//------------------------------// // The Past that Haunts. // Story: From Sky to Earth // by RaijingtheClockworkPony //------------------------------// The first rays of Celestia's sun shone through the curtains of a small cottage on the outskirts of Ponyville. The warm rays landed on a sleeping yellow pegasus and was wrapped up in her blanket and slowly awakening. She opened her eyes and stretched her wings and legs as she gazed around the room, the warm scent of fresh pancakes wafting through the air. The gentle smell helped calm the small headache she had awoken with. "I always loved that smell." She muttered to herself as she rose from her bed and brushed her mane to the normal style she always wore. She placed the brush down and took another deep breath of the comforting smell when she was struck be a sudden revelation. She couldn't remember how she had gotten home last night. The moment that thought finished, she also had another thought that almost gave her a panic attack. I live alone on the outskirts of town... who's making the pancakes downstairs? She seized up at the thought of a stranger in her home. She turned to the door when she heard the voice that calmed her back down to normal. A small knocking accompanied the voice. "Fluttershy? Are you awake?" She brushed her mane again and desperately wished she looked as good as she had the night before. "Yes, I'm awake. You can come in." The door opened and Soarin' walked into the doorway with a tray laden with pancakes, fruit, and what looked like an entire pot of coffee. Soarin' gave her the same warm recruitment smile that she had quickly grown to love. "Good morning. I thought that you might be hungry so I made you breakfast." Fluttershy noticed his blush as he stood in the doorway. "What's the matter?" He mumbled something that she couldn't hear. "Um... could you please repeat that a little louder?" Soarin' cleared his voice and spoke loud enough for her to hear him. "I've never been in a mare’s room before. I don't want to... well what I mean is that maybe I shouldn't enter because you might want your privacy." He tried his best to hide his face from her by finding a sudden interest in the wood of the door frame. Fluttershy walked away from her dresser and walked to the doorway. "You can come in. I think it's wonderful that you made breakfast for me." She leaned forward and gave him a small kiss on the cheek. His cheeks became a bright crimson. "I don't want to intrude." Another small kiss from Fluttershy banished the last of his fears. He walked in and placed the tray of food down on the bed then handed one of the coffee mugs to Fluttershy. She took it and gave the black liquid a small sip. Soarin' took a sip of his coffee and gave her a small smile. "I couldn't remember how you liked your coffee so I brought some sugar and cream." His smile grew apologetic. "I hope that's alright." Fluttershy returned the smile with one her own. "It's fine. I wanted to ask you something, that is, if it's alright with you." Soarin' nodded. "Sure but before we do that lets dig into these pankcakes." He placed some pancakes and fruit onto a plate then gave it to the yellow pegasus. He fixed a plate for himself then passed Fluttershy some silverware. Fluttershy took a bite of the fluffy cake and let out a small satisfied sigh. They sat there for a few minutes eating. Fluttershy finished with her pancakes then looked at Soarin'. "How did I get home last night and why are you here?" She seized up the moment she finished she may have sounded rude. "Not that I'm not happy to see you because I am but what I mean is—" She was silence when Soarin' placed an apple slice into her mouth. She started eating the apple as he started explaining. "Um... how much of last night do you remember?" She swallowed as she tried her best to remember. "Well I remember the restaurant but not much after that. It's all a blur." Soarin' blushed as he nodded. "Ah. Well..." He hesitated then swallowed. "We ordered some wine and you had three glasses. We bought two more bottles and left the restaurant. You drank a little from one of the bottles then you kinda passed out." Fluttershy looked like she had seen a ghost and was no nervously fidgeting. "I got drunk? Please tell me I didn't do anything mean when I did." Soarin' shook his head and she noticed that he looked amused. "No, nothing like that. You got all... snuggly and kept kissing me on the cheek. Then you started calling me..." He mumbled off as he took a bite. Fluttershy's mind instantly went into worried mode. "Called you what? Oh I must have said something horrible." He shook his head again. "You started calling me your 'little flyer' then you claimed my cheek in your name and renamed it 'Cheeky Weeky, the cute.' It was really funny but then you sorta fell asleep in the middle of kissing me and I brought you home. I spent the night down on the sofa and now I'm here eating breakfast with you." Soarin' took another bite and noticed that Fluttershy looked mortified. He moved next to her and gave her a gentle hug. "Hey it was kinda cute. Nothing to be ashamed about, plenty of ponies get drunk and do silly stuff like that. I guess you may be a bit of a 'lightweight' but all that means is we should avoid drinking." She looked at him still slightly shaken. "You weren't mad at me for getting drunk like that?" He shook his head. "No. Besides you weren't really drunk, just sorta tipsy is all. Now let’s just finish this breakfast and enjoy our morning." Fluttershy gave him another hug then returned to her food, eating it with a visibly less enthusiasm then before. Soarin' noticed and gently placed his hoof on her shoulder. "Hey, are you okay?" She shook her head but remained silent. Soarin' pressed on. "Do you want to talk about it?" Again she shook her head as tears began to form in her eyes. Soarin' was surprised as she latched onto him and buried her head into his chest, leaving her plate of unfinished food abandoned. Soarin' sat there unable to think of what to do as she started to cry into his chest. He merely hugged her tightly and told her that everything was fine. She looked up at his with her eyes shining with tears. "No it's not. I promised myself I would never drink and last night I broke that promise to myself and I-I..." Her head fell back onto his chest. Soarin' brushed her mane as he spoke with a gentle and reassuring tone. "Hey, it's fine. So you lapsed once. Nopony is perfect. After what happened last night now we both can try much harder to make sure it never happens again. I don't think any less of you. I still love you for you." She looked up at him trying her best to wipe the tears away. He kissed her forehead and wiped a tear off her cheek. "I know that you said you didn't want to talk about it so I won't press but I want you to know that if you want to tell me I will always be ready to listen." Fluttershy could only smile and hug the stallion she was in love with. Their hug was cut short when a knocking came from the door. Fluttershy got up from the bed and wiped her eyes as best she could. Soarin' watched as she left the room to answer the door. He followed closely to see who it was. The timid pegasus made it to the door and opened it only to be hugged by a small pair of light purple legs from a unicorn filly. "Fluttershy! Guess what?" The filly squeaked in an excited voice. The pegasus looked down at the filly and a smile split across her face. Fluttershy detached the small unicorn from her leg and gave her mane a playful ruffle. "Dinky what are you doing out here?" The small unicorn pointed outside. Fluttershy followed the hoof and spotted the filly's mother but from where Soarin' was standing he couldn't see. Fluttershy smiled at the pegasus outside of her door and invited her in. In the time it took for her to do that the small filly looked over and spotted Soarin'. She let out an excited squeal and rushed forward to him. Her eyes grew wide in wonder and excitement as she looked up at him. "Oh my gosh you're Soarin'! You're so cool! Mom can you believe it, Soarin' is here!" Soarin' looked over to the mare the filly was talking to and recognized the mail-mare that had delivered Shade to him. The mare looked at him and gave him a small wave. She turned back to Fluttershy then did a double take. She stood there for a moment with a look of stunned disbelief on her face. She looked from Fluttershy to Soarin' and her daughter. "Wuh... I didn't realize you had company Fluttershy. We should come back later." "No." "No!" Fluttershy and Dinky shared a quick look as Dinky ran up to her mother. "Can we please stay? I wanna talk to Soarin'." The mail mare looked at Soarin' apologetically. "I don't want to impose on you..." Soarin' smiled at the pair of ponies. "No problem. I could never turn down a young fan. Well Dinky, uh... what do you want to talk about." The small unicorn let out another squeal. "He knows my name!" She ran over to him and started barraging him with questions. Soarin' tried his best to answer the questions, many of which he had heard before but some he hadn't. He had never had a fan ask him which of his fellow flyers he liked to watch perform or what his favorite type of pie was. After a few minutes of endless stream of questions she asked a question he really wasn't expecting. She got all shy and her cheeks took on a small hint of red when she asked. "Can... c-can I please have a ride." Soarin' stood there for a moment wondering what to do. He had never really given a ride to fan and he rarely gave ponies rides, in fact he could only think of one pony outside of his family that he had flown and she was standing a few feet away. He took a quick glance over to the mares watching him then back down to the large begging eyes of the filly. He gave the filly the recruitment smile and motioned to the door. "Let's get outside and I'll show you how a Wonderbolt does it." Another squeal from the filly as she bolted to the door and ran outside into the garden. Soarin' noticed the apologetic look on the mail mare’s face. "I'm sorry. She really loves it when she gets to fly with me so I hope this isn't too much to ask." He shook his head. "I used to give rides to my little sisters rides when I lived back home. I would like to know your name, if I may." She lifted her hoof for him to shake. "Ditzy Doo, but everypony calls me Derpy. I don't get why though." Soarin' took the hoof and gave it a gentle shake. "Pleasure to meet you. Now if you'll both excuse me I need to entertain Dinky." He gave them both a small nod then headed out the door after the filly. The pair of mares walked to the doorway and watched the excited filly climb onto the Wonderbolts back. Derpy called out in a way only a mother could. "Hold on tight Dinky, and make sure you let him know if he's going to high up." Dinky gave her mom a wave from the back of the Wonderbolt as the soared into the air. Derpy and Fluttershy watched them fly around the sky the only sound coming from the pair was a very loud "WEEEE!" from Dinky. Derpy sighed with a smile tugging at her lips as she turned to the mare next to her. She nudged the yellow pegasus with her wing. "I didn't realize that you and Soarin' were that close." Fluttershy felt her face warm a little as she noticed the knowing smile on Derpy's face. "Well... we have been growing close over the past week. He's so kind and sweet." Derpy gave her friend a small hug. "I'm glad to hear it. It's so nice to see you have a special somepony now." She reached into her mailbag and started to rummage around it in for a second. "Also I have some mail for you. I think one of them might be a bill of something. Looked kinda official." She pulled out a small bundle of letters and passed them over to Fluttershy. Fluttershy in turn took the stack with a small look of surprise. "That's quite a lot of letters. How many are there?" Derpy took a moment to check on the flying pair as they soared by before she answered. "Well I think there may be roughly..." She took a quick look at the stack. "Twenty or so in that stack." Fluttershy swallowed. "In this stack?" Derpy nodded. "Yeah, that's kinda the reason I came over here to talk to you. I've got close to a hundred of these letters back at the post office and I figured I would give you a small heads up before I brought the rest." She gave her friend a reassuring smile. "Last time you got this many was when you were a model. If you want me to help you out..." Fluttershy shook her head. "No, thank you for the offer but I think I'll be alright." She returned the smile with one of her own. She glanced down at the stack and let out a shaky chuckle as Soarin' and Dinky landed nearby. Both of the mares looked over and noticed that the pair was talking animatedly about something. Soarin' was smiling down at the small filly on his back as he walked over to Derpy and Fluttershy. "So, you can get me the Apple family pie recipe?" The small filly nodded. "Sure I can but you have to promise to visit me when I do." The stallion chuckled as the small filly jumped off his back and run to her mother. She immediately started retelling every little detail of her flight to her mother with a large smile. Soarin' walked next to Fluttershy and whispered to her. "You may want to keep an eye on her. I don't want her getting in trouble just to get me a pie recipe." Fluttershy smiled at the image of the small filly trying to sneak around Sweet Apple Acres to steal a pie recipe. She let out a small giggle and laid her head on Soarin's shoulder. "Don't worry. She won't get in any trouble." After a while Fluttershy found herself alone in her quiet little cottage with nothing but her animals, some warm tea, and the letters Derpy had given her. Derpy had left to finish her rounds with Dinky trying to convince her to get the Apple Family pie recipe for her and Soarin'. The gentle stallion also had left only a few minutes ago due to his need to attend Wonderbolt practice. In the time that she had alone she had read some of the letters. The first few were indeed small bills that she was expecting. However most of the letters were from ponies congratulating her on her relationship with Soarin'. A few were from some jealous mares and the one she was currently reading was from a mare that was both happy for her and threatening her not to break Soarin's heart. She placed the letter back into the envelope as she let out an amused sigh. She placed the envelope with the others she had read and glanced over that the last couple. The one laying on top of the pile was bright blue but the one beneath it is what caught her attention. It was a dingy white and the corner she could see was stained with something that made it yellowish. For some reason she just could look away from the envelope. She pulled it out from under the blue letter and flipped it over. She glanced at the sender's address and the moment it processed through her mind she tossed it away from her. Terror flooded her mind and she backed into the wall staring at the letter like it was an adult dragon. Why? Why after all this time... She shook her head but never broke eye contact with the letter. She slumped to the floor and felt tears begin to form in her eyes as she unconsciously began to rub her left fore-leg. "Please. Not now. Not after I've found him." Unable to do anything but sit on the floor and cry as the memories of her past began to close in on her.