Two pink and yellow ponies lay in a heap, their chests rising and falling in rhythm to each other. Together, they formed the shape of a crescent moon: the earth pony allowing her yellow pegasus friend to snuggle up against her, her right wing draped still draped over her friend’s back, even in their slumber. Their tails had wrapped themselves around each other, but whether it was through coincidence or conscious action, neither pony had yet to know.
Pinkie Pie stirred, shifting her position before opening her eyes. She was about to throw her forelegs in front of her and give her limbs a much needed stretch (like she did every morning), but the grass she was laying down on was all she needed to trigger the memories of last night.
Which just so happened to crash down on her like a brick wall.
Her eyes flew open, and she whipped her head to the left. Instantly, her heart skipped a beat when she saw who was there.
Fluttershy was pressed against her side, her right wing the reason for the warmth on Pinkie’s back. She had rested her head so that her forehead lay on the back of Pinkie’s neck, while her snout showed up in front. In this position, Fluttershy’s mane, usually used to hide her face, had gotten tangled with the part of the earth pony’s mane that usually hung off of the side of her neck. The pegasus’ mouth hung open slightly, each breath she took tickling Pinkie’s neck before it disappeared into the air.
But on closer listening, Fluttershy’s breath came in short, shallow puffs, and a shiver ran through her body in her sleep, a shiver that Pinkie could feel herself, given how close the two mares were. And on closer inspection, her coat was paler than usual, brown splotches of caked mud matting her fur in many places.
The pink mare’s heart skipped another beat, but this time for a different reason. Pinkie carefully reached up with a hoof and wrapped it around Fluttershy’s neck, pulling the two even closer together. As if in response, Fluttershy let out a happy sigh.
Normally, nopony would be able to tell if Pinkie were blushing, due to her pink coat. In this case, however Applejack could take one look at her and deem her cheeks a color similar to an apple ripe for the picking.
For the first time since she woke up, Pinkie turned her attention away from her friend. Her ear swiveled as she strained to hear the sound outside, or rather, lack thereof. Was it still raining?
Pinkie was always a pony who easily got distracted, yet it was with great care that she removed her hoof from around Fluttershy’s neck. With equal caution, she slid out from under the yellow pony’s wing, freezing for a second as Fluttershy shifted in her sleep, murmuring something about lightning. Pinkie frowned, her worry having a strange effect on her usually bright and cheery face. She put her hoof to Fluttershy’s forehead, her eyes widening when she felt how undeniably cold she was. Without a second thought, she produced a warm, wet towel, seemingly from out of nowhere, and covered Fluttershy’s head with it. Another second was all she needed to have her under-the-weather friend resting comfortably on a pillow. It probably wasn’t as soft, fuzzy, or pink, but it would have to do for now.
She walked outside, feeling the fresh air on her face. She took a deep breath, and opened her eyes.
She stood on a hill, offering her a view of everything around her. Right below her, a sea of leafless trees stood, occasionally interrupted by a dirt path here and there.. If it had been any other season, their branches would be decorated with leaves of all colors, but as it were, the trees stood barren and dead.
Looking farther to her left, a few unassuming houses poked their heads out. She absentmindedly closed one eye, raising a hoof. Her tongue poked out of her mouth as she concentrated, until her hoof was at eye level. At this distance, the houses in Ponyville were mere foal’s toys, and she could pretend like she was holding many of them in the flat of her hoof. No smoke rose from their chimneys, leading Pinkie to look up at the sky. What time was it, anyway?
In the east, the sun had just begun to show its head over some hills. It found its way through the cloudy sky, the clouds that it showed through resembling ripped flags. The rest of the sky was still painted grey, and it wasn’t bright enough to see the patches of unobstructed sky. If there were any.
Despite all this, Pinkie still felt something was off. She wiggled her nose, flicked her tail, and shifted from side to side, before she realized the absence of raindrops all around her.
It wasn’t raining anymore.
A wide grin grew on Pinkie’s face, another one that threatened to split the corners of her mouth if it grew any wider. She glanced back at their hiding place, seeing it correctly for the first time that day.
It was a large tree, its dead branches still stretching up towards the sky even in the middle of winter. Its trunk was old and gnarled, some of its massive roots poking up from out of the ground here and there. Looking inside, one was offered a view that stretched all the way to the top of the tree, as it had been hollowed out long ago, and neither of the two ponies that knew of this hiding spot had any idea of how, or when, this tree had been converted into a hiding spot. Pinkie stole a glance at her still sleeping friend, remembering the first time she had found this little gem of a hiding spot.
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“Gummy? Gummy!”
Pinkie’s brisk trot disturbed the otherwise noiseless Whitetail Woods, other than the whispering wind, rustling the leaves on the trees and bushes. Her normal bounce was gone, replaced by her frantic run, looking for her lost alligator.
Gummy’s never run away before... Pinkie thought to herself as she ran.
She had been doing, well, Pinkie things before she had realized she realized she hadn’t seen her pet alligator all day. After some frantic searching, she had caught a glimpse of the little gator, disappearing in the very direction she was running now.
No sign of him since then, but she knew that she couldn’t give up. What if something happened to him? He was just a toothless, defenseless, cute little gator. Which doesn’t get anyone very far, without the proper care from others.
She was sure that every bush, leaf, and tree trunk had been searched thus far. And so far, nothing.
Eventually, she had found her way to a hill, with a single, massive tree rising from the top, as if it were watching over the rest of the woods. Looking up, she saw leaves and branches protruding from every which way, providing a canopy of sorts... and a good source of shade.
That was the last thing on Pinkie’s mind, though. For her, it was a great lookout spot, if she were ever to find her lost gator. She rested her back against the massive trunk, her eyes surveying each part of the woods. She was momentarily distracted, though, by a sound that disrupted the silence she was now used to.
K-K-KRAAAAK
Too late, she realized what it was, and before she knew it, she felt no support on her back, and the undeniable feeling of falling.
She landed on her back with an “Oof!”, splinters of wood falling around her. She looked up first, seeing the pony-sized gap she had made in the tree trunk. Finally realizing the oddity of falling into a tree, she turned around and gasped.
A pink-maned, butter-colored pegasus sat there, her eyes wide and her mouth open in surprise.
“Fluttershy? What are you-” she couldn’t finish her sentence as her eyes drifted to Fluttershy’s mane, where a very familiar, toothless gator hung by its mouth.
“GUMMY?!”
“Um, Pinkie, you could’ve just used the-” as the pegasus motioned to the correct entrance, a door shaped hole on the side she faced away from, she found she couldn’t speak, enveloped in a crushing hug by her pink friend.
“Ohmigosh ohmigosh YOU FOUND HIM!” Pinkie positively squeed with delight. “Oh, I was so worried and I thought Gummy was lost forever and I was looking everywhere and I thought I could never find him and where was he?” Pinkie barraged the poor pegasus with words without pausing to take a breath.
She didn’t get a response, only realizing that the gasps and airy pleas were coming from the pony in her grip. “Oh. Sorry.” The party pony immediately dropped her shy friend, who fell back on all fours with a gasp. Pinkie rubbed the back of her neck as she waited for a response.
Once Fluttershy caught her breath, she began. “Um...” she paused, choosing to address the last of Pinkie’s rapid-fire sentences. “I don’t know, actually. I was just sitting here, watching the sun go down, when I saw him on one of the paths nearby. He seemed lost” - at this, she crossed her eyes to look at the gator in her mane, wondering how that was if he never changed expressions - “and I decided to bring him here. I was just about to bring him back to Sugarcube Corner, and then you showed up.” Fluttershy had slowly retreated behind her mane as she spoke, but motioned to the new hole in the tree, a reminder of Pinkie’s unexpected entrance.
Immediately she felt herself being wrapped in a hug again, but this one was, thankfully, not bone-crushing. “Thanks, Flutters...” Pinkie’s words had lost their bubbly energy, and she now spoke softer. “It means a lot.”
Fluttershy’s face reddened, flustered at the pink mare’s words. “Oh... it was nothing, Pinkie. I, um, find lost animals a lot.”
“And you found mine, too.” Pinkie pulled back from the hug, still smiling.
They sat together in comfortable silence for a few moments.
“What are you doing here anyway, Flutters?” Pinkie asked, tilting her head.
Fluttershy jumped slightly at the sudden inquiry, but answered anyway. “Well... actually, when I’m not doing anything, and nopony wants me to do anything either, I just go here for a walk in the woods. It’s so peaceful and quiet, usually, and, well, I love natural things...” The shy pegasus looked down, her blush contrasting sharply with her yellow coat, but continued anyway. “Anyway, I found this hill on one of my walks. I’m not sure how this happened” - she waved a hoof at the hollowed-out tree they sat in- “but it offers a great view, and now I just go here to enjoy the quiet...” she trailed off, idly dragging a foreleg along the ground.
She squeaked when she felt a hoof around her shoulder, and looked up to see her pink friend grinning at her. “That sounds pretty nice, actually.” Somehow, she didn’t sound like she was joking.
“R-really?” How could Pinkie Pie, of all ponies, be interested in something like this. Or, at the very least, not wave it off as “Bor-ring!”
“Yeah! I mean, nature can be real pretty at times like these, and sometimes I don’t mind some peace and quiet either. Sometimes you just have to think about things, y’know?”
Briefly, Fluttershy thought about all the times it seemed Pinkie didn’t think about things, then immediately scolded herself for thinking something so mean. “Y-yeah, I guess you do.”
They both turned to the setting sun, knowing nothing more needed to be said between the two. As the party pony turned to see the view, however, her eyes widened. “Ohmigosh! It’s getting dark, so I need to close up the shop! Sorry Flutters, but I have to go, but thanks for everything!” She gave her shy friend a quick hug, and just like that, she and Gummy were both gone.
Fluttershy had to smile, even as her friend disappeared down the hill and into the woods. “Bye...” she murmured, though Pinkie was no longer there to see or hear it.
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A smile crossed the pink pony’s face as she recalled the memory. If she hadn’t remembered it while they were out in the storm the night before, who knows what could have happened to them. This was the safest place that Fluttershy had found for who-knows-what-distance, in any direction around them. Without the rain, wind, and thunder, the only noises that disrupted the still morning came from the two pink-maned ponies.
Seeing her breath coming off in clouds from her face, Pinkie decided to go back inside. Careful to not disturb the still-sleeping pegasus, she snuggled up against her for the second time, once again wrapping her left hoof around her friend’s neck.
Her thoughts, naturally, drifted towards her friend, sleeping the dawn away right next to her. Their situation was definitely a rare occurrence (neither pony had been caught in a storm before, and most certainly not with each other), but storms were a part of nature. At least, before the pegasi could control the weather. But weather still belonged to nature, and it could always act of its own accord. The earth pony knew, somehow, that last night’s storm wasn’t planned.
But those were thoughts for later, and the pink pony’s focus returned to her friend as she ran a hoof through her now unkempt, but still soft mane. Pinkie knew that nature was, usually, Fluttershy’s friend. She lived with it, helped it when she could, and it had become a part of her as a result.
Nature was never perfect, though. It made mistakes, just like every other living thing. And where was Fluttershy when nature made mistakes?
Pinkie looked down at her fellow pink-maned friend. Her hoof faltered on Fluttershy’s mane, taking out a twig that had somehow wormed its way in there. She looked at the other various leaves, sticks, and even thorns that jutted out here and there all along the pegasus’ coat, mane, and tail, her eyes taking in the sight of the caked, dried mud, and lastly, her paled coat.
That was all she needed to answer her own question. A look at herself, and she knew she wasn’t any better off.
Fluttershy suddenly murmured in her sleep, before letting out a soft yet content hum. She snuggled up closer to Pinkie, resting her head on her friend’s neck, the towel resting on her forehead sliding off slightly. Pinkie smiled as she both felt and heard the now more rhythmic rise and fall of the pegasus’ chest. Maybe just for now, Pinkie could hope that the shy pony was no longer shivering, all thanks to her. She no longer had any doubt that Fluttershy would get over her cold.
She pressed closer to Fluttershy, as close as they could be, sharing her warmth. As she took the now cooled towel off of her friend’s head, tossing it away to be dealt with later, a thought crossed her head. One that made her grin from ear to ear.
Sure, maybe they had just gone through the storm of a lifetime. Maybe that storm had almost taken them, like it had taken so much around them, if only for that night. But as she tried to remember this moment, where it was just the two of them, alone and together, she knew that it was all worth it.
Pinkie leaned in to give her pegasus friend a light nuzzle on her cheek. She never stopped smiling as she breathed in the cool winter air, drinking in the sight of the cloudy sky above them.