It's the Little Things That Count
One Small Mistake
There were only positive words, really, that Fluttershy could use to describe Rainbow Dash. When asked by an acquaintance or perhaps even a total stranger whenever her crippling fright left for a moment long enough to permit it, she would most likely state that Dash was a brave, loyal pony, as her Element of Harmony suggested, one who risked humiliation in order to protect Fluttershy's own honor. Somepony she greatly respected and looked up to as one of her best -- if not her very best -- friend, and a pony which she would often say she wished and ultimately prayed to be like one day once given enough motivation and practice.
And she really meant those words, as anypony who truly got to know Rainbow did -- after all, it was Rainbow Dash herself who had protected her time and time again through multiple races and tiny fights, listened to her problems, got her through the entirety of Flight Camp. And, though not most importantly, managed to drag Fluttershy away from her critter friends that day, bring her up into the cool morning sky and motivate her to get in some much needed practice. It was these things about her that made Fluttershy love her just so much.
Unfortunately, these facts about Rainbow Dash were what also made Fluttershy feel a bit selfish as she stared forward, to where the blue pegasus held in a light blue, steady hoof a stopwatch. Not about lying at all -- she wasn't, of course -- but about an ever familiar tug in her stomach and shuddering chest cavity whenever this particular train of thought she was on managed to pop up. It wasn't one she thought of often, and, she supposed, as her wings flapped just the tiniest bit faster against the strain of the wind, wasn't exactly one she was thinking of then as her thoughts wandered. But it was there, swimming amongst her thoughts and slowly being brought up by that tug.
And she wouldn't have that. Couldn't. It wasn't fair. To Rainbow Dash. It wasn't.
Fluttershy shook her head against the swirling cloud of thoughts, stretching her already wide smile despite the firey, shocking pain shooting through her veins and willing the yellow appendages at her sides to flip over at a higher velocity. While her eyes wished to screw tight, she held them open against the chill of the above-cloud gusts, not allowing them to do as they pleased until her body slowly buzzed past Rainbow's own.
Rainbow brought her other hoof to the watch in her grasp, tapping at the top of it and stopping the timer dead. "You're doin' great, Fluttershy," she said. "Heh, at this rate, those teams at the Games won't know what hit 'em."
Rainbow Dash was rather young at the time anyway, Fluttershy supposed, and it wasn't as if she knew any better -- and Gilda and the other petite foals' stories were much too complex to place into words or damn them for. They shouldn't have mattered, these tiny things, and yet they still surfaced at points -- years and years placed in between the events, even. It didn't make any sense, and yet it clung there, to her wings, pushing her down.
"Oh, are you sure, Rainbow Dash? I don't know if I'm cut out for this."
It was simple really, the words spoken, and the things themselves had not even come from Rainbow's own mouth. It was fast, short, a flash of color and muddying and blurry light, surrounding her from all sides with a flash of warmth to her eyes and cheeks. Almost, in a certain sense, as if a bandage was being ripped off in a clean swipe, or a needle was being plunged into her foreleg for an annual shot. Painless and, eventually, no matter how much time could pass between it and any particular event, able to be seen as helpful through the squint of sapphire eyes and a shrug of the pale yellow withers. Nothing. Just nothing.
"Are you kiddin'?" Rainbow Dash asked, whistle dangling from her neck and gently tapping against her chest being flipped idly with a hoof. "You're like a whole twenty percent better than last time! Just stay with me, Fluttershy, and we'll be in first place in no time." She smirked. "Now, uh, sorry 'Shy, but I don't think I hear those wings flapping fast enough -- I guess if you really don't want to take this seriously...?"
Fluttershy smiled at that, though the annoying, aching tug had grown unbelievably stronger as that particular train of though once again left its cozy, cut-off station, and set to continuing her excersizes with a quick flap. Her heart, she could say, seemed to flap by itself, as though a hummingbird had lodged itself inside of it, as her body weaved amongst the froth of the clouds -- slowly, with thought placed behind the actions, if only to correctly remember the order in which her actions were to be performed in. Remember. Remember perfectly. For her.
Rainbow Dash had done, also, so much good in her short friendship -- bringing a weak and bullied pegasus filly into her flock, showering a lonely griffon with attention when it seemed neither of them would have ever been able to hope for anything but a vicious word of insult. And that was not even including what had occured once she had finally become an Element, with the mare saving an entire country, and an entire world, from chaos and death -- and being inadverdently responsible for the possibility of those savings by creating that Sonic Rainboom in the first place. She was a good mare, Rainbow was, a wonderful mare, even though she did have a habit of harping on that fact.
And this was just one, tiny--
Fluttershy yanked a feathered wing to her side, allowing it to pull her into a slow turn as she glided, and her eyes scittered across the blue abyss hugging her from all possible sides, dotted only by the snowy, puffed white of the clouds attempting to lure her into them, let her wings relax and stop -- particularly the set of ring-like clouds sprawled directly before her, set as a short, marked freefall to eventually dissolve into a safety net of cloudy sorts.
--itty bitty, insignificant--
Fluttershy gulped as her world spun, blue melting into white into a -- very strange, she supposed would be the correct words for it -- soup of pure sky color, the fall twisting around her brain and pulling on her just like that insistant tug. It had been quite a while since Fluttershy had attempted a freefall, years upon years, in fact, and she wasn't quite positive her wings would be able to take the pressure and gusts of balmy wind that came with one. That was what the net of clouds was there for, but... Rainbow Dash needed her to be able to do this particular stunt for the show. Needed it. Wanted it. Deserved it after Fluttershy would dare think of her like this -- the Element of Loyalty who had stood up to her protect her very name and pride when it was damaged most.
--microscopic, unimportant--
Fluttershy felt the pressure of hooves gripping her back, at her withers, and then the roll of movement they had as they shoved forward. She wasn't ready -- not close -- though she had attempted to steady her mindset before the eventual fall would be set to happen, and before she knew it the ever familiar, jarring snap of her wings connecting and gluing to her sides was heard. Couldn't move them. Couldn't flap. Just fall. Fall. Scream. Fall.
--unforgettable, more hurtful than it should have been but was--
The bounce and natural spring of all of Cloudsdale's factory-quality clouds -- the ones, while placed by the Ponyville weather team, had surely been made not only by the two hooves sewn clearly to Rainbow Dash, but also from leftover materials Rainbow had gathered and collected from her time at the place for projects such as these. There was one final gasp, one nearly yanked away from the tug which still ached inside of Fluttershy's own lungs. Throbbing. Aching. The stinging of eyes from the aspect of possibly of dying if somehing went wrong. And then...
"Fluttershy, Fluttershy, Fluttershy can hardly fly~!"
Looking up to the voices. The immediate humiliation.
"Fluttershy, Fluttershy, Fluttershy can hardly fly~!"
Crying. Desperately looking for a way out. Looking for Rainbow Dash.
"Fluttershy, Fluttershy, Fluttershy can hardly fly~!"
Finding her. Finding her and nothing. And watching her do nothing, just stand there, staring, looking around with her eyes shrinking to the sizes of the very tip of Rarity's own priceless sewing needles. Just stopping. Fluttershy seeing her look into Fluttershy's desperation, watching it dribble out of her eyes in hot tears. Seeing her see the pain.
"Fluttershy, Fluttershy, Fluttershy can hardly fly~!"
And then watching her laugh with the crowd, too.
--mistake.
Fluttershy blinked wildly as the world once again came to her in a rolling sea of cyan and a bright, wild magenta, the beauty of which Fluttershy could never allow herself the pain of forgetting. Rainbow Dash had, though Fluttershy knew not when, flewn directly to her side, wings dangerously close to Fluttershy's own and partially risking them both a short if not terrifiying and humiliating fall. Worry shone out on the larger pegasus' features, and Fluttershy was, after coming to, struck with the churning decision of looking at that worry or the freefall still below her. Of the hurt-hurt or the regular hurt.
And so Fluttershy made a desicion, between the two, between the tug in her chest and flying away and quitting -- she didn't wait for Rainbow Dash to say anything. Just dropped. Because Rainbow Dash needed her. And it wasn't fair. Not to Rainbow Dash. Not for her to think of her this way after all of this time. Not fair. Not fair. Not fair.
"So some punks poked a little fun at you when you got stage fright. Big deal. You aren't gonna go quit just because of that, are you?"
Not fair enough.
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Very glad that I was able to help with this one. You're getting much better with every story you write. Though, you did mention that this was a personal piece. So if you don't mind me asking, how does this relate to you?
4118004
When I was younger I used to get picked on a little bit. It wasn't terrible, and what the bullies said really didn't hurt me that much. But... at the time all of my close friends had started to drift away from me. They talked to me less, hung out with me less. Eventually it got to the point where we barely saw each other at all, even though we used to be the best of friends. I could have handled that, but around that time the bullying got a little worse, usually when my friends weren't around. And one day, when some people were sitting there poking fun of me, all of my friends, who were sitting by me... just went silent. They didn't say anything. Didn't do anything. Just sat there while this group of people laughed at me. And then... one of them joined in with them, and made it worse with something embarrassing I had only told to her.
I mean, what they did wasn't terrible. That thing that my friend said, while being embarrassing, wasn't that big of a deal and this whole ordeal lasted maybe a few minutes. But the fact that it happened hurt. Sometimes I feel guilty for not letting that, and the fact that they sort of ditched from the year that it happened onwards (we're still not close since those couple of years, even though we're getting a lot better), go, and other times I don't.
Oh, wow, that went on for longer than expected, sorry.
I can relate to being bullied, I used to be put down by a group of popular girls, what usually was meant to be a fun field trip turned into a nightmare that I had to try not to cry in front of them, I didn't want to give them anymore satisfaction l, so I had a friend we were practically sisters I trusted her with all my secrets and she would comfort me when I would feel bad and I would comfort her, so one day I told her I liked tinker bell (this was in fourth grade) and she starting saying I was too old to watch it and all that stuff so I told her I didn't like it (this has happened before almost every single time I told her I liked this show or something) I got fed up with it so I walked off and we'll next thing you know she's best friends with the head of the popular girls group, it's been years and she doesn't so much as look at me now even the bullies are actually 20 times nicer to me now than she is. I've gotten over it well more like I'm mad but I learned to just let things go and move on. Any ways sorry for my little rant on to the story it was amazing and I loved it! I really wish there was more, but nonetheless it's awesome
4120665
I'm really sorry to hear about the bullying and your old friend. Sometimes things just fall apart, and there's nothing we can do about it.
I am glad to hear that those other girls act better to you now, though, and that you were able to move on. 
Oh, and thanks for the compliments.
4120763 don't mention, it's funny really (and this is random) that me and this one girl became best friends just because we found out that we both liked mlp which was a total relief to me so now I'm not the only one in the seventh grade lol although I did manage to expose a few other bronies (not publicly of course more like in private haha I caught this one guy totally off guard when I asked him how he knew who rainbow dash was but I promised not to tell anyone that he did) Oh gosh I really gotta stop talking so much heh sorry
4120862
I sort of have a story like that myself, though it made me want to bang my head against the table when it happened.
4120879 lol
really? How come?
4120926
Just read the blog post. You'll... you'll understand why, trust me. The irony still hurts me to this day. This blog post here.
Just how weird am I, that despite this excellent fic, and the wonderful Fluttershy characterization...
...the main thing I pick up from this fic is the idea of pegasi flocking like birds, and Rainbow leading a flock?
4130491
I don't know. I, too, stopped and thought of that immediately after writing that line. So it's kinda a 50/50 chance on the weirdness thing.
Also thanks for those compliments that was totes nice of you.
It's the small things you remember, the small things that pop up when you're not expecting it, and they're always relevant in some way. Nobody else remembers them, but you do, and your realize that they tell you things about others you wish you didn't know... or, if you're lucky, are glad to be aware of. Although I never thought of it before, that moment being one of them for Fluttershy makes perfect sense.
5312092
Thank you very much for commenting and adding this to your libraries. That goes for the other ones as well! It really does mean a lot to me that you'd take the time to go through them like this, and I hope you enjoyed.
I wish I could think of more to say, really, but... again, just thanks. 
Wow, I loved this! It was a really beautifully written story and had really good characterization! Have a like and a fave.
(Why isn't this featured yet? D:)
7503060
Thank you for your compliments, as well as your like and fave!
(Oh, and this isn't featured because,
1: it could be a lot better, and
2: this is actually really old; I wrote this back in 2014. I've been thinking about rewriting some of my old fics, so maybe I'll rewrite this one day!)
Again, thanks a lot!!
I've had this in my Read It Later for a while, but I'm glad I finally got round to it. As 5312092 said (better than I probably can), this really captures those odd little moments in life, when you remember some small passing thing that just won't quite leave. Like a particularly stubborn stain.
Sometimes it's a mistake you made, a minor thing that everyone else has forgotten but your brain has latched on to, or words said in anger that you can't take back. And sometimes it's old slights that you feel like you should let go, but meant so much to you even if they didn't mean quite as much to them...