Fluttershy spent the rest of the day fruitlessly flying around Ponyville, searching for Rainbow Dash. She wasn't at her cloud mansion, she wasn't in the Cutie Mark Crusaders' clubhouse, or Sweet Apple Acres, or Sugarcube Corner, or even the Boutique. As the last red sliver of the sun sank behind the hills, Fluttershy returned home tired, messy and glum.
As a direct result of her recent... outbursts... the cottage was empty, none of the animals feeling safe there. The dead silence only served to accentuate the little yellow pony's guilt as she walked through the door, facing the ground. Next week she was going to have to start making amends to all her little critters, and it would be very hard work indeed.
The pegasus dropped her saddlebags on the middle of the floor, not having the energy to put them away someplace and sunk into a sofa. The fireplace was cold, so instead, she draped a blanket over herself and hid under it in shame. Wetness gradually poured down from her eyes and onto the velvet. There was no sobbing, no hiccuping. She lied perfectly still, and just let the tears go.
Thunder caused the house to shudder a little, and rain began to splatter against the windows. Unscheduled. Weather was always a little iffy when Rainbow Dash took her eye off of things.
Eventually, after forcing her mind to silence, Fluttershy succumbed to exhaustion and fell into uneasy sleep.
When the yellow pegasus woke up, the rain had stopped, but nothing else had changed. An eerie silence held over the cottage that was usually filled with the rustling noises of her little critters and the chirping of her birds.
Shivering, Fluttershy rose from the sofa and galloped up to her bedroom to find Angel Bunny, but his basket was empty and cold. The pony gulped and ran through her entire home, but could find hair nor hide of him. She even composed his favourite salad and sang his favourite lullaby in the hopes of coaxing him out, but realised soon that she couldn't, because he wasn't there anymore.
The thought made her so sad that she simply had to see someone. Applejack lived close by! Maybe she'd even seen him! The pegasus took to flight, and in a matter of minutes, hovered over Sweet Apple Acres, but could see nopony working on the fields, which struck her as a little strange.
"Applejack?" Fluttershy called out in a timid tone. "Oh, where are you...?" She trotted towards the house and knocked on the door, but received no answer. "Applejack...?" Though it was terribly unladylike, she peeked in through the window, but saw no one in the house.
"It's okay. Maybe they've gone out on a trip and I forgot about it. Yes, that must be it. I'm sure Rarity's at her boutique!"
She wasn't.
Fluttershy ran through the streets of Ponyville, but couldn't find a single soul or fruit stand or anything. Sugarcube Corner was quiet and with drawn curtains, the Treehouse Library was abandoned and molding, and the boutique was a wreck.
Finally, the pony came to a standstill in the town square, sat down on her haunches and burst into tears. "Everypony's gone... they must've all left without me."
She collapsed into the dirt and sniffled miserably.
"Fluttershy! Up here!"
In confusion, Fluttershy looked up to see a little hole far up in the clouds, where the ant-sized blue shape of Rainbow Dash was waving a hoof at her.
"Oh!" Fluttershy exclaimed. "I'm coming, Rainbow Dash!" But to her alarm, she had no wings and merely flopped onto her flank. Above her, Dash disappeared. "Wait for me! Don't go without me, please!" Fluttershy gasped, but the moment was lost and she was left staring up at the sky til her eyes hurt.
"I'm sorry... I'm sorry! I don't want to be all alone! I DON'T WANT TO BE-!"
The pounding sound of hooves on her wooden door finally woke Fluttershy from her disturbing nightmare. For a few seconds, she merely clutched her blanket in terror of what she'd seen, until she remembered how impolite it was to leave guests at the door. "I'm coming!" she called out softly and trotted to the door, to open it, revealing a soaked Rainbow Dash standing under heavy rain.
Not having expected to see her in a million years, the yellow pegasus's jaw dropped.
"Uh... Fluttershy? D'ya mind?" Dash said, waving a hoof in front of her eyes, throwing drops of rain on her face. She blinked and snapped out of it, letting Dash in, though still unable to come up with words.
Once inside, Rainbow Dash shook her entire body like a dog and immediately took up residence on the sofa, jittering slightly from the cold. "B-r-r-r-r! I don't believe this! I take my eye off of the clouds for a few measly hours and suddenly it's the end of the world in Ponyville! How do they even survive when I'm not there?!"
"W-why did you come back, Rainbow?" Fluttershy asked quietly, unable to dance around the elephant in the room.
The blue pegasus awkwardly rubbed the back of her head. "Well, I... I know you. Or at least I thought I did. And the Fluttershy that I've known since I was a little filly would be beating herself up over what happened. Heh, I've seen what happens when you bump into someone, nooooooot a pretty sight. So I..." she looked at the ground and sighed. "... I'm still mad at you, don't get me wrong. But I ain't gonna let you just stew in it and turn all mopey. All I wanna know is, do you still want to be my friend?"
Fluttershy nodded excessively. "Oh yes! More than anything! But I don't feel like I deserve to..." she mumbled.
"Yeah, not now you don't. But when you make it up to me, you will! We'll be fair and square and we'll forget all this ever happened, am I clear?"
"Um, I, I suppose so. But why?" Fluttershy asked, confused at why Dash would be even remotely willing to give her a second chance after all she unleashed on her fillyhood friend.
Rainbow Dash was silent for a moment, and when she answered, her voice was unusually serious: "Because you were right. I do think about myself too much, and when you told me, I... I got so mad. Not, like, at you, but myself. I love being in the spotlight, and the top, and I'd be so, so happy if I got to be a Wonderbolt. But, if it means losing the ponies that I care about, it wouldn't really be me anymore. It'd be somepony else calling herself Rainbow Dash. And I won't have that! So tomorrow, you and I are hitting the gym! We're gonna spend more time together, so I can be a better friend, and you can redeem yourself. What do ya say?"
Fluttershy smiled. "I say... YES!" She gripped Dash in a tight hug. "Yes-yes-yes! Oh! Um, I'm sorry." Dash dropped to the floor, gasping to get her breath back. "But yes."
"Front hooves... check." Dash wheezed, and passed out.