//------------------------------// // The Pony Who is Here to Right Every Single Wrong // Story: The Life and Times of a Winning Pony // by Chengar Qordath //------------------------------// That filly had gone and fallen off of Cloudsdale. I still didn’t know all the details, but Rainbow Dash had gotten herself into a race against some of the Flight Camp bullies to defend the honor of their latest victim. That was all well and good, except that during the confusion of the race the filly Rainbow was supposed to be defending had gotten knocked-over. Normally falling off the clouds wouldn’t be a big deal–almost any kid at the camp could at least glide down to the ground. However, from what Rainbow Dash told me, the whole reason the bullies were after this filly was because she was a weak flier. Between that and the fact that nopony had seen her since she had fallen, we had a real problem. The camp counselors were no help. After the filly fell, I stopped watching the race and spent several minutes looking for an adult, but none of them were around. It was their duty to watch out for all of us and be there if we needed help, but aside from when they were giving us flying lessons they were never around. Flight Camp is supposed to be a big deal. I’d been looking forward to it for a long time; spending my summers learning how to fly was a lot more exciting than going to school. Not that I hated school or anything, but this was flying! Ask any pegasus who hasn’t earned their wings yet, and they’ll tell you that flying is the coolest thing ever. Since spending a couple summers at Flight Camp is how you learn to fly, then obviously Flight Camp must be cool too. Except it wasn’t–the flight lessons weren’t all that good, and except for the lessons the counselors were never around. It was like they all went AWOL as soon as lessons were over. Flight Camp was not what I’d been looking forward to. Still, it wasn’t all bad. At least I’d met Rainbow Dash. At first we hadn’t gotten along–I thought  she was a troublemaker, and she thought I was a goody-four-shoes. That all changed the first time the both of us caught some of the bullies giving another filly trouble. After that ... well she still thought I was a goody-four-shoes and I still thought she was trouble, but that didn’t stop us from being friends. Especially since a pony needs to get friends wherever she could at Flight Camp. I’d just about given up on finding any adults to help when Rainbow Dash caught up with me. She was even more energetic than normal, to the point where she could barely stop flying around for long enough to actually talk to me. “Hey Cloud Kicker! Didja see that? I was wicked awesome! I kicked those jerks in the flank! And that’s not all, look!” Rainbow actually stopped moving for long enough to give me a chance to get a good look at it. “I got my cutie mark. Pretty cool, huh?” It was a pretty cool cutie mark, but right now I had bigger things to worry about. “Rainbow, that filly you got into the race to protect fell off her cloud, and nopony’s seen her since.” Rainbow’s eyes went wide as dinner plates when I told her that. “I’ve been trying to find somepony, but none of the adults are around and I can’t–” “Alright, let’s go get her then!” Rainbow probably would’ve flown off right then and there if I hadn’t grabbed her by the tail. “Wait!” I held onto her tail until she stopped trying to break free and actually started listening. “We’re not allowed to leave the camp, remember?” Rainbow whirled on me and flared her wings. “So what, you’re just gonna let...” She trailed off with a frown for a few seconds before she finally said. “You’re gonna let whatever-her-name-was fall down and get hurt because the rules say you can’t help her?” “Of course not!” I might care about sticking to the rules more than Rainbow the rebel, but I wasn’t gonna take that to the point of leaving somepony in danger. If a rule is getting ponies hurt, then it’s a dumb rule that needs to get changed. “We’re gonna go look for her, but we’ve gotta have a plan first! Where do we look for her? What’re we gonna do if she’s hurt? Stuff like that.” Rainbow never had the patience to think things through. “Look, do you wanna stand around talking, or do you wanna go find her?” “We’re gonna find her, alright!” I swear, sometimes it was like talking to a brick wall. “Alright, here’s the plan. We go to where she fell, and head straight down from there. I’ll grab a chunk of cloud we can use to carry her back if she’s hurt.” “Yeah, whatever, let’s just go!” Rainbow Dash shot off ahead of me. Not like normal either–she’s always been a bit faster than me, but now it was just crazy. Guess it figures that when she got her cutie mark, her special talent would turn out to be flying way too fast for her own good. This was gonna make it a lot harder to keep her from running off and doing something stupid whenever some poorly-thought-out idea popped into her head. Unfortunately, Rainbow tended to get bad ideas that she was eager to put into action all the time. Rainbow looped back around and flew over me, then came around and started flying backwards in front of me. She never could resist a chance to show-off. “What’s the matter Cloud Kicker? Can’t keep up? Geez, I wish I’d gotten my special talent earlier! This is awesome! No, it’s more than just awesome, it’s like ... supercoolradicalawesomazing!” “Yeah, great.” I wonder how long it would take me to get my cutie mark anyway? Now that Rainbow Dash had hers, mine shouldn’t take too much longer. Actually, since I was a couple weeks older than her I should’ve gotten mine first, but cutie marks are kinda weird like that. The filly we were both going to rescue was from the year ahead of ours, and she was still a blank flank. I hope it didn’t take me that long to find my special talent. We got back to the place where Rainbow’s race had started from, and I quickly grabbed some cloud and hammered it into something that could comfortably accommodate another pony. Then the two of us headed groundside, with Rainbow very impatiently matching my speed. I was a bit relieved when she started talking to me–as long as she was talking, she wasn’t likely to go running off on her own. “Hey Cloud Kicker, you’ve been to the ground before, right?” “Yeah.” It was kinda hard to imagine that there were actually pegasi Rainbow’s age that hadn’t been to the ground before. After all, that means stuff like probably never seeing a unicorn or earth pony before, which is a pretty big part of life in Equestria. Then again, I’d spent most of my life on the ground‒but even then Mom and Dad had taken me up to Cloudsdale a couple times, and we spent about six months stationed in Las Pegasus. My life might’ve mostly been on the ground, but they made sure I had some experience with the cloudborne side of pegasus life. For other parents to leave their kids so ignorant of something that important just seemed weird. Dad told me once that too many pegasi stick to the clouds instead of spending time on the ground. Something about how they think that never going to the ground makes them better than unicorns and earth ponies. Seems kinda dumb to me, since anypony who’s seen the Hearthswarming play knows all three types of ponies need each other. Besides, Shadow Kicker wanted all the pegasi to be part of Equestria, and everypony knows that, aside from the Princess, Shadow Kicker was the coolest pony ever! After a bit of hesitation, Rainbow spoke up again. “So what’s it like down there?” There was just a hint of nervousness in Rainbow’s voice. “I’ve heard it’s like, really freaky. Like, there are these creatures that look harmless, but then they swallow ponies whole! Some of the second-years who’ve actually been down there were telling me all about it.” Sheesh, the things some ponies will believe. I was tempted to debunk that, but poking fun at her sounded so much more amusing.“You scared?” I smirked over at her. “I thought you weren’t scared of anything.” “I’m not scared!” Rainbow snapped defensively. “I just wanna know if there’s gonna be some kinda freaky ground-monsters or something!” I couldn’t resist taunting her a bit more. “Scaredy-cat.” “Am not!” “Are too!” “Am not!” “Are too!” We went back and forth about a dozen times before Rainbow decided that she needed to say something a bit more than just ‘Am not!’ and declared, “I’m not scared of some stupid ground, okay?” I wasn’t about to let her get out of it that easily. I flew over to her and wrapped a forehoof around her neck. “Don’t worry little Dashie. I’ll protect you from all the scary little bunnies and squirrels. I’m a Kicker, it’s my duty to protect other ponies. Even when those ponies are scaredy-cats.” I was expecting Rainbow to shove me away and keep insisting that she wasn’t scared, but instead she started giggling like mad. When she was still laughing after several seconds, I gave into my curiosity. “What’s so funny?” “You said doody!” Rainbow gasped out. Actually saying what was so funny moved her from giggles to full-out laughter. “Duty, not doody!” As soon as I said that out loud I smacked myself on the forehead and groaned. “You said doody again!” Rainbow crowed. “Twice!” I let out another groan. There was no reasoning with her when she’s like this. The two of us finally got to around ground level, and to my amusement Rainbow kept hovering quite a ways above the treeline. A quick search confirmed that she wasn’t in the immediate area. That was probably a good sign–if she’d hit the ground hard enough to be really hurt, she’d still be here. She’d probably just wandered off looking for help. “Alright Rainbow, let’s split up and go looking for her.” I thought about suggesting some kinda systematic search pattern, but there’s no way Rainbow Dash would stick to any kind of complicated plan. Best to keep things simple enough that a pony with her non-existent attention span could handle it. Instead of making a plan, I just pointed to the left. “You go that way, I’ll go the other way. Just keep looking around, and we’ll find her eventually.” “Who put you in charge?” Rainbow growled rebelliously. “I don’t have to listen to you! I’m gonna go that way!” Before I could even say anything in response Rainbow shot off in the exact opposite of the direction I’d suggested she go in. Typical Rainbow Dash, being contrary for the sake of being contrary. I just hope she doesn’t get lost, and I end up having to find her too. I flew off in a rough half-spiral pattern that should cover my half of the search area reasonably well, looking for any sign of the yellow filly. I could see a rainbow blur off in the distance haphazardly zooming all over the place. She was probably passing over the same spot several times and leaving huge chunks of terrain completely unsearched. Did she ever use her head for anything other than a place to attach her mane? After about a minute of searching I spotted a flash of yellow and pink through the trees, and came around for a lower, slower pass. Sure enough, the target was there. She looked like she was talking to some bunnies, squirrels, and other little critters. The weird part was that all the wild animals seemed to be getting along just fine with her. A second later I had a guess as to why–she had her Cutie Mark now. Must be her special talent or something. I was starting to get just a little jealous of all the ponies who were getting their marks now. I landed a short distance away, but she was too busy talking to her animal friends to notice me. After a couple seconds, I decided to get her attention. “Hey, you alright?” She immediately let out a startled little scream, and the animals scattered. She didn’t actually say anything to me though, so after a few seconds I took a couple steps towards her. She immediately let out a frightened squeak and shied away from me. “Whoa, easy there.” What was she so nervous about anyway? I guess she must be one of those really shy kinds of ponies that don’t like talking to anypony they didn’t know. If that was the problem, then she just needed to get to know me. “Look, Rainbow Dash and I saw that you fell down, so we wanted to make sure you were alright. You remember Rainbow Dash, right? The filly who got those bullies to leave you alone?” I don’t think Rainbow actually bothered to introduce herself, but that crazy mane of hers makes is pretty easy for a pony who’s met her to guess who I’m talking about. The filly still looked nervous, but she’d gone from looking like she was a second away from fleeing to just very uncomfortable. Alright, I was making progress. That’s good. “I’m Cloud Kicker. Have you ever heard of my family? Well, we protect other ponies and stuff, so you don’t have to be scared.” She very briefly looked out from under mane at me. That was a good sign, but now I was starting to get a little nervous on account of how flighty she was. It was hard not to be a bit on-edge when you’re talking to somepony who seems like she would go running for the hills if I said the wrong thing. No wonder the bullies gave her so much trouble. Come to think of it, she was probably so unsure about dealing with ponies she didn’t know because she kept having trouble with bullies. I tried to give her a nice, reassuring smile. “So anyway, like I said before, I’m Cloud Kicker. What’s your name?” The filly gave a high-pitched squeal. Okay, at least I’d gotten some kind of answer from her. I had no idea what she’d just said, but at least she was trying to talk to me. I guess I needed to give her a bit more reassurance first though. “So, you got your cutie mark, right?” She shot another nervous look at me out of the corner of her eye before very slowly nodding. “That’s really neat. I wish I had a cool cutie mark like yours.” “I’m sorry!” She quickly blurted out before taking several steps back and started cowering on the ground. “I’m sorry!” “Huh? What are you apologising for?” That was a pretty weird way to react when you tell somepony that their cutie mark is neat. Most fillies are really happy when they finally get their Mark and joyfully showed it off to everypony they could find. Even with a rescue mission hanging over our heads, Rainbow couldn’t resist showing hers off. “I’m sorry,” she whimpered again, covering her eyes with her hooves. “I–I’d give you my cutie mark if I could, but I can’t. I’m sorry, please don’t...” Oh Celestia, she thought I was mad at her. The bullies must have done a number on her if someone telling her something as harmless as ‘I like your cutie mark’ had her that scared. “Hey, it’s alright. I’m not gonna hurt you. Don’t you remember what I said earlier? My entire family protects scared ponies. We’re kinda awesome that way. So you don’t need to be scared, okay? I’m here to help you, so why would I hurt you or be mean to you?” That got her to very slowly start removing her hooves from her eyes. I realized I was kinda towering over her now that she was practically lying flat on the ground, and dropped down to roughly her level. I was tempted to try stroking her mane or something, but as nervous as she was that would probably just make her think I was about to hit her or something. Rainbow and I were being way too nice to the jerks up at Flight Camp. Once we got back, it was time to start teaching them some serious lessons. “Anyway, Rainbow and I brought a cloud down for you.” I tried to keep my voice and body language as gentle and non-threatening as I could manage. “Once you’re ready to go, you can just hop right on it and we’ll fly you back up. It’ll be like having your own little private chariot. If you want I could even make you some cloud-reins to give me and Rainbow directions and give us a little smack if we start going too fast or slow.” “Oh no,” she squeaked. “I–I could never do that.” I decided to say something before she started apologizing again. “Relax, I was kidding about the reins.” “Oh, it was a joke?” She ducked her head down under her mane. “I’m sorry I didn’t laugh at it. It was funny.” She let out a weak, very obviously forced laugh. If not for the fact that it probably would’ve upset her more, I would’ve sighed and applied hoof to face. Was there anything I could possibly say to her that she wouldn’t interpret as something she needed to apologize for? It was like a conversational minefield. “Look, um ... Rainbow Dash and I are both good ponies, okay? Well, Rainbow can be a little rough around the edges, but I promise that she means well. Look, the bottom line is we’re here to help, and you don’t need to be scared of us. Okay?” She very slowly nodded  I was at least getting her to communicate, but I still felt like I needed to do something to get her to believe that Rainbow and I were good ponies. But what? I grinned as the perfect idea came to mind. “Wait right here, I’ll be back in just a bit.” She let out a little squeak that I took for acknowledgement, and I took to the sky for long enough to grab the cloud I’d brought down from Cloudsdale. I could see Rainbow Dash still zooming around in the distance, looking for the pony I’d already found. I thought about calling her over, but I wasn’t sure how Supershy would react to me coming back with another pony. Plus ... well this filly needed to be handled with a delicate hoof, and Rainbow Dash isn’t good at that kinda thing. “So, here’s the cloud.” I’m not sure why I said that–anypony with eyes could tell that it was a cloud. “So anyway, I was thinking that instead of taking you back to Cloudsdale on a plain old ordinary cloud, I should do something really cool with it. Y’know, so you can go back in style and all that.” “Oh, I could never ask you to go to that much trouble,” she mumbled uncomfortably. A wonderfully devious idea occurred to me. “So ... you’re saying you don’t want me to get this cloud all nice-looking for you?” I faked a very disappointed frown and forced my ears to droop down. “Oh, well–I guess that’s okay...” It worked like a charm. “Oh my, I’m so sorry. Of course you can do whatever you want with that cloud.” I felt a little bad for guilting her, but if that was the only way I could get her to let me do something nice for her, then that’s what I would do. “Um...” She hesitantly pawed at the ground before whispering barely loud enough for me to hear, “Maybe you could put a bunny on it?” “Bunny rabbits. Gotcha.” I put hooves to the cloud, and before long there was a roughly life-sized rabbit sitting on the front of the cloud. “Oh, that’s incredible!” I was a little stunned when the pony who had barely spoken above an uncomfortable whisper suddenly went up to something that almost qualified as a normal speaking voice. I’d been hoping to get to open up a bit, but I hadn’t been expecting this much. Not that I was gonna complain about being too successful. “So...” I took another tuft of cloud in hoof and started idly toying with it. “What next? Maybe a little hummingbird?” She nodded eagerly. “Oh yes! Please!” I spent the next couple minutes creating a veritable menagerie out of the cloud I brought down. Before long it started getting to the point where there would barely be any room on cloud to actually carry the formerly nervous filly back. It would’ve been smart to stop messing around with making cloud animals, but one look at the enraptured smile on her face and I knew that wasn’t an option. The little cloud critters just made her so happy that I didn’t have the heart to take them away. Plus, I kinda liked doing this. I mean, it was pretty cool to be able to just take a chunk of ordinary cloud and turn it into something interesting that put a smile on a pony’s face. It was weird though–I mean, I’ve always kinda had a knack for messing around with clouds, but right now I was doing a hay of a lot better than I’d ever done before. Normally turning a little chunk of cloud into something that looked like a rabbit or a bird would’ve taken some effort, but right now whenever I grabbed that cloud I could just kinda ... feel it. It was like everything was falling into place, and I could figure out exactly what I needed to do to make the cloud change into whatever I wanted. I don’t know how long the two of us would have kept at it, with me making little cloud critters and her happily gushing over every single one, if Rainbow Dash hadn’t found us. I suppose I shouldn’t be surprised that her complete inability to make any kind of methodical search had eventually resulted in her crossing over to my half of the search area. She zoomed down to the two of us and hit me with annoyed scowl. “There you are! I’ve been looking all over the place for ya! Why didn’t you let me know you’d found her?” The arrival of a strange new pony had the expected effect on my new friend, and she fluttered shyly behind me. I was strangely happy about that–she might be scared and nervous, but she was expecting me to look out for her now instead of just running away. I gave her a quick little reassuring grin before I answered Rainbow Dash. “You might have noticed that she’s a just a little bit shy.” Rainbow took one look at the nervous pegasus, and shot me a smirk. “Ya think?” I turned back to the nervous nellie. “You can relax, that’s Rainbow Dash. You met her before, right? She’s alright, even if she acts like a bit of a jerk sometimes.” I pointedly ignored Rainbow’s grumble of protest at that description, and once she was done whining I turned to her. “So Rainbow, this is...” I drew a complete blank as it occurred to me that she never had gotten around to telling me her name. I quickly turned back to the filly hiding behind me. “Um ... what was your name again?” “Eepysqueak.” In hindsight it would be obvious that this was just another one of her numerous frightened little squeals, but the problem with hindsight is that it usually comes too late to do anypony any good with their current problems. “So yeah, this is Eepysqueak,” I finished my hanging sentence. “She’s a bit shy, but she’s pretty neat once you get her to open up.” “Um–excuse me?” I was a little surprised when Eepysqueak actually injected herself into the conversation. Rainbow and I both turned to her, and she flinched down to the ground at the sudden attention focused on her. “It’s just... well you might want to look at your flank. I–um–I noticed it while I was hiding,..” she trailed off with a weak little murmer I couldn’t even begin to hear. With what I know now, she was probably trying to point out that I’d gotten her name wrong, but lost her nerve at the thought of correcting somepony like that. In any case, whatever it was she’d been trying to say was immediately shoved out of my head when I got a good look at my flank. “By Shadow’s right hoof! I’ve got my cutie mark!” A picture of the sun partially covered by a cloud was now sitting proudly on my lavender fur. Not as cool as my dad’s wing blade and shield cutie mark, but not too shabby at all. I guess that means my special talent is messing around with clouds? For a moment I was disappointed that I hadn’t gotten something like a wing blade cutie mark that would be useful once I started working in the Guard with Mom and Dad. However, before long it occurred to me that messing with clouds would be really handy for stuff like setting up ambushes and blocking line of sight. Maybe I could even hit the bad guys with some nasty weather stuff. Like lightning! That would be cool. Yeah, my new cutie mark and special talent were definitely awesome. “Yeah, that’s a pretty cool cutie mark,” Rainbow Dash declared with a grin. A second later she crossed her forelegs over her chest and petulantly added. “Mine’s cooler though. Plus I still got mine before you did.” “Sorry,” Eepysqueak whimpered as she wiped the blood off my muzzle. “I’m so sorry, Cloud Kicker.” “It’s fine, Eepysqueak.” I gave her a reassuring little pat on the head pat with one of my forehooves. “You don’t need to apologize. It’s not your fault that bully was giving you trouble.” I’d gotten to know Eepysqueak pretty well over the last month or so at Flight Camp. After a couple weeks I found out her name was really Fluttershy, but by then the nickname had kinda stuck. However, one thing that hadn’t changed about her was her tendency to apologize at the drop of a hat. “But ... but if I hadn’t gotten into trouble you wouldn’t have been hurt trying to protect me,” Eepysqueak mumbled uncomfortably. “Hey.” I put her a reassuring hoof on her shoulder. “Don’t you remember what I told you back when we first started being friends? I’m a Kicker, it’s my job to protect other ponies.” I gave her a cheeky grin, and quickly regretted it when that sent a pulse of pain shooting straight through my muzzle. “Think of it this way, Eepysqueak–you’re really kinda helping me out here. Someday I’m gonna protect the Princess just like my Mom and Dad, so taking care of ponies like you is good practice. After all, I wanna grow up to be loyal and strong and honorable, just like Granny Shadow!” “But you’re already strong,” Fluttershy assured me. A second later she reverted back to being self-deprecating. “A lot stronger than me at least. If I wasn’t so weak and helpless you wouldn’t have gotten hurt.” “Hey.” I very deliberately looked her in the eye. “None of that, Eep. You wanna know why I got hurt? It’s because I didn’t duck fast enough, so that jerk managed to bop me one. It happens, I’ve gotten way worse from training with my family.” That wasn’t exactly true since my family used safety equipment when training that prevented bloody muzzles or other injuries, but with Eepysqueak sometimes the occasional white lie is the only way to keep her from working herself up too much. “Next time I run into some no-good punk who needs a good kick in the head, I’ll remember not to let him hit me.” “Um...” Fluttershy shuffled her hooves uncomfortably for a bit before very quietly saying. “I don’t think anypony ever needs to be kicked in the head.” “Not even jerks who give you a hard time?” Eepysqueak gave tiny little nervous grin. “Well ... maybe they deserved it just a teeny tiny bit...” That got a chuckle out of me. Still, it was good to see even that tiny little shred of assertiveness out of her. At this rate I might actually be able to get her to start standing up for herself just a tiny little bit by the time we got out of Flight Camp. Probably not to the point of actually smacking ponies when they deserved it, but any progress I could make would be good. Rainbow Dash and Derpy would do their part to help too. I hope I could keep in touch with her once Flight Camp was over–I was really gonna miss her once I had to go back to Canterlot. Still, even with all the progress we made, she’d probably always be a bit of a doormat. That’s just how she was. “Eepysqueak, you’re really way too sweet for your own good sometimes.” “Sorry,” she apologized as she wiped the rest of the blood off of my muzzle. It was a struggle not to roll my eyes at her apology. I know that’s just the way she is, but it could get a little aggravating sometimes dealing with a pony who couldn’t have a conversation without apologizing almost every time she opened her mouth. “Eepysqueak, you don’t have to apologize unless you’ve done something wrong, okay?” I ran a hoof through her mane and gave her a reassuring little smile. “I like how nice you are. It’s part of why we’re such good friends, so you don’t need to apologize for that. All I was saying is that you don’t need to apologize for every little thing, okay?” “Okay,” she meekly agreed. “I’ll try not to apologize too much. Sorry.” She let out a nervous little cry. “Oh my, I didn’t mean to apologize just then, I’m so sorry!” Eepysqueak let out a horrified gasp. “Oh no, that’s twice now! I’m sor–” I gently put a hoof over her mouth to cut her off before she could have a complete meltdown. In hindsight, I really should’ve seen that one coming. If there was anypony in all of Equestria who could apologize for apologizing, it was Eepysqueak. “Just forget I said anything. You’re fine the way you are. Actually, I wouldn’t want you to be any other way.” That got another tentative little smile out of her. “Okay.” On impulse I wrapped wing around her and pulled her into a friendly hug. Eepysqueak gave a happy little squeak and nuzzled my cheek. If not for the fact that I was still bleeding a little, we might’ve stayed comfortable like that for a while, but not even the prospect of a friendly hug was enough to deter her from the need to fuss over me like a mother hen. She always made a big deal over it when I got a little roughed up. Even if sometimes she got way too worked up over nothing sometimes, I tried not to let it bother me since that was just how she showed she cared. It was kinda nice, having somepony get all worried when I got a little bump or bruise like that. Eepysqueak pulled off another little tuft of cloud and wiped the last bit of blood off of my muzzle before gently but firmly pressing down on the injury. It was kinda hard to talk with her hoof on top of my nose like that, so I settled for giving her an occasional friendly pat on the shoulder with a forehoof. After a minute or so she removed the cloud, and a quick check of my muzzle confirmed that the bleeding had stopped. Not only was it really cute the way she always played nurse for me, but she was also pretty good at it. “Cool. Great job, Eepysqueak.” “Oh, I didn’t do anything that special,” she answered with a bashful little blush. “Anypony could have cleaned you up and stopped the bleeding. I’m sure the camp nurses could’ve done a much better job than I did. Well, if they were here anyways...” I grinned at her and tossed a hoof over her shoulders. “Maybe, but I like it a lot better when it’s you doing it.” That little bit of praise didn’t do anything to fix Eepy’s modest blushing. I pulled her into another one-winged hug. “Anyway, thanks for patching me up.” “Oh no, you don’t need to thank me.” I swear, if she started blushing any more her coat would stop being yellow. “If anything I should be thanking you. I mean, I don’t really like seeing other ponies get into fights or getting hurt, but I still really appreciate you doing that just to protect me. So ... um ...” Whoa, she was sounding nervous. Like, more nervous than she usually is. I turned my head towards her so I could see what the problem was. “Eeps, is something–” The rest of what I was about to say got cut off by what had to be the most unexpected thing in the world. Eepysqueak’s lips. Holy Celestia! Eepysqueak was kissing me! And it. Felt. Awesome! No wonder the adults liked this kinda thing. A second later Eepysqueak pulled away from me with a terrified little squeal. If not for the fact that I’d been wing-hugging her I think she probably would’ve tried to fly away. Well, that and the fact that her wings usually locked up whenever she was scared. Instead she just drawing in gaspy, panicked breaths while her eyes started darting around wildly. Okay, get her to calm down first, then I could deal with the whole ‘what the hay do I do about getting kissed by a friend’ thing. “Easy, Eepysqueak. It’s okay, calm down. Everything’s alright, Fluttershy.” Normally I preferred sticking to her nickname, but when she got all nervous and panicky–moreso than usual, that is–sometimes using her real name helped her to relax. After a bit she started getting less terrified, but that just meant she went from hyperventaliting to crying. “I’m sorry!” she wailed out. “I didn’t mean to–I was just trying to give you a kiss on the cheek but then you turned your head and instead I...” She clapped her hooves over her mouth for a second, and then quickly added. “Not–not that I was saying it was your fault or anything! Of course not! It was my fault, and I really shouldn’t have done that without asking you first and I’m so sorry! Please don’t hate me!” I brought up a hoof to wipe her tears away and tried to give her a reassuring smile. “I could never hate you, Eepysqueak.” Eepysqueak seemed to calm down a bit when I said that. She was still pretty scared, but at least she wasn’t on the verge of giving herself a heart attack or anything. Finally, she very quietly murmured. “But ... I kissed you.” “That’s okay, Eepysqueak.” I felt my own cheeks go hot as I told her. “I didn’t mind it. It was ... actually kinda nice.” That seemed to finally get her to stop worrying, though it made her blush return full force. “Really? Um ... I um–I liked it too.” “Cool.” I let out a nervous little chuckle. I hesitated for a moment before I said. “Y’know, if you want we could do it again.” Eepysqueak nodded very slowly, and then nervously leaned forward to give a second very tentative and experimental little kiss. I wouldn’t have believed it was possible, but this one was even better than the last one. I guess because this time I wasn’t surprised, so I could actually take a bit of time to enjoy it. By the time she pulled back both of us were blushing like mad. I managed to overcome my nerves for long enough to speak first. “Wow. That was ... wow.” “Yes,” Eepysqueak agreed breathily. “That was ... nice.” “Nice?” Nice wasn’t even close to a good enough word for what that felt like. “That was the best thing ever!” There were so many things going through my head right now that I had no idea what to make of them all. One thing I knew for sure though–kissing Fluttershy was great, and I wanted to do more of it. Like, a lot more. “D’you wanna, um ... you didn’t have to stop.” “Oh?” The smile Eepysqueak gave me was extremely tenuous, but it was also the biggest smile I’d ever seen from her that didn’t come from nurturing some cute little ground animal. “Are you sure you wouldn’t mind if I ... um ... if I kissed you again?” I grinned right back at her. “Eeps, I can’t think of anything I would mind less.” Life was great. I had a fillyfriend. Words cannot describe how amazing that is. Every day after lessons Eepysqueak and I would find somewhere nice and isolated, and do some more kissing and other stuff. It wasn’t hard to find somewhere private to do stuff for a while, especially since there were never any counselors around. Eepysqueak and I had a lot of fun. Some of it was a little weird since we were kinda figuring it all out on our own, but once we got the hang of it all it was pretty cool. And then there was that first time when we ... well. Wow. I mean, wow. I don't even remember any of the adults talking about that at any point. I had no idea I could ever feel like that, but Eepysqueak ... wow. Yeah, after the first time, we started doing that every time we got together. So yeah, life was going pretty good for me. Good friends, completely amazing fillyfriend who I was getting to slowly come out of her shell, and even the fact that Flight Camp still kinda sucked wasn’t nearly enough to offset all that. In other words, life was going great. Then Rainbow Dash tackled me. And this wasn’t like some friendly little tackle like she’d do when she was feeling energetic, this was a full-speed hooves-first slam. I dimly heard and felt something in my side cracking when she hit me. The two of us rolled along the clouds for a while until she slammed me down on my back. Rainbow was on top, resting her hindquarters on my stomach and pinning me down with her forelegs. “Rainbow, what the hay are you–” The rest of the question got abruptly cut off by a hoof to the face. Then she hit me again, and started screaming at me. I couldn’t even understand most of what she was saying, especially since I was a just a little distracted by the fact that she kept punching me in the head, but I could make out that it was something about Eepysqueak. I brought up my left foreleg to try to stave off any more hits from Rainbow. “Rainbow, stop! What the hay is wrong with you? Why are you doing this?” “Feather you! You feathering know what you feathering did, you feathering featherer!” I was about to praise her creativity in throwing out obscenities when she slammed both her forehooves into my upraised foreleg, and it hurt! When I finally stopped shrieking I tried to move my foreleg, but even a tiny twitch of movement hurt enough make me scream again. That’s when it really started dawning on me. This was not an ordinary little schoolyard scuffle where we ruffled some bully’s feathers and gave him a little bruise or two. This was serious. Rainbow Dash was trying to hurt me bad, and she wasn’t gonna stop unless I made her stop. If I didn’t do something to make her stop, she was gonna kill me! I had to hit her back, and I had to hit back hard. I tried to remember what Mom told me when she showing me a little bit of Krav Pega. That would’ve been a lot easier to do if Rainbow wasn’t punching me in the head so much. Eventually one of those lessons popped into my head and gave me a decent solution. I took my unbroken right foreleg, and slammed the hoof right into one of Rainbow’s eyes. The psychotic pegasus threw her head back and screamed, clutching both her forelegs over her injured eye. For a brief moment I felt sorry for her, until I remembered that the smack in the eye was the only reason she wasn’t still trying to smash my face into pulp. If I didn’t do something to stop her, she’d get right back to doing it again. I needed to hurt her bad enough that she would stop trying to kill me I followed up my first shot with a hoof to the throat that cut Rainbow’s screaming off into a choking gurgle. I followed up with a shot to the chest while I rolled my hindquarters, and I finally managed to get her off me. As soon as I got back onto my three working hooves blood started pouring into my eyes. Dammit, she must’ve opened up a cut on my forehead or something. While I’d been on my back it hadn’t been a big problem, but now that I was upright all that blood was headed straight down. A couple quick swipes of my undamaged foreleg managed to get the worst of the blood away, but there was still more coming down. What was I supposed to do now? My first instinct was to run for it and find help, but there was no way I could get away from Rainbow Dash if she chased me. Hay, she was faster than most of the counselors here, let alone me. If she caught me in the air, I was dead. Smack. Fall. Impact. Dead. I felt a little short of breath, but when I tried to take a deep breath, it felt like my entire right side was on fire. Then I started coughing, and every single cough felt like I was getting stabbed in the side. When the coughing fit finally stopped, the section of cloud underneath my mouth was covered in blood. I’ve read enough books to know that’s bad. Really bad. Rainbow seemed to have finally recovered from the hits I’d landed on her, although the eye I’d put a hoof into was squeezed shut, and she was stalking towards me with a predatory grin. “Go on. Run. I dare ya.” That wasn’t an option. It was fight, or die. Even then, I was in bad enough shape that she’d win if we kept going at it. I needed to change the dynamics of the situation, and fast. I did have one advantage–her right eye was closed up. If I could get around to her blind side, it would give me a chance to get some hits in and turn the fight around. The only problem was that if Rainbow had half a brain, she’d know that too, and since she was faster and in better shape than me... Lucky for me, Rainbow Dash has never been all that good at the more subtle aspects of tactics. I had to switch to hovering just over the surface of the clouds; I wasn’t gonna be moving very fast with one of my forelegs not working, and I needed maneuverability for this. Rainbow started hovering too, a confident smirk on her face. I darted towards her blind side, and she immediately started turning to keep her good eye on me. Unfortunately for Rainbow, the first move had been a feint. I pulled a quick turn that sent me past Rainbow’s left side and clamped my teeth into her wing. With the two of us flying in opposite directions, I had more than enough momentum going to wrench the wing out of it’s socket. Rainbow plummeted down to the clouds with a howl. I was home free–with one of her wings out of commission I should be able to make my getaway. At least, that was the idea–before I could take any pride in that victory or put the plan into action another nasty coughing fit hit me. By the time it passed. I was back on the clouds, and RD was charging me despite the limp wing hanging at her side. So much for flying away. I might have two working wings, but the rest of me was too messed up for that to count. It was kinda funny, in a perverse way. Everything but my wings were broken, and I couldn't fly. Rainbow could run fast enough that if I went down again before I got help she’d be on me. Hay, as bad as I was doing she might not even need to chase me; I might just crash all on my own before I could find somepony. If I was going to have any chance at all, I had to stop her from chasing me. I took advantage of Rainbow’s biggest weakness by using tactics again. I played possum until she was almost on top of me, then quickly rolled aside. A particularly ingenious idea idea popped into my head as Rainbow started going past. I knew from messing around with Fluttershy that both of us were very sensitive Down There. I planted my one worked forehoof into the clouds and bucked out, slamming both of my hindhooves right under her tail. Rainbow went down screaming. That'll show her not to mess with a Kicker! “Gotcha!” I hissed triumphantly. Before I could do anything more, my working legs collapsed underneath me as a wave of exhaustion slammed into me like the Friendship Express, and I started coughing up blood again. All those injuries I’d been trying very hard to ignore while the fight was still ongoing were reminding me that they were all still there. Okay ... OW! My face hurt. My left foreleg hurt. My ribs hurt. Just feathering breathing hurt. And my head really, really feathering hurt! After that things got a little blurry. I don’t know how long I was lying down on the cloud before Eepysqueak and Derpy showed up. Probably not that long though–Rainbow Dash was still screaming just as loud as she’d been when I took her down. “Eebysqueak?” My voice came out badly slurred. Eepysqueak frantically looked back and forth between me and my completely insane ex-friend, her mouth letting out a constant stream of panicked babbling. “Ohmygoodness ohmygoodness ohmygoodness!” Seeing Eepysqueak reminded me that Rainbow had been screaming something about Eepy when she attacked me. Wait ... was Rainbow trying to hurt Eepysqueak? That bitch! I staggered to my hooves, drunkenly swaying from side to side as I tried to get over to Rainbow. “C'mon, geddup! m’not done wid you!” Ugh, I was still slurring my words. What was up with that? Maybe it because Rainbow slugged me in the mouth a couple times, or maybe it had something to do with that nasty headache I had. It took a couple seconds for my fuzzy brain to figure out that Rainbow Dash was not trying to hurt Eepysqueak. In fact, Rainbow was currently curled up into a ball and screeching in pain. I must’ve really hurt her. Good. Crazy feathering psycho. As soon as I’d confirmed that Eepysqueak was safe, the burst of energy that had very briefly gotten me onto my hooves faded and I tumbled back to the clouds. Even the soft little impact of hitting fluffy cloud was enough to trigger another coughing fit. Derpy managed to recover her wits before Eepysqueak, who was still busy panicking. Derpy flew over to the two of us and started looking us over, her jaw slack in disbelief. “What the hay happened? Rainbow? Cloud Kicker!” Derpy’s shouts seemed to finally snap Eepysqueak out of her shocked state of paralysis. To my vague annoyance, she flew over to Rainbow Dash instead of me. I tried to say something, but another nasty coughing fit hit me right then. I watched as Eepysqueak carefully removed Rainbow’s hooves from the area underneath her tail, and Eepysqueak let out a horrified gasp. “Oh...my...Derpy, she's really, really hurt.” While my fillyfriend was busy worrying about the crazy lunatic who had just tried to kill me for no feathering reason, Derpy was busy checking on me. “Whoa! Fluttershy, Cloud Kicker’s in really bad shape too! Geez, she looks like she got into a fight with a dozen griffons! Who did this to them?” Eepysqueak stopped trying to take care of Rainbow Crazy and pawed at the clouds several seconds before she finally answered. “Um, I think they did it to each other. I–” she cut herself off when she noticed that our resident psycho was twitching her dislocated wing. “No! Rainbow Dash, you mustn't do that! You'll make it worse!” Derpy’s jaw hit the clouds. “What? They – what? Why would they do that? What the feather happened?” “Dat fea’ing cra’y ‘itch trydta kill me!” I snarled weakley. Eepysqueak was still trying to take care of Crazy McPsycho, who seemed to be trying to keep her from helping. As far as I was concerned, Eepy should take a hint and leave Rainbow be. I’d gone to a lot of trouble to hurt her that much. “No, Rainbow, stop!” Eepysqueak’s eyes widened in horror when she noticed that there was a nice little pool of blood under Rainbow’s rump. “Oh, NO!” Meanwhile, Derpy was doing what my fillyfriend should’ve been doing, and trying to take care of me. She’d grabbed a chunk of cloud and was trying to clean all the blood off of my face, but the instant she touched my muzzle it sent a lance of pain shooting up it that made my eyes water. I pulled away, and then another coughing fit struck me and Derpy got a face-full of blood. “Oops.” I groaned. “My bad.” Derpy wiped her face off, and paled when she realized that I’d coughed blood onto her. “Oh geez, I think Cloud Kicker's ... I think she’s in really bad shape! She’s coughing blood! We ... we gotta get them to somepony who knows what to do!” Eepysqueak looked back and forth between me and my ex-friend, and nodded. “Okay! I'll go find somepony, you stay and keep Rainbow from–no! Don't put cloud on it, it won't help!” Rainbow was still sobbing in pain like a little filly. Which was tragic. Just tragic. Derpy shook her head. “No way Fluttershy, you know what you’re doing here better than I do. You stay here and take and take care of them while I go get somepony!” Derpy took off and immediately started screaming at the top of her lungs. “HELP! SOMEPONY HELP!” Unfortunately, Derpy flying off meant I was all alone, while Eepysqueak was busy playing nurse for the insane pony who’d put me in this condition in the first place. For a second I was mad at Eepysqueak, until I realized that she probably had no idea what happened here. She thought Rainbow Dash was still our friend, not some lunatic who went around trying to kill ponies for no good reason. I had to warn her! I should’ve told her sooner, but it was so hard to think when my head hurt so feathering much. “Eep!” I called out to her, which prompted some more coughing, but I did at least manage to get attention. “C’mere Eep. Gotta tell ya ... warn ya ‘bout Rainbow...” Eepysqueak hesitantly moved away from the dangerous lunatic and flew over to me. I tried to start explaining what happened, but just then another coughing fit hit me. Eepyqueak punched a divot into the nearby cloud and quickly turned my head so the blood landed in the divot instead of spraying all over the place. “You're okay. Okay, that's good. Um...just stay there, okay? Breath into the cloud and–” Eepysqueak looked back to check on Rainbow again, and let out a panicked shout. “No, Rainbow! No! You’ll hurt yourself if you–” Now that my head was turned to the side I couldn’t see what was going on, but Rainbow was screaming again while Eepysqueak was desperately trying to calm her down. The screaming was different this time, scared instead of hurt. She better be scared–as soon as I healed up I was coming for her. Let’s see how good she does when she doesn’t start the fight by ambushing me. I couldn’t let thinking about the re-match distract me though, Fluttershy was in danger and she didn’t even know it. I had to warn her! “Eep! Gotta geddaway! S’dangerous! Gotta geddaway from Rainbow ‘fore she...” Something happened that I really wasn’t expecting–Eepysqueak yelled at me. “Not now, Cloud Kicker!” Then she turned her attention back to Rainbow and started desperately reassuring her. “No no, it's okay, it's okay, you're going to be okay...” That’s when it clicked. Fluttershy was ignoring me and taking care of Rainbow, and that didn’t make any sense. Unless Rainbow hadn’t gone crazy and attacked me for no reason after all. She’d been trying to take Fluttershy away from me. No, if Fluttershy was acting this she wasn’t just trying, she’d... “Eep? You’n ... Rainbow?” I had to get outta here. I tried to get up to my hooves so I could take off, but it was kinda hard to do when just about every single part of my body hurt. I had to do it though–I did not want to be around those two right now if they’d... Fluttershy rushed over in front of me and gently placed her hooves on my shoulders. “Oh, nono! Stay down! If you have a concussion and fall, you'll hurt yourself even worse! Just–um, dig a pit into the cloud and spit into it, okay?” “No.” I stubbornly shook my head, which was a mistake since it made my headache spike up bad enough that I swayed on my three working hooves. “Leavin' Dunwanna beround you’n Rainbow.” I tried to take off, and Fluttershy gently but firmly held me down. “No! Please, don't move! Please!” I tried to get loose, but as battered as I was Fluttershy was more than a match for me. Wow, Rainbow had really done a number on me if Fluttershy could overpower me. “You'n Rainbow’re ... Lemme go. Wanna go.” “No!” Fluttershy wrapped her forelegs around my neck to hold me down, and I was a little surprised when I realized that her cheeks were soaking wet. She was crying. I guess that shouldn’t have been such a surprise after all. “Cloud Kicker, please stop! If you try to fly right now you'll crash! That could kill you!” Okay, this wasn’t making any sense. Why was she all worried and crying if she was leaving me for Rainbow? Why was everything going so crazy? Ugh, this would be so much easier to work out if my head didn’t hurt so much! First things first, I had to know. “Flu'shy? Gotta askya...” Fluttershy tightened her grip around my neck very slightly. “Of course. W–what is it?” I struggled for a moment to figure out how to put my fears into words. “Flu'shy? You'n Rainbow? Izzat why she–” The rest of the question got cut off when I started coughing blood onto Fluttershy’s back. “Oh goodness!” Fluttershy went from hugging me to bracing my head until I got all the blood out of my throat. She didn’t even mention the blood I’d coughed onto her; she really is a sweetheart. Once I was done, she answered my question. “No, Rainbow and I didn’t–it's not like that. She's been a really good friend, and, um ... after we ... um, I wasn't really sure about some ... things and went to ask her for some advice.” Oh thank Celestia. When I thought she’d been leaving me for somepony else, and that’s why this whole thing had happened... but she wasn’t. We were okay. “Good. Love you, Eepy.” I let out a contented little sigh when Eepysqueak nuzzled the top of my head. I might be in buckets of pain, but at least I had my fillyfriend taking care of me. That made it ... still agonizingly painful, but not quite as bad as it could have been. “Yeah, um... me too, Cloud Kicker.” A second later she let out a relieved breath and started waving her forehooves above her head. “Oh thank goodness, Derpy! Over here!” It was a relief to see that Derpy was finally back, and a real relief to see that she’d actually managed to find one of the elusive camp counselors who were supposed to be keeping an eye on us. Not that they’d ever actually done their job–I’m pretty sure the only reason Derpy actually managed to find one was because she’d been screaming her head off. The counselor took one look at the condition we were in and his jaw dropped. “What the feather happened here?” He sweating and nervously flapping his wings. “Oh horseapples! This is bad, this is really bad! I am so fired...” To my utter amazement, Eepysqueak actually yelled at him. “Forget your job, look at them!” Eepysqueak pointed a hoof at me. “My fillyfriend is coughing up blood, her nose and one of her forelegs are broken, and I think she has a concussion!” I had a concussion? Oh. I guess that would explain why it felt like Rainbow was still pounding the hay outta my head and I couldn’t talk right. “And–and Rainbow Dash is...” Eepysqueak flitted over Rainbow Dash and tried to move her tail, prompting a moan of protest from the lunatic pegasus and a half-hearted attempt to get away. “Look at–nono, Rainbow, please trust me, I need to move your tail, okay?” Rainbow struggled for a little bit longer, but after Eepysqueak whispered to her a bit more she went along and let Eepysqueak display the damage. I wasn’t at a good angle to see just how bad it all was, but from the way the counselor winced when he saw it must be really bad. Nice to know I’d left a mark on her for going all psycho-murderer on me. “Oh ... oh geez.” The counselor started nervously pawing at the ground. “Oh this is bad. This is really, really bad. I–uh–look, can you two help her?” He pointed a forehoof at me, “If you two can get her to the nurse’s station, then I can carry–uh–Rainbow.” Rainbow gasped and started trying to crawl away. “N-no. Duncarry. Duntouch...” Her voice was incredibly hoarse, probably from all the screaming she’d been doing earlier. The counselor looked back and forth between me and Rainbow a couple more times, and pulled off his ballcap to wipe sweat out of his eyes. “Oh geez, this is way too much for me to handle. I'm going to go find the nurses and–no, feather that. This is too much for them, I’m gettin’ Life Flight out here.” He turned to Derpy and Eepysqueak. “You two stay with your friends while I go get them, okay?” The mostly useless counselor flew off, leaving the four of us alone. To be honest, I was just a little bit shaken up that he was actually calling in Life Flight. They only do that for ponies who are in really, really bad shape. Yeah, I hurt all over and there was the whole coughing up blood thing, but knowing that somepony was calling for emergency medical care somehow made it all seem so much more real. They don’t call in Life Flight unless somepony’s gonna die if the doctors don’t get to them in time. I wasn’t just hurt, I was hurt bad enough that there was a risk I would end up dead! I started panicking, which made the pain in my side start flaring up horribly. A second later. Eepysqueak’s hooves were on my shoulders, and she was looking me in the eyes with barely concealed panic. “No! Cloud Kicker, you have to calm down! Please! If you start hyperventilating with your lungs hurt...” Fluttershy ran her hoof through my mane and whispered more gentle reassurances, and I eventually managed to calm down. Once I stopped panicking about myself, I remembered that I wasn’t the only wounded pony. Rainbow might have gone all crazy killer on me, but I didn’t want her dead. Well, not much.  “Cansee ... habad’s Rainbow?” Derpy carefully helped me get onto my three working hooves so I could turn around and get a look at Rainbow. “It's ruptured, Kicky. She’s ... she’s really bleeding a lot down there.” I felt my carefully controlled anger spike back up at how much concern both of them were showing over Rainbow. “Gud.” I had to cough up a bit more blood before I could finish the thought. “Cra'y 'itch trydta kill me.” Rainbow was still curled up and shivering in pain, but she managed to recover enough to get out a few choice words. “Biteme ... you ... raping cun‒AAAAahahahaha!” Derpy’s eyes went wide and she instinctive stepped away from me. “W–what?!” Okay, that tears it. She was going to make up completely insane lies like that about me on top of attacking me for no feathering reason. “Gonna kill you!” If Derpy hadn’t immediately interposed herself between the two of us, I would’ve done my best to make good on that threat. Eepysqueak started flapping between Rainbow and me, as if she wasn’t sure which one of us she wanted to talk to first. Finally, she landed a bit closer to Rainbow and let out a stream of panicked babble. “Rainbow, do you think she ... she...” Eepysqueak gave a sharp shake of her head. “No! Rainbow, she didn't–I was just confused, I–oh, this is all my fault! I ... I...” Eepysqueak broke down into tears and started sobbing hysterically. Seeing the filly I loved in so much pain was not doing anything to convince me not to kill Rainbow. Unfortunately, Derpy was still in my way, and I wasn’t in good enough shape to get around her right now. She put a gentle but firm set of hooves on my shoulders and carefully put me back down on the clouds. “Sit. Now.” Derpy took a deep breath and let it out in a sigh. “What happened with you and Fluttershy?” I took a moment to try to unjumble my thoughts as best I could with my horribly aching head before I answered. “She's muh fillyfriend. Love her.” I angrily waved my one working foreleg in Rainbow’s general direction. “Pshycho lyin' ich. Jush jealoush!” Rainbow managed to stop whimpering in pain for long enough to spout out more of her poisonous lies. “Not jeaAAaalus ... you raped ... ohcelestiakillme” If Derpy hadn’t been holding me down, I would’ve made another effort at getting up to beat the feathers off of her. “You liar!” Eepysqueak let out an ear-piercing screech. “Stoppit! Both of you stop it!” She flew right up to Rainbow and looked her dead in the eyes. “I wasn't–she didn't–Rainbow, she did not do that to me! Do you understand me? She did not! Why didn't you stop to listen to me?” Derpy let out an exasperated groan and probably would have applied hoof to face if she didn’t need both her forelegs to hold me back. “Rainbow, you idiot. You jumped into a cloud without checking for lightning. Again.” I wasn’t sure whether I should be relieved that Rainbow hadn’t gone completely nuts on me after all, or enraged that she actually believed I was capable of doing something like that. “Tolja. Ne'er do that! Luv Eepy!” Rainbow’s ears drooped so flat against her head that they were practically touching her neck and she let out a low, pained moan. “She's my ... frien'. I–I Didn' think ... wantedta help.” Eepysqueak’s voice dropped back to it’s usual soft and understanding tone. “I'm very grateful for that, but hurting somepony never helps!” Meanwhile, my anger was starting to win out over my relief. “You ... Rainbow, you really think I'd...” I gave a very annoyed snort. “Still kinda wanna kill ya.” Eepysqueak flew up to me and put her hoof down. “Cloud Kicker, despite everything she’s done Rainbow Dash is still my friend, and I don’t want to see her get hurt. I'm very sorry she hurt you, and she is too.” Eepysqueak paused and shot an uncompromising look Rainbow’s way. “Isn’t that right, Rainbow Dash?” Rainbow groaned and shot an apologetic look my way. “Yeah. M’sorry, ‘kay Cloud?” I was still pretty mad at her, but I could at least kinda understand what had happened now. Rainbow had been incredibly stupid and impulsive, but that’s not exactly unusual for her. I might be justifiably pissed off that she’d completely flown off the handle, but I couldn’t exactly hate her for what she’d done. She might be an idiot, but her heart had been in the right place. “Rainbow, yer dumb.” Rainbow let out a sigh that turned into another groan of pain halfway through. “Yeah, ‘m really dumb. Sorry, Cloud. Sorry, Flutter.” Eepysqueak sighed and very hesitantly said. “I ... I can forgive you, Rainbow Dash.” Fluttershy flew up to me and put a gentle hoof on my shoulder. “I understand that you’re still mad at her. I–I’m upset with her right now too, but you mustn’t hate each other. I couldn’t bear for my friends to hate each other. No matter how angry you are with her, I want you to understand that she only did what she did because she thought she was protecting me.” Derpy sighed and slowly nodded in agreement. “Yeah, she really jumped to a conclusion, but that's how she works. Can we just ... put all this behind us now? Please?” Fluttershy dropped down and looked into my eyes imploringly. “Cloud Kicker, please. When I see my friends get hurt it hurts me too, and I don’t want that.” I’ve said it before, but it bears repeating–Eepysqueak was too much of a sweetheart for her own good. “'Kay. Sorry Eep. Wouldn’ really kill ‘er, juzmad at ‘er. Would'n hurt you. Ne'er hurt you. Luv you.” Fluttershy nibbled at her lower lip for a bit before she spoke up again. “Cloud Kicker, I–um ... you–really hurt Rainbow Dash. I–I know I shouldn’t be mad at you for defending yourself, but she’s bleeding and in so much pain and I...” My temper flared up at that. I could understand being upset that Rainbow was hurt, but taking it to the point of criticizing me just for defending myself? “She hit me first! Sa' she wuzgonna kill me! Hadta fight back! “Calm down, Cloud Kicker,” Derpy chided me gently. “I mean yeah, Rainbow was pretty upset, but she wouldn’t really try to kill you, right Rainbow?” Rainbow buried her head in the clouds. “M’sorry, ‘kay? M’really sorry. I really feathered up.” Derpy let out a horrified gasp, while Eepysqueak let out a low moan of horror and started crying again. “Nonono ... this is my fault.” Eepysqueak wrapped her forelegs around Derpy and started sobbing into her shoulder. “I'm sorry, I'm so sorry!” Eepysqueak was crying. She needed me to be there. I managed to myself sitting more or less upright on the clouds, and then got my wings flapping fast enough to give me a little lift. It hurt like hay, but Eepysqueak needed me. It was hard, but I eventually managed to get up to her start stroking her mane with my uninjured foreleg. “S'okay Eep, s’notcher fault. S'okay. Dunhafta be scared. Luv you.” Eepysqueak initially tensed up when I touched her, but a moment later she let go of Derpy and whirled around to wrap her hooves around my neck instead. I was kinda grateful for that, since now I could lean on her to keep my balance. “No, it is! It is!” After that words started spilling out of her in a torrent. I tried to follow along, but between my massive headache and the way her words were mixed with all the sobbing, it was kinda hard to actually understand what she was saying. I got the most important part though–she was blaming herself for everything that happened. I said the only thing I could think of that make it right. “S'okay, Eep. S'okay.” Before I could think of anything more sophisticated to say than that, the camp counselor who’d flown off to go get help came back several other pegasi carrying a couple clouds. “They're right over here, hurry! Two of them are really–oh feathers, that's a big bloodstain...” A mare who was presumably some kind of doctor if her medicine-y cutie mark was anything to judge by quickly flew up to Rainbow Dash and did a quick examination. “Oh Celestia, I’ve never seen that much blood in a camp setting before.” She dropped down in front of Rainbow Dash and looked her in the eyes. “Sweetie? are you okay? How do you feel?” “Dumb.” Rainbow groaned. “Hurt m’friend ‘cause’m dumb. Stupid Rainbow.” The doctor put a hoof on Rainbow’s withers and gave her a very gentle shake. “How do you feel physically? What hurts?” “Wing’s kinda sore, can’ see s’good outta m’eye.” Rainbow answered woozily. “Was hurtin’ bad down there, but it’s not s’bad now ... just gotta warmup ... kinda cold...” The medic quickly checked Rainbow’s nethers, then pulled back and hissed something under her breath before she turned to one of the pairs of pegasi carrying a cloud. “She's lost too much blood, she’s going into shock. Get her to Cloudsdale General, and get her there fast!” All three of us stared as the pegasi hastily loaded Rainbow onto a cloud before they took flying fast enough to give Rainbow Dash a run for her money. Derpy asked the question that was on all our minds.“Is ... is she gonna be alright?” “She’ll be fine.” I might have felt just a bit more reassured if her voice hadn’t held just a touch of dismissal or if she’d looked me in the eyes when she said it. In hindsight, I can’t really blame her for being too busy keeping me and Rainbow alive to bother with holding Derpy and Flutterhy’s hooves, but at the time it rankled on me. My friends were scared, and she wasn’t even making a token effort to help them calm down. Before I could come up with some way of expressing my displeasure, the doctor was up next to me.“Young filly, look at me!” I tried to do exactly that, but for some reason it was really, really difficult to focus on her. It’s not even like I was getting distracted or anything, I just couldn’t focus at all, no matter how hard I tried. The doctor mumbled a couple things to herself, and then started asking me questions again. “Can you breathe? Are you hurt anywhere else?” Okay, answering questions. That, I could deal with. “Breathin'” I answered shortly. Another coughing spasm hit me before I could answer the second question. I thought about trying to catalogue all my injuries for her, and I just couldn’t pull it off. When I tried listing it all out in my head, I lost track of what I’d been thinking way too fast. In the end, I settled for just keeping my answer simple. “Hurtin' alotta places.” The doctor nodded to herself. “Okay, you're going to the hospital too. We’re going to put you down on a patch of cloud, and you’ll need lean your head back to help your airway open up.” She pointed a hoof at Eepysqueak and Derpy. “You two stay with her on the cloud and let the gentlecolts pushing you know if she starts having serious trouble breathing.” While the two Life Flight pegasi carefully loaded me onto the cloud, the doctor turned her attention on the counselor. “You, I need whatever medical records you have on those two. I do not want to find out after the fact that they have a drug allergy or some other condition that‘s going to complicate their treatment.” The cloud started moving underneath me, and I quickly lost sight of the other two ponies. Derpy and Eepysqueak were still on the cloud with me, though. Derpy was almost frantically pacing around the tiny cloud, while Eepysqueak was sitting a bit behind me with her forehooves bracing the side of my head. I guess she making sure I didn’t have too much trouble breathing or something. More importantly, there were tears trickling down her face. I said the only thing I could think of to make her feel better. “Eep? Luv you. Always. 'kay?” That didn’t seem to help her at all. If anything, it actually made her start crying harder, and she started rocking back and forth on the cloud and quietly mumbling to herself. “What have I done? What have I done?” I said the only thing my punch-drunk brain could come up with to reassure her. “S'gonna be okay, Eep.” Eepysqueak let out a single broken sob. “No, Cloud Kicker! It’s not okay! Nothing’s okay! You’re hurt and Rainbow Dash might be dying and it's all my fault! I went to her and now she's dying and it's my fault!” Derpy ran up to Eepysqueak, grabbed her by the shoulders, and gave her a couple quick shakes until she managed to regain a tiny bit of her composure. “Fluttershy, calm down! It is not your fault and she is not dying!” Derpy turned to the two Life Flight Pegasi pushing our cloud and her ears drooped. “She ... she’s not dying, right?” “Cloudsdale General is one of the best hospitals in Equestria,” one of them answered neutrally. “Hold on, and watch your friend's head.” That didn’t do much to reassure Eepysqueak. With my brain as addled as it was, I couldn’t really think of much to say that would make her feel better, so I opted for speaking through my actions instead. After a bit of work I managed to get my unbroken foreleg around Eepysqueak’s neck and guide her down to a point where I could lean up enough kiss her on the cheek. The kiss left a bloody spot on her fur–I guess I should’ve expected that, with how much blood I’d been coughing up ever since the fight. It’s too bad I was in no condition to give her a proper kiss right now, because she really looked like she could use one. “Eep? Luv you.” I’d hoped that between the kiss and the words she’d start feeling a bit better, but instead I just made things worse. Eepysqueak’s last bits of composure shattered, and started sobbing as if her whole world was falling apart. “I’m sorry, Cloud Kicker! I s-so su-su-sorry! I wuh-went for advice ... and I hurt my f-f-ffillyfriend and got another one of my friends killed. I'm a terrible pony!” Seeing Eepysqueak in so much pain hurt more than half the injuries I’d picked up during the fight. I was almost frantic to try to calm her down. “No! S'okay Eep. S'gonna be okay. Yer a gud pony. S'why I luv ya.” “You’re hurt and Rainbow Dash tried to kill you and now she might be dying andit’sallmyfault!” Eepysqueak shrieked in between sobs. “Good ponies don't get their friends hurt or killed!” Derpy grabbed Eepysqueak’s shoulders again, and this time there was an unreadable little frown on her face. “Fluttershy ... what did you say to Rainbow Dash? How in the hay did she get the idea that Cloud Kicker had ...” Eepysqueak sniffled and tearfully confessed. “I tuh-told her that...” Eepysqueak sniffled and wiped some tears out of her eyes. “I went to Rainbow and asked her–um, I asked her if she knew anything about...” She let out a very nervous squeak, and the next two words came out in a barely audible whisper “About sex. She, um, asked me why I wanted to know, and I said that Cloud Kicker and I had ... but I wasn't really sure if I, um had been ready and I ... well, I wanted to ask more, but she was already out the window.” It had been a bit tricky to follow what she’d said, but I’d gotten the most important parts of it. “Eep? Yer ... not sure? About us?” Eepysqueak whimpered and nervously started pawing at the clouds. “Well, I mean, it was ... nice, but I, um ... may have um ... had a few questions when we ... I just ... it’s all been so ... fast.” She might not have said it outright, but even with how messed up my head was right now, I could put two and two together. “You ... you dunlove me.” Fluttershy let out a low little whimper. “I want to, but...” Her entire body started trembling as she admitted, “I'm sorry, but it’s just all been happening so fast and I don’t know what to think and I'm not ready!” Oh. Oh Celestia. I put my one working foreleg over my eyes. I couldn’t bear to look at her right now. I’ll spare you the usual melodramatic descriptions and just say that it would’ve hurt less if she’d ripped my heart out of my chest, tore it to pieces, and threw every piece into a fire. Even though I couldn’t see her, I could still hear her guilt-filled voice. “And I've hurt my fillyfriend again! I’m so sorry! I'm such an awful pony.” There was only one thing for me to say. “No ... not fillyfriend. Dunlove me.” Fluttershy gasped at that, and her voice came out as tiny, broken little whimper. “I’m sorry, Cloud Kicker. I want to, but I'm–I'm just...” I buried my own pain for long enough to say what had to be said. “S'okay Eep. You dunlove me. Dunhafta pretend anymore. Sorry.” Fluttershy let out an utterly broken wail. “I'm so sorry for everything!” After what she’d done, all the ‘sorry’ in the world wouldn’t have made me feel any better. That filly might as well have punted me off of Cloudsdale.