Rainbow Dash woke up. She was in the middle of a forest, the sun blocked out by the tall trees and their leaf-covered branches. The first thing she noticed was the intense pain in her left foreleg. She clenched it with her right hoof by instinct, but the pressure made the pain ripple through her leg. She screamed. She had injured her wings and gotten terrible bruises and even broken her collarbone once, but a limb... that was new to her. She bit back tears as she examined her left forleg. It was resting carefully on a pile of large and broken branches, with the bark ripped off, and she had been laid back against tree right next to the pile. She looked at her own body, to see if anything else was out of order. She didn't see anything, but she ached all over. She could feel her left foreleg, but she didn't dare try and move it. The pain felt like it was seeping into her shoulders and chest, lingering and bothersome without overtaking her. She tried to slowly move her other limbs, and flap her wings. They all moved without a hitch but with how sore she was, it made her more exhausted. How long had she been out? She had no idea. Was this Fluttershy's doing? Did the dragon die-
She gasped. A dragon. She had fought a dragon, to some degree. She looked around, and lifted her back off of the tree, trying to curl herself up as much as possible. If there was a dragon around, she'd be in no state to even try and get away.
That's when the sound hit her. Something... tumbling? a faucet? Splashing? Wait, a natural river? The sound was faint but constant, but she knew what that was. This didn't look like Everfree, but it sure looked like a forest, which meant there were probably streams and animals all over. She tilted her head around in several directions and discerned that the water was off in the distance behind her. She couldn't see it, but she sure could hear it. Her thirst was great by that time, she felt dehydrated. Then the splashing sound stopped. So somepony was in the river?
That's when she craned her head to the right to look behind the tree her head rested on, and saw Fluttershy. "Fluttershy! Oh thank Celestia you're okay!" She yelled. She wanted to get up and hug her, but cheering with her right hoof was all she could afford. And even that made her feel tired.
"Oh Rainbow Dash!" She said, dropping everything on her back and running up to her. She had several branches and vines, which were now strewn out across the forest floor about where Rainbow Dash was sitting. She ran up and onto Rainbow Dash's with a relieved smile. "I was scared you weren't going to wake up." She looked at her with even more concern, and moved forward. "I've you do something so brave Dash, I'm so glad you're okay!"
Fluttershy had a few tears of joy building up in her eyes, her head resting firmly against Rainbow Dash's neck. The cyan pegasus started to blush a little, thinking more about Fluttershy than she did herself. Somehow, the shy pegasus had gotten a dragon mad at her, fended the dragon off, and took care of Rainbow Dash when she had almost died. As she reminisced, she realized she started... feeling odd. The memories she recalled were all that of Fluttershy. She had started to admire her gentle beauty and kindness a long time ago, but now... it was in overdrive. Her blush grew as she looked away from the pegasus.
"I-I-I found some herbs... they should have helped numb some of the pain. I-I'm pretty surprised you even got up. Do you... hurt much?" She looked all over Rainbow Dash's body to make sure nothing was out of order.
"Fluttershy..." she said, giving a weak smile. "Yeah, I'm fine, nothing wrong, 'cept this leg," she motioned at her left foreleg, "and I'm pretty tired. You've done great." She realized with their faces even closer now, she was blushing a bit harder.
Fluttershy didn't notice. Her smile grew a bit, as she whispered to Rainbow Dash "B-b-but you almost died because of me..." she looked away in shame, "I'm a bad friend. Friends don't let their friends almost die."
"Fluttershy..." said Rainbow Dash, trying to be comforting. She redirected Fluttershy's ashamed stare back to her with her free hoof. "I did what I did because you were in danger. It doesn't matter what happened, because you're okay now. I'm okay now. We're both okay now. So just..." Stuff it, okay? were the words she almost said, but something held her back. She knew better than to be a jerk at time like that. In fact, just thinking that those were the words that came up made her mind feel tinged in sadness. She continued quietly, hiding her trying-to-emerge emtoion, "... just try and fix me up, then we can just spend the night here. I'll be better tomorrow, so we can get back to Ponyville then." Fluttershy nodded. Just she started to sit down, Rainbow Dash coughed a bit. As she did, she felt liquid splash against her fur, and she looked down. Red blotches had fallen on her coat. "This is bad." She said, her face grim.
She coughed again, seconds later, but no blood came through. "Well then... we have to head back." Fluttershy said. She got up and started to try and get Rainbow Dash on her back.
The cyan pegasus coughed again, even more blood coming out this time. Fluttershy moved back a few steps, watching Rainbow Dash carefully. The salty taste lingered in the confident pegasus’ mouth, and she spit it out. "If I'm bleeding internally, we should try to move. Doesn't that need surgery or something? Come on..." She tried to get up on three hooves. Fluttershy reached out a hoof to help, but was ignored; she amazed her friend could even walk. She hobbled a few steps, her left foreleg hanging in the air. She didn't get very far before the pain seeping into her chest from her foreleg strengthened, the surprising intensity causing her to lose focus and fall over onto her left foreleg. The pain exploded and she bit her lip to keep from screaming.
"Let me make a splint, Dash," said Fluttershy. Dash nodded, and turned on her back, laying her leg out. Fluttershy retrieved the wood and vines, and took only a minute to finish the makeshift splint. She yelled and gritted her teeth as the pressure was applied, and when Fluttershy finally finished, the pain was already subsided enough for her to be able to focus. She stood up, and nothing intensified.
"My father knew a lot about taking care of animals." Fluttershy explained. "He knew all kinds of wild plants and herbs and flowers that grew in peaceful forests and wild forests alike that were good medicines. I think... I-I think if I go and look for one of those, I may be able to get you better if we just stayed in this forest for a little while."
"Fluttershy, you were just telling me we had to leave. If you go and find more of these plants, how long will we be stuck around here?" Rainbow Dash could feel her voice rising. She immediately shut herself up when she saw Fluttershy's melancholy expression.
"B-but!" She cried, "this isn't just any herb I'd be looking for! It's magical. It can treat... physical wounds... and stuff, on the inside, that you can't reach with regular medicine." She wimpered a bit, almost making a squeak. Her voice grew even soft. "Dash, I-I don't know what to do..." she sniffled a little. Rainbow Dash was giving her a serious look. She was about to yell at her, when she had that feeling again. As soon as she thought about yelling at Fluttershy, she regretted it. It was like she couldn't say anything bad to her. She wanted to comfort her, but Rainbow Dash didn't know how. She had never tried that before. She had never been comforting before, always critical and always loud.
The thoughts made her feel... helpless. She had no idea what to do right now, no way to get back to Ponyville and no way for Fluttershy to take her back. They couldn't stay in that forest for long, or else food maybe a problem. How long was it until Ponyville sent some kind of search party? As she mulled over possible outcomes, Fluttershy lifted her head and looked at Rainbow Dash with a solemn expression. "You are okay, right? It's... I think it's too early to leave. Your leg is broken, we should at least wait a day..."
Rainbow Dash could only stare back at her. That face... the fearful eyes... how helpless she looked... where had she seen it before? Suddenly, a wave of emotions seemed to strike her, ones of anger, sadness, confusion, and guilt. Memories from years at Junior Speedster's Flight School came roaring back... her friends... Sky Swallower... no...
Rainbow Dash broke into tears. Her sobs took Fluttershy off guard completely. "Oh no no, I made you sad didn't I? I'm sorry, I shouldn't be making you cry; friends don't do that." She said, reaching out with a hoof to wipe the tears away.
Rainbow Dash swatted her hoof away, and pushed Fluttershy off of her without even looking at the concerned pegasus. "Stop apologizing! Get away!" She yelled, voice thick with rage. She stopped mid cry and looked at the shy pegasus. She was stunned, but looked hurt, almost ready to cry. Rainbow Dash shook her head, the last tears on her cheeks finally falling loose. "Just go find me that plant okay? Breathing is getting hard." It wasn't a lie, but it was her excuse for getting Fluttershy to leave for a little while.
Fluttershy sniffled, and nodded, trotting off slowly to where she knew the plants would grow in a forest like this.
Tears were flowing again; she desperately tried to stop them, scratching at her eyes with her free hoof, but it was to no avail. She felt like she had just destroyed her friend. She had argued with Fluttershy before, about silly things such as flying, but something about this time felt wrong. During the entire ordeal, she couldn’t get that visage out of her head, the pegasus leaving an impression with more than her sad expressions. Rainbow Dash found her beautiful, not in a way she had seen before. Even in the presence of such beauty, she had yelled in anger at her.
Without trying, her thoughts turned to their lives in Ponyville. She remembered always being supported by Fluttershy, her kind eyes, and how she herself had sometimes felt jealous that Fluttershy always had the company of animals, where she sometimes had nothing. Rainbow Dash wasn't really alone, but she still felt like some of her part of her... yearned for a greater companion than friends. She couldn't think about what that yearning was specifically, all she knew was that Fluttershy fulfilled that feeling.
That was when she felt it. The feeling that she'd read, heard, and that had been preached on awful sitcoms about when a mare and a colt become so close, that they never want to be apart. Her stomach had done a back flip, and wouldn't stop. The telltale butterflies had moved in. She now knew what she felt. She couldn't stop thinking about Fluttershy, and how everything about her was so great. She had felt this way only once before in her life, and feeling it again, she knew what it was.
Before she could pursue that line of thinking, she started coughing again. The blood flew yards in front of her, her hacking loud and painful. She couldn’t stop; it would pause for barely a second, letting her get in a free breath, then start up again just as painfully. The coughing continued for almost a minute, ending with her gasping for breath. It brought her back to the reality of the situation. She felt weaker than she had before, and left foreleg's pain had reached almost up to her shoulder. She heard leaves crunching under somepony's steps, and turned to see Fluttershy walking back with a huge amount of plant stems and leaves.
"Ohdearohdearohdearohdear," she said, speaking too quickly for Rainbow Dash to hear. "This is really bad, I have to get some water and mix this up right away, don't move!" And she flew off, leaving behind the plant. Rainbow Dash took a good long look at it, then a sniff, and winced. It smelled awful. The color was a light-green and mustard-yellow mixture, and it smelled like a skunk. The stem was small, the leaves loose and almost oily. She drew her hoof away, almost afraid that touching it might be bad.
Fluttershy quickly reappeared with what appeared to be the tops of several flowers. She saw that they each had water in them, holding it like a bowl. She carefully laid the flowers upright on the tall stack of plants that were meant to heal Rainbow Dash up. Then she walked back to where Rainbow Dash had woken up to retrieve some things there. She came back with a rock that was in the shape of a bowl, and about the size of two of her hooves. Rainbow Dash didn't question how she had found such a rock, or why she put the plants into it and grinded them with a smaller rock. She did question pouring cold water on them. "I thought that you heated things to get chemistry to work." She said, her voice weak. "Twilight heated things, almost never cooled them..." she felt some kind of ping of pain, like she had been stabbed. She brought her free hoof to her stomach, and coughed for a few seconds again.
"This stuff just needs to be ground up so it gets out of the leaves and the stem, but then mixing it with any liquid works." Explained Fluttershy. She had made a lot of the medicine, and had had almost too much plant for her to carry back earlier with just her hooves. When she saw the bowl with water and the plants mixed it, it had really ground down into nothing. "This may taste funny. I've never made this much at one time either, but you're a big mare, compared to little animals, so you need this much!" She spoke as if to give herself confidence. "Now, with the first sip, I want you to swallow it like you would anything else. Then, with the second sip, you breath it in, and hold it for 10 seconds or so. If you do that, you'll be okay for the next day or two probably, with this much." Her confidence comforted Rainbow Dash quite a bit. She put it up against Rainbow Dash's lips, and tipped it slowly, letting Rainbow Dash swallow almost half of the contents. Surprisingly, it had tasted sour, like some kind of weak lemon juice. She hesitantly took the second sip, breathing it in.
Almost immediately she had tried to cough, but she somehow withheld it, and kept herself strong for a full eleven seconds, before coughing up all of the liquid she had breathed in. Fluttershy gave her a comforting smile. "I think you should be good until tomorrow now. I'll get more wood and make a little camp, okay?" She asked. Rainbow Dash - who wasn't sure why Fluttershy had suddenly started acting like she knew what she was doing - only nodded. Rainbow Dash smiled to herself once Fluttershy was gone. I guess I'm still a fillyfooler, she thought to herself. And to think I once hated that.
-----
Fluttershy took about 10 minutes to find enough broken branches and dried leaves to start a fire. The entire time she had been focused on looking for small enough branches, but large enough logs as well, so she wouldn't have to leave for more that night. When she found enough, she placed them carefully on the ground and then flew up, high above the trees, to see the sun. It had been around 10 AM when the dragon had chased after her, and she had estimated that Rainbow Dash woke up about six hours after that event. She was too shy to admit it, but she had spent most of the time that Rainbow Dash was passed out curled up next to her, sleeping. She had been exhausted, as she had never flown so far or fast before in her life. She herself had slept almost 4 hours, and had only had time to find some of the medicinal herbs and a little water for Rainbow Dash by the time she woke up.
Emerging from the trees, she looked around. It seemed that their entire interaction had taken a bit over an hour, as she decided it was closer to six than five. She floated down and landed softly, picking up the branches and leaves with her forelegs as she slowly flew back to their camp. She seemed pleased that she'd be able to spend a whole night with Rainbow Dash, even if there wasn't a lot to be happy about. After all, she had basically hit the ground at the speed of sound. She only had one external injury, which wasn't that external anyway; Fluttershy had originally feared that there were problems inside of her due to the lack of bruising anywhere but on her hooves. She wasn't sure what a shockwave of that magnitude could do, but it couldn't be good.
Of course it wasn't any good, silly Fluttershy, she thought to herself. Fluttershy couldn't help but feel guilty for what she had done. In angering the dragon, she had gotten Rainbow Dash so hurt, that she had almost died. This is my last shot to prove it to everyone, she thought. I'll get Rainbow Dash all better, and then I'll get her to Ponyville, and maybe... everyone can see that... I've finally done some good. She sniffled a little, but held back the tears as she started heading back.
Fluttershy arrived at the camp in minutes, clearing a patch of dirt a few feet away from them, setting up a circle of rocks, and getting a fire started. Rainbow Dash's face glowed with surprised as she saw Fluttershy start one up so quickly. She grinned at seeing the expression, and gloated quickly about how she had made fires in forests before.
"You like it out here, don't you?" Rainbow Dash asked.
Fluttershy sat down next to Rainbow Dash. "Well, it's quiet, and calm, and peaceful, and I can go away and be alone, but I've never been this far away before."
Rainbow Dash nodded. "You know, you probably saved my life today, Fluttershy."
"It's not like I was going to leave you there with the dragon..." she began to explain, but Rainbow Dash cut her off.
"That's what I thought! That dragon didn't die!" She pointed at Fluttershy. "So what did you do? Get mad at him and tell him to bug off, like the last one?" She snickered at the memory of the fully grown adult dragon whimpering at the angered Fluttershy.
"Well... no..." Fluttershy responded with indignation. "I... we... I just kinda knew him..."
"Whoawhoawhoawhoa." Said Rainbow Dash, waving her free hoof in the air. "I thought you were scared of dragons. Why do you know one like him?"
"Well, I don't know him exactly. I knew his brother." She now began to whimper a little bit.
Rainbow Dash continued to pry. "Fluttershy, I risked my life to save you. I know you've done a lot for me, saving my life. But... I'd at least like to know why I was doing it."
Fluttershy nodded. She had no reason to hide it anymore. "Okay, I guess that's fine." She took a deep breath to retell the story. "When I was just a little filly, both of my parents cared for animals a lot. My mom was a veterinarian, but my dad did what I do now, caring for the various farm animals and other criters that lived in or around the city, though Cloudsdale didn’t have a lot in that department. I liked animals too; I had already known that because of how I discovered my cutie mark when I was at summer flight camp.
"Upon finding my cutie mark, my parents and I moved down to Fillydelphia, which had a lot more animals than Ponyville, so it was a big job.”
“But how did you get to know a Dragon? I mean, I thought you didn’t know anything about them when Spike first arrived.” Rainbow Dash seemed determined to contradict the shy pegasus as much as possible.
Fluttershy frowned. “Well, my father once had a very odd request; he was to take care of a baby dragon, one that apparently was very... important in dragon circles. He wasn't old enough to talk, being even younger than Spike, but he was walking and stuff. That is what I was unsure about; I figured that dragons perhaps communicated with a different language, not even Equestrian. Regardless, my father and I had stayed home to take care of him for, because he was sick with something and the parents were busy on other matters and couldn't watch him. We had never actually met the parents, and we had no idea how long they'd really be gone.
"I was older than him, but he was nice. We played a lot over the days that we knew him and I'd say we good friends in the week he lived there. He was obviously sentient, as he definitely made gestures and knew me, but he still couldn’t talk, or maybe he wouldn’t. I’m not sure.
"One night though, something awful happened, and it was... bad." She whimpered a bit, causing Rainbow Dash to raise her eyebrow. "I was asleep, until I had heard some glass break. It was a stormy night, so even when I was little I guessed that something had fell or flew through the glass. I had walked down the hall to see it, without getting my dad. In the living room kind of place in our house... there was somepony with a hood and cloak on, and a knife levitating in front of her. I panicked. I had saw the knife fly at me and I dodged instinctively, the knife cutting off some of the hair from my tail. I ran back to my room screaming, and that woke up my dad and the baby dragon."
She looked around, like she was trying to think about a lot of different things quickly; distracted almost. "Uhm, so... yes, I was in my room, and that unicorn in a cloak opened my door. I was huddling in the blankets, but I was so obvious... oh, I was so stupid!" She yelled. Rainbow Dash almost fell back from where she was sitting. "I... I was just huddling there and I hear a sound of a knife hitting something. I looked out from under the covers, and saw... the baby dragon... he had a knife... in his chest..." she began to cry silently, tears falling very slowly. She couldn't bring herself to finish, but Rainbow Dash was still perplexed as to what this had to do with her predicament.
"Hey, come on now, that was a long time ago, okay?" She said, trying to be comfortable. "You were a silly little filly, you didn't know any better. If that was too hard on you, then you don't have to tell me anymore." She felt incredibly awkward, but Fluttershy had taken it to heart.
Fluttershy wiped the tears from her face. "No, no no no no, I'm okay, I can do this. I'm a big mare now!" She said, trying to be confident. Rainbow Dash had to contain a few chuckles at Fluttershy’s self-confidence boosting phrase. "While I had been hiding and shaking in the blankets, the unicorn had raised her knife at me. But the dragon had climbed up on the bed and stood in front of me, his hand and arms blocking as much as me as possible. So the unicorn..." she looked to the ground in shame. She continued quietly from there, explaining how the unicorn was then caught by her father, taken by police, and that the unicorn was convicted of the murder.
"That dragon's family had been very angry." She said. "They had apparently talked to my parents, saying they blamed us and all ponies for what had happened to their child. They hated us, and the older sibling of the baby dragon, who was close to spike's age, said that he had hated me the most. A lot of officials and stuff... had to help protect us. The city hadn’t blamed us at all, but I think the dragons all did. The dragon you saved me from was that older brother." Rainbow Dash looked stunned, that she had been involved something as big as a sort of 'family feud' in Fluttershy's life.
"I had always blamed myself for what happened too." She said. "So I promised to myself that day that... if somepony was in need, animal or pony, that I'd help them." She smiled weakly while averting her gaze in shame, and the conflict on the shy mare's face confused her. That's when she heard laughter Fluttershy and realized that she had been ashamed of herself. "But I was never really able to do what I promised myself that day. I wasn't ever helpful in school, or anything. I didn't make any friends. The baby dragon had been my first friend, so I kept thinking that if... I made a friend, I'd lose them.” She grabbed up Rainbow Dash’s hoof, as if pleading. “When you hurt yourself earlier... I was so scared; I wanted to make sure I was with you as much as possible... because maybe you might have d-"
Rainbow Dash reached out to her shoulder and held it tight, bringing her closer. "Hey hey hey! I'm not going anywhere, and you have kept that promise! You help us all the time; you said you'd come help tell the sleeping dragon to leave, and you did! You said you'd take care of the cutie mark crusaders, and you did! You even said you'd cheer for me at Cloudsdale... and you did!" In her little tirade, she had moved her face closer to Fluttershy's, and when she finally noticed, her face turned a bright red, but she still continued, her voice more quiet, personal. "You are the nicest pony I've ever met, Fluttershy, hooves-down. There's no way you have done anything wrong by us, or by anypony else! Sure, the baby dragon may have died... but he was protecting you, because you were his friend. There is no sense in just thinking that he died for no reason. He died for you." Rainbow Dash was looking at Fluttershy with a more concerned expression now. She didn't look uncomfortable, but she was still melancholy. "He gave you the chance to live, Fluttershy. A gift that... I'm very grateful for."
"Uhm, what was tha-" Fluttershy was cut off by Rainbow Dash's lips meeting hers slowly. Fluttershy blushed strongly, letting Rainbow Dash press harder. Feeling relaxed at long last, she closed her eyes, letting the kiss fill up her thoughts. She felt Rainbow Dash's tongue enter her mouth, their tastes mingling as their hooves embraced one another, their bodies drawing closer. They slowly parted their lips, and Rainbow Dash was staring at her, intently. Fluttershy felt safer than she ever had felt in her life, staring into her big magenta eyes, and seeing nothing but strength in them. She still was straining to make sense of what had just happened when she heard Rainbow Dash spoke.
"I love you, Fluttershy." She said.
Fluttershy almost jumped backwards. She still felt some fear and confusion, and hadn't moved more than inches away from Rainbow Dash's face. "I have for a little while. Since our visit to Cloudsdale for the competition, I always felt a little something when we talked, or hung out together." She gave Fluttershy an uplifting smile. "At first, I thought we were just becoming closer friends... but then I was admiring your hair, your face, your shy kindness... and a little of your body." She blushed even harder now, her blue-face almost bright red. "And today... I knew it. I really love you, Fluttershy." She finished, her face clearing up and her face smiling with heavy anticipation at a response.
"I... I can't..." Fluttershy was utterly confused. She couldn't decide of such an announcement was funny, kind, or some kind of cruel joke. Her? Somepony love her? She scoffed at it in her mind. Why would somepony love her if she couldn't protect a single thing she had ever loved? She got up and backed away a few steps, almost trembling. "I can't... I can't... no... Rainbow Dash... I-I'm pretty sure I like... but well... Idunno..." was all she would respond with, before squeaking. She had no idea what she 'preferred.' Without ever making friends, she had never felt the desire to love anypony but her parents, and had given it no thought, ever, in her entire life. The idea of love to her was... it almost destroyed the shell she had made around her mind. She wanted to just bolt, fly away and leave, but she knew better than to leave Rainbow Dash how she was.
Rainbow Dash's face, which had been hopeful, now turned melancholy. "I... I can't force you to like me back, Fluttershy." She said. "I just didn't want to keep it to myself, not now. Who knows if I'll even make it out of this forest?" Her voice was raising again, which only served to confuse Fluttershy. "But I had to tell you, because if I kept it in, it might... start to tear me apart. I'm just glad you listened to me. You're really a good friend of mine, Fluttershy." She started to get on the ground to sleep.
"Dash... I..." Fluttershy scooted closer to Rainbow Dash, meeting her face with her own. This surprised her, and she started to blush again. "I... I really like you, and you're my closest friend. You really are. If you like me that way, then... well... you... uhm... I don't... really mind..." she lay down next to the brightly-blushing and embarrassed mare. "We can sleep, uhm, you know, next to each other, tonight..." she patted the ground next to her.
Rainbow Dash smiled. After all this time, it had been one thing she really wanted. Just to be close to the one she loved. She lay down, lowering her head to the ground slowly. Their faces were probably only half a foot apart, and Rainbow Dash tried to look anywhere but to the mare's face. Fluttershy giggled, as she rolled over, and moved a little closer to Rainbow Dash.
Fluttershy continued talking, not moving her head to face Rainbow Dash. "I... I... I'm still... not sure, okay? Please, oh please don't feel like I'll never love you, because I really don't know..." her talking faded and she began to breathe in a quiet rhythm. Figuring she had fallen asleep, Rainbow Dash closed her eyes. She felt her body, though tired and beaten, had very little pain to give her now. She was too relieved and excited about Fluttershy to feel much of anything. She had admitted she loved her, and the shy pegasus had only responded with more hope and somehow this lifted her spirits more than anything that day. Even if she doesn't end up loving me, she thought to herself, I'll protect her. I'll be the one to keep her safe, and nothing will ever hurt her again. I'll make sure... nothing... bad happens to her... like... Sky Swallower... did...
Sleep over took Rainbow Dash, dreams of ruin plaguing her sleep, and dreams of delight filling Fluttershy's.