“AAHHHHH!!!!”
Blue eyes opened wide as the cotton blankets flew off the bed onto the floor. Panting, Fluttershy cautiously looked over her surroundings. N-Nothing even remotely r-resembling candy…or cakes…
She…she was in her cottage…in her bed…where she was safe and sound.
To her side, a white cotton-tailed bunny frowned at the rude awakening. With a gasp, the young timid mare turned towards the annoyed creature before her on the bed. Normally Fluttershy was quiet in the mornings, but last night had just been…really frightening to her.
It was…weird, to say the least.
Fluttershy sweat-dropped and gave a sigh of relief as she wrapped her hooves around her beloved pet and companion. “I’m sorry for all of that noise, Angel Bunny…I don’t know what came over me.” The young mare replied as she ran a hoof along Angel’s head.
Angel Bunny huffed at her pathetic excuse, but dealt with the loving attention anyway.
‘I guess Angel Bunny knows me enough to know when I’m not being entirely truthful about things…’ She cringed inwardly. Looking into her companion’s eyes, she held Angel even closer.
“You know, Angel Bunny? I…I had a scary nightmare last night…”
Angel Bunny rolled his eyes as soon as Fluttershy opened her mouth. It wasn’t uncommon for her to have nightmares, after all.
“…R-Rainbow Dash was in it. And we were running from candy mouse creatures until this…d-doll…” Fluttershy closed her eyes tightly and shuddered, as if she was reliving the same experience again. “And…I-I can’t remember much else…” She finished on a lame note. Looking back at her friend, she felt a wave of embarrassment fill her muzzle.
‘If only I could’ve explained things a little better…’
Angel Bunny rolled his eyes at her dramatics and hopped from the bed. He ran towards the top of the stairs not far from the young mare’s doorway to her bedroom, stomping his foot impatiently once he reached his destination.
Fluttershy blinked for a moment before she smiled softly and followed her sweet Angel down the steps of her cottage. Angel most likely was hungry, after all…
Downstairs, the layout of the cottage was not too big; there was just plenty enough room for both Fluttershy and the assortment of animals that cluttered her cottage. There were birds, butterflies, squirrels, chipmunks, bunnies, and all kinds of adorable little critters that always caused Fluttershy to giggle.
Smiling brightly as she reached the bottom of the steps, the mare approached a trio of birds already awake in the morning’s song. They twisted their bodies in a mid-flight pattern, dancing with the sun’s light that poured into the cottage from the open window.
Vocalizing along with them, she also started to hover above the ground, spinning around and joining the birds in a dance as they joined her in a sweet harmonious melody that spread throughout the cottage, the other various animals swaying along with her voice in a soft and relaxing rhythm.
Music…it always soothed her mind, no matter what mood she was in beforehand. Even though she didn’t have the courage to perform publicly on stage, she always loved these morning sessions with her animals. In fact, if the word responsibility didn’t exist…she’d probably just dance with the birds and the critters forever.
That is, if it wasn’t for the hungry bunny skipping out on the dancing with a frown on his face.
Stopping short, Fluttershy blushed with a grin as she lowered herself to the ground. “Oh, um…right. You’re hungry…” Flying towards her petite kitchen, the mare pulled out a yellow bowl which she began to fill with various greens, making a fresh salad worthy for any hungry bunny.
“Alright, Angel…eat up.” Fluttershy smiled as she held the bowl towards her critter friend.
Angel Bunny sniffed it and frowned.
“Umm…is something the matter? It’s good for you.” The mare gave an inward sigh as she held the bowl even closer to Angel Bunny. “Please eat it, Angel Bunny…”
This time the bunny gave his own inward sigh and buried his head in the bowl, chewing vigorously on the various greens inside the bowl. Normally he’d kick the hideous healthy stuff away, but the mare had woken from a nightmare that morning…
Fluttershy smiled and gave a sigh of relief. ‘At least Angel Bunny isn’t as picky as usual today…That makes everything a little easier.’
Just then, her ears perked to the sound of knocking at her door. She still needed to feed the rest of her animals, but she also couldn’t leave the visitor waiting like that.
‘I wasn’t expecting a visitor today…’ Fluttershy thought as she approached her door. ‘…Maybe it’s Discord? Then again, he uses anything but the door to come inside...’
Opening the door slightly, she blinked for a moment to see a cyan-colored pegasus with a rainbow mane in front of her door. “R-Rainbow Dash? Um, good morning…” The timid mare gave a small smile.
Rainbow Dash grinned. “Hey, Flutters. You busy at all today or anything?”
Fluttershy shook her head at her cyan friend. “Umm…I still need to feed my other animals…but otherwise no. Is there something you need?”
Rainbow blinked before hovering a little above the ground. “Well, it’s been a while since I’ve last been around Cloudsdale…and I was wondering if you’d like to tag along! You know, catch up with things back there?”
The yellow mare blinked. “Um, well…” The timid mare looked back towards the inside of her cottage. Normally she originally planned to just hang around her animals…but she didn’t want to disappoint her dear fillyhood friend…
Looking back towards her friend, Fluttershy gave a small grin. “…Alright. Just, um…give me enough time to feed and tend to my animals…if you don’t…mind waiting.”
Rainbow Dash shrugged. “Eh, I can wait a bit, I guess…” The idea of waiting didn’t really appeal to the speedy rainbow-maned mare…but it probably wasn’t going to be worse than waiting for a Daring Do novel.
With a grin, Fluttershy flew back into her cottage to ready all assortments of food for the lot of her animal friends. Usually she’d take her time and talk about how they were all doing, but she knew Rainbow Dash could only wait around for so long without needing some form of entertainment…and she’d rather her friend not crash into her cottage in the middle of doing a complicated trick for the Wonderbolts or something…
Outside, Rainbow Dash paced around in the air above the cottage, occasionally slipping in a few flips and turns as she desperately attempted to entertain herself.
‘Flutters has a lot of animals, sheesh! I don’t wanna be here all day!’ The cyan-pegasus frowned as she then did a full circle turn upwards towards the clouds and back. The thought crossed her mind to just go on without her, but that’d be just wrong. She didn’t wanna leave her friend hanging, especially since she was the one who decided to invite her!
“Um, have you been waiting long?” A soft soothing voice caught the mare’s attention. Rainbow Dash grinned as she lowered towards the ground, but didn’t actually feel like landing.
With a sigh, the cyan-pegasus spread her hooves wide in the air. “Took you long enough! Come on; let’s get going before we lose daylight!”
Fluttershy smiled at her short-tempered companion as she too started to hover, yellow wings fluttering at a soft rhythmic pace. “Yes.”
The two pegasi flew on through the skies as they flew over the town of Ponyville. The whole of Ponyville wasn’t that large, at least compared to large places such as Manehatten or Las Pegasus. Even so, Fluttershy loved her home for the ponies that inhabited the town. You could usually always find a friendly face or two that could help to lift your spirits if you ever needed it.
In fact, in this very town were her other four friends who she always enjoyed spending time with.
Looking over at her flight companion, Fluttershy smiled softly at the cyan-pegasus. “…So, all this time you’ve had kind of…photographic memory when you fly, huh?”
Rainbow Dash blinked as her eyes traveled in every direction including her friend’s. “…Yup. Didn’t really think about it before, but now that I am…It’s pretty awesome, don’t you think?” She grinned at her.
Despite her shy nature, Fluttershy couldn’t help but give a small roll of the eyes. “…Yes, it’s…pretty awesome.” The timid mare repeated. This wasn’t the first time her friend praised her own accomplishments, but she didn’t have any right to call on her otherwise. Even though it ended on a nice note, she still didn’t want to revisit trying to teach her friend a lesson in humility by upsetting her.
The cyan-pegasus gave an awkward smile. “So…how’re you and Discord doing? Don’t you guys do that…um…tea party thing pretty often?”
Fluttershy gave a confident smile. “Yes. Discord’s actually behaving quite nicely. After what happened with Tirek…he’s become more apologetic and sweeter than before.”
Rainbow gave a face. “…Discord? Sweeter? Blagh!” Even thinking about that no good prankster acting ‘sweet’...
…Well, then again...
“…Okay, I guess he’s a little cool…when he’s not trying to mess with me, that is!”
The timid mare sighed. “Well, you’re the only one he hasn’t actually gotten along with. You hardly…no…never do any activities with him willingly. Won’t you give him a better chance…? If you don’t mind, that is.”
Rainbow gave a heavy sigh. “Okay, fine! I’ll try...and give him a better…chance.” Her voice lowered down to a mumble. “…Happy now?”
Fluttershy grinned. “Much.”
‘…Rainbow Dash always did have an issue when it came to apologies and acting sweet…It’s nice to see that she’ll at least be willing to help Discord.’ The timid mare thought as she continued to fly on beside her friend.
The skies grew absent of birds as the rainbow-maned mare halted her flight.
…Something was up. Looking around the skies, she frowned at the sight before her.
“…Get back.”
Fluttershy blinked. ‘Huh?’
Rainbow Dash faced her with a concerned expression. “…We gotta land, NOW!”
She didn’t have to tell the shy mare twice.
Taken out of her thoughts, the mare saw a large hurricane in the distance…in great multitudes; the land was being torn and thrown into the air as the mare’s hearing was stolen by a drastic howling sound.
In the distance, several pegasi were trying to cut through the violent wind currents, but so far none were able to get in.
Rainbow Dash raced to catch a struggling pegasus. “What the hay happened here?!”
The pegasus groaned as his weight was being supported. “…I don’t know…The stupid thing just…appeared out of…nowhere. It’s like it came out of Tartarus…”
Fluttershy frowned. “It’s going to be alright, sir. We should get you somewhere safe.”
Rainbow Dash looked towards the hurricane as she handed the stallion to Fluttershy. “…I’m going in!”
The timid mare winced at the sudden weight as she faced her cyan friend. “…W-What?! You’ll get hurt!”
Rose eyes flared with determination. “…If that hurricane isn’t stopped, it’s going to hit Cloudsdale!” Without a second thought, the mare sped for the violent winds, going far beyond the timid mare’s line of sight.
Fluttershy whimpered. “W-Wait, Rainbow Dash…!”
The cyan mare didn’t hear her friend.
Approaching the hurricane at full speed, Rainbow Dash twisted herself into a drilling formation, adding more to the momentum as she was surrounded by a cone of rainbow light cutting through the winds. Usually something like this would be hard on a pegasus, but the cyan mare was no ordinary pegasus. She was the fastest in all of Equestria! If she couldn’t do it, than nopony could!
And besides, she always pushed herself beyond her limits.
The momentum was effective once she hit impact. It was just enough to cut through the violent currents outside, and allowed the cyan mare to slip in without being repelled.
Outside, Fluttershy whined as the rainbow blur was no longer in the distance.
If the outside wasn’t bad enough, the inside was a whole other matter.
Every which way, the mare had to avoid some kind of debris or whatever as she kept her intense speed against the hurricane's. Rainbow grunted as she fought the violent currents surrounding her. If she lost this battle, than Cloudsdale was done for!
But her wings were actually starting to get stressed, fast.
“Not yet, wings!!!!!” She grunted out. Her own voice was lost in the currents as she felt pain surrounding her body. Whatever this was, she had to take it down. She had to. She just HAD to…!!!!!
Outside the hurricane, Fluttershy looked at the tired stallion before her. He seemed alright for the time being, and the thought of her friend struggling all on her own didn’t really appeal to the timid mare. She had a job to do already, but…
She couldn’t let her friend take the entire burden on her shoulders.
“…I’m sorry!” Her voice was lost in the howling winds as she sped off as fast as she could towards the hurricane.
Even if there wasn’t much of a chance she could do it, she just HAD to for the sake of her friend.
Approaching the hurricane at her own speeds, she was surprised to notice that the outside winds had gotten weaker than they were before. Almost as if…it was an unnatural occurrence…and it wanted ponies to enter in.
Either that or her friend already did some creditable damage.
“Rainbow Dash…!” She screamed as she cut through the currents surrounding her. If anything, that had probably been the fastest she had ever gone. Despite the outside being weaker, she could barely even keep her flight as soon as she entered the hurricane.
‘What was I thinking?’
Rainbow Dash felt the winds cutting into her coat. It hurt. A LOT…but she had to keep going for Cloudsdale, and any other pony it could hurt. Closing her eyes, she forced herself to increase in speeds as she fought the violent currents surrounding her.
‘…Maybe I bit more than I could chew…!’ She thought as she started to lose focus in her speeds.
“…..Dash….”
The cyan mare’s ears perked. A…voice…?
“Rainbow Dash…!”
There was a voice. Trying to keep focused, she grunted as she felt her teeth rattling as the winds started to cut into her gums, spreading more blood to be lost in the winds. If she kept fighting it…she’d die…
Fluttershy couldn’t keep a good speed. Already the violent winds were starting to tear into her wings.
She couldn’t give up, she just…couldn’t…
‘…I…can’t…’ The timid mare thought as she felt herself get swept into the wind currents as she lost control of her own direction. Getting tossed and turning all around, the mare felt herself lose consciousness as she felt herself slam into something with multiple colors, getting tangled up with a multi-colored cyan blur.
Rainbow Dash didn’t even know what hit her at full force. She thought she could’ve avoided it like all the rest...but it really HURT. Losing control of her speed, she couldn’t shake off the yellow blur that was stuck ramming into her side as she felt herself getting dragged by the currents.
‘N-No…!’
It was too much. Rainbow Dash felt herself being tossed around like a rag doll, a form of entertainment for the wind currents which mocked her every desire to save everypony.
Failure wasn’t something Rainbow Dash wanted to feel.
In fact, she despised it.
Losing consciousness, rose eyes struggled to stay open as the last thing Rainbow saw was a bright light at the center of the hurricane.
And they were headed straight for it.