"I'm going now"
...
"No, it's all right. I practiced all week."
...
"I'll avoid the clear patches."
...
"Yes, I'll be careful."
...
"Really really really careful!"
...
"I love you too."
Fluttershy buzzed her wings excitedly while she trotted through the clouds. Each step sunk deep and then bounced. She took advantage of the springy cirrus to bounce into the air.
"WooHoo!" She cheered at her maximum height. When she fell back down the clouds pushed her back up. She could bounce so high. She would push up the sky, break the blue and reach the sun.
Wings grew weary. Fluttershy put off the solar expedition in favor of walking.
A little piece of sky. A filly pegasus dropped from above. Fluttershy giggled, she liked the broken cloud bits that floated around from the impact.
The crashed pegasus poked her head out of the clouds. Their coat matched the sky so perfectly, the only thing that made her presence known were the stripes on their head. Fluttershy concentrated on naming the stripes. Blue and yellow were easy, but In between the blue and the yellow, what was it?
There was hardly any of it in Cloudsdale.
Fluttershy watched the crashed pegasus pick herself out of the clouds, rev her wings and fly back into the sky. The colors were soon lost, the colors game ended. Maybe they could reach the sun, she thought.
The crashed pegasus become one of many pegasi. The whole flock donned book bags just like Fluttershy, whose march on the clouds was soon joined by other little colts and fillies. A sigh of relief escaped her.
`````~~~~...~~~~`````
The building was so big! Fluttershy knew that if she bounced she would not make it to the top. Maybe if she could bounce from her bounce, and then bounced a lot of times.
The walls were nothing like the clouds and sky. They were a rare color. Red was usually only seen at sunset.
The little yellow filly looked up at the crowds of pegasi flying into the school. She frowned, sneaking a disappointed glance back at her own wings.
Ponies brushed against her sides. The crowd was funneling through the big red double doors. The air was thick and filthy with pegasi sweat.
ew.
Fluttershy tried to make space for herself. She squeezed into the shadow of a larger pony. It was almost comfortable walking in his wake. Progress continued until a grey pony knocked her out of the way. Shewas back in the thrall.
The other ponies jostled her, then shoved her, and swept her into the school. Fluttershy tried to wriggle and jump out of the rush but to no avail. The other ponies had her wings trapped against her sides
Just as she had resigned herself to the mosh, it spat her out.
"Ugh," groaned Fluttershy. "Thank you for letting me go." She said to the rushing wall of ponies.
She remained on the ground, stunned. The horde of pegasi had pushed her into an alcove to the side of the hallway. They themselves were still in a frenzy, rushing above and around Fluttershy.
A hoof crushed the end of her tail.
"Hey!" She huffed. But the pegasus had already left.
"It's your own fault." Said a gruff voice.
"Eep!" Squealed Fluttershy as she spun around on the source of the voice. This stallion was monstrous. If she bounced high enough, maybe she could reach his muzzle.
"Come on, git'er up." He commanded.
With a whimper Fluttershy obliged.
"Shouldn't you be at the auditorium? For Celestia's sake, stop staring at the ground stupid!"
She took keen interest in the ceiling instead. It was covered in little pegasi. There was a pink one.
"Psh, you first years are the same, every single year." The big brute said and stormed off into the crowd.
Fluttershy nuzzled her face into her book bag. Her head reappeared, clenching a piece of note paper in her teeth.
She furrowed her brow and put on her game face. Her daddy always said it was a scary face.
A quick skim of the paper, a moment to fix her mane, and she dove back into the fray of the hallway.
"Mur, eh mur! Gen goo elp mrr?" She asked every pony that took notice of her. For some reason, no pony would help her.
More than once, Fluttershy was thrown into the floor. It was not soft like clouds, not even as soft as cloud carpet. It was pieced together from grey tiles, hard and unyielding.
A bell rang. The halls were evacuated into the various rooms scattered about.
Fluttershy was left alone save for one mare walking her way.
"Hey kid, shouldn't you be in the auditorium?" Asked the mare.
Fluttershy's lip wobbled. That was two grown ups now! They were not mommy, or daddy. They just expected her to know what an auditorium was. She spat out her note paper.
"Taste bad?"
"WAAAAAH," Wailed Fluttershy.
"Oh boy."
"WAAaaaaAAAaAaAAaa."
"Is it about this paper? Look, look, it's not too covered in your drool."
"Aaaaaa"
"Do you want me to read it? It says, Dear School, just school, really? Wait, stop crying. Dear School, this is Fluttershy. She needs education. I don't know how the school system works. Please teach her a lot of stuff. O.C. That's all it...Oh..."
The mare rubbed her temple. Fluttershy's wailing had reduced itself to a sob.
"Well, my name's Spitfire. Are you lost Fluttershy?"
She nodded and hiccuped.
"It"s your first day, don't worry about it." Said Spitfire.
"But," how could Fluttershy not worry?
"In a way, today is my first day too. Anyway, you didn't miss much. The first years are all being sorted into classes now, boring really." Said Spitfire.
"Am I a first year?" Asked Fluttershy.
"Probably, yeah." Spitfire answered.
"Then I won't have a class!" Fluttershy said, her sobbing doubled in intensity.
"Wait wait wait! You don't have to cry, I can fix this up for you." Said Spitfire, tucking the yellow filly into her hooves. "Hold on!"
Fluttershy was yellow like the sun at high noon. Spitfire was the sun just after dawn. The difference in tone was perplexing and distracted her from what the older mare said.
Then Spitfire took off.
"AAAAAAAAAA" Screamed Fluttershy.
"WOOHOOOOO" Crowed Spitfire.
Fluttershy could not figure out what was going on. This was really fast. She had never traveled this fast. It was like falling with no clouds to catch you. What if the floor caught her?
Then, Spitfire turned. It was awful. Fluttershy began to feel sick. Another turn, another. Fresh air? They had made it outside but were not stopping.
Going up was worse. An unknown force was pushing on Fluttershy's insides. How far could up go? Wasn't the sky going to stop them?
There was a sudden reversal. The sky fell below, Spitfire and the clouds soared above. Then the world righted itself. Spitfire flew straight at the school. The wall of the school. She hit the brakes. The wall got closer and closer.
Fluttershy looked on in terror. There was a hole in the wall. Would they go through the wall or hit it? She shut her eyes.
Evidently through it. There was no crash, only a flurry of papers.
"Okay, here we are!" Announced Spitfire. "The office."
Fluttershy was dropped to the floor. Cloud carpet! She tried walking, but the trembling in her legs stopped her. Giving up, Fluttershy fell to the floor.
"Lemme just find your name here." Said Spitfire. Fluttershy could hear her shuffling through paper. "Fluttershy, Fluttershy, hm... Flutter Act, Flutter Bash, skip a few, Flutter Wonder? Flutterting, Fluttershy! Found you. Class 1B, Room 103, Spit Shine's class. Come on, I can take you there."
Fluttershy surrendered to being scooped up again. She was tired, and It couldn't be worse than last time.
Spitfire jumped out of the window and fell into a steep dive. Flaring her wings at the last second brought her to a stop on her hind legs. She bunched up her flank and launched herself back into the school. It took two gut wrenching turns to reach room 103.
She gingerly put Fluttershy down. "Aw, that's so cute, you fell asleep. Anyway, I got you here." Spitfire unfurled her wings and flew off into the depths of the school.
Fluttershy lay there on the brink of sleep and waking. The past few minutes or seconds flashed before her eyes in a terrifying blur. She wanted to get up, but couldn't trust her body to work right.
clop clop clop clop clop
More ponies? The tiles made their hooves sound funny. They were all talking in hushed voices. Fluttershy realized that she very much did not want to get up after all.
One colt said, "Spit Shine, Spit Shine, there's a sleeping filly blocking the way!"
"Ask her to move deary." Said a mare.
"Move deary!" Shouted the colt.
"Why is she shaking like that?" Queried a filly.
"Out of my way, out of my way! Oh dear me deary." Said the mare.
Fluttershy cracked open her eyes. A dozen pair stared back at her expectantly.
"Hello deary." Said a mare with a curled silver mane. Her coat was that elusive color, between blue and yellow but darkened.
"Hello." Said Fluttershy. She shut her eyes again. Hopefully these ponies didn't want to take her flying as well.
"Deary? I am miss Spit Shine. Whatever are you doing on the floor?" The littler ponies all started laughing.
"I was put here." Said Fluttershy simply. More laughter ensued.
"Well what class are you in deary?" Said Spit Shine.
Fluttershy concentrated, remembering what Spitfire had said. "Yours?" She said.
"Well then deary, shouldn't you have been in the auditorium?"
Fluttershy slid her hooves under herself and, wobbling the whole way, stood up.
"What is every pony's problem?" Said Fluttershy, not quite using her indoor voice.
What is every pony's problem?
"I don't even know what's a audortium!"
I do not even know what an auditorium is!
"I just wanna sleep!"
The only pony who actually tried to help me in this school put me here. I'm tired and sick and I just got sort of comfortable...
"And whoever made this floor is a jerk. Get some cloud carpet"
It is really hard to get comfortable. Why would someone make a floor hard and grey like this. At home we have cloud carpet, it feels nice. Mommy wants my hooves to feel nice because she cares.
"The only reason I'm here is 'cuz mommy told me to come."
Mommy told me to come here, but she cannot have meant this place. I'm not here to be called stupid, or deary, or to be laughed at. I know I am not here to be flown around by a recklessly acrobatic pegasus until I almost puke.
"And I don't need your stupid class either! Thank you."
No pony even told me what a class is. If you are not going to tell me what you are talking about then I don't want to be a part of it. Remember to say thank you.
"Well I'm sorry deary," Said Spit Shine. Her expression was strained, "What is your name?"
"Why do you need my name?" Growled Fluttershy
My name is Fluttershy, can I sleep now?
"My name's Bad Yarn!" Said a colt.
"No pony asked you feather brain!" Said another.
Spit Shine ignored her class. "So I can check the list deary." She explained to Fluttershy.
"Why is my name on a list?"
My name is Fluttershy
"If you are in my class deary, then you will be on my class list. Your name, deary?"
"I'm Fluttershy."
Your smile is wrong. It is not real!
Spit Shine unsheathed a page from her saddle bag. Manipulating her lower jaw into an under bite she flipped the page up to her eyes.
Fluttershy did not like Spit Shine. She did not like her hair, her voice, how she smiled, and most of all the word deary!
"Well deary..." Said Spit Shine.
Fluttershy ground her teeth.
"...You are indeed in my class, but why were you not in the-"
"Don't say it!"
"-auditorium?"
Fluttershy screamed. Kicking back with both legs with all her strength, she bucked the door to room 103.
It swung almost halfway open.
"What's her problem?" Whispered one filly to another.
"Is she crying?" Said Bad Yarn.
The little yellow filly spun around and stormed into the room. Then she stopped. There were a lot of seats.
"Get a seat in the front," Daddy had said. "It is easier to learn from there."
"Surround yourself with your friends," Mommy had said. "It is easier to talk to them in the back."
Fluttershy frowned. Choosing was far too difficult. She made for a seat in the middle of the room. A blue colt cut her off. The rest of the class was funneling into the room, overtaking the indecisive Fluttershy.
She made for a seat in the front of the room. This time she was intercepted by the hoof of Spit Shine.
"Can I speak with you deary?" Said she. Ignoring her, Fluttershy leaned towards the seats. There were still some left!
"I just want to know if there is anything bothering you?" Spit Shine continued.
"A lot!" Said Fluttershy. The strain in her voice was dismissed by Spit Shine.
A lot of things are bothering me. Especially you.
"Do you want to talk about it?" Said Spit Shine. Fluttershy looked at her teacher. She was faking her smile again.
"No!" Fluttershy groaned.
I want to sit down. Look at that, you slowed me down, and now all of the good seats are taken.
"Well let's at least get along together with every pony else this year OK?" Said Spit Shine in a sickly sweet voice.
"I don't get along with fakers."
Mommy told me that lying, faking and cheating will get me nowhere.
Spit Shine was just surprised enough by the retort to let go of Fluttershy, who rushed to the last available seat.
The seat was to the near left side of the room, second from the back. Fluttershy had not been able to do as her mommy nor daddy said. She sighed.
The ponies around her were talking excitedly, taking advantage of Spit Shine's distraction. Fluttershy twitched her ears, she had found a conversation to latch onto.
"The blue raspberry flavor is the worst. Misty River ate one and no one has seen her for a week."
"Where did she go?"
"Dunno, she stuck it in her mouth and screamed and ran away."
"Why didn't she spit it out?"
"She showed me, it fused into her tongue. I swear it was smoking."
Fluttershy turned to the two ponies, and opened her mouth.
“Attention class!” Spit Shine said, taking the words from Fluttershy, and grinding them to bits. Fluttershy swallowed her wrecked reply, it tasted like bile.
“It is so nice to meet you all. I am Miss Spit Shine. Welcome to you first day of school here, I know that we will all be the best of friends.” She turned her head while speaking, her eyes locked with Fluttershy’s. “Let’s all start the year off with a game, what do you say my little ponies?”
A certain yellow filly did not want to play a game. The class broke out into cheers.
“I know what would be fun!”
I bet you don’t, thought Fluttershy.
“Everypony tell us your name and something that you enjoy.”
The game started at the front of the room. Bad Yarn liked to make spit bubbles. Corsettala liked dolls. Tripe liked to spin. Dollop Flop liked to sing. Fluttershy recognized the blue colt who cut her off before, but it wasn’t his turn yet. Somepony liked flossing, probably Corsettala. That meant that Dollop had to like dolls because dolls and Dollup, duh. Fluttershy missed another pony entirely.
Here was the blue colt. His name was Lazuli, he liked to make cloud castles. Fluttershy did not know what a cloud castle was, but it sounded nice. Bouncable? Probably.
She missed another pony. Actually two, because the second one was dark and liked napkins, but would go nameless for the moment. Fluttershy was trying to figure out who liked singing and soon lost everypony in a curfuddled mess.
Fluttershy’s name was not going to be lost to her classmates, “I’m Fluttershy!” She hollered.
“We all new that.” Chuckled a pony that was probably named Floppup. The class was laughing.
“Oh, well I like to bou...” Started Fluttershy.
“Are you Fluttershy because you’re shy? You don’t look shy.” Said Lazuli.
“I don’t really...”
“Are you Fluttershy because you can’t flutter?” Asked the pony who had sworn Misty River’s tongue was smoking.
Fluttershy flopped her wings feebly, “I don’t think so.”
“Why were you on the ground?” Pestered Tripe.
“You’re Fluttershy because you like the ground right?” Bad Yarn concluded.
“Now class,, that’s enough.” Said Spit Shine. She clopped her hooves together to bring everypony’s attention. “Fluttershy, deary, you were saying?”
“My name is Fluttershy, I don’t like anything!” Grumbled the yellow filly.
“Come now deary, there has to be something.”
“I like not liking anything.” Finished Fluttershy. Then she folded her hooves and lay her forehead to rest. She missed the name of the pony behind her. That was fine, except that meant Spit Shine was back to speaking.
“Wow, most of you seem like you will grow into fine pegasi. Who knows, maybe one of you just told us your future special talent! And that’s what school is for you know. Look.” Said Spit Shine. Fluttershy assumed that everypony was looking at something. She wanted to see it too.
She peeked out from below her mane. Everypony was staring at Spit Shine’s flank, so she did too. Three blocks, red and yellow below the blue.
"Us teachers are here to build you dearies into well rounded ponies. By learning what we have to teach, you will all grow up and get cutie marks like mine."
"Will we all have funny blocks on our flanks?" Shouted Bad Yarn.
"Probably not deary. But you all are still young. I doubt that any of you will get your cutie marks for a year or two. I would even be surprised if any of you can fly yet. Now, let's play another game."
`````~~~~...~~~~`````
Fluttershy did not enjoy the rest of her day. Spit Shine made them play games that only served to waste time. The other ponies were loud, and seemed to prefer being friends with eachother than trying to reach out to Fluttershy.
For lunch she had a couple of apples. Her classmates enjoyed brightly packaged snacks. Bad Yarn produced an endless supply of popcorn. Fluttershy yearned for the fluffy, buttery kernals, but he was sharing them on the other side of the room, with his friends.
Class continued after lunch, more games were played, and somehow, Fluttershy kept losing.
One game was played by calling out a pony’s name before tossing a balloon at them. It was horrible. So many ponies knew her name by now, and she could only name a few with confidence. She found herself passing the balloon to Bad Yarn whenever she panicked.
Then a bell rang. On cue, everypony rushed out of the classroom, shouting and laughing with their friends. They all dissolved into the stormy hallway in groups. Fluttershy, the last to the door despite being second closest, hesitated. She should wait until the hallways clear before stepping out. She mentally patted herself on the back. Mommy said that she had her father’s four-sights, whatever that was.
“What’s the matter deary?” Asked Spit Shine behind her.
Fluttershy bounded into the hall with reckless abandon, losing her self to the rapids. The ponies drowned her under their wings without a care. They smelled a lot worse than before too.
She gave up. All she would have to manage was staying upright. There was no point in breathing, really. Aching lungs were much better than letting the odors in.
Sight was a bother, since there was obviously too much of every color in Cloudsdale. Fluttershy recalled Spit Shine’s coat. There was definitely too much of whatever Spit Shine was.
Her ears were constantly jammed, with elbows or wings, or somepony’s flank. No real sound came through.
Touch was meaningless.
As Fluttershy fell to the ground, the other ponies rushed through her space. This did not slow the descent, however the direction of falling skewed. Forward. Down. Foward. Stop. Pushed. Up. Forward. Down. Forward. Bounce. Forward. Roll. Stop. Pushed. Forward. Slide. Pushed. Sideways. Roll. Stop. Dizzy. Pulled. Up. Fall. Forward. Caught. Pulled. Up. Pushed. Down. Straight. Down. Land. Squishy. Pushed. Up. Up. Stopped. Fall. Rise. Pushed. Squeeze. Burst. Air. Fresh. Fall. Roll. Soft. Stopped. Stay.
Fluttershy knew that she was back on clouds. She could not enjoy the sensation while her skin remembered the chaotic impacts.
She twitched her ears. It was so loud, the other ponies could not be distinguished. Their laughter was blending with their cries.
She opened her eyes. Pale sky, dotted with pegasi, but the sight was moving. Twisting around itself, bending.
Fluttershy did not care anymore. This school thing discouraged her from even the walk home. She would just have to walk back the next day anyway.
Her daze was shaken. Literally, her entire body was being shaken back and forth. Something pushed past her lips, filling her mouth. It was hard, hot, and large. Fluttershy could not even move her tongue around it. The object rhythmically started pushing into her throat, pressing down her tongue even further.
“...seven... eight...nine...ten, and blow!” The sound of wind being sucked in followed.
A wet suction cup collided with Fluttershy’s chest. Pbbbbbbbbbbbbbt it blew hot air into her coat. It tickled so much that she bit down on her oral invader.
“Eeyow!” Screamed the pony.
Fluttershy tried to scream too. After two failed attempts she did something drastic, the opposite. Her lungs inflated to capacity. Then she tried screaming again, but it was replaced with gagging and coughing. Another inhale relieved her for a second.
“Ow ow ow ow ow ow ow. That hurt, that hurt, that hurt! Ooooooooww.” Wailed the pony who stuck her appendages where they do not blong.
Fluttershy finally calmed herself down while the other pony cried over her bitten hoof. Now her throat was sore along with the rest of her. At least she was finally out of the school. A good distance away from the main doors too, so the crowd of ponies gave her wide berth.
“What is your problem!” Yelled the other pony, making Fluttershy wince. “Huh? I can’t hear you, you buck toothed lunatic.”
The two ponies just stared eachother down for a minute. Fluttershy was still coming to grips with the world around her. She was amazed that she had made it out of the school at all. She was sitting across from the rainbow maned pony from that morning. It was odd how the pony vibrated on the spot. Was she cold?
“Are you cold?”
“Are you dumb, why did you bite my hoof?!” Demanded the rainbow pony.
“I didn’t mean to, you tickled me! And don’t call me dumb.” Fluttershy rasped back. Her throat was still raw.
“I’ll call ya as I see ya, you dummy hoof-biter.”
“You’re a dummy, dummy!”
“Well you’re too dumb to breathe!”
“I don’t get it! Shows how dumb you are!”
“Don’t call me dumb!” Shouted the rainbow pony this time. She flared her wings, spun around and jumped, higher than Fluttershy’s eartips, into the air. She landed back in the clouds and jumped again, higher. The rainbow pegasus dipped, skimmed the clouds before veering into the sky.
“Too dumb to breathe,” said Fluttershy, mimicking the rainbow pony.
She walked home alone.
“I’m hooomme!” She shouted upon entering.
…
“It was fun.”
…
“Friends?”
…
“Of course I did.”
…
“A whole bunch.”
…
“Thanks mommy.”