainbow Dash sort of a smile.
For an instant, neither of the stallions moved. Then the one on the right asked, "Can you get them to stop yelling at each other?"
The one on the left gave a little nod. "And at everypony else, too?"
Fluttershy didn't know how to answer that, but Rainbow's quiet voice said beside her, "We'll try our very best, sirs."
The one on the right gave a nod then, and they pushed the doors open. "Good luck," he said.
"Yeah." The other one shivered. "We're just gonna stay out here if that's okay with you."
"Ummm..." Fluttershy looked over at Rainbow, but again, Rainbow was just looking back at her. "Sure. Whatever." With a swallow, Fluttershy took to the air and drifted through the doorway.
The last time Dash had flapped into the Commodores' Club had been after winning Best Young Flier, and the place had been quite literally jumping. At least, Dash had been: she'd bounced from walls to ceiling to floor with the biggest, stupidest grin on her face for most of the party that afternoon.
Now, though, the whole place seemed more like Twilight's library: quiet and empty.
Moving into the main hall, though, she could see a few ponies having lunch at the tables off to the left. And from one of the several arched doorways to the right came the muffled sounds of ponies shouting.
The image flashed through Dash's head—you'll flap right into the middle of it, and the two of them will aim all their shouting at you!—and she almost pulled into a hover.
But Fluttershy kept heading toward the doorway. "The sooner we get this over with," she said, "the sooner we'll—" The choking sound she made then showed that the magic was still being annoying.
Dash knew what she meant, though. Taking a breath, she followed that rainbow-striped tail into the low hallway.
"—should be simple!" were the first words she could make out clearly from the open door at the end of the hall ahead, Hoops' voice sending shivers all along her spine.
"Simple?" This was a young mare's voice, sharp and high-pitched. "Of course it's simple, coming from you!"
"Oh, yeah?"
They flew out of the hallway then and into a large room crammed with decorations that Dash was sure would've made Rarity pass out. The various bits and pieces themselves—wall hangings, flower arrangements, floor cushions and everything—weren't bad, but they filled the room, way too many for a space this size. And the more Dash ran her gaze around, the more she realized that they were in two styles that didn't go together at all.
In the middle of this jumble stood a pair of pegasi: Hoops, his mane as shaggy as ever and covering his eyes, and a slim, frowning mare who reminded Dash of the filly she'd run into now and then at Fluttershy's place back when they'd all been younger. That filly, though, had never been this pinched in the mouth and glaring around the eyes.
That glare was focused on Hoops, and he was leaning forward, his teeth showing as he said, "Not everything hasta be a big, giant thing, Misty!"
Misty jumped into a hover and waved both her front legs. "This is our wedding, you idiot! That's kind of the very definition of a big, giant thing!" She spun around, and that glare of hers hit Dash as hard as a boiling hot water balloon. "And I told you to take down—!" Her glare vanished when her eyes went wide, and her mouth unpinched when her jaw dropped. "Fluttershy?" she asked in a voice that suddenly didn't sound like it could strip paint.
Hoops' jaw dropped, too. "Rainbow Cr— I mean, Rainbow Dash? What...what're you guys doing here?"
Hovering above Dash, Fluttershy muttered, "I'm wondering that, too."
But Dash stepped forward. "We just—"
You'll say the wrong thing, you know, and they'll start screaming again.
Everything Dash had been about to say jammed in her throat, her whole train of thought snarled up by that stupid nagging little voice.
Fluttershy seemed to notice, though: she landed and gave a smile that wasn't nearly as phony as Dash figured it could've been. "Well, we were just...in the neighborhood, y'know? Heard you two were getting hitched and thought we'd stop by to say congrats and all."
"Oh, Fluttershy!" Misty shot forward and wrapped a huge hug around Dash's neck. "It's so wonderful to see you!" She glared over her shoulder at Hoops. "You can help me talk some sense into this brute!"
"Sense?" Hoops flapped his wings to stay upright while he folded his forelegs across his chest. "We're getting married, Misty, not putting on a Bridleway show! The Commodores' Club's, like, the fanciest place in Cloudsdale! We don't need to hang frou-frous from every joist and crossbeam!"
Trying to get her thoughts organized again, Dash had to smile when Fluttershy said, "That's a valid point. But, hey, there's nothing wrong with a few frou-frous, right?"
"Which is what I've been saying!" Hoops shook the hair from his eyes for a moment, and Dash saw that they were a surprisingly bright green color. "Something elegant and simple!"
Dash nodded vigorously. If they could just get them talking to each other instead of—
"Ha!" Misty pointed a shaking hoof at him. "That's always been your problem, Hoops! You settle for the easy, the quick, and the ephemeral when with a little effort, you could reach for the timeless, the noble, the ineffable! But no! You're making hailstones for a living when you could be constructing rainbows!" She brought her hoof down against the floor with a smack. "'Good enough' is neither 'good' nor 'enough' for a pony who's truly striving!"
"Huh." Fluttershy was nodding. "That's an even more valid point, actually."
"What?" The hair fell back over Hoops' eyes. "C'mon, Crash! You grew up on the wrong side of the pressure gradient, same as me! No way you can buy all her talk about titles and prestige and stuff that isn't even real!"
"Ummm..." Dash swallowed. "Let's keep things constructive."
But Fluttershy was already leaping into the air. "Maybe you don't follow the news, Hoops, but I've got the title of Wonderbolt now! That's as real as it gets, and I worked my tail off for it!"
"Exactly!" Misty stepped away from Dash, her eyes wavering. "I'm not asking you to be a Wonderbolt, Hoops, but would it truly be such a terrible thing for you to apply to the rainbow department? You've got the talent, and—"
"I like hailstones!" Hoops stuck his jaw out. "They're trickier to make than ponies think, and I'm really good at it!"
"Ummm..." But that was as far as Dash got this time before that smug little voice in her head piped up again: See? You're just making things worse.
It tangled her tongue, and she saw Fluttershy's ears prick. "Oh, sure," Fluttershy said, those lavender eyes flashing a glare at Dash. "That's great for those who wanna just get by their whole lives, just keep going with whatever dead-end job they first fell into." Fluttershy tossed her mane. "If you can even call babysitting forest animals a job."
Her throat squeezed closed, but Dash forced it open. "What...what's that supposed to mean?"
The look Fluttershy turned on her must've had some of The Stare in it, the way it seemed to stab a skewer straight into her heart. "If you're too slow to figure it out, then maybe that's for the best."
"Slow?" Dash could feel her mane bristling. "Well, at least I take the time to stop and think every once in a while! Not like some ponies who wouldn't know a thought if it came up and tapped them on the shoulder!"
Fluttershy's blue face stretched, her eyes and mouth going wide. "And what's that supposed to mean?"
Dash stomped the floor, the sound much mooshier than Misty's stomp earlier. "It means that if you'd use a little foresight, Rainbow Dash, maybe you wouldn't always be crashing into trees and mountains and making your friends stop whatever they're doing to pay attention to you!"
"That's it!" Fluttershy spun halfway to the ceiling. "I'm sick of your wimpiness, Fluttershy! Just plain sick of it!" And with her rainbow tail swirling behind her, she shot out of the room.