“You think she’s in there? The cottage is intact and it doesn’t look like anyone broke in, but--”
“Of course she is, Rainbow Dash. Have a little patience, we only just got here.”
“Ugh. I’d be more patient if it were less freezing out.”
“First of all, it can’t be ‘less freezing,’ because temperature is measured by degrees of energy--”
“UGH. Hey, Fluttershy! It’s freezing out here, and Twilight’s being a nerd! Open up!”
Fluttershy heard her friends’ muffled bickering through her cottage door, and she hesitated to open it. The autumn dusk had only just settled over Ponyville; Fluttershy hadn’t bothered to turn the lights on yet, so maybe if she was really quiet…
“Fluttershy,” she heard Twilight say, her voice gentle and maternal. “It’s just me and Rainbow Dash. Please let us in.”
“That’s not working, Twilight!” Dash growled. “What makes you think she’ll let us in now, after all these weeks?” Fluttershy heard the angry flap of wings and muttered obscenities on the other side of her door. “Darn it, Fluttershy, if you don’t open this door, I’m gonna bust it down.”
“Rainbow Dash, don’t threaten her--”
Taking a deep breath, Fluttershy flicked the lock on the door and pulled it open. Rainbow Dash, the rough-and-tumble blue pegasus with a rainbow mane and tail, was hovering with a hoof raised-- presumably to punch the door. Next to her stood the ever-orderly and composed purple alicorn, Twilight Sparkle.
“Jeeze Louise,” Rainbow Dash said, dropping gracelessly to the ground. Her jaw was limp and her fuschia eyes were like dinner plates. “Fluttershy, you, uh, you look…”
Darting in front of the stunned pegasus, Twilight hurried to negate the awkward statement with forcefully-saccharine adjectives. “Awake! Very awake. And you’re... at the door, here, and… and we’re here, too! Hello!” She threw Dash a scalding look, and was given an embarrassed half-grin and shrug in return.
“Oh… um… yes,” Fluttershy said in her feather-soft voice. It crackled with disuse. “Yes. Hello.” She shrank into herself, letting her tangled and dirty pink mane cover her downcast eyes.
Trotting past the shame-faced pony, Rainbow Dash went to turn on the lights. “So, uh, what’ve you been up to? It’s been so long since we-- oh.”
In the newly-lit room, there was a distinct lack of care taken toward cleanliness. Dust and a variety of different animal hair had settled on the woodstove, which, despite the fall cold, was unlit; remnants of food encrusted the piles of dirty dishes scattered around and upon the little green tea table. Stepping gingerly around a pile of crumpled magazines, Dash’s attempted smile translated itself into a grimace. “Have you… had any company recently?”
Before Fluttershy could respond, Twilight cut her off with an authoritative voice. “Rainbow Dash, please go run a bath for Fluttershy. She and I are going to get started on cleaning the living room, and then we’re all going to have something to eat. Okay?”
Having a task spared Rainbow Dash from the excruciating small-talk she was attempting. With a comical salute, she zipped around the corner to the bathroom. Fluttershy’s face flushed, and she started to protest. “Y-you don’t have to--”
“Yes I do, Fluttershy,” Twilight said, her voice firm. “You can’t live like this. It’s been weeks. Teddie Safari isn’t as good at caring for the creatures of Everfree Forest as you are, you know.” She put a hoof on Fluttershy’s shoulder and looked her in the eye, softening her tone. “Rainbow Dash has been worried sick about you. All of us have been.”
Fluttershy tried to look away as tears melted Twilight’s face into a blurry purple muddle. “Oh, I’m s-sorry,” she hiccupped. “It’s just b-been so hard, you know, I… w-we used to write to each other every d-day, a-and he visited every other, a-and I just don’t know what to do with myself now that he’s… Now that I’ve...” She trailed off, leaning into Twilight’s glossy mane. Twilight made soothing sounds and let her cry. “D-darn it, Twilight, I trusted him!” Her voice steadied, anger creeping in with the hurt. “He knew it! He knew I… he sold us out. For nothing. For nothing at all, for someone he didn’t even know, when you really think about it! Tirek swayed him so easily, and for nothing!”
“I know, Fluttershy.”
“No,” she said, pulling away and wiping her eyes to glare at Twilight. “You really don’t. You have no idea at all.”
Bewildered, Twilight looked at her friend for several moments. She then looked around at what had once been a homely and inviting little house. Fluttershy had been a celebrator and nurturer of life until Discord had betrayed her, but now she could barely support her own.
Twilight swallowed her pride. “I’m sorry, Fluttershy. You’re right. I probably don’t.”
They looked at each other in tense silence, each ruminating on their own hurt feelings, until Rainbow Dash’s voice called from the bathroom and snapped them back to reality. “Bath’s ready!”
“Go wash up,” Twilight said, giving Fluttershy a gentle push. “Dash and I will get this place nice and neat for you, okay?”
“Okay,” Fluttershy sniffled. As she turned to go, she blushed and added, “I’m sorry for snapping at you.”
“It’s fine, Fluttershy. Don’t worry about it.” Twilight watched her go.
Dash flapped her way out of the bathroom, giving Fluttershy a nervous smile as she passed. When the door shut, she set back down on the floor and raised her eyebrows at Twilight. “I can’t believe I’m saying this, but I think I heard Fluttershy yelling at you. As close to yelling as Fluttershy can get, anyway.”
Twilight sighed. “I was being insensitive. I think I deserved it. Anyway,” she stood up straighter and scanned the living room. “Let’s get on this. I’ll put things away if you’ll dust, and then we can bring the dishes into the kitchen.”
“Bet you the kitchen’s just as bad.”
“We’ll get through it.”
“Cottage clean-up, cottage clean-up…”
“That’s not funny, Rainbow Dash.”
When Fluttershy re-emerged from her bath, her mane was sparkling clean and un-gnarled, and she smelled very strongly of lavender. Rainbow Dash insisted she’d only put a single drop of lavender oil in the bathwater.
“What do you consider to be a ‘drop,’ Dash?” Twilight asked, smirking.
Flustered, Rainbow Dash made some vague gestures with her hooves. “You know, just… a little bit! Just a drop!”
“So… half the container?”
“No! Only, like, a quarter…”
Twilight snickered, and Fluttershy sniffed one of her still-damp wings. “It’s okay, Rainbow Dash. I really do love this scent.”
For the first time in ages, Fluttershy was looking and feeling decidedly decent. The steamy water had loosened her unused vocal chords, as well. She wouldn’t have admitted it, but knowing that others were in the cottage with her was actually a comforting thought.
Not only had Twilight and Rainbow Dash cleaned the living room, the kitchen had been given a thorough scrubbing, and some apple-oat muffins were baking in the oven. Her cottage felt warmer and better cared-for than it had in a long time. “I can’t begin to thank you girls enough for all your help--” Fluttershy began, but Twilight waved her words away.
“It’s no problem, Fluttershy. We’re just…” she paused, then changed her mind. “Well. We’re glad to help. And we’re always here for you, okay? In fact…” Her purple eyes caught Dash’s in a meaningful glance. “We think Rainbow Dash should stay with you for a bit. Until you’re feeling better.”
Rainbow Dash, who was reclining on the sofa, looked to Fluttershy. Her mouth was set in a line of anxiety, betraying her lighthearted tone. “What do you think, Fluttershy?”
Before she could protest, the oven’s timer jingled. “Let’s talk about it over some nice hot muffins, okay?” Twilight said over her shoulder, already halfway to the kitchen.
“Don’t worry, I won’t, y’know, treat you like a baby or anything,” Dash said sheepishly, sitting up to look Fluttershy in the eye. “Just help you out a little. It’ll be like an extended sleepover!”
Twilight came trotting back out with a plate full of steaming muffins floating in front of her, nervously glancing from Fluttershy to Rainbow Dash. The three stood in silence while Fluttershy stared at her hooves.
Finally, she spoke. “Well, um, okay.” She pawed at the floor with one nervous hoof. “But only for a few days. I don’t want to be any more of a bother to you than I already have been.” Fluttershy looked shyly up at Dash through her eyelashes.
The invisible breath Twilight and Dash had been holding sighed free, and Twilight magicked Fluttershy’s tea table nearer to the couch. The plate of muffins settled carefully onto its freshly-cleaned surface.
Dash grinned hugely and visibly became less tense. “Awesome! It’s no problem, don’t you worry your pretty yellow head over it.” She leaned back against the sofa and rested her hind legs on the edge of the little table, jarring the plate of cooling muffins. “Wow, we thought we’d have to fight you a bit for sure, but this makes things loads easier. Twilight said we might have to warn you about drmcbmghph--!”
Apple-oat crumbs rolled onto the floor as a muffin lodged itself firmly in Rainbow Dash’s gabbering face, and Fluttershy flinched in surprise. A pink aura glowed around the muffin, dissipating as the muffin met its mandibular demise. “Ha-ha! Good one, Rainbow Dash!” Twilight laughed forcibly, picking up another muffin with her magic and hovering it before Fluttershy. “Here, try one of the muffins!”
She wasn’t at the top of her game, sure, but Fluttershy was no fool. Frowning, she took the muffin out of the air and calmly put it back on the table. “Warn me about what, Twilight?”
Twilight looked daggers at Dash, who threw back a look of cool indifference. Turning to Fluttershy, Twilight said, “Oh, well, I didn’t want to give you anything else to worry about. It’s really nothing, I swear.”
“Twilight,” Fluttershy said softly. “Please tell me.”
It was hard for anypony to resist Fluttershy’s gentle politeness, pony royalty or not. It was also so hard to resist that wide-eyed, pleading look on her face.
Twilight gritted her teeth, hesitated, and then relented. “Okayokayokay, I’ll tell you.” She took a deep breath. “So… you know how Discord is… usually in Canterlot?”
Though she flinched at the mention of her ex-friend, Fluttershy nodded and took a little bite of her muffin in an effort to appear casual.
“Well, right now, he’s sort of… not. He was under strict orders by Celestia to stay put and to report to her before and after going anywhere, giving her a timeframe and reason for leaving, but… he hasn’t been seen for at least two hours. He just disappeared.”
Fluttershy’s tone was cold. “Well… good.”
Twilight gaped at her. “No, not good at all! We were worried that in your, um, vulnerable state, he could really…” She trailed off, not wanting to say what all three ponies were thinking.
“There’s nothing he could do to hurt me worse than he already has,” Fluttershy said. Her eyes were filling with tears again. “And he knows I don’t want to see him.”
Dash and Twilight shared a worried glance. “That might not be enough to dissuade him.” Twilight put a comforting hoof around Fluttershy’s shoulders. “Celestia told me he’s been writing you letters.”
Fluttershy buried her face in her hooves and nodded.
Rainbow Dash leapt from the couch to her hurting friend’s side. “What did that jerk say to you?” She hissed, practically spitting fire.
With a whimper, Fluttershy said, “I don’t know. I never opened any of the letters.” She kept her eyes averted from Rainbow Dash’s furious gaze. “I couldn’t bring myself to throw them out, so they’re all in the kitchen under the sink…”
Dash was poised to race off to the kitchen, but she halted mid-air when Twilight spoke. “You can read them when you’re ready. Or never read them at all. It’s your decision.”
Fluttershy sniffled and gave Twilight a weak, appreciative smile. “That’s what I was planning on doing, but… why didn’t you want to tell me about Discord’s disappearance?”
“We didn’t want to alarm you. His magic hasn’t been detected anywhere in Ponyville, but we don’t want to leave it up to chance… and, quite honestly, someone should be here to watch out for you in general.”
“Like with life stuff,” Dash chimed in. “I won’t let your house get that messed up again, all right?” She winked at Fluttershy, who blushed and nodded, wiping a residual tear from her eye.
“Thank you, girls. I’m really sorry for causing you all this trouble.”
Rainbow Dash scoffed. “Please. It’s not your fault there’s a deranged spirit of chaos on the loose.”
“It really isn’t,” Twilight hastened to add.
Fluttershy made a mental note of how quickly Twilight has spoken, but she didn’t protest. She watched as the barely-nibbled muffin glowed and sat itself back on the plate with the rest. Twilight walked the plate back into the kitchen, and upon returning, she addressed Fluttershy first.
“Before I go, I’m going to put a magic-neutralization spell on your cottage-- if that’s all right with you. It will prevent any magic from working within its walls. If Discord shows up, he won’t be able to get through. Granted,” she went on, “neither will I or any unicorns or alicorns, but I’ll disable it when I come back to Ponyville.”
Rainbow Dash’s ears perked up. “You didn’t mention you’d be out of town, Twilight.”
Her face grim, Twilight said, “Celestia and I are going to track Discord down. Wherever he is, he can’t be up to any good.”
Fluttershy felt her eyes stinging with tears again, and she flittered gently to the window behind the sofa, her forelegs resting on the back. The view was right out into the ominous and leaf-barren Everfree Forest. This time of year, it created a skyline brimming with silhouettes of craggy trees, reaching into the cloudless night like gnarled claws. If she refocused her eyes to spare herself the frightening sight, Fluttershy would have seen the dim reflection of a worried pink-maned pegasus-- but she didn’t want to see that, either. She knew she wasn’t a pony with the strongest constitution, but she was growing weary of her friends seeing her as so utterly helpless.
She willed her tears back. Stiffly, she asked, “You’re sure all this is really necessary?”
“It’s just a precaution,” Twilight replied.
Fluttershy looked over at Rainbow Dash, who shifted uncomfortably in place. “Honestly, I thought it was a bit much. I mean, he’s a pain in the flank, but everyone keeps saying that he’s nowhere near Ponyville.” Fluttershy looked back out toward the forest. Dash went on: “We’re just worried that once Twilight leaves, he’ll track her magic and head over here. It’s a just-in-case sorta deal.”
“A precaution,” Twilight repeated.
“One,” said a silky-smooth voice behind them, “that you really should have taken sooner.”