//------------------------------// // Flash // Story: Little Glimpses // by Skijarama //------------------------------//     “Um… is she okay?” Twilight asked with a raised eyebrow, looking at Fluttershy, who was at present still shrinking back from her. Rainbow gave a small nod before gently patting Fluttershy on the back.     “Yeah, she’s fine. She’s always like this; she’s Fluttershy for a reason.” Rainbow explained simply before nudging the timid pegasus with a hoof, making her jump. “Hey. it’s alright, Fluttershy. Twilight’s cool. She’s kind of an enormous egghead, but-”     “Hey!”     “...But she’s a good pony. Trust me on that.” Rainbow finished while smirking at Twilight tauntingly.     Fluttershy finally managed to find her nerves, even if just barely. She slowly, ever so slowly came forward before opening her mouth to say hello. Unlike her nerves, however, her voice did not return it would seem. Whatever she said to Twilight in greeting went completely undeciphered, coming out as no more than a barely pronounced murmur. She winced under her own shyness and blushed slightly.     Twilight tilted her head. “I’m sorry, what was that?”     Fluttershy repeated herself, shrinking away slightly with long locks of her pink mane falling over her face.     “Didn’t quite catch that…” Twilight said awkwardly before recoiling at the frown Rainbow was giving her.. Rainbow instantly stepped slightly between Fluttershy and Twilight, putting a hoof on Fluttershy’s shoulder in a comforting gesture while looking at Twilight disapprovingly.. ““Okay, Twi, ease up. Give her some space.”     “Oh, sorry.” Twilight said sheepishly, swiftly stepping back to give the two some room for themselves. Rainbow nodded in thanks before turning to Fluttershy to catch up with her old friend. While they talked, Twilight sat herself down and decided to simply relax her sore muscles for a while. Rainbow was undoubtedly in better shape than Twilight was by a league and a half. Still, Twilight had to admit it did feel nice to work her muscles a bit while her mind was resting.     And at least Rainbow Dash had taken a liking to that Daring Do book. Supposedly, book two was in the works right now and would be published sometime next year. Rainbow was still rather reluctant to try other books, and her tastes with the written word were very specific.     It has to be awesome and cool. Plenty of action and excitement and stuff like that.     Twilight rolled her eyes at the memory before gazing once more at Rainbow and Fluttershy talking to each other in what looked like a very involved discussion. Fluttershy was now fussing over Rainbow by the looks of it and assaulting her with questions. Spike, meanwhile, was just observing the proceedings with a curious expression while slowly waddling up to Twilight. “Who’s that?” He asked once he was next to Twilight, pointing at Fluttershy.     “That’s Fluttershy, an old friend of Rainbow’s apparently. I guess she came all the way from Cloudsdale just to visit,” Twilight replied with a small smile when the two shared an embrace. “Looks like things are going well.”     Then Fluttershy looked towards Twilight. Her eyes shifted instantly to Spike. In less than a second, Fluttershy’s shy and timid exterior gave way to a face of joyous excitement. “A baby dragon?!” She sqeualed in delight before launching herself at Spike excitedly.     “Stranger danger!” Spike blurted, flailing back in alarm. Twilight herself ducked to the side in an effort to evade the yellow missile. She hit the ground with a grunt and got some unwanted grass stuck on her lower lip. From where she was, Twilight could hear Spike let out an audible sigh of relief when Fluttershy stopped short of running him over and brought herself down to appear less threatening.     “Oh… I’m sorry. I didn’t scare you, did I?” she asked softly, her ears falling against her head.     “Uh… No?” Spike said with his face twisting up slightly. “Just… surprised.”     “Oh, good... “ Fluttershy sighed in relief before her eyes lit up again. “Wow, you can talk! I had now idea that dragons could talk!”     “I’m still lorning,” Spike said before realizing he mispronounced that word. He rolled it around in his mouth for a second before trying again, “Learning.”     Fluttershy giggled cutely. “Oh, that’s so cute. What do dragons talk about?”     “I’unno.” Spike replied with a shrug before looking to Twilight. His face scrunched up into an unsure frown.     “Oh…” Fluttershy sagged slightly. The moment was broken by Rainbow Dash bursting into an uncontrollable fit of giggles and laughs.     “Oh yeah, that’s Fluttershy alright. All shy and reclusive until you bring in cute and exotic creatures, hah!” she swooped over and hugged Fluttershy again.     “Uh… Twilight?” Spike asked before standing up from his toppled position. When no answer came, he slowly walked to his caretaker, who was looking at Fluttershy with blank, unmoving eyes. Spike waved a claw in front of her face. “Twilight? Are you okay?”     Twilight blinked in alarm before covering her eyes with her hooves. A shudder went through her body and her ears fell flat against her head. Her breaths starting becoming heavier, as if she were exercising extremely heavily. Immediately, Rainbow shot over to Twilight, worry written all over her face. “Equestria to Twilight! Can you hear me?” Rainbow asked, gently poking Twilight.     Her words didn’t get through. All Twilight could hear was her heartbeat and a ringing growing in her ears. Her head felt heavy and clouded and her vision was going blurry. She looked up briefly at Fluttershy, who was looking back fearfully. Before Twilight could say anything, her vision was flooded with a blinding white light.     “Hello!”     “Huh?!”     “Oh my gosh. I’m so sorry! I didn’t mean to frighten your birds. I’m just here to check up on the music and it sounded beautiful.”     “...”     “I’m Twilight Sparkle.”     “...”     “What’s your name?”     “Um… my name is…”     “I’m sorry, what was that?”     “My name is… is flutter…”     “Didn’t quite catch that.”     “...”     “Uh, well it looks like your birds are back. Keep up the good work!”     “Mhmm…”     “Ooookay.”     “...”     Twilight watched the scene unfolding before her as well as she could. There was a thick haze obscuring everything. It looked as if she was watching a first meeting between herself and Fluttershy as adults in some small village. Everything was blurry and fuzzy, sounds were muffled and distant.     Then, she felt a shake. The world trembled, her vision shattered and the world around her splintered into millions of tiny fragments. She felt like she was falling. In the corner of her eye, she spied numerous lavender feathers falling alongside her.     “Oh dear… is this normal?” Fluttershy asked while gently stepping forward. “Is she having a seizure?”     Twilight remained unresponsive to the external stimuli. Rainbow poked her again before growling in frustration and worry. “I don’t think so. I’ve never seen her do this before…” Rainbow muttered before, in a huff, she firmly gripped Twilight’s shoulders and shook her roughly. “Twilight, wake up!”     “Huh?” Twilight jumped with a gasp, removing her forehooves from her eyes and looking around madly for several seconds. Seeing Rainbow holding her shoulders got her to calm down enough to think after a few moments. “Wha… what happened? What was that? Did any of you see that, too?”     “Twilight. Slow. Down,” Rainbow said firmly before slowly backing off. “What happened? What are you talking about?”     Twilight’s ears flicked numerous times in an effort to get the residual ringing out of her ears. “I… I’m not sure. I… I saw something. Like… like a vision,” she mumbled, trying to wrap her head around it.     “A vision? Of what? Was it something exciting?” Rainbow asked while looking over Twilight’s still rattled body. “It looked kinda intense.”     “Seeing it was… something else, yes. But the vision itself…” Twilight looked to Fluttershy with wide, confused eyes. “...The vision was… pretty mundane, actually.”     “What? Really?” Rainbow asked incredulously. “In what way?”     Twilight pointed at Fluttershy with a slightly shaky hoof. “I saw Fluttershy and I. I saw us meeting for what looked like the first time. But it wasn’t here and we weren’t fillies. We were adults.”     Rainbow frowned before looking back at Fluttershy apologetically. “Hey, I’m really sorry about this, but I need to get Twilight to Princess Celestia. Do you mind waiting here? We can get caught up when I get back.”     “Rainbow, I’m fine… I think,” Twilight said, trying to stand and wobbling in the process. “Just a little dizzy.”     “Hey, if you’re seeing stuff that isn’t there, I’d like to get that curbed before you go total psycho on me,” Rainbow shot back before taking flight and picking up Twilight as she did so.     ‘I’m not crazy!” Twilight yelped as she was lifted into the air against her will.     “Yet…” Was all Rainbow said before shooting off at near sonic speeds for the throne room. Princess Celestia would be holding court there, after all.     Fluttershy watched her friend go with a stunned expression. Gradually her face fell and turned despondent. “Okay… I’ll just wait here… alone…”     “Alright, now that that case is settled…” Celestia muttered under her breath while the two petitioning ponies left the room. She brought up a stack of papers in her magic, checked a box and signed in the appropriate places, then set the sheet down on a separate stack. ‘We can move on to the next. Let’s just hope this one isn’t as… grueling.”     Before Celestia could send for the next petitioners, the doors were thrown open rather abruptly and unceremoniously by a rainbow-colored projectile moving almost at the speed of sound. Celestia winced in mild surprise while her horn lit up to keep her various stacks of paper held together. Rainbow came to a stop just in front of Celestia, the resulting gust of her arrival knocking the helmets off of the royal guards who stood at attention on either side of the throne.     Twilight, dangling from Rainbow’s forelegs, looked up at Princess Celestia and waved bashfully. “Hi…”     “Rainbow Dash, could you explain what you’re doing, please?” Celestia asked patiently while her adoptive daughter set Twilight down.     “Yeah. Twilight’s gone nuts-”     “I’M NOT CRAZY!”     “Says the psycho - and so I brought her here to you. Can you do anything to help her out, Celestia?” Rainbow asked while taking a step to the side to avoid an angry swipe from Twilight.     Celestia raised an eyebrow. “I… beg your pardon?”     “Twilight was seeing and hearing things that simply weren’t there,” Rainbow explained a bit more seriously. “Even if it isn’t her going crazy I still think she needs to be looked at.”     Celestia raised an eyebrow and smiled fondly at Rainbow Dash. She then looked to Twilight and stepped from her throne. Twilight fidgeted uneasily in place while Celestia looked her over. When she had finished an initial examination, Celestia turned to one of her guards. “Please escort Twilight to my chambers. I will be there shortly.”     “Right away, your highness.” The guard replied in a gravely voice before motioning to Twilight.     Twilight looked up at Celestia uneasily. “Is something wrong with me? Like, actually wrong?”     “Not on the outside, and I doubt anything is seriously wrong at all. But you didn’t outright deny Rainbow Dash’s claim of seeing and hearing things; and I get the feeling you did see something that others didn’t,” Celestia explained to Twilight carefully. “I simply don’t want to take any unneeded chances with my prized pupil.”     Twilight nodded before silently and nervously following the guard out of the throne room. She glanced briefly over her shoulder at Rainbow Dash, who herself now looked legitimately worried. When the doors to the throne room closed, Celestia turned to Rainbow with a smile.     “I’m proud of you, Rainbow Dash,” she said suddenly, earning a confused glance from Rainbow Dash.     “Huh?”     “When Twilight showed signs that something wasn’t quite right, you took the time needed to bring her to somepony you trusted could make sure she was fine. You took the initiative with your friend’s well being. When I first brought you here almost seven months ago, you probably would have just shrugged it off or procrastinated on it until it became glaringly serious.” Celestia noted with her smile widening. “You’ve grown quite well in such a short amount of time, I feel.”     Rainbow shrugged and rubbed the back of her head. “Heh… I guess some of her meticulous planning and contingencies might have rubbed off on me a bit.”     “That’s not surprising. And besides, the two of you are around each other so much that, sometimes, I can’t help but think you two would be perfect sisters.” Celestia smirked teasingly and Rainbow shot her a look.     “Nope.”     “But it would be so cute!” Celestia teased even more, disposing of her regal tone for the time being. The guards didn’t get to see her like this often, but when she decided to unwind and be this casual, it was only with Rainbow Dash.     “Stop.”     "Oh, you’re no fun…”