The sun rose on the beautiful eastern sky of Equestria. Fluttershy’s eyes opened gently as the light of the new day
shone through her window. Fluttershy yawned and rubbed her eyes. As she got out of bed Angel moved positions to not be further disturbed by Fluttershy’s awakening. Fluttershy unconsciously headed out of her room’s door as she had done every day. She walked into the bathroom and started to brush her hair with her eyes only partly open, once her hair was sufficient, she headed out the bathroom door and was going down the stairs before she had realized she was not in her own home, she was still living at Rainbow Dash’s house. She looked around nervously. She hadn’t waken up anywhere but her own cottage in an extremely long time. She retreated into a defensive stance until she saw one of her bird cages hanging from the ceiling and she remembered the wonderful thing that Rainbow Dash had done for her. Fluttershy decided that she had to repay the kindness that she had been given. Fluttershy walked into the kitchen with high spirits. After making some nice apple cinnamon oatmeal she was ready to go. Fluttershy had planned to spend the day helping all the little animals who were chased out of their homes. She wrote a note for Rainbow Dash and left it next to the oatmeal and flew out of the door and back to the ground.
Rainbow Dash was spread across her bed messily with the cloud blanket half on the bed and half on the floor. She sat up, her hair extremely messy. Rainbow Dash threw the blanket off of her and onto a random spot on the floor and headed out her own door. She stopped and smelled the air. Was someone cooking? Oh right, she had forgotten about Fluttershy. She smiled knowing that she wouldn’t have to make her own breakfast this morning. She trotted downstairs and into the kitchen “hey Fluttershy whatcha mak-,” Rainbow Dash looked around, where was Fluttershy? Rainbow Dash sat down and saw the oatmeal on the table with the note. Rainbow Picked up the note and read it.
Dear Rainbow Dash,
I really hope you enjoy your oatmeal that I made for you. In case you were wondering it is apple cinnamon. I have gone to spend time with all the little animals that have become homeless from the big nasty fire. If you need me I will be at the entrance to Ponyville that is near my own home.
Love, Fluttershy
Rainbow Dash stared at the ‘Love, Fluttershy’ part for a moment then shook her head and stuffed her face into the oatmeal. It was cold. “AH! Fluttershy! When did you make this, at the break of dawn!?” She sighed, and started to eat it anyway. It was much better than anything she’d make herself anyway. A loud knock was heard on the door. Rainbow’s face popped out of the oatmeal bowl with oatmeal covering her face. She went to answer the door. A large male pegasus was standing at her door with a red fire pony hat on,
“uhm, does miss Rainbow Dash live here.” Rainbow Dash smiled,
“that would be none other than me.” She smirked as she pointed to herself. The fire pony laughed quietly. Rainbow Dash looked confused, she looked into a mirror that was hung by the door and saw the oatmeal all over her face and her bedhead still full force. Her eyes got large and she quickly straightened her hair up with her hoof and wiped the oatmeal off her face. She looked back at the fire pony and restated “I am Rainbow Dash.” The fire pony nodded and got straight to business.
“Are you the pony that did the sonic rainboom at the Cloudsdale best young flyers competition?” Rainbow Dash smiled,
“what’s it to you? Looking for an autograph?” The fire pony was not amused and had a straight face on.
“No, we need your help, since you are the only pony able to do the sonic rainboom, you can fly fast enough to gather enough clouds to make it rain over the forest fire in time.” Rainbow Dash sighed, and then looked up with a confident look on her face,
“of course I’ll go get your clouds, as the fastest flyer in Equestria I should help fellow ponies in need.” The fire pony rolled his eyes and gave Rainbow Dash a large harness that is used to catch a thunderstorm of clouds at once. Rainbow Dash chuckled,
“a-are you sure you are going to need that many clouds?” Judging from the size of the net that was attached and folded up behind the harness, Rainbow Dash didn’t think that she could carry all of those clouds it looked as if the fire ponies really needed the help. The fire pony nodded
“yes, we need a full fledge storm, the forest is taking heavy damage, we have almost contained the fire but we are running out of water from the drought. If you don’t hurry, the fire will reach your friend’s cottage and it will burn, and after that, all of Ponyville.” At first Rainbow Dash gulped, but then became confident “I’ll get your clouds!” She put on the harness and dashed off towards the ocean. As she was flying she became nervous, after all the entire town was resting on her shoulders.
After about an hour of Rainbow Dash flying non-stop, she had remembered what Twilight Sparkle had said during her and Applejack’s race, to pace herself. Rainbow Dash needed the energy to pull the large cloud she knew that she had to carry after finally reaching it. She had finally found a large thunderstorm that was heading in the opposite direction of Ponyville. She quickly started gathering the clouds into the harness by spinning around the cloud and letting the net that was connected to the back of the harness deploy, the net was getting progressively heavier and she was getting progressively slower. Rainbow Dash bit her lip as her muscles grew tight from the weight that she was carrying. Finally she had gathered enough clouds to put out the fire, the large net that had been attached to the harness was completely full and a large thundercloud was coming out the sides. She pulled it in the direction of Ponyville, which was a considerable distance away from where she had been able to collect these clouds. All the activity she was doing was taking its toll on her. The clouds moved slowly at a few miles per hour, she would never make it in time. Images of Fluttershy flashed into her head, Fluttershy laughing, smiling, being nervous, then finally Fluttershy crying. Rainbow Dash gritted her teeth and pulled harder. The clouds that were following her were slowly picking up speed. Faster and faster until she had reached a speed that she felt comfortable enough that she would make it in time. Rainbow Dash’s body fought and fought to pull the clouds. More images of the fire burning down Fluttershy’s cottage with Fluttershy sitting in front of it, Fluttershy looked at Rainbow Dash through her vision and lipped the words “why Rainbow Dash, why?” Rainbow Dash could never let that happen, she could never let poor Fluttershy down, she picked up even more speed. At last an image of Fluttershy’s smile from the night before lit a spark in Rainbow Dash’s heart as she flew through small clouds that were in her way an a every accelerating pace, a cone formed around Rainbow Dash.
Boom.
A rainbow explosion erupted around Rainbow Dash as she flew towards Ponyville with the power of the sonic rainboom behind her. Rainbow Dash didn’t look back, she had no time to be excited about her accomplishing yet another sonic rainboom, she had word to do. Rainbow Dash had now done the fabled sonic rainboom three times now. Once, to win a contest and earn her cutie mark. Second, to save a friend’s life. Third, to see Fluttershy’s smiling face.
It only took mere minutes to reach the Everfree forest. The fire ponies rushed out and took the clouds from her. As the rainbow that was trailing Rainbow Dash faded, so did Rainbow Dash’s vision. The trip had taken a physical toll on Rainbow Dash and her body pushed itself way past its limits, but she had made it in time, she could now let go and feel secure in the fact that she had saved Fluttershy from tears. The image of Fluttershy smiling in front of her cottage appeared in Rainbow Dash’s mind, the Fluttershy lipped out the words “Thank you Rainbow Dash, you are the greatest, I lo-.” The vision broke as Rainbow Dash fell to the forest floor right over Zecora’s hut. Rainbow Dash burst through the roof of the hut and fell into a cabinet of potions that Zecora had kept in stock.
“My oh my, what is this here? This pony has given me great fear! She has been affected by a potion curse. A potion cure she does thirst. It also appears she is greatly harmed. By a kind pony she surely has been charmed!”
Fluttershy was caring for a few animals on the outskirts of town when she saw it, the sonic rainboom’s shockwave blasting over Ponyville. Fluttershy eyes got wide, even though this was the third time she had seen it, it was the most beautiful thing she had ever seen. Wait, what could Rainbow Dash be doing that caused the sonic rainboom? The only other times she had done it wa-.
“Oh my gosh did you see that Fluttershy!?”
Pinkie Pie jumped from out of the bushes, Fluttershy squeaked in terror.
“I was just following you work on my ninja skills when boom! And kapow! Sonic rainboom! I wonder what Rainbow Dash could be doing? I wonder if she is in danger.” Pinkie Pie stopped talking and gasped “oh no we gotta help her!”
Pinkie rushed off in the opposite direction. Fluttershy stared at Pinkie Pie as she bounced off quickly. She hadn’t gotten a word out, what a crazy pony, however crazy she was Pinkie Pie was right, what was she going to do? Fluttershy frantically looked around for the trail of rainbow. She sat and waited, hoping for something to appear on the horizon in the direction the initial blast had come from. After around ten minutes, a small rainbow was soaring towards her with a large thundercloud following it. “Rainbow Dash!” Fluttershy stated amazed that Rainbow Dash had such power to carry such a thing. The Rainbow faded over the Everfree forest and a small blue dot was easily seen falling. Fluttershy gasped and ran towards the forest. The same fire pony that was guarding near her house was standing in Fluttershy’s way.
“Miss, I cannot allow you to go through here right now, the fires are still going and it is very dangerous.” Fluttershy bit her lip and looked around, trying to think of a way to get past the large pony. She looked at the pony and realized that he was an earth pony.
“I-I’m sorry m-my friend is in danger and I have to go!” Fluttershy took off and flew over the fire pony’s head.
“Hey!” The fire pony yelled at Fluttershy as he started to chase her “get back here I can’t allow you to go through!” A pegasus walked up to the fire pony and they started to talk to each other. The talk was inaudible to Fluttershy, she stopped knowing that she could not out fly anypony, Fluttershy was probably the slowest flyer in Equestria. The fire pegasus looked up at Fluttershy and back at the other earth fire pony. The earth nodded and waved at Fluttershy,
“it is okay you can go through I have reports that we have gotten the rain on the fire that we desperately needed which is thanks to your friend, it is safe now. Once you find her you can bring her back to your little home too!” The fire pony started to walk in the direction of the fire. Fluttershy smiled knowing that she wasn’t in any trouble and she could go help Rainbow Dash without any conflict. ‘First things first.’ Fluttershy thought to herself. She flew home to her cottage and picked up basic first aid supplies such as bandages and alcohol. After getting those items and putting them into her saddlebag, she headed out of her door. There was no time to appreciate her home, which would have to be saved another time. Fluttershy ran head first into the Everfree forest. She kept running until after a few minutes of running she realized exactly what she was doing. Fluttershy’s knees caved in and she started to shake. The image of the sonic rainboom flashed into her eyes, then the image of the cyan dot falling into the center of the forest. She stopped and realized that Rainbow Dash had fallen near where Zecora lived. Fluttershy knew the location of Zecora’s hut from above because she had to consult the zebra many times in the past; sometimes she delivered special herbs that Fluttershy grew in her garden. Fluttershy flew up into the air and flew straight to Zecora’s hut. The hole in the roof was visible from the sky. Fluttershy quickly flew down and knocked on Zecora’s door, the zebra quickly answered.