//------------------------------//
// v 
// Story: "Loyalty" Begins With an L 
// by shortskirtsandexplosions 
//------------------------------//

    "I always thought that it was because Commander Hurricane was in the military," Fluttershy said.  She dished out lumps of food to various mice, squirrels, and rabbits in the foyer of her cottage as a rich sunset bled crimson bands across the front windows.  "They called her 'sir' out of respect.  Maybe your weather team is showing you the same appreciation, Rainbow."

"But, doesn't it sound—I dunno—weird to you?"  Rainbow Dash stood at the far end of the cabin where the shadows were thickest.  "I mean, I'd rather be caught dead than become a Cloudsdalian guard.  It seems so boring.  Weather flying is already dull and simple enough as it is.  I mean, it’s not like we’re making tornadoes everyday!  There doesn't have to be a whole bunch of regiment to it."  She caught a familiar reflection in her peripheral vision.  Turning aside, Rainbow Dash caught her image in a circular mirror.  "And—like—it's not as if they use the same stiff, rigid chain of command in the Wonderbolts."

"They didn't call Spitfire 'sir' when you were hanging out with them on the day of the Best Young Fliers' Competition?"

"Eh... They may have been."  Rainbow Dash tilted her head left and right in the reflection, examining the fresh scratches from Opalescence.  "I was a bit too stoked with excitement to pay attention, not that it would have mattered much to me.  Spitfire's so dang cool.  If I was her and ponies called me 'sir,' I don't think I'd give a flying feather."

"Well, perhaps you're in a similar place," Fluttershy said as she finished filling the animals' dishes.  "Ponies around town look up to you.  Uhm... I know I always have..."

"Heh..."  Rainbow Dash smirked and looked towards her.  "Yeah, well, you'd look up to a bucket of birdseed if it so much as flew faster than you, Fluttershy."

"Well... okay..." Fluttershy murmured defeatedly.  "I guess that's true."  Her wings twitched.  Changing the subject, she gazed at the nearby table and smiled at the book that had been returned to her home.  “Thank you again for delivering the novel I had let Rarity borrow.  I know you’ve been very busy lately..."

"Eh, it’s no prob.  What’s it about anyways?"

"It's... uhm... not the kind of book that would interest you, Rainbow.  At least... erm... I wouldn't imagine so..."

“Why not?”

“Well, it’s a classic romance story, and I know how much you roll your eyes at that sort of a thing.”

Rainbow Dash lingered slightly, gazing at the edges of her own reflection.  "Whatever," she eventually grunted with a shrug.  "If there's no Daring Do, I'm not interested."  She stared fixedly at Fluttershy's mane for a while as her friend hovered away.  She blinked and glanced at her own reflection in the mirror, grimacing slightly at the terribly unkempt, undeniably normal spread of her prismatic hair.

"Twilight says that there's a new volume coming out soon," Fluttershy remarked.  "Actually, two more books, come to think of it.  It's just a matter of months away..."

"Yeah..."  Rainbow Dash murmured absent-mindedly.  She gave Fluttershy's beautiful mane one last look before staring deeply into the mirror and fluffing her own head of hair with a scraped hoof.  She shaped the mane into something at least halfway "fashionable."  The sight that she was presented with did little to solace her.  Her nostrils flared.

"Rainbow Dash?" Fluttershy's voice murmured.  "Doesn't that excite you?"

Rainbow winced and shook her head until the mane was back to its usual raggedness.  She looked nervously towards her friend.  "Huh?  What excites me?"

"Two new Daring Do books!"

"Oh.  Uh... Yeah.  Sure.  How'd you find out about them?"

"Twilight told me.  I visited the library today looking for a new issue of Rodents Monthly.  I would have stayed longer, but... well..."

"Hmm?"

"It's not important."

"What, the magazine wasn't there or something?"

"No." Fluttershy shuddered, her coat paling even more as she gazed skittishly out the nearest window.  "I was told that reading up on squirrels was unbecoming of an animal expert."

"Huh?"  Rainbow Dash made a face.  "Who in the hay said that to you?"

"Oh.  Uhm.  Palm Fringe and Valley Strokes."

"What?"  Rainbow Dash leaned forward, her brow furrowed.  "Those two bimbos?!  Were they poking fun at you again?"

"Oh dear..."  Fluttershy bit her lip and dug at the floorboard with her hooves.  "Now I w-wish I hadn't said anything..."

"What did they say to you, Fluttershy?"

"Uhm... Nothing.  Really."

Rainbow Dash frown.  "What did they say?!"

"Eeep!"  Fluttershy backed up against a wall.  "They... They said I was a 'silly filly playing animal doctor...'"

Rainbow Dash started breathing heavier and heavier to the point of fuming.

"And that... uhm... 'I should just quit my day job.'"

Rainbow was already storming towards the front door to the cottage.  "Where are those two boneheads right now?"

"Oh Rainbow, don't—!"

Rainbow Dash flung the door open on its hinges and spread her wings.  "I'll friggin' smack their hooves together and make a table out of them both!"

"Please!"  Fluttershy tried biting on Rainbow's tail, but the blue pegasus' movement only made her pratfall onto the rug.  "Eeep!"  Wincing, she looked up and stretched a desperate hoof.  "Really!  Don't!  I shouldn't have said anything!  I don't want any trouble..."

"No, Fluttershy, you don't!  You never do!"  Rainbow Dash gnashed her teeth and glared down at her frail friend.  "But trouble just seems to follow you, doesn't it?"

"Uhm..."

"I am sick to friggin' death of ponies thinking they can make a pushover out of you!"  Rainbow Dash bucked an invisible cloud in frustration and growled, "Day in and day out, it never fails!  Why do some mares have to be such stupid jerks?!  Is it cuz they hate a pony who's kinder and gentler than them?!  Is it cuz they want to feel like they're popular?!"

"I... I don't know.  But please, Rainbow.  Don't go after anypony..."  Fluttershy's eyes moistened slightly.  "You know how much I hate conflict.  I'm... I'm not worth it, really..."

"Fluttershy..."  Rainbow Dash flew down to the ground at the sight of her friend's eyes watering.  "Of course you're worth it!  Don't you get it?!  You're... You're so sweet and nice!  You're—like—the model pony that Celestia wants all of us to be!  Or all ponies, for that matter!  And you're so good at what you do: both when it comes to your job and your hobbies!  And..."

She groaned and folded her forearms, glaring off into the sunset beyond the front door.

"Nopony should have to treat you like crap for how you decide to live your life,” Rainbow Dash said in a low tone.  “It's... It's just stupid.  I know you.  I know that you're awesome and wickedly cool, even in your own shy little ways.  And... And it just sickens me that somepony would take a mare who's so innocent and make her feel like crap just because.  It makes no sense.  It makes no—"  She stopped in mid-sentence, blinking.  Her gaze fell upon Fluttershy.

Fluttershy was frozen still, her body crouched against the rug and her wide eyes locked nervously on Rainbow Dash.

Rainbow winced.  She scratched the back of her neck.  "Uhm... I... I'm sorry that I just went off like that.  I don't... I don't know what got into me."  She sighed as her wings drooped at her sides.  "I... didn't really get a lot of sleep last night.  Sorry for dumping all of that on you."

"Rainbow Dash...?"

"Mmmf..." Rainbow Dash ran a hoof over her face.  "Yeah, what...?"

"Are you..."  Fluttershy stood up, and all the shock and fear was gone from her face, replaced instead by deep concern.  "Are you okay?"

"I'm fine enough, I guess.  So little sleep, like I said."

"It's just that..."  Fluttershy trotted over towards her.  "I'm not used to you... to you..."

"What?"  Rainbow Dash briefly frowned.

Fluttershy gulped.  "Feeling."

Rainbow Dash blinked.  She looked at the fresh cat scratches on her hooves, as if they suddenly stung for the first time in hours.  She cleared her throat and hid her limbs behind her back.  "Yeah, well.  Sleep deprivation can do funny things to a pony's senses.  Heh..."  She smiled crookedly.  "Just ask Applejack."

Fluttershy smiled sympathetically.  "There are worse things to be deprived of."

Rainbow Dash slowly tilted away from her, as if Fluttershy was made of some deadly material.  "Eh..."  She shuffled backwards, increasing the distance between them.  "I only need a soft cloud to sleep on.  I promise, Fluttershy, that I'll be less grumpy next time you see me.  I mean it."

"Including tomorrow?"

"Hmmm?"

"Oh, Rarity didn't remind you?"  Fluttershy smiled sweetly and flexed her wings.  "Twilight's been planning tomorrow morning's picnic for days now.  Everypony's going to be there.  Plus, Pinkie's going to be sampling her new caramel fritters.  It should be really fun.  You're going to come too, right?  I mean, if that's okay with you..."

"I... I have things to do, Fluttershy," Rainbow Dash said, though she winced to say it directly to the pegasus' sweet face.  "Seriously.  It's like my whole week is booked and stuff."

"Oh..."  Fluttershy hung her head.  "I was really hoping you would come."

Rainbow Dash gulped.  "You were?"

"Mmmhmmm..."  Fluttershy nodded, and her soft eyes tilted halfway towards Rainbow in a meek gaze.  "It feels as if we never see you around lately, Rainbow."

"Who's 'we?'"

"The girls and I, of course.  Ever since the wedding ceremony, it's like you're always being called off to one job or another."

"Well, heh, you know how it is.  You pull one sonic rainboom over Canterlot Castle and suddenly you're working on all of Ponyville's to-do lists."

"But surely you can make it to the picnic at least this one time.  We miss having you around."

"I... I..."  Rainbow Dash tried looking away from Fluttershy.  It felt like cutting off a limb.  "I-I'll see what I can do.  But, no promises..."  She flew off into the sunset, blazing away from the cottage.  "See ya!" she added in a habitual voice crack.

Fluttershy waved after her, smiling sweetly.  "Try to get some shuteye, Rainbow Dash."