A flying bolt of rainbow sliced down from the clear skies above, making the warm spring air shiver in its supersonic wake. Just before it would have pounded into the dirt path like a meteorite, it was slowed by a set of wings that beat the air in a furious blur, kicking up a cloud of brown and sending ripples across the grass.
Rainbow Dash shook her mane from her eyes and trotted the last few steps up to the cottage’s front door.
“Fluttershy? I got your note from Angel! What’s up?”
No answer. After a few seconds of silence, Rainbow Dash placed her forehead against Fluttershy’s front door and pushed, but the door didn’t budge.
“Fluttershy?”
Knock-knock-knock. After rapping at the door three times, Rainbow Dash sidestepped over to look through the window--surely Fluttershy had heard, and would have be coming to answer.
She found herself staring at a pane of glass and a thick set of curtains. That made her frown. Fluttershy usually left her doors and windows wide open, and she never drew the living room curtains.
“Hey! It’s me, Rainbow Dash! Are you okay in there?”
She turned back and walked back across the front of the house, thinking to check the other windows, but as she crossed the front door, it suddenly exploded open in a wooden blur that missed her nose by scant inches. Rainbow Dash let out an awkward yelp of surprise as she was yanked into the house by the tail and sent tumbling onto the rug. Her eyes focused in time to see Fluttershy buck the front door shut with a frame-rattling bang.
Rainbow Dash started to roll upright, then flattened back against the ground with an “Aah!” as Fluttershy pounced on her and glared down with a pair of seafoam-ringed eyes that were wild with panic.
“Did you come alone?” Fluttershy hissed.
“Wha--”
“Answer me!” Fluttershy growled, leaning down until her bared teeth were inches away from Rainbow Dash’s nose. “Did anypony see you? Did you tell anypony where you were going? Were you followed?”
“I guess? No! Maybe?” Rainbow Dash sputtered. “Fluttershy, just tell me why you needed to see me! I’m here to help!”
Fluttershy responded in a most unexpected way--instead of apologizing, or getting angrier, she stood up straight and blushed a spectacular shade of crimson.
“You... you mean you don’t remember? But I thought you of all ponies...”
She daintily un-straddled Rainbow Dash and started to back away. “Well, um...”
Rainbow Dash rolled to all fours and shook out her mane in annoyance, then perked her ears upright at the sound of a distant voice.
“Rainbow Daaaa-aaaash!”
Even coming through a sealed door and from across a considerable distance, Pinkie Pie’s voice was so bright and sharp that it even sounded pink.
What composure Fluttershy had managed to regain evaporated instantaneously. “Th-that was Pinkie Pie! You led her here! You led her here!”
Instead of protesting, Rainbow Dash let out a “gurk!” as she was seized around the base of her neck and dragged up the stairs with a soft, yet utterly tormented eeeeeeeee! sounding in her left ear.
She was dumped unceremoniously onto the wooden floor, and slammed the door with another bang.
“You know, you could just ASK me to come with--”
Rainbow Dash’s sentence trailed off into mute astonishment as she rose to her hooves and took stock of the scene of destruction in Fluttershy’s bedroom. It looked like the dresser had exploded, hurling its contents in every direction. Vests, dresses, hats, and capes of every size and color were heaped on the floor, the bed, the nightstand, and even the windowsill.
“Okay, seriously?”
Disbelief turned to annoyance as Rainbow Dash lifted off her hooves and hovered toward Fluttershy. “What the heck happened in here? And what’s with all the secrecy? Does it have anything to do with the fact that it looks like a tornado hit your closet?”
Fluttershy turned her head to the side, just far enough so that the fall of her mane hid her face from Rainbow Dash. Her words came out in a sputter as she started to slowly shrink back. “Well... it sort of... I mean... I just kind of...”
Rainbow Dash very carefully touched down in front of Fluttershy, on one of the floor’s few bare spots. “What, are you scared to tell me? I came because I thought you needed my help with something!”
From behind the concealing wall of hair, Fluttershy spoke in barely more than a squeak. “Well... I was born in Cloudsdale, like you. I mean, of course you remember that... so...”
Rainbow snorted a “So what?” but she had to admit that it was easy to forget that Fluttershy had been raised in Cloudsdale, weather control capital of the world and the home of the Wonderbolts. Were it not for her ability to fly, Fluttershy would be easy to mistake for an Earther, and sometimes even her ability to fly was uncertain.
“It’s our year, Rainbow Dash.” The veil of pink fell aside so that Fluttershy could meet Rainbow’s gaze with one turquoise eye. “We got our cutie marks ten years ago.”
Rainbow Dash’s frown broke into a wide, wolfish grin. “Well duh! You have no idea how hard it’s been to keep from blabbing about it!” Just thinking about the Skyborne Dance was enough to make Rainbow Dash’s skin tingle. She’d been looking forward to this day, on and off, for well over two years. But what did the Skyborne Dance have to do with Fluttershy throwing her clothes all over the place?
Something in Rainbow’s brain fell into place with an almost audible click.
“Wait... wait, that’s right! You’re cloudborn! It’s your year too!”
The one eye of Fluttershy’s that was visible narrowed into a glare. “We grew up together! We got our cutie marks at the exact same time!”
“Well... yeah...” Rainbow Dash scratched one hoof against the ground.
“I guess it’s just that... you don’t really act like much of a peg-”
Rainbow Dash bit her lower lip, much too late.
At first, Fluttershy’s gaze hardened further, and she took an angry, gritted-teeth breath--but then she bit her own lip as well, lifted off, and hovered over to the bed, where she sat with her head bowed. Rainbow Dash half-expected Fluttershy to cry, but instead she just sat in silent misery.
“Uh, I didn’t mean... It’s not that you’re not a pegasus, it’s just that you don’t...”
“I know,” Fluttershy said quietly, shaking her head. “It’s okay. I’m sorry for asking you to come...”
“What? No!” Discarded clothing flapped in Rainbow Dash’s tailwind as she flew over to the bed and squeezed Fluttershy into a hug. “Just stick with me, all right? You can be an awesome pegasus.”
Fluttershy squeezed back. “You think I can?”
“Aw, c’mon.” Rainbow Dash leaned back far enough to look at Fluttershy and flash her best grin. “I’m the best there is, remember?”
Fluttershy leaned in and rested against Rainbow Dash’s shoulder. “T-thank you.”
The door burst open with a fuchsia-tinted “THERE you are!” that catapulted Fluttershy off the bed and into the darkness of the closet with a high-pitched screech of terror.
“Wow! Were you having a clothing party in here?” Pinkie bent down to nose at at something silken and red. “Want me to bring my collection of lacy--nope, looks like you already have one. Ooh! is that a bridle on the bed?”
The closet whimpered.
Rainbow Dash shot an alarmed look at the closet, then turned back to the door. “Pinkie, what are you doing in here?”
Two long ears and a white puffball of a head emerged from behind Pinkie. Rainbow Dash glared. It didn’t take a pony with Fluttershy’s abilities to see Angel’s victorious smirk.
“I found Fluttershy!” Pinkie said proudly. “She’s in the closet!” She pointed. The closet whimpered again.
Yelling at Pinkie felt bad, but Rainbow Dash couldn’t contain her outrage. “You barged into her room!”
“Rarity told me to help her find Fluttershy because they were going to have tea at the cafe but Fluttershy was late! So I decided to ask Rainbow Dash to help me, but Rainbow Dash flew way over my head and didn’t hear me calling her name, so I followed her to Fluttershy’s house, and Angel let me in when I knocked, so--”
Angel excused himself from the room, bouncing through the doorframe, down the hall, and out of sight.
“Anyway, do you need help with the clothing party or not? Because I totally have a pink tutu that would look perfect on the--”
“No! The party’s fine! I was just helping Fluttershy with... you know, with pegasus stuff.”
The tip of a yellow muzzle emerged from behind the closet’s door.
“I’m packing for a trip.”
Pinkie straightened as if she’d just taken an electric shock to the rump. “Fluttershy’s going away?”
The rest of Fluttershy’s head edged its way into the light. “Well... yes...”
Pinkie’s eyes widened into discs of white. “For how long?”
Fluttershy pulled her head slowly back into its hiding place as she spoke. “Oh, um... Not TOO long... I mean, probably only a few--”
“I’m going too,” Rainbow Dash interrupted. “It cooould be a while.”
Pinkie’s eyes started to bug out.
“But not forever!” Rainbow Dash said hurriedly, an instant before Pinkie’s eyelids would have started peeling back over the tops of her eyeballs.
“But you’re going away?”
“Yeah,” said Rainbow Dash. “To Cloudsdale.”
“We both are,” said the closet.
“But not forever?” said Pinkie.
“Right,” Rainbow Dash and Fluttershy said together.
Pinkie nodded slowly, staring into the distance through still-widened eyes. Rainbow thought she heard the faint sound of an engine chugging. Then Pinkie’s face snapped into the more familiar configuration of an excited grin.
“I know EXACTLY what to do! Meet me at Sugarcube Corner in an hour to see how a professional handles a clothing party!”
“No, wait! You can’t tell anypony! It’s--” But Pinkie was already gone.
Rainbow Dash snapped her head toward the closet. Fluttershy was already staring back, her mouth hanging open in an expression of utter horror.
“Don’t worry,” Rainbow Dash said, forcing her lips to part into a painful smile. “I got this.”
If Fluttershy’s room had been a scene of destruction, then Sugarcube Corner was complete pandemonium.
Mr. and Mrs. Cake’s bakery had been host to some strange parties in its time, but not even the infamous Spring Fling Fertility Frolic had seen stockings and garter belts hanging from the ceiling fan like streamers. Mounds of sequined clothing dotted the floor, throwing flecks of light onto the walls and ceiling. The most striking decoration by far was the banner, which was barely large enough for its message despite how it stretched across the entire length of the store. It read GOOD LUCK IN CLOUDSDALE MAYBE FOR A WHILE BUT NOT FOREVER RAINBOW DASH AND FLUTTERSHY! in large block letters.
Perhaps nine or ten guests were milling about in various states of amusement and confusion, most of them clothed in capes that Pinkie was busy giving out for the occasion. Rarity didn’t seem to be there just yet, but that was a small comfort, because Applejack and Twilight were whispering to each other, their cutie marks visible from the front as they hid their conversation behind one of the larger piles.
“Okay, wow.”
Rainbow Dash ducked away from the window frame and crouched back down to where Fluttershy was pressed against the wall. “I gotta admit, for such short notice, Pinkie is throwing a pretty awesome clothing party in there.”
“There’s no such thing as a clothing party.” Fluttershy muttered.
Rainbow Dash raised her head for another peek. “There is now.”
“Ooh! They’re here!” cried a bubblegum-colored voice from inside.
Fluttershy’s eyes flew wide open. Rainbow Dash stifled her with a hoof before she could scream in panic.
“Chill out,” Rainbow Dash said, to herself as much as to Fluttershy. “I got this.”
Those words had barely left Rainbow Dash’s lips when the door was thrown open in a burst of confetti—confetti that, upon closer inspection, turned out to be a quantity of foal-sized socks. The familiar lilt of Pinkie’s favorite party music came from inside, along with—Rainbow Dash gulped, and she heard Fluttershy do the same—pointed stares from Applejack and Twilight.
“You made it! What do you think of the decorations?” Pinkie squealed. “Do I know how to throw a clothing party or what?”
Rainbow Dash met Pinkie’s eyes, called upon her deepest reserves of willpower, and grinned right back. “It’s perfect! This is the best clothing party I’ve ever been to!”
With that, Rainbow Dash brushed her way past Pinkie. “All right, everypony!” she said as she strutted through the door and into the heart of the party. “The guests of honor are finally here! Time to get this clothing party into full swing!”
There was a scattering of polite applause, but the party did not noticeably change the level of its swinging.
“So!” somepony said. “Just when were you two plannin’ on telling the rest of us about this trip?”
Rainbow Dash made sure to cement her smirk firmly in place as she turned around to face a glaring Applejack.
“Ha ha! Sorry we forgot. It’s just, you know, weather patrol has been really busy lately, and…”
“Rainbow, we ain’t had nothin’ but clear skies for a week. Would it be so hard to take just a minute to tell your friends what’s goin’ on?”
“Hey! Clear skies are a lot harder than they look!” Rainbow Dash shot back. “First you gotta clear out all the rogue clouds, then there’s the humidity and the, um… Oh look!” She lifted off and started to edge toward the punch table. “Who made the punch? It looks really good!”
She was cut off by Twilight crossing in front of her. “I think what Applejack is saying is that we want to know what’s going on with you and Fluttershy. Is everything okay with you two?”
“Oh yeah—oh yeah! We’re doing great! We just, uh…” Rainbow Dash licked her lips, searching for the right line out of the few that she remembered learning from older cloudborns. “… We’re off to visit our parents. Yeah! Pegasi like to visit their parents in the spring.”
Another voice chimed in from behind Rainbow Dash. “Your parents, you say?”
One of the larger and more garishly colored piles of clothes slithered up from behind Twilight and Applejack, then shed one of its larger hats to reveal a white unicorn head with a blue-purple mane.
“Come to think of it, none of us have ever met your parents,” said Rarity. “I suppose they’ve never found time in their respective schedules to come to visit us here in Ponyville?”
Rainbow Dash gave an oversized, theatrical shrug. “I guess not. Cmon, guys, let’s enjoy the party! I’m gonna go for some punch.” She started to float away.
“Good idea,” Twilight said happily as she fell into step alongside Rainbow Dash. “You and Fluttershy can tell us about your parents over some nice cups of—say, where did Fluttershy go?”
Rainbow Dash had already filled four large cups with purple-red juice. She sniffed one of the cups, then gulped hard. Somepony had turned the punch venomously alcoholic. With a glance over her shoulder, she saw a magenta pony with a mixed-fruit cutie mark slip into the crowd with a cup of punch pinched in her teeth.
“Eh, I’m sure she’s off dancing or bobbing for, um… are they bobbing for underwear over there?”
A quick look around confirmed that none of those statements were true, except for the fact that the apple bobbing barrel was indeed full of panties instead of apples. In fact, Fluttershy was nowhere to be seen. Despite all Fluttershy’s faults, Rainbow Dash had to hand it to her—the girl was a master of stealth.
Applejack pulled up alongside Rainbow Dash at the punch table. “I bet you must be excited to see your folks again,” she said with a friendly, yet terrifyingly inquisitive smile. “I can’t even remember the last time you took a trip up to Cloudsdale that wasn’t just for a contest or a race!”
“Yep! Totally excited to go!” said Rainbow Dash, nodding hard. “Been a long time! Feels like years! Gonna be one awesome trip, uh-huh!”
Rainbow turned away from Applejack and took a solid swallow of punch. It tasted like syrup and markers.
“It’s a pity that they’ve never come to visit us,” Rarity said thoughtfully.
Rainbow Dash looked up from her cup as Rarity pulled up into a flanking position, trapping her between inquisitive white unicorn and well-meaning orange Earther.
“What are they like, if I may ask?” Rarity said in a dangerously sweet lilt.
Rainbow Dash turned back to her punch.
“Oh, you know,” she said to the punch.
“No we don’t,” said Twilight with a laugh as she circled to face Rainbow Dash from across the table. “But I’m sure they must be interesting ponies if they raised a pony like you!”
“Oh, you know,” Rainbow Dash repeated. One of the full cups levitated its way off of the table in a cloud of crystal-blue magic, but two more remained unclaimed.
Rainbow Dash tilted her cup back and drained the contents in a waterfall chug. Twilight Sparkle, Applejack, and Rarity waited patiently for her to finish drinking. Oh dear Celestia, how was a cloudborn supposed to answer that one?
“They were both born in Cloudsdale, and…” Rainbow Dash wracked her brains, but no help surfaced. “My dad had rainbow hair, and my mom, um… she has… nice wings. And they could both fly, and… yeah, they were great at flying! Not as great as me, but…” She cut herself off by closing her teeth on the rim of one of the untouched cups.
“Well, how’re they doing?” said Applejack. “I bet they’re worried about you, it’s been so long...”
Rainbow Dash swallowed another mouthful of sickly-sweet drink, then cleared her throat. Nothing, nothing, she had nothing. “I… don’t really know. Wait, I mean, um, I’m sure they’re fine!”
Rarity lowered her cup, clearing the way for a proper gasp. “Are they well? Is that why you’re off to see them? Oh my poor girl, you must allow us to accompany you to provide emotional support! I’m sure your ailing parents would understand if—”
Twilight straightened, and placed a hoof to her mouth. “Oh, of course! Rainbow, if something’s wrong, you don’t have to face it without us just because we can’t fly! I can—“
Panic shot through Rainbow Dash’s chest, scrambling her increasingly alcohol-addled mind.
“No! No-no-no-no-no! They’re fine! Probably! They just, you know... value their privacy?” She took her time drinking the rest of her second cup, the better to occupy her big mouth for longer.
“No need to be shy, dear,” Rarity said, raising a hoof and resting it on Rainbow Dash’s back. “I’m sure they’re perfectly lovely ponies. It wouldn’t be any trouble at all for me to take a few days off in the next week or so, especially not if it means spending time in such an exotic locale as Cloudsdale!” She raised the punch to her lips, took a sip, then lowered her cup and gave the liquid within a hard look.
Meanwhile, Rarity’s warm and comforting touch made Rainbow Dash shiver with fear. “Oh, I dunno… I think it’s okay if it’s just me and Fluttershy, you know? We both have such… uh, such close-knit families and all…”
Applejack tag-teamed in, still with that unintentionally terrifying smile. “Aww, c’mon, Rainbow. After all the trouble they went through raisin’ you, I think they’d be happy to meet your friends from down here on the ground!”
“No, really,” Rainbow Dash said. Then she took a deep breath and a very shallow, calm sip from the last remaining cup of punch. Fluttershy was counting on her—she had to stay focused! “We don’t really have guests over… um, ever. I don’t think they would be ready for everypony to just roll in through the door...”
Twilight rolled her eyes, her mouth bending with the first traces of a frown. “Well, if you’re going to be so stubborn about their privacy, I guess we’ll just have to ask you how it went once you’re back.”
Perfect! Rainbow Dash already knew all kinds of pre-loaded stories to tell after coming back from the Dance.
“Don’t worry! We’ll tell you all about it!”
Rainbow Dash grinned the first genuinely happy grin of the day. Relief washed over her mind like a cooling wave. She had done it! She’d deflected every question like the awesome cloudborn she was, and now she and Fluttershy would be off to the Skyborne Dance with their unicorn and earth pony friends none the wiser. Rainbow Dash laughed lightly at herself as she pulled the last cup of booze-punch closer with one hoof and cracked a joke. “Besides, how do you know what it’s like to raise a foal? Don’tcha think I would know better than you?”
“I dunno,” said Applejack wryly. “I’ve got Applebloom to take care of, and Rarity always seems to have her hooves full with Sweetie Belle.”
And Rarity laughed, which was such a relief that Rainbow Dash laughed as well as she silently congratulated herself on successfully defusing a potentially dangerous conversation. Out of the corner of her eye, Rainbow Dash saw Fluttershy edging along the front wall. “Hey, Fluttershy!” she yelled, a little too loudly. “Come join us! We just finished talking about our trip!”
Then Rarity’s laughing face froze, and she closed her mouth and slowly tilted her head to the side. “Pardon me, dear, but… what did you just say, a moment ago?”
Rainbow Dash leaned against the table. Her signature smirk had returned—she was in her element now. “I said, I’m pre-tty sure I would know better than you what it’s like… to…”
For a long moment, there was only the sound of Pinkie’s cheerful, bouncing party music.
“What…” Applejack monotoned.
Across the room, Fluttershy bolted for the front door, leaving a trail of spilled punch and jostled ponies as she barged her way through the party and into the street.
“Wait! Wait for me!” Rainbow Dash squealed before taking off in supersonic pursuit, flapping so hard that her tailwind kicked up a storm of flying socks, capes, and cups. A loud record scratch, then a terrible crash sounded as the endtable holding the gramophone toppled over.
“How rude!” Pinkie huffed in the following silence. “They didn’t even wait for the cake! And I went through all that trouble molding it like a pair of pants...”