//------------------------------// // The Talk // Story: Secret of a Shy Pegasus // by TimeLord_Whooves //------------------------------// “But… how do you know?” Fluttershy asked. “I saw you bring it in earlier. Not that I meant to spy on you, of course, you just walked in when I was about to come downstairs with my gifts,” Pinkie explained. “Pinkie, you have to promise me, you won’t tell anypony about this,” Fluttershy demanded, a little more sternly than she had meant to. Pinkie was slightly taken aback at the forcefulness of Fluttershy’s request. “I really think-” “Just promise me, Pinkie, please.” Fluttershy’s pleading eyes were just as effective as her infamous “stare”. Pinkie sighed and gave in to the yellow pegasus’ soft, worried eyes. “Cross my heart, hope to fly. Stick a cupcake in my eye,” Pinkie said as she went through the motions of the Pinkie Promise. “But, there is something I’d like to know,” Pinkie said, frowning slightly. “If it’s okay to ask, of course.” Fluttershy tensed. “Uh… I-I don’t know,” she responded weakly. “If you’d rather talk about it somewhere else, that’s fine too.” Fluttershy contemplated for a moment, she didn’t really want to answer any questions, but Pinkie already knew anyways. It would simply be unkind to leave her in the dark. “O-okay,” Fluttershy said softly after a full minute. “I’ll answer your questions… later.” Satisfied, Pinkie trotted off to go enjoy the party with everypony else, leaving Fluttershy alone to worry about the questions Pinkie was going to ask. The rest of the party was fairly uneventful, Scootaloo and her friends played with her presents for a bit before the cake was brought out by Pinkie. Aside from Scootaloo ending up with about half of the cake smeared across her face by her enthusiastic friends; it was just like any other birthday party. As the guests began to leave, Fluttershy wondered whether she could sneak out and avoid being questioned by Pinkie, at least for today. I mean, I know she’s not going to leave me alone until she gets her answers... Pinkie seemed to be busy cleaning up the wrapping paper and confetti scattered about the room, this was her chance. Quietly, Fluttershy made her way to the door with the last few party-goers and managed to slip out of the door unnoticed by Pinkie Pie. She sighed in relief and trudged on towards her cottage. Thankfully for Fluttershy, it seemed that Pinkie wasn’t going to come and confront her about everything tonight. The cottage was filled with its usual chatter as Fluttershy laid herself down on her bed, pulled the covers up to her neck, and fell into an uneasy sleep. *** KNOCK KNOCK KNOCK Fluttershy looked up from the book she had been reading and turned towards the door. “Fluttershy, open up, would ya?” The yellow mare put the book down on the coffee table and slowly got up to answer the door. As she opened it, she was met with a rather large bouquet of all kinds of colorful flowers. “Surprise!” shouted the white stallion behind the wall of flowers. “Oh my, what’s this for?” Fluttershy asked, taking the bouquet and smelling all the wonderful flowers. “Well, you know the try outs for the Wonderbolts was today…” Fluttershy let out a great gasp. “You mean, you made it into the Wonderbolts!? Oh, what about Rainbow Dash, did she make it too?” “I’m afraid they were only looking for one new pony for the team this time…” “Oh, poor Dashie, she must feel so bad, not making the team,” Fluttershy said, dropping her head slightly. “Hey, aren’t you happy that I got in? Now that I’m a Wonderbolt, I can give you anything you want. Just name it and I can get it for you.” “Oh, I’m sorry. Of course I’m happy for you,” Fluttershy said, walking over and giving the stallion a tight hug. “Congratulations on making the Wonderbolts, Rapidfire.” Rapidfire smiled and returned the hug. “Well, this was only a quick visit. I’ve got to get back to HQ. I’m supposed to start training early tomorrow but I should be able to come by again in the evening. See you then.” Before Fluttershy could say anything else, the door swung shut behind Rapidfire. Fluttershy sighed, admiring the flowers. She walked over to her kitchen to get a vase for them when there came another knock on the door. “Did you forget-” Fluttershy started to ask as she opened the door. She was taken aback as a fuming Rainbow Dash stormed in the second the door was open. “Oh, Rainbow Dash, is everything okay?” Rainbow Dash turned towards Fluttershy so fast and with such hostility, it caused Fluttershy to cower. “No, everything’s not okay!” Rainbow shouted. “Your stallion friend is quite possibly the worst scum I’ve ever met!” “W-what?” Fluttershy asked incredulously. “What could he have possibly done to make you think that?” “He broke into my house and turned off my alarm clock! I woke up so late today that I completely missed the Wonderbolts try outs!” Fluttershy was backing further into the corner of the room, her voice getting so soft that Rainbow Dash could barely hear it. “H-how can y-you b-be so sure i-it wasn’t just that you f-forgot to set it?” Fluttershy whimpered from her corner. “Because I left like a bagillion notes around my place telling me to set my alarm clock, I even left one on my pillow so that I wouldn’t fall asleep before setting it!” “B-but why would he break into your place just to turn off your alarm?” Fluttershy asked, a slight tone of anger entering her voice. “Because he knows he can’t beat me in fair competition! He knows that if he hadn’t sabotaged me, I’d have won, hooves down!” “Don’t you think you’re overreacting just a little?” Fluttershy asked, walking over to her friend from her corner. “There could be countless reasons why your alarm wasn’t set this morning, but I know Rapidfire. He wouldn’t do something like that just to win.” “Yeah well, he did. And I seriously think you should rethink staying with him. He’s a cheat and a jerk and an all around bad pony to be around.” “Rainbow Dash! Did you forget, he’s been your friend for years and he’s been nothing but nice to me ever since we met. How could you even say something like that about your friend?” “Whatever, you just wait and see. He’ll screw up eventually and when he does, don’t come crying to me.” With that, Rainbow Dash flew out of the door as fast as she could, causing it to slam shut behind her. Fluttershy didn’t know what to do. Rainbow was her closest friend, but Rapidfire was her stallionfriend. She decided to ask for his account when he visited tomorrow, which he never did. *** “Fluttershy!” The pegasus rolled over and put her pillow over her head. “Fluttershy!!” She sat up, looking around for the source of the voice calling her name. “Fluttershy, I need to talk to you!” She walked over to her window and looked out. Standing in front of her door was Scootaloo. Fluttershy’s mind reeled. Scootaloo? Oh no, could Pinkie have told her about me? But Pinkie would never break a pinkie promise, but then, what is Scootaloo doing here? “Fluttershy, are you gonna come to the door or what?” Scootaloo called up, seeing the yellow mare peeking her head out of the window. “J-just a moment,” Fluttershy called down, startled at having been caught staring from the window. She hoped Scootaloo didn’t think she was avoiding her now… Fluttershy made her way to the door as quickly as she could, without stepping on any of her animal friends, and opened the door to let the young pegasus filly in. Scootaloo immediately flopped herself down on the couch at which Fluttershy gently settled herself onto her comfy armchair, after moving a sleeping kitten. “S-so, what’s the matter Scootaloo?” Fluttershy asked, a little uncertainly. “W-well… I’ve been having doubts,” Scootaloo said, her head drooping. “Doubts about what?” “My flying… I mean, even before I started learning to fly from Rainbow Dash, I haven’t exactly had the strongest wings.” Fluttershy stretched out her own wings for a second and folded them back against her sides, feeling her own weaker wing muscles and looking at Scootaloo with an apologetic expression. Scootaloo didn’t notice and continued talking. "I'm worried Rainbow Dash might start feeling like I'm a lost cause. What if she decides that she doesn't want to teach me anymore." Fluttershy’s expression turned from apologetic to concern for the little filly, after all, she knew exactly what Scootaloo was experiencing right now. “And well… Rainbow doesn’t exactly listen to me when I try to talk to her about this, she just brushes it off and continues with the training session. That’s why I came to you. You’re always there for your friends and you’ve helped me and my friends before, so I felt you’d actually listen to me now.” Fluttershy smiled warmly. “Well, you know, I wasn’t always a good flier. In fact, only recently have I gained a little confidence in my flying ability. Like you, I wasn’t born with the strongest wings and I was picked on for it.” Scootaloo raised her head to look Fluttershy in the eyes and listened intently. “You had the very good fortune of having lived in Ponyville though, where nopony could care less how well you can fly, that’s one of the reasons why I moved here in the first place. You do know that I was born in Cloudsdale, right?” Scootaloo shook her head. “No? Well, I was, and as you do know, Cloudsdale is populated by nothing but pegasi. It’s a lot different growing up around pegasi. If you can’t fly well, you’re looked down on and bullied for it. That only made it harder for me to gain the confidence I needed to fly well. The one thing that kept me going then, was Rainbow Dash, she was my only friend back then and she always encouraged me to keep trying my best even when I fell and she never ever gave up on me. If you have a pony like Rainbow Dash teaching you, you’ll be flying in no time,” Fluttershy finished with a big smile. “Wow, Rainbow is that good of a teacher?” “The best, just listen to her encouragement. So long as you have one pony rooting for you, you’ll find the strength to fly, I just know it. And if she does decide to stop teaching you, which is very unlikely, I can teach you to fly, though I'm not the best teacher. But know that I'll always be rooting for you. Woo Hoo." “Thank you so much Fluttershy, you’re the best!” Scootaloo said as she jumped up from the couch and gave a very startled Fluttershy a tight hug, which she returned. Scootaloo shifted a little, the hug seemed different than when most other ponies hugged her. This hug felt warmer, more secure, it seemed to melt all of her worries away. She didn’t know what to make of it, but before she could get too comfortable, she looked up at the clock. “Oh my gosh! It’s that time already? I’m gonna be late for my flying lessons today!” Scootaloo said as she jumped out of Fluttershy’s embrace. “Thank you for listening to me Fluttershy, and for helping me find the confidence I needed.” With that, Scootaloo rushed out of the door, leaving Fluttershy sitting there with a sad look in her eyes, her hooves stretched out, reaching for the comforting mass of warmth that was her daughter. The pony she had never gotten the chance to hold so close, so lovingly… until now. And just like that, it was gone again, beyond her reach. “S-scootaloo…” Fluttershy managed to get out before bursting into tears.