//------------------------------//
// Reuniting Kindness 
// Story: I Wasn't Prepared for This 
// by canonkiller 
//------------------------------//

Rainbow Dash flared her wings and landed at a trot, collapsing into the soft cloud with a exhausted sigh after a few steps. Twilight only felt a bit sorry for her, but then, she had called her a wimp for not wanting to land during the day.

The Alicorn clambered out of the basket, stretching her wings out with a few pops. She turned, channeling what little magic she had tamed into lifting Applejack's weak back legs out of the basket. Her horn sparked viciously, but her head only ached a little; an improvement she knew she'd remember. 

Applejack looked around as Twilight's magic continued swirling around her hooves, holding her above the cloud layer. "R-Rainbow, could you-?"

The Pegasus looked up from the cloud, dashing over to carry Applejack as Twilight's magic wavered. "Sorry, Twi, keep forgetting you're not as strong as you used to be."

"S'alright." Twilight gently laid Applejack on Rainbow's back, taking a few moments to quell her nausea before looking up. "Okay. You said you saw where she went after school let out?"

"Yeah." Rainbow shrugged her shoulders, jostling Applejack into a more comfortable sprawl, and trotted off. "She went just down this road, and then took a left. Turn here and here, and then... hah!"

The Pegasus stopped in front of a wide wooden door, a building that stood out blandly among the white clouds. Twilight had to run her hoof down the wall, just to make sure.

Fluttershy had built her house, in a city made of clouds flying hundreds of feet above the ground, out of wood.

"I knew she was kind of eccentric, but..." Rainbow hesitated, took a deep breath, and rapped her hoof against the door. 

Twilight shrank back as a beam of light lanced across Rainbow and Applejack. There was a sharp intake of breath, and the door slammed shut.

"Was that her?" Twilight whispered.

Rainbow frowned, but nodded. She knocked again.

"Nopony's home!" The familiar voice called out from inside. "Uh... this is a recording!"

"Fluttershy, let me in!" Rainbow tapped the door again, sighing. "Please, I know it's been a while, but-"

The door swung open, narrowly avoiding Rainbow's nose. "'But' nothing!" Fluttershy shouted. "The things you said after... after..."

"I didn't mean it." Rainbow pleaded. "I was drunk, and exhausted, and hurt, and..."

"So was I!" She blushed. "Well, not drunk..."

"Flutters..."

"Don't call me that." She hissed in a breath. "Come on in."

Rainbow looked over at Twilight, ears flicking. "Uh... Blossomforth, come on in."

Twilight looked behind her, searching for the mystery pony, before realizing it was her. She ducked her head, replying in what she hoped was close to Blossomforth's tone. "Be right there, Rainbow!"

Twilight ducked inside the doorway, barely getting her hindquaters out of the way before Fluttershy closed the door behind them. Almost immediately, a whole menagerie of critters peeled themselves from the walls and wandered out of their houses. The large majority of them clustered around Twilight, purring and hissing and rubbing against her. 

"They seem to like you." Fluttershy muttered.

"Uh, yeah." Twilight pulled a hoof away from a particularly large snake. 

"You sound like you have a cold. Do you want some soup?"

"Uh, no, I'm fine."

Fluttershy's eyes narrowed. "You shouldn't keep all bundled up with a cold, it's better to get air."

Twilight backed away from her friend's helping hoof. "N-no! I'm okay!"

The edge of Fluttershy's hoof caught the knot in Twilight's cloak, and the thin string unraveled. Twilight stood, suddenly naked, in a pile of brown cloth.

Her eyes shot up to meet Fluttershy's terrified stare. "I-"

"You lied." She whispered.

"What?"

The butter-coated mare turned away from Twilight, looking at Rainbow for only a moment before turning away from them as well. "You lied to us."

"I had no choice."

"It was you who stole all of that food from my shed, wasn't it? I needed that, Twilight! I barely scraped through the month!"

"I'm sorry! I was starving!"

"So were all of the animals!" Fluttershy yelled, shrinking back the moment the words left her lips. "All you had to do was ask."

Twilight ducked her head, looking around the small room. "I'm sorry."

Fluttershy jutted out her chin as if to shout, but she slumped before she could will her anger into existance. Timidly, she drifted closer to Twilight, brushing her hoof against her wing as the Alicorn turned her head away.

"You're-"

"I know. I'm a monster." She muttered, closing her eyes.

"-filthy!" Fluttershy finished with a shout. 

All three other heads in the room shot up. Twilight extended her wing. "You're not... terrified?"

"Why should I be?" She stretched out the bones, testing the strength of the skin between them. "After all, Spike's been helpi-"

"Spike's here?!" Twilight shouted, snapping her wing shut. "Why didn't you tell me?"

"He tried going with the dragons, but they excluded him from everything, so he was forced to come back home or starve. When he couldn't find anypony at the library or the farm - it was about when Applejack was in the hospital - he came over to the cottage and caught me leaving. I took him with me." She took a deep breath, smiling. "He's been helping me with my fear of dragons, and my shyness."

"He's always been a helper." Twilight sighed. "You said he's be back?"

"He works the night shift at the local library, sorting books and keeping the place warm for any ponies who need a place to stay the night. He makes a great soup for anypony who needs it. Cloudsdale has more starving ponies than you'd think."

The four sat in silence, Twilight opening and closing her wings nervously.

Fluttershy broke the tension by flying into the next room, waving a hoof for Twilight to follow. She found herself in a cozy little bathroom, in the most literal sense of the word. There was a wide basin taking up the greater half of thee floor space, while the rest was towels and cleaning supplies. Fluttershy twisted the knobs at the edge of the dish, steaming water slowly filling from the tap opposite. 

"You're going to... bathe me?"

Fluttershy nodded, smiling. "Your scales are tarnished. I don't think you've been caring for them properly."

Twilight clambered into the bath, submerging herself in the hot water. "I was dead, I come back to life without warning, and you're giving me a bath?"

Fluttershy nodded again. "Open your wing."

"A bath." Twilight repeated, stunned. She stretched open her wing, the water working wonders on the membrane. She nearly hissed with pleasure. 

Fluttershy frowned. "You should wash your mane and tail too, but I think you can do that on your own."

"Uh, yeah. I'll do that." She ducked her head under the water, suddenly aware of how long it had been since she bathed. How on earth had her friends dealt with the stench?

When she surfaced, Fluttershy had a bristled brush strapped on either hoof, and was rubbing some kind of foam between them. "This won't hurt a bit." She promised. "Could you open your wing again, please?"

Twilight watched as she rubbed the brushes on either side of her wing, scrubbing dirt and dust away with ease. "I thought you'd freak out. This seems like more of a Rarity thing."

Fluttershy dipped her brushes in the water for a moment. "Well, ponies are animals just like bunnies and dragons are, and I'm an animal caretaker."

"But a bath?"

"The first step in discovering the depth of injuries." Fluttershy happily replied, running the damp brush over Twilight's soapy wing. "Oh, wow."

Twilight looked over her shoulder, trying to see what had stopped Fluttershy's gentle brushing. She found herself suddenly stunned. The scales on the back of her wing, formerly a dull shade of her coat, glimmered with rose sheen. Experimentally, she lifted her wing. The darker underside gleamed with the color of her mane highlights, a dark blue shimmering with purple and rose.

"Whoa." Twilight glanced between her wing and Fluttershy, noticeably stunned. "How did you-"

"It's the same product I use to clean the snakes." She squeaked, blushing. "I-I'll leave you to clean up."

Twilight watched her fly out of the room, and started to wash her own mane.


-----


"-and we have no idea what she'll do!"

Twilight halted, the damp towel around her neck swinging as she leaned back from the doorway. Was that Fluttershy?

"Come on, Flutters, it'll be fine."

"You don't get it! Spike's all dragon, and even he has trouble controlling his instinct! Yesterday, he nearly burnt down the bedroom because he sneezed 'the wrong way'."

"What does that have to do with Twilight?" Rainbow Dash's voice had taken on an offended edge. "She's can't breathe fire!"

"I'm scared." Fluttershy muttered. "None of us know what she's capable of, not even her!"

"She's still Twilight." Rainbow hissed.

Fluttershy frowned, an almost audible action. "Our Twilight wouldn't last a day without using her magic. Our Twilight would have inspected every part of her dragon anatomy. She doesn't even know that she was dirty! Is that the Twilight we knew?"

"Give her time, Flutters, it'll-"

"She's had months." Hoof struck wood. "If doesn't know what she is now..."

Twilight's tail vanished through the small bathroom window, towel draped forgotten across the floor, as a pair of glimmering wings snapped open and carried their bearer out towards the pale moon.

Fluttershy sighed. "Then she never will."

Rainbow frowned, draping a wing over Applejack's sleeping form. "And what do you suppose we do?"

"We get her to the Princesses, and they find a solution. Or keep her under lock and key."

"They can't do that to Twilight!" Rainbow slammed a hoof down on the wood. "She's Celestia's prodigy, she's an Element of Harmony, and she's our friend!"

"She's also a dragon." Fluttershy pointed out. "One that's escaped the Princess's care, broken into numerous houses, stole hundreds of items, and is a public disturbance."

Rainbow cast her eyes to her hooves.

"I get that she was our friend." Fluttershy brushed a hoof against Rainbow's shoulder, but the latter mare showed no sign of feeling it. "But she's not Twilight any more."

A dark silhouette against the moon dipped through a silver-edged cloud, beginning an descent towards the towering spires of Canterlot. Almost unseen save for the light shimmering from their surfaces, a light dusting of glinting tears fell in her wake, and a dark Alicorn raced along as a lost shadow below.

The shy Pegasus set her mouth in a firm line. "Twilight has been gone since the day she died. I mourned her death then, and I miss her dearly, but our Twilight can't come back."

Rainbow stared up at her, jarred by her calmness. "Goodnight, Fluttershy."

Kindness watched silently as Loyalty, a dim red glow around every strand of fur and the tines of every feather, gently lifted Honesty from the floor and left the quiet house.