“There it is!” Rainbow finally proclaimed after almost half an hour of searching, jabbing her forehoof in the direction of the house in question. For the first fifteen minutes of their search she had insisted on going about it without asking for directions. She felt she still knew her way around well enough to not need the help. But being a city made entirely of moldable clouds, the city layout had changed somewhat since she had lived there. At last they got directions to the residential slab of cloud when Twilight asked (much to Dash’s irritation.)
And it was indeed Fluttershy’s house. A quaint little place, Twilight noted. Stylish but cozy and very well kept. A garage sat behind the main house, a middle-aged stallion that Twilight instantly recognized as Fluttershy’s father stepping out with a satisfied look on his face.
Rainbow wasted no time in announcing her presence. She shoot up with a snap of her wings and waved enthusiastically down on the home. “Heey! We’re heere!” she called out before swooping down for the front door. Twilight rolled her eyes before following along, Celestia only a few paces ahead.
Before they reached the home, however, Celestia outstretched a wing to stop Twilight. She looked down to her student with an apologetic grimace. “I’m sorry, Twilight, but as much as I wish to be here from the start, I feel it best if I excuse myself from this for the time being.”
Twilight raised an eyebrow in confusion. “Really? Why?”
Celestia sighed and folded her wing back against her side. “Rainbow Dash, Fluttershy and you are all fillies of similar age. We came here for Rainbow Dash, so that she could visit her friend and you were invited along. I want you and Dash to just spend some time to be fillies. You aren’t going to be this young forever and I would like for both of you to make the most of it. If I am present, however, my… status will run the risk of disrupting that environment for everypony.”
Twilight made an ‘o’ with her mouth in understanding before clearing her throat. “I understand, Princess Celestia. What are you going to do in the meantime, if you don’t mind me asking?”
“I think I’ll pay the rainbow factory a visit. It’s one of Equestria’s most precious pieces of industrial construction, after all. It makes me proud to see how far my little ponies have come…” Celestia smiled fondly before a distant look came over her eyes.
“Princess?”
Celestia snapped out of it and smiled warmly down at Twilight. “Forgive me. Just reminiscing.”
Twilight opened her mouth to say more but was instantly interrupted by the loud voice of Rainbow Dash shouting at her from a newly procured megaphone. “HEY, KILLJOY! GET OVER HERE, WILL YA!?”
Twilight rolled her eyes at the use of that nickname before cantering past Celestia. She briefly paused on the way to wave at the solar princess, who returned the gesture, before breaking into a gallop to meet up with Rainbow and Fluttershy, the latter of which had left the confines of her house to be reunited with her old friend. There was another foal there, a colt with a teal coat and a ragged blonde mane and tail, and he was grinning widely at Dash.
“Took ya long enough,” Rainbow huffed when Twilight finally arrived. Her eyes tilted up to spot Celestia as she was turning to leave. A small frown split her face. “Where’s she going?”
“To let us have un-disrupted filly-time, I guess.” Twilight answered before looking to the teal colt, who was now looking at her with a raised eyebrow. “Who are you? Another friend?”
Rainbow rolled her eyes when said teal colt reeled back and slapped a forehoof to his chest in mock shock. She then turned and gestured as the aforementioned colt. “Right. Suppose I should have warned ya before we got here. This is Zephyr Breeze…”
Fluttershy nodded slightly. “Yes, and he’s my younger brother.”
“Not by much, sis.” Zephyr said with a smirk, his voice carrying a candid and casual tone that instantly set off warning bells in Twilight’s mind. He puffed up a bit before turning back to Twilight and looking her over. He then held out a hoof which smelt like it had not been showered recently. “A pleasure.”
“Nice to meet you, too. You know, I was never told Fluttershy had a brother.” Twilight said with a small, friendly smile. Zephyr looked to Rainbow incredulously.
“Rainbow, gal, why didn’t ya say anything? You know me almost as well as you know Fluttershy, here!” he complained, only for Rainbow to level a flat look at him.
“Yeah, but there isn’t nearly as much to know, so that doesn’t count for much.” she said bluntly, earning a dismissive snort from Zephyr.
While the two made jabs at eachother, once playfully and the other not, Fluttershy sidled up to Twilight and whispered to her. “Um,if it isn’t too much to ask, I wouldn’t mind them if I were you. I mean, if that’s okay. This is how they behaved when Rainbow lived here, too. It’s nothing new.”
Twilight blinked and looked over to Fluttershy. “Maybe, but she also happens to have royalty rights over him.”
Fluttershy nodded before reaching out and pulling Twilight into a timid, friendly hug. “It’s nice to see you again.”
“Yeah, you too,” Twilight replied while returning the hug before looking over at Rainbow Dash. Said pegasus filly was now adamantly ignoring Zephyr while trotting up to the other fillies present.
“So, Flutters? We gonna stand out here all day or are we gonna go catch up inside?” she asked casually. Fluttershy ‘yipped’ slightly before swiftly cantering for the door.
“Oh, I'm sorry. Here, let me get the door.”
“Again?!” Rainbow shrieked in frustration when Twilight moved her piece to the winner's spot on the board. The prismatic filly shot up into the air of the living room they sat in and spread her forelegs in exasperation. “How?! That’s three times in a row! HOW?!”
“It’s not just a ‘roll the highest numbers’ game, Dash. Don’t forget the cards and what they do. You always used your best cars the instant you got your hooves on them. I waited patiently to make use of my best ones when they would be the most beneficial to me.” Twilight explained with a small smirk, basking in the glow of her ability to plan and use logic to, once again, best Rainbow Dash. The mentally paused and inwardly laughed. The other filly's competitive nature was definitely rubbing off on her, of that there could be no question.
Rainbow groaned in frustration before flopping back to the ground on her haunches. “I hate losing…”
“Well, um, if it helps, I lost every time, too…” Fluttershy added with a small smile. Rainbow huffed indignantly.
“Yeah, but you’re also, like, kind of a pushover sometimes,” Rainbow shot back before her ears snapped up and her eyes widened when she realized what she had just said. “Oh! Uh… sorry.”
Fluttershy shook her head. “It’s okay. You’re upset, I understand.”
“Also, not to be that pony, but…” Twilight sparked up her magic to retrieve a flash card she had borrowed to keep score of one of their earlier rounds and looked it over. “You actually won this one, Fluttershy, remember?”
“Huh?” The yellow pegasus leaned over to look.
“I mean, yeah, I had the most resources when I reached the end of the board, but when you reached the end you had a card that transferred some of my resources to you automatically.” Twilight explained before smirking triumphantly at Rainbow Dash, who simply grumbled and looked away.
“Oh, wow… yay!” Fluttershy pseudo-cheered in barely more than a whisper. Rainbow glanced over at Fluttershy and then chuckled lightly.
“You know, you really should be a lot louder when declaring ‘yay’ or ‘woohoo’ or whatever. That was the quietest sound of celebration I think I’ve ever heard!” Rainbow sidled over and playfully nudged Fluttershy. “Eh, oh well. Good job on winning at least one game against little miss logic-pants over here.”
Twilight pouted. “What happened to Killjoy?”
Rainbow shrugged noncommittally with an amused smile splitting her face. “Eh. Felt like not using it, ya know?”
“Uh-huh…”
Fluttershy, from where she sat, suddenly gasped sharply and shuddered before lifting her forelegs up to her eyes. Her ears fell flat against her head and she leaned onto Rainbow as if going limp. Rainbow felt this and looked to her friend in confusion. That confusion very rapidly shifted to concern. “Woah. Hey, Fluttershy? You alright?”
Fluttershy didn’t respond in any way, save for swaying in place for several seconds before crumpling into Rainbow Dash’s forelegs. Twilight got to her hooves and looked towards the room’s exit. “Mr. Shy! Mrs. Shy! Come here!” she shouted out before trotting over to Fluttershy, who had let her forelegs leave her eyes, which were now wide and unfocused. They had both seen that look before.
“She’s having a flash?” Rainbow asked in shock, loosening her grip and gently positioning Fluttershy so that she was resting her back on the couch.
“Looks like it… oooh, I wish I could get Celestia over here! We could get more information about these things if she were!” Twilight groaned in mild frustration of her own.
The two opted for silence, observing Fluttershy and awaiting her emergence from whatever she was seeing…
“Now, what have we learned?” Rainbow Dash asked in a firm, commanding voice while slowly drifting back and forth in the air like a drill sergeant. Fluttershy stood directly beneath her, staring straight ahead into the greenery of the environment. A few simple homes could be seen off to one side of her field of view.
“Lot’s of control.” She answered with conviction.
“What’s happening?” Fluttershy asked herself mentally as she watched the scene before her unfolk.
“Good.” Rainbow confirmed the validity of her answer with a curt nod.
“Screaming and hollering.” Fluttershy listed off, taking a brief moment to think, her eyes shifting slightly as she did so. What if she was wrong?
“Yes, and most importantly…” Rainbow said, leading the way for Fluttershy to give the final answer.
“Passion.” She declared with what confidence she could muster. Rainbow, for the very briefest of moments, smiled with pride. “Right!” She shot down and came to a stop before Fluttershy, though still hung in the air. “So now that you know the elements of a good cheer, let's hear one!”
Fluttershy took in a deep breath. “Yay.” she cheered in a low, low whisper, though it felt quite passionate and loud to her at the time.
Rainbow Dash stared at Fluttershy for a second, truly perplexed by that… utterly lackluster performance. Her forehoof flew up to connect with her face. “Ugh… you’re gonna cheer for me like that? Louder.”
“Yay.” Fluttershy tried again with virtually no change in her volume.
“Louder!” Rainbow tried again, her own voice rising to try and drill home the point.
“Yay!” Fluttershy tried again, this time maybe gaining a bit of volume. Maybe.
“LOUDER!” Rainbow Dash screamed at her loudly enough to cause a few squirrels over a dozen yards away to scamper away in terror. Fluttershy, not aware of the fuzzy critters or their plight, took in a deep, deep breath.
“Yaay.”
Rainbow looked at Fluttershy for a moment. That was longer, not louder. Giving up, she flopped to the ground and let out a long sigh of defeat.
“Too loud?”
Fluttershy gasped in shock and alarm when the vision shattered and she returned to reality. Rainbow Dash and Twilight were nearly instantly by her side, looking her over for a second before Rainbow gestured for them to back off. “Hey, Fluttershy. You okay?” Rainbow asked softly, sitting back to give the pegasus filly some room.
“Uh… I think so?” Fluttershy mumbled in confusion before looking around a bit. “What was that?”
“We’ve taken to calling them ‘flashes’,” Twilight began with a small nod. “It was that weird ‘hallucination’ thing that happened to me when you visited Canterlot two years ago, remember?”
Fluttershy nodded meekly before looking up and spotting her parents, who were also approaching from where they had been talking with Twilight and Dash a moment prior. “Um... yes, I remember.”
“I’ve had a couple of them, too. Oh, and there was another filly who had one,though I don’t remember her name. She came to Canterlot to seek treatment for it or something.” Rainbow added with a curious look coming over her eyes.
“We still don’t know what causes these flashes or what patterns they have. They don’t seem to have any negative side-effects aside from some disorientation and blacking out for a couple minutes.” Twilight explained before shrugging her shoulders. “For now, though, that’s all we know.”
Fluttershy slowly nodded. “Okay…” she muttered nervously.