Rainbow Dash was thinking. Not about anything important, really. Just… thinking.
About the sky, the clouds, the earth, the trees, the rivers crisscrossing the Equestrian countryside like a lazy crossword puzzle. She thought about the thin air of Cloudsdale, of the way that everything up there seemed quieter than down here.
Sound didn’t travel as far and every breath was earned, a gift given by strong pegasus lungs. She thought about the pale white of the world she spent her entire life in, the gentle slope of old clouds contrasted against the bold and vibrant colors of the ponies that swarmed across their surface.
She thought next about the earth below her. She thought about green and brown and blue and orange and grey and a thousand shades between them. She thought about the smell of dirt, of sweat, of aging stonework and sun-baked roads. She thought about the sound of living bodies moving around and… living. She thought about life.
She shifted her thoughts now to making sure her landing was gentle and that she didn’t bowl over any unsuspecting pedestrians as she touched down. She usually wouldn’t be even half as careful but she was trying to make a good impression with the ponies of this quiet Equestrian town. In the letter Cloudfront had sent her, he talked quite highly of this place.
This ‘Ponyville’.
Rainbow didn’t really get what all the fuss was about. It was just like any other flyover town, just another train stop in between Applewood and Canterlot. No accounting for taste, she supposed.
To Cloudfront’s credit, it did hold a certain rustic charm. Nothing else beyond that, of course, but rustic charm was better than nothing. It was no Cloudsdale or Las Pegasus or Stratusburg but it was decent as far as land-bound towns went.
She shouldered her way into the cafe they had arranged as a meeting point. Another point in Ponyville’s favor: the food down here smelled delicious. The air was warm, a nice change to the hint of frostbite that nipped at the heels of the fall day she had just escaped from. It was thick with the scent of baked treats and frying hayburgers, the sound of the patrons' chatter bubbling away into background noise.
Still, Rainbow Dash wasn’t here for the food. She wasn’t here for sightseeing or to get a break from the thin, cold air she spent so much time in. She was here to see a friend! A friend she so dearly missed, as it was. Not that she’d ever admit it to anypony of course. Cloudfront had been a close friend of Rainbow’s for years now — they met in Flight School and were inseparable ever since.
They had always been an odd pair, the two of them. Cloudfront was tall, lanky, incredibly sweet and soft and kind in a world that punished that kind of behavior. Rainbow was his polar opposite; short and brash and forward-thinking to the fullest extent of the concept. Rainbow owed Cloudfront a lot! She owed him for the Sonic Rainboom, for the courage to do the impossible. She owed him for helping her figure out that she was a lesbian.
Cloudfront was there, as tall and yellow and deathly awkward as usual. He was nearly folded in on himself, his snout hiding in his forelegs as the steam from a teacup curled in the air around him.
Rainbow slid into the seat opposite her childhood friend, nudging his foreleg with her hoof. “Air control to Private Cloudfront; you there?”
He hesitated before carefully unfolding himself, crossing his long and slender forelegs and setting them on the table. “Yes, I’m here Dash. How’ve you been?”
Rainbow shrugged, picking up a menu in her wings and browsing through it as she spoke. “I’ve been alright. Thinking about finally leaving home and striking out on my own,” Rainbow turned her gaze to Cloudfront, who shied away from her gaze. “What about you?”
A shrug came from the pony opposite her, who paused to let the waitress take Rainbow’s order. A large peanut butter and chocolate milkshake and an order of hayfries for the table. Not that Cloudfront really ate much. Rainbow tried not to think about that too much. “Same old, same old. I’ve really been enjoying helping the local animal clinic. Dr. Fauna is a gem.”
Rainbow nodded, letting the silence stretch on until her milkshake arrived. She knew that conversation could be difficult for Cloudfront and opted to enjoy the silence between the two of them for a moment. It gave her time to really look over her friend. It had been years since she last saw him. He looked… troubled. More troubled than usual at least. Nothing like he was when they were young.
The mane was the only real similarity here. When they were young he kept it long, stating he liked how it felt in the wind when they flew. But a few months before he left he cut his mane short. Rainbow thought it looked off and she was happy to see it long again. He looked… softer, somehow, like the time spent down here had helped shave down some of the sharp edges of his angular body.
Rainbow tried not to pay any attention to the way he folded his mane in his hooves, twirling it around in anxious loops. She remembered him being nervous when they were younger but this wasn’t that. It was… something else. It was moments like these that made Rainbow lament the difficulty that words gave her.
She had dozens of thoughts all racing to be the first to tumble out of her mouth. She wanted to comfort him, to encourage him, to uplift him; she wished to be the air beneath his wings if only for a moment. If only to help him remember that he could still fly. None of that came out. None of it even got close, really. Rainbow chose instead to give her milkshake her undivided attention.
“Rainbow?” His voice was meek, barely above a whisper.
Rainbow kept slurping at her milkshake. “Yeah, my dude?”
Cloudfront turned away, his eyes wide with fear. “There’s something I want to tell you,” Rainbow’s focus was still on her milkshake, a focus that was starting to slip. He sounded worried. He was always worried, mind, but this sounded… real. Had something happened?
“I, uh, being down here. Has, well no, I’ve been thinking. Realizing. That I need to be me and… not a colt…”
Rainbow’s brain stopped. The only thing she could do was keep her snout in her milkshake as the rest of her body ceased movement.
“And I was thinking,” Cloudfront continued, “maybe you would want to try to call me Fluttershy and she as well?”
Rainbow Dash was thinking. The milkshake was gone. She knew that. That didn’t mean she would stop trying to polish the inside of the cup with her tongue, avoiding anything that even got close to eye contact. Her eyes darted around the interior of the diner instead. Warm colors. Warm atmosphere. Warm heart.
Girl.
She.
Flutter… shy.
Fluttershy.
Rainbow would start there.
She thought about her voice. Fluttershy’s voice. Quiet, soft, bright. Like Cloudsdale. Like home. There was warmth there too, a deep and gentle timber that Rainbow could get lost in. She thought about her coat. Just as soft and bright as her voice, slopes of curly fur clinging to her flank and barrel and shoulder like grass clinging to the Equestrian countryside. Rainbow recalled its warmth, its delicate smell, the bliss of falling asleep after hours of flying.
She thought about plants and dirt, about Fluttershy making herself a garden. Fluttershy loved gardening, it was just hard to do up in Cloudsdale.
Rainbow loved gardening. Or at least, she loved watching Fluttershy garden. Rooting around in the earth, tending to her flowers, singing her little songs when she knew it was just the two of them. Rainbow loved the smell of dirt, the sight of it clinging to Fluttershy’s coat, the satisfied smile she wore when her work was finally finished.
She was so tall. Rainbow was short by anypony’s standards and Fluttershy was tall in equal measure. So it was that Fluttershy towered over her, a gentle giant of a pony that Rainbow fit perfectly against. So tall and handsome and close and right here, looking at her, speaking to her, that perfect voice speaking to her and—
“Rainbow Dash?”
Rainbow snapped to life, milkshake staining her snout. “GIRLS ARE GREAT FLUTTERSHY! I LOVE GIRLS! I’M A LESBIAN!”