//------------------------------// // 2 Keep it secret. Keep it safe. // Story: Inner Strewth // by SevenEyes //------------------------------// It wasn’t like Fluttershy to stay in bed all day. This was because she wasn’t crippled to the point of being bed bound. However she did have near crippling anxiety, which was strong with her today. Strong indeed, her midichlo-run-away-from-problems count was so high. Higher than her friend Treehugger; that one time she stood on a skyscraper to pose as Batmare. And definitely higher than the black and red, male alicorn who was circling above the cottage, quite like a vulture. She could not see him though, as her eyes were closed, and she had no cottage skylight, and he was an invisible shade of black and red. Not knowing that he wasn’t at all visible didn’t stop him from trying to teach the world about himself, so he started by saying, “My tragic backstory is tha-” “I’m not in the mood!!” Fluttershy interruption-yelled, not at all concerned for the alicorn's feelings. She knew that he had no place here anyway, so he didn’t matter. The yelling had strained her vocal cords, which hurt her, but at least she was definitely awake now. And her first act of the day had been to vanquish a petty foe. Now if only she could vanquish her own fears. She was afraid of her today, and her tomorrow. It was all because of her yesterday. Oh yesterday, yesterday she had in her usual fashion beaten the sun to rise. That one small victory had carried her through most of the day, right up to the point of realising that her nerdy friend had been listening in at just the wrong moment. Right now Twilight Sparkle was probably preparing for war with her, and it was all Fluttershy’s fault. But never mind blame now, let her come, Fluttershy had hamster grenades, and a sub-machine gummy. Why she was practically unstoppable. Yeah, she should in fact take the fight to Twilight. Right after she finished her daily chores that she had to do to get her golden sticker. Twilight would be so jealous of her immense sticker collection for being good, yes jealous to the point that she would just die. “Hello!” A voice shouted, from right next to her. Shy hid under her blanket. Wait, what was she doing in bed still, oh that’s right she had only thought of getting up. She had to actually move herself to move herself. “Rainbow Dash, I’m naked in bed right now! Have you no shame?” Rainbow Dash proceeded to close her eyes and lift Shy out of her bed, and onto her floor. “Er sorry, better now?” Now that she was naked and out of her bed of course things were better, but rather than lecture her best friend on pony decency, Fluttershy just said a small, “Yes.” She was tired and had a lot to do today. As much as she enjoyed looking after her animal friends it was no easy thing to do, even when she felt at her best, and she felt far from her best right now. There was one thing that Shy wanted to clear up with Rainbow now that she had had the time to think. “Do you think Twilight Sparkle is a dirty rotten liar?” She gently inquired to her friend who was flying down the stairs to the main room, while Shy herself simply walked down them. “What? Liar? I don’t know any liars. And I’m not a liar. Why would you ask me something about liars?” Had Fluttershy not deduced yesterday that Rainbow was lying to her when recounting the ‘friendly chat’ she had had with Twilight yesterday, then this would have been the great moment of realisation. As it was, Fluttershy just frowned. There had of course been no friendly chat, because the alicorn had simply forgone being a dirty rotten liar, instead favouring the truth. The truth must have been that she hated ponies like Fluttershy. Rainbow Dash wasn’t even like Fluttershy, but the hole burn into her wing must have been from Twilight, a punishment for still caring for a pony like herself. Now with a damaged wing, Dash would never join the Wonderbolts. A crushed dream, much like the dream of Shy’s crush for Rarity developing into a mutual crush was now a crushed crush of a dream crush. There was only one thing for it. They both needed to swap dreams. So Fluttershy stared deeply into Rainbow Dash’s eyes with resolution that surprised all the animals present and said, “You need to hit on Rarity.”  Rainbow had been shaking slightly before with silent terror from the thought of her liar nature being revealed. Now she was violently shaking with loud terror in her voice as she spoke, “What? But she might think that I’m a lesbian! There is nothing more terrifying than ponies thinking you’re a lesbian, especially if you happen to be straight like me.” “How do you think I feel?” Fluttershy asked, her resolve slipping away. “I’m gonna have to join the Wonderbolts if we are going to swap dreams properly.” “But Fluttershy, you’re afraid of heights!” Dash said, in alarm. The yellow mare whimpered. “Then I will just have to ask them to keep it very close to the ground.” “But Fluttershy, you’re afraid of speed!” Dash said, in a bit less of an alarmed voice. The butter pony whimpered harder. “Then I will just have to ask them to keep it very close to motionless.” “But Fluttershy they’re called the Wonderbolts, not the Walkabouts.” They both tried looking away from each other, but soon they could not resist a glance. They resumed eye contact, and at the sight of each other trying to hold in their respective giggles with ridiculous expressions aplenty, they both burst out into pure laughter. The laughter lasted so long that Rainbow Dash got tired, and tried to sneak in a nap when she thought Fluttershy wasn’t looking. Fluttershy didn’t know how her oldest friend thought she could fool the ‘Stare Master’ herself. She also didn’t know how a nap from the only other pony she had to talk to would go amiss under any circumstances. Well unless she was doing her boring aerial stunts, which would in all likelihood put the watcher to sleep. At which point the performer could just sleep at the same time. When the laughter started to subside, after way too many minutes of it, there was another sound easily heard. It was the sound of multiple voices shouting out the word ’Nerd!’. Fluttershy connected this occurrence with the similar one yesterday, it had happened a short while before Twilight Sparkle tried to visit with lunch. While Shy swiftly figured out what this meant, she wasn’t able to communicate this latest concern to the other pegasus before there was a single knock at the door. Apparently Dash didn’t think it rude to open the front door of a house that was not her own, because that’s exactly what she did. “Heck yeah, Twilight Sparkle’s here,” Rainbow said in an overly casual tone, “let's have a ‘friendly chat’ just like yesterday.” “Yes I remember it well,” Twilight responded, “and just like you mentioned back then, there is no rain today. So I suppose there won’t be any rain at any point in the entire future of this world either.” “What are you talking about Twilight I never implied any of that while I broke into your castle, took a child hostage, and shout-argued with you, and that all happened less than twenty four hours ago.” There was a brief pause. Then Rainbow said, “I take back what i just said, we both just had a friendly cha-” “Rainbow,” sighed Fluttershy, “what have I told you about committing various crimes when you try to help me out?” “That I should only do the stuff I can get away with,” Dash said, as if it was the hundredth time doing so. “Exactly if you cannot do the time, don’t do the crime," Fluttershy practically sang, “And Twilight what is the time?” “Um, lunch?” The princess responded, with hope in her eyes. “Okay then,” Fluttershy said with a note of confusion, “you two eat, and I’ll tend to the animals.” Twilight excitedly rushed towards the kitchen, unknown to anypony present something was passed from herself to Fluttershy. Something dark. Something that went with the shy pony when she left her cottage to greet her tiny friends. “Yay sandwich time!” Twilight shouted, unaware that something had been lifted from her. “Twilight, you do know how to make food that isn’t between two slices of bread, don’t you?” The alicorn thought hard, but only for a moment then resigned herself to a quiet utterance of, “No.” The blue pegasus sighed at her friend’s failure. “With that kind of spirit you will never become an omelettehead, you simple egghead.” “Will you teach me the ways of non-sandwich making?” “You must first, unlearn that which you have learnt,” Dash replied sagely. “Aw, but I don’t wanna!” Twi replied most unsagely. “Then this chapter of your life is over.” Rainbow said with a wink to nopony in particular.