There’s still time, she thought, though less confidently now.
Overhead, the sunset sky blazed quietly, whereas the last of the cumulus clouds deepened to royal purple in protest. Musky scents of spicy pollen sparked as embers inside her nose. Even the land radiated warmth and comfort onto her underbelly, standing though she was.
Hidden among the pink hairs, the jumping spider nibbled the back of Fluttershy’s ear. All the other spiders had long since scuttled away, but her tutor insisted on staying. She just hoped he didn’t get stuck in her lobe again. That had been a bad day at the doctor’s.
It hadn’t been much fun for me either, she thought.
Now she looked out beyond the forest and was casting her shadow over the lip of Ghastly Gorge. The whistling winds in the distance tickled her ears, but otherwise she was submerged in total silence. After a few seconds, jaws growled and snapped, but those were merely the Quarray Eels snapping somewhere up ahead. They snapped at the slightest provocation. She’d considered having a word with them about that. It didn’t seem like a healthy use of their teeth.
Beside her, the mouldy old log sagged with damp. She reached across and lifted it up by the edge. Anything to delay the inevitable.
Tiny woodlice scuttled about the damp bark. Slugs, millipedes, and other small segmented creatures too strange for her to name: they all trickled like oil away from the sudden light and towards the shadows. Somewhere calm, she noted. Somewhere quiet, and steady, and familiar.
She couldn’t resist beaming at them. Ugly, slimy, alien though they were, she saw for a moment herself, ambling or flying back into the cottage she called home. Perhaps they sensed her presence too. Perhaps they wondered, between their hunt for food and their desire not to end up as food, what the pony did. What it liked. How it fit into their little world.
A rainbow streak rose from the far end of the gorge, a firework of colour straining not to explode. Fluttershy gently lowered the log and turned to gasp.
Not that her friend would do anything but laugh or grimace if told so, but Fluttershy gasped at her not merely because of the “awesome” stunts. She gasped because of the play of light and spirals, because of the weightless force slicing easily through the sky despite the frantic blur of the wings, and because of the way she blended the butterfly’s lazy grace with the killer bee’s stinging, buzzing toil.
The streak hissed through the air, and then roared on its approach. Fluttershy didn’t see her slowing down. She took a step back –
A whoomph. One colourful comet faded into a hovering body. Although the twigs and dust rippled outwards under the turbulence, the wings were invisible with speed and the hooves were weightless a foot over the ground. Then, gently, Rainbow Dash stopped flapping and landed with a thump on all fours.
“Wahoo,” said Fluttershy. “That was amazing.”
Behind her ear, the spider knocked a few hairs and ducked out of sight.
“Eh, I’ve done better.” Rainbow shrugged. “I swear I used to clear that gorge in less than two minutes. Darn, I must be getting slow in my old age, huh?”
“Don't be silly. Maybe it was just a bad run. If you try it again, I’m sure you’ll beat your record this time.” Another distant snap broke through. “You shouldn’t tease those eels so much, though.”
“Ha! For real? Come on. That’s the best part. They’ve never caught me yet, but those lamebrains keep trying. Besides, they probably enjoy a good snap.”
“They’re defending their nests. They don’t know you’re playing a game.”
“They’ll pick up on it sooner or later.” Seeing Fluttershy’s glare, she rolled her eyes. “All right, all right. I promise not to bother them again. That’s a real wrench, you know that?”
Fluttershy bowed her head. “I appreciate the gesture.”
While Rainbow Dash sat back and began stretching her triceps, Fluttershy chewed over her words. Of course, watching Rainbow Dash practise her art was a perk, but when cool-down exercises began, that meant the paint and canvas was no longer shielding her.
How do I even begin asking? It’s such a strange thing to open with, and I know I should ask about going with Twilight and Spike. Those two need help, but am I the right pony to give it? I know Rainbow Dash is going, but I thought she didn’t even like… those things. Oh, but did I really think she wouldn’t? She’s always there when you need her.
“Something bugging you, Fluttershy?”
Blindsided by the question, Fluttershy blinked back into reality. “Hm?”
“Wakey-wakey. Not bedtime yet.” Rainbow arched her back. She counted under her breath, and after a while raised her voice. “Seven… eight… nine… Come on. I’ve known you for years. I can practically hear you thinking.”
Fluttershy shrugged helplessly. “Just thinking, I guess.”
“If you say so. And ten.” Rainbow relaxed. No sooner had she lowered her back when she stretched out a rear leg and held it mid-kick. “Wanna do some stretches? Might help you, uh, think better.”
As if feeling my muscles burn ever made me think better, she thought, but then a much more energetic voice added, Why not? It wouldn’t hurt to try it. Maybe it would help me limber up, in mind and in body.
For a few seconds, she patiently took in Rainbow’s next stance, and then flared her wings as far as they would go. Compared to her friend’s albatross-like span, it was barely a pigeon’s stretch, but enough heat and enough tightened tendons warned her to keep the wings where they were.
“Not bad,” said Rainbow, now stretching the wings bolt upright. “You’re holding back, though.”
It’s that obvious? Oh, fine. Let’s get this over with then. “I was wondering about going to the Hair-Splitter’s Nation. Do you think I should go, or should I stay here instead?”
“I meant your wings.”
Fluttershy groaned and forced them to stretch a bit further. “Oh. I see. Of course.”
“And well, I dunno. That’s up to you.” Rainbow folded her wings again, and now stretched the other rear leg right behind her. “It’s a little late to ask, though. The train leaves tomorrow morning.”
“I know, I know. But I’m still not sure. I really want to help, but I’m not sure I can. And no one else wants to get close to the Hair-Splitters if they can help it.” Stretching out her own leg, she skewed her jaw thoughtfully. “How come you’re going, anyway?”
“Because look who you’re talking to.” The grin barely nudged her cheeks into her half-asleep, relaxed eyes. She even bobbed her head slightly. “Oh, Applejack might have a case of turning chicken, but I’m made of tougher stuff. Those Hair-Splitters don’t scare me at all.”
All the same, she was giving Fluttershy a sidelong frown, almost daring her to disagree.
Aha, thought Fluttershy. So the bluster’s only skin deep. I think I know how to handle that.
“Good to know,” she said sweetly. Both of them synchronized their next stretch, sitting back and raising one foreleg up and over, sticking their elbows up into the air, and touching whatever spot along their napes they could reach. Staring slightly past each other, they could have been re-coloured reflections. “So I guess that means you’re not scared of things like spiders anymore either.”
She caught the defiant glare, but trumped it with her own cool, honest gaze. I’m wise to your tricks, Rainbow.
“Sure,” said Rainbow, trying to sound calm. “I mean, spiders. Ha. They’re only another kind of insect.”
“Technically, they’re arachnids.”
“And what do you mean, ‘not scared anymore’? When have I ever been scared of them?”
“Well, I remember you used to scream back in Flight Camp if one of the baby ones floated onto your mane. You didn’t like the silk threads getting caught in your eyes.”
“That was –” Rainbow shifted to the other leg. As she did so, she wiped her glare out in favour of a more blasé gaze to match hers. “That doesn’t count. Fillies are always scared of things like that. I grew out of it.”
Fluttershy also shifted legs. Unspoken were the words, Except for me. They never scared me. Not when I was a filly, at least.
Behind her ear, the little jumping spider tapped a code onto her skin: Feeling… hot… come… out… question… mark. “Then you won’t mind if my friend comes out of hiding?”
Triumphantly, she spotted the flash of panic before Rainbow’s face calmed down. “Mind? Me? Hahaha… Wh-Why would I mind? Any f-friend of yours is a fr-friend of mine, right? It’s not like I’m scared. Because I’m not.”
Fluttershy listened to the taps on her ear lobe. For a moment, she thought she’d misunderstood. The taps came more urgently, however, leaving no doubt.
“OK,” she whispered. “If you say so.” A little more loudly, she said to Rainbow, “But… since I’m feeling like a little exercise, I suppose we could make things a bit more interesting?”
Suspicious eyes narrowed. “Interesting how?”
Honestly, Rainbow. Do I need to spell it out? For someone so supersonic-speedy, you can be shockingly slow-witted. Frowning at herself, Fluttershy shook her head to dislodge the rude thoughts.
“I mean we give each other a challenge. You challenge me. I challenge you. It’s a kind of game.” And because even confident Fluttershy had her limits, she added, “But nothing too challenging. Or dangerous. Or scary.”
She didn’t like the grin she was getting. Against the fiery sunset, Rainbow’s ragged mane and broad teeth gave her a vaguely demonic look. Even her ears pointed a bit too stiffly.
“Nothing scary, huh?” She winked. “I like this new attitude, Flutters. You been talking to someone?”
“Maybe,” said Fluttershy. Shouting would be more like it. I’ve got to find that poor funnel-web later on and apologize.
“All right.” Rainbow stopped her stretches. Spitting into her hoof and extending it, she said, “You got yourself a deal.”
“I was thinking maybe we could just do it now.” Fluttershy drew her cringing face away from the steady dripping.
Grunting, Rainbow lowered her hoof. “No biggie. OK. Challenge… challenge… let’s see… Aha. I got it. You see that rock over there?”
Fluttershy followed her gaze, but she barely needed to. She’d always avoided looking at that particular rock formation, especially when the sunlight hit it exactly as it did now. Far over the Ghastly Gorge, standing as sentinel to the mountains on the horizon, the bulging, spiky-necked, curled form of Dragon’s Rock breathed under the shifting crepuscular rays of sunset.
Baby dragons like Spike gave her no problem. Everyone had talked about the one time when she’d shouted down a smoking dragon near Ponyville. And when she wasn’t being dragged to the door to watch hundreds of them fly overhead on migration, she used to sip her tea and occasionally wonder if normal dragons were, in their own scaly, fire-breathing, oversized, cranky, hungry, monstrously terrifying ways, a bit like ponies.
She felt her knees shake with the urge to gallop. Which is stupid, said the thoughtless voice inside her. That’s clearly nothing more than a heap of sandstone. No one ever ran away from a pile of rocks. In fact, if you tilt your head and squint, the neck spines are really just the pits in the mountain slope behind it. That old story about it being a dragon turned to stone is only a story. Nothing worse than that.
Not trusting herself to speak, she nodded.
“I dare you…” Rainbow rubbed the pasterns of her front legs together with glee. “I dare you to fly there, touch the Dragon’s Rock, and then come back. Bring a pebble or something to prove it. I know that rock, so I’ll know it’s the real deal.”
Fluttershy tried to smile, but a rictus broke out before she could pull it back down again. Heat flared up around her, though she was sure the actual evening had gotten cooler.
“OK,” she said. “OK.”
She squared her shoulders, unfurled her wings, gave one glance to Rainbow Dash in case she miraculously changed her mind, and threw herself forwards.
To her delight, the cool wind snatched up the knot twisting inside her chest. Heavy feelings broke apart under the ice. She could imagine the fragments drifting away in the slipstream. Below her, Ghastly Gorge ran alongside as a granite river, deafening her with its endless whistling. Behind her ear, the jumping spider bit into her skin. She barely felt a twinge, though she did slow down, from streaking past the plains to letting them cruise past instead.
Despite herself, a giggle escaped her lips. The world rolled along. Meadow larks broke cover. She saw quails and pheasants hop away from her shadow.
Then she looked up. Dragon’s Rock loomed.
Every one of the crags and jagged ridges was too close. As soon as the wind died down, the heavy feelings clumped together. She felt herself drifting downwards ever so slightly. The mere head, tucked under its sloping tail, stared at her with a shadow of an eye.
Frantically, she forced her wings to splay out. Eddies battered her pinions.
The jumping spider bit hard enough to sting.
I know. I know. It’s only a rock, she thought, and riding on the thought came a new sight. The head was just a pile of boulders. The tail was just a flattened hill set against the distant crags. Even the shadow eye was clearly a crevice between two sandstone chunks.
Sand grains filled her new sight. Beating her wings to hover, she plucked a single stone right from the flank.
Rainbow Dash nodded as soon as she touched down again. “Cool! To be honest, I thought you were gonna chicken out for a second there. Sweet work, Fluttershy.”
“Don’t make me do that again.” But she felt her heart flip in her chest when she tossed the stone at Rainbow’s hooves.
“Just a stupid rock after all. You see? Nothing to it when you get your mind in the game.”
So much talking. I wonder if you’ve got your mind in the game? “Uh, thanks. And I can see why you fly so much. That was such a pleasant journey, especially the way the sunset made everything look so golden.”
“Golden. Yeah. Pretty. That’s just what I was thinking.”
A few snipping sounds carried from behind Fluttershy’s ear. The rude part of her mind poked its head through her face; she gave her friend a withering smile.
“So how about you step up to hear my challenge now? If I can touch a silly dragon rock, then Rainbow Dash shouldn’t have any problems whatsoever.”
“Aheheheh…” Rainbow tried a smirk, but her pinprick pupils wanted nothing to do with it. “Of course not. So, uh, you wanted me to say hi to a friend, you said?”
“Uh huh.”
“A little friend, is it?”
“Tiny.”
“Right. And how many legs does this friend have?”
“Eight. Are we doing this or not?”
“Just asking. Just asking. Say the word. I’m good to go.”
Fluttershy nodded. She could see the bead of sweat running down Rainbow’s forehead, and another, much more familiar part of her mind smoothed her own face down.
“Don't worry. It'll be easy-peasy.”
“Sure! Never said it wasn't.” One eye twitched.
“OK, then. You can come out now,” she whispered.
Little legs tickled her lobe. She fought not to giggle as the pitter-patter of feet crossed her temple. Rainbow’s straining eyes tracked the spider’s progress, especially when Fluttershy reached up and let it settle on her hoof.
Oh, you silly spider, she thought.
What she held up was a ball of pink fuzz.
Now Rainbow’s face broke. Her eyelids shielded her gaze. She bit down hard, but strange squeaks poked through. Hastily, she put a hoof over her mouth.
The pink-wrapped jumping spider waved a pompom pedipalp up at her. So many of Fluttershy’s hairs had been spun into those waving things that the whole spider looked like the world’s smallest cheerleader.
Finally, Rainbow burst out laughing. Fluttershy’s wings flopped. Thank goodness.
“His name is Squeaky Clean,” she said.
“Hahahaaaaa! I’ll say!” Rainbow wiped an imaginary tear from her eye. “So, so is he supposed to look like that?”
“Sure.”
She leaned forwards, sniffing cautiously. “Are those… your hairs?”
“Rainbow Dash, I present to you the rarest species of spider in the world. The pink orang-utan spider.”
“Huh.” When Squeaky waved up at her again, she waved back. Her cheeks blushed. “I see where he got the name from. Um… does he bite?”
Fluttershy rolled her eyes. “Only when he’s eating. Here. Would you like to hold him?”
At first, Rainbow ducked backwards from her thrusting hoof. They held steady for a few seconds, however, and soon she was rising back up. Slowly, shaking slightly, her hoof edged towards the pink mess.
“Now, go easy,” said Fluttershy warningly. “It’s her first time.”
The first of the stars twinkled overhead. The whistling died to a dull murmuring. Hidden crickets chirped and hidden owls hooted and screeched. When the last spidery leg left Fluttershy’s hoof and patted Rainbow’s, Fluttershy lowered her limb. She beamed at Rainbow’s disbelieving chuckles.
“You know,” said Rainbow Dash, stiff-limbed though she clearly was, “they’re not so bad, really.”
“I think I know what I’m doing tomorrow,” said Fluttershy, but she might as well have been talking to herself. In the dying light, the gleams of the hairs stood out while the pink threads faded away.
Oh yes. I understand now. And I think I've got this all figured out.