//------------------------------//
// Chapter 17 - Rainbow Crash 
// Story: Artemis 
// by gcsmith 
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Fluttershy was out in the fields, her animal friends around her, and her face buried in her hooves. She had been there since that morning, after waking up with Rainbow Dash nearby. For moments she had been confused as to her friend nearby, and then she remembered the party. The comforting hand of Artemis, then the dread as he hadn't read her letter, the letter she had tried to word right so not to upset him.

She didn't know why she ran out like she did, after all, there could be many reasons he hadn't read the letter yet. Besides, the letter didn't really contain anything important, merely an invitation to meet and talk. He had come, hadn't he? even without reading the note. She could of talked to him then and there, but oh no, she had to be so sensitive and get upset over nothing.

Of course, Rainbow, the element of loyalty had stuck beside her as she left. Despite telling her nothing was wrong. Unfortunately, she didn't accept that, and only made Fluttershy feel worse. Rainbow kept talking about Artemis, as if he was somehow to blame for how her friend felt, yet he wasn't. He couldn't help how she felt, no more than she could help how he felt.
Fluttershy felt completely hopeless, was there any chance she could get over this?

She began to sob again, her tears flowing over her arms and nourishing the grass around her. A small furry hand touched the side of her muzzle, she ignored it's gently presence, until it drew back and struck her roughly in the face leaving a large red mark. Angel Bunny stood angrily next to her, his expression attempting to say get a grip girl. Looking at her rabbit she sniffed, he was right, this wasn't how she should behave. 

Shaking her head she began to stand up, she didn't know what it was she felt, not fully. But, there was no way she would work it out by lying there crying, she would have to mull it over and discuss to Artemis soon. 

Just then there was a mighty crack, like the sound of a tree breaking, coming from the top of a nearby hill. She could just notice a pillar of dust appearing in the sky, and just hear the words "Rainbow!" shouted in a southern drawl. Holding onto her tears, and drying her muzzle, she set off. She hoped her friends were ok.

-x-

Artemis was lying back on a bed, light streaming into the room, and feathers tickling his right ear. He turned to see a buttermilk coloured pegasus, the pegasus of his dreams, lying there beside him. Her smiled was obvious on her face, as she used her wings to get his attention.

"Twilight is here, honey." She said, his face contorting into confusion. 'Did she just call me honey?' he thought to himself.

He didn't have time to process it, she came in close and kissed him, right on the lips. He noticed Twilight in the doorway, she saw, and apparently did not approve. The last thing he remembered was being seared by a very angry Rapidash.

-x-

Artemis awoke, another thumping head ache and another dream involving Twilight and some romance, were his constant companions in the morning it seemed. He felt something sting his head, and then land on his chest, a carrot. Looking over, there was a rabbit in the room, a very grumpy rabbit. Angel, of course, if there was any reason for Artemis to have a pain in the head, it would be him.

"Could you cut that out, please?" asked Artemis. Angel shook his head, throwing another carrot for good measure. Sighing, Artemis realized there was no reasoning with this rabbit. Instead, deciding to take a different approach, he lifted a carrot to his mouth and munched on it.

If looks could kill, the stare Angel was giving him right now would. It looked like the rabbit was furious that his weapons of assault were being used as food. The pet jumped up onto Artemis' chest, kicking the carrot away, and grabbing onto the human's collar. It then went on to shake it's other fist, as if to bash him one for his cheeky behavior, when a wing gracefully wrapped around the rabbit and pulled it of his chest.

Looking around, he spotted the owner of the wing, sheepishly hiding from his gaze under her mane. Fluttershy, for who else could it be, looked a mess. Her eyes red and poofy, a large red mark on the side of her phase, it was rather small and shaped similar to the furry fists now waving at him.

Anger welled up inside Artemis, no one should slap Fluttershy and get away with it, he made a mental not to talk to Angel later. For now he settled for getting up out of bed, however as he began to sit up, a sharp pain ran up his side. Seeing his pained expression, she quickly put the rabbit down, and approached him. Her best motherly expression across her face.

"Oh dear, are you ok Artie..?" she caught herself before continuing. "I mean Artemis." He tried to move again, another shot of pain causing him to spasm, before she forced him to lie down. "Hmm, it seems Rainbow got you harder than I first thought," she gave him a weak comforting smile. Not that she needed to, her presence was enough to calm him. "Don't you worry now, I have something that shall make it all better."

He was surprised, the mothering, get well soon Fluttershy, was clearly more self confident. 'Must be because of her animals, and the care she shows them,' he thought to himself.

She soon returned, a tray in her fore hooves, balancing a bowl of soup and a vial of a strange green liquid on top. She placed the tray on his lap, and uncorked the vial. A fowl stench assaulted his sinuses, whatever was in that vial, he was determined not to swallow. Noticing a change in his demeanor when she opened the vial, she placed her hooves on her hips. "Now don't be like that, this potion is something I got from a friend of ours, Zecora. I kept in case of a series injury, and it just so happens it should work wonders. Now open wide."

"Fluttershy, I am not going to..." Artemis began, unfortunately he didn't get to finish his protest. She took complete advantage of his open mouth and poured the contents of the vial into it. Before he could recover from the shock of her brazen attitude all of a sudden. Next, she jammed his mouth shut, holding a hoof there to keep it closed, and she pinched his nose shut by lightly biting on it. The closeness, and the fact she was biting his nose, made Artemis blush. But, it did have the desired affect, forcing him to swallow the foul tasting mixture.

Hearing the swallow, she spoke. "Good, that didn't hurt you now, did it?" Her voice rather quiet, barely more than a whisper.

Feeling the bridge of his nose, ensuring no more damage had been done to him, he responded dryly. "No, I guess not."

She gave a smile, and a squee, and took the bowl of soup from the tray. "Well, as a reward for being so co-operative..." Angel gave a rather obvious cough, interrupting her speech, this earned him a stare from her which caused him to be rather still. "As a reward for being so co-operative, you can have this soup, it's not much but its home made and I'm sure you'll enjoy it." With that, she placed the bowl of soup, as well as a rather old looking wooden spoon, within his grasp. 

The soup looked like a vegetable soup of some kind, it also looked and smelled delicious, and would at least get rid of the horrible taste from his mouth. Artemis turned to thank her, however she was gone, obviously busy tending to her other animals. Shrugging his shoulders, he tucked into the food, he could thank her later.

-x-

After giving him some medicine and soup, Fluttershy had left her small cottage to continue her discussion with Applejack and Rainbow. Well more like sit and listen while they argue, but she felt it was important for her to be there.

"Ah swear Rainbow, y'all did that on purpose!" Applejack was yelling when Fluttershy approached them again.

"Of course I did, I also flew into the tree nearly breaking my win again, on purpose as well." Rainbow retorted, sarcasm dripping off her tongue.

"Girls..." Fluttershy tried to interrupt, her soft voice not carrying over to the two in heated debate.

"Well sugarcube, you have hardly shown him much of a welcome, you know."

"I don't see why we should show him a welcome, he just appeared out of nowhere, and were expected to trust him?"

"Girls..." Again, Fluttershy was far to quiet to interrupt.

"Rainbow! Is that how mah family treated you when you turned up out of the blue one day, stealing apples from ah orchard?"

Rainbow looked dejected, "No, but..."

"Girls!.." Fluttershy yelling now, still far too quietly to be heard other the two bickering ponies."

"No buts, Artemis is all alone here Rainbow, something I would thought you would understand. Yet instead of trying to be friendly to him, you go and crash into him at the first opportunity, even after his broken legs."

Rainbow was almost crying now, tears welling up in her eyes, "I said it was an accident..."

"Girls!" screamed Fluttershy, flying in-between the two to finally get their attention. Both ponies turned their attention to their friend, who suddenly became sheepish again under their combined stares. "I mean, can we stop the arguing? Please"

There was a moments silence before the farm mare spoke. "Your right, Shy, We shouldn't be arguing like this. Sorry Rainbow."

"It's ok Applejack, your right, I should of given him more of a chance. But, he did make Fluttershy cry, you can't say he doesn't have to say sorry."

Fluttershy shook her head, "I've told you, Rainbow, he didn't do anything to make me cry."

"See, told you Rainbow, now you go on in there and say you're sorry." Said Applejack, nodding her head.

"Fine. But, I still don't trust him" said Rainbow, landing on the ground, determined to take as long to get to him as possible.

Inside, Artemis was just finishing off his soup. He agreed with Fluttershy, it was rather delicious. He was even beginning to agree, no matter how loathe to do so, that the medicine was doing him some good. He could hardly feel the pain in his side. Just about to lay down to sleep again, he didn't know how long he had been out, but he felt he needed some proper sleep. Suddenly, he saw a face peer around the doorway, a cyan face which he hoped wasn't here to pound him again.

Silence hang in the room as Rainbow stepped in without knocking, until they both blurted "Sorry!" out at the same time.

Both of them looked rather confused, why was the other one apologizing. As far as Rainbow was concerned, she had been unfairly treating Artemis. Whereas, from his point of view, he thought he deserved her to dislike him. After all, he had somewhat upset Fluttershy.

Silence reigned again in the room, until a Artemis coughed, clearing his throat and spoke. "Why are you sorry?"

Rainbow mumbled a barely audible reply.

"What was that?" he asked

She approached the bed, and a little louder replied. "Because of how I treated you."

He smiled, "Oh that? I don't have a problem with that."

"But..."

"No really, I'm surprised the others have been as welcoming as they have. I mean I must be a rather strange creature to you. Don't get me wrong, I don't like how you treated me, but it's understandable, especially if you thought I was hurting your friends."

Rainbow began to smile, at least the human wasn't going to hold anything against her.

"So, how long was I out?" he asked.

"Ah, about that..." she took to the air, ready to get out quickly in case Artemis got angry. "You've been out for one and half days."

Artemis' face went blank, his eyes starting to twitch. "So, I guess I've missed my days with Fluttershy and Twilight?" His tone rather neutral.

She rubbed her neck rather sheepishly. "Yeh, I'm sorry about that. Still... Twilight studied you rather a lot while you were out. Although she did do a rather lot of giggling, so I'm not sure it was all good..."

Artemis smiled, crazy thoughts involving Twilight wearing a white lab coat cackling over his unconscious body, running through his mind. "I guess I ended up spending time with her in a way then, and I guess this is Fluttershy's cottage?"

"Yeh, it is." Rainbow smiled, glad she had got off rather free. She moved up to Artemis, giving him a nudge on his arm with her hoof. "I guess you're ok."

He laughed, "That's good, didn't like having one of you dislike me. So anyway about tomorrow..." He swallowed, rather nervous about how she would react to this. "I kinda have some tickets to see a certain show, if you want to go..?"