“Belladonna Orange?”
“Here,” came the oh-so-laconic reply after a beat.
“Fluttershy Posey?”
Silence. The sort of silence that is oft-described as having reigned. Who knows what the Kingdom of Silence would be like, and what debauchery its subjects would visit upon each other. Not as if they could tell us, anyway.
“Fluttershy Posey?” Ms. Cheerilee asked again, adding a little bit of a sharper knife-edge to her tone this time just in case the student in question had drifted off to sleep at some point in the five minutes or so between arriving at school and parking their butt in their seat. Hey, it had been known to happen. Children these days, with their mobile 'phones, computer games, and odd interest in the occult happenings plaguing Canterlot, had little time for, you know, actual classes.
Once it became clear to Cheerilee that Fluttershy Posey was not present, she tutted and placed a cross next to her name. Long ago, children once believed that these crosses would follow them forever, haunting them like cats did to houses that their owners had long since moved out of.
“Hey,” Rainbow Dash, tilting her head slightly to one side, said under her breath to Twilight Sparkle who was sitting to her left while Cheerilee continued with the register, “d'you know where Fluttershy is? It's not like her to miss school.” Of their, to this point, seven-hundred-and-nine high school days, Fluttershy had missed exactly two.
(Due to the quixotic method of accounting used by the school district, however, this was considered to be four (each day being divided into two sub-days – morning and afternoon – in order to artificially inflate attendance figures)).
“Sorry, no,” replied Twilight with a helpless shrug of her shoulders, doing a credible job of keeping one eye on the teacher whilst also addressing Rainbow Dash, “I haven't heard anything from her.”
“She probably just overslept,” Sunset Shimmer said, “she's been hitting the books pretty hard these past couple of months. She's hoping to get into Ponyville Veterinarian School after she graduates.”
“Oh, yeah, I remember,” Rainbow Dash said, slightly embarrassed because she didn't; she couldn't stop fidgeting with her 'phone every now and then, just in case. Though she had been mocked relentlessly for it by her friends, the home screen wallpaper was still a photo of them dressed in ridiculous safari outfits taken when Fluttershy had – somehow – conned her into witnessing a butterfly migration.
“Excuse me, Ms. Dash,” an imperious voice said from directly above her, “are we interrupting your texting with these classes?”
“Sorry,” Rainbow Dash said contritely, quickly shoving her 'phone back into her pocket. Any quip that might've been forthcoming about the real-world usefulness of texting versus whatever Cheerilee's class was about was squashed under the oppressive weight of an unfamiliar sensation to her: concern for someone other than herself.
*
“Still nothing?” Pinkie Pie asked fretfully. She was – quite literally – bouncing off of the walls of the cafeteria; when it concerned her friends' well-being, Pinkie quickly transformed herself from a carefree party-girl to a neurotic bundle of nerves. That same insane power which fuelled her cartoonish antics could very quickly become overwhelming when channelled toward fretting. “How about now?” she asked again. “And now? Now? Noooooooooooooooooooooooooooow?”
“Pinkie!” said Sunset Shimmer, grasping the other girl firmly by the shoulders and shaking her until she seemed to calm down. “Be cool, all right? I'm sure she's fine.”
“Be cool? With all the weirdness that's been happening around here lately, be cool is your advice?” Pinkie Pie asked, her eyes practically bugging out of her skull.
“Yeah, basically.”
“Okay.”
“Have you ever heard of Occam's Razor?” asked Sunset Shimmer.
“I'm not a big fan of slasher films,” replied Pinkie Pie.
Sunset resisted the urge to plant her face into her palm. “Succinctly put, it means that the simplest explanation is likely to be the correct one. Why do normal people usually miss school?”
“Too much candy?” To demonstrate, Pinkie Pie pulled a miniature jawbreaker out of Twilight's ear and ate it in one gulp.
“Gross. But no. She's probably just got a cold or something and is knocked out on cough medicine.”
“I live a couple of blocks from her. I'll check in on her after school,” said Rainbow Dash.
“Good plan. If she is ill, it wouldn't be a good idea to overwhelm her,” Sunset Shimmer said clapping her hands together.
Rainbow Dash stayed for a few minutes after everyone else had departed, intent on enjoying a few minutes of sunshine before the dreaded bell urged them back to class for the afternoon; she didn't like the feelings swelling up in her stomach, and she hated even more not having the words to describe them. Over the years, she had simply accepted Fluttershy's presence as a given, and now … it wasn't. And in another month or so, they'd be graduating, pursuing different destinies in different parts of the world.
I've put off thinking about this for so long, and now I don't have the time to properly panic over it!
*
Rainbow Dash, through her relentless study of the clock that habitually ticked a bit louder than it tocked, had become convinced of a new theory of time: the more intently you waited for something to happen, the longer it took to arrive. When conscious awareness was brought to bear, the steady stream of seconds, minutes and hours became positively glacial. Idly, she wondered if Sunset Shimmer knew of some Equestrian Magic that could speed things up a bit, but she had a tendency to become a bit irked when reference was made to her past prior to coming to Canterlot.
This version of Canterlot, that is.
FINALLY! After several agonising eternities that felt like endlessly punching a brick wall, the clock struck three and the bell rang out throughout the corridors not more than a split-second later. There were always good reasons to celebrate the end of another day at school, but Rainbow Dash was more grateful than ever for the sweet release. So hasty was she, in fact, that she nearly barrelled Applejack and Rarity to the floor as she made her escape. Naturally, she ignored the curses aimed in her direction by them.
“She's more uppity than a frog in a sock,” Applejack said, dusting herself down after the encounter. “Still, can't blame her, I suppose. I hope Fluttershy's all right.”
“She'll be fine, darling,” Rarity replied, though she sounded uncertain. She knew that she had a tendency to overreact to the smallest thing, but Pinkie Pie did have a point: so many strange things happened in and around Canterlot these days, with her and her group of friends being in the middle of most of them, that it was difficult not to think the worst. To lighten the mood, she said to Applejack, “Would you be this concerned if it had been me?”
“Are you kidding? I'd be with Pinkie Pie all day making arrangements for a party! Ow!”
For the rest of her life, Applejack would never learn just where Rarity had learned to punch someone on the arm with such ferocity. In the end, she decided that it was probably best not to know.
*
That little competitive voice that lived at the back of Rainbow Dash's mind – okay, it was, in fact, the size of the Horsehead Nebula, but let's keep that between us – wondered whether or not the blistering pace she had set running from the school to Fluttershy's house constituted a new land-speed record. Sadly, there were no available judges nearby to record her lap time. The Thrust SSC ain't got nothing on us, and we're not even being powered by Equestrian Magic on this occasion!
When she finally made it to the front door, she was completely out of breath, and about ready to just keel over and die; her dogged persistence, however, and no small amount of ego, compelled Rainbow Dash to act as if she had just breezed on by when Mrs. Shy answered to her plaintive, one-handed knocking. Her other hand was currently clutching her stomach as if her innards depended on the additional structural integrity it was providing.
“Rainbow Dash, hello,” Mrs. Shy said in surprise. “We wanted to call you and the others, but we couldn't find Fluttershy's 'phone, and she's been dead to the world all day. She caught a nasty bug yesterday and, well, I'll spare you the gory details, but she's going to be laid up for at least a week according to the doctor.”
“Oh,” Rainbow Dash, and she mentally cursed herself for sounding disappointed by that news. You REALLY wanted it to be another invasion, you blockhead? Straightening up, she asked, “Oh. Would it be all right to, um, see her? Just for a second or two?”
Mrs. Shy hesitated for a moment before nodding her assent and gesturing for Rainbow Dash to come inside. “Don't expect much out of her, though. Like I said, she's been out of it since last night. Just up the stairs here, dear, and to the right. Well, you know already, you've been here before.” At the threshold to Fluttershy's room, she said, “Would you like a glass of water or orange juice? You looked dreadfully tired when you arrived here at maximum warp.”
“You saw that?” asked Rainbow Dash, flushing slightly.
“Don't worry,” Mrs. Shy said with a knowing smile, “I won't tell anyone that you're only human like the rest of us. I'll bring up a glass of tea for Fluttershy, too, just in case.”
“Thanks.”
Opening the door carefully – the last time she'd been here, it'd had the most awful squeak – Rainbow Dash slipped quietly into Fluttershy's room. It was feminine, pink and delicate, much like the shrivelled figure reclining in bed buried under a plush duvet. Angel Bunny's cage, it seemed, had been relocated elsewhere. Fluttershy, already a tiny wisp of a thing, looked even smaller in her pale, waxy state. Rainbow Dash tried not to think about ghosts. She didn't want to think about anything, actually.
Except how stupid this was.
“Sure, you can kick the butts of demons, sirens and witches, but a little bit of cold brings you down? Some hero you are, Fluttershy.”
“Whmf dff yff sy?” asked Fluttershy weakly.
Rainbow Dash blinked a couple of times, and to this day she would swear blind that it was only because she was surprised to hear Fluttershy's voice and not due to the fact that her eyes had welled up with tears because Fluttershy had woken up THANKS TO HER MERE (albeit awesome) PRESENCE! She went over to the side of the bed and knelt down. “Hey, sorry, did I wake you?” she asked gently.
“No, it's okay,” replied Fluttershy, stifling a yawn and stretching. Rainbow Dash winced a couple of times at the sickening cracks that echoed out of her body as she did so. Clearly, she hadn't moved much in the past twenty-four hours. “What are you doing here?” She seemed to become smaller small as she realised that her words could sound, well, insulting. “Um, I mean, not that I'm not happy to see you.”
Rainbow Dash suppressed a grin. Same old Fluttershy. “We were worried about you when we didn't hear anything. I high-tailed it over here as fast as I could to check up on you.”
“That's so sweet of you, Rainbow,” Fluttershy said, her hand snaking out from under the covers to take Rainbow Dash's. “I appreciate that,” she added, giving her fingers a gentle squeeze.
“Pfft. Nothing sweet about it,” Rainbow Dash said dismissively, but she could not quite bring herself to disentangle her hand from Fluttershy's – admittedly, quite weak – grasp. “We were all worried about you. It just so happens that I live closest to you. Really.” There you go again. Whenever life presents you with an opportunity to make an emotional connection, you go and kick it in the face with your bravado.
“Are you gonna stay long?” asked Fluttershy, and this time she could not prevent the yawn that seemed to come from somewhere within the core of her being. “Only … I'm probably not the best company right now.”
Rainbow Dash did not consider herself to be a rational thinker like Sunset Shimmer or Twilight Sparkle, but neither did she act emotively – save out of sheer competitiveness – as Rarity and Pinkie Pie tended to do, so she could not say why she did what she did; shucking her jacket and skirt aside so that she was left only in her t-shirt and shorts, she clambered into the bed next to Fluttershy and put her arms around her. “This'd probably be a lot more comfortable if I had my wings, but my arms'll just have to do.”
“You're gonna get sick, too,” Fluttershy said, pointing out the obvious but leaning into the hug, anyway. A deep red tinge coloured her face, but they both silently agreed that it was just the effects of her illness and absolutely nothing else.
“So. We'll be sick together. For a week. Just us two.”
“Why?”
“Because you're my best friend and that's what best friends do, right? We share the good times and the not-good times equally,” said Rainbow Dash, and she couldn't help but feel that Sunset Shimmer's endless friendship lessons were finally beginning to rub off on her. “Besides, I could not face up to the walk home right now.”
Fluttershy responded with a smile, too tired to do much else but enjoy the pleasant warmth of Rainbow Dash's body against hers.
(What Rainbow Dash wanted to say, of course, was this: because though I would never be able to spit the words out, I love you. Because I sometimes take you for granted, and I sometimes don't give you the respect that you deserve, and for that I'm truly sorry. Because, in this world, you are the closest thing to perfection, and I'm just some dingbat who was lucky enough to cross your path at the right time. Because being here with you right now, and all the other times, is more important to me than any trophy or record.) It would have to wait a week or so, thanks to the impending illness she was about to face, though.
When Mrs. Shy eventually arrived with the tea and the water, a little smile played on her lips as she set the tray down on the table next to Fluttershy's bed. She stroked her daughter's silky hair softly, causing her to stir slightly, then departed safe in the knowledge that she was being looked after properly. She'd often had her doubts about Rainbow Dash going back to the day that Fluttershy had proudly announced that this surly, insolent tomboy she'd met at Summer Camp was her New Best Friend (yes, complete with capitals), but time and time again she'd proven her loyalty.