//------------------------------// // Chapter 3 // Story: Somewhere // by Columba //------------------------------// Fluttershy sat down on the tuft of cloud. Rainbow Dash had begged her to join Flight Camp and she had agreed. Now she was regretting it. The coach called her name and she slowly walked to the ledge. She looked down and felt slightly dizzy. The coach nudged her hard, knocking her over. Her wings suddenly snapped to her side and she fell onto the gratefully soft clouds. She opened her eyes to see Rainbow holding out her hoof. Rainbow helped her up. Some of the ponies were laughing at her. "Thanks Rainbow." "No problem. You okay?" Fluttershy nodded. "I think the coach will let you go again if you ask." The yellow Pegasus looked at the laughing ponies and frowned. "I will." She flew up to the coach. "May I try again please?" He nodded at the hoop-shaped clouds. She walked to the ledge again. Her wings flapped and she flew though most of the hoops, but at the fourth one, she tripped and started to fall towards the cloud below. She shut her eyes. She hit the clouds again. "That was much better, Flutters! Rainbow Dash called. Fluttershy smiled. "Yeah. It was a bit better." Everypony else was getting into a line in front of a new challenge. Rainbow flew into the line and Fluttershy followed. The course in front of them was a line of cloud poles. Everypony had to dodge them all the way to the other side. Her ears laid flat against her head. Suddenly no pony was in front of her. It was her turn. She flapped her wings hard and flew around the poles carefully. She couldn't afford to fall this time. The ground was hundreds of feet below her. She lost concentration and bumped into one of the pillars. She fell, her wings unable to move because of the force of the air. The coach dove after her. Suddenly she hit something sticky and soft. The coach above her had pulled out of his dive and looked bewildered. Fluttershy got up off of her back and her face matched her coach's when she saw what had broken her fall. A cotton candy cloud. She flew off of the cloud as a pink earth filly in a hot-air-balloon lassoed the pink cloud and licked it contently, while somepony on the ground pulled her down. "Thanks! Bye!" Called the pink pony. Fluttershy and the coach flew back up to the normal clouds. "Fluttershy! Are you okay?" Rainbow was galloping towards her. "I'm fine. A cotton candy cloud caught me. I don't know why it was made of cotton candy though..." Rainbow raised an eyebrow. "It really was!" "I mean, I saw it was pink, but cotton candy? A cotton candy cloud? Really?" "Oh Celestia, that was close." Discord sighed with relief. Everypony else around him had seen the yellow Pegasus filly falling from the clouds. He had enough sense to create a soft landing, though he didn't think of making it look like a cloud rather than cotton candy. He was still in his pony form and had been for the last day. Even though he was sleeping in a- fixed- area of the Everfree, he spent his day watching the ponies. "You'd think she would have caught herself." a unicorn filly walked past him on her- hind legs? Her fur and her mane were turquoise. She had some white stripes in her mane. She stumbled and fell back onto all fours. When she saw his expression she frowned. "I'm Lyra Heartstrings. When I grow up, I'm going to be a human!" He stared at her and she continued walking. "That has got to be the craziest pony I've ever seen." He chuckled. "That's the craziest pony. I'm the craziest being in the universe. No creature will ever compete. I mean, you can't beat chocolate-filled-cotton-candy-clouds." He trotted to the edge of the Everfree, and disappeared. Fluttershy laid her ears against her head. She didn't enjoy sleeping outside of home. Rainbow was in the bunk to the right and was already snoring. Eventually, her eyelids grew heavy and she fell asleep. She was sitting in the soft, white clouds when she heard a cry. It was Rainbow Dash. She started to run towards the sound but, with every step she took, the voice seemed farther and farther away. Then she heard a scream and she was on the edge of Cloudsdale. Rainbow was hanging by a tuft of clouds. Fluttershy struggled to help her up, but failed. "You have to fly up! I can't help you! I'm not strong enough." Then she noticed Rainbow's wings were missing. Rainbow let go and fell, screaming. Fluttershy started to hear screaming all around her. The clouds beneath gave way and she too fell. She fell for what felt like forever. She heard voices around her. "You didn't catch me. Why didn't you help me? Why did you give up?" She tried to call out to the voice, but no sound came out. The dark suddenly turned into a garden with hedges and statues. The Royal Gardens. She turned around an saw a statue with different animal limbs. Suddenly, it moved. It lifted her up in it's palm and she squeaked. It grew bigger with each passing second until it was as big as the castle. It's hand closed around her and she woke, gasping. She sighed and shut her eyes. "I'm going to have to try harder tomorrow. I don't want to mess up again. I can't mess up again. I won't mess up." 'Remember your Father? He was one of the bravest ponies in Cloudsdale. You're shy and afraid, but you have his blood. You have his brave, kind, strong blood.' She sighed again. "I do. I am brave and strong. I just have to know when," she lay her head on the pillow, eventually falling asleep again. "Now if only I could be like Lulu for a night," Discord said to himself. He had watched the little filly wake up in a fright. He was watching the filly and the two Princesses through a piece of glass he had produced and enchanted. Though, when he watched Princess Luna, she had stared him straight in the eye. Something to do with being able to enter dreams. It was quite boring watching someone sleep. Especially Tia. She lay in one place the whole night, hardly moving, with the exception of breathing. If her chest didn't rise and fall with each breath, she would appear dead. The little filly was now asleep again. Discord lay his head on the grass. He had enchanted it to look checkered, but if it came into anybody's sight, it would appear normal and boring. "That's how ponies like things. Orderly and boring. And boring, boring, boring, and, oh, did I mention? Boring," he groaned. Now why was he so curious about that filly? His logical side told him he had been getting stronger, but the other side told him it was something about her that was different. No other pony heard him that day. Nor that night. She didn't have a cutie mark. Maybe she could talk with statues? He stretched and gazed at the starry sky. "I have to admit, Lulu does a good job of making it look slightly chaotic. I'll give her that. Although... It could be more chaotic." Just a bit.