Chapter Twenty-One
An Intervention
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Days off while on tour were strange things. They weren’t any more rare than any other job; it would take an act of God to be able to perfectly align a tour schedule with the various venues’ schedules to manage a show every single night. But every day off was spent in a different city.
As such, there was a lot of uncertainty about how to spend any given day off. There were always sights to see and things to do, but no one ever really knew what they were exactly.
Which was how Rainbow and Gilda found themselves wandering around a bunch of shops that neither of them was really interested in. Their hotel was in the city’s downtown district, so they figured they could just walk around and find something cool. So far, they’d been mistaken.
“Wanna just head back to the hotel?” Rainbow asked.
Gilda sighed. “Yeah, maybe we can hit up some of the others and find something worth doing.”
As the two of them started walking back, Rainbow pulled out her phone to check the time. She saw she had a text message from Lemon Zest asking her to call before coming back to the hotel, so she did.
“Hey, Dash.”
“What’s up, Zest?”
There was a moment’s pause before Lemon Zest answered. “I think we need to talk about Fluttershy.”
Rainbow frowned. “Did something happen?”
“Nothing new, just… she isn’t doing so well. I know she’s trying to hide it, but I can still see it. I’m sure you can too.”
“She’s going through a rough patch right now.”
“She’s living in a rough patch, Dash. This has been going on for years, and I… I think I made it worse.”
“What do you mean?”
“Well, I’m not supposed to talk about this, but… Shy kissed me.”
“She what?” Fluttershy had lied to Rainbow? “She told me she decided not to try anything with you because you’re in the band.”
“Yeah, we kind of agreed to pretend it never happened.”
“But wait, are you telling me you actually weren’t interested? After everything you two do together?”
“Look, I feel like shit enough. I gave her the wrong idea because I’m an idiot who didn’t know what the words asexual and aromantic meant until a couple days ago.”
“Wait, what do those mean?”
“It means I’m not wired for relationships.” Lemon Zest sighed. “Look, this isn’t about me though. I’m just worried about Shy. Every single night since then, she’s gotten drunk and gone back to the hotel with a different girl. I just… I don’t think she’s picking a healthy coping mechanism.”
There was some truth to that, as much as Rainbow hated to admit it. “Okay. So what do we do?”
“I think we should get everyone together to talk about that. We can all go out to dinner or something and then we can figure something out together.”
“Yeah, ‘cause that won’t be suspicious. ‘Hey, Shy. We’re all going out to eat, but you can’t come.’ ”
“Don’t sweat it, I have a foolproof plan,” Lemon Zest said confidently. “I’ll just ask her to come.”
Rainbow furrowed her brow. “What?”
“She’s avoiding me, so if I ask her to come, she’ll make an excuse and stay at the hotel.”
Rainbow wanted to stick up for Fluttershy, but if Fluttershy had really kissed Lemon Zest, she probably would be trying to avoid her. “I guess worst case scenario is she accepts and spends some time with friends. It’d probably be good for her either way.”
“Yeah, true. You’re with Gilda, right? Can you bring it up with her?”
“Yeah, no problem.”
“Cool. I’ll call the others.”
Rainbow took a deep breath. “Yeah, okay. Sounds good.”
“See you later then.”
“See ya.”
Rainbow hung up the phone and kept staring at it for a moment. Eventually she shook her head and looked at Gilda. “Hey, what do you think of Shy lately? You think she’s doing okay?”
Gilda stared forward and put her hands behind her head. “I mean, I only got to know Shy like a year ago. But even I can tell things are getting worse. We doing an intervention?”
“No one said anything about that, we’re just getting together to talk about what we can do for her.”
Gilda shrugged. “Probably an intervention. She drinks, like, way too much.”
“You’re not exactly one to talk.”
“Yeah, but I’m not getting wasted every night.”
Rainbow winced, thinking of how Lemon Zest had said the same thing. There really was no way around it – Fluttershy had developed a drinking problem. In retrospect, it was pretty easy to see that it had been going on for quite some time.
The idea sunk into Rainbow’s brain and left her unable to make conversation on the rest of the way back to the hotel. How could she let this happen? She was supposed to be the one looking out for Fluttershy.
However it had happened, it had happened. All Rainbow could do now was react to it. “Whatever’s going on with Shy, we’ll help her through it.”
Gilda nodded. “Yeah, she’s got a lot of people looking out for her. She’ll be alright.”
They made their way back to the hotel, quickly heading up to their floor. Before going to see Fluttershy, they stopped by Lemon Zest’s room.
She was just getting off the phone with someone when she answered the door. “That was Dust, she’s on board.”
Rainbow nodded and walked into the room and took a seat on one of the chairs in the kitchen area. “So is that everyone then.”
“Still have to ask Flash, but I’m sure he’ll say yes.”
“I’ll ask him,” Rainbow said. “Anyone know if he’s in his room?”
“He’s your boyfriend…” Gilda mumbled.
“He said he was heading down to the pool earlier. Dunno if he’s still there.”
Rainbow stood up. “I’ll go look for him. Text me when it’s time to go.”
“Don’t worry, we’ll give you two some alone time first,” Gilda said.
Rainbow rolled her eyes, but before she could reply, Lemon Zest asked, “Should we invite Short Fuse and Rolling Thunder?”
Rainbow shrugged. “I dunno, Shy isn’t really close to them. I think just the band, Dust, and Flash works out.”
Lemon Zest nodded, so Rainbow stood up and walked out of the room. She pulled out her phone and sent a text to Flash asking him to meet up. Figuring that if he was at the pool, he probably wouldn’t have his phone on him, Rainbow still made her way to the elevator to go down and look for him.
It only took a couple minutes to reach the pool, then only a few moments to find Flash. He was doing laps in the pool, but he stopped when he saw Rainbow approaching. He swam up to the edge of the pool and pulled himself out.
“Hey, Flash. Need to talk to you about something.”
Flash frowned. “Is this a good talk?”
Rainbow smiled and rolled her eyes. “Relax, it isn’t even about us.”
Flash seemed relieved by that one, and he followed Rainbow to the chairs. He grabbed a towel as Rainbow sat down, then took a seat beside her. “So what’s going on?”
“It’s about Fluttershy,” Rainbow said as Flash vigorously dried off his head. “We think she hasn’t been doing too well lately, and we were all gonna get together tonight to talk about what we can do to help her.”
“Okay, where are we meeting up?”
Rainbow shrugged. “Somewhere for dinner, I think Zest and Gilda are figuring that out.”
“I think that sounds good. Fluttershy’s been a lot more… out of it than she used to be.”
Rainbow sighed. “You mean drunk every night.”
“Well, I was trying not to say it…”
“No point in beating around the bush. Shy isn’t doing well, and the alcohol is the place to start.”
Flash ran a hand through his hair. “Yeah, I guess that’s true…”
Rainbow sighed, and Flash gave her a contemplative look. After a moment, he asked, “Wanna head back to one of our rooms?”
“Yeah, sure.” Rainbow stood up, so Flash did the same. He draped the towel over his shoulders and followed Rainbow into the building, then into the elevator.
Since Flash still needed to change into regular clothes, they chose his room. Rainbow sat down on his bed while he got changed.
“Hey, it’s gonna be okay,” he said once he was done. He sat down beside her.
“I just… wish I could’ve done something before it got this bad.”
“What matters is that we’re going to do something now.” Flash put an arm around Rainbow, so she leaned into him. His skin was still cool from being in the water.
“I feel so useless.”
“Come on, it’s because of you that Fluttershy held herself together as well as she did, you know.”
“Maybe…”
“Definitely.” Flash smiled at her and squeezed her gently. “You do so much for her. I’m sure it’s way more than you even realize.”
Rather than answer, Rainbow kicked off her shoes and pushed herself further onto the bed. Flash followed suit, and Rainbow lay with her head against his chest.
“So how long do we have before we all head out?” Flash asked.
“Dunno. Until dinner time, I guess.”
Flash shifted to reach the remote, then returned so Rainbow could lay against him some more. He turned on the TV and started flipping through channels, then stopped on an animated movie.
Rainbow rolled her eyes. “Really?”
“What? I figured you could use something to get your mind off it, and this is a classic.”
“You’re so lame.”
“Want me to change it?”
“Nah, this is fine.” Rainbow shifted so she could see the TV a little better, and let the movie and Flash distract her from her thoughts.
They chose a casual chain restaurant to meet up in, everyone deciding they’d rather go somewhere they all knew instead of trying a local place. It probably also helped make Fluttershy feel like she wasn’t missing out on anything special.
Just as Lemon Zest had expected, Fluttershy had said she was too tired to head out. Everyone was pretty sure she’d spent the entire day alone in her hotel room, and Lemon Zest reported seeing a bottle of some sort when she asked, although she wasn’t sure what it was.
Still, they didn’t talk about Fluttershy at first. No one seemed to be sure how to broach the topic, so they talked about the food they were getting instead. After they ordered, they sat around awkwardly until Gilda finally bit the bullet. “So, can we all agree Fluttershy has a problem?”
There were murmurs of agreement. Even now, Rainbow still wanted to deny it. It felt so wrong to not blindly stick up for Fluttershy. She had to remind herself this was sticking up for Fluttershy, even if the person she needed to be protected from this time was herself.
“She drinks too much,” Rainbow said. “We all kind of do, but she takes it to another level.”
“I guess she kind of does,” Lightning Dust said. “I always kind of thought, you know, she’s young! Let her enjoy life a little bit. But, you know…”
Lemon Zest sighed. “But she’s not enjoying life. We can all see she’s miserable.”
“So, what?” Windfall asked. “We do an intervention?”
“That’s what I thought,” Gilda said.
“Didn’t she try to get sober with Sunset?” Flash asked.
Everyone looked to Rainbow, who sighed. “No. Back then, Sunset was the one with the drinking problem, so she tried to get sober. But Shy just… I mean, she didn’t drink like she does now back then, you know?”
“And Sunset never got sober either…” Flash frowned. “Wonder if Shy had anything to do with that.”
Rainbow glared at Flash. He may be her boyfriend, but there were certain lines he needed to know not to ever cross. “That wasn’t Fluttershy’s fault.”
“I’m not saying it was,” Flash answered quickly. “Sunset had a lot going on back then. But just… it’s gotta be hard getting sober when the people around you keep drinking, right?”
“Hold on,” Lightning Dust said. “Are we saying she needs to get sober or just cut back some? Jesus, she’s what, twenty-four?”
“Twenty-three,” Rainbow said.
Lightning Dust shook her head. “Isn’t she a little young to be, you know, going clean?”
“I don’t think it’s about how old she is,” Windfall said. “I think it’s just about the fact she has a problem. My dad tried to cut back on smoking for years, and he only broke away when he completely quit. Limiting can be even harder than quitting, you know?”
“Especially once you start drinking,” Gilda said. “I think she’d be better off quitting completely, at least until her life is more stable again. And I think we should all do our part to have no alcohol backstage.”
“Wait, what?” Lightning Dust frowned.
“It’s not like we’re giving up drinking,” Lemon Zest said. “Just not when Shy’s around. Come on, Dust, she’s our friend. We all have to do our part, yeah?”
Lightning sighed. “Fine. But I’m not happy about it.”
“I… I don’t know…” Rainbow frowned. There was something else that no one was saying, so she might as well say it. “Do you think maybe a tour environment isn’t even that good for her right now?”
“What are you suggesting?” Flash asked.
Rainbow leaned back in her seat and looked down at the table. “I’m saying… maybe she should go back to Everton. Get clean with AJ and Pinkie, find a fucking girlfriend who isn’t going to leave her. Get better, then maybe she can figure out if she… if she wants to come back.”
Flash put his hand on Rainbow’s shoulder and didn’t say anything, but one look at his face and Rainbow could tell that he understood how hard this was for her.
Before anyone could reply, their food came. Rainbow suspected that none of them were thrilled to pause the conversation to eat, but they also weren’t going to talk when their waitress was passing out meals.
Rainbow twirled the pasta around her chicken alfredo, barely bothering to eat it. She found she was less hungry than she’d been moments ago.
Eventually, Windfall spoke up. “None of us are happy with that suggestion, but… I think it makes sense.”
“She… does also have a problem with sex,” Lemon Zest said. “I know no one really wants to talk about that either, but it’s not healthy the way she’s been sleeping with a different girl every night. Does anyone know if she’s even, er… being safe?”
Rainbow twirled her pasta. “I’ve never asked.”
Lemon Zest nodded. “Going back to Everton gets her out of that environment and into one where she can actually find someone. I think we can all agree that’d be good for her.”
No one agreed, but no one disagreed either. Eventually Lightning Dust spoke up. “This fucking sucks.”
“Yeah, it does,” Windfall said. Everyone else added their own agreements as well.
“So… when do we talk to Fluttershy?” Flash asked. “Tonight?”
“She’s alone tonight,” Gilda said in between bites of her meal. “So it might be a good time.”
“This will be fun…” Lemon Zest said.
They had a lackluster dinner, which no one seemed to be that interested in anymore. There was no fun conversation, no joking around, no bravado as Rainbow and Lightning compared their bands. Just a miserable meal that no one really wanted anymore.
Rainbow only ate about half her meal, deciding to give the other half to Fluttershy if she wanted it. It was a poor peace offering when they were essentially kicking her off the tour, but at least Rainbow would know she ate something.
She wasn’t the only one who didn’t finish their meal. Almost their whole group wound up needing to-go boxes. They wrapped up their meals, boxed up what was left, paid the bill, and were soon calling for a couple taxis to get back to the hotel.
Rainbow crammed into the back of a taxi with Flash and Lightning, while the other three took another. They barely talked on the way back to the hotel, and Rainbow felt like she was going to be sick. Flash kept his arm around her the whole time, which helped a little.
They reached the hotel first, so they stood around waiting a few minutes for the others. Rainbow finally spoke up as they waited. “God, I just want this to be over.”
“I hear that,” Flash said. “I’m dreading it and I’m not even as close as you two are. Are you gonna be okay?”
“Yeah… I just hope she doesn’t take it too bad.”
Lightning Dust cleared her throat. “So… what do we say when she refuses to go?”
Rainbow didn’t need to ask why it was ‘when’, there was no way Fluttershy would go easy. She folded her arms and frowned at the ground. “I don’t think we should force her.”
“I agree, that wouldn’t go over well,” Flash said. “All we can do is try to convince her that we all think this is the best thing for her.”
Rainbow kicked at the ground. She didn’t like any part of this, but she knew they needed to do something.
The other taxi arrived soon, and they all went up together as one large group. Rainbow worried that might prove to be a little too much for Fluttershy, but she knew it was how interventions usually worked.
They paused outside of Fluttershy’s door, everyone looking at each other uncertainly. Gilda eventually sighed and stepped forward to be the one to knock on it.
A moment later, Fluttershy opened it cautiously. She furrowed her brow and looked around when she saw how many people were gathered around her room. “Is everything okay?”
Gilda was the first one to speak. “We just want to talk. Can we come in?”
“Uhm, sure, I guess.” Fluttershy stepped away from the door, letting the others in. Gilda and Lightning Dust took seats on the only chairs in the room, Rainbow and Flash sat on the bed, while Windfall, Lemon Zest, and Fluttershy all remained standing.
“What’s this all about?” Fluttershy asked.
She looked so small to Rainbow, surrounded by everyone else like that. It was uncharacteristic of her, but Rainbow stood back up and walked over to Fluttershy to hug her. Fluttershy hugged her back, and Rainbow led her to the bed.
Figuring it would be best to hear it from her rather than Gilda, Rainbow spoke up as they took a seat. “We’re all worried about you, Shy.”
Fluttershy frowned. “What? But I’m fine. I’ve even been going to shows again and everything.”
“Yeah, and drinking every night,” Windfall said. “A lot.”
“I don’t drink that much,” Fluttershy said.
Rainbow looked down at her hands folded in her lap. It hurt to not back up Fluttershy’s word, but she forced herself to be honest. Her voice was soft when it came out. “Yeah, you do. You get drunk, like, every night.”
“Shy, this bottle of bourbon is almost empty…” Lemon Zest said, holding up a bottle.
Fluttershy pursed her lips and looked away from all the others, staring at a bedside table. “So I drank a little today. I was just relaxing on my day off.”
Rainbow took Fluttershy’s hands. “You drink every day, Shy.”
Fluttershy took her hands back. “We all do, it’s not just me.”
“We know our limits, though,” Lightning said.
Gilda cleared her throat. “What Lightning means is that we could all stand to drink a little less. And no one’s gonna say it, but we’re worried about all the groupies you sleep with too.”
Fluttershy’s face grew red, and she didn’t say anything.
“We’re not trying to attack you, Shy,” Windfall said. “We’re just worried for you is all.” He took a deep breath. “And we’re not sure touring is really good for you right now.”
Fluttershy whipped her head in his direction. Her gaze was fierce, but her voice came out frail. “What are you saying?”
“We’re saying…” Rainbow looked to the others, but she saw no one else wanted to break the news either. “We’re saying that we think you should go back to Everton. At least until you’re better.”
“Until I’m better?” Fluttershy stood up. “I’ve given everything for this band, I don’t have any more to give!”
“No, I didn’t mean it like that!” Rainbow grimaced.
“You’ve given too much, Shy,” Lightning said, also rising to her feet. “That’s what we’re saying. You’ve just… you’ve given too much…”
Lemon Zest bounced in place. “Shy… none of us want you to leave, but we’re scared. We need you. You’re our friend, and our badass manager. You’re just as much a part of Bitchette as me, or Rainbow, or anyone is. We don’t want to risk losing you.”
“No, you just want me to be back in Everton, where I can’t do anything for you!”
Rainbow shook her head. “Shy, it’s not like that…”
“No one’s saying forever,” Flash said, speaking up for the first time. “Take some time off, you deserve it. Then you can come back on the next tour.”
“Yeah, it’s like a vacation!” Lemon Zest said.
“And what if you decide I’m not better by the time the next tour starts?” Fluttershy asked, her voice growing desperate. “What if you still don’t want me? What if I’m still not good enough? What if I’m… what if I…”
Fluttershy’s words trailed off and she stared at the floor. It took a second for it to register because of how quiet it was, but Rainbow soon noticed she was crying.
A moment later, and she was on her feet hugging Fluttershy. Lemon Zest was quick to join in, then the others. One by one, they all crowded around Fluttershy to hug her, or at least be close by for the group hug.
“Fluttershy, we just want you to work on feeling better.” Rainbow pulled away enough to smile at Fluttershy. “Go relax, take some time to hang out with AJ and Pinkie, get a girlfriend, just… relax, okay?”
Fluttershy nodded weakly. “Okay…”
“So you’ll do it?”
Fluttershy nodded a little more. “Yeah, I’ll… I’ll go back to Everton.”
“Hey, the tour isn’t for that much longer,” Windfall said. “Then we’ve got the album to do. We can record it in Everton so you can be there for it.”
Rainbow grinned. “Yeah, and we’ve got our album to do too.”
“Oh… We won’t be together to write songs though…”
Gilda shrugged the problem off. “So tell the label we need a little more time off to work on the album this time. They can give us an extra month or whatever so you two can have time to finish your album.”
Fluttershy sighed. “Okay. Uhm…” She looked around at everyone. “I think… I need a little time to myself. I have a lot to think about.”
Rainbow frowned. “Alright, but any of us are here if you need us.”
Fluttershy nodded. “I know.”
Everyone was already standing, so they just had to awkwardly file over to the door. As everyone else stepped out, Rainbow gave Fluttershy one last hug. “It’ll all be okay, Shy. This will be good for you.”
“Maybe.”
“Definitely.” Rainbow flashed a thumbs up. “Call or text me if you need me.”
“I will.”
Rainbow stepped out with the others, and Fluttershy closed the door behind her. She looked around at everyone else, seeing that no one really seemed to know what to do from there.
Eventually, Lightning Dust spoke up. “Right, well… Guess I’ll head off to bed then.”
“Yeah, me too,” Gilda said. “Night, dweebs.”
There were murmurs from the others, and they all made their way to their rooms. All of them except for Flash, whom Rainbow stopped with a hand on his shoulder. “Hey, uhm… wanna watch a movie or something?”
Flash smiled at her, and Rainbow knew it must be pretty obvious that she just didn’t want to be alone. He didn’t draw attention to it, though. “Sure. Your room or mine?”
“I don’t care,” Rainbow said, so she wound up following Flash to his room.
They both took a seat on his bed and he flipped through TV channels while Rainbow curled up next to him and tried not to think about a tour without Fluttershy.
Rainbow had difficulty sleeping, and not just because she was used to having the bed for herself. She’d stayed the night in Flash’s room, thinking it’d be better than sleeping alone.
At least one of them slept well. Flash was snoring away, and didn’t even notice Rainbow leaving the room. She hated to wake anyone up, but she knew Fluttershy always woke up freakishly early anyway.
And in truth, she was looking forward to a little one on one time with her sister. It had been good to have all their friends there for support, and of course they’d all be there on the tour bus, but some things were just easier to talk about in private.
Rainbow knocked on her door and called through it. “Fluttershy, it’s me. Can we talk?”
Rainbow waited for an answer and checked the time on her phone. It was still pretty early, barely after seven. What time did Fluttershy wake up anyway? “Hey, Shy? You asleep?”
Rainbow tried the door and found it unlocked. She frowned and entered the room as quietly as she could.
She looked at the bed and saw Fluttershy wasn’t there. “Uh, Shy?” She checked the bathroom next, but it was empty.
It was only when she turned around that she saw Fluttershy on the other side of the bed, lying face down in a puddle of vomit. “Shy!”
Rainbow ran to her and tried to shake her, but she didn’t respond. “Shy, get up! Someone, help!”
Rainbow kept yelling for help as she pulled Fluttershy’s motionless body up onto her own. She was warm, and Rainbow could see she was breathing.
Looking around wildly, Rainbow’s eyes fell onto a bottle of pills beside the bed. She had never seen it before, and she knew Fluttershy wasn’t on any medications.
“Help, someone!”
“Rainbow?” Lemon Zest said from behind her. “What’s going – oh my God!”
“Zest, Shy… I don’t know what happened!”
Lemon Zest stepped back. “Hold on, I’m going to call for someone!”
Her phone! Rainbow had her phone! She reached into her pocket and pulled it out, dialing 911. She held it to her ear with one hand, cradling Fluttershy in the other.
“Please be okay, Shy, please be okay.” It was all she could do to repeat it over and over.
“Please be okay.”