Fluttershy's Lunchroom Drama

by gmen15

"Princess" Hail Blitz

There is truly no worse feeling in the world than being afraid to say the wrong thing to the point of near paralysis. To become withdrawn when it feels like everything one says will be judged and nitpicked, wrongly causing one to feel like an idiot, even if what they say makes complete sense. When one's own friends turn their back on you for the sake of popularity, even going so far as to ridicule along with one's tormentor, it becomes hard not to believe their criticisms, even if they are blatantly false. Slowly, but surely, one retreats into the comfort of their own mind, keeping to themselves and rarely speaking up, preferring a social life of reclusiveness to a social life of ridicule.

If there’s anypony that can attest to this, it’s Fluttershy.

Years ago, Fluttershy was, like most pegasi ponies, a student at Cloudsdale Flight School. It was a relatively large institution, broken up into an elementary, middle and high school. The elementary school went from first to fifth grade, the middle school accounted for sixth through eighth, and the high school went from ninth to tenth grade, as flight school stopped short of twelve.

The elementary school was by far the largest part of Cloudsdale Flight School. The gymnasium was huge, as it needed a lot of room to teach young ponies how to fly before moving on to the upper grade levels. Inside there was everything from obstacle courses to basketball courts.

The rest of the school wasn't any different from other schools. The hallways were cramped with students in-between classes, the smell of disgusting cafeteria food filled the building as the hour-hand approached noon, and the students were organized into well-defined cliques.

This is where the story begins, back when Fluttershy was a really young filly. Back when having a blank flank wasn't anything to be ashamed of. At this time, Fluttershy was an outgoing filly. Well, maybe not to the point of being gregarious, but she didn’t have the overwhelming fear of speaking up that she does now. No, back then she was a carefree grade-school filly who loved to learn.

She didn’t rip herself to shreds, she wasn’t afraid to speak up when something was on her mind, and she wasn’t afraid to joke around with her friends when the time was right. Though she didn't stand up for herself that much back then, either as she still had the problem of being too nice.

She did have occasional bouts of shyness, mostly when it came to talking to a colt that she had a crush on, especially Thunderlane. Unfortunately, he never seemed to take notice any filly in the school besides Blossomforth who, in turn, ignored him just as much as he ignored the other fillies. Amazingly, this only seemed to drive the love-struck black pegasus to want her even more. Fluttershy didn't get it.

Sure Fluttershy still wasn't the kind of pony to put a lamp-shade on her head and dance the Macarena, but she wasn’t so timid that she didn't saying anything either. And, as one might expect, she was the kindest filly in the school, always doing the right thing and helping those who were in a sticky situation, such as failing a class or simply needing somepony to listen to them.

Yet nopony outside of a core group of good friends seemed to know who she was, even with all of her kind-hearted gestures and actions. But that was the price she paid for being who she was and helping others out.

The friends she did have were supportive and kind fillies that she had a close bond with ever since the first grade. Even though she was the quietest one out of all her friends, Fluttershy never felt un-welcome. She loved her friends and they seemed to love her back.

Yep, everything appeared to be going fairly well for the future bearer of the Element of Kindness.

That is, until she arrived.

About three weeks into Fluttershy's third grade school year, rumors of a new student enrolling in the school spread like the plague. A new student enrolling at Cloudsdale Flight School was a big deal, since so few pegasi ever entered the academy after first grade. Most pegasi started in first grade and left upon graduation. This was mostly because the only time a pony would enter a grade level other than first was if they already went to a flight school and passed grade levels before enrolling. This meant any pegasus that entered Cloudsdale Flight School came from outside of Cloudsdale, usually Ponyville and, sometimes, Canterlot.

Ponies began to speculate. Would the new pony be a boy or a girl? Would he/she be good looking? Would he/she be smart or a complete dolt? Would the pony be athletic or a nerd or a hybrid or neither? Did this pony even exist, or were the rumors, as so many rumors before it, false?

One bright and sunny Monday morning, just as everypony in the school finished packing their saddle-bags and were about to head to their first class, a new pegasus waltzed into the building; her head held up high with her nose pointed up at the ceiling. A prideful smile spread across her face as she made her way down the corridor, students of all ages staring at her as she passed them by.

Her name was Hail Blitz, the pegasus everypony was gossiping about for the past week. She was from Canterlot, born to one of the wealthier families, as well as one of the only pegasus households in the unicorn-dominant city. She was well-off and it showed. But this wasn't the only thing the school ponies noticed about her.

Right off the bat, before anypony even had the chance to speak to her, one of the many rumor-induced questions was answered.

She wasn't simply good looking; she was downright beautiful, virtually flawless in every way. The colts that saw her walk in had their jaws on the ground and their eyes bulging out as their hearts began to pound faster than the foot of an impatient rabbit waiting for his dinner.

Her silky coat shone a brilliant lavender color and her eyes were a glistening blue. But it wasn’t just these physical attributes that drew everypony's attention to her.

It was her face. Rather, what was on her face.

Hail Blitz wore so much make-up that if she went to the circus, it’d make a clown do a double-take. Some ponies felt like it was an excessive amount of make-up, but she didn’t care. As long as it made her feel more dignified and mature, as she felt that make-up was the sign of a full grown mare rather than a filly, it was worth the criticism. Especially when it came from ponies she saw herself as being superior to.

So, every morning, she would lather her face with layer upon layer of powders and mascara.

Ironically, in twenty to thirty years she'd be going out of her way to do the exact opposite, to appear more youthful and less like a pony that was succumbing to the physical changes of aging.

Her personality went hoof-in-hoof with her faux appearance. She was cold and elitist, freely expressing her strong belief that she was superior to every other pony in the school. Whenever she spoke, she spoke with a tone not drastically different than one a member of a royal family would use in addressing his or her loyal subjects.

Yet, like one might expect from young ponies in grade school, everypony loved her. Not only did they gravitate towards her, they worshipped her. They put her up on a pedestal and treated her as if she was heir to Princess Celestia’s throne. Colts would carry her books for her as their cheeks turned a rosy red. Fillies would gossip with her and ask for her advice on fashion and diets.

Even the teachers, full grown ponies, seemed infatuated by her. In class, they would always give her compliments on her looks and award bonus points on tests for being…well…Hail Blitz. She soon held the unofficial title of miss popularity of Cloudsdale Flight School. Even Fluttershy and her friends got caught up in the moment, often joining the crowd of ponies that gathered around her locker, hoping that she would notice them.

She had truly become the "princess" of the school.

Strangely enough, she seemed to be drawn to Fluttershy and her friends, paying extra attention to them, talking with them more than others, an even giving them pointers on how to pick up colts. Pointers, as some of them found out, which proved to be extremely helpful. Unlike her friends, Fluttershy was never directly addressed by Hail Blitz when they hung out. The lavender pegasus never even looked her way. But it didn’t matter to Fluttershy. She still felt included.

She still felt like she part of Hail Blitz’s popular “clique” or “posse”.

She felt popular.

Yep, everypony seemed to be in love with the new filly. But there was one pony that seemed immune to Hail’s “charms”.

And that pony was the cyan filly with the rainbow-colored mane; the prideful Rainbow Dash.

Fluttershy didn’t personally know Rainbow Dash at the time, but she heard about her. In fact, the entire school had, as she was one of the only ponies that entered third grade with the ability to fly. While not up to the level she would reach when she got older, she was still rather good for her age. This caused many ponies, mostly the competitive colts in her grade, to envy her and degrade her just to make themselves feel better.

Naturally this caused Rainbow Dash to become a bit of a braggart. Not only because of the ego she had from knowing how to fly, but also because she was picked on by "doubters". She constantly found herself having to defend her ability from those who criticized her.

Whenever anypony called her "Rainbow Crash" or some other annoying nickname that's sole purpose was to grate on her nerves, she wouldn't hesitate to fight back. This was especially true when she was around her griffon friend, Gilda, who always told her that not standing up for one's self was the worst kind of weakness anypony could have.

Rainbow Dash refused to submit to the pressure and criticism; she fought back against it the only way she knew how, with a confident, sometimes borderline cocky, attitude. Though she did care what others thought about her, she’d never let them know about it. She would go down kicking and screaming before she let her stubborn nature cave in and reveal her true insecurities.

She also used the envy her classmates had for her as motivation to separate herself from the crowd. She refused to become a follower and join the masses who would like nothing more than to see her fail. She was independent; she acted on her own accord. She was going to make a name for herself with her own efforts and hard work, not by riding somepony else’s popularity.

So it seemed only natural that while everypony obsessed over Hail Blitz, Rainbow Dash just stood at a distance and watched, occasionally rolling her eyes at the sight of her classmates groveling to the “Princess” of the school.

Gilda would sometimes make snide comments here and there about the lemming-like nature of their classmates, and Rainbow Dash would just answer with a simple nod before changing the subject to something more “awesome”, such as flight training or the Wonderbolts, something that annoyed Gilda but Rainbow Dash couldn't get enough of. She aspired to be a Wonderbolt, after all, and would often find herself bringing them into conversations that had nothing to do with them in the first place. She even managed to bring up the Wonderbolts in a discussion she and Gilda were having about a math test that had nothing to do with flying.

If there was one thing Rainbow Dash didn’t want, it was to buy into the hype surrounding Hail Blitz, or anypony for that matter (besides the Wonderbolts and herself, obviously). She was an individual, not a follower, and would go to the grave as such. Not only that, but just watching how the popular filly acted, with her snobby attitude that seemed to be overlooked by everypony else, made Rainbow Dash even more determined to not allow herself to get sucked into the mayhem.

So she just watched from the sidelines, quietly observing the circus known as the student body. She didn't know it then, but this filly would be detrimental in her future friendship with a certain pink-maned pegasus that was among the masses, trying her hardest to impress "Princess" Hail Blitz.