Chapter 13
“What’re you staring at there, Ditz?” Rainbow asked cheerily, turning towards her. Ditzy gazed at her hoof with a confused expression. “Ditz? What’s up?”
Shaking slightly, Ditzy pulled her gaze away. Her eyes swivelled slowly towards Rainbow.
“What... is this?” Ditzy asked, holding her hoof out in front towards the blue mare.
“What’s what?”
“This!” Ditzy said, more forcefully, shaking her hoof in Rainbow’s direction.
Rainbow was quiet for a moment, inspecting the outstretched hoof with a critical eye.
“You got some mud on your hoof, big deal” Rainbow snorted.
Ditzy glanced at her hoof, then back to Rainbow. Ditzy’s eyebrow raised.
“Erm...” Ditzy began hesitantly “mud isn’t red”
“That’s right Ditz, mud is brown” Rainbow said patronisingly “I mean, it’s a different shade to the stuff back home, but still mud. Yeesh.”
Behind her, Fluttershy craned her neck to see the problem.
“Um, Rainbow...” she tried to say, ineffectually raising a hoof like a filly in a class room. But the other two mares paid no attention to the demure mare. “...Uh, Ditzy? Um...”
“ Rainbow...” Ditzy said slowly, her eyes fixed the purple iris’s of the pony before her. “Mud also isn’t runny with little chunks in it”
“What the hay are you going on about Ditz?” Rainbow said “I can see it right there, plain as day. Literally, right th-“ she paused for a moment, frozen in place for a second. “-ere, there.”
A moment passed. Ditzy’s eyes returned to her hoof, to which the offending substance stuck. A sigh came from Rainbow as she rolled her eyes and turned away, muttering incoherently about stress. Ditzy turned her eyes to Fluttershy, whose wide eyes stared fearfully back. Fluttershy’s legs trembled, threatening to buckle beneath her.
“You alright?” Ditzy asked, quickly trotting over and wiping her hoof on the ground.
“No...” Fluttershy said, leaning on Ditzy. “And neither is Rainbow”
‘The hay is her problem?’ Dash thought to herself ‘I know Ditzy lives up to her name but now she’s just getting weird.’ A second passed ‘Alright, that was mean’ she chided herself ‘But still...’
Rainbow made her way over to the saddlebags that lay unattended a short distance away. She flipped open the hessian flap and rooted around inside, unsure entirely what she was searching for. She rooted through the contents, pulling out the map, a few instruments of varying usage and several packages, wrapped in large and tough leaves, from inside it. Placing them on the ground around her, she began to inspect them. Unwrapping the nearest package revealed a small chunk of what appeared to be soap, a rough cube of light brown that was only identifiable by the word “Soap” being carved into the top. Rainbow sniffed it hesitantly, recoiled slightly, and dropped it back in to its wrapper. With a flick of her hoof, she recovered the soap with its’ wrapper and turned to the next item, a telescope. She picked it up and held it to her eye, scanning the clouds above her, pausing to admire the shapes that floated in the sky. Noticing one cloud that strongly resembled a monkey she let out a chuckle and lowered her gaze to Fluttershy and Ditzy, eyeing them through the lens.
She saw their mouths moving, hurriedly exchanging hushed words outside of her hearing. Ditzy stood higher, leaning over the ever shrinking figure of Fluttershy as her legs shook and brought her closer to the ground, only to be propped up by Ditzy. Rainbow felt her mouth twitch, clicking her tongue against her teeth. She drew her eye from the telescope and glanced down at herself, unsure quite what she expected to see, before returning to her view of the other two mares. She found her eyes drawn to Ditzy’s mouth. The lips flapped in short bursts. Rainbow tried to match words to the movements, but could only grasp an occasional guess.
“-no. Can’t do-” was all Rainbow could make out, as well as a mention of her name at one point. With a disappointed snort she dropped the telescope back on the ground and turned to the map. It contained upon it the whole of Equestria and the countries surrounding it. On the east and west were the great seas, and below a strange landmass Rainbow had never seen on a map. The whole map was marked in symbols, but Rainbow could make out some words here and there.
“Weird” Rainbow said to herself “would have thought the whole thing would be in the Zebra language. Wouldn’t think they have maps written in mainland Equestrian.” she glanced up at the other two again, before returning to the map. “Lucky me” she mumbled. Her eyes scanned the page, looking for clues as to her location. “That must be Ponyville there, there’s the border, Ditzy said we’re up north so...” she trailed off. “Wait a minute...”
Fluttershy let out a little gasp as she sank to the ground. Her sides ached and her legs were unused to standing after several days without use, as well as the shot of pain that consumed her every time she put pressure upon her rear right leg, which was filled with a Temise and bandaged in the same way as the wound in her body and wing. She shifted uncomfortably to avoid using the leg to steady her descent. At her side she felt Ditzy’s help her down, holding her up as she moved, talking gently to her.
“Hey, Ditzy, come over here a second!” Rainbow called. Fluttershy gazed up at Ditzy with wide eyes.
“I’ll see if anything’s weird about her” Ditzy whispered, before quickly pecking her on the forehead and trotting towards Rainbow, desperately hoping she had been joking a few moments previously. “What is it Rainbow Dash?” Ditzy called as she approached, slowing down and covering the last few metres between them at a slow walk.
“Remember” Rainbow began, dragging out the first syllable “when you said we were up north?”
Ditzy cast her mind back several days, recalling her discussion back at the river’s edge.
“Yeah” she eventually admitted hesitantly. As her memory came back to the present, she also remembered what the zebra’s had told her about their travel direction. “Heh...yeah” she said again.
“Look at this quickly, would you?” Rainbow said as she indicated the map with her hoof, her voice fluctuating slightly in pitch.
“Hey, we know where we’re going now! That’s great!” Ditzy chirped, letting out a grin.
“Which happens to be the complete opposite direction to where you said we should be going” Rainbow snarled, stepping over the map towards Ditzy.
“Really?” Ditzy said, cocking her head “That’s weird. So where are we going then?”
“You...said...north” Rainbow’s voice lowered with each word as she came closer. “Nothing up north but cold”
“Well, if you go north far enough you go over the pole and end up going south and then right round the planet, I think. I was never any good at geography” Ditzy said, temporarily forgetting her current situation. “But in any case I think I must have had the map upside down when I told you that, because I usually remember things really well”
“Nothing up north” Rainbow repeated. “We’re down south”
“You okay, Rainbow?” Ditzy asked, leaning back as Rainbow leaned towards her. She could feel the cyan pony’s heavy breaths against her face.
“You were wrong” Rainbow snarled. Then, without warning, she slid sideways and passed Ditzy, leaving the grey pegasus staring into empty space. “Don’t be wrong again” she finished as she left Ditzy behind.
Fluttershy gulped. She had watched the scene unfold, unable to hear anything that had been said, but she understood all intentions. She could see anger in Rainbow’s eyes, and fear, and briefly she saw around her iris she saw a ring of silver glinting in the sunlight.
‘I wonder what would happen if I got close. I wonder what I would see’ Fluttershy thought ‘No, I can’t do that to poor Dashie, I promised I wouldn’t use it on another pony unless... no, never use it on another pony ever again’
At the side of her vision, Fluttershy saw Ditzy turn around and hurry back towards her. Turning towards the speedily moving pegasus, Fluttershy caught a glimpse of the worry in her eyes.
“What happened?” Fluttershy asked quietly “Unless it was something private, in which case, you don’t have to say...”
“She’s not in a good mood” Ditzy said as she regained her breath from the short sprint. She cast a cautionary glance at Rainbow before turning back to Fluttershy’s confused expression. “Turns out we were going the wrong way. Heh, who knew?”
“What...” Fluttershy said flatly.
“We’re supposed to be going north, not south” Ditzy clarified, not noticing the scowl on Fluttershy’s face. “My bad I suppose”
“Yes Ditzy, it was very much your “bad”” Fluttershy said.
“Ah, you’re not mad too? Because you storming off would do no end of bad stuff to your leg” Ditzy said.
Fluttershy took a deep breath. She closed her eyes and listened to the world around her for a moment. The chirp of birds in the trees came and went, the wind swept through her mane and cast a faint whistle into the air, somewhere in the undergrowth a creature scampered past. She opened her eyes again. Fluttershy felt her shoulders relax, and her face soften.
“I’m sorry, I shouldn’t be angry, you tried your best after all” Fluttershy told her marefriend. “But you really should be more accurate with things like this. We need to know where we’re going.” She saw Ditzy’s face droop. “But let’s just be thankful that Rainbow Dash managed to work out your mistake so we can get home”
“Yeah... about that... I’ve kind of known for three days”
Fluttershy just stared.
“My bad...?” Ditzy tried, chuckling nervously.
Rainbow rooted through the bushes. Somewhere within them she could hear a chirping noise, some animal native to these lands, something that would not be quiet. She pushed aside branches and shrubs with her forelegs, thrusting her head between the leaves.
“Get out here you little...” she growled. Something squeaked by her hoof. She swiped out, seeing a small shape bolt out from its leafy shelter and run away through the woods. She tried to identify it, but could only make out a dark, shapeless mass that slid around the trees and into the shade, where it vanished without a trace. “Darn it” Rainbow hissed. “Well, I guess I’ll never know what it was then. Weird looking thing. Probably just a squirrel”
Behind her, Rainbow heard Ditzy cry out a hurried apology. She turned to see the grey pegasus backing away hurriedly, tripping over her own legs, twirling around and spectacularly faceplanting into the grass.
Fluttershy sighed. Rainbow chuckled. Ditzy groaned as she tried to pull her wing through between her legs, where it had somehow managed to get stuck. With a roll of her eyes, Fluttershy shakily began to push herself up. She managed to rise to a near crouch when her legs buckled.
Rainbow saw this and dived, crossing the intervening distance in an instant. Her hoof appeared under Fluttershy’s chest, supporting her by the ribcage, avoiding her wound by a few centimetres. Fluttershy froze at the sudden support. She carefully looked around, jolting in surprise when she saw Rainbow. The blue pegasus did not return the gesture, instead she quickly came closer and held Fluttershy still.
“You okay?” she asked, her head close to Fluttershy’s.
“Um, oh no... I mean yes... don’t hurt me” Fluttershy squeaked.
“What?” Rainbow said “I’m not going to hurt you. What gave you that idea?”
“Oh, um, nothing. Just... let go please”
“O-kay” Rainbow said, gently releasing Fluttershy, who winced as her back leg took her weight. “Erm, Fluttershy, are you sure you’re alright?” she asked.
Fluttershy bowed her head.
“Um, it just hurts, that’s all” she said quietly, avoiding eye contact.
“Well, alright. But you know, if there’s anything wrong, you can tell me right?”
“...Right”
“Fluttershy, look at me”
“Oh, well, I’d, um...” Fluttershy mumbled, refusing to look up.
“What, do I have something on my face?” Rainbow joked. “Come on, look at me”
“I don’t think that’s really necessary”
“Fluttershy” Rainbow said sternly “Look me in the face. You know we can’t help if we can’t see your eyes.”
Fluttershy’s ears perked up at that.
“What did you say?” she said, her interest overriding her worry. Her head lifted slightly, but her eyes remained downcast.
“We just want to look you in the eyes when we talk to you”
“...what do you mean, “we”?”
“You know what I mean” Rainbow said, her voice suddenly jumping up an octave.
Something told Fluttershy she knew exactly what Rainbow meant. That same something that kept her company in her dreams. She found herself raising her eyes.
Rainbow smiled down at her. The purple irises took up most of Fluttershy’s vision.
And in them she saw fear, saw pain, saw worry, and saw hope. In the corner of those giant eyes there was a small glow of hope that somehow, against all odds, they would get home. Fluttershy’s lip twitched into a barely visible smile, just from seeing that was all Rainbow needed to keep going.
She tore her eyes away, unable to bear searching through a pony’s feelings like that. Her mind protested at the invasion of privacy and forced her head away. But another voice told her to move it back.
She nearly did.
“Hey, Fluttershy” Rainbow said, her voice becoming carefree and casual “Why were you looking in that mirror last night? I mean, it’s not like you had a bruise”
“Um, no reason”
“Fluttershy...” Rainbow goaded “Come on, you can tell me”
Fluttershy mumbled something.
“What was that?”
“Eyes” Fluttershy repeated. “Next time you feel strange, pour out some water into a bowl and look at the reflection, specifically your eyes. Please?”
“Alright, will do” Rainbow said, giving Fluttershy a playful hug and departing to help Ditzy to her hooves. Ditzy humbly accepted the help without hesitation, giving Rainbow a large smile that showed she now knew exactly how an upturned tortoise felt, which dropped the moment the cyan pegasus turned away.
“You think she has the same thing you had?” Ditzy asked “That glowy thing?”
Fluttershy nodded gravely.
“Well, we shouldn’t stick around here anyway. I’m going to see if we can get moving soon” Ditzy announced. With that, she trotted after Rainbow Dash and helped to repack the saddlebags.
Fluttershy watched them packing. The two were just as friendly as they had been before, no bad blood of their encounter, and no mention was made of Rainbow’s temper.
“Oh well, at least they’re still getting along” she mumbled.