//------------------------------//
// Rainbows, Dances and Pretty Butterflies 
// Story: Portals: Paradox (Book 2 in the Portals Series) 
// by The Derpy Doctor 
//------------------------------//

	Kevin began on his examination on Fluttershy. “Someday, you will have more friends than you can count.”
Fluttershy moved away. This colt was very confidence evoking, however he knew her name before she knew his and was afraid to ask how.
Kevin shrugged. There was no way to earn her trust today. He would have to do it over a long period of time.

Kevin awoke to another day on Cloudsdale. He thought on how long he would be here. He wanted to get back home to Ponyville. After this one night, he already missed his best friend.

Fluttershy woke up to another day on Cloudsdale. She didn’t know the colt that stood in front of her yesterday, nor why he knew her name. She knew one thing, however. He was nice to her and she liked him. She liked him more than anything she had ever liked. This was a different feeling. This feeling was as if someone were pulling on her heart. As if the two bullies that had made fun of her the other day were stringing threads through her heart and tugging it towards the colt that sat by her. What was the name? Kevlar? maybe his cutie mark was working on bullet-proof vests or something. Maybe that was that weird name. Either way, Fluttershy liked the colt in mind. Fluttershy didn’t know it yet, but she loved the colt and that colt had somepony else in mind.

Kevin thought about his best friend. After taking care of her for two weeks, he had gotten very fond of her.
Fluttershy stepped towards the arena. it was her first full day of flight camp and she had been bullied yesterday. She had no intention of 	being bullied today so instead of attempting to make friends, she hid behind her mane in hope that nopony would see her.

Kevin caught up with Rainbow Dash. She was Fluttershy’s best friend. Kevin tried to ask her how she might help Fluttershy.
As Kevin approached Rainbow, he started to notice some very different approaches.
“Rainbow Dash? What’s wrong?” Kevin began to question.
Rainbow Dash shrugged. “I think there’s just something wrong.”
Rainbow was right, though. As the two of them approached the field, a very bad situation was brought before their eyes. Fluttershy was being teased relentlessly by the only two pegasi that really could fly (except for Rainbow Dash). Kevin recognized this, though. This was the 	same setup as an episode the he saw. Soon, Rainbow Dash would dive in there and save her. Kevin turned to his idol and then gestured her to go and fix the situation.
“What?” Rainbow asked.
“Do you wanna help?” Kevin asked.
“No!” Rainbow said stomping her hoof on the ground.
Kevin was confused. Weren’t they friends at flight camp? Kevin walked over to her.
“Why not?” Kevin peratined.
“If you are to survive here at flight camp, you need to stay alone and not help to injure or help a situation.
“But Rainbow, she’s your friend,” Kevin started.
He gave up and blurted, “You don’t know it yet, but you’ll both get your cutie marks from this.”
This was a little bit of a spoiler for Rainbow Dash. The reasoning for telling her this might bend around some sort of paradox just by telling her this. Regardless, though this is how Rainbow Dash gets her cutie mark and she needed to get down there, now. Rainbow Dash skeptically made her way over to the two stallions and the mare quaking on the ground. Rainbow Dash spoke inaudibly from the platform that Kevin stood on.
The conversation went on for several moments before the first words that could even remotely be heard rang through Kevin’s ears.
“What do you have in mind?!” came the clear voice of Rainbow Dash. Kevin smiled wide.

Twilight ran around her library. Pinkie had stumbled in and declared very audibly that her Pinkie sense was acting up and that it was something she never felt before. Twilight could only guess with all of the time she had spent hanging around the doctor the one thing that this could mean: Kevin had created a paradox. Pinkie’s eyes dilated and then came back to their normal size.
“There it is again!” Pinkie exclaimed.
Given that Kevin had went into the past and that this hadn’t occurred before, it was likely that Pinkie’s sense was saying that much. Pinkie confirmed it when she was asked
“Well then,” Twilight examined, “it looks like we’re going to have to go on an adventure with one of our friends.” Twilight charged out of the newly built library. The Castle of Friendship stood high no farther than a block from there. Twilight tried her luck on the inside of the 	Everfree Forest. He had to be there. The stallion that she looked for had to be close by. He never moved out of her immediate reach. He was there. He had to be.

“Well!” started the eldest son.
“Well what?!” answered the elder to the younger.
“Well, did you or did you not see the pony?”
“I saw him,” said the elder.
“What are we going to do about that then?” said the younger.
“We are not doing anything. We are going to tell our friend about it, grab what was settled as ours at the funeral and you and I will go ahead and move to a bigger house,” declared the eldest. This wasn’t their battle. They didn’t care about what they saw at the funeral. They didn’t care about the thing that they dare not speak of in public. A friend of theirs did, though. He would very much like to know. Maybe there was money in it. Maybe he would pay them a hefty price for him. Any chance he got to lower any amount of their population by even the smallest amount was the sweetest nectar. Each of them turned to the other and began to think about what the other will do with his share of their parent’s money. Their parents had died. They might as well get a little bit more money doing something that would require them dead while they now could.

Kevin stood by the sidelines of the track. Rainbow Dash, Hooves and Dumbbell lined up at the starting line. As this was against school rules, each of them refused to tell the teachers. Fluttershy sat on the cloud directly in front of the track. She held the flag in her mouth and prepared to wave it. Rainbow prepped on the starting line as Fluttershy lifted up the checker flag. Kevin witnessed the flag drop and the fillies jump for the sky. Everything fell into place just like the television episode. Rainbow Dash performed her first sonic Rainboom and everyone in the whole of flight school saw the entirety of Rainbow Dash’s earning of a cutie mark. Now, Kevin was there. He was present for this great event: the cause of everypony that he admired: his very role-models biggest moment in all of their lives. And Kevin was the cause of it.
Right now was a good time to be him.
Rainbow Dash crossed the finish line first. Then came Dumbbell. Hooves never crossed. He was still stuck in a cloud. Rainbow Dash flipped her mane before declaring herself winner.
“I won!” Rainbow Dash called from beside the cloud that held up the finish line, “I won! I can’t believe I did it!”
“You also performed a perfect Sonic Rainboom,” Kevin finished declaring to her.
“Yeah, that too,” Rainbow beamed and blushed. She really loved the attention. “But still, I won! I can hardly believe it!”
“You probably shouldn’t,” came the upset and quite annoying voice from behind us, “You cheated!” he exclaimed.
Kevin shrugged. It was all too likely that he would be in denial over that. He seemed too in denial in the sonic rainboom episode. Even after he had saw one for himself he refused to believe one existed.
Kevin, being his own saint walked over to defend Rainbow’s place.
“She didn’t cheat! She participated in the event same as you! And…”
“Pardon!” Kevin was then interrupted by the instructor. Apparently it was that time already. They were all going to get it, now. It was the 	second day of flight camp and they had already broke the rules declaring that nopony was supposed to race unless the instructor commanded them to.
“What’s happening here?” He demanded.
Silence.
“Alright, well whatever it is, you all owe me 100 laps! Starting now!”
This was the same judgmental, mean, grey instructor that assumed Kevin was up to something bad when he first arrived. His butt-chin shined in the bright sunlight. That was what they called it on Earth anyways.
Glumly, Kevin brought himself over to the large arena where everypony seemed to do their own laps. Kevin flapped his wings just fast enough to get himself off the ground. That even was farther than many ponies other than him could fly. He flapped in several attempts getting himself to fly about two feet before stopping. He did this several times until he made an entire lap. That was when he gave up. He would never make it all the way around this track one hundred times. Three ponies flew right past him as he tried flapping his wings and running just like the other flightless pegasi did. Of course, since he was at a farther practice than the other pegasi were, his flapping got him farther into the lead. He lapped several ponies and got to a very good position. He got fourth overall in class.
There was one member of the class that he wasn’t able to compare to. Fluttershy. She still was down on earth somewhere. Maybe he could find her if he went.
The instructor was speaking some gibberish about some big dance or something or other. That wasn’t important right now, though. Kevin had to see the pony that needed him so that later, he could return to someone he liked even more.

“Fluttershy!” Kevin shouted. Where could that pony be? it wasn’t as if she was honestly that hard to see and it wasn’t as if she didn’t have animal friends now to tell her about his visit.

Fluttershy nestled with her new friends. Although she didn’t really have any friends up in the clouds, she had friends down here. Her friends loved her and wanted to be around her. These were her greatest companions. Fluttershy watched as all the animals ate and attempted to share their food with her. Fluttershy accepted the food and returned them several items of her own to compensate. This was a great day for the yellow mare.
A voice called for her. The voice comforted her. It made her feel that whatever those bullies up in Cloudsdale had forgotten her. It wasn’t that that seemed a logical hypothesis. His voice just warmed up the part of her that was recently left cold.

Kevin dipped below the trees. She had obviously made several animal friends down there. Many of which would be below the trees.

Fluttershy came to the clearing where she heard the voice. “Kevlar” would be there. He had a strange name and she wasn’t very sure if he’d be there.
As she reached the clearing, a very bad feeling washed over her.
Was she in the right place? Where was Kevin? He would hurt her, would he? Why was her stomach turning?
These questions filled the shy mare’s thoughts as started to lay herself on the ground so that her hooves could cover her face.
Kevin was mentally screaming for her to move. He didn’t want her to get hurt.

Hooves and Dumbbell came down from the sky.
Fluttershy looked up through her now closed hooves to see her bullies. She whimpered at the sight.
Kevin ran towards the scene. This can only end one way.

“So you really can’t fly,” Hooves acknowledged.
Fluttershy didn’t respond.
“What are you even doing down here?” Dumbbell pitched his argument.
Fluttershy continued her spot-on imitation of a tree.
Hooves and Dumbbell continued their attack.
“What do you have on your sides, huh?”
Both hooves and Dumbbell moved to the side of Fluttershy to get a better look: noticing that her cutie mark was butterflies. Each of them burst out laughing.
“Your cutie mark is butterflies?!” screamed Hooves from between gasps of air from laughing too much.
Kevin ran to the now crying mare’s side in defense.
“What are you here for?!” Kevin questioned.
“We were sent here to come and get you. We are the only ones that can get you back up to the cloud home,” Dumbbell exposed.
It was true. Neither of the two fillies could get themselves up to the cloud-home.
Kevin sat by Fluttershy.
“If that is true, then why do you need to make fun of her for her cutie mark?”
“Because what’s the harm in having a little fun while we can?”
Kevin stood unamused.
Each of the foals got ready to attack the mare.
“If you are so bent on making somepony miserable, then do it on me!” Kevin shouted stepping forward stomping hoof on the ground.
Dumbbell moved his head back in surprise. Who’d have thought that he would give up all the opportunities not to be made fun of for the opportunities to be teased.
Regardless, they were never going to stop at someone who was literally asking for it.
Kevin stood still beside the quaking mare as the two bullies cracked their meaningless jokes. Kevin didn’t listen; he had what friends he needed.

Fluttershy raised her head from under her hooves and looked up at the white pegasus. He beamed down at her. Fluttershy felt just as uncomfortable being around the teasing even if it were somepony else. However, the fact that he would give himself the torture of their words for her made everything better. Fluttershy gave Kevin back the smile. Kevin stood at the still shaking mare’s side as Fluttershy completed her thoughts on her new friend.