Rainbow walked through the dirt roads of Ponyville; she had planned on just flying home as fast as possible so she could try to sleep the day away. But as soon as she began to fly through the air, it just didn’t feel right. Rainbow then decided to walk around instead, anything to keep her mind occupied. Eventually she decided to head for the park, skipping stones on the pond was something she picked up one time when she injured her wing. She was always surprised at how time could fly whenever she did that. If anything would help her pass the time and keep her mind busy, that would be it.
She hadn’t been to the park for a while now; the first thing she noticed was that they planted new flowers. The vivid colors of white roses and yellow sunflowers somehow brightened her mood slightly. She didn’t know it, but that was most likely the intentions of whoever commissioned the flowers to be planted. To use these colors as a way to help brighten any pony that could come across them and happen to be in a low mood. Rainbow stared at the arrangements of flowers for a few more seconds before continuing her way.
Rainbow found her usual pond; it was a ways away from the walkway of the park, secluded enough that nopony would bother her. Rainbow found a spot to sit down and used one of her wings to pick up one of the rocks on the ground. With a flick of her feathers she tossed the rock which then skipped along the water until it reached the other side. Rainbow could remember the first time she tried skipping stones; she couldn’t get it to skip even once. It wasn’t until Applejack showed her how that she was able to get the hang of it.
The whole reason Rainbow came to the park was so she could clear he head, but she still ended up thinking about what happened at work. About how they told her she needed to see a psychologist as if she was crazy.
“Like I’m supposed to just open up to some random pony with an expensive piece of paper on their wall, fat chance.” said Rainbow as she threw another stone, this time the stone only skipped once before reaching the other side. Sitting in a room while somepony else tries to tell you what’s wrong with you, if she wanted that she’d go back to school.
“Why can’t anypony understand that I’m fine, I’ll get over it if I just don’t think about—“ Rainbow was cut off when an object struck her in the back of the heard. “Ow, hey!” she yelled turning around, on the ground was a Frisbee. From in the bushes she could hear somepony running through them, grabbing the Frisbee with her wing, she contemplated on whether or not to clobber him.
“I think it flew this way!” the voice was young, clearly from a filly. About a second later a young filly emerged, she was a light purple Pegasus filly with a blond mane and tail. And from the looks of it she had yet to achieve her cutie mark. “I found…I…” the filly stopped when she spotted Rainbow Dash, her jaw hang in awe.
“Oh my gosh, you’re Rainbow Dash!” the filly yelled as she hopped in place.
“I take it you’re a fan?” Rainbow said with a small smirk as she watched the young filly jump in place.
“Who wouldn’t be, you did a Sonic Rainboom at the Best Young Flyer competition!” after Rainbow won the competition, her mail box would be filled with letters from young fillies commenting about how awesome she was. She always enjoyed the feeling of the younger generation looking up to her.
“There you are!” said a stallion with a worried voice as he came out from behind the bushes.
“Dad look, it’s Rainbow Dash” Rainbow took one good look at the stallion and immediately felt her heart freeze. The stallion’s mane was blond like his daughter while his fur was a navy blue color. But the part that Rainbow couldn’t take her eyes off was his own eyes. She could see the familiar looking golden color around the stallion’s pupils.
“Well what do you know, I knew you lived in Ponyville but I never thought we’d actually meet you.” said the stallion as he extended his hoof which she shook. “I have to say, that Rainboom you did was impressive” complimented the stallion.
“I’m gonna do a Rainboom too someday, you’ll be there when I do, right dad?” said the filly as she jumped on the stallions back. The stallion turned his head toward his daughter and nuzzled her gently.
“Not even Celestia herself could keep me from seeing that.” when the stallion turned his face back to Rainbow, a frown suddenly spread on his face. “Are you okay?” Rainbow didn’t know what he was talking about until she felt something running down her cheek. Rainbow quickly rubbed the moisture out of her face and backed away.
“Yeah, I-I got to go, nice meeting you” Rainbow Dash took off before either pony could say anything. Rainbow continued to fly until she was outside of Ponyville, she found a stray cloud and landed on it.
“I started to cry, why did I start to cry?” Rainbow asked herself, but an answer was nowhere to be found. Rainbow rested on her back, her hooves placed behind her head for support as she stared up at the sky. “Maybe I’m just tired” Rainbow said to herself, it made sense, she hadn’t slept much. Closing her eyes, Rainbow wondered why she reacted the way she did when she saw that fillies father. But she didn’t have to think about it for too long as the relaxing sensation of sleep took her over.
Fluttershy was in a panic, Rainbow Dash wasn’t at home and her boss told her that she had been placed on medical leave. For the past hour she searched Ponyville trying to spot her but came up empty. With each minute that passed she would feel her anxiety grow, she didn’t know where her best friend was, and had no idea if she was okay or not.
“What if Applejack is right?” Fluttershy paused as a chill ran through her again. She didn’t want to think about it, but she promised Applejack, she needed to get some help. Looking down Fluttershy saw that she was above the library; she descended quickly and knocked on the door. A few seconds later the door was opened by Spike.
“Oh, hey Fluttershy”
“I need to talk to Twilight, quickly!” Spike didn’t even need to ask why; Twilight had already made her way down the stairs.
“Fluttershy, what’s wrong?” she asked looking almost as panicked as Fluttershy. Her hair was slightly frizzled as well, but Fluttershy didn’t pay it any mind, she had to keep focused on the situation.
“It’s Rainbow, I tried to visit her at work but her boss said she’s on medical leave, and she’s not home. I’ve tried to find her for over an hour but I couldn’t find a trace of her." she tried to hide it, but the worried expression on Fluttershy’s face didn’t fade.
“I’ll get the others, Rainbow Dash usually likes to sleep outside of town, search every cloud you can!” Fluttershy nodded before Twilight disappeared in a flash of light. Obviously Twilight resorted to using the teleportation spell; they didn’t have time to waste.
“What should I do?” asked Spike.
“Come with me, the more eyes on the sky the better” Spike nodded and climbed on Fluttershy’s back before she took off to the sky. Spike didn’t say anything at the time, but she took off faster than he had ever seen Fluttershy fly before. The two spent the next several minutes searching the sky’s trying to spot Rainbow Dash.
“Look over there!” Fluttershy turned her attention towards Spike’s finger, at the distance she could see a rainbow-colored object sticking out of a cloud. Fluttershy flew up to the cloud so see Rainbow Dash lying motionless. A few tense moments passed before Rainbow snored, Fluttershy let out a relaxing sigh as her anxiety cleared.
“Spike, can you find the others and let them know that I’m with Rainbow?” Spike nodded as Fluttershy landed on the ground. As Spike ran off back to town Fluttershy flew back to the cloud that Rainbow was sleeping on. Gently she lowered herself until she was sitting on the cloud beside the cyan mare. As she watched her, Fluttershy couldn’t help but notice the smile on Rainbow’s face. The wind blew causing a chill, when Fluttershy noticed Rainbow shiver slightly she quickly moved in closer.
Fluttershy rested Rainbow’s head on her lap and used her wings as a blanket to keep her friend from feeling cold. She watched her friend sleep, she was glad that Rainbow was safe, and she was glad that she could keep Rainbow safe.
Fluttershy didn’t know how long she sat there watching Rainbow sleep, but she didn’t care, she was just glad that she could watch over the rainbow manned Pegasus. Fluttershy herself almost nodded off, but she was snapped into attention the moment Rainbow began to stir. Looking down she thought that Rainbow could have been waking up, but that wasn’t the case. Rainbow Dash’s smile was replaced with a frown, and from the way she was tossing, Fluttershy could only assume that she was having a nightmare.
“But you promised…” Rainbow mumbled “You said you’d be there” she continued. Fluttershy watched as Rainbow continued to toss, it seemed as though her nightmare was getting worse. “Please don’t leave!” Rainbow said louder, tears began to stream down her cheeks.
“Rainbow; Rainbow wake up!” Fluttershy couldn’t stand watching her friend in so much pain; she had to take her out of her nightmare. Rainbow gasped as she opened her eyes, her eyes in a panic as she scanned her surroundings. Eventually Rainbow’s eyes locked on to Fluttershy and she began to calm.
“W-where am I?” she asked unable to remember how she got on the cloud do to the panic of the sudden wake up.
“I found you sleeping here, you were having a bad dream” Rainbow had a blank expression on her face.
“No I wasn’t” she said as she got up from Fluttershy’s lap.
“You were talking in your sleep” Rainbow froze for a moment; she turned to face Fluttershy with an arched brow.
“What did I say?”
“Something about a promise?” Rainbow’s eyes went wide before she closed them shut and grit her teeth. Rainbow turned so her back was against Fluttershy. Fluttershy stood up and took a step towards her friend.
“Do you want to talk about it?” she asked as she placed her hoof on Rainbows shoulder. Almost as if Fluttershy’s hoof had burned her, Rainbow flinched away from her. Fluttershy froze; she had never seen Rainbow flinch before.
“There’s nothing to talk about, I’m fine” Rainbow said lowly.
“But…”
“I said I’m fine!” she yelled as she flared her wings as though she were going to attack. Fluttershy gulped and took a step back, immediately Rainbow began to feel the guilt sink in.
“I’m sorry, Fluttershy.”
“It’s okay, Rainbow.” said Fluttershy as she took a few steps forward. “You say you’re fine, but I’ve known you for years. I know when something is bothering you, please, talk to me.” Rainbow looked at Fluttershy, her longtime friend who would always be there for her. Fluttershy would always help her if she ever had a problem.
“I…” Rainbow froze, she was about to say something but in the end, she just couldn’t do it. “There’s nothing to talk about…” Rainbow said finally before taking off into the air, this time heading home.
“So close!” Fluttershy said as she stomped her hoof on the cloud frustrated of how close she came only to have Rainbow close herself off again. Fluttershy didn’t want to give up, she was going to take off after Rainbow, but—
“Fluttershy!” she heard from the ground, looking down she saw the others running towards her. Fluttershy let out a sigh and descended towards the ground where the others were waiting for her. One of the first things she noticed was Pinkie Pie, her hair was still lifeless, in fact; she looked a little worse.
“Where’s Rainbow?” asked Applejack.
“She went home, I almost got her to open up…” said Fluttershy as she bowed her head.
“Well at least she’s okay” said Applejack before taking a glance at the others that stood behind her.
“Has her behavior changed in any way?” asked Rarity.
“A little, I think she’s starting to have nightmares” Fluttershy decided to leave out the moment when Rainbow snapped at her.
“Nightmares…I know, maybe I can ask Princess Luna to tell us about what Rainbow Dash’s nightmares are about” suggested Twilight.
“No!” said Applejack and Fluttershy in almost perfect sync.
“If Rainbow finds out we've been poking through her dreams she’ll close herself off more than she already has” Applejack explained. Twilight had decided to listen to Applejack’s advice before, but she just couldn’t sit idly by and let her friends do all the work.
“Applejack, I can’t even pretend to know what she could be going through. But I’ve read up enough on this to know that ponies that try to keep their emotions bottled up can’t handle it for very long.” Applejack knew Twilight was right, but if she had almost opened up to Fluttershy, then maybe they just needed a little more time.
“Two weeks, that’s all the time ah can ask for. If Fluttershy can’t get Rainbow to open up by then, then we’ll do it your way.” Twilight didn’t want to have to wait any longer than she felt was necessary, but she also trusted Fluttershy and Rainbows friendship.
“Alright, Fluttershy, please understand that I don’t want to force Rainbow to do something she’s not ready for, but if you can’t get through to her, then I’ll have no choice.” Fluttershy nodded, she knew Twilight’s heart was in the right place.
“I’ll get to her, I promise” Twilight nodded and turned around to leave, soon she was joined by Spike, Pinkie, and Rarity.
“You think you can do it?” asked Applejack who stayed behind.
“I have to” Fluttershy said plainly.
“Also, we might have another problem” Fluttershy arched a brow as she stared at Applejack.
“What do you mean?”
“Ah take it you’ve seen Pinkie and Twilight, they’re not looking good.” Applejack was right; Pinkie hadn’t jumped back from her depressed state yet. And Fluttershy remembered that Twilight was starting to look stressed out.
“You think it’s because they’re worried about Rainbow?”
“Maybe, but ah can’t help but think that Rainbow’s father dyin’ might have brought up something in them. Listen, keep trying with Rainbow, every second counts, in the meantime ah’m going to check with the Cake’s to see if anything had changed with Pinkie. After that I’m going to do the same with Spike.” Fluttershy nodded, she wasn’t sure what could have been her other friends problems, but she needed to focus on Rainbow first.
“Okay, I’ll leave them to you” said Fluttershy before she took off towards Rainbows home. Once Fluttershy was out of sight, Applejack took up a serious expression. It may have been unintentional, but Rainbow’s problem had in some way gotten to the others. The others didn’t know what it was like to lose a parent, but sometimes thinking about ‘what if’ could hurt just as bad. Applejack may not be able to help Rainbow like Fluttershy could; but she sure as hey was going to help her other friends if they needed it.