Sometimes it feels like the rain never stops...
The yellow pegasus stared out of the shuttered windows of her cottage, and gazed up at the grey clouds hanging above in the sky. The weather pegasi had been working overtime lately, and it seemed to her that it had been raining non-stop for the past few days - at least three if not more. Her cottage was currently the home to many woodland creatures trying to get out of the downpour, moreso than usual anyway, but she didn't mind. In fact she was happy to help, and it was always nice to be surrounded by warm, cuddly creatures that saw her as their surrogate mother.
"The rain sure is depressing, though." She thought to herself, sighing softly while resting her chin onto a hoof, "I wonder how Rainbow Dash can stand it all the time?"
Her thoughts were filled with her good friend - her best and oldest friend - the rainbow-maned pegasus that led the weather duties for Ponyville. It seemed like, no matter what the weather, she could always be seen speeding this way and that across the sky, leaving a multi-coloured aura in her wake. Rain or shine, Fluttershy could often look out her window and see the faint impression of the blue pegasus fly across her vision. More often than not, Rainbow would stop in to see her when time allowed it and it was those times, whether they were a brief "Hello" or a longer stay, that the yellow pegasus felt the most joy even on dreary days like this. In fact, besides her weekly visits to the spa with Rarity, seeing Rainbow was the only thing she could count on to happen. Oh, she saw her other friends often enough - it was true - but with Twilight busy studying how to be a princess, Applejack busy on her farm, and Pinkie being...well...Pinkie, she would feel so alone if it weren't for Rarity...and Rainbow Dash.
"Are you still watching the rain, Shy?"
And then there was Blueheart.
Several months ago, a new pony had arrived in Ponyville. He was a stallion of some mystery, coming from a city far across the reaches of anyplace Fluttershy had ever gone, and seemed as awkward and shy as she had been at the attention given to him upon his arrival. They had met several times since that day, and had developed a friendship that gradually built into something more. He had been involved in an animal shelter where he was from, and so he and Fluttershy had bonded over their mutual love for small animals. Before the yellow pegasus had realized it, most ponies in town considered them a couple and...well...she hadn't felt like saying otherwise. So they began dating. And a month ago, he had moved in. Their relationship was...pleasant. He helped her look after the animals under her care, and he seemed quite good with Angel bunny - and Fluttershy knew how difficult the petulant rabbit could be to get along with - so they seemed a natural fit.
They had been intimate with each other, but the pegasus never truly enjoyed herself. She only did anything at all so he felt that she liked him. And she did like him...
At least she thought she did...
The grey Earth Pony slowly walked out of the bedroom and stood beside Fluttershy, putting a hoof on her shoulder. She turned toward him and gave him a smile and a gentle hug, "I suppose...I guess I'm just wondering if it'll end soon."
"I imagine it will. It's been like this for days." the grey stallion mused, before leaving her side and wandering into the kitchen to put the kettle on.
She let out another sigh; it wasn't the rain she was talking about. Not entirely, anyway. She hadn't been dense enough to not realize that she'd been depressed for several days...maybe even weeks. It had started before the recent bout of rain even began, and seemed to only get worse during the wet spell. She felt...lonely, she guessed.
Lonely...
Sad...
Bored...
Like something in her life was missing.
She turned around to gaze into her kitchen, her blue eyes falling upon the grey stallion that had set the tea kettle to boil, and was busying himself feeding the many rabbits, chipmunks, and whatever else she had living in her home at present. She couldn't help but smile at how sweet and kind Blueheart was - how natural he seemed with animals. So much like her, it would seem. Such a nice pony....
So why did she regard him more like a lost animal that she'd found wandering around the Everfree Forest, instead of the stallionfriend that she should?
Why didn't she...love him?
She folded her forelegs across her chest and closed her eyes. When she opened them again, small tears had formed in the corners of her blue-green eyes and threatened to flow down her face. She quickly hid her face behind her rose mane in case Blueheart looked her way - she didn't feel like answering questions about why she was crying again - and went back to looking out the window at the pouring rain. Suddenly, out of the corner of one of her eyes she spotted a blue streak in the sky above her cottage.
She moved her mane from her face, quickly wiped her eyes and then the window, and pressed her snout against the glass. The corners of her lips jumped up into a small smile all on their own when she saw the familiar multi-hued tail of a certain pegasus fly across her vision. Without a second thought, she trotted across the room and swung the door open, the wind outside sending sharp bolts of rain pouring into the entryway and Fluttershy's eyes.
"Where are you going?" she heard a voice behind her ask.
She turned around to see the grey stallion holding a teacup between his hooves and a curious expression on his face. She stopped herself and slowly closed the door behind her sheepishly. "N...nowhere." she said, her cheeks starting to turn red, "I guess...I thought I saw something."
She tried to maintain her smile and took the offered teacup in her forehooves, her eyes occasionally looking up at the window and wishing that she was brave enough to run out into the storm and dance amoungst the clouds like her friend.
****
Rainbow Dash flew nimbly through the obstacle course of the sky filled with large grey rainclouds; her blue fur matted and wet against her body and strands of her multi-coloured mane pasted against her nose.
Another day...
Another storm....
She was never one to question the orders of the weather team in Cloudsdale, but not even a particularly dry summer seemed to justify Dash's orders to keep in raining over Ponyville for three days straight. At least it kept the sporty mare busy at work, and the empty streets and fields allowed her plenty of room to practice her aerial moves.
The rainbow-hued pegasus took off straight up, smashing right through a small cloud, and spat a stream of water behind her before dropping again in a nosedive and careening toward the ground. Just before she hit the grass, she turned into a barrel roll and straightened herself up again. She was in a field just outside of Ponyville, the dirt road covered with puddles of mud from the rain and the air thick with the smell of hay and wildflowers. She often found herself here...often made an excuse to practice tricks above this field, or just lay on a cloud above it on a sunny day. Down the dirt road and up a slight incline was a small cottage surrounded by a vegetable garden; a chicken coop and other animal housing was nearby. It was the cottage of a good friend of hers - a friend with whom that, while she often had her disagreements, she knew deep down she cared about. A lot.
She would often find an excuse to stop in on her way to or from someplace, even just to give a smile or a wave. She never spared a chance to poke fun at her flaws - but only as that was her way of trying to get her to rise above them. Truth be told, sometimes Rainbow Dash thought that she was her only real friend - her only true friend.
Moreso than Applejack, Fluttershy is always honest with her....
Moreso than Rarity, Fluttershy has given her everything she's ever needed from her....
Moreso than Pinkie, Fluttershy never fails to make her laugh just by being herself...
But more than anything, she was kind...
"...even when I don't deserve it." she thought to herself, finding herself hovering just above the grass while looking up at the small stone cottage.
Rainwater flowed down the blue pegasus's cheeks, and her wings slowly flapped against the wind to propel her slowly up the road. She stopped just short of the perimeter of the gates, careful not to alert the animals, and gazed ahead at the small home. A hoof moved up to her face to clear strands of red and orange from her vision, and she sighted a yellow figure in one of the windows. Squinting, Rainbow Dash could just make out a glint of blue shining beneath pink.
Smiling, she hovered there in the shadow of the chicken coop and just stared.
She was just about to move forward to knock on her door, when she saw another pony in one of the other cottage windows; A grey stallion. The rainbow mare knew about Fluttershy's stallionfriend; everybody in Ponyville did. She was happy for her shy friend to have found somepony to care for her...to look after her.
...to love her.
She clenched her teeth tightly together and, wiping the rain and another kind of water out of her eyes, she shot into the air, weaved underneath a cloud and took off over the trees. Out of the corner of her eye, she thought she saw the door to Fluttershy's cottage open but dismissed it as her imagination.
****
"I'll be home later on tonight, Shy. I promised Applejack I'd help Big Macintosh and her fix their barn."
Later on in the day, Blueheart offered to brave the rain and take a trip to the market to pick up some much needed groceries.
She smiled and gently kissed him on the cheek, wishing him well and told him supper would be on the stove for him when he came back. As soon as he walked out the door, the yellow pegasus flopped onto her couch and flung a foreleg over her face.
Come on, Fluttershy!...Get up and do something!...Stop moping around!
She lay there for what seemed like only a few minutes when she felt a furry foot kicking her repeatedly in the head. With a sigh, she looked up beneath her foreleg and turned her head. Her eyes met the cross face on her Angel bunny, his paw pointing insistenly at his mouth.
"Are you hungry, my Angel?" she asked, smiling sweetly at her beloved pet.
The rabbit gave the pegasus pony a look that such a question should be unneccesary.
"Just give mama a minute, my sweet bunny. I'm not feeling too good today." She expressed softly, pulling herself up off the couch.
The white rabbit's expression softened slightly when he saw the sad look in his owner's eyes, and stepped out of the way as she slowly made her way into the kitchen and prepared a small salad. Setting it down in front of him, he sniffed it a few times, looked at the yellow pegasus sceptically, then slowly began eating. Deciding it was probably a good idea to see if any of her other furry or feathered charges were hungry, she decided that this would be a good way to pass the time and keep herself busy.
When she had checked on every animal inside to ensure that they was fed and watered, she decided to go outside to check on her chickens. When she opened the door, she was pleased to see that the rain had stopped - at least for the moment - and she tentatively navigated around the puddles of mud and water on the ground to make her way down to her coop.
"Hey you!"
She jumped and let out a small "eep!" before turning her head to see a familiar face hovering above the ground behind her. "Oh, Rainbow Dash! You startled me!" she said, a smile and slight blush coming across her face.
The rainbow-maned pegasus spun around in the air before settling down on the dirt path directly in front of Fluttershy. "Sorry about that, Flutters; I guess I'm a little too sneaky!" the rainbow-maned pegasus chuckled.
"So..." Fluttershy said softly after a few moments of silence, "um...what have you been up to?"
Rainbow Dash gazed wistfully up at the sky with a smirk on her face, "You're kinda standing in it...or you were, I guess, until things settled down."
"Oh, so the rain is over?"
The blue pegasus grimaced and looked up, "No, they're just taking a little while to reload, and then it'll be full steam ahead for another day or so."
Fluttershy looked down at a puddle in front of her and frowned, "Oh. I was...sort of hoping the rain would be done now."
The two pegasis stood in silence for a few more uncomfortable moments staring at the ground, the sky, or really anywhere but at each other, before Fluttershy looked up again slightly, a hopeful grin on her face, and asked, "So...so did you want to...um...come in for a bit? I could make us some tea...and I have those hay biscuits you like."
It was now the sporty pegasus's turn to frown, "I wish I could, Flutters; I really do! But...the weather team needs me back ASAP to plan the next storm today."
The yellow pegasus turned back toward her cottage then looked back at the puddle in front of her, shrugged her shoulders and replied softly, "Oh...all right, then."
Rainbow Dash bit her lower lip and went to take a step toward her, but then pulled back. "Um..." she started tentatively, "so...yeah, I should probably get going. I'm already running behind. But...but I can stop in later...or tomorrow...or, like, whenever I have time. I promise, okay?"
"Okay Rainbow..."
"So...Ima go now, okay pal?"
The yellow pegasus simply gave a small nod.
The multi-coloured mane of the blue pegasus hung down partially in her face as she backed away slowly and took off backwards into the air, still keeping her eye on her friend below. Rainbow Dash wasn't the best with emotional stuff, but she knew that something seemed wrong. If she wasn't already running behind, she'd likely have stayed and taken her friend up on that offer. It wasn't really even that she particularly loved biscuits and tea; it was the company of who she was sharing it with.
She was just about to spin around to prepare to take off over the trees of the Everfree Forest when she noticed ripples forming in the puddle in front of Fluttershy. She looked up at the clouds above her and put a hoof out curiously, not feeling any rain.
They wouldn't have started without me, would they?
She flew down for a closer look, and her azure eyes went wide when she noticed the ripples were formed by tears falling from the eyes of her pink maned friend.
"Fluttershy? What's the matter?" she asked, flying down quickly to hover beside the yellow mare.
The pegasus looked up with a start, as if realizing that her friend hadn't left, and wiped her eyes with a foreleg quickly, "N...nothing! Nothing's the matter." she sniffled, hiding her face behind her pink mane and turning away from Rainbow Dash.
The blue pony slowly - cautiously - landed and walked over to stand beside her friend. Just as cautiously, she reached out a foreleg and moved her friend's rose mane away from her face. Fluttershy pulled away gently and let out a small squeak upon feeling Dash's hoof against her, seeming more embarrased than angry. Rainbow could see the red puffiness around her eyes and the wetness of her face that caused a few stray pink stands to stick to it, mingling with some tears that still slowly made their way down her cheek.
She stared at Fluttershy's face for a few seconds, unsure what to say or how to react. She felt like she should do something, but she wasn't really sure what. Much like how she felt when Fluttershy had cried when she wasn't able to improve her wing speed enough during the reservoir tornado, Rainbow Dash felt impotent and lost by how she should be comforting her.
"Just go..." Fluttershy whispered softly, and started walking slowly back up toward her cottage; the chickens forgotten in her mind as she tried to just get away.
Rainbow Dash was left standing at the base of the small hill, torn between her work duties and her duties as a friend. After watching her walk slowly - sadly - up to her home, she called after her, "Fluttershy, wait!"
The yellow pegasus stopped in front of her door, but didn't turn around.
Flying the short distance up to the door of the cottage, Rainbow Dash stopped in front of it and, running a hoof through her messy mane, said, "So...umm...Fluttershy pal...I was thinking...maybe I could stay for some tea, after all. If you still wanted me to, I mean?"
She saw one red-rimmed blue-green eye look up at her from beneath a curtain of pink, and heard a small, soft, "Okay, Rainbow." before the door was opened and the two pegasi went inside.