//------------------------------// // II (All) - A Touch of Chaos // Story: Taming the Storm // by Wolfie 03 //------------------------------// Middle of September, 1004 A.D. (After Discord) Discord, spirit of disharmony and lord of Chaos; a being with no concern for others nor dedication to any ideal or society aside from having fun doing whatever he wanted. Having broke out from his original stone prison, he reigned chaotic terror over Equestria for a day (though it seemed a lot longer to many). By using their friendship and Elements of Harmony, the six best friends turned him into stone. Luckily, Celestia was able to keep track of how long it had been so they didn't have to worry about loss of the date, being only a day since he first taken over. For the next few days, many ponies rejoiced and contemplated what they had learned from Discord's tampering. A lot of them spent the days alone, thinking of their self-discovery about what they did and thought. The ones that were the most affected were the ponies who had been forced to be the opposite of themselves; which was about half of the population while the other half suffered from living nightmares or even just having to deal with all the chaos that Discord brought to the world. One of the few ponies who felt that she didn't need to worry was Rainbow Dash; she accepted that it would never happen again and moved on. But she knew that there was one mare who wouldn't be as accepting and if Dash didn't check on Fluttershy, the timid mare may never recover properly. The speedster flew through the quieter town; it was the middle of the day yet most of the citizens were inside with their friends and family. It felt odd, especially since there was no one working any stands in the market place, and only a few stores here or there were actually staffed in case somepony was hungry. Rainbow shook her head at how most were reacting, she didn't have much of a problem with it at all! They beat him and sent him packing, nothing left to worry about, especially since the world had the six most awesome of ponies protecting it! The small cottage on the edge of town soon came into view and it too was quiet; there weren't even any animals running around outside. Dash hovered for a moment longer before landing in front of the red-brown door, her ears twitching at a soft sound coming from inside. Rainbow sighed as she guessed as to what was making the sound and knocked firmly. “Fluttershy! Fluttershy, you in here?” There was a scratching of paws and claws inside as the soft sound quieted even further. The door opened by a crack to show Angel Bunny looking suspiciously out; Rainbow frowned at the lack of a certain cream-yellow answering and half-glared at the rabbit in front of her. “Where's Fluttershy?” Angel crossed his paws and shook his head in denial causing Dash to frown in annoyance and push him out of the way. As she entered the first floor of the cottage, she found the quiet mare resting on her couch in the center of the living room surrounded by her animal friends trying to comfort the sobbing mare. Rainbow sighed as she walked over to her old friend who turned away as her tears continued to flow. “Sigh... Fluttershy... What's wrong now?” The cyan mare steeled herself for some sappy and small issue from the timid pegasus who was most likely blowing something out of proportion. “O-oh, it's, it's nothing Rainbow Dash...” Came the response from behind a waterfall of pink mane, to which Rainbow Dash rolled her eyes. “Come on, what's wrong?” Rainbow settled onto her haunches next to the couch, the weeping pegasus' animal friends looked between the two in curiosity while they continued to sooth the distressed mare. “Sniff... Sniff... Oh, you don't want to, to talk with such a mean pony, Rainbow.... I don't deserve any of my friends!” Fluttershy wailed as she looked at the cyan pegasus with torrents of tears running down her face. Dash was surprised at the emotion and why, though she did expect something like this and it was the reason why she came by. “Sigh... Fluttershy, you know that's not true. Why are you letting what that miss-mash of parts did get to you? We took care of him proper, there's nothing to worry about!” Dash waved a dismissive hoof as she sat up straighter; Fluttershy looked up from her spot on the couch and just shook her head. “Maybe we did save the day, but what if what he did was just show us what was inside of us already? What if he just let this mean, horrible Fluttershy out and I-I hurt so many with my meanness!” At the last part the canary mare flung her head back onto her hooves as she continued to sob. Dash groaned at the renewed sobbing and wiped a hoof across her face, meanwhile the animals resumed their soothing. After glaring back at Angel who stared furiously at the pegasus who wasn't helping his owner at all, Dash edged closer to the crying pegasus. “You are the kindest mare I know, all the animals love you, and we all were affected by Discord. Nopony meant the things they said.” Dash leaned forward to try and catch Fluttershy's eye, which slowly peered out of a pink barrier to look at her old friend in hope. “Really?” “Yes really; would I lie to you about something like that?” The timid mare sat up slightly as the speedster stated her belief firmly. “No.... You wouldn't.... Sniff... Thank you for coming by Rainbow Dash.... Did, did you want to talk about it too?” Fluttershy wiped at her eyes as she slowly sat up further; Angel led the way to get tissues as other creatures helped comb back pink mane and settled some of the objects that had been knocked over in her distress. “Talk? What would I want to talk about?” Dash was confused as to how it switched from comforting the shy pony to thinking that the brash pony wanted to talk. Fluttershy frowned in confusion and concern; the cyan mare still seemed honest and open about her intents, especially her own confusion about ‘the need to talk'. “Wouldn't, wouldn't it feel better about to talk about how Discord made you act like somepony you're not?” The timid mare sat up to the edge of her couch while Dash merely shrugged. “Not really; I mean, there's not much to say.” “But, but he made you act like you didn't care about any of us!” “So? It's not me, doesn't matter.” “Yes but, you aren't worried about if you actually don’t care about what happens to Ponyville or to our friends or... or even what happens to me?” Fluttershy frowned thoughtfully to the apathetic mare, who frowned in return at what the normally reserved pegasus was implying. “Of course I care! That's who I am, why would you think otherwise?” Dash frowned as she sat up straighter while defending herself. “Then why would you not want to talk about what happened? We... I.... care about you; being forced to be something you're not hurts, and I just want to make sure you're ok!” Fluttershy got up from her seat and stood in front of the brash mare who stared back incredulously. “I'm fine! I'm always fine! There's nothing to worry about Fluttershy; and there's nothing to talk about!” Rainbow was getting tired of this line of subject, she stood in annoyance and glared at the normally timid mare who stared back firmly. Fluttershy had a feeling that Rainbow Dash was trying to run away from what happened, just she had done before. “Rainbow Dash, that is not a very nice way to talk to somepony. I wanted to make sure that you were really fine and not ignoring the problem.” “Problem? What problem? There's no problem at all and I'm not ignoring anything! What has gotten into you? Are you still worried about what Discord did? I'm telling you, it's all fine and I couldn't be better.” Dash begins to hover in the air as her temper started to get the better of her; the topic was starting to really get under her fur and she wasn't sure why. “It can be better Dashie, and you are ignoring something. You're ignoring your feelings just like you did before.” Rainbow remained silent as Fluttershy flew up to get into her face to get her point across. “You are ignoring this like when your father died.... It's not good to run from the problem; please, let me help you.” Dash's eyes shrank to pinpricks as she was rushed back in time, finding a rescue pony waiting for her with an official letter. With a sharp shake of her head, the cyan mare glared at her old time friend who shrank back as she realized she went too far. “There's nothing wrong.” The usually brash pegasus flatly stated before zipping out of the cottage in a blue blur, leaving the small cottage and the once again sobbing pegasus behind. “I'm sorry, I'm so so sorry Dashie... I am just a big meany...” Fluttershy fell back onto her couch as her sobbing resumed with her animal friends once again trying to assure her that she was not such a mean pegasus that she thought she was. Rainbow Dash flew fast and hard, blasting over the town and high into the sky. The weather forecast was supposed to be clear for the day so ponies could enjoy the sun and not think about clouds or cotton candy clouds. But since so many on the weather team were traumatized by Discord, there were still many clouds in the skies; perfect targets for an angry pegasus. Dash soon had the sky cleared in ten seconds flat, using furious speed and bucking to break the offending cumulus to bits. Unfortunately, this meant that she was finished quickly and out of targets for her anger; Rainbow instead crossed her hooves and muttered to herself as she hovered in place. “I'm not running away from anything! It's just that there’s nothing to run away from.... Stuff happens, and we have to move on, that's all..... I just don't like talking about what happened because it happened already and nothing we do can change it..... Fluttershy doesn't know what she's talking about.” The cyan mare glared towards the ground when she caught sight of an orange with dark cerise mane sitting on a hill surrounded by trees. Scootaloo seemed to also be suffering from what Discord did; which, from what they heard from the Crusaders and from other ponies, was to live through their worst nightmares instead of being an inverse of themselves. While the other fillies had spoken about what they saw, Scootaloo had remained silent and disappeared once more afterwards. Now that Rainbow Dash thought about it, this was the perfect opportunity to find out about how Scootaloo had been doing since they got back from Apploosa three weeks ago. She had disappeared into town and Dash wanted to be sure that she was getting by properly; it didn't help that Scootaloo knew Dash was on the lookout and purposely hid from her, getting new hideouts and even working at night instead of during the day in order to avoid the bold pegasus. Dash dropped down and was going to try and impress the young pegasus with some amazing aerial feats when two other fillies appeared and sat down next to her. Apple Bloom and Sweetie Belle had been just as traumatized, but knew that their friend didn't have someone to turn to about it; at least, not someone she was willing to actually talk to that's an adult. The older mare pulled up from her dive sharply and landed in the top branches of one of the nearby trees; the girls hadn't noticed much aside from the draft of wind and assumed it was natural. The three friends sat side by side, looking down from the hill to the town that was clearly visible from their vantage point, with Scootaloo in the center. “Hey guys.... What's up?” The young pegasus asked her friends in an almost monotone manner. “We were worried about you and if you were doing ok after we tried to fight Discord...” Sweetie Belle stated while Apple Bloom nodded on the other side. “Yeah, we hadn't seen ya much since then and whenever yer at school, ya seem so, so...” Apple Bloom fumbled for wording, trying to explain why they became so concerned. “Withdrawn.” Sweetie Belle finished for the young earth pony who smiled briefly in thanks before looking to their friend in the middle. Scootaloo merely shrugged as she remained silent, she wasn't used to having others care for how she felt and she certainly wasn't used to talking about emotions; it was almost a foreign concept to her, the orphanage that she grew up in didn't allow for such things. “You know we're here for you...” The young unicorn nudged their silent friend who didn't resist nor show any sign of receiving the nudge. “Ya don't have tah talk about it, but it helps.” Apple Bloom stated firmly as she tried to catch her friend's eye. “Nothing to talk about...” The short and flat reply sounded vaguely familiar to the hidden pegasus though she kept hidden from view. “It helps tah talk about it...” “Please, don't run away from this too...” Sweetie Belle leaned forward as she also tried to catch Scootaloo's eye; something she succeeded as the pegasus raised a questioning brow to the unicorn. “Who said I was running away? I don't want to leave Ponyville, it's nice here; even if there are noisy fillies running around.” Scootaloo smirked while her friends looked on in annoyance. “Stop tryin' tah change the subject Scootaloo; ya know what we mean, yer running from talking about yer feelings.” Sweetie nodded agreement while Scootaloo just frowned at having been caught in her attempt. “So you want me to just be all emotional and sappy...? It won't help and it won't change anything.” “Yes it will! We had our own nightmares just like you, we know what we're talking about when we say that it helps to talk about it.” Sweetie Belle stomped a hoof lightly as she tried to convince her friend. The trio fell silent as they thought about that day that nopony would be able to forget; Scootaloo sighed and shook her head, at least she had friends that were there for her. “What were your nightmares like then?” The young pegasus tried a different tactic to make her friends stop pestering her about it, which failed utterly with their next words. “Alright, we'll tell ya about ours an' then you tell us about yers.” Apple Bloom firmly stated to which Scootaloo sighed in aggravation before nodding. “.... Ah... Ah dreamt that because of hangin' out with y'all an' learnin' so much new stuff, mah family kicked me off the farm.... They, they said Ah wasn't ah part of the family anymore.” Apple Bloom stared forward as the unreal memories came back. The other two fillies gave the green-yellow earth pony a reassuring hug; Scootaloo was starting to realize that they were hurting just as much as she was and didn't want it to be so. “You know that's not true Apple Bloom...” Scootaloo whispered to her friend who returned the hugs gratefully. “Ah know that now and Ah know that it won't ever happen... It doesn't mean it don't hurt though.” Scootaloo tilted her head as she thought about the last part before focusing on Sweetie Belle who was having trouble saying what was wrong; she was already crying and now clung to her friends for relief. “You, you don't have to tell us Sweetie Belle...” Sweetie shook her head and gave a watery smile to her friends. “If it helps you with your nightmare, then I'll talk about it... Besides, it does help to talk about it and realize that it's not true.... My whole family was trapped under a pillar and I couldn't get them free. I tried to use magic, but it was no use and soon they weren't responding....” The two others flinched at the brief description and redoubled their hug on the unicorn this time. “Sweetie Belle, that's awful... Ya know we're here tah help, especially if something like that happened right?” Apple Bloom nuzzled the unicorn who smiled gratefully back as she sniffed back her tears. “Apple Bloom's right, we'll always be here to help if you need it. Besides, I'm sure you'll learn and be a great magic user; you just need to practice.” Scootaloo tried to cheer up the unicorn and was pleased to see a watery smile in return; suddenly the young pegasus didn't feel so alone in her fears or pain, and realized that her friends would be there for her just as she would be for them. The orange filly sighed and steeled herself to finally admit aloud what she had seen, now realizing that it would be helpful in the long run. “... I dreamt about the night my parents died.... I was in the moving cart my parents were flying with, in a storm; I watched as they were struck by lightning. I tried to save them but I couldn't fly; instead I just started to fall and knew that I wasn't going to make it this time....” All three listening ponies gasped lightly at what the young pegasus said; Dash was almost willing to leave her hiding place but the two friends beat her to comforting the young filly who was trying to hold herself together. As the two friends wrapped their hooves around their friend, Scootaloo flinched at first as they moved towards her; after seeing what they were trying to do, the pegasus allowed them to hug her and even return the sentiment. “I'm sure you'll be able to fly one day too Scootaloo...” Sweetie Belle gave her slightly shaking friend a nuzzle while Apple Bloom did the same. “Yeah, an' we'll always be here tah fold ya up and keep ya from fallin'.” Scootaloo allowed herself to shed a few tears at the promise of always having her friends there to help and gave them a squeeze of in thanks. “... Thanks you guys... I do feel better after telling you, and I'll be there for you guys as well.” Up in one of the nearby trees, Rainbow Dash wiped at a few tears that had escaped from her usually stoic resolve. She would have dropped down to comfort the young pegasus as well, but she didn't want to intrude on the three best friends; the usually bold mare hadn't realized just how badly the girls had been affected by their encounter with the spirit of disharmony. As the cyan pony sat on a strong limb, watching the touching scene below her, Dash suddenly remembered another mare, who was just as sensitive if not more so, who was probably at this moment blaming herself for the sky-blue pegasus' abrupt departure. Rainbow took off for the skies rapidly, not wanting to waste a moment; the three girls looked around in surprise at the sudden gust of wind before settling down to enjoy the view before them. As Rainbow Dash flew towards the cottage on the edge of town, she berated herself for having left her friend behind and in need; she realized with growing horror that maybe Discord was right, and all she did was leave her friends hanging. Dash didn't even bother knocking and burst through the door to find her friend in the same kind of state that she had first found her in. All the animals and critters looked up at the loud bang while the cyan pegasus honed onto her friend's distressed form. As Fluttershy glanced up with more tears streaming down her face, she found herself encased by a pair of cyan hooves with a rainbow maned head resting on top of her own. “I'm sorry Fluttershy... I'm sorry for leaving you like that.” “I'm sorry Rainbow, I know I'm just a mean old pegasus.....” Fluttershy buried her head into the cyan chest as she sobbed even harder. “You aren't, you aren't mean.... I'm the mean one; I made you even more upset than before. I'm just, I'm just not ready to talk about my dad....” Rainbow shook her head while the canary mare in her hooves tensed. “You aren't mean; you're the best friend a pony can have... I'm sorry that I pushed you to talk about your dad; I knew you don't like to talk about him.... That only proves that I'm the mean one.” The speedster sighed wearily and gave her weeping friend a light shake. “You were just concerned about me, and wanted to help. I forgot about that… A trio of close friends helped me remember about what friends are supposed to do.” Fluttershy peered up to the other mare at the soft tones; she had a hunch of which trio of friends the cyan pony had found and what they were talking about. “.... I was lonely... Being loyal to no one but myself made me lonely, like when my dad passed.... I didn't want to think about it or remember what it was like.... I was trying to find someone to hang with when I remembered that you would probably be upset at what Discord did to you; so I figured I would be able to both help you and not be so alone at the same time....” Rainbow Dash couldn't bring herself to look at the mare in her hooves though Fluttershy couldn't tear her eyes away from the cyan mare. “Oh Dashie... You'll never be alone, the girls and I would always be there for you, no matter what; just like you'd be there for us.... Thank you for talking with me...” The timid mare gave the usually brash one a tight hug as her tears slowed. “Feel better?” Fluttershy sat up further as both mares supported each other, while Rainbow flashed a weary smile to the cream-yellow mare. The animals were standing around the room, watching the two ponies wearily; Angel Bunny in particular had a box of tissues in his paws while he gave a threatening look to the cyan mare holding his owner. “Yeah... Thanks for listening...” Dash looked away, embarrassed by how sappy she was being. “... Did, did you want to talk about -?” “No. Not yet... I can't talk about, about my dad; not right now.” The cyan pegasus closed her eyes tightly as she was racked with painful emotions; the shy mare gave her a squeeze before nodding. “O-ok... I'm here if you ever do want to talk.” Rainbow nodded acknowledgment and pulled out of the hug. “Uh, did you want to talk about anything?” Fluttershy smiled at the hesitant manner of the normally bold pegasus as they sat on the couch. “I'll be ok now that I have my friends with me... Would you want to stay with me for today?” The sky-blue mare smirked and rubbed the back of her head, it would be nice to not be on her own for the day. “Well, I mean, if you want to me to.” At the timid nod Rainbow smiled once more and nodded as well. “Let me start making lunch... Is there anything you'd like to have?” Fluttershy got up and started for the kitchen, looking back to the once again bold pegasus who laid out on the couch with her fore-hooves behind her head. “Nah, I'm good with whatever...” Fluttershy smiled once again at the much more relaxed posture of her friend while the animals followed for a meal of their own; she was glad to have helped the pegasus who normally was the one to help her. The quiet mare started to make an elaborate meal for the two of them, knowing that Rainbow made only simple meals due to living on her own; at least this way she'd know the cyan mare had one good meal on such a trying day.