//------------------------------// // The Summit // Story: Your Little Butterfly // by Mickey Dubs //------------------------------// She had always been timid. She had always been the one to back down from a fight or succumb to the pressures of others. She even tried once to change her personality and her core principles to adopt a behavior she thought would make her a better mare. She had long been the town pushover, the Ponyville doormat... But now, as she felt the uneven ground beneath her hooves and savored the stinging cold of the mountain she stood atop: Fluttershy was the bravest soul for miles. The little yellow pegasus stood on the pinnacle of her own little world, the champion of her domain. For the first time in her life she was stronger and more resilient than the mountain she had conquered, more confident in her own abilities and resolve than she had ever been. That thin little mare had tackled the peak just like she'd subdued her hesitations, and now she was just as strong and her spirits were just as high. Fluttershy looked upon the world and beamed as the birds circled and swooped above her head, playing on the wind and the hidden thermals as they awaited what was to come. How simple it would be to slip the bonds of earth and soar through the heavens, giving herself to the wind like Rainbow did! What liberty and glory there was in the idea of flight! She'd never been comfortable with the idea of her life being held firmly in her flying abilities, nor the idea of what consequences would come should those wings fail her. But those birds above her who played and soared, gyrating and diving through the invisible substance of the wind? They were blissfully unafraid! They cavorted and tumbled with gleeful abandon, chirping and shrieking out their exaltations into the the powder-blue reaches of their vast unending playground. Soon, she would join them in their courage. As the day progressed Fluttershy had watched the world slowly grow, its miniscule changes held in rapt attention by her careful and caring eyes. She had watched as the flowers grew imperceptibly slowly in the patches of forest she had trekked through, gasping in wonder when they felt her presence and willed themselves open to display their hidden glories. She guarded over the land below and saw the landscape darkening in places as the untamed clouds above the Everfree Forest broke through their confines and trespassed into the waiting hooves of Ponyville's weather team. She'd played with and spoken to the various pikas and marmots who lived on the rocky field where she'd eaten her lunch, and had lazed in the sun on one more glorious day in Equestria. It had been, for lack of a better word: perfect. She had had time to think about her decision, and the more she re-examined its validity the happier she became. He had given her that confidence, and now she would do him proud by using it. Looking out into the world around her, Fluttershy found that the sun was finally setting. Despite its exhaustion it was still flawless and heavenly, dipping lower and lower towards the western horizon to allow itself some rest before gracing the world with another day. The river below her vantage point whorled its way through the trees and vast expanses of grass, playing with the banks and various gorges of the vast interminable prairie that spread out before her as far as she could see. Fluttershy had another few hours to spare. She already knew just what to do with them. She had her memories of their most perfect days all picked out, just like she told him she would. She knew that right about now he would be reading the journals wherein her thoughts, dreams, and aspirations lay immortalized on the pages. She would give those memories new life in her mind, and the fact that they would be dreaming about their times together at the same moment made her heart soar far higher than the birds she'd watched before. She had been preparing for this for the whole day and now it was time to follow through. She had to be courageous, for it was what he would have wanted her to be. As the wind whipped around the corners of the jutting spire she sat away from, Fluttershy couldn't help but shiver. The last time she had trembled on this particular spot he had been right there to keep her warm, to share his heat with her in the hopes that she would know he was nearby to take care of her. He had always taken care of her, ever since they had met. He had been so close behind her, his breaths so calm... His embrace, so firm... Don't get ahead of yourself, honey, Fluttershy thought, giving her heart a little nudge to keep it from expanding. You've got a while until that one... Her rebellious heart's fluttering died down slightly, but not before giving her one preemptive taste of the last memory she promised she'd relive, that one fleeting sensation she’d thought she’d lost to the vapid frigidity of her heartbreak: Their shared heat. Her bold movements. Her desires made manifest in a single moment of unadulterated courage. It had been not so long ago, but now when all was said and done it seemed like an age. Here they had sat, just a few days prior. But now? Now she felt her sides to touch only her own skin. She couldn't feel or even imagine the utterly paralyzing twitterpation she'd struggled to fight as she stroked that foreign hoof she'd felt hold her close all that time ago. Her eyes closed as her imagination went wild with the mere memory of listening to his heartbeat through the darkness. It had beat on ceaselessly, thumping so furiously against her back... just inches away from her own palpitating heart. But now there was nothing. Nothing but the pegasus, the peak, and the dying of the day. The place he'd been was now as cold as the hole he'd left behind. There was no soft hoof to caress, no beating heart to listen to to remind her of her safety. There was no strong crimson chest to burrow her way into in the hopes that she would finally touch that heart she’d come to love. There was no stallion there to realize that he had stolen her heart and breath away, right there on the mountain... right where she sat now. Fluttershy surveyed the shadows of the clouds and the craggy peaks beyond as she ticked off the hours until her great endeavor. Shivering as the wind whipped through her mane, she wrapped her blanket around her shoulders to stave off the coming cold as the world grew slowly darker. He couldn’t be there to keep her warm anymore, even though she wished it could be that way. But even though he wasn’t nearby to keep her safe, she didn’t mind. Fluttershy could see his face as she slipped into her first memory, and it gave her heart a little flutter to keep it pumping her own heat into every corner of her body. “He is still here. He will always be here,"  she whispered as she felt her heartbeat. So quiet and warm... So broken. “Even if I won’t be.” ~~~~~ The thundering of his hooves heralded his arrival long before his monumentally powerful hindlegs kicking down the front door of the library finally announced his presence. Scanning every possible nook and cranny in the treehouse lobby he had bludgeoned his way into, he began his search with a frantic scramble towards the far side of the room. He didn’t even notice as a lavender unicorn mare with her nose in a book screamed in fright as he slammed open the door to the basement. Looking around frantically, he couldn't see a single flash of yellow or her perfect voluminous mane. She wasn't here! She hadn't been in her home! She hadn't been anywhere! Where did she go?! “Where is she?!”  the stallion screamed, wheeling on the librarian still trembling in shock at his arrival. “Please, tell me where she is?! Please tell me she's okay!!” “I don’t...” the mare stuttered, unable to comprehend his emotions or the words he’d choked out from behind his trembling, labored breaths. “I don’t know who... why are you... what’s going on, Macintosh?! What’s wrong?!” “She’s going to do it!!!”  Macintosh stammered, his head darting around to inspect every nook his love could possibly be hiding in. “She’s going to do it, Twilight! I can’t let her do it! You need to help me find her before it’s too late!!!” “Twilight, is everything okay? I could have sworn I...” Macintosh turned to find his love’s purple-haired friend standing in the doorway, a silver tray laden with tea held at her side in her sparkling magic. She looked from terrified stallion to equally scared librarian in the space of a moment. It was a moment seized in a flash of crimson as Macintosh charged her, grabbing her shoulders to direct her face towards his own as her tray clattered to the floor. “Rarity, please: tell me where she is?! Where did she go?! She must have told someone where she was going!” “Macintosh, please, ” Rarity trembled, the tears in his eyes prompting her own to water. “Just calm down and tell us everything! What’s gotten you so worked up?! Please, just take a few deep breaths...” “She’s gone!!!” Macintosh barked, wheeling back towards the librarian. “She left me... she just left me these! I can’t... I read through them, and she... she told me everything! I know everything! She’s run away, and I can’t... I can’t... why can't I find her!? Please, where is she?! She can't do this!” “Left you what, Big Macintosh?” Twilight whispered in terror, her eyes darting about his face as her brilliant mind struggled to keep up. As she tried in vain to read the hidden portents of his expression, Macintosh smashed his hoof into the floor and gesturing with his eyes to the cargo on his back. “The journals, her letter... they’re right there in my saddlebags!” As the librarian made her way closer to the stallion now seated firmly on the floor, Rarity levitated the assorted pages he had pointed to and began to read furiously, looking for any sign or hint of the mare's whereabouts. His eyes could only stare at the floor as Twilight drew in close to comfort the grieving stallion, and as Twilight shared a look with Rarity to illuminate their shared worry, their resolve grew. This was just one more problem the gang could solve together. That resolve the two mares shared, however, cracked and capitulated as Big Macintosh began to weep uncontrollably. His face contorted in excruciating agony as his chest buckled, tightening under the horrible pain of his distress. His head was downcast all the while, and not even his once-powerful frame could have removed it. Big Macintosh was inconsolable, and that one immutable fact terrified them far more than his screams for help ever could. “Please,” he choked out, rocking his anguish away to cast the visions of his love’s promises from his mind. “Please... help me! She doesn’t know about the Crusaders and what they did! She thinks... she saw me with Cheerilee just a few days ago, and she...” “The Crusaders... you don’t mean when they drugged you and Cheerilee with their love potion, do you?” Twilight whispered, her eyes widening as she finally arrived on the meat of the matter. His nodding head was answer enough for Twilight, and as she rubbed his shoulder she afforded him a sad smile. "That wasn't your fault, Macintosh! You didn't want that to happen, and neither did Cheerilee! You got that sorted out, the girls learned their lesson, and everything is back to normal! It was all just one big misunderstanding, and I have no doubt she'll listen to you." "But she's gone!" Macintosh shouted, rounding on the librarian in frustration. "She's not here! I don't know where she is, and she's in danger! I have to tell her everything! She needs to know!" “Relax! It’s going to be just fine, Macintosh,” Twilight whispered, sidling up as close as she dared to the silently weeping stallion. Her soft smile did nothing to assuage his distress, and not even the usually comforting stroke of a pony's back could bring him around. There was little she could do but give her assurances, for they were far warmer than her hoof could ever be. “Everything is going to be okay, you’ll see. The girls and I will help you find her, whoever she is.” "It's... it's..." he whimpered, his struggling voice combating his nerves as every muscle crunched and flexed under the weight of his despair. “It's Fluttershy.” The librarian, giving one last stroke of Big Macintosh's shoulder, turned to face the mare who'd spoken behind her. So this was the identity of the mystery mare who'd made such an entreat into the emotional stability of the strongest, most collected stallion in Equestria! Twilight couldn't help but smile: soon everything would be well, especially if this problem's source was somepony as kind and understanding as their dearest Fluttershy. Rarity would know just what to do, Twilight would rally the girls, and soon this could all be resolved... But the face she saw staring soundlessly back was far whiter than that seamstress's face could ever have allowed. Twilight's confidence plummeted as Rarity, oblivious to her surroundings, stared in horror at the final lines of a single solitary page. A tear flashed down her previously stark-white cheek, and as she turned to face Twilight the letters slipped from her grasp and fluttered to the ground. The sound they made on the wooden floor below was cacophonous, and the words she whispered as she stared at Twilight would be the most terrifying utterances that librarian would ever hear. "Fluttershy... she's going to..." Rarity whispered, her knees quivering as all vestiges of life and hope seeped silently from her eyes to tumble to the ground. "We need to find her, now!" ~~~~~