Now I Know How to Fly
High above the ground, Rainbow Dash and Fluttershy sat together upon a lone cloud, the only one in the endless blue sky.
The cloud itself was rather small, yet it still gave enough room for the two Pegasi to sit together with plenty of room. It was a brilliantly bright shade of white, and was very puffy, bringing to mind a luxurious pillow or gigantic marshmallow. If Pinkie Pie had been there, she'd have described it as "the puffiest pufferific cloud in the entire sky!". Beneath the cloud, far below, was a barren field that seemed to stretch on until it was over the horizon and out of sight. In the direction Rainbow Dash and Fluttershy were facing, they could see Ponyville looming in the distance. The Town Hall and Rarity's boutique were easy to spot in the town's familiar outline. Beyond that was Sweet Apple Acres, and beyond that was the Everfree Forest. All-in-all, it was quite a spectacular view.
Unfortunately, the view was the last thing on either Pegasus's mind as they sat together, Fluttershy sitting with her hoof around Rainbow Dash and Dash sitting staring down as she struggled to fight back tears. Fluttershy smiled a little bit; Dash was too proud to let anypony- even her fillyhood friend- witness her crying. Fluttershy was trying to comfort her friend and wanted to say something to shatter the sorrowful silence that had settled between them, but her voice wasn't working. It seemed like it never did when she needed it.
"I'm such an idiot, Fluttershy..." Dash suddenly spoke, breaking the eerie stillness. Fluttershy jumped a little in surprise, and realized that Dash had probably been repeating those same four words in her head the entire time that they'd been on the cloud. Rainbow Dash shook her head from side-to-side, "I can't believe it... I just... can't..."
"Oh, Rainbow..." Fluttershy spoke gently as Rainbow Dash let out a quiet sob. Her mind raced as she struggled to think of something to say. A minute ago, she had been thinking of plenty of things to say, but now her mouth felt like sand and her mind was blank. After all, Rainbow Dash had just failed the biggest test of her life. It wasn't the kind of thing that knocked Rainbow Dash down so she could pick herself up, brush herself off, and try again. Dash had failed the Wonderbolts test, effectively crushing all of her dreams. Sure, it wasn't the end of Equestria, but to her friend it must have felt like it.
"No, Fluttershy!" Dash snapped, making Fluttershy shrink back a little bit in fear, "Can't you see? I spent my entire life training to be one of the best, and then I go and completely fail that test because my accuracy was horrible! After everything I've done, the Sonic Rainboom, going to that disaster of a Gala just to meet them, going to that stupid Academy, taking the Wonderbolts History test... it's all for nothing now..." Rainbow Dash's voice cracked on the last few words.
She angrily slammed her hoof into the cloud, causing a few raindrops to fall from the cloud. Fluttershy considered asking her to calm down (after all, Fluttershy was nervous just being up on the cloud. She didn't need Dash hitting it and making it even worse), but decided that it probably wasn't the right thing to say. Fluttershy watched the raindrops fall until they splattered on the ground in the field below, and then she glanced over to Rainbow Dash. To her surprise, the rainbow-maned pegasus lowered her head as a few tears spilled out of her eyes.
"Rainbow Dash!" Fluttershy pouted, "You're the greatest flyer that I've ever known! If the Wonderbolts can't see that, then who needs them? Whatever happened to you calling yourself the 'best flyer in all of Equestria'?"
"Now..." Dash kept her head down, and another tear dripped out of her eye and fell, "Now they can give that title to somepony else."
"Oh come on!" Fluttershy snapped. Dash jumped a little, looking startled at Fluttershy's sudden outburst, "Enough about the Wonderbolts already! You're Rainbow Dash! You're the Pegasus who saved the Wonderbolts AND Rarity with a Sonic Rainboom in Cloudsdale! You were in charge of getting all those Ponyville Pegasi ready to create a tornado to carry water to the weather factories! You were basically a town superhero before-"
Fluttershy hesitated on the last one. Rainbow Dash didn't like when anypony mentioned Mare-Do-Well, so Fluttershy talking about it would've only made Dash feel worse. Fluttershy got to her hooves and began pacing around the cloud, racking her brain to come up with more of Rainbow Dash's exploits.
"You remember carrying the flag for Cloudsdale in the Equestria Games that one year? You were amazing- spectacular! That was the year before you raced those three bullies at Flight Camp, just to protect me... I don't think I've ever thanked you enough for that. Even Princess Celestia knows that you're the greatest flyer in Equestria! There was nopony else as qualified as you to perform a Sonic Rainboom at that Canterlot wedding."
Fluttershy stopped, staring down off the side of the cloud. She was aware of Rainbow Dash still sitting behind her, but she wasn't sure if Dash was still listening. Fluttershy decided to keep talking anyway.
"You... I don't want to listen to you whine about the Wonderbolts anymore, Rainbow. If they can't see how good of a flyer you are, then who needs them? After all, do you just want to be another Wonderbolt in Spitfire's shadow, or do you want to be-"
Fluttershy turned around just in time to see Rainbow Dash dive out-of-view off the side of the cloud.
"-Rainbow Dash?!"
Letting out a tiny squeak, Fluttershy lunged to the side of the cloud in time to see Dash falling headfirst down to the field below. Without thinking, Fluttershy threw herself off the cloud and began flapping her wings as hard as she could. Soon she was racing down, cutting through the air like an arrow as she rushed down toward her best friend.
Below her, Rainbow Dash's limp body fell faster than Fluttershy could fly. Dash was like a broken doll, moving only with the force of the wind and the fall. Her body flipped in midair, and then Dash's violently-magenta eyes were staring up at Fluttershy's horrified, desperate face. Dash made no effort to move at all as Fluttershy struggled to flap faster, but somehow Dash remained tantalzingly out of reach. The ground below was coming closer, hastily moving up to greet the two Pegasi.
Fluttershy reached out her hoof, nearly touching Dash's. Time itself seemed to stop as Fluttershy stretched, groping for Dash's hoof. She struggled to see; her vision was obstructed by her own warm, wet tears. Just a little further and she could save her fillyhood friend, not only the greatest flyer she'd ever known but the best friend she'd ever known... the one who was always there for her in Cloudsdale and Ponyville... the one who had taught her how to fly. Rainbow Dash's cold lips moved slightly, shaping out silent words that were lost in the wind as she fell.
And then Rainbow Dash's body hit the ground with a sickening crunching sound as her bones shattered on impact. A few blue feathers left her wings and went into the air before gently coming down to land in the grass. Rainbow Dash's head bounced once in the grass, and then all was still.
At the last second in flight, Fluttershy tried to veer upwards and managed to reduce the pain of her impact when she struck the ground. Wasting no time, she rushed to Rainbow Dash's side. Dash's head was slightly tilted to the side, and her eyes were wide open as though staring intently into the sky. Fluttershy gazed into her friend's eyes and saw no sign of life in them. She pressed her ear into Rainbow Dash's chest and listened for something- anything- to prove the impossible. Finally, after an entire minute had gone past, Fluttershy finally had to accept the cold reality of the situation.
Rainbow Dash was dead.
"No... no no no no no..." Fluttershy whispered, shaking her head from side to side. It wasn't true. It couldn't be true. Rainbow Dash had always been there, she couldn't just leave now. Dash had been there on the first day of Flight Camp, making friends while Fluttershy quietly watched from the side. Dash was there, teaching her how to fly. Dash was in her mind when she left Cloudsdale for the last time as a filly. Dash had ferociously hugged her and loudly exclaimed her joy at finding that Fluttershy was alive and well in Ponyville. Nothing seperated them, they were even both parts of the Elements of Harmony...
"No!" Fluttershy screamed. She pressed her hooves into Rainbow Dash's chest and began pushing, "Breathe... come on, breathe! You've gotta get up, Rainbow...! You've just gotta get back up... please... GET UP!"
Tears fell from Fluttershy's eyes as she continued trying to force life to Rainbow Dash. Fluttershy pressed her mouth into Rainbow's cold one and she breathed in life. Fluttershy tried to remember everything she had ever learned about first aid, but nothing useful came to her. Finally, Fluttershy broke down and rested her head on Dash's chest as she began crying, silently praying for anything to bring her best friend back to life.
Fluttershy never heard her friends arrive behind her.
Two strong hooves grabbed Fluttershy, and gently tugged her off Rainbow Dash's corpse.
"No! What are you doing?! She's still alive! She has to be alive!" Fluttershy screamed, kicking and shaking her hooves in an attempt to get out of the pony's strong grip, "Put me down, I've got to help Rainbow Dash!"
"Sugarcube, Rainbow Dash ain't... she's not..." Applejack's voice faltered behind her. Fluttershy was dimly aware that Applejack was beginning to cry as well as she carried Fluttershy away, but Fluttershy didn't care. Fluttershy kept fighting and squealing out as Applejack carried her back toward Ponyville. Behind her, Twilight Sparkle, Rarity, and Pinkie Pie were gathered around Rainbow Dash. With a grave, unbelieving expression, Twilight carried Rainbow Dash away as Rarity stood in disbelief. Pinkie fell onto the ground, buried her face in the grass, and didn't move, only choked out sobs into the dirt.
The fight finally left Fluttershy, and she went limp in Applejack's hooves. Her own eyes began to close as she felt herself passing out. Just before she lost consciousness, she finally understood the last two words that Rainbow Dash ever spoke:
I'm sorry.
~~~
Fluttershy hated funerals.
She sat limply between Applejack and Twilight as everypony spoke about their deceased friend. Pinkie Pie tearfully remembered all of the pranks that she and Dash had pulled ("It was great..." she said with a slight smile as tears began to fall from her eyes). Applejack was reminded of the Iron Pony competition and the Running of the Leaves ("Ah always beat her... but she never admitted it..." AJ remarked with a grin). Rarity laughingly remembered the time she had used magic to put Rainbow in a dress, and everypony laughed at that one. It was a small bit of warmth and happiness on an otherwise dark and cold day.
"She was the most annoying Pegasus I'd ever met, the first time I came to Ponyville," Twilight said with a sad smile as she recalled the first time she had ever met Rainbow Dash, "I'm... we're all going to miss her..."
Applejack nudged Fluttershy, who slowly looked up with a quivering bottom lip.
"Do ya want to say anything, sugarcube?" Applejack quietly asked. Fluttershy shook her head.
"I've... never been good in front of crowds," Fluttershy quietly replied, "Rainbow Dash knew that better than anypony..."
Applejack nodded solemnly, and turned back to the funeral.
Finally, the time came to bury Rainbow Dash in her coffin. Everypony trudged to the graveyard, mourning over their lost friend. Fluttershy moved even slower than everypony else. She glanced around and saw Spitfire, Soarin, and Fleetfoot, as well as a few other Wonderbolts. Near them was Apple Bloom, Sweetie Belle, and a dazed-looking Scootaloo. Fluttershy was touched to see them; she knew Rainbow Dash had been relevant to many ponies, but not this many.
Dash's coffin was beautifully made. The brown wood gleamed in the sunlight from the gray skies above. There were shining, golden handles on it, which were grabbed by a few stallions who began to lower Rainbow Dash into a freshly-dug hole. That was when Fluttershy was suddenly overcome with emotion and stepped forward.
"Stop! Stop!" Fluttershy yelled, hurrying over. The stallions looked taken aback, but they pulled Rainbow Dash back up to the surface. Fluttershy stopped next to Dash's coffin, and opened the top. Rainbow Dash's body sat inside, wings spread with her hooves posed over her chest. Nopony had bothered to close her eyes, which stared up into Fluttershy's tearful ones. She hath died as she lived.
"I-I... I just want to thank you, Rainbow Dash..." Fluttershy began in a voice that was hardly a whisper, "You... you were my best friend. Nopony could replace you... nopony at all. You were always there for me... at Flight School... now in Ponyville..."
A few tears slipped out of Fluttershy's eyes, and she blinked rapidly so she could see her friend for the final time. Despite her knees feeling wobbly, she still managed to raise a hoof to the coffin.
"When everypony else was teasing me... calling me names... repeating that horrible chant... you stood up for me. You taught me how to fly, and... I just... want to thank you..."
Her hoof went over Rainbow Dash's eyes, closing them. It was almost like Dash could have been sleeping. Fluttershy almost lost it, but managed to keep herself together as she spoke one final time before closing the lid.
"Thanks to you...
Now I Know How To Fly."