To Live is to Love

by Lenora Goff

Chapter 3

The trip hadn’t been a complete waste of time, but now I was waiting. Rarity had told me that she had a plan, something that could help me out, but she wouldn’t tell me anything. There hadn’t been any real advice given, which was slightly annoying. I trusted that she wouldn’t do something completely stupid, but that didn’t make this any less of a waiting game.

It was funny, that little piece of information completely ruined my day off. I couldn’t nap, I was thinking too much about what would happen in two days. I couldn’t think of anything else to do, other than maybe practice. That wouldn’t be able to be a day-long event, I knew it. Then again, I could always keep working out until I’m able to get some sleep.

Maybe I could try to figure out a way to do the Sonic Rainboom without needing the force of gravity. That might be cool, and it would definitely be a workout. If I was going to be able to get into the Wonderbolts, I was going to have to be able to show my skills, and being able to break the sound barrier while fighting gravity would definitely be a good skill.

First, though, I just wanted to be able to do it without having to rely on it. Even I knew that there were things you had to take a little slower.

It didn’t take long for me to get to the clearing I always used, the one that I had trained for the Best Young Flier’s Competition at. The first thing I had to do was stretch my wings, they would be in for quite a workout by the end of this. This was going to be the most awesome thing I had done all day, maybe even since I was at the competition.

A Rainboom without any help, that might have been even better than the competition.

The first thing I had to do was get around fifty feet in the air. It wouldn’t be good if I ran into anypony. The next step was easy, I had to build up speed. I had to go from a complete stop to accelerating, which I quickly did. There was only one thing that was going to be a problem with this, and it was the idea of being able to break that sound barrier.

It never took me long to start to go fast, but I had to go faster. Without the aid of gravity, this was turning out to be a lot more difficult than I thought it’d be. I knew what it felt like, to get to the threshold of breaking the barrier. That was something that normally took me no time, but I was normally smart enough and used gravity to help myself out.

No pain, no gain. I had to force my wings to flap faster, even though I could already feel that they were being strained. I was able to do this, I knew my wings had the strength in them. As I continued, I started to feel it. This was the time when everything would either go really well or really horribly. I had to push myself to go faster, the push against me could be ignored. I was almost there, I could feel it.

Then I felt the slam against the wall, and the word “uh-oh” came out as I went flying through the air in the opposite direction.

That wasn’t exactly how it was supposed to go, but things happen.

Another thing that I hadn’t wanted to happen was felt when I slammed into something, and heard a grunt of pain. I didn’t have the time to figure out who it was, everything that had happened took a lot out of me and I passed out.

-Some time later-

When I awoke, I thought I’d be on the ground. Maybe, if I was lucky, somepony would have taken me to the hospital. As much as I hated those places, even I knew that it was better than doing nothing. This didn’t look like the hospital, though. I stood up, then promptly fell back down onto the couch. When I stood up again, I looked around to quickly discover where I was.

Then again, even if I hadn’t, a bunny quickly discovered that I was awake and jumped on my head. I really didn’t get why Fluttershy liked that demon-spawn so much, but maybe it only hated me.

“Oh, Angel-bunny. You shouldn’t do that.” Fluttershy seemed to appear out of nowhere, which was usually what Pinkie did, and she tried to give what I guessed was a stern look to her pet. “Now you go apologize to Rainbow.”

Next came a look, from the bunny and me, as if to ask if she was serious. A second later, Angel hopped away.

“Angel’s really sorry he did that, he normally isn’t so rude.”

I had to fight to keep myself from chuckling, or smirking, or anything that would have given away that I didn’t believe that. Perhaps I could change the subject, I needed to figure out exactly why I was here anyway. I remember that I had been training, then I went flying into the air and hit something that seemed to have been hurt by it, then I was here.

My eyes went wide, I had slammed into Fluttershy. The sound had been a little more masculine, but it was possible that I had remembered that wrong.

“I’m so, so, so sorry, Flutters.” It seemed like it was her turn to get confused, so I knew I had to explain. “I didn’t mean to run into anypony with my training, and I ran into you. Are you okay? I mean, you look okay, but still. Please forgive me, Flutters.”

She had started to chuckle partially through, and now I was confused.

“Don’t worry, Rainbow, it didn’t go anything like that. It went more like this.”

-Fluttershy flashback time!-

Alright, I knew what I needed.

Angel-bunny wanted a specific dish, and I was going to find a way to make it for him. It wouldn’t be easy, but he was worth it. The others wouldn’t understand how much he helped me. I needed carrots, and some tomatoes, and then I needed to go get some Apples. If Applejack was selling them at the stand, that would have made it easier.

After that, I would have to get a couple of cherries and some walnuts. I always had plenty of lettuce back at the house, so I didn’t have to buy that for another week. The stallion that runs the stand always seemed to love it when I come in for lettuce, he always said I was the reason he was able to continue running the stand.

Then came the loud crash, and soon I was under one of the stands.

Luckily, the mare didn’t seem to mind at first. She even let me look around before she told me that I had to get out from under it. That wasn’t embarrassing, or at least not as much as I had thought it would be, so I went back to trying to gather up the last remaining things I needed to make Angel-bunny’s meal.

It was about that time that I saw him. That wasn’t true, I barely saw him at all at first. The thing that I saw first was a pegasus, a cyan mare that looked a lot like my friend Rainbow Dash. “Oh my goodness!” I had to get over, I had to figure out what had happened.

Then I saw who was carrying her. When had Spike gotten so strong?

“Can you help me?” I heard him huffing with each word, it was obvious that he didn’t like having to carry her by himself. I might not have been able to carry her by myself, but I knew that I could at least help a little bit. I started to fly, hover might have been a better term, a couple of feet above the two of them and grabbed hold of my unconscious friend.

The meal could wait, or Angel could eat something else, I was sure he would understand. “I was hoping we could take her by your place, Fluttershy.” My help was obviously making it easier for him to talk, though that didn’t make any sense to me. “She didn’t get too injured from the fall, she hit something soft. She probably just needs a good rest.”

That’s when I finally looked down to see that Spike didn’t look so good either. He might have actually been more hurt than Rainbow, or at least he was showing it more. Despite that, he was still doing everything he could to get Rainbow to somepony who could help her.

“And after we get her there, you need to let me look at you. I just don’t know what I’d do if something happened to you that I could have done something about.”

“Nah, don’t worry about it.” I couldn’t believe it, he was turning down my help. I had to say something, I had to make sure that he stayed after we got to my cottage. Even a glance showed me that his walking seemed a little off. He made a pained expression every so often, as if walking was a chore. “Besides, I’m sure that Twilight has a book about taking care of dragons. It’ll be fine, don’t worry.”

That might have been right. It was probably for the best, it would have been almost impossible to take care of Rainbow and Spike. I still felt bad, I knew I should have been able to do something. I was a horrible friend. I didn’t know what to say, so I simply focused on trying to make sure that I helped out as much as I could.

At some point, I heard him clear his throat. “Are you alright, Fluttershy?” I blinked a couple of times, I hadn’t realized we had gotten back. “There you are, and here we are.”

Soon enough, we had sat Rainbow on the couch and Spike was slowly walking away. I knew that I should have done something, but I didn’t know what to do. The only thing I could do was make sure that I took care of Rainbow. If he was wrong, she was going to need a lot of TLC. I wasn’t going to let her down, and I wasn’t going to let this trip be for nothing.

-The present, Rainbow-

That was unbelievable.

Spike could carry me?

Another thing came to mind. I had really hurt Spike. If Fluttershy hadn’t been there, he would have had to carry me the entire way by himself. He would have done it, too, I knew him well enough to know what he would. That guy could almost put me to shame when it came to how much he cared about his friends, how he helped them out whenever he could.

Sometimes, I got lucky with who my friends were.

“Is he alright?”

I probably should have asked a few other questions first, but I had to know.

“I don’t know, I haven’t seem him in the past couple of days.”

That wasn’t good. If she didn’t know, then I would have o figure out on my own. I started to move, and that was when the second part of it hit me. “Wait, Flutters, let’s back up for a moment.” She physically backed up, and I just rolled my eyes. “How long have I been out?” I looked out, it was about dusk. If she had said what I thought she said, I had an appointment with Rarity.

“You’ve been asleep for a little over two days.” Fluttershy looked down, I could tell she wanted to say something. “It’s actually a good thing that you woke up, I actually have a date tonight.”

That was good, she probably finally told Rarity how she felt.

“Awesome. I can walk you over to Rarity’s if you’d like.” I felt bad not telling her why, but this was going to be embarrassing enough that I had gotten help with this in the first place. “Rarity said she wanted to see me in… well, it had been two days. I think she wants to have me watch her sister or something.”

I felt horrible telling that lie, but I had to.

“Oh, that’s wonderful of you.”

-Ten minutes later-

“And that’s why you don’t have cider with hay bacon.”

Fluttershy didn’t look like she enjoyed the story, but it was one of the only ones I knew. It hadn’t ended all that horribly for me, but few things did. I was pretty lucky, really.

We both looked at Rarity’s house, business, whatever would describe Carousel Boutique. “Well, here we are. Hope you have fun on your date.” I smiled over at Fluttershy, it would be good for her to finally get a date with the mare she loved. I opened the door, motioned for her to go in, and then Rarity looked at thw two of us.

“So I see the two of you decided to meet up before the date. That’s fabulous. I knew I had chosen the right pony for you, Rainbow!”

I felt faint again, then passed out.

Comments

[alexanderhunt88]

Da....what......? Wait, Rarity arranged a date between Fluttershy and Dash......
media.tumblr.com/fe95f0a29d02c887879a1120476b79ce/tumblr_inline_mfih656K1O1qd04lx.gif

Oh, I cannot wait for the next chapter

[Adjier]

Dammit Rarity... Although the circumstances couldn't be funnier.
Rainbow's response to it was acceptable. I wonder if Fluttershy was confused as well.
Let the misunderstandings and embarrassment commence! I shall feast and enjoy the sights.

[Dark Cookie]

[vesa123]

This is going to be great!

[Ignaltus]

Wow!
Spike like Rarity.
Fluttershy like Rarity.
RainbowDash have a crush by Spike.
Rarity think Fluttershy would like RainbowDash.
Rarity like Spike, or no.

[Lenora Goff]

2512725

Now that last one is a mystery that might or might not be solved through the use of lawn gnomes and packing tape.

2512342

Thanks.

2511704

The world may never know what her response is... until next chapter, then it will.

2511432

"Oh hey, I'm going on a date with Rarity"
*they get to the place*
"Rainbow, looks like you're ready for your date with Fluttershy. I knew I was right!"

[raw19]

Did...did shit just get real up in this joint?! Oh, i'm mos DEF looking forward to the next chapter!

[Innocuous]

2513111
Better words could not describe this turn of events.

[alexanderhunt88]

2512755 Too funny!

[Kickback]

Oh Faust, what is happening?

[Midnight bass]

No bacon with cider what kind of sick twisted joke is this

[panzerbrony]

2512725 trying to follow the logic and the connections in that mess and I ended up with a love train wreck and my head hurts

[FlameMist]

If she didn’t know, then I would have o figure out on my own.

to

[The Real McCoy]

Batman can't help but laugh at this.