“Hey, ‘Shy!” Dash called out, landing just as Fluttershy squeaked and stood bolt upright. Fluttershy slowly turned around, and Dash couldn’t help but smile a little wider as she caught sight of ‘Shy’s.
“Hello, Rainbow Dash,” Fluttershy said, those big blue eyes twinkling and making Dash grin even harder.
Until she noticed that part of one still hid behind her mane.
Dash sighed, her smile collapsing so fast she felt a lip snag between her teeth. “Hey, sorry I’m late, Fluttershy.” Something felt tight and awkward in her chest. Probably just a build-up of flying energy. She hoped. “I got kinda’ caught up talking to AJ…” she finished, looking over at the maze of apple trees.
“Oh, that’s all right, Rainbow,” Fluttershy said in that pillow-soft whisper that always sounded so right. Like it was a little pat on the back all on its own. No wonder Dash’s smile had come right back. After all, it was Fluttershy; that was just what she did.
“In fact…” Fluttershy took a step back. “If you hadn’t been late, I wouldn’t have been able to catch up with one of my old friends!”
Fluttershy pointed a fore-hoof out to the side, out to a little blob of brown sticking out of a slightly bigger blob of brown. Except that the first blob had two beady little black eyes that Dash could only just see. And two tiny pink paws that clung to the rim of its dirt mound. And a thin nose, that twitched and shuffled about in that way that was just a little too oochie-coo for those shudders to not ripple down her back.
No wonder it was one of ‘Shy’s friends.
Still, it was Shy’s friend. Those ripples could have earthquakes and they wouldn’t matter.
“Moleville here hurt one of his paws last year when he tried to tunnel up into my living room.”
Dash stared at her. “He did what?”
Fluttershy’s eyes shot wide. Or as wide as they ever went when a dragon wasn’t nearby. “Oh! He didn’t mean it,” she said, patting his head, and he eased into her hoof with a big smile on his face. “He just lost his way after looking for something to eat. So I took him in and made sure that he had somewhere warm and cosy to stay while he healed.” Her gentle little smile spread out again.
And stayed there until the little guy started chirping.
“Oh, what’s that?” ‘Shy titled her head.
More chirping. That smile of hers was back in a moment.
“Oh, of course you can help me out when I’m gardening, Moleville. But only if you really want to, okay?”
The little guy nodded, before he disappeared back into the mound, a few flecks of dirt spraying out behind him.
Fluttershy kept her eyes locked on the hole for a few moments, and Dash was sure she heard a little sigh whisper out of her friend’s nostrils. She definitely saw the little heave of her shoulders, anyway.
And the much bigger one a few moments later, after which Dash could feel the weight of those soft eyes on her.
At least they weren’t wet this time. Thankfully. She didn’t know how she’d kept breathing after the last time she’d seen… those.
“Sorry, Rainbow… I-I know you’ve already missed flying this morning…” Fluttershy’s head slipped further and further down with each word, a little more hiding behind her mane, too.
“Eh, don’t worry about it, Fluttershy.” That perked her right back up, and pulled back the covers. Dash grinned. “Guess I’ll just have to fly even faster, now.”
Fluttershy let out one of her light little giggles, while Dash took a moment to chuckle and definitely not giggle.
All right, maybe it was kind of like a… giggle. A little. But she was with Fluttershy; that made it okay.
Dash smirked. “Ready to cheer?”
She needed only a glimpse of Fluttershy’s smile and nod for it to finally happen. In the blink of an eye, she inched her fore-hooves ever so slightly further apart, levelled her brows, flared her wings to their fullest extent, tensed her legs…
And took off.
With one beat of her wings, she was already high enough that she could only just hear Fluttershy saying, “Oh yes, Dash!”
With another, a smirk dragged all the way across her muzzle farther than it had all day. Or maybe it was just the wind forcing it out?
Or maybe it was the great rush of pure awesomeness and energy she could feel surging through her.
Yeah, it was probably that.
Dash narrowed her eyes, and she raised her fore-hooves above her head. Their proper position for proper stunt flying.
With every beat of her wings she could feel the wind rush through her coat ever more quickly. The tension squeezing across her forehead? The tightness yanking her shoulders together? Those little niggles and grumbles that just built and built and built across the last week, like Derpy accidentally setting off a lightning fork into her tail even if she would never actually mean to do it and she’d apologised for hours after it, or the post-office forgetting about her subscription to Wonderbolts Weekly, or the weather patrol putting her on for two three-hour shifts back-to-back yesterday, or the Cakes’ foals choosing her tail to chew on?
All gone.
Lost to the blur of the field and houses below, and the whistle of the wind through her mane, and the thundering of her own heart.
Aw, YEAH! She’d needed this!
Dash finally reached her target, where the chill tingled through her wings even though they were like a blur by her sides, and only the best fliers could stay up with the thin air. She smirked.
And pushed her wings behind her, angling them so they almost flattened against their sides on their own. She could feel her primaries occasionally whip against her side, more and more as she dove and picked up speed like Tank inhaled lettuce.
She somehow found the time to raise an eyebrow. Bad example.
Either way, the ground rushed up towards her, even with the cold wind stinging at her eyes. She paid that no mind; she lived for this.
Just a little further…
The dark green lines around the edges of the field sprang and branched out into hedges.
A little more…
Fluttershy stood out clear as a rainbow across a clear sky, her eyes huge and staring and her smile somehow even wider. Hay, she was so excited that her wings had popped up and she was even leaning forwards!
Maybe…
She could suddenly see every blade of grass a few feet from her hooves, looming and threatening like the traps from a Daring Do book.
Now!
She threw her wings out, grimacing as the full brunt of the thicker air whacked against them and they strained so hard she almost let out a groan. But she didn’t. Instead, she arched her back and tilted her wings back just a tad, and watched with an ever-growing smirk as the greens suddenly gave way to clear, pure blue.
And then she felt the little tickle against her hooves that told her she’d pulled up at just the perfect moment.
For a tiny moment, she could hear Fluttershy cheering with a whole chorus of those soft little yays that just never got any louder no matter how hard she tried. And tried she did. Dash could actually hear them while flying, now, so that counted as progress, she guessed. Tiny progress, definitely, but progress.
And at least ‘Shy was actually down there.
Dash smirked and levelled off into a smoother climb. Besides, if this all went well, she wouldn’t need Fluttershy to be cheering and making herself all uncomfortable and working herself up every other month or so and making Dash feel squirmy enough inside to have to hug her while she went all… ugh, teary-eyed because she thought she wasn’t a good enough support when she was—she so was, and she’d kick the flank of anypony who said otherwise—and—
Why was she doing that again?
That thinking about that?
Dash scowled, and she tilted the very tips of her wings so that the world whirled between green and blue.
As she was thinking, if all of this went well… she’d have a real cheering section. In a real stadium!
Yeah.
She threw her hooves right, arching her back again. Fighting to keep her eyes open and her mouth closed, she focussed on keeping herself as tight as she could as every force slammed into her. Wind resistance… centrifugal… some others that Twilight told her about once…
Eh, those didn’t matter; the world was spinning too quick for that.
She gritted her teeth, staring at the flash of colour she knew as her own tail, while the world spun around above and below in the corners of her eyes. Harder and harder she pumped her wings, until finally she forced one out.
And shot away from her little circle in the sky, smirking all the while before pulling to a series of routine loop-the-loops. So she could catch her breath. The little she need to, anyway.
She let herself take a quick look back at her perfect Tornado Twist, just as the last of her rainbow flare faded.
Best start to a routine ever!
Her cheering section’d definitely go wild for that. Little foals would be shouting her name and saying she was the greatest and declaring that they wanted to be just like her when they grew up! Her fellow ‘Bolts’d be giving her those little nods and smirks that everypony knew meant a job well done. The stadium would be filled with ponies, all waving banners with every colour on them, or letting off party-poppers and streamers, or standing far below, talking to Pinkie!
Wait…
Dash cocked a brow, and looked down again.
Sure enough, there was ‘Shy, her head darting about as Pinkie bounced all around her.
Eyes still glued to the pink blur that could pop up at any time and destroy all the tension of a Daring Do climax, Dash floated back down to her friends. After all, Pinkie wasn’t supposed to be there…
She heard Pinkie’s faint chirp. “Really?”
Sure, she would have liked it if Pinkie showed up to her practicing. Hay, she’d have liked it if any of her friends would come and cheer for her as she cheated death and forced the wind to do her bidding. Yeah!
“Oh, yes, Pinkie. It’s just that, um… Rainbow…”
And if Pinkie showed up, she’d probably bring her party cannons and her streamer launchers and all sorts of things that all just seemed to make everything at her parties better. And they were already completely, one-hundred percent awesome to begin with.
“So nothing’s going on at all?”
But wasn’t Pinkie supposed to be planning another party? For tomorrow?
“Hey, Pinkie!” Dash called out as she landed.
“Hi, Dashie!” Pinkie chirped.
And Fluttershy jolted again, crouching behind her mane.
Dash’s brows creased, and she aimed them at Pinkie. “What’s up?”
Pinkie gave her one of those huge, face-splitting grins that chased off the hardness that had been in her voice. “Oh, nothing’s up, Dashie. Well, except for you, but you’ve come all the way down here now!” She let out one of her little snorty giggles, and Dash couldn’t help but smile.
“I just wanted to ask Fluttershy about something I saw earlier when we were all at Rarity’s.”
“Ah-huh,” Dash grunted, taking a look at Fluttershy. She was back out from behind her mane, now, but her smile still looked kind of weak.
“I mean, you were just totally ignoring everything Rarity and AJ were saying when they talked about their colt-friends. It was kinda’ funny, really. They were both like I love him so much and he’s so lovely and he completes me, and you were just sitting there in your own little world—guess it must be kinda’ like the world I go into when I plan my parties but with rainbows instead of streamers and where you can just think about flying or the Wonderbolts—and then you said you never wanted a special somepony!
“But then I saw you and Fluttershy being all secretive and you trying not to look at her when you were at the table, and then you said something about meeting up together tonight!”
Pinkie may have grinned, but Dash felt her hackles rise. “And there’s something wrong with that?”
“Nope! Nothing at all!” Dash could not stop her frown from melting under another Pinkie grin. “It’s like Fluttershy told me; you’ve known each other since you were both teeny-tiny, little Splashy-Dashie and Flutter-Wutters! Well, she didn’t use those names, since I just made them up, but it still means the same!”
Pinkie leapt over to Dash’s side, wrapped a hoof around her middle, and squeezed all the air right out of her. “This is just something that you and Fluttershy like to do together. Like when you go pranking with me, right Dashie?”
Breathing deeply, but not too deeply, Dash looked at Pinkie. At her sugary-sweet smile, and the mane that still bounced along with her, and the bright blue eyes that she could see twinkling.
Dash had to hold back a sigh. This was the pony who’d thrown the biggest party ever last week, just ‘cause she felt like celebrating the fact that she had such good friends by her sides. The pony who was always there with cupcakes and muffins and sweets, all out of the goodness of her hear—
Yeesh! When did she get so cheesy!
Pinkie shifted a little at her side, hugging her even tighter, and Dash felt her guts shrivel and writhe.
The same moment she’d thought something not cool about one of her best friends forever that she’d ever-ever had. That’s when.
She managed a smile. “Yep.”
“Actually, Pinkie…” They both looked over at Fluttershy. Her smile was the same neat little one as always. “I don’t mind you joining us tonight. Um…” She looked away for a second, “but if Rainbow—”
“Nah, that’s cool with me, Fluttershy.” Dash grew her smile into a full-on grin.
Pinkie took away her hoof, and she tapped it against her chin. Then she giggled, shaking her head. “I don’t think I can make it tonight, really. I’m hosting one of my special parties.”
The moment Pinkie shifted her shoulders, and made that little jerk of her head, Dash couldn’t stop her grin from flattening into a smirk. After all, everypony knew what one of Pinkie’s special parties were.
So she hardly batted an eye as she noticed ‘Shy curl away behind her mane again, her eyes fixed on the ground and her cheeks glowing pink.
“… Oh, did I tell you guys about last night’s?! …”
Fluttershy shifted a little on her hooves again, and Dash was sure she heard that tiny little squeak.
The same one she’d heard all those… well, not that many years ago, really, but it was back at Flight Camp anyhow.
“… Caramel and Lucky both came along for some fun, this time…”
There she’d been, laying down on the floor looking up the latest epic routine that the Wonderbolts had shown off in Hoofington, and working out just how she was going to do it, when Fluttershy just burst into her room.
“… And then I got out my secret stash of super-squirty cream and caramel—well, why wouldn’t I, Caramel himself was there! …”
And Fluttershy never burst into anywhere before. Of course. Fluttershy. So she’d looked up from her magazine, and that was when she’d seen just how… heavily ‘Shy was breathing. If she’d been panting any harder she might have blown the window out the cloud frame. That’s what it‘d felt like, anyway. And her cheeks had gone bright red, and she’d looked all over the room with those big, wide eyes.
That was when she’d gotten visions of those… those dumb colts, crowding around her and calling her Clutzershy and just being… argh…
“… So we all went upstairs to my party palace…”
But she didn’t even get chance to ask Fluttershy what’d happened before she just shot under her comforter and wrapped it completely around herself. Completely. Like it was a cocoon, or something. And then every time she’d tried to peel back the cover—and been really gentle with it—or just even tried to talk to Fluttershy, all she’d get in return was a little tremble, or a whimper, and she’d curl herself up even tighter.
Or she’d get a little sniffle.
Dash shivered in the present. Fluttershy… crying…
“… Even I don’t know how they both did that at the same time…”
She shuddered again.
So… she’d stood next to her bed for what felt like forever, just watching ‘Shy as she trembled under the covers, feeling like that one time she’d tried to fly through a hail cloud and come under fire from thousands of these little ice shards.
“… Hay, I didn’t even know ponies could bend like that! …”
And just as her cheeks’d started to ache from all the awkward grimacing, and her eyes had started to get a little warm for some reason, her door’d opened again, and this skinny little green filly let herself in.
But Dash hadn’t minded; it was Minty Fresh. Fluttershy’s room-mate.
“… But I guess I’ve said enough about last night’s fun…”
The two of them had gone back over to Fluttershy, only to find that she’d poked her head out from under the covers. With two dark tracks under her eyes…
“… Altho-ough, this does explain why you never came along too, Dashie…”
And then the next few seconds had kind of passed in a blur. Fluttershy said she was sorry for taking a peek at something, and Dash had had to look away ‘cause her eyes started to bubble up again, but this had left her staring at the magazine that Minty had poking out of her saddlebag.
The latest Flying Fancier. The one with Solar Flare on the cover, flying through a waterfall.
Dash had smirked.
“Right, Dashie?”
She’d heard her own room-mate bouncing on her cloud through the night to pretty much the same magazine to know exactly what was in it.
And that it’d not be something Fluttershy’d want to see.
“Dashie?”
Then before she’d known it, Fluttershy and Minty had both made up what hadn’t actually been anything at all, and Dash had been able get back into her magazine. With a smile on her face. Sure, her sheets had been a little clammy that night, and that hadn’t been so hot, but it was worth it to see ‘Shy smiling again as she went back to her room.
“Dashie?!”
“Huh?”
Dash shook her head and looked over at Pinkie, who immediately started giggling. “See? You’ve done it again, Dashie!”
Then Pinkie’s grin vanished as her mouth shot open wider than Ghastly Gorge, and her gasp echoed in Dash’s ears. “It’s that late!” She didn’t take her stare away from the sky, which Rainbow was sure was looking more orange and less blue by the second.
She could already feel her groan tickling at her throat.
“Sorry, girls, but I’ve got a party to get to!”
As Dash stared at the ground, she just noticed Pinkie bouncing away in the corner of her eye. She heaved her shoulders, finally letting out that groan.
Then a set of light-yellow hooves trotted to beside hers.
She looked up, her eyes landing on Fluttershy’s, and hers were very much facing the other way.
“Um… I-I’m sorry, Rainbow…”
Dash stared at her. “Eh, don’t be, Fluttershy.” That made her turn those wide, staring eyes onto Rainbow. “It’s just Pinkie being Pinkie… and it’s my fault for coming down here, anyway.” She gave Fluttershy another of those… soft smiles, and, sure enough, it brought another right out of her. “It’s just…”
She looked up at the sky, and she couldn’t hold back another sigh. Or stop her shoulders from sagging.
She could practically hear Fluttershy nibbling at her lip. “Uh… Rainbow, if you want to keep flying on your own—”
“Nah.” Dash forced her smile back, aiming it at Fluttershy. “I’m still up for tonight.”
Maybe it was the sun being so low, but Dash thought she could see something sparkle in Fluttershy’s eyes. Or maybe it was her teeth; she was definitely grinning hard enough to show those pearly-whites, now.
Dash countered it with a smirk and squared her shoulders. She looked up at the sky again. “But I gotta’ go make sure Tank’s okay, first.”
She had just enough time to hear ‘Shy gasp an, “Of course!” before it faded into the whoosh of the wind.