Fluttershy Is Free

by Jordan179

Chapter 1 : Chorion

"... And then the mother butterfly lays about a hundred eggs, which is an awful lot of babies for a pony but actually isn't that many compared to some insects," Fluttershy said. "You'd imagine the eggs would be fragile, but they're not: they're protected by this hard outer shell, the chorion. We actually have this too, but in mammals it's just a soft membrane because we're in our mommies' wombs when we're developing: butterfly eggs get laid out in the open, and they need protection from the weather and things they would eat them, so they're much tougher."

Rainbow Dash was only paying marginal attention to Fluttershy's lecture on the butterfly life cycle. What she was paying attention to was Fluttershy. Specifically, the fact that Fluttershy was speaking directly to her, making eye contact, without cringing, stammering or trying to hide behind her long pink mane. She thought of saying something about this, but she knew that if she did, her friend would once again become self-conscious. She didn't want to do that -- she liked looking at and listening to Fluttershy when she wasn't being shy.

They were in an absolutely beautiful place. Rainbow Dash did not usually talk about beauty, but she could appreciate it. She loved, for instance, the serene beauty of the Earth from high above, where the air grew thin and cold and everything was spread out beneath her like a blanket of green earth and darker vegetation and glistening bodies of waters, with pony roads and towns arranged like Celestia's own play set. She loved in a different sort of way the three-dimensional colorful reality of the world flying low and fast, with everything whipping by her at speed and life become a second-to-second game of terrain awareness and dodging, nap-of-the-earth with the reward surprising the other side in the games, the penalty for failure being bruises or even broken bones.

This was another kind of beauty.

They were in an alpine meadow on the southeastern side of the Pegasus Mountains. A small waterfall descended from the heights above, splashing into a brilliant-blue tarn, pooling there before burbling away as a stream to the east, where it eventually joined the Ghastly and from there flowed through the Everfree past Ponyville, hundreds of miles northeast of here. Directly east and below was a green and pleasant meadow, with here and there a small hamlet; they were far from the railroads and the navigable rivers, and the population around these parts was sparse.

South, things became sparser. There was a road skirting the southern Pegasus, running west all the way to Applewood, and along that road were dotted Pony farms and settlements. South of that, though, the green plains faded off into browns. Far to the south, she knew, were the scrublands of the northern San Palomino Desert. There was little there to attract ponies, though some explorers and prospectors occasionally wandered in there to get into trouble.

Their little meadow was like a natural watchpost placed above all that, from which they could see the world without themselves being seen. This would be a great place for an air station, Rainbow thought, but the thought felt strangely jarring with the rest of her mood. She was glad that no one else had agreed with her, because it was so peaceful here with just 'Shy and herself.

The afternoon sun shone from the southwest, illuminating the whole scene brightly so that all the colors of the day were pure and brilliant, with just enough shadow to give a sense of solidity to what she was seeing. To the direct west and northeast of the meadow was a light forest. They were well below the treeline, and only the highest branches were stunted by cold mountain winds. On the marges of the pool here and there were bogs, above which insects hovered and small birds flitted to take them.

"Are you ... um ... are you interested in this?" Fluttershy was asking, looking a bit uncertain. Anyone but her would have been annoyed.

"What?" asked Rainbow. "Oh, no, sorry ... I was just sort of spacing out on how nice and quiet this place is. Sort of ... peaceful. Sorry, 'Shy. What you were saying was interesting."

"It is lovely here," agreed Fluttershy. "Sometimes I come here when I want to be alone ... away from even my animals." She looked guilty at that, as if her non-equine charges had first claim on her soul. "I've never shown another pony this place," she admitted, then ducked her head, letting her mane flow around forward in such a way as to cover half her face.

"This is a really cool place," said Rainbow, clapping her friend's shoulder affectionately. "I'm honored."

"Oh, I'm glad," said Fluttershy, smiling and letting more of her face peep out. "I wasn't sure you'd like it."

"No, it's really great ... it's like the swimming hole, but more awesome!" Rainbow was pretty sure Fluttershy didn't want to hear her thoughts about the military potential of the small rise upon which the two pegasi sat. "So, what were you saying?"

"Oh, um .... just that where we are now is actually around where they lay them, but of course they won't have laid them yet because they don't mate until they migrate south for the winter. They gather around the pool, and mate on the wing, and try not to get caught by the dragonflies and birds and other small predators. Though most don't like how they taste, so they're in less danger than you might imagine."

"Tough life," commented Rainbow Dash. She'd never really thought of butterflies as tough before, but then they lived in a dangerous world, where most things were bigger than them and there was an abundance of creatures which would try to eat them, if they didn't have a defense.

"They enjoy it, though," said Fluttershy. "I can feel it -- their love and happiness. Even though they only live a year or so at most, they love their lives. Makes you feel good to be around them."

"I suppose ..." said Rainbow vaguely. This was one of the many weird things about Fluttershy she accepted -- took for granted, after knowing her most of their lives -- but did not really understand, any more than she understood how Pinkie Pie could get from place to place faster than she herself could fly, even though Rainbow could never see her running to get there.

What Rainbow knew was that Fluttershy could talk to animals, and make them understand her, and understood them back in return. She also claimed that she could sense their feelings -- Rainbow wasn't sure how that worked, but she supposed it was possible, in a world which included magic. Then there was that whole strange Stare thing 'Shy could do when she got really worked up, where she'd just look at something and it would back off.

Since that had saved her own life within the last month, Rainbow Dash wasn't complaining.

They made camp in the lee of the rise. It was a good spot -- high enough above the water table that the ground was nice and dry, but not so high up that gusts of wind would carry their tent away. One thing that their stint in the militia had taught them was how to make camp. Rainbow built a small hearth out of stones, while Fluttershy gathered the wood. They had a standard-issue two-pony militia tent, large enough to sleep in with some comfort if you were buddies, but small enough to be easily portable on foot or wing.

Rainbow had plenty of time to think about how her life had changed since the start of summer. That had been -- what -- just around four months ago? So much had happened already.

It had all begun that Summer Sun Celebration, when she'd first met Twilight Sparkle.

Rainbow had felt an unusual affinity from the first for that very peculiar mare. From the moment Twilight had challenged her to clear the skies in ten seconds flat, and Rainbow had done exactly that, Rainbow had respected her. She felt they were going to be friends -- no, she'd felt as if they had somehow renewed an old friendship. Yet she was certain she'd never met the lavender mage before.

What happened next was like nothing Rainbow had ever experienced, nor expected to experience out of her wildest fantasies of heroic adventure. The return of Nightmare Moon, whom she'd always assumed to be just an old nag's tale. That tense meeting in the Library. Going into the Everfree, that haunted night that should have been day, with everything starting to get colder and colder as the Sun refused to rise. Saving Pinkie Pie and Twilight when the ledge gave way. Fighting the manticore. Those weird trees, and the weirder way Pinkie had led them to victory against them. That huge river serpent.

The creepiest part had been that strange meeting with Nightmare Moon on the far side of the bridge to the ruined castle. Though she hadn't known that during the encounter. At the time there were these three strange ponies, all dressed in black, with the leader a mare with a voice like poisoned honey, a voice that had tried to drip through Rainbow's ears into the core of her soul. She didn't know exactly how she'd managed to resist that geas -- Twilight told her later that it had been her Element of Loyalty that had given her the strength. It was only when she'd been halfway back across the gorge, after rejecting the offer, that she'd realized that she'd been facing Nightmare Moon alone, at one point as close to her as if they'd been best friends. And hadn't that thought given her a shiver then, in the foggy air over the canyon? Even though she'd never told anypony, then or later, of her fear.

Then the final weirdness, though it had been good-weird -- that confrontation in the castle, with Twilight handing out the Elements to all of them, and telling each one of them why she deserved it. Funny thing -- Rainbow would have thought she'd be jumping for joy at this ultimate recognition of her own awesomeness -- but instead she'd felt all strange and solemn, like someone being knighted in one of the old tales. And then --

Rainbow had no words to describe what wielding the Element of Loyalty had felt like. She might have said "Better than sex," and she suspected it had been. She'd need to find a stallion to match her own radical coolness before she'd know that for sure, though. Maybe someday, when she joined the Wonderbolts ... anyway, it had been amazing. She had felt somehow expanded, as if the best in her had somehow grown godlike, as big as the Sun Princess herself; and then she could also feel the best in the other five. And they were pretty darn awesome mares themselves -- the best friends anyone could have. And all their amazingness had somehow joined as one to produce the most beautiful thing she'd ever seen in her life, the Rainbow of Harmony. And then ... well, actually they'd all fainted. Apparently some emotions were too intense for mortal mares to bear.

And then Princess Celestia herself was there, and Nightmare Moon had been replaced by a little filly, who somehow was Princess Luna, Celestia's younger sister, the pony she'd been before becoming Nightmare Moon. Rainbow didn't pretend to understand the metaphysics of any of this. Everyone was alive, though, and it had ended in a pretty great party. Rainbow was cool with any adventure that ended with a party.

The weirdest thing about this was that Princess Luna kept smiling at her, as if they were old friends. This was much better than having her throw lightning or monsters at them, though.

Luna was looking a lot at Twilight, now that Rainbow remembered. Though that looked different. Friendly, too, but also sort of ... nervous? As if she wanted to say something but wasn't sure what?

Oh well, a lot of those old tales had ended with the defeated bad guys becoming friends of the heroes. Maybe they'd all team up with Princess Luna someday? That would be way cool, especially if Luna could still throw lightning without even touching the clouds, as Rainbow had seen Nightmare Moon do. Foes beware!

Things had settled back down to normal after that, though. Luna had gone back with Princess Celestia to Canterlot. And Rainbow had gone back to the Weather Patrol, and Fluttershy to her animals, and so for all of them.

Except of course that Twilight Sparkle had moved into the old library. Which was good, because Rainbow liked Twilight. She was an egghead, but a really cool one. And occasionally, something interesting would happen, such as the time they all met that weird but friendly Zebra witch in the Everfree. Or when that goofball magician had come to town and tried to show off, only to accidentally get her wagon squashed by that Ursa Minor bear-thing.

Twilight was smart, and knew a lot of interesting things. She was also the most powerful mage Rainbow had ever seen. She'd handled that giant bear creature single-horned, tossing around a whole water tower full of milk as if it were a baby bottle, and then sending it back home to its mother. She'd broken a sweat doing that, sure, but no one Rainbow had ever met, except for maybe Princess Celestia or Luna, could have done that at all.

Twilight knew a lot of interesting ponies, too. She'd been born and raised in Canterlot, and was Princess Celestia's personal student -- wrote letters to her every week, mostly just about random stuff she'd done around town. She'd gotten them all tickets to the Galloping Gala, too -- that was going to be way cool, summer next year when they got to go. Rainbow hoped she'd get to meet the Wonderbolts in person -- maybe they'd want her on their team!

Yeah, things had gotten interesting since Twilight came to town. They'd all fought a dragon together -- Rainbow had kicked it in the head, which was awesome all by itself -- and then Fluttershy (who Applejack had practically had to drag up that mountain) had used The Stare on it and made it go back to where ever it was that Dragons lived, across the sea. Later, Rainbow had heard that this had been part of a whole dragon invasion, and that Princess Luna had sent several of them packing all by herself. Rainbow wished she could have seen Luna throwing around lightning and stuff, but Fluttershy staring a dragon down was pretty awesome in its own right.

The parasprites had been less awesome -- they wouldn't have been such a problem if Fluttershy hadn't brought them into town to begin with -- but heck, weird stuff came out of the Everfree all the time. You learned to live with that when you hung around Ponyville. Pinkie Pie had taken care of those in the end, in one of her typically-strange manners. And Princess Celestia had sent them disaster relief to help them rebuild, which was not an uncommon activity in Ponyville, because of all the aforementioned weird stuff out of the Everfree.

Life was fun. And it was great to be taking some time off from the Weather Patrol, up here in the Pegasus foothills, hanging out with one of her oldest foalhood friends.

Being herself was just plain awesome.

Author's Note:

Rainbow Dash is not the world's most complex character, though even she has hidden depths. But I do like her voice.

Comments

[Diamond Sparkle]

This is a really good start to the story and gets inside Rainbow Dash's head.

[RoyalBardofCanterlot]

Nice start.