Chapter 22: The Left Hand of the Devil
Rainbow Dash turned off the tap and the spray of water cascading down her mane and back slowed to a drizzle. The sliding glass door opened without an irritating squeak and she stepped out onto the soft carpet. She shed most of the water clinging to her lean body with a quick shake, splattering moisture against the walls of her cloud home. A fortunate bonus for having her domicile constructed out of such materials, however, was that excess moisture was quickly swallowed by the fluffy walls. Call it lazy, but Rainbow called it efficient.
Rainbow quickly rubbed a towel through her mane and coat to absorb the excess water and draped it over her withers. With a nudge, she opened the door and entered the living room.
Several blankets lay neatly folded on the couch, the location of Fluttershy throughout the night when she finally calmed down. Rainbow had volunteered her spare bedroom adjacent to her own, but Fluttershy politely declined the offer. Rainbow had caught her mumbling a half-hearted excuse under her breath before saying she wished to sleep on the couch.
“I do not snore like a wildebeest,” she grumbled.
Like the rest of her house, the wide rooms and halls were supported by classical Ionic pillars designed by the Kolonos, the forerunners of the pegasi tribes. Random pieces of clothing, equipment, or toys belonging to the pegasus lay scattered across the floor and random pieces of furniture. Rainbow made a hasty attempt at cleaning her house when her impromptu visitor crashed for the night, but Fluttershy did not mind the mess. She never did.
Speaking of the Element of Kindness, she was nowhere to be seen.
“Fluttershy?”
“In here, Dash,” came a voice from the kitchen.
Rainbow trotted towards the kitchen. “Come on, Fluttershy! We gotta tell your mom about what happened last night.” The night that rendered the cream-colored pegasus a sniveling, bawling mess. Fluttershy’s vice-like grip refused to let go until she had finally cried herself dry over the course of ten minutes while Rainbow calmly rubbed Fluttershy’s spine in an attempt to soothe the distraught mare. She had never before witnessed her in such a frightened mood, even on those scant few times she stayed with her on Nightmare Night.
Rainbow’s heart went out to the cowardly mare. So much could easily frighten Fluttershy. It took Rainbow Dash half the night in order to convince Fluttershy to meet with her mother, and the other half to get her to explain what happened.
She had been followed. No, not followed - hunted. Hunted for sport with only the dying light of a lantern to protect her. It was enough to make her sick.
“I will find you...” she swore. Fluttershy was her oldest and first friend during her days in Cloudsdale. Nopony was a gentle, sweet, and caring as Fluttershy. Nopony would openly and willingly open her doors as quickly as her without complaint. Nopony would care for a filly she discovered out in the rain, cold, wet, and shivering, a memory of a forgotten friend from a bygone era.
Rainbow smiled; nopony deserved the Element of Kindness more than her friend.
Rainbow entered her kitchen only to find Fluttershy had taken over. Freshly-cooked scrambled eggs and squeezed orange juice lay ready on the pearly counter, heat and condensation clinging to the tableware respectfully. Fluttershy, however, had not touched her portion.
Papers lay spread across the table and the floor, all with various shades of inks splashed across the pages. Fluttershy was reared on her hind legs and drawing a picture. Seeing the paper strewn across the floor, Rainbow commented, “I thought I was the messy one, Fluttershy.” Fluttershy smiled softly.
Her creative skills far outstripped Rainbow Dash’s by a huge margin, but her drawing skills weren’t up to par with, say, her knitting and stitching skills. That did not matter, however; what she was capable of was more than enough to recreate her memory in ink. Fluttershy had used Rainbow’s time in the shower to sketch a rough drawing of what she had seen last night.
Fluttershy’s snout was wrinkled in concentration as she gripped a set of colors in her forehooves and one in her teeth. She was laying on the finishing touches as Rainbow’s hooves thumped softly on the fluffy cumulous.
“Almost done?”
“Mm-hmm,” she mumbled.
“Good; we gotta get outta here. I hate being cooped up for too long.
Fluttershy added the last slashes of shading and set them down on the table.
“That is one fugly monster, Fluttershy.”
Fluttershy didn’t respond. Oh, she agreed, but she knew full well why. The previous night was burned into her eyes, not even allowing sleep to take her when she had finally calmed down. Every shade of darkness and splash of color was created to the best of her ability. Rainbow Dash wasn’t sure what to make of Fluttershy’s picture. A bipedal body cloaked in filament threads of shadows, toned muscles to put Big Mac to shame, blue pants and a green shirt that would put Rarity into a coma, and a pair of white eyes.
Eyes that pierced through the shrouded darkness. Eyes that glowed with the radiance of the sun.
Minecraft/MLP:FIM crossover.
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Edited by: Material Defender, Maverick Frond