The wind continued to blast on her face as she slid down this slope. With no guard rails and the slope being so smooth, all she could do was scream in terror as her speed increased to falling levels.
All Fluttershy could see was dark clouds in this dark world. She could hear slowed down distorted laughter coming from all of her surroundings. They were fillies and colts laughing at her, and there were dozens of them.
The slope suddenly took a sharp curve upward, launching her momentum in the air. The world was so slow to her while airborne. It was as if the world wanted her to hear every single detail in their laughter just before she hit the ground of flat cloud, face first.
Fluttershy wanted nothing more than to just lay there and let her whimpering drown out the laughter. She covered her head as much as she could to block out the sounds. It felt like the laughter would rip her ears apart if they continued it long enough.
But none of that laughter could compare to the sudden booming sound that suddenly presented itself in front of her. Despite being on clouds, it was the sound of a silhouette's hoof step that frightened her out of that position. The laughter however had died out. Hesitant, she looked up at the silhouette that towered over her.
Something wasn’t right. The silhouette still looked like Rainbow Dash just like every other time, but this time, something changed. It was smaller like a filly, but she could feel some sort of empty atmospheric aura surrounding this faceless figure of Rainbow Dash. Fluttershy’s ears dropped as she looked at that face. What happened next made her very next heartbeat echo across the world.
“Why didn’t you tell me?” the silhouette had spoken, for the very first time.
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Fluttershy’s eyes flicked open as she let out a gasp for breath. It was as if her lungs suffocated from lack of oxygen. Pushing the covers off of her, she put a hoof to her chest while panting a few times. She wasn’t sure if it was the image, or the voice of that dream that made her feel this way. But it was feeling like the latter.
“T-that voice… i-it sounded so… real…” Just rethinking that moment increased her heart rate to aching levels. Staring up at the ceiling, the only thing that gave her comfort was that she didn’t scream and scare all the animals when she woke up.
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Fluttershy stared into her reflection in the mirror as she combed the bed mane out of her hair. Today, she and Rainbow Dash were gonna be taking a trip to Winsome Falls together. If they were gonna be flying there, the trip would last before nightfall. And knowing Rainbow Dash, that’s probably what they’ll be doing.
Fluttershy placed the brush down on the counter, scooping a hoofful of water and splashed it in her face, giving a few rubs in the process. After wiping the sleep out of her eyes, she sighed, thinking about that trip. If they were going to fly there, she wouldn’t have that much time to spend with Rainbow Dash. And for some reason, she just wanted this trip to last.
Fluttershy extended her wings out, bending them back and forth to test them out. After a quick stretch, she moved her left wing in front of her.
Her wings didn’t feel like they had any problems, but for some reason she just felt like preening them anyway. She brought it to her mouth to adjust the feathers. She could make them nice and clean, but when it came to Rainbow Dash, making sure they were adjusted for flight was more important.
Suddenly, the thought of just screwing up her preening completely crossed her mind. If they didn’t fly, the trip would last far longer, and she could have more time with Rainbow Dash. All she’d have to do was give an excuse for why she couldn’t fly.
“No!” Fluttershy shook her head and dunked it under the sink water with a splash. Breathing hard bubbles underwater, she forced any selfish thoughts out of her mind. When she ran out of breath, she released her head from the water, causing excess water to spray behind her.
Fluttershy shook her head again to dry her face. “I can’t be thinking like that!” she said to herself. “I would only be slowing her down. Rainbow Dash would be mad, and then I would really be a bad friend!”
Fluttershy turned herself away from the sink to start heading out. But she stopped and turned around when something crossed her mind. “B-but, I can’t fly as fast as her, so I would already be slowing her down. But not if I don’t go with her...” She turned back to the door. “But she wants me to go! If I don’t go, it would be worse than slowing her down no matter how slow I am.” Back to the sink. “But what about what Nurse Redheart said? What if… Ahh!”
Fluttershy clenched her hooves tightly against her head and whined in agony. It was like her mind had two sides that were attacking each other constantly, one wanting to do what she wanted, and one wanting her to be a good friend. They were both trying to find solutions, but couldn’t make up what was better in the end.
“Nnngh… ahh…” Her head throbbed in pain as she panted for breath. Sweat ran down her features as she gazed into her reflection in the mirror. Only one question ran through her mind.
“What should I do?” she questioned herself with tearful eyes, hoping her reflection would answer. “Celestia… what should I do?” The more she gazed into her own eyes, the more empty she felt. She closed her eyes to try and forget these problems. If only she could do that, things would go back to normal. But they kept coming back.
And then, when she reopened her eyes, she saw that her reflection… had changed. She released a small gasp noticing that her eyes had changed into a magenta color.
”Why didn’t you tell me?” the reflection spoke to her, in Rainbow Dash’s voice.
Fluttershy could only squeak and turn tail from her reflection. The very thought of such illusions tormenting her mind increased her heart rate to pounding levels. To wipe these illusions from her mind, she proceeded with her morning chores around the cottage.
Whatever that dream was, it certainly wasn’t normal. She really wished she knew what this Rainbow Dash silhouette meant. But whatever it was, she knew what she had to do now.
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With food pens filled, gardens cleansed, and fences secured, Fluttershy was ready.
Or at least, that’s what she wanted to believe. Some of the animals around her cottage were starting to leave her because of their lack of attention. And Fluttershy didn’t have the courage, or reasons to stop them.
It was times like these where she had to face the fact that she couldn’t take care of so many animals under these conditions. The pleasure of hoarding so many critters were finally taking its toll. For all she knew, most of the animals could find a better home than hers right now. At this point, all she could really provide them with was food and shelter. The joy and happiness was just about gone.
But for those that did stay, Fluttershy left them with what they needed while she was away. After finishing her packing, she left her cottage and walked down her path. Her leaving felt so shallow and sad. As she walked, she really wondered if she should say anything to them.
One of the squirrels did come up to her earlier and asked what was wrong, but she couldn’t answer. The squirrel just shrugged his shoulders and left. If it was Angel, he would pursue the answer, even if he had to be violent. He may have been rough at times, but he really cared.
“Hey, Fluttershy!” The voice of four familiar voices speaking at once disturbed Fluttershy’s thoughts. In front of her were Twilight, Rarity, Applejack, and Pinkie Pie, along with what looked like one of her jackalopes in between Pinkie and Applejack.
"We found this little critter down by my barn," Applejack spoke as she moved her hoof away from the jackalope.
"We figured this little darling must've been one of yours who had gotten loose," Rarity spoke next.
"It took a likin' ta my farm's harvest, but luckily Twi, Pinkie, and Rarity were here ta help me catch the little rascal... ta return ta you of course." Applejack let out a little chuckle before she looked at the jackalope. Applejack and her family didn't get along so well with most of the animals at times and constantly got into fights with even some of Fluttershy's critters.
Even today, as the jackalope and Applejack glared each other down, it was clear they still could not get along. Normally Fluttershy would try and break up the tension between them. But today was different.
"He didn't get loose, I let him go." The words coming from Fluttershy grabbed everypony's attention.
"W-what?" Twilight sputtered. "But, Fluttershy, doesn't he live with you?"
Fluttershy took one look at the jackalope. After a serious twitch of his whiskers, he turned around and started hopping away. The others could only watch as he took off. "He used to,” Fluttershy responded, bringing their attention back to her. “But he’s happier without me.”
The others held their mouths agape, all except Pinkie who gasped out her shock. “An animal who’s happier without Fluttershy! Oh my gosh! Twilight!” Pinkie suddenly zipped to Twilight’s side and, much to her dismay, was pulled to Pinkie by the head. “We have to go after that bunny! This could be a new discovery!”
“Ahh! Pinkie! Waaaa-” before Twilight could protest, she was dragged off by Pinkie to make chase of the jackalope. Applejack and Rarity could only stand stunned, not sure if they were more surprised by Pinkie’s actions, or what Fluttershy said.
“I have to go now,” Fluttershy said as she spread her wings to take flight.
“Wait, Fluttershy,” Rarity called out.
“Where’re y’all goin’?” Applejack continued.
Fluttershy took a moment to go over her words before she answered. She looked back at them. “There’s something I didn’t tell Rainbow Dash.” She then looked away from them, closing her eyes as she started flying forwards. “I just wish I knew what it was,” she told them before leaving.
It sounded like they were trying to question her further after she answered, but she didn’t want to tell anymore than she had to. Anything else should be said at least with Rainbow Dash’s presence. She didn’t look back, she just kept flying, and it sounded like they weren’t attempting to follow.
It was then that Fluttershy realized something. She changed her flight path to head to Rainbow Dash’s home. They hadn’t exactly planned on where they were going to meet. If they were going to meet at her cottage, Rainbow Dash would’ve met her there already. So it was probably the cloud home or at the entrance to Winsome Woods, where they would travel through to get to Winsome Falls.
Once she was flying in the direction of Rainbow’s house, she closed her eyes to think again.
“What did she mean when she said, ‘Why didn’t you tell me’?” Fluttershy asked herself. “Maybe it was what I tried to tell her yesterday? About what I told the nurse?” She put a hoof to her chest as her heart rate increased. It was just the slip of the tongue, and she planned to tell her about that when she had the chance. But something still felt off considering what else she saw in the dream.
“Maybe I should ask her about those dreams? But what would she say?” she paused for a second, keeping her eyes closed as she thought those words. “How can I even tell her? ‘I keep seeing a dark pony that looks like you in my dreams’? I’m not sure how I can-” *Pomft!*
In the middle of her monologue, Fluttershy crashed face first into a cloud during flight. Squeaking, she pulled herself out of the cloud while a large amount of inner embarrassment filled her. Glancing around, she thanked Celestia nopony had seen that. After sighing, she continued her flight, keeping her eyes open this time.
“I really need to stop talking to myself. Rainbow Dash would be so disappointed with me.” Fluttershy shook her head and thought about one very important lesson Rainbow Dash taught her. When she said she couldn’t stress it enough, she wasn’t kidding, for Fluttershy just broke that rule today.
“Never fly with your eyes closed.”
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“Hmm?” When Fluttershy arrived at the cloud house, she found a note taped on the front door. She took it from the door and read it.
’Fluttershy, if you still want to come, meet me by the entrance. I know we didn’t plan for a time, so I’ll be waiting there, but I don’t know for how long...’
“Huh?” It was odd. The message ended abruptly, and it looked like Rainbow Dash scribbled out the rest of it.
’I really hope you come though. This would mean a lot to me. I know I was a little mad yesterday, but I want to tell you...’
It was too scribbled for Fluttershy to make out, but it looked like it was done in a hurry.
“Oh, I better hurry.” Fluttershy put the note away and flew off towards the Winsome Woods. “I don’t want to keep her waiting.”
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As Fluttershy flew through the skies, she held hope that Rainbow Dash was still waiting. She had debated on if she should hurry so that Rainbow wouldn’t have to wait much longer. But if she had done that, then she would be too tired to travel far. So she resorted in keeping her pace.
Suddenly, she heard a lightning strike from the distance. It sounded like it was coming from Winsome Woods. Tilting her head back curiously, she picked up her speed and tried to focus her vision.
Up ahead, she saw the forest entrance, but above it, she saw many clouds packed close together. She could barely make out a rainbow blur zooming back, forth, and around those clouds. Recognizing it was Rainbow Dash, she moved a little closer. When she found herself in a close enough view with enough distance between them, she stopped.
It looked like there were about five clouds. Rainbow Dash went from one to the other, doing a kick flip off of them while they shot lightning at her. One of her passes made a cloud strike another cloud and dissipate it. She flew up to the top of one of them, stomping on it twice before zipping high in the air, avoiding its lightning strike.
“Ohh…” Fluttershy was admiring the sight. It reminded her of the many other stunt shows she witnessed from Rainbow Dash. Maybe she could try cheering for her again. She saw Rainbow Dash flying back down to the cloud she was on earlier.
Rainbow Dash zoomed and blasted right through the cloud, dissipating it while a trail of rain water tailed her. She dived towards the ground, aiming for the trees. It looked like she was about to crash right through the trunk of one, until she swerved to the left and went right past it, causing the rainwater that was tailing her to pelt the side of it, creating a rainbow spray that looked like it shot from the tree.
But Rainbow Dash did make contact with another tree, kicking away from it with her hind legs. In one motion, she zoomed straight through that rainbow she created, grasped a branch with her forehooves, and used that momentum to launch herself back into the air with that rainbow trail following her.
“Ahh...” Fluttershy sighed in awe at the sight. Rainbow Dash always performed quite the show in her flight trainings, and this was no exception. She constantly trained herself to not only be the best, but look awesome while doing it. “Way to go!” Fluttershy cheered. But because of how soft her voice was, it didn’t sound like Rainbow heard.
With the rainbow trail following her, Rainbow Dash flew through one of the last three clouds, creating a hole through it along with dragging more water trails to feed the rainbow. She turned herself in a backwards loop. There were two clouds behind her, one above the other. She slammed into the higher one and pushed it rather than break a hole through it. But she pushed it towards the cloud beneath and crashed through it, creating a hole in that one.
The rainbow trail continued to follow Rainbow Dash through the hole where that cloud was punched through. She soon split the cloud she was pushing into two. One she threw to the side while the other she pushed with her. The one thrown shrunk smaller as it continued to feed the rainbow. It was falling in a simultaneous pace with her.
At the same time the thrown cloud ran out of cloud to feed the rainbow, Rainbow Dash slammed the excess cloud into the ground, causing it to dissipate with her landing on all fours solidly on the ground. The water around her from that cloud sparkled into an elegant prismatic glow. To finish her performance, she tossed her head up and gave a graceful sigh.
To say Fluttershy was astonished at the sight was a bit of an understatement. From the landing sight and above, a beautiful rainbow sparkled, flowing through the circles of both clouds. The glittering filled Fluttershy’s heart with such happiness, that all the problems in her mind were now non existent. In the bottom center of that rainbow was Rainbow Dash, the awesome… and glowing pegasus who had created such a sight.
“Woohoo!” Fluttershy cheered while clopping her hooves together. The clapping of hooves seemed to slightly startle, but grab Rainbow’s attention. Fluttershy started descending down towards her while she cheered. “Rainbow Dash, that was such a grand performance. You’re a… a… aweso-tacular!”
Rainbow Dash chuckled at Fluttershy’s attempt at praising her skills. “You might wanna work on that.” She waited until Fluttershy landed before questioning her. “So how much did you see? Did you catch when I led that wicked lightning bolt at another cloud? Ooh, how about-” Rainbow Dash suddenly stopped herself in a stutter and cleared her throat. “I mean, hey, you ready to get going?” she asked, rubbing the back of her mane.
Fluttershy was a bit confused as to why Rainbow Dash suddenly changed the subject. Usually she likes bragging about herself and her talents, and she always wanted Fluttershy to get better at cheering her on. Of course, none of her attempts could ever get better than the moment Rainbow pulled off that second Sonic Rainboom, saving Rarity’s life in the process.
But, Fluttershy smiled and nodded. “Yes, I’m ready.”
Rainbow Dash took to hovering in the air, making the hair on Fluttershy’s coat stand. “Cool!” Rainbow said while motioning her hoof to the forest.
Fluttershy wasn’t too sure of what to make of this gesture. It looked like Rainbow Dash wanted her to enter first. And the rainbow that formed over the forest was not helping the matter. Why did it look like the rainbow was presenting a portal that would lead to another world?
Fluttershy gulped down her worries. If she stood there always worrying and making assumptions, her day with Rainbow Dash would be over before it started. Slowly, she spread her wings and took to the air, but stayed in altitude within the forest’s trees.
Rainbow Dash started following soon after Fluttershy passed her. A warmth filled Fluttershy’s heart just flying with Rainbow like this. She knew Rainbow preferred flying, so she-
“You know you don’t have to fly just for me, Fluttershy,” Rainbow Dash suddenly spoke, startling Fluttershy into an itchy discomfort. “Take your time and enjoy yourself.” She motioned to the ground.
Fluttershy looked to Rainbow, wanting to stay by her side. “Oh… no, it’s not that.” She scratched her foreleg as she spoke. “I-I just prefer flying today.”
Fluttershy was able to smile weakly, but it faltered when Rainbow Dash took a closer look at her. Her eyes wandered away, trying to avoid looking into Rainbow’s eyes, but she could see that unamused look in Rainbow’s face.
And then, Rainbow suddenly flew slightly ahead, but descended her altitude until her hooves touched the ground. She just looked back up at Fluttershy while she walked.
Fluttershy couldn’t display her nervousness even more if her clenched teeth were chattering. She tried to look away from Rainbow Dash, but flying in the air without her was putting a toll on her comfort. She tried so hard to resist embarrassing herself even further, but she couldn’t help it. She wanted to travel with Rainbow Dash by her side.
Giving in to her desire, Fluttershy descended down to the ground next to Rainbow Dash. She could only stare down on the path she walked. The shame in her heart made her whimper, only being able to imagine how unamused-
Fluttershy’s thought process was interrupted when she felt something soft and strong wrap around her body. It felt like a wing. She looked to her side to see Rainbow Dash putting a light smile on her face while her wing kept a gentle yet firm grasp around Fluttershy’s body.
Fluttershy blushed while her body settled at the warm contact. The simple grasp of affection eased all her worries. It was such a wonderful feeling. If this was how her animals felt whenever she gave them affection, it was no wonder why they would grow distant. They must’ve missed it. And as her body snuggled in the embrace of these feathers, she knew she would miss it if it felt like this.
If only she could find that courage. Maybe this was what she needed. Just a moment to escape her worries and problems, a moment to clear her mind and enjoy herself. Even with all the fears clouding her visions, one thing she was certain for.
Rainbow Dash would take care of her.