//------------------------------//
// Chapter 4: Meet Cloud Spark 
// Story: Fluttershy's Secret 
// by RainbowDasher21 
//------------------------------//

There was a few lights on at the very front of the main hall. They weren't that bright, but their light beams could still be seen, pointing downwards. At first, Rainbow Dash couldn't see what was going on, because there was chairs everywhere, which blocked her view. They were the type of chairs you'd find in a cinema.

As she walked in front of the first row of the chairs behind her, she could see a large stage. There was a few ponies stood on it. One of them appeared to be wearing a Wonderbolts uniform. This, ticked Rainbow Dash off. Anger filled her head, but she tried her best to keep herself calm on the outside. The last thing she needed was to make a scene in front of everyone, while making herself look like a complete fool. On the first day too, that wasn't something on Rainbow Dash's 'to-do' list.

There was a pony stood in the middle between the steps up to the second row of chairs onwards. The pony first pointed up, then left. Rainbow Dash just thought the pony was trying to play Equestria's worst ever game of 'Charades' ever, but all became clear to her once he spoke.

"Sit down on the fifth row of chairs to the left, please," the pony said politely. Rainbow Dash did as she was told, and made her way up to the fifth row on the left. Fluttershy was walking in front of her, while the others were behind her. Fluttershy sat on the chair at the end of the row. There was a black railing to the left of her. Rainbow Dash was sat in the chair next to her, followed by Rarity, Pinkie, Twilight, and then Applejack at the other end.

Rainbow Dash was staring at the stage in front of her, noticing that the 'Wonderbolt' wasn't alone. There was a few other ponies there. One of them wore a very posh suit. 'He must be the head of this place,' thought Rainbow Dash. Alongside the tall pony, who had beige-coloured fur, was what looked like a school nurse, and a librarian. However, Rainbow's thoughts still drifted to the pony in the blue and yellow suit.

"Ummm.... R-rainbow, Dash?" a voice called out to the cyan Pegasus. Rainbow Dash turned to her left, only to see that it was Fluttershy had spoken to her. She tried to give a soft smile.

"Hey, Fluttershy," responded Rainbow Dash, trying to act cool. However, the expression on Fluttershy's face made it clear that she knew something was up. She turned her gaze over to the stage, and noticed the pony wearing a Wonderbolt uniform. Fluttershy looked back to Rainbow Dash.

"You're... you're still upset about being, kicked out of the Wonderbolts... aren't you?" Fluttershy asked quietly. Rainbow's eyes told her the answer. There was anger inside of them, even a little bit of fire too. But, it wasn't aimed at Fluttershy. No, it was aimed at the stupid Wonderbolt Academy.

"It's just, grr... so frustrating!" Rainbow Dash snarled, which frightened Fluttershy a little bit. Dash looked at her scared friend for a moment, and then tried to soften her voice. "It's always been my dream... you already know that, Fluttershy. I've always dreamt of being a Wonderbolt." Fluttershy gave a meek smile, feeling sorry for her special somepony. She knew that Rainbow Dash always wanted to be a Wonderbolt when she was younger - the rainbow-maned pony was the best flier of the class after all. Heck, she'd even done a Sonic Rainboom, something which many believed to be nothing more than an urban myth. To Fluttershy, if any Pegasus deserved to be a Wonderbolt, it was Rainbow Dash.

"A stray storm cloud that was full of hail... that was all it was," Rainbow Dash continued, "It wasn't like it was on purpose... I'm pretty sure that old Pegasus never liked me. Then, I received the letter, saying that I was kicked out!" Rainbow Dash began to clench her hooves, remembering the thoughts of when she first received the letter. Soon enough though, as quick as the anger came, it vanished. Thoughts of seeing the bloodied couch in Fluttershy's living room, the floor covered with feathers - it all came back.

"An... and then all that happened, with me, yelling... and....." Rainbow Dash found herself beginning to stutter, as she tried desperately to stop thinking about the thoughts of Fluttershy using her teeth to rip out her feathers. Without hesitation, Fluttershy swiftly put a hoof around Rainbow Dash's neck.

"Dash... I said I forgive you... many times, I've said that..." Fluttershy replied, with sadness in her voice, "And, I know you, d-didn't... mean to... but, it's happened now. You can't, ch-change that..." Rainbow Dash hung her head low, knowing that Fluttershy was right. She wished that she could go back in time and stop that moment from ever happening, but the reality was that she couldn't.

"Besides, I'm sure you'll get back in, one day..." Fluttershy continued, trying to make the mood of their conversation more positive, "...they have to let you back in, Dash. You're like, the best flier, that I know. If... if they can't see how, incredibly, uh... awesome, you are, then... then they're missing out!" Rainbow Dash felt a feeling of pride fill her, as her 'ego' began to take over.

"You're darn right I'm awesome!" Rainbow Dash exclaimed, feeling her voice crack a little bit. She rubbed her throat for a little bit, then continued. "I'll find a way to get back in, however long or whatever it may take. ...Thanks for, you know, believing in me, Shy." Fluttershy felt a toothy grin creep up onto her face.

"That's what friends are for, right?" Fluttershy admitted, causing a smirk to come from Rainbow Dash's mouth. They looked into each other's eyes for a moment, their irises sparkling.

"Ok, everyone be quiet, please!" a voice suddenly boomed, catching Fluttershy off guard, causing a small eep to erupt from her. Rainbow Dash scanned the whole room, to try and see who it was that had spoken. It was, the head teacher of the school. Fluttershy removed her hoof from Rainbow Dash. Fluttershy placed both of her hooves on her own lap.

"We'll finish our talk later, ok?" Rainbow Dash whispered to the yellow pony, who gave a quick nod, which meant "Yes." The two ponies still continued to stare at each other for a few more seconds. 'Awww, Fluttershy has to be the cutest pony I've ever known,' thought Rainbow Dash, as she rather felt like just looking at her marefriend, rather than look at the people on stage and listen to a boring lecture from the headteacher.

'I'm so glad that my dream, of being with Rainbow Dash, has finally come true,' Fluttershy quietly thought to herself. It was clear that Fluttershy was shy, as even her thinking voice was quiet. After a few seconds of getting lost into each other's eyes, the two mares finally turned away from each other, and looked at what was going on at the front of the hall.

The whole main hall went from loud conversations everywhere, to complete silence. The headteacher of the school wore a small black ear microphone, so that his voice could be clearly heard from the very front rows, to the very back rows of chairs. After he quickly cleared his throat, the tall stallion began to speak.

"Hello everyone! It's nice to see you all!" he exclaimed loudly, while standing up on his hind legs and waving to everyone. Fluttershy decided to wave back, but Rainbow Dash kept her forelegs crossed, letting out a low grunt. Rainbow wasn't the only pony to not wave back, although most ponies did do so. Fluttershy turned her head around to face the miserable cyan pony next to her, but then decided to look back towards the front and not question her.

"For those of you who don't know me because you weren't here last year, my name is Moonshadow Bristle, though you will call me Mr. Bristle..." continued Mr. Bristle, as Rainbow Dash unfolded her arms and gave a look of confusion. However, Bristle did not notice this. It was at that moment, that the urge to chuckle loudly began to fill the rainbow-maned Pegasi's head. Rainbow hardly had enough time to stop it, but she just about managed to.

'Wait... did he say... Moonshadow Bristle?' Rainbow Dash thought to herself, unsure of whether to believe what she had just heard or not. Rainbow scrunched her nose up, while she bit her bottom lip. 'Bristle!? What kind of name is that!?' Dash pondered, still trying hard not to laugh. Rainbow Dash ended up having to put both of her front hooves over her mouth, to avoid a loud laugh from being heard by everyone.

Fluttershy, on the other hand, was having much more 'serious' thoughts. 'Hmm... I've never seen him before..." Fluttershy thought to herself. Neither Fluttershy or Dash had attended this school last year. In fact, they were at a completely different high school back in Cloudsdale the year before that. The only reason that they both hadn't went to high school last year was because of Shy's depression, along with her 'self-mutilating' incident and a few other things.

To try and make life easier for Fluttershy, as well to (hopefully) get away from any more bullying, Rainbow Dash & Fluttershy both decided to go to this school this year. A whole 12 month's worth of work wasn't going to be easy to catch up on, but both of them knew that it was possible if they tried really hard, as well as if they put their minds to it. Then again, as Rainbow Dash would probably say, the two of them weren't exactly 'eggheads' like Twilight.

"One of my main aims this year is to make sure that each and everyone of you receives the right amount of support that you require," Mr. Bristle declared, "because as you may all be aware, it is going to be a very big and important two years. This means that things will not be easy, but with support from your teachers, I know that you can all achieve the grades that you want."

Everypony in the hall knew what Mr. Bristle was talking about: exams. These next two years were going to be completing work required to do the exams within every subject. Fluttershy knew that from now up until the final exam, that it was going to be difficult and stressful. Along with the other things that she had to worry about as well, Fluttershy feared there was going to be a lot of headaches to come. Rainbow Dash, on the other hand, wasn't anywhere knew as panicky about it. Sure, she wanted to do well, so she was going to put in effort into her work, but things like exams just weren't scary to her. Clowns, on the other hand.....

'Ugggh, clowns...' Rainbow Dash thought, while quickly shuddering. She tried to shake away the memories of being tormented by a clown when she was just a little filly. Well, 'tormented' was maybe an overreaction, but would anyone really like a clown staring down at them with a big grin? Luckily for Rainbow Dash, only herself and her parents knew about the incident. She didn't want her tough image to be shattered by a silly clown.

Without any warning, every light, apart from the big one in the middle, suddenly dimmed. As this happened, Mr. Bristle announced "Without further ado, let me introduce you to some of this school's incredible talent!" It was at that moment, that a couple of ponies walked through the curtains behind where Mr. Bristle was stood. They were all wearing different costumes and outfits. It was as if these ponies were about to put on a play for the others. But, something happened by the curtains, which caught Rainbow Dash's eyes. There was one pony, a young stallion, who was cowering behind the curtains. This reminded her of Fluttershy, except nowhere near as cute.

Music started to play in the background. One of the ponies, a mare with a pale yellow mane and red fur, was playing a trombone, while another mare with dark green fur and an orange mane was singing. They both performed for about 2 minutes, until they stopped, bowed quickly and stepped back from their spotlights, which quickly turned off. 'Seems like they're showing off different talents within each subject...' Fluttershy thought to herself. The next act was a drama performance. Mr. Bristle walked over to the frightened stallion by the curtains and began to talk to him. Then, the pony finally made his way into the big spotlight with the rest of his group. His fur was a peachy colour, while his mane was brown. He had bright green eyes and wore a pair of black-frame square glasses.

Rainbow Dash gave a small, but quiet, yawn as she watched the somewhat boring performance. However, what she soon found shocking was how brave and bold the small stallion could actually be once he got over his stage fright. He seemed to know a majority of his quotes off by heart, as he hardly looked down at the piece of paper below him. Something which the other ponies seemed to struggle with more. He was dressed up as a knight, while he held a cardboard knightly sword in his left wing. Dash had not even noticed that the pony was a Pegasus like her. Another pony, dressed up as a red dragon, pretended to breath fire at the knight. The performance ended up being about 5 and a half minutes long, with the dragon being 'slain' by the brave knight. Everyone clapped, even Rainbow Dash.

"Well, that wasn't too bad actually," Rainbow Dash muttered. The ponies on the stage all bowed to the audience, as they continued to clap. Fluttershy wore a big smile on her face, having enjoyed the show. Even though she was never a fan of violence, she still liked watching the play. She took a quick look at each of the ponies who had performed. However, it was at that point that the once-terrified stallion looked up from the ground. Their eyes met for a second, before Shy swiftly looked away, hiding her eyes with her large pink mane. The pony had a confused look on his face, but shrugged it off and stepped away from the spotlight with the rest of his fellow performers.

Once all of the creative subjects (Art, Drama, Music, etc...) each had ponies showing off some of the work possible, Mr. Bristle stepped back into the center of the stage. "And with that, I finally draw this assembly to a close," Mr. Bristle announced. Rainbow Dash rubbed her eyes, as she looked at the large clock to the left of her. Her pupils widened.

"Jeez, 45 freaking minutes!?" Rainbow Dash murmured under her breath "Talk about dragging it on." Fluttershy moved her head slightly to look at Rainbow Dash, who crossed her forelegs and scrunched up her nose. She presumed her marefriend was probably just ticked off at how long the assembly was going on for, but it was the first day back: an assembly then is always going to be long. Fluttershy gave a small, cheeky smile, before looking back at the stage. Rainbow continued facing Fluttershy, with her eyes squinted. She didn't look very pleased at all.

At that point, Mr. Bristle made a gesture to the front row. "You may now leave the room," said Mr. Bristle with a composed tone. The ponies nodded in response, then left the room in a quiet and calm manner. Ponies on the left exited through the left door, while ponies on the right used the right exit. Row by row, the main hall soon began getting quieter and quieter. Being only on the 5th row, Dash did not have to wait long to leave.

"Next row!" one of the ponies said. The librarian one, to be exact. A big grin began to emerge on Rainbow Dash's face. She had to put a hoof to her mouth, as she nearly shouted in joy. One by one, each pony got up from their seats and walked out of the room with its extremely high ceiling, almost like a church or something.

As she got past the door frame of the main hall's left door, Rainbow did a mini fist-bump in the air. Compared to earlier, she was feeling much happier.

"Phew, finally get to stretch my legs!" Rainbow Dash exclaimed, while the rest of the Mane Six followed her. Of course, Fluttershy didn't delay skipping right next to Rainbow's side.

"I guess it was quite... long," Fluttershy responded, continuing on from Rainbow Dash's comment, "And in some places, a little boring perhaps." The six ponies noticed a piece of paper stuck on the wall near the end of the corridor. Pinkie was eager to check it out.

"Ooo ooo, what is it, what does it say!?" Pinkie yelled, hopping up and down like a maniac. Rarity put a hoof to her face and sighed.

"Ah can't see with you in the way!" Applejack replied, gently brushing past her. Pinkie stopped hopping now, but continued to smile. Applejack placed one hoof under her chin and propped her hat up with the other. "Hmmm, says here we all have-ta go Science fer our first lesson."  Pinkie started to jump again.

"Science? Really?" Rainbow Dash questioned, looking a little disappointed. However, she then thought carefully about it. "Eeeh, could be worse I guess. Like MATHS or something, I hate that." As far as primary school, Dash could never understand Maths that well. Sometimes she was sure that it was all the algebra, expressions and formulas that confused her about each and every topic.

"Ooooo, I wonder what type of Science it will be?" Twilight exclaimed in awe, clearly liking the sound of having Science first. Rainbow Dash rolled her eyes.

"Only eggheads like you would be so thrilled about science," Dash said, wearing a frown on her face. Twilight's head swung round to face Rainbow Dash, while she squinted her eyes at her and had an angry look on her face. Rainbow leaned her head back. "Ok, I'm sorry. Geez, don't take it so personally..."

Applejack decided to walk between the two of them, just to stop any potential fights from happening. "Now now you too, no need to get madder than a wet hen," the cowgirl pony told both Twilight and Rainbow Dash. They both took a deep sigh, then nodded their heads to one another.

"Sorry," the two ponies said in unison. They then turned back round to face what was in front of them. A question suddenly popped up into Twilight's head.

"Wait, so are we in the same classes? Or are we all separate?" Twilight questioned, making the others all 'hmmm' together. At that moment, Rarity thought of something.

"I'm sure we are dear," Rarity responded, "After all, we're all in the same tutor group. Can't see why things would be different." Rainbow Dash, Applejack, Fluttershy and Pinkie Pie all nodded in agreement, not seeing an argument to that. Twilight was about to ask another question, but was interrupted by Rarity's hoof. "Just believe me darling."

Twilight looked slightly annoyed, but decided to not go any further with the conversation. The Mane Six continued walking down the main corridor, then took the first left corridor to enter the Science Department. As they neared the door, Rainbow Dash had an enquiry about something that she wanted to let loose.

"So, there was that pony in the drama show earlier..." Rainbow Dash started, instantly getting Fluttershy's attention. The timid mare was a bit nervous, unsure where her BGFF was going with the topic. "He seemed really similar to you - in terms of his shyness and stuff."

All that Fluttershy could manage was a nod. She felt too embarrassed to say anything. Feeling her cheeks start to burn, she stopped where she stood. Something didn't feel right about that moment. The way he looked at her. As if, it was intentional...

"Ahh, is that the remaining pupils of my class?" a pony from inside the room near where Rainbow was stood said. Seems that the conversation would have to be finished later, which Fluttershy was completely fine about.

"Yes, we're coming now!" Twilight exclaimed, skipping cheerfully into the class. Rainbow Dash closed her eyes and shook her head. Peering into Fluttershy's face, she whispered quietly in her ear.

"We'll talk later," Dash said, as she turned around and walked into the class. Fluttershy tried to shake off her nervousness as best as she could, before quickly following the rest of her friends inside the room. As she entered, Fluttershy closed the door behind her.  The first lesson of the day - was about to begin.